Almost as soon as he stepped out onto the roof, Chase found himself regretting his outfit. The chilly night air blew straight through his button-down shirt, leaving him shuddering, and even in a crisp tie and khakis pilfered from his father's closet in the penthouse, he felt underdressed among the elegantly clad Academy students stationed all around the crowded rooftop. Soft music played out of invisible speakers as groups of students meandered around the roof's perimeter, occasionally stopping at the appetizer table that was stocked with many more varieties of punch and iced tea than Chase cared to sample.

"Chase! There you are!" An excited-looking Hayley in a short, sea green dress ran up to him at a speed that should've been impossible in the gold stilettos she was wearing without spilling a drop of the orange juice she carried in a plastic cup. "I've been looking for you all night. Come on, let's go to the Jump before it gets too crowded."

Chase had no idea what 'the Jump' was, but before he could ask any questions, Hayley was already leading him across the concrete roof to the back of a sizeable crowd that had gathered at its edge. Chase pushed his way forward until he could see what they were all cheering at: Roy stood with his toes hanging off the edge of the roof, bungee cords fastened to his arms, waist, and thighs.

"Jump! Jump! Jump!" the crowd began a rhythmic chant as he bent his knees and sprung off the edge, somersaulting through the air. Chase's heart caught in his chest as he rushed to the edge along with a dozen other students, watching as Roy plummeted to the ground before the bungee cords grew taut, holding him in place mere inches from the street below.

"Cool, isn't it?" Hayley giggled as Roy stood up and reached for a first floor window, beginning the long, perilous process of scaling the Royal Academy's twenty-floor main building. "The cords are cut at 99% of the height of the building- the longest possible length they can get without killing you. But you can see that it's not actually that dangerous. Probs of death fluctuate between 1 and 5 percent."

"I don't know if 'cool' is the word I would use to describe that," Chase commented as Roy effortlessly climbed up the building, using the spaces between bricks as handholds as he hoisted himself upward with surprising strength and speed. The crowd applauded wildly as he pulled his leg over the roof and rolled onto it, pushing back his hair with his hands before leaping victoriously to his feet.

"You think that was cool?" Adrian's voice echoed through the crowd as he pushed his way to the front, giving Hayley a smirk. Chase hadn't realized that the annoying Project PROB-wannabe had been right behind them the whole time!  "I'll show you cool!" He grabbed a handful of colorful bungee cords just as Roy was removing them from around his thighs. Stepping back from the edge, Adrian ran straight off the roof with the cords clutched tightly in his hands, not even bothering to strap them on.

Following his path with his eyes, Chase realized where Adrian was heading. The world headquarters of Harrow Industries, his family's company, was just across the street from the Royal Academy, and the probs of him making the twenty-meter jump were rapidly increasing. He was manipulating them as he jumped. The crowd erupted into cheers as he grabbed onto a tenth-floor window with one hand, the other still holding tight to the bungee cords. Gritting his teeth, Adrian quickly clipped the cords onto his belt and grabbed onto the windowsill with both hands, pulling himself upward. The crowd fell silent as they began to realize what he was doing. The Harrow building was more than twice as tall as the Royal Academy... and Adrian was trying to climb it.

Chase felt something on his hand and realized that Hayley was squeezing it. He turned his head to see fear in her eyes for the first time that night. "That idiot's going to get himself killed," she whispered. "All just to one-up Roy. Oh, please don't let him die. No one's died on the Jump since the year the Academy was founded."  

"He's not going to die," Chase replied. "At least, it doesn't look like it. He's doing a pretty good job." Adrian had already climbed up fifteen stories and was going strong. Hayley pulled a small, circular lens out of her purse and held it up to her eye, watching as it elongated toward Adrian.

"What's that?" Chase asked, observing the contraption with interest.

"Oh, it's an Order spyglass. Let's us see things that are really far away. Sort of like a more simplistic version of your helmet."

"Where is he?" Chase elbowed his way closer to the edge of the roof, but he could still just barely make out Adrian's silhouette against the dark backdrop of the building.

"He's... he's almost to the top!" Hayley shouted excitedly. "I think he's going to make it... oh no..."

"What?"

"He made it to the top, but something tells me he won't make it back."

The crowd fell silent as several other students pulled out spyglasses similar to Hayley's, gesturing frantically at the Harrow Industries building. Taking Hayley's spyglass from her hand, Chase saw what they were all worried about. Adrian stood on the roof of the building, in the middle of a heated argument with two security guards. The conversation clearly didn't work out in his favor, as the guards ignored his animated protests, took their places on either side of him and aggressively led him toward what looked like an emergency stairwell.

