The next morning Nate slowly awoke to find himself alone in bed. He was sad that Lindy wasn’t still in bed with him from the night before but he got up and put on his pants to see if she was still in the apartment. He exited the bedroom and found Lindy wearing her loose-fitted silk black romper with the open back facing him.

  Nate tiptoed towards her, placed his hands on her shoulders, and started to give her a light massage. Lindy let out a soft hum as he leaned in and kissed her neck while she ran her fingers through his hair.

  “Good morning.” Nate said softly and seductively as he walked around the counter to pour a mug of the tea that Lindy had made for them.

  “Good morning.” Lindy replied with a beaming smile.

  “Last night was… incredible.” Nate started, with Lindy finishing the thought.

  Nate smiled. “I could get used to this very quickly.”

  “Same.” Lindy said, her smile softening.

  “What time is it?” Nate asked, pulling out his link.

  “It’s early actually, but I feel like I got the best sleep of my life.” Lindy replied.

  “So today is the draft. I guess I need to call Jarris and see what I’m supposed to do.”

  A buzzing sound from Lindy interrupted the conversation. Lindy picked up her link and answered the phone.

  “Hey Uncle Harry, it’s kind of early for you, no?”

  Nate looked on as he could only hear one side of the conversation.

  “But why? Oh. Well if you think that’s for the best. Yeah. I know. Ok. Ok, sounds good. We’ll be there. Love you too.”

  Lindy finished her conversation with her uncle and placed her link back on the countertop.

  “So?” Nate said with an inquisitive tone.

  “Well, Jarris and Kalazan have apparently assumed control of sponsorship responsibilities for the four of us and are taking negotiations on our behalf as singles and as a group. Jax’s Dad, his friend Uncle Hix, and Uncle Harry are making some other arrangements for us while Jarris and Kalazan are working on the offer presentation.”

  “That’s interesting, but why?”

  “My uncle didn’t say but was confident we would be happy with the offer they are cooking up for us. He also said he arranged for a moving company to go to our dorms to collect our things and that we need to go do our move-out checkout with the school. Then we are to go to Kalazan’s for a debrief for the rest of the day.”

  “Ok, well, I’ll get dressed and then we’ll go, I guess.”

  As he walked back to the bedroom to get dressed, he planted a kiss on Lindy’s lips.

  Once they were ready, they walked hand in hand through the portal system to arrive back at their dorms where they had spent the last year cultivating their friendship and now romance. Nate couldn't stop stealing looks at the fiercely beautiful woman he was now firmly in a relationship with.

  Nate and Lindy arrived to a frenzied scene where parents, sponsors, and classmates were all carrying boxes out of the few entryways of the student housing building. There were some vehicles floating in the air with their trunks backed up to windows as students passed boxes to be packed away. It was a bit of a madhouse, but one thing stuck out in particular. A large floating box truck was taking up quite a bit of space where Nate recognized what were probably the rooms he and the team occupied. This was confirmed when he saw a small Raccoonan flailing his arms out of the window while his mouth was moving fast and wide open.

  Jax was clearly yelling at the movers as they hauled his workbenches and various boxes of scrap, equipment, and more.

  “Uh oh, we should probably get up there and check on him.” Nate said while pointing at Jax.

  “You can check on him, I’m more worried about my stuff at the moment.” Lindy said as she started speed walking toward the door to take the lift up to their floor.

  When they got to their floor, the yelling clearly signaled that Jax was in distress from the movers touching all of his stuff he had accumulated over the past year. Lindy saw that her door was open and broke into a full sprint toward her room, where she found grown men packing her bras into a box. She screamed but before she could leap into action Dee came out of her own room and wrapped her arms around Lindy, restraining her from being able to raise her arms and start attacking people.

  “Hey, hey, hey, hey, it’s alright. I saved you some outfits to look through for tonight. You’re going to have everything you need. Just let the nice men your uncle paid for do this hard, annoying job for you, okay?” Dee said quickly and delicately.

  Lindy was huffing and puffing but started to calm down.

  “So, how was last night?” Dee asked, dragging the last word out like a sweet song, implying she knew what had transpired.

  A smile started to crack in the corner of Lindy’s mouth.

  “Shall we go take a look at what I was able to save?” Dee asked.

  Lindy nodded her head before Dee led her into her room and slammed the door. The doors in the dorm were well insulated, but Nate could hear the girls squealing like teenagers as he walked past to check in on Jax.

