CHAPTER 20: MAGIC SCHOOL II
2257 Words
VALENTINA
The girl grips her hand, but I can’t see what’s wrong until I move around the table and notice the redness.
“Is it burning?” She nods her head and whimpers. I usher her quickly to the sink, turning it on for her to flush it. “Keep it under here.”
Ms. Ooi rushes over. “Orla, are you okay? What happened?”
“I don’t know.” Her voice shakes. “Something broke near me, and then I felt a splash on my hand, and it started burning.”
Glass is shattered on the ground with what looks like clear liquid spilled across the floor, and the smell is strong when I crouch down. The room has gone mostly silent except for the odd whispers. My glare turns to the group of boys to look for the culprit.
“Why did you do that?” I move toward the one responsible.
“I-I didn’t do anything.” He looks at the ground and shuffles his feet.
“I saw you, so I’m not sure why you deny it. What was in the jar? Was it acid?”
“He doesn’t have to answer you.”
I turn to face the boy who just spoke, and he’s staring boldly at me. I look back at Ms. Ooi for some support. After all, these are her students, but her face is white as a sheet of paper, and she looks ready to cry.
Great.
“He doesn’t, but he will have to answer to someone. I will make sure of it.” I walk away, unwilling to engage with teenagers who don’t know me. I’m just a random person they don’t respect and who has no authority over them.
“Ms. Ooi, this requires immediate attention.” This room is full of senior witches, some of whom are unquestionably powerful enough to manipulate the situation with their magic. I point to the boy responsible. “He threw what looks to be hydrochloric acid at her. I reacted quickly enough to use magic to move the jar before I saw what it was. It broke near her. I’m guessing it splashed on her hand, but he won’t say what it was. It may even be hazardous for us to breathe in. I would suggest we all evacuate the room, and you call Dame Amira.”
“Hold it right there.” Her eyes narrow suspiciously. “I thought you said you were a seer?”
I ignore her because I’m so close to explaining how grossly incompetent she is in front of her students.
“Can we all make our way out into the hall? An unknown substance has spilled. Until we can figure out what it is, it’s unsafe for us to be here.” I motion for the class to move and gesture for Orla to stay back while they slowly file out. The boy responsible for throwing the jar is the last to leave the room. He keeps his head down, but he glances out of the corner of his eye at her.
“Can you call Dame Amira now?” Ms. Ooi stares at me with her mouth agape, eventually picking up her walkie-talkie and moving to the hall to hopefully supervise her students.
“Do you have a change of clothes? Some liquid might have splashed on you, and we want to remove them before they come in contact with your skin or anyone else.” I reach for her hand, which she hasn’t moved from under the water. It’s still red, and the skin looks irritated, but it doesn’t look like there’s any blistering.
She points to where she was working. I grab her bag and a pair of latex gloves for her to safely remove her clothes, and we head out.
“How is it feeling?”
“It still hurts,” she says, cradling it as we walk out the room. I don’t even have ibuprofen or anything to give her.
I follow her down the hallway past her classmates and around the corner to a restroom where I wait outside on a bench. When she comes out, I gesture for her to take a seat.
“Do you have any healers on staff or in your class?”
She shakes her head.
“What happens if someone gets sick?”
“They usually go home.”
“Do you want to call someone to pick you up?”
She shakes her head again, but she needs to see someone.
“Maybe I can finish up my salve, and it’ll work,” she mumbles.
The irony isn’t lost on either of us.
“What’s the name of the boy who did this?”
She looks away and doesn’t answer.
“He’s already in trouble. What he did was very reckless, and things could have been much worse. What’s his name?”
“Johnny.”
“Has he bothered you before?”
Orla looks down at her hands in her lap and takes a deep breath.
I can’t force her to tell me anything, but something is going on here between her and this Johnny guy, and if nothing is done, next time things could become much worse.
“You’re a seer, but you moved the jar, so it didn’t hit me. How?” I don’t want to talk about me; I want to talk about her. “The power of sight and telekinesis don’t go together from what I understand. One can’t evolve from the other. Are you actually a seer?” She looks up at me, and her pale green eyes are hopeful.
She’s right. Most witches are born with one gift, and if they evolve or get another power, they usually are related, like Charlie’s ability to manipulate fire and water.
“I am, but I also have other powers from a ritual I completed.”
“You have a Circle?” She asks incredulously. “What generation?”
“Third.”
Her eyes nearly bug out of her head, but I can’t find her surprise endearing when I really want someone to look at her hand. I don’t like not being able to help her. Maybe I could call Deo, and he can get Amira here sooner. Or I could bring her to Amira. She has to know where the cafeteria is. I take out my phone and notice he’s sent me a text.
“Really? That’s actually really rare.”
“Yeah, it is. How do you know about Circles? Has your coven talked about them? Or the school?”
She frowns. “I just do a lot of reading in the school library.”
