Jason's POV

When I got home, my father went into lecture mode. I barely set foot in the door before he was about to blow his top off. Me, being used to this, subconsciously tuned him out while half-heartedly pretending like I was taking his words to heart. Unfortunately, he caught onto my ruse fairly quickly and said:

"You know what, Jason? I don't think we should have any more trouble deciding what to do with you. Go up to your room."

Uh-oh. That didn't sound good. Even though I wanted to ask what that meant, my legs moved on autopilot, standing up, walking over to the stairs and into my room. Flopping onto my bed, I thought about what I needed to do to get out of this situation.

I wasn't too keen on spending my senior year at a military school. The whole soldier thing and whatnot didn't suit me. I wasn't one who could follow orders very well either.

So being on my best behavior for the rest of the summer was my only option. There was only a month left before school started on September 5th. That meant thirty-something days to prove to my parents that I wasn't an irrational delinquent who should be supervised at all times lest I did something stupid anymore.

Except I was and acting otherwise was going to look very suspicious.

I sighed. Karma was coming back to bite me in the butt and there was nothing I could do about it.

My door creaked open. Looking over, I saw a pair of heads peeking into my room. It was the twins, Noah and Nick. They were nine-years-old and even more of a menace than I was. If something was broken, on fire, or missing, you knew it was the twins who did it.

I've been told time and time again that I was a bad influence on the twins. I guess it was my fault the little demons raised hell every chance they got. Well...it was probably true.

"What are you two knuckleheads still doing up?" I asked, sitting up.

Noah pushed the door open further and said, "We heard Dad yelling at you. Did you do something cool?"

"Of course he did," Nick scoffed, following his brother inside. "Dad's never sounded so angry before. He only yells like that when Jason does something awesome."

"Right," Noah agreed, nodding his head. He looked over at me. "What'd you do?"

Before I could answer, a snarky voice spoke up from the doorway. "You guys are going to get in so much trouble."

It was Charlotte, my 14-year-old sister. The twins were known for causing a ruckus and giving you a headache. Charlotte was known for telling on you for anything and everything before trying to prove she was a bigger and better person than you because of the anything and everything you did. A goody-two-shoes and a tattle-tale don't make for a good combination. She was a brat, through and through.

But, alas, someone has yet to shove her off the roof of a ten-story building, so there's nothing I can do but suffer.

"You know Mom and Dad don't want you talking to the delinquent," she said, smirking. She was giving me a look, daring me to say something back.

I only rolled my eyes. "So what are you doing in my room, Charlotte?"

She strolled in casually, taking a seat at the bay window. "Just checking it out. I mean, you won't have it much longer when they boot you off to the Academy of Military Excellence."

The Academy of Military Excellence was the closest military school in Brodale. It prided itself on being the best school to reform troubled youth into capable young men and women and blah blah blah. I knew a kid that went there because his parents thought he was part of some school gang that terrorized other students into giving up their lunch money or something when it was the opposite. He came out a broken man. So broken that when said gang approached him, he beat them half to death with a baseball bat.

The twins' eyes widened and they looked at me with gaping mouths. They started speaking over each other, getting louder and louder.

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"You're leaving us?"

"How come?"

"When did this happen?"

I ignored them and told Charlotte, "Do you enjoy listening in to other peoples' conversations so much because no one wants to talk to you? Are you so lonely that you have to sneak around and watch people do stuff because you have no friends? Is that it, Charlotte? Is that your problem?"

Her face flushed. "No, it's not. I'm just saying: you won't have this room for much longer. And then-"

"It'll be mine for the taking!" Fletcher spun around in my desk chair, somehow avoiding alerting all of us. He's a year younger than me and had this uncanny ability to be quiet no matter what he was doing. He'd be a great spy but, unlike Charlotte, he doesn't care much for other people's business.

Most of the time.

He was holding something in his hand. When I took a closer look, I realized it was my sketchbook.

"Why do you have that?" I asked, standing up.

