章 11: Registration Day

Jayce and Ralnas eventually talked Ms. Good into taking all four of them out for ice cream after the graduation ceremony. Sitting together the four friends regaled Ms. Good with some of their favorite memories from school. Their laughter brought a happy energy to the ice cream parlor and the owner took great pains to not disturb them for as long as possible.

When they finally strolled into the night they made plans to meet up at the train station early in the morning. As Jayce and his mom walked away the other three turned to each other. "So when we tell Jayce early in the morning do you think we should get there like 9:30 am or is that still too early?" Ralnas asked his friends. Breaking out into another round of laughs the three headed back to the school to pack up their rooms before tomorrow.

Jayce went back to his own house since they had the rest of the week to move all of their stuff out of the dorm rooms and he knew it wouldn't be a small effort to get everything out of his closet. He crawled into his childhood bed and gazed at the ceiling. Even though he knew he needed to be fresh for tomorrow he couldn't bring himself to actually fall asleep.

He was too excited picturing himself competing with those teams he had always watched with Ralnas. The adoring fans, the reporters asking him for his thoughts on the match, every detail seeped into his imagination and Jayce was wide awake deep into the night. When he finally felt sleep coming for him he set his alarm and rolled over, a smile still dancing across his face.

The loud "BEEP BEEP BEEP" of his alarm awoke Jayce with a start. He felt he had only been asleep for twenty minutes. Rolling over to lunge out his bed and smack his alarm he looked at the time with a grimace. "6:25 am" Jayce groaned and was about to go back to sleep before remembering his friends had said they were going to meet early today.

Excitement lending his tired limbs a renewed strength Jayce jumped out of bed and scurried to his shower. In the shower, he practiced his interviewing skills, "Yes, the name's Good, Jayce Good." He took the brush he used and held it up to his mouth like a pseudo-microphone. "Look we may not have won the game today but my team and I believe that victory is just around the corner. No further questions please." Jayce laughed to himself before scrubbing himself furiously. He wanted his I.D. picture to be one the newspapers would show and people would think, "Wow now there's an exciting talent, look how confident he looks!" Jayce could see it already. He was lost in his own daydreaming before he heard his mom call from downstairs, "Jayce! I made some eggs and toast for you! I've got to go to work now honey but good luck at the exam today!" Jayce called back, "Thanks, mom!"

He finished showering and quickly dug through this closet to see what options he had to choose from. Deciding to go sporty in his look he pulled on a pair of sleek black sweatpants, a black hoodie that he had cut the sleeves off of and a crimson headband he had gotten from the Chiron school athletic team. Checking himself out in the mirror before heading downstairs he felt more than prepared to face whatever the day brought him.

However, Jayce had no idea that his friends didn't expect him to actually wake up on time and they were all sleeping soundly while Jayce sat idly on a bench outside of the train station. His excitement starting to wane Jayce started trying to call his friends over and over wondering if they had forgotten how important today was. After an hour had pasted Jayce found that the excitement that had gotten his tired body out of bed was completely evaporated. He couldn't stop yawning and every time he closed his eyes for a second he felt he was about to fall back to sleep. Finally, Jayce could take it no longer and curled up to sleep on the bench hoping his friends would arrive soon.

Meanwhile, Ralnas yawned and checked his watch, 8:13. He stretched in his bed before noticing he had about 15 missed calls. Panicking he checked them to realize he had missed Jayce's phone calls from hours ago. "Aw shit," Ralnas quickly jumped out of bed and grabbed his toothbrush before heading to the hall bathroom, "this would be the one time he actually listens to us and gets up on time wouldn't it?"

Micu was going through a similar guilty feeling having woken up to even more missed calls from Jayce. He bumped into Ralnas in the bathroom, "Did you get all of Jayce's calls?" Ralnas nodded. "Did you answer any of them?" Micu asked hopefully. Ralnas averted his eyes and admitted that he hadn't even bothered to turn his volume on last night. Micu groaned and then jumped into the shower cursing Jayce for never being consistent. After their quick showers, they jogged to their rooms to get dressed as quickly as possible.

They then heard Jenira's voice echo down their hall, "Hurry guys! Jayce has already been there for two hours!" She also had traces of guilt in her voice and they both knew that none of them had answered any of Jayce's phone calls.

Micu chose a simple athletic look with a crimson and silver tracksuit provided by the school. He had his glasses polished to a shine and the newest Adidas shoes perfectly completed his outfit. Ralnas, on the other hand, had chosen to wear the schools grey joggers with a tank top that he had been wearing for the last two years of gym classes. He had his black stud earrings in and their reflected light made his red hair seem even more fiery than usual. The two nodded to each other as they quick-stepped down the stairs to join Jenira on the girl's hallway. Jenira was wearing her grey sporty short-sleeved hoodie that had the words, "ultimate dodgeball champion" printed on the front. Matching this was three-quarter sweatpants that had the centaur logo of the school printed on the pockets.

