The Cursed Academy

Old Buzzards....everywhere.

"Clarissa ?  Is that you?" replied the old woman standing in front of my Grandmother.  Wisps of jet black hair and sparkling green eyes peeked out from beneath the giant hat the woman was wearing.

Mrs. Peony Hallewell was dressed in a yellow rain slicker, rubber boots, blue jeans and surgical gloves all topped off with a the biggest, floppiest straw hat I have ever seen.  But then I had to blink a few times to make sure I what I was seeing was real.  Her gloves and forearms were covered in blood.  She held a five gallon bucket in one hand and a gnarly looking meat hook with a short wooden handle in the other.  I wasn't sure if I was supposed to be scared?  Run?  Scream?  I don't know! It was like a scene out of a horror movie!

"Yes, Mrs. Hallewell!  It is me, Clarissa Swiftstone!"  my grandmother's face was beaming with joy when Mrs. Hallewell recognized her right away. But, why wasn't she freaking out over this bloody mess?? What in the world was Grandmother getting me into?? Who ARE these people?

Mrs. Hallewell dipped the meat hook into the bucket and pulled out a huge chunk of red, raw meat.  She then carefully held it over the enclosure railing and dropped it down to one of two squawking birds.  "Now, Agatha, you wait your turn.  You know it is Clarice's bite next!" The birds hungrily gulped down their evening meal and cried for more.  "These are our latest rescue birds.  We run a bird of prey rescue center and sanctuary here.  We must all do our part to help preserve nature. Having the land classified as a preserve and rescue also allows us to apply for development exemptions to keep the cities from creeping up to the borders of our land."  she said with a solid nod. "Besides, I get to feed these lovelies ...Who could ask for more?" she added with a little laugh.

"And who is this young lady with her mouth hanging open, Clarissa?" Mrs. Hallewell said while continuing to feed the birds. 

I closed my mouth...quickly. Probably a good thing because I was starting to feel nauseous from the sight and smell of all the blood.

"This Venus fly trap is my granddaughter Sophia, Headmaster.  I have brought her to be evaluated and to receive her training." said my grandmother with a scolding glare in my direction.

Mrs. Hallewell chuckled.  "Now Clarissa, do not give that child a difficult time.  It took me two years to break you of that same habit."  Now it was Grandmother's turn to be embarrassed!

"I cannot wait to spend some time with you one on one my dear." Mrs. Hallewell said to Grandmother.  She then turned and said to me. "But, for now, I want you to go see Vice Principal Blackclaw.  He will give you your room assignment and give you all the information you need to get settled in.  Welcome to The Academy, dear. I am sure you are going to make lots of friends will all of the other girls."

'Guess the boys aren't friendly here'  I thought to myself.

"There are no boys here and Clarissa, you need to give that child something to contain her thoughts.  She is projecting everywhere, and it is like a child with finger paints, they are everywhere." Mrs. Hallewell said.

"I am sure you have had your fun Clarissa, but it isn't fair not to tell the girl.  She should be able to have private thoughts.  How long has she been projecting?" she asked my grandmother.

"For the last two weeks, since she received her powers."  Grandmother said with a little grin on her face.

'What in the world was she talking about? Was this how she knew what I was thinking all the time?'

"Yes dear.  It is." Mrs. Hallewell replied.  "Telepathy.  It is like a wolf's pack link except your power allows you to project your thoughts into someone else's mind and they do not have to be any specific species or have any special abilities to hear you.  You can project to humans, werewolves, witches, vampires, animals, even bugs.  We will teach you to control your telepathy, dear.  We just need to contain it for now.  You don't want everyone here knowing your deepest and darkest secret now, do you?"

"No. But, I don't have any secrets." I insisted

"Oh.  But we all have secrets, my dear."  said Mrs. Hallewell. 

Mrs. Hallewell washed her hands and arms off with the garden hose on the side of the patio near the caged birds.  After rinsing, she put the bucket into an outdoor refrigerator and took out some smaller containers.  Worms and weevils, crickets and grub worms. 

"Are you going to feed more birds?" I asked.

"No dear.  I have a potions to make. Clarissa.  Take care of our girl.  I will talk to you this evening" Mrs. Hallewell said as she walked away carrying her potion making supplies, her rubber boots squelching on the wet concrete.  

"Grandmother, I am not sure I understand." I said with some serious confusion.

"I have a confession to make" Grandmother began once Mrs. Hallewell was out of ear shot.  "Since that day in your father's office just over two weeks ago, right after you received your powers, you have been projecting your thoughts to others without knowing it." she confessed with a little snicker to show how amused she was with herself.

'OH!

