"So always remember children: you must channel the ice magic in your fingertips before releasing it, otherwise you will only cast a cold gust of wind rather than an aimed blast of ice particles."

Intrigued noises filled the confines of Ms. Bonnet's kindergarten class, truly new spells were the kind of subject that always caught the attention of every child in the room.

Indeed, one look at the class saw everyone in class take great note of today's lesson, some students took notes to make sure they would remember everything they needed to know, while others were already trying their hands on this new technique. One particular table housed two girls that were already eagerly at work to test this ability.

One of these girls was Arle Nadja, holding a pencil in her hand she let out a calm sigh, closing her eyes and doing her hardest to concentrate, a cold feeling shot through her body into her fingertips, eventually deflating into what felt like a cool gust of wind.

"Arle! Arle it's working!"

Eager to see the result of her test Arle opened her eyes, glancing at the pencil, which much to her delight was frozen in the middle part she was holding. A huge smile crept on the girl's face at her quick success, dropping the pencil and instead grabbing the hands of her desk partner and friend Amitie Rose, giddily celebrating wild enough to almost shake the blonde girl's Puyo hat off.

"Ami, I did it already!"

"You did! You're a natural!"

"She really is."

All of the sudden the celebrations were dropped as the two friends saw Ms. Bonnet in front of their desk, which wasn't made any better by the entire class staring at them now.

"He-he...whoops! We got a bit loud there did we?" Amitie said in a sheepish fashion, twiddling thumbs a little to distract herself from having everyone's eyes directed at her.

Fortunately, their teacher wasn't there to scold them, in fact looking her in the face her expression wasn't a stern one, but one of pride. Ms. Bonnet took the pencil herself, examining the frozen spot, clearly a bit surprised, but also pleased.

"To think you can already cast it so well, your magic skill really is already very ahead, Arle!"

"Aww shucks, thanks, teacher!" Arle couldn't help but to blush a little, to get such a compliment in front of the whole class wasn't something that happened every day.

Even as the rest of the class gradually diverged their attention back to their own business one girl couldn't help but to keep staring at Arle and her teacher having a brief further conversation. It's another one of Arle's friends: Lala Vera.

The blonde and pony-tailed girl couldn't help but to look, Arle was usually seen as the class' best, that's how it usually was, basically the status quo, yet she still intently listened to what the two had to tell each other.

This did not go unnoticed her desk partner and best friend, then again her glancing into the direction of their teacher and friend while leaning her head on her hand made that less than subtle. Having shared a desk with Lala since the beginning, Sig Neroni had witnessed moments like this several times before. Looking around their desk to find evidence that confirmed his theory, he took note of Lala's notebook, noticing that she had not only written down their entire lesson word-by-word but also traced her own hand with notes on what fingers were most effective to cast the Ice spell.

Sig redirected his glance back to Lala, the notes told him everything he needed to know, they had been there several times before. As usual, whenever something like this occurred he placed a hand on one of her shoulders, causing her to jerk up a bit before turning around to face him.

"I know…" was all Sig said while presenting his friend an understanding smile, one she quickly returned, with her own vision locked onto his almost hypnotic ocean blue eyes, feeling like she could get lost into them with how rich color they were.

Before the two could say anything else, they were startled by the abrupt and shrill ringing of the school bell began its assault on everyone's ears to announce a far more joyous occasion: Recess.

It didn't take long for the halls of the school building to be filled with students eager to attend to their big break of the day, with kindergärtners and 1-4th graders alike practically fighting and shoving each other around to ensure they would be the first to be graced with a chance to get some fresh air. Right in the midst of this chaos was the small group of Arle, Amitie, Sig and Lala, doing their best to stick together through the mess.

Eventually, the group finally made it outside, joining their fellow students for their daily scheduled 20 minutes of freedom, taking refuge at their usual resting place: a tree close to the upper-right corner of the playground. Painting heavily Arle planted herself right next to the three to lean against it, Amitie and Lala meanwhile not willing to run even farther sat down on the grass, while Sig let himself fall face-first into it, only looking up a bit when noticing a ladybug on a nearby blade of grass.

The group was too out of breath and busy with themselves to notice a familiar boy approach them, one who had to hold back a chuckle at the sight of the four friends.

"This is why I use the emergency exit!"

