The Dean was Luke's math teacher. It was almost like the time he found out that his plan to go to Six Flags America back in D.C. was substituted with a doctor's appointment.

Luke took the Dean's hand and shook it, but the Dean's face soured up as if he had just squeezed a sea urchin. "No, no. A firm handshake, like a real warrior."

The Dean squeezed Luke's hand and he felt like it would burst the capillaries beneath his skin. Luke tried matching the Dean's strength as best as he could, but the Dean's hands could choke an elephant to death.

"We're going to need to work on that handshake," he said as he moved onto Sirius. "Like this." He shook Sirius's hand and said, "Good Morning Sirius."

Sirius met the Dean's handshake with muster and the two looked like they were flexing and having an arm-wrestling match. "Any morning we start with math is a great morning."

Luke almost gagged. Teacher's pet.

After handing out all the papers, the Dean turned to the class. "Today is a challenge day. I want all of you to get into your groups and work on the difficult math problems provided. As a review of Quadratic Equations..."

Luke was sweating. He hated math. In college he avoided every math class like it had cooties. He felt like he was back in high school when he stepped into this math class.

But the Dean did a brief review of Quadratic Equations and Luke found his memories of the concept flooding back in.

Well flooding wasn't the proper term since he just remembered getting 60's on his exams and crying at night with a calculator at his bedside.

After the review, the Dean pointed to Sirius and another three students in his group. "Luke join their group and try to follow along. If you struggle, come to me after school."

Luke nodded and did as he said. He moved to Sirius's group and met three new guys: Henry, Kallup, and Jordan.

Henry was white as sunscreen and taller than a palm tree. He looked like he could dunk on anyone on the basketball court if he knew how to control his floppy legs that he kept twisting and turning beneath his chair. He belonged to House Anael, the elemental angel of ice and water.

Kallup was the opposite. He was darker than squid ink, and short. He had a whisk of a beard growing and looked around the same age as Luke: 19 years old. His hands, however were covered in dark powder as if he had washed his hands with coal dust. He belonged to House Raguel, elemental angel of earth, stone, and metal.

Finally, Jordan was mocha brown and rocking a full beard and mustache to match. He wore a ghutra and egal, which completely threw a curveball at Luke. It looked almost like a backwards veil tied with a black rope around the head. If anything, he looked Muslim. But at a Christian school?

Jordan caught Luke staring and gave him a blank stare and started speaking Arabic. He pointed at Luke aggressively and Luke backed away. Tension rose, and then collapsed once Jordan released a hearty laugh along with the group.

"Gets them every time," Jordan said.

Sirius explained to Luke, "Before you ask why there's a Muslim at a Christian school, you should really see the similarities across the three monotheistic religions. For example: they all acknowledge the existence of the archangel Gabriel."

"My patron angel," Jordan said. "Of course, House Gabriel is the best house around."

"Wait a minute," Luke was confused. He thought for a second that the these archangels literally had these kids illegitimately. "Even Gabriel betrayed God?"

The others slapped their heads. "No, the angels adopt us and share with us a piece of their elemental power that God granted them," Henry explained.

"For example," Jordan took a pencil and tossed it into the air. It disappeared and reappeared by shooting up from Luke's desk, almost poking his eye out. "Gabriel is the elemental angel of space. As God's most trusted messenger, it's natural that he can manipulate space and travel instantaneously to different places."

Luke looked to Kallup who was crushing the black dust in his hands and pulled back revealing formed clumps of coal, rocks, and even a diamond. "I can change dirt into stone and minerals," Kallup said. "But the Dean says I'll depreciate the value of gold and diamond if I overuse my power."

"We saw you summon fire back at lunch," Henry pointed out.

"Yeah, that was pretty dope," Kallup said.

"Eh, it's almost as cool as my talent," Jordan said.

"If we're done comparing talents," Sirius interrupted with a nod and a wink. "We have some challenge problems to finish."

"You know we can finish these in like ten seconds," Jordan said.

They all agreed, and although it didn't take them ten seconds, they finished all the difficult problems in less than five minutes. Luke couldn't even keep up.

Before he knew it, the bell rang, signaling the end of the class. The Dean collected the sheets and told them that they'll be a quiz on quadratic equations tomorrow. Luke mentally prepared himself to take the F.

"Time for my favorite class: theology," Sirius said. "I think today we're gonna talk about Hell."