Waking up the next morning to the sun shining bright through his window, Parker began getting ready for his first day of real classes. Putting on his new school uniform that fit him like a glove.

Alexis and Caleb were waiting for him out in the common room, ready to head down to breakfast. He could see the smile on Alexis’s face as soon as he walked into the room. She was so excited to get going and find out her schedule that she didn’t even wait for him to catch up before she turned and jumped down the hole.

“I guess we’ll just have to catch up with her then.” Both Parker and Caleb laughed and made their way down after her.

When they landed on the twenty-first floor, she was already turning the corner to the staircase. They ran to catch up with her, dodging other students and weaving in and out of the groups of kids. Finally catching up to her at the staircase, they stopped her before she could speed off again.

“Alexis! Wait for us!” They were both panting at this point, after running to catch up. “Do you know where we’re meeting today to find out our schedules?” Parker asked because he had absolutely no clue where to go. He felt like a lot of the things they did, they weren’t finding out until the last minute what they were supposed to actually do it.

Alexis turned around, her new shimmering robes spinning and twisting around her body. “I would guess that we’d find out at breakfast. It seems like we find out everything we’re supposed to do there. So let’s get going! I want to know where my classes are and if we have any together!”

With those words, she turned and jumped over the edge, down the center of the stairs. Parker and Caleb both yelped, but remembered that she was going to be fine. She had no more troubles with flying. Caleb had told Parker, “I heard from someone in the common room that she spent almost all of last night working on her flying and being able to do it at any moment.” They looked over the edge and she was almost at the floor now. The air was whipping around her as she landed gracefully on the floor.

Parker followed her lead and leapt over the edge, plummeting to the ground fast. After a few moments of free falling, he spun, forming the swirl of air around him, decreasing the speed of his descent. His feet gently touched down on the floor and he stepped out of the way, figuring that Caleb had jumped right after him.

He walked to the edge of the stairs where Alexis was waiting for him and looked up to spot Caleb. However, Caleb was not right behind him like he had thought. Just over the edge of the stairs, they could see Caleb looking down at them. It was difficult to see him, as he was twenty-one floors up, but they knew that he was afraid of going over the edge.

“I’m not going to wait for him to walk down all of those stairs,” Alexis said, feeling a little mean for saying it. As they stared up at him, they could see that he wanted to jump down but couldn’t build up the courage to take the first step.

Caleb pulled his head back and another student made their jump over the edge but started flying immediately, hovering by the stairs. They couldn’t tell who it was, but that they were trying to help Caleb. The student reached out their hands and took ahold of Caleb’s.

Parker could tell that someone was trying to talk Caleb into it, showing him that he would be fine. After a few minutes, one of Caleb’s legs came over the short wall at the twenty-first floor landing. Then his other leg, making him sit on the edge of the wall. He then hopped off, and together, they began descending down the center of the stairs.

It took only a minute for them to make it to the main floor where Parker and Alexis were. Caleb looked as pale as a ghost. “Caleb, are you okay?” He just nodded his head slowly. Hailee had been the one who helped him down from upstairs.

She looked as happy as ever. Parker wasn’t sure she had any other mood besides happy. Hailee walked with the group into the dining hall explaining that it was perfectly normal for Caleb to be afraid. She said that it took her a week before she was confident enough to make the plunge down the stairs.

Breakfast flew by now that they were used to the routine. Their table was asking Hailee everything they could to try and get a head start on the day and what to expect from the first day of real classes.

“Well, I don’t want to spoil too much but I will let you know that your first week is going to be a little rough. It’s very rigorous and you’ll be extremely tired every night. So, make sure you get plenty of rest!”

Parker was a little nervous about how Hailee described the first week. He asked, “But isn’t the first week supposed to be the easy week?” She just smiled and shook her head at him.

They continued to talk for a little while and then a familiar whisper rolled passed their ears. “Meet in room 23-D to receive your schedules for the first term.” Alexis stood up, pushed her chair in, and raced out of the dining hall without as much as a goodbye. The rest of the table, except for Hailee, began making their way to the twenty-third floor.

When they arrived to the room, Alexis was already sitting in the clearing waiting for everyone to arrive. Everyone began filing into the clearing and once the last person was there, the trees began to rustle. Master Sora came floating down from above them.

“Are you ready for the start of your semester? This is where the real challenges begin.” He explained that any time there was a need for the whole group to be gathered together for something outside of class, this was their meeting spot. Alexis made sure to remember that, figuring that the boys would probably soon forget.

Master Sora tossed a stack of parchments into the air above everyone and waved his hands around. The parchments began shooting around the room, one landing at the feet of each of the students. “This is your schedule for the first term. Take a few minutes to look it over, find out who’s in the class with you and then head to your first room. You’ve got about thirty minutes to arrive on time. Have a great first day!”

Parker looked his schedule over. He had The History of Lancastre in room 3-Y, first thing in the morning. Following that class, he had a couple hours before his second class, Behind the Imperials in room 4-L. Then he had lunch followed by his Air Imperial class that took the whole afternoon in rooms 27-A through 27-F.

Both Parker and Alexis had the same schedules. However, Caleb’s schedule contained a class the others didn’t. Omni was written in the time slot between The History of Lancastre and Behind the Imperials.

