Arthur's eyes shot open, and he immediately looked to the clock sitting on his nightstand which read 6:57 a.m. He groaned in disappointment about the loss of 3 minutes of extra sleep, but crawled out of bed nonetheless.

He slapped the top of the alarm to prevent it from causing a racket at 7 a.m, and headed to the shower. He heard footsteps through the wall he shared with Tom, which surprised him. Tom must have woken up early as well.

Minutes later and much cleaner than before, Arthur exited his room to find Tom sitting at the couch with a concerned look on his face and a neglected bowl of fruit in his lap.

"What if we don't pass, Arthur. I know I was trying to reassure you yesterday that everything would be fine, but now I'M not sure if everything will be fine. Even worse, what if one of us passes and the other doesn't?"

Arthur sat down next to him and put a hand on his knee saying, "It's ok if we don't pass. This has a really difficult schedule to adjust to. Like you said yesterday, Vincent has been over-exaggerating things as well. Besides, if I pass and you don't, I wouldn't just ditch you. We've been together this long, and there's no way I'd leave you behind, even if it's for super secret training at an underground school."

"Yea. You're right," Tom responded while staring at the blue berries in his bowl. "I guess we just do our best and see what happens."

Arthur grabbed food from the kitchen while Tom finally dug into his berries. They ate in silence before heading back to their rooms for some last minute studying and rest.

Around 8 a.m., Tom thought he heard Ez's door open, but beyond that, the apartment was silent until Tom and Arthur both exited their rooms at 8:45 a.m. to begin walking over to the classroom.

"Ready to head over?"

"As ready as I'll ever be," Tom replied solemnly.

They exited the dorm building and began moving to the center of campus at a slow pace. They had time to get there, and neither seemed to be in a hurry to start the exam.

The campus showed more signs of life now than before. Students going every which way, many still learning their way around with few moving confidently.

Arriving at the main study building on campus, they found the food stalls active and multiple students grabbing breakfast.

Arthur and Tom kept walking until they reached their classroom with the clock showing 8:55 a.m. Vincent arrived a minute before 9 a.m. with a thick wad of papers in each hand. The boys each grabbed a seat with his arrival, and he nodded at each of them while putting the exam on their respective desk.

With the papers handed out, Vincent returned to the front of the room, wished them both good luck, and announced that they had 8 hours to finish the exam with a 10 minute break every hour. They each had an optional 30 minute break around noon for lunch as well. Vincent pointed to an analog clock on the wall that they could use for timing purposes, before taking a seat at his desk.

"You may begin."

Both boys flipped the front page of their packet at the same time and pencil scribbling became the only audible sound in the room.

Vincent leaned back in his chair staring at both students.

Frankly, he was shocked. He'd pushed them hard over the last few weeks. It was necessary due to the fact they only had three weeks to finish a ten-week summer program. He wished the school would have been accommodating for a situations like theirs, but rules apparently had to be followed.

Vincent only hoped the boys could keep up with the pressure. He remembered his own placement exams and how stressed he had felt in the days leading up to them.

This was a necessary challenge considering their schedules would only become more hectic with time.

Arthur flipped to the next page while Tom began drawing out what looked to be the solution to a math problem.

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Only time would tell now, Vincent thought to himself.

The hours flew by as both boys slowly flipped through their packets of paper. Neither one took a lunch break, deciding instead to grab food during their ten minute breaks.

Vincent had taken out a book to pass the time early on, and was nearing the half way point by the time Arthur got up and put his exam on Vincent's desk.

Tom quickly followed a minute later, and his exam joined Arthur's in front of Vincent. Vincent looked over and saw the clock read 4:57 p.m.

"Three minutes to spare. What did you both think?"

"Hard," Arthur mumbled while Tom stared blankly at the wall.

"I'll go ahead and grade it with the machine. If you wait here for a few minutes, I can give you the results."

Both boys nodded their heads before taking a seat once again with Tom putting his head on the table.

Vincent returned promptly and placed their respective graded exam in front of them with large red ink numbers on the front page.

Both stared at their number blankly not having any notion of if it was good or bad.