Her loneliness clings to her.
“I do a lot of reading as well. Do they have a good library here?”
“Yes!” She smiles then, and it’s the first one that’s reached her eyes. “If you liked the room we were in with all the plants, you’ll love the library. It has so many books and the latest technology. I can take you there right now if you like.”
My phone buzzes again, but I swipe and discard the second message from Deo. I still have no idea why Johnny wanted to hurt her.
“I think it’s best we wait for Dame Amira, but maybe I can stop by sometime this week, and you can show me. I’m close by.”
“Okay.” she nods, the disappointment evident in her face.
“Are you sure there isn’t someone we should be calling?”
“No. I don’t want to worry my foster parents.”
I’m sure Amira will call them, but I don’t say that.
“Orla, why did Johnny throw the jar at you?”
An older man turns the corner and makes his way towards us before she can answer.
“Orla?” he crouches down towards her, and I stand up. “Ms. Ooi sent me to find you. I’m Mr. Singh. I’m a teacher here and a healer. Can I look at your hand?”
So, Ms. Ooi isn’t completely useless. Thank the Goddess!
“Wait,” I interrupt him. “I’d like to take a picture of her hand first.”
“I’m sorry. Who are you?” he asks.
“I was observing the class when I witnessed what happened. I’ve been keeping Orla company while she waits, and I’d like to make sure your headmistress is fully aware of everything, including what the burns look like before you heal them.”
“Very well.” He stands up and steps back while I take a few pictures. Once finished, he grabs her hand, and within seconds the burns are gone. She opens and closes her hand a few times and smiles at me.
“Thank you,” she says quietly.
“It’s nothing at all. I’m sorry this happened to you, Orla. Would you like to go to the office and wait there to speak with Dame Amira?”
She shakes her head. “Can I stay and wait here?”
Mr. Singh looks between us before nodding his head and leaving the way he came. Several minutes pass in silence, and I wait, knowing there’s a reason she asked to stay here with me.
“I’m a seer too,” she finally admits. “I lived with humans my whole life in an orphanage, though. They thought I was crazy,” she sighs. “I thought I was crazy, and nobody wanted to be around the girl who flinches when you touch her and stares off into space.”
I can’t imagine growing up not knowing you’re a witch but seeing what we see. Hell, I sometimes think I’m going crazy from the fractured images that fill my mind and play like a distorted movie, and I was raised fully aware of my ability and with support and family who could train me.
“Are your foster parents human?”
“Yeah. They’re nice people. They pretty much let me do what I want and take care of everything I need, but someone is paying them to take care of me.”
“What makes you think that?”
“I got a letter before school started telling me an anonymous donor had paid my tuition to go here, and my foster family received a similar letter before they came to the orphanage. It said if they took me in, they would be given money for me. They showed me the letter, but theirs said nothing about my magic or who I was, just about the importance of education.”
“Who’s the anonymous donor?”
“I don’t know. I think it might be someone who is my real family. I tried looking into it after I got here. Dame Amira has tried to help me too. She got a similar letter explaining my situation. So when I got here, she was the one who told me I was a witch and explained my powers.”
“That’s a lot for you to deal with in a short amount of time. How are you doing?”
“I was doing okay. No one thought I was crazy, and for once, I was making friends.”
“Was Johnny one of your friends?”
Her chin begins to tremble, and she bites her lip.
“We were dating, and it was perfect. He was so sweet to me. He invited me over for dinner one day, and I wanted to bake a cake for his family. I’d met them before, and his mom was super nice to me too. When I gave it to his mom, she hugged me, and I had a vision.”
Her eyes well up and she wipes the tear that spills with the back of her hand.
“She was cheating on Johnny’s dad.”
My heart hurts for this poor girl whose only mistake was looking for love and acceptance. “You told him?”
She nods. “His parents aren’t living together anymore. I ruined his family and his life. He said so, and he’s right.”
“Orla, his mom tore their family apart, not you. You did nothing wrong, and while I understand how this all could hurt Johnny, it doesn’t give him the right to be cruel to you. What he did was messed up. He could’ve seriously injured you or someone in the room.”
“I wish I knew when I’m supposed to say something or try to change the future and when I’m not. Does that get easier?”
I wish I could lie to her and tell her it does.
.
.
.
AMADEO
“Is Valentina with you?”
“No.” The one word from my sister-in-law tells me precisely what I suspected. Something is not right. “Now is not a good time, Amadeo. Have you tried calling her?”
“Yes. Calling, texting, and projecting, but no answer.”
“She’s been a bit busy running things,” Amira laughs.
“What do you mean?”
“Can’t explain right now, but it’s been a day, and it isn’t even noon. Come now, and you can see for yourself,” she pauses. “Oh, and I don’t care how you do it, but you need to do everything in your power to get her to agree to this job. I want her on my team.”
- Writer
