Elias, Leilani, and I appeared inside of my orb. Leilani had appeared face down on the desk, and Elias had landed in the huge pile of clothes I had dumped out of my dresser that morning. I made it perfectly cross-legged on my bed, and started laughing at them.
          “Failure,” I said.
          “I can’t stay upright when my body is on fire, Demeter,” Leilani said.
          “Your body was not on fire,” I said.
          You literally surround me with purple flames,” Leilani said.
          “Yes, to protect your fragile earthly body from being destroyed so close to the center of the planet on which you live,” I said.
          “A very long-winded way of saying you keep me from burning alive,” Leilani said.
          “If you simply must phrase it so crudely,” I said.
          “Yes,” Elias said.
          “Is today finally the day you are going to let me explore Orus?” Leilani asked.
          “Seeing as I was just on trial for leaving school, maybe walking around the layer my father lives and works in may not be the best idea,” I said.
          “Especially since we are harboring a fugitive,” Elias said.
          “Now that is melodramatic,” Leilani said.
          “Comic relief, Leilani,” Elias said.
          “Hungry,” Leilani said. “Hit me with that delicious demon food that I can only have in the Underworld.”
          “This is not the Underworld,” Elias said.
          “Same thing.”
          “We are not evil spirits.”
          “Then why do you look human?”
          “What’s your point, Leilani?”
          “I’m going to shower while you have this argument,” I said.
          “Don’t you have a Nymph Medics exam today?” Elias asked.
My heart dropped. “Oh, no.”
          I got up quickly, grabbed my bag, and jumped out of my orb without a ladder. My feet hurt on impact, but I ignored it. I could not be on trial in the morning and then miss an exam in
the afternoon. He would kill me. My father would unquestionably kill me and feed me to the goblins. I ran across the campus for the second time that day, this time avoiding running anyone
over. I made it all the way to the main orb and burst through the front access point. I ran up the stairs, trying to slow time down with sheer willpower and hoping Rhodes was in a charitable mood today. This teacher hated me intensely; he would happily fail me, and then send a
messenger goblin to my father’s office to inform him of the pathetic grade his daughter had earned this time.
          I made it to the third floor, and then went to the second door on the left. I tried the doorknob, but it was locked. Rhodes opened the door and glared at me. He held up a clock.
          “Can you tell time, Demeter?” he asked.
          I held back every snarky response that popped into my head and said, “I’m sorry. I had my hearing.”
          “You will not be given extra time to complete this,” he said and handed me the exam. I looked it over, and then considered giving it back and leaving. I would need a miracle to pass, and he knew that. It was the only reason he had agreed to allow me to take it.
          “Sit down,” he said.
          I took a seat in the back and went through my bag to find a needle to write with. I dumped my entire bag out, trying to be as quiet as possible, but I had nothing. Everyone was throwing daggers at me with their eyes. Rhodes was not known for making difficult exams, but
the questions were always long. Finishing on time was not an easy task. I was doing my best not to be distracting, but I was struggling. I felt like shards of topaz were falling through an hourglass quickly, speeding up time. Rhodes finally got up and handed me a needle. I touched a
violet flame to its point gently, and it lit. I burned my name into the top of the sheet and started reading the first question.
          What part of a fire nymph’s body stores energy?
          I had no idea. I went to the next question.
          What causes the lava inside of a fire nymph to turn to water?
          I didn’t have a clue. I looked over the rest of the exam, and it dawned on me that I had not even looked at the chapter we were being tested on. In fact, I was about four chapters behind
on reading. Rhodes was watching me from behind his desk, a smirk taking up the entire bottom half of his face. He couldn’t wait to get his hands on my exam.
          I looked around the room and weighed my options. I could either cheat or fail. Rhodes would know, but he would never be able to prove it. I waited for him to look away, but he was staring me down, as if he knew exactly what I was planning to do. I racked my brain for an idea. I generally did not care about my grades or about school in general, but failing was not an option. Vaughn Griffin would lose his mind. I’d had enough of his anger for one day.
