"Is he fucking serious?!" Serena stomped her foot. They were supposed to meet up in the cafeteria after class, but Ace stood them up. She couldn't believe it.

"Serena, language." Naomi said, but her tone gave away that she was just as annoyed. Despite that, she was still smiling.

"I'm a legal adult, I can talk however I want. Let's go, we're gonna find that lazy weasel." Serena said and got up. The other two followed her.

After looking around for a while, they found Ace in the Hall of Mirrors. As Ace tried to dash, he ran into another student with black hair and a spade on his face. Naomi asked him to stop Ace, and the guy decided to do that by... dropping a cauldron on Ace.

Serena was worried that Ace got hurt at first, but once he got up and complained, she couldn't help but laugh at the absurdity of the situation.

"We're not gonna cover your portion of the punishment. Get moving." Serena said. That's when the black-haired boy chewed Ace out as well before introducing himself as Deuce. They were about to go and wash these windows when Grim decided to run away.

They chased him all the way back to the cafeteria, where Grim had climbed on top of the chandelier. Deuce decided to launch Ace at the chandelier so he could get Grim down.

Well, he did. But he broke the chandelier as well. "Are you insane?!" Serena exclaimed, rushing to check if Ace and Grim were fine. "They could've been seriously hurt, Deuce. This could've even killed them." Naomi said sternly, crossing her arms. Luckily, both were unharmed.

Unluckily, Crowley noticed them. Furious for breaking the chandelier, he expelled them all. Deuce begged for another chance, not wanting to get expelled on the first day. Naomi and Serena also got nervous because they literally didn't have anywhere else to go. Crowley gave in, giving them until the next morning to bring him a magestone from the Dwarf's Mine to fix the chandelier.

With the clock ticking, they went to the Dark Mirror, letting it take them to the Dwarf's Mine. Serena and Naomi felt a little nauseous once they arrived as they weren't used to mirror travel. It felt like being flushed down a toilet. Not a nice feeling.

They headed to the mines and went inside. "Is this safe?" Serena wondered, worried the shaft might collapse given how old it is. "The supports look sturdy enough. So long as we don't let anything explode we should be fine." Naomi figured, giving Grim a stern look.

Shortly after entering the mine, they were chased by ghosts. They were able to shake them off, fortunately, when Ace and Deuce began bickering on who's more at fault.

"That's all because you broke the damn chandelier!"

"Well, you shouldn't have shirked your punishment!"

"If we're gonna dig up ancient history, Grim shouldn't have torched up the statue!"

"That wouldn't have happened if you hadn't teased me!"

"SHUT IT!"

Serena yelled and stomped her foot. "Everyone's at fault here, okay?! We need to get that magestone, we don't have time for pushing blame. So get your head into the game!"

The boys grumbled a half-assed apology while Naomi smirked ever so slightly. But then, she tensed up. "Quiet! I hear something!"

Everyone went silent and listened. "...iiivvveee....ooouu...."

The sound came closer. The creature was stomping heavily and groaning. As it stepped into the light, the group saw a horrifying monster: It had a giant glass ball with goopy, black liquid instead of a head and its limbs were only roughly defined, its clothes tattered and dirty and a poor excuse of a hat sitting on its head. With a deep, snarly voice, it yelled something about not giving anyone its stones.

Wait, stones?

"So there are still magestones in this mine!" Deuce exclaimed, deciding to fight the monster. "That's too dangerous!" Serena yelled, but the boys were already attacking the monster. However, they couldn't land a single strike.

Naomi suddenly jumped in, shielding the others. "We need to get out, now!" She yelled before getting flung through the shaft. They all fled, with Naomi also quickly getting up and closing the line. Once they were far enough away from the mine, they stopped to take a breather.

"Naomi, are you okay?!" Serena asked, worriedly checking her for injuries. Naomi groaned and stretched. "I'm gonna have a whole lotta bruises tomorrow... Ew, that thing left its goo all over me!" She quickly wiped the black, slimy liquid off as best as she could.

"Nobody told me there'd be monsters! Fuck it, I'm taking expulsion." Ace huffed.

"What?! Nuh-uh, not happening! I'd rather die than get expelled from Night Raven!" Deuce refused. "How can you give up when the stone is right there?"

