Outside of the school, Bridget and Lauren practiced their magic together out on the fields. Bridget had brought her spellbook and tried to read them all out loud while sitting on a large rock in the schoolyard. Lauren copied the enchantments to make the magic come out of her wand. Bridget had little problem with using her wand to cast out random types of spells; however, Lauren wasn’t as lucky.

Bridget had already meshed up her book and sphere together after she got the assignment and made the words in the book readable; Lauren, on the other hand, still had a hard time pronouncing some phrases out loud and enchanting them, even with Bridget’s guidance and help.

Bridget herself got a bit puzzled by this. They didn’t seem to be that hard for her, so why is her friend having trouble casting certain spells? Is she not good at twisters and speaking in different languages, even in her head? There had to be another way.

“Hey Lauren, is there something wrong? You haven’t been doing well since we started practicing.” Bridget mentioned, tilting her head.

“I’m not sure. Maybe I’m just having an off day?” Lauren murmured and shrugged without moving her gaze from the book’s pages.

Hopefully, that’s the case; Bridget thought to herself as she observed her friend’s expression.

In the distance, Glenda and Clause ran out of the school as fast as they could without breaking their necks running down the steps. They both knew they had to hurry and not waste any more time, for if what Clause said was true, then there could be more trouble than even the two of them were expecting.

“Hey, are you bothering us?” Lauren turned abruptly to face Sebastian, who had been watching them from nearby. “Were you the one distracting us from our duties?”

“What?” Sebastian asked, startled by the accusation. “But I just got here!”

Lauren glimpsed at Clause and Glenda running toward them out of the corner of her eye. Sebastian didn’t seem that unusual anymore. She stepped into their path to draw their attention.

“Grandmaster Glenda? What's the matter?” Lauren asked, giving her words the best attempt at the concern that she could muster.

“Oh, Sebastian, what perfect timing!” Glenda exclaimed as she saw Sebastian standing behind Lauren. She walked around Lauren without even acknowledging her presence. Blood rushed to Lauren's face in anger.

“Can you come with us for a moment?” Glenda asked as she held Sebastian’s shoulders tightly.

“But why?” Sebastian inquired with a genuine look of concern.

“Think of it as another part of your assignment.” Glenda tried to calm his fears by downplaying their urgency, but he was not buying the act.

“Hmm, I don’t know,” Sebastian muttered while turning away, but Glenda still heard it.

“Please, Sebastian, this is crucial, and you’re the only one I can count on for this.” Glenda pleaded with him as she clasped her hands and bowed her head to express her desperation even further.

“Well, if you say so.” He replied hesitantly. Sebastian was still not 100% confident that this was a good idea, but if his teacher needed him that badly, he felt compelled to help.

“Excellent, let us leave posthaste!” Glenda smiled and patted him on the arm. She turned toward Clause and nodded.

“Hey, what about us?” Lauren stepped up and motioned toward Bridget.

“You stay here and continue to practice your magic spells,” Glenda replied as she turned to walk away.

Sebastian couldn’t help but smile at Lauren as he followed close behind. It wasn’t every day that he could show off in front of Lauren, and it felt remarkably good.

“What?”

“We won’t take long; we promise,” Glenda called out over her shoulder as the three walked hurriedly toward the edge of the parking lot together. Unbeknownst to Sebastian, they had to find the Howler Coaster that had shown up once more.

“Hey, let’s go follow them to see what exactly they’re doing. We can continue practicing later” Lauren leaned over to Bridget and whispered.

Bridget looked up from her book, and directly into her friend’s eyes, and crossed her arms. “Lauren, you heard her! We got to stay here!”

There was no convincing her today. Like she was going to stand idly by while those three had all the adventures.