Parker left the dining hall and was making his way to Combining the Imperials along with Caleb. He caught a glimpse of Alexis walking the same way they were but she was a good distance in front of them. He just wished that she would talk to him; hoping that wishing her a happy birthday might've worked.

When they walked in, there were a variety of houses scattered throughout the room. They noticed a few others from their house, along with Alexis sitting at the front of the room. Parker wanted nothing but to go and sit next to her, but he didn't feel that would be the best course of action at the time.

Caleb led the way and took a seat next to a student in blue robes and a student from their own house. They sat for a few minutes before Master Kingston made her way to the head of the room. She walked past Parker nearly hitting him with the long silver braid whipping around behind her.

When she stopped to turn around, Parker could see that she was panting, out of breath from the apparently quick walk she had. As she peered over the top of her dark-rimmed glasses, she met Parker's gaze. They locked eyes for a brief moment and then she spoke. "Welcome to Combining the Imperials. As you all know, I'm Master Kingston, head of The House of Leith. I will be your lead instructor for the term and I will give you a fair warning, this is no easy class. You will have to work your hardest and persevere through difficult scenarios." She walked around the room, through the rows of tables and desks as she talked. When she was practically standing on top of Parker she looked down at him. "Some of you will have to work harder than others while some of you will need to step up to help your peers. This is a challenging course even when you have a great understanding of how your personal Imperial works, let alone if you struggle at times." She continued walking at the end of her sentence.

Parker leaned over to Caleb and whispered, "I feel like that last part was directed right at me." Caleb shook his head but didn't say anything. Parker turned to find Master Kingston again and caught Alexis looking his way. His heart started racing and then she snapped her head away.

"We will begin the term by starting with a small project presentation. You will be in groups of four that I have pre-selected. Your task is to find a way to combine your Imperials to produce a small 'show' for the rest of the class. We will then take a vote on who's was the best and they will be rewarded with no homework for a week."

Everyone moved around the room in their groups, getting as isolated as possible. Parker was grouped with Caleb, Oliver and a House of Leith student named Eliott. They all stared at each other for a minute or so before saying anything.

Eliott was the first to speak. "I'm Eliott Chou, obviously from The House of Leith. I assume you all know each other, what are your names?"

Parker was surprised he asked. He figured that by this point everyone knew who he was. "I'm Parker Gray."

"I'm Caleb Prescott."

"Oliver."

"Just Oliver? No surname?"

"Surname? What's a surname?" Oliver was talking to Eliott but he couldn't take his eyes off of Parker.

"Your surname is your last name. For example, my surname is Chou."

"Oh… yeah. My surname is Blackwell."

"Nice to meet you Oliver Blackwell. Now that introductions are out of the way, what should we do for our 'show'?"

Parker thought for a minute about what they could do to put on a show for everyone. Then his mind flashed back to their first night at the school. The masters had performed a sort of show for them; maybe they could do something similar.

Oliver suggested "What if we use our Imperials to explode Eliott's water causing it to rain on everyone?"

"No… then everyone will just be wet. This is going to be tough. I feel like anything we can do to his water, he could just do on his own." Caleb looked deep in thought as he spoke.

"Well, we need to think of what's unique about our Imperials," Eliott said. "What's something special you guys can do? I just realized that I know practically nothing about the other three Imperials."

"Well, when we get to our first class, I'm pretty sure we're supposed to learn how to move around on a ball of air," Parker said. "Well, most of us are supposed to at least."

Eliott looked at him unsure of what he meant by that. "That sounds pretty awesome. We can't do anything like that."

"What kind of stuff can you do that's unique to The House of Leith?"

He looked at Caleb and thought for a moment before saying anything. "Well, I guess it's pretty unique that we can breathe underwater…" He said this as though he were shy about it and didn't want other people to know. Parker couldn't believe what he had heard. If it were him, he'd have been bragging about it to every single person that would listen to him.

"You can breathe underwater? You're joking. How is that even remotely possible?"

