I made it to the potions classroom ten minutes early. Unlike the lecture hall where I had theory, the potions room was barely distinguishable from a high school chemistry classroom. I sat down at a black lab table next to a brunette who was quietly flipping through her textbook. She looked up when I sat.

  "Angelica," I said, holding out my hand.

  "Grace," she said, taking my hand. "You're in my theory class."

  "I'm so sorry, I'm terrible with remembering new people," I apologized.

  "Don't feel bad," she replied. "I don't remember most of the people in that class either, but you stood out because you want to make potions for healing too. There weren't a lot of healers in there."

  No, there weren't. But there was only one other nature mage, so- "Life affinity?" I guessed.

  Grace nodded. "I thought a nature mage and I could learn a lot from one another. You'll have more ability with the plants we use in potions and I'll know more about human physiology and healing spells. We can help each other."

  I could get behind that. "Let's exchange contact information then. I'm in Tourmaline. What about you?"

  "Sapphire," she said. And then the professor flew into the classroom. Literally flew.

  The first day of potions went roughly the same as the first day of theory. Belladonna Foster made an exciting magical entrance, then told us we would not be able to make flight potions for a long while. She was a white woman, probably in her 60s, and she was professionally dressed under her lab coat. The word "professorial" described her well.

  A hand went up in the third row. "Please introduce yourself before you share the rest of your remark," Foster said.

  "Rob Lambert, dimension affinity," a white guy with blonde curls said. "Why can't we make flight potions for a long time?"

  "A few reasons," responded Foster, who seemed pleased someone asked this very question. "First, because we will spend the early part of the year mastering safety protocols so when you eventually brew riskier potions, you already know how to do so safely.

  "Second, because it requires a lot of ingredients, including some that are hard to come by, and brewing it requires many fiddly steps performed perfectly. We will use our time together to acquaint you with the basics of potion-making. You will be more likely to do the steps correctly when you attempt something like a flight potion and you won't waste the ingredients.

  "And last, because the potion requires a lot of mana, more than any freshman reasonably has. I showed you all the flight potion today so you would have a goal. If you find the simple potions we start with a little too..." - she searched for the word -"...underwhelming" - she paused dramatically - "remember that you are laying the foundations for brewing more exciting potions later."

  Foster then went over the syllabus and asked us to introduce ourselves. Unlike in magical theory, nature mages were common in this class. So were life mages who wanted to brew potions for healing applications. At least a third of the students had other affinities - mostly elemental affinities, light, form, or dimension. The majority of them took the class because they wanted potions with combat applications and thought it would be more affordable if they could brew their own.

  Before we ended, Foster reminded us to read the first chapter of the textbook on safety protocols and then read over the instructions for the potion we would make on Wednesday.

  I flipped the book open and looked at it. Hair potion. So, basically magical shampoo. I moved 3000 miles to attend America's most prestigious magical college to learn to recreate something that hotels give away for free. No wonder Foster felt the need to dangle the flight potion in front of us.

  Grace and I left the classroom chatting with one another and soon realized we were both headed to the dorms. Along the way, Tansy and Crystal each found us. I introduced them to Grace, leaving out Tansy's magical abilities.

  All three humans decided to do the readings assigned today and meet back up for dinner. After dinner, I headed to meet Jake at Crafting Club in Indicolite Hall, home to the enchanting department. After locating the building, I retrieved my current knitting project from my bag, a chunky merino and silk scarf that would eventually become a gift for Jo. Then I walked into the room housing the meeting.

  "I'm in the wrong place," was my first thought. I did expect the club would have a lot of enchanters. I didn't expect it would be mostly comprised of people making weapons. And armor. Also, shields. How embarrassing. The plan was to hide my complete and utter ignorance of magical society, not broadcast it by being obviously ignorant of social norms. "Bag store scarf for Jo" I whispered, hoping nobody saw my knitting before it disappeared.

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  From across the room, Jake spotted me and waved me over. He was standing in front of a forge with a woman. They stopped their discussion of weapon smithing to greet me. I wished I had Professor Sterling's enchanted gadget that would make me disappear.

  "I... came to say I couldn't make it," I told Jake. "I think my courseload is so big I have to cut down on extracurriculars." That felt more appropriate to say than "I don't think I belong here."

  On my way out, I saw Carmen, the enchanter from theory class, looking as lost as I felt. She was next to a table laid out with homemade jewelry. Another person who doesn't think "crafting" is synonymous with "preparing for a medieval siege"? Or do her bracelets make you shoot magic missiles out of your hands?

  I considered approaching her but then thought better of it. Having already given Jake my excuse about too much homework, I decided it was better to quickly leave.

  Tuesday brought three more new classes, each with an exciting magical entrance by the professor followed by a less-than-thrilling review of the syllabus and introductions.

