Break came early. The rest of classes and exams were canceled due to the Evelyn’s death. No one seemed to know what they should be doing with their time. Everyone put off the vibe that they would rather still have class everyday simply to distract them. It was painful to be stuck day after day having nothing to keep their minds busy.

Parker continued practicing his Earth Imperial, which became more difficult each day. He couldn’t help but think about how if Caleb had been at their lesson then he wouldn’t be hurt. It had been weeks since it happened and they still knew nothing about Caleb’s condition.

Alexis continued to spend her time with Parker as usual, but she wasn’t her usual self. Her normal pep seemed to vanish ever since Evelyn’s funeral. Parker noticed very quickly that everything must really be hitting her hard and he wanted to help her as best he could but couldn’t come up with anything that would help out.

Hailee seemed to be taking the lack of news the hardest. She shut down completely spending most of her days in their makeshift dorm.

Master Sora had let them know that they would get to design their new house that would be created at the top of the castle in an attempt to lift their spirits. So many of them were upset that Evelyn couldn’t be there to help them design it that it made them even more depressed trying to design anything.

After another week, Master Sora showed them a few different designs that they’d created and had the house vote on which they liked the most. Once the decision was made, the next week was spent creating the new house. Unlike the rest of their housemates, Parker, Alexis, and Hailee got to actually help build it.

Parker loved being able to help. He was still extremely upset about everything but he needed something to keep his mind off not knowing anything about Caleb and it gave him a chance to practice his Earth Imperial. He couldn’t believe that the masters still weren’t telling them anything and that Madame Sasaki still wouldn’t let them in.

A few failed attempts at sneaking in made it so that Madame Sasaki put Caleb’s bed right next to her desk and a curtain around it so if they wanted to see him they would have to reappear on his bed. She knew they wouldn’t risk hurting Caleb so it was the only option she had in order to keep them out.

“When Master? When do we get to know?” Parker was past the point of no return. He’d started yelling and figured that if he was going to do it a little, he might as well go all out. “What did we do? We don’t deserve to sit in the dark like this! Or don’t you remember us saving your students last year?”

“How could I forget…?” Master Sora sounded as though he was reflecting on the death of someone. “We’re forever grateful that you saved their lives. The reason we’ve kept you in the dark as long as we have was not our decision.”

Everyone’s eyes opened wide and their mouths fell open. “What do you mean not your decision?” Hailee spat out.

“Caleb is the one who asked us to not let you see him. It was his decision, not ours.”

Hailee was shaking her head, “That can’t be… we’re his friends… he’d want us and only us to see him…”

“I understand how you must feel. I will talk to him again and see if I can persuade him to letting just the four of you visit.” With that, the master turned and left their new common room. They sat by the new and improved fireplace. Originally, many of the students said they didn’t need a fireplace in a room where the temperature was always perfect but remembered that it wasn’t that way anymore.

The new fireplace was double the size of the last and had an intricately woven stone hearth. Parker thought about how Caleb would have to jump a little in order to sit on the edge of it. He was still much taller than Caleb, in fact if you didn’t know better, most would say that Caleb looked like he was one of the new first years. Parker just wished that he could see him again and poke fun at his size. He missed having his best friend around. He loved everyone in his group of friends but being the only guy was starting to take its toll on him. He didn’t have a guy friend to confide in when he needed it. Who was he supposed to talk to when he had questions about how he felt about Alexis?

Alexis was sitting in one of the new couches that the masters had brought back. They didn’t question how the masters managed to bring all of that furniture to their new dorm, whether they had to go get it or it was somehow made somewhere in the castle. The large L-Shaped couch would have taken up the entire common room in the old house but it looked small in the new one. They figured they had to have the largest common room in the school.

Parker sat next to Alexis but didn’t say anything. A lot of their time lately had been spent in quiet. Neither had much to say unless it was about their Imperials.

The new house was nice enough but it wasn’t the same without being able to enjoy it with Caleb. Answers couldn’t come soon enough. The night dragged by as they tried to sleep. Knowing that there was nothing to do the following day made it that much more difficult.

Sitting at their table for breakfast the following morning was no more exciting than trying to sleep the previous night. Parker was trying to think of something to do for the day. Working on his Earth Imperial was growing increasingly tedious as he wasn’t improving and it only made him think of when Caleb got hurt.

