Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It was late August when Magnus found himself standing at the jaws of a beast he had dreaded confronting for a while now. But face to face with the monster, he now realised that most of his fears had been in vain. He had imagined staring, whispers, gossip. Long distance photos taken like he was some celebrity to the paparazzi, or a cryptid coming out from the woods. He had imagined a million people swarming him, asking why he had been absent from school for an entire year. But the truth was, he really wasn’t that popular. Not many people had noticed his absence, and even less had cared at all.

Not a single person on the school grounds turned their head in his direction.

Still, he was worried he was going to do something stupid and unbelievably embarrassing, or permanent-record damaging, during his process of remembering how to be a student again. The length of a year was relative to what you filled it with, and for Magnus it had been a lifetime since he-

The bell rang. He was now late for class. On his first day back after a year.

“Fuck.”

Magnus rushes in.

Sometimes life was unnecessarily tough, but sometimes your first class was shared with your two oldest and best friends. Walking into the room with cheeks slightly flushed from jogging, Magnus’ Homegroup teacher gave him a long glare, sizing up this ragged looking boy who had a face of acne scars and unkempt peach fuzz. Someday it would grow into a mighty beard Magnus told himself in front of the mirror almost every day.

The familiar sight of a room filled with desks was one he never thought he’d miss, especially when two of the occupants were-

“Magnus!” Merle had unrestrained delight at the sight of his friend. In the seat beside him, Taako jumped at Merle’s outcry, eyes tearing away from a phone hidden under his desk. His lips curled into a cool smile. Reserved, but noticeably there.

“Please sit down so we can begin,” the teacher said. Magnus quickly shuffled between desks, sitting in the empty spot behind Taako.

Taako leaned to his left, catching the attention of a girl, and he hissed, “Tomorrow, we’re going to need that spot.”

She frowned at Taako, and said with mild befuddlement, “No.”

Taako blinked slowly. “Do you not know who I am?”

“No?” she said again, unimpressed and still confused.

“I’m Taako, from Instagram. And I need my good friend Magnus beside me. He’s a bit of an idiot and in need of every inkling of my help as he can get.”

From the front, the teacher glared in Taako’s direction and held up a finger to his lips to shush him, before he cracked open the class register.

The girl looked away from Taako, uncaring. Taako then did something he would only do for his dearest of friends. He said, “Please.” It was one of those rare moments which hit all witnesses like a brick. The sheer occasion of Taako saying something sincerely was baffling, and would cause mass hysteria if not for the fact that that would considerably piss off their teacher.

“Okay fine,” she whispered back.

A few chairs across, Merle was staring at Magnus, and when Magnus finally noticed, they exchanged a thumbs-up.

The teacher stood, clearing his throat. “My name is Mr Grimmaldis, and just because it is your first day back, that does not mean that we won’t be doing work. You’re in your second last year of high school now – unless any of you fail that is – which means much more work will be expected from you.”

“This man knows how to win students over, huh?” Taako said to Magnus. He was leaning back at a 45-degree angle in his chair, and able to practically whisper into Magnus’ ear. “Just starts the day off with a nice dose of threats.”

“Right, well, with expectations set. It’s time for an icebreaker.” If this man lived for the collective groan of twenty-five agitated students, he got his wish. “You know the drill, your name and one interesting thing you did over summer, starting from the front.”

Magnus was surprised by how easily he remembered who each person was. Outside of his friend group, other classmates had not occupied his thought-space recently, but names and personalities and memories of shared projects came rushing back. Honestly, he just didn’t care about most of them. He had only made an effort to keep in contact with his closest friends. Everyone else was basically background noise.

Merle stood at his turn. Chin held high, goatee glistening. His prosthetic arm rested on his stomach, ready to project his voice loud, confidently and with pride. “My name is Merle Hightower-”

“No, it’s not,” Taako said, making several people giggle. That collective response surprised Magnus. Since when did anyone actually think Taako was funny?

“Highchurch,” Merle continued. “Merle Highchurch is my name. And my summer was pretty lousy. Unless you consider Bible Camp and singing the same hymns about Pan over and over to be fun. In which case, you should really consider investing in other interests.”

Next was Taako, who flicked his hair over his shoulder as he stood. He posed, propping his hand on his hip and his other under his chin like some form of decorative teapot. “Hi. I’m Taako. You may know me from my Instagram success. While I’m not busy being a popular model presence online, I enjoy making magic… in the kitchen!” Magnus’ head thumped against his desk. “Our aunt bought a grill, and I asked myself what kind of man do I want Taako to be? Clear as day I envisioned myself as the holder of the title, World’s Best Grill Master. Unfortunately, before I could get very far through channelling my inner Dad, my sister blew up the grill. Literally. She studies arcana. She sets so many things on fire, we were not sure why our aunt bothered to buy a grill in the first place. We could’ve just walked past her room with a hot dog on a stick and bet on it being cooked by the time we were done passing,” Taako then let out a giggle, somewhat like a pageant laugh. It was staged, but apparently performed correctly, as several people laughed along. Taako took his seat again, grinning to the class like they were an entourage of fans. Magnus had definitely missed something while he was gone. Surely, Taako wasn’t… no there was no way… Taako couldn’t be… cool, could he?

No, absolutely not.

Right before it was Magnus’s turn to introduce himself, a boy with short hair and square glasses stood up. He mostly stared at his desk as he spoke. “My name is Barry B-. Barry. Just Barry. Man, I really wish I didn’t have a last name. And not much happened on the summer. Typically, I stay at home. But I met a really nice girl and we started hanging out and practicing magic together.” To his shock, the entire class let out a burst of laughter. “Oh god! No, I didn’t mean it like… that sounded like a bad innuendo, okay I’m done.” And he sat back down promptly. Taako’s face was completely buried in his hands, but his shoulders shook with laughter.

Magnus was still laughing as he stood, but the moment silence in the classroom fell, he finally felt that first-day-back anxiety he had been expecting. “Hello. I’m Magnus Burnsides. I guess technically I had the longest summer of everyone here, because I wasn’t at school all last year. As some of you may have noticed. For personal reasons. But I mean, I was already a year ahead before so technically I’m just where I should be. It was honestly kind of boring having so much time. I did some woodwork and built something really cool for my friends. I’m excited to show them that. That was my summer project.” Magnus gave a final shrug before sitting back down. And that was that.

At recess Magnus heard the pounding of feet approach, and he turned around in time to be whacked in the face by Lup as she wrapped her arms around him and squeezed tightly.

“You’re back, big boy!” she shouted.

“I’m back,” he muffled into her shirt. “I see you’ve turned into a boa-constrictor since we last met.” She laughed and he tightened his grip to hold her suspended in the air. Once sufficient squeeze-age had passed, he placed her down on her feet.

“How has school been treating ya?” she asked.

“All two classes I’ve had so far aren’t too terrible. Although I have to read an entire book by next week,” Magnus said.

“Did you forget to read it over the summer?”

“Lup, I think I forgot how to read over the summer.”

“What were you even doing, we haven’t seen you since Merle’s birthday last month?” she asked.

“Apparently,” Taako butted in, “He’s been Making something really cool for his friends.”

“Oh sweet,” Lup said. “I hope to meet these friends of yours someday.” She followed her hilarious joke with a loud boisterous laugh and a strong clap to Magnus’ shoulder.

“So glad to be back,” he said, dryly. Honestly, deep down, the words were incredibly true.

It wasn’t until lunch time that Magnus had a chance to reunite with Angus McDonald. The boy detective was sat at a table surrounded by a crowd of people all gossiping together. When Magnus made his way through the crowd he realised that everyone had a copy of the same ‘Caleb Cleveland: Kid Cop’ book, open to different pages and heavily annotated. Magnus watched a kid pull out a small corkboard from his backpack, and several people begun pinning their sticky notes and making string connections to it. It was utterly baffling to Magnus, but the moment that Angus, spotted him, the boy detective launched out of his chair to give him a hug.

“I haven’t seen you in so long!” Angus said. Magnus gave him a hug back, hoping Angus’ glasses would be safe where they were trapped between the two of them. High school sure had a lot more hugs than he had remembered.

“Hey, I missed you too,” he said. It was true. He hadn’t realised until this moment how much he had missed Angus. In his past, Angus had honestly been a fairly annoying presence. He had constantly hung around Magnus, Merle and Taako, not unlike a mosquito buzzing on and on about things none of them cared about, or offering input into 'older boy things' which he didn't yet understand. Now it seemed he had found ‘his people’. “What’s with all your book buddies?”

“I’ve started a book club. Everyone felt out of touch hearing me talk on and on about Cleveland mysteries without being in on the story. Besides, they’re so much more fun to read when you have others to help solve the mystery.”

The whole thing sounded astoundingly nerdy. But Magnus couldn’t deny that the swarm of people around him was evidence that extreme detective book club must have its appeal. Otherwise it wouldn’t be so popular. Angus wouldn’t be so popular. Was Angus… popular? Which reminded him…

“I have a mystery which I think you can answer. What’s the deal with Taako? Everyone like, actually pays attention to him when he acts full of himself and thinks his shitty jokes are funny.”

“Oh, that’s an easy one to solve,” Angus said. “Since he became the closest thing our school has to a celebrity, everyone has wanted to become his friend. Of course he’s a lot nicer online than he is in real life.” Angus covered his mouth with his finger, eyes wide. “Oh, oh dear. Please don’t tell him I said that, that sounded mean.”

“Don’t worry about it, Taako’s a dickhead. But a famous dickhead apparently?”

“Well, he’s Instagram famous. He’s a sponsored model. Have you not been keeping up with his social media? His account’s been booming lately.”

“No way? How much booming are we talking about here?” Magnus asked, almost afraid of the answer.

“Last I checked he had reached seventy thousand followers.”

“Huh,” Magnus’ mouth said, but the rest of his brain spiralled off into a panic summarised by, ‘What the fuck, what the fuck, what the fuck?’

Soon people were tugging on Angus’ sleeve, demanding his attention back into the book discussion. The whole thing was giving Magnus inertia. Just the thought that people wanted to listen to Angus talk about his Kid Cop novels. He remembered lunchtimes of him, Merle and Taako absent-mindedly nodding along, with the occasional ‘Oh, yeah, interesting’ as Angus chattered on and on and on, oblivious to how much they were ignoring him. Maybe they had been terrible friends. Maybe the real mystery was why Angus was still friends with them at all.

Across the cafeteria Magnus caught sight of his more acquainted friend group, now complete with the company of Davenport and Lucretia at the table with the twins and the dwarf, as well as the human kid – Barry – from their homegroup class.

“I’ll see you round,” Magnus said as he left, which was hardly acknowledged by a distracted Angus.

Davenport gave him a nod as Magnus sat beside him at the table, and Lucretia smiled.

“So how is the Caleb Cleveland Cult fairing today?” Lup asked.

“I never thought I’d see the day that Angus became cool.” A million identical memories of the boy sitting alone in the library, reading or doing his homework, blur into one in Magnus’ mind. It is a striking difference to the broken voiced, broad shoulders of the Angus sitting a few tables away, surrounded by a swarm of friends. “Everyone’s changed so much since I was here.”

Davenport tapped his arm, and with his hands signed out “Says the guy who has grown an entire foot since I saw him last.”

“Yeah, says the man with an entire moustache,” Magnus rebutted. “You look like you could file my taxes.”

“Honestly Magnus, even without a year-long break nothing about high school makes sense,” Lucretia began, “People change every day almost. It’s a side effect of this strange quasi-state of being adult-children in which we live.”

“Tell me about it,” Taako said. “I can drive, and I’m famous, but I also need to ask permission to go to the bathroom. Not to mention, Mr Grimmaldis made us do that icebreaker.”

“Wait,” Lup slammed her hand on the table, rattling some plastic cutlery. “You have Mr Grimmaldis! He’s back? I thought he skipped the country.”

“You thought what?” Taako asked.

“He was only away for a semester, why… why could he skip the country?” Lucretia asked, saying the last part very slowly. Despite her utter disbelieve, she seemed genuinely concerned.

“He owes me fifteen dollars,” Lup said, crossing her arms and sitting back to give the cafeteria a scan. Her eagle eyes scoured for a certain Grimmaldis.

“Why would an adult man skip the country to escape a fifteen-dollar debt?” Lucretia asked. She let her head fall into her hands to massage her temple. “Actually, hold up, why does an adult man owe you fifteen dollars?”

“It’s a long story,” Lup brushed off. “One of which I am sworn to utter secrecy.”

“Could you like, write it down?” Merle asked.

“Sign it?” Magnus suggested.

“Fine well you see, it was two years ago when-” Lup proceeded to cover her mouth and make a strange spitting noise akin to a radio fuzz. “And if I tell anyone then he won’t pay me.”

“Okay, okay we get it. Sworn to utter secrecy. No prying whatsoever,” Taako said. “Barry do you know?”

Barry shook his head.

