The rest of the week seemed to fly by as they attended their classes and spent their evenings working on homework. Their dueling sessions were going splendidly, Omni class went off without a hitch. Both Parker and Alexis were sitting out of Aether for the year so that gave them a spare bit of free time but most of that was taken up by private sessions with Master Sora.

"How do you like dueling so far?" Hailee asked the group at breakfast.

"I don't mind it too much but with our Omni class being right before we're pretty exhausted come duel time on top of have to continue our lesson." Alexis's sounded exhausted just talking about it.

"I really like the dueling but I agree, I wish we didn't have Omni right before." Parker dropped his voice to make sure that no one around them could hear. Hailee turned to Caleb to get his opinion on the matter but he was staring across the dining hall at another table.

"Hello... earth to Caleb... did you hear me?" She shook his shoulder snapping him back to reality.

"Wha—?"

"I asked how you like dueling so far, but now I'm much more interested in what you were staring at."

Caleb blushed a little before saying, "I just spaced out."

"Uh-huh, sure you were—" a sly grin grew on her face as she said it. "That's fine. If you don't want to tell us that's up to you but I know you'll break eventually. Anyways, how do you like dueling?"

"I don't mind it. It should definitely get more interesting when we face against the other houses."

The rest of the morning flew by and before they knew it they were back in The Regale for lunch sitting at the same table. The topic of conversation had switched to the lack of first years.

"I still can't believe that there are no first years," Hailee said. They all knew that she was in fact sad that there were no first year but she was also sad because she didn't get to bring them in like she had the previous year.

"Yeah, I thought that the masters might go searching a little more in hopes of finding at least a few to come but they've been so busy with classes I can't imagine that they have much free time to do something like that." Caleb sounded as though he wished the masters would try to search a little more. Parker got the feeling that Caleb didn't want to be the low group on the totem pole still.

Their conversation carried on for a while covering a variety of subjects. Caleb drifted off again just as he had at breakfast. Hailee caught a glimpse of it but didn't say anything. She nudged Parker to take a look at Caleb. He tried to follow Caleb's line of sight to get an idea of what he was looking at. All he could see was a table of Water Imperials and the only one he recognized was Eliott.

"Caleb, what are you staring at?" Parker asked but Caleb didn't acknowledge any hint of a question. Parker grabbed his arm out from under his chin causing his head to fall a few inches making him jump. "Dude, what's got you so starry eyed." Caleb still didn't answer him. Parker stood up and said, "I guess I'll just go over to that table and ask what is so interesting."

As he was walking away Caleb grabbed him by the wrist. "Don't do that! Please." Parker smirked before turning back around; he knew he had won.

"Why not? Something must be extremely interesting if it's grabbed your attention across two meals."

"Fine, you win. I'm look at Julie." Everyone turned their heads to look at the table of Water Imperials. "Don't everyone look at once!" Caleb sort of scream whispered the demand at them.

They each took a turn looking over but couldn't decide who this Julie girl he mentioned was. There were three girls at the table and it was a little ways away so no one could recognize them. Parker only knew that Eliott was there because of his hair. He was the only guy that Parker knew who had long, straight black hair to his shoulders.

"Which one is Julie?" Alexis asked. "Wait! Is Julie the girl we ran into on the stairs last week? And the girl from the library?" Caleb nodded his head with rosy cheeks. "When did you learn her name?"

"I asked Eliott after class one day. He knew exactly who I was talking about. Apparently she's a third year and the smallest third year in the whole school. She gets teased about her size all the time. He mentioned that he'd introduce me to her but I told him not yet."

"What? Why?" Alexis was a little shocked that he shied away but not too shocked.

"I don't know... I guess I'm just too nervous of a person. I wouldn't even know what to say."

Parker chimed in, "She's not that short."

"Really? That's the input you have?" Alexis smacked his arm.

"What? I mean she's the same height you are Caleb."

"Yeah but I'm like a head shorter than all of you and we're a year younger than her. That's another reason I'm nervous; she's an upperclassman."

"I still think my first suggestion works perfectly." Parker said thinking back to the staircase a week ago. "Hi, I'm Caleb. I think you're stunning?"

"I'm not going to say that. You should know me well enough by now."

"Fine. Fine, but I still think that you should take Eliott up on his offer. Maybe having him there will make it easier. I'd even be willing to volunteer myself to tag along to help ease your mind." He finished his sentence with a sly grin on his face as though he wanted to be there for it if it happened but not for Caleb's benefit, just his own amusement.