          “You have fifty minutes remaining to complete this portion of the test,” Rhodes said.
“The practical will immediately follow.”
          I surveyed the room again, and my eyes finally fell on a mousy-haired boy I had only engaged in about three or four conversations with. He and his friends spent most of their time in the library or in one of the laboratories in the Ptah’s orb. His name was Norton, and he was a
very kind person. He would help me pass. I watched him scribble furiously and gave into the little imaginary Lucifer on my shoulder who was begging me to cheat.
          “Eyes on your own sheet, Demeter,” Rhodes said.
          “Sorry,” I said and turned away.
          I started making up answers for the first few questions, trying to find the right moment to make a move. I didn’t want to write too much, because even though using a needle wasn’t as permanent as writing with a soldering pen, it was still absolute purgatory trying to erase
something from sheet metal. Rhodes would immediately mark anything that was too messy as incorrect. He would also immediately know that I had cheated if I wrote down the wrong answer
and then changed it.
          I let about twenty more minutes pass, and then very carefully lit up my index finger with a small violet flame. I pointed to the statue of Saint Lucinda in the courtyard, and shot a tiny,
almost unseen ball of fire at it without looking up from the exam. The flame connected with the statue, making a loud popping noise. Everyone in the room jumped, and I let my needle roll
away from me and stop at Norton’s feet.
          “Back to your exams,” Rhodes snapped.
          I looked at Norton. “Can you pass me my needle, please?”
          He picked it up and passed it to me, and I touched his hand with a purple flame that Rhodes couldn’t see from his seat. I sat back in my chair, and Norton heard my voice in his ear.
          “Failing miserably, Norton. Help?”
          He looked at me, but I didn’t make eye contact.
          “Just think at me,” my voice whispered to him.
          I heard him in my head. “What do you need help with?”
          “Everything,” I said.
          I had exactly twenty minutes before the communication ended. The ball I had used was
too small to give me long-term contact. I looked at my sheet and found the question he was working on. I managed to get seven answers out of his head before I could no longer hear anything. I looked over it. There were ten total questions, and the practical would bring me up to a passing grade. I relaxed. As long as I did not actually fail this test, I would live to see another day.
          Rhodes collected the sheets, and twenty nymphs filed in. One of them stopped in front of me and handed me a page.
          I am having difficulty eating. I cannot digest food, and my stomach hurts. Help me.
          I lit four of the fingers on my right hand with my violet fire, but Rhodes came to my desk and snapped, “No. You will use traditional blue fire to heal her.”
          “What? Why?”
          “Because you are a student in my class, and you will use the same means as the others. If you are unable to remember which runes and formation are needed to heal her, you will fail this exam, and all other exams that follow it.”
          “The point is for me to be able to heal her.”
          “The point is for you to understand the material. You will use the Eir’s blue fire to do this, or you will fail.”
          I looked at the nymph, and she gave me a small smile of encouragement. I lit my index and middle finger with blue fire, and then made a circle on her stomach. The circle glowed for a
few seconds, and then faded.
          “Did that help?” I asked her.
          She shook her head. I tried making up a few more things, but nothing worked. I tried to trace a star, and a heart, and a diamond, and every letter of the Latin and Greek alphabet, but it was futile. This was going even more poorly than I had expected, but at least I couldn’t harm her with my incompetence.
          “You’re supposed to say the runes while you draw the circle, Demi,” Norton said.
          Rhodes looked at him. “Would you like me to fail you for cheating?”
          “No! Sorry!” he said.
          The classroom door cracked open, and our Head of Security’s twin daughters, Avery and Garrett, snuck in. They were easy to overlook because they were so small, even compared to
other goblins their age. Avery went to Rhodes’s desk and started going through it as quietly as possible. Not one student or nymph in the room drew attention to this; I was not the only one struggling. I tried to keep Rhodes engaged with me so he would not turn around or notice.
