Walking into class, Alexis can see most of the other students flipping through books probably doing some last minute studying. Jim is also doing the same.

'Guess I'll study a bit to' thinking such Alexis lays her bag down and gets out her academic books, to study up on.

Before long, Mr. Henry walks in, looks around, and after seeing that everyone is here, starts speaking to the class.

"Good morning everyone, did you have a good weekend? Today is finally the beginning of what we have been working up to all year long. Just like the pre-finals, the first 3 days you will all be testing out on your academics, Thursday will be an exam on your magical theory, and Friday will be your final exam of the year, on practical use of magic. We'll worry about the magical portions later though, for now lets just focus on your academic exams, which will begin in about half an hour, and unlike with the pre-finals, your finals are going to be all day long, so before we start, I'll leave the rest of this time to you for self study."

Mr. Henry then takes a seat, and starts sipping on his drink he brought with him.

Once the study time is up. Mr. Henry stands up, turns on the projector that goes over the rules of today's exams, once finished, he hands out the exam sheets for everyone to start.

Hardly getting stuck at any questions, Alexis quickly finishes all her questions, and as usual is the first done in her class.

Moving to the waiting room, where everyone who is done goes, she takes out her herb book to study more.

As time passes, more and more students in her grade show up, some looking confident, some worried. They strike up conversations with each other in whispered voices talking about the exam, and what parts they had trouble with.

After a couple more hours pass, a teacher comes in to tell them that they can go home now, but to be quiet when walking through the halls, as some people are still taking their exam.

Arriving home, Alexis tells her parents how the day went, and asks about her feather knives.

Walking over from the living room, her dad grabs a drink from the fridge, and then tells her "I left them with a buddy from back in the day, he said they would be done by the weekend, so why don't we head over there on Saturday to pick them up together?"

"Sounds great, thanks dad."

Grabbing a drink as well, Alexis makes her way up the stairs to start training again.

