- Michael -

I woke up to the comfort of my bed, groggy from a long night of sleep.

I had a huge headache yesterday from undersleep and spent the whole afternoon in mortal combat with my body telling me to hit the sheets at seven o’clock. Once you mess up your sleep schedule, it’s a pain in the ass to fix it. Heck, I could even be a buddist monk with how well I tolerated sleep deprivation.

Stretching my back, I eventually convinced myself to leave the comfort of my blanket and get up to prepare for school. I stepped out into the hall and waddled to the bathroom, only to try the knob and find it locked.

Julia huh? I turned and went to the kitchen, grabbing a glass of water and sitting down. I sat there sipping the water while waiting for her to finish up. After what seemed like an hour, Julia exited the bathroom and sat down across from me.

“What takes you so long every morning?” I complained.

“It’s available now isn’t it?” She responded.

I sighed and got up to brush my teeth. After returning to the kitchen, I noticed that we still had an hour before we left for school. Well, last night I only held out for a few hours before passing out so it’s no surprise I woke up earlier than normal.

I opened the fridge and grabbed some eggs, tomatoes, and various other ingredients for breakfast, setting a pan on the stove. After cutting the tomatoes, I grabbed some fish sauce from the shelf and began stirring the ingredients.

“You’re making that with fish sauce?”

“Yeah. It’s Vietnamese.”

“Ugh, last time you made them like that, they were way too salty.”

“The last time I cooked this for you was like four months ago.” I poured the mixture into the pan and it created a satisfying sizzle. “I’ve gotten a lot better at this recipe.”

“Yeah, we’ll see” She quipped.

The room was silent while I tilted and turned the pan, pulling the egg from the edges to the center. When it was finished, I sliced it into four pieces and brought two plates to the table.

“Tada! Scrambled eggs with tomato, with baked bacon on the side!”

“These don’t look very scrambled. And is there any other way to cook bacon than frying it?”

“Oh come on, just give it a taste.”

She looked at the slices of egg that had sundry ingredients mixed in, making it look more like an egg pizza, and hesitantly took a bite from them. Her eyes widened in surprise as she slowly chewed the chunk of food.

“Good right? The combination of tomatoes with the salty eggs makes the flavor much more rich.”

“Well… they’re not… bad.” She said through each chew.

“Just admit it’s good. You're not very convincing when you're stuffing your mouth with the ‘not bad’ food.”

She swallowed her food and glared at me, before sticking her fork into one of my slices.

“Hey!”

“This is punishment.” She said, sticking the whole thing in her mouth. “Fo mahing fuh of meh.”

“Again, chew the food first…”

I snatched the last piece of egg before she could steal it, and we both quickly gobbled up the rest of the food.

I took the dishes and placed them in the sink, pondering whether I should wash them now or later.

“Hurry up, we gotta go!” Julia exclaimed.

I decided against it and ran to my room to put on my uniform. Quickly grabbing my bag, the two of us left with Mary to the school building.

She dropped us off at the curb like always and we walked down the sidewalk till we reached the gate. People milled about and conversed as students were arriving for First Period.

We walked into the courtyard and went to our respective buildings.

“See ya dork.” Julia teased before turning her back. I rolled my eyes and turned towards my destination as well. Walking into the building, I headed towards my First Period with Professor Melwood. This class just goes over the fundamental magical concepts, most of which I already knew, so it was effectively my chill class. What I really dreaded was my Physics class. It’s not that I’m stupid, but it’s so much work to learn all the stuff they pound into you, not to mention the Chemistry portion. I’m a type one mage so I don’t see the merit of attending those classes but I need the credits to pass my freshman year.

I entered the open doorway to the classroom and walked to my seat in the back. There were students gathered in groups and sitting on desks talking to each other while waiting for the professor to arrive. I had hoped to live a quiet highschool life and just breeze through the school year, but of course…

“Howdy!”

… This dude had to be my partner. I chose this seat thinking that it was a nice hidden spot, only to find out that my absent partner was the most talkative guy in the academy. When I asked to change my seat, Melwood informed me that the seats weren’t changing till we pick divisions, which is happening a month from now.

I opened my bag and began taking my tools out. “Morning Creeth.”

“You look less dead today, something happen?”

