“I don’t know,” Chad said. “I saw that Jia girl working on something else. Rachel was in there too. No weapons, just talking to Ambrose in some other language.”

“Teacher’s pets,” Bryce said, and flushed his toilet. “So what do you think is wrong with Trey?”

“I think New Kid got to him when he beat that tentacle monster,” Chad said, flushing now too. Wow, had they synchronized themselves? Both stalls opened, but the conversation never paused. “I don’t know, man. Maybe he’s not cut out for Destruction anyway. He never really had his heart in it.”

“Aw, bro, that’d be downright depressing to lose him,” Bryce said as water started running. At least they were washing their hands. That was something. “Trey’s a good listener, and sometimes you just want to let loose with your day-to-day problems, you know?”

“I hear that,” Chad said. “He and I went to the cafeteria yesterday after dinner and just laid it all out on the line about my mom and that new guy she’s seeing. I won’t lie, bro. Tears were shed and hugs were had.”

“He’ll come around, bro,” Bryce said. “Give him time. But if he does want to go into Healing, no matter how pathetic it is, we’ll totes be his guys and support him. You with me?”

It sounded like they slapped hands for, like, five minutes. “For life, my bro,” Chad said.

As the door closed, Fort let out a huge sigh of relief, though he was careful not to breathe in again. Not willing to wait for anyone else to happen in, he opened another teleportation circle to the first place he could think of, the kitchen he’d been in the night before, and after a quick look to make sure it was still empty, he dove through the circle, closing it behind him.

The kitchen was dark and looked just like it had last night, so hopefully no one had been in it since. Just to be safe, he opened the book again and read over the spell words, just to have a new teleportation circle ready. He’d thought he’d be safe in the bathroom, and that hadn’t ended well. So who knew about the kitchen—

“Did you get the microwave installed yet?” shouted a voice from outside the door.

“No, Billy’s bringing it in now,” said another voice from a lot closer.

Fort sighed. Right, not here, either. He readied the spell words, only to pause midcast as a workman appeared in the doorway, holding a microwave.

“Hey, you’re not supposed to be down here,” the man said, giving Fort a suspicious look. “You’re not one of the students, are you?”

“No, no way,” Fort said, shoving the book behind his back. “I just got lost in all the hallways.”