Fall leaves crunched under their feet as Magnus lead Lup, Lucretia, Davenport, Taako and Merle deeper and deeper through the forest. There had always been a small woodland area in their local neighbourhood, and it had been the home of many adventures in their youth, before the prevalence of Google Maps on their phones made the mystery of getting lost an impossibility. The further they wandered the easier it became to forget about the urban world they lived in, and Magnus, Merle and Taako especially, found themselves slipping into memories of their youth. Adventure games with cheaply crafted props and poorly followed rules, playing in this nature reserve they had named ‘The Felicity Wilds’.

The particular path they followed was more than familiar to Magnus, as it was one he had been treading near daily for the past several months. Taako was the first to notice the fixture partially hidden in the trees and pointed to direct the attention of the others.

“No damn way, is that a tree house?” Merle asked. Magnus failed to supress a huge smirk on his face. They all gathered under the wooden structure, staring up into the leafy canopy hiding the tree house.

“Is this your special surprise?” Taako asked. He turned to Magnus and tilted his head. “You know we’re sixteen, right?”

“I built it,” Magnus explained. “Over the summer. As part of my therapy.”

Lucretia eyed the wooden ladder curiously, before giving it a test tug.

“Don’t worry I read all the right books. It’ll hold.”

Lup dared first, launching at the ladder and scaling it effortlessly. At the top, she peered down at her friends over the ledge. “Come on Taako, what’re you afraid of?”

Taako glared up at her. “I’m not afraid of anything, it’s just plywood clashes with my cashmere,” he said, but he took hold of the ladder regardless of his feeble excuse. Magnus was the last one up, ducking his way into the one roomed building. Admittedly, it was a little crowded for six people, but everyone seemed to appreciate the handicraft regardless.

“You know, with a few pillows and blankets, I can totally see us from ten years ago having wicked sleepovers here,” Lup said.

 “Yeah okay I get that it’s childish,” Magnus said. “I just needed a big project to fill my time.”

“Well, I like it Magnus,” Merle said, reaching up to Magnus. Magnus crouched down slightly so that Merle could pat his shoulder.

“Thank you, Merle.”

Davenport popped his head out the window, peering up to the sky. He turned back to sign, “I wonder what the view’s like at night? The light pollution must be at least somewhat less than my room. I could bring my telescope.”

“I’m not sure how safe it is leaving an expensive piece of equipment in the middle of the woods,” Lucretia said. Davenport offered her a shrug.

 “Oh, I can’t believe I missed this,” Lup said, pointing to the paintwork above the doorway. “He called the tree house The Zone of Truth.”

It was a throwback to an old tradition which had begun amongst their group when they were 12. Entering the world of pubescence and high school had brought many embarrassing questions and fears. Merle in one of his very appreciated strokes of empathy, had concocted a game. Well, it was sort of a game. He had grabbed a stick and drawn a circle in the ground. Inside the circle was the Zone of Truth, where anything could be said, judgement free and with trust in honest answers and secrecy.

Honestly, naming a treehouse after a 12 year old’s promise circle was a little embarrassing. Actually, it was very embarrassing and Magnus begun to wonder why he had even bothered with this whole thing at all.

“This is great but I really don’t know what we’re going to do with a dank tree house in the middle of the woods,” Taako said. “I’m just being realistic. It looks great Magnus, lots of good work, good effort b-”

“Hey Taako,” Lup said. “Either be a good friend or shut the fuck up for like once in your life.” Taako was silent.

Lucretia cracked open her journal, privately writing a message about how very necessary Lup’s presence was to keep Taako from making a complete ass of himself.

About two hours had passed, and everyone had more or less settled down into different places in the treehouse. The decision to stay hanging out in there had more or less been a subconscious one. Lup and Taako sat together examining his Instagram feed from his phone. Davenport was trying to help Merle with his maths homework, while Lucretia had taken to headphones and writing poetry in her journal.

Magnus himself was trying to adjust to being a student again, but there was only so many pages of an assigned novel he could read before he needed a break. He went over to Lucretia who removed a headphone and smiled at him.

“Hey Lucretia, what’cha writing.”

“Just boring poetry,” she said. “But here, this might interest you.” She flicked back several pages through her journal before showing him a list.

Tree House renovations

- Curtains

- Pillows

- Blankets

- Snacks… Raccoon concern??

- Telescope

And in Lup’s handwriting

- Porno Magazines

Followed by Taako’s cursive

- Posters of Taako, signed

“Uh,” Magnus said. “I guess this means you guys are interested in hanging out here then?”

“The reception works, so it’s fine by me,” Lup said.

Magnus tried to hide his stunned pride.

“Hey can one of you wizard twins cast us up a light?” Merle asked. “The afternoon shadow is making the book hard to read.”

“Why don’t you just pray for one, cleric?” Taako asked.

“Or use your phone?” Lup said.

“It’s too annoying to hold my phone up when you can just make a floating orb,” Merle said. “I thought you guys loved showing off your skills.”

Lucretia reached into her school bag, pulling out a wand and casting a quick light cantrip. Davenport signed her thanks. She narrowed her eyes with a smirk. “You’re welcome boys.”

It was only the second day of the school year when Lup found herself already needing to forcibly drag her brother out of his bed to get ready for school. In times of beauty sleep, he weighed a ton. Regardless of his sluggishness, by the time they were both doing their make up for the day, he was at the height of his hand eye-coordination prowess. She watched as he winged his eyeliner a solid 2 and a half centimetres long. That day he chose an especially glittery lipstick. It’s when he makes his eyebrows twice as thick as the usual she decides to comment.

“Trying to impress someone?” she asked, working on her own mascara.

“When am I not?” he asked. “You of all people know that just because I make it look effortless, the secret is to actually try really, really hard.”

“Oh trust me, I know. It’s just that you’re going above and beyond today. Or are caterpillar brows the new Taako look?”

“I’m famous now darling,” he said finally completing his brow and moving on to curling his hair. “I need to mix up the look. Gotta go that extra mile. I’m not just Taako Teen Heartthrob, I’m now Taako from Instagram. And tomorrow-”

“Yeah, yeah, tomorrow you’ll be Taako from TV, I know,” Lup said. For a moment she was afraid it had sounded condescending. She really did believe in her brother’s dreams. But rather than boost his ego, she went a more emotional route. “Just… don’t lose yourself in it all, okay?”

“Well while we’re judging each other’s’ looks, is that a denim jacket on my sister?” Taako said. Lup pulled a face at him in the mirror. “It looks fine but you’re on thin fucking ice. You should’ve gone with a white jacket and black skinny’s with a burgundy to neutralise it although I suppose the grey…”

Her brother’s words became silent to her, as her thoughts drifted, and with her drifting thoughts came a skip of her heart. This had been happening to her regularly as of late. Having her thoughts drift to a certain boy, that is; Ignoring Taako was a skill she had mastered long ago.

Taako talked during the entire drive to school, and Lup drove on auto pilot, parking their shared car in the usual spot. Together the twins sauntered across the courtyard side by side, and while Taako would pretend otherwise, no one really stared. No one’s lives stopped for their arrival. Well, except for one.

Barry caught sight of Lup, looking up from his book at her through his square framed glasses and giving her a warm lopsided smile. Having grown up surrounded by Taako, her aunt, watching beauticians and reading fashion magazines; Lup had become accustomed to seeing beautiful faces everywhere, but only after hours of work had gone into them. Not only that, years of her life involved studying make-up techniques, following beauty trends, researching hormones and hairstyles, and fashion and beauty had all become so artificial to her.

And then, she had met Barry. She had been drawn to his similar interest in planar physics and magical chemistry. And after hours spent listening to his voice, staying up until 3am on Discord chats, she had formed an emotional attachment to his presence. After hours of them hanging out together, playing video games or simply existing in each other’s space, she had detailed his face. He wouldn’t know a hair straightener from a pumice rock, but his skin had a natural blush, it had light freckling and acne and he never bothered to cover it. He didn’t really see a need to. It was just what he looked like. And Lup had grown an appreciation for the natural beauty he had.

But one thing made Lup’s heart skip just that little bit stronger each time she saw Barry. She knew, with absolute certainty, that he loved her natural beauty too.

The certainty was there, but she was sixteen and no one had exactly given her an instruction manual for having a crush. She knew the main step, talk to them.

Lup sat beside one Barry Bluejeans. “I can’t wait for our first magic lesson together,” she said.

“Me too. You’ve got quite a reputation to live up to,” Barry said. “Both of you.” It was true, the twins were not known to be humble about their magical abilities.

“Ugh yeah I can’t wait for class,” Taako said. “You guys are such nerds.” However, he flashed them a grin.

“Come on Taako, even you like magic class,” she said.

“Like-d. Liked. When my teach’ wasn’t Magic Fucking Brian, useless extraordinaire,” Taako said, twinkling some jazz fingers.

“Maybe if you’re lucky you won’t get him this year. I guess I don’t really care who my teacher is, so long as Lup is in my class,” Barry said. Lup rubbed his arm affectionately and Taako sneered at them. He felt… odd. He was well accustomed to their flirting, after all Barry had spent every other day at their house during summer. Still, there was something deep down inside of him which struggled with their affection. He dared not show it, of course, Taako was always perfectly collected and cool.

 “I have to go and find some people who aren’t so passionate about school. You know, normal sane people. Ciao.” Taako walked briskly away. Time spent without a friend or a familiar face or some random fan was brief for Taako, and it would only be a short matter of time before he would encounter an acquaintance. In his brief absence of company, he became acutely aware of the ache in his shoulder muscles; a result of the sided weight from choosing a handbag to carry his text books rather than a sensible backpack. It was a heavy price to pay for fashion.

Physical pain was fine, but it was the feelings he couldn’t pinpoint, like the complex ones he got when he saw Lup and Barry together, which bothered him. Maybe it was brotherly protection instincts kicking in. But he actually trusted Barry. They had spent time together too, casual conversations, and Taako would never admit it but he liked Barry. He was interesting, and asked the right questions to play into Taako’s ego. He was especially happy for his sister, and seeing her face light up when she would talk about Barry made him happy too. If things went predictably, Lup would be the first of the two to start dating and they would start kissing, and holding hands and going on official dates. They would cuddle and get to be disgustingly cheesy in public and-

Taako nearly walked first face into Magnus’ chest.

“Woah there, watch it Taako,” he said with all the hostility of a dandelion. Which is to say, none at all, the big fluffy boy was unreservedly delighted to see him.

“You’re so enormously big it’s a miracle they could actually fit you inside the school,” Taako said defensively. “Here.” Taako pulled a quick manoeuvre involving taking Magnus' hand with the arm of his own bag and slipping the weight into the possession of Magnus instead. “Take-that-for-me-thanks-let’s-go-to-my-locker,” he said in one breath.

“Oh-kay,” Magnus said.

“So, Maggie how was your first day back?”

“11^th grade has so much work! Holy shit. It wasn’t until ten at night I went to start my math work and realised the calculator had no batteries,” Magnus said. “You know having not really used it for a whole year. So, then I woke Mr Waxmen up cause I was rummaging through the drawers all over the house.”

“Waxmen sleeps at ten?”

“Yeah.”

“Ten PM?”

“Yeah, he comes home pretty tired, we have dinner and then whoomph. He’s out like a light. He has to get up early too so I felt really bad for waking him.”

“Wow,” Taako said. They reached Taako’s locker, and he began spinning the dial.

“Oh yeah I nearly forgot my locker combination entirely too. That was a fun heart attack I got to experience yesterday.” Taako took his bag back from Magnus, throwing it inside the locker. “Now hold on, why don’t you carry your own shit Taako?”

“BeCAUSE, I gotta take care of my body.”

“And I don’t? I’m a human being not a pack mule.”

“Magnus, you’re really strong. You practically hit puberty and haven’t stopped talking about how really strong you are. If you’re going to constantly tell us how strong you are, you should expect that we will exploit this.”

“A small price to pay,” Magnus said, accepting his fate as the friend group’s strongman.

“Yeah, yeah never pass up an opportunity to flex, big boy,” Taako said. A strange feeling swelled in his chest, predicting his words would bring him sadness, but speaking them anyway, because they seemed entertaining to say, “Soon all the ladies will be paying to see you put on a gun show.” He pushed the feeling down into the depths of his being, alongside whatever sour feelings the concept of his sister dating seemed to cause him. Taako was an entertainer first and foremost. Taako was cool. Always.

“Says the guy who spends half an hour sculpting his face each day. The boys will be lining up for smooches from your uhh… lipsticky lips?”

“Nice try,” Taako said.

“I don’t know makeup. It’s all magic to me.”

“Yeah makeup is a lie. Me and Lup just cast Disguise Self on our own faces each day.”

“More like, Disguise Elf,” Magnus said. There was a pause of silence in which Magnus beamed with pride. “Well anyway, it looks great Taako,” Magnus said, offering a soft kind smile.

