The next morning, Parker woke up to the sunrise. Being on the balcony, the sun hit his face as soon as it rose over the horizon. He couldn’t believe that he had fallen asleep out on the balcony like that. Collecting his books, he walked back into the common room to find Alexis, Caleb and Hailee all asleep in similar positions with books opened up on their laps.

Alexis looked like she had taken a break from their hidden chamber research to do some homework. Parker couldn’t blame her for trying to get some of her studies done. She was sitting at a table with her head laying on a role of parchment. Alexis had finished her essay for Behind the Imperials that was assigned yesterday. “Wow… I haven’t even started mine yet…” Parker was still adjusting to the new workload. Second term had increased in difficulty and the amount of work they got.

He nudged her shoulder to wake her up. “Huh…?” she said groggily. She looked around for a minute, taking in her surroundings, realizing she slept in the common room.

“Hey, Alexis, you should grab your things and head back to your room so you can get ready for the day.” She thanked him and made her way back to her room. Parker then did the same for Caleb and Hailee.

When everyone had made it back to the common room to head down for breakfast, Parker was sitting at a table pouring over a book. “What are you looking at?” Alexis asked. He didn’t hear her, too focused on whatever was on the pages.

Stopping at a word on the page, he marked it with his finger and looked up from the book with a smile going from ear to ear. “What is it?” Hailee asked. “Did you find something?”

“Quick, come look at this!” Parker was ecstatic about what he had found. The three of them went over and looked at what Parker was pointing at. The book said,

When Gia first started to form the stone bricks of the castle, she began by laying the main floor, which is now the entrance and dining hall. After having created the entire first floor of the original castle, she decided that there should be a room that she could get to, but one that her siblings could not. Therefore, she created an entrance somewhere among the floor of the main level. As of this day, no one has been able to find the entrance to her hidden chamber. She claimed to have never made such a room but her siblings would discuss how she would go missing for days at a time. At that time, the castle was very small, for they did not have many students. Her siblings could not determine where she would go missing to, so they figured that she must have created an underground room that they couldn’t get to.

“That has to be it!” Alexis yelped. Parker shushed her, making sure no one was paying attention to what they were doing. Hailee grabbed the book to get a better look at it. She looked through the first few pages of the book and saw that the book had been written over one hundred years ago.

“Surely, someone had to have found it by now,” Hailee said.

All they could talk about on the way down to breakfast was where the entrance to the secret chamber could be. As they walked through the main corridor to the dining hall, they looked everywhere for where the secret entrance could be. However, they couldn’t find anything.

“I don’t know why we think that we can find this if no one has since the creation of this place.” Hailee sounded defeated already but Alexis was trying to cheer her up.

“Don’t worry Hailee! We’ll figure it out somehow.”

Breakfast went by quickly, as well as history that morning. They learned more about the beginning history of the school, but the four of them knew all of it really well after pouring over the books the night before.

During their break, Parker and Alexis looked around for the secret entrance while Hailee and Caleb were in their classes. They found it to be rather difficult to search for the entrance while also not looking like they were up to something. Masters routinely passed them with suspicious eyes. Other students paid little attention to them. A group of students in shimmering green robes walked by talking very loudly. As they ascended the stairs, Alexis stopped and stared after them.

“Parker, I have a theory, tell me if I’m crazy,” Alexis said. Parker walked over to her so they could talk quietly. “All right, if anyone were to have found the hidden entrance, it would’ve been someone from The House of Gia right? So, we should ask around during class.” She was very proud of her new idea and Parker seemed just as proud of her.

Behind the Elements rolled by quicker than ever. They took every possible moment to ask a House of Gia student about the secret chamber but no one had ever heard about it.

“Wait! Duh! Of course they haven’t heard of it, they’re only first years like us. We should be talking to the older students!” Parker stared at her, knowing she was right, but trying to figure out how they were going to do that. They didn’t know any of the older students.

“Do you think anyone on the team is friends with any of The House of Gia students?” Alexis asked Parker. “Maybe one of them could ask for us.” Her brow was furrowed, deep in thought about how they were going to find someone that might know.

