Stepping down out of the train unnecessarily dusting his robes off with the back of his hand, Evergreen looked around the platform. People were crowding around and rushing every which way. That's when he noticed a tall, brown-bearded wizard in gray robes ushering the sixth graders to him. It made sense that with Professor Habitatio gone, that the role of chaperone would go to someone else. Andie grabbed Evergreen's hand as to likely not get separated from him in the crowd. Be that as it may, Evergreen was still quite shocked. He had never before held the hand of a girl so near his age that he wasn't related to. His mind went blank for a second until Andie nearly pulled his arm out of his socket telling him to get a move on. He let himself be led.

Evergreen, Link, Andie, and their familiars exited the platform opposite of where they did the previous year and followed the older students through a small thicket of trees to a clearing there at the base of Mount Greylock. There was nothing really of note about the clearing, except for the fact that there were maybe two dozen clear, glass cylinders that were maybe eight feet tall and perhaps four feet in diameter. Older students and pukwudgies were in the process of ushering groups of just over a dozen students each within the cylinders. Evergreen watched as one cylinder completely filled up, the doors closed, and it immediately shot up into the sky as fast as a bullet from a smoking gun. He and many other seventh graders audibly gasped at that.

"Well, well, well. Look what the cat dragged in." Beatrice called, coming up behind Evergreen with Glade nearby.

"Heya Beatrice. Have a good rest of your summer?" Evergreen asked.

"Are jugbands filled with lots of hot air?" she followed with her own question.

"Yes, I'd reckon." Evergreen answered, cocking his eyebrow in the way Dad did it when unsure.

"Well, there ya have it!" she let out a short laugh. "So, are ya gonna fall again to your death like last year?"

"Beatrice. Don't even joke like that! I never seek out trouble."

"Naw, but she sure does follow you like a scorned lover." she followed with a teasing wink.

They ended up being ushered into one of the cylinders, Evergreen, Link, Glade, Andie, Beatrice, and others. Considering it looked like a mighty cram from the outside, it was quite roomy once within. It also smelled somewhat like the summer air right before a lightning storm. That smelly, metallic smell that tingles the surface of one's skin slightly. It served to allow Evergreen to prepare himself for liftoff.

Whatever he was expecting, it was definitely not that. He had been in a glass elevator before in the AWB, but that was in a dark cavern where pretty much everything looked the same. This was the glorious dusk of a summer evening. In seconds, the cylinder shot off, hundreds of feet from the ground and soon, they were thousands of feet up, the whole castle at their feet. Off to Evergreen's right foot, he saw the hot air balloons bringing all the sixth graders to the school and in the distance, he saw the lake and waterfall Evergreen and his friends frequented the previous May, the one students can go to without a teacher.

Just as quickly as they shot up, they suddenly fell. Evergreen had never been on a drop tower, but his stomach went up a way into his digestive tract and he had to steady himself from losing his breakfast. In seconds, everything was still once again, and they found themselves on an open field that was cut by the long stone walkway that led to the castle's front doors. They disembarked and began to walk down the stone pathway, after righting themselves. Evergreen watched as the cylinders shot off and went back down to the base of the mountain, allowing other students to get on.

The students shuffled along down the long pathway. Evergreen noticed above them hundreds of fairies flitting about, glowing in the way they do and giggling at their onlookers. The walk wasn't this long last year, but it was fine. Evergreen was in decent shape, having been involved in soccer every summer and fall from when he was like five until he received his Ilvermorny letter. At some point, Andie let go of his hand, but he couldn't tell when.

Pretty soon, they had reached the open doors that older students were already pouring into, heading from the massive, ornate entrance hall with stairs on every wall and going up almost as far as the eye could see. The group shuffled through and made their way to a familiar door which led to the commons. It was a large room with four long tables, one for each Ilvermorny house, Thunderbird, Wampus, Pukwudgie, and Horned Serpent. There was also a great table before the other tables on a slight platform where the professors were already seated, except for the one with the sixth graders, thought Evergreen.

"—wow, I'm sorry to have missed that!" Glade said to Evergreen as he told her all about the Unification Festival as they took their seats at their respective tables and continued to talk amongst themselves.

"It was legendary, I'll tell you. To see Native American magic performed in all those ways was electrifying! Plus, Link over here is something of a showman himself."

"Is he, really?" Andie asked with a giggle.

It wasn't long until, Diva, their Chinese American friend, and Link's ex, took her seat between Evergreen and Andie. She had grown a bit over the summer and was looking much surer of herself than she did the previous year.

"How was your summer, Diva?" Evergreen asked.

"It was great, honestly." She replied, waving her brown owl off with an envelope she had just sealed. "How was yours?"

"Great! I spent so much time with my dad and when I wasn't with him, I was usually with Link and his family!"

"I'm glad you both had fun. Boys will be boys and all that." She said quickly with a grin.

Not too many minutes later, the doors opened again and admitted the bearded wizard Evergreen had seen previously. Behind him were a few dozen 11-year-olds. Some looked terrified, others looked just plain nervous. Evergreen thought of his last year and wondered which he happened to be when he first arrived.