          “I should be allowed to do this with the resources I have,” I said.
          “You are trying to cheat, and you will not make a mockery of my class,” he said. “Do it correctly, Demeter.”
          “I’m thinking!” I said.
          “This is a straightforward question,” he said. “If you even read the chapter, you should be able to do it. I didn’t make this exam difficult on purpose.”
          “I can’t do it with you staring at me,” I said.
          “If you knew the material, you would be able to do this with your eyes closed,” he said.
“You are trying to find a way to cheat.”
          “My brain doesn’t work that way, so if you would just avert your gaze and let me focus,”
I said. “It’s like you want me to fail.”
          Avery took a tiny sheet metal out of the desk and started copying something down onto it. Garrett left the room, and we heard a loud crashing sound in the hallway. Rhodes went out quickly, and Avery slipped the sheet she had written on in front of me. The nymph gave me a
disapproving look, but she didn’t comment. I read it quickly, and then stuffed it into my bag.
          Avery helped out six other students, and then slipped out before Rhodes could see her. He came back in angrily and looked at me.
          “You have two minutes to figure this out,” he said.
          I lit both of my index fingers with blue flames and touched the nymph’s stomach. I traced an octagon on her stomach and said the runes exactly as Avery had written them down:
          “Anápsei fotiá.”
          The blue octagon turned red for a few seconds, then turned back into blue, and then faded completely. I looked at Rhodes, who had anger practically stitched into every inch of his face.
          “You cheated,” he said.
          “Sounds like I passed,” I said.
          “How did you get the answer?” he asked and looked around. “Who helped her? Norton,
was it you?”
          “No!” Norton said.
          “I just remembered it,” I said. “And you can’t prove otherwise.”
          He dismissed all of the nymphs and students, but he held me back from leaving with everyone else.
          “You will not make a mockery of this curriculum. You were given passes the last two trimesters because it is just your ninth year. Moving forward, you will study like everyone else,
or you will fail, and your cohort will move on to Year Ten without you. Is that clear?”
          “You can’t fail Year Nine,” I said.
          “But you can be forced into retaking courses over the winter break,” he said.
          “That would be cruel,” I said.
          “Get it together, then,” he said. “And you will write a three-thousand word essay about
Energy Transfer and the proper runes to heal decreasing lava in a fire nymph’s stomach and have it on my desk by tomorrow. Get out of my classroom.”
          “But I did it correctly!” I said.
          “I know that you cheated,” he said.
          “That is an assumption,” I said.
          “Demi, don’t push me,” he said. “I will contact your father, and the three of us can talk about this again together.”
          “Give me three days, and I’ll actually do the essay,” I said.
          “Fine. Get out,” he said.
          I shouldered my bag and walked out. I went down to the first floor and found it engulfed in chaos. Nymphs and students littered the circular lobby, and blue fire was being thrown recklessly around. The nymphs were always here during day hours for kids to practice healing techniques on, but there were currently no teachers around to manage the mess, so no actual work was getting done.
          I ducked and tried to make my way through the crowd without becoming a target, but a huge ball of blue fire hit me anyway. It felt like a cold gust of wind had surrounded me, and I shivered. It went out immediately, and my body almost felt damp.
          “EVEN I KNOW THAT RANDOM BLUE FIREBALLS DON’T HEAL ANYTHING!” I yelled.
          “I’M ACTUALLY TRYING TO BRING YOUR DEAD HEART BACK TO LIFE,
DEMETER!” someone yelled back.
          “IMPOSSIBLE!” I yelled and stumbled out of the orb.
          I made my way the dining room to steal food for myself and my friends. There were round tables scattered about, and people who had the period off were present. The dining room had food available all day, but some days had better food than others. Wednesdays usually had the worst menu. Elias and I lived off snacks, but Leilani’s favorite demon foods were being served today. Humans could be so odd.
          I picked up a tray, but someone took it out of my hand. Sydney, Ray, Sion, and Castor stood in front of me, all of them wearing condescending grins. They were all Koa. I ignored them
and took another tray, but they took this one, too.
