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like the plague.
    “Fine,” Call said, gritting his teeth. “Never better.”
    “I have no idea how you did what you did, but that was epic . The look on Master Rockmaple’s face was like —” Aaron tried to approximate it, furrowing his eyebrows, widening his eyes, and making his mouth gape.
    Call started to laugh but stifled it quickly. He didn’t want to like any of the other kids, especially not super-competent Aaron.
    They turned the corner. The rest of the class was waiting. Master Rockmaple cleared his throat, apparently about to scold Call, when he seemed to notice Aaron standing beside him. Biting off whatever he had been about to say, the mage opened the door to a new room.
    Call scrambled into the room along with the rest of the group. It was a boring industrial space like the one they’d been in for the first test, with rows of desks and a single sheet of paper resting atop each one.
    How many written tests are there going to be? Callum wanted to ask, but he didn’t think that Master Rockmaple was in the mood to answer him. None of these desks had names, so he sat at one and folded his arms over his chest.
    “Master Rockmaple!” called out Kylie, sitting down. “Master Rockmaple, I don’t have a pen.”
    “Nor will you need one,” said the mage. “This is a test of your ability to control your magic. You will be using the element of air. Concentrate on the paper in front of you until you are able to lift it off the desk, using only the energy of your thoughts. Lift it straight up, without allowing it to wobble or fall. Once that is accomplished, please rise and join me at the front of the room.”
    Relief washed through Call. All he had to do was make sure the paper didn’t fly up into the air, which seemed simple enough. His whole life, he had managed not to make pieces of paper fly around classrooms.
    Aaron was sitting across the aisle from him. He had his hand on his chin, his green eyes narrowed. As Call darted a sideways glance toward him, the paper on Aaron’s desk rose into the air, perfectly level. It hovered for a moment before fluttering back to the desk. With a grin, Aaron got up to join Master Rockmaple at the front of the room.
    Call heard a chuckle to his left. He glanced over and saw Jasper take out what looked like a regular sewing pin and prick his finger. A drop of blood appeared, and Jasper shoved his finger into his mouth, sucking on it. What a weirdo , Call thought. But then Jasper slumped back in his chair, in a casual, I-can-do-magic-with-my-hands-tied kind of way. And it seemed like he could, since the paper on his desk was folding and crumpling — rolling itself into a new shape. With a few more folds and tucks, it became a paper airplane, which zoomed off Jasper’s desk and flew across the room, hitting Call directly in the forehead. He swatted it away and it dropped to the ground.
    “Jasper, that’s enough,” Master Rockmaple said, though he didn’t sound as annoyed as he could have. “Get up here.”
    Call returned his attention to his paper as Jasper sauntered up to the front of the room. All around him, kids were staring and whispering at the papers on their desks, willing them to move. Call’s stomach tightened uneasily. What if a gust of air came along and picked up his paper? What if it just … fluttered on its own? Would he get points for that?
    Stay put , he thought savagely at the paper on his desk. Don’t you move . He pictured himself holding it down against the wood, fingers splayed, preventing it from twitching. Man, this is stupid , he thought. What a thing to do with your day . But he stayed where he was, concentrating. This time, he wasn’t alone. Several other kids were unable to move their papers, including Kylie.
    “Callum?” said Master Rockmaple, sounding weary.
    Call sat back. “I can’t do it.”
    “If he can’t, he really can’t,” said Jasper. “Just give the loser a zero and let’s go before he creates a blizzard and we all