Freddie Badlinu was a very capable wizard.

At least, that's what he told people who he didn't know and would never run into again. It wasn't really the exact truth, let alone truthful at all. According to Aimsey, Freddie was the worst wizard she had ever seen in her life. He couldn't even turn a pebble into sand or light a matchstick with a wave of his hand.

"It's not that easy," Freddie insisted as he walked next to Aimsey in the halls of the Academy.

Aimsey raised an eyebrow judgingly. "It is that easy. I've seen first years do it, Freddie."

"Well, maybe they were just really, really short seventh years. You can't judge, you're as small as them."

His friend didn't hesitate to punch his arm. "I'm not that short," She insisted. "You're all just unnaturally tall."

"Yeah, right," Grunted Freddie, rubbing his arm. "I forgot. You're just vertically challenged."

Aimsey glared but it had no real menace to it. "Honestly, you are a jerk sometimes." They walked in silence for a little longer until she turned to him again. "Did you do the homework?"

"There was homework?" He hissed, feeling his heart plummet.

"Yep!" Aimsey answered, popping her 'p' casually. "It was that essay-thing on moon cycles and how it alters water-spell strength."

"Aw, crap..." Freddie whined, stopping in the corridor to pull parchment from his bag. "Can I copy yours?"

She made a face. "Of course not. You gotta take responsibility and, besides, you copied me last lesson anyway."

"Aimesy, please," He pleaded, dumping his bag on a wall by a window and struggling to get a quill from his bag without dropping it on the floor. "I'll get suspended if I miss one more piece. This'll be the last time, I promise!"

"You said that last time. And the time before that."

Freddie hesitated. "This will be the last last time?"

Aimsey scowled determinedly. Freddie smiled awkwardly. Aimsey sagged. "Oh, fine... Just don't make it obvious." She joined him by the wall and pulled out the essay she wrote, five pages thick and covered in her scrawl-like handwriting. "You're so getting a detention, by the way."

"I know, I know," Freddie insisted, putting the parchment down on the window sill. "I don't really care, if I'm honest. Just let me copy, I need to be seen doing something."

"Ever thought it's the effort you put into learning that affects how well you can cast magic?" Aimsey tried, leaning against the wall. Freddie glared and she shrugged in response. "I'm just saying. Studying is important."

"Give me your homework."

"Alright."

Freddie took the homework and knelt down, attempting to hurriedly translate Aimsey's writing and then scribble it down with half-accuracy. His friend stood above him, watching the surge of Academy students walk around them. The Academy was a school for those blessed with the gift of magic. Every student inside could make something fly or set something on fire. Except for him. It was, in all honesty, a little depressing...

He shook off those feelings, focusing solely on whatever the difference between waxing and waning was. Moon cycles were stupid. Sometimes it was full, sometimes it wasn't. Why did it matter so much? Freddie sighed, dipping his quill in his inkpot and wincing when he sent dark blue blots across the page. He was in a rush and the only good it was really doing to him was making his homework unreadable.

Aimsey glanced over his shoulder. "You're so failing if you hand that in."

"Oh, be quiet. I'm working."

"You're copying."

"Same difference."

He stood up, looking at the half-page filled with ink smears and spelling mistakes. Good enough, he thought to himself, and began to pack away his things.

"Realistically, Freddie, if you just started taking magic more seriously, you'd probably be able to start casting some spells," Aimsey said. She brought this up nearly everyday and, if he was being honest, it started getting on his nerves years ago. "Like, it's not just going to show up one day with you doing nothing. It's hard, I know, but you gotta put in some work."

"Realistically, Aimesy," He answered with a small edge to his voice, "if you stopped bothering me so much about it, I might actually want to do something about my work ethic."

She made a face. "Don't have to be so rude..."

"Well, you don't have to be so bossy."

Aimsey gasped and Freddie turned to grab the copied essay. "I am not 'bossy'!" Aimsey shouted indignantly as her friend frowned. "I'm just saying that someone's gotta tell you that it won't get easier with you avoiding the problem-"

"Do you have my essay?" Freddie interrupted her, looking around the window sill.

She hesitated, furrowing her brow. "No... No, I don't. Is it in your bag?"

"No, I hadn't gotten that far yet." Freddie looked under the windowsill and around the corridor floor, trying to glance under peoples' feet for the missing parchment. "Aw, crap, where did it go?"

"Vanishing charm?" Aimsey suggested.

Freddie gave her a look. "Who'd have put a vanishing charm on a sheet of parchment?"

"I don't know! Wizards are mean."

He rolled his eyes, turning back to the windowsill. "Where could it have gone?" He sighed to himself but then something caught his eye. Outside, beaming white against green trees, was a flying piece of parchment. It had gone out the window. "Oh, you've got to be kidding me," Freddie muttered, and put a foot on the windowsill.