  When he walked through the doorway, he found that the movers had taken most of the boxes of parts and all the workbenches.

  “Hey Jax.” Nate said to his friend, who was literally sitting on his stripped-down bed holding his head in his hands.

  “Nate, they won’t tell me where they’re taking all of our stuff, and Hix was here this morning saying that he turned over my sponsorship to Jarris and Kalazan? Do you know what’s going on?” Jax said desperately.

  “Not in the slightest." Nate replied. “But I know I can trust them, and it’s not like this is some kind of government raid, so I’m sure you’ll see all your stuff again. So, what’re you sweatin’ for?”

  “I woke up early and shuffled over here to get started packing waiting for Hix to call about the draft. Then I heard a tapping on the window and when I opened it they just pulled it out of the frame and started putting my stuff in the truck. So it was kind of a stressful start to my day. I got a little calmer once my uncle got here, but still.”

  “Gotcha, well why don’t we just go get some ice cream and not worry about it?”

  Jax looked at Nate like he was criminally ignorant to the whole situation. “It’s 9:30 in the morning, Nate. What do you mean, ‘Let’s go get some ice cream?’ You’re literally in your fancy suit from the fight last night.”

  Nate looked down at his suit jacket that sparkled like a night sky filled with stars. “Yeah, let’s stop by my room on the way then.” Nate said with a smile.

  Jax rolled his eyes and then hopped off the bed, gesturing to Nate as if to say, “Whatever, you maniac, let’s get you some ice cream.”

  Nate picked up on the message and hopped up to walk to his room. Looking through his closet, all that was left was an old Coldplay concert shirt from their “Head Full of Dreams." tour and a pair of black gym shorts. They were both stuffed in the back of the drawers, so it made sense why they were missed.

  Nate did a quick search in his dorm to make sure nothing else was missed before saying goodbye to his home for the past year. So many nights were spent there with him and his new best friends, laughing, studying, playing games, celebrating wins, sulking over lost fights, watching movies from Earth.

  He let the light switch drop, understanding what he was leaving behind. He turned to Jax, and they had a conversation with their eyes, both taking note of the end of such a short but glorious time in their lives. Jax was less grumpy now that the wave of nostalgia had washed his anxiety away. They turned and walked down the hall past Dee’s room, which was closed, and on to the cafeteria for some ice cream.

  Nate had just sat down with his second cone of double Nutella ice cream, a flavor the kitchen had learned to make just a few weeks ago at Nate’s request. It was a huge hit with the entire student body, so much so that one of their classmates was expelled for attempting to smuggle hazelnuts from Earth over the weekend. He was going to grow them on his home planet and be the first to bring something like it to the galactic market.

  Nate bit off the perfect swirl he had made at the top when he saw the girls walking up to where Jax and he were sitting. Nate held up his cone to Lindy, who hesitated before taking it and dragging her tongue along the side.

  “Bet you wish that was you, huh, big guy.” Dee said to Nate.

  Nate laughed nervously while Lindy backhanded Dee, failing to hide her smile as well. Nate got up and made himself another cone as everyone else started talking.

  “So they came in and just stole our stuff, for what? Dalma messaged me this morning just saying to meet at her and Kalazan’s for lunch.” Dee said.

  “Uncle Harry told me the same, but that he had transferred his sponsorship to them as well.” Lindy added in between licks of her cone.

  “Hix told me the same thing." Jax chimed in. “The draft has already started, so the offers are either nonexistent or they’re coming in droves. Otherwise, they would have told us to just go to the job fair.” He continued.

  “Job fair? I don’t remember anything about a job fair?” Nate asked.

  “Well, it’s really up to everyone’s sponsors to be working out where people land post-graduation. Those who don’t get many offers, especially decent ones, can go to the job fair and try to interview for different teams or more specialized everyday jobs.”

  “So should we go?” Dee asked.

  “Nate alone is going to pull some insane offers, let alone us being closely associated with him.” Jax quickly shot down the idea.

  “Hey, we made it to the quarterfinals as a team. That has to count for something.” Nate added.

  “I’ve watched so many drafts, and every team and every single has had their own press conference with their new team or single totry to garner attention for contracts. Let’s just see what Jarris and Kalazan have for us at lunch and we can decide from there.” Jax said.

  “Agreed.” Nate added again.

