Episode One: Admissions

Sunset at the Bolete residence.

Dear Dana Bolete,

Thank you for applying to the Salem Institute for Witches. Upon completion of the difficult task of selecting this year’s group of students for admittance to SIW, our Admissions Committee has concluded that we are unable to offer you acceptance to the institute.

My heart stopped. It stopped as though a sledgehammer had smashed into my chest, destroying my life in an instant. But when the agony of it kept going, I realized my heartbeat was still chugging along, if somewhat erratically. I shook my head in an effort to refocus my blurred vision and looked at the letter again.

We deeply appreciate your interest in the Salem Institute. Please consider applying again as a transfer student in the spring. Thank you, and we wish you success and happiness in all of your future endeavors.

Sincerely,

Antonia Rivers

Dean of Admissions

I stared at the words until they blurred again. But it was just that my hands were shaking. I set the letter down on my desk and clenched my fingers to form fists. Anything to bring reality back.

            

 …we are unable to offer you acceptance…

             

Impossible. My mother was friends with Antonia Rivers; they’d gone to the Institute together! How could they reject me? My grades were perfect. I know I aced their entrance exam. I studied harder than any other witch I knew, and while that wasn’t a lot of girls, it was certainly enough for me to feel like I had an upper hand against any of them. And I knew for a fact Opal had already been accepted.

“What’s that?”