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"Oh my god."

"I can't believe..."

"I know, right?"

Fletcher looked at Raven nervously. "And your aunt was seriously going to send you here again?"

Raven stared at the castle in front of her. "Yeah. It's weird, how she found it twice. It's almost impossible."

"This ish some real sketchy shit," Trevor said, a slight lisp to his voice. He was still able to talk, but it was getting harder, since he wasn't taking therapy at the moment.

"Well of course it's sketchy, our friends died here, one of them because she was possessed!" Raven exclaimed.

"Did you bring the rocks?" Teony asked Trevor, signing as much as she could for him. He nodded, taking off his backpack. He zipped open the front pouch and showed them.

Teony turned to Fletcher. "And the notes?" He pulled some small pieces of paper out of his pocket.

"I got the tape," Raven said, spinning the roll on her finger.

Trevor dug his hand through his bag until he settled with a shiny, medium sized rock.

"Perfect," He said.

"Are you sure about this?" Fletcher asked nervously.

"Yes," Raven answered. "We can't let them hurt another round of students. Ashwock... or Pinefield in this case... is dangerous. Really dangerous."

"But will this work?" Teony asked.

"Ith worth a shot," Trevor said, trying to hide his nerves.

Fletcher looked at the three, and after a moment, he acquiesced, handing the notes to Trevor. Raven ripped off a piece of tape, quickly handing it to Trevor before backing up, as if Trevor had the flu and she was trying not to catch it. Then, she ran off.

Fletcher's attention diverted from Teony and Trevor to Raven, and he raised a worried eyebrow.

"Raven?" She ignored him, continuing to run towards the school. She pulled something out of her pocket, and Fletcher gasped when he realized what it was. "Raven! Put that down!"

"Why?" She yelled back, fixing it firmly in her hand. "I did my research, this will help!"

"But-"

"Trust me, Fletcher!"

"Raven you can't!"

However, just as soon as she was getting ready to use it, she heard a noise. Three noises, actually. The first was a "clonk," which Raven presumed was Trevor's rock hitting the brick of the castle instead of the window he was aiming for. The second was a sort of "whoosh" sound. The third was a scream.

"Trevor!" Teony shrieked.

Raven dropped the object in her hand. All three of them ran towards the immobile boy, Fletcher dropping to his side and take his pulse.

His eyes went wide.

"Oh no," He breathed. He shook his head in disbelief. "Oh no no no."

Fletcher turned Trevor onto his back. It was hideous. Purple marks ran up and down his arm and chest, his eyes opened wide in shock. Fletcher's hands started to shake, his eyes quickly filling up with tears.

"No," He breathed, struggling to hold back tears. "Trevor! Trevor please!"

"Oh my god," Teony whispered, putting her hands to her mouth as she shook her head in disbelief. Fletcher and Raven grasped the cold hands of their friend, and even though the sun was out and there wasn't a cloud in sight, they all felt dark and cold and stuck in a harsh lighting storm that they just couldn't escape.

***

The next day of class was no better than the first. Actually, it might have been a little worse. Miss Hendrix stood at the front of the class, a long purple stick in her hand. Now, it wasn't one of those cool wizard staffs you see in movies, like the ones that are super old but are totally unharmed and perfect somehow. No, this one was obviously old. The purple was possibly spray painted or maybe even hand painted onto the stick, and the stick was just a thick tree branch. It was very worn down, and little pieces of wood stuck out all over it so that if you touched it, you were bound to get a splinter. The only reason Miss Hendrix could even hold it was probably because she was wearing gloves.

On the chalkboard behind Miss Hendrix was the phrase "trying isn't good enough." Then, right below it on a bunch of different lines were some words in different languages. "Non satis est trying." "Ehara i te pai te whakamatautau." "Nid yw ceisio'n ddigon da." Emery presumed that it was the same phrase over and over, or maybe Miss Hendrix decided to write some gibberish to confuse everyone. Either way, it was pretty useless since nobody could read it.

"So you survived past the first day." Odd choice of words, Caleb thought. It wasn't like they were leaving any time soon.

"Yesterday was easy stuff." That one was actually true, Devin thought. All they did was read. It was pretty boring in complete honesty, even if Avalon liked it. "Today, we start the hard stuff."

All of a sudden, Miss Hendrix slammed her stick against the ground. A sleepy Lukas jolted up, fully awake. 

"I presume you all can read?" Everyone nodded their heads quickly. "So I'm guessing you all read what I have on the blackboard behind me?" Again, everyone nodded. "Well it's true. Saying you tried means that you are too lazy to actually win. This school is not for the lazy. You don't try here. You do. And if one of you fail to meet our expectations, I am more than happy to kick you out so you can go back to your mediocre life at your mediocre school."

