My blood fizzled angrily in my veins. “What do you think you’re doing!” I yelled, trying in vain to snatch back the envelope. With a smirk he stuck an arm out to stop me while simultaneously dangling it just out of my reach. I glared at it for a moment, and then lunged forward, slamming my shoulder hard into Elliot’s chin as I made a mad grab for the envelope. My hand closed around his, and I started prying his fingers loose without worrying overly much about how far back I yanked them in the process. Elliot cried out and twisted so we stumbled sideways. A second later a sharp whistle ripped through the air, and we both froze.

“Cadets!” boomed a voice that made that one word into a command. We jumped apart like we’d been electrocuted, and I felt a stab of fear as I saw my envelope still grasped tightly in Elliot’s sweaty hand.

The sound of heavy boots resounded down the corridor, and I didn’t need to glance to my left to know that it was an officer. I stepped my foot to the left and brought my heel down on the toes of Elliot’s boot and pressed. His eyes darted angrily over to mine and I frantically flicked my eyes down to where the letter was clutched in his hand and then back to him, trying desperately to communicate that he needed to hide it. Now! He narrowed his eyes at me, and for a gut-wrenching heartbeat, I was sure that he was going to do the exact opposite just to spite me. But then he shocked me and balled his hand into a fist, successfully hiding the envelope.

“Cadets?” asked the sharp male voice.

“Professor, sir!” Elliot and I barked in unison. I cheated my eyes to the left to see that it was Professor Green. Well, I sighed inwardly, it could have been worse; it could have been Treebaun again. Green was one of the oldest professors on campus, with gray hair that bushed out above his ears like the cheeks of a chipmunk. He’d taught my mother back when she was a cadet, but he’d never once compared me to her. Which wasn’t something I could say about any other professor on campus. He studied us now out of faded blue eyes in a way that let us know we weren’t the first unruly cadets he’d ever dealt with, and we most certainly wouldn’t be his last.

“The last recap session ended ten minutes ago,” Green said. “What are you both still doing in the building?”

“I was just saying my goodbyes, sir,” Elliot barked. “I am testing for the upper Academy tomorrow, and not to brag, sir, but I’m pretty confident of my advancement.”