The class ended, which left us five minutes to get to the next class. Now, how was I going to apply for a mission before getting to the next class in time?

Simple. I wasn’t.

I needed to tell Nikki first about the plan, and after the class, being that the offices are usually upstairs, I could quickly inform Principal Renner about my plan, and then boom.

I did need to ask September, though, if she was going to join. But here was the good part: class ended.

Malachi was gracious enough to be completely snatched away by his colony of friends—a.k.a. simps—and I quickly dove in to get to September.

And when I say dove in, I mean climbing over an entire row of seats just so I can get close to her in time. “Hey, September!” I shouted, to which she heard me, and based on her look, she probably found it comical.

“I would’ve heard you if you whispered,” she noted, to which I nodded breathlessly and returned. “Yeah, too loud. But I wanted to propose something.”

“Flowers?” she responded.

Uh, did she know? Was she hearing me the whole time?

But then she added, “Because I need some more for the garden my grandmother is trying to do, or at least has already done.”

I nodded slowly, still recovering from the rush of fear that swam through my body. “No, but join us on a mission.” September raised her brows. “When did you join one?”

“No, we’re planning on joining one; that way we could gain some MP. I know you like MP,” I responded. We had now exited the room, as she was beginning to move towards the left. Parting ways were already upon us, but luckily she was marvelous enough to stop.

“Yeah, here’s the thing, though,” she responded. “I'm already about to do a mission with another friend. She had a spot open for me and I took it.”

My heart completely dropped. Like sinking to the bottom of the sea.

“Oh… okay. That’s perfectly fine.” I completely lied, to which she patted my back and said, “But don’t feel like you can never come to me. I’m usually open. Not always, though.”

“Yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure,” I said, to which she touched my shoulder and tapped it.

She walked off. Shoot… I muttered. Malachi. How does he do it?! How does he foil all my plans without even knowing about them?! He was four steps ahead in a game he didn’t even know he was playing!

It was rather embarrassing that Plan B was already being created.

But then, suddenly coming from behind me, came a voice that immediately froze. “Nice job. You definitely did something there,” Malachi explained with a chuckle. “Did a lot there.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked.

“Nothing, for the most part,” he responded. “They always say to dream big, but I think you went a bit too big, in all honesty.” He had finally revealed himself as he stared right at me. “September? Of all people?”

“Is there a problem you have with it?” I asked.

Malachi glanced to the floor, to which he then tapped, then returned indirectly, “I’ll be very honest with you.” then he turned direct... “Yes, I have a big problem with it. You’re competing against me.”

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

I knew it. I knew it.

“Against you in what?” I sneered. “Who has a better style?”

Malachi looked at me, glancing at my fit, and I immediately knew I was defeated. “If you even have style to begin with.” He looked at me, then went closer and said, “You don’t nearly have enough clout to get someone of her manner. Stop trying. And I’m not trying to be mean.”

“Really?”

“No, I’m being honest. Because what’s going to hurt you more than me is when she inevitably rejects you. If not for me, for her. Don’t give her that burden of saying no,” he said as he laid his hand on my shoulder.

I was within seconds of just hurling my feet at his ankle if he did not get his discount James Bond hands off me right now.

But luckily, he found the sense to lift his hand and return it to its place as he walked off, leaving me inside my own steaming bubble.

I had to get that mission approved. I had to.

I stormed up to the next class, which was upstairs. The plans were already set, as I explained before. Finish the class. Meet Principal Renner. Get the mission. And so forth after that...

The details weren’t all created, but I had to first go through those before setting up the next plan. Once I entered the class, Nikki and Tisiah were already there, chatting amongst themselves.

Her room was all wooden, in this oily brown color, with a bright black chandelier at the very top.

I could probably predict exactly what Tisiah was talking about. It had only been thirty minutes since the conversation.

Once I approached the two, Nikki immediately set eyes on me, her expression quite concerned, exasperated, or both.

“I will be very honest with you, Connor, I kind of hope that September decides not to come. It’s quite concerning that you are literally doing all—”

“She said she couldn’t join us.”

Tisiah’s eyes widened at the realization of this. “What for?”

“She’s already on an assignment with “some friend”, a.k.a. Malachi,” I hissed. “She said that “she had a spot open for me and I took it.”

For some odd reason, I was given the stare of a lifetime, with both of them having narrowed eyes, as if I had something so dumb that their bodies just shut off.

“What?” I asked, perplexed.

“She,” Nikki said. I stared at her with ignorance. “She who?”

Nikki sighed. “You said that September said, “She had a spot open for me and I took it,” she explained. “And no one ever told me that Malachi had been tricking us all along. That would’ve spread throughout this school like a wildfire.”

Oh, I’m dumb.

“Well, either way, she ain’t joining. So, we’re going to use this opportunity to get us MP, alright? We’ll basically be in the Hall of Fame for this, and at that point, we’ll get new features on our powers through these wands.”

“We heard what he said.”

“And I’m sure you want that, right?” I asked. Nikki nodded. “Our ambitions are different, though,” she remarked. “Yours especially.”

“Go figure, but will you join us on our mission?”

“What kind of question is that? Of course, I will. What do you expect me to do, Wait until a test comes to get real amounts of MP?”

“Well, some might,” I shrugged. “Who knows.” Nikki scoffed. “Not me, though.”

Tisiah looked at us, to which he then nodded, though I’m not sure what for. “Yeah, yeah… I agree—with both fo you,” he explained, his confidence rather non-existent. It sounded like he had a really bad stutter. I almost felt bad for him.

“Well, nonetheless, we still need to—” suddenly Sensei Waine’s voice echoed through the room, ultimately ridding Tisiah’s voice of any privilege or right.

“Alright, form up!” she shouted, to which the entire class, like a pack of robots, stood in a row formation, to which she smiled.

“Glad you guys finally learned after a month,” she muttered, to which she approached everyone in front of the class. “Now, as everyone should’ve heard... the MP system is starting tomorrow. Now, that means instead of learning how to acquire the different powers, its going to be more of how to use them.”

The class murmured, but no words were exactly clear enough for me to really obtain the overall message.

“Each unit is going to be based on each level. Although they are still soon to update more powers into each level of the wand, we have been presented from 1 to 50,” Sensei Waine explained.

Wow…

“50?” Tisiah muttered. “Can we go that high?”

Nikki shrugged. “Kind of expected higher, just to be honest,” she muttered. Tisiah and I both returned to her a look that she knew she couldn’t even fathom to ignore.

She raised her hands up in surrender, to which she pleaded, “Aight, chill... I didn’t know that was such a large number.”

“Depends on the context,” Tisiah responded. “This one is one of them.” But then, with a loud and alarming “ahem” from Sensei Waine, both me and Nikki’s voices were removed from their privileges and rights.

“Let’s start, shall we,” Sensei Waine suggested, with a smile that merely teased our misbehavior.