It was then that Taako finally realised that what he was feeling was a diverse and multi-faceted depression. This realisation made all his emotions resurface, and they came to him in a sudden wave. It was an unhappiness, a fear and a desire. And worst of all, it would not leave. It took a moment, a slow breath, and shutting his eyes only for a second, promising himself not to cry. He would sort it all out later, when he was alone and in privacy. The jealousy he had towards his sister’s happiness, and how it rattled him with guilt but also made his own needs claw at his heart. An unfulfillment he had been ignoring, yet a self-confidence that it was not necessary. All those emotions, he would hide for now.

Taako opened his eyes, his lapse barely noticeable. A coy smile, a painted face and a head held high. “And it’s forty minutes of make-up, thank you very much Burnsides.”

It was halfway through lunch on Magnus’ second day back when he heard a familiar scream which was followed by heavy thumping footsteps. He turned in time to be barrelled into by Carey, who crushed him in her arms, squeezing him with all strength she had attained through puberty, cheerleading, and a rigid martial arts routine.

“Magnus! Magnus! Magnus!” she squealed into his ear. After a long hug, she let go of him, to instead bounce up and down in front of him.

“Hey,” he said. Then, she punched him in the arm. “Hey!”

“Why didn’t you find me yesterday? I haven’t seen you in months.”

“Sorry I just got caught up in things,” he said sheepishly. Luckily he knew Carey’s weakness. “Killian’s looking great, and… is that a robot she’s hanging out with?” he said spotting the Orc girl over at a table with several cheerleaders and what looked like a large futuristic toaster.

“Her name is No-elle.”

“Did you have a dream about her?” Magnus asked with a smirk.

"Does she ring my bell?"

"Does she wear Keds and tube socks?"

"No she doesn't she's a robot and doesnt have legs. You awful taste in music aside-"

"Hey!"

"-She’s going to be trying out for cheerleading in a few weeks,” Carey continued.

“Oh, she any good?”

“Are you kidding me?” Carey said, smiling and flashing her fangs. “No-elle’s practically already part of team sweet flips. With her on the squad, we’re going to make cheerleading history.” Magnus wasn’t really sure what making cheerleading history consisted of, but he believed if anyone could do it, it would be them. “What about you, big boy? Returning to football?”

 “I haven’t played in over a year. I’m too old to join anything but the main team, and I’m too out of practice for that,” Magnus said, his voice becoming despondent as he reminisced on his athletic days a few years back. He remembered his last game distinctly. It had been an ice-cold night, but Magnus hadn’t felt it over the warm rush of adrenaline, and his own heartbeat thumping in his ears. In fact, he had only known it had been cold at all because Taako, snugged up in a heavy coat and scarf, had made a theatrical show of complaining about his frozen balls on their walk back to his house. It was a good game, but nothing cinematically spectacular in regards to Magnus. He had simply played his part. No shining moment of centre stage glory, but no notable fuck up either. He remembered that his dad and friends had cheered him on. And they had been proud. And that’s all that really mattered.

“How are you going to get all the girls to faun over you now?” Carey teased him.

“Guess I could join cheerleading,” Magnus said. He glanced back at Killian and No-elle. “That’s your plan isn’t it?”

Merle leant back in his chair, literally entering their conversation. “You could get an Instagram account. It seems to be working for boy-wonder,” he said, nodding his head towards where Taako was taking a selfie with several of his classmates.

“Yeah no,” Magnus said. “I already have to put up with people in my class asking about my scar, let alone thousands of strangers on the internet.”

Carey ruffled Magnus’ head at that, kissed his forehead at the top of his scar, exaggeratingly sloppily and gross. “A hundred strangers, if you’re lucky,” she said.

“Rude,” he said.

“You deserve it for that cheerleading comment.”

“Fair.”

“See you round, tough guy,” she said, and bounded off.

Once Taako’s entourage had dispersed he returned his attention to the table.

“So,” he began. “I have, the worst teacher for magic studies. And that’s coming from someone who had Mr Magic Fucking Brian last year.”

“Augh,” Merle said. “I thought they couldn’t get any worse?”

“This new guy just teaches us magic theory, and won’t show us any actual spells. He’s so obsessed with conserving his magical energy. It’s weird. Like, just show us the spells. You’re a teacher, it’s your job? What could possibly be so important that he’s saving his spell slots for later?”

“Maybe he has a secret double life,” Davenport signed.

“He’s probably a murderer,” Lup said. “Can’t be wasting those spells on little party tricks.”

“Yeah well, bad teaching aside he’s got the most annoying and incomprehensible voice,” Taako said. “So not only does he only do theory, he then talks for hours and hours like this, ‘Hellooooooo, my name is Mr Jenkiiiiiins.’”

Barry snorted, leaning into Lup’s shoulder. Taako propped his head on his hands eyeing them with interest. “Barry, how do you feel about our teacher?”

“I want to give him more than one lesson before I start judging. But I honestly have no idea what he looks like, I couldn’t take my eyes off his bow tie. It was so distractingly tacky.”

No one had seen Taako’s face light up quite like it did in that moment. “Barold! You actually have learned something important after spending so many private hours with my sister. That bow tie is utterly atrocious, congrats for noticing you’ve earned yourself ten Taako Points.”

“Can I exchange them for a back rub?” he asked.

“If that’s your wish, cowboy,” Taako said, winking. There was a thump under the table, presumed to be Lup kicking her brother, hard. Taako let out a slow hiss of pain.

“Honestly if Taako and Lup are in the same magic class, I think it’s just a safety measure keeping you from casting spells,” Magnus said.

“Are you insulting our abilities?” Taako asked.

“More like over complimenting them,” he said. “I think the teachers are too afraid of what you can accomplish together.”

“Whatever, as long as we actually learn something practical I’ll put up with it. I don’t ask for much,” Taako said. “I just want to be able to pass my finals and be fully prepared for next year so I can get a really impressive study score contributing to getting a scholarship so I can attend Fantasy Harvard.”

“Wow Taako, I never knew you dreamed so big,” Lucretia said. “Academically, I mean. I know all about your celebrity plans.”

Suddenly, Taako become very coy. “Oh yeah well, it was just a thought.”

“That is super impressive,” Merle prompted.

“I haven’t actually done it yet,” he said. “Or if at all…”

“Transmutation is a really unique school of magic to specialise in too. So for scholarships, you have a decent chance at standing out,” Lucretia said.

“Even still, it’s very competitive,” Taako said. “Plus I’m fairly terrible at most other subjects, listen lets not get ahead of ourselves. Please.”

“Taako don’t be so modest, is a sentence I never thought I’d ever say,” Magnus said. “But seriously, you’re pretty brilliant.”

“No Magnus, noooooo,” Merle said dramatically. “Don’t fuel his ego, it’s already running in overtime.” Merle pretended to melt in his chair. “Taako’s becoming too powerful.”

“Oh can it Highchurch. Besides, it’s not a self-esteem issue,” Taako said, not knowing that he was lying. “Can we just go back to talking about Jenkins’ tie, or something less existential crisis-y.”

A impolite sigh escaped from Magnus, relieved to have finally reached the final page of ‘The Kite Runner’ at 5pm Saturday night. He threw the book across the treehouse and it bounced off the wall landing beside Lup. In the corner of the room, Lucretia winced at the rough handling of the novel.

“Did the end make you cry?” Lup teased, not looking up from her phone.

“No,” Magnus said. “It’s just a really depressing book. I hate the way high school makes us read depressing shit. We’re teenagers we’re already depressed. And teacher’s thing it’s a good idea to make us read about people dying, being tortured and raped? Hey teens wasn’t that fun and relatable? Time to make you read it 20 times over and over and write essays on it all.”

“I really liked it,” Lucretia said. She stopped writing, but kept her eyes on her journal. “It’s a good insight into another life and another culture. I loved reading about Amir’s childhood in Afghanistan, and then comparing it to his life in America.”

“Yeah well, I loved reading about a someone’s dad dying,” Magnus said with a monotonous tone. A silence fell, and he instantly regretted what he had said.

“If you want to talk about it…” Lup began.

“No,” he said sternly. He took a heavy breath, forcing his voice to calm. “It’s no big deal.” The eyes of his friends lingered, and he hated having made them concerned. He had had a whole year of it and he didn’t want it anymore. He didn’t want the staring. He loathed the pity. “Really guys, it’s fine. I’m fine.”

“Well, as I was saying,” Lucretia continued. “I agree with you Magnus. Books like these can just make you feel bad for getting depressed over normal day things, like going to school or having a terrible teacher. Undermining the psychological struggle caused by these day-to-day activities which, in comparison, makes us teenagers seem contrived and unappreciative. Not to mention, the only queer representation is a violent warlord paedophile.”

“And they call it classic literature,” Lup added. “So that teens who complain about how shitty it is, or how at least some parts are shitty, are called uncultured millennials. Maybe, old dudes are just shitty writers, Mr Grimmaldis.” Everyone could practically hear her teeth grind, but her rage was interrupted by Lucretia’s laugher and she quickly opened her journal to scribble away.

“That’s a good point Lup,” she said. “But yes Magnus, even us book people who love reading can agree, sometimes school makes you read garbage.”

“But you don’t think this one is garbage,” he said, pointing to the novel on the floor.

“No. I think that one is pretty good. It has its issues, as all works do, but ultimately, it’s one of the few things school has assigned us which I like.”

Barry liked school and he had been genuinely excited for its return after the long summer break. In his opinion, school was an efficient and effective way of learning.

Math class was his favourite, and while it was true that a lot of what they learned at 11^th grade wasn’t useful to the average person’s life, he didn’t mind one bit. Primarily because he intended to pursue science, mathematics and physics beyond high school, and secondarily, because it was knowledge. He was of the firm belief that if the world had knowledge, if someone had discovered anything, then all people had a right to know it.

“Simply, I find value in pure knowledge, regardless of an apparent use or not. You get what I mean?” Barry asked.

Magnus gave him a slow shrug. Barry was very much an outsider when it came to Lup’s friend group. He had had enough time at her house over the holidays to get acquainted with Taako. While he would never, even begin to comprehend Taako as a person, he knew him well enough to consider him a friend. Magnus and the rest however, were complete strangers.

“I guess so,” Magnus said. “I just think they could teach us more important things, like taxes or how to fix a car.”

Barry didn’t know Magnus very well. Like most of Lup’s friends, he had sat with him at lunch but had no meaningful direct conversations. Regardless, this basic familiarity had driven them to sit together in math class, along with Merle, and Barry pondered the familiarity required to form a ‘friend group’.

Nearing the end of their class, most of the students had become restless, and general conversation now filled the room. Barry had long ago learned how to tune these distractions into easily ignored white noise, and it wasn’t until she spoke did he notice the girl who had planted her arms on Barry and Magnus’ shared desk.

“Magnus, you weren’t here last year right?” she asked.

“Right,” he said, not looking up from his work.

“Where have you been.”

“About,” he said.

The girl frowned at his demeanour. Barry looked between the two, the interaction barely an engagement, more a matter of Magnus being spoken at. Regardless, it was rather interesting.

“You know, everyone’s been talking about your scar?”

“Have they now?” Magnus said.

Barry looked back to his worksheet, not actually reading the questions as he listened in. Honestly, he had been extremely curious too. Of Lup’s friends, Merle had a prosthetic arm, Davenport couldn’t, or didn’t, speak, and Magnus had a giant scar running down his face. He hadn’t asked about them, not even asked Lup, but he was a human being, and a scientist; curious by nature. He just tried not to be an ass about it, unlike some people.

“So, what’s the story.”

Magnus finally stopped writing and was silent for a long moment. “I got it fighting a bear.” The girl frowned at him, lost in confusion. “I only stepped in because the bear was trying to kill the lord governor.”

“What?”

“It was very heroic,” Magnus said.

The girl didn’t respond and chose to give up, returning to her desk of friends. Of course, it was only a matter of seconds before they were all laughing, undoubtedly at Magnus’s childish response. High school was a place of knowledge, but it was also a cesspool of teenagers who gossiped and teased.

“Hmm, do you reckon I should’ve said that the bear was the lord governor?” Magnus asked.

It took Barry a moment to catch up on the joke. “Oh uh, well then it would seem like you were fighting the lord governor, which would count as treason. I guess it depends on how patriotic the asker is?”

Magnus tapped his pencil to his forehead. “Good thinking, Barry.”

Barry was also thrown by being called by his actual name, and not Barold. It was a pleasant change.

While math was fantastic, science class came at a close second. Actually… magic was his favourite but only because a certain lady had tipped those scales. Regardless of his romantic feelings, science class was pretty cool in Barry’s opinion. It was also where he first properly interacted with Davenport and Lucretia. The two of them were like a breath of fresh air, and Barry could freely talk about how much he loved science theory, and not just the part where they get to blow things up.

Barry preferred chemistry and physics, while Davenport had a stronger interest in environmental science and Lucretia in biology. Together they shared an instant, unspoken agreement to be science partners at every single chance they got.

