Page 27 of Zero Happily Ever Afters

Katherine smiled. “I thought it was very interesting.”

She would. I rolled my eyes.

At least the couple didn’t drown the class in too many details. Today was stressful enough; I didn’t want anyone going in too overwhelmed.

“Wait.” Gael scrunched his face, lost deep in thoughts that merged with the silence of his familiar’s mind. “Sooooo… If I don’t impress any scouts during today’s event, then they won’t tell any enchanters to watch me during the actual showcase events, and they won’t be at my round because there are multiple rounds at the same time?”

“Not the same time,” I said. “More like enchanters don’t have time to take off to sit and watch every single event play out. We’ve got hundreds of second-year students. Plus, try to remember we’re not the only academy putting on a showcase for guilds.”

“Right.” Gael had a monotone voice, expression lost in a fog. It was a truly calming experience for me.

“Have you not listened to a single thing Mr. Frost has said for the past month?” Layla asked, rolling her eyes that’d shifted into her cat form as she practiced enhancing just her senses. “What afuckingmoron.”

“He just never stops talking,” Gael whined.

I scoffed. And the fog had lifted.

“Ba-ba-bawk.”

“Right?” Gael’s mind created an image of me droning on like one of those comic strip teachers who only said ‘blah, blah, blah’ the entire time. “Always running his mouth like someone’s got all day for those lectures.”

I wanted to point out the irony of him suggesting that I talked too much considering who Gael was, but his mind darted and zipped and bounced about in a million different directions before he landed on his next concrete thought.

“We gotta impress the scouts today, King Clucks. Make sure the Cerberus guys report back to Enchanter Evergreen about how awesome we were. If we fuck up, then he won’t get to see our improved magics in action.”

“Cl-cluck!”

“You did not tell me that.”

King Clucks crowed, clearly arguing with Gael about the parts of my lessons even the damn bird paid better attention to than Gael.

Thank goodness the intercom kicked in with a sharp buzzing sound that dulled Gael’s obnoxious thoughts. Headmaster Dower came on, announcing that all the second-year students should make their way to the auxiliary gym. I led my students out of the classroom and through the crowded hallway as every second-year student made their way to the auxiliary gym in anticipation of this pre-emptive showcase event.

Aside from the semi-arena seating added to the outskirts of the auxiliary gym, the training facility remained completely intact, leaving each of the areas unchanged from the rock terrain with a cliffside to the fitness station and all the way to the forest terrain. It perplexed a lot of students who recalled everything had been renovated for the first-round obstacle course last year and the arena layout for the semi-finals and grand finale of the first-year Spring Showcase. This wasn’t a first-year showcase,though, and the academy expected our students to demonstrate their abilities in any and all terrains.

Plus, today wasn’t technically a showcase event. It was a pre-showcase event, hence the small, selective seating holding enough space for about three or four scouts from each of the prospective guilds in Chicago. I studied them, noting barely three hundred had shown up, which meant fewer enchanters were showing an interest in internships.

I sighed. Another year with another uphill battle.

“I know everyone’s eager to get started with today’s little event showcasing everything our second-year students are capable of,” Chanelle said, opening with a speech she hoped would spark enthusiasm in the scouts attending. “Since Gemini Academy is the first in the city to kick off the Spring Showcase this year, we wanted to set the bar high and demonstrate the fantastic skills our students possess.”

Unlike the first-year showcase, this event would be dragged out for the bulk of the semester, with lots of mini-rounds taking place whenever the academy could fit them in, which would also eat into instruction time. It came down to balancing things so enchanters could reasonably fit in attending rounds to see prospective student interns, not only at Gemini Academy but also every academy in the city, which meant we had to balance our tournament dates so they wouldn’t interfere with any of the forty-three other academies also scheduling their showcases.

The real advantage to going first meant our students would catch the interest of scouts before they were bored and exhausted from attending endless competitions. Sure, some scouts already prioritized the to-do lists on their phones, multi-tasking all the things they needed to achieve during recruitment season, but once performance began, they’d take a lot of notes of students to keep an eye on for interested enchanters.

The biggest drawback to performing first was that the second semester had barely begun, which meant our students had less time to strategize and prepare for this event. An event that would determine if any enchanters came to observe them, cheer them on, recruit them as interns. I ran a hand through my shaggy brown hair, mentally preparing for all the polite emails I’d need to send to enchanters, all the wooing I’d have to suffer through to draw attention, and all the monotonous thoughts I’d have to read to gauge how I’d interest an enchanter into observing my second-year students. After all, I didn’t simply rely on my homeroom’s performance today. I played the game as well as any other teacher—better, in fact, because I had already made mental notes on the scouts in attendance so I could gauge which of my students wouldn’t draw enough interest today.

Chanelle strutted across the makeshift stage crafted near the forest terrain, using the lush green trees as a backdrop to make her perfectly picked pink dress pop for the enchanters all the way in the stands. The outfit was meant to compliment her earth brown complexion and accentuate her curves without stealing focus from the students but definitely intended to make her a host those in attendance remembered. After all, the scouts would be visiting a dozen other academies this month alone. Not only that, but her vixen red lipstick matched her jeweled accessories and had a sheen almost as captivating as her voice. Chanelle was quite possibly the only person at Gemini better than me at strategizing which enchanters were worth her students’ time and which weren’t, so she kept close attention on the scouts she needed to wow. And she didn’t even possess a psychic branch for deeper insight.

Oh, fuck me.Speaking of telepathy… Chanelle didn’t even need to think the actual shades of her attire for the particular names to flicker in my mind. Unfortunately, I’d become soattuned to her thoughts that my magic began to fill in the gaps that didn’t flit about on her surface, offering me more insight.

“In today’s thrilling preliminary ceremony of Gemini Academy’s second-year student Showcase, we have 599 students eager to display their mastery over their magics.”

That number hit hard. It practically silenced the crowd and the students, and it left a sour taste in my mouth. The aggravation from admin was palpable in the air, having already given Chanelle more delicate phrasing when referring to the number of students competing.

“Nearly 600 students,” popped in a lot of admin surface thoughts along with their frustrations. “Just say 600. No one’s gonna notice.”

Chanelle didn’t give a damn because she wanted that singular missing student to resonate, to be remembered. She didn’t want to brush aside Jamie Novak’s absence in a more palatable manner. The ache in her heart clouded her thoughts, giving a much longer pause than intended as she hoped this was enough…this gesture held as a meaningful reminder…a reminder of the student she believed more than anything she failed.

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