***

  Isaac didn’t know how long they waited before Henry showed up. It couldn’t have been long, like thirty to forty minutes, maybe. All he knows is that by the time Henry did show up, his office was worse off than when he left it.

  Now, this wasn’t Isaac’s fault… completely. At least half of it was Luci’s.

  Isaac was perfectly fine with moving on. Luci was not.

  After she got up from the floor, Luci dusted herself off and fixed her hair. Her face was set in stone. She acted like she hadn’t just been thrown from her chair and onto the floor. Then, calmly, she turned around, grabbed her chair, and picked it up.

  The next thing Isaac knew, he was lying sideways on the floor, still sitting in his seat. Luci was off to the side, putting her chair back where she had it.

  She hit him with her own chair. She used her chair like it was a bat and hit him. Man, he wished he could have seen it. It would have looked so funny seeing a little, skinny girl lifting up a chair with both hands, only to swing it and hit someone.

  “ HA!” Isaac laughed as he picked himself up. If that’s how she wants to play then Isaac was happy to play along.

  Isaac took off his glasses and set them aside. Thinking about it, Isaac wondered when was the last time they got to play like this. It must have been before they became friends cause after that, she stopped hitting him as much.

  Probably cause she knew that if she did, he’d just do this.

  Grabbing the Newton's cradle on the desk, Isaac threw it at Luci’s head, only for her to smack it out of the air before it even reached her. That's fine; he wasn’t trying to hit her anyway. It was just meant to distract her.

  And it did, giving him just enough time to tackle her and ram her into the wall behind her. Not finished, he pulled his fist back and punched towards her face.

  Most people would say that Isaac shouldn’t be hitting a girl. Isaac would say that he is not hitting a girl he’s hitting a person, and people are stronger than they think.

  Case in point when Luci not only blocked Isaac's attack but then proceeded to elbow him in the neck. All the while kicking herself off the wall to push him away.

  Just like Isaac Luci likes fighting, she might even like it better than him. She just hides it better. She’s been learning tae kwon do, karate, mixed martial arts, boxing, and wrestling ever since she was little.

  Unlike Isaac, though, she’s not doing this cause she wants to have fun, she’s just doing this cause she likes beating people up. Honestly, sometimes she scares him.

  They continued fighting like that for a while. Punching and kicking each other until they wore themselves out.

  It wasn’t until after they were cleaning up that Isaac noticed that no one had come to check on them.

  No one came running in to tell them to stop; no one called the cops to drag them out. No one was concerned about the two kids left alone in the office. It’s not like they were trying to be quiet either. They were screaming and breaking things, slamming into walls, and just plain being loud.

  And yet nobody opened the door.

  Afterwards, when he saw the mess they made, Isaac felt a little bad. He hadn’t meant for things to go this far, he was just playing with Luci.

  So, after getting Luci to help, they started fixing the overturned chairs and the knocked-over shelves, trying to make everything look more presentable before he came back.

  Course, that was when Henry decided to walk in.

  They didn’t see him come in. They were so busy picking books up off the floor that they forgot to pay attention to the door. They thought that they had some more time before he came back.

  Isaac, now with his glasses on, was the first to notice Herny. He didn’t know who he was at first, just some tall guy that came walking in. And he was tall -so tall he practically had to duck his head when he walked through the door.

  He was also really sweaty. His dark skin was practically glistening with sweat as he hurriedly tucked in his shirt.

  Watching him almost hyperventilate cause he was so out of breath, Isaac figured that he ran here or something. Cause honestly, he looked like he had just come back from running a marathon.

  That was when Isaac saw his name tag, Henry Perez.

  Isaac froze; that wasn’t good. They hadn’t finished cleaning yet. There were still a lot of things on the floor and on his desk. Oh man, this wasn’t good.

  Isaac actually wanted to go to this school, not get expelled before the semester even started. And destroying the coordinator’s office might not be the kind of thing these people are willing to overlook, no matter how well they know his family.

  They need to go to this school. Isaac wants to learn more about his grandpa and this key, while Luci…well, he doesn’t know what she wants, but he wants her there. The point is that they can’t mess this up.

