It was Mina Baek and Victor Valentine.

  They were accompanied by their familiars. Even from this distance, I saw the Haetae lumbering near Mina’s knees. The familiar’s gait was unbalanced, legs splaying away from its body with every step, like they were too thick for its considerable body size. The head too, none of its bodily proportions was what you'd see naturally in the wild. Flat face, thick legs, and face that could mimic emotions to a certain extent; the creature scared me in more ways than one.

  Victor's familiar was nothing more than a small reddish glow near his neck. It was hard to be sure from this distance, but it had to be.

  A jolt somewhere between outright terror and mind numbing fear played chopsticks up and down my spine using them as piano keys at sight of fire. I shoved it down.

  They were still a good distance away and hadn’t noticed me yet. There was a chain link fence surrounding the courtyard and although nearly deserted, there were still other recluses using the place. Like me, they’d carved out their own spaces.

  ‘They are Practitioners.’ Hwari noted.

  I immediately started to gather my things. “They’re the Valentine and Baek reps.”

  A dozen different thoughts were going off, each giving birth to a new line of questioning. One of them being why they were here. I shoved those down too.

  “They’re carrying their staves.” Wol said calmly.

  My head snapped in their general direction and saw both carrying what looked like a golf or kendo bag before the two disappeared into the school entrance.

  “Or they’re really, really excited to see me.” I joked, but it flew right over Wol and Hwari’s heads. I really needed to have a talk with them soon. “So they’re armed?”

  “Yes.” Wol said simply.

  That made things easier then.

  I finished putting things in my backpack and shoved the pebbles –wardstones– into my pocket.

  Wol was right on my heels as Hwari occupied the space just above my shoulder.

  “Do you have a plan?” Wol asked.

  “Yes.” I sounded calm. Surprisingly so.

  “I do not advise meeting them head on. They will be–” Wol began and I cut him off.

  “I’m going to class.”

  “Pardon?” Wol sounded dumbfounded.

  “It’s third period.” I turned the corner, heading towards my locker. “I have class. Hence I’m going to class.”

  Wol bounded to keep up. “What do you mean class, Practitioner?”

  “It’s an AP class. If I do well on the placement exams, I can get college credit.” I was still feeling the effects of sitting outside for so long and rubbed my arms. “More college credit, less tuition, more time. More time means I can hustle on the side and make some money.”

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  “College? The place where non-practitioners go to more classes?”

  “Well, if you put it like that anything sounds bad.”

  “Practitioner,” Wol sped up and blocked my path. “They are here for you.”

  God, if anyone was looking at the security cameras, they probably thought I was insane. I kept stopping and going with apparently nothing but air in front of me.

  “Yes, they’re here for me. And they’ll find me.” I felt my temper rise and smothered it down to annoyance at the cat, “Look, Wol. I’m a student at this school on a scholarship. If I act up, mess up, or fuck up in any way, I’m expelled. That means good-bye to college, which means good-bye to internships and anything that requires a college degree, and that means good-bye at any chance of making decent money in the near future.”

  “Yesterday, I came face to face with a pyromaniac who was using a ghost to fuel his flames with the experience of what it meant to be burnt alive.” I bent over and scooped up the cat in my arms. Wol didn’t struggle. I continued to walk and talk, holding him close. “All the practitioners I met have either been wanting to kill me, stating their intention of killing me, or in the process of trying to kill me. Now, you said Victor and Mina came with their staffs. What would you do in my situation?”

  Wol sighed. “We are in a building. They will find you, Practitioner.”

  “Hwari can give me a warning when they’re close.” I said with a glance at her.

  The shadow koi didn’t display emotions on account of her lacking facial muscles for expressions. But her voice was much calmer than mine, ‘If that is your wish.’

  “Up until Monday, which was only yesterday mind you,” I quieted as we passed by another group of kids, “I was just another kid worrying about college acceptance letters and whether I'd get enough scholarship money to attend or not. It's hard for me to just walk away from all that."

  Wol said nothing.

  There was one more reason I didn’t want to go, which I didn’t tell Wol about.

  Fire.

  Seeing Victor’s familiar brought back all the memories I’d locked away in a box because I didn’t want to deal with them. I had dealt with the immediate things that were easy to do, like guilt over almost hurting Hwari.

  But I almost died yesterday.

  I almost died.

  That never happened to me before.

  Yes, I know that sounds funny because almost everyone I know has never done that before. Almost everyone anyone ever knows has almost never done that before excepting a very few specific circles.

  Maybe these practitioners grow up being trained for this thing. But I wasn’t that.

  No matter how much Wol praised me with ‘You’ve got talent, kid’ routine, I knew better. I wasn’t anywhere near the level to be competing with Victor Valentine and Mina Baek. Wol had called the evocator from yesterday an amateur. I was even below him.

  I stopped in front of my locker and let Wol down, taking a few deep breaths without looking like I was.

  “Besides,” I opened my locker, “If I’m around people, they’re less likely to do something.”

  "Is that the real reason you’re going to class instead of facing your enemies?”

  “Jesus. Let it go, Wol.”

  “...Atleast tell me the topic of this class we are going to.”

  “AP Calculus BC. Math.”

  “Must I stay?”

  “Yes.” I shot him a nasty look. “Who else is going to save me when the big bad witches come?”

  Wol groaned and Hwari sunk into the shadows without notice.