King of Hearts

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Gon woke up the next morning in a cold sweat, caught halfway through saying, "The Zoldycks are vampires!" He stared at the ceiling for a second before realizing that his alarm was ringing, and he had practice to get to that morning. Groaning, he slapped his hands over his face and rolled onto his side. "Fuck me..." he groaned, fully annoyed with the world because:

The Zoldycks were vampires and he was enrolled in magic classes without his consent.

Not only that, but he was given magic without his consent.

He wasn't sure which of these three truths was worse.

And, when it got to practice, he was frozen in place by the sight of Professor Biscuit on the track, barking warmup orders to his future teammates. Not only that, but the second she caught wind of Gon standing, frozen, in his track gear, she snapped her fingers at him and said, "Not a step closer, Freecss!"

Gon jolted and cried, "Wait, why?!"

"If your cleats so much as touch the track before you've manifested, I'll personally kick your ass back to California!" Professor Biscuit roared, and his teammates giggled to themselves over it. She clapped her hands loudly and yelled, "Class comes first! Grades come first! Repeat it back to me!"

The circle groaned and begrudgingly repeated the chant back to her as Gon slumped and decided that, if he was barred from practice, he would at least use this time to catch up to his classmates in his divination and field conjuring courses. It seemed he had a long way to catch up as it was.

Perhaps I can find Ikalgo to help me, he thought, only to backtrack. He had the guy's number!

"Score!" Gon screamed out loud, startling a nearby freshmen. After apologizing, Gon took off, phone in hand, searching for Ikalgo's name in his contacts. The second he spotted it, he put his phone to his ear and listened to the line ring.

When the ringing cut and Ikalgo's voice sounded on the other end, Gon said, "Hey! You said you had a class in the same lecture building as me, right?"

"Uh, yeah, why—"

"Does that mean you use magic?" Gon crossed his fingers, bitting his bottom lip as silence ensued from the other end of the line.

Several, painful seconds later, Ikalgo laughed and said, "No, I can't use magic. What's this about?"

Gon groaned and whined, "I don't understand what's happening. I can't go to practice because I'm supposed to manifest or something and meditate and shit. I've got ADHD! Meditation is, like, my mortal enemy!"

"Whoa, okay, slow down," he laughed, and Gon groaned miserably, slumping against the side of the field house. "There's something I might be able to help you with. Meet me by the courtyard?"

And, so, Gon all but ran to fetch his duffle. He didn't bother changing back into his uniform and instead took off at a jog across campus back to the dormitories where. Gon leapt through the tunnel and into the open grass. It was quiet for a weekday—the only foot traffic around the quad happened to be on the brick walkway that circumnavigated the courtyard. It made finding Ikalgo especially easy out in the grass.

Ikalgo stood up as Gon approached, energized and eager. Ikalgo put his hands on his hips, looked Gon up and down, and concluded, "Looks like Coach Biscuit gave you her two cents, huh?"

"Yeah, she did," Gon sighed. "I don't know how I'm supposed to manifest. They're talking about weapons and fighting and—"

"Whoa, slow down," Ikalgo said, waving his hands. Gon clamped his mouth shut. Ikalgo pointed to his lips, teeth bared, and said, "Vampire, not a sorcerer."