Chapter 94

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 Ace slumped in his seat. He groaned, "Hm, so it's a festival of all the cultural clubs."

Deuce joined in his slump. "I don't think there will be a lot for us in the sports clubs to do."

"Good," I stretched my arms out in front of me. "The less I have to do is a blessing for once."

"And if there are magical research conferences happening, maybe we can find a break through of getting home," Yuu added with excitement.

"Hey, hey!" Grim crawled up to whisper in Ace's ear. "Do you think there will be food stalls like at the Magift tournament?"

"All you think about is food." Ace pushed Grim away.

"That will be all for homeroom," Professor Crewel concluded. He smacked his pointer in his left hand and got a smirk as he looked at us. "Now onto class. We will be practicing defense magic. Line up pups." There was a collective groan from the class as we got up to start our practical magic class.

The school day was uneventful. Hooray! It felt like forever since I had a remotely normal day of magic high school. It was a long and tedious day, but I'll take it over fighting another boy having a magic temper tantrum. We all walked out of the main building, chatting.

"Are you ready for practice today, Viv?" Ace asked me. He seemed excited as he bounced on his toes as he walked.

I gave a small nod. "Yeah, I would say so. We have a few games coming up, so I think Coach Vargas is going to be working you to the bone." I gave him a smirk.

"Do you think you guys will win the games?" Yuu asked as they followed along with us.

Ace and I both shrugged. "Depends on who you ask, or who's playing really," I told them.

"If you asked our team captain, Phoebus, he could tell you the exact probability of our chances of being champions is..." Ace mentioned. He then shuddered a bit. "But he could also tell you the probability that you'll choke on a peanut and be put into a coma."

"Oh my," Yuu gasped.

I gritted my teeth. "Yeah...Phoebus' unique magic can be very off putting sometimes."

"What do you even do during their practices, Viv? If Track and Field had a manager I'd feel bad cause they wouldn't have much to do." Deuce asked.

"Most of the time I'm just an errand boy, but I have set a goal to reorganize the stupid supply closet!" I declared as I clenched my fists.

"Well, have fun with that," Yuu rolled their eyes. "I'm going to head to the library. Please don't need me during this time." With that Yuu picked up Grim and started for the school's vast library.

Grim struggled in their grasp. "Hey! I don't want to go to a stuffy library! Let me go!"

"You don't get to choose when you have a history of causing mayhem while unsupervised!" Yuu reminded the crazy cat monster.

"I'll see you after practice Yuu!" I called.

"Yeah, see you later Prefect!" Ace waved. Yuu waved without looking back at us. Deuce broke off from us as well to go to his own club while Ace and I continued to the basketball club.

When we got there, the other team members greeted us warmly. Ace went to go change while I went straight to the supply closet. I put my things outside of the closet door and went in to see what could be done. It was a health hazard for sure. Items were stacked precariously on other items and equipment was shoved into corners.

What have these guys been doing up until now?!

It was hard to find a place to start, but I decided to at least get what they needed for today's practice. I rolled out the bin full of basketballs and took a hook stacked up with cones out to arrange footwork drills. Phoebus was talking to the boys and gave me a nod of recognition. I waved back to him and went back into the cavernous closet to see what all was in there.

I started to unstack some of the precarious supplies and organize them as either still needed or garbage. There was a lot of garbage. Broken items were shoved into little crevices. I tried to pry a box out from between some shelves. It was wedged in there pretty good. I fell back on my butt once I did manage to get it free. I guess it caused a loud crash because there was a pause in the dribbling outside.

"Viv? You okay in there?" I heard Ace yell out.

"Peachy Keen!" I yelled back. I poked my head out of the doorway to see a couple of heads looking my way. Some held back laughter while others looked concerned. I hollered, "I am discovering archeological treasures! Seriously, have none of you thought to clean this before?"

There was a murmur of responses that I didn't really listen to. I ducked back into the closet and went back to work. Occasionally, I would emerge from the dark expanse to create a larger pile of garbage that needed to be thrown in a dumpster or to ask Phoebus if items were still needed or could be discarded. By the time practice was almost over, I just had to put some items back on the shelves.

This was when being short was not in my favor. I put the heavier items on the bottom shelves, but the space that I could easily access dried up quick. I looked around to try and find a stepping stool of any kind with no luck. I stood in the center of my pile with hands on my hips.

Well gosh darn flubbernuggets. I don't want to leave a mess still...

I looked out at the team scrimmage. There was still some time on the mini clock, plus whatever time they needed to clean the gym.

I have enough time.

I cracked my wrists and looked at the shelving units before me.

This is when growing up short comes in handy.

I grabbed a small item and placed it under my chin. With my free hands, I climbed the shelves and placed the item. I then shuffled down and repeated the process. I scrambled around like a spider monkey to get it done. I was living those fast forward montages from television. Finally, I had the last thing to put up. I climbed up to the highest part of the shelves and slid it into place. As I was coming down, satisfied with my work, my foot slipped. I felt the shelves shift as my weight pulled it forward slightly.

Crapiola! I don't want this thing falling on me!

I let go of the shelf and braced myself to land on my bum. Maybe if I was lucky, I could just awkwardly land on my feet. I was prepared either way. But neither happened. I was met with the grunt of someone underneath me. I quickly got up and looked to see who took the brunt of my fall.

"Phoebus! Are you okay?!"

Phoebus got up and brushed himself off. His uniform was disheveled, like he rushed to get changed, and he had a shy smile. "I'm fine. This was probably the best outcome that could happen."

"I would have been fine though, it wasn't that big of a fall," I sighed.

"I saw with my unique magic that there was a 76% chance that you'd be crushed by the shelves." He bluntly shared. "The likelihood of you coming out alright without someone intervening was less than 5%."

I just blinked at him. "Well...thanks."

"No problem. Please get back to your dorm safely."

"Don't worry I will. I mean, what are the chances I trip and snap my neck?" Phoebus opened his mouth to answer but I cut him off. "That was a rhetorical question."

"Oh, yes of course. I knew that."

"Yeah, I'll see you later Phoebus." I nodded as I exited the closet.

Phoebus followed behind me. "See you at tomorrow's practice. And if it isn't too much trouble, can you try and get Floyd to come? We have a game next week and I would like to at least have him as an option to play."

"Oh, yeah, I'll see what I can do," I said. I exited the gym and started on my trek back to Ramshackle dorm.

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