          “What do you want?” I asked.
          “We heard that Daddy is forcing you to choose a training soon,” Sydney said.
          “I hope you aren’t planning on choosing ours,” Ray said.
          “You don’t get to just luck your way into being one of us, Princess Misfit,” Sion said.
          “You have to earn your place.”
          “And after the spectacular failure we just saw, I think you should choose a training more suitable for disappointments,” Castor said. “Like the Ptah.”
          “Or better yet, just leave completely,” Sion said.
          “Let someone who earned their place here take the deluxe orb you have,” Castor said.
          “My orb is literally one of the smallest in the dorm,” I said. “Now move.”
          “Oh, is it not good enough for you, Your Majesty?” Ray asked.
          I tried to go around them, but they cut me off.
          “We’re not done,” Castor said.
          “Get away from me, or you will regret it,” I said.
          They all laughed and ignited little balls of red fire.
          “And what are you going to do if we don’t, Princess Misfit?” Sydney asked.
          “Don’t push me, Sydney,” I said.
          “Push,” she said. She threw her fireball at my shoulder, and I stumbled back. All of them started laughing, and I heard snickering echo around me as other kids stopped to watch. There
were no teachers present.
          Sydney started throwing up another ball of fire and catching it in her hand. “I would be worried that you would do it back, but everyone knows you don’t know how to use fire properly. How does Daddy feel about his precious princess failing every class? Can’t imagine it makes the Great Vaughn Griffin anything but embarrassed.”
          “Oh, he’s miserable,” I said. “Please, take pity on me?”
          I knelt in front of her, and the laughter around me intensified. She turned to her friends and said, “So nice when royalty is brought to their knees, isn’t it?”
          While her back was turned, I touched the floor in front of her with a violet flame. A thin line quickly started to form around her. Once a perfect circle was completed, violet fire erupted
around her. It knocked her over and immediately died into her hair, turning it an ugly shade of dark purple.
          All laughter died, and I heard many sharp intakes of breath.
          “Buy me dinner first the next time you want to touch me, Syd,” I said sweetly.
          I got up and stepped over her. I pushed through her other friends and made my way to the dining room doors. I drew a violet line behind me, blocking her and her friends from being able to follow or touch me again.
          “TURN IT BACK RIGHT NOW!” she yelled after me.
          “Purple’s your color, Sydney! You’re welcome!” I yelled back.
          “COME FIX IT, DEMI!” she yelled.
          I waved and blew her a kiss, and then left the room. I hadn’t gone more than two steps forward before I was stopped by a group of Eir and Ptah in my year. Norton was among them. I tried to go around them, but they wouldn’t let me pass.
          “This is not the day to mess with me,” I said.
          Rhiannon, one of the Eir, said, “We’re not messing with you. We have a proposition for you.”
          “What kind of proposition?”
          “We are competing with Próta in Fotiathlima this year,” Norton said.
          “Good luck,” I said. “I’m sure you’ll beat them. Orus never loses to Próta.”
          “That will be true for the other years, but Year Nine needs help,” Rhiannon said.
          “We heard that there is some kind of genius on Próta’s Year Nine team this year,” Norton said. “And we need an advantage. Only four Year Nines feel comfortable enough to compete. We
are supposed to have nine players.”
          “You aren’t asking me to play, are you?” I asked.
          “I realize you have no interest in school—”
          I cut Norton off. “I literally just failed an exam five minutes ago. You were there, Norton!”
          “There are no rules that say you have to use a specific fire to win,” Rhiannon said. “The competition does not expressly require that the Eir, Koa, and Ptah events must be won only by
blue, red, and orange fire. You can use your violet fire. It can do anything, can’t it?”
          “Yes, but I don’t have more than half the runes memorized!”
          “Two Year Elevens from Madhya’s team last year did an event against Madhya without saying the runes out loud,” Rhiannon said. “That means it’s not necessary for you to say or even know them to win.”