  Lindy gave a thumbs-up indicating her agreement as she continued to devour the cone she stole from Nate. Dee nodded but was clearly nervous. Her years of neglect and abuse had only ever taught her to trust herself. This year, she opened up and put herself out there by letting in her now best and only friends.

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  At the Tomlins’ apartment, Dalma greeted Nate, Lindy, Dee, and Jax at the door. “You’re right on time! Welcome, welcome, please come in. Lunch is just about to be served; we are meeting in the dining hall, right this way.”

  The team walked by the open kitchen, noting a three-person crew preparing several platters of various foods, from hors d'oeuvres to several side dishes and main entrees. The smell was intoxicating to the point where Lindy had to push Nate along as he slowed everyone down while staring at the feast.

  The team walked into the grand dining room where they were greeted by their sponsors Jarris and Kalazan, as well as Peggy and Hal, Gax, Uncle Hix, and Uncle Harry. Everyone exchanged hugs and kisses, including a longer-than-Lindy-liked hug between Uncle Harry and Dee. She caught Uncle Harry whispering something in Dee’s ear, causing her to blush, hold her hand up to her mouth, and let out a short giggle.

  Lindy and Dee made eye contact where the usual telepathy they had spent the last year developing dissolved and had to be replaced with actual words. Dee rushed to Lindy’s side. “Nothing happened. I swear on my dead parents. But we did flirt very heavily, and he did try to make a move, but I rejected him because I said I would totally be down, but there was no way I could do anything with him until I had a chance to talk to you. Please, please, please don’t be mad.” Dee said in one long breath, gasping for air at the end.

  “Nothing happened?” Lindy said, staring down Uncle Harry, who was oblivious to the daggers entering his back that were being shot from her eyes.

  “Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.”

  “Mmkay.”

  Uncle Harry finally made eye contact with Lindy, causing him to stop dead in his tracks. First shock and then horror crossed his face because he realized what was happening.

  “You didn’t tell me last night because…?” Lindy carried out the last syllable with a leading tone making it sound like a question.

  “You were with Nate, and I knew what was happening there, so there was no way I was going to interrupt that to get a hall pass with your Uncle.” Dee was spewing a million words a minute.

  “You have my permission.”

  “REALLY?!” Dee shouted, causing the whole room to look at her. The girls glanced around the room, waiting for everyone to look away before Lindy continued.

  “Yes!” Lindy loudly whispered. “You are two consenting adults. Do I think it’s gross to think of my best friend and my uncle, who is like fifteen to twenty years her senior, doing the dirty? Yes. I generally don’t try to think of anyone doing the dirty except for, well, me, but that’s beside the point. Don’t let this get messy or I swear I will rain down hell on you both.”

  “Everyone, thanks for coming!” Kalazan started. “Lunch will be served as soon as we all take our seats. Mr. Kalazan and Jarris will start their presentation once the appetizers are served.”

  “Hi Pickle! Caroline squealed as she entered the dining room.

  “Hey sorry we are late, Yoli got called in so we kinda had to find our own way.” Dave said, walking in behind her.

  “Oh my, please do call next time, we will arrange for any transport next time.” Dalma said worriedly.

  “It’s no big deal, it was nice to get the steps in any way, did we miss the Draft, or whatever?” Dave said.

  “The presentation is just about to begin, please everyone take your seats and we will get started.” Kalazan announced with a kind but firmer tone than the first time he had said the same thing just thirty seconds ago.

  At the head of the oversized dining table, opposite from where Jarris and Kalazan were sitting, were four placards with each of Team Arcane’s names on them. The table itself extended 15 or 20 feet down to where the two sponsors were sitting. Behind them, a large screen descended from the ceiling and booted up a loading screen.

  Nate looked around the rest of the room to see the magnificently ornate detail that was put into everything. Gold inlays into wood molding that had clearly taken a master craftsman to hand-carve. The table was polished wood with elaborate constellation designs.

  Nate snapped back into focus as waiters entered the room and lined the walls. Another set entered and set the table and laid napkins along everyone’s laps. For a second he thought he was in a movie depicting a royal dinner, but he was really here, just among his friends who were very rich. He then had the epiphany that his girlfriend was actual royalty, not to forget her uncle who was a prince himself.