"Ha! Big talk for someone that's half the mage I am. If you want it, get it yourself!"

"OH YEAH?! Fine, go back to your coop, you big chicken!" Deuce yelled and balled his fists, looking like a totally different person for a second. It wasn't until Grim pointed it out that he calmed down and apologized.

They then pondered what to do next. They weren't trained enough to use proper magic yet and what they could do right now wouldn't do much. Ace and Deuce began bickering again and Serena sighed.

"Would you two knock it off already?!"

Everyone was stunned into silence. That was the first time Naomi had raised her voice, as so far she had been more of a bystander.

"All this bickering will get us nowhere. Now do you want the stone or not?"

Ace and Deuce grumbled a little, but then nodded and said yes.

"Then we gotta work together to get it!"

"Working together? With that guy?" Ace exclaimed. "No way!" Deuce huffed.

Naomi sighed. "Fine... I guess we'll get expelled then. You guys will have to explain to your parents why you got kicked out and Serena and I will be on the streets..." She lamented, slowly turning her back to walk away.

"Wait!" Deuce exclaimed. Naomi turned back around. "We can't let you land on the streets... Fine, let's work together."

Ace groaned. "Ugh... You're playing dirty, Naomi. Fine, what's the plan?"

They returned to the mine. "I'm not so sure about this plan..." Grim said, trembling. Serena was just as terrified, but just took a deep breath. "It'll be fine." She said, then yelled to get the monster's attention. The monster ran towards her and Grim, and then Ace and Deuce attacked it simutaneously. Meanwhile, Naomi snuck into the mine to get the stone. When she returned with the stone, the monster was buried in a mountain of cauldrons.

"I've got it, let's run!" Naomi yelled. They all ran as fast as they could. However, the monster somehow managed to get up and ran after them.

"MY STONE... GIVE BACK..."

"It's chasing us that far?!" Serena exclaimed as they were almost back at the mirror. "Someone really wants their stone back." Naomi panted.

"What do we do now?" Grim asked, terrified.

"We already weakened it, let's finish it off!" Serena said. Ace, Deuce and Grim attacked the monster simultaneously until it eventually disintegrated. They cheered and high-fived each other upon having won. Grim mentioned being hungry and then found a black rock, which he then ate.

"Grim no! Bad kitty! Spit it out!" Serena scolded him, but he swallowed it, gushing about how tasty it was. Naomi sighed. "That cat is gonna be the death of me..."

They returned to Night Raven College, where Crowley was waiting. He seemed genuinely surprised that they actually went to get the magestone, as he had already worked on the expulsion documents. Though he was even more surprised about the monster, which is why he asked the group to come to his office and explain everything to him.

He was ecstatic to hear that they worked together to beat the monster, explaining that most students, because of their talent, had really big egos and were convinced that they were able to do everything themselves. He applauded Naomi and Serena for their leadership, allowing them to become actual students.

"Really? We can be students here?!" Serena asked hopefully. That meant no more janitor work!

"Of course, I can't just let two magicless girls attend an all-boys-academy. Therefore Grim will be enrolled as a quarter student for each of you, so he will be responsible for the practical magic part of your grades." Crowley explained. Grim cheered that he would finally be an actual student.

"Wait, how does that work? How can he be a quarter of a student?" Serena asked.

"Well... You will all be graded individually, but your grades will be influenced by Grim's performance by 25%. Meanwhile, both of you each provide 25% of Grim's final grade." Crowley explained. "I will figure out the paperwork for that, you don't need to worry. Ah, I am truly too kind."

Serena couldn't help but roll her eyes. Naomi spoke up: "About NRC being an all-boys-school... Are you expecting us to dress up as boys? Because Serena and I are both pretty rich in um... assets. That'll be hard to cover up."

"And I'm not drinking a genderbend potion." Serena declared. She didn't even know if those were even a thing.

"No need to worry, you do not need to change your gender. You're here under special circumstances, that's all there is to it. In fact, we do have one other female student in Diasomnia who also came here under special circumstances." Crowley assured them.

"One more special circumstance and they can't justify being an all-boys-school anymore." Serena mumbled under her breath. Crowley gave Grim his own magestone, which was usually attached to a magic pen. But as Grim didn't have pockets, he got it as a collar instead. Then they were sent back to their dorms.