Amidst
the insanity of us all scrambling to pick up our mingled luggage, I’d managed
to snag the best bedroom in the house. September and Echo ended up with the
other bedrooms on the second floor while Angelica, Nicola, and myself had
dashed up the stairs to check out the third floor. Like the second, there was a
communal living room, a bathroom, and three bedrooms. I managed to get a look
at all three before choosing the largest. Happily, it had a bay window that
faced east as well as a beautiful brick and mortar fireplace. The fireplace,
walls, and the wrought-iron bed frame had been painted white. But a few
well-chosen landscape paintings and a vase full of fresh flowers on the bedside
table brought just enough color to the room.
I
immediately hung my clothing in the narrow closet and lined up my shoes beneath
the bed. A crocheted blanket Kara had made me last Yule went over the armchair
next to the desk. I was a bit flummoxed by the vanity table for awhile, but I
eventually found an empty glass for my mascara and eyeliner and set that and
the vase of flowers on it.
I
was busy stacking my books on the built-in bookshelf when I heard a soft knock
on my door. I was surprised that anyone would be knocking on my door after the
fiasco downstairs, but I was even more surprised to discover it was the new girl
when I went and opened it.
“Hi,”
she said in a surprisingly sweet voice. “Do you have a phone charger I can
borrow? I guess I left mine in my parent’s car and my phone is dead.” She held
up an iPhone whose case had been decorated with what seemed to be purple
unicorns and pink bats.
I
goggled at her. She must have thought I was offended or something because she
shuffled her feet and looked away.
“I’m
sorry I bothered you,” she murmured, and again I was shocked by how sweet she
sounded. “I can ask someone else if you’re busy.”
“No,
wait!” I said just as she was turning around. “I’m sorry, I just…” I gestured
uselessly. I couldn’t exactly explain that I had trouble reconciling her goth
appearance with her personality. “Would you like to come in for a second?” I
said.
She
looked at me for a moment, staring up at me from beneath the thick fringe of
what had to be fake eyelashes. I wondered why she wore such startling makeup
and clothes. And her piercings - her lower lip, nose, and one eyebrow all
sported silver jewelry, not to mention the seven studs I could see in her right
ear. And then there was her hair…
Finally
she nodded, and I stepped aside so she could come in. She looked around and
immediately gravitated toward my half-full bookshelf.
“Oh,
I love these books!” she said, reaching out to touch the cover of one of my Garth
Nix books. His Old Kingdom series was
a beloved favorite of mine, and I couldn’t stop my overenthusiastic reaction at
finding a fellow fan.
“Gods,
I know,” I said. I pulled out the others so we could stare admiringly at the
covers. “Isn’t it like the coolest magic system ever? I love the Bells.”
“Me
too!” she said.
We
grinned at each other, and I felt a wave of relief wash over me. Thank the gods
there was someone in this house who shared my taste for reading. Even if she
was strange looking, I had a feeling Nicola and I might end up being good
friends. It would be a nice difference from hanging out with my little sister.
I
pointed at her phone. “I hate to tell you this, but it won’t matter if you find
a charger for that thing or not. With all of the witches in this place, there’s
pretty much no way you’d manage to get the thing working. Too much magical
interference.”
“Is
that why it died so fast?” She looked at it morosely, and I wondered if there
was someone outside of the school she wanted to keep in touch with.
“Yeah,”
I said. “I’m used to not using technology like that because my neighborhood has
a lot of witches. Where are you from?”
She
slid the phone into a pocket of her jacket and resumed examining my book
collection. “We move a lot,” she said. “My parents never really got over their
Summer of Love. We live in an RV most of the time.”
I
wanted to ask her more about this, but I wasn’t sure how to do it tactfully. I
settled for saying, “That must have been interesting,” and cringed at myself.
She
nodded in an absent way. “But we settled down in Kentucky so I could go to high
school. There aren’t too many witches in Berea though. I didn’t even know I was a witch until I was sixteen and
accidently turned one of my teachers bright blue. Then my mom was like, ‘Oh
yeah. I’m a witch and I guess you are too.’” She shook her head. “My mom is
like that about a lot of stuff. That’s why I was late today. She forgot that
she was supposed to drive me here and was out in the woods behind the hotel
picking mushrooms.”
“That
sounds…” I stopped myself, but Nicola was nodding again.
