The Adventures of Adam Arcwave

Sophomore Year

As the summer warmth fades, so do our hopes of going home. My friends and I are forced to attend at least another semester of the mundane world's high school. Though some of us are old enough to chose to leave the education system, my uncle says that such actions would be unwise - as we still have much left to learn... both magical and mundane. We've not been idle over the summer, using my house as a focus for our arcane studies. We've pooled what resources we brought with us to form our own mini magical hub. Books, tomes, supplies, and the cauldron in my kitchen help us all fine tune our knowledge and expand what we already know. Uncle says that Luke's talents as an alchemist are beyond anything he's seen in years. Which is why our drink business hit it off so well last year.

First day of class, we are greeted by many friendly faces. It appears that the summer has not dulled the memories of those we helped throughout school last year. I nearly get ransacked by Greg and his football team as they happily greet me. I swear, Greg's bear hugs have gotten stronger, any more muscle and he may crack a rib next time. The team is looking forward to our 'energy drink' supplements to help lead them to another winning year. We're the first day, and they're already planning for the end of season victory party. I wonder if the sport is all that they've thought about all summer long. 
We quickly settle into our daily routine of classes, lunch time, and after school activities. Simeon's chosen to stay out of athletics this year, though he's not really stated why. I don't fit in with these jocks anymore than he does, but I sense he's been a bit distant since we got back together for school. We find out Simeon broke up with his girlfriend over the summer, and that's why he's been moping around for the past few days. She's still on the cheer squad, and he doesn't want the complications of seeing his ex-girlfriend on a daily basis outside of class. Oh the trials and tribulations of young love. I make a mental note to stay away from such heartaches, I can't afford the distraction.

The school team quickly snatches us up after class for tutoring, they know they need to keep their grades up if they want to stay on the team. It doesn't take long for the rumour to get around that we've started our after-school tutoring program before more and more students show up for sessions. 
The 'Adam-Aid' business is back in operation. Not only for the sports teams, but for those students that need just a little bit more 'insight' in their studies. The diluted potions of Nimble Mind aren't as potent as a full dose, but it does help sharpen the mind and make students more receptive to learning new ideas.

Come HarvestFest, we've begun taking up entire classrooms for specific topics.
Mr. Ruthers, our math teacher, says I teach the class better than he does, and jokes that I'm likely to take his job. I remind him that I'm only a student here, his job with the education board is still safe. I'm more than happy to be his teacher's aid though, which he readily accepts. The school's math scores have doubled since my friends and I started attending classes last year.

The first half of the year has just flown by, we're all so busy with classes, tutoring, and keeping potion supplies up, that we don't have much time to dwell on other matters. I'm, once again, the team's mascot. It's the perfect cover to keep the Adam-Aid supplements in check, making sure the team doesn't overdo it. While I don't think one can actually overdose themselves on a potion, I don't want to take the risks to find out if it's possible.
The state sport officials are getting suspicious of our sport teams' scores, and have started asking for drug testing. Of course, the potions of Plentiful Needs leave no side effects, residue or permanent chemical changes in the body.  So no matter what screens they put our boys through, every single one comes up clean. There are no tests that the mundane world can come up with that will detect magical influence. To keep them from trying to find other excuses to blame our team of some kind of cheating or foul play, we restrict Adam-Aid Blue consumption to as needed only, or as an even more diluted regular supplement so that sudden changes are less obvious. 

Winterfest, and Luke asks if he can bring his girlfriend to our 'family dinner'. I'm a little apprehensive about bringing someone from outside of our family of friends to a gathering at my place. Luke insists that she's the one, and we can trust her. I roll my eyes, he's only 17, what does he know about true love. I warn the group to keep our usual magical hi-jinx to a minimum this year, as we'll have a mundane in our group. It's going to be hard enough explaining why there's a large cauldron in my kitchen, I don't want to try to explain other 'oddities' she may see. Luke arrives, all dressed up in festive atire, and introduces us to Lisa Goodson, the girl we've seen hanging around him more and more regularly since HarvestFest. He says it all started as a private tutoring session, and just grew from there. I hope that this isn't just an infatuation, I've already had to deal with Simeon and one broken heart already. I don't want to have to deal with another.

Spring is springing, the year is just flying by. We almost don't notice there's still be no word from our families from the Realm. It comes up more as casual conversation, rather than dire worry. I think most of us are too tied up in our day-to-day lives that we've settled in, to worry about things we can't control. 
Luke gets past my guard as manages to spike the Love Festival dance's punch with his 'Love tea'. I blame his girlfriend for the distraction, they were quite clever in their plans. Though, once the effects of the punch start showing, I warn him I'm not going to be responsible for a room full of love-sick teenagers. It'll be his mess to clean up with all the after-dance broken hearts. We all agree however to keep the what he's done between us, the last thing we need is the school coming down on us for creating this mess. Heartbreaks are common after the dance, and the potion was diluted into the punch. It shouldn't cause too many permanent problems outside of the normal teenage drama of dating. At least we hope not.

We're getting ready for final exams, it seems that life has returned to normal, no serious after-effects of the spring's dance.
Luke invites me to Lisa's place so that we can study together. I didn't anticipate that he had any ulterior motives for the study group, but it's clear over supper that he did have something in mind. 
Lisa's father brings up the topic of our Adam-Aid business, asking if I would like to expand production outside of the school. I give Luke a bit of a dirty look, we've been working hard on keeping this between us. He merely shrugs his shoulders, and says I should keep an open mind, and hear her dad's offer. I state that we're not really looking for corporate sponsorship, the tonics are a bit complicated to make, we can't just mass-produce the drinks. Mr. Goodson notes that he's merely a small business operator, with a small chain of stores. It gives a perfect opportunity to see if we can elbow-in on the big companies and take a small chunk of the industry for ourselves. If the drink business proves profitable, then we can discuss increasing production, but in the beginning, it shouldn't be much more of a strain than what we currently supply. I have to admit, some of our family of friends are struggling for funds, and the extra income would be a boost to our lives.
I tentatively accept his offer for a trial market over the summer to see if we can both make profit and keep up with demand. 

End of the year, the school's principal presents our tutoring group with certificates of achievement. With the group's focus on better studies, our school now holds the highest GPA in the nation. No small feat, and definitely something we should all be proud about.

I look back on the last two years. My friends and I were suppose to just blend in, and not draw too much attention to ourselves. I guess we failed in hiding ourselves in society. I don't think there's any chance for mages such as ourselves to just pass ourselves off as regular people. The powers we hold just lead us to wanting to help make the world a better place. We've all settled in our new lives as minor celebrities, but try to not let our growing fame get the best of us. Our biggest asset is that, in today's world, no one really believes in magic. So passing our abilities and talents as something else, makes it easy to keep the general public unaware of what we truly are.