Poppy
came back after rehabilitating with the counselors for a week. She seemed mellow
for a few days, but was soon back to ordering us around and warning us about
the struggles we would soon face with exams. We collectively rolled our eyes at
her, but always eavesdropped when she had other casters over for study groups.
The
rest of us had fallen into a fairly predictable routine. We went to classes,
came back to the house to make dinner together, and then spent the evenings
studying in the common areas. All right, maybe September kept to the fringes of
our merry band and was either in the farthest corner of the living room or out
of the house altogether in the evening, but still. Oh, and Angelica spent a lot
of time making fun of the rest of us for reading so much while she threatened
to break every lamp in the house with her soccer ball. And Echo had so many
other girls over for dinner that I was actually starting to learn some of my
classmates’ names. Even Nicola often disappeared to write by herself. But any
kind of routine was a huge relief to my anxiety so I honestly didn’t mind being
left to work on my own from time to time.
My
morning meetings with Natalie were also going well. She had already started
training me in advanced casting techniques, and even said she had a good lead
on getting a meeting with Antonia Rivers. I hadn’t told the other girls why I
was up so early on Mondays and Thursday. They probably assumed I was studying;
in a way I was, so I didn’t disabuse anyone of the notion.
Life
at WCH was just about as perfect as I could wish it.