"Will he be in trouble?" Chase asked, an expression of concern coming over his face. "I mean, Juliana did mention that this party wasn't exactly legal."

"The general rule with Academy students is that we're allowed to bend the law, as long as we're discreet about it and aren't interfering with the general population. That Jump wasn't exactly discreet, and those security guards are part of the general population, so..."

"Wait, let me get this straight," Chase stared at Hayley in disbelief. "You're telling me that he isn't gonna get in trouble for breaking the law, but for doing a bad job of it?"

"Essentially, yeah," Hayley shrugged. "Adrian's dad will be furious at his son's nonexistent stealth skills and Chu will want to suspend his rank, but Jules will talk her out of it. I don't know what she still sees in him..."

"Wait, what she still sees in him?" Chase raised an eyebrow. He surprised himself with this question. Why was he asking Hayley, the infamous Academy blabbermouth, if Adrian and Juliana had a past? Why did it matter if they did? Why did it matter to him?

"Yeah," Hayley nodded, leaning in as her eyes widened in preparation for the delivery of a juicy piece of gossip. "I wouldn't actually say this aloud because I would never want to scandalize the royal family like that, but Jules and Adrian broke up, like, six months ago. They were together for almost a year."

"Um... you just said it aloud... but okay," Chase nodded slowly, thinking. Hayley's revelation had been nothing surprising. In fact, he'd been expecting it. He'd had plenty of clues: Roy's unusual hostility toward Adrian, Juliana's cool aloofness, Adrian's incessant flirting... But why did it bother him so much now that it had been confirmed? It seemed as though his mind, as of just a few minutes ago filled with nothing more than numbers, was starting to think of something else...

"Anyway, that's not important. You know what? I shouldn't have... speaking of Jules, did she come with you? I haven't seen her at all tonight. It's weird, she's usually the life of the party."

And with that, Hayley Serpentine the expert conversationalist seamlessly transitioned away from the mutually awkward subject.

"She didn't," Chase frowned, looking around. "I haven't seen her either."

As his eyes scanned the area for Juliana, they returned to the rooftop of the Harrow building. Just before they disappeared down the stairwell, one of the security guards turned around, probably to confirm that Adrian had been alone on the rooftop. The beam of his flashlight made a powerful arc of light through the misty night as he moved it slowly from left to right. Nothing blocked its path until it passed over the rooftop of the Academy's fine arts building, at which point it momentarily illuminated an indistinguishable figure standing in the center of the roof.

"Hey," Chase lowered the spyglass, looking over at Hayley. "Is there anyone on the fine arts building?"

"Shouldn't be," Hayley frowned. "I mean, it's the shortest building on campus. The Jump would hardly be very fun from down there."

"I saw someone, though. Through the spyglass, when the security guard shone his flashlight on the building. There's definitely someone up there."

Chase put the spyglass back up to his face and zoomed in on the fine arts building, panning the device back and forth as he searched for the shadow he had seen earlier. Finally, he landed on his target, a girl dressed in an elegant crimson gown. She turned around, her eyes widening as she raised her hand in the air.

"Ow!" Chase exclaimed as the spyglass flew out of his hands, hitting him on the forehead before clattering to the ground. But his glimpse of the girl's face had been clear enough for him to recognize her.

"It's Juliana. She's on the fine arts building," Chase pushed his way out of the crowd, walking toward the edge of the roof. 

"Whoa, slow down there," Hayley broke into a momentary jog in order to catch up with the long-legged Chase. "Has it occurred to you that maybe she's down there for a reason? She shot the spyglass out of your hand as soon as you saw her- maybe she wants to be alone."

"You're right, but..." Chase ran a hand through his hair, frustrated. "That's not Juliana. She wouldn't just come to a party and mope around in a corner. What if something's really wrong? What if it has something to do with the Jackers- what if they found out about our mission!? But if that were the case and she knew, she'd tell us, wouldn't she?"

"No...she'd isolate herself from us and try to deal with it alone like the stupidly noble, self-sacrificial idiot she is," her eyes widened with understanding. "Chase! You have to get to Jules. I'll run to the lab to see if anyone's reported any aerial anomalies."

"But how can I..." Chase looked anxiously from his feet to the edge of the roof, but Hayley was gone long before she could hear his complaint. Going down the stairs, or even in the elevator, and running to the fine arts building on the ground would take at least five minutes. And that was ample time for Juliana to do something drastic. Chase looked up at the one building that separated him from Juliana: the life sciences building, with its gorgeous rooftop garden. A majestic maple tree loomed near the edge of the roof, its leaves ruffling in the nighttime breeze. He was beginning to see the fastest route to the roof of the fine arts building, but he wasn't liking it one bit.