"Uh, sorry to interrupt your conversation, but do any of you know anything about the Honors Class?" Nate asked, hand raised like a good student.

"Isn't it classes?" Carter asked, chuckling.

"The Honors Class refers to being on the honors track for all courses," Yuzuki said. "Some may be lucky to get a few here and there, but only the brightest and skilled mages get there."

Lei stared at his schedule and grinned. "Seems the school noticed me. Hmm, wonder it was Burai's doing."

"The guy whose lacky you fought? Hmm, guess that makes sense," I whispered.

"What? Why wasn't I put in there?" Carter asked, pouting.

Ling narrowed her eyes at him. "Do you seriously have to ask?"

"Wait, were you enrolled in it too, Nate?" Yuzuki asked.

Nate nodded.

"You must be crazy smart," Alto said.

Hikaru stared at Lei. "I don't think that is all. Lei and I are at the same level when it comes to intelligence."

"Except you show it more. Lei hides it behind his goofiness," Yen said, chuckling.

Lei rolled his eyes at her.

"I'm smart too," Carter said, still pouting.

I laughed and stood up. "What did you get?"

Carter put his hands over his paper. "Not showing!"

"Hmm, fishy," I said.

"It's not fishy! It doesn't even smell like fish!"

Ling put a hand up to her forehead. "And you ask why aren't honors. That said, I got some courses, but I'm not considered an Honors Student," Ling said.

"Eh? Who else has honors classes or is considered an Honors Student here?"

Tamara blushed and raised hers. All of her core classes were advanced.

Nate smiled and held up his hand. "Looks like we finalists are both in!"

Tamara high-fived him back.

"If only I had beaten you, Nat..." Carter mumbled.

Arima laughed. "I doubt that's the only reason they were put in."

"Did you get promoted to Honors too, Arima?" Lei asked.

She turned her paper around. "Yeah. I did have straight As last year."

"A for Arima!" Carter exclaimed, chuckling.

"Goof," Kanja said, giggling.

He blushed. "I-I'm go-goofy?"

"Hehe, it's not a bad thing. It can be a girl magnet if done right," I said, chuckling.

"Then why are you girlfriendless?" Yen asked, smirking.

"Hmph, just because you have Hika, it doesn't mean you have to rub it in for us singles."

"I-I don't have Hika! I don't like him that way. I-idiot!"

Kun sighed. "Don't start arguing you two. Remember Huo."

I glanced at the boy who seemed on edge.

Sarah patted his arm.

"Sorry," I whispered.

"Maybe our class is too big," Yuzuki said, sighing. "Maybe those of us who are honor students should go to that class."

"Wait, since you're one, why did you change dorms?" Hikaru asked, blinking.

Yuzuki's face reddened. She glanced at Lei for a moment. "I, uh. You know!"

Hika smiled. "I do know."

"Me?" Lei asked, blushing.

"Eh? He has a harem and is an honors student? How unfair!" Carter shouted.

Sarah glared at him as Huo curled up.

Cart sunk into his seat. "S-sorry." He took off his headphones. "Here, you can put these on, Huo!"

Huo took them and put them on without hesitation. Good thing too as the bell rang soon after.

"Where are the others? We're still missing half the class," Alto said.

"And Ms. Key hasn't returned yet," Xue said, staring at the clock.

"And here I thought the lines were finally starting to go more smoothly," Aurelius said, sighing.

Mira gulped. "Hope Jude's alright."

"He decided to wait for Hal, didn't he?" Carter asked.

She nodded. "Yeah, but Hal had fallen further back, so he's stuck around with the other third-years and Ayawamat."

Ning and Yuzuki exchanged glances.

"What's wrong?" Kanja asked.

"It's just, the twins can be rather irresponsible. But if Tahoma is with them, Jude should be fine," Yuzuki said.

"I hope so," Vermeil said, frowning.

"I should've stayed with him," Mira mumbled.

"We're here!" the twins yelled, rushing into the room.