That night at dinner, the four of them sat together as usual, but this time, they had chosen a different table. Sitting across from them were Finn, Claire, Evelyn and Gwen.

“Finn, what year are you?” Parker asked. He realized that he didn’t actually know what year everyone on the team was. Somehow, they had never mentioned it.

Finn looked confused, but then looked like he must have realized the same thing Parker did. “Oh, I’m a fourth year like Claire.” Parker and Alexis both looked very happy that they were so much older. The fact that they were the same year explained why they were so perfect together on the field. They’d known each other since they arrived at the school.

“I told you that I’m a third year, right?” Evelyn asked. They nodded their heads, remembering the first time they met at their Aether tryouts.

“Did I tell you what year I am?” asked Gwen.

“No, but my guess is that you’re also a fourth year? You look the same age as Finn and Claire,” said Alexis

Gwen laughed and shook her head. “Sorry to disappoint you, but I’m actually a fifth year. Oldest on the team!” She sounded proud to be the oldest.

“If you’re the oldest, why aren’t you the team captain?” Parker was curious as to why it seemed like Evelyn, a third year, would call all of the shots over Gwen.

Gwen laughed again, “Well, when I made the team, I was the only second year on the team. Everyone else was at least two years older than me. Kind of like you guys, now that I think about it. Once they all graduated, the team was left with Finn, Claire, Cassidy, and me. We didn’t have enough people to field a team, so Cassidy convinced Evelyn to join. When she got here, she was way more outgoing than I was and she knew a lot about the sport already. She was just too nervous to tryout on her own. Then we convinced two, second years to tryout so that we could field a full team. After a bit of practice they weren’t too bad and then they disappeared and here we are.”

The three first years and Hailee listened closely as she spoke. “So, how are your classes going so far?” Finn asked. “First year, second term can be pretty rough. They throw a lot of information at you and expect you to remember all of it.”

Parker looked around and saw everyone nodding, agreeing that the second term of first year is rough. “It’s going okay, so far. Alexis and Caleb are top of the class. I’m somewhere in the middle probably.” They looked impressed with Alexis and Caleb.

“Just wait until you get more classes added to your list. That’s when it starts to get really fun. They start to mix the houses in classes a lot more too.” Alexis’s eyes shot open, remembering the purpose of sitting with them today.

“So, you get to meet the other houses and interact more?” she asked. Finn nodded his head.

“Yeah, one of my best friends is in The House of Leith. He does this awesome thing where he can make icicles that look like knives.”

“One of my best friends, outside of the team that is, is from The House of Kenna,” said Gwen. Claire started to talk about her friend from The House of Gia and the things that she could do. Hailee kicked Parker’s shin and kept moving her eyes back and forth from Parker to Claire.

“Claire?” Alexis asked.

“Is there something you need?” she responded.

“Well, could you ask your friend a question for us? We’ve asked the first years about it but none of them know so we thought an older student might know.”

“Sure, what’s the question?”

“Just ask them if they know anything about a secret entrance on the main floor.”

Later that night, Claire found the four of them sitting in front of the fire working on the mountain of homework they had due the next day. “Hey, can I talk to you guys out on the balcony?” Claire asked. All of their heads shot up from their books at the sound of Claire’s voice.

Everyone dropped what he or she was doing and made their way out onto the balcony. “Well, Claudia said that she had heard rumors of there being a secret entrance to a hidden chamber on the main floor but only that there might be one. She said students from their house have been looking for it for centuries but no one has ever found it.”

A wave of defeat washed over the group. “If thousands of students haven’t been able to find the chamber, how in the world are we going to?” Parker said.

The group stood silently on the balcony. Claire didn’t know what to say to them because she didn’t know what it was about. After several moments, Claire broke the silence. “So, um… are you ready for the last Aether game? We really need to win this one. If we win, we win the Aether Cup hands-down. If we lose and The House of Kenna wins, it’ll be a three-way tie and they’ll count how many points each team has earned. Then, if that is tied somehow, we'll have a sudden death game, first team to score wins.”

