The Apprenticeship: A Puella Magi Story

Chapter 3 - Isaac

               "Bro, wake up!" Rough hands jostled Isaac back into consciousness. At least, he thought it was consciousness. It didn't feel like he had been asleep.

               He blinked. "Was I really sleeping?" he asked.
               "Technically, you had your eyes open and were staring off into the distance like there was no tomorrow," his friend Cadmus said.

               No tomorrow, Isaac thought. But with his problem, that might become true.

               "Believe me, Josh was the idiot who thought you were asleep. So don't blame me if your hospital bill for serious brain damage is over a thousand dollars." Cadmus continued. Josh frowned.
               "If he was staring off into the distance, then he was daydreaming, right? So if he was dreaming, then he must have been sleeping! Regardless of not having his eyes closed." he protested, folding his arms in satisfaction.
               "Sure! And tonight I'll be dreaming of having a smarter and less idiotic friend!" Cadmus replied drily.
               "At least your dumb, idiotic friend has a social life AND a girlfriend!" Josh shot back.
               "At least I don't have a girlfriend who cheats on her boyfriend every second he's not around!"
               "At least I don't have a weird name from some dusty Greek mythology shi-"
Isaac stepped between them.
               "Here, here! No need for that now," He turned to Cadmus. "At least Josh has a girl who at least pretends she likes him. The closest you've ever gotten to love is when your family got a reclining couch," Josh smirked as Isaac turned to him. "And your social life? Dude, if had one, you wouldn't be hanging out with us. Sure, you play football, but has your obsession about weird Japanese bug figures landed you in the popular zone? No, I thought not."

               Isaac sighed. It was after school and the boys were standing by the bike rack. It was Josh who was getting ready to leave on his fancy Cannondale mountain bike before starting a conversation with Cadmus about how boring the lab project was that day. That's when Isaac started to zone out.
               Cadmus was a thin, spindly figure with sandy blond hair that had a tuft that never seemed to obey the laws of gravity. He wore nerd glasses and plaid shirts. Maybe a Fallout 4 or Call of Duty t-shirt once in a while, when he was in a good mood. Which wasn't too often.
               Josh, however, looked completely opposite. He was tall and lean, with muscles that seemed too big for an eighth grader (hence the football playing). Josh dressed like almost every normal middle school male: basketball shorts, colorful Jordan's, and some lame motto on a Nike shirt. He was Japanese (hence the weird bug collecting), but had dyed his never-cared-for-enough hair a dark purple. Well, he dyed it over a month ago, so now it was more of a pale lilac.

               How the three boys got together as friends? No one knows.

               As Isaac continued to think about this, he realized that his friends were long gone. He checked his watch.

               2 hours had passed?!

               Isaac cursed and hurriedly slung his backpack over his shoulder. It wasn't like him to lose track of time.
He briskly started to walk home. Things like this had started to happen ever since the nightmares started. Not only was he late for Science that day, he was also late for Algebra, English, French, and Phys Ed (though he didn't mind that one too much). Could they be connected (the nightmares and the lateness, not the classes that he was late to)? Could Arden really be the girl in his nightmares and was causing all of this? Could the nightmares really be -

               A glint of metal caught his eye. He whipped around.

               There, behind the school, was a girl clad in armor battling . . . . . What?