  Kind of hard to do after already messing it up, but he’ll work with what they got.

  Leaning over to Luci, Isaac whispered his plan.

  Right now, Henry hasn’t yet seemed to realize the state of his office. He was too busy stuffing papers into his bag to look up. That means they don’t have much time.

  Quickly, before he noticed, they threw what they had in their hands aside and jumped into their seats. Doing some last-minute touches on their hair and clothes, they then put their hands on their laps and looked forward.

  They were going to pretend that they had nothing to do with this. That was their plan, total deniability; no one saw them, no one heard them, so no one can prove that they did it.

  Yeah, not the greatest idea, but in the moment, it was the best that Isaac could come up with. There was just no way of hiding this mess. Because, really, his office was a disaster. It looked like a tornado had gone through it and spat it back out.

  Books were on the floor, papers just thrown around, his Newton's cradle was thrown across the room. And in the middle was Isaac and Luci, trying to look as innocent as possible.

  Kind of hard to do when you got bruises and cuts everywhere. But hey, they tried. It didn’t work, but they tried. As long as they can make Henry believe that they had nothing to do with this then they win.

  When Henry finally looked up, Isaac was expecting him to explode. He was already prepared to tell this big lie about finding a bird in the office and that he and Luci had “worked hard to chase it out, and that's why the office was such a mess.”

  But instead, Henry just ignored the obvious destruction around him and immediately started apologizing to them.

  “ Sorry ..huh...guys. Oh.. let me catch my breath...huff." Isaac was staring to get a little concerned, this guy looked like he needed help.

  "I ...had another appointment ...that went a little bit longer than ..I thought, but I’m here now.” He finally managed to huff out completely ignoring the mess around him.

  Isaac turned his head towards Luci, wondering if she was just as confused as he was. It didn’t seem like he even noticed the state of his office. He just walked in like it was any other Monday morning.

  No, he had to know, Isaac thought. There was no way he didn’t know. He watched him have to waddle over the mess on the floor just to get to his desk. He even had to clear off his desk just so that he could set up his laptop.

  Watching him work despite the chaos around made Isaac, for the fourth time that day, feel lost. That didn’t happen often, but today seemed to be just that kind of day. This building, his family, Luci, and now this guy- nothing was going how he had imagined it.

  Here he was, worried about getting kicked out, and this guy doesn’t seem to care at all. I mean, come on what was the point of any of this then? They could have left everything just the way it was and just relaxed - no problem.

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  Man, this guy…No respect at all for the work that they had to put in.

  “ Ok. Hi, I’m Henry Perez. I’m going to be your student coordinator this year. What that means is that I’m here to help you get enrolled and signed up for your classes next year.” He said, reaching out to shake their hands.

  Glad to move on, Isaac immediately grabbed his hand and started shaking it.“ Hello, Mr.Perez, I’m Isaac Cantor, and that’s Luciana Silva. Don’t mind her, she’s shy.”

  Isaac tried to ignore Luci’s shoe digging into his foot, thankfully, she wasn’t wearing any heels, but man, did it hurt. He doesn’t know why she’s so mad, if you ain’t gonna speak up for yourself, then he’s just gonna keep on talking.

  “ We’ve been waiting for you for over forty minutes.” Luci huffed, crossing her arms in front of her as she glared at the wall.

  “ Yes. Sorry, I tried to get back here as soon as I could, but they had a lot of questions about the school, so I stayed behind to answer a few - But I’m here now and ready to answer any questions that you two might have.” Taking his hand back, Herny reached into his bag and pulled out some papers.

  “ Now, first things first, these are the forms that you and your parents need to fill out to apply for next semester. We also have a link at the top if you want to finish it online.” He said, handing them the papers.

  Taking one, Isaac handed the other to Luci, who reluctantly took it as she stared out the window. Flipping it over, Isaac started reading the requirements that they

  “ While you guys look that over, let me tell you a little bit about our school. Now, fun fact about our school is that we are actually a college and high school combined. This is so that if you wish to further your education into higher fields, then we can help you with that. Another is that, as an Academy, we can be more selective in how we enroll our students, we-. ”

  “What is this?” Luci asked, looking down at her packet.

