Wizard (Troy Sanders Trilogy Book 1)

13: What the Skunk?

I walked solemnly back to my room, my encounter with Francesca still weighing heavily on my mind. I had tried thinking about it from different angles but always came up short; guess I’d just have to cross detective off my career list.

I walked into my room just then and stopped dead in my tracks. There was a skunk in my room; right on my bed looking for nuts, or whatever it was that skunks looked for. I didn’t even know they existed in Firewalt to begin with.

I remained stiff for a moment, unsure of what exactly I should be doing. But after being sure that it had not spotted me, I backed off slowly and ran away like a mad man.

And then, I went to seek help from the only person I knew; Victoria.

She was busy fencing in the training hall when I got there. Worthy of note was that magical fencing was quite different from its contemporary “normal” type. Of course, both types still followed the same set of rules. However, in magical fencing, a participant had the chance to use as many sabres as he could magically control. They said it improved a wizard’s mental control over his magic; but it was only open to year threes and above.

After mercilessly trashing her opponent- that’s the Vic I know- I called her attention. She stared blankly around for a little while, apparently still flushed from the duel before spotting me.

“I need your help,” I quickly said before she began one of her mindless chatter.

“With what?” She seemed kinda pressed for time- presumably because another opponent had already stepped up to the stage and was making an hand for her to come- but she made no move to hurry me up.

“There’s a skunk in my room,” I told her.

“Just take it out,” she simply returned.

“I said, there’s a frigging skunk in my room.” Perhaps she hadn’t heard me well the first time.

“Just take it out,” she replied once again.

“How?”

She rolled her eyes -which was really girly, believe me- and told me to wait for her. After a few minutes, she returned, all dressed up.

We went to my room; she leading. As soon as she entered, she covered the skunk with a translucent magical bubble and sent it flying out the window before I- or the skunk, for that matter- even registered what was happening.

“All done,” she said, dusting her hands like she had physically touched the animal as she went to lie on my bed; with her shoes on.

I was still contemplating on how to thank her and still tell her to leave without provoking her into sending me out the window next after the skunk when she suddenly said, “You know it’s against the rules for girls to be in boys’ rooms and vice versa, right?”

It was like someone had suddenly dropped a bomb on my head, doused me with water, and then dropped a bomb on my head all over again. My heart raced thrice as fast as before- why hadn’t she told me that to begin with?- I could have gone grovelling to Dwayne instead; although thinking about it now, it could have actually been one of the senior boys who got the skunk into my room in the first place.

I looked over at her and saw that she was still lying down casually on the bed like we were discussing the weather or something like that. Well, that was Victoria for you. I was very sure she could walk right into Francesca’s office and say that she had been in my room; and then there would be no stopping anyone from turning me into a skunk and sent unceremoniously out the window; and presumably out of Firewalt too- how was I supposed to explain that to grandpa Blake and my mom? That I got sent out of school because of one crazy girl I barely knew.

“Is there any reason why you forgot to mention that bit of information earlier?!” I shouted at her angrily.

“There was no one around when we were coming,” she returned casually, shrugging like it was no big deal.

But it was a big a deal; a very big deal, in fact.

Just as she had finished speaking, I suddenly heard the boys returning from wherever it was they had all mysteriously disappeared to. I facepalmed myself, I just didn’t know what I had done to anger fate so much that it always went against me.

“So, any ideas on how to get us out of this mess, princess?” I asked.

She appeared to be deeply thinking for a while before saying with a bright smile, “We use the columns.”

I had no idea if it would work but I also had no better plan. So, “Operation Column” it was. We crept up to the door; I in the lead this time. We peeked for a while before making our move.

Thing is, there were columns in strategic places in every passageway of Firewalt’s buildings and that was how we planned to get her out of the male section without anyone seeing us.

We ran like our pants were on fire; hiding behind the columns any time someone passed.

We’d been going at it for a while and I was starting to become hopeful when I rounded a bend and ran straight into Jake. Luckily, I was few metres in front of Vic and she had time to duck behind a column while he and I recovered from our collision.

“Are you okay?” he asked concernedly when he saw me panting and sweating.

“Of course,” I replied, still out of breath. I tried to put on my best “I’m okay” face but knew I failed when his look didn’t change.

Fortunately, he didn’t press it further. “I’m heading to the fields to see the horses, will you come with me?” he asked with a “prithee please” smile across his face.

“Sure,” I replied, “just you go ahead and I’ll be right behind you.” I couldn’t very well tell him that I was on the horses’ most wanted list no thanks to Victoria.

Jake gave me one of his baby smiles and went ahead of me; I could tell that he was very pleased.

After he had walked in front for some time, I returned back to check on Victoria. But when I looked behind the column, she was already gone. It was very confusing at first seeing that there was no way she could have left without Jake or me seeing her.

But that was when it hit me. Victoria was a talented witch and if my memory, and the school curriculum, served me well, teleportation was one of the first things year threes were taught when they resumed the semester. I realized then that she could have left a long time ago but she stuck around; possibly just to stress me out.

I slumped against the column in a mixture of emotions at the darn girl and my stupid self. That girl was definitely going to be my undoing one day. But until that day came, it was off to the fields with Jake.