[ Lance ]

"Hmm" voiced Geoffrey.

"What is it you want?" asked Lance, dry.

Geoffrey's neutral gaze left the flowers for the skies. A few more clouds had appeared, but the deep blue expansion was still brightly overhead. 

"Where are the third years?" asked Geoffrey.

Lance shrugged. "Hell if I know."

Geoffrey remained silent, Lance ultimately breaking it in a slightly annoyed tone. 

"You've probably already crossed path with one of them. They do whatever they want whenever they want."

"They don't attend school?" asked Geoffrey.

"Sometimes."

And I was starting to think there might've been none of them.

"They're dangerous."

Geoffrey looked at Lance, who was volunteering information, surprisingly.

"How?"

He snapped his tongue.

"You'll learn quickly enough. Look out for yourself and don't trust anyone."

"Even you?" 

"Especially me."

Geoffrey nodded, "Thanks."

He got up, turning around and looking for Jet.

He was still skipping around the circle, plucking flowers here and there.

He watched as he roughly grabbed them and brought them to his nose. Closing his eyes a moment as he smelled them before throwing them back into the rest of them.

"The smell," said Geoffrey, turning back toward Lance.

"Huh?"

"That's how you knew I didn't appreciate them. I didn't take the time to breathe them in at all."

Lance shrugged, uncaring. 

"We're going, now?" asked Jet.

"Yeah."

Geoffrey walked away, Jet quickly following into his steps while grimacing at Lance who didn't even look in their direction.

They were back on the main path that they needed to take to reach the main street.

The amount of students had drastically lowered, barely any remaining around.

"So, why are you curious about third years?" asked Jet.

"Have you seen any?" 

Jet looked as if he scraped the bottom of his brain looking for one he might've crossed path with.

"No... don't think so. Going by uniform, I have yet to see one different from ours, or the second years."

"They might not even wear one at all," said Geoffrey.

"Ehh, well, I guess at a certain grade things like that don't matter too much. Like he said, they might not even be coming to school at all."

While Geoffrey agreed with the idea, it made little sense that none of them would be around, at all. If anything, Lance at least confirmed they exist. 

"I'll need to find someone else to ask," said Geoffrey.

"Who? Second years? You're lucky Lance even answered you."

"Why?" 

They had arrived at a landmark that signified they had made it half-way out, as a giant tree was right before them splitting the surrounding path.

It was massive, and branching out in all directions, reaching toward the skies while some branches reached toward the grass, brushing against it.

They walked around it, not without amazement on Jet's part.

"I tried talking to second years yesterday, they're quite unfriendly... —and, before you say anything, no I wasn't being unfriendly myself! I was on my best behavior, actually."

As he said that, he tapped his chest with a bright smile decorating his face.

"Hmm."

"It's true!"

"Didn't say it wasn't."

"Sounded like it... Trust me, I've talked to a bunch of first years, and they're all open books. Second years, however, it's like they made a vow of silence."

Geoffrey looked at Jet once more. 

"So, what happened to this white card you were talking about?" he asked.

"Well, I was playing with it earlier and it's possible I've lost it..."

Geoffrey sighed with profound disappointment, letting the silence speak for itself.

"What? I found out I could use lightning to send the card flying super fast, it's quite fun to do. Wait, let me show you with my black card," he said, taking his personal card out.

"You just don't learn..."

"Ehh, maybe you're right," he said, inspecting his card. "I've thrown it quite a few times against trees and rocks. It doesn't have a single scratch, even when thrown with lightning."

"Really?"

Jet extended his card to Geoffrey, surprising him.

He's letting me hold it?

He took it and looked closer; he was right. It was in perfect shape, not a single scratch or nick on any side of it.

Now's my chance to test this.

Geoffrey concentrated his thoughts on the card, trying to open Jet's profile, but nothing happened, it remained as it was.

"See? I could probably use this as a weapon..."

"A weapon? Do you already have enemies?"

"You never know!" he said, smirking.

Geoffrey handed him back his card. He grabbed it, and by flicking his fingers, sparks emanated while the card was sent flying upward.

Sparks followed it, until it fell back down. Jet held open his pants' pocket, it must've been barely a centimeter wide. 

Skillfully, the card landed right in it, raising even Geoffrey's eyebrows.

I thought he controlled lightning, but this isn't it.

He was smirking again, skipping next to him.

"Impressed, huh?"

"Yeah. You've clearly practiced."

"Barely, natural talent, baby."

Geoffrey slowed down as they arrived at the main street.

"You're still coming?" asked Geoffrey.

"Yeah, of course."

"Hm."

"What?"

"Thought you'd be a bit more panicked about losing the white card. You're back at a limit of 5$ per day."

Jet's smile grew larger as he burst into laughter.

He did so for a fair moment until it finally died down.

"Don't worry! I'll do just fine!" 

"You've already lined up your next victims?" asked Geoffrey.

"Let's just say there's other classes with people not as bright as us," proudly said Jet.

They started going down the street. The convenience store Geoffrey wanted to go to was past the dorms, further down.

When they arrived close to the dorms, however, Peter and some other students were in the small area between both buildings.

The same way they did the day before, it looked like they were simply socializing. This time, however, students from different classrooms also attended. There weren't that many, but their numbers was increasing.

I knew he would be a leader in our own class, but he's scaling this up quite nicely.

Jet, piqued by interest, quickly slapped Geoffrey's back while skipping toward Peter's group.

"I'll join them, actually, see you next time Geoffrey!!!"

He watched him join the group loudly, then standing next to a small group from another class.

It wasn't Geoffrey's job to be Jet's leash. Even if he tried, it'd be near impossible. The only redeeming factor was that at the current stage he couldn't do much damage to others.

Geoffrey turned and kept walking down the road, leaving the noisy group behind him.

It's better that he didn't follow me.