The ancient school headmaster Edgar Vincent Romulus Washington-Frost stood to address the school. He was wearing, as he always did, a matching robe and pointed hat in a neon color. He wore an electric blue color that day that really contrasted well against his wrinkled, brown skin and gray beard. He began to address the school, probably the new students, but Evergreen didn't hear a thing because he saw the image again, the one that he had seen on the train.

There, in the midst of the other sixth graders was a girl. She wasn't just any girl; she was the girl. She was a head shorter than Evergreen, she had sky blue eyes, curly brown hair, high cheekbones, a dazzling smile, and she was slight, but she carried herself with amazing confidence. She seemed nervous, but also eager to face whatever may come. She was simply the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. Not only was she beautiful, but her eyes were kind and her face radiated sweetness. The childhood crush he may have had on anyone else was dead and buried as far as he was concerned, thanks to this girl. He knew that she was the girl that he would end up marrying and starting a family with. So, obviously, he would do nothing more than admire her from afar because that makes sense.

Beginning with a pleasant-looking girl with a 1950's haircut named Keen Abundance, the sorting was underway. The sorting was done by allowing one student at a time to stand upon a gordian knot imprinted on the floor, surrounded by carved images of the Thunderbird, the Pukwudgie, the Wampus, and the Horned Serpent. If chosen, the Thunderbird beat its wings, the Pukwudgie lifted its arrow, the Wampus roared, or the Horned Serpent's head jewel glowed. If more than one carving reacted, the student got to choose between them. Evergreen was a 'four statue student', meaning he had to choose between all four that previous year. He chose Mom's house, of course.

So, Keen Abundance was chosen by the Thunderbird! Evergreen was shocked out of his stupor by the thunderous applause of his table. He joined in shortly and Keen dashed off to the Thunderbird table, the golden patch on the breast of her robes shifting until the image of the Thunderbird appeared. A few others were called and then the name of that girl was called. Esme Cadieux. Esme, Evergreen thought. What a lovely name for such a lovely person. Evergreen hoped that she would be chosen by the Thunderbird as well and silently willed it to happen, but it was no such luck. The jewel on the Horned Serpent's forehead glowed the moment Esme's shoes touched the central gordian knot. Curious, that she went into their rival house, but she looked the part. All the Horned Serpents were super book smart. Evergreen never spent any time with anyone in that house. Come to think of it, Beatrice was the only non-Thunderbird he ever spent time with outside the theater with Professor Park. Perhaps, it was time to try something new.

Evergreen spent the next while unwittingly staring at Esme from across the commons. Another girl with dark brown hair named Nativity Gazetta also joined the Thunderbirds, Lucy River, a bigger girl with very short hair was sorted into Pukwudgie, and a girl with black hair and super dark makeup named Stormy Palisade was sorted into Wampus house. Stormy's sorting made sense, because she looked willing to fight anyone who was up for it, despite her being quite short. Maybe that was why? Some sort of Napoleon thing? Evergreen was probably just being judgmental though. She was likely lovely. Probably.

The sorting finished without any real drama. A few students were two-statue students like the long-haired Patty Gouskovits, she had the choice between Thunderbird and Wampus. She made the right choice in joining Evergreen's house. Vicar Ciona also was a two-statue student, and he ultimately chose Pukwugie over Horned Serpent. He kept readjusting his glasses as he made his way over to the Pukwudgie table, sitting near Aaron Talbot and his friends.

It was kind of nice, Evergreen noted, being on this end of the sorting. He remembered last year and how it took all his self-control not to dash out of the circle with embarrassed tears. He felt like he was waiting for one of the carvings to do their thing for ages, it probably wasn't very long, though. He was likely just being dramatic, as all the men in the Quandary clan had the propensity of being. Grandpa was always convinced someone was plotting his death while Dad was very polarized with his political leaning, always telling Evergreen of the worst-case-scenarios. Yeah, drama really ran through his family line, there was no escaping it.

"Good evening and happy Saturday!" came Headmaster Washington-Frost's voice from the head of the commons. "We, the teachers of Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry hereby welcome you to another year of magic! I know that you are all likely quite famished, so I'll keep my announcements until after dinner, courtesy of the amazing Ilvermorny elves!"

With a snap of his gnarled fingers, suddenly the empty table spreads were overflowing with more food than anyone could eat. There were baby back half ribs, pulled pork sandwiches, cheesy paninis, pounds of buttered vegetables, baked potatoes, baked beans, with sweet bread and cornbread. They also had maybe half a dozen different things to drink, from freshly squeezed cider to cream soda. Evergreen sometimes forgot how amazing the food was at school when he was away. He had, as usual, to get a little taste of everything. It wasn't long until his eyes snapped back up to gaze upon Esme at the Horned Serpent table.

"Earth to Evergreen!" Link said, waving his hand in front of Evergreen's face.

"What?" he asked, snapping back to reality.

"I don't know if you meant to dip your bread into your cider rather than your gravy, but I figured I would ask."

"Oh. I didn't." Evergreen admitted, dropping his bread, and wiping his hands on his napkin.

"Penny for your thoughts?" Diva asked.