“It’s
fairly annoying,” she said. “But I’m used to it. At least I was only a couple
hours late.”
“True,”
I said. I cast about for something else to ask her. She seemed so nice. “What’s
Kentucky like? I’ve lived in Connecticut my entire life.”
“The
town I lived in was practically a hippie commune.” She turned around and smiled
at me. I could actually forget her appearance altogether when she smiled. “You
don’t want to hear about that. I’ve never been to New England before. Why don’t
you tell me about what it’s like here?”
I
floundered for words. “Well, Connecticut and Vermont are both in New England,
but they’re not exactly the same,” I said. “I’m used to living in a much busier
town with a lot more people than what this place seems to have. And there
aren’t any farms near me. We always
drive up to Massachusetts to get pumpkins and native corn for Samhain.”
“Samhain?”
Her eyes lit up, and I noticed that they looked almost green. “I’ve never
celebrated Samhain before.”
“You
will here,” I told her. “I’ve been reading up about the history of the college.
There’s always a big bonfire with dancing and then everyone gathers in the
graveyard to summon up the spirit of Serilda Shepherd. She founded the school,”
I added when I saw Nicola’s blank look. “Have you learned anything about
witchcraft yet?”
“I’ve
read a few books,” she said. “But my mom wasn’t the best teacher. The only
thing I really learned from her was how to make healing teas.”
“Well,
that’s something,” I said, being generous. But she was so nice that I felt like
I could be generous toward her. “And I might be able to help you out with the
beginner’s stuff here. My mom raised my sister and me in the craft from the
time we were kids, so I know quite a bit already.”
“I’m
not a very good student,” she said ruefully. “So I’d appreciate any help I can
get. I really suck at studying.”
I
grinned. “I’m the queen of studying. I’d love to help you.”
“Knock
knock,” a bright voice sang from the other side of my door as it swung open. The
petite blonde-haired blue-eyed Echo leaned around the doorframe. “Hi, girls,
you ready for dinner?”
Angelica
the apparent jock gave Echo a sidelong look as she brushed past her and came
into my room. “Looks like you got the biggest place in the joint,” she said
without bitterness.
I
felt a bit deflated that what I felt was a pretty good conversation with Nicola
had been interrupted, but at least neither of the newcomers looked like they
were upset about the argument downstairs anymore.
“Yeah,
sorry about that,” I said just in case Angelica really was bitter. But all she
did was shrug and flop down on my bed.
Echo
seemed as drawn to my bookshelf as Nicola had been. “Oh, you have all of
these!” she said, pulling down my compendium of His Dark Materials. “I haven’t read the last one yet.”
“That’s
the best one!” Nicola and I both said at the same time. We looked at each other
and laughed, and for a moment I felt a wonderful sense of belonging.
“You
guys are nerds,” Angelica announced. I was ready to defend myself, but Echo
spoke first.
“Don’t
you read, Angie?” she said.
“Angie?” Angelica’s face went from anger
to confusion to reluctant acceptance as she stared at Echo’s cheerful
expression. She turned away, and muttered, “Not really.” I hid a smile from the
others at her reaction.
Echo
seemed not to notice Angelica’s discomfort. “Well, I love reading,” she said.
“What do you guys read? Because I read everything. Fiction, non-fiction, manga,
comics, plays, poetry… I just love it all! Isn’t the written word wonderful?”
For
some reason Nicola’s face began to color in what I could only interpret as embarrassment.
“You read poetry?” she asked quietly.
“Oh
yes!” Echo said. “I like William Blake and Anne Sexton and Pablo Neruda and
E.E. Cummings…” She tilted her head. “Actually, there isn’t much poetry I don’t like. What about you?”
“Well,”
Nicola said. She was studying her boots. “Sometimes I write poetry.”
“You
do?” I didn’t think it was possible
for Echo to look more excited about something (as she seemed to be excited
about everything), but I was wrong. She jumped in front of Nicola and grabbed her
hands. “I knew it!” she said. “I knew you were an artist. I could just tell
from your aura. You have a super blue aura; it’s really pretty. And, oh, you
will let me read some of your stuff, won’t you? I’ve tried to write poetry
before and it was absolutely terrible, but I’m sure yours is amazing. I just
know it is.”
Bright
red spots appeared on Nicola’s pale cheeks. She didn’t quite cower in the face
of Echo’s excitement, but she did draw back a little.
“I
guess so,” she all but whispered.
