The first two exams passed by quicker than Parker expected them to. Everyone was already sitting at the lunch table by the time he arrived. “How do you think you did? Keegan’s exam was rough.”

“I’m sure you did fine,” Alexis said optimistically.

“I asked how you did. Don’t worry about mine, I’m sure I passed.”

“Master Keegan told me that I was one of the quickest to finish in any class he’d ever had.”

“Of course you did.” Caleb said shortly. “He told me I did extremely well given my handicap. I hope they get over the idea that this thing is hindering me at all. I feel just like I did before, as long as my feet are on the ground at least. Flying is a bit tricky still but I’ll get there.”

They finished their lunches and made their way to Master Sora’s chambers to meet with him about their quests. When they got there, there was a note on the door that read, “Sorry, we will have to meet another time. Something came up that requires my immediate attention.”

“I wonder what happened,” Hailee said.

“I don’t know, but I’m going to enjoy this hour before our Air Imperial exam.” Caleb turned and walked away down the corridor.

Parker decided to just relax in 23-D until the next exam. Alexis lay in the grass beside him while Hailee and Ana went off to find Caleb.

“Are you ready?” Alexis asked.

“I mean, as ready as I can be I suppose. Oliver was right, you can’t practice for the unknown you just have to react.”

“I suppose so.”

A few of the other students began trickling in, as the exam grew closer. They were trying to figure out what it might be but they couldn’t come up with any legitimate guess.

Master Sora walked into the clearing and the rest of the students filed in behind him. “What’s the exam going to be?” Gerald asked from behind Master Sora.

“Simple, really.” Master Sora said as he took his place in the middle of the students. Once everyone stopped in place he continued talking. “You will work as a class. You either all pass or all fail.”

“What?” Several of them shouted in anger. “That’s not fair!”

“Neither is life. Do you think it’s fair when people get attacked out of nowhere?” Everyone hushed extremely fast. “Do you think it’s fair when people are laid off of work? Or how about when you lose a loved one?” The room felt like someone had frozen it. No one budged, made a noise or even felt like they could breathe. “Life isn’t always fair. You learn to play the hand you’re dealt and adapt when possible.”

“What do we have to do?” Clara asked.

“One, simple thing. Knock this leaf,” he gestured to the leaf in his hand, “off of my head,” he added as he placed the leaf on his head.

Everyone stared at him like he was stupid. They’d been at this for over two years now and he thought they couldn’t knock a leaf off his head?

“You’ll have exactly five minutes to do it, starting now.” Three students rushed him to get it done as quickly as possible, but they were all blown away into the trees. Parker ran for cover in the woods followed closely by Alexis, Emma, April, and Clara. He saw Gerald, Sam and Oliver run into a different cluster of trees and he could still see Dexter getting up from the ground a bit groggy from the hit he took.

“We need to come up with a plan to take that leaf from him.” Parker spoke like a natural leader. As he said it, two more students rocketed toward Master Sora using their Imperial to travel faster. The master quickly blew the two of them away into the trees on the other side of the clearing.

“Do you think we need to work together as an entire class?” Clara asked after seeing the two get blown away. She brushed her long brown hair out of her eyes.

“My guess is we’re supposed to form small groups among us, maybe the group that completes it gets a reward on top of passing,” Emma said. She sounded optimistic about the potential extra points.

They formulated a plan and split up in the trees. Master Sora hadn’t moved an inch from his spot. Parker sprinted out from the trees and about twenty feet from Master Sora he tripped onto the ground causing Master Sora to laugh. Emma and Clara burst out from the trees and sprinted at him screaming. Alexis and April approached quietly from behind.

Master Sora thrust his hand forward and a burst of air knocked Emma and Clara to the ground. He spun in place, keeping the leaf on his head somehow and blew Alexis and April back to the tree line. Parker tried to sneak up from his spot but was caught quickly and sent flying into the canopy.

Out of nowhere there was a flash, and the leaf was gone. Master Sora started clapping as the trio of boys appeared from the trees. “What strategy did you use?” the master asked.

Everyone gathered around to hear their answer. “We took a move out Parker’s playbook.” Parker gave a confused look. “We remembered what he did during an Aether game to score a goal, so we tried that but used Oliver as the ball instead.”