"I know what's going on." Link stated. "It's a girl, isn't it?"

Evergreen blushed deeply and covered his face. He just noticed that he was sweating, and his heart was beating a mile a minute. How embarrassing. People can't know that he has a crush! That wouldn't do at all! He was kind of backed into a corner though, he had all the tell-tale signs of someone bitten by some kind of love bug.

"N-no. It's n-not." He mumbled.

"It so is!" Link exclaimed "I know that look! Who is it?"

In the next moment, Evergreen made a grave mistake. He briefly looked up toward Esme's direction. She was smiling and laughing. It looked like Hekate Yaffa, a girl Evergreen knew of from Horned Serpent who was also a seventh grader had taken her under her wing. It was a wonderful sight; all Esme's nervousness had melted away showing a truly serene and beautiful expression.

"Wait, it's that girl, 'Mimi'?" Diva asked.

"Yeah, Mimi Cadoo?" Link followed up.

"Esme Cadieux." Evergreen corrected, breathlessly.

"Like Dorian Cadieux of the MACUSA Governors?" Glade asked, jumping in?

"Yeah. Can we stop t-talking about it?" Evergreen grumbled.

"Come on, Ev." Diva teased. "It's cute."

Link then went on and on about how it was just a matter of time until he found a girl to take his mind off things and to give him some romantic experience. He said that Evergreen needed to act fast before someone else snatched her up. He offered to go on double dates with them if he wanted and he offered some wooing advice which was really the last thing that Evergreen wanted to hear about.

"That's all well and good," Evergreen had managed, during Link's tangent, "but I'm not you, Link. You're super good looking, super talented, and super confident. Plus, despite being your ex, Diva still thinks you're pretty cool. I'm not you."

Such talk seemed to take the wind out of Link's sails. He looked confusedly at his friend and voiced how he can't imagine why anyone wouldn't want to act on their romantic feelings. Evergreen just groaned and thought about the many reasons why. For one thing, he was only 12 and he felt like that was too young to get into a romantic entanglement. For another, juggling school and his plans to find the Scarecrow to help him get to Mom was a whole to do. For another, Esme was the daughter of some big wig politician. For another, she was easily a 10 at any given time, whereas he was maybe a weak six on a good day. He didn't voice any of these things, of course, he kept them to himself, but he still expressed his wishes.

"P-promise me that n-none of you will t-talk to her about me. Promise."

He looked around at his friends with a desperate, pleading expression. They all complied with his request. Link was the last to agree as he still couldn't see the logic in it. He did, however, respect his friend's decision. He was a great guy in that way. Link, Evergreen supposed, had always been girl crazy and someone who looked like him with his silver tongue never had to worry about things of that nature. Not for the first time, Evergreen's face colored with envy mixed with maybe that familiar admiration for his friend. He might not be Link, but he liked to keep him close. He obviously could see all the reasons why the girls look at him, especially considering their time at the Unification Festival. He really was the perfect guy, if maybe just a little eager.

Evergreen wondered, not for the first time, how it would be like to live a day in Link Blackguard's shoes. To be profoundly confident, extremely good looking, and unbelievably talented would probably make life so much easier. Plus, every word he ever spoke was taken at face value by nearly everyone within the sound of his voice. Evergreen thought about if he had the chance to date someone like himself or like Link, there was no contest. It was always Link.

"It's probably just as well." Seta said evenly. "You already have so many things to worry about. It wouldn't be fair to her. At least, in the meantime."

Glad for the bunny's voice of reason, Evergreen was able to eat a few more bites of his food before the platters were wiped clean and replaced with dessert. Evergreen got a small strawberry shortcake and a pineapple upside down cake. Yeah, he was on a fruit binge, so what? After the last few moments, he deserved it!

It wasn't long after that the plates and platters were completely clean and empty when the headmaster got back to his feet, calling out to the students. In the way he did when addressing the students, he straightened his hat as he came to his feet and then raised his hands toward the ceiling.

"I hope you all enjoyed this splendid meal. I surely did. Those elves always outdo themselves. Now, I have a few pre-term announcements. The southern waterfall is off-limits without a teacher present and the ward line drawn in the forest mustn't be crossed under any circumstances, as it was drawn to keep out the more dangerous riff raff. Middle school curfew is 10 PM if you don't have a later class and high school curfew is midnight."

He hesitated before he continued, looking about the commons and slowly lowering his arms.

"I know that some rumors have been circulating since last year, and I wish to put those things to rest. Yes, Professor Habitatio is missing and was being impersonated last year with Polyjuice potion. Filling her spot for the time being is Professor Donatello Strother who is uniquely qualified for the position given his history in the proper use of No-Maj artifacts. Please give a warm welcome to him."

Polite applause was offered at the request of the ancient headmaster while Professor Strother stood and slightly bowed his head.

"Also, since the fact of the imposter was revealed by the children of Enchantress Dorothy Gale and Good Witch Glinda Quadling, who I am sure most of you have already identified, there was some magical damage done to the school that is currently being repaired, so you need not worry in the meantime. Please just work as hard as you can and turn to your heads of house if you need something in the interim. Now, good night to all."