          “That’s only because you don’t need to say the runes to fight as you get older,” I said. “We are just in Year Nine, and the second they see me ignite anything that isn’t a primary color,
they will kick me out of the game.”
          “Orange is not a primary color,” Sion said. He had somehow managed to get passed my purple barrier.
          “For the purposes of my joke, it is,” I said.
          “Oh, hilarious,” Sion said.
          “Shouldn’t you be in the dining room with the other terrorists?” I asked.
          “Shouldn’t you be somewhere your presence is appreciated?” he asked.
          “All right,” I said and turned to leave again.
          “Shut up, or I’m kicking you off the team, Sion!” Rhiannon said and caught my hand.
“Please, wait. I’m sorry.”
          “What event could I possibly be helpful in?” I asked.
          “The supposed prodigy on Próta’s team is an Eir,” Norton said. “We need you to beat him in that specific event. You haven’t picked a training yet, so you can compete in any of them.”
          “But—”
          Rhiannon grabbed my face. “I am team captain this year. I cannot go into Year Ten having been the only demon who lost to Próta. Help me. Please.”
          “Maybe this is just the world’s way of evening things out,” I said. “Let someone else win for a change.”
          “That is not funny,” Rhiannon said.
          I sighed. “Okay. Sign me up, and tell me where to stand.”
          “Do you know how to play?” Rhiannon asked.
          “Vaguely.”
          “We will teach you,” Norton said. “We have one week.”
          “One week!” I said.
          “The rest of us have been practicing all year,” Rhiannon said. “You don’t actually need to know anything to do this.”
          “And if this ends poorly for me?” I asked
          “Well, what’s one more disciplinary hearing?” Rhiannon asked.
          Norton handed me a sheet metal and a soldering pen. “Solder on the blotter, Princess Misfit.”
          “That almost sounded like a term of endearment, coming from you, Norton,” I said and signed it. My name glowed orange, and I gave it back to him.
          “That’s my charm, Demeter,” Norton said.
          Rhiannon hugged me. “Thank you!”
          I saluted her and continued on toward my orb, walking very slowly. Our darling Headmistress cut me off and lit an orange ball of fire. She grabbed me by my collar, and we were both sucked into it. We reappeared right back inside her office. My father was there, and he
looked even more annoyed with me than he was in the morning. Nikolai was absent this time.
          “Maybe I should get in trouble more often if I’m going to spend this much time with you in one day, Dad,” I said.
          “Your attitude is not appreciated,” he said. “Sit down.”
          “What could I possibly have done now?” I asked.
          “Did you sign up to compete in Fotiathlima?” my father asked.
          “How did you find out so quickly?”
          “Answer the question,” Cataline said.
          “Yes. Rhiannon and Norton came to me and asked me to join literally five minutes ago, because Próta has some kind of super demon on their team for Year Nine.”
          “How can you compete when you refuse to study and can’t even manage to pass your exams?” Cataline asked.
          “I was asked to join, and so I did. Take it up with the kids who came to me and demanded I compete!” I said.
          “Are you going to cheat?” my father asked.
          “How can I cheat in a game that I don’t know how to play?” I asked.
          “Then why are you competing!” Cataline asked. “I will not lose to Próta just because you believe that Terra is your personal playground!”
          “Do you want me to back out?” I asked. “Because that’s fine. I have no interest in playing or even attending this thing. I only agreed to it because Rhiannon asked me to do it.”
          “Why did she ask you to play when you do not even know the rules?” my dad asked.
          “You’ll have to ask her where her ridiculous confidence in me came from,” I said. “Do you want me to quit, or do you want me to satisfy Rhiannon’s meltdown, or am I going to be punished again for doing literally nothing wrong?”
          They looked at each other, and then at me. Cataline seemed like she was torn. I knew how badly she wanted to win. She could either turn a blind eye to the possibility that I may not follow the rules, or forfeit a crown she had gotten used to having on a pedestal in her office. She
was a Ptah. Second place was not an option for her. She would never actively allow me to cheat, but she could pretend not to know that I would bend the rules just far enough without breaking them.