“No, I just slept well.”

“Heh, got tired of pulling all-nighters playing video games?”

I turned towards Creeth and he quickly patted me on the shoulder. “What am I kidding, you could never get over video games.”

“You make me sound like some kind of good-for-nothing.” I muttered with a frown.

He looked at my quizzically and raised a brow. “You’re not?”

I elbowed him while he chuckled loudly and Professor Melwood arrived through the door.

“Alright class, settle down. Today we will be quickly reviewing the terms of the mock battle and began preparing for the main event taking place tomorrow.”

Huh, what is he talking about?

“I know that face.” Creeth said, pointing at me. “You forgot about the exam, didn’t you?”

“Uhh, yeah.” I stared at him waiting for him to continue.

“Tsk tsk tsk. Even the Prodigy Magus makes mistakes huh? Don’t worry, the ever benevolent Creeth Valant will explain the event-”

“He’s explaining it right now.” I said, focusing back on the professor at the head of the room. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Creeth droop his shoulders in defeat.

“The class will be splitting into two teams of ten. Today, both teams will be building a fortress to guard your dummy core. The engineering mages will deal with blueprinting and precision work, while the others will do the heavy lifting and construction.” He gestured to the screen behind him as it flicked on. “These are the teams. They’ve been organized by me and cannot be negotiated.”

The screen displayed two columns of names, ten in each. I found my name on the list for Team A but couldn’t recognise most of my teammates’ names.

“YES!” A few students cheered, locking arms with other students while others stared at the board and sulked. I was one of the sulkers but it was less about my teammates and more about me having to actually do something in this class.

“Hey man, we’re on the same team!” Creeth beamed. Another boy walked over and did one of those overly long ‘secret’ handshakes with Creeth.

“Seems like we’re all on the same team.” A girl said to the two boys as a few other students walked over. I recognised her as the one who launched a chair at me on the first day of school. I think her name was… Jennith?

“O-oh, hey Jennith. Yeah, looks like it.’ The boy next to Creeth mumbled, quickly averting his gaze.

Oh, I see what’s happening here. Love slowly blooms between classmates as they blush at the simplest of interactions, truly a staple of youth. Well, not like I’d know.

Jennith on the other hand, didn’t even acknowledge the boy’s reaction. Whether she didn’t notice it or is just ignoring it, I couldn’t tell.

“Did you write up the plans for our fortress?” Creeth asked her.

“You bet I did.” She said, placing her projector on the table. A miniature hologram of a castle appeared, with various jutting towers and bunkers connecting to the building. “This is the floor plan I had for the base. This part here…”

She began ranting about the details of the fort, the supports and whatnot. I just kinda zoned out, not really interested in the architectural details.

“-are you listening?”

I came back from my thoughts and found the whole group staring at me. Jennith sat glaring at me from across the table. I must admit, it wasn’t a very good idea to zone out completely when I’m in the center of the group.

“Of course. I was just thinking about your plan and stuff.”

“Oh, do you have something to add?” She said pointedly.

“Well…” I took a quick look at the now weaponized model, fully decked out with tiny ballistas and cannons. I scratched my head looking at the design, “the base could do with some expansion.”

“Expansion? We don’t have enough time to build something of that scale.”

“No, that’s not what I meant. I just thought that some external barriers and bunkers could help. This would distribute the battlefield and waste more of the enemy’s time. Not to mention that it’ll allow for better positioning of our forces and make flanking strategies more viable.”

The whole group stood staring at me after I finished and I fidgeted awkwardly. Did I say something wrong?

“Told you he’s smart.” Creeth remarked. Jennith jabbed him on the shoulder as he laughed, making her even more annoyed.

“Thank you for your advice… Maxwell. We’ll keep that in mind.”

What’s up with people and calling me Maxwell? Besides the first and last letter, they don’t even sound the same.

“Does anyone have any more ideas?” She asked. When there was silence, she continued. “Then that’s that. I’ll smooth over the plans and try implementing mister smartypants’ idea.

You’re the one who asked for my opinion!

The group split up and returned to their seats. I sighed, leaning back in my seat. “What did you tell them, Creeth?”

“Hm? Oh nothing. Just that you were smarter than all of them and that you could beat anyone in a bout.”