Their friendship began with asking for homework help online. Then it was through idle conversation in class. One group project with optional partners later and Barry realised he had genuinely become a part of Lup’s friend group.

Which of course brought with it, the friendly interjection into his love life. After talking about Lup too many times in passing, or purposefully bringing up how amazing Barry thought she was, Davenport would give him a light elbow nudge, to the point where he was almost bruising with how frequently this occurred. Lucretia took a more direct approach, listing ideas for first dates they could go on.

“Lup would love the new ‘Now you see me’ movie,” she said. “Illusory magic performed by non-magicians always entertains her. She’d also like to check out the patisserie that’s just opened up in town too, probably to steal recipe ideas, but I hear it’s nice. Oh, and you should totally bring her flowers. She puts on a tough act, but she would absolutely melt at any hint of romance.”

Barry would try to brush off the interference, but honestly, Lucretia gave really good advice. Her journal probably contained more information about Lup than Lup knew of herself.

“But seriously,” Lucretia said grabbing Barry’s arm. “She deserves to be swept off her feet.”

Barry looked stared back at her, deep into her eyes. “I know.” He stepped back slipping from her grasp, and then he hoisted his books from his locker, because he was also a teenage kid who had school work to worry about on top of everything else. “I’ll see you at lunch Lucretia.”

He could talk with Lup with ease, and she laughed at his jokes, and sent him memes. He was fairly certain she liked him, but he was sixteen and no one had exactly given him an instruction manual for having a crush. Barry had never been in a relationship before, and he couldn’t find the answer in any of his text books, nor did he think he could ask his science teacher…. Actually maybe he could… no… no he couldn’t ask Mr Lucas for help on dating.

Maybe he was wrong about Lup entirely. Or maybe he was just afraid. Or maybe he was overthinking all this.

He was certain of one thing, he really, really liked Lup.

And the thought of asking her out, like a mature adult man would, the concept of asking a cute girl on a date, made him feel very much like a man who knew nothing at all.

“No, no you can’t use the default filters. There’s hardly enough choice, it’s tacky and cheap and their effects just hide your natural beauty,” Taako said. The small crowd gathered around him, nodded along, all desperate to hear advice from the pro. Lucretia stood on her toes, stuck at the periphery of the group, trying to get a view of Taako’s phone.

“What’s going on?” Merle asked under his breath.

“I think they’re getting blogging tips?” Barry guessed.

“Instagram isn’t a blog, you oaf,” a boy said from behind them. Magnus, Merle and Barry turned to see Edward, a senior elf boy who dressed like a Disney channel star. He sneered in the direction of Taako with his arms crossed. Maybe he was more of a Disney channel villain, with his sharp claw like nails and blinding gold, fur lined jacket making him look like a poisonous reptile to touch. “And they’re learning from the wrong person.”

“I don’t know, he’s probably really popular for a reason,” Barry said.

Edward scoffed. “He’s hardly huge.”

Taako, inflecting his sixth sense which could detect when he was being talked about, made his way into the conversation, abandoning his entourage of fans.

“What’s that is someone talking shit behind my back,” Taako asked. He looked Edward up and down before adding, “Oh no you twins don’t have the tact to do anything behind someone’s back. You’re always so-” he waved in the general direction of Edward’s gold jacket “-blindly present.”

“You talk big Taako, but you’re not even that popular,” Edward said.

“Oh sorry, who is the one celebrating one hundred-kay followers?”

“Me and Lydia’s accounts combined are far over-shadowing your,” he said. Between the two of them, Barry, Magnus and Merle’s heads turned back and forth with the conversation.

“One. I said, ‘who is the one’. Combined doesn’t mean anything sweetie,” Taako said rolling his eyes dramatically. “You know, I have a twin too, but we both figured out how to be individuals. We could give you some tips sometime, if you ever feel like finding your own personality hidden somewhere under all that plastic jewellery.”

“It’s a good thing Lup isn’t into social media. After all she’s smarter, prettier, cooler, funnier, well, better than you in just about every way.” Edward did some sort of shrug with one shoulder. “She’d far overshadow you. And you’d just be… ‘Lup’s brother’.”

“Did you just, try to insult me by complimenting my sister a bunch?” Taako asked, his brow furrowed in confusion. “Jokes on you, I love my sister.”

Edward gave a long watchful size up of Taako. “Whatever, we’ll see who is the real star at the play audition.” He turned and walked away, his walk like a strut and the hall full of sweaty teenagers his runway.

“I am still, entirely baffled by that exchange,” Magnus said.

“God I can’t imagine being so full of myself as those twins are,” Taako said. Magnus and Merle exchanged a quick glance. “I can’t believe I used to want to join their gang.” He let out a mock gag.

“Come on, its time to drop all this hoopla about Insta-whats-it. It’s all digital. It’s just numbers on a screen and code in a computer,” Merle said.

“What’s your point skeevy man?” Taako asked.

“We should be putting down the phones. Dropping the rivalry and self-obsession they cause. Focusing on what’s real. Getting down to earth.”

“No, Merle honestly, what’s your point?” Taako asked.

“Haven’t you heard Merle,” Magnus said. “Taako is kind of a big deal. His time is very precious.”

Merle let out a grumble under his breath, “Assholes. I want you guys to follow me outside so I can go join the gardening club.”

“Yeah okay fine, lead the way,” Taako said.

“I didn’t even know this school had a gardening club?” Magnus asked.

“What did you think that big glass building out on the yard was for, big guy?” Merle asked.

“Detention?”

Taako laughed. “Bad and naughty kids get put in the roast cube.”

Lup’s morning routine went a little like this.

It began with dragging her brother out of bed and down into the kitchen, where they alternated who did the cooking that day and who was the dawdler who annoyed the other while they cooked. Just because it was a school morning, that was no excuse not to eat gourmet.

She fried up some eggs while her brother constantly reached over her to pluck lint off her night robe, trying to convince her of the benefits of switching to silk. Her own breakfast is served with a side of anti-androgen pills, oestrogen, and her brother judging her for using too much cooking oil.

Then they both headed upstairs to the bathroom, taking turns brushing teeth while the other showered. About forty minutes was spent on makeup each day. Taako was one for eyeliner and vibrant eyeshadow, while Lup preferred mascara and a prominent lip design.

She returned to the bathroom to show off her outfit of the day.

“Denim again, Lup?” Taako said, eyeing her waist high denim shorts.

“They look good with the tights,” she said defensively. She never needed his approval for fashion, but she respected his eye.

“Yeah, I’m sure Barry would agree,” he said, closing his eyes and spritzing his face with setting spray.

Lup kicked him. “Yeah, yeah hurry up and pose.”

Each day she took about twenty photos of her brother, hoping he would deem at least one Instagram worthy. They do a final check of each other’s looks, before kissing their aunt goodbye and heading to the car. It’s Taako’s car technically, but he prefers making her drive it so that he can sit on his phone for the journey.

Together they arrive at school, fashionably on time. Looking stellar. Picture perfect. Excellence always.

To Taako, Neverwinter high was like dollar store make up; pretty enough to anyone who didn’t have an eye for quality. While the building itself was impressive from a squinting distance, with its white walls and carved columns, the whole thing was clearly cheap and tacky when properly examined. The plastic desks had a fake wood print on them, a sad replica of sturdy oak. Half the library books were vandalised and the vending machines were filled with stale food. However dim the value, when Taako sat in a plastic chair, he always poised himself like he was on a throne. A quality person needn’t a quality environ to position himself as a star.

Of course, it was high school. Regardless of how superior he studied and performed above his classmates, he was still told off for playing on his phone while the teacher taught the same basic cantrips over and over to the kids who couldn’t quite get it. He could cast them in his sleep, but it was apparently ruining his education if he considered Instagram a more valuable use of his time. He still got detention in sport for wearing earrings, and saying his heels were new and hard to walk in wasn’t a valid reason for being late to class. He was treated like an equal, and when he was so evidently above the rest, that was just unfair.

“Other kids work. They flip burgers or they give out flyers or whatever I don’t know,” Taako said, waving his hands.

“I’m a waitress,” Lucretia said.

“I’m a shelf stacker,” Davenport signed.

“Yeah, and it’s hard,” Taako said. “I’m a model. That’s what I do. But do the teachers care? No. Aren’t they supposed to support my career, not actively antagonise me for it. They tell me off for too much make up. How is that even remotely a problem? How can too much eyeliner ruin my scores? How are false nails going to destroy my employability?”

“I think that’s a safety thing?” Barry said. “Like they count as weapons. At least that’s what Lup said.”

Taako wrapped an arm around Barry’s shoulders. “My good Barold Jay Bluejeans. Lup was, as you would say, fucking with you. It’s because the teachers are jealous of our fire looks.”

“Yes of course that makes much more sense,” he said.

Lucretia took pity on Barry. “It’s because they’re dangerous in PE class, you could damage equipment, accidently hurt a classmate, or they could break off and require being sent to the first aid office. And of course, as well all know, PE teachers are basically liches who feed off suffering. They would never allow any excuse to take time off sports, so they minimise the hazards to maximise the torture.”

“Oh, that does make a lot more sense than the weapon thing.”

“You really would fall for anything Lup tells you, wouldn’t you?” Davenport signed.

“I don’t fall for it. I just, respect everything she ever says to me ever and treat her words like a holy gospel. God, she’s amazing. Even when she’s ‘fucking with me’ she’s pretty great.”

“While we’re on the subject of my sister, when are you going to ask her out already?” Taako said.

Barry turned several shades paler. “What?!”

“Please for the love of Pan get on with it. She keeps blasting Lana Del Rey’s ‘Blue Jeans’ from the shower while I’m trying to do my homework. There’s only so much of my sister’s angst I can take and I’m nearly at breaking point.”

“Well… ah… if you think… well you see… she’s just really cool… and I…”

“Barry, no one knows my sister as well as I do,” Taako said. “So, take it to heart when I say that you’ve got nothing to fear.”

“Really?”

“Really. No fucking with you, guarantee.” Then, Taako leant forwards on the table, tilting his head to a scowl. “But listen here Barry Khakislacks, if you hurt her keep in mind that the two most powerful wizards Neverwinter High has ever seen will come after you, and we will fuck you up. Then we’ll bring you back to life, just to fuck you up all over again.”

Barry looked down as his food, now unable to swallow. In fact, he was struggling a bit to breathe. But beneath his fear there was a determination, and an almighty curiosity which came with it. What would happen if he asked Lup out on a date? And what kind of scientist would he be if he let fear conquer his curiosity.

Well, not a very good scientist at all.

Magnus’ morning routine went a little something like this.

He began by ignoring the beeping of his alarm for as long as he could before it grew far too annoying. Then he’d drag himself out of the bed and search the floor for clothes which seemed acceptably clean thanks to his good pal, the sniff test.

Downstairs he’d eat toast, or if he was particularly late, just plain bread shoved into his mouth. Mornings were spent alone, Mr Waxmen long gone to work in the early hours. A buzz on his phone would remind him to take his anti-depressants, which were followed by hastily brushing teeth, before throwing books into his bag and racing out the door. He typically arrived at school with a few minutes to spare, depending on how fast he ran.

Taako was fussing over Magnus’ hair at lunch, making some excessive claim about there being a difference between a fashionable messy bun and a literally messy one.

Across the yard there was the pitter patter of a crowd running to the notice board. Magnus focused his vision, noticing undercuts, feet tapping to an unheard tune, a few fake tans and printed shirts advertising old school shows.

“Theatre kids?” he said. “What are they doing outdoors?”

Taako’s head shot up. “The school play schedule!” He leapt from the bench, abandoning Magnus and the rest of his friends to make a half-jog half-waddle journey in his new heels across the yard. People didn’t seem to mind as he pushed his way to the front of the crowd.

The rest of the table waited patiently for Taako to scope out the poster.

“My girlfriend,” Barry said. Lup grinned at him, red cheeked and full of delight.

“My boyfriend,” she said.

The rest of the table were silent.

“It still feels strange, but great!” Barry said. “My. Girlfriend.”

“My boyfriend,” Lup said. “He’s my boyfriend, whom I am dating.”

Lucretia took a long slow sip from her thermos. Merle suddenly felt a great sympathy for Lup’s brother who had undoubtedly been putting up with something similar all morning. He wondered if Barry had any siblings and how close they were to kicking his ass.

Upon Taako’s return, Lup asked, “So what’s the play?”

“The Suffering Game?” he said with an uncertain inflection.

“I’ve never heard of it,” Barry said.

“Neither have I,” Taako said. A flash of panic crossed his face. “Oh fuck, I think it’s a teacher written one.”

“Aw shit those are usually garbage,” Lup said.

“They’re typically written to accommodate a large mass of background extras,” Taako said.

“Unideal for someone who wishes he was the only person performing,” Lucretia said.