  Henry paused, confused at being interrupted. He probably thought that they’d hold their questions for after, but they weren’t very patient people.

  “ Hmm?” He asked.

  “ The page for ‘classes to take’…What is this? ”

  “ I’m sorry, I don’t-.”

  “Right here, it says Introduction to Magic. Is this supposed to be a joke? I thought that this was an actual school, not a school for magicians. I mean, why even send us letters if you're just gonna show us something like this?” She said, waving the packet in Henry’s face.

  Introduction to Magic Isaac wanted to see what Luci was talking about. So, taking his own packet, he flipped to the classes section, and sure enough, there it was. Right there at the bottom of the page was something called Introduction to Magic for freshmen and sophomores.

  That wasn’t the only weird one either. The ones for math and English looked fine, but then they had Alchemy instead of science, Runic for Language, and something called Magic Circle Comp. as Writing.

  Heh, this just keeps getting better and better, Isaac thought. Setting his packet aside, he looked up, wondering what Henry would say. If he didn’t give Luci a good answer, then she might just walk out of here.

  Henry didn’t look worried though, just a little surprised. “ Oh, I’m sorry. I thought you would already know since you were friends with Isaac.”

  Know? Know what? He doesn’t know anything. What does being friends with him have to do with anything?

  Luci was looking at him for answers now, but what can he say? He doesn't know what Henry’s talking about. He’s just as lost as she is.

  Isaac tried to think about what Henry could mean. Was he talking about his family? Were they supposed to tell him something? Too bad they never tell him anything. He would have loved holding this over Luci’s head.

  “ Uh, usually, we have someone else introduce this to you, but okay, let's start simple. Magic is real, " Henry said.

  Isaac and Luci waited for him to continue but Henry seemed to think that that was all he needed to say. And what a what to tell them. He didn’t give them any kind of build-up or try to add any weight to it. Nope, just blurted it out. He threw it out onto their laps and then expected them to do something with it.

  Isaac had to turn away to keep himself from laughing. He had seen Luci making the face. The one where she scrunches up her nose, and her nostrils start flaring while her eyes get all sort of wide-eyed. It's the face she makes when she can’t understand the words being spoken to her face.

  It's funny, usually, he’s the one making her make that face.

  But seriously, what did he say? Magic?

  If Isaac wasn’t paying attention before, he is now.

  “ You mean “pull a rabbit,”- “is this is your card” magic?” Isaac asked as he leaned forward in interest.

  “ Tch, Isaac, this is stupid. This idiot’s just messing with us. Should have known better than to come here.” Luci said.

  Isaac didn’t know. He wanted to believe him.

  Normally, when you hear something this crazy, your gut reaction is disbelief. Luci thinks he’s lying, probably thinks this whole place is a lie too. But Isaac thinks that he might be telling them the truth.

  Isaac knows lying, he also knows when someone is trying to prank him. And right now he couldn’t see Henry doing either of those things.

  If he was lying, then why use such an obvious lie? They’d know he was lying immediately, making the lie meaningless.

  If this was a prank, then it was a pretty sad one. What, you just tell them a lie and move on? Come on, where were the lights and the smoke, you know, the special effects. Make them believe it. Otherwise, what's the point?

  The more he thought about it, the more Isaac wanted to believe him. Magic, it's crazy, but he wanted it to be true.

  And at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter. Cause he’s going to this school. This school has something to do with his family, hell, Granpa Jaime built this place. So he’ll go along with it, for now, see where this takes him.

  Henry laughed at Luci. He didn’t seem to mind her calling him an idiot and instead tried to placate her.

  “ No, no Ms. Silva. Magic is quite real.” He reiterated.

  “ No, magic isn’t real.” Luci grounded out. “ I don’t know what you’re doing, and quite frankly, I don’t care. What I do know is that you're wasting my time. You brought me down here, made me wait for over an hour, and the only thing you have to say is this stupid joke!!”

