The train started moving forward, giving everyone a gentle pushback, but Arthur wasn't bothered by it. He still marched toward Tim and me. Arthur's presence alone gave the cozy train a menacing atmosphere.

"Hey, what are you doing here, mohawk man?" Arthur asked. "Last I checked, this practice isn't open to the public."

I looked at him, surprised. "It's not? That's weird. That's not what my invite says." I had to mess with him. It was the only way I could find the interaction amusing.

Arthur scowled." Invite? What are you talking about?"

"This one right here." I reached into my cloak and pulled out the envelope written from D.S. Even though it had nothing to do with Dragonstryke practice, I thought it'd be funny to see him puzzled. Best-case scenario, he would know what the letter was about.

Arthur read the note. "What is this? This makes no sense. It's not even November, assuming that's what this date means. How do you get Dragonstryke practice from this message?"

"I guess you don't know how to read."

Arthur narrowed his eyes at me, slapping the letter on the side of my arm. "You can take that back. You're a strange one, Rollie. Seriously, what are you doing coming to this practice?"

"Why do you care so much?"

He scoffed. "Because! I need to know if you're out here trying to play tricks or wasting our time. We need to focus on our next match, and I don't want it interrupted by some hillbilly who goes around riding dirty bikes!" Arthur had a vein pop out of his neck.

The entire train stared at us, dead quiet. Tim looked like he was about to hide under the seat.

I raised one eyebrow and chortled. "You got to relax, man." Deep in my heart, I knew I had to beat him in a race. I had to do everything in my power to make that happen. I couldn't lose to him. It had to be done for Farrah and me.

"State your business! What are you doing on this train? Someone is going to have to ride back with you when we arrive. This isn't an open practice!" Arthur had an unsettling, deranged look in his eye.

"I invited him," Tim squeaked. "I want him to see what it's like on the team. He was asking a lot of questions, and he's new here. I'll talk to the coach about it, but it should be fine."

I was surprised that Tim came to my defense. It didn't seem necessary, but Arthur glared at him and took a deep breath. "Okay, whatever. Just don't be a distraction." Arthur grazed the top of my mohawk with his fingers, turned around, and walked away. My adrenaline spiked. My fight-or-flight instincts kicked in, and I was clenching my fists. I had already taken a few steps, but Tim held his hand in front of me.

"Rollie, it's not worth it, dude," Tim said.

I snapped out of my enraged autopilot mode. Tim was holding me back with both of his hands. "It's alright, man. Relax. So did you just come in here to ruffle some feathers?"

I watched Arthur return to his corner and join his friends. "No. I'm actually trying out for the team, I guess."

"Really?"

I nodded and gazed out the window for the rest of the short train ride.

Arriving at the practice square, all the Fyrons gathered together in an organized fashion. I saw one group consisting of Richmond, Linda, and Laura walking together with six other older-looking people. I assumed they were the starters on the team. Everyone else kept their distance and let them lead the way to the field house. Way ahead of everyone at the base of the field house were three people in black cloaks with the Fyron logo on the back and front. They waved at us as we got closer. I walked by myself and noticed Richmond turning around, searching for someone through the sea of Dragonstryke players. We made eye contact, and he beckoned for me.

I jogged ahead through the students and joined him. I glanced back to see if Tim had noticed I was talking with Richmond, and he did, for Tim had his jaw dropped, and he tugged at Randolph's cloak to whisper something to him.

Richmond put his hand on my shoulder. "So, Rollie, I want to introduce you to Coach Florence. She has two assistant coaches to help implement her ideas and game plans, but it's most important for you to meet Coach Florence."

As all of the students got close to the three coaches, one woman who was shorter than the other two stepped forward. She had short dark hair with earrings of the Fyron symbol.

"That's Coach Florence," Richmond whispered to me.

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"Good evening, everyone!" Coach Florence boomed. "Welcome to another practice. Please get your dragon bikes and meet out here immediately!"

Richmond stood behind me as everyone entered the field house and put his hand on my shoulder. "Coach Florence, this is the first year I was telling you about."

"Oh yes, pleasure to meet you." Coach Florence had a warmth to her voice and a curious gaze.

We shook hands.

"I love your hair, by the way. Ever consider dying it a different color?" Coach Florence said.

"Actually, I have, but I'm not sure what," I said.

"If you went with a scarlet like the Fyron color, that would be pretty spirited." Coach Florence smiled.

"Well, I will do that if I make it on the team. Sound like a deal?"

Coach Florence flicked her eyes between Richmond and me, smirking. "Rollie, I admire your team commitment. So, Richmond told me a lot about you. I want to see it in practice. Are you able to use arcane magic yet?"

I shook my head and frowned.

