...Lauren and I exited her dorm, and then the entire building, exiting into the late afternoon air. The campus was still filled with parents visiting, and the regular student. The park was about a five to ten minute walk to the north of campus. The day wasn’t too cold because the sun was still up but it was crisp due to it being close to winter. Our walk was quiet for a long time before Lauren broke the silence. “Do… do we tell anyone about this?” She asked.

“What?”

“Us…”

“I…” I hadn’t thought much about it “... Yeah we can!”

“Well… I just don’t know if we should… think it might throw the others off?”

“If you don’t want to we don’t have to” I returned shrugging. Lauren rose a brow.

“So yes? Or no?” 

“I’m not sure… I don’t typically tell people many things about myself besides you and Luke, and if you think it might ruin things in the group…”

“Ok… let’s keep it to ourselves for now.” Lauren nodded to herself, I agreed, smiling. 

“I’m uh… sorry… for earlier.” I said firmly.

“No you don’t have to be at all! But…”

“But what?”

“If you don’t mind… what happened? Why did you stop me at first?” I glanced away. 

“I don’t know… I was self conscious I guess? I mean… I don’t know…” I rose a brow, and turned to Lauren. “...what are your parents like?” The question seemed to startle her. 

“It’s a little early don’t ya think?” She laughed… it hurt a little…

“That’s not really what I meant… like… just in general, just curious…” 

“Well… my mom is a doctor in the city, and my dad works as a high ranking magi, he works a lot with the NYPD. In terms of their personalities…” Lauren put a finger to her mouth. “... my mom gets like overly nice to people all the time… she’ll cook them a ridiculous amount of food, and can’t stop herself from helping people… my dads probably the same… just different in the way he approaches situations. He’s a really intense and powerful kinda guy Yaknow? Like… the way he carries himself is pretty intense, but he’s super kind too… guess that’s why they get along so well.” Lauren shrugged. I gulped… not only was her dad a cop… but my family was certainly the crazy one in this relationship… “is that what everything was about?” Lauren muttered, I nearly stopped walking, and almost tripped. 

“I-“ I let out a deep breath… 

“You don’t have to be worried about anything… and I’m sorry your dad has made you overthink so much…” 

“There you guys are! My god we waited forever!” Luke roared, rushing up to us. The group stood outside of the brass archway that led into a closed off park. The rest of the group was there and waiting. 

“Sorry everyone… it’s a little hard to contain him sometimes.” Sabrina sighed.

“Luke solving this before him, was all this one talked about the whole time here.” Lauren laughed gesturing to me. The group shared a chuckle before Luke pushed open the gates. 

“Charging in, per usual.” Caleb groaned

“Would you rather us scale one of these trees to get in? Mister ‘I only packed suits’?” Luke bit back, stepping into the park, Caleb used his hand to mock Luke talking, and rolled his eyes. We filed in behind Luke, me rushing to his side. 

“So what made you think about it?” I asked excitedly, Luke smiled. The park was pretty overgrown for being so important, but large trees and brush sort of concealed the whole thing, and brought a dark backdrop to our conversation.

“It seemed like and odd descriptor to use in the twenty-first century.” Luke muttered. 

“Right?” I responded “and it was pretty open ended for directions on the magi exams at that… I mean ‘first light’ not ‘first light tomorrow’?” Luke nodded, smiling. 

“Glad someone gets it, I had to practically beg Sabrina to listen to me.”

“Not like you haven’t been wrong before.” Sabrina muttered in the back. 

“Speaking of, it’s looking preeetty empty in here.” Caleb muttered. 

“No wait, look!” April called, rushing forward. She knelt down at a cluster of bushes. A few twigs had been snapped off of it, and lied on the top of the path.

“Ok… broken bush…” Caleb said sarcastically. Luke knelt down next to April, and smiled.

“On top of the paths dirt… not beneath it…” he explained

“It happened recently.” April smiled. 

“It could just have been a squirrel or something…” Caleb muttered. 

“How bout’ that?” Lauren muttered pointing to a tree, a large singe mark, scarred the tree up and down. Luke moved toward the tree, then glanced at me.

“It really has begun huh?” He muttered.

“Teams are already trying to take each other out…” I responded, I glanced further down the path, to see a  glowing light. “Guys.” I said, nodding down the path, the group began to walk down further, we continued and continued before the park opened into a clearing. A large circular area, barren of trees and brush, with a small podium set up, standing on it, was Theodore Kaine. Theodore was surrounded by other headmasters, and some of his administrative staff, Mr. Stevenson was among them. He noticed us first, and breathed a sigh of relief. The clearing was huge, and was already housing a ton of teams to begin with. 

“Geez… we were this late?” Lauren whispered, as we made our way into the group. The Heathwood guys stood front and center, talking discreetly, while sizing up other teams. 

“Alright, settle down, settle down.” Theodore began. “The sun has begun setting which means the time for groups to join… has ended.” He examined the group. “About half… it seems only fifty of the teams that stuck around have the promise to be Magi this year. Now listen up, we have more rules to go over before you’re set to leave, until then remain silent.” Theodore nodded to Mr. Stevenson and backed up. Mr. Stevenson stood up to the podium, and cleared his throat. 