Aimsey frowned, stepping forwards. "Freddie, what are you doing?"

"I'll be back!"

"Freddie!"

Hoisting his bag firmly over his shoulder, Freddie climbed out the window, Aimsey's fingers missing him by the smallest hair width. His feet hit the mud beneath him and he was running before he could change his mind. It was slippery under his feet but he didn't give up sprinting. He jumped up, trying to catch the parchment, but it glided just out of his reach. Oh, dammit, he could not get suspended...

That was the steady backdrop to his thoughts as the floor beneath his feet changed from muddy grass to damp sticks and the clear field turned into a thick forest. He couldn't hear Aimsey shouting for him anymore but he could hear birds that he had disturbed with his ruckus.

Freddie jumped again and he caught the essay in his fist, crunching it into an untidy, ungraceful bundle. He landed on a log that turned out not to be as stable as he thought because it rolled out from underneath him and sent him tumbling to the muddy floor.

Sitting up, leaves in his hair and mud on his face, he could only imagine what a fool he must've looked. Freddie stood up, trying to wipe the worst of the muck off with the parchment and turned around.

"Alright," He muttered to himself. "Which way's the Academy?"

Aside from making him look like he slept in a pigsty, the log had messed up his already-shaky sense of direction. Freddie took a few hesitant steps back before turning to look left. All he could see around him were looming trees that blocked the days' weak sunlight. The wizard looked around a little more, ignoring the way his heart began to shudder nervously.

"When in doubt," He said, not entirely sure who he was talking to, "Go straight..."

He walked forwards stubbornly, refusing to turn around at whatever else he heard. A bird cawed at him and all Freddie did was shoot it a slightly wilted glare. He was starting to think that getting suspended would've been a safer option than this.

One foot in front of the other. Leaves crunched under his shoes, twigs snapped and small animals scurried away. It was eerily quiet - quieter than the Academy's library - and Freddie couldn't shake off that feeling like someone was watching. He glanced over his shoulder but no one was there. So he kept going.

One foot in front of the other. Maybe he should've taken the suspension. Sure, his parents would've been pissed and he'd probably have to listen to Aimsey nag his ear off for his carelessness but at least he wouldn't be caked in mud, wandering aimlessly in a strange and unfamiliar forest. The worst part was when he thought he recognised something only to realise, when he turned the corner, there were just more trees. More trees and more trees, stretching for miles.

One foot in front of the other. Freddie looked down at his feet, grimacing when his right shoe stepped in something squelchy and oozy. It was warm and smelt disgusting. The wizard tried to ignore the fact it was probably animal dung and kept going. His left foot landed on something hard and round and Freddie, with a pit in his stomach, looked down. A stone. Cobbled stone.

His head snapped up and he saw a cobblestone road in front of him, long poles where lanterns hung lining the edges and small patches of fences protecting the corners and twists in the road.

If he didn't have a single shred of self-respect left, he probably would've kissed the road out of sheer joy.

A road meant civilisation. Civilisation meant people. People meant directions. Freddie turned right and started following the road. Only a minute into walking he felt a burst of confidence when a carriage rattled past, heading his way. If people were going the way he was, that meant something would be on the other end.

"Hey!" He yelled at the footman. "Does this road go to the Academy?!"

The man gave him a thumbs up and Freddie felt his heart skip a beat.

He picked up the pace excitedly, ignoring the wet squelch whenever his right foot hit the ground and the stitch in his side. If he could just run into someone, they could point him in the Academy's direction. His feet moved faster and his heart beat harder. The promise of running into someone was surprisingly good motivation.

Freddie followed the road, eventually running as fast as he could. He moved like clockwork, forgetting his stitch in the sudden burst of adrenaline. He ran and ran, strangely exhilarated by the freedom an empty road gave him. The wizard kept running, blood pounding in his ears. He could get back to the Academy. He could make it.

He could go home and see Aimsey and call her short and then get suspended and then-

The trees parted. Freddie stopped. He was not back at the Academy.

He looked up at a sign post.

"Welcome to Akavalley."

He looked forwards again, at a bustling, lively town. He couldn't see the Academy in the background. He turned around and couldn't see a single spire from the Academy behind him. He was lost. He was so unfortunately lost.

He was absolutely fucked.

Hah, I made this because Freddie told me to on stream and I'll do anything for that free clout, yk? Badlinu, if you read this, please know that this is probably one of the worst things I've recently written and I apologise for how crappy it is. Also, I don't know your policy on swearing (you do hang out with Tommy tho) so I've tried to keep it to a minimum.

Anyways, thoughts?