“How did you find me? Who sent you?” Jun asked. His hands glowed with the same neon green from the chemistry room. Todd held his arm out in front of Jun to keep him separated from Viktor.

“What he means to ask is: are you okay?” Todd took a step back from the door to let Viktor inside garage. Viktor wore overly baggy sweat pants and a large active wear t-shirt. His hair was unkempt and he looked tired, but otherwise Viktor looked the same as Todd remembered from two years ago.

“I said what I said.” Jun replied. He folded his arms.

“I tracked you here from the school. I’m in urgent need of-”

“I knew it! Enemy agent!” Jun yelled. He lunged towards Viktor. Todd quickly moved to restrain him.

“How?” Todd asked as struggled with Jun.

“I picked up your trail not long after you left school.”

“What did I tell you Todd Stewart? Your existence poses a significant risk to my operation.” He turned around and shoved Todd, who shoved him back in return. The two were soon in a shoving match.

“We really don’t have time for this. Everyone at Fillmore is in danger.”

“Tell that to this big baby, been sulking all afternoon.” Todd said. Jun slipped behind Todd and put him in a choke hold.

“Guys!” Viktor shouted. His began to glow yellow and he pulled Jun and Todd apart with surprising ease.

“The eyes! Yellow eyes!” Todd said, his voice still raspy.

“Neat trick. What exactly does it do?” Jun asked.

“For one, I can see your grade point aura.” Viktor said.

“That just sounds ridiculous.” Jun said. “If that were true, I guarantee I don’t leave a trail.”

“Conspicuous in its absence.” Viktor said.

“I don’t understand, how are you able to do that? And where have you been?”

“Everything seems tied to something that happened last year. I was-”

“Jun! Mom wants you inside now!” Jun’s sister yelled from the house.

“I need to grab the Codex anyway.” Jun said as he walked towards the front of the garage. “If I don’t come back in ten seconds, leave.”

“Wait, ten seconds?” Todd asked but Jun was already inside the house. Through the screen door, he could see Jun stretch then plop down on what would have been a couch in the living room. Todd rolled his eyes and turned back to Viktor.

“This is unbelievable. What happened? ” he asked.

“I don’t know the origin, but when I took your spot at Viltburg after...well you know.” Todd rubbed the back the of his neck and cleared his throat. “It was like the whole school had this weird energy. Very intense too. It kept building and building until Pi Day. It got ugly.” Todd wary.

“How weird did people act, exactly?”

“Let’s just say I’ll never look at lemon meringue the same way. That’s why there’s no placement or new enrollment this year. The entire situation was a huge disaster. The only reason you haven’t heard about it is-

“They killed the story.” Todd said as he scratched his chin. “That’s why they scrubbed all your articles.” Viktor raised an eyebrow. “I did a bit of unrelated digging earlier. All I could find was one improperly deleted article with extensive edit warring. That led me to a lone message from the teacher in charge demanding you drop the story.’

“After the incident, we went from investigation to gag order like that.” Viktor snapped his fingers.

“Your story wasn’t about the incident?”

“I started off with a profile of the incredible grade improvemen taking place school wide. I’m talking B minus to A plus in notoriously difficult classes. But, during the course of the my research, I discovered a massive glitch in the grading platform.”

“Inflated A’s?”

“No. Actually the grades were being depressed. You put in a ninety-two percent and the system spit out a B.”

“Grading scale change?” Todd asked. Viktor shook his head. “I don’t get it then. Why would someone make things harder? Maybe to tamper with class rankings.”

“Your guess is as good as mine.” Viktor said. “After the incident, everyone was focused on figuring out what happened, until we weren’t.”

“It must have something to do with the payout.” Todd said.

“Payout?”

“You didn’t know?”

“Not long after that message, my life turned and I was stuck dealing with all this.” Viktor pointed to his eyes. “Had a lot on my plate.”

“I-” The sound of a car door as it closed caught Todd’s attention. He shuffled to the side of the garage for a clear view down the driveway, then frowned.

“What’s wrong?” Viktor asked.

“Weird. My teacher’s here.” Todd said. Suddenly, he dropped to the ground. “Trouble came with him.” Viktor walked over to where Todd was and squinted. The large, bald man struggled to get out of the front passenger seat of the almost comically undersized car.

“Crap. I hoped they wouldn’t get here so soon.” Viktor said.

“You?” Todd asked. At the end of the drive way, the man had retrieved a crate from the back of the car. Brown hair pressed up against the cage walls. When he set it on the ground, it shook and the man carefully reached around to the latch.