“Yay!”
Echo said, and she threw her arms around the poor little goth girl. “Thank you,
thank you! I’ll be the best reader in the world, I promise. I’ll tell you
everything that’s wonderful and skip over anything I don’t like. Unless you
want me to tell you that too because I learned how to give good criticism in my
art classes, you know. But I’d never ever be mean. I couldn’t be anyway. My mom
used to say I was born without a mean bone in my body.”
Angelica
and I shared a look. This girl was kind of crazy, we seemed to say silently,
but at least it was the kind of crazy that was amusing to other people.
Although looking at Nicola, I didn’t think she
was particularly amused. Frightened maybe.
“I…
I can take criticism,” Nicola said when Echo had released her. She ran her
fingers through her blue-and-black hair to straighten it. “And I’m sure you’re
never mean.” She hesitated for a moment and then smiled. Echo beamed back.
“Isn’t
she the sweetest thing?” she said, turning her grin on Angelica and me.
Angelica
glanced at Nicola’s huge black boots and the skulls on her stockings. “She’s
sweet all right,” she said. “Hey, Nic, you seem like the tattoo type. Got any
cool ones?”
Nicola’s
blush sprang to life again. “Actually…” She carefully unbuttoned her jacket.
Beneath it she was wearing a lace camisole woven like a corset with purple ribbons,
and at least four tattoos. From what I could see, she had a small ankh under
her right collarbone, something colorful and large creeping over her left
shoulder, and then two lines of stylized script on the insides of her forearms.
“Wow,
you’re white,” Angelica said with a laugh. She got off the bed and went to examine
Nicola’s admittedly pale arms. Echo was already tracing the tattoo on Nicola’s
shoulder and exclaiming her admiration, so I went to join them.
“My
friend is the artist,” Nicola said. “He’s amazing.”
“I’ll
say.” Angelica turned one of Nicola’s arms over to get a better look. “What
does this say? I can’t quite make it out.”
Nicola
closed her eyes and recited softly, “ ‘Fixed stars govern a life.’ ”
“Huh,”
Angelica said. “Any reason why you chose that quote in particular?”
The
other girl opened her eyes and stared at all of us. “Um… It’s by my favorite
poet.”
“Ooh,
I know who it is,” Echo said, raising her hand in the air as though we were all
in class together. Which reminded me…
“Sylvia
Plath, right?” I said before anyone else could. “Hey, didn’t Poppy say she was
taking us out for dinner soon? Where is she?”
Angelica
made a face, and Echo dropped her hand with a disappointed look. Nicola glanced
at me before pulling her jacket back on.
“I’m
sure she’s waiting for us downstairs,” Angelica said. “Tapping her foot on the
floor probably.” Her grin spread slowly across her face at the image, and I
quailed. It was the same grin Kara got when some particularly evil idea crossed
her mind. She usually called it fun, but I’m pretty sure it always turned out
to be evil.
“Let’s
go join her then, shall we?” I said before Angelica could suggest something
else. And I grabbed my sweater and wallet from the closet.
The
other girls followed me down the stairs. Echo kept up a steady flow of
generally one-sided conversation with Nicola about poetry, but Angelica and I
were both silent. I wasn’t sure what Angelica was busy thinking about, but I
was preoccupied by the thought of making a bad impression on Poppy. It seemed
like the older girl was going to have considerable influence on our lives
seeing as she lived with us.
Sure
enough, the little general (I was starting to think of her that way already)
was waiting for us just as Angelica had predicted. And September was sitting
primly on one of the chairs in the parlor. She appeared to be reading a fashion
magazine, but I saw her eyes dart up when the rest of us all tramped down the
stairs together. A strange feeling of guilt passed through me. I hadn’t even
been here a day and already one of my roommates looked like she was being
ostracized. And I was in a group of girls instead of on the outside? That was
more than passing strange.
I
wished I had more time to consider my feelings about the situation, but Poppy
marshaled us all into formation and led us up the hill again. She didn’t seem to
notice anything was amiss among us, though I felt like she made an obvious
point of talking to September when the rest of us fell into conversation amongst
ourselves.
We
were the last house to arrive for dinner at the school’s cafeteria – a building
that also housed the gymnasium and which Poppy lovingly referred to as Gymteria.
(“Or sometimes,” she said, “the Cafnasium!” Apparently its real name was the Hutchinson-Dyer Building.)
