First Day of Class
Nine am movement class was not exactly what Sirius was hoping for his first ever class. But he supposed he’d have to get it over with eventually, so first day works well enough. Peter met him in the common area and they took the stairs down from their dorm together. Sirius had been bummed to learn James wouldn’t be in his section. At least he has Pete, if all else goes to shit he’ll have one person he somewhat knows by his side.
He and Peter strolled in with only two minutes to spare before the class began. The boys each found a small cubby to shove their belongings into.
“I’m just saying I was talking to some of the people in second year and they say people pass out in this class,” Peter took a large chug of his water as he rattled on, “And if I manage to pass out on day one then that’s that. That’s forever gonna be my legacy. Peter: the one who couldn’t make it through even one class without passing out.”
As Peter continued prattling off his anxieties, Sirius surveyed the rest of the group. They’d been emailed a list of names of who was in their section. He of course recognized Peter’s name. The rest had been a bunch of random people, to be expected as they all literally just started. But there was one name on there that had seemed familiar. And as his eyes landed on a tall, lanky figure standing alone in the corner of the room his suspicions were confirmed. Remus Lupin. The same Remus from his orientation group.
Of course he knew nothing about Remus Lupin. Other than he liked to read. And his favorite color was red, but not bright red, a maroon red. Just basic things that anyone could remember. But something had intrigued him about the boy. Sirius didn’t know why, but he felt drawn to him. So he took a sip of his water, patted the still fretting Peter on the shoulder, and made his way over to where Remus stood.
“Remus, right?” Sirius asked, playing it cool as if he didn’t already know the answer. The taller boy jolted a bit, his mind clearly being pulled back into the room from elsewhere.
“Er, yeah,” Remus said.
He was clearly about to go on when their teacher walked in, destroying all Sirius’s plans for the grand start of their friendship. Their teacher was a tall, big eyed American man. He was full of energy in a way that seemed almost frenzied as he ushered the group of young adults into a circle. He began a very intense speech about how they stood, how they react. In this class you must listen with your full body so if you aren’t facing him fully it’s a problem.
Sirius did his best to keep up with this quick speaking man, his brain feeling like it was lagging. He glanced over to Pete who looked like he was about to panic, or hell he may even pass out and prove his earlier panic correct. Then his eyes shifted back to Remus. Remus was the exact opposite. He looked calm as possible, listening attentively.
“Now some of you may know each other, some of you may not. I don’t care either way. That’s not important to me,” The teacher gestured largely as he talked, accentuating every point with a full body movement. “But I don’t know you. So for our first exercise I want you to say your name and do a gesture that represents you. Then the rest of us will repeat it.” The man looked over the circle expectantly. “Well? Who would like to go first?”
There was a moment of silence before Sirius raised his hand. All eyes turned expectantly on him, but the teacher stopped him as he had opened his mouth to speak.
“Hold on. Class how do we listen?” At the reminder everyone moved their feet to fully face Sirius. “You may continue.”
With everyone now fully facing him, Sirius plastered a grin on his face, trying to appear as confident as possible.
“Sirius” As he said his name he thrashed his head and torso around, trying to imitate what he may look like at a concert. Sirius had to hold in a laugh watching the rest of class attempt to repeat this gesture. Most people were tense, barely committed. Peter barely twitched around. But there, next to him in the circle giving his full commitment was Remus. He didn’t seem to fear how he looked, he just went for it fully. Sirius grinned. He’d have to take Remus to concert with him at some point, see how he fares in a real crowd.
The circle went around. Some people kept it simple, throwing up a peace sign or some jazz hands. Peter had settled on a nervous shrug when it came time for his movement. The most complex movement had been one of the American girls, Maeve, who had tried and failed to complete a heel click. Sirius had a lot of fun imitating that one. As the circle came to it’s closing it was Remus’s turn.
“Remus,” and with that, the boy promptly laid down on the floor.
Sirius let out a small laugh as he quickly flopped onto the floor next to him. He turned his head to the side and grinned at Remus, who grinned back. Before something quickly shifted over Remus’s face and then just as quickly as the moment happened, Remus had turned his head and stood up. Sirius was puzzled and laid on the ground a moment longer, before his teacher’s voice pulled him back off the ground to continue class.
