I stirred awake after feeling something shaking my shoulder. When I showed no signs of opening my eyes, someone drew back the curtains to let in the morning light. I pulled the blanket over my head with a groan, refusing for my eyes to see the brightness of the sun.

Though I was still half-asleep, I was sure that I heard two voices giggling from beside me. It was strange since my mother was the only other woman in the house besides myself.

(Did one of her friends invite themselves in again? Maybe it's time for me to go to the bus terminal already. I guess I should wake up then...)

With my eyes still closed, I sat up on the bed and stretched my arms. My body still felt drained as if I had been working nonstop on a thesis and didn't get my full hours of sleep, but something didn't feel quite right.

I finally opened my eyes and found myself staring at an unfamiliar wall. The colors of the room were all wrong and I don't exactly remember owning a dresser or a bunch of thick books. My mind buzzed with confusion as I sat there like the world around me was completely unknown.

"Hm?" I blinked several times, trying to register where I was.

(This is... This is definitely not my room.)

"Good morning!"

Someone jumped on the bed as they greeted with a cheerful smile. I looked to my left and a girl with orange hair and eyes was peering at my face.

Startled that I wasn't the only one in the room, I screamed and backpedaled away from the stranger.

"Oh! You're..." I pursed my lips, recalling our meeting from the night before. "Err, Amelia, right?"

"Yeah, that's me!" She looked at me with a smile when I remembered her name. "Sorry, didn't mean to scare you. I just got excited since it's your first day here in the academy."

"Academy?" I repeated her words, looking over at Liz who was fixing her uniform. "Oh yeah... I'm supposed to go with you to class, right?"

Liz nodded eagerly, holding up a pink dress towards me. It was the kind that looked frilly and cute, but wearing something like that would definitely make me look more... childish.

"You can borrow my clothes for now. Hurry and change so we can tour you around before first period starts!" She grabbed my hands and pulled me out of the bed. "I can't wait for you to meet everyone!"

Her excitement was infectious and I found myself looking forward to seeing more of that beautiful castle. Liz and Amelia ushered me to the bathroom where I showered and changed into the dress Liz lent me.

After we ate a light breakfast, we left the dorm and I followed them through a garden. There were flowers that were unfamiliar to me decorated on the arches and I became more aware of how different the world is here. Still, being surrounded by nature made me feel calm and relaxed.

I breathed in the fresh air and looked up at the sky where my eyes reflected the image of an endless sea of blue. This place called Gedonelune sounds like a nice place, but... what will happen to me if they can't find a way to send me back home?

The thought of me living in a world full of magic didn't sound too bad. It was unfortunate that I wasn't born a wizard like the students here though. I would have loved to be able to practice magic with Liz and Amelia in their classes.

While I was being toured around the academy grounds, we crossed paths with two students who wore uniforms similar to Liz. I was surprised to see such handsome men worthy of model status and couldn't help but gawk at them.

"Hey, Liz. Hey Amelia." The man with enchanting green eyes waved as he walked over.

"Huh? Oh, it's Caesar!" Liz's face lit up when she saw them.

"Good morning, everyone." The blond with purple eyes gave us an angelic smile.

"Hello, Alfonse! Good morning!" Liz greeted with a smile of her own.

"Good morning." Amelia echoed, smiling at the two of them.

Caesar noticed that there was one other person in the group but realized that it was no one he recognized. He raised an eyebrow as he leaned slightly to get a better look at my face. Alfonse looked at his friend curiously, before following his line of sight and noticing me hiding behind Amelia.

"Hm? Who's this?" He asked, copying Caesar's lead and leaning over to peek behind Amelia.

"This is–" Liz began to explain but then realized that they still haven't thought of a name for me yet.

"This is..?" Caesar waited for her to continue but she couldn't answer him.

"Um, actually, I–" Everyone looked to me as I nervously spoke up. "I don't... have a name..."

Caesar and Alfonse seemed surprised by my answer. They looked at Liz for further explanation and she began telling them what had happened last night.

"So, in other words, Zeus messed up." Caesar gave a wry smile and sighed.

"That sounds about right." Liz huffed, crossing her arms.

"Are you okay though?" Alfonse addressed me with concern in his eyes. "You're far from home and stuck in an unknown world... It must be pretty rough."

I felt warmth in my heart from his kindness and smiled at him gratefully.

"I'm fine. Liz and Amelia are helping me adjust so it's not so bad." I shyly replied.

From the corners of my vision, I could see Liz and Amelia beam with pride. They should know how thankful I am to them for helping a total stranger. If it weren't for them being so nice to me, I probably would have been overwhelmed by all of the things happening and just break down.

Alfonse seemed to understand and the worried expression on his face disappeared. He patted me gently on the head and I glanced up at him.

"If you need any help with anything, feel free to ask me. I'll do whatever I can to ease your troubles." He said with a gentle smile that made my heart skip a beat.

"Same here!" Caesar interjected, draping his arm over my shoulders. "If Liz and Amelia are too busy to hang out then you can call us for company. We can even get to know each other more!"

Caesar winked at me and I felt my cheeks grow hot when I realized how that sounded. I hurriedly tried to cover my blushing face but their laughter made it obvious that they already saw it.

(Ah, how embarrassing...)

"HEY! What's going on here?!"

A familiar voice boomed from behind us and we spun around to find Zeus glaring at Alfonse and Caesar. Liz sighed as if seeing his face already made her day horrible. Amelia simply gave her best friend a comforting pat on the back.

