10:00 — St. Bernard's Academy
The sun rose on a Sunday painted in war.
Drills were suspended. Breakfasts were quiet.
And across all four Houses, students stood like chess pieces—pressed, polished, and ready to rank.
The weekly assessment.
For most, it was a tightrope walk over lava. For a few, it was just another arena.
Alia stood tall beneath the emblem of House Noctis, her black uniform jacket crisp, collar sharp, a digital cuff blinking faintly under her sleeve. Zuri flanked the Caelus crest a few feet away, leaning into one hip like this was a brunch line. Tessa, repping Argentum in a pearl-trimmed blazer, spun a pen between her fingers like it was a sword.
Lines of students buzzed behind and in front of them, whispering, scrolling through notes one last time. Some were reviewing, others visibly panicking. It was like waiting for takeoff—with too many people pretending they weren't afraid of heights.
Alia, though?
She stretched like it was yoga class.
"We crushing this or what?" Zuri muttered, eyes locked on her screen.
"Destroying," Tessa whispered back, smirking. "Annihilating. No survivors."
"Y'all scare me sometimes," Alia murmured, adjusting her sleeve.
But her eyes sparkled.
Once the assessment was over—a written gauntlet of theory, logic, case simulations and tactical knowledge—some students retreated to their housings immediately, slinking away with the fear of failure still clinging to their clothes.
Others stayed behind, refreshing the ranking board like addicts, pacing the hallways, waiting for the big update.
The Rank Board only refreshed once a week.
No one knew the exact time.
But when it did—St. Bernard's shifted.
For the girls?
It was straight to their room.
Zuri was sprawled on her bed, arms folded behind her head like she'd just dropped the mic. Alia stood in front of the mirror brushing her straight chartreuse-rooted hair into a clean sleek tail, unbothered. Tessa, meanwhile, was halfway through a video call with Malik, stretched across her bed in socks with frosted pink toes.
"You looked so serious in that room," Malik was saying on-screen, anxiety radiating off him. "Like—like a librarian on a mission."
"Because I was, baby," Tessa grinned, adjusting the camera. "You should've seen my handwriting. Calligraphic."
"I think I got Question 4 wrong," he whispered, covering his mouth like his tablet could hear.
"You're fine," she said, flipping her bangs. "If you drop two ranks, I'll still be here."
"Only two?"
"Maybe three. Depends how dramatic you act about it."
Zuri snorted from her bed. Alia was sipping lemon water like it was champagne.
"It's so unfair," Malik muttered. "Why are all of you so calm?"
Zuri rolled over lazily.
"Because we came for necks, Malik. What's there to panic about?"
"We snapped," Tessa added.
"And devoured," Alia chimed in, scrolling through hair inspo casually.
The confidence in the room was almost offensive. If their egos had mass, the floor would be cracking.
None of them checked their tablets.
Not once.
---
17:47 — The Rank Boards
The Rank Boards blinked. The digital glass shimmered, lines of names refreshing in batches by House and Year.
All over campus, shoes squeaked. Gasps flew. A collective scroll of necks craned toward the hovering screens embedded in hallways, lounges, common rooms, and dorm lobbies. A few students screamed—others just silently sank.
By the time the girls reached the board near their hallway staircase, a crowd had already formed. But they weren't sweating it.
They strolled up like they were VIPs arriving late to a movie they'd already seen.
The board was split by year, then House.
First-years first.
Scrolling... scrolling...
Tessa found herself under House Argentum.
#20 – Caldwell, Theresa
"Boom. Victory," she said flatly. "Four crushed. I am ascending."
Then—House Caelus.
Zuri's finger landed on her name before Alia could even blink.
#13 – Takemura, Zuri
"Thirteen?!" Zuri shrieked.
Heads turned.
Tessa winced at the volume.
"I beat five people, and I'm still stuck in the limbo between greatness and mediocrity," Zuri said, hands flailing. "This system's rigged. Actually. Algorithmic bias. Vantaire sabotage."
"At least you're not in the twenties," Tessa muttered without even glancing up.
Zuri side-eyed her.