Magnus remembered two years ago the play had been Pinocchio, and he himself had auditioned for a role. He had ended up in the extras section, like almost all middle school students. The senior who got the lead part had unnerved Magnus. He could dance in a way with purposeful rigidity, moving just like a wooden toy. There was something about mannequins Magnus had always found disconcerting. Being propped and posed and forced to do the bidding of others. It was beyond his comfort zone, and he had nearly considered dropping out of the performance entirely.

“So, are you still going to audition, Taako?” Merle asked, drawing Magnus from his anxiety memory spiral.

“Am I going to try to audition for the high school play?” Taako asked. “Am I, Taako, going to have an attempt at landing a gig where I get to be the centre of attention for an evening? To get a teacher approved chance to be over dramatic and adored by hundreds.”

 “I take that as a yes then,” he said.

“Absolutely. There’s this role for a male show host, and the description was, ‘Loves attention, carries himself like a diva, is secretly a lich.’”

“Woah,” Lup said. “A lich? This story sounds wild.”

“Yeah, I didn’t think the school would approve something like that,” Barry said. “Most schools don’t approve texts which even mention necromancy.”

“Yeah but a lich would make any story way more interesting,” Lup said.

“I don’t know. Liches are kind of scary,” Barry said. “When you study magical sciences, the very idea of necromancy messes with your core understanding of the world. Like the fundamentals about the conservation of energy is compromised by the idea of re-animation because we move by being driven by-”

“Whatever,” Taako said. Across the yard he saw Lydia and Edward, arm in arm stride towards the poster. “It’s a great part and it was made for me.”

Magnus tried to ignore the movement in his periphery as a boy in the desk beside his constantly turned to stare at him. He thought he was being subtle, but Magnus was already hyper aware of when people were looking at his scar. Even after a month of being back he couldn’t be treated like another background student. It was the curse of being the kid who mysteriously left for a year and returned with an ominous scar cutting down his brow and cheek, and what came with the curse was gossip and constant starring.

Two years ago he, and in fact all of his friend group, had been practically invisible to the other students. Now people constantly took photos with, or of, Taako. People flocked to Angus bursting to share new conspiracies regarding to Caleb Cleveland or some other personal mystery. People had always whispered about Merle’s missing arm, or Davenport’s muteness, and even Lucretia’s reclusive personality, but now they also whispered about him. He had always been defensive of his friends, but now he knew what it felt like first hand, and he was beginning to feel like he hadn’t been defensive enough. How Taako liked, thrived and fed off the attention, he’ll never understand. He supposed there was a difference between positive adoration attention, and attention which constantly reminded him of the car accident which had upturned his life.

Magnus tried to concentrate on the questions in his textbook. He read the first one, without processing it at all. He tried to read it again. And a third time. And he looked at his blank paper.

What would his therapist say? That he’s not practicing mindfulness? How did he feel? He was angry. Agitated. He was restricted. He wanted to be out of his chair. He wanted to be out of sight. Curled up in some blankets in the Zone of Truth, and there he could do his work perfectly fine. And Lucretia and Lup could help him with the work.

He looked at the clock. Half an hour of class to go.

He shouldn’t be struggling this badly. Across the room he saw Barry. He seemed the nerdy type. He could ask for help, but then again he didn’t think he could stand being explained too right now. Even though he tired to hide it, Barry constantly stared at his scar too.

Was it polite trying to hide it. Or was it better for other students to be upfront about their cruel curiosity. “Go ahead and ask,” Magnus said.

The boy looked shocked for a moment before asking, “What’s the story behind the scar?”

“I saved a kitten from a burning building.”

“You… wait what?”

Magnus acted quickly, thumping the other boys arm with his fist, and making the desk pound. The teacher looked up from his table, trying to determine the source of the noise, only seeing Magnus focusing on his own work.

And Magnus had returned to his work. He absolutely, completely successfully, forced his brain to concentrate on his work. No distractions. No bullshit… Except that’s not how brains worked at all. In his periphery, every whisper, every giggle, every sound and movement was perceived as being directed at him. Questioning. Judging. Gossiping.

The school presentation space was made to fit hundreds of students and their parents, making its vacancy eerie when the audience consisted only of two drama teachers, Johann the music teacher, and a few dawdling students with nothing better to do during their lunch time than see their friends audition for the school play.

Most of the students who auditioned read only a few lines, the minimum requirement for receiving a background role. There were five senior girls competing for the lead role of female hostess.

“Loyalties aside,” Lup whispered to her friends beside her. “Lydia is the obvious choice for the role. She makes a great bitch. Oh, did I say bitch I meant lich… no I meant bitch.”
Barry failed to supress his snort which partially echoed in the large room. Magnus let out an unrestrained bellow of a laugh, careless of the volume.

For the lead male, Edward put on a great performance, but no one commanded the stage like Taako. Taako had dressed for the occasion, while everyone else had shown up in their school casuals. A long dark robe was tacky and cliché, but Taako filled the part he looked, and it was almost spooky how easily Taako took on the persona of the wicked yet secretly broken, attention seeking monster.

“What is the best form of advertising?” Taako said, his voice projected and enunciated clearly, all served with a smile. Then he whipped his head sideways, striking a pose, his hand raised high as sparks shot from them casting a simple cantrip. He held a ghostly stare directly into the souls of the drama teachers. “Why, word of mouth, of course.” He held the pose and under the auditorium lights, his whole outfit shimmered with a fine layer of glitter.

From up in the seats, Barry whispered to his friends, “How does he do that? He seems so at ease with so many people looking at him.”

“He may as well be a lizard and those spotlights be his heat lamp,” Merle said. “He feeds off attention. Performance. Drama.”

 “Even in front of an audience who are pretty much just his own friends, I don’t get how anyone can do that,” Barry continued.

“The whole school may as well be his friends,” Magnus said. “I don’t think he gets stage fright. Or social fright. Or suffers from any sort of problems regarding other people really.”

“Ah, an extrovert,” Barry said. “I think I read about them in a book once.” It was Lup’s turn to make a loud cackled laugh, which drew the attention of her brother on stage. He blew her a kiss and a wink.

“I can even heckle the audience, if things go extremely terrible,” Taako said. In the corner of the stage, Lydia scoffed, but the drama teachers laughed, and Johann gave him a thumbs up.

Next were a group of students who were trying out for the roles of monsters. The sounds of teenagers trying to make roaring noises was far from pleasant. Magnus watched the head of one of the drama teachers, Greg Grimmaldis, fall into his hands. He rubbed his temples firmly, willing himself not to walk out on his job right then and there. But the sight of a stressed Grimmaldis reminded Magnus…

“Hey that’s Angus,” Magnus said pointing down the rows of chairs to the only other students in the audience seats. “I’m gonna go say hey.”

Lup barely acknowledged him, too busy whispering in her boyfriend’s ear as Magnus began the long sideways shuffle out of his row, and then the descent down towards Angus.

“Hey boy detective,” Magnus said in a harsh whisper. “How would you like to help me solve a mystery?”

“You know nothing would delight me more!” Magnus had forgotten Angus had never developed an inside voice.

“Shhh, it’s about Mr Grimmaldis, and Lup,” Magnus began. “And they’re both here right now, so you gotta stay real quiet.” Angus gave a conspiratorial look around, locating both people in question. “Apparently, he, a grown up adult teacher, owes her fifteen dollars. And she won’t tell us why.”

“That sure is curious,” he said. “I’m going to need all you’ve got on the case. Any clues or leads so far?”

“Well I know she won’t tell us what it’s about, but she did mention that the debt was incurred before the start of the last school year. Also, she thought that the reason Grimmaldis wasn’t teaching last semester was because he skipped town to avoid paying her.”

“Why would he skip town to avoid paying a sixteen-year-old fifteen dollars?” Angus asked.

“Because Lup’s full of bullshit,” Magnus said. “He probably left for some normal reason but being part Taako she assumed it was about her.”

“A mystery for sure,” Angus said scratching his head. “Well, Lup must have some motivation for not outright telling you what the money is for. But a debt over a year old which she still upholds must be especially memorable. I trust Lup, she’s a good girl so I’m sure it’s nothing sinister but we can’t rule out anything.”

“She’s not a drug dealer,” Magnus said bluntly.

“Anything,” he said again wiggling his fingers.

“She probably bought him Cheetos or something and he stuffed his face and she got a photo of it as blackmail.”

“AnYtHiNg…”

Magnus reached out and pulled Angus’ newsboy hat down over his eyes. Angus’ glasses were knocked askew and he giggled furiously. It was a therapeutic sound, a fun-loving teenager who didn’t care that giggling was totally not cool. Magnus chuckled too, and he was extremely glad this cool, cool boy was his friend.

Taako sat on the kitchen counter, legs swinging back and forth staring pointedly as his sister made them both pancakes. After Lup was done pouring batter into the pan, she caught her brother’s eye.

She stared back. Taako began to wiggle his eyebrows, and she returned the gesture. A whole minute of eyebrow wiggling commenced, during which Lup flipped the pancake, not breaking eye contact.

“Soooooo,” Taako said, eyebrows finally growing tired, and settling to join the sly grin on his face.

“Sooooooooooo?” she said, leading the conversation along.

“Barry is a nerd,” he said.

“He really is,” she said.

“He likes maths and books and science.”

“Yes, it seems as though we are talking about the same Barry.”

“He especially likes science about the fundamentals of magic and figuring out how magical items work. Like, scientifically. Or something.”

“Very nerdy interests,” she agreed.

“Yes, but they’re also your nerdy interests.”

Lup gave Taako a sharp smile, before she tipped the pancake onto a plate and poured more batter.

“He also came over nearly every day on the summer break,” Taako said, giving his eyelashes a flutter.

“Because I invited him,” Lup said.

A moment of silence passed, and Taako’s dramatic charade seeped out of him in one slow breath. “He makes you happy. And that’s good. He’s good.”

“Thanks Taako.”

“He’s a HUGE NERD. But I like him.”

“THANKS TAAKO!” Lup flipped the pancake again. “And what about you, my extremely picky brother? Developed a crush on any boys? Well, ones who actually like you back?”

“I’m not picky, I’m selective.” Taako pressed the back of his palm to his forehead, letting out a groan, before switching into his theatre mode. “Woe is me. Adoration abundance, from those whom I have no eyes for. Here I am, a star of youth. Single. And do you know why LuLu?”

Lup rolled her eyes with a smile. “Because no one is good enough for Taako. Have you seen me?” she mocked her own brother’s voice. “I’m Taako, you know, from Instagram? Why am I still single? I guess I must just be lucky.” Lup mimicked flicking her hair over her shoulder. Taako kicked his sister. “Yowch, okay. But seriously, are you alright?” she asked.

Taako’s leg remained swinging, slowly losing momentum. “Yeah, I’m just really happy for you.”

“Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll find your own Barry someday,” she said.

“I hope not!”

“Fuck you,” Lup said. She flipped the now cooked pancake onto a plate and slid it across the bench to Taako. He took it, and it was shaped like a heart. “I love you, but god you’re a douche.”

“Love you too, Lup!”

Despite having a year off, Barry soon came to realise that Magnus was quite adept at mathematics. Lup had mentioned something about him building a treehouse over the summer, and Barry didn’t know much about architecture and woodwork, but the project seemed like the kind of thing which required heft and vital calculations. Still, while Barry tried to be an unbiased person, he had honestly expected Magnus to struggle in this subject. And while he tried to be humble, he had expected the need to offer his mathematical expertise. And while he tried to be grateful for all resources he had with which to learn, he was secretly a little spiteful of when he needed to ask Magnus for assistance, although this was not very often.

Conversely Merle’s mathematical abilities were nothing to be enviable of. The man was just absolutely useless with numbers.

Barry almost jumped when the dwarf’s head thumped on the lunch table. “Just, give it one more go Merle, you can get it,” he said.

“It’s useless. Give up on me now.”

“Don’t worry, you’ll get it eventually,” Barry said standing up. “I’m going to go get some cookies from the cafeteria. Maybe they’ll be the pick-me-up you need.”

Merle responded with a strangled moan, his head still face down on his textbook.

As Barry reached the cafeteria line, he was right beside Angus’ table, where his usual cult of Caleb Cleveland fans were congregated. It was hard to conceive that Angus was a year level above him, and for a moment Barry wondered if being bumped up a year hindered your chances at getting good scores. Lup really didn’t like the way the competitiveness of final years got to students, but Barry’s mind just worked differently to hers. He couldn’t help but calculate study results and compare methods of learning and predict how each person he knew would place. He wondered if Angus did the same. Hell, he was certain if anyone knew what each students’ final marks would be, it would be Lucretia; always documenting the behaviours of those around her.

A pair of students came up to Angus, and Barry eavesdropped with absolutely no shame, especially since they had been mostly staring at Merle. Barry looked over, feeling sorry for the defeated look his friend gave the math book.

