First Day at School

"No," Trent said without hesitation. "I do not expect people to conquer their personal demons so quickly. I do not ask the impossible of my students or peers. That would make me a hypocrite. But I do know that your new friends, and Gaius, will all walk on egg shells around you and try to shelter you. I don't believe you need to be sheltered. You are stronger than that."

"I just need time to heal. I don't like being scared of guys. I don't like being scared of you, when you're a fiend of my type." Nel said honestly. She respected that he didn't want to shelter her. "I'm older than them. I'm sure you saw that, in my file."

"Yes, I did," Trent answered. "That only matters so much though, I feel. This school isn't run based on age so much as mental maturity and skill. Still, many of their older siblings have already graduated and gone on to either study at the college or enter their fields of choice."

"I don't care, really. They don't seem too either as you guys hang out with them." Nel said, she just didn't want him to think she was a child. She wasn't.

"They don't," Trent said. "We are not meant to show favorites but those that need the extra attention and care can receive it. That is what we do with them because they have need of it, each for their own reasons. Which I won't be telling you." It was against the rules.

"I wasn't asking," Nel countered, just for the sake of being defiant. "You secretly have favourites though, don't you?" She could tell.

"Of course I do," Trent said. "We all do. It's impossible to not." He didn't mind her defiance. He expected her to show some. She should. He might be her superior in the school system but outside she was his.

"I'm going to be your favourite," Nel decided then, for no real reason. "And eventually, we won't just be friends any more."

"Is that so?" Trent asked. "You sound pretty confident about that." Not that he was giving over his own thoughts on the matter. She wasn't wrong though. They wouldn't be just friends given that he was a Dark fiend. If she showed the proper leadership, he might one day be a Companion.

"Well, I can just tell. Can't you?" Nel asked, "besides, my card told me I'd meet a liepard and I'd know them for the rest of my life. They'd not leave. Are you going to leave me?"

"No, Princess. I am not going anywhere," Trent said. He was not sure about the Tarot thing, though he knew that it worked well for psychics.

"Well then, I guess we will see. Are you finished?" Nel said, she signed the two bits of paper for clubs.

"Yes, this is all I need," Trent said and took the papers. He then handed her another one that had just been printed. "Here is your schedule for both Dance and Fencing courses. I expect you tomorrow," he said. "You may go to your next classes now."