The days before the midterm examinations dwindled like a flickering candle caught in a high wind. One moment they were receiving lectures from the teachers on the importance of studying, and the next, they were congregating in various sections of the school (mainly the Library) trying to get some last-minute cramming done before their very first exam. It seemed unbelievably cruel that a course with as much reading material as Criminal Justice would be the very first on the list, but in some ways Alec was glad he was clearing it off his schedule so early. Pass or fail, he had done as much as he could. Only the results could say if it had been enough.

Three hours later, the first years set off towards their allotted test areas, under the watchful eyes of the vigilators assigned to make sure all rules were upheld. While Professor Scott, a stern-looking woman who had introduced herself as a fourth-year teacher, patrolled through the aisles like a menacing hawk, Alec scribbled away on his paper.

He had employed some of his usual methods of preparation for this test: flash cards, mnemonics, group study sessions, and for the most part it was paying off. Of the forty questions they had received, he was mercifully surprised to see that he could handle most. The ones he couldn't he marked an asterisk beside, indicating he should return later. Then after some deliberation, he circled the answers that seemed most likely to him. For the ones that neither his memory nor common sense could help, he simply picked an answer. Dusty had once told him that for the trickiest of multiple choice questions, the answer was almost always C. He had never heeded this advice before, but desperate times called for desperate measures.

"Time is up. Please stop working and put your pencils down," said Professor Scott's crisp voice. Alec laid his paper and pencil on the desk, glad he had finished but knowing full well that he hadn't received full marks, and somehow he was perfectly at peace with that.

While Professor Scott swept around collecting papers, some students covertly tried to circle the answers they had not yet gotten to. When all papers were in her hands, she stood to the front once more, eyes passing slowly and blatantly onto each student. If Alec had to guess, she was taking note of the faces she was wondering if she would see again in fourth year.

"You may leave for lunch. Row 1 first please."

Row by row the students rose and flowed through the door, streaming out onto the corridors. Somehow the sunlight felt warmer on his skin as Alec basked in the midday glow. One down.

He met up with Javon, Maddison, Ethan, the twins, and Charlie and Reya in the lunch room. Presumably because the teachers understood the importance of the study groups and knew that they were formed from all three Dorms, they had removed the elaborate table cloths depicting the distinguishing marks of each Dorm from the enormous round tables, allowing the students to mix and mingle as they had lunch.

"And what was the answer for number 30?" Charlie was asking desperately. "The reason the Bureau of Superhuman Affairs implemented the Brother's Welfare Act was because Blue Resonator killed his brother in 1929, right?"

"Actually, that Act was put into place because the brother of a superhero named Sunvine Archer was killed during a supervillain invasion of the Bureau's headquarters in 1836. The Bureau decided he was liable for recompense since his brother was an innocent civilian, and implemented the Act so that any immediate family of registered superhumans who died as collateral would receive compensation. Not that money can make up for a lost sibling," Reya said.

Charlie groaned and slammed his head onto the table. "Fifteen. That's fifteen questions I know I messed up on."

"Fifteen that you know so far," Ethan corrected, in what he clearly thought was a helpful tone.

"Thank you, that's so much more reassuring." Charlie's voice dripped sarcasm, but Ethan merely smiled.

"Cheer up, you still have Paper II to make up for it," said Katrina.

"Unless he messes that up too," Anthony pointed out. Katrina smacked him upside the head.

"How about you?" Alec asked Maddison. "How do you think you did?"

"I'm sure of at least 38 out of 40," she said casually. Her fork froze halfway to her mouth as she noticed everyone staring at her. "What?"

"How do you know that?" Javon asked.

"Because I worked through the past papers in the Library." Maddison spoke the words as though this was obvious. Judging by the reaction, she clearly realized it was not. "Some of the questions are just rehashed versions from old tests. A lot of teachers, mundane or superhero, don't actually take the time to come up with new questions. Wait, you didn't know that?" She looked stunned as they shook their heads.

"Son of a bitch," Anthony whispered, a far away look in his bright lilac eyes.

With Criminal Justice Paper I crossed off their dockets, that evening the first years made their way to the classrooms specified on their timetables for Health. The test was more or less the same as what Alec had expected, merely asking for diagrams to be labelled, matching symptoms with their appropriate conditions, prescriptions to be proffered to deal with certain illnesses, and the like. All in all, it was a very manageable exam (Alec had learned long ago to never classify any test as "easy"). Nurse Alloway was a strange woman in many ways, especially her unsettling purple eyes, but no one could say she wasn't a competent teacher.

With so few subjects on their schedules, the exams were spread out more widely to allow ample preparation time, which Alec appreciated. Given how many students were banging their heads against walls as the tests went by, he could only imagine how much worse it would have been if they had had to do more than two per day, or Heaven forbid, if they had started the essay style papers.

On Wednesday came Clothing and Textiles, easily Alec's worst subject. He knew perfectly well the need to know about the different types of materials available to them, how to weave in those strange additives that made them denser, flame retardant, more damage resistant, and every other kind of trick superhero costumes came with, as those things were necessary for a Hero in the field, but it wasn't something he had to enjoy. However, he cheered up immensely during his evening exam, Weapons and Equipment. While he was still undecided about what he wanted to craft for his year-long project, it was still a course he enjoyed and, thankfully, excelled at.

