At the beginning of summer break, I was so excited.

Back in my home world, I would have been playing football with the other kids in the trailer park, but instead, I was flying around at blazing speeds in my grandpa's backyard on a dragon bike. I had also made plans with Farrah to have her come visit me at the end of June, and then I would see her at the end of July.

Although I had a surprise visitor at the end of the first week of summer break.

"Rollie looks like your head counselor is here. Do you know what that's about? Did he tell you he was coming?" my grandpa asked.

"What?" I replied. I couldn't believe that Jonathan had shown up without any warning ahead of time.

Jonathan knocked on the door, and the dog barked. My grandpa walked away from the window and opened the door.

"Hello, Logan, I hope I'm not bothering you or Rollie, but I was wondering if I could chat with Rollie for a bit?" Jonathan said.

"If you'd like to come in and have dinner and chat with us, you're more than welcome to," Logan said.

"I actually have a question for Rollie, but it'll be a discussion. If you don't mind, Logan."

"As his guardian, I would like to be aware of any discussion he has with the head counselor, but I understand if it's a sensitive subject."

Jonathan frowned. "Ah, but I also act as a therapist for Attleton, so I would really appreciate it if I could talk to him privately. No need for an alarm. Rollie is a good student who is not in trouble in any way. I just need to chat with him and ask him some questions. I'm sure you understand, Logan."

"I suppose." My grandpa turned to me. "Rollie, your head counselor is here to see you."

I approached the front door and walked out onto the porch with Jonathan.

"Rollie, you want to walk or chat here on the porch?"

It was a warm day outside. The scent of fresh-cut grass filled the air, and puffy white clouds peppered the sky. "We can go for a walk."

"Tremendous." We walked down the path off the porch and took a right, walking through the neighborhood of trees and homes scattered between large plots of land. "So, Rollie, do you remember when Daniel met with you while you were in bed inside the Medical Hall?"

I paused. "Yeah, I do."

"Well, since Daniel and I are friends, he wanted me to reach out to you and see if you had any more thoughts on what he said."

That took me by complete surprise. I was also confused. "To be honest, with everything that happened since the end of the first semester, I completely forgot about Daniel meeting with me."

"Ah, I understand. It's been a busy year for you."

"Yeah. It has." I wiped my forehead. Thinking about everything that happened stressed me out. "I'm not sure if I'm interested right now in what he was talking about. I've been enjoying my time on campus and want to focus on my studies and relationship with Farrah."

Jonathan flashed a grimace but smiled and nodded. "Of course, of course."

"But I'm curious, what would I get out of being an apprentice to this Daniel guy?"

"I know from your home world there's this event called the lottery, where people purchase a ticket for the smallest chance to win an unimaginable amount of money. You're familiar with this, right?"

"Duh," I said.

"Well, imagine if you had one of those lottery tickets guaranteed to win. You would want one of those if you were in your home world, right?"

"Duh."

Jonathan snickered. "So, in a way, with this offer to join Daniel, you basically have a lottery ticket with a 99% chance to win. Would you take it?"

"Well yeah, but it depends on what I must do."

"It would be a process, but you can consider it your career or job. Do you know what you want to do with your future? Because anything you say probably won't ever make the amount Daniel will make."

"So you just said it was a process. In my home world, if you want to buy a lotto ticket, it's hardly a process. You just go to the gas station or the convenience store and tell the person you want to buy a ticket. So that little story you used to compare -what's the word? I think it starts with an A?"

"My analogy?"

"Yeah, your analogy about the lotto ticket and the opportunity to join Daniel isn't good. Because it's simple to buy a lotto ticket, And whatever you're offering sounds far from simple."

Jonathan laughed dryly. "I feel like you're imagining something a little different than reality."

"Can you describe the process to me?"

"Sure, there would be some education and then some apprenticeship."

"So I have to take classes on top of my normal classes already, right?"

"They're not classes, per se, but I suppose you could classify them as tutoring sessions."

"You know something, I don't mean any offense when I say this, but I get a bad gut feeling about this whole thing with Daniel."

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Jonathan frowned. "What makes you say that?"

My mind weighed heavy, and I debated how to phrase my following words. "I think I heard your voice in a meeting at 1111 Serpentine. It was during Autumn Break. I wanted to check out the place for myself around the meeting time Daniel requested. Then when I watched, I could have sworn you were there, and it sounds like you were since you are offering me this chance to join this club. But I have to tell you, I'm sorry, but I don't think I want to be a part of it."

I thought Jonathan might be horrified or shocked, but he just nodded. "I understand. What did you hear from that meeting? Do you remember?"

The memory was still fresh in my brain. "I remember hearing a discussion about summoning crystals. Do you know anything about that?"

"Yeah, that was a project one of the other group members was working on."

"Might I know the person?"

"I'm not sure."

"Well, what's their name? You see, this secrecy gives me a bad feeling about everything."

We kept walking in silence. It was a beautiful day, and even though the conversation was a little awkward, I still enjoyed being outside and getting some quality sunshine.

Jonathan cleared his throat and said, "It's all part of the process. In order to be successful, we have to maintain a level of secrecy."

"But it would be nice to have a pamphlet or something. It feels so private and bizarre."

"I felt conflicted asking you, but I wanted to try because we had a recent member who won't be able to go further with us because she simply doesn't have the needed talent."

"But I do? I only know how to use a fire bolt. Nothing more, nothing less. There's no way I have more talent than whoever you're talking about."

"Yeah, but Daniel sure is hung up about this whole visionary prediction." Jonathan shrugged.

"Part of me feels like this has something to do with the bank robbery."

Although we kept walking, Jonathan slowed his pace and locked his gaze forward. "What makes you say that?"

