The Cursed Academy

Get Wrecked

"Thank you for saving me." Mallory said to as she put her hand out for Mo to shake it. Mo smiled and took her outstretched hand.   Mallory and Andrea had waited until Mo and I were finished talking with Professor Shade to approach.

"Hey, I will be one hundred with you.  It surprised me, too. But, it was a GOOD surprise!  I am really glad I could help!" Mo replied excitedly, still buzzing from the adrenaline rush of levitating Mallory away from the bonfire. "It kinda made me feel a little bit like a superhero!" She said and started laughing and running around with her robe, which was now off and tied around her neck, flying behind her like a cape.

"I cannot imagine what would have happened if you had not been there tonight. Thank you." Mallory cried as she grabbed Mo by the hand as she 'flew' by her and pulled her in close.  As Mallory hugged  her she whispered into Mo's ear.. "I am so sorry.  I didn't know about it until afterwards.  You have to believe me."  Just a quickly as she grabbed Mo, she released her and ran away.

"Well, ok. That was odd." Mo said, obviously thinking out loud about what Mallory had just whispered. "That doesn't make any sense.  WAIT!! HEY!! THAT DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE, MALLORY!!" Mo yelled at Mallory who was fleeing toward the main dorm building.  I think she actually ran faster when Mo yelled out to her.

"What doesn't make sense?" I asked Mo.

"Sophia? When Mallory was giving me a hug she whispered in my ear that she was sorry.  She also said that she didn't know about it until afterwards and that I have to believe her.  That doesn't make any sense to me.  Does it to you? Believe her about what?  Know about what?  Why is she sorry?  This doesn't make any sense at all. "  Mo said as she was running Mallory's words over and over in her head trying to find some meaning to them.

"Where are Saoirse and Siobhan? " I interrupted, realizing I had not seen them for a while.

"They went to change out of their robes and grab their overnight bags for our slumber party tonight.  I left mine in my locker at the student welcome desk in the old dorm building. " Andrea replied. " I am prepared for fun!!"

"Thanks, Andrea.  I just wanted to make sure they were safe.  Hey Mo?  Did Mallory say anything else? Because, you are right.  None of that makes any sense." I said agreeing with Mo's previous assessment.

"Sophia, I don't get it either.  Let's just head to our room and wait for the twins there." Mo added defeatedly.  

"We are here!  We are here!" I could hear the shouts of the twins across the courtyard as they rushed to catch up with us.  They were both wearing their pink backpacks and Siobhan was carrying a leather satchel in her free hand.

Breathlessly Saoirse said. "We brought a surprise with us." 

 "This is going to blow your mind!" Siobhan added with a little giggle.  "It is a family heirloom and it is REALLY old," she added.

We all started walking toward the old building where mine and Mo's room was located. 

 "Mo?" I asked.

"Hmm?"  Mo replied absentmindedly.

"Aren't we the last room on the left?" I continued.

"Yes.  Why?" she replied.

"Didn't you make a point of leaving a light on in our room?" I asked.

"Uh huh.  You said you didn't want to trip over my skateboard again and to leave the light on, so I did." Mo said nodding her head in assurance.

"Wow. Um ok.  Because... weird ... if you look .. at that window right over there.. the light in our room is OFF." I said as I pointed to our dorm room window.

"I swear I turned it on!"  Mo said defensively.

"I know you did. I am not accusing you of not doing it.  THINK!" I said while poking my finger into my forehead.  We gave each other a look of dread and both took off running for our room with Andrea and the twins right behind us.  I could see that the door was open and there were clothes strewn about outside our room as we ran down the hallway. "No no no!! Not cool!  So totally not cool!"  Mo yelled as she skidded to a stop in front of our open door. I caught up to her just as she flipped the switch on the wall and turned on the overhead light in our room."Oh my Goddess!!" I screamed as I saw what was left of our room.  "What in the...?  Who...?  Why?" Mo was at a genuine loss for words as she looked around at all of our belongings tossed around the room  Our pillows had been ripped to shreds and water had been poured on our blankets and mattresses until they were soaking wet. The glass had been broken in every single picture frame that we had of our family and friends and they had been thrown on the floor like trash with the rest of our belongings.