Training her wind magic until bed time, Alexis goes to bed early, for another long day of exams tomorrow.

~~~ The next two days go by just like the first without incident, although on Wednesday Alexis stops by botany class to take care of her plants real quick before heading home. ~~~

Finally the day of the magical theory exam is here.

Alexis arrives early to her seat in class, brushing up on any of her weak points in magical theory while waiting for class to officially start.

Walking in Mr. Henry glances around, turns on the projector, and starts talking about the plan for today.

"So as many of you have probably been waiting for, the magical portion of your exams are finally here, although today isn't that exciting, you will need to get at least an eighty percent score or higher on your magical theory to even take the practical exam, for those of you that fail to do so, you will be studying all day tomorrow instead of taking the practical exam with everyone else."

"Now this exam will not be as long as the last few exams, you will all be expected to be done by lunch time, so that we can figure out who passed before you leave. Once you finish today's exam you will be going to the auditorium to await the announcements at the end of the day. Go ahead and do any self studying you need to do, the exam will starts in twenty minutes."

Jim leans over and whispers "Oh man, I hope I don't fail, if I get stuck having to study all day tomorrow, that'd blow so hard, what do you think the exam will mostly be on?"

Looking up from her book, Alexis glances at Jim and whispers back "Uhh I'm not to sure either I've just been studying all the basic concepts that we've been going over the last month or so, by the way, have you seen that recruiter you saw talking to Mr. Henry at the café yet?"

"Na maybe he's not coming after all, or maybe the written parts not what he's interested in?"

Nodding, Alexis takes out her book to continue studying while waiting for the exams to start.

A little later, Mr. Henry starts handing out the exam papers, for everyone to begin.

Breezing through all the questions, Alexis hands in her paper to Mr. Henry, grabs her bag, and heads for the auditorium.

Taking a seat in the third row, Alexis grabs her herb book from her bag and start studying it some more while waiting for everyone else to finish up.

After thoroughly studying eight more herbs from her book, the auditorium has finally filled up, and some people are moving around on the stage.

Making their way out from behind the stage, a chubby man, with red hair, and a balding spot in the middle makes his way over to the speaker podium.

"Settle down, settle down everyone" his voice travels throughout the whole auditorium.

"OK Good afternoon, I'm your principal Mr. Postriniek, hopefully everyone has done well this week, but let me tell you about tomorrow."

Glancing at the clock on the wall, he says "So in about 15minutes it will be lunch time, after lunch, we will have a list of everyone who has passed today's exam, for the rest of your exams however you will only be able to see the results come Monday. Now let me tell you about tomorrow, for those of you who pass today's exam, you will be meeting your teachers outside tomorrow, where we will be taking a trip outside school for your last exam of practical magic."

Some teachers start handing out papers to all the rows of students.

"Going around now is some paperwork you must take home to your parents or guardian to sign, basically giving permission for you to participate, should you get injured the school will take care of your injuries, but that is all. So do be careful, however don't expect things to be all that dangerous, the only reason you will likely be hurt is if you mess up and explode your magic in your own face" Laughing aloud the principal holds out his palms, while shaking his head and says "Don't do that ok?"

"Now then, once everyone has their papers, you'll convene for lunch, while we get that list of people who have passed ready once you get back, for those of you who fail, my condolences, work hard, and perhaps you can still graduate this summer with the remedial class."

Sitting down at the table, Alexis is eating when Jim also joins her.

"Hey which exam sheet did you get?" He asks.

"B-202 was the one I had" Alexis responds.

"Oh that's way different than mine, I had C-69A"

"What was the hardest question on yours? For mine there was some crazy question about calculating the required element flow to power a rune drawing it had displayed, I ended up just putting in some random number."

While talking, Jim notices someone coming up behind Alexis.

Tapping on her shoulder from behind Sasha says "Hey mind if I sit down beside you?"

Looking over her shoulder.

"Hey, sure have a seat. This is my friend Jim."

Alexis gestures at Jim in front of her.

"Jim this is Sasha, we went shopping last weekend and became instant friends."

"Oh how do you do." Jim says while nodding once.

Sitting down, Sasha responds to Jim with "Hi".

Looking over to Alexis, Sasha says "I never did ask what grade you were in, but seeing as I've never seen you at any of the lunch periods I go to, it's safe to assume your not in tenth grade like me."

"Yea, this is actually my last year before college." Alexis answers.

"What?! No way I thought you were around the same age as me. I heard they are going to bring in a live magical beast for the seniors portion of the practical magical exam tomorrow, did you want to burrow my rune gear for it?" Sasha asks

Before Alexis can answer Jim chimes in "Yea but usually it's nothing serious, like last year I remember watching the seniors, and it was just a frog magical beasts, couldn't have been taller than a couple feet. It did seem kinda gross though, it's favorite attack was to spit mucus at people, the mucus had some kinda numbing agent to it, but as long as you didn't get hit, it was an easy pass."

Once Jim is finished, Alexis says "Thanks for the offer, but I'll be fine, besides I'm pretty sure you have to register any gears your using, and it's hard to say what parts of the exam they'll even let us use gear in."

Once finished eating, the trio makes there way back to the auditorium to await the results.

After about a quarter hour more, the principal makes his way back on stage.

With everyone finished getting ready, the principal holds up a remote and clicks it, which results in a huge projector screen displaying above the stage.

"Welcome back everyone, even with a huge screen like this, I imagine only those of you in the first few rows can read this. But as you can probably guess this is the list of everyone who has passed, starting from the lowest grade to the last grade, and separated by class, your names will be read. Once all names have been called, those who's names were called can leave and prepare for tomorrow, and those who weren't will stay and listen to your teachers who will brief you on what to do tomorrow to either get your remedial schooling started or what other options you have."

Once finished speaking, the principal steps aside, where a woman with long white hair stands next to the podium and starts speed calling names like an auctioneer at an auction.

Finishing with the last name the white haired lady smiles, and says "That's it, all who's names were called may leave now, for those of you who were not called, make sure you stay to talk with your teachers." Saying such the lady walks off herself as well.

Having heard her name, Alexis grabs her bag and makes her way out the doors.

As she is getting her bike out, Jim passes her on his way towards the busses and waves while saying "Hey, see ya tomorrow."

 

Author's Note

Hey everyone, ReEeSeMe here, I'll be starting a new job soon, and am not sure if I'll have the drive/time to work on this for the time being. So I'll be stopping weekly updates on this for now while I get acquainted with this new job, and will make an update probably in a couple months with the plan of action going forward from there. I still definitely plan to finish this either way, it just might take a wee bit longer is all. :P

See ya at the next update, and as always, have fun everyone. ;)