Friday brought with it the storm that was Computer Science. Multiple choice was always thought to be simple, an easy matter of just circling the most likely letter. But Professor Laylor had gone above and beyond at making her test more difficult than any course work they had done in class, none of which were exactly cake walks.

Worse still was Criminal Justice Paper II, which arrived hot on its heels later that evening. The days of multiple choice now fully behind them, they were now charged with the task of drafting lengthy and elaborate essays. The worst part of this was that, in this case, the students were left not regurgitating the actual events that they had read about, but to give their own opinions on the subjects. Whether or not they believed the Heroes in question handled the situation appropriately; what they could have done differently; whether or not the villains were treated unfairly, and what they themselves would have done had they been in that position.

It was the most ridiculously mentally taxing exam they'd done so far. Students had tried desperately to dig into the wells of creativity and ingenuity they possessed to make coherent and reasonable arguments, but unfortunately those wells seemed to have run dry, and nothing but sheer frustration vented up.

The weekend, long revered as a time of rest and relaxation, was as bustling and stressful as any week. The second aspect of Clothing and Textiles brought with it another essay-based theoretical, and practicals were due to begin immediately afterwards. After all of this, it became perfectly clear why Gym was the last on the list. No doubt it would be the hardest of all. Tempers ran high and tears flowed freely as the new week progressed. C&T wasn't as bad as anyone had expected, though still not quite "good," but Weapons and Equipment was something many people had been looking forward to.

The first phase of the test consisted of them assembling a weapon (they were apparently being marked for time and efficiency), trying to pin several fast-moving slabs of human-shaped cardboard, and then disassembling those weapons so as to repeat the process for the next in line. Maddison, who was renowned for her aim among other things, picked off all targets in under two minutes. Javon had a much more difficult time, the timer running out on him with two targets still unscathed.

Ethan, Charlie, and Reya had been instructed to go to another room, so Alec how no clue how any of them or the other students they were with did, but he was confident he himself had done well. His assembly had taken a few minutes longer than he would have liked and his work was quite clumsy, but at the very least he managed to ace all his targets, even though some of them required more than one shot, which he would undoubtedly be marked down for. But he didn't much care about that. What he was really looking forward to was the vehicle aspect of the test.

Though the students were split up in three different groups in an effort to go as swiftly as possible, Alec still had a lengthy wait before the "M" surnames were reached and he could start. This time, instead of classrooms, the W&E students were taken to the beach, the forest, and the top of the school where Hartley's helicopter had first touched down with Alec those three months ago. As his name was called, Alec sidled up to the Zetacycle (truthfully the one he had been hoping he would receive, as it was the one he liked most and he couldn't balance to save his life on the Zetaboard). He waited for the starting whistle, then as it pierced his ears, he kicked off, stirring up a cloud of sand.

How they had done it, Alec hadn't known, but in a school of over a thousand superpowered beings, it wasn't that hard to imagine. Dozens of towering metallic structures loomed ahead of them on the water, in varying shapes, sizes, and proximity to one another. They could see similar objects protruding from the side of the school, where the second batch was, and also near the forest. Their objective was to simply take to the air, go beyond the obstacles, then turn back once they reached the borders and on their way back, pass through the obstacle course.

Though several students had tumbled off their vehicles and into the water (mostly those who had been given the misfortune of riding the Zetaboard), and others with worse luck had collided with the obstacles (which were reportedly softer than they looked, though still quite firm), Alec remained upright the entire time, zipping through the air with the wind blowing wildly through his hair. He could smell the salty sea sprays around him, see the water's surface rippling as the high-speed vehicles zipped across. Then once he reached the border he whirled around, careening gracefully through the obstacle course and zooming to a neat halt near the watching students. It would be extremely egotistical to say he had completely aced the test, but at the very least, perhaps an 8 out of 10, he thought with a smile.

Computer Science, to no one's surprise, was by contrast extraordinarily difficult. Even with three and a half hours available to them, the vast majority of the class cut it quite close in cracking their code. Knowing perfectly well that this was a truly weak area for him, Alec had spent most of the weekend and the days in between tests extensively going through his notes on cyphers, and it was this, perhaps, that allowed him to finally crack the code, find the hidden exercise, and extract the data he needed to complete the test.

It was sloppy work, and Professor Laylor would no doubt have reprimanded him had she seen the many mistakes he had made, but in the end he got there and that was all that mattered to him. Slowly but surely they ticked away all the boxes, until finally, the simultaneously most dreaded and anticipated day had arrived: Gym.

Alec's training schedule had taken a severe dent due to the time going over notes, but they had been given another minor break in between, this time two days, and he decided to use it pushing himself as far as he believed it wise to go. After hours at a time he would return to his room, drenched in sweat and sore in many places, but he would rather have a few bruises and aching muscles now than fail later. And he did in fact have many bruises.

Maddison was an excellent sparring partner, being a fierce hand-to-hand combatant, but the downside to that was the very thing that made it beneficial: she was too good, and consequently Alec became intimately familiar with the floor due to the many times she slammed him onto it.

However, when the upcoming Monday arrived, he was confident that he was ready. Or as ready as he would ever be as he headed towards the room his timetable had indicated. The auditorium, a place large enough to hold the entire school population, and which, it seemed, every first year student was headed towards, rather than separate rooms as before. Whether this was a good thing or a bad thing, Alec couldn't tell. All he knew was that, by the end of the day, he had a hunch that the Medical Wing would be packed.