“It’s the crystal balls.” Aria expined, as the four got into a huddle. “That’s where she stores everything. I’m confident it has to be it, based on what I’ve seen. If we break them, it might return everything back to where it came from.”

  The twins looked at each other with an unsure expression. “What makes you think it’d work like that?” One of them asked.

  “Because that’s what happened to me.” She answered. “When the deal got nullified, everything she took from me returned, and so did everything I gained. I know it’s not the exact same deal, but…”

  “I think it might work.” Evan added. He knew he had no pce to say anything for certain, it sounded like he knew the least about this witch out of the group, and how it all should work. “You’re saying the magic’s gotta have rules, right? That seems pretty rule-y.” But he felt confident in one thing. “Besides, you're smart enough where I think you'd know what you're talking about.” He told the girl in front of him.

  A small smile crept up on her face, “Um, thanks.”

  Evan’s heart fluttered. That had probably fttered her a bit, which in turn made himself feel almost fttered, knowing she appreciated it from him.

  Before he knew it they’d held the stare for five more seconds before one of the twins stepped inbetween. “Okay can we hold off a bit on this gay shi- or whatever this is?! Fuck, I don’t even know.”

  Evan bashfully backed away with his hands raised, “Well I mean I-I dunno if it’s like that but-”

  “It’s straight, actually.”

  A lump got caught in Evan’s throat from the surprise admission. She’d just casually acknowledged it, like it was nothing.

  “But you’re right,” She continued. “We need to focus on this first.”

  “R-Right, of course!”

  “If she still thinks you two are working with her, you could probably get her out of the office, then Evan and I can sneak in and see if we can’t break them.”

  “What if she finds out?” One of them asked, the other then piping up, “Hell, what if she already knows?”

  “She’d have let it be known by now,” Aria answered. “At least I think so. She could take you out of the equation at any time by making you like everyone else.”

  “She usually has an eye on things with one of her balls…” Jett wondered out loud.

  “She’s headmaster now though, right?" Floyd added to address his brother, "Maybe she’s too busy to manage that.”

  “But she’s still gonna be careful, right? Does she know you’re immune? She wouldn’t let you sneak in.”

  As the twins debated amongst themselves, eventually passing the question to Aria, she paused. “Well, I guess…”

  She was struggling to come up with a solution, but to Evan, the answer was obvious. “I’ll do it.”

  “What?” All three of them responded in surprise.

  “You be the distraction.” Evan suggested. “She thinks you’re the only one here who’s trying to stop her, she’ll let her guard down enough to think she can hurry out of the office with the door still unlocked. Then I go in and do the job.”

  “Evan, no offense, but…” She pursed her lips, a hint of concern on her face. “Do you know what you’re even doing? What you’re getting yourself into?”

  “Of course.” He smiled. “I’m performing a heist to steal some treasure and save the world.” His grin grew, “You don’t know how much I’ve been dreaming of doing something like this.”

  Evan patiently loitered at the courtyard, right next to the hallway that included the stairs up to the Headmaster’s office. Aria had given him brief directions, but with the simir building yout to Marie’s, he got the sense it shouldn’t be much trouble getting there.

  It was lunchtime. The twins would notify the witch about a ruckus in the cafeteria that she’d have to personally intervene in. That ruckus being, Aria herself. She’d told him she pnned to break some things and draw a lot of attention.

  Evan’s heart pounded. Was this what it felt like? Co-ordinating a fantasy heist of epic proportions? Granted, the stakes weren’t as high as in the climax of a novel, but boy did it feel like it, compared to how normal and boring real life could be.

  Yet it also felt like more than that. It was personal. Aria, a girl he’d grown to care a lot about, had been directly hurt by all of this. And helping her right now, he felt as if it was something only he could do.

  He recalled what the imaginary Franco Cruz had said to him on that non-date. ‘Do what you can with what you have.’

  Maybe manliness wasn’t about whatever he could do. But what he could. Because he was a man. So following his heart, doing what he thought was right for the people he cared about. That made him who he was.

  But Evan was snapped from his train of thought when he heard the telltale steps. More than one set, definitely at least three.

  “Here, in the cafeteria!”

  “That girl doesn’t give up…!” That one came as a growl, and Evan noted it as an adult woman’s voice. That had to be her.

  He waited for them to pass, and then made his move.

  He entered the hallway, bolting up the stairs. He didn’t know how much time he had, especially if he had to get up without people noticing. Apparently the school’s staff wasn’t affected in the same way as the students, so he had to be careful to not tip them off that they had an invader roaming around.