“Hamsters.” Todd gasped. He turned to Viktor. “We have to leave. Now.”

----------------------------------------

Jun felt his phone vibrate as he sat on the short couch near the living room window. He checked the notification and saw at text from Todd. He decided to ignore his first instinct and checked the message.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

danger! Meat at school. Bigg news. Jun quickly read the text but as he put his phone away, it vibrated again.

MEET* Jun rolled his eyes and put his phone back in his pocket. Nedd Scofield sat in a nearby overstuffed chair, while Ms. Suk stood in the entrance way to the kitchen, arms folded.

“Right. I was saying that-” Jun’s phone vibrated again. He sighed and pulled it back out.

Big*

Danger*

Us*

At the school*

We’ll be around back near the bike rack.* Jun turned off his phone as another message appeared on screen.

“This is a huge opportunity for a select group of the top students at Fillmore.” Nedd said, with a grin.

“Who? Jun? Jun Suk?” Ms. Suk asked.

“His work has been...remarkable this year. He’s a true success story for DEN.”

“When will the plaque arrive?” Jun asked.

“Sardonic wit is the domain of the intelligent...or the mediocre.” Nedd said. “I’ve darkened your doorstep for two reasons. The first is to inform you of a field trip to the observatory in two days time. We were approved last minute so the normal permission slip system will be too slow.”

“You’re going to every student in person to get permission?” Ms. Suk asked.

“Just a select group of promising individuals.” Nedd replied.

“Well I don’t why not.” Ms. Suk said.

“Wonderful, I’ll have an email sent shortly. The second reason is a bit a fact finding. To learn more about how young Jun here manages his workload.”

“The fact he does anything at all is a miracle.” Ms. Suk said with a laugh.

“I’ve noticed that unlike the others in my class, Jun has remain rather calm and collected in the face of considerable academic rigor.” Nedd narrowed his eyes and leaned forward. “How exactly do you that?”

“I do the hard stuff first then move to the easy work.” Jun said, sounding a bit rehearsed.

“Fascinating. And you work alone? No study groups to help load management or to bounce ideas?”

“No. Jun has only just agreed to study with Todd today.” Ms. Suk said.

“Todd? Todd Stewart.” Nedd smiled. “Now isn’t that interesting.”

“How so?”

“It’s just Todd is another top student in my class.”

“Is everyone a top student?” Ms. Suk asked.

“He and Jun have...remarkably similar rates of success. I guess this explains that.”

“You can ask him yourself.” Ms. Suk said. “Jun is very rude and left him in the garage.”

“Actually, he had to go. He...had an accident.” Jun said.

“Eww I heard about that at my school. It happened again?” Jun’s sister yelled from the top of the stairs.

“Yu-Mi stop eavesdropping.” Ms. Suk yelled as she ran upstairs to chastise the girl.

“I gotta go.” Jun said. “Study time.” He got up from the couch.

“You know, Jun”, Nedd said as he walked by, “the people you associate with often determine how well you do in achieving your goals.” He reached into his flannel shirt pocket and pulled out a pair of glasses.

“That’s great to hear.” Jun said. Nedd quickly glanced towards the stairs then back at Jun.

“You have interesting goals Jun. In light of the company I know you keep, perhaps you’d consider a proposition.” he said. Jun had already opened the front door, but paused.

“I’m listening.” he said.

----------------------------------------

Todd wasn’t sure which hurt worse: the burning on his side or the cramping in his legs. Both left him with a hobbled run as he tried to keep up with Viktor. They’d fled the garage and it wasn’t long before the hamsters locked on to their prey and gave chase.

“Are you alright man?” Viktor asked. He was barely at the pace of a jog and still several paces in front of Todd; this after being forced to slow down once it was apparent that Todd had no chance of keeping up with even a modest speed.

“I’m good. Just...tired...out of shape...” Todd said between ragged breaths. His mind briefly though back to the burst of energy and speed he’d enjoyed when being chased by those teens. “Stupid puberty.” Todd grumbled as he stumbled over to and clutched a tree for dear life. He didn’t feel the normal tired he’d get from gym class; Todd was completely drained, both physically and mentally.

“I think it’s something else.” Viktor said as he arrived. “Are you sure you don’t want me to help?”

“No. We can’t risk both being caught. Just need to catch my breath.”

“I mean, they are just hamsters, we can probably take our chances.” Viktor said. Todd lunged and grabbed him by the shirt collar.

