It's been so hard. We had to give up everything ever since Dad found out. Alex likes it the most, but poor Max doesn't stand a chance. It turns out it's either all of us, or none of us. The rules have changed. We're not in competition with one another anymore. Now it's family against family. We don't know which family yet, but we hear they're powerful. I know Alex and I really wanted our powers when we were against each other, but now it's like we need them. We have to win to show that we care about our family.

Alex, Max, and I were sent away to some high wizards training underground academy. I don't even know if it has a name. It's very creepy here. Although we're treated fine, the people are weird. We were few of who was taught here. Dad must have pulled a lot of tough strings to get us here.

Alex was standing in front of me with her hair pulled back. She was wearing a black tank top and black sweats. "Again." Tusei shouted at as. We walked back to both corners of the room. Alex and I mostly did our training together, while Max had to work harder since he doesn't seem to take it seriously, so he gets to go with higher-higher ups.

Alex looked at me and winked. I knew more spells than she did, which would come in handy in our combat training, but she was a lot better using improv magic. Either way, both of us have reached good magic strength. We both have our weaknesses. You wouldn't want to fight us even using the most powerful magics at this point.

As the tall, middle aged man floating atop of us told us to go, we were at it. "Conjurous Proctectous." I shouted. I motioned my hands, and an orange, transparent barrier surrounded me. "You know that silly low level barrier isn't going to do shit against this." Alex taunted. She threw her hands up as if she were one of those cool models posing on the cover of a fantasy novel. A wind surrounded her and she was levitating herself. Her hair even started 'wooshing' around her like they do on the covers. She stuck one palm out and balls of white energy shot at me.

The first few bounced off; she was right, though. It took only a matter of seconds before she penetrated my barrier. Some of the energy hit me and I flew against the wall. I slowly got up. "Blaishen!" I shouted, and with the thrust of my right palm aimed at her, a ball of searing heat went flying for Alex. I could tell she was scared, as she tried to dodge it but it hit her. She yelped as it faded behind her.

"Lunar Chillus!" I yelled. Before I could pursue the spell, she mocked me. "You should really practice making this stuff up. One day you're going to get tongue tied and say something that causes bunnies to appear, and not for me to feel ice cold needles pierce my skin."

I thrust my right palm again and thousands of sharp icicles went flying towards Alex. They were inches way from here when they were shattered and she fell to the ground. What was left of my orange barrier faded. Tusei sank down. "Justin wins, again. Congratulations." I did a cock elbow move that was commonly used when declared the victor of something.

Alex rolled her eyes. "You are both dismissed. You can head to the dormitory. Same time tomorrow night. Sleep will, young ones." And just like that, he teleported away in a puff of gray smoke. Alex and I headed out of the dim building and made our way through the tunnels. She was oddly quiet during the trip. We've changed a lot over the past few months. She's almost mature. I had changed, or realized stuff about myself I never knew before.

We approached a clearing in the tunnels. "Well, we're here. Guess I'll see you in the morning, Justin." I gave her a hug. "Night, Alex." It hurt, but I said it. "I love you." I pained out. "..Love you, too. Goodnight." We broke and she went towards one of several doors under a big sign that said "GIRLS" I headed towards the "OLDER BOYS" sign. Only me and one other person stayed in there. I don't really know him, but he seems cool.

I opened the door. He probably wasn't in there yet, he was hardly in the dorm. He was so busy studying spells and practicing his own he's made up. Very intelligent boy. He was supposed to be a senior in high school, like me, but that was taken away from him as well.

I turned the light on. The room was small. It wasn't stuffy, the room had very nice ventilation. The girls room was much larger, from what I understand. There were six beds, in rows of three in this room. It looked very plain under all the decorations Kevin and I had planted here. We actually made it look good. To my surprise, we was already there.

"Justin! Hey!" He said. "Hey," I replied. He was sitting on his bed, which was next to mine. "How was your day?" He asked. "It was good. I beat Alex a few time's while training with 'master' Tusei." He lightly laughed. I sat across from him, on my bed. "What about you?" I asked. "It was good." He didn't elaborate.

I laid back and put my arms behind my head. "Aaaahhhhh.." I exerted. "Feels good to finally relax, doesn't it?" He stated. "Mhmmm.." I answered. I was quite tired, usually magic training and studying took a lot out of me. I could tell my midriff was showing, but it didn't bother me. Even if it did, I was kind of tired and didn't care right now.

"Well I'm going to turn off the lights now.. I'm kind of tired." I snapped my fingers and they were off. "Now, was that a spell or do we have a snapper?" He joked. I laughed. I got up and stripped. It was dark, so he couldn't see me. I was in my boxers and crawled under my blankets and laid my head down on the piles of multicolored pillows I had.

"Goodnight, Kev." I said. I heard him get up and do the same I just did. He crawled into his bed. "Hey, Justin?" "Yeah?" "Do you like your powers?" He asked me. "Yeah, I do. Why do you ask?" "I'm just curious." He said. I was imagining his light brown hair coming down to his forehead and green eyes looking at me.

In reality, I knew his eyes were probably shut, like mine. "Do you like yours?" I answered back. "They're… Well, I don't know." I opened my eyes. They actually adjusted and I could see his head was propped up by his hand. He was looking at me. "Why's that?" I asked getting into the same position.

"Well, we're human. Being a wizard has it's challenges but our powers greatly, greatly outweigh those challenges. It makes like too… simple." He said.

"I see your point." I replied. I got up and sat on his bed, in between him and the side of the bed. "And you know, it kind of sucks sometimes." He said, looking at me. "What do you mean?" I asked. It made me curious. It was nice to get to know him. He seems like a nice guy.

"Well, I can't even get a love spell to work. I don't know if you do that kind of stuff but I can't get one girl to look at me." I found that surprising. He was a sweet boy, who was very attractive.

"Really?" I said. "I guess magic has its holes, huh? I mean I guess if it's just impossible, it's not going to happen." He sat up. Our faces were only about a foot from each other. "Yeah, you're right. I guess we can't use magic for everything."

I like this boy, he's cool.

"And besides, if someone.. You know, ever did decide to like you, it'd be because they like you." "Like me for me. I want that."

And before I knew what was going on, our lips were on each others and we shared a passionate kiss.