I got to the classroom early, eager for my class of History of Mechanics 101. It was my first day at community college and I was practically buzzing with excitement. I’ve always wanted to know the theoretical side of car repair. My hope was that it would get me my dream job, working at a local workshop.

First into the class, I sat right at the front. And I don’t mean in the front row, I mean right at the front. When the teacher came in he looked a bit bothered by it, but he didn’t ask me to move. The man looked a bit like the werewolf teacher in Harold Scarface. His eyes looked tired and he carried his coffee in both hands.

I couldn’t contain my excitement. Finally, I’d learn the skills necessary to work at a Mornington car service shop.

The teacher stood at the front of the room and wrote something on the blackboard, which I sat right in front of. My angle wasn’t great so I couldn’t quite see what it was.

“Welcome to History of Mechanics,” the teacher said. “Would anybody care to tell me where the first mechanics came from?”

My hand immediately shot up. “Although I can only guess, I would suggest that the first mechanics came from Germany, given their strong presence in the automotive industry.”

The teacher gave me an odd look and furrowed his brow. He pointed to another student in the class.

“The show tells us in episode seven that the first Mechanics came from a lab in Brazil, before spreading toward Mexico and the US.”

Show? Episode seven? Lab? Oh no. I wasn’t going to learn anything that would get me a job in the Mornington area. Tyre service and maintenance seemed a bridge too far now. I’d enrolled in the wrong course, hadn’t I?

I looked up at the blackboard. On it was words that dipped my spine in ice. The Mechanics: An Anime of the Ages. Anime? I’d enrolled in a class about an anime? What had I done? The last anime I watched was Basket of Fruit when I was thirteen! Turns out I’d made a huge mistake, and the college doesn’t let you switch classes. Goodbye, dream of being a mechanic!