  At the end, Luci was on her feet, slamming her hands on Henry’s desk. She tried to be calm, but Henry’s insistance on this lie was really making her mad.

  Isaac didn’t say anything. He just sat and watched, wondering what Henry would do to change her mind.

  Under Luci’s angry gaze, Herny just calmy stood up and reached into his pocket. He acted like he had been through hundreds of times before. Without answering Luci’s question, Henry pulled out a large key from his pocket.

  It was another skeleton key, just like Isaac’s, except this one was bigger and silver. This was it, proof that this his key had something to do with this school.

  Isaac tried to keep his face blank, he wasn’t expecting to find a clue this early so he was unprepared when Henry showed them the key. He had to get his emotions under control, he didn’t want Henry to see how interested he was in the key.

  Isaac doesn’t think it was a mistake that just yesterday, his key was delivered through an unmakred package after dark. Whoever gave him this key wanted to keep it a secret. Plus, the warning on the note made him doubly sure that he shouldn’t be letting people know that he had this key.

  Right now, no one else, apart from his family, knows about the golden key. And until he knows more, that’s how Isaac was going to keep it.

  Henry stepped out from behind his desk and walked around Luci. Stepping over the scattered books and papers, he reached the office door behind them and closed it.

  “ We normally save the tour for after, but I guess we can skip ahead,” he said as he pushed the key into the door.

  Isaac thought that was weird, the door didn’t have a lock. And, maybe more importantly, even if it did, how was he going to give them a tour when he locked them in a room?

  “ Hey, what are you doing!” Luci shouted. Seeing an adult lock them in a room with him made her uneasy. If he was going to attack them, would anyone come? Stepping behind Isaac, she forced him to act as her shield in case he did anything.

  Henry ignored her. Instead, he turned the key and opened the door. Luci opened her mouth to yell at him, wondering what all that was for, but her words died in her throat as soon as she looked through the door. Hiding behind Isaac, she didn't get a full view, but what she did see stopped her in her tracks.

  Because he was in the front, Isaac got a full view of it, and he still didn't know what he was seeing. The only thing that he knew was that it was incredible. He only realized after that he was smiling when his cheeks started to hurt.

  Noise was pouring in from the open door, and the clatter and murmurs of a hundred people washed over them. As where there used to be a hallway, there was now a crowd of people mulling about in front of the door. None of them paid attention to the two teenagers gawking at them through an open doorway. From where he was standing, Isaac could see orange skies in the background and a larger building towering over in the distance.

  Isaac had to see that this was really. Without realizing it, Isaac began to walk forward. Ignoring Luci's call for him to wait, he walked around Herny. Ignoring the pleased smirk on his face, Isaac grabbed hold of the door frame and leaned out.

  Past Henry’s office door, an entire city was waking up to the morning sun. Though this sun was different from the one behind him, Isaac still felt the warmth on his skin. Walking through the door, Isaac looked around and noticed that the door he just came from wasn't connected to a wall. Instead, it and several other doors stationed around sat on a large circular platform that hung over a giant hole leading to another city underneath. And the only thing holding it up were four roads that connected the platform to the city before him.

  Water from ponds waterfalled down into the city below between the roads as Isaac pushed his way past a line of people in front of him and made his way toward the city. Behind him, he could still make out Luci calling for him to wait, but he wasn't listening anymore.

  Isaac didn’t know what was happening, and he didn’t care. He just didn’t want it to be a dream.

  Stopping at the edge of the road, Isaac spread out his hands and started to spin. He didn't care about the people staring at him or that he was taking up a part of the road. He was just so happy to be here.

  Herny and Luci finally caught up behind him. They stayed back, watching as Isaac got lost in his own little world. Henry apologized to the people around them as Luci walked closer to Isaac, her arms crossed across her chest as she looked around with apprehension. Catching a passing couple staring at them, she glared back at them, scaring them and making them scamper away from the terrifying little girl.

  Coming around, Herny stepped into the city in front of them.

  “ Welcome to Last Heaven.” He said as he smiled.