Julia slouched in the back seat of the class ignoring the gaze from everyone. Her dark eyes looked at the teacher, Professor Elle. She tuned out most of the lecture. The thing that caught her attention was her last name being spoken from the professor's mouth. She raised an eyebrow quizzically. The eyebrow lowered and turned into a glare as the names that followed. Two teams Julia figured. and she just had to get on the team with the asshole. What had she missed? Everyone rose from their seats around her and were finding partners. Julia rose with a sigh and looked around. It seems all the people who wanted to pair up were already doing such.

She walked around and finally decided on the girl that had sent over a little lightning storm to zap Cal. She walked over to the girl and a little awkwardly introduced herself. "Hey I'm Julia, Wanna partner up?" Julia asked nonchalantly.
@Paintlynn

This.

Was horrible.

One of Athena's worst fears was pairing up with people. If she was placed in a group or pair by a professor, great, that was fine. But having to find a partner herself? She had hoped to pair up with the redhead from earlier, so that she could potentially make a friend, but they were placed in the same group. She had to find someone from the opposite group to pair with, and fast, lest she be the last choice. It was inevitable that she would have a partner, but she didn't want to be the final choice. It just made her feel... well, useless.

Looking around, she noticed that the arrogant male from earlier had paired up with his seatmate. Perhaps she'll find them sticking tongues down eachothers throat someday soon, but now wasn't the time to think about that. The redhead had approached the girl who made the small thunderstorm, so she was out of the question. The earth affinity had been approached by someone who she vaguely recognised as one of the twins.

The only remaining people she could choose from were the other twin, who didn't seem to be making any active effort to find a partner, or another girl who she could've sworn was talking to someone else earlier. Sliding her bag off from her shoulder, she hugged it gently. "What am I gonna do? I can't just waltz up to someone like everyone else..." She murmured, hugging the bag closer to her chest, being mindful of the egg inside.

Peyton raised her eyebrows slightly. "Looks like I am." She glanced over her shoulder and noticed everyone pairing up. "Hey. Just because we are on different teams, doesn't mean we can't hang out. Unless you don't want to.." She left the sentence hanging and shrugged her shoulders. "I wonder what training methods we are going over today." Standing up and stretching her legs, she headed for the open floor where everyone else was gathering around Professor Elle. Idly she wondered if a fight was going to break out, and if it did who would start it and who would finish it. "This is going to be very interesting." She turned to face Sophia warily.

@TheHunter

Smileing with relief, that she didn't have to wait long nor go in search of a partener, as Julia walked over to her and introduced herself. "Hi Julia! I'm Lynx, named after a wild cat, and yes I would like to be your partner" As she heared herself speak she was horrified at her robotic like tone. crap now she might think Im dull and boring! Lynx thought as she forced a smile and followed Julia to the center of the room.

^{Clara paired off with @aeuternus's Athena}
Clara's storm blue eyes tracked the pairs before flicking over to Athena. The younger girl was the only one not paired off. She clutched her bag to her chest and was looking around as if waiting for some poor soul to pop out of the ground and make the first move. Clara should probably do it... It would be the nice thing to do. Drago would do it.

But.

Clara was never know to be altruistic. The woman perched herself on a desk and dropped her bag casually in the empty seat. At worst the professor would pair them up herself. At best Athena would accept the inevitable. Clara briefly wondered if she'd be able to read the girl's palm today. She would love to know more about the girl's future.

Sophia grinned when Peyton suggested they hang out, almost laughing when she seemed unsure. She could always use more friends and she wasn't about to turn someone like Peyton down, she seemed so nice. "Of course! We should definitely hang out together, I mean... as long as you aren't the type to judge people immediately. I don't think it's really fair what happened in class earlier." It's not that she was picking sides, but it isn't like there haven't been people she doesn't like quickly after meeting them. It doesn't usually get to the fighting stage, but she had a bad feeling she would end up in fights on her team in the future. "I think we're just supposed to try to kind of attack each other, but not let the other person have open shots. As if we actually had an egg to protect. Professor Elle is explaining that they need to each take a turn using magic or blows to try and get the upper hand on their opponent, to look for a shot that would open their dragon up to damage.