"You're asking how that's possible but not how you can ride around on a ball of air?"

Parker looked at Eliott and said, "Fair enough."

"So what can we do to combine this stuff to make a show?" Caleb asked trying to think of something that they could do. They all sat there thinking for several moments before Oliver spoke up.

"We could do like an aquarium show. Make a big ball of water in the air and have him swimming around in it." The three of them stared at Oliver for a moment and then in unison agreed with his idea.

They spent the rest of the time planning out exactly what they were going to do. Parker was as nervous as anyone could be about it because he knew that he wasn't strong in his own Imperial. Oliver and Caleb didn't seem worried at all, positive that this was going to be spectacular. Eliott showed no fear about the show they were going to put on because he knew nothing about Parker's dilemma.

Each group finished up their plans and some were practicing what they would be doing in front of everyone. Master Kingston called everyone back together and asked for a group to volunteer to go first. Parker looked at his group and they all shook their heads agreeing to wait for their turn.

Alexis's hand shot in the air followed by her group. They made their way to the front of the room. She was grouped with three House of Kenna students.

The students sitting in the front row were encouraged to move away and clear the desks out so they had room to work. Alexis stood in the middle of the three House of Kenna students. At once, they each shot a white-hot fireball at her. She raised her hands and the fire exploded. They followed with a blast of fire aimed at her feet to which she jumped up using the air to push her to the ceiling. They moved the fire through the air following her to the ceiling.

She was engulfed in a ball of fire making everyone in the room scream. Master Kingston stepped forward quickly but before she could do anything, everyone noticed the fire spinning quickly around her forming a cyclone. It lowered to the floor and became smaller and smaller. Everyone could see Alexis floating at the top of the cyclone completely unharmed. When she touched the floor, the four of them took a bow and everyone in the room clapped and cheered for their presentation.

Parker was clapping for the good job they had done but his heart was still racing from seeing Alexis almost get burned again. He couldn't believe she was willing to do that after what had happened between them. They took their seats and Master Kingston asked if there were any other volunteers.

"Parker, seems as though you're ready," she said. He felt confused as to why she picked him out of everyone but then noticed that he was actually standing up. His group was staring at him, mad that he had just volunteered them. Even though they had planned everything out, they hadn't practiced anything.

They approached the front of the room, hearts racing. When they turned to face the class Parker felt like his heart was about to explode. He wasn't ready for this and he knew it. He had no place in trying to help control a giant ball of water.

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"Master Kingston, is there any way to open the window?" The master nodded and opened the window next to her. Moments later a stream of water snaked its way into the room. It slithered in and out of the rows of students and made its way to the front of the room. Caleb and Oliver started waving their arms through the air causing the air to reach out and grab the water. They began working it into a small sphere.

Parker stared at them as they worked, watching the sphere slowly grow in size. "Psst!" Caleb whispered loudly. "We need your help," he said out of the side of his mouth. This snapped Parker out of the daze he was in now joining in waving his arms around. The sphere grew as Eliott pulled more and more water in through the window from the lake ten feet below. He finally stopped when the giant sphere of water was around eight feet in diameter.

The three Air Imperials raised the sphere until it floated in the air centered between the floor and ceiling. Everyone was looking on in awe as they did this and then gasped as Eliott ran and dove into the sphere. He swam around putting on a little show in his new Imperial aquarium.

After a moment of swimming, the three of them made the water snake its way through the class but stay thick enough that Eliott could still swim through it. He made his way to the back of the class and returned to the front. Right as they were about to finish when they reformed the sphere, it turned into ice. Eliott was frozen in the middle, unable to do anything.

"What just happened?" someone yelled out from the desks. Master Kingston stepped forward, face filled with worry.

"Gentlemen?" she asked. "May I ask what is going on? If he froze himself in the sphere, how is he supposed to unfreeze himself?" None of them could answer her because they had no clue what happened. Master Kingston was eyeballing Parker fiercely but didn't say anything.

