The next day, Sofia and Hugo met up at the stables at their school. Hugo's toe had fully healed, and now he was going to practice for tryouts. Hugo's uncle Grimtrix and Sofia's royal sorcerer, Cedric, were allowed to come to tryouts to watch over them.

"This is perfect—our first flying derby tryout race at the Corinthian Sports School," Sofia beamed.

"I know—I've been looking forward to this since the Royal School Fair," Hugo smiled.

"Who knows if we'll get to ride in the flying derby championships against the Junior Knights?" Sofia cried.

"I don't know, but right now we should worry about trying out for the team," Hugo chuckled.

Minimus and Electra were excited to fly together with Sofia and Hugo. Minimus sprained his wing before Sofia and Hugo got to ride in their last championship race before graduating from Royal Prep, so he sadly didn't get to fly with Sofia. But he was really happy to fly in his first Corinthian Sports School tryout race with Sofia.

Suddenly, Grimtrix called, "Hugo, can I talk to you for a minute?"

"Coming, Uncle Grim," Hugo called back. He turned to Sofia and said, "I'll be right back."

"Take your time," Sofia smiled.

Hugo went off to see his uncle. As soon as Hugo was gone, three older boys came up to Sofia, having heard her conversation with Hugo. They were just as big as Hugo's older brother, Axel.

"Sofia, are you really thinking about trying out for the team?" Martin asked.

"Of course, I'm trying out," Sofia nodded. "It'll be just like the first time I tried out for the flying derby team at Royal Prep—except Hugo won't be picking on me this time because we're friends now."

But the boys just looked at each other, and they looked at Sofia, who was confused by this. "What?" she asked.

"We're really not so sure it's a good idea for you to try out for the flying derby team," Earl said.

"This sport can be very rough, especially for someone so little," Doug chimed in. "You'll have a hard time keeping up with us, especially on a horse that small."

Sofia was a little hurt by this. "I know I'm small, but I can do this," she protested. "Hugo and I are flying derby champions and Protectors of the Ever Realm. Well, he's still a trainee, but I'm a fully-fledged Protector now. I saved a foreign kingdom from an evil sorceress who ruled for 41 years, and on our graduation night, I saved the whole Ever Realm from a sorceress even more powerful than her. If I'm big enough to do all that, I should be big enough to try out for the flying derby team. Besides, my petite size just might be useful, especially for a dangerous team play."

But the boys still didn't think Sofia should try out for the team.

"I'm sorry, Sofia, but you're just too little to be on the team, let alone try out," Martin said gently.

"Hugo can try out because he's nearly as big as us," Doug said. "Why don't you go and find a sport that's more your size?"

Sofia was hurt that these boys thought she was too little to do something she was already good at and they wouldn't listen to her. "Okay," she sighed. She sadly walked off, and then she muttered, "Sometimes being small is no fun!"

Minimus and Electra were very angry with those boys. They knew the trio weren't really being mean, but it was still wrong for the boys to just decide Sofia was too little without giving her a chance.

Cedric had witnessed this—he didn't think it was fair that those boys just decided that Sofia was too small. He knew he had to do something about this.

Earl, Doug, and Martin were talking about how they'll do at tryouts.

"Do you think we'll be able to win the championships this year?" Earl asked.

"We have to—we've been training all summer," Doug said.

Suddenly, the boys found themselves surrounded by a flash of light—and realized that they were now the size of Wee Sprites.

"Whoa, what happened?" Doug gasped.

"I don't know," Earl said. "Either everything grew, or we shrunk."

"Either way, it's not good—we're too small to ride our horses," Martin frowned. "We'd better go and find Mr. Ellis and ask him to get us back to normal."

"I just hope we can get there fast enough," Doug said. He and his friends ran off to find Mr. Ellis.

Meanwhile, Hugo got back to the stables only to find that Sofia and the other three boys were gone. "Huh, where is everyone?" he asked.

The flying derby coach, Sir Gerald, came along.

"Sir Gerald, have you seen the other riders?" Hugo asked.

Sir Gerald noticed that the other four participants weren't here. "They were here when I had my back turned," he recalled.

"Me, too," Hugo nodded.

Grimtrix and Cedric came over.

"What's wrong?" Grimtrix asked.

"All the other participants aren't here, Uncle Grim," Hugo said. He turned to Cedric and asked, "Mr. Cedric, did you see where the others went?"

"I didn't see them, but I have the feeling they might've decided not to participate," Cedric surmised.

"But why wouldn't Sofia want to do this?" Hugo frowned. "We've been looking forward to this for weeks."

"Well, if we don't have more than two participants for the flying derby, then we might as well cancel tryouts," Sir Gerald frowned.

Hugo was disappointed that tryouts were cancelled, but he was confused about why Sofia didn't want to participate in the flying derby.