“Let’s begin then. Number one, this was a given but all team members must be in agreement on leaving, if anyone backs out now the team may not leave, during the mission some of you may die… if the team dwindles down, any magi may continue. Essentially to begin the mission all magi in the team must be in agreement… In theory only one magi from each team has to be alive and/or complete the goal to win. Second, there is no safety net. We are all watching, yes, but under strict orders not to interfere… if you face a villain and lose… you are at their mercy. Third, anything is on the table during the exams… but please keep in mind your school's reputation is on the line, not only can we see you, but  a lot of this will be broadcasted on the news. Fourth, you don’t need to win to become a magi, if you are deemed so by the judgment council you can become a magi even if you aren’t the first few teams to succeed. Fifth, once this is over and we begin, no vehicles may be taken from the campus and driven. If you wish to use a car or vehicle it must come from off campus… that… is all.” Mr. Stevenson said, stepping off the podium. 

“Very well…” Theodore stepped back to the podium. “We will leave immediately. We will leave this place in increments as to not rouse suspicion, the teams who got here last will go first… if no one has anything to sa-“

“I got something to say.” Luke roared, marching up to the podium. 

“Luke!” Sabrina whisper yelled. 

“Oh my word.” Caleb gasped. Luke snatched the microphone. 

“Listen up!” Luke held a thumb up to himself. “I’m the best magi out of Kaine university, and those of you who think you can beat me.” A large smirk crossed his face. “Are dead wrong. I’m gonna win this thing, and annihilate anyone who stands in my way, hear me?”

“Yes we can all hear that big mouth of yours mutt.” The presumable leader of Heathwood called, the crowd erupted into laughter. 

“Thank you… Mr. Baker.” Theodore said, retrieving the mic. “... that being said… since you were the last team to arrive… you are dismissed.” The group laughed at Luke as he returned to our group. 

“Luke… I’m sorry” April muttered putting a hand on his shoulder. Luke smiled, and looked up at us. 

“No need for apologies… they just gave the best set of magi here an advantage.” Luke turned to the crowd, his smile sprawling across his face even further. “You’re all laughing… but isn’t it a shame that the rest of you didn’t think about how the teams would leave?” The laughter came to a screeching halt. “It would be a reeaaaal issue if the strongest team got the advantage… wouldn’t it?” 

“No way…” someone muttered from the crowd “...he thought… that far ahead…” 

“Let’s roll.” Luke said, parting our group, and walking out the way we came, everyone staring at us in awe. Eventually we made it back to the gates. 

“Luke… that was amazing!!!” Sabrina squealed. He laughed. 

“I’m surprised you guys didn’t catch onto it earlier… Sabrina I brought up the idea of going, then we sat around for a few hours… you didn’t think that was weird?”

“I thought you were just getting into a good mental headspace….” Luke laughed aloud. 

“I’m always in a good mental headspace.”

“Hey, good mental headspace.” Caleb muttered, punching Luke’s arm. “How are we leaving campus, none of us have a car that we can drive because they’re all on campus.” Luke’s expression faded.

“Look I got the ball rollin’ I can’t carry all the dead weight” he grunted.

“Aaaactually…” I spoke up quietly, everyone’s attention turned to me. “... my parents didn’t… come to the ceremony… and my dad moved all his keys after I stole his bike… so I took my moms van…” I laughed nervously. 

“Doesn’t really help us though does it meathead? What with it being on campus and all.” Caleb groaned. 

“Ever stop bein’ a dick?” Luke muttered, shaking his head.

“You all make it so hard to stop.” Caleb returned.

“Guys.” I said “the van is parked in the visitors garage.”

“So… “ Sabrina smiled. “...technically off campus…” I nodded, smiling. 

“Ladies and gentlemen, we just found our ride.” Luke smiled. We headed south, toward the exit, which took a good twenty minutes before exiting campus, and being met with a large parking garage, across a street. 

“My god that things an eye sore.” Caleb muttered. 

“So are you but we keep ya around.” Luke laughed, patting his shoulder. Luke stepped past him, and we all followed into the parking garage, going up a few floors. “What am I lookin’ for Har?” Luke asked. I glanced around for a bit, clicking the keys when I heard a beep, and saw lights to our left. I smiled and pointed. 

“That.” I said. 

“What… the… hell… is that?” Caleb muttered. I smiled nervously, a large rusted van sat parked in a space. It was covered in lighting bolts, and the letters “AD:CC” we’re painted on the sides. 

“Harry… fuckin… Simmons… is your mom in a rock band!?” Luke roared, rushing to the van, examining it, his eyes the size of dinner plates. I laughed… 

“Lead singer actually…”

“What do the letters mean?” Sabrina asked. 

“Absolute Death: Chord Crushers…” I said quietly, the group stifled laughs. “... it’s way worse than just a name… apparently in her fighting days… that was the name of a special move she used….” I hid my face in embarrassment. 

“That’s incredible.” Lauren chuckled. 

“Yeah… I’m NOT getting in that.” Caleb muttered

“GUYS!” Luke yelled, he and April crawled out of the double doors in the back, dawning instruments. April strummed a riff on the guitar, while Luke pretended to play chords on an air guitar, next to her. “... I don’t... know how to play, but you get the idea… There's instruments in here!” April smiled, letting the guitar hang behind her. 

“The more and more you find… the less and less I want to get in.” Caleb muttered.

“The more and more we stand here, the more and more I realize we need to get going.” I said firmly, stepping toward the driver seat. 

“Shotgun!” Lauren called excitedly, rushing to the passenger side. Luke, and April stored the instruments in the back, and Sabrina and Caleb joined them. 

“Alright everyone… away… we go!” I called starting the ignition. I reversed and headed out of the parking garage…