He gave me a cheeky grin. "I was just flipping through. I noticed you've got a talent for drawing our neighbor, Teresa. Is there something you aren't telling us, Jason?"

I lunged at him, but he jumped out of the chair and out of my reach.

"Come on! You're not gonna share what you've got on your mind?"

"Give it back, you little prick," I growled.

"Jason, do you honestly think I'm going to give such incriminating evidence away? This will be my ticket to getting out of sharing a room with the twins!"

Charlotte narrowed her eyes. "Yeah, okay. This room is going to be mine."

Nick jumped up. "No way, no way! It's ours! We won't have to have a bunk bed anymore!"

Noah stood up with him. "Yeah! It's ours!"

"It's none of yours," I said, grabbing my sketchbook out of Fletcher's hands. "So get out! All of you!"

Fletcher held up his phone and bragged, "I've still got evidence."

I grabbed his phone too and dashed to the bay window, shoving Charlotte out of the way.

"Hey, hey, hey! Stop it! I was kidding!"

He tried taking his phone back, but I already had the window open and chucked it into our neighbor's yard. There was a loud smashing sound as the phone hit the ground. Fletcher almost jumped out after it until the light clicked on in the house next to us. It was in the room right next to mine in the other house, with a bay window just like mine. Fletcher ducked down before he could be seen but I paused. No one usually came into that room. It was always empty and undisturbed.

But now, standing in the room was Teresa Moruga. The younger sister of Juan Moruga, and just as annoying. She was popular in my school and known for being a female version of her brother. She was smart, hard-working, and devastatingly pretty. I've heard many horny teenage guys gushing over the goddess among men.

I'm not gonna lie: when I first moved here a year ago, I was one of those guys. I had a huge crush on her when I first met her. I thought I was the luckiest guy in the world to live next to her. How wrong I was.

She froze when she saw me and stood there for a second, before quickly turning off the light and exiting the bedroom. Huh.

I didn't dwell on the fact and turned around to look at my siblings. "If any of you talk about what Fletcher said or what happened, I'm gonna skin you alive. Now get out."

They shuffled out of the room one by one. I sighed and sat down on my bed. I was gonna think about this whole military school thing tomorrow. A fresh mind came up with better ideas.

Ava's POV

I opened my eyes to find myself floating in space. It was weird. I could breathe just fine and move regularly as well.

Turning my body, I found Earth looming in the distance. I spotted the moon peeking out from just behind it.

"Uh, John? What am I doing here?" I called out, hoping the Red Mage was somewhere nearby. It turns out he was, just a few feet behind me.

"It seems we acted prematurely," he said, floating to my side. "Your partner isn't ready just yet."

"By ready you mean..."

"I mean the people don't hate him enough just yet."

I groaned. "For once, can you just give me somebody who doesn't have a target on their back 24/7? It would make this whole 'find and defeat the Purple Warlock' thing way easier."

He chuckled. "A challenge is necessary to prove your worth, Ava."

"Haven't I done that already?"

"Rules are rules," he said with a shrug. "My predecessors have always done this. I intend to follow in their footsteps. We can't have you breezing through this battle without hardship."

"You know, I would think the person giving me this responsibility would want me to complete it as fast as possible with little to no difficulty."

He grunted and said, "You'll be there within a month. Until then, be patient. You'll get your partner before you know it."

With a smile and a pat on the back, he said, "You'll get your partner before you know." Then he snapped his fingers and was gone.

Gah. Stupid wizards and their impossible tasks. They just love making things as hard as possible. But all I could do was wait. Complaining wouldn't get me home faster.

In the meantime, I was going to review everything I remembered about home. I was gonna get to see my family again. My parents and siblings...All of them.

I was gone for 7 years and I missed them so much. The wait was gonna be worth it when I see the dumbfounded looks on their faces.

I felt a smile creep up on my face when I imagined being reunited with my twin sister, Teresa. We were sororal twins, of course. She was the tall, glittering goddess while I was the short and stocky goblin thing, but we never let our difference in appearance or taste getting in the way of our friendship.

It was gonna be great seeing her again.