In the awe and confusion of his three friends, Elliot didn't stop there..... but continued with the ambitious card trick.
"Alright, so you all must be thinking that somehow or another, I've used sleight of hand and you've simply yet to figure me out right?..." Elliot asked alluringly.
The three only nodded while continuing to focus...
"....well, what's say we change it up a bit hmm? See here, the card you signed is going into the middle of this deck nicely. I'll shuffle the deck thoroughly like so and then only deal three cards...."
Three cards were dealt face down from the top of the deck, the large deck was placed on the side while the three-card stack sat quietly in front of the three.
"Again, all it takes it a snap of the fingers...."
*snap*
"...and like magic-oh!" Elliot acted surprised because the top card of the three-card stack turned out not to be the card they signed. Before the three could gloat at Elliot's 'failed' trick, however, he smiled and corrected.
"Oh, silly me, I must have sent the card to the top of the wrong stack..."
In the bewildered eyes of the three watchers, Elliot reached to the side a flipped over the top card sitting on the large deck of the cards, which turned out to be the signed card.
"Haha look at your dweeb's faces, close your mouths before you catch flies. Now listen, I'll be nice and let you have one more chance to go to school next semester using my talons alright?..." the confidence radiated off Elliot as he combined the deck of cards once again and began to shuffle.
The three's eyes became sharp as knives and they'd never focused so highly on anything in their lives, no tricks were going to occur on their watch this time...or so they thought.
"Look, I'll even tear a piece of the card you've signed off....that way you can ensure I didn't create a duplicate card before coming here tonight. Alright, and I'll even let you three draw the top card yourselves..."
With a smile Elliot laid the deck down, flipped over the top card to show the boys that it was not the torn and signed card before putting it right back where it was.
"Now, one of you go ahead and snap your fingers over the deck.....go on..."
*snap*
"Now you can draw the top card and see if it's your card...."
They flipped over the card, and sure enough, it was the same card they saw before, with no signatures or torn corners....they looked up with gloating eyes but saw a scene that shocked them...
"Elliot acted like he was coughing before spitting out a folded card which opened up to reveal a slimy torn three of hearts with their signatures covering the face...
"A really ambitious card indeed huh?..." Elliot asked mockingly, but before he could gloat more, a voice came from the side.
A young man, much younger than the four friends, has been watching from a distance. He had red hair, red as flame. His eyes were deep and his gate elegant as he approached...
"I know how you did it....will you pay for my tuition if I can explain it properly?..." asked the boy currently making a name for himself at the University as being "bloodless".