Life is a play. You can choose to participate in the creation of its comedies or tragedies but, in the bitter end, you will exit the stage and new stars will come and go all the same. A life of regret is a life of unsung words, unspoken lines, and unshared passion. So, whatever it is that us humans are meant to do, we must do it with unmatchable fervor and unquenchable desire, greedy hands outstretched into tomorrow and leaving the unchanging transgressions of yesterday behind us.

“This speech is going to be the death of me. All I can do is wax poetics,”I wanted to tear my hair out or stab my pen into the wall,”The boss is going to kill me if I can’t deliver.”

Michael, my overgrown roommate, offered his words of semi-drunk wisdom,”It’s fine. It’s all very you, you know? Overdramatic, too much description, not enough point. It’s endearing.”

“You come into my room, drink my beer, and then insult me?”I pushed his leg with my foot,”I should make you write this.”

There was a mischievous giggle,”Okay. I’ll do it and then you can get drunk instead. See how that goes. Being the wise drunk is a talent, Hal.”

“Shut up and hand me a beer,”I pushed the papers to the other side of the desk, ready to toss all of them,”I’m way too sober for any of this right now.”

“No can do,”he said,”All gone.”

“You’re lucky I tolerate you,”I got up and grabbed his bottle of rum from the fridge, pouring myself a glass. When I came back, he was reading the papers,”Oi, who said you could read it yet?”

“It’s a bit sappy but not bad,”he put them back down,”Open with it, have some notecards with key points, and just talk to them like normal people. They’re just teenagers, man.”

He was forced out of my seat and back onto the bed,”Traumatized teenagers with unique abilities. Half of them won’t listen if they don’t like the way your face looks!”

“That was us, wasn’t it?”he giggled,”Eggman.”

“Don’t remind me of that!”

Just when I almost tossed a pen at him, my phone went off. Our boss had sent me a text message.

| Boss Man: second floor, room 207

| Boss Man: take jace with you :P

I groaned,"Another gate and he wants me to drag the new guy with me."

"Who's the new guy?"Michael asked.

"Jace. He's a few doors down and asks too many questions,"I shoved my phone into my pocket,"You want to tag along?"

"Might as well."

I knocked on Jace's door and waited, listening to the sound of glass shattering on the other side. His roommate opened the door looking hungover as hell,"Yeah?"

"Can you get Jace? He overslept and we've gotta go now,"I said.

His roommate nodded,"One second."

The door closed and there was yelling. The sound of sweeping and glass could be heard on the other side and, within two minutes, Jace was walking out looking exhausted,"Sorry, my phone was dead."

"It's fine,"I said,"The boss asked me to drag you along for a dive."

"Snap. Okay, where is it?"he asked, trying to fix his bedhead with his hands. Turns out you can't force a cowlick to do what you want without a brush, hair gel, and consistent effort, though.

We started walking towards the stairwell,"Second floor. Room 207."

"How does he know what room?"Jace was creeped out and I didn’t blame him.

“Some vision nonsense. He’s one of Mr. Time’s favorites so he got a special ability,”Michael said,”Absolutely unfair, if you ask me.”

“Anyways, I might have had a drink right before this,”I bobbed my head back and forth,”So, you’re the anchor this time. I know you can do it, I believe in you as your mentor.”

Jace sighed,”This is going to be the roughest dive ever.”

A reassuring pat on the back was all I offered as we made our way to room 207,”The first time is always rough. You just have to get it over with.”

The nameplate for room 207 had the names Julia Smith and Iria Morales on it. Jace froze when he saw it, pivoting to stop us from getting any closer,”You didn’t tell me we were going to my sister’s room.”

“You have a sister?”Michael asked.

He nodded,”We’re twins. Anyways, that’s beside the point: Why?”

“Because someone in there is neck deep in Dogmata,”I explained,”If it’s not your sister, then she’s in danger of having her life force sapped away.”

With a groan, he turned and knocked on the door. The girl who answered smelled like bleach and had her hair wrapped in layers of tinfoil,”You need something?”

He froze, unsure of what to say, so I stepped in,”Is Iria here? One of the teachers wanted to see her. Something about lost papers.”

She nodded,"I'll get her real quick. You guys can come in and take a seat. Sorry about the smell, I'm in the middle of bleaching my hair."

"That's no problem,"Michael said,"Thank you so much for not having us wait outside."

"It's no big deal. Anyone who is a friend of Jace is a friend of mine,"she said. We both looked back at him, and his face was cherry red.

We all came in and sat down while Julia washed her hands off before touching anything. Jace leaned in and whispered,”How are we going to pull this off?”