The next day

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

I shut my alarm off and rolled out of bed. Last night, I had the craziest dream that Goode actually won the championships. It was really weird.

I quickly got dressed, shoved my homework into my backpack, and headed downstairs.

I immediately got the whiff of something baking in the oven. My eyes widened as I recognized the smell. I put my backpack down and took a seat at the island. I asked, "Is that what I think it is?"

My grandma turned around and smiled, "There's my champion! And yes, you are smelling blue cookies!"

It wasn't a dream?! I mentally fist-pumped.

My grandma grabbed a plate of blue cookie dough and handed me a piece. "They'll be ready in a few minutes."

I ate the piece of cookie dough, and fuck, it was delicious. If there was one thing I liked more than blue cookies, it was blue cookie dough.

When the timer went off, my grandma put on her oven mitts and took out a tray of cookies. Not able to hold back, I grabbed a cookie the moment she set the tray on the island.

"Careful!" She scolded, "You're going to burn yourself!"

I gave her an "are you serious" look and said, "I haven't burned myself since I was a toddler."

My grandma just rolled her eyes. She glanced at the time and said, "Hurry up. You're gonna be late for school if you don't go soon."

I nodded. I took a handful of cookies before grabbing my backpack and heading out the door.

I ate my cookies while I walked to school. I had to finish them before my friends saw them. They were just as addicted to them as I was. That's a lie. No one likes blue cookies more than me.

When I got to school, everyone turned to look at me, and I was showered with people congratulating me. I eventually got to my locker and quickly grabbed my books as the bell rang.

I rushed to my English class and took a seat while Mr. Johnson started the class.

About midway through the period, the classroom phone started ringing. Mr. Johnson answered it and started to say, "Yes, he's in this period... The office... Okay, I'll send him down."

Mr. Johnson looked around the class before his eyes settled on me. He said, "Luke, come here."

The class just stared at me. Someone whispered to me as I walked past them, "What did you do?"

Mr. Johnson whispered down and said, "The principal wants to see you in his office."

I paled at his words. I'd never been sent down to the principal's office before. I don't even know what his office looks like.

As I walked through the hallway, I thought to myself, Think, Luke, think. What've you done in the past few weeks that could get you in trouble with the principal?

I honestly couldn't think of anything.

When I got to the main office, I opened the door and looked around for the door to the principal's office. All the while, I felt the secretaries' eyes follow me as I walked across the room.

I knocked on the principal's door and heard a voice say, "Come in."

At this point, my hands were shaking as I turned the doorknob and opened the door.

The principal was sitting at his desk doing some paperwork when I walked in. He had on a serious face and said, "Close the door."

I gulped. I closed the door before defending myself, "Look, sir, whatever you think I did, I didn't do it. I'm not a troublemaker. This is the first time I've ever even been in a principal's office."

I waited for him to accuse me of something, but he didn't. He started cracking up. "You should have seen your face. It was too funny."

I nervously smiled. The principal smiled at me, "I'm just playing with you. You're not in trouble. On the contrary, I just wanted to congratulate you for winning the championships yesterday."

I gave a sigh of relief. The principal continued, "I wanted to let you know that we will be holding an assembly later today to congratulate the team. It'll be right after lunch, so go to the locker room right after the lunch period ends."

I nodded.

The principal then told me that I could go back to class. As I left the office, I felt like today was gonna be a good day.

Time Skip

I made my way over to my friends at our lunch table and sat down. As I took out my lunch, Andrew asked me, "Why were you late to Gym, Luke. Your English class is a lot closer to the gym than my History class."

Everyone at the table looked at me since it was a valid question. I said, "The principal called me down to his office during English. He told me that there's gonna be an assembly after lunch."

Everyone's eyes widened, and they started to celebrate. Can you blame them? Who doesn't like to have an assembly during class?

Tyler then spoke up, "By the way, Luke, you were great against Thomas Jones yesterday."

I smiled, "Thanks."

Matt asked, "How did you get ahead of him? It looked like he was gonna win, but at the last second, you took the lead and won."

That was a good question. I honestly didn't know the answer. The one thing that stood out to me, though, was that everyone seemed to be moving slower than normal. But I couldn't say that. My friends would think that I've gone crazy. So, I shrugged, "I don't know. One second, I was behind him. The next, I won."

We continued to talk about yesterday's meet, while we ate until the bell rang. As I threw out my trash, I told my friends I'd see them later at the assembly. I then grabbed my things and made my way to the locker room.

As everyone was entering the locker room, Coach was handing out jackets and hats that said New York City Junior High Track Champions. Coach said, "Everyone needs to have their jackets on when we get called out into the gym."