  Once on the top floor, Evan performed the best ninja impression he could, stealthily rolling and sneaking with his back up to walls and desks so he wouldn’t be spotted.

  …And then he realized he probably looked silly. If anything, even more suspicious. So for the rest of the hallway he adopted a casual calm stroll.

  He felt sweat build up on his forehead as he did so. But this was the type of thing he’d trained himself for. Keeping cool, not winding up as some awkward klutz. He had to trust that he just blended into the school at a gnce. That his friends had been right, and maybe he passed as a boy more than he thought.

  Whatever the case, it worked.

  By the time he’d gotten to the double door, he was in safe cover. They wouldn’t see him. So he put his hand on the door, took a deep breath, and entered.

  It was empty, just as pnned. The office certainly looked creepier than how he remembered administration offices appearing at Marie’s, but he suspected that was due to the change in leadership. He went ahead and locked the door before taking a proper step inside, just in case.

  But it was like Aria said, there were crystal balls. One at the center of her desk, then several more spread out across the bookcases to the side. Vials, too, but they had a simir sparkle to them that the balls had.

  Aria must have been right, he knew. These weren’t just for show, it was where the witch stored any magic she’d cimed that wasn’t being used. And with the entire school under her spell, that meant at least a dozen of these to contain it all, it seemed.

  Well, there was nothing to do but try.

  He picked one up, and felt it in his hands. It was… lighter than he thought it’d be. That had to mean it was easier to break, right?

  He looked into the lights glowing inside it, and for a second, images and visions flickered in his mind. Of a guy in the dj booth during a rave, of a baseball home run, of a popur female celebrity, of a woman in bed-

  Evan shook the visions off his mind as he realized how much privacy he was invading. Not to mention how that st one felt a bit too explicit. Though as a teenage boy himself, he didn’t feel comfortable judging. Just move on to the main objective.

  These had to be the dreams and desires belonging to some of the boys here. And there were a lot of them, just packed in one ball.

  So Evan ran, climbed up on top of the Headmaster’s desk, then lifted the crystal ball up. This was probably the rare occasion where one would be justified with this type of pure vandalism, so he wanted to get a good height in to try.

  Then, he threw it down!

  It smashed into pieces, lights flickering away as it did. It worked! Yes!

  But then it dawned on him just how loud that was.

  He looked at the dozen gss vials and orbs still to go, and Evan gulped. He had to hurry before someone came in here.

  Immediately he jumped down and went back up to the bookcase, just pushing two straight onto the floor. He heard a thud, and maybe a small crack, but definitely not the crash that’d break the whole thing.

  Instead, Evan grabbed the two off the floor and tried to think of a different, quicker method. Climbing onto the desk every time would take a while. His eyes darted across the room, and then the obvious idea came to mind when they nded on the window.

  He ran and chucked one of the orbs off the window, then let the other fall.

  They both crashed this time again, and Evan let out a momentary sigh before getting back to work. Three down, more to go!

  He grabbed two vials, and seeing how easier it was to hold them, and the slimmer shape, just chucked them at the wall. Then he grabbed three more orbs, and ran back to the window, letting them all drop at once! He had to be careful at this point not stepping on any gss, but this was working!

  Then, the door shook.

  And shook harder.

  Evan knew what this meant, and rushed to grab even more! He chucked another vial at the wall, and grabbed three more orbs. He was running out of time!

  Out of breath, he dropped one of the orbs out of the window again. God, the courtyard had to be really dangerous by this point with the amount of gss hiding in there. He hoped they’d find a way to clean that up after all of this.

  Then the door sounded like it clicked open, and Evan realized that assumed this would still py out okay. He chucked another orb out the window, and was ready to grab another when-

  “HALT!”

  With the orb still in his hand, Evan paused. An older woman had entered the office. He’d never seen her before, but based on the context, he figured this was the witch Aria was talking about. Rosalynn.

  A scowl formed on her face. “It’s you! What do you think you’re doing?!”

  Evan wasn’t sure what she could do, but he knew he had to py it cool. Nothing to be afraid of. She’s just a scary witch, right? “What does it look like?”

  “You…! You have NO idea what you’re doing!”

  Evan grimaced, “Of course I do.” In an attempt to feign his confidence, he drew a joking smirk. “I’m saving the world from you, duh.” He began to lift the orb over the window.

  “NO!” She yelled. She was… panicked. “What would you want me to give in exchange for you not dropping that?!”

  Evan paused, furrowing his brows. “What?” Was she being serious?

  “Yes! Surely you know of what I’m capable of, if you’re here. Have you not thought about what I could grant you?”

