I sat up slowly in my bed, rubbing my eyes, soft classical music floated across the room. I’m sure the others have mention the world’s greatest Magi, yours truly, but in case you haven’t had the pleasure of hearing about me, my name is Caleb. I am twenty years old and as I mentioned, I am the worlds greatest Magi. My mother made her living as an actress, and had to move off to California when I had turned sixteen. While my father is a co founder of Kaine University, or so Ive heard . He was on the board who helped Sabrina’s father with planning and testing. I had attended for years now, but just met the others this semester. I stood up and walked across the room to my closet. I shared a room with no one. While Sabrina was offered the choice she decided, instead of living alone and having one of the suites, she’d rather share a room with that clown she calls a brother. I sifted through the suits that were hung in my closet and picked one out. Just a classic black and white, with a midnight rose tie. I was getting up so early on the weekend, because of Harry. He had a baseball game today, and everyone thought it, to be so important that we ‘support him’ I straightened my tie, and combed my hair over In my mirror. I smiled and winked to myself, before grabbing my sunglasses off my desk and exiting the suite. I stepped Into the elevator directly to my rooms right and pressed the ground floor button. The elevatorlowered me to the floor and chimed, opening. I stepped out, and put my sunglasses on. The suite building was dead center in the middle of campus. I walked my way to the baseball field. By the time I arrived the game was a minute from starting. I stepped up onto the stadium-like bleachers and found the others, halfway to the top. I approached them and sat down at the end. 

“Good morning.” Sabrina smiled to me.

“Later than everyone else, per usual.” Luke grunted. 

“Fashionably late.” I corrected, flicking my sunglasses down as a made eye contact. Luke rolled his eyes. 

“Your coffee.” Lauren said from Luke’s left, the others passed the coffee down to me. “Black, just the way you like it.” Lauren said cheerfully. 

“Disgusting.” Luke gagged. 

“Healthier this way.” I shrugged sipping from the cup. Yes it was bitter, but I’d rather drink something bitter than get fat. 

“So how does this work?” April asked Turning to Luke from Next to me. He turned to her, raising a brow. 

“Baseball?” He asked. She nodded. “You’re from California! Not the moon!” He teased. 

“He hits it, then runs.” I said simply, pointing to the person batting. 

“Kay’ there’s SO much more to it than that!” Luke said scoffing. I rolled my eyes. “We don’t want him to hit it well, because Harry’s team is in the field.” Luke said. 

“Isn’t the whole thing the field?” April asked. 

“Well... there’s two teams...” Luke said. “One bats, the other plays the field- have you really never seen baseball before??” Luke asked giving up. 

“She’s seen baseball, ya idiot.” Sabrina said rolling her eyes. April giggled. “She’s messing with you.” Luke rolled his eyes. 

“I hate you all.” He joked.

“You’re quiet today.” Sabrina said leaning forward, facing Lauren. Sabrina was right Lauren seemed to be... shaken up about something. Regardless of what the others have told you, I am actually quite perceptive toward others feelings, I just don’t like to dwell on them too long. I took a deep breath and turned my attention back to the game. Harry wound up a pitch and launched it forward. The batter swung, missing, and striking out. 

“My man is on fire!” Luke called, clapping loudly. Good lord he was an obnoxious human. “That’s his third strike out of this game!” The game continued fairly quietly, Harry was MVP per usual for his games. 

“Why do we still come to these.” I groaned standing up as we started to leave. “It always ends the same.” 

“Because we're Harry’s friends!” Lauren nearly yelled at me. I rose a brow. “And... we need to support him, that’s all.” She muttered, crossing her arms. I nodded.

“Riiiight.” I returned. 

“She’s right.” Sabrina said, as we stepped down from the bleachers. “Harry’s a good friend and part of our team, it’s important that we support him.”

“Whatever...” I grumbled. Harry made his way to us from the field and smiled. 

“Hey!” He said excitedly. “Thanks for comin.” He said.

“Is that emotion from Harry Simmons??” I asked sarcastically. He turned to me, and his expression faded. 

“Don’t tease him.” Lauren said, punching my arm lightly. 

“You did great!” Luke called, high fiving Harry. 

“Just gimme a second to change and we can go to breakfast.” Harry said rushing back to the team as they headed toward the locker rooms. I took a deep breath. We usually all meet up for breakfast on Saturday mornings at a pancake place near campus, another stupid tradition we have. 

“Hey Caleb.” Luke said, turning to me. He stuck his hand out. “Time to pay up!” He smiled. 

“What are you talking about?” I asked. 

“The bet yesterday, I believe you said, and I quote ‘TEN dollars says he won’t be able to break the barrier’?” Luke smirked. I rolled my eyes. 

“I’m not giving you ten dollars.” I said crossing my arms. Luke rolled his eyes and huffed. 

“Fine, be like that.” He grumbled. There was a silence for a miute or so before Harry came rushing over to us. 

“Alright let’s, go I’m starving.” He said.

“Ok,” Luke started. “My car can only hold four people...” He laughed nervously. 

“Oh.” Harry said. “Well I’ve got the motorcycle, so I’ll just take Lauren and we’ll meet you guys there!” Harry said glancing over at Lauren.

“Yeah, sure that works. We’ll meet you over there.” Luke said waving us along. When we arrived at Luke’s car Sabrina walked to the front. 

