It was a miracle that my only good subject was physical education. I sympathetically watched the less athletic, more magic-oriented students failing to catch a disc. 

“Stop trying to use magic!” Coach Meridith called for the third time that day. “Aaron, I’m going to withdraw your magic if you keep floating.”

“What?” Aaron exclaimed, finally coming back down to the ground. “But, Coach!”

“The floating isn’t even helping you,” she told him, pointing out his shaking legs. 

Aaron grumbled, “Fine.”

If this class went any longer, Meridith would be cutting into my free time once the bell rung. I got up from my comfortable spot on the bench and called, “Does anyone want me to throw their disc? Or catch it.”

“Yes!” Multiple kids yelled. 

“You should probably help, Erich,” I said, glancing at the black-haired boy sitting on the bench next to me. “We can get class to end early.”

“There’s nothing for me to do once class ends,” he simply replied. “It’s better to just let them go at their own pace.”

“Yeah, but don’t you like the freedom?” I argued. He wasn’t responding anymore, so I grumbled and walked to help the nearest people.

It was hard not to develop a large ego during PE because of the numerous kids that would thank me for helping them. The only thing keeping me tethered to my modesty was the one girl that would say this after I helped her: 

“You’re really good at PE for a Light.”

I threw a disc to Ronan, then I looked at Kaylie sweetly. I replied, “I know it’s hard to be an unathletic borderline Light. I’m rooting for you.”

Kaylie’s expression tightened. She countered, “Who said I’m unathletic?”

“Ah, yeah, sorry for assuming,” I shrugged. “But everyone would assume so. Considering you always need to ask someone to help you.”

“Well, Maddie, your assumption was wrong,” she huffed, “I can win a race against any Light.”

“You can’t use magic, Kaylie,” I told her, then I went to go run and grab Ronan’s disc

“I know, Maddie. Did you assume that us Shades use magic to solve everything? I guess it’s normal to have those delusions, considering you’re a Light,” she called to me.

“Fine! I’ll race!” I yelled in frustration. “It’s not like Lights are a different species with different abilities. We can do it during free time. After I throw these discs and stuff.

Erich came up behind me and said, “I’ll help speed up the process.”

What? I turned around to glare at him, and people started calling for him to help them.

“What?” he asked when he saw my expression. “I’ve decided to be nice.”

“You just want to watch me trip during the race,” I said. “Well, whatever. I’m going to be winning it whether you expect me to or not.”

"Actually, I just think it’d be nice to see that Kaylie girl fail.”

I gaped at him. “What’d she do to you?”

“Nothing,” he said.

“Okay, whatever,” I dismissed. “Your admirers are begging you to go help them.”

“Thank you for pointing that out.”

Despite Erich’s help, it still took ten minutes to get everyone sitting on the benches. To be honest, it felt like Aaron was intentionally throwing the disc as far away as possible from me. 

"It’s good practice,” Erich assured me.

Once everyone had thrown and caught a disc successfully, Meredith left us to our own devices until class ended. 

Kaylie stood up from her spot on the bench and called, “I will be racing Madeleine Mar Ryland! Across the entire field!”

“Class is going to end soon,” I reminded her. “Everyone’s going to leave as soon as that bell rings.”

“What, are you scared that I’ll beat you now? Well, I’m sure that all that three-metre running that Aaron’s made you do took a lot of wind out of you.”

“What? I’m still doing it!” I stammered.

“Okay, then let’s start.”

We began at the edge of the field, and Andrie cast a spell on the other side of the field to find out who made it to the end first. She also did the countdown.

“Three, two, one, go!” 

We were a few milliseconds in. I was already pretty ahead of Kaylie. I wanted to turn around to see her frustrated expression, but I probably would’ve tripped on something.

I was so close to the end of the field when Andrie suddenly yelled, “Wait!” I felt something hit my arm and I fell to the ground. It didn’t hurt at first, but when I realized someone threw a disc at me, my arm started throbbing.

I hissed in pain, rubbing my arm, but I almost immediately stopped. I nearly forgot!

Meridith called, “Madeleine! Are you okay?” but I was rushing to the changing rooms.

“Yes! Fine! I’m just gonna wash this arm off my dirt!” The sudden adrenaline made the pain from the disc feel like nothing.

When I got into a private changing room, my arm started throbbing again. I was trying to create a plan where I wouldn’t have to completely heal it and end up looking suspicious, but it was hurting way too much. 

I sighed, decided that I’d emvo Axel about it later, and pressed my palm onto the bruise on my arm.