  Evan took a step back, untrusting of her words. “You trick people. Why would I ever believe you?”

  “Boy, with the power I currently wield I could grant wants without attaching strings!” Despite her ragged breath, a smile formed. “I know what you want, it’s pinly visible from all your daily struggles. I could grant that, give you the body you truly want, what you feel truly represents you! All without needing to bother with the limits of medical intervention!”

  Evan actually had to think for a second. She knew who he was, that he was a trans guy, and that a boy’s body was what he wanted most. In fact, what she described was better than he’d ever expected from his life. Even if he got on testosterone, there were things that couldn’t grant him. It actually made him think.

  But again, it all only took him a second.

  Calmly, he lifted the orb over the window.

  “No! Stop! You aren’t even considering it?! You want to be a man, don’t you?!”

  But Evan just smirked, then shrugged. “What kinda man would I be if I betrayed the girl I loved?”

  Then, the orb dropped.

  “NO!!!” The witch lunged, and a gust of air went past Evan into the window.

  Worried, Evan leaned to the window to see down below, and just before the orb could hit the ground, it slid in a different direction as if on an invisible slide. “What?!”

  The woman behind him cackled. She still sounded disheveled, but as Evan saw her expression, he could tell she had regained confidence. “You thought you could fool me just like that? Cause a little distraction and destroy everything? You’re the fool for thinking you could stand up to THE WHIMS of the power at my disposal!”

  As she lifted her arms, the door behind her shut closed without anyone touching it, and the air began swirling in the room like the start of a tornado. “Shit.” Evan was in trouble. He’d destroyed almost all her power sources, but the one sitting on her desk remained, as well as the one sliding somewhere outside. While those existed, she still had magic on her side.

  Aria rushed back down the stairs.

  She thought breaking dishes in the cafeteria would be a solid enough distraction for as long as Evan needed, but Rosalynn caught on sooner than she’d anticipated. Of course, it made sense why. The way her eyes had gzed over back there, and immediately bolted back out of the cafeteria, she must have felt what Evan had been doing.

  Aria had tried to chase after her, but the door to the office was locked.

  This was bad. Very bad! Evan was locked in there with her!

  She returned all the way to the ground floor while she tried thinking of what to do. What came to mind was checking the window, maybe finding a dder to help Evan make a getaway, or-!

  Then she stopped, and saw a gss orb conspicuously sliding through the air.

  Just casually passing through the halls.

  Aria knew what this meant. There was still at least one crystal ball remaining. If she could break it, it’d prevent Rosalynn from using more power.

  She tried to run after it, as the ball continued descending in a direction away from her.

  But she was getting closer, and Aria found the confidence to make a leap to grab it!

  Only for it to swing upwards, right as it reached the outside.

  The swerve took Aria off guard, who could only watch as the ball rose into the air, eventually perching itself on top of the dormitory building, rolling down to rest in a drainage pipe.

  The building was multiple stories tall, how would she get up there? Rosalynn had clearly done this on purpose, hiding it where they wouldn’t reach. But still, there had to be a way!

  “Someone call for wings?”

  Aria turned behind her, and approached… a very rge dder, barely being carried by two boys.

  As they got to her side and she got a better look at them, one of them groaned, “You know, like Red Bull-? Actually no, nevermind, that definitely sounded better in my head.”

  The other then let out an amused chuckle, “It was a good effort, Flynn.”

  “Flynn? Sully?”

  The two then heaved the dder onto the ground, next to the building’s wall. Flynn leaned on his knees and heaved out some air, while Sully wiped some sweat from his brow.

  “You’re… You’re okay!”

  “Figured we could sneak into her office with a little bit of stealth, but seeing you running around, I suppose this could also work.”

  Despite the dismissive response, Aria immediately reached out to hug her tutor. “Thank god…!”

  “H-Hey now, we have more important things to worry about right now, don’t we?” Sully questioned.

  “I-I-I’m just gd you guys are okay!” Aria let go, crying out.

  Flynn ruffled his hair for a moment, “We’ve only been free for a few minutes, you’re lucky Ol’ Sully already had a pn before… I-I don’t even totally know what happened, but you get the deal. Oh, and um, good to see you again, Aria…”

  Speaking of being quick, Aria’s mind went back to her friend in danger. “Oh, we need to hurry though! E-Evan, my other friend, he’s still up there alone with her, we gotta hurry and break it!”

  “Yeah, about that.” Flynn turned to the dder, lying on the ground. “Are we sure it could even make it up there? Two or three floors maybe, but the roof?”