The room was destroyed. It was wrecked.  Someone had taken all of our clothes had cut huge holes in them and they were completely ruined.  All of my makeup was broken and scattered over all the bed and floor . Mo's tools were covered in what looked like shampoo or conditioner. I reached down and picked up a broken bottle of nail polish. "Who indeed." I said.  I could feel anger seething inside me as I saw that someone had also turned my jewelry box upside down. 

'Something tells me I already know who did this.' I thought.  

"I don't know whether to cry or scream right now" I heard Mo say from behind me.  I turned to see her kneeling on the ground by her bed, hanging her head and holding her skateboard in her lap.  Her skateboard had been broken into two pieces and was totally thrashed.

"Maybe I can fix it for you." Andrea said gently as she put her hand on Mo's slumped shoulder. Mo nodded in silent agreement.

"Can you do a spell on it like 'skateboardio-repairio' or something like that?" I said while waving my hands around in the air like I was waving a wand. "Andrea, can you really fix it." I asked hopefully. "You know way more about magic that we do!  Do it. Fix it! Say the magic words!" I excitedly continued.

Andrea and Mo were looking at me with the most confused looks on their faces. "What?  Did I grow another head?  Why are you  looking at me like that?" I said as they continued to silently stare.

There was a really uncomfortable pause for a moment and then I heard the twins giggling from the doorway.

"I can fix her skateboard, Sophia. But, not with a spell, though." Andrea finally said with a chuckle. "Magic should enhance your natural abilities, not replace it." 

Mo just outright laughed and started hugging me.  "You have seen WAY too many movies, girly girl!" she said gently rubbing the top of my head with her knuckles.

"I take a wood crafting class down at the hardware store in town on the weekends. I am pretty sure I can make her an identical board and she can just take the trucks and wheels from  this broken board and put them on the one I make for her."  Andrea explained. "And if you are nice.  I might even paint it for you." She added with a smile.'They must think I am completely ignorant about magic and I am starting to agree with them.'  I silently lamented but I still couldn't help laughing along with their good natured joking.

"Well, that is all just fine and dandy but what do we do about all of this ?" Mo said looking around and pointing to the rest of the disastrous looking room. "Back home in Texas this is what the aftermath of a tornado looks like!"

"We need to report this to Coach  Blackclaw." I said. "There is a lot of damage here. I am going to need all new clothes and makeup" I said as I could feel the anger creeping back with each glance around the room and seeing yet another item destroyed or broken. "Take pictures and video.  Record everything and then I guess Mo and I are going to spend the night salvaging what we can of our stuff." I said as I kicked aside a book that had half of the pages torn out. 

"We can show the pictures to Coach in the morning but you are right, this mess cannot wait." Mo agreed."We are helping you." Siobhan and Saoirse said at the same time 

Andrea looked around the room and put her hands on her hips defiantly.  "Well! I am not going anywhere!  I am too angry to sleep now and besides...  We still have a sleepover to do!  Now, let's get this documented and cleaned up and have some fun while we still can."

"How are we going to sleep on these?" I said as I pushed my hand down into the soaking wet mattress. "These are going to take WEEKS to dry!" 

"Siobhan and Saoirse, you help Sophia with taking video and pictures and then the three of you gather the trash and start cleaning up the room. Strip the beds and put the wet blankets and linen in the hallway.  Mo.  I have a very special job for you.  Come with me!" Andrea said, taking charge of our predicament and giving orders like a general in battle.Andrea grabbed Mo by the hand and led her out of our room and down the hall back toward the welcome desk.  The twins and I started taking pictures.  The more pictures I took, the angrier I got. "I know who did this." I told the twins who looked scared and didn't ask me to elaborate.

