The Night Tournaments

4 - Flynn

After lunch, Claude and I headed to our Math 9 classroom. The teacher, Mr. Chen, greeted us, and we sat near the back. I was okay with math, but I wasn't a total fanatic - and I was sure that the same went for Claude.

"Hi! What's your name? Aren't you so excited for 9th grade?" a voice suddenly yelped in my ear, and I jumped.

"What the -" I whipped around in my seat and found myself face-to-face with a way-too-enthusiastic-looking blond guy that I had never seen before. "Uh . . . hey. Do I know you?"

"Nope, and neither do I. That's why I asked you what your name is," he replied matter-of-factly, shrugging.

. . . Okay. This dude was actually super annoying.

"Well, I'm Flynn," I said slowly. Around a year ago, I probably would have ignored a kid like him altogether, but . . . let's just say that I had learned a few things during the summer, whether I had wanted to or not.

"I'm Chase!" he yapped, then got all up in my face, inspecting me with his bright blue eyes. "How do you make your hair so shiny? And how is your face so chiseled? Seriously, I'm SO jealous!"

"Urgh," I groaned, sinking down into my seat. Why was this happening to me? I hadn't ASKED for some random guy to make this class ten times worse than it was already going to be!

"Anyway, I really hope that we'll become friends in this class. You seem like such an interesting person!" Chase exclaimed, grinning. In all honesty, it kind of hurt my eyes to look at him for too long; it was like the sun was living in his face or something.

Mr. Chen rescued me by initiating the class, and we soon figured out that he was a huge stickler for 'working in complete silence'. I didn't have a problem with that, though, since it meant that I wouldn't have to talk to this Chase guy for the rest of the day.

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~ One Hour Later ~

After Math class, Claude and I headed to the Nightingale Theater, where the Chamber Music 9 program was held. It was one of my favorite places in the whole building, and after spending so much time there with my friends for the summer camp auditions last year, I had grown to love it even more. To me, it was the place where all of the magic happened, even though that was cringey beyond belief.

"Mr. Parker!" I greeted, lighting up when we walked into the theater and saw the Chamber Music 9 teacher. If I had a favorite staff member at this school, it would probably be him.

He grinned and exchanged hearty pound hugs with the two of us. "How are my boys Flynn and Claude doing?" he asked, his voice booming in that friendly way of his.

"We're . . . hanging in there," Claude answered, laughing. "By the way, the Eiffel Tower Summer Camp was amazing."

"Right, I almost forgot what you were busy doing for the past two months!" Mr. Parker exclaimed, clapping his hands together. "So, how was the final showcase?"

"You won't believe it, sir," I said as a gleeful smile stretched across my face. "Our chamber group won the entire thing! We were the top champions!"

"WHAT?! That's awesome, boys!" Mr. Parker yelled, shaking the whole theater with his powerful voice.

"Hey, Mr. Parker, I saw the whole thing. My group got second place, if you were wondering," a voice called from behind us, and we turned to see Archer standing near the entrance of the room with his violin slung over his shoulder.