"Passing is a 70%."

Both sets of eyes lit up with glee, turning to the other with slight hesitation before seeing a similar smile on the other's face.

"We did it!"

Tom leaned over to Arthur's table with a low whistle saying, "Only a 74%? Were you even trying?"

"What are you talking about!? You got a 71%. You barely passed."

"Yeah yeah yeah. You're older than me and study better. I expected at least an 80% from you."

Vincent spoke up, "With this, you can both start class tomorrow as normal. You should have received your schedules early last week as well, but let me know if you have any questions. Otherwise, I'll leave and let you enjoy the rest of your day. You've both earned it. This is a difficult exam so a 74% and 71% are both huge accomplishments."

"Thank you for getting us through this Vincent. There's no way we could have done it without you pushing us," Arthur brought up.

"I figured you were over preparing us for the exam, but you knew what you were doing. Thank you Vincent," Tom added.

"Glad I could be of service. Keep in touch if either of you need anything. I may be seeing you both sooner than expected depending on a few internal factors, but we'll have to see." Vincent finished congratulating them before departing the room. Arthur and Tom watched as he blended in with the crowds traveling out in the open space of the lecture building before disappearing from sight.

Arthur turned to Tom asking, "What now?"

"We celebrate! Let's get ice cream!"

"We already have ice cream at home though."

"Oh you're right," Tom seemed lost in thought for a second before mock wiping a tear from his eye and sniffling loudly, saying, "I'm so glad we live here now."

"I still can't believe how hard that test was. I thought I failed for sure."

"I was so sure I failed, that after you turned in your exam, the only thing I was thinking about was how much of the fridge food I could eat before they kicked me out."

"We made it though. Let's get out of here and see if Ez wants to go out or something. There should be some shops around."

They exited the classroom with exams in hand and began heading back to the dorm, chatting along the way.

When they got back to the dorm, they found Ez lounging on the couch with his laptop.

"We passed, Ez!" Tom exclaimed, "Want to head out and get some food or something?"

"Eh... Is it okay if we stay in? I feel like there's a lot to prep for tomorrow. Are there any games you guys would want to do here? What about cards? I think I saw a deck under the TV..."

Ez paused at the sudden serious look that overtook Tom's previously joyful demeanor.

"Is something wrong..."

Tom interrupted saying, "Do you play cards much Ez?"

"I played a lot of games with my Dad since I was little why?"

Tom turned to Arthur, remarking, "I believe we have a challenger here dear Arthur."

Arthur disregarded Tom and turned to Ez to clarify, "Ignore him. He gets a bit serious with card games, but he's harmless. If anything, it means he likes you."

Ez smiled saying, "Let's play some cards then."

The three sat around the lone kitchen table for hours going through every game they knew. Arthur and Tom learned that Ez was from Mexico in addition to being a first year student at Silverleaf.

"What brought you here from Mexico? You've got to be at least 2000 miles from home. Is Silverleaf really that well known?" Tom asked.

"Silverleaf is one of the top schools in the world, and I guess you could say I didn't feel super welcome at the South American schools, so I wanted to try studying somewhere new."

"If you say so," Tom responded with a shrug.

As the night wore on, yawns popped up from around the table with increasing frequency. Around 11:00 PM, Arthur stood up saying, "Well. It's starting to get late. I think I'm gonna turn in. Do you want to get up early and come to class with us Tomorrow Ez?"

Ez dropped his cards to the table and seemed flustered, responding, "I think I might sleep in, but I'll try to sit near you guys if there's room."

Arthur kept heading to his bedroom and replied, "Suit yourself. We'll see you tomorrow then," before closing the door.

Tom got up as well saying, "You play a mean game of poker, sir," offering Ez a handshake. He accepted Tom's hand and smiled in return.

Ez stayed seated at the table even after he heard Tom's door close. He let his head fall to the wood surface and wondered for not the last time that day why his life couldn't be simpler.

"It's ok. I just have to keep being friendly and stay safe, and then everything will be fine. I'll make sure this time is different," He said with more certainty than he felt.

Ez sighed and headed to his room, shutting the lights off as he went.