"It's nothing to be sad about. You'll figure it out soon, but if you practice with someone who already knows how to do it, you might be ahead of the game. Richmond, take him to his dragon bike and come back here immediately. I'll hold a special segment of practice at the very beginning. Sound good?"

"Aye, coach," Richmond said, and he moved toward the field house. I walked alongside him as students floated out like a swarm of calm bees on their dragon bikes.

We went inside the field house, and he hurried down the Fyron corridor. At the very end of the path was a vast wall, but Richmond held his palm over a golden box on the left side. His hand glowed white, and the wall opened up from the center, a room with trophies, cones, pillars, and strange-looking glass domes, but I couldn't see inside the domes. Richmond put his hand up to one of the glass domes and again emitted some arcane magic, and the glass melted upwards into his hand. A scarlet dragon bike stood before us, parked on the ground. The front had small, intimidating white eyes.

"If this practice goes well, I think this bike will be yours to use, Rollie." Richmond started the bike for me, and the eyes on the front glowed red.

"That's awesome!" I ran up to the seat and hopped on.

"Now, If you manage to get your hands on another dragon bike, whether it's gifted or you buy one, you can use it to play in Dragonstryke games. But this is provided by the school, so you have one to play with. Do you have any questions at all?"

"Nah, man, let's just get to practice."

Richmond smiled and nodded. "Be careful flying out of here."

I hovered and left the field house, joining the rest of my peers on the field in front of the coaches. Arthur glared at me as I entered the rest of the team. I thought parking my bike a few yards from him would be funny, so I did. Everyone else was chatting, hardly paying attention to me, but Arthur did.

"Okay, very funny. Enough with the jokes and games," Arthur said.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." I smirked at him and folded my arms.

"Attention, everyone, let's wrap up our conversations!" Coach Florence hollered. Everyone quieted down as she surveyed all of us. "We are about to start practice now. First thing I want to do is take the third team and second team and perform a race. We're going to start right here in front of the field house. We are going to fly straight forward, go all the way to the pole at the other end, turn around, fly through the floating hoop, and then cross the floating pylons you see above my head currently." Coach Florence pointed in the air.

Everyone adjusted their bikes, and I pointed at myself, hoping to make eye contact with the coach, and we did. She nodded at me, and I joined the other students in line in front of one of the assistant coaches.

The tall assistant coach raised her arm up. "Ascend up!"

We all floated up with the assistant coach, and then she stopped, and we all stopped simultaneously.

"Get ready, set..." The assistant coach flew above us and shouted, "Go!"

I gripped the handlebars and rotated them backward, blazing with speed. Staring straight ahead, I didn't look to my left or right. No one was in my periphery. For a moment, I thought something was wrong. No one else was racing with me. But what if I was ahead of everyone? I had to keep going, even if a whistle had blown and I had done something wrong.

The wind bent back my mohawk as I came around the pole.

I finally saw the rest of my teammates, and I couldn't believe it. I was a decent amount ahead of them. The next closest person to me was probably 10 yards away, but there was no doubt that I was the one in first place. I felt a rush as I rode the dragon bike. I was weightless. I could do anything, I thought. Flying through the hoop was the next step, which was a breeze, and then I focused on going northwest to cross the finish line. Buzzing and vrooms came behind me, but I maintained my jet-like speeds until I crossed the finish line. Coach Florence greeted me at the end, waving her arms above her head.

Something struck my entire body, though. A blistering pain covered me from head to toe, but it lasted a brief second. The next thing I knew, I was spiraling toward the ground, and people were yelling above me. It all happened so fast that I had no idea what was going on. I regained control of the dragon bike, landed on the ground, and got off, taking a little walk in front of the field house. My legs were wobbly, but I moved forward as if I had no control over them. I wondered what had happened to me and what that pain was. There was a lot of bickering above.

Richmond ran toward me. "Rollie! That was amazing. I couldn't believe it, you're a natural at flying! Are you okay, by the way?"

"I don't know, uh, what happened to me? I felt a lot of pain a moment ago."

"Yeah, no doubt. Arthur seemed to have thrown a bolt right at you. That's not cool. Coach Florence is really letting him have it, though."

I looked up and saw coach Florence chewing out Arthur. At least that was redeeming.

"So, that flight performance was something else. Things are going to look good for you on the team. I guarantee you a spot on the third team if you want it, but you should at least be on the second team. The second team is the ready-bench players who usually play in actual games. But it isn't my choice. It's Coach's call."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I didn't know how to respond other than smile and nod. I thought my inability to throw a fire bolt still held me back, but if I kept at it, perhaps I'd be a master at the end of the year.

Coach Florence gave out some orders for the assistant coaches to handle. The rest of the team had been given other drills to focus on. "Stay right there, Rollie!" She added as she flew to the ground with Arthur trailing behind her.