Behind them were the cousins, Renshu, Ona, Kachina, Oricalchum, Zelde, Wanikiya, Aria, Nahimana, and I girl I hadn't met before. Was she the friend of Ona and Renshu that had decided to stop coming after what Mayu did to them?

"Woah, chunky group this time!" Carter said.

Kanja laughed. "I think you mean big."

"Where's Jude?" Mira asked.

"Jude? Oh the small kid?" the twins said in unison.

"Yeah, did you lose him?" Yuzuki asked, narrowing her eyes at them.

The twins crossed their arms. "Nope! We left him with his big brother! They should be here soon!"

"Adela, Orion, Nyima, and Lidia are the last ones left to get their schedules. Jude got Hal's, but he is still in line to get Sarah and Kun's," Tahoma said as he took a seat next to Yuzuki.

Yuzu sighed in relief. "I see."

"Looks like we'll all be here soon," Aria said, smiling as she sat beside me.

I smiled. "It's already been eventful without them."

Huo sighed. "You can say that again."

"We're here!" Ms. Key said as she walked in with our remaining classmates.

"You sure took a while. Was it that difficult to find a large chair?" Alto asked.

I smiled. So, he was finally talking to her again. After the games, he hadn't spoken to her so informally.

Ms. Key stared at him but then beamed. "Yeah. Had to go ask Kou for help."

"Eh? Thought you disliked one another," Nat said.

Ms. Key sighed as she walked over to Mira to give her the chair. "It's a bit more complicated than that."

"So, frenemies?" Carter asked, blinking.

"That sounds about right."

"Oh, like Aya and me!" Lei said.

Ayawamat grumbled. "Since when were we friends?"

"Since we passed the Novus Magus Secundus exam, duh!"

Nyima sighed. "Is that really enough for you to call him a friend?"

Lei tilted his head. "I guess not. But Aya did help out a lot. Plus, I got to see a different side to him too!"

Ayawamat turned away. He appeared to blush. Ha. Good thing Sowk wasn't around to see it.

"You sound like Carter, Lei," Huo said, shaking his head.

Aurelius laughed. "He does!"

"Hehe! Must be a Magus Maximus wannabe thing!" Carter said, grinning.

"If true, Ling wouldn't be so stiff and Mr. Obi would be a great guy..." Adela said, sighing.

"L-Lady Adela!" Ling said, blushing. "Ugh, am I that stiff?"

Renshu chuckled. "You sure are!"

"Who asked you?"

"Well, you did ask out loud."

"Was talking to myself!"

"Oh, guess it's not..." Carter mumbled.

Nyima shrugged. "Lei, Kun, and you are just a bunch of oddballs."

I grinned. "Thanks for including me! But, how did you know that I wanted to be Magus Maximus? I don't remember having shared that with you."

Lei grinned. "You mentioned it with her around before."

I tilted my head. Had I? I really didn't recall. Was it during vacation? Or before that?

Nyima turned to look at Ayawamat. "That said, there are reasons be befriend the guy. Uh, not that I would."

Ayawamat grumbled. "Not that I would like to befriend you either. And that's a plural 'you'."

"That guy might be more of a stick in the mud than Ling and Huo," Carter whispered, chuckling. He froze as Aya glared at him. "Uh, uh..."

He looked forward and sighed. "Whatever." My brother's former bully took out a book out of his backpack.

"Wait, you read?" I asked.

Ayawamat narrowed his eyes at me. "How do you think I made it this far?"

"I mean, for fun."

He stared at the book. "Sometimes. Playing games all of the time gets boring."

Nahimana sighed. "Wished someone would tell Rhys that."

"Rhys? Whose that?" Carter asked, glancing at the class.

"He's a kid that we care for," I said. "That said, he does play card games."

"Card games?" Nate asked.

"Yeah. He loves playing Mystic."

"Mystic? My brother loved playing that game."

"Uh, which one?" Kanja asked.