  Once the table was set, they began serving the finger-food appetizers from the sides, introducing each dish before asking if they’d like none, one, or more to be placed on their plates. The foods were like those Nate had seen on the Food Channel back home when they showcased the artistic creations made at some of the world’s top restaurants.

  After the last platter came by, Kalazan stood up, and the lights dimmed a little while the television brightened.

  “As you may or may not know, typically we are required to show you each and every offer that comes in for each of you. But since you each received so many, we are only required to show the top five from a value proposition. As far as I understand, you all want to stay as a team, but we are still required to show you the top five offers for each of you individually as well. So here they are.”

  The screen changed to show a slideshow with four columns separated by neat lines, each with their names across their respective columns.

  “You’ll see that there is not very much difference between each of you, with a few exceptions. The Arcane Operators, our former team as you know, is looking to make a step into the limelight again, wanting to go after some bigger contracts. They have some benefactors who have stepped in looking to help them succeed.” Kalazan continued.

  “I didn’t know that your team was still active?” Nate asked.

  “They are, but it’s a long story that we can’t say much about until after you make a decision. We aren’t allowed to influence you one way or another, within reason. As you can see, they are at the top of the list across each of you except for Nate. They are eager to have you all sign on as a package, but will accept you individually as well. Dee and Lindy have offers from the same teams in the same order for your top five. Lindy, your offers are higher because of your political connections on Mara. Dee, though your offers are lower, they are still quite handsome.” Kalazan was using a laser pointer to point at the various offers as he was explaining them.

  For Dee, Kalazan’s voice drowned out into incoherent mumbling as she set eyes on the presentation of offers. She looked at her list of offers; Arcane Operators was across the top. Below that was a line in smaller font that read: “Full benefits, accommodations, amenities, fifteen million credits at signing.”

  Dee started to tear up. fifteen million credits, more money than she had ever hoped to have. When she had entered Contractor School, she had hoped that she could come away from school with a decent salary doing a hard labor job with her rock hand or maybe pest control on a plantation. Someone was offering her fifteen million credits to join their team and be a real contractor going on real adventures.

  Lindy looked to her friend and saw the emotions taking hold of her. She took Dee’s hand and held it tight. Dee squeezed back, looking at her with a thin smile showing on her face as tears started to stream.

  “Jax, your offers are a bit different. The Arcane Operators are number two for you, while Stock Industries is at number one.” Kalazan continued.

  Jax looked to his Father, who would have been responsible for that offer, ultimately.

  “Really, Dad?” Jax asked, looking at his Father.

  “You miss every shot you don’t take, right?” Gax replied.

  “What did he tell you? ‘Double whatever the highest is?’” Jax said, doing an obnoxious impersonation of Gax.

  “Well, actually, yes.” Kalazan answered.

  Everyone laughed at the absurdity.

  “Thanks, Dad.”

  “Anything for you, my boy.”

  “That brings us to Nathan. As you can see, your offers are… considerable. Where the Arcane Operators are at the bottom of the list, the others are offering… more. At the top, you have an offer from Team Liquid, an arena fighting team, followed by an offer from Team Echo, their rival. Both of these offers, at forty million and thirty-five million, shatter previous records for a solo draft contract, obviously setting an incredible, unreachable height for graduates to come after you. Then a singles sponsorship offer from Prime Athletica, an agency for many athletes, not just arena fighters. And lastly, Team Arcane, offering the same package as the rest of your team.”

  Kalazan took a big breath before continuing on.

  “With that out of the way, I can now show you the team package offers. The screen changed to a different slide with stylized versions of the logos of the teams and organizations and the offers they presented. As you’ll see, these numbers are much bigger, wherein each number represents a sum you would split evenly. At the top, you have Stock Industries offering double the amount of the next offer on the list.”

  “What would you even have us do, Dad?” Jax playfully shouted to his Father.

  “I’ll sponsor you in the junior triads while you guys work your way into the pro league.” Gax replied, holding his hands out as if the one hundred twenty million credit price tag didn’t break the highest team draft offer ever, including free agency deals in every pro league.

  Jax shook his head as Kalazan continued.

  “The Arcane Operators come in next, followed by Team Echo, The Merchant Guild of Mara, and lastly the World Government of Planet Mara.”

  “Uncle Harry?” Lindy asked.

  “No, no, no, don’t look at me, I told him not to.” Harry replied.

  “But the guild is still on there.” Lindy said flatly pointing at the screen.

