Academy was being the hell Logan had always wanted to save her from, and while soldiering through the endless hours on the desk she couldn't think about anything that wasn't the ritual they were going to try out that night. The teacher in front of her droned on and on, for what felt ages, not mere hours, about the joys and perils of Summon magic. She had scientifically stopped listening five minutes after the lesson started and had suddenly awakened by her daydreaming when she had heard the students around her stirring up from their desks. She shook her head.

«What's happening?» she asked Clara, her desk mate, an incredibly ugly teenager.

«Uh? The practice?» Clara looked at her with her beady, watery eyes, and Banshee felt the need to reassure her that a good heart was the most important thing in the world. If just Clara wasn't an insufferable smartass as well. «Were you sleeping?»

«Kinda.» no point in hiding. «Practice? I thought we were only going to do theory stuff in these endless classes.»

«The teacher sometimes let us pair up and work in class instead of waiting for someone to cause a diplomatic incident with the Undertide.» Clara shrugged and moved to reach Adam, the only people in the class less nice than her. For some reason, they always worked together.

Banshee whined. She had always hated group work. As she usually was the one paying less attention to anything, she was always not chosen and, thusly, ended up working with the teacher, or with the second-least good person in the room. Meaning a rain of bad marks all over.

This time, she chose to be pro-active. She moved towards Irissa, two desks away from her, and before she could join her posse, she put a hand on her desk.

«Please, pair up with me.» she asked. Plain and simple. Irissa's blue eyes rose to meet hers, with a scorching degree of suspicion.

«I have friends, you know?»

«I don't, that's why I'm asking you.» Banshee replied. «Please. I was not listening to a word the teacher said and so I will fail this horribly if you don't help me.»

«Why would I willingly pair up with someone who will basically let me do everything by myself?» the girl asked.

«Because you have the theory, but I have ten years of magic practice and rituals on my shoulders.» which wasn't technically a lie. «You help me with the theory, I'll lay down everything the proper way. I'm good at natural, you know.»

«So I'm told.» Irissa's close her eyes to a slit, trying to read the woman. But she was so transparent the girl couldn't see anything but actual, pristine panic. «You really care about your grades?»

«Hey, I have to pass this Academy thing! I'm not here for the kicks! I had a perfect life where I avoided passing through this nightmare altogether because I'm useless on books. Then, somehow they found out, not in small part due, I suspect, to the stunt at the Trial. So, yeah, I care about me grades! I don't want to be stuck in these lessons until the end o' time!» she said, maybe with a tad too much enthusiasm.

Irissa pondered, in silence. Looked back at her friend, who was clearly waiting for her. Then she sighed and shook her head, signaling her friend to find her second choice.

«Thank you.»

«Just try not to slow me down. My grades are already not good.» Irissa grumbled.

«Aye, I noticed.»

«You're not very soft, are you?» Irissa gleamed at her, while they started to take from the cabinets what it was needed for the little ritual the teacher wanted for them to perform

«I like to say things as they are. I wasn't judging. My grades are sinking by the minute. Let's hope this helps.» Banshee replied, laying down the ingredients and objects and frowning. Irissa took a second to take in her words before noticing her gaze.

«What's up?»

«Where's the sharpie?»

«The sharpie?»

«To write the symbols of the cyrcle.»

Irissa looked at her for thirty good seconds. Then picked up an ancient-looking charcoal stick.

«You mean the Indian Mines Charcoal?»

«Uuh. Fancy.» Banshee exclaimed, picking up the object. «I bet this doesn't run out in the middle of a rune.»

«You did say you had the experience, didn't you?» Irissa was starting to seriously worry.

«I did. We just don't always have all the perfect stuff, you know, but still we get shit done well.» she explained.

«Staccato says you're... Uhm... particular improvisers.» Irissa tried to bend the words to their most positive significance ever. Banshee raised an eyebrow. «Hey! I say things as they are!»

Banshee laughed.

«I like you.» she said, back to her natural candor, telling her to start reading the ritual, and Irissa, with a coveted smile, started. They weren't very fast. If it was true that Banshee had her good experience with runes, she was trying to be sure they were well-done, and not having Chico correcting them every now and then was making her nervous. Irissa, on the other hand, did look pretty lost. She mixed up one ingredient with another more than one time, luckily Banshee was able to get that, and she couldn't really understand the meaning of some symbols. Banshee couldn't as well, but she was much better in clearly feigning knowledge.

