As we arrived at the front of the field house, Coach Florence greeted us outside the vast cavern, where the Voltruns were on their way out. Houston Smith, standing tall with a smug grin and confident step, trailed behind his band of cronies. Seeing him made me clench my fists, but luckily he didn't notice as they walked past us and headed toward the trains.

Coach Florence waved at us as we formed a large semicircle around her at the steps to the field house.

"Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for your interest in joining a wonderful tradition on campus. Unfortunately, none of you were here to witness the outstanding talent and ability of the Voltruns, but we can expect tough competition from them this year. They have an exceptional young player, and I anticipate they will remain strong in the coming years. Meanwhile, we graduated a decent number of players, which will be tough to replace. But as they say, it's a rebuilding year for us.

"Without further ado, let's get started with the tryouts. Go ahead and grab a dragon bike. Let me know if you need any help with arcane magic to get it started."

We walked inside and retrieved our assigned dragon bikes before bringing them outside and waiting for Coach Florence's instructions. As we chatted, Coach Florence waited patiently, unamused by our conversations. Eventually, we quieted down.

"Thank you," Coach Florence began. "As you know, we have 40 of you here today, but we can only accept 20 spots on the team. I don't need to explain that we can only keep half of you. Although I wish we could have all of you on the team, it's just not possible. However, even if you don't get selected, you can try out again next year unless you're a 7th-year student. But I don't think anyone here needs to worry about that. Also, there's a rule that if a student has been on the team for four consecutive years and is going into their seventh year, they have a spot on the team. According to my notes, that makes three students. So we will be trying out for 17 other spots. Are there any questions before we begin?"

There was no response.

"Great! For our first task, I will take half of you to get on the dragon bike and then ride the course that I have designed with the assistant coaches in front of you," Coach Florence explained, gesturing to a winding path with objects flying around. "You see, some objects are flying around in this path above us. That is to simulate players from another team. I want to see how well you dodge obstacles, aim your fire bolts at targets, and swipe trophies. This is a bit of a race, so if you can do this quickly, obviously, the better. However, if you do everything perfectly at a slower pace, that will also be considered. But don't be afraid to move quick because this game is fast-paced."

Coach Florence continued to explain the specific rules and then started calling out the names of those she wanted in the first group. "Orson Kalajak," Coach Florence said.

My ears perked up, and I looked at the kid who floated forward toward the starting point. That was the same person Farrah wouldn't stop talking about. He was a tall, handsome guy with short blonde hair and a long narrow nose. His eyes were doughy, and he was the only one who smiled as he approached the line.

Please let me race him, please let me race him.

Coach Florence got to the bottom of the list, and I didn't think I would get my chance.

"Rollie Magpie," Coach Florence called out at the very end.

I moved forward, joining the rest of the 19 students lined up, ready to take the course. On the outside, I kept my face stern and focused, but on the inside, I was celebrating and cheering to have a chance to embarrass Orson. He had been too cocky for my liking, and I wanted to show him I was just as good, if not better.

"Everyone, take a moment to get comfortable on your seat before we begin!" Coach Florence said.

Orson was three people away from me to my right, and I could see him looking around out of the corner of my eye. He seemed to be the only one smiling.

"Is anyone else excited about this? You all look so serious. It's not like we're about to take an exam, or do you all know something I don't?" Orson joked, laughing to himself. His voice sounded a little depressed and hopeless, yet it was humorous, like a cartoon character. My instinctual urge was to laugh, but I suppressed it. I had already decided I didn't like him.

"Well, I know we're all competing against each other for a spot, but good luck, everyone," Orson said, and he sounded sincere. Not a single person laughed or replied.

Coach Florence signaled for us to get ready, and I revved up my dragon bike, prepared to show Orson what I was made of.

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"You will begin when I blow my whistle, three... Two... One...!" Coach Florence's whistle shrieked, and all of us shot up in the air riding fast on our dragon bikes. The standard bike we were all riding felt like training wheels compared to the Blackbird I had become so accustomed to. It was stiff and didn't feel as smooth as a ride.

At the beginning of our race, all the students were in a pack in front of me, but I sped up through the crowd and extended my shoulder as I blew past Orson, nearly knocking him off his dragon bike.

"Whoa!" Orson yelled. He spun in a quick circle, but I didn't watch how the rest unfolded. I was on a mission to out-speed the rest of the group.