“Well, done. That was very clever, and I love to hear that you took something you saw someone else did and then applied it to a different scenario.” The class burst out in cheers and applause both for the fact that their group had done it but even more to the fact that it meant everyone passed.

“But, like half the class didn’t do anything at all!” Oliver complained, bothered by the fact that only two groups had attempted to knock the leaf off.

Master Sora gestured for everyone to take a seat around him. Once everyone was seated and looking at him, he started to explain why everyone passed. “An important lesson to remember is that in the real world, you will be forced to work alongside others, whether you like them or not and you will receive the same rewards and benefits as those who did nothing.”

“Why is that important to remember?” Clara asked.

“Because, you must know that you get out of life what you put in. Those that worked together to get the leaf and attempted it, take away more from this exam than those who did nothing and let others do their work for them.” Everyone nodded their heads making sense of Master Sora’s words. “Now, prepare yourselves for your next exams, I’ll see you tonight at the Aether match.”

Everyone made their way out of 23-D to prepare themselves for their last exam. Parker and Alexis practiced against each other while Ana practiced against Caleb.

The exam came and went. Parker walked to the field alongside Alexis, Ana and Emma. When they got there, the rest of the team was on the field ready to go. The House of Kenna team was still getting there and the stands were filling slowly.

“Ready?” Clay asked clapping Parker on the shoulder.

“Of course!”

“Okay,” Cassidy said trying to get the team ready to go. “We’ve got this. The House of Kenna is tough but let’s beat them right out of the gate, so they have to play catch up.” Everyone nodded their heads in agreement.

“Clay and I will start strong and make sure that you, Alexis and Ana get through with no problems.” Parker high fived Clay and turned his attention back to the huddle.

“Finn and I will make sure that Emma doesn’t even have to worry about saving the ball,” Claire said giving Emma a high five.

As they broke apart to take their positions, Cassidy grabbed Emma. Parker was just close enough that he could overhear what they were saying.

“Cassidy, I’m going to let everyone down!”

“No, you won’t,” Cassidy shot back. “Evelyn would be proud of how much you’ve improved.”

“But I’m nowhere near as good of a goalie as she was…”

Parker walked up to her and put his arm around her shoulders. “You’re going to do great. Our whole house believes in you. Just play your heart out!”

Cassidy approached the center line across from Marianna Spiros. The tension in the air was thick enough to cut with a knife. Master Terra approached to begin the game. He raised his hand in the air and blew the whistle.

Marianna barreled through Cassidy with the ball and made a break for the goal. Her attackers followed closely behind her clearing a path to the goal. Finn raised his hands and split the fire blast down the middle giving him a gap to burst through. He used the air to throw his body hard at Marianna knocking her to the ground with a hard thud. It took her a moment to get up but by the time she had Claire had kicked the ball out to Alexis who took off down the field with it.

Hugging the outside wall of the field made for a longer track to the goal but it also guaranteed they couldn’t come from that side of her. When she reached the center line she paused to figure out where everyone was. Clay ran up next to her to help give her cover as she moved forward. Cassidy and Ana closed in as well to give support.

The two blockers gave her a wide berth before closing in to get the ball. Before they could get close enough to do any harm Clay had blown them off of their feet. Alexis ran forward with the ball and began passing it back and forth with Cassidy and Ana. The speed that they started to pass the ball with made it hard for the spectators to keep track of who had it.

When they made it to the goal Marianna and the goalie were standing in their way. However, right as Ana took a shot on the goal Marianna went spiraling out of the way as Parker closed in from the side.

“Where have you been?” Alexis asked as she ran up alongside him with a glowing white light in front of them signaling their goal.

“Sorry, was trying to think of a good strategy to use based on what they did off the start.”

“Anything you wanna share?”

“Not yet. I’ll keep thinking.”

The whistle rang and Marianna took off with the ball again. She took a longer path than normal, which threw Finn and Claire off. They had to recover quickly and lucky for them they could use the air as an aid. Marianna took a shot at the goal but a blast of air knocked the ball along that outer wall of the field along with one of their shooters. Finn cringed when he heard the shooter hit the wall and fall into the ring of water.

“Sorry,” he said as he ran by him chasing after the ball. The boy wasn’t moving too quickly but Master Terra wasn’t making a move for him so he must’ve been okay.

