The next conscious moment I had, I was slowly opening my eyes, sitting in the familiar bed of the medical hall. I felt like I had a whole night's rest, but I racked my brain trying to remember my last memory.

Did the game already happen? What day is it? There's light outside, but it's a little golden, as if the sun is setting or rising.

The door opened, and -Ms. Susan, the head medic I recognized from last year- strolled inside.

"Hello, Rollie, how are you feeling?" She asked in a gentle voice. Her hands clasped together.

"Uh, hello. I seem to be feeling better, I guess. I got my rest, and I'm not in pain. Can you let me go now? I need to get to the match." I squirmed to the edge of the mattress and swung my legs over to stand up.

Ms. Susan sighed and shook her head. "Rollie, I don't know how to tell you this, but the match already happened. It's still the same day, Saturday, but it's just the early evening. It's 6:00."

I felt a pang of anger in my head." No, that can't be right. I was only out of it for a second."

"Well, that's how it typically feels when you go unconscious. It happens very quickly, and it only feels like a short time," Ms. Susan said. Her voice was heavy, she didn't want to be delivering the bad news. "I'm glad you're feeling okay now, though. Head Counselor Jonathan would like to have a word with you. Are you comfortable and feeling well enough to talk to him, or would you like to get some more rest?"

"Who won the match? The one that was played earlier today. Who won? They didn't cancel or anything?" I said.

Ms. Susan didn't know how to respond. She kept flip-flopping between a smile and a frown. "I'm afraid the Voltruns won the match."

"Oh, okay." I clenched my fist, and my blood boiled. "Do you know what the score was?"

"I think I heard it was five to one."

"Okay." Rather than standing up, I reclined further in my bed and stared at the ceiling, wanting to shout my brains out, but instead, I bottled it up and took a deep breath and another.

"Should I tell Head Counselor Jonathan to come back another time?"

I lifted my head up. "What's that?"

Ms. Susan repeated herself.

"Oh, sure, he can come in if he wants to." I threw my head back into the pillow. Steaming with rage.

"I left the black eye for you."

"What?"

"Your black eye, I remember last year you had one, and I offered to heal it for you, but you told me to leave it because you liked how it looked."

"Oh. Yeah, thank you." I smiled, and it was genuine. It made me chuckle as well.

"You're welcome. I'll be back when Jonathan is finished."

Ms. Susan left, and a few seconds later, Jonathan came walking in.

"Rollie? Are you okay? I've been worried about you." Jonathan's voice was urgent. I wasn't used to that.

"Yeah, I'm still alive, aren't I."

"I saw you when you came in. Joyce and Craig immediately told me about it, and I almost missed you. I was on my way to the stadium, but I stopped when I heard about what happened, of course. I came here as soon as possible, and then Ms. Susan said she would work her magic and told me to leave in the meantime."

"So you watched the match?"

"I did, yes, but I don't think that's very important right now. We need to talk about--"

"What do you mean that's not important right now? That's the only important thing. Tell me how the match went. I'm dying to know. We lost 5 to 1, but I want the details."

"Rollie, I really think we should focus on who did this to you."

"Just give me a 10-second breakdown of the match. That's all I want to hear about."

Jonathan exhaled and continued talking. "The time ran out before the Voltruns could get to six points. I feel like the score doesn't tell the whole story. There was a point where the Fyrons actually stole back one of their trophies, but the Voltruns were too much."

I rolled my eyes and bit my lip.

"What's the matter?" Jonathan asked.

"That's the opposite of what I wanted to hear. I wish we lost 6 to 0 and never had a chance in the game."

"Why?"

"Because!" I snapped. "I feel like if I played, we would have won. And now, because of what happened to me, I probably lost the game for us."

"Come on, Rollie, you can't think like that. There was no way you were making it to the game in the condition you were in."

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. I can't even believe this." I crossed my arms.

"Well, let's dive into what happened because the students that found you didn't have a clue, so I couldn't help."

I shook my head." I don't even know what to say. Those three guys were a bunch of nobodies to me. Practically strangers."

"So it was three people that did this to you?"

"Aw, crap." I groaned.

"What? What's the matter?"

"I didn't want to tell you anything about it. I'm not a snitch."

"That's okay, you're not a snitch. But it's important to tell me what happened so we can handle this so it doesn't happen again."

"Nah. You're not gonna get anything out of me."

"But these three people messed you up pretty bad. We need to take this seriously. They could do it again."

"Nah. That's okay. I can handle it."

Jonathan narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean that you can handle it? Sounds like you have an ulterior motive."

"I don't even know what ulterior means, so how can I have an ulterior motive?"

Jonathan shook his head and laughed drily. "Just because you don't know what the word means doesn't mean... Never mind. Look, this is the best way to handle the situation. Tell me who did this to you, and we will ensure your identity is concealed. No one will know that we had this conversation, and no one will know that you told me who did this to you."

"I'm sorry. I'd love to help you out, but it's part of my code. I don't know what to tell you other than I can't say."

"You know, it's not me who you're helping out, but it's you who you're hurting." Jonathan pointed at me. "Do you understand?"

"Believe me, I'm fully aware. I used to get in trouble frequently back in my home world. I know how it goes."

Jonathan paused." Rollie, this is serious. You were attacked, and these people who did this must receive disciplinary action."

