"Are you going to eat that?" Harley asked. He was pointing at a dinner roll.

"You can have it," Max said.

"Thanks." Harley ripped it open and slathered it with butter before stuffing half of it into his mouth. He washed it down with an entire glass of milk.

"Do you even taste your food when you eat like that?" Natalia asked.

Harley belched.

"You realize that you're supposed to behave like a gentleman," Natalia said, though it didn't seem to have much effect. Harley continued to inhale his food. When he was finished, he wiped his mouth with the back of his sleeve.

As Natalia sat there looking disgusted, Max found himself smiling for the first time all day. The Griffins were more like siblings than friends. Bickering came as naturally as breathing.

Max did his best not to look at Ernie for the rest of the lunch hour. Instead, he enjoyed his meal and talked about past adventures with Harley and Natalia.

"Are you finished with that, sir?"

Max turned to see a clockwork that looked like a trash can on treaded wheels.

"Yeah, thanks," Max said.

"Very good." The clockwork took his plate. A compartment opened up from its chest, and the clockwork scraped the food off the plate before sliding it into a rack. Then it pulled out what looked like a miniature ruler to scrape the crumbs from the tablecloth.

Max looked over his shoulder to find Ernie deep in conversation with the Toad brothers. It looked like Ernie was holding an invitation to the new class, just like the one Max had received over the weekend.

"Max, did you hear what I just said?" Natalia asked.

He turned back around. "Sorry... what was that?"

"We were thinking about going to the Spider's Web on Wednesday," Natalia said. "Do you want to come?"

"Yeah, sure." It had been a while since they had gone to the comic shop, and it sounded like a good diversion.

The bell rang, announcing that lunch was over. Max was about to reach for his backpack when he found the Toad brothers standing in front of him, smiling.

"What's going on?" Max asked.

"Did you hear the news?" Todd said.

"You know, about the Round Table tournament?" Ross said.

"Not yet." Max stood up and tried to slip past them to head toward the exit.

Todd and Ross followed.

"We were worried that it was going to be canceled, but it's back on," Todd said.

"That's great."

"The tournament is going to pick up right where it left off," Ross said. "Except it's not going to be open to the public."

"Yeah, it's going to be in a secret location," Todd said. "You still have your Toad Report on Mendez, right?"

Max shrugged. "It's somewhere."

"Don't worry about it," Ross said. "We can get you another copy."

"You realize how historic this is, right?" Todd said.

"Not really."

Todd and Ross looked at each other with raised eyebrows before turning back to Max.

"This is a really big deal, Max," Ross said. "You could be one of the youngest duelists in the history of the Templar academies."

"Do you know what that's going to mean for our business?" Todd said.

"No, but I have a feeling you're going to tell me," Max said.

"Remember how we made our deal, right?" Todd said. "We gave you free Toad Reports for the entire tournament, and you agreed to be a spokesperson for our brand."

Max closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"We're ready to expand into the professional tournaments," Ross said. "With your endorsement, Toad Brothers, Incorporated, is going to become the most powerful company in the gaming industry."

"Look, guys, I have a lot on my mind right now."

"We know," Todd said. "That's why we arranged a practice duel for you."

"Let me guess. Xander?" Max asked. After all, Xander Swift was the undisputed amateur Round Table champion in the world, and for some reason, the Toad brothers were dying to turn Max and Xander into rivals.

"Actually, we had someone else in mind," Todd said. He looked at Ross from the corner of his eye.

"Don't get us wrong," Ross said. "We can't wait to see you go head-to-head with Xander, but if you're going to prep for your Round Table duel against Catalina, you need someone who plays like her."

"Yeah, and somebody who looks like her, too," Todd said.

The brothers started laughing, but Max frowned. He wasn't sure he still wanted to play in the tournament after what had happened to Robert Hernandez. The Toad brothers' annoying game of guess-who wasn't helping.

"Are you going to tell me who it is?"

"Don't make us ruin the surprise," Ross said.

"This is stupid," Max said.

"You don't get it," Todd said, "but you will. Round Table is going to put you on the map."

"Yeah," Ross agreed. "So are you going to show up?"

Max sighed before shaking his head. The Toad brothers thought they were applying pressure with their comments, but they weren't. Max didn't care if he was on the map or not. Still, he committed to being in the tournament, and he was going to see it through, even if he was having doubts about continuing. He figured practice would do him some good. Still, Max didn't want the Toad brothers to think that they had won. "I'll think about it," he finally said.

ROLL CALL.

Max was already having a tough day when he walked through the door of his Bounder Care class with Sprig. She had taken the form of a white tiger that morning, and she hadn't changed since. Some of the other students were intimidated, and she liked the reaction.

Brooke Lundgren was already seated in her desk. Honeysuckle, her overly protective Bounder pixie, was there, too. Neither looked at Max. In fact, Brooke hadn't spoken to him in months.

Max didn't get it. They'd been neighbors their entire lives, and now everything felt awkward. Everything seemed to fall apart after a murderous creature known as a Reaper attacked Brooke. He wasn't sure if she blamed him for it or what the problem was. Girls were too confusing-especially Brooke. To avoid any drama, Max decided to sit on the opposite side of the room. It was easier that way.

"How's it going?" Kenji asked when Max walked by. His drake, Sparky, was perched on his shoulders, asleep.

"Hey, Kenji."

Sprig growled. She wasn't overly fond of other Bounder Faeries, much less any faerie at all. However, the spriggan appeared to take particular pleasure when it came to annoying Kenji's drake. Max warned her against it, but she ignored him.

