Written to wyld_dandelyon‘s prompt, set in the Doomsday Academy, at least 4 years in.

The compound had always been full of kids – cousins, siblings, unknown-relations; Aquilina’s mom & her people made kids like it was going out of style.

The first three years here at Doomsday had been much the same – the First Years got put into a dorm room, all together, and they stayed together until they Changed or otherwise moved on to a Mentor.

And now… now Aquilina was cy’Law, having very politely and conveniently Changed over the summer break, and she had, for the very first time ever, a room to herself.

It made sense, of course. Her new wings took up a lot of space, and she was still getting used to not hitting things with them.

But it was quiet.

Her bed was big, and covered with soft plush comforters, and her dresser was bigger than the one she’d shared with a sister and two cousins at home. The mirror was almost big enough to get in all of her Change, which was something of a feat. She could sprawl out and not run into anyone at all; even though the room had little more than the dresser, the mirror, the bed, and the desk, it was still spacious.

And way too quiet. Aquilina hopped off the bed and opened the door.

~

For her first three years at Doomsday, Aquilina and the rest of her yearmates had cheerfully herded from class to class, splitting up only for clubs and not even for all of those.

It was strange to move now with her cy’ree instead – a small cluster of Law students with their bright green-and-orange silk ties and socks, murmuring in the code Aquilina was still learning. Stranger still to peel off from the group on her own and join the rest of the fourth-years in their first class of the day – Earth Science, with Professor Sweetflower. And it was downright odd to sit down in the midst of pink-and-green, blue-and-blue, gold-and-blue, red-and-red, and so on. They might not have all Changed, but they had all changed over the summer.

When Professor Sweetflower stood up, though, a wave of relief swept over Aquilina.

“Hello, students,” the Professor began, in her honey-and-wildflowers drawl, “and welcome to your first day of Earth Science.”

Some things might change – but some things never did. It was nice to know the teachers, at least, were constant.

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