Their eyes opened wide, not knowing how this would all end. They were really banking on winning their last game so they wouldn’t have to possibly do a sudden death match.

“When is your last match?” Hailee asked. “I can’t wait to come watch you guys. I love every second of the matches, even when it’s really close.”

Parker told her that the last match was in three days and they had a lot of practicing to do. Claire left the balcony to go and work on an essay over how the moon affected the elements. They returned to the common room and continued working on their homework. The rest of the night was filled with work.

Parker helped Caleb on his focus to help control each element. They practiced on the roof so that no one would see Caleb using the other elements.

Hailee and Alexis worked on their homework silently while the boys were gone. After a while of working on her essay, Hailee lay down on the couch and sighed heavily.

“Everything okay, Hailee?” Alexis asked.

“Yeah, I’m just tired of doing all of this writing. How’s everything with you going?”

“This is easy, it just takes a while to get it all done. And I’d be further along if I hadn’t been helping Parker on his. But I like to help others, so I don’t mind.”

Hailee leaned up on her elbows. “You like helping others? Or you like helping Parker?” A grin ripped across her face as she said it.

Alexis’s face grew scarlet red, magnified by the glowing red flames coming from the fireplace. “I like to help everyone!” she said sternly. “But, helping Parker is nice to…” Hailee could hear her blushing as she said it.

“Does he know yet?” Alexis shook her head.

“I haven’t found a good chance to tell him yet. I don’t want to add one more thing to his mind with everything that is going on.”

Hailee didn’t say anything back. Alexis continued to work on her essay until she was falling asleep mid-sentence. The two of them grabbed their things and went back to their room.

Parker and Caleb finished up their practice for the night and called it quits. After all of the hard work, the two of them fell asleep very quickly. Outside Parker’s window, the moon shined bright in the sky. The stars glittered and reflected on the lake’s surface. The galaxy looked brilliant.

The next two days flew by. There was no hint of where the secret chamber might be. However, between classes, homework, and Aether practice, Parker and Alexis barely had any time to have their own thoughts, let alone look for a secret entrance.

The last two matches for the Aether Cup were to be played today. The House of Kenna against The House of Leith and then whenever they've finished, The House of Erion will face The House of Gia. Evelyn was not happy. “No!” Her outburst startled the rest of the team when they received the news.

“What’s wrong Evelyn?” Cassidy looked worried.

“Now all of the pressure is going to be on us. More than it already was! If The House of Kenna wins, we’ll have all of the pressure to win which will make it that much harder!”

The second round of matches had been tough enough as it was. Each team who won the match from the first term won their second term match as well. However, each match had been a bit closer after all of the extra practice.

The rest of the teams’ eyes all dropped to the ground. “But wait! If they lose, then we easily win the cup! As of right now, we're three points ahead of The House of Gia. So, even if they beat us, all we have to do is score one point and they can't win the cup." Cassidy was positive of her math and sounding as cheerful as possible.

The House of Erion team walked into the viewing room above the field. Both teams were already in position to start the game. They took their seats and waited for it to begin.

The moment the whistle blew to begin the game, The House of Kenna started to play rough. They took every opportunity to attack the other players. By the end of the game, The House of Leith only had four players still on their feet.

“I can’t believe the match lasted as long as it did with them playing dirty like that,” Claire said. “Seeing that just makes my blood boil!” Claire was known to be a little confrontational when she felt strongly about something.

“Well, I’m impressed that The House of Leith scored two points with what they were up against. I’ve never seen them play so aggressive. So, we have to either win this match, or if we lose, we need to get at least seven points. I vote we win, anyone second that?”

Cassidy and Gwen raised their hands. “I do not want a match to go seven to ten. That’ll be awful,” Cassidy said. “Let’s just win it quick and be done.”

The team made their way down to the field and both sides took their positions. Master Keegan stepped to the middle of the field. “All right, this match will determine who our Aether Cup champion is! Are you ready to begin? Both teams nodded simultaneously. Master Keegan blew his whistle and both teams took off.