"Oh please, like you'll actually do that," Nikita said under her breath.

"Do you really want to test me?" Miss Hendrix scolded. "Because I will right now, Miss Loudmouth."

Nobody talked after that.

"You have three hours. Write an essay about everything you know about magic. And don't you even try to say you don't know anything because I know fully well you all have knowledge about it."

Eli gulped. Avalon looked down at her hands.

"Your time starts now."

Avalon picked up her pencil and stared at the paper in front of her. Everything she knew about magic? Sure, she knew of its effects, but that wasn't enough to write a whole essay!

Miss Hendrix sat down onto her dusty wooden chair, sipping out of her mug that, from the looks of it, contained cold hot chocolate, which was a weird enough drink to have in the summer. Avalon tapped her paper with her pencil.

Everything I know... everything I know...

Wait! La magie is magic in French, right? I can write about that!

Oh who am I kidding? I'm doomed!

Just then, she saw something out of the corner of her eye that caught her attention. Maybe it was just raindrops, but there seemed to be... things outside. Colorful things. Moving things. 

People.

"Who's that?" Avalon asked quietly. She squinted, trying to make out the blobs in the courtyard. There seemed to be four of them, one of them collapsed on the ground and the others huddling around them.

"Who?" Devin asked quickly from behind her, peering where Avalon was looking.

"Them!" Avalon said, looking away from the window for a second before looking back. When she did, she raised an eyebrow.

"There's... no one there, A," Devin said.

"But... I swear! There... there was someone there!"

Devin gave Avalon a caring face. "Alright, sure. You're seeing things, you should get some rest." Avalon bit her lip.

"No talking!" Miss Hendrix yelled. Devin and Avalon were quick to oblige. They didn't want to see Miss Hendrix's bad side. She was bad enough as it was.

The three hours felt like twelve, and when Miss Hendrix finally announced that they were done, everybody let out a sigh of relief. Eli looked over his treatise. It was so bad. He could have done much better. Much better. But it was too painful.

"Turn in your paper, then you have a five minute break to eat and talk, as you know. Just don't do anything stupid."

The students did as she said and left, some of them discussing the job they did with their friends. "You might want to be more careful," Eli said as he passed Caleb. He raised an eyebrow as the younger boy kept walking without even looking. Caleb expected Eli to explain, but he didn't. 

However, he didn't need him to explain. He was pretty sure he knew what he was talking about. So, despite his brain telling him otherwise, he grabbed Eli's shoulder and spun him around. Caleb checked left and right to make sure no one was there watching him, then guided Eli to the restroom, locking the door behind them. Not the best place to threaten someone, but at least it guaranteed no one busting in.

Caleb clenched his teeth, pinning Eli against the wall. "What do you mean?" He whispered, his pupils glaring at Eli's.

Eli shrugged as if nothing was going on. "Oh, nothing, I just think a street-smart-criminal like you would be more cautious to hide what he steals."

Caleb's heart stopped. His grip on Eli's jacket tightened, his anger moving from just his head to his face and fists. Somehow, Eli didn't seem fazed at all by it.

"Give it to me," Caleb ordered.

"Or what?"

"I won't repeat myself again. Give it to me right now, kid."

"I'm only two years younger than you. Nikita's my age."

Caleb wasn't putting up with his bullshit. He yanked Eli off the wall, reaching into the pocket closest to him. However, before he could reach the bottom, Eli kicked his leg, which made him jump back as a reflex.

Caleb grunted. "What do you want? Do you want one? Cause if that's all that'll take to keep your mouth shut it's a deal."

"Um, I'm gonna pass. I don't like sticking things in my teeth that will rot my brain as much as yours."

Caleb's entire face turned red, and he chambered his arm before Eli put his hand up peacefully in protest.

"You might not want to punch me. Professor Suarez will ask me what happened and he's a human lie detector. You'll be double busted." 

Before Caleb could react, Eli reached into his pocket and pulled out the tiny box. Caleb snatched it out of his hands, sticking it into his pocket before Eli could get it back.

"You owe me one," Eli said with a tiny hint of a smile. Caleb tried to suppress his rage. Eli opened the door, only to find that he almost smacked someone in the head by doing that.

"Oh shit-" Caleb cursed, but it was too late. Eli and Caleb just came out of the same bathroom, and Nikita was there to witness it.

"Whoa, Caleb," She said, a wide amused smile on her face, almost laughing. "I didn't know you were into-"

"I-It's not what you think," Caleb interrupted, trying to play it cool.

Eli spoke up, too. "I wouldn't screw Caleb in a hundred years." And he walked away like nothing had happened.

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