They were sweating and toiling and fiercely made it half-way there when someone snickered two desks away from them. Calpernia Leshrac and her helper, a desperately smitten young nerd with glasses that the gorgeous girl had wrapped around her little finger, were way farther than them in the exercise. And seen that the teacher would grade them from the first who completed the summoning down, they were looking at a C- at best.

«Fuck, this class is competitive!» Banshee gritted her teeth.

«I hate Summon.» Irissa said, on the verge of giving up already.

«Hey! Do I detect a hint of surrender here?» Banshee asked, looking up towards the now half-pouting girl.

«A hint? What else can we do? They're almost finished. We'll never beat them, let alone progress enough to rise over the minimum low-grade! We're too far behind.» she whined. Banshee looked at her. It wasn't the whining of a sore loser. There was something more in that, a strain of despair and suffering that went way over than the simple delusion of failing a class.

«We may be, what did ye say? "Particular improvisers.", but one thing is for sure kid: we don't give up, even in the deepest shit.»

«This is all very empowering and pep-talky, but we're still falling back, and we can't get out of this particular pickle by raining fire over Leshrac.»

Irissa was kind of right. There was no way that any Pollos typical problem-solving solution, namely teleporting, explosions or Chico talking down someone, would work in this particular instance.

So, she would have to resort to something else.

She let Irissa went down, furiously scribbling runes, trying to at least make it to something worth a B, while the time was running deeply out as Leshrac and her companion had already started to mutter the summon formula. Softly crackling, a little fissure in the air, a Ripple, started to manifest. From it came the supernatural heat from the depths of Pandaemonium, home of the imp they were trying to summon. Calpernia's face was a mask of triumph. Half of the class, and the teacher, were completely concentrated on her and her companion.

Banshee focused on the fluxes around her, and around Calpernia. More precisely, around Calpernia's spell. She moved three fingers under her chair, and the fluxes that were opening the Ripple were suddenly severed in their center.

The Ripple vanished.

Calpernia looked in horror at her lost win.

«Master Aloysius! Someone Dispelled my spell!» Calpernia cried, with vengeful anger that made her violet eyes glare dangerously with red.

The teacher sighed.

«Calpernia, only Enforcers can use Dispel, and this is a Mage Academy class. There are no Dispellers here. I know it doesn't sound likely, but you could have done something wrong. It happens. Summon isn't an easy discipline.» the tall, seventy-something man said patiently.

«My spell was perfect!» she thundered, her companion completely giving up any recognition of his own work. «I call foul play!»

Aloysius looked so very tired.

«Come on and try again, check your runes. I'm sure you'll succeed.» he concluded, encouragingly.

Calpernia looked around her as if her gaze would be enough to nail the culprit. But everyone had gone back to their work, suddenly energized by the time gained.

Irissa was shocked.

«I've never seen Calpernia botch a spell in class before!» she whispered to Banshee, mixing two ingredients in a very small crystal bowl.

«Calpernia can suck it.» Banshee replied, her eyes gleaming with self-pride. «Now boost it: we are still behind others in class, but we can aim for a B!»

Irissa looked at Banshee who was completing the circle, with a strange light in her blue eyes. Strange, and surely, already slightly different than the one of the days they've met in class. But the girl said nothing and kept on working.

Smiling wide.

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Hi everybody, this won't be brief but it's a must.
We've past the 800 reads and we're almost at 300 votes and we, the team, are all STOKED.
Mainly because we actually have people not only reading but also commenting and, as we hoped, falling in love with our beloved characters and their wonderfully disheveled lives.

We can't begin to say "thank you" enough for all your amazing support and love.
But we feel we have a duty to dedicate a personal shoutout to our three more engaged fans harlowwinters, RamonaMayfair and JessEubanks. You give us a lot of energy and will to write on with all of your wonderful and fun comments, so thank you, thank you, thank you!

And to all of those reading these lines, we heartily (I, more than ever) suggest you'll visit their profiles and read their amazing books!

That, of course, doesn't mean we don't truly appreciate everyone else reading silently from the lines. We heartily hope you have fun and you're reading on, but seriously: don't be shy!

So, that's all for this week (... or is it?), see you soon and don't forget to comment and vote. There are no useless comments, we appreciate all constructive criticism and silly jokes.
Tbh, we prefer the silly jokes tho!

Lots and lots of love,
Daniel

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