"Should I just throw this away?" Siobhan asked as she held up one of my shoes that had been filled with what appeared to be toothpaste and the laces had been cut.

"Yeah, I guess. so." I sighed, disappointed and angry at the loss of one of my favorite pair of sneakers.

We continued picking up trashed items and throwing them away or putting them aside to be repaired later for the next half hour waiting on Mo and Andrea to return. 

"Say Cheese!" Siobhan said as she surprised me by snapping a picture of me in one of my moments of angry thoughts.  She turned the phone toward me to show me the screen.

"Oh Goddess!  You need to use red eye reduction on that picture!  Your camera is picking up a red dot on my eyes." I said laughing and pointing toward the screen.

"Sophia.  Those ARE your eyes. Red eye is when the flash reflects off of your retina.  I didn't use a flash.  Your eyes look ANGRY and RED.  Maybe you need to sit back and relax.  This is all going to be ok."  Siobhan said a little nervously. "I wish Andrea would hurry up and get back." Saoirse added.

'I don't know who's eyes those are but I don't think they are mine.' panicky thoughts raced through my already angry mind. 'breathe deep Sophia, calm down. You know Grandmother's eyes get red when she gets mad.  That's probably all it is.  Calm down!'  

I found a clean spot on the floor so I could sit down; putting my hands behind me so I could lean back and try to relax. As I put my hand on the floor I felt an intense burning pain and jerked my hands back and sat up screaming.

"AHHHHH!!!! OW!!!! Oh it burns it burns IT BURNS!!!!" I screamed holding my closed hand. It felt like it had been branded with a smoking hot iron.  

I opened my hand and saw a heart shaped burn directly in the center of my hand. I looked behind me on the floor and saw that  I had put my hand on the heart shaped bangle of Mo's silver necklace. 

' I guess Grandmother's spell has no effect on the vulnerability that Werewolves have to silver.' I thought as  I ran to the sink in the bathroom across the hall and turned the faucet on and held my burning hand under the cold stream of water. 'I cannot let anyone know that silver burned me.  They will know I am a wolf!!' I had to protect my identity at all costs.

Siobhan and Saoirse were immediately at my side. "What happened?  What's wrong?  Are you ok?? Let me see!"

the peppered me with questions while crowding next to me at the sink trying to see what was wrong. "You are BURNED!!"  "What did you touch that was hot? It is heart shaped!"  "Oh my Goddess"

'Think, Sophia, THINK!'  I was scrambling for a believable answer.

"Maybe my hair straightener got turned on and got hot?" I said with a shrug, continuing to allow the cold water to soothe my stinging hand.

"But why is it heart shaped?" Siobhan asked as she peered at my hand through the stream of running relief.

"I think maybe Mo's necklace was touching it and maybe that is what got hot." I felt really bad as I hesitantly took advantage of the naive nature of the twins ,who were more concerned about my wellbeing, rather than the cause of my injury, to question my narrative of what happened.  It made it easy to weave a believable cause before Mo and Andrea came back. 

"Let me get something cold to put on that.  Is there any ice here?" Saoirse asked. 

"Saoirse, do you remember that trick you used to do at summer camp to make our lemonade cold?  Can you do that? I bet it would work!" Siobhan said excitedly, taking her left hand and grabbing Saoirse's right hand.

"I can try!" Saoirse said. "It has been a long time since camp. What were we, 12?" She asked as she took my hand in her free hand and held it close to her face with my palm flat and open. She closed her eyes for a moment and when she started to blow I could feel a cold, icy blast of breath start to soothe my burning hand. She opened her eyes as she continued to blow and, as the pain started to subside, I looked up from my hand to thank her. I could see that the color of her eyes had changed to that of a deep purple color and they had a faint glow,  a shimmering that was definitely not there a moment ago. She and Siobhan still had a firm clasp on each other's hand. Siobhan was sitting silently and motionless with her eyes closed while Saoirse tended to my hand. 

