CHAPTER 6

It’s still early, but Mindie isn’t in the Top Eight yet

Erika and Ryan made their way across campus. Being the middle of the afternoon and in between classes, the students were in full bustle trying to get to where they needed to go. Erika found herself quickly drawn to the blond—whom she now decided somewhat resembled a friend.

It was truly fortunate that Ryan had come to her aid a few nights before, as her luminescence had just broken against a particularly large, tree-sized Shade causing distress downtown. The damage to the town had been minimal (a few fire hydrant eruptions, overturned cars, a single collapsed storefront), but it could’ve been worse if Erika hadn’t gotten the Shade to focus completely on her. And it would have been even worse if the Shade decided to turn her into food after she broke. Ryan had swooped in and destroyed the tree-like shadow with what he declared a Pyromania of his luminescent energy.

The two took a pause at an intersection in the main sidewalk that led to Central, where Erika turned to her companion. “This is my stop. Where do you have to go?”

“The Lumisphere. There’s someone I need to talk to, and I hear she’s normally seen there in the practice rooms around this time.” Ryan pulled out his phone and tapped through it to get to his maps app. “I don’t know where it is though.”

Erika gave him a smile that was as bright as it was patronizing. “How can you not know where the Lumisphere is? If you take a look over there…”

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Pike and Mindie may as well have been part of the background to their blond and pink-haired peers. They passed them by and approached the façade of Central as Erika pointed out the large dome of the Lumisphere some distance away from where they were (prompting Ryan to recoil in surprise at having missed such an obvious landmark).

“I don’t get why you don’t just join the Halo Tour yourself,” Mindie remarked. “You’re luminescent, and you already come with me every time I deal with any mishaps.”

“You mean, I’m always with you when we come across an incident and somehow get dragged into the chaos—no pun intended.” Pike shrugged. “Also, most of my lumi practice has been on defense.”

They walked through the double-doors of Central, greeted by the vast lobby and the grandiose sight of the Leaderboard framed between the double-staircase. Several students were gathered around the gigantic monitor, with a few more straying in from various sides of the building and converging on the growing crowd.

“Besides, the Tour’s already started. And I doubt I’d be strong enough to compete in earnest,” Pike continued. “Also, I just don’t see the point of it. You deal with Shades, take part in a few events… You aim for the top, but what kind of reward do you really get for reaching it?”

Mindie held up a matter-of-fact finger and waggled it at him sassily. “The best kind of reward. Even you know the thing.”

Indeed, he did. And it made him roll his eyes a bit. “You’re fast-tracked and granted the status of Superstar right away.”

The lack of enthusiasm from her partner made Mindie pout in a bout of mock frustration. She grabbed the arm of his hoodie and jostled it. “Like, how can you not be excited by that, Pike? Superstars are the most incredible people in the world!”

She let him go and skipped a step forward. While her rollerblades were strapped to her backpack, the way she spun about to face him again was smooth and had a bit of characteristic Mindie-esque flare. She threw her hands up in the air in a grand gesture for additional exposition.

“Superstars have the capacity and leave to take on really big threats! Think: taking down Shades the size of whole cities, or being able to go all night without your lumi state breaking!”

She pointed her finger at Pike to drive home her conclusion, a confident smirk playing on her lips. “They can protect the world to a much higher degree. That’s what I’m aiming for.”

The thing was, Pike didn’t really care too much about pursuing such an enormous ambition. Sure, he recognized that that Stars were integral to stopping chaos-related incidents around the world. And he knew luminescents were the only ones who could become Stars. It was all just too big for him.

But luminescents were practically expected to take part in the Halo Tour. It was the consensus mentality that once you graduated from HRU it was much harder to get certified, so why not try to do it now? Those who aspired to be Stars gravitated towards those with the same ambition. It created generations of luminescents who balked at the idea of willingly foregoing the Tour. Civilian luminescents were seen as people to frown upon—especially if you were a student and still had an easy opportunity to become a Star. They were seen as wasting their gift.