  “Well yeah, but he told me to make an offer.” Harry said, holding his hands up as if it wasn’t fault.

  “Who’s he?” Jax asked.

  “My Dad.” Lindy replied.

  “Ah yes, I know the feeling.” Jax said sarcastically as he looked at his own Father.

  “It must be nice having rich parents fight over you.” Nate said as he leaned back, putting his hands behind his head.

  “Hey now!” Caroline, Nate’s mother spoke up.

  “Sorry!” Nate lowered his head in shame. He then shot forward in a hunch from the pain of a punch right to the gut from Lindy.

  “Well, that concludes the presentation as a whole.” Kalazan said, gesturing with his hands out in a bow.

  “Now comes the hard part.” Jarris spoke up for the first time.

  “Your first decision is if you are going to take individual deals or if you are going to take a deal as a team.”

  “As a team.” Nate blurted out almost immediately after Jarris finished his sentence.

  “Nate, c’mon. You have a deal from Liquid for forty million. That’s insane to pass up. I think we would all understand if you went with them. You could pay us all a portion of that to sit in the stands and cheer you on, and you would rival some of the offers on the table for the rest of us.”

  “As a team.” Lindy said, looking at Nate, then back to Jarris.

  “As a team.” Dee said. “My team offers are the same as my individual ones, so might as well stay with my friends at the same time.”

  “As a team then.” Jax said, satisfied at the direction his friends wanted to go.

  “One hundred fifty million for the lot of you then.” Gax spoke up.

  “Gax, I know you mean well but-” Hix tried to say before he was interrupted.

  “Stow it, Hix.”

  “Well, what do you say, hmm? I’ll give you fifty million extra if you sign to an arena team, just nothing with live contact.” Gax said confidently but there was an undercurrent of desperation.

  “Dad, I won’t even be going in the field. Iggy Stone himself very rarely went into the field.”

  Gax looked at Jarris and Kalazan, who each nodded. Gax fell back in his seat, defeated.

  “Iggy only ever drove us around. There was one time he was on a gun as we ran from a pack of wild rampaging Galdrops, but that was it.” Jarris said.

  “Well, there was that one time...” Hal said before being interrupted for what was beginning to be an unhelpful comment.

  “Hal?” Kalazan said with a stern look.

  “Right. He’ll be fine.” Hal said, shutting his mouth.

  “Is there a reason we shouldn’t go with some other offer over the Arcane Operators?” Jax asked.

  “Not a single one.” Jarris replied with a big grin.

  “Can we have the room?” Nate asked.

  “Certainly.” Kalazan said, nodding and gesturing with his hands as the wait staff and the rest of their friends and family exited.

  Before Gax left, he placed a hand on Jax’s shoulder.

  “It’ll be fine, Dad. I’ll be fine.” Jax said softly, looking up at him.

  Gax nodded and left the room, Kalazan closed the large double doors behind them.

  “So what do you guys really think?” Nate started.

  “Being the next generation of The Arcane Operators sounds… so awesome. Literally kid dreams come true.” Jax said.

  “I know what I said before, I was joking that I might as well stay with you guys… We could take a low-ball offer, but if it kept us together, then I’d still take it. Honestly I feel like I’m having an out-of-body experience at the moment talking about all of this very real money coming our way.” Dee said.

  “Same. I came here to probably just join the PeaceKeepers and escape Mara. Becoming rich and famous from my own exploits sounds pretty fun. Especially when I’m doing it with my best friends.” Lindy added.

  “I think there is more to the Arcane Operators offer they aren’t telling us.” Nate said.

  “I agree.” Jax jumped in. “They’ve been out of service since Jarris retired like 15 years ago or something. How do they all of a sudden come up with sixty million credits, plus full benefits, accommodations, and amenities?” Jax asked in a suggestive tone.

  “Look where we are.” Nate gestured to the Tomlins’ grand dining room. “I think we know where the money came from.” Nate added.

  “We already named ourselves Team Arcane, and made our gear look like we were already part of the team. Let’s go all the way this time.” Nate said, standing up.

  The team all stood up and huddled in their ritual circle they formed when they were coming up against a fight or a big decision, a symbol that they did everything together.

  “So, are we doing this?” Dee asked.

  “Oh yeah.” Jax said.

  “Let’s go tell ’em.” Nate said.

  The team broke from their quick huddle and Nate opened the giant double doors to their future as the Arcane Operators.