Ailsa sighed; her body ached from the beating that she received from Sage. It bugged her how she thought that she knew all of the teachers here, but when they taught, she wanted to kick herself. Apparently, she was wrong.

She was never wrong. When someone dared to cross her, they regretted it but at the moment, she was regretting ever sitting in front of her computer and loading up a word processor.

"I spent hours on those scrolls!" Matt whined, knowing full well that he was being a whiny pain in the ass. "What I am I going to do?" He shot her a glare and added, before she could reply, "Besides going to Great Grammar."

"Cheer up," Rya said softly. "I’m sure you can fish it out before Shimmering Essence starts. It’s not for another few hours."

Ailsa eyed the two from behind, letting Rya get closer to the boy.

"Matt, I wouldn't worry about it," she said rather softly, her body still let her know that it was in pain and demanded her full attention to walk correctly.

She smiled at her companions, watching the looks on their faces as she explained herself. "Since they're all knowing anyway, you might as well not turn it in. Besides, who wants to keep a stinking scroll on their desk?"

They stared in shock as water began flowing to that particular channel and drew back when they saw it began to spray up— this, of course, did absolutely nothing, as the grate was the floor of the hallway.

They were not as shocked when their clothing shrank— and Matt was somewhat delighted to see his scroll shoot out of the waterway.

He caught it, and nearly ran into another student, who was also drenched and looked totally confused.

The look on the bespectacled face was one of shock as green eyes blinked slowly at the boy who just dared to run into him. "Who the heck are you," he asked the group, sizing them up and then adding to his question. "And why are you wet?"

"I’m Matt," Matt replied, and gestured to Ailsa and Rya. "The taller one’s Ailsa and the other is Rya. And the drainage system kind of…blew up…and sprayed us all with water. And my homework."

"Harry, nice to make your acquaintances, but your story is intriguing after all. Where are the three of you heading?" The look of disbelief disappeared from his pale face as he stood beside Rya.

"To Great Grammar," Rya replied. "Rowan and Kayura teach it."

"Smashing," Harry interjected somewhat rudely, earning him a stern glare from Ailsa.

"For a Brit," she muttered under her breath, "your accent sucks."

"I heard that," he said just loud enough for her to hear, winking in the scowling girl's direction.

"Welcome," said Rowan, his voice carrying clearly in the lecture hall. "Since none of you write in Japanese, I will tutor you in English grammar, and Kayura will beat the silly notion of being able to use Japanese in English stories out of your heads."

This statement prompted the raising of many hands, some of which fell down as the other teacher sashayed her way into the room. Kayura shook her head and said outright, "And I'll be the first to tell you, that even the headmistresses themselves could be found guilty of this error." Her tone was rather acidic, but became more so when she said "headmistresses."

Blue-gray eyes watched one hand in particular stay in the air. "What is it?"

Matt’s voice rang clearly in the hall; obviously, it had been built for sound. "What are we covering today?"

A carefully manicured, forked eyebrow raised at this question as Kayura eyed the boy, shaking her head in disgust at what she found.

"As if Rowan didn't tell you already? How to avoid using Japanese in an English fiction and where to use it and why? Silly boy, Rowan, your turn," she turned to the blue-haired young man and smiled, one that caused the students to shudder.

"Please, pay attention. I know it’s the first class, and we’re all tired, maybe even a few of us are bruised, but pay attention. We hold tests at the end of every class." Rowan’s warning did not fall on deaf ears.

In fact, most of the students had logged into the laptops and were ready to take notes.

The laptops shut down, with totally unnecessary sparks flying.

"You will be taking notes in Katakana," Rowan grinned.

Ailsa joined in the groaning that filled the hall for the next few seconds. Her body hurt enough as it was, but there was no way in Hades that she would brush those... things with her cramping hands.

She glanced over to her friends, well, using the term loosely and saw that they were wearing the same bewildered looks on their own faces.

"I don’t want to hear one complaint. Now, putting Japanese words in an English story is like putting pepper on ice cream. In other words, bad and unnecessary." Rowan said, his voice strong and firm.

Another student dared to raise their hand, clearing their throat and trying to keep a level gaze on Kayura. "Umm...Umm..." he was cut off mid-stutter by an annoyed Rowan.

"Quit looking at her chest and spit it out, we don't have all day!"

The student blushed fiercely, but finished his question. "What about any other language, like French? Even the published authors do that?"

"That’s their prerogative. A little… perquisite of making money for writing, if you will. And besides, generally, they speak more than five words of it." Kayura responded icily.

The student immediately cringed and the rest of the hands stayed down on the desks before the pupils. Rowan cleared his throat once more before speaking. "The most important criterion is that English, although one of the most-studied languages, is the hardest one to learn. We Japanese do not learn it easily. When we come over to the United States, we speak it very formally. It is due to our learning. Do not poke fun at us, or tease us or anything else stupid. We feel the same way about you."

"Dude," Rya thought, "they’re serious about this stuff. Maybe they really WANT us to learn."

"Now, as you shall see—" Rowan began anew, but another hand raised. Annoyed, he asked them to speak.

"What do you feel about people pairing you with Sage?" Asked one giggling fangirl. She squealed as her furisode tightened to choking-strength and her obi began slapping her in the face.

"Well, if you want to be funny about it, I prefer my hot, main character types. No, actually, I'm quite straight and am offended by those types of misconceptions. I get my good looks from my mother, pair her up with Seiji if you want an anatomically correct match-up."

Kayura smiled. "Other than that, it isn’t our place to teach romance. Sage will be….angry enough that we dared tread on his territory as it is."

"As you shall see, writing with correct grammar is not that difficult. First, find a grammar checker. Then, use it. I do not consider sentence fragments to be incorrect, so long as they have a preceding line that they ‘feed’ from. Also, be sure to read your chapter aloud to make sure it reads smoothly." Rowan continued.

At the mention of reading to themselves, the students erupted into a round of quiet snickers, but were quickly cut off by Kayura's harsh bark. "If you cannot do that, then write up your piece and send it to someone that you know can speak correct English. Another way to stack up extra credit points is to let your English teacher see it, you'd be amazed." Blue-gray eyes drifted shut as she trailed off.

"That’s it! For your homework, I expect a five hundred word (or fewer) essay (in English) on why you write." Rowan said, slapping the podium.

Ailsa sat cross-legged on the bed, her long dark hair lying flat against her back.

Rya sat behind her, gently brushing out the tangles in Ailsa’s hair and listening to Ailsa read her essay.

"No, no. Don’t say anything about how cute any of the teachers are. They’ll get mad." To her surprise, Rya’s furisode grew a little.

"Who cares?" Ailsa said, her tone a typical teenager’s. Not to her surprise, her furisode shrunk.

"It's annoying," Rya muttered, dropping the brush on the bedcovers when she finished.

"True, but still, why do I write? Hmm... to express myself, to bug people, and to put myself in places that I will never get to in real life." Ailsa tapped her lip with her stylus repeatedly. "Now, how do I bee-ess that into five hundred words?"

"OR less, remember?" Rya pointed out. "So say why you write, and when he frowns at you, say you were honest."

"True," Ailsa replied, her devil-may-care grin back in place.

With that, they went back to their homework.