___________________________________________________
Regulus had not paid too much attention to the list of names that had accompanied his class schedule. It’s not like he knew anyone that was going to this school. Remus was the only person he really interacted with and the boy had already told him they weren’t in the same section before Regulus even checked his email. He only truly worried about one name possibly being on there and that was ridiculous to even think about. The boy he saw at orientation just looked like Sirius, nothing more. What would Sirius be doing in New York City? Either way the list was alphabetized by last name, so once Regulus saw there was no other Black in Section 7 he had promptly skipped over the list of names onto his class schedule.
Which brings him to his first ever class, Voice Work. And brought him to worry that may have been a mistake. You see, Regulus had been really looking forward to voice class. Since starting testosterone his voice had just barely started dropping and he was intrigued to learn all he could about how to utilize this new skill. All was going great until they had to go around the circle saying their names and basic get to know you info. That’s when he heard his name.
“Well I’m James Potter,” said a tan boy with absolutely wild hair.
And at first Regulus just thought ‘huh, that sounds familiar’. Then it hit him like a load of bricks. Memories flooding back to him of Sirius’s letters about James Potter. Of his name being whispered to Regulus in stories of Sirius’s school that mum wasn’t allowed to hear. Of his name being the one Sirius mentioned he was going to be staying with when he had called Regulus on the phone. The last phone call he ever received from Sirius, before his mother had smashed his phone to the ground and given him one with a new number.
Regulus tried to be rational here. Sure this James Potter was also English and just about the right age. But there must be about a zillion James Potters. I mean truly James is a stupidly common name. And Potter? Well ok, admittedly he’d never met a single person with the last name Potter, but he hadn’t met plenty of people. That meant nothing. No, the most likely case here is that this is just some random bloke from England who has no connection to Sirius in any way. Leaving England must be making Regulus sentimental, he clearly isn’t thinking straight.
With that comforting thought Regulus is able to zone back into the group, deciding to bury any thoughts about James Potter to the back of his mind. They had quite a widespread group, I mean still mostly American, but they had a couple people from Australia, one person from Germany, one from Japan, and including him three Brits. The academy had seemed to bring in a lot of international students this year. As the girl next him finished, Regulus took a deep breath.
“I’m Regulus Black,” Regulus decidedly did not notice that James seemed to look at him with intense curiosity at hearing his name. Not at all. “I’m from England, as you can probably tell. I’m eighteen. And I’m most looking forward to exploring different ranges to my voice in this class.”
The circle went on. Regulus ignored the feeling of James eyes on him, refusing to look over and confirm wether or not the feeling was true. Once the circle was done they all were instructed to pull out their yoga mats and find a spot on the floor to begin working on learning the school’s warm up. Regulus made sure he was on the opposite side of the room to James Potter. He may be being silly and paranoid, but a little space would hurt nothing. So he lays his mat down next to the red headed british girl instead and lays on his back, ready to push all other thoughts out of his head and focus on what he came here to do.
______________________________________________________________
After a short lunch break, Lily found her way into a small room on the third floor, where her section would be having their first ever acting class. She seemed to be the first one there and took her time exploring the space. The room was a light blue color and very sparsely filled. There was some large black blocks in a corner and a couple rows of folding chairs on the far side of the room. Tucked into the back corner was a small piano. She imagined this room was also used for the musical theatre classes. First term first year you don’t take any, but eventually it would be a course they were required to take.
The door the room opened and in walked one of her fellow Brits. She couldn’t fully remember his name. It started with an R, something long and frankly a bit ridiculous sounding. He didn’t acknowledge her, just walked in and sat in one of the plastic chairs in the front row before pulling out a book and beginning to read. She slowly made her way over to him and took a seat next to him. After a while of sitting in a stiff silence she decided to sneak a peak at his book.
“Good Omens? Like the tv show they did on Amazon?” She asked, before realizing it was probably rude to interrupt his reading. Thankfully he didn’t seem to mind.
“Yeah. I loved the show, figured I should check out the book,” He said hesitantly.