Everyone stared at the giant ball of ice that was sitting at the front of the class. Everything had gone phenomenally until the very end and Caleb couldn't figure out what had happened. He stared intently at the sphere thinking, "Nothing felt off and Oliver couldn't have done anything to cause this, so it had to be Parker cause I doubt that Eliott would've done this to himself." He turned his head to look at Parker and could tell immediately that he had done something. His face was filled with fear. The type of fear that shows when you know you did something wrong but not sure how it happened.

The class stared for several moments before anything happened. No one said a word and then the ice disappeared and the water crashed to the floor. Eliott seemed to be unharmed but he looked exhausted. All of the eyes in the room were trained on him and he stared right back. "Did I do something?" He asked, clearly confused as to why everyone was staring silently at him.

"Eliott, are you okay?" Master Kingston asked.

"Yeah... why wouldn't I be okay? I've been in water before, you know... being from The House of Leith and all..." He couldn't figure out why everyone was acting so weird.

"Caleb, would you walk him to the Medical Ward please?" the master asked.

"Yeah, of course." They left the room and closed the door behind them. Parker and Oliver took their seats again but no one cheered or clapped for them. The next group made their way to the front of the room to perform their show.

This group had two members from The House of Kenna and two from The House of Leith. Their presentation created a lot of steam in the room. It was a good thing they'd left the windows open so it could escape. The Water Imperials snaked water throughout the room and the Fire Imperials would blast fire at spots creating streams of steam across the room.

The third group to go put on a show that ended with another student going to the Medical Ward with third degree burns on her hands. The next group received cheers and claps from everyone in the room but not nearly as much as Alexis's group had. The final group came and went without a peep or cheer from the room.

Master Kingston stepped to the front of the room again and congratulated the class on doing a good job. "This is something that is not simple to do. You should all be proud of yourselves for what you accomplished today in such little time. A few of you performed better shows than I have seen in many, many years." She turned her gaze to Parker as she spoke, still worried about what had happened. Caleb had not returned yet and they were dismissing.

As Parker made his way to the door with all of his books a hand grabbed his shoulder. He turned around to Alexis and his heart immediately started to race. "Hi... you did a great job with your presentation—" he stammered.

She dropped her gaze a few inches and thanked him. Alexis paused for a moment and asked, "Can I talk to you—" she was cut off by Master Kingston, who showed up next to her.

"Parker, we need to have a little talk." The master gestured out of the door and to follow her. He turned his head to look at Alexis and mouthed a yes to her question. She smiled a little but he could tell that she was still bothered.

Master Kingston led the way to her office as Parker followed. She walked up to a wooden door on the first floor next to the entrance of The House of Leith. A stream of water flowed from her waist and soaked the door. When the wood changed from the light brown it had been to a darker shade the door dropped straight into the floor.

Parker's mouth dropped before he could stop it. "How did it do that?"

"Once the door is fully soaked, its sheer weight makes it fall down." Master Kingston led him into her chambers and ushered for him to take a seat in front of her desk. As he looked around all he could do was note the difference between her chambers and Master Sora's. They both had an entrance filled with bookshelves and stacks of books. But unlike Master Sora's tight space, Master Kingston's chamber was ostentatious. The stone ceiling sat high above them forming an arch. He figured there must not be a room on the second floor with how tall her ceiling was.

The window peered straight out over the lake and he could barely make out the corner of The House of Leith's balcony. Parker realized that he'd actually been right outside her window less than a year ago when Hailee had taken them around The House of Leith's balcony.

"What happened in there, Parker?" He could hear anger creeping into her voice but he also heard a hint of concern.

"I really don't know, master."

"Well it's not something Caleb did, he has control over his Imperials and Oliver isn't capable of such a thing. Are you telling me that Eliott did this to himself?" Parker knew that what she was saying was true. He knew that Caleb wouldn't do this and Oliver couldn't possibly do it. He didn't know about Eliott but didn't know why anyone would do that to themselves or what they could gain from it.