  Professor Krieger, a fit man with a military-style buzz cut, entered the gym where we had self defense with the air of a drill sergeant. Upon reaching the front of the room, he morphed to have the physique of an elite body builder, paused, then returned to his original form (which was already muscular), and started the class.

  Based on a review of the syllabus, Krieger was going to run the class like boot camp. Or, rather, he was going to run it like my impressions of what boot camp was like from indistinct memories of movies like G.I. Jane and Private Benjamin. More to the point, he looked like someone who was going to kind of be a dick. I have no interest in military LARPing but - given all the weapons and armor many of my classmates brought to class - I might be in the minority.

  As we were leaving, Crystal suddenly powerwalked across the room to intercept Carmen, the enchanter from theory I saw at Crafting Club. I slowed, letting a few exiting classmates pass, then walked over to join them.

  "...just had a feeling, I hope that's not weird," I caught Crystal saying.

  "I guess it comes with the territory of being a diviner," Carmen said. "Well, at least your intuition told you we'd be friends, not, like, I'd die a horrible death. I'll take it. Nice to meet you."

  Seeing me approach, Crystal waved me over and said, "This is my friend Angelica. We came here from Wisconsin together."

  Carmen smiled, "The dairy state. I'm from the Land of Enchantment. Fitting for an enchanter, isn't it?"

  When we looked confused, she clarified, "New Mexico. Santa Fe, actually."

  "Oh, right," I said. "I remember you saying that in Sterling's class. How did you know he used enchanted items to produce those illusions?"

  "I was in the first row. I could see the glyphs. I want to make enchantments that produce illusions too, so I've been trying to learn the glyphs for it."

  All three of us had Martinez's class next. We went back to the dorms to change out of our gym clothes - Carmen was near us in Sapphire - and grabbed lunch on the way back to Feldspar Hall for mana manipulation. When we arrived, I saw Grace seated alone in the fourth row. She waved us over. We sat in the empty seats next to her and introduced her to Carmen.

  Right at that moment, Martinez teleported into the classroom. It would have been more impressive if I hadn't already moved 3000 miles via teleport and if I hadn't seen Sterling's and Foster's flashier stunts.

  "Welcome to the most important yet underrated class you will take in your college career," Martinez said with the air of someone who had said this often yet was rarely believed. "I'm Professor Martinez." Then she went over the syllabus and we all introduced ourselves. Before the end, she told us to read chapter one of the text and passed out items that looked to me like flashlights.

  "For us to master mana manipulation, we must first learn how to channel mana at all. Some of you may already know how to do this, but if not that's okay. I'm handing out a simple tool for practicing with mana manipulation. You must channel mana into the device for the light to turn on. The more mana you channel, the brighter the light. We will begin more advanced exercises with these on Thursday, but for now, try to make the light turn on."

  I played with the light for the next hour with no success. Then, parting from my friends, I went to Magical Care of Creatures class in the animal care facilities near the gardens and athletic fields. A flock of parrots did choreographed acrobatics in sync and then verbally introduced Professor Vogel.

  "I'm pleased to introduce my teaching assistants," he said, gesturing at the parrots. The parrots took a bow. "These Red-Crowned Amazons are one of several parrot species that live in flocks around San Diego. These birds have agreed to assist me because I gave them a very attractive offer." He produced several bowls of berries from an extradimensional bag and offered them to the parrots, who helped themselves.

  After class, when I joined Crystal, Grace, and Carmen for dinner, Crystal looked a bit dejected. I gave her an inquiring look and she said, "I've dreamed of coming here since I was a little girl. Now that I'm here, I feel out of place. It feels like most of our peers think they are here for combat training, and some of the teachers think so too."

  Carmen coughed and it sounded like "Krieger."

  " What happened?" I asked. "Did something happen in kung fu?" Crystal had kung fu while I had Vogel's class.

  "It was... it's fine," she said, slightly shaking her head. "It's nothing."

  "No, what?" I asked.

  "Some people do kung fu for more health reasons, or even more spiritual reasons. Qi literally means 'breath.' Balancing your qi... it's not so different from how we use breath in yoga. For practitioners like me, kung fu is a moving meditation. It's not just about going out there and bashing your opponents to a pulp."

  "And your classmates just want to bash their opponents to a pulp?" Grace asked.

  Crystal nodded.

  "I've been feeling that too," said Carmen. "I brought handcrafted jewelry to Crafting Club yesterday. Just regular-ass jewelry with a few enchantments to make it better at being jewelry, like one on anything copper that keeps it from turning your skin green. Do you know how many people asked me which combat functions my jewelry had?"

  "I'm not surprised," I said. "I saw you there when I was leaving. I was so embarrassed. I heard we had a crafting club, and I thought it was a knitting circle."

  "It wasn't?" asked Grace.

  "Wall-to-wall weapons," Carmen said.

  "Not entirely," I put in. "They also made armor and shields."

  "I came here to learn how to heal people, not bludgeon them with a mace," said Grace.

  And with that, a fast friendship had formed between the four of us.