  Sully cupped his chin in thought, stepping up to the building to observe. “You may be right, but with some quick acrobatics, one might be able to climb the rest of the way up using the drainage pipe, and give it a good shake to get it to fall off. After all, we only need to break it, right Aria?”

  The girl nodded, “You’re right. But that’s still hard, isn’t it? I’m not sure I’d have the dexterity to climb up part of a building.”

  Sully proceeded to gnce at Flynn, who snapped back, “Don’t look at me! Does this look like a parkour body to you?”

  Then a fourth voice could be heard behind Aria. “Actually,” She immediately recognized the voice, of course. It came from a friend she didn’t expect to see again, least of all here.

  When their eyes met, Tori blushed, and with an awkward shrugged, continued. “I happen to usually be pretty good with my feet.”

  Trapped, Evan made the most optimal decision he could think of and lunged for that final crystal ball.

  But the world betrayed him, the desk somehow bending as it extended up towards the air. “Son of a bitch…” They weren’t lying about this woman.

  Rosalynn’s hands moved in sync to the desk’s change in shape. “It’s futile! I’ll kick you out of here myself!”

  As Rosalynn approached, the wind inside the office continued to bellow, making it all the harder to move around with it constantly pulling and pushing him.

  He gripped onto the lengthened leg of the desk, and thinking quickly, tried to push it. When Franco Cruz was trapped in impossible circumstances, he used those circumstances to his advantage, made the tricks his own! He pushed the desk inbetween them, which visibly frustrated the witch, but Evan was hoping for more than that.

  He eyed upwards. He couldn’t reach the crystal ball anymore, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t get it down here, especially with the wind Rosalynn herself was creating.

  “I got you!” She grabbed his arm, but he couldn’t hide the smirk on his face. In response, Rosalynn’s brow furrowed, and he saw her realize what he was trying to do.

  Off the corner of his eye, he saw the ball rolling on top of the desk. It was about to fall down, and from that height, it had to break!

  “No!” Unfortunately, the witch turned up to see it in time, and leapt to catch it in the air.

  Evan tried to pull at her to stop her from catching it, but no luck. She clutched it in her arms, barely standing back up. But that just meant Evan had to continue seizing on the opportunity!

  He lightly tackled the woman, grabbing the ball while her grip was loosened. “Gotcha!”

  “No! Stop!”

  He bolted towards the door, holding onto the crystal orb in one arm like a football pyer. He hastily tried to unlock and open the door, but the witch only took that opportunity to grab and tackle him for herself. He tried to hold onto it, but as the door swung open, he fell behind and the orb fell from his grip, sliding into the hallway.

  Evan and Rosalynn saw it in the same instant, both getting up at roughly the same time as they tried to get to it before the other could. But the force had already pushed it all the way to the other end of the hallway, and before either could hope to reach it…

  A girl stepped up the stairs.

  Her framed gsses Evan recognized well, and he beamed as she picked up the orb for herself.

  “Oh, I don’t suppose this would happen to be anything important?” She asked with a smirk.

  Rosalynn called out again, “NO!”

  “Grace! Throw it!” Evan called.

  Seeing the older woman now rushing at her, Grace’s composure shook and she turned with the orb. “R-Right! Catch!”

  She threw it down the stairwell. “Okay!” It was Maddie’s voice.

  As Rosalynn ran ahead to chase after his running friend, Evan stopped to talk to Grace. “You’re here! You actually came to help?!”

  “Oh come on, Evan. You know we have your back for this, figured you’d be getting yourself into some trouble.”

  “Ah, hm, yeah,” Evan answered bashfully. “I guess that’s one way to put what’s going on.” Did she understand the details of what had been happening?

  “Just wish you told us instead of storming off,” Grace huffed. “When we realized you’d actually spent a whole night looking for your girlfriend, Tori had to spill the beans. I figured you’d nd yourself at the Headmaster’s office in some kinda trouble when I realized you were here, but I wasn’t expecting to see that.”

  “Yeah, uh, sorry about that.” He’d been so single-minded, looking back. He’d also just been worried about potentially exposing Aria or sharing a ridiculous theory if he’d said anything. “I’m gd you guys are here, though.”

  Grace shrugged, cocking a smirk. “Oh, of course. How would you ever man up and woo your girl without us by your side?”

  “Actually, I think I’ve kinda got it.” Evan responded with confidence.

  “Oh?” Grace’s smirk fell, curiously looking at Evan.

  “Yeah, the whole 'being a man' thing,” He smiled. “I think I have it down.”