His empty seat seemed to glow, drawing their attention to it at every second. Parker was so focused on it that he didn’t see Master Sora approach the table.

“Good morning children.”

“Can we see him?” Hailee blurted.

“That’s what I came to talk to you about,” Master Sora said in a negative voice. “I talked to him yesterday and explained how the four of you were feeling…”

“And? What’d he say?” Hailee blurted again.

“He only wants to see Alexis.”

Hailee’s eyes went wide, but not as wide as Alexis’s. “Why me?”

“He didn’t mention. He just said that you were the only one he’d see.”

Master Sora walked away with Alexis in tow. The three left at the table stared as they disappeared around the corner. Parker looked at Hailee and Ana and tried to gauge their thoughts and figured they were right in line with his, “What is happening?”

“I don’t get it…” Hailee muttered. “Why does he want to see her?” she spat out like a bad taste.

“I don’t know… all we can do is wait for her to get back and tell us what’s going on.” Parker said.

“Well I don’t want to wait,” Hailee said as she stood up and bolted out of the dining hall. Parker and Ana chased after her following her up the center of the stairs. They could see the Hospital Wing doors at the end of the hall open as Alexis appeared from inside. She saw them running at her, Hailee slightly ahead of Parker and Ana.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Alexis said holding her hands out to try and stop them from running into her. They could feel a gust of wind slowing them down as they ran.

“Whoa what?” Hailee spat.

“He wants to see you.” As she said it Hailee’s demeanor did a full one-eighty and she fixed herself up a little as she opened the door. It closed behind her and Alexis gave Parker a worried look. “Is there a reason she looked like she wanted to rip my head off?”

“I think she was jealous,” Ana said with conviction.

“Jealous? Jealous of what?”

“Oh, I don’t know… maybe the fact that the boy she really likes asked to see another girl after not seeing anyone in weeks.” Alexis looked at Ana frustrated knowing that she had to be right.

“She has nothing to be jealous about. She’s going to feel really dumb after she knows why.”

“So?” Alexis stared at Parker blankly. “Why did he want to see you first?”

“Well, I don’t think it’s really my place to say…” The doors to the Medical Ward opened up interrupting Alexis’s sentence. Hailee stepped out and gestured for everyone to follow her.

Parker walked right behind Hailee with Alexis at his side. The walk felt longer than usual even though they’d walked across the room plenty of times before. He was finally going to get to see his best friend for the first time in weeks. They hadn’t been apart this long since they’d met and he had no clue what to say when he saw him. Several options ran through his head. Was he supposed to hug him? Give him a high five? Pat on the shoulder?

Before he could decide, they were at the closed curtain. Parker looked at Ana knowing she must’ve felt the same as him since the other two had already seen him. Hailee drew the curtain back and showed Caleb to the group.

Parker’s attention went wild. He didn’t know where to look. He caught himself looking everywhere to find something wrong with him but he wasn’t seeing anything. After a cave-in like the one that happened he expected Caleb to be missing a limb or something but all four were accounted for. Finally he looked Caleb in the eye, just the left one, as the right eye was gone and covered with a large scar. It reached from his hairline to his eye socket and then curved onto his cheek.

“I’ve missed you buddy,” was the first thing that came to mind. He could tell by the look on Caleb’s face that he was glad he wasn’t asked about his eye. “When are they going to let you out of here? It’s not the same without you around.”

“Well… about that… I’ve actually been okay to leave for a few days now…” Everyone stared at him taking in what he said.

“You’ve been okay to leave? Then why are you still here?” Ana asked in a very calm voice. She was clearly taking his news better than the others.

“I didn’t want others seeing this…” he gestured to the scar running across his face. Everyone slowly nodded their heads in understanding. No one could blame him for wanting to keep to himself.

“I think everyone will understand, Caleb,” Ana said.

“Yeah, no one is going to make fun of you for that,” Hailee added.

“Plus, honestly it kind of makes you look a little tougher,” Parker said trying to lift his spirits. “Imagine if they knew you were an Omni as well!”

“Um… I think we can keep that one to ourselves for now,” Caleb said clearly still nervous to reveal that fact.

“No one is rushing you though,” Alexis said reading the emotions written on Caleb’s face.

——

A week of nothing passed by while the group spent most of their time visiting Caleb in the Hospital Wing and training or sleeping during the rest of it. Master Terra had taken over with their lessons to help them improve and as soon as he had, Parker seemed to start picking it back up like he had at the start.