The drake opened a single eye before closing it again. Then he yawned. In a flash of light, Sprig changed into an Ice imp. She wasn't much taller than Max's knee, with bandy legs, long arms, and leathery wings. She smiled ruefully as a snowball formed in her hand. Then she threw it at the drake.

"What the...?" Kenji jumped out of his chair as the ice crystals flew down his collar and ran down his back.

"Sprig, don't!" Max said, but it was too late.

The drake screeched as he took flight. He retaliated by belching a ball of flames. The fireball was intended for Sprig, but it hit Brandi Stewart instead. She was stroking the neck of her catterfly when one of her braided pigtails caught on fire. Max couldn't believe what he was seeing.

"I'm so sorry," he said as he ran to the sink in the back of the room to get a pitcher of water.

Catalina's Digger imp got so nervous that he vomited. Then Honeysuckle got in on the act. The pixie tried to douse the flames in Brandi's hair, but she didn't have much luck. At the same time, Sprig started throwing snowballs at the drake, but an errant throw took out a lightbulb, sending a shower of glass falling from the ceiling.

"Sprig, knock it off!" Max couldn't believe what was happening.

Akinyi Butama, the Bounder Care teacher, walked into the room. She had been smiling, but it didn't last. She grabbed Brandi's arm and dragged the frightened girl to the sink, where Max stood with the pitcher. Ms. Butama took it and doused the fire in Brandi's hair. Brandi looked like she was about to cry as her catterfly fluttered in the air next to her.

"What's the meaning of this?" Ms. Butama asked.

All eyes turned to Max.

"Mr. Sumner?"

"Well... I..." He looked at Sprig, who had turned back into a tiger. She was already lying on the floor, snoring next to his desk.

"His spriggan threw a snowball at Sparky," Kenji said.

"Is that true?" Ms. Butama asked.

"Look, I'm really sorry," Max said.

"We'll discuss this later," she said, cutting Max off before he could explain himself. Then she walked over to her desk, where she picked up a phone to call the maintenance crew. A few minutes later, a service clockwork with a mop and a bucket filled with steaming water and a fragrant solution entered the room and started cleaning up the mess.

"You're lucky we didn't get detention," Max said to Sprig after class. She was prowling next to him as the white tiger. "Why do you like teasing that drake?"

"Because it smells of foul sulfur," Sprig said. Then she growled at a boy who was trying to reach for a book at the top of his locker. When he turned to see the tiger, he tried to run, but his feet got crossed up. He dropped his books. Everyone started to laugh. Sprig was smiling.

"You need to stop doing that," Max said to Sprig, helping the boy to his feet. "I'm sorry about that."

The boy was too discombobulated to do anything but pick up his books, shut his locker, and run off to his next class.

"I'm serious," Max said as he walked down the hallway. Sprig was at his side, her head held high as she purred. "You can't do stuff like that anymore."

"Yes, Max," she said. "We will be on our best behavior, we will."

The last class of the day-the new class-was to be held in a small building on the outskirts of the school grounds. To get there, Max walked through a set of double doors that led to a rose garden with a gurgling fountain in the center. Harley was waiting for him.

"Where's Natalia?"

"I haven't seen her since lunch," Harley said.

"Should we wait for her?" Max asked as Sprig shifted into a falcon. Then she took to the air. It was chilly, but the clouds had parted to reveal a sliver of sunshine.

Harley looked at his watch. "We better get going."

"She's never late."

"I guess there's a first time for everything."

With Sprig soaring overhead, the boys cut through the garden, then across a wide lawn. It wasn't long before they came to what looked like a one-room schoolhouse. It was a simple wooden structure with a gabled vestibule and a small bell tower.

A bell chimed as Max opened the door. The cozy room had scuffed wooden floors, two rows of desks that held two students each, and a potbellied stove that sat squarely in the front of the room.

"There's Natalia," Harley said. "Looks like you won't be able to sit by Brooke."

Harley was smiling, but Max wasn't. He watched Natalia and Brooke as they talked and laughed in the front row.

Neither noticed the boys when they walked in. Honeysuckle, however, did. She flew to Brooke's ear and whispered something. Brooke turned around, and Max held her gaze for a moment, but she looked away before opening a book.

"I thought you wanted to meet at the fountain," Harley said as he slid into the desk behind the girls. Max hesitated. He wasn't sure he wanted to sit that close to Brooke, but he did anyway. Sprig sat on her haunches next to him.

As Max sat down, Brooke glanced over her shoulder. It was subtle, but Max was sure that she was looking at him. Then, when they made eye contact for the second time, she rolled her eyes and turned back to her book.

Max frowned. His first reaction was anger, but it flared and died down and was replaced by confusion. He wanted to ask her what was wrong, but there was no way that Max was going to do that in front of a bunch of people.

"I guess I forgot," Natalia said. "Sorry."

The bell chimed. Max turned around to see Kenji walk in with Sparky. When Kenji saw Max, he scowled and moved to a desk in the back of the room.

"Don't even think about it," Max said when he saw Sprig's ears perk up.

Catalina and her imp had snuck in as well. The Bounder still looked nauseated. His eyes were drooping and his skin was flushed. Catalina wouldn't even look at Max. She sat across from Kenji as her portly imp struggled to climb into the desk next to her.

"That thing is ugly," Harley said in a whisper. "I wonder if her parents let it in the house."