Nyyrikki wandered into the testing area for the exams and instead of standing, sat down on the cold ground. This felt weird, like he shouldn’t be here. And who was he kidding? He probably didn’t belong here. He was worthless when it came to hexes, spells, and charms. It was a major factor in why his parents were just really, really disappointed in him.

Deep breaths. That focused the mind, right? He’d seen it in a movie or something. Of course, that had been a martial arts movie and probably didn’t have a lot to do with a charm. Oh well. The grim closed his eyes, steadied his breathing, and just tried to relax. It took several moments, but finally he felt the tension in his shoulders begin to ease and his abdomen unclenched. He could do this. He could do this.

So much rode on these tests. If they didn’t score high enough, he’d have to go home. Would his parents even bother sending him to another boarding school if that were the case? He imagined they wouldn’t want to waste the time or money. It would be so much easier for them to just send him to a normal school near their home. That meant he’d be seeing their face every day again. The disappointment, the disgust, the bitching about his failure. If he couldn’t even pass an exam to help save the school, how was he supposed to make it in the world?

And the thing was, he was beginning to want to make it. What if he could be as powerful as Oersted? The sheer force of the demon’s power had nearly dropped Nyyrikki to the floor. If the young grim could achieve that kind of power, that status, maybe his parents could actually be proud…

Speaking of Fitz demons, there was the small matter of one Danny Fitz. Or rather, there was the large, newly budded matter of one Danny Fitz. Just last night, mere hours ago, he’d finally gotten her to confess that she liked him. He might have had an feeling since he’d realized she blushed every time he touched her, but that didn’t mean he’d had enough time. Teasing her had been fun, but the real fun start now that she was his ghoulfriend. He was absolutely not willing to let the school shut down and make it more difficult for him to be with her. And it would undoubtedly be difficult to dodge his parents questions and her brother's fists.

He'd been thinking for so long that he'd lost track of how much time had passed. His butt was going numb from sitting on the hard ground in the same position for so long and his limbs felt heavy, as if he were just on the edge of sleep. Was that meditation? It probably didn't count for a spell... But he already knew what he was going to try.

Digging in his pockets he pulled out an array of things. Keys, a comb, his eye phone. The keys and eye phone were too important for him to potentially use and fail a charm on, and the comb just felt.. weird. He tucked them back his pocket and searched another pocket, his fingers grazing along the thin edge of something. BINGO! He had a small pile of ticket stubs and fliers from a concert he'd gone to, and they were totally trashable.

He spread them out in a small line, examining how much he had. Not much. But it would do for what he needed. He'd begun trying to improvise the illusion charm when he realized that he wouldn't always be able to use his FEAR. Not that he was certain it would really do anything while he was still so young. He didn't have the power to make it anywhere as intimidating as it needed to be to be useful in a real fight.

The wind blew gently across the ground, but stained hands were there to stop the paper from floating away. He piled them back up and then concentrated. Too slowly fear uncoiled in him and began to flow and shape in the way he was trying to make it. Too slow, too slow! He focused and pushed, and the fear flew quicker. The paper and card stock in front of him rustled, then shifted. It made strained noises as it began to contort and form what Rikki saw in his mind. Except, it never quite made it that far.

For a moment, a small paper crow blinked beady little text eyes up at him. It's form flickered, one instant taking the illusion of a deformed black crow with inky black, messy feathers and a head tilted at an unnatural angle that surely must have meant a broken neck, the next it was back to the semblance of an origami crow with dark stains beginning to flow up it's legs. Flicker, flicker. Flicker flicker. And then rip.

The paper exploded in with a loud tearing noise and the pieces that were left floated lazily to the ground around him, stained as black as his hands.

... He'd jacking failed. No. Oh jack no. He let out a shaky breath and braced his forehead in his hands, groaning. Why hadn't he just sucked it up and taken the physical test?

Dejected, he returned to the group, feeling tired and broken.