“What class is that?” Parker asked him. He shrugged his shoulders not sure what that class was and why he had it on his schedule.

The group started to make their way down to the third floor for their first class. As they approached the staircase, Caleb’s heart started to race. “Do I have to go down that way? I’m still not confident on using my Imperial to make myself fly. Definitely with that big of a drop under me.” Parker and Alexis both wanted to help him down but they didn’t really know how to use their Imperial to help others out yet. Alexis said she couldn’t help but that if he hurried down the stairs he would be able to make it down just in time for class to begin.

Caleb turned and started racing down the stairs, happy to not have to try and fly down. Parker on the other hand was more than happy to leap over the small wall on the landing and began his descent. Alexis hopped over right after him. The adrenaline still made their hearts race every time they flew.

Parker and Alexis waited on the third floor landing for Caleb to arrive so they could walk into class together. He came panting down the stairs, out of breath. They started to slowly walk down the third floor hall to their first room.

When they entered, they saw students sitting in desks around the room, leaving only a few open. Luckily the three of them found open seats next to each other. Looking around, they didn’t see any of their housemates in the room. There were a lot of blue shimmering robes, some shining green ones and a few fiery red robes. They thought that maybe they just hadn’t shown up yet.

Master Keegan came walking through the door and it slammed behind him. “I will be your history instructor for this term. This will be an opportunity for you to learn all about how the school came to be and about what has happened here since. I’m sure you noticed that the books in your rooms have the same titles as your classes. Starting tomorrow you are to begin bringing them to every class you go to.”

The master stopped at the front of the room, which looked like all of the other classrooms that Parker had seen on the first floor. If you didn’t know you were on a different floor, there would be no way of telling. He guessed it was probably that way for all of the classrooms where you sat and listened to a master.

Master Keegan looked around the room at the group he had. He spotted Parker in his shimmering white robe sitting toward the back of the room. “To start today, I want you to go around and start introducing yourselves to the others in the room. You’re all from different houses and need to get to know one another. You will have classes together the whole time you are here, so better learn to get along now.”

Parker started to make his way around the room. He introduced himself to anyone he bumped into. He had no problem starting a conversation with anyone. However, a couple of the kids he introduced himself to just looked at him and walked away. Parker noticed that Alexis was having no problem getting to know a couple of the other students.

Caleb on the other hand, hadn’t moved from his seat yet. A few students in blue robes went out of their way to try and get Caleb to loosen up a little, but he wouldn’t budge. Parker started to make his way over to Caleb to try and help out but was stopped by a hand on his shoulder.

The hand felt enormous. He figured that it probably wasn’t a student with a hand that big, so he determined that it had to be Master Keegan. As he turned around, he saw the master towering over him. “Hello there Parker!” he boomed.

“How do you know my name?” he asked the master.

Master Keegan chortled, “I know your parents very well.” This shocked Parker, even though he had guessed that already.

“You do? How?”

“They were two of my best students! Two of the best Fire Imperials at this school. I was genuinely shocked when you turned out to be an Air Imperial. That doesn’t happen too often you know. Having such powerful parents from one element and being born to a different.”

Parker felt like he didn’t belong with his parents anymore, like he didn’t deserve them. Master Keegan could tell what Parker was thinking and quickly changed the subject. “I would love to get to know you more. Do you have a class immediately after this? Or are you free?” Parker didn’t want to tell him that he was free because he wasn’t really sure what to think about this master, but he also didn’t want to start the year by lying to one of the head masters.

“I have a break between this and Behind the Imperials.” Master Keegan gave a big grin.

“Great! Then we can learn more about each other after class is over!”

The master clapped his hands together and everyone made their way back to their seats. He started speaking, “In this class, you will begin by learning about our founders, how Lancastre came to be. I will inform you, this class is not easy. There is a lot of information to learn but it is vital that you retain it.”

On each of their desks were the materials they would need. Pens and stacks paper. “These are your supplies that you should bring each day. If you are to ever run out and need more, simply ask one of your instructors. You should have a bag somewhere in your room to help carry things to and from class.”

Parker looked over at Alexis who was already writing stuff down on her parchment. "What could she be writing about already?" he thought. He was so focused on trying to read her writing that he hadn’t heard the door open. It was Master Sora.

“Sorry to interrupt, Master Keegan. But could I please borrow Parker and Alexis?”

Master Keegan looked a little upset that Parker was leaving before he got the chance to know him better but obliged with the master’s request. The two of them gathered their new materials and followed Master Sora out of the class.

“Are you ready to learn about Aether? It can be a bit of a tricky sport. But the team is practicing right now so I want you to get a good look at what they do.”

Master Sora took the two of them to the eleventh floor. When they walked through the doorway on the landing, what they saw made their jaws drop. The entire floor was completely see-through. There were bleachers that lined the walls of the room. You could see just about everything from wherever you sat. The entire eleventh floor was like this. One, giant room, overlooking a field of the same size.

Both floors wrapped around the center of the castle, meaning that you couldn’t see the entire field from any one spot on the eleventh floor. Parker looked at Master Sora and asked, “So, two entire floors of the castle are dedicated just to this game?”

“Parker, my boy, it’s not just a game. Wait and you will see.”