I slowly opened my eyes and looked him in the eye, grappling the top of his head. “Why. Would. You. SAY THAT.”

“Oh come on, I was just having a bit of fun! Plus it’s true right?” He replied, with that same smile he always had when teasing me. I let go of his head with another sigh. “I don’t know how you don’t get tired of doing this.”

“I’ll never get tired of teasing you, Michael.” He said, bellowing loudly.

What a truly troublesome person I’ve befriended

The whole class settled down and Professor Melwood returned back behind the lectern. “Now that you’ve gotten your plans together, we’ll commence the creation portion of the assignment immediately. We’ll be taking a transport cell to one of the school’s fields around back.” He turned off the screen and walked to the door. “Follow me.”

As instructed, the students followed behind the professor down the hall, and we soon reached the side of the building that contained a private train station.

“We have our own station? Siiick.” Creeth said, examining the station with amazement. I was equally amazed that the school could afford something like this. It wasn’t like I didn’t know the school had this much money, it just shocked me how much stuff they could get just to teach some high school students.

“A bit overkill don’t you think?” A boy said, walking up beside us.

“What do you mean? This is luxury at its finest. Luxury that I’m planning to indulge in.” Creeth replied. He smiled triumphantly and looked at me.

“Oh yeah, Davis, this is Michael. Michael, this is Davis.” He announced. The guy named Davis peaked at me from under his bangs. “Nice to meet you.”

“Likewise.” I muttered.

“Not a very talkative bunch, you two.” Creeth jeered.

“Shut up,” Davis and I said in unison. We looked at each other and smirked. I’m gonna like this guy.

We boarded the bullet train and took our seats by the back. Creeth was to my left, and next to him was Davis and the boy from earlier, that I learned is named Gregory.

“-and then my dad was like ‘Don’t tell her that!’” Creeth was saying, as the guys laughed. I sat quietly in the corner, attempting to merge with the wall of the train. I used to think that quietly blending into the background was my specialty, but around these guys it was a lot harder. I stared out the window as they chatted in the background hoping that they wouldn’t call attention to me.

After a few minutes, we eventually arrived at the grounds. The students filed out onto the field and as I stepped down from the train, I gaped at the monument standing before me. I try not to get surprised every time I see what this school has in store for me but this was just too vast to ignore. All of my classmates and I stood staring at a vast grassland the size of a football field, contained within a ring of stone sloping upward. It was divided by a long white line, partitioning the large field in half.

“An amphitheater?” I said in amazement.

“A colosseum to be precise.” Professor Melwood said, walking up to me. He looked around and addressed the whole class. “Attention! Each team will be allotted three hours to build their base. All members of your team will contribute to this effort. Of course, the construction process will be hidden from the opposing team.”

Melwood tapped his datacard and a translucent barrier appeared between both halves of the field. The clear sheet of air rippled and hummed as it perpetuated through the air.

“Gather up with your teams. You’ll have five minutes to get situated before we begin. At the end of the sanction, each team will be provided a core that you will place and guard within your fortress. Dismissed!”

Feet shuffled as people gathered up into their groups. Most of our group was already together, so we quickly headed into the field to start the fortification process. I walked in the center of the small group of students and we settled down on the grass, forming a small circle.

“Alright guys, let’s get started.” Jennith said, pulling out her projector. She got up and placed it on the ground in the center of the circle. A small hologram of what looked to be our base appeared and she fidgeted with the device until the hologram grew 5 times larger.

“As you can see, the preparations for the base are complete courtesy of the engineer team. The five of us have a good understanding of the structure, so we’ll be guiding the combat mages during the construction.”

She zoomed in on the center of the hologram. ”I’ll be the head manager and we’ll start with the construction of the main hall, proceeding afterward with the core room. Each combat mage will pair up with an engineering mage. Does anyone have any questions?”

Gregory raised his hand. “Are we picking our own partners?”

“Yep, we’ll have you guys pick in a second. Any others?”

Her question was met with silence. “Then we’ll begin the pairing process. Pick a partner and stand side-by-side”

Wait, we’re doing it like this? Everyone stood up and walked up to each other, pairing up with their friends. I stood watching in horror as the number of potential suitors quickly dropped to all but one person. I looked to see who it was and sighed for the third time today.