They loved Master Studwick but she was a little too laissez-faire about the lessons. Master Terra whipped them into shape in no time and then they started to move forward again. If it was a good day they had a lot of fun while still learning a lot and improving. If it was a not-so-good day, then the lessons were grueling and none of them wanted to be there. It was either one or the other, no inbetween.

Ana had started to join them during their lessons out of boredom. She couldn’t participate in the same way but she found watching them was better than nothing. From time to time, Master Terra would have her use her Air Imperial to attack them and they would have to defend themselves only using the earth beneath their feet.

The last lesson before they would take a short break, Caleb decided he would brave exiting the Hospital Wing and joining them. Not pushing himself too hard, but giving it a go nonetheless.

For their lesson, Master Terra met them in the woods near the lake. They would have to move in and around the trees while using their Earth Imperials to blast targets that he had put up around the woods. Ana was also in the woods somewhere ready to attack them however she saw fit but he neglected to tell them that bit of information.

Parker was the first to run the course. Starting strong by hitting each target that he saw slowly started to fade away. The further he made it, the smaller the targets grew. Master Terra’s rules were once you missed a target you had to start over.

Aiming a rock at the last target, he took his shot. His rock blasted through the air and right before it hit the target, the target started to swing and his rock soared past into the canopy of leaves. He felt the ground under his feet start to move and found himself being dragged back to the starting line.

When he finally stopped, he was looking at Master Terra who was shaking his head slightly. “What? I only missed one! I think that’s pretty darn good overall.”

“It’s not bad, but why did you miss that one?”

“It started to swing.”

“So?” Master Terra had folded his arms as he asked the last question.

“I didn’t think it was going to move. You know because all of the other targets were stationary.”

“Are your enemies stationary? Do they just sit by and let you hit them?” Parker could see what the master was getting at. He shook his head slowly. “Caleb, you’re up. Just do the best you can all right?”

Caleb ran through the course at a slow jog hit each target precisely and finishing at his own pace. His head was spinning when he got back. Parker put his arm around him to steady him as he guided him to a stump to sit on. Alexis was up next and before they knew it she was back sitting down and grabbing a drink from the creek that flowed through the woods. Hailee was the last to go and although she didn’t get back as quickly as Alexis, she did hit all of her targets.

“I still think I did just fine!” Master Terra laughed as Parker said this. “They got a heads up on the fact that the last target moves.”

“Would you like to give it another go Parker?” Master Terra asked.

“No, I’ll just knock them out of the water next time.”

“That’s what I like to hear! Everyone makes mistakes. The key is to learn from them and not let them hold you back!” Master Terra started to make his way back to the castle moving the ground under Caleb so he didn’t have to walk back. “What will you do differently next time Parker?”

Parker thought for a moment before responding to the master. “I’m going to determine what my target is doing first and then strike. It didn’t do me any good in the end to just go in guns-a-blazin’.”

“Exactly. You need to determine what your target is capable of before you make your move.”

——

The masters were going to head down the mountain to see if they could convince anyone to attend for their first year. However, the morning they were to set off on their journey, the storm of all storms hit. It felt as though the castle were going to blow over. Parker figured that wasn’t possible but he couldn’t help but feel the castle sway a bit while he lay in bed.

The storm couldn’t have come at a more inconvenient time. Only a little time left for break and the masters weren’t able to go looking. That would mean another year of no new class, with the exception of Ana. Having only one new kid in two years was not a good sign for the school.

Being stuck inside made the last few days unbearable. There were points where Parker felt like he would risk going out in the storm that seemed to never end just to escape being stuck inside.

“I don’t see what the problem is. We literally have rooms in this castle that mimic outside. What’s the problem with it storming a bit?” Alexis was trying to ease the group but it seemed for naught.

“But I know that we’re still inside. It’s just not the same as being in the actual outdoors. Being on our bridge over the falls. Lying next to the wood on a bright, sunny, gorgeous afternoon.” They could hear the pent-up frustration behind Parker’s words. “I just want to go outside, even if it’s just for a moment.”

“I just don’t think it’s a good idea in this storm. I’m sure it’ll pass soon enough and we’ll be back outside enjoying the beautiful weather we always have at the start of first term.” Parker shrugged but decided he’d give up this time. He knew Alexis was right, he just didn’t want to admit it. Not to himself, or anyone else in the room.