Claire blasted the ball to Ana who took off toward the center of the field. She threw the ball to Cassidy who lobbed it through the air to Alexis. As soon as she crossed the middle of the field she was met with a wide arc of flames that stopped just before it hit her in the face. Parker came flying through, literally. He landed several feet to Alexis’s side as the other shooters caught up and made their way to the goal.

The blockers went after her full force, which only made Parker mad. He sent a tornado speeding at them that made them run in the other direction. Alexis held on tight and did a spinning motion opposite to that of the tornado to keep her momentum moving forward. When the center of castle beamed white, the tornado sputtered out.

Both teams huddled up before making their way back to the center line. “What do we need to do to end this here?” Cassidy asked.

“I think what we’ve been doing is working out pretty well, wouldn’t you?” Clay asked.

“I mean yeah, but they’ve got nothing to lose here. They have to score otherwise it’s over for them, so we need to be ready.” Cassidy stood firm with her arms crossed looking to each of her teammates.

“Marianna is the only one taking the ball down the field. She hasn’t even let the other shooters touch it yet. So, I say we take her out right away and keep an eye on the attackers.” Parker seemed pretty sure that his idea would work. He hadn’t seen either of the other shooters before so they had to be new to Aether, even if they were older. Experience means a lot in this sport, no matter how good you are with your Imperial.

“I like it,” Cassidy said putting her hand out in the middle. Everyone stacked theirs on top of hers. “Break!” They all cheered taking their positions on the field.

The whistle blew and Cassidy stepped to the side knowing that Marianna was going to burst forward. Not having the normal body to run into Marianna stumbled forward a bit confused as she made her way to the goal. Finn and Claire reacted quickly blowing Marianna into the center column of the castle knocking her out. The two other shooters froze, not sure what to do.

Finn turned and quickly took out one of the attackers and sent the ball flying to Ana. She took off toward Alexis who covered her from the front. As they ran forward, Cassidy closed in behind as Parker and Clay covered her sides. Alexis jumped to the side as they got to the goal. Parker and Clay sent the blockers soaring to the sides and Ana sent the ball as hard as she could into the goal. The castle glowed white and an eruption of cheers came from above. The team ran and hugged each other and fans started to swarm the field. The House of Kenna made their way out with their heads down. Marianna was carried out on a stretcher still unconscious.

The common room was too loud to hold a conversation. Parker immediately wanted to disappear. He loved playing Aether and the feeling it gave him but having to go through this each time they won got old faster than he expected. Even without having classes the next day he didn’t want to spend his evening in awkward silence while everyone else screamed at the top of their lungs.

He snuck out to the balcony and flew up to the roof where he could have some quiet. Sitting on the edge with his feet dangling over gave him a tiny bit of an adrenaline rush while still feeling safe at the same time. The stars glowed above in the sky like a billion fireflies stuck in the atmosphere. He could still hear the cheering from the common room but it wasn’t nearly as bad on the roof where the roar of the waterfall drowned it out some.

Parker couldn’t believe that after only two years the waterfall seemed almost silent to him. They spent so much time around it that it felt like it wasn’t even there at times. He closed his eyes for a bit, taking in the feeling of being on the edge of the world and the breeze rippling across his body. After what felt like hours, he felt a presence appear next to him. It took him a minute before he decided to open his eyes. It never seemed to end well when he did open his eyes being that Lara liked to just appear from time to time.

When he turned to see whom it was, he smiled. Alexis was sitting next to him still in her Aether uniform. He didn’t know why, but he found her to be prettier than ever at that moment. His heart started to race when she looked at him and smiled. They looked at each other but didn’t say anything. They didn’t need to. Parker leaned forward and kissed her.

Parker felt like fireworks were going off inside his body. He hoped that she felt the same way. After a moment he knew she must have because she hadn’t screamed and run off. He leaned back and looked at her again. Her beauty seemed to intensify within mere seconds. The moonlight reflecting off of her long blonde hair and illuminating her dazzling blues eyes.

Neither of them said any words to each other the rest of the night. They simply sat on the edge of the castle holding hands and looking at the stars. Hours passed by as the moon made its way across the sky. The common room had settled down to a dull mutter. No one had come looking for them which Parker couldn’t decide was a good or bad thing.

He squeezed her hand and motioned to the balcony. It was time to go in and go to bed. He didn’t know how he’d be able to sleep at this point. After everything that happened his heart was still racing. His stomach was still bouncing all over the place and he couldn’t stop smiling.