I still hadn't heard anything from Farrah the following week, not even a letter. I didn't even see her in the hallways or at meals. Checking the library and the study halls, she wasn't anywhere to be found. I even asked a few Fyrons that I didn't really know if they had seen her at all. But they had not.

I went to my classes, I went to practice, and I ate my meals in the dining hall by myself. Farrah was nonexistent. My relationship with her began to feel like a figment of my imagination.

When I tried to go to bed at night, I thought about Farrah even more and couldn't fall asleep. I kept getting up late at night, walking around the campus, trying to shut off my mind. It was the only thing that seemed to work well.

At the end of the week, the Glaciens played the Winderons, and the Glaciens won. The following weekend my team would go head to head with the Voltruns, which was the whole talk of the school. Everyone wondered who would win, I overheard conversations where kids debated who was the better player, me or Houston. They compared our similarities, which was wild to me, but many people said they wanted to cheer for the Fyrons- what a relief.

During our practices, though, we ran a few new plays, and we did them repeatedly until we were as polished as possible. Coach Florence wanted to be unpredictable for the Voltruns.

"We need to be sharp, we can't allow for any mistakes, and we need to play great defense as well," Coach Florence said on the Friday before the match. "We might have to pull out all the stops to beat them, they are an incredible team, and I think they will be in the finals this year, and it may be us in the finals with them. We shall see. I hope everyone is excited, this has all the making of a vintage rivalry match."

Coach Florence was right, I had a feeling of excitement that I didn't have against the Aquasos. And even though the Glaciens were our biggest rival, I just wanted to see the Voltruns go down.

After practice, we sat down with Coach Florence in the locker room.

"Rollie, we're going to do something a little special with you," Coach Florence said in front of everyone. "I want you to be a spy out there for us. During the match, if Houston takes one of our trophies, I need you to chase him back and take another wing with you, and alone those two will focus on Houston. We will not do an all-out charge on Houston because that leaves us more open. We can instead aim our fire bolts at the other players for the Voltruns."

"What if I'm already lining up to enter the Voltruns' zone?" I asked.

"I need you to back out of anything you're doing and chase Houston," Coach Florence instructed.

"You got it, Coach."

"We are going to need you tomorrow, Rollie. Get plenty of rest and eat a good meal. Let us know if we can do anything for you," the captain said.

They didn't talk to me much, but I was incredibly grateful when they acknowledged me or my skill.

Once again, that night, I had a difficult time trying to fall asleep. Constant tossing and turning, but I wasn't feeling too down about anything. The only thing that occupied my mind was the match on Saturday. It was a nice change of pace after constantly thinking about Farrah and what was going on with her.

I refrained from taking a walk around campus, even though it would help me sleep, I didn't want to take the risk of getting in trouble, especially the night before that match.

It sucked, though, because I couldn't get any rest. By the time it was 5:00 a.m. I decided to get out of bed and walk around campus. At that point, I couldn't get in any trouble, and I wasn't trying to fall asleep, I just wanted to get out of bed. I had so much energy I was ready to conquer the world. As soon as the dining hall opened, I fixed myself a small meal of dumplings and a small stack of pancakes and continued walking around campus.

I noticed in the center of the courtyard area there was a Winderon, a Glacien, and an Aquaso, all three talking with each other, and they kept glancing at me.

Narrowing my eyes at them, I decided to approach. "I noticed you guys keep looking at me. What's that about?"

They whispered something to each other.

"Oh, nothing. We were just wondering if Farrah told you anything," the Glacien said, and then he started snickering.

"What's so funny about that?" I gritted through my teeth and clenched my fist. "Told me anything about what?"

Two of them took off running towards the forested area by the Educational Hall. It was still early in the morning, I had plenty of time to get to the game and beat up all three of those guys.

"Why are you guys running away, huh?" I shouted.

The Aquaso was the one guy who stuck around, and he gave me a smug grin before joining his pals. I chased after them, gaining on them quickly. We ran to the thick trees, away from everyone.

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Perfect, I could clobber them, and no one would have any idea of what happened.

But they picked up their speed and then kept glancing back at me. Sprinting through the trees, I had a tough time keeping my eyes on them while dodging all the branches and dead roots protruding from the soil. Those three mages kept crackling at each other, fueling my rage even more. My foot got caught on a root, and I smacked the ground in full force. My forehead nailed a broken branch, and a cloud of dirt kicked up as I crashed.

"Hey, guys! Hold up! He's down," one of the mages said. They spun around and came toward me.

The Glacien charged up an ice bolt and shot me in the back. A piercing chill shot through my body, but it was gone in the blink of an eye. I felt sore, though, and didn't want to get up. I had to recover for a few minutes. But I could still talk, though.

"You guys are cowards," I uttered.

"You got a big game today, huh, Rollie boy?" one of them said, I couldn't look him in the eye because I was motionless on the ground.

"Yeah. I suppose I do."

One of the mages kicked me in my side. And then another kick from the other side.

"I swear, I'm gonna kick all your asses." I groaned.

