Tom woke well-rested and jumped out of bed, heading straight to the refrigerator where he grabbed some berries for breakfast.

From the common area, Tom heard Arthur call out, “So care to tell me more about what you did yesterday? You basically went straight to your room and mumbled something about a ‘big fish’.”

Cradling the bowl of berries in his hands, Tom headed to the main area and landed heavily on the sofa sitting next to Arthur who looked at him expectantly.

He spent the next five minutes switching between stuffing berries in his mouth and telling the tale of his trip to the beach, discovering the fishing shack, meeting old man Thompkins, and the marlin that had broken his line.

“It was that big a fish?” Arthur asked, sounding unconvinced.

“I swear! It was the biggest animal I think I’ve ever seen. The thing definitely weighed more than I do.”

“Fine. Fine. I believe you. I just can’t believe that an underground ocean has things like that swimming around in it.”

“I wouldn’t believe it either if I hadn’t seen the giant thing with my own eyes. I know one thing though. I definitely want to try to catch it again. The old guy mentioned something on strengthening the fishing line. Do you think Vincent will teach us that?”

“Anything is possible. My guess is he’s going to have us playing catch up to everyone else so we aren’t super behind when classes start. That could be anything from algebra to transformation control. We’ll find out tomorrow.”

Tom slumped deeper into the couch, playing with the now empty bowl in his hands. “Definitely didn’t expect we’d be doing something like this when you told me we needed to somewhere new.”

“Can’t say I expected it either. But you were right when you said we’re here now and should make the most out of it.” Arthur got up and grabbed the bowl from Tom’s hands and walking it to the kitchen sink.

He spoke up from the kitchen saying, “How about we rest a bit today? It’s our last bit of freedom before we start Vincent’s boot camp tomorrow.”

“There’s no way you’re the real Arthur. He’d never suggest we take a break. This is a test right? If I answer yes, you throw something sharp at me from the kitchen?”

Arthur’s hand appeared from the kitchen and lazily waved a knife up and down with his voice ringing out, “Don’t tempt me. I’m completely serious on the break though. What about the game systems in our rooms? There’s got to be something good there.”

Tom still had his doubts saying, “What about our bags? Don’t we still need to figure out how to get them?”

“You’re lucky I managed to find them and get them shipped here. The receptionist was a big help with getting that town’s postal people to send them. With that taken care of, the only other thing we might need to do is check out our computers a bit more for any useful info.”

“In that case, I’ll take you up on a relaxing break.”

“I figured you would.” Arthur said as he headed to his bedroom while Tom ran for his controller.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I still don’t get why we had to be here at 7 am?”

“Tom, what have I told you about being early and making a good impression?”

“But Vincent never told us what time to be ready today. He just said we had two days. He could have meant meet at noon. Vincent’s probably asleep right now while we’re standing in this empty lobby.”

At that moment, the doors opened to reveal Vincent who gave them both a wide smile.

“Glad to see you both up and at ‘em. I was almost certain I’d be banging on your door to wake you both up.”

“I figured you’d want us here around seven,” Arthur responded with a self-satisfied look on his face.

“There’s no way you both just magically knew to be here at 7. You emailed him about a start time, didn’t you?” Tom said pointing his finger at Arthur.

“Has no one impressed upon you the value of being early Tom?” Vincent responded slyly.

“Now I know you’re both messing with me”

“Worry about that later. For now, you both have other concerns. Namely getting in shape mentally and physically before the rest of the students get here in two weeks.”

“Is that when classes start up?” Arthur asked.

“Exactly. Some students may begin showing up earlier as well, but the first day of class will be in two weeks. We’re going to start your preparation with a little morning run. Follow me.”

Vincent guided them out of the apartment building and through the winding sidewalks to a grass field near the center of the campus.

“We’ll meet here every morning at 7 am sharp and likely end sometime around 5 or 6 pm.”

“That sounds a bit extreme to me. An eleven-hour day?” Tom responded dourly.

“It will be necessary to get you both ready for the pace of your classes. That’s enough chatting. Let’s get moving.”

What followed was some of the most intense running and exercises that Tom and Arthur had ever experienced. One second, they were running sprints while the next they practiced stretches that left them feeling strain in parts of their bodies they didn’t even know had muscles.

Throughout each exercise, Vincent joined them and spoke up when they weren’t performing the way he wanted. He also offered encouragement for their successes or small breakthroughs.

Vincent seemed to be pushing them to their limits which he promptly found when Tom threw up on the field in the middle of what felt like the eighth time they’d been told them to sprint hard for five minutes.

“Are you okay?” Arthur shouted when he saw Tom fall forward in the field.

Tom groaned in response with Vincent coming over and looking him up and down.

As Tom groggily got to his feet, Vincent patted him on the back saying, “Remember this moment. You’ve found the edge of your abilities and now have the chance to exceed them.”

The intensity died down afterward, but Vincent continued giving them instructions and new exercises to attempt. After what felt like an eternity to Arthur and Tom, Vincent finally told them they were done which prompted them both to fall over into the grass.

“We’ll have a ten-minute break before we begin the next segment of training.” Vincent stated before taking a long drink from a water bottle.

“Arthur I think this is the most my leg have hurt in my life,” Tom gasped between gulps of water.

“What about the time you had severe fever chills and told me you couldn’t feel your legs?”

“No this is way worse. I probably could have walked back then even if it was painful. Right now feels like every muscle in my legs was put in a blender. That’s pain mixed with actual inability to move or feel my legs.”

“I think my arms are worse than my legs. Why would he have us do pull ups and then hang on the trees after? Aren’t you supposed to alternate muscle groups?”

“I have no idea. I just hope we’re almost done. It feels like we’ve been here all day.”

Vincent spoke out from across the field saying, “It’s only noon so we have around six more hours,” as he did jumping jacks and push-ups.

Tom sat up saying, “Please tell me we’re done with exercising for the day?”

“That was the last of the exercise for the day. It’s also the end of your break. Let’s get moving to the classroom.”

Vincent guided an unsteady Arthur and Tom to the large building Tom had explored before. They entered and turned to one of the small classrooms on the first floor.

Following Vincent into the classroom, they both noticed two enormous piles of books on two desks. Walking up to one desk, Tom began reading the titles before speaking up, “Algebra, Literature, Biology. Vincent, this is just normal school topics. Where is the magic power stuff?”

“That will be part of your formal instruction with the rest of the class. You’ll be dealing exclusively with these “normal” topics for the next two weeks. There are workbooks included that you should complete as well. Try to finish these foundational readings promptly so we can get to the rest of the material before classes begin.”

Arthur put his hand on the stack of books before turning to Vincent and asking, “How much do we need to finish each day?”

“My schedule recommends you finish one of those books and any associated workbooks each day to stay on track. Mixing topics will help your retention so reading a fifth of five books daily should suffice. With that pace, you’ll likely be prepared for the exams at the end of this training session.”

“Well, I guess we better get reading then,” Arthur said as grabbed the top book on biology and sat down at the desk.

“I still think this is some kind of sick joke. A tv crew if going to pop out any second now,” Tom mumbled before grabbing a book from his pile and sitting down to read.

Vincent watched them studying intently and sat down at the front desk to read a book of his own with a satisfied smile on his face.