Fort pushed the door open to the boys’ restroom and made a face. Someone clearly had issues with the cafeteria food, based on the smell. But the bathroom looked empty, at least, and all the stall doors stood open. And that was all he needed, enough privacy to retrieve the book of Summoning, then open a teleportation circle to somewhere he could practice in peace.

Fort stepped into a stall and quickly closed the door, locking it behind him. He cast a teleportation circle on the nearby stall wall back to the cavern below the old school, and a glowing green circle opened on the metal, revealing the book of Summoning.

Fort quickly grabbed it and closed the circle, letting loose a sigh of relief. He knew intellectually that no one would have been able to find it there, but he was still incredibly thankful to see it hadn’t been disturbed. He opened the book to the first spell and took in the spell words again so he could at least leave the smell in here behind.

As his body filled with magic once more, the bathroom door opened, and two boys wandered in, talking loudly. Fort froze, the book of Summoning still in his hand, and a spell at his lips. But if he cast it, the light of the teleportation circle might be bright enough for them to see.

“I’m just saying, it’s weird that they’re not having us learn more magic,” a boy that sounded like Bryce said. “If we’re only going to make more fireball bows, this is going to get boring fast.”

“It’s just the first day,” said a voice that Fort recognized as Chad’s. “Calm down. And besides, they’re awesome. Shooting a fireball instead of an arrow from a bow? That’s just cool.”

They chose stalls on either side of Fort’s, and he cursed silently. Ugh. Was he going to have to wait for them to finish their business now?

“Did you hear what Trey was working on?” Bryce said from Fort’s right. “He and a couple of others are trying to put the earthquake spell into some kind of hammer or something. I guess that’s one way to tunnel underground.”

Fort stared in disgust at the wall. Who talked while going to the bathroom? What was wrong with these two?

“I don’t know, man,” Chad said. “Trey said they couldn’t get it to work right. Like it was way overpowered still. It just seems like he’s not into things anymore. He told me yesterday after seeing that Foresight idiot that he was thinking of switching to Healing.”

Bryce snorted. “Healing’s for losers. Did you hear what they’ve got them doing? They’re not even making bandages anymore. Ambrose told ’em they’re going to just make shields with protection spells now, and fill up those staffs with Healing spells. How boring would that get?”