“Makes sense,” She nodded. “Especially after the way season two ended.”
“Oh it was tragic, I could not leave it there. What I’m supposed to just watch that and then wait years for any more?” The boy said this seriously, like it was a true tragedy.
“Oh it’s bullshit how long there is between seasons,” more people were beginning to fill the room as they continued on their conversation. “Like you used to get at least 14 episodes a season and then a few month break. Now it’s all ‘here’s 8 amazing episodes to pull you in and then you’ll be lucky if you get more in the next two years.’”
“Exactly!” The boy smiled. “Glad to know there’s at least one person here with some sense.”
“Lily Evans at your service,” She held out her hand.
“Regulus Black,” Regulus put his bookmark back in his book and shook her hand.
At that moment their first acting class began. This was what Lily was most looking forward to. Sure script analysis would be interesting, voice work fun and all, but this class was where all the pieces of the puzzle came together. The purpose of being here in New York. Acting. So when the teacher asked for volunteers Lily’s hand was the first to shoot up. Their teacher, an older British woman named Minerva, called both her and James to the front of the room.
Minerva had the two face each other and began explaining that they’d be spending their first few weeks working on something called repetition. She then turned her pointed gaze at the pair in from of her.
“Mr. Potter say something you notice about Miss Evans here”
“Uh, she has red hair?” James looked to Minerva for confirmation he had done it right.
“Is that a question?” Minerva narrowed her eyes slightly.
“She has red hair,” James said more definitively.
“Good, now say it to her,” Minerva smiled.
“You have red hair,” James turned his gaze back over to Lily.
“Miss Evans, you repeat it.”
“I have red hair,” Lily kept her focus on James, trying to figure out what she was meant to do next.
“Now repeat it,” their teacher said simply.
“You have red hair.”
“I have red hair.”
“Miss Evans, something you notice about Mr. Potter?” Minerva asked.
“Um, you have glasses,” Lily scrambled for the first thing to come to her mind.
“I have glasses.”
“You keep repeating until you notice something new now.” Minerva took a step back from the pair, just observing.
And that’s how it went for a while. The duo pointing out fairly basic things about each other, wether it be shirt color or eye color. Until something shifts.
“Your hair’s an absolute mess,” Lily flushed. She had not meant to say that. She had thought it a few times, sure, but she didn’t intend to say it out loud.
“Oi, that’s bold,” James said, seemingly also shocked about Lily’s sudden insult.
“That’s bold,” Lily fully agreed.
“That is indeed bold and that brings us to the next part of repetition,” Minerva stepped closer to the pair yet again, smiling warmly. “Going beyond the base observations of colors and such to find what’s underneath it. Such as being bold. Or perhaps noticing the red on her face afterwards and what that could indicate. Perhaps embarrassment?” Lily’s face reddened more at being called out. “Great work you two, you may head back to your seats.”
Lily scampered back to her seat as another duo was called up to repeat with each other. And another and another, until all the class had a chance to go and their 90 minutes were just about up.
“Great work today. I am proud of you all for jumping in,” Minerva gave the group such a genuine look, like she meant every single word she said. “Your homework before next class is to find a time to meet up with the member of your section who you repeated with today and do at least ten minutes of repetition. I expect to hear about what you discover next time.”
With that the class was dismissed and their first day was done. Lily picked up her bag and was about to make a quick exit when James tapped her shoulder.
“So it looks like we’re partners,” James grinned at her, “So I was hoping I could get your number. So we can set up a time for repetition.”
Lily hesitated for a moment, before grabbing out her notebook and scribbling her number on a sheet of paper. She tore it out and handed it to James. “Well we have the same schedule as far as classes go. So I guess just text me a time that works for you and it’ll probably work for me.”
“Lovely, I’ll text you later,” James smiled, tucking the note into his pocket.
Lily shoved her notebook back into her bag, her fingers brushing on the red jade in her bag. She wasn’t really sure what had inspired her to carry it with her today. She supposes she hopes Pandora is right, and that it is giving her good luck. Today had seemed to go alright anyhow. She smiled to herself as she zipped up her bag and started to make her way back to the dorms.