"Fine. I did it myself."

Jonathan wrinkled his nose. "I know for a fact that's not true. You know we have to conduct an investigation, right? So eventually, we will find out, but you're the one wasting my time and everyone else's time."

"Their faces were covered. So even if I did know, I couldn't tell you anything," I lied. I just wanted Jonathan out of the room.

"You can't fool me, Rollie. I've been working with students your age for a long time. I know when people your age aren't being truthful."

"I swear. They were completely cloaked."

"Then why didn't you tell me that earlier?" Jonathan raised his eyebrow and smirked.

"Cuz even if I did see their faces, I wouldn't have said a thing about them."

Jonathan gazed out the window, the room was golden from the sinking sun. We sat for a few moments in silence. "Since I know you rather well, I have a feeling you will want to exact revenge of some kind. Just know that whatever you do or whoever you target, I'm going to imagine they were the ones involved with harming you. And then you will get in far more trouble for any retaliation. I think your best options are to either ignore it completely or tell me who the mages were that did this to you. Regardless, an investigation will happen no matter what. And I will tell Principal Pine that you gave me no information that would help us find the culprits. So he may have a conversation with you when he tries to sleuth out who did this, and just know, he might have a way of getting the information out of you better than I can."

"All right. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it then."

I could tell Jonathan was annoyed. "I think it's unwise to waste Principal Pine's time, and he will be aware that you are wasting his time, so don't expect much patience from him. If you change your mind at all, I'll be in my office. But I will have a conversation with Principal Pine tomorrow evening. Is there anything else you might want to talk about?"

I shook my head.

Jonathan stood up and studied my face. His eyes softened, and he gave me a sincere smile. "I'm glad to see you're doing better. I was perturbed when I heard you were attacked."

"Thanks. Glad to see you're doing well too."

Jonathan laughed lightly. "I'll go now. You have a visitor, are you willing to see them?"

"Depends on who it is. If it's Houston? Hell no." I grinned.

"It's your grandpa."

"Oh. Uh, yeah, let him in, please." I sat up in bed and fixed the sheet in front of me to appear as neat and respectful as possible. "That's right, I totally forgot he was coming to the game today. Oh, man." I rubbed my forehead.

Jonathan left the room, and my grandpa came in. His brow pursed together, and a long frown. "Rollie, hey, how are you?" he said softly as he approached my bedside.

"I'm okay, Grandpa. Really, I'm doing just fine."

"Thank goodness." He exhaled with relief and sat in the chair by my bed. "The whole game, I wondered where you were and what was happening. I felt like there was something else happening that I didn't understand. You know? I didn't see you on the field, and even the announcer commented that you were supposed to play, but no one knew where you were. I was so worried. And then, Head Counselor Jonathan approached me, and he told me everything. He told me the medic was mending you, so the best thing was to let her work her magic. So I stayed and watched the game, but it didn't feel right. Your team played pretty well, though. It felt like they were really fighting for you. The score said 5-1, but with how good the Voltruns are, I was impressed with how your team responded."

"Well, thanks, Grandpa. I appreciate you coming here and seeing me."

My grandpa gave me a hug, and he squeezed me tight. "I was so worried about you. You have no idea how stressed I was. I'm so glad you're okay. Do you know who did this to you? I promise I won't go on a manhunt, but I don't want these kids to get away with injuring you."

Staring at my grandpa's warm eyes and feeling the concern in his tone and face, I couldn't lie to him. I felt the best way to respond was to avoid the conversation entirely.

"It's okay, Grandpa, everything is all taken care of."

"What do you mean it's all taken care of? Please, tell me, I need to know what happened to you. This situation needs to get resolved."

"I know who attacked me."

"Did you tell Counselor Jonathan?"

"It's all taken care of."

"Rollie, you're not answering the question. Did you tell Counselor Jonathan who harmed you? It's okay if you didn't, but I need to know. I can't leave you by yourself on this campus, knowing that you could get harmed again."

As much as I wanted to lie to my grandpa, I couldn't. "Okay, I didn't tell Counselor Jonathan, but it's just not in my heart to tattle on others."

My grandpa nodded, it felt like he understood what I was saying. "Rollie, tattling on others is when someone makes fun of how inaccurate your fire bolt is, and then you tell your teacher rather than handling it yourself. You can handle words, that's fine, but violence? When someone has harmed you physically like this, they need to be stopped and rehabilitated before they do it again. If you don't tell Jonathan, Principal Pine, or another professor you trust, you are allowing another student to get harmed. Do you understand?"

I didn't think about it like that before. I wanted to rethink everything that I had just done. Regret was conquering my mind. Feeling too embarrassed to speak, I nodded.

"Good. Will you talk to Jonathan then? Or at least Principal Pine to straighten things out?"

"Honestly, I don't even know all three kids' names that did this to me."

"But you could describe them, right?"

"Yeah. I think I can."

"You must. Will you promise me?"

I took a deep breath. "Yes, I promise I will Tell Principal Pine what happened."

"Very good. That's a relief." My grandpa stuck around and talked to me for a little while longer and then said goodbye. He had to take the next boat leaving the dock to get home. "I'll see you soon for Autumn Feast. Farewell, grandson, and take care of yourself. I love you."

"I love you too, Grandpa."