“Hey Angus,” one of them said. The boy detective looked up from his novel, eyes gigantic behind his thick glasses. “Do you know how Highchurch lost his arm? I figured if anyone’d know a secret like that, it’d be you.”

Angus adjusted his glasses and then meticulously straightened his sweater vest. He cleared his throat and silence fell over his table. “Ah, well you see, the real mystery, is why my good dear friend Merle’s disability, is any of your gosh-darn business?”

Barry nearly chocked from where he stood in line. Containing the sound proved easy when Angus’ crowd cheered the boy detective on. There was something very admirable about Angus, Barry decided. Unlike Lup’s brother, Angus didn’t use his popularity as a safety net to act more like an ass. He remained grounded and humble and surrounded himself with good company with good morals. Not followers for followers’ sake, but likeminded bonds. People who didn’t care if it was uncool to be nice.

He was, a good, good boy.

Who was also in his senior year. One year higher than Barry. And undoubtedly was going to get impressive study scores.

Barry moved along in a line for cookies, like the grown mature teenager he was comparatively.

It was the start of lunch several weeks later, when one Angus McDonald slid up to Magnus on the courtyard.  “So I’ve been thinking about the Grimmaldis case,” he introed. It was a risky place to discuss things, but they were alone from familiar ears and thus seemingly safe for now.

“What have you got?”

“Not much. But I was intrigued by the fact that Lup is sworn to secrecy. Presumably, Mr Grimmaldis is mandating this silence, which means that whatever took place must violate some school rule.”

“Or the law. You know, the adult rules,” Magnus suggested.

“Potentially. Maybe his job would be at stake.”

“It could just be something super embarrassing. Like maybe his pants fell down.”

“Now that would also breach some school rules,” Angus said. He tapped his glasses. “And seeing as Lup insinuated that Mr Grimmaldis would leave the school to avoid his comeuppance for whatever took place, I think your embarrassment theory has merit Mr Burnsides.”

“Why thank you, Mr McDonald.”

“Of course, the investigation has only just begun and-”

“Shh, shh,” Magnus put his hand over Angus’ entire face to silence him, as he saw his friends approach in the distance. Taako was practically dancing as he walked, flicking his hair and trying to ignore Lydia screaming into his ear.

“You overrated brat your audition wasn’t even that good!”

“Well, the judges say otherwise,” Taako said. “And that’s all that matters when you’re the winner darling.”

“They’re teachers. You cast a few sparkle cantrips and of course they think you’re a genius. Just because all the other students are too stupid to tell their wand from their dicks. Whereas me and Edward performed for our roles legitimately, without pandering.”

“Pandering is the way of the stage. Teachers want to see you play to an audience,” Taako clicked his fingers and a shower of glitter rained down on him. Lydia scoffed like she was suffering from a particularly sour taste in her mouth.

Merle took the lapse in back and forth to try peace-making. “Listen the two of you are going to be co-stars. You’re both leads! That’s awesome. This is your chance to put your squabble aside and work together to put on a great show. And maybe even become friends?”

“It should’ve been Edward,” she said, completely ignoring Merle. “I’m great but together we’re exceptional. Taako took that away from him.”

“What do you mean?” Merle asked. “Edward still got a role.”

“As a talking head!” she squealed.

“Wait,” Magnus interjected, having finally caught up on what his friends, and Lydia, were talking about. “Taako you got the lead?”

Taako put a hand to his chest, slowly tilting his head, pausing for dramatic effect, gently fluttering his eyes. “Did I… get the lead role?”

“Just tell me, you ass,” Magnus said.

Taako paused for a few more seconds, one eyebrow slowly ascending his forehead. “Naturally.”

Magnus scooped Taako up into a tight hug, lifting him from the ground and spinning him around once. The elf let out an almighty yelp, and even Lydia laughed at the ridiculous sound. Once he had put Taako down, he turned to Lydia. “I’m guessing you got the other lich role?”

“Of course, I’m the only senior girl who could actually sing.”

“Hey congrats,” Magnus said holding out his hand. Lydia regarded his calloused palm, her eyes scornful of every cut and blister, and looking at his chipped nail polish with distain. She held out her hand, only barely shaking his with the tips of her fingers.

“Yes,” she said slowly. “Okay…”

“Can you go and be terribly talentless somewhere else now?” Taako asked. Lydia gave her eyes a roll but sauntered off without another word. “Mag, we still on for this weekend?” Taako asked.

“Absolutely, so long as you both are,” he said, watching Merle and Taako nod in response.

“Boy detective,” Taako said, addressing their company. “How come you didn’t audition?”

“Me? On a stage,” Angus waved his hand. “No way, I don’t think anyone wants to hear me sing.”

“Okay but picture this; me being the lead means all the cool kids are gonna come to watch their inamorato, but if you were in it too then all the nerdy kids would come as well. Together we cover the full scope of people. Maybe throw in Magnus for those who like hunks…” Taako said. Then, he lurched forwards and clutched Angus’ collar. “Angus darling, we could’ve had it alllllll.”

Angus smiled, but shook his head. “Sorry Taako. Besides I’m in my final year, no way I have the time to spare between homework, socialising and getting a healthy amount of sleeping.”

“Who has time for sleeping when the stage calls?” Taako said.

“Not all of us are as naturally talented at magic as you and your sister, us common rabble actually need to study,” he said, lifting his books and backing away. “I’ve gotta go, but I’ll see you ‘round sirs.” He gave a quick salute and then dashed away.

“I know we’re older than him, but he’s a year ahead of us and I just,” Magnus’ hands circled each other. “Calling us sirs is still so strange.”

“I gave up on understanding that kid a long time ago,” Taako said.

“I kinda like being called sir,” Merle said. His friends frowned at him, with abject disgust he didn’t register as kink shaming. Trying to make the moment pass as fast as possible, Taako lead the way. The way to the gymnasium was only a five-minute walk, but during lunch time the journey took twice as long, as Taako constantly stopped to talk to various people they passed who he apparently knew. Merle and Magnus would just look to each other and shrug, as yet another seeming stranger would happen upon Taako. Taako, of course, didn’t introduce anyone, leaving his friends in the dark.

“Geeze, you practically know everyone in this entire school!” Merle said, watching a dark elf he had never seen before run back to her group of friends.

“Psssh, hardly,” Taako said. “This place is huge.”

“Okay then, who is she?” Merle asked, pointing to a young woman at her locker.

“Oh that’s Jess the Beheader,” Taako said. His friends gave him a deadpan stare. “Come on, that’s not fair. Everyone knows Jess.”

“We don’t know Jess,” Magnus said.

“You guys don’t know Jess? She has a really cool YouTube channel where she decapitates Amiibo’s with nothing but the strength of her jaw and pure willpower. A strange brand of entertainment, but somehow hilarious every time.”

Magnus would later that day search up Jess’s channel, and admittedly, it was both immensely entertaining and impressive. Although he imagined expensive, as those delightful creations from Nintendo which blend both toy and game alike became barely a toy, nor a game, when crushed to fine dust by a very powerful woman’s teeth.

The squeaking of shoes could be heard from outside the gymnasium, and they opened the doors as a rhythmic thumping begun.

“Two, four, six, eight, who do we appreciate?” called Carey and Killian. They were clad in the official cheerleader uniform, and one by one a bunch of students in a row, threw their aims in the air, giving their own motivational shout of-

“Neverwinter!”

“Neverwinter!”

“Neverwinter!”

The three boys made their way to the bleachers and began a respectful watch of the cheerleader try-outs. After the initial warmup, greeting and set up, the candidates lined up, and performed their routines one by one.

Almost all eyes were on the robot student, No-elle.

“She can do some very impressive flips,” Taako said to his two friends. “Plus being a robot her timing is impeccable, but her voice projection needs work.”

“Do you think she’s allowed to study math for her final year?” Magnus asked. A flash of panic crossed his face, “Oh no I hope it’s not offensive to assume all robits are good at math?”

“Ro-bits,” Merle and Taako simultaneously, mindlessly, parroted Magnus’ pronunciation.

No-elle held her pose, and displayed a pixelated smile on her LED screen. Carey and Killian finished recording their notes which were undoubtedly very positive due to the bias of friendship and potential crushes.

When Lup stepped forwards, Taako said, “Now there’s a star cheerleader ready to be discovered. DON’T FUCK IT UP LUP!”

“Love you too Taako!” she shouted back as she took her place.

"Nice voice projection!" roared Killian, taking down a note on her sheet.

The trio were very impressed that Lup’s routine contained no swearing or backhanded insults and only a minimal amount of potentially flammable spells. Such a good girl. Following her stellar performance, Edward took centre stage and began his routine.

“Why aren’t you trying out Taako?” Magnus asked.

“You think I’d make a good cheerleader?” Taako asked.

“More opportunity to make a bunch of people listen to you?” Merle suggested.

“Hmm, I think Magnus just wants to see me in a miniskirt.”

“Yeah right,” Magnus said. “Seeing you in a miniskirt is a rare occasion I like to call Tuesdays.” Taako snickered into his hands. “Besides they wear, like, shorts underneath their uniforms.”

“Disappointed?” Taako asked.

“No, I’m just glad that the cheerleaders won’t get anxiety or be made uncomfortable by their clothes.”

“You’re too sweet for a tough guy,” Merle said. At that, Magnus spent a short while introspecting the idea of being ‘too sweet’. Honestly, it didn’t seem like a bad thing, or a thing possible at all. He supposed one could be too sweet for their own good, but he didn’t know anyone who didn’t have a little bit of asshole in them. Sweet yet cynical seemed the smart way to go.

“Anyway,” Taako digressed. “Cheerleading is not my thing. It involves far too much moving. And it’s about fitting into a team. I like to stand out, be the star. Also, who wants to sing about some footballers. I’d rather sing about me.”

“Try out for football then,” Magnus joked.

“I’d be flattened,” Taako said with a gasp. He sat frozen for a long while, before a shiver ran up his spine, presumably by a terrible imagining of being tackled and having all of his bones crushed by footballers.

The Trés Horny Boys all stood outside of Taako’s house on Sunday morning. Taako was wearing heels, a tight dress and thick stockings with a fluffy scarf to complete the ensemble. Conversely, Magnus wore a simple hoodie and jeans, while Merle wore his typical basketball shorts and Hawaiian print shirt. At the sight of his companions’ terrible fashion sense, Taako tried and failed, to retain a sneer of revulsion.

“So, what are we actually doing today?” came the inevitable question none of them had wanted to ask.

“Laser tag?” Merle suggested.

“In these heels?”

“I thought a true model could perform any task in heels,” Magnus said.

“Fine I’ll break, I’m just too lazy to run around.”

“Okay then what about bowling?” Magnus asked.

“Aww no,” Merle said. “I suck at bowling, you know I roll terribly.”

“Ah well you see the secret is to cheat,” Magnus said.

“How do you cheat at bowling? Bumpers?”

“Magic is how I cheat,” Taako said.

“Alright so, you just gotta, focus on where you want the ball to be,” Magnus said, holding his hands up cupping an imaginary ball. He squinted his eyes into the distance. “And then… you run down the entire lane and drop it exactly where it needs to be. The key is to run faster than the bowling alley security staff.”

The three of them laughed but soon that laughter subsided and an uncomfortable silence fell over them. Outfits aside, none of them dare admit the truth. They just didn’t have much in common anymore. When they had been kids, anything could entertain them. Even a weekend spent at Merle’s church handing out flyers had been turned into a game and created a memorable bonding experience. Somewhere along the way from being children to where they were now, their interests had diverged.
In the process of growing up, they had collectively agreed never to refer to themselves as the Trés Horny Boys, even Merle understanding how embarrassing that was. Times changed, people changed, and the nature of their relationships changed.

Despite all that however, their friendship held strong; a result of going on countless adventures together in their childhood, and while it took effort to sustain, it was more than worth the work. They’d never speak it, but internally they still referred to themselves as a trio. Eternally Trés Horny Boys in their hearts.

“How about we go into the city?” Merle said.

“Can we go to Fantasy Starbucks?” Magnus asked. “It’s nearly Fall so they have pumpkin spice in.”

“As long as you two don’t give me a mouthful of shit when I take photos with my drink. If I’m spending $10 on a drink, you bet your ass I’m capitalising on its popularity for Instagram.”

“Of course not,” Magnus lied.

“You won’t hear nothing from us,” Merle also lied.

Half of the day was of course spent trying to steal Taako’s phone. It only ended with them all being permanently banned from Fantasy Starbucks, which based on their track record, the manager should be glad there was a building to ban them from at all after their visit.

The afternoon was a retirement to the Zone of Truth, where to Magnus’ private delight, almost all of their friends had chosen to spend their last few hours of freedom before the next school day.

Over the past couple of months, the treehouse had actually become a popular hangout for their squad, especially since it had been furnished with lights and blankets and board games.