“No.” Todd said, his eyes wild. “Those things...those spawns of evil are not mere hamsters. They’re class pets. They make them different.” He looked away and sniffled. Viktor turned his back to Todd and extended his arms backwards.

“Let’s go.” he said as he squatted down. Todd back away from the tree and frowned.

“I think I’d rather be mauled.” Todd replied. A hamster fell from the tree above, and missed Todd by mere inches. It landed on the ground and stared up with red eyes, before it ran back in the direction of the rest of the horde.

“That’s it.” Viktor said. He stood up and in a single, swift motion grabbed Todd and slung him over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry.

“Yeah, I’d definitely rather be eaten.” Todd said. Viktor took and Todd was surprised at both how fast and how easily he managed to run with Todd’s body weight. Todd was thin, but Viktor wasn’t much better and he ran as if Todd were no more than a book bag on his back.

As they reached the end of the main road, Fillmore lay ahead, across a wide street.

“Look who it is.” someone said. Todd looked over his shoulder and his heart nearly jumped through his throat. At the end of the driveway at a house across the street, was the group of teens that chased him to the magic shop. There were bikes strewn across the driveway and they were crowded on the front steps.

The girl Todd now knew to be Sophia giggled and Todd quickly wriggled down from Viktor’s shoulders. “Don’t see any eggs with you this time.” she said. In a flash the teens were on approach and Todd was forced to back away. He grabbed Viktor by the back of the shirt to pull him along as well. As they neared the hedges which framed the entrance to the housing plan, Todd heard rustling. He took a quick look back to the shrubs then stopped walking.

“Viktor?” he said as he carefully reached towards the bushes. “Duck.” Todd pulled back the leaves and a spray of hamsters flew out in every direction.

“What the?” Beanie was off as the rodents landed on him, along with the rest of the teens. They screamed and flailed as the hamsters terrorized the group. Todd and Viktor dove to the ground and avoided any direct contact. A few hamsters landed near them, but a quick roll gave them just enough space to get up and escape unscathed.

“What was that?” Viktor asked as he and Todd slowed down when they reached the school grounds.

“Hamsters from hell. Let’s get inside before the winner of bullies vs hamsters finds us.” They checked door after door, only to discover the school was locked up tight. Todd could feel his frustration and desperation rise as they found another locked door. This time, Todd had hoped the doors to band room would be open from a late practice, but was rebuffed.

“Todd?”

“Sarah?” Todd replied, unable to help the appearance of a small smile.

“Sarah?” Viktor asked.

“Oh my gosh, Viktor! How’s Viltburg? How are you?” she asked. For some reason the high pitched sound of her reaction to see him made Todd a bit unhappy.

“It’s been so long. How have you been?” Viktor asked. “I haven’t seen you since-” He snapped his finger during the attempt to remember the name.

“Yeah! That was so crazy. To this day, I still can’t believe how wild it got.”

“I know right?”

“Ha ha oh yeah!” Todd slapped his forehead. “Totally. The thing with the event. I totally remember. We’re all sharing a fun memory.” he forced a laugh.

“Were you there?” Viktor asked.

“Anyway,” Todd said as he stepped between Sarah and Viktor, “do you mind letting us inside? I wanted to show Viktor...the new mural...” Todd cleared his throat.

“I think it’s still not done, but sure I was was actually on my way to a study group.” Sarah said. She stepped aside to let both boys through the door.

The hallway was darkened with only one row of overhead lighting on and the last bit of sunlight coming in through the occasional window. Todd noted this was first time he’d been able to walk the halls without a huge throng of people to get through since the first day of school.

“You guys aren’t studying in the library?” Viktor asked as Sarah led them past several closed classrooms.

“No. They kept chasing us out for being there past school hours, so we found a room where we won’t be disturbed. It’s perfect. We’ve been there since one and not a single intrusion by staff. We even found a way to keep going when the network went down.”

“Three?” Todd asked. “But school ended at two. The internet was down early afternoon.” Sarah laughed.

“Three AM silly. I haven’t been home in almost twenty four hours.” Sarah’s voice was distant and dreamy. “You should be here Todd, tomorrow’s relegation after all.” Sarah said. Viktor and Todd exchanged worried glances. “Here we are.” Sarah pushed open the doors to cafeteria annex. The room was filled with students at the tables surrounded by papers and books. They scribbled furious notes and most looked as if they hadn’t slept in a long while. A constant chatter could be heard as the students muttered to themselves.

“Remember when you asked how weird it got at Viltburg?” Viktor asked.