They continued discussing different things that Caleb could say to Julie if or when he meets her. The rest of The Regale looked like it did every day at lunch. Students sat talking at their tables finishing their Element Bars. The masters sat at the head table talking about whatever it was they talked about.

No one noticed the small girl with long brown hair walk through The Regale straight to the head table. It took the masters a moment to realize that someone was standing in front of them. Master Sora leaned forward and asked, "How may I help you Dear?"

"Is this Lancastre Academy? I assume so since that's what the wall said outside." As she said this Master Sora realized that she wasn't wearing robes or even the house clothes that each student had.

"Please, come this way," he said gesturing for her to follow him out of The Regale. The master led her through the tables and out of the room. Parker noticed him walk by with the girl but didn't think anything of it. There were hundreds of students at Lancastre that he didn't know.

The rest of the day went by just as every other day did. When Parker was heading back to The House of Erion common room he was talking to Caleb about his homework. Alexis and Hailee followed behind them talking about how the tournaments worked once they faced the other houses.

Master Sora walked up next to them with the small girl Parker had seen him leave the dining hall with. He noticed that the girl was now wearing white robes just like his. "Hi Master Sora. Who's this? I don't recognize her."

"This is our only first year student, Ana Rey." She smiled at the four of them but didn't say anything.

"She came here all on her own?" Alexis asked.

"Yes she did, and she's very advanced. I'm going to have her join your Imperial class tomorrow and see how she does. I think you'll all be very impressed. For now though, will you walk her through the basics of the school day so she's ready to go for tomorrow?"

"Sure! We'd love to help out!" Hailee and Alexis practically yelled it at the two of them. The new girl withdrew a little. Parker noticed immediately and realized that she was a lot like Caleb had been the previous year.

They led her to the entrance and demonstrated how they get into The House of Erion common room. Caleb went up first followed by Hailee. "Now you give it a try," Alexis said. Ana walked under the hole in the ceiling and quickly spun. Parker watched as he shining brown hair whipped out around her. The white robes seemed to glow brighter than normal next to her dark tan skin. The air kicked up around her and lifted her to the hole in the ceiling.

"I can't believe that she can already do that," Parker said.

"Maybe she comes from a family of Air Imperials?" Alexis asked.

Parker shrugged and zipped up to the common room. Alexis popped up quickly behind him and everyone was waiting by the fire. "Where do we even begin to describe everything?" Hailee asked.

"This place is amazing!" Alexis blurted. "Everything about it! Even the homework is awesome!"

"All right... I don't know about that..." Parker said.

"How about you tell us a little bit about yourself first. Then we can discuss Lancastre." Alexis seemed very keen to learn something about the new girl.

"Well, my name's Ana," they could barely hear her she spoke so quietly. "I'm from Brazil..."

"You're from Brazil?" Alexis asked a little louder than she intended. Ana flinched at her reaction. "But you don't have an accent or anything!"

"We moved to California when I was two."

"So wait, how'd you get here?" Parker asked bewildered by her presence.

"My parents both were members of The House of Erion. They took me to our subway station for me to come this year but it wasn't working. The entrance had been blocked off completely. Once we saw that, they drove me north to where they knew the school was. Obviously they didn't drive up the mountain but they dropped me relatively near the base. Then I found my own way up here. Luckily they've been training me since I was four. That helped a lot with making it up the side of the mountain. Flying is much, much easier than climbing."

The four of them stared at her as she recalled her journey to the school. "Well, you at least have a bit of a head start knowing how to control your Imperial. You'll do fine in both of the Imperial classes. I bet you join us just fine and could even join our other classes as well. We would just have to help you catch up to where we are currently." Alexis seemed sure of her ability from the tiny bit she had already seen.

They walked her through the average day at Lancastre Academy. After finishing their walkthrough, Alexis and Hailee led her to the girl's dormitory. The boys made their way to their room without saying a word.

As Parker got ready for bed Caleb tapped him on the shoulder. "What do you think of Ana?"

"She seems really nice, why?"

"No reason, just curious." Caleb said it with a sheepish tone to his voice.

"Caleb? Is there something you'd like to tell me?" Parker tried to goad the answer out him. "Are you trying to say that you think she's cute? Because she is definitely cute."

"I feel awful! I just spent breakfast and lunch looking at Julie because I think she's super pretty and now here's Ana..."

"Caleb... it's okay to think that two different girls are cute. That's not a crime you know, right?" Caleb nodded. "Then don't feel guilty about it."

They crawled into bed and called it a night. Parker stared out of the window by his bed thoughts racing. They ended on Ana, how pretty he thought she was and how interested he was in her story.