"I don't think so, Rollie. You dumb ass Fyrons are gonna lose. You got that?" the Glacien said. He crouched down next to me and slapped my face with full force.

Recoiling, I forced out," I don't even know what I did to you guys."

"Oh, you don't remember striking me in the face during the first match?" the Aquaso said. "You were penalized for it, and honestly, you should have been disqualified right then and there. Pick him up, boys."

I was hauled up by my arms, still stunned by the ice bolt. They held me in front of the Aquaso, who cocked back his fist and launched it right at my face.

There was no doubt that was going to give me a black eye.

"Woo! That felt great. Any of you guys want to get some hits in? I'll hold him up for you." The Aquaso smirked at me and slapped my face like an excited mobster. "You're being a good boy about this, you know that? Thanks for not putting up a fight."

I squirmed in place, but I couldn't break from their grasp. They tightened up their grapple on me and gave me a few punches to my side until I settled down. They swapped places, and the Glacien stared directly at me.

"I don't even know you, and you have a problem with me?" I muttered.

"Earlier this year, at the beginning of classes, you shoved me in the hallway, completely embarrassing me in front of everyone. I've wanted to get revenge for a while, and this was a perfect opportunity." The Glacien socked me in my jaw.

That was the punch that had hurt me the most since their assault. I was freaking out that he may have dislocated my jaw.

"No one embarrasses me, you got that?"

"No. I don't." I coughed out a glob of blood.

"I'll give you one more chance. Apparently, you don't clean out your ears very well. No one messes with me. No one lays a finger on me. Do you got that?" The Glacien raised his voice.

"No. I don't. Next chance I get to throw you into the wall, I'm taking it. Always watch your--"

He socked me again. I couldn't tell if he was stronger than them or if he knew where to punch, but I was radiating with pain. My vision was blurred. Everything became darker and pixelated.

"Whoa, he's not looking too good," the Winderon chuckled.

"Perfect. That's what we want, isn't it? He's not going to make it to the match at this point," the Glacien said.

"Let me get one hit in on him. You know, for destroying the Unity Statue," the Winderon said.

"I never... Did that..."

The Winderon swapped places with the Glacien. I didn't recognize the kid, but he wound up a punch and swung. The smack of his knuckles against my cheek echoed in the forest. A few birds flew away.

I pretended to go limp and unconscious. If I had stayed awake and kept provoking them, they would do severe damage. I was already on the edge of passing out.

"Holy crap, I think he's completely out of it," the Aquaso said.

"No way. Rollie... Rollie!" they shook me a like a rag doll, but I managed to stay lifeless.

"Oh man, we got to run."

They plopped me to the ground, laying in the dirt once again.

"Dude, Houston will be so excited when he finds out."

"I think this went better than we could have imagined!"

I could hear their footsteps rush out of the forest. I waited on the earth longer than I probably needed to, but I had to make sure that they were completely gone.

Ten minutes passed.

A bird flew on top of my shoulder and chirped in my ear. Then another bird landed on my other shoulder and tweeted. It felt like they were checking on me. Pushing myself up, I struggled to get to my knees, but the birds were still attached, sitting perfectly on each shoulder.

"I'm okay, you two can fly off now. Thanks for saying hello."

But the two birds stuck around for a moment, I didn't brush them off, though, it didn't bother me at all. Perhaps I was the weird one for talking with birds, but I felt like they were being friendly to me.

My mouth felt dry, but I tasted coppery blood on my tongue. My entire body throbbed in pain, but I limped out of the forest and towards the center square of campus.

I spotted a few Fyrons leaving the dining hall, and they all stopped when they saw me.

"Hey, isn't that Rollie? Our Dragonstryke thief? Oh my gosh! Are you okay?"

It was a group of three Fyrons that I didn't really know. They rushed over to me and crowded around me in their crimson cloaks.

"You don't look so well. Can we take you to the medical hall?"

"Joyce, the game is about to start soon. If anything, he needs to get to the stadium."

"Get to the stadium? What for? You really think he can play in a match looking like this? Look! He's got dirt and blood all over him."

"I'm fine," I finally said. Even though that couldn't have been further from the truth. "I need to get on the train and get to the match."

"See, Joyce, he's all good. Let's walk him to the train station and ride with him."

I put my arm around the guy, and we walked together to the train station.

"Who did this to you? Do you have any idea?" the girl named Joyce asked me.

"I have no idea," I uttered. Which was true, I didn't know the identity or the names of the three people that jumped me.

"Craig, I don't think this is a good idea. He can barely stand up on his own. We should really be taking him to the medical hall," Joyce said.

"No, I'm fine, just take me to the fieldhouse, please."

"Can you hold yourself up a little? All of your weight is going on my shoulders right now," Craig said.

"Oh, sorry." I didn't realize how much I had pressed down on him. "I'm okay, I don't need any help with walking. I promise."

The exhaustion was settling in. The combination of no sleep and getting beat to a pulp was a dangerous cocktail.

The two people I had my arms around had backed away, and then I was fine for a few steps, but with each step, my vision grew darker. Breathing became more laborious, and I could barely see anything in front of me at that last step.

I collapsed.