They climbed the ladder to see Lup, Barry and Davenport deep in a game of Monopoly. While the Trio’s bonds were strong, something should be said for any friendship which passes the gauntlet of Monopoly.

“Where’s Lucretia?” Magnus asked.

“Probably at her real house which isn’t in a tree,” Taako said. “Spending her afternoon like a normal teenager.”

“A house that’s not in a tree, in the middle of the woods, and thus is surrounded by even more trees,” Merle scoffed. “Sounds pretty lame to me.”

“Yeah, yeah Pan boy,” Lup said. “I’m sure it does.” She pulled out her phone, sending a text to Lucretia. A few minutes later she read aloud, “Just at home studying. See you tomorrow, smiley face.”

“Homework late on a Sunday night?” Davenport signed. “It’s not like her to leave things to the last minute.”

“Yes it is quite pec-u-li-ar,” Lup said, the words slowly rolling off her tongue. She stared at her phone for a long while. “Very. Peculiar. Indeed.” She turned her head to Taako, who met her eyes. Eyebrow wiggling pursued, albeit, for no particular reason. Really, they just had nothing better to say or do.

Sunlight shone through the window, warming Magnus’ cheek in a teasing manor. There was only an hour left of class until it was the weekend and in this very moment, the raucous boy wanted nothing more than to be outside running in the fresh air. Maybe doing laps of the field with Carey and Killian. Or going for a hike over some rocks. Or deep in the woods using a branch like a walking stick and pretending it was a wizard’s staff, ideally without Taako nearby to lecture him that that was not how real wizard’s staffs worked.

Basically, he wanted to be doing literally anything that involved being outdoors, in the sun and the wind rather than being trapped indoors learning about algebra.

The roof over his head made the room dark, which meant that artificial lights were needed to cast an unnatural florescent glow on the paper before him. When he tried to read the question his vision went blurry. He felt pain in his chest and his legs ached from being seated for so long. It was Fall, and a year ago he could’ve left his house at any time he had needed to be out in nature. And he had done so. But now he was a prisoner to rules. He concluded that school was terribly unhealthy. It was depriving kids of sunlight and exercise. It was locking them away from nature. It was torture.

Magnus’ leg shook very fast and with a lot of force, the only form of movement these rules permitted him to exhort.

Mindfulness, his inner therapist instructed him. He could bring himself back to the present moment and focus. If he did this work now, then there would be more time on the weekend to be outdoors. So, he had to focus. He had to concentrate. But of course, he still had at least three hours of homework to do on the weekend regardless.

Present moment. Present moment. Don’t think about how much you’d rather be anywhere else right now. You used to miss school remember? No, that kid isn’t whispering about you. Just focus-

“Magnus what did you get for question-”

“Nothing,” he snapped. Barry stared at him frozen for a moment and he immediately felt bad about it.

“Do you need help?”

Magnus looked at his empty page. “No… I’ll… figure it out tomorrow. I’ve just had too much school today.”

The moment the bell rang Magnus was out of the room. He speed-walked to his locker, throwing every single book into his bag. It made the weight far too heavy, but he was a strong boy, and he didn’t care much.

He had made it across the empty football field and had turned onto the secluded footpath leading towards his house, when the pain in his brow from scowling for the past half hour had become too much. He stopped walking, remaining where he stood and rubbed at his face, trying to wipe away the frustration of the day. He was outside now, he could begin calming down. His body still felt confined and wrong. The walk home would not be enough to shake him loose.

He reached up and took out his pony tail, immediately relieving the pressure from his head.

“Think that’ll make you a pretty boy?” a voice cooed, making him jump.

When he turned he saw one of the boys from the Hammerhead gang leaning against a fence. They were an outcast group, several kids who spoke cheap and dressed ratty. It was all show, according to Taako. Upper middle-class kids who wanted to seem edgy by being trashy.

“Why, do you like what you see?” Magnus said, throwing a wink in to emphasise the taunt. It was a stupid comment, but it didn’t take much to rile up someone who was already itching for a fight.

“You wish, Burnsides,” he said with a scowl. “Like anyone could think that looking at you.”

“Poetic,” Magnus said. “Did you prepare that insult while smoking in the boys’ toilets with all your cool friends?”

“We can’t all be teacher’s pets like Barry and Lucretia,” he said.

“Yeah, heck the rules, I’m a bad, bad boy,” Magnus said, mocking the other boy’s voice. “I love staying up past my bed time and swearing.”

The Hammerhead boy noted Magnus’ nonchalance, reassessing his target. “So, what’s the story big boy?” he said, tracing a line down his face as he stepped closer to Magnus, now officially in his ‘space’. “Word is you did it yourself? Tried to cut that ugly mug off. Maybe hoping beauty really is on the inside.”

Magnus didn’t care about the attack on his appearance, at least not too much. Mostly because he couldn’t care less about what a Hammerhead thought of him. But at the mention of his scar, there was a strong pang in his chest, which he pushed down, hoping it hadn’t shown on the outside. And even if it did, the act of suppressing his emotions made a much more apparent and overwhelming anger rise in its place. He had to hide his confusion, and his sorrow, and his nagging need to know why anyone would be so mean. Why anyone lived to find ways to hurt others.

And he hid it all behind a drop of his schoolbag and a swift swing of his fist.

Magnus wasn’t emotionally hurt by the words, he wasn’t scared by the insults. But the Hammerhead had offended his friends. He was a bully, who sought out to hurt people. And while Magnus was tough, these words could hurt someone else. The others in his life weren’t like him. They were wizards and scientists who chose to defend themselves with wit and words. But Hammerheads, and idiots of the like, didn’t speak with backhanded insults. They didn’t understand sass, or how to fight anger with logic. They spoke a different language. One of fists, and size, and intimidation.

But luckily, Magnus spoke their language.

The language of the rough boys.

Language lesson number one, punch first, and punch well. And Magnus had swung. Hard, fast, and directly between the eyes. Class was in session.

“Fuck!” the boy shouted taking a hold of his own nose. When his hands fell from his face, blood dripped down in their wake. For a moment he was paralysed, usually a fatal mistake in combat, but these boys were fighting for the fight itself, not to win, so Magnus allowed the lapse in time for the Hammerhead to collect himself.

“Come on,” Magnus taunted. “This fight is so lame, it isn’t even on my top ten list.”

“Yeah well… I’mma make my own list, and you’re ten – no wait you’re also not on my list-”

Magnus made an obnoxiously loud snoring noise as the Hammerhead failed to form a coherent insult.

“Hey. fuck you!” and then, the boy pounced. For a moment the world was without direction as Magnus was thrown, and then his head hit the pavement. As he began to comprehend his new perspective on the ground, he saw a fist grow in his field of vision until it hit him in the left eye. Before the boy could swing again, Magnus pushed his body up and the two grappled. It took a minute for Magnus to gain the upper hand, scrambling to his feet to kick the boy in the stomach. And then again. And then again.

As he listened to the boy beneath him wheeze out a breath, as he stood over him panting heavily. He felt a sting on the back of his head from where it had scraped the pavement, and he tried to remember why he had risen to this fight. It wasn’t because he was angry. Or because he had been upset or provoked. He was above that. It was to protect his friends. He was a protector. And sometimes the best defence was an offense, or something. Yeah, that sounded like a reasonable excuse to tell himself.

The boy on the floor groaned, and Magnus watched a drip of blood trail from his face to the pavement. It made him queasy, and it hinted at a panic which was slowly rising deep within him.

He had done this to retroactively protect his friends.

He picked up his school bag, with his lightly bloodied hands.

He looked back at the beaten-up boy.

He had done this to protect his friends, he told himself again.

And then, Magnus ran.

It turned out that the adrenaline high following a fight lasted much, much longer than that after a football match. Even after the final game of the season, Magnus’ body would return to normal after a late-night car ride home. But following the fight, by the time he had run to his house and made it to the bathroom, he was still experiencing what most accurately felt like multiple concurrent heart attacks.

Luckily for Magnus, Mr Waxmen didn’t come home until late, so he could tend to the damage with no questions asked. In the mirror, he winced at his reflection. The old scar was a pale line running down his face, noticeable but long healed. But now scrapes from the rough concrete were strewn across his body and his left ear was covered in drying blood from where he had hit the pavement.

Worst of all was the bruise on his eye which promised to bring with it more gossiping the moment he showed his face at school. There would be no hiding that one behind lies of innocence. His face was red flush from running and panicking about the whole situation which had unfolded. And about the subsequent repercussions he might face, which he could barely even begin to comprehend.

Oh god, oh fuck, oh shit.

He clutched his hair, pulling slightly, just to apply pressure somewhere on his body other than the mild ache his current bleeding injuries brought. A drop of blood from his scraped knee made its way down his ankle, getting threateningly close to the bathroom mat.

Panic attacks aside, he had to do something. He had to start somewhere in cleaning this mess up.

He began with a shower, hissing as water ran into open cuts, and trying not to faint as he pulled out small pavement rocks from the deep gash in his knee. Rubbing the dirt away was the hardest part, as scrapped skin came off with his attempts to clean.

Afterwards, he wrapped himself in his towel, and stood still, appreciating the softness of the fabric. He was also reluctant to rub at the cuts any further.

His next step was to search the laundry for some form of antiseptic. While it stung to apply, the smell was familiar and for a moment he was taken back to his football days. His coach, or his dad, had done this for him, treating his injuries properly. Back when his injuries had been a result of a game, and acquiring them had been in the process of making his family and friends proud.

“I did this to protect my friends,” he told himself, as he held a cotton bud to his elbow. He winced through the pain, before reaching for a Hello Kitty Band-Aid. He regarded the box, the cute pink designs making him think of a more innocent time. These Band-Aids must have been a relic of Julia’s youth; Mr Waxmen’s daughter who was currently far, far away at boarding school

Many hours after the fight was over Magnus sat on the couch, making his best imitation of a vegetable as he stared at the TV. From cooking show, to crime show to old Star Trek re-runs, he was trying and failing to distract his mind from thinking about two panic inducing thoughts. Firstly, who the Hammerhead was going to tell, how much, and what trouble he would get in from it. And secondly how his friends and Mr Waxmen were going to reprimand him for this incident.

The TV changed to another ad break, and Magnus spent a minute flicking through ads and screaming talk show hosts, trying not to picture how damn angry Lup was going to be, before the fear in his mind made his heart race so fast his chest began to ache. The white noise of the TV mingled with the screams of his subconscious which mingled with the dull pain of dressed cuts and he felt like he was going to combust.

Magnus turned the TV off and dragged his body to his room, picking up a handful of fun-sized chocolate bars from the kitchen on his way.

The door thumped behind him and he collapsed his body onto his bed, landing stomach first and making the springs creak loudly under his weight. He opened the first chocolate wrapper with his teeth and ate it without tasting a thing. He idly watched Fischer swim around his tank. It was a calming thing to watch, and it lulled him for the time being. Staring at the tank was an ambient, timeless thing. It was set up exactly as it had been set up when he first got Fischer a year and a bit ago. After the accident. Fischer was slow, graceful, beautiful. He was peaceful and Magnus’ heart slowed in time with the fluid movements of the fish.

Therapy fish was a rare choice, but it was the right one. After losing his dad, Magnus had stayed in his bed day in and day out. After only a few visits, Magnus’ therapist had weaved out one of Magnus’ core motivations; the need to take care of something. Magnus had firmly said he didn’t want something high maintenance, and he didn’t want something he would get too attached to. Dogs and cats lived a long time, ideally long enough for him to recover, but fathers were meant to live longer than his did too. It was tempting to project his recovery onto a dog, but the very thought of losing the dog too soon had made Magnus terrified.

Fish died, a lot. He remembered when Merle had had fish when he was in elementary school. A fish would pass away every year or so. And each time Merle and his friends would hold a mock sermon for them, mostly as an imaginative form of entertainment.

Fischer would die someday. In general, Magnus was at a place where he would be able to move on from that, but in this very moment his sanity depended on watching that fish nibble at the bubbles at the surface of his tank, mistaking them for food, while Magnus shoved another chocolate bar into his mouth.

He heard the front door to the house open, Mr Waxmen finally having arrived home.

The first physical fight Magnus had been in, he had been eight. Boys will be boys and all that jazz. Magnus and another boy had had too much energy when a playground clash had broken out. It had been a very long time ago, and his memory of the incident was beyond a blurry haze. He imagined he had felt angry at the time, a stupid kid unsure of how to handle angry emotions in a mature way. He imagined that his teachers would’ve scolded him. He did remember the other boy crying. He remembered winning. And the fight must have been for a good cause, because he remembered that winning had brought him pride.

Fish fight each other. Humans do too. Humans are naturally violent creatures. Magnus had never hit anything helpless, but sometimes other people do, and it’s those people to whom he directed his violence.

He imagined that Fischer had never done any harm. He only ate synthetic nutritional flakes and swam around in slow circles. Magnus doubted he would be the kind of fish to fight others. Maybe he was the kind of fish to be eaten.