"Master, I don't know what happened. I don't think any of them did it but I don't know what I did that would've caused it. I felt like I was doing everything correctly. Besides, I've only ever controlled fire since the accident."

Parker could see her thinking hard about everything that had happened and what she knew about them since the accident. "All right, I'll believe that you didn't do it on purpose but we need to get this figured out."

"Should I bring it up to Master Sora today during our private lesson?"

"You're having private lessons with him?" Parker nodded his head but didn't look too pleased that he did. "Good, that was going to be my next suggestion."

Little more was said before Parker left to get to lunch. When he walked into the dining hall he saw Caleb, Hailee and Alexis sitting together. His heart rate jumped and he sped up to take a seat with them. As soon as he sat down, Alexis stood up and left the dining hall without so little as saying "Hello".

"Does she hate me that much?" he said looking from Caleb to Hailee and back. They both shook their heads.

"She had to run to the library, said she needed to look something up for Combining the Imperials," Caleb said.

"Think she'll start talking to me again any time soon?" They both shrugged not sure what to tell him. Then he remembered that right before Master Kingston took him from class he had been talking to Alexis. She'd mentioned that she wanted to talk to him so he wondered why she hadn't used this time that they both had free to talk.

"What class do you have next?" Hailee asked them.

"We both have our semi-private class next," Caleb said with a smile on his face. Parker could tell that he was excited to have someone else in his class now. He felt bad because he did not want to be in it with Caleb. He didn't want to be in a position where he might accidentally hurt another one of his friends. He'd burned both Alexis and Hailee and he might have even accidentally frozen Eliott. What would happen with him actively using his Imperials against Caleb?

-----

Caleb stared straight into his eyes when Master Sora told him to go at Parker with everything he had. Parker was at a severe disadvantage with Caleb having no issues with his Imperials since the accident.

He sent wave after wave of attacks at Parker. Parker did everything he could to avoid the onslaught but eventually couldn't avoid everything. A rock the size of a watermelon crashed into his side.

Parker lie on the ground heaving in pain from where he'd been hit. Caleb ran up to him and apologized a hundred times as fast as he could.

"Do not apologize Caleb. You did as you were instructed. You will both need to get used to this because in the second year, you begin duels with the other houses. After the end of second term we hold a tournament in which students from all houses may compete amongst their year. I expect this is something you would both be greatly interested in so we need to begin preparing now with the way your Imperials have been acting. I heard about your class this morning and I'm slightly shocked that more Imperials are surfacing from you. It's time we figured out how exactly you control them."

Parker couldn't agree more with what Master Sora was saying. He was right; he was very interested in the school duels. "How do we figure out how I control each Imperial?"

"They're tied to your emotions Parker. From what I've seen, anger is your fire and nerves are your water. Your air has not changed; you just need to find that place again like you did when you arrived here. However, what could be your catalyst for earth?" The three of them stood in the clearing of the trees trying to determine Parker's earth catalyst, something that would trigger his ability to control the ground itself.

Caleb spoke after several minutes of silence. "My original catalyst to control my Earth Imperial was envy. Every time I thought about how easily everything came to Parker I could manipulate the ground to my will. The jealousy drove me to do better, maybe that will work for Parker?"

Parker began thinking of all the things he was jealous about at the time. How everyone seemed to understand their Imperials inside and out but he couldn't control a single one consistently. Hailee and Caleb both got to talk to Alexis. Everyone seemed to look at him as an outcast of sorts. He felt nothing below his feet as the thoughts flowed through his mind. He had closed his eyes to focus on the thoughts and felt like he must have looked ridiculous standing there with nothing happening.

"That's okay Parker, we'll get it figured out." Master Sora was trying to comfort him while not showing pity for him. "I want you to really focus on all of your happiest thoughts and memories during your Imperial class today. Let's aim for no accidents this time." Master Sora said this with a slight grin on his face hoping that it would bring Parker's spirits up.