I grabbed the jacket and hat with my name on them and put them on. Once everyone had their jackets and hats, Coach came over to me and said, "Luke, sorry to put you on the spot, but as Captain and the one who won the championship for us, I'd like you to make a speech. It doesn't have to be long --- a few sentences should be fine."

I calmly nodded my head. On the outside, I may have looked fine, but on the inside, I was freaking out. I've never given a speech before, and my debut was gonna be in front of my entire school. Of course, it didn't help that the noise in the gym was getting louder.

As we got closer and closer to the start of the assembly, I felt myself get a ton of knots in my stomach.

"It's okay, Luke," I whispered to myself. "Yesterday, you were under more pressure."

I tried to take some deep breaths to get rid of the butterflies in my stomach, but they didn't help. 

After a couple of minutes, the butterflies got even worse. Water, I thought. Water always helped me feel better.

I quickly took off my hat and set it down on one of the benches, before making my way out of the locker room.

As I grabbed the handle of the door, John stopped me, asking, "Where are you going? The assembly's gonna start any minute."

"I know. I'll be right back. I just need some water." I replied.

John nodded, accepting my answer. "Just be quick," he said.

I opened the door and walked down the hallway towards the nearest water fountain. I held the button down while I drank the water.

As soon as the water touched my lips, I felt better. I continued to drink, and the knots in my stomach slowly started to go away.

While I was drinking, I heard footsteps behind me. It must be John telling me the assembly's about to start. I said, "I'll be right there, John. Just give me another minute."

However, instead of hearing John's voice, I heard a deep, cold voice reply. "I'm not John, Luke Jackson."

I quickly turned around to see who it was, but a blast next to me grabbed my attention. The wall now had a hole in it. If I didn't turn around when I did, I would have lost my head!

Not thinking, I started to sprint down the hallway away from the gym.

Suddenly, a light above me fell to the ground, just missing me. Sparks were flying everywhere!

I quickly looked back to see who was attacking me. I couldn't see his face, because he was wearing a long, black cloak, with the hood covering his eyes. Nevertheless, he was intimidating as hell.

As I looked at him, I noticed something in his hand. It looked like a stick. The guy raised the stick and some sort of light came out of it. I turned my head back around to see another light fall to the ground. He was using that stick to attack me. How?!

I didn't have time to think about that, though. I had to get the person away from the gym... and away from me.

I continued to sprint down the school until I saw the cafeteria doors open. There shouldn't be anyone in there since lunch is over, and also because of the assembly.

I quickly ran into the cafeteria, and then into the kitchen. I hid behind the large sink and waited.

A few seconds later, I heard footsteps, and they were getting louder. As they got closer, I slowly crept backward, deeper into the kitchen.

CRASH!

My arm knocked a metal dish onto the ground. I quickly grabbed it before it could raddle even more. I listened out into the cafeteria, expecting to hear more footsteps, but there was nothing. After a few seconds, I breathed a sigh of relief. The guy must have thought I was somewhere else.

CRACK!

I turned around, startled by the loud noise. The person was standing right behind me!

"Ahh!" I screamed as I dropped the metal dish and ran out into the cafeteria.

I ran toward the open cafeteria doors, hoping to get into the hallway and hide in another room.

Suddenly, the person appeared out of thin air, with another loud crack. He stood right in front of the doors, blocking the exit.

I stumbled onto my back when he appeared, startled by what I saw. I quickly got back up and ran in the opposite direction, trying to get to another door.

"Stupefy!"

I felt myself being pushed before my attacker said the strange word again, and I fell onto the ground.

I turned myself over onto my back as the person walked over to me and pointed his stick to my face. Seeing that there was no way for me to escape, I asked, "What did I do to you? Why are you attacking me?"

The person said, "You didn't do anything. Your father, on the other hand, did."

I raised an eyebrow, "My father? What are you talking about? He abandoned me when I was a baby. I can't even remember him."

The guy then brought his stick closer to my face. I instinctively raised my hands while he said, "Avad---"

"Stupefy!"

The guy dropped his stick and fell forward. I quickly pushed myself back to avoid him falling on top of me. He fell face-first onto the ground and was out cold.

I looked back up to see another person, pointing another stick where my attacker just stood. He was wearing a suit jacket over a slightly wrinkled collared shirt. He was a middle-aged man with round glasses, parted hair, and green eyes. On his forehead was a lightning-bolt-shaped scar.

He lowered his stick and came closer to me. He offered me his hand and asked with a British accent, "Are you alright?"