The food wasn’t half-bad though, and I found myself eating much more than
normal. Dinner continued in the same vein as our walk had. I was drawn into
small talk with Echo and the others while September silently read her magazine.
Poppy and her fellow casters apparently preferred to eat at a table with each
other rather than with us neophytes. I was having a hard enough time keeping up
with my house mates’ conversations when the mohawked woman who was our class
dean appeared to announce an ice cream social outside on the Meadow.
“Don’t
most schools call it a ‘green’?” I whispered to Angelica.
There
was a twinkle in her eye when she replied. “Now, Dana, we’re super special
witches who use super special titles for everything. It pleases the gods, don’t
you know that?”
We
gathered with our fellow classmates on the
Meadow which turned out to be a huge open area spreading down the hill
behind the faculty’s housing. I managed to figure out our class dean’s name
from the directory that Poppy handed each of us as we were leaving the cafeteria,
so I knew it was Dean Dobronravov who made us all stand in a gigantic circle so we
could see each other.
“Take
a good look at the girls around you,” she said, her Russian accent light but
distinguishable. “They will be your competition, your shoulders to cry on, and
maybe even your partners in crime.” She winked, and a ripple of giggles went
through the group. “But most importantly, you are all going to be peers and
friends. We see it every year at WCH – and your Head Witches will tell you too
– your class becomes your family.”
The
dean clapped her hands together loudly. “So before we get to the ice cream,
let’s get to know each other with an ice breaker,
shall we?”
I
stifled at groan at her suggestion as well as the cheesy way in which she’d
introduced it. Almost everyone looked put upon in the way that only teenage
girls could, but I saw at least Echo was bouncing on her toes in excitement.
“Two
truths and a lie!” Dean Dobronravov said. “You all know how to play? We’ll go
around in the circle and play by saying your name, and then three facts about
yourself. The next person has to guess which one isn’t true.” We nodded. “Good.
I’ll start. Let’s see… My name is Valentina Dobronravov. My family is from
Moscow. I own seven pairs of identical shoes. Annnd I’m wearing this mohawk
because I lost a bet with Dean Lona.”
It was just my luck to be standing next to the
dean. I froze, scrambling to think through the things she had said and decide
which was the lie, but I needn’t have worried. The dean turned the other way
and asked September what she thought was the truth and the lie.
“You’re
not from Moscow,” September said without hesitation. “Obviously.”
“Oh?”
The dean looked amused, and for a moment even I was distracted with wondering
how September could be so sure.
“Kiev
is far more likely than Moscow as your accent is definitely Ukrainian.”
Dean
Dobronravov seemed as shocked as the rest of us looked. She nodded. “Excellent,
yes. My family is indeed from Ukraine. How did you know that?”
September
shrugged.
I
realized I had to wait for everyone else before it was my turn, so I listened
half-heartedly as my classmates introduced themselves and tried to think of
three things to say myself.
Finally
it was the girl next to me. She told us her name was Sonia and that she had
been to Egypt that summer as well as some other things. I studied her face as
she spoke, but it wasn’t evident to me what she was lying about. I took a stab
in the dark, and she shook her head.
“My
little brother’s name is Quentin,” she said with a smile. I shrugged, a bit
embarrassed, and then realized everyone was staring at me.
“Oh!
My turn,” I said, my cheeks burning. “Right. My name is Dana Bolete…” I heard a
murmur of recognition from a few girls, and flushed even more. “Um…” All of a
sudden, I couldn’t recall a single thing I had determined to say. I scrambled
for a single fact about myself. This was exactly the reason I had never liked
ice breakers. Thinking on the spot in front of thirty people was not my idea of
fun.
“I
have a little sister named Kara,” I announced finally, seizing on one of
Sonia’s lines. My eyes met Angelica’s where she stood across from me in the
circle. She arched an eyebrow.
“My
dad runs his own business!” I blurted. There was my lie. Oh my gods! Stop being so awkward! I wanted to sink into the grass
below my feet and never come up again.
“One
more, Dana,” Dean Dobronravov prodded gently.
“Um…
uh…” I looked at Angelica again, but she was unhelpfully raising both eyebrows
at me now. Great, now everyone knew what a spaz I was.
“I
wanted to go to Salem instead of WCH,” I gabbled the first thing that came to
my mind.
A
silence descended over the group. Oh no, what had I just said?
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