We stood shocked for a long time… none of us really wanted to move at all… I was practically shaking at that point and for the first time in a long time Luke was staring at his shoes, dead silent… no one was making eye contact, and Caleb wasn’t bragging at all. I took a deep breath and nodded to myself. 

“Alright guys.” I said. Everyone’s attention turned to me. I wasn’t prepared for that kind of attention… I shook my head and examined the stands. “... still about a hundred teams…” I muttered. 

“Real good at bringin’ our spirits up there sis.” Luke chuckled. I sighed.

“Listen… I know this is odd but like Harry said we’re good together! This is no challenge for us at all! Let’s all head home… and we’ll meet back up at sunrise… yeah?” Everyone mumbled something and nodded as they stood up slowly, and milled toward the exit. Lauren had headed up the line and was moving toward the end of our seat, us behind her as someone spoke up from her left.

“Aaah KU‘s still puttin out hot ones I see.” A guy laughed, looking Lauren up and down. He was a tall six six and about two twenty, mostly muscle it seemed, he had ink black short hair, and deep green eyes, that narrowed as he examined Lauren’s body. I rose a brow, as Harry stepped forward, pushing Lauren back. The other guy frowned as he sized up Harry… 

“And they got some to spare!” The second guy next to the first called, he was noticeably shorter, barely five foot ten, with curly, short brunette hair and gray eyes, now eyeing me up. I rose a brow, and was about to speak up, when Luke brushed past me. 

“The hell did you just say small fry!” He roared, a smokey Ash exploded from his hand as a demon hand replaced his normal one, but he stopped as a hand gripped it, and held it down. Luke glanced down and then  back up to Harry, who was holding him back, not breaking eye contact with the first guy. 

“If we kill another school's team before the competition we’ll fail…” Harry said calmly. I glanced at Harry’s hand it was coated in metal… Why wasn’t Luke’s hand burning it up now? I smiled… looks like Harry did some training of his own. The first guy scoffed, and waved forward. 

“Let’s go… they’re not worth it.” The rest of the group followed his lead, and exited the stadium. Luke’s hand puffed ash out to the sides as it returned to normal. 

“So it’s gonna be like that…” Caleb muttered. April sighed

“Heathwood Academy of the Arcane… the biggest college in California…” 

“You know em’?” Luke asked. April shook her head. 

“Just of the school… they all wear the stupid crest on their chest…”

“Are you ok?” Harry asked, turning to Lauren. She nodded.

“Harry I thought you were gonna kill them to be totally honest.” I laughed nervously. Harry glanced down at his hand and shook his head as if he forgot he had made a fist. He turned back toward the exit. 

“Let’s get some rest…” he muttered. We all agreed that was best and headed to our respective dorms… Harry decided he would make sure Lauren made it back to her dorm, of course I lived with Luke, and Caleb insisted he was fine and didn’t need to be accompanied by April. We began heading our separate ways. 

“You good?” I asked Luke, his vision turned to me.

“Y-yeah why wouldn’t I be?”

“Eh just not like you to be so quiet for more than 3 seconds…” I shrugged. 

“Teddy’s a strange man huh?” Luke muttered.

“What?”

“Who says we start at first light! It’s the twenty-first century… get with it old timer…” Luke teased. I placed a hand to my chin, then laughed. 

“Yeah he’s a little odd…”

“Why would he…” Luke’s expression lit up.

“No…” I said quickly… “don’t do this… not now Luke..”

“First light means something else….” I groaned and slapped my hand against my face.

“It was just a commencement ceremony Luke there’s no need to read so far into it!”

“This is a magi exam Sabrina.” Luke said, turning to me with an intensely serious expression. “From now on… start thinking like a magi… We need to think outside the box to get the upper hand… if first light is a specific time we need to know…” Luke picked his pace up. I trailed behind him as we entered our building. “... or it can be a person? Can that be a person?” Luke continued up the stairs. He opened the door. “Or a place? It’s most likely a place…” he shut the door behind us and moved over to his desk. I ignored him  and flopped onto my bed, rubbing my temples. Luke tore out a piece of paper and started scribbling and writing and muttering to himself.

“LUKE!” I yelled, sitting up, scowling at him. “Not everything is some deep detective search. You have this idea that you’re smarter than everyone else and because of that you think everything is a deep, hidden message…” I grumbled, staring at the back of his head as he stopped everything. I hurt him again… two times in the past like, few days I’ve made him upset… I sighed. “Luke I-“

“First light park…” he muttered. 

“What?”

“The park… furthest north on campus… First Light Park it’s where the first grad exams ever took place…” 

“Luke… that’s a coincidence…” Luke stood up and began packing up bags. “Luke… that doesn’t mean anything, it’s a coincidence.” Luke stopped and turned to me. 

“I know you don’t think I’m competent… or smart… creative… whatever. You think I’m a kid who wants to play detective…” Luke’s expression turned deep serious, as he stared into my eyes. “... but I know I’m right. I know this is what we need to do.” Luke… I didn’t think any of that… why do you think I think so little of you… I sighed aloud. 

“I’m sorry Luke…” I muttered. “...let’s go.” I smiled, grabbing an empty bag and packing it. “text the others and let’s roll.” I smiled. Luke let out a large grin and flipped his phone on, furiously typing something, he clicked send and the phone chimes as I finished moving about the room picking things up. By the afternoon we were ready…