'They really do everything together, don't they?' I noted as the red heart on my hand slowly turned to a light brown color as it cooled and  started to heal.  'I cannot hide my metabolism.'  I thought, recalling that a werewolf's ability to heal is greater than that of a human.  Werewolves typically heal faster,  and from past experience back at the pack,  I know I heal VERY quickly. I looked at my hand that was already starting to scab over and quickly closed my fist around it, shielding my palm from Saoirse's icy breath.

"That is AMAZING!! I think you actually HEALED it! I exclaimed.  Saoirse looked very excited and pleased that she was able to help.

"Oh I am so glad!!" I can't believe I remembered how to do that!" she squealed with joy.  I hugged her as the three of us walked back across the hall to my room.

"How did you do that when you were twelve, though?  Don't all witches get their powers when they are sixteen?" I asked, recalling the beginning of the conversation now that the searing pain was not consuming my every thought.

"Our family is..... different." Siobhan said as she swept up the last of the broken glass and trash while Saoirse pulled the soaking wet blankets off of the bed and lugged them to the hallway, like Andrea had told us to do earlier. 

"Well, different or not.  I sure am glad you learned how to do that!  Thank you so much!" I told Saoirse giving both her and Siobhan a hug.  We were interrupted by a loud bump outside the doorway.

"OK EVERYBODY STAND BACK!" I heard Mo yell from the hallway.  We all backed up to the wall as Mo backed into the room with both arms stretched out in front of her. Her hands were about ten inches apart and she had her palms facing one another. "Move out of the waaaaaaay" she laughed.  "I am new at this and I am going to drop this on someone's foot!" she added, I could she that she was struggling to levitate a huge mattress.

As she walked into the room,  mattress followed behind her, floating just a few inches off of the floor.It swayed side to side and bumped the doorframe a few times.  "Sophia, drag that other mattress off of the bed, hurry!" Mo ordered. I jumped up and gave the mattress one big shove with my foot, pushing it a little more than halfway off of the bed and allowing it to fall; using gravity to flip it vertically up against the wall on the other side. 

Mo mentally maneuvered the mattress onto the box spring. "TA-DA!!!" she said with a flourish.  Then she sat down in the middle of the floor, exhausted.  "That takes a LOT of energy!" she said euphorically.

 "But it is SO AWESOMELY RADICAL!!" Andrea said as she entered the room.carrying an armful of clean linens and blankets. "There are more down at the welcome desk. Can you three help me get them while Mo rests?" Andrea asked us. She looked at me and winked. "Having a key to this place really comes in handy.  This is an old building and they still have master keys that can open almost any door in here.  Mo and I went to one of the old dorm rooms where they are storing the new mattresses for freshman dorms in the main building.  We took the ones that were marked for Nerezza's room and are going to put these wet mattresses inside those boxes instead. "That was Mo's idea.  I was just going to take the mattresses. LOL" 

"I am going back to get Calliope's next." Mo said laughing.  "Just as soon as I recharge I am going to be just fine."

"Sophia can't help us carry anything.  She burned her hand." Siobhan said, adding quickly "But Saoirse fixed it." 

"Sophia, may I see your hand? "Andrea asked.

"It's fine. It's just a little burn.  I'm ok." I stalled, I didn't want Andrea to look too closely at my hand.  

"Here."  She held out her outstretched hand and I reluctantly put my hand in hers.  She turned it over and looked at the heart shaped burn on my hand.  "This is healing." She furrowed her brows and added.  "This isn't HEALED." 

I pulled my hand back from Andrea "I am fine.  I swear it. Let's go get the blankets.  I can carry pillows with no problems. Besides,  I was promised a scary story tonight and I want one!" I said as I ran out of the room and down the hall.