          “I will allow you to compete,” she said.
          I almost laughed. “Okay.”
          “However,” she said. “You will choose your training before the tournament begins.”
          “They need me to compete in the Eir event! I don’t know if that’s what I want to do, and I still have two weeks!” I said.
          “Then compete with the Eir, and you can choose whatever training you want as soon as the tournament is won.”
          “Such confidence, Cataline,” my father said.
          “My school does not lose to Próta,” she said.
          “Maybe it’s time to let someone else win for a change, so they don’t hate us to much,” I said. “I think five consecutive wins is sufficient.”
          “Is this a joke to you?” Cataline asked.
          “Aren’t games created to be fun?” I asked.
          “Games were created to be won, and you will follow directions,” Cataline said.
          “I need more time,” I said.
          “As soon as all of the events have been completed, you will choose the training you will take part in next year. End of discussion,” my dad said.
          “You are putting me in a position to either take back a promise I made or make a decision I am not ready to make!”
          “You will never be ready, Demeter,” Cataline said. “This is nonnegotiable. Choose wisely.”
          Cataline stalked out of the room, and I looked at my father. “This feels like a punishment, and I do not deserve it.”
          “We have to push you to make a choice for your future, Demi,” my father said. “I know that it is scary—”
          “I am not afraid of anything.”
          “Then join the Koa,” he said.
          “I have no interest in fighting,” I said.
          “It will take you to politics and law,” he said. “You do not have to fight.”
          “I have no interest in politics either,” I said.
          His frustration intensified. “With that attitude, you will never find a place you like! You have to choose something to prepare you for life outside of school! I can’t let you wander around forever!”
          “I have only taken a few classes! Maybe my future isn’t in demon training! Maybe the misfit is meant to do something misfit-y,” I said.
          “THIS IS NOT FUNNY! YOU AREN’T A BABY ANYMORE!”
          “Stop YELLING!”
          He calmed down. “I’m sorry. I am not trying to make your life difficult. This is an exceptional place to grow and learn. If you choose a different path, it will be after you have received a formal degree.”
          “Because it’s what’s best for me, or because you’ll otherwise look bad?” I asked.
          “Think what you want,” he said.
          He lit a red ball of fire in his hand and touched it. A moment later, he was gone. I got up and dragged myself back to my room, letting go of the possibility that I was actually going to get food without being accosted by someone new. Everyone had started moving toward dinner, and I was careful not to collide with anyone in the crowd. My body was complaining from physical exertion enough as it was.
          When I got to my orb, Elias was gone, and Leilani was lying on my bed. She looked at me and smiled.
          “Are you all right?” she asked.
          “Well, I was privileged enough to have two frustrating meetings with my father and Cataline today.”
          “So, no,” she said.
          I told her what had happened, and she brightened. “That’s great!”
          “I’m sorry, what part of what I just said is ‘great’?”
          She sat up. “You have no direction in life. Maybe this will give you one!”
          “You realize that these games are not a profession, right?” I asked.
          “Not everything is about financial gain, Princess Misfit,” she said.
          “You don’t get to call me that, human.”
          “Well, if the fire doesn’t fit, demon.”
          Elias came in with a tray of food. “What are we talking about?”
          “How just perfect you are when you are holding food,” Leilani said and reached for the tray.
          “I am perfect all of the time.”
          “Wildly inaccurate,” Leilani said. “Give it.”
          He gave her the tray and handed me a bottle of blue lava. “Heard tell you’re taking Year Nine to the top this year.”
          “Yes, I am the Savior of Small,” I said sarcastically. I looked at Leilani. “When do you want me to take you back?”
          “Aunt Snow’s out of town for the next four days, so I can stay,” Leilani said.
          “That’s a long time to be stuck with you,” Elias said.