Nate lowered his head. "Dante."

She frowned. "Oh..."

"Uh, the weather sure is nice today," Au said, laughing nervously.

Nate smiled at him. "Thanks, but you suck at subtility."

Sarah smiled and held out her tablet. It read, "He's as subtle as Kun."

"Hey, I'm a lot more subtle than that!"

Lei snickered even as his eyes remained focused elsewhere. Why was he so focused on the cameras?

"Is something wrong with the cameras?" I asked, poking him.

His smile vanished. "I feel like we're being watched."

I gasped. Now that he mentions it, it does feel that way...

"Security's probably watching over the school, in look for any trouble. It is the first day. Fights usually break out in this first week," Ms. Key said.

"I'm rearing for some battles!" Carter said, standing up.

Huo grumbled as he gripped the borrowed headphones. "Knew a blood knight like you would say that."

"Lei was challenged by someone like that the other day. A weird blond in sandals and his super tall friend," Nyima said.

"Blond in sandals with a super tall friend? You mean Burai and Koichi?" Ms. Key asked, gasping slightly.

"Yeah," Lei said, continuing to eye the cameras.

"Feels odd being watched, huh?" I whispered.

"Maybe it's not security watching us, but that weird blondie you mentioned!" Carter exclaimed.

Arima rubbed her arms. "Now, that would be creepy."

"Yeah," Vermeil said.

Hal chuckled as he brought out his tablet. "I can check if you like."

"Hey, you don't plan to hack into the feed, do you?" Ms. Key asked, narrowing her eyes at him.

He smirked. "Well, if someone else is doing that, I would be helping return it back to normal."

Jude smiled. "Y-you just want to see i-if you can d-do it, huh?"

"Shh! Don't give it away, Jude!"

"And Sarah says I'm not subtle," I said, snickering.

Lidia walked over to him and peeked over his shoulder.

"Interested in hacking too?" Ning asked, tilting her head.

Lidia turned to look at her and nodded. "A little. My brother taught me a bit when we were little."

"You have a brother?" Carter asked.

The edges of Lidia's lips twitched, but she failed to smile. "Yeah. His name is Dyl. He was a bigger tech wiz than me."

"Really? I would like to meet him," Ning said with a thin smile.

Lidia's eyes shone again. "I bet he would like to meet you too!"

"Huh?" Hal said, sitting upright.

"What's wrong?" Orion asked, leaning forward.

"Someone else seems to have control of the cameras after all."

He gulped.

Lei crossed his arms and sighed. "I knew something felt off."

"Not sure how you got that feeling," Yen said. She gasped. "Wait, could it be because you're a  lightning mage?"

"I didn't notice it, though," Alto said.

"Well, you aren't as observant as Lei in the first place," Arima said.

"Yeah, but it's not like I'm the oblivious type either."

"True."

Nyima leaned on her chin on her left hand and snickered. "As I said, Lei's an oddball."

"This code is pretty hard to break through," Hal said, tapping away on his tablet.

"Will a tablet be enough?" Ning asked.

Hal chuckled. "This isn't any ordinary tablet! It's packed with powerful apps! I even backward engineered the code of the Minese hacking apps."

"Wait, that's dangerous!" Ms. Key said, grabbing the tablet. "If you're discovered, they'll think it was Minese spy doing it!"

Hal sighed. "It's not completely the same. I put my own special touch to it."

Ms. Key stared at the tablet and furrowed her brow.

"Wow, you must be a genius!" Carter said.

"H-he is," Jude said.

Hal laughed.

"You aren't in honors too, are you?" Arima asked.

Hal's smile faded. "No."

Ver and Sarah exchanged glances as if communicating mentally. Did they know something about Hal that we didn't?

Ms. Key scoffed as she held the tablet at him. "You're smart but lazy. Or perhaps, you're downplaying your skills for some reason only you and your friends know." She glanced at Ver and Sarah.

The two girls smiled slightly.