_{@Blue Demon}

Watching as another pair was formed, Athena groaned inwardly. So she was inevitably going to be paired with the female twin, brilliant. Setting her bag down at the side of the room, with a quick 'I'll be back', she took a moment to compose herself before taking the plunge. It would be rather embarrassing to have the teacher call her out on not having a partner, she didn't exactly want to seem like a loner. Yet, at the same time, she could've sworn that herself and the older girl had the same affinity. Well, perhaps it wouldn't be so bad. She was rather inexperienced in it anyway, she might learn a few things! 'Yeah, keep thinking positive. Nothing could possibly go wrong.'

Taking a breath, she shuffled over to where her inevitable partner was sat. At least they had something in common, neither of them seemed to really want to be the one to initiate the interaction. Stopping in front of the woman, she extended a hand awkwardly, going for a handshake, but retracted it halfway. She ended up doing a funky back and forth with her hand, as though she was handling an imaginary knife on an imaginary chopping board, before she finally decided on thrusting her arm out as far as it would go. "Yang, Athena. But you probably already knew that. Um... I don't believe I know of you?" She said, rather awkwardly, her face shrouded by her hair.

@aeuternusClara was actually surprised when the shy girl placed down her bag and came on over. One of her delicately arched eyebrows raised at the sight.

"Who can know of anyone." Clara told Athena. "For all of us exist apart and never together."

Clara latched onto the girl's extended hand. A future so readily offered. Without anymore fanfare the woman twisted the girl's hand until it was palm up and pulled the girl closer with a sharp tug. She ran a slender finger over the palm then snapped her blue eyes back to Athena.

Julia smiled genuinely as Lynx introduced herself. "That's cool! So does your name mean you're a wildcat fighter?" Julia inquired of the younger girl. They walked slowly towards the middle of the room and Julia looked the girl over. Not in a creepy dude way, but assessing her weaknesses. From what she could tell this girl was maybe a little green in the gills, but she was also talented in air magic, so Julia would need to watch for that. This girl was a fighter and probably a good one. Julia needed to find her weakness and quick. Julia knew her weakness and would rather die than tell anyone that her left ankle was slightly unbalanced.

Julia pulled into her fighting stance; she wouldn't go until the professor said so but it was always nice to get ready. Her feet were shoulder width apart, fists up ready to go, and slightly on the ball of her heels. She gave a light smile to the girl and a small nod. She let out a breath and waited.

@TheHunter

Lynx chuckled "I wish, there's a superstitious belief back at my home that if you name a child after an animal they inherit that animals strengths and weaknesses." Lynx felt calm and collected . . . That is till the girls were lined up to fight. Lynx stands in her spot across from Julia as she begins to fret 'What if I fail and I'm sent back home?! What if they discover that I'm allergic to plants?! . . . . Wait no I didn't sneeze during first period . . . . So maybe I'll be fine.'
Lynx quickly stretches out before smileing and nodding back at her partner, acknowledging her. Lynx was ready.

_{@Blue Demon - A partner for Drago}

John wandered into class several minutes later than he anticipated. His second class. He had overslept so much that he completely missed the first one, and had to get ready to do things in the space of ten minutes. As such, he wasn't quite in as good of condition as he normally would be. His coat was wrinkled something awful, he hadn't managed to get his coffee yet, and breakfast would have to be skipped in favor of lunch. But he'd be damned if he ever forgot to keep his hygiene anything short of completely immaculate. Or if he ever forgot his hat.

"Hey. Sorry I'm late," he said as he eyed the class. It seemed that everybody there had split into two sides, and students were seemingly trying to pair up somehow. He wasn't entirely sure what was going on, but it seemed like it might be entertaining to watch, if not necessarily participate in.

"...What'd I miss?"

Peyton took a step back from Sophia and squared her shoulders. Sophia was a dark affinity. She herself was a fire affinity. She glanced over her shoulder at her pack, sitting securely on the bleachers. Her egg was nestled safely inside. She looked back at Sophia and wondered about her strategy. "You ready?" She asked, half smiling. She held her right hand open at her side, palm out. In her palm, the light orange glow of a fire starter to burn. It was a small fire, meant to aim at the ground around Sophia's feet. Distract.

She let the fireball fly and created a bright, burning circle around Sophia's feet. As she looked down at the fire Peyton took that as an advantage and lunged forward, trying to sweep Sophia off her feet with her left leg. Attack.

@DisguisedDemon

_{@Blue Demon}

Confused by the older girls words, Athena blinked rapidly, her face having quite a confused and blank expression. As she was about to respond, the sharp tug on her arm caused her to ever so slightly stumble and squeak. The girl didn't expect this, she just wanted a simple handshake - a formal greeting, not to be led into a little bubble of mystery. Not to mention, her partner hadn't introduced herself, and although the teacher did mention their names, it had escaped her mind rather quickly. Going in one ear and out the next.