Upon my initial burst of speed, I could cut through most of the people, only three people were in front of me before the foam blocks started flanking us from the sides. We had to dodge them as they came charging after us. From there, I lost all track of where people were in the air. Spinning around the blocks and diving underneath them distracted me from everything else. I was in a different zone. My adrenaline was pumping like a steam locomotive, and I saw the targets floating by on the next part of the course. I channeled energy to my hand and rifled through the runes in my head like they were the ABCs. I hurled the fire bolts like a football, nailing one target, bullseye-ing another, blasted a third, and hit the fourth just outside the center mark, but still close.

I sped up toward the area with pedestals containing the trophies, but elemental bolts flew toward me. I had to perform a barrel roll, a loop, and a spin to dodge them all. It was a bit dizzying, but I knew where I was at all times, and I swiped one of the trophies, pulled back out, and kept flying ahead. Everyone was way behind me, still dealing with dodging the blocks and trying to hit the targets. I noticed Orson was at the very back of it all.

Landing softly on the ground, I took a deep breath and handed the trophy to Coach Florence.

"How did I do?" I asked.

Coach Florence's jaw was nearly touching the ground. She snapped out of her momentary amazement and focused on the rest of the students, taking notes. All the other players came flying back in and landed about a minute to two minutes after I had finished. Three separate packs came in after I finished. Orson was part of the bottom pack.

"All right, very good, let's get the next group in. I'll call off the names." Coach Florence went ahead as if our run as a group didn't happen.

"Oh man, this could just end right now, and I think we'd have all the information we would need to know about me. I suck," Orson said. "What am I even doing here?" Orson got off his dragon bike and paced around.

I was celebrating with so much joy in my heart, but when I looked at Orson, I couldn't help but feel horrible for him. I couldn't believe it, but I regretted what I did.

No, no, there's nothing to feel remorseful about. He tried stealing Farrah from you, there's no doubt about it. This is just karma getting even with him.

"Hey, you must be Rollie, right?" Orson said as he came up to me.

I glared at him.

"Hey man, I'm sorry; I'm not trying to bother you. I know this might seem kind of weird, but I just wanted to introduce myself. My name is Orson, I worked with your girlfriend, Farrah, over the summer. She talked about you a lot, and we were friends during our internship."

"Oh, cool, I guess."

Orson laughed awkwardly to himself. "I've always loved Dragonstryke and wanted to join the Fyron team. I'm in my 4th year here, and I tried out my second and third years, but as you probably know, I never made the team."

I continued to stare at him through narrowed eyes. Unsure of what to say myself, I felt it was better to look intimidating.

"Anyways, I couldn't help but notice you out there, and you were amazing. I mean, I'm just amazed at how a second-year student is so good. Since I don't really know anyone on the team, I was wondering if you might be down to show me a thing or two sometime?"

I couldn't believe my ears, the comedian I had heard all about from Farrah was nowhere to be found. He seemed sincere and gloomy.

"Uh, maybe. I'm pretty busy. Who knows if I'll even make it on the team. When I tried to come back in the second semester, they wouldn't let me."

"Dude, are you kidding me? I have been around the game for a while, what you did just now was something I've never seen before. You were amazing."

As much as I wanted to dislike him, I couldn't find it in my heart to be mean. If I kept thinking about how nice he was to me, I probably could have cried.

"I don't know, we'll see what the coach says after tryouts." I shrugged.

"I understand. Well, if you can ever teach me some tricks or if you ever want to hang out, I'm always down."

"Okay. For sure," I said. I was still in so much shock.

We waited for the rest of the drill to finish, and then Coach Florence blew her whistle and stood in front of all 40 of us.

"A lot of you did pretty well with that drill, so good job, we are about to run other drills to see what type of player you are. I would like to point out that..." Coach Florence sighed. "You just witnessed a Fyron record set by one of your peers. Rollie Magpie broke the Fyron record for the traditional Dragonstryke course. Congratulations to him, but that still doesn't mean he has made the team. Let's keep going with these next few drills..."

I stood there, dumbfounded. As Coach Florence called out the next group and called on my name, I still didn't move. It all felt like a dream, one where I was about to wake up.

"Rollie, come on, let's move it to the front here," Coach Florence singled me out.

I snapped out of my daze and moved forward for the next set of drills.

Everything they had me doing was a breeze. I noticed that they called on other kids to focus on specific positions, but they had me doing everything, and for each part, I thought I had passed with flying colors. Hitting all of my targets, dodging everything thrown at me in midair, and swiping trophies, it felt like there was nothing I couldn't do.

"Okay, everyone, that's the end of tryouts. You will all receive a letter tomorrow, so check your mailboxes, and it will let you know if you made the team. Thank you all, and have a great day," Coach Florence said.