Jude stared at his brother. "I-I told him that b-before heading out. H-Hal i-is too laidback."

Hal reached over behind him and patted Jude's head. "Thanks for worrying about me, but I would be worse off if I weren't laidback." He shook his head. "Hard work isn't really my thing."

"But you have worked hard," Arima said. "To overtake Mr. Suzuran."

Hal smiled. "My venom-making is an exception."

"And during the war too!" Lidia said.

He took back the tablet from Ms. Key. "That was also a special case. A life and death one."

Vermeil snickered. "Hal only gets serious when something important is on the line."

Yen narrowed her eyes at him. "He might be worse than my brother."

"You mean Kun, right?" An asked, glancing at Lei and me.

I laughed. "If she meant Lei, then I would hate to see what a hard worker looked like."

Lei smiled. "Kun studies hard, though! He comes to me for tutoring."

I blushed. "L-Lei! Y-you're supposed to keep that a secret!"

"Didn't you say earlier that there was nothing wrong with asking for help?" Arima said, shaking her head.

"Y-yeah, but it's still a bit embarrassing to rely on my little brother."

Lei grinned. "It would be more so if we weren't triplets."

I smiled. "True."

"Though, if you're embarrassed about that, why not ask Yen for help?" Orichalcum asked.

I laughed. "Yen's a sucky tutor."

Hikaru sighed. "More like she's frightening."

Yen glared at Hika and me. "Well, next time Lei's too busy to tutor you two, don't come crawling to me for help!"

Hika and I laughed nervously. "We rather figure it out on our own," we said in unison.

"Woah! Are you two twins too?" Carter asked.

"Nah! We're best buds!" I said, putting an arm around Hika.

"Kun," Hika said as he struggled not to fall off his chair.

Carter took a deep breath and jumped to his feet, letting out a scream.

Huo jumped.

"Cart, are you okay?" Aurelius asked.

"I'm fired up for this year!" he exclaimed.

And just what got him fired up? Wait, was it the talk about hard work and best buds? He had mentioned how he only got here because of his best friend.

"That's fine and all, but don't scare Huo," Lidia said.

Carter sat back. "Ugh, I did it again."

"That guy's going to be the death of me," Huo sighed, gripping the headphones.

Ms. Key laughed. "Cart's more spirited than my husband."

"And I used to think my big bro was the most hot-blooded guy in the world," Alto said.

"Same," Uli said. "Though, you and Aban could be pretty hyper yourselves."

Alto coughed. "T-that was me trying to be more like Zy."

"Huh..." Hal said.

"What now?" Nyima asked.

"The cameras returned back to the control of the school. Whoever took them over seems to have retreated."

"Maybe they noticed you trying to counter them earlier," Ms. Key said. She walked over to the desk and sat down. "I better alert security about it, just in case."

"Wonder if it was a foreign country. There's a level of sophistication that makes me think it's either a country or some big shot cyber terrorist organization. Though, it must be from a country or agency I'm unfamiliar with as I've never seen a code like this before." He gasped.

"Did they return?" Lidia asked.

Hal put down his tablet. "I have seen this code before, but something primative compared to it."

"Really? Where?"

"The royal palace of your country."

Lidia leaned forward and stared at the tablet. Had Hal taken a screenshot of the hacker's code?

"This encryption code style... it's similar to my brother's..."

"Didn't you say he was in the army? Maybe Sera had him develop it," Nyima said.

Lidia's hands trembled. "You think H.E.H. got a hold of my brother's encryption?"

"Perhaps, or maybe Ms. Zettai was right about H.E.H. having him working under them."

Huo shot up and grabbed Lidia by the shoulders as she fell back. "Lidi!"

"Dyl is being made to work for them?" she mumbled.

Is this a warning from H.E.H. toward Hal and Vermeil for having assisted in the war? Or is it a sign of things to come?

**Solar Note: Hope that you enjoyed the chapter :). Thoughts? Theories? Predictions?**