          “You’re welcome,” she said. She looked at me. “Hey, Miserable Molly, let’s go to the Hideaway.”
          “We’re going to get caught,” Elias said.
          “You’ve been saying that for almost a year,” Leilani said and dragged me up.
          “One day, I’ll be right,” he said.
          “And who am I to deny you that kind of excitement?” Leilani asked. “Come on. Put a hole in it.”
          I traced the floor with purple flames, and a hole appeared. Leilani pushed Elias in and jumped in after him. I followed, closing it behind me. I again landed on two feet, but Leilani was
caught in a thorn bush, and Elias had fallen in the river. They both glared at me, and I grinned.
          “Pathetic!” I sang.
          The lava’s current pulled him away before he could get out. Leilani and I started laughing as we watched him try to swim to the shore. He kept getting pulled under it, and he was sputtering. We were laughing so hard that we were leaning on each other for support.
          “HELP ME!” he yelled.
          I threw a violet fireball in his direction, and he caught it. It dragged him out of the river and onto the ground at my feet. He groaned and turned over to lay on his back. We went over and
sat on either side of him.
          “Will you live another day, Lava Boy?” Leilani asked.
          “I wouldn’t deprive you of my presence, Leilani,” Elias said.
          “I love it here,” Leilani said and lay back.
          The Hideaway was a small pocket of land between the second and third layer of the earth. There were many different ways to get inside. Most demons simply created a door in the air with
orange fire and walked through it. I preferred to jump in, dragging my friends in and letting luck take care of their landing.
          It was a warm and comfortable place. A lazy river wound through it, and on either side of it were grass clearings. On one side was a huge cactus fruit tree. All of its branches held one of
two types of cactus fruit: sour and bitter. All of the little red balls looked exactly the same, and it was impossible to know what you were about to bite into until the mistake was made. The bitterness of the sour fruit could be so intense at times that it would numb your mouth, but the
sweetness of the alternative made the risk worthwhile. Each time one was picked, another grew in its place. The tree stretched over the river; its fruit often fell into it and floated along in the lava.
          The other side had a two small shops: Dane’s Nausea and Dry-mouth, which sold food and drinks, and Lane’s Stuff and Things, which sold clothing and things to use in the river. There were tiny creatures that lived in it, and the store sold rods and nets for catching them.
          There were about ten craters in the grass that were extremely cold. People used them to play games and eat. Kids collected fallen branches and stuck them in the holes until they had frozen, and then laid them over the river and tried to cross over before they melted and broke. I had never once made it across in time. Elias and Leilani both always beat me, but they were evenly matched.
          People also sometimes stuck fruit from the tree on sticks and held them inside the hole, and then ate them once they were frozen. This was Leilani’s favorite thing to do here. She jumped at any chance to eat demon food. None of it was available to her in the human world.
She took a drink from the lake, and Elias made a disgusted face.
          “We can just buy you a bottle,” he said.
          “I do not need your money,” she said. “The lake is natural.”
          “Yes, and natural feet have been in it,” he said.
          Leilani grabbed fruit off the tree and chucked it at him. They went back and forth, until a few adults nearby shushed them. They stopped and went to freeze what they had picked.
          A goblin sauntered over to me. He was swaying back and forth, and his speech was slightly slurred. His eyes were red, and the lids were only half open.
          “I’m told you will be competing in Fotiathlima, Demeter,” he managed to say.
          “Yes, I am.”
          “Why would they allow it? You are by far the worst demon I have ever heard of!” he said.
          “What matters is that you’ve heard of me,” I said.
          “You think you’re so clever,” he said.
          “I am, goblin stranger. Off you go. Have a drink of the lake before you try to make your way home. No accidents.”
          He hiccupped and walked away. I went into Dane’s Snack Shop. There were only a handful of people inside. All around the walls were shelves that carried samples of the snacks that were sold here. There was the salted variety, which included popped nuts and Thetzel
Sticks—the latter were so spicy that Leilani cried when she tried them. The beard pretzels were healthy, and I skipped right over them and through a door to my right. This room was very cold, and preserved everything meant to be consumed cold. I stood in front of the huge menu to choose between the many different flavors of frozen lava, juices, and chocolates.