"Hey, Zeus–" Caesar waved with his free hand but Zeus ignored him as he continued to glower at the arm that was around me.

"What the heck are you guys doing?!" He angrily demanded for an explanation and I flinched at how irritated he sounded.

"What are you yelling at them for?" I frowned at him, not liking how he was behaving.

"Yeah, relax. What's gotten you so riled up this early in the morning?" Caesar widened his eyes, surprised by Zeus' random outburst.

Zeus' eyes widened too as if he just realized it himself and began sputtering insults instead of answering. I didn't really understand what was happening, but it looked like he was calming down at least.

"What are you doing here anyway, Zeus?" Alfonse asked, tilting his head to the side. "It's uncommon to see you at this hour. More so that you're pretty energetic than usual."

"Huh. That's a good point." Liz nodded in confirmation, turning her attention to Zeus. "Aren't you usually still asleep? You're never this early to class."

Zeus scoffed at them and pointed towards me. It was then that I remembered that Alfonse still has his hand on top of my head and Caesar has his arm around me so casually. My face slowly turned red from embarrassment.

"I'm here for her, obviously. Headmaster said I gotta look after her as my punishment or something like that." He clarified with a frustrated expression. "It's a pain and I don't really wanna do it, but..."

His words trailed off and I became curious about what he was going to say.

(Wait... What did he mean by that last part?! He's the reason why I'm stuck here in the first place!)

"Aww... That's not fair. I wanted to hang out with her more." Amelia whined with a disappointed frown.

As much as I want to stay with Liz and Amelia too, the headmaster made it clear that I was going to be Zeus' responsibility for the remainder of my days here in Gedonelune. I can't exactly argue with high authority so I just flashed an apologetic smile to Amelia. Besides, it wasn't like Zeus and I will be together the entire time.

"That reminds me..." Hiro spoke up from where he stood at a distance. "Does that girl have a name yet? Or are we gonna keep using pronouns?"

Everyone stopped and stared at Hiro as his words slowly sunk in. When all their eyes turned to me, there were puzzled expressions on their faces. I felt uncomfortable from the amount of attention I was receiving so I looked down at my feet.

The sound of a bell chiming alerted everyone that it was the start of morning classes. Liz looked panicked when she realized that she was going to be late for her first period. She grabbed my hand and Zeus' cloak, yelled goodbye to Amelia and the others, then told Hiro to start running as she hurriedly dragged us away to the classroom.

Zeus was complaining about how she wasn't allowed to drag him around while she countered that he did the exact same thing to her when she was a Prefect candidate. Hiro silently walked behind us with a bored look, but I would catch him stealing glances at me from time to time.

We arrived just in time for class and took our seats with me sitting next to Zeus. I got a few curious looks from the students near our table and I felt my hands sweat from the anxiety.

When the professor walked in, he immediately noticed me in the room because I was the only one without a uniform. I was introduced to the class as a special guest and that the headmaster requested that I would be joining some of the classes for a while.

The arrival of a new student sparked conversation around the room. Several boys smiled and waved at me while most of the girls glared. I felt incredibly uneasy about my current situation that I just politely smiled back in return. Zeus suddenly slammed his hand down on the table, causing the entire classroom to be silent.

I snuck a glance at his face and noticed him wearing a completely unreadable expression. He didn't say anything but he was able to distract everyone's attention from me.

(Did he do that to help me?)

Suddenly, Zeus' lips curled into a smirk.

"What's so great about having a new student? I'm a hundred times better than anyone else anyway! No one can beat the almighty Zeus!" He proclaimed arrogantly.

The girls in the room started squealing about how handsome and cool Zeus is while the guys just grumbled in annoyance. I could see Liz face-palming and sighing from beside him.

(Then again, I could be wrong about his intentions..?)

"It's time to begin the class so please quiet down, everyone." The professor moved to the blackboard and started writing.

Everyone settled down and brought out their textbooks. I was finally able to relax without all those people staring at me. Glancing over at Zeus to check what he was doing, he didn't seem particularly interested in the subject and looked bored already.

Since I wasn't a student of the academy, I didn't need to listen to the lectures. But the topic of magical creatures caught my interest that I ended up listening intently to every word.

Once the bell had rung to signal the end of class, Zeus was snoring away in his seat. Liz woke him up by shaking him by the shoulders and yelling. Hiro stood from his seat and walked over to us, sighing exasperated at his sleeping friend.

"Is he usually like this?" I asked Hiro, not really expecting him to respond.

"Unfortunately, yes." He said, sounding as if he was so done with him.

(I'm sorry, Hiro, but it seems like this job is something only you can do...)

Zeus finally woke up after Liz shook him so much, groaning and complaining that he was still sleepy. I couldn't help but laugh at how cute that sounded from such a big guy.

"Wh-What are you laughing at?!" Zeus immediately shouted, now wide awake and angry.

"Sorry..." I bit my lip to stop myself from giggling.

"Jeez... I can't believe I have to babysit you." He frowned as he stood up from his seat and looked down at me. "Hmm... We still don't know what to call you either..."

I felt my heartbeat quicken as his eyes bore into mine. Zeus was much taller than I am and he was undoubtedly handsome. Before my thoughts could go any further, I looked away to the side.

"How about pipsqueak?" He suggested, a teasing smile on his lips.

"THAT'S EVEN WORSE THAN THE OTHER SUGGESTIONS!" I snapped.