Alia laughed softly and kept scrolling.
House Noctis. Her house.
There it was.
#18 – Reivas, Alia
She blinked. Then grinned.
"Oh?!" she breathed, a little louder than intended. "Okay!"
"She's evolving!" Zuri gasped dramatically.
"Four people down. Four, babes," Alia said, pressing a hand to her chest. "I feel... reborn."
"You better," Tessa said. "Because now we get to investigate my man's score."
The girls weaved through bodies and filtered past groups still refreshing tablets, trying not to gloat (but definitely glowing).
Second-years loaded.
#14 – Rowe, Malik
Tessa let out an audible squeal and slapped Zuri's arm.
"He's made it!" she whispered. "He's fourteen! He's like—like... hot and humble!"
Zuri groaned. "You're gonna break the screen."
Malik appeared behind them a second later, as if summoned by sheer willpower. Hoodie on, hands in his pockets, that sheepish little smile on.
"Hey," he said.
"Hey yourself," Tessa grinned.
"So... uh. Not bad, I guess?" he rubbed the back of his neck.
"Not bad?" Tessa barked, grabbing his sleeve. "Sir, you went from nineteen to fourteen and you're standing there like you tripped over success on accident!"
Malik chuckled.
"Guess I got lucky."
"You literally studied like your soul depended on it," Zuri muttered. "I saw you on the courtyard muttering equations into your sleeve like a cultist."
"He's being humble!" Tessa declared proudly. "Let him."
They checked again.
Cade's name glowed near the top of the second-year Caelus list.
#21 – Saville, Cade
Alia tilted her head.
"Didn't he used to be like... thirty-something?"
Zuri nodded slowly.
"Thirty-six. Suspicious behavior, but sure."
"Suspicious how?" Tessa asked, looking over at Zuri
"I dunno," Zuri shrugged. "Just Cade things."
Malik raised an eyebrow.
"He's always floating somewhere weird. You blink and he's either failing, flirting, or getting promoted."
The girls stared at Cade's name for another second before moving on.
"Anyway," Alia said, tugging her sleeves, "we're not gonna spiral about the boys today."
"Right," Zuri said.
"Right," Tessa added.
Beat.
"...But Malik's kinda winning," Tessa whispered, just before poking him in the side and skipping ahead.
---
CADE SAVILLE — House Caelus, Second-Year
The Tank Boards had refreshed twelve minutes ago.
Cade was not in the crowd. He was on the roof.
Legs dangling over the west wing ledge, wind tugging at his collar, phone in hand—but not texting. Just flipping it between his fingers. He already knew the buzz was spreading: his rank had leapt fifteen spots. Overnight. Again.
He chewed a lollipop stick, smirking faintly.
"Let 'em wonder," he murmured.
The jump wasn't just "luck"—it never was. He'd found a loophole in last week's logic test that let him bypass a quarter of the questions using a code injection in his tablet's input lag. Vantaire-designed software was predictable if you knew where to look.
And he knew.
He didn't cheat—not exactly. He exploited patterns. There's a difference.
His tablet buzzed.
[You know they're watching.]
No name. Just a number. And a snake emoji
Cade stared at the screen for a second. Then locked it and slipped it back into his jacket.
Watching? Let them.
There were bigger things in motion. A little rank boost would be the least of their concerns when his real play started. He'd already planted the seeds.Everything was measured. And the way he made Alia smile…
And as for Alia...
He still remembered the way she looked the night of the arcade party. The way she almost let him in. Then flinched like she'd seen a ghost.
Whatever haunted her—it wasn't him.
Not yet, anyway.
Cade stood, brushing invisible dust off his pants. Below, students still crowded the screens like addicts waiting on lottery numbers. He spotted Zuri's bright hair in the mix. Tessa bouncing on her heels. And Alia… trailing behind with her sleeves tugged down and that guarded smirk she wore when she was proud of something but didn't want anyone to know.
"18, huh?" he said to himself.
"Not bad, Princess."
He turned his back to the edge and walked away from the ledge, shadows swallowing his grin as he headed toward the stairwell.
Time to stir the pot again.