This was part of the reason Pike generally kept this aspect of his identity to himself. There were only a few people who had seen him in his state of luminescence, and most of them he trusted not to heckle him about it. Not even his own parents knew. He’d taken great cautions to keep it secret, fearing what conclusions they would jump to. They’d probably fear even more for his future as an upstanding corporate citizen.

In short, being a Star was important and prestigious. It was a main character’s job—which meant it wasn’t for Pike.

He smiled at his enthusiastic friend. “Go on, fly high and defend the world. We side characters are content to live keeping our feet on the ground.”

Mindie shrugged her shoulders upward, then let them fall as she deflated with a sigh. “Whatever you say.”

As she turned to face the Leaderboard, she looked up at the countdown timer. It was then that she realized why there were so many more people gathered around than usual: the timer was about to reach zero. Phase 3 of the Halo Tour was about to end.

Her zeal momentarily rekindled, Mindie pointed at the timer as Pike joined her side. “Oh, look! It’s updating the standings!”

The timer ticked down to zero. Immediately, the eight names on the Leaderboard became a slot machine blur, giving the visual impression of spinning while they were shuffled. The students all watched in eager anticipation to see how the Top Eight’s composition would change.

The names stopped shuffling, one by one from the bottom to the top. Many of the same names remained while their ranks changed, Erika Bast being a familiar name among the others. The top seed remained the same too—a contender by the name Zoe Kampfer. The display of Phase 3 shifted to instead show Phase 4. There was some appropriately excited murmuring among the students clustered around the Leaderboard, but this small, buzzing pond quickly dried up as they receded away and went on with their days.

Mindie’s name wasn’t there.

Her head hung as she let out a sigh and a small defeated smile. “Figures. Still don’t have enough to be on the Board yet.”

Pike brought a hand to her shoulder and gave it a gentle, reassuring squeeze. “It’s still early in the Tour; you’ll get there. Even if you don’t take the top spot, you’ll be a certified Star as long as you’re in the Top Eight.”

Mindie gave him a look that oozed you’re kidding right? He really just said what he did. “Because we both know I’d totally settle for that. C’mon Pike, be real here. As long as that clock’s still ticking, I’m gonna fight my way to the top.”

Her tone jarred him for a moment. “I-I just meant…”

In this regard, Mindie was extremely competitive. Some might think she was aiming to finish at Number One because she felt pressured to match such outstanding benchmarks in her family. After all, she was the daughter of the best Superstar in the world, and the sister of someone who finished as the Tour’s top seed and became a Superstar during her first year at HRU.

They’d be wrong. Mindie aimed to be a Superstar as quickly as possible simply because that’s what she had decided for herself.

That straight-shooting confidence was something Pike admired about her. Realizing his reassurances weren’t exactly helping, he felt a wave of shame wash over him for saying something so stupid and shrunk away from her.

“Sorry…”

Mindie turned to him, immediately realizing the tone she must’ve just used to prompt him to shy away from her. Pike was a bit of a marshmallow, but that was something she found unique and kind of sweet. It was this mild-mannered demeanor of his that drew them together in the first place. There was no way they’d have become close if he were a standard meathead.

She sighed, snaking her arms around his waist. “Don’t be like that; I know what you meant.” When he was secure in the circle of her arms, she rested her head on his shoulder and nuzzled her nose affectionately against the crook of his neck. “I know you’ve always got my back—side character or no.”

Reassured by her gesture, Pike’s concern melted back into an easier smile. “Heh. Careful. People might start to think we’re dating.”

“You worry too much.”

“And you are avant-garde as always…” Pike stepped out of the circle of his best friend’s arms, his smiling expression only barely dampened by his perpetually exhausted-looking eyes. “Gotta get to Econ. I’ll catch you later.”

“See you later, partner.”

Mindie let him go and watched for a moment as he ascended the stairs. When he was a fair way up, she turned around and strode back towards the building’s entrance. “Wonder what kind of training Mom’s got in store today.”