It was like something straight from a horror film when the older girls eyes snapped up rather abruptly. If Athena didn't know she was already odd, she definitely did now. "What is it?" She queried, using her spare hand to move strands of hair back to see the female twin clearly. "Did you just suddenly notice that we're supposed to be getting ready to fight?... I apologise, that was rather quite rude of me."

@AzereiahDrego looked up at the late comer. The pink haired man lazily smiled.

"Not much. There was a surprising lack of trash talk." Drago said from where he wsas perched on a desk. Though it appears you're saddled with me.

---

@aeuternusClara smiled at Athena's words. The girl had spunk it was just hidden under the blanket of other people's expectations. Smoothered one might say.

"Shrug off that weight and you could be great." Clara sing-songed being intentionally ambiguous. "The ties you let bind you down are all in your head and your heart. For you they are stronger than steel but they need not."

Still, the girl's admonishment rung true as everyone began to pair off to fight. Clara might be a poor student but she did know when loafing was our was not an option.

@Blue Demon

John nodded and walked toward Drago to offer a handshake. "I'm John. John MacLeod. We're doing combat training, right?"

He wasn't looking forward to it. Fighting was not his favorite thing to do, to say the least. Aggression felt like a total waste to him, even if it was for a good, educational purpose. Still, the class schedule was pretty much set in stone, and he'd need to get used to fighting to protect his dragon after it hatched. Or, at least, he felt that he should know how to fight in case it came up - he wasn't really sure how violent the world of dragon riders even was.

@Paintlynn

Julia's eyes raised at the urban legend. Interesting. So maybe this girl did have some wild fighting skills that she was hiding behind that mild exterior. She took a deep breathe and heard the command to fight. She stared at the girl and decided to make the first move. She hated that she was going to make the first move; she would much rather wait and see how the girl would react but she decided to go for it. She threw an easy punch highly expecting the girl to dodge. Then Julia threw another punch into the place she suspected the girl would jump to dodge the first punch.

Julia's mind was running a million miles an hour. She needed to figure out a way to defeat the mild mannered girl. But the question was how? She didn't have any super apparent disadvantages; so Julia needed to figure that out and figure it out fast.

"You can begin whenever you are ready," Professor Elle tells the class and Sophia tries to keep her posture relaxed. She hates starting a fight in a stance, because she doubts in real life that she will get that option. That and she feels like it gives away some of the places she protects the most on her body. She moves quickly from the burst of fire. Like hell is she getting burned! But the kick lands perfectly and she ends up hitting the ground. Letting out a quick curse, she rolls herself away from Peyton and hops back on to her feet, summoning her best cloud, which really isn't all that great. It's got some water falling on Peyton though and she hops that distracts her some as she moves in to throw a punch towards her side. Sophia really hates hand-to-hand, she'd much rather have her bow and be a good distance away.

@TheHunter
Lynx noted with a small smile at Julia's interest.
Standing ready, haveing cleared her mind . . . A little bit she has her poker face on as her well drilled in karate lessons kick in. Lynx easily, without moveing blocks each of Julia's attempts to kick her. By simply raising her arm up diagonal to the direcetion of the kick, she defended herself. Then to attack, with her free hand she would cross and uncross her fingers together quickly accumulating a cloud. Once the clouds size was to her pleasing she quickly stoped crossing her fingers she waves her hand down causing a major down poor of rain onto her temporary enemy, Julia. Her concentration on the performance of this trick, made her glad that her father had made sure to drill defense karate into her head, making it part of her instincts.

"Well... Fine I don't see why not. Just know I may accidentally decapitate you or dismember your limbs" Hey quite obviously jokes. He steps back a bit and goes into a small crouch with spread feat though it's a very small crouch and still stands near as tall as his opponent. "Not much need for formalities."

@Eragon

Cal chuckled at his opponents jokes. "Well then, let the dismemberment begin," He chuckled. But through all the laughing and joking, Cal was studying. His opponents feet were too far spread apart for that low of a crouch. He needed to go at least twice as low as that to keep balance, so Cal figured that his feet would be an easy target.

Cal took a deep breath, letting water form around his hand. He nodded to his opponent to signalize the fight had begun and whipped at his opponents feet with the water hoping to knock him off balance.