"I have my reasons. Is it true? Is that how I would be making money? Stealing from the bank?"

"Rollie, I'm not sure what gave you that idea." Jonathan's voice no longer had the warmth and charm I was used to.

"I think I know someone in that group during that meeting over Autumn Break. And he worked for the bank that was robbed. Then I'm told about this opportunity to have an apprenticeship with this Daniel guy who has this special magic, and that's what the witnesses saw during the bank robbery. A special magic that hadn't been seen before."

"I can't deny there are some parallels you can draw, but I'm afraid I don't know the full answer. If that was something orchestrated by Daniel, I wasn't made aware of it, but I see what you're saying. It does make sense."

"Like I said, Jonathan, it just doesn't seem right. I think the Daniel guy is up to something sketchy. But that's just me and what my gut feeling says. If anything, you should be looking into this guy more and figuring out what's his deal and what he wants to do. Because I don't get sketchy vibes from you, it seems you and him are two totally different people."

Jonathan went silent, refusing to may eye contact. "I appreciate your thoughts on the matter, but since I've known him for so long, we may be different nowadays, but we used to have a lot in common, and we were good pals. People grow and change in different ways, and you may not always agree with them and their new traits or quirks, but you still can't help but see them as your old friend. Maybe you're too young to understand what I mean, but I think you might be misled by your gut, but that's just me."

Birds flew back and forth between the archway of trees above us. They tweeted and chirped songs to each other. I didn't respond to Jonathan's reply because I was enjoying the serenity of the walk.

"It's a beautiful day, isn't it?" Jonathan said.

"Uh, yeah. Sure is."

An emerald-feathered bird flew down in the middle of our step and landed on my shoulder. It flapped its wings and tilted its head at me.

"Whoa, Jonathan, do you see this?"

He stopped, and his eyes widened as he stared at the bird. "How did you do that?"

"I don't know. But it's happened two other times to me. An Attleton Bluebird has just flown and landed on my arm or hand. It's bizarre."

"That's amazing." Jonathan gazed at the bird, and his jaw dropped slightly.

"This isn't common in Lementum?"

"No. There are a few animal conservation groups who might know how to get a bird to sit down on someone's shoulder, but randomly? And for it to happen three times already? It's quite the anomaly. It's never happened to me. Not even once."

"They just kind of sit there and look at me and chirp. They sound pretty happy about it." I smiled at the bird, which tilted its head and tweeted at me. "It's cool with me. I love animals."

The tone of the conversation had shifted so much with the help of the bird. I had almost forgotten why Jonathan wanted to talk to me.

"I wonder what would happen if I tried to reach out..." Jonathan lifted his hand toward the bird, asking non-verbally if that was okay, and I nodded at him.

But the bird took off back up to the branches above us at high speed.

"Wow. That was certainly something to behold. If you can do that on command, you could have a lucrative career as a street performer. I don't mean that rudely either. Seriously, I think people would pay to see that, especially if you can incorporate tricks into the routine."

"Well, I don't even know how or why it happens. The birds just come up to me and hang out, I guess. I can't think of any explanations."

Jonathan paused and looked up at the branches and the other birds tweeting in the trees. "I think I'm going to head back now. It was nice seeing you, Rollie, and thank you for your honesty on the offer with Daniel. I will be sure that he doesn't ask you again, nor will he come out to visit you. Does that sound good?"

"Yeah, I would appreciate that," I said.

"And if you change your mind, could you let me know? I'm sure Daniel would be happy to still have you as a team member. I know I would too, but I respect your decision."

"Oh, and before you head back to campus, assuming you still work there over the summer, I have a letter I was wondering if you could take to Principal Pine? Farrah helped me write it as we've been writing letters to each other."

"Certainly, Rollie, I could relay your message to Principal Pine. If you don't mind me asking, what did you write to him about?"

I chuckled. "Just how dumb the dress code is. I feel like I should be able to wear my denim coat whenever I want. Like, if it's warm out, who cares if I don't have my Fyron cloak on. Don't get me wrong, I love it, but I just want to be myself sometimes, and my denim jacket is nothing offensive."

Jonathan smirked. "I'm not sure how receptive Principal Pine will be to the idea, but I appreciate your determination. And I love the idea of the campus progressing in the future and creating a better and happier environment for our students."

"That almost sounded scripted."

Jonathan laughed. "You're a funny kid, Rollie. I'm going to take off now, so let's go back, and I can take that letter for you. Although, can you do me a huge favor?"

"For you? ...Most things," I joked. "But seriously, whatever you want, I'm happy to do."

Jonathan's lip curled up. "Could you please not tell anyone about your theories regarding the correlation between the 1111 Serpentine meeting and the bank robbery? That could be an awfully dangerous rumor. And you, of all people, should know about the horribleness of unconfirmed rumors."

Hearing him say that made me feel weird. I wrinkled my nose but smiled and said, "Of course, I won't tell anyone. I haven't told anyone anything."

"Good. It was good to see you, Rollie," Jonathan said.

Going back to my grandpa's house, Jonathan didn't want to stay for dinner, so he left immediately.

"Rollie," my grandpa said in the living room after Jonathan had left, "is everything all right?"

"Yeah, Grandpa. I'm not in trouble or anything. Just revisiting some things that happened on campus over the year, checking in on me, and letting me know I'm still welcome back on campus."

"Okay. Well, if you need to talk to me about anything or if you need my help, I'm here for you."

"Thanks, Grandpa." I hated lying to him about the meeting, but it was best to tell a white lie about it. I could tell that Jonathan wanted that offer to be a secret, and since I respected Jonathan so much, I felt the need to respect that secrecy.