MY!!

GODDESS!!!' 

"GRANDMOTHER!!! How could you do this to me???" My mind raced back to every single snarky thought I'd had in the last couple of weeks and every "off" interaction I'd had with my pack mates, my parents, my Grandmother, my teachers, Robin!  I wanted a hole to open up and swallow me.  I sat down on my heels, elbows on my knees and my palms on my face, trying to make myself as small as possible in this horrifying moment of embarrassment. This cannot be my life right now. Goddess help me.

"Stand up." my grandmother commanded.

So.  I stood up.

"Hold out your hand" she continued.

I held out my hand and she slipped a gold ring onto my middle finger of my right hand.  It was WAY too big at first but then, it started to sparkle and shimmer and then shrunk exactly to the size of my finger, fitting me perfectly. It was very delicate and super thin.  Almost unnoticeable.  I wonder if that was by design?

"This ring will keep your thoughts contained until you learn to control your gift of telepathy," Grandmother explained. "I have imbued a spell into it that acts as a barrier for your thoughts and for other's attempts to talk with you or influence you telepathically.   In a school full of girls, this may come in handy." She said with a nod.  

"This also means that you cannot communicate telepathically as a witch using your gift OR as a werewolf using the pack link while you are wearing this ring.  You must wear this ring until you learn to control your powers and only take it off in case of a dire emergency.  If you need me.  You take the ring off and you just think as hard as you can about me.  Do you understand me, Sophia?"

Again, I nodded.  This was all just too overwhelming.  Maybe I was still asleep on the plane and this was all just a bad dream?  Could all this really be happening?

"Pull up your sleeve." she said.

I raised my cardigan sleeve up to my elbow.  

"Higher.  I need the top of your arm.  Where the pack doctor gives you your shots."  

"Are you going to give me a shot??"  I was in a panic. I hated shots.

"Would you just settle down.  This won't hurt one bit!" grandmother said as she pulled a feather quill out of her bag.  "Hold this" she thrust the feather toward me.  She then reached back into her bag and pulled out...

'Is that what i think it is? What in the world is she doing?'

"Grandmother?  Is that one of those little pine tree air fresheners that you hang from the rearview mirror of the car?"

"Yes, yes, it is.  Now where did I put my solution? AH HA!  Here it is!!

She opened the jar of solution and set the lid on the rock ledge near the patio.  She took the pine tree shaped air fresher and held it up to my arm.

"Hold this here like this" she said sternly while holding the little tree in place on my upper arm with just one finger.

"Is this going to leave a permanent mark?"

"Just be still! And be quiet, too.  I need to focus"

She dipped the feather quill into the small jar of opalescent liquid and began to trace the tree onto my arm.  "Almost there" she said, repeatedly dipping and tracing until she was satisfied with the result. "Ok you can let go now.  I moved my finger and the little tree fell to the floor.  I looked down to see where it landed and when I looked up Grandmother's eyes were glowing red and she was whispering and mumbling something unintelligible under her breath.  Her white hair was starting to frizz from the static charge in the air.  She held her hands on either side of the drawing on my upper arm and leaned in close.  She started to blow gently on the little tree she traced onto my arm.  As she blew onto the opalescent liquid it was absorbed through my skin and into my body and disappeared completely!

The air returned to normal and my grandmother's eyes did as well.  The static charge could barely be felt in the air and the birds, who had gone eerily quiet over the last few minutes, began to sing again.

"WHAT... WAS... THAT? And why am I smelling …the great outdoors, pine cleaner, pine trees??

"Well, normally I would do this spell with flowers but there don't seem to be any around here so I took this out of that young man's car who brought us here." she began to explain "You see, I had to mask your wolf scent.  Now if someone smells you all they will smell is the pine forest." she smiled, completely satisfied with her quick thinking.  But, I was the one stuck smelling like bathroom cleaner.

'I would have rather had flowers.  Thanks a lot, Grandmother!' I thought 

'Huh.  No reaction from Grandmother.  Maybe this ring thing does work!'

Grandmother reached over and touched me with one finger, discharging the last of the static electricity, shocking me and making me jump.

"OW!" 

"I am still your Grandmother and I can still tell what you are thinking. Powers or no powers.  Now.  Let's go find Vice Principal Blackclaw and get  you settled into your room." she said as she turned and walked away.

As we walked back out through the gate and around to the main building my thoughts returned to those of school and getting settled in and my mind flashed back to something my grandmother had said earlier.

"Wait." I said hoping it wasn't true.

'OH NO!!!' 

"Grandmother.  Earlier did you say this was an all girls school??" 

Grandmother started to walk a little faster.