“GET. UP,” I heard a familiar voice scream from the bottom of the stairs. I opened my eyes to the same sight I did every day, my room. Posters lined the walls. Some of my favorite musicians, others of my favorite shows but the large majority displayed pictures of fighters. Roman “the Iron Wall” Castle, Jane “Druid” Doe, and Penelope “Fixer” Jordan each had a place along my walls. “DONALD, THE BUS WILL BE HERE ANY MINUTE!! THIS IS WHY I TOLD YOU TO SET YOUR ALARM!” I felt an ounce of regret at that statement. She, technically, did tell me to set my alarm the night before in preparation for my last day of school but I had told her it was unnecessary because I always got up at the same time every day. I was wrong. Finally getting my pants on I started towards the door grabbing my phone from the nightstand where I had it charging the previous night. My house was colorful and extremely vibrant to the point where staring too long in any one direction could give someone a headache. The walls were painted bright colors of yellow and green, family pictures lined the walls, and pots of flowers sat atop every available surface. “Well look who finally decides to show his face. Today might just be the most important day of your life and you STILL decide it's a good idea to oversleep. Had I not woken you up, you very likely would have been late."
“Thank you for your generosity, how shall I ever repay your kindness,” I said with a roll of my eyes.
“You can start by fixing that attitude of yours,” she said with her ‘natural’ tone of voice. “There's eggs and toast on the table,” she looked at the clock on the other side of the room, “You better hurry, you only have about five minutes until the bus gets here.”
“Ok Mom, thanks for breakfast.” As I sat down to eat my eggs and toast, I noticed that my mom seemed unusually stressed, her foot tapping the floor as she looked out the window. It was easy to understand why she was acting this way, assignment was one of the most important days of a person's life. Even though it doesn’t make or break someone's career a good assignment certainly helps, especially when it comes to getting into a college. It was even more important for me because my Mom, Dad, and Brother all had great assignments and, even though they all went into different fields of work, it allowed our family to gain great standing. We were not comparable to any of the five houses but, when it comes down to it, my mom and dad both rank nationally and my brother even ranks internationally. This is all to say that I should feel incredibly nervous about today but for some reason, I just don't, I feel excited. Every assignable class and almost every stat rank is something that can be worked through. Any type of mage is inherently valuable, most warriors can be trained to achieve incredible efficiency and power, the limits of martial users are almost unimaginable, and healers are invaluable to everyone.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
“Honey the bus is here you better get out there,” my mother said, the sound of worry in her voice palpable.
“Got it, Mom,” I said with eggs and toast still in my mouth. On the way out I left my bag on the coat rack and opened the door to the fresh morning air. It was chilly, not cold per se but not warm either. It was mid fall and the few trees that were present were beautiful to see. I had always loved nature but sadly my family all preferred the big city. The bus ride was unusually quiet, few people were talking, and even the ones that were only talked about the upcoming assignment. Whispers of worry were exchanged throughout the bus, it felt as though it was the only topic anyone could think about. That was besides Charley, my best friend throughout high school. Charley is a tall, skinny, and lanky man of 18 years. He has long black hair, piercings on his nose, lips, and all over his ears, his eyes are a deep brown and his face is round. We met in freshman year and have hit it off ever since. Much like me he came from a pretty powerful family of people who had all made it very far in their careers. The similarity that drew us together however was our distinct lack of talent in many areas. Neither of us was particularly smart when it came to school, particularly athletic or good at dealing with people but that turned out to be a blessing in disguise because it made us closer as a result.
“So, what do you think will happen?” Charley said, “What class do you think you’ll get? What skills?” There was excitement in Charley’s voice but there was also something else, “I’m hoping I get some kinda mage class like my parents so I can finally get away from them and join a guild. It would take too long to train before I could leave if I got a martial arts class or a fighter class. Then again they would probably just throw me out if I ended up with lackluster skills.”
“Nah Char, they wouldn't do that. You know that our parents love us even if they struggle to show it sometimes. What’d they do today?”
“Just the usual stuff man. I mean they’ve upped the training and studying recently but you already know that. It’s startin to get on my nerves, I mean I miss hangin out with you,” I could feel a smile start to creep onto my face “We haven't been able to for weeks and I think it’ll only get worse after the assignment if I let it continue,” for the first time I was able to identify the other emotion in Charly’s voice, a hint of fear.
“Don’t worry Charley, they already agreed to let you go to any college you want to after the assignment, so you won't have to deal with them for much longer. Plus, once we get accepted, you’ll have to deal with me so much you’ll get sick of me!”
“Nah, I could never get sick of you,” he said, giving me a smirk.
“Well, we’ll see after the assignment Char,” the bus came to a rolling stop outside of ‘Green High School - Home of the best and brightest’, “I have a feeling today’s gonna be good.”