“I’m not a bad person,” he said to the tank. He’s not sure why, but a few tears roll down his cheek.

A few minutes later, his door was knocked on and then opened. Mr Stephan Waxmen stood at his doorframe, silently taking in the sight of Band-Aids littering Magnus’ legs, accompanied by bruises on his arms. With scrapes still on his elbows and knuckles, the story told itself. The black eye was the crown jewel to his look.

Having a legal guardian was a weird thing. Socially the norms were hardly pre-established. Magnus had known Mr Waxmen his whole life as a friend of the family. Now they lived under the same roof, in the same house, which Magnus still didn’t fully regard as a home. How did debating work with someone taking the role of your parent, but still formally considered a non-related elder? Dinnertimes were either a formal occasion or filled with semi-formal banter, either way Magnus felt as though he always had to watch his tongue. And now Magnus was in trouble. And Mr Waxmen while legally obligated to ‘raise him’ was also unsure of how to proceed. Undoubtedly, he had never experienced this in his time raising Julia.

Magnus had gotten into his second fight at the age of twelve, with a girl who had claimed she was the strongest person in that primary school. The fight had been fair, and they had ended it with a shake of the hand. She had been bruised and grazed, and he had too. But hitting a girl was forbidden. Her parents hadn’t believed that their princess was a rough kid too. Magnus had gotten a detention, thoroughly confused for being punished over a mutually organised fight.

This fight had been the same principle, mutually agreed upon violence. But now his conscience was far more developed than it had been back then, and rather than be angry at being punished, Magnus now felt guilt and shame.

Stephan, very slowly, let his eyebrows raise. He gave a warm smile. “Interesting day at school?”

“I wish,” Magnus said.

“Are you hurt?”

“Just some scrapes.”

“You in trouble?” he asked. “I wasn’t called by the school so I’m guessing not.”

“At least for now, but I don’t think the other guy is going to tell,” Magnus explained.

“Did you hurt him?” At that question Magnus felt the panic in him rise. The sudden shock to his system was disorienting. Because yes, he did hurt someone.

“He’ll be fine,” Magnus said.

“Are you sure?”

“I didn’t… He wasn’t like unconscious!” Magnus’ voice broke as he shouted. “I didn’t bash him. I just- it was just some roughhousing!”

Stephan heaved a sigh as he pinched his brow. “Magnus… I thought you were better than this.”

Magnus opened his mouth. And then it shut again. It opened again as his brain short circuited. “I… am better than this,” he said.

“A fight? Really? I… do you need to go back to therapy? I’m happy to book you in.”

“No, I’m fine,” Magnus said.

“Are you sure? This isn’t an indication of being in control of your emotions,” he said.

“I am,” Magnus’ voice broke in his distress. He drew his knees to his chest, wrapping his arms around them, and weaker he repeated, “I am.”

A few tears streaked down Magnus’ face which he tried to wipe away quickly, but he was not fast enough for Mr Waxmen to miss it. The bed dipped as he sat beside Magnus. Still, the social divide of legal guardian, mentor, housemate, old family friend, authority figure but ultimately not a family member, hung heavy between them.

“I’m trying,” Magnus said.

“I know.”

“It’s hard.”

“I’m sure it is. But Magnus, fighting is… It’s a dangerous path. You could get hurt. You still can, if whoever the other guy is feels like a rematch. Or you could hurt someone else, and that will end up hurting you too, because I know you’re a compassionate person and living with that would be hard for you.” Magnus said nothing about how he had technically learnt this lesson before. A story long in his history’s past which had resulted in one of his closest friends losing an arm. “Not to mention you could get in trouble, the chances of which increase each time you do something like this. And I don’t just mean as in school trouble. You’ve never really had to face the law, and I hope you never do, but just because you’re a minor, you’re not above it.”

Magnus tried to say something. To affirm he understood what he was being told, but the moment he tried to speak anything, a sob escaped instead, and he held onto himself tighter. Through his tears he watched his fish. Following his movements like a lifeline. And he felt like all the seams holding him together were bursting. The only people he cried in front of were his dad, who was now gone, his therapist, and his fish. Not Mr Waxmen. Not his friends when they were outside of the Zone of Truth. Because crying was embarrassing. And he was a seventeen-year-old teenager, trying to be a man. This wasn’t what men do.

The last fight before todays had been a month after Magnus had lost his dad. He had been the one searching for it. An excuse, any excuse, to fight. He had distanced himself from his friends out of fear of ruining their perception of him during his grieving period. It had been the first fight where he had drawn blood. But it had also been the first one he had not gotten in trouble for.

“You’re better than this Magnus,” Mr Waxmen said. It wasn’t a judgement, it was a fact. And Mr Waxmen’s arm wrapped around Magnus’ shoulder and then pulled him into a tight hug. And as Magnus cried into his shirt, ugly and loud, he ceased being Mr Waxmen, and for the first time simply became Stephan.

I am better than this, Magnus screamed in his mind, as loud as he could without making a sound. I am better than this.

Stephan tightened his hold, and with it came a tighter seam in their shared bond. A strong thread to help hold Magnus together.

It took until lunchbreak the next day for the crew to realise Magnus’ absence. When Lucretia sent a text to him inquiring on his absence, she received no response. Taako spent the last ten minutes of his English class spamming Magnus’ phone with messages. Simultaneously Magnus was lying in a blanket pile in the treehouse, watching his blaring phone slowly make its way across the wooden floor, vibrating with each incoming message.

“Do you think he’s okay?” Lucretia asked, as they all gathered at their lockers at the end of the day.

“Have you tried calling his parents?” Barry asked. There was a silence amongst them, and Barry scratched his neck nervously. “Unless… you don’t have their number?”

Lup took a slow sigh, wrapping her arm around her boyfriend. “Magnus lost his father in a car crash about two years ago.”

“Is that the story behind the scar?” Barry asked. Lup nodded.

“And why he wasn’t here last year,” she said.

Although he didn’t know Magnus very well, Barry felt a slowly rising anger towards all the times he had witnessed people blatantly ask about the scar. Even he barely felt like he had the right to know this intimate detail.

“We can’t call Mr Waxmen for answers either,” Lup said. “He wouldn’t be home yet.”

 “You know, I have a theory,” Angus said, coming over to their gathering. “I overheard-”

“Eavesdropped,” corrected Taako.

“I was listening with a detective’s keen ear, and earlier with my keen eye, I spotted Little Jerry, you know one of the Hammerheads, and he’s got an awful lot of scars and bruises.”

“No, I refuse to believe it,” Lucretia said sternly. Everyone looked to her. She shook her hear profusely. “He’s not fighting again. He’s grown out of that.” Despite her wishes, uncertainty weaved its way into her voice. “He’s more mature than to get into fights anymore. Right?”

“The Hammerheads certainly aren’t too mature for picking fights,” Davenport signed. “It’s entirely believable they antagonised him.”

“But he wouldn’t fall for it, he…”

“Are you saying Magnus ‘Rushes in’ Burnsides isn’t a hot-headed idiot?” Taako butted in. “Because maybe we’re talking about different people, and that’s where all this confusion is coming from.”

“Listen, I love Magnus, but Taako has a point,” Lup said. “He’s not always a forward thinker.”

“So Mr Burnsides got himself into a fight, and now he probably feels right terrible about it,” Angus led on.

 “Well,” Merle said. “I can guess one place where Magnus Hyphen Terry ‘The Hammer’ Burnsides would go to wallow in his own sadness.”

Angus let out an impressed gasp at the sight of the finely crafted treehouse. “I can see why you nicknamed him The Hammer now.”

“If anyone makes any innuendo about nailing, I’m burning this forest to the ground,” Taako said.

“Only because you wish you were the n-” Merle was interrupted by a swift elbow to his stomach by the elf.

Lup shoved the boys aside, launching herself up the ladder and stomping her way inside the wooden house “Tell me it isn’t true!” she shouted on entry. Inside she saw mounds of blankets concealing a sulking Magnus. “Tell me you’re not fighting again.”

One of Magnus’ hands rose up out of the folds of fabric to flip her off.

“Magnus!” she said, slapping the hand. The rest of the group piled in one by one.

“Did you get hurt?” Lucretia asked. Finally, Magnus sat up. He was a little surprised by the presence of Angus.

“Not as much as the other guy,” he said.

Lucretia wasn’t impressed. “You have a black eye.”

“Yeah and check this out,” Magnus said, hiking up his sweat pants to show off his band aid riddled legs. “Hello Kitty.”

“Um excuse me,” Taako said. “The only way you could get cuts on your legs would be if you were wearing shorts to school. We need to have a serious conversation about your outfit choices.”

Lucretia hit Taako in the arm. “That, is not what’s important.”

“You’re telling him off about fighting by attacking your own brother!” Taako said.

Magnus hurled a pillow at Taako’s head, but the elf ducked and his sister caught it effortlessly. She hurled it back at Magnus and it made a ‘whoomfph’ sound as it hit his face. “Magnus what the fuck. Are you trying to get expelled?!” she said.

“I’d rather that than this impromptu intervention,” he said. Sadly, the tree house was too high up to consider launching himself out of the window. Although even with a broken leg he could probably outrun everyone else present. “It’s done okay. I can’t change the past. And he’s not going to tell anyone without putting himself at risk of getting in trouble, or worse, ruining his reputation. So it’s fine. It’s over. Can we just… stop talking about it.”

Eight teenagers stood in a very small space, uncertain of how to proceed. Amongst them was anger, frustration and disappointment all drawn from love. It was an array of emotions which none of them really knew how to handle. Lup and Lucretia clearly wanted to argue. To hammer in their lesson. But they also knew Magnus was not an idiot. And Mr Waxmen was nice but a hard-ass. There was a degree they needed to be critics of his behaviour, and another degree to which they were aware that Magnus needed them to be just his friends.

So, they did what they were familiar with, they sat down, and went about their afternoon as usual, pretending they were all feeling nothing while struggling with feeling everything at once.

Most of them went into homework or reading. Angus and Merle chose to leave the treehouse to take a walk in the woods. Barry tried to do his work. Math work was easy, he could do it in noisy class rooms, sleep deprived, and as he had recently learnt, he could do it with a distractingly attractive girl eating Cheetos beside him in his bedroom. Barry had never tried to do work with a person with a black eye sitting across the room from him however. A room which was built by said person, for a friend group to which Barry still was mostly an outsider.

Historically his friends had all been other quiet kids. Other people who’s after school activities consisted of doing their homework, or intellectual based pastimes like art or music. He had never considered someone like Magnus to be his friend before. The moment someone he knew had slipped into dangerous territory, skipping classes, smoking, making offensive jokes or just doing anything remotely unsavoury, Barry had broken ties. He surrounded himself with the kinds of people he wanted to be like, high achievers, mature, proper.

Only an hour ago he had learned that Magnus had gone through some official ‘Tough Shit’, but wasn’t that the story behind all bad kids? Magnus had been in a fight, many before in fact. But before last year, he had been ahead of his class, so he was abnormally smart. So where did Magnus stand, as a dangerous young man who was also an above average academic student, who was loyal to his friends, who had dropped school for a year. Nowhere quantifiable, Barry decided. In fact, the only thing he conclude was that this method of judging people, using their grades and their interests and their levels of violence… It wouldn’t suffice.

Barry had incomplete data, and he knew he would start jumping to conclusions which would result in incorrect assumptions.

What he knew was that when he looked at Magnus, he felt afraid, whereas everyone else in the room was indifferent to his presence. A black eye, scars and bruises belonged to someone they trusted. Someone they supported.

Barry also now knew a great deal more about Magnus than an ‘outsider’ would, which in turn, made him no longer one.

Barry grabbed his phone and opened a messenger app. The screen was blank as he had no prior conversation with Magnus. It was a blatant warning that he was still unfamiliar. But Barry had recently learnt the importance of bravery. The gorgeous girl sitting beside him who he could call his girlfriend was evidence to that.

Barry here,

We were very worried when you didn’t answer your phone today, which is why everyone’s a bit high-strung. Glad you’re okay.

Barry’s heart pounded after he sent the message, his social anxiety forcing him to read it over and over again.

But a few minutes later his phone dinged with one message from Magnus which would completely alter all hypothesises he had regarding the rough boy.

:)

Barry looked at the smiley emoji. He dared a quick glance to Magnus, who was still wrapped up in blankets on the floor, face transfixed on his screen and headphones in to block out the world. Barry looked back at his screen, and he realised that he was no longer afraid of friends who lived life a little rougher than he did.

It was late afternoon when Angus McDonald was pulled into an empty classroom and the door shut behind him. His kidnapper, Lup, held him by the shoulders.

“Boy detective, I have a case for you,” she said.

“I’d be happy to assist Ms Lup, you needn’t manhandle me,” he said, a light blush on his cheeks.

“Its about Lucretia,” Lup said. “And what mysterious thing she’s getting up to on Sunday nights.”