She looked up with a worried face, "You two take longer than I do to get ready." The two boys didn't stop descending the stairs but nodded to indicate that they were sorry. The three grabbed their hoverboards from the school's safebox and sprinted outside before jetting off to the train station.

All three had worry in their hearts that Jayce had already left or something had happened to him so there was no speaking during the journey to the station. Landing abruptly and storing their boards in one of the lockers provided by the city they sprinted to the front of the station only for Ralnas to stop dead in his tracks causing Micu to barrel into him and they both crashed to the ground. Jenira was able to stop in time, "Ral what the heck! Why did you stop?" before looking up and seeing why he had stopped so suddenly. Sleeping peacefully was their friend curled up on a bench. A squirrel darted around under the bench picking up food scraps that people had thrown on the ground.

Jenira turned red from embarrassment about how much she had been worrying about Jayce but covered it up with pretending to be mad at him. "JAYCE GOOD!" She stomped over to him while Ralnas and Micu tried to untangle themselves from each other. Jayce didn't respond but the squirrel sensing the danger quickly darted off for the nearest tree it could find. Jenira grabbed Jayce's ear and yelled, "JAYCE WAKE UP!" Jayce bolted awake and stared at Jenira trying to figure out where he was. As his brain slowly began to work again he realized his friends had finally arrived.

'Hey, guys!" He sat up happily, "I was just resting my eyes while I was waiting for you. I guess this is you guys getting revenge on me for all the times that I slept in, huh?" The other three looked at each other before Jenira nodded and said, "That's right Jayce! We sure showed you didn't we?"

Jayce blushed slightly then smiled. "Well, I guess so. Though it did stress me out that you guys chose to do this on registration day. Maybe next time just do it for my birthday or something?" He laughed and pushed himself off the bench. "Well C'mon! The line to sign up is going to be huge by the time we get there and you know they shut off registration in 15 hours."

Micu laughed and then followed after Jayce. "You know I don't think we need to worry about not making it in 15 hours Jayce." Ralnas and Jenira followed behind them. Ralnas eyed his sister warily. "Why did she seem so mad at Jayce? And why was her face so red?" he thought as he watched her closely. Ralnas shook his head and then caught up to Jayce and teased him about how he had finally woken up on time.

Walking up to the ticket kiosk the screen sprung to life and an animated conductor robot appeared on the screen. "Well, how do you do folks? What can Conductor Combot do for you today?"

Jayce confidently answered, "We'd like four tickets to the capability exam registration please!"

The robot did a little loading animation while it processed Jayce's request. His train seemed to be struggling to climb a hill before a "ding" sound and the train got to the top of the hill.

"Tickets to registration are free thanks to a generous grant from an anonymous donor. Please take your printed tickets and proceed to station A. Thank you and enjoy your ride folks!" The conductor waved to the four of them before the screen turned black again.

Jayce was beaming with excitement and was about to run to the station before realizing that might look childish. He instead leaned too far in the other direction trying to be mature, "Well guys guess we better go to station A." He put his hands in his pockets and tried to walk like he imagined a celebrity would walk. He'd gone about three steps before he heard Ralnas laughing like a maniac. Turning quickly to try and figure out was so funny he glanced at Ralnas only to realize he was looking at him and that Jenira and Micu were both holding their hands over their mouths to contain their laughter.

In an exaggerated tone, Ralnas mimicked Jayce's words while walking like a cat who's paws were on a hot roof. Jayce grimaced, "Did I really look like that...?"

Micu snickered one more time before replying, "Yeah buddy, you did."

The wind stolen from his sails Jayce trudged the rest of the way to the train while his friends tried to lift his spirits back up telling him they were just teasing him.

Arriving at station A Jayce noticed how many other kids their age seemed to be around. He whispered to Micu, "Is every kid in the city taking the capability exam?" Micu shrugged, "How exactly do you expect me to know?" Jayce looked at his friend and rolled his eyes. "Well, thanks for that very very useful information Micu." Micu smiled back at Jayce. "You are welcome, as always."

The Conductor Combot appeared on the screens throughout the station. "Ladies and gents this train is now officially full! If you don't have a ticket as of right now you will have to wait 16 minutes for the next train to arrive. As a reminder, there is no fighting allowed on trains, if there are any fights all participants will be escorted to jail for the mandatory two day probation period. Thank you and enjoy your trip aboard the Combot industries hub train!"

Jayce turned to face his friends, "Ready?" They nodded and then they all stepped onto the train bound for the major hub one.