“Uuuuh what are you doing?” I asked. She rose a brow. 

“Getting in the car?” She returned.

“I take passenger! I’m taller.” I yelled. Sabrina didn’t break eye contact, opened the door and sat down in the seat buckling in. I breathed heavily and sat in the back. April took the seat to my left. Luke pulled out of the spot and made his way to the restaurant. In a few minutes he had parked and we exited the car. As we stepped out, Harry pulled in next to us. He parked the bike and stood up. His hair was a mess, it seemed he gave Lauren the helmet. 

“HARRY!” Sabrina yelled, rushing over to them. “Where is your helmet?” 

“I stormed out of the house!” He protested. “It’s not like I had time to think about a second helmet!” 

“You could have hurt yourself.” April said. 

“Thanks but I’m fine!” Harry laughed stepping away from the bike. 

“Harry’s a great driver.” Lauren said smiling. 

“Oh my god come on I’m starving!” Luke whined. We laughed and headed into the restaurant. The building was fairly large and had a big, open dining room. When you walked in there was a cashiers counter, and on either side was seating that was divided by a large wall. 

“Six Of us.” Sabrina said to the hostess. 

“Sure Honey right this way.” She said in a southern accent, grabbing menus with her left hand. She led us to the left side, and sat us in a large booth against the wall. I slid into the booth first, sitting up against the wall, then Sabrina, and Luke who sat on the end on our side. On the other side April slid in first, then Lauren, then Harry. 

“So...” Sabrina said. “... I’ve been thinking about these Grad exams.” 

“Of course you have.” I grumbled.

“Oh don’t act like you haven’t!” Sabrina snapped. “Anyway, I was thinking, it would help if we knew who we were up against!” She said. “So I think I should try to get the applicant list from my dad the-“

“Isn’t that cheating?” Lauren asked quietly. Sabrina stopped then dropped her head. 

“I’ve been trying to think of ways we can get an edge, but everything I could come up with has been illegal or against the rules.” She grumbled. 

“How about you just train like the rest of us.” Luke shrugged. 

“I don’t need to.” I shrugged. 

“Caleb you lost to her!” Luke said. “If she needs training, you need training.” He said as a waitress brought coffee over to us. 

“I think we all need training always.” April said. “Slacking will get us nowhere.”

“APRIL!” Sabrina yelled. “You went to school in California right??” 

“Uh... Yeah.” April laughed. 

“They have a big school there to! Im sure they’ll be competing.” Sabrina explained. “What do you know about the magic there.” April rose a brow.

“Yeah this still feels like cheating.” Lauren said loudly. Sabrina huffed. “What’s goin’ on with you?” Lauren asked. “You're usually more by the book than this.” Sabrina nodded.

“I’m sorry, I’m just... so stressed out right now with this exam.” A waitress stopped at our table placing six plate of pancakes in front of us. 

“Hey good timing!” Luke said happily. “Here drown your sorrows in food.” He said sliding a plate over to her. 

“More importantly...” Lauren started. “... what happens when we’re done? Or if some of us pass and the others fail.” She muttered. She was right I had never thought of life without these buffoons before, what was I going to do when I passed and they all failed?  

“We’re all gonna pass!” Luke yelled, mid chew. “Would you guys stop bummin’ me out.” 

“Luke even if we all pass, there’s a chance we won’t even see each other anymore.” Sabrina said quietly. Luke sat back, and breathed angrily. 

“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it, now shut up and eat your pancakes.” He said to all of us. There was silence again. It usually wasn’t as quiet as this, but something heavy was weighing on all of us and it was damn soul crushing. The rest of the morning was just as depressing. Within the hour we had left the restaurant and all made our way back to our dorms, Harry dropped Lauren off and headed home, and I flopped down onto my bed. Today has sucked pretty hard so far, and honestly I just wanted it to end. My thoughts were cut off by the phone ringing. I leaned over to the landline and picked it up.

“Hello?” I asked. It was my mother. 

“Hello Caleb!!!” She called cheerfully. I smiled. 

“Hey mom.” I returned. 

“I was just calling, because I remembered your graduation exams are coming up.”

“Ugh don’t remind me.” I groaned. 

“What’s the matter?” She asked. 

“It’s the others in my class. They’re worried we’ll drift apart after the exam.” I muttered. 

“Well there’s a chance you might.” She said bluntly. “You’ve always talked about coming to California to become a P.I. So assuming they don’t come with you...”

“Yeah.” I said quietly. 

“Are you having second thoughts?” 

“I... I don’t know. I don’t think so.” I returned. I never knew much about my mother so I had always had the idea of moving to California to get to know her better, but there’d always been a tiny voice of doubt in the back of my mind. 

“Well... this is a decision you have to make on your own Caleb. I cant influence it. There’s always a place for you here in California, but this is a decision for you to make. If you care about your friends stay with them, if it makes no difference to you then I’d be excited to have you live with me.” My mother said. 

“Of course I don’t CARE about them...” I muttered quietly. 

“Oh Caleb, until you recognize your own feelings, you can’t mask them. That’s an old actors trick for you. I’ll talk to you next week sweetie, love you.” My mother hung up with a *click*

“Love you too...” I muttered, hangin the line up....