Halfwizard (Book 2 of the Troy Sanders Trilogy)

6: To New Years and New Troubles

If I had known that accepting the award of Valor meant attending a meeting on the first day of school, I would have preferred to be without it.

I was sitting at the end of a long table, wearing my new blue year two cloak, with only a year five as company. In truth, he wasn’t much of a company really as all he did was concentrate on the sports magazine he was reading. “You’re Cole Benson, aren’t you?” I asked him out of curiosity; and boredom too, I might add.

Well, to be honest, I already knew that he was Cole Benson before I asked. He was the most popular African kid in Firewalt- Nigerian, I believe- captain of one of the school’s magic-based sports team; and a guy I was very sure wouldn’t want to speak to me.

But surprisingly, he did. “Yeah,” he replied, “and you’re Troy Sanders, Oliver Sanders’s son and present Valorwizard of Firewalt.”

“Wait, you know me?” I returned with the most obvious question in the world. Seriously Troy, the guy just gave a breakdown of your life for Christ’s sake- talk about being the lamest kid on the block, right?

“Of course, I do,” Cole returned anyway. “Every student in Firewalt knows you.” I couldn’t help but feel giddy about such an important person knowing me- wait, that meant that I was important too, didn’t it?

“So, do you know what we’re here for?” he asked with look like “I kinda have somewhere else to be right now”- I could bet it involved a long line of cheerleaders waiting just around the block to get a kiss from him. Cheesy, but true.

“Nope,” I replied, “Fran- I mean, Ms. Firewalt didn’t tell me anything.”

That was all the conversation we had before Francesca Firewalt, head of the school, and the rest of the table- which surprisingly included Vic- arrived.

Thing is, Vic and Francesca didn’t seem to have the best of relationship the previous school year so I assumed neither of them would want to be around one another unless it was an apocalypse or something like that. But there were and the world wasn’t even experiencing an earthquake.

“It’s nice to see you’re still alive, Troy,” Vic said as she came to sat nit so far from me. “I actually believed that you had dropped off the face of the earth when I didn’t get so much as a text from you.”

Yeah, I had expected that hostility from her all along- what with me not calling her after all the time and adventure we shared in the previous year and all- but I had to admit it still hurt a bit to see her angry at me. Thing is, I couldn’t call her in the situation I was seeing that Vic was quite good at reading people and would have no doubt known that I was hiding something; I still hadn’t told her how I killed Abigail.

“I was busy,” I lied. Better liar than killer, I decided.

“Yeah, I can see that,” she returned at me sarcastically.

Before I could reply however, Francesca interrupted the both of us. “Guys, you mind keeping the Q&A till after the meeting?” she said and Vic turned away from me; she was done talking- thanks for nothing, Francesca!

The “meeting” started and I immediately zoned out- long talks were not my thing- but I was still conscious enough to hear when Francesca announced that I was going to be giving a speech at the start of the Magic schools’ champions cup commencing in about a week time- since when did I become Firewalt's poster boy? I hated speeches; public speaking in general, in fact.

Then I noticed that I wasn’t the only one not paying attention as Vic kept shooting me dirty looks all through the meeting- that was just girly Vic goading crazy Vic into doing not-so-nice things to me. But I was already used to that so I didn’t give it too much attention.

When the meeting finally ended, I was ready to say my piece- no stopping me this time, Francesca- “Victoria, wait up!” I called after her.

But Francesca interrupted again before I could actually take any step. “Troy, we need to discuss something post mortem,” she said and I visibly groaned. “And you too, Victoria,” she added before the latter could run out of the door.

We both reluctantly took a seat.

“There’s someone I want you to meet,” Francesca said as she gestured to the door and a boy of about sixteen years old came in. He was putting on a blue cloak- a year two like me- had a brown hair, well defined structure; and I still wasn’t seeing why meeting him was so important. “This is Stan,” she introduced him. “Stan Sanders.”

And there it was, the reason of the meeting; he was another member of the Sanders family. Being the cool guy that I was, I stood up, gave him a “nice to meet you” smile and offered a handshake but he snubbed me- now, why the hell would he be so cold when we were barely introduced?

“I’m Troy Sanders,” I said in an attempt to make him feel comfortable with me, “Oliver’s my father.”

“I know,” he replied, his tone anything but friendly. “I’m his son too.”

It took some time for the statement to click in my mind. But when it did, I couldn’t stop the new wave of unpleasant feeling that washed through me.

The year had so started for me with a big bang; one that included a half-brother.

“You knew about this all along, didn’t you?” I asked Vic angrily when we walked out of Francesca’s office.

I knew I should be calmer about it but I couldn’t believe that no one had even thought it right for me to know that I had a half-brother; not even Oliver.

Vic was telling me to understand but I couldn’t bring myself to do that either; and the fact that she hadn’t exactly said she forgave me wasn’t helping that cause. “Yes, I did know about Stan being your half-brother before today,” she said to me. “We've actually being friends for some years now.”

“Then, why didn’t you tell me?” I returned at her, still angry. “I thought the boyfriend-girlfriend relationship extended to no secrets.”

“Troy, it wasn’t in my place to tell you that secret and you know it,” she replied with ferocity of her own. “Am I sorry that you had to find out this way? Yes. Would I have done anything to change it? Absolute no.”

Well, I had to admit that she did have a point about not being the right person to tell me- it was a Sanders family secret after all and she was an Elmonton- but she could at least have pressed Grandpa Blake about it; that on its own warranted my anger.

“Look, he was attending Carlton before but your grandpa decided to get him a transfer here on the consideration of how good you performed last year,” she explained. “Besides, a little family touch never hurts anyone.” Okay, that was sensible too but when it came to Blake Sanders, there was always something more with the old man; he did just come to pick me up last year even after knowing about me for up to seventeen years, didn't he?

“Alright Vic, I believe you,” I finally conceited and gave her a smile as proof. That wasn’t the way I had wanted us to spend our first day back together but that was what we got.

But more than that in truth, I wanted to find out more about Stan Sanders and I needed Vic on my side. Sure, everything might come back to bite me in the ass, but I had to try. There was just something fishy about the timing of the new revelation; and if there was something I’d learnt about the house of Sanders, it was that there are no coincidences.