Arle recognized the voice right away, she didn't know a lot of students in the higher classes, but she sure knew this one in particular. Looking up she quickly took note of the black-haired boy's amused expression and the way he held his magic staff between his hands as if trying to look professional.

Pouting, the girl crossed her arms and gave him a very unimpressed look. "Well, it's not like we can all get away with that because the headmaster is our grandma, Camus!"

"Camus!?"

Not skipping a single beat Lala shot up on her feet, earning the looks of Amitie and Sig, who proceeded to turn their attention towards their slightly older friend, who in turn, raised an arm as a greeting gesture.

"How was your day so far, guys? Finally learned all the basic elemental spells?"

"We sure have!" Amitie said in a very excited manner, waving her arms around for emphasize. "And guess what? Teach was really proud of Arle for already pulling it off so well!"

"Ami, it's really not that big a deal!" Arle tried to protest, but couldn't help but to be a bit flattered regardless.

While the two girls playfully argued, Camus couldn't help but to have his attention drawn to Sig, the boy hadn't said much so far, which wasn't unusual, he was a quiet guy, sometimes prone to get distracted by whatever bug came across his vision. Only this time he wasn't looking at a bug, instead he had his eyes set on Lala, who in turn, directed her gaze at Arle and Amitie, with a familiar expression on her face.

Much like Sig, Camus knew that look all too well, not wasting any time he approached her, not that she even noticed until he stood literally right in front of her.

"Uhm, Camus, wha-"

"It still bothers you, doesn't it?" He asked as if not already knowing, even as the blushing girl visibly attempted to regain her composure.

"Pfft, that? Naww, why would it?"

"It totally still does." Sig interjected in his usual blunt sounding manner, something Lala clearly didn't appreciate at the moment and only got worse when Arle and Amitie finally caught wind of what was going on.

"Lala...be honest." Arle said in a genuinely sympathetic manner, she knew that this was a touchy subject to her, but this had gone on for long enough and it was never nice to see her friend hang her head low, looking outright ashamed over something she had no control or fault over.

"...It just sucks! Every time we learn something new I'm always the one hanging behind, all because my natural magic power is weaker then the rest of the class it's so unfair!" The frustrated six-year-old vented, stomping her foot on the ground and no longer caring if anyone else was looking.

"I take the most detailed notes I can and practice for hours at home, but by the time I get a grip on one spell we are already doing the next one!"

A rather uncomfortable silence befell the group, Arle, Amitie and Sig gave each other looks, clearly struggling to find the right thing to say. Camus was rather taken by surprise at just how much this truly affected her, but also knew that Lala would be most likely to listen to him, so he'd just have to be as assuring as he could be.

"That just says a lot about how hard you are willing to work." He said, straight-faced and in a manner of fact fashion. Lala looked more confused than anything else, not sure what he was trying to get at.

"So?"

"Well, it shows that you are able to work past that handicap by perfecting your skill. Sure you don't excel at raw power, but your finesse with how you control the magic power you do possess is already remarkable!"

That's when it came back, that glimmer in Lala's eyes that were usually Camus' sign to run for the hills, but not this time, he knew Lala needed to hear this. Putting up his most confident posture.

"My family line has been with this school forever, so you can trust me as a van der Weide, you are no lesser than any of us."

By this point Camus could no longer resist the urge to take a cautious step back, that glimmer had only gotten stronger and it was obvious that Lala wasn't even paying any attention to the approving comments of her other friends. Faster then he could react the girl outright leaped at him, glomping him with such a force that he nearly lost his balance.

"Oh, Camus, you always know what to say!" The blonde cooed, hearts practically floating all over her head, completely drowning out Camus' incoherent babbling, as he shambled across the playground with Lala still holding onto him, desperately trying to somehow get himself out of this for him, awkward predicament.

Arle, Sig, and Amitie just chuckled as they watched the two, glad that he was able to raise Lala's spirit, surely this day wouldn't take a sudden turn after all...

Notes:

Alright, this AU is a project I have been yearning to do for a long time and I'm really excited to do this.

Special thanks to kirbymanx, for not only letting me use the Rose family name for Amitie, but also coming up with names for Sig, Camus and Lala. I really wanted to go with european family names, both to go with Nadja and because I feel they fit well with the Puyo Puyo cast.

Also Sig doesn't have his red eye and arm yet, he wasn't born with them in the games and I'm rolling with that as well.

Next time things really get started, as we slowly ease into my AU retelling of Madou Monogatari 1!