          Dane, the owners daughter, was sitting behind the register lazily. She was chewing gum and reading a magazine. She saw me and smiled.
          “Looking for something sweet enough to rot your stomach, Demi?” she asked.
          “I could be looking for something healthy,” I said.
          “There is nothing healthy in this room,” she said. “Can I offer you a Frozen Sweet Caroline Medusa in a crushed nut chocolate cup?”
          “That sounds like death,” I said. “Two, please.”
          “Two?” she asked. “Since when does Elias eat things that will make him vomit?”
          “Both are for me,” I said. “I’ve committed myself to death by junk food.”
          She laughed and went into the back to make them. Elias came in behind me. He handed me a bottle of flavored lava. I looked at it.
          “Lucinda’s Bliss,” I said. “Really? A blue drink?”
          “It’s good for you!” he said.
          “Too late,” I said.
          Dane handed me what was essentially two mountains of green, frozen sugar. “On the
house, Griffin. Enjoy.”
          “Thank you!” I said. I gave one to Elias and took a bite of mine. We went back outside and found Leilani trying to do a handstand on a branch over the river. She landed on her feet, but
it immediately broke, and she fell into the lava. We laughed and watched her be dragged away from us. She stuck the tree branch into the grass and catapulted herself out of the river. We clapped, and she bowed.
          A messenger goblin appeared in front of me, and I sighed. “Yes?”
          “Message from Vaughn Griffin,” he said. “Come back to school immediately. I will not leave until you are in front of me, Demeter Griffin.”
          “No response,” I said.
          It left, and Elias asked, “What’d the goblin say?”
          “My dad is stalking me today,” I said. “Come on. Let’s go appease his highness.”
          I sent them to Elias’s orb, and I went to mine. My father was sitting on my bed. He looked just as annoyed as he always was with me.
          “Where were you?” he asked.
          “Hideaway.”
          “You did not have permission to go there.”
          “I know, Dad. I am sorry.”
          He got up. “An insincere apology is much worse than not receiving one at all. Keep it to yourself.”
          “Why are you so difficult today!” I said.
          “I’m difficult?” he asked. “You are breaking rules almost daily, and I’m difficult?”
          “Harmless rules,” I said. “You’re taking it too seriously.”
          “I need to make sure that you are successful, even if you don’t like it.”
          “And putting me in a cage is an effective way of doing that?”
          “You are trying to do poorly enough so that you can get kicked out of school. You will not win that game. You will graduate.”
          “You are making a lot of assumptions today.”
          “But they are all accurate.”
          “You just want to handcuff me.”
          “Think what you like. Good night.”
          He took my frozen blend and left. I watched him walk away eating it and I climbed into bed. Leilani crawled in next to me, still eating hers. I took a bite out of it.
          “Let’s prevent the nightmares by exploring the school,” she said.
          “It’s bedtime,” I said.
          “It’s so early!” she said. “Let’s go find something we’ve never seen before!”
          “Do you never get tired?” I asked. “You have seen a lot more of this place than you should have already.”
          “And I only grow curiouser and curiouser about your unnatural world. Come on. Let’s get Elias and go on an adventure!”
          “No, but that reminds me. Here,” I said.
          I gave her a titanium earring with a small ball of purple fire dangling from it. It was crackling quietly, very much alive. It would never hurt her or die out, but it would burn anyone who tried to take it from her. She put it on without asking questions.
          “If you touch it, I can hear you,” I said.
          “Even if I’m home?”
          “Anywhere you are, you can contact me, and you will hear my voice in your ear when I respond.”
          “What if I lose it?”
          “It is impossible for it to fall off. You have to take it out yourself. Now please, let me sleep off this day.”
          “Fine, but tomorrow—”
          “New day,” I said.