-eng- Ariel — Academy-s Secret School Festival -r...

“Like what?”

He found the first-year student instead. A nervous kid with braces and a shaking hand, clutching a single wooden coin. The kid had gotten lost two hours ago and hadn’t found a single game or riddle since. -ENG- Ariel Academy-s Secret School Festival -R...

Leo looked down at his single coin. One. That was all he had. The night spiraled. Leo played games he didn’t understand against opponents who might not have been human. He solved riddles that changed their answers halfway through. He danced with a partner whose face shifted through a dozen different versions of itself, each one asking, “Do you know me?” (He didn’t.) “Like what

Leo smiled. It was the first real smile he’d felt all night. “Because I know what it’s like to feel like you don’t belong somewhere. And because no one should have to watch from the outside.” Dawn came without warning. One moment, the festival blazed with impossible light; the next, Leo was standing in the regular campus quad, shoes wet with dew, the mermaid statue back to its ordinary bronze self. Mira was beside him, looking like she’d just woken from a dream. Leo looked down at his single coin

In his pocket, Leo found something: a single wooden coin. Not the ones he’d given away. A new one, warm to the touch, engraved now with a single word.

He looked up. Across the quad, the first-year kid was waving at him, grinning so wide his braces caught the morning sun. In the kid’s other hand, he held a small, glowing object—whatever had been behind the door.