“Remember what I told you. Only ten feet up and keep it slow. You can fly to the other end of the field and land. Don’t turn yet, that’s more complicated. For now, just focus on your balance.”
She still had mentioned nothing about magic. The brooms themselves were made with a small amount of magic to make them more obedient, but they wouldn’t fly on their own. Only a witch could make that happen.
“Grip your broom,” the coach said. “Now close your eyes and take a deep breath. Let the air fill your lungs… good.”
Great, more meditation. I tried to follow what she said, but it still felt awkward. Is this what all magic boiled down to? Deep breathing and closing your eyes to imagine things?
“Breathe out, pause, now breathe in again. But this time, let the air fill your entire body so you become light—but feet still on the ground.”
I cracked an eye open and saw Damian settling back onto the grass with a smile. He was already hovering, just like that? How did he do it?
“Okay, keeping control of our magic, we will hover in place for a few moments.”
Students giggled and let out whoops of excitement. They broke my concentration, and I didn’t budge.
I opened my eyes and saw almost everyone but me was already in the air. Coach Bloodgood signaled them to go ahead, and they swooped away, leaving me behind.
I turned to stare at the other student who was stuck like me. Erin Murphy—the herbalism teacher’s daughter? I thought she would have gotten this easily.
The coach frowned. “Hold on a minute, girls, I have to watch the others.” She blew her whistle, signaling the other students to land at the end of the field. Then she looked back at us. “This happens sometimes on the first day. You’re both Earth students, right? It’s harder to learn your opposing element. After all that time you spent learning how to ground yourself, it’s tricky to let go.”
Erin cleared her throat. “I—I just got nervous with everyone else around me. I didn’t want to bump into anyone. Can I try again?”
“Of course,” the coach said, waving her hand. “The only way to do it is to try. Breathe deep, there you are.”
Erin took a deep breath and floated up. She flashed a grin at me. “Hey, I got it! I bet you can do it too, Brie.”
By now, the other students were all staring at us. I felt too self-conscious. “It’s weird with everyone watching me. Um, maybe I can try another time?”
The coach frowned. “Go join the others,” she said, signaling for Erin to fly downfield.
Erin wobbled a little, but she flew in a straight line to the other end and landed amidst cheers from the rest of the class.
Coach Bloodgood walked over and put her hand on my shoulder. “I’ve heard that you’re not afraid to do what you want, even if everyone is staring at you. What’s really holding you back?”
I looked at the ground. “I’m… nervous about heights.”
The coach patted me. “That’s fine, dear, it’s a common fear. Was there a bad experience that triggered it? Your mother’s a witch—did you fall off her broom?”
I shook my head quickly. “No, I’ve never gotten hurt when flying.” I stepped off the broom and gripped it in front of me. “I just don’t like it. When I’m in the air, it makes me uncomfortable, and all I want is to get down.”
“Well, it won’t help if you clutch at your broom like it’s a snake that will bite you.” The coach rested her broom against the fence behind us, then placed her hands on top of mine. “Soften your grip. There. Just feel the broom’s strength. It will support you, if you let it.”
I stood there with her hands holding mine around the broom handle, trying not to hold it so tight. What did she expect me to do? Was I supposed to sense something from the broom itself? Yeah, the wood felt strong enough to hold my weight, but that didn’t make me feel any better. It was the going up in the air part that scared me.
“I can sense that you don’t know each other yet,” Coach Bloodgood said. “You should spend some time with it. Carry it around to your classes, rub it down with a nice wood polish, put it next to your bed when you sleep. Show your broom that you can take good care of it and it will do the same for you.”
“Um, okay,” I said because I didn’t know how else to respond. The whole thing sounded like more stupid New Age mumbo-jumbo. Sleep with it next to my bed? I was just going to feel ridiculous. I couldn’t get to know an inanimate object, even a magical one.
“It’s okay,” Coach Bloodgood repeated, like that made any difference. “For now, you can just watch.”
I stood there like an idiot and watched while she signaled the other students to fly back across the field. They all looked so confident and happy in the air.
When they landed, everyone else wanted to go again, but Coach Bloodgood said it was time to end for the day. She added that practicing any kind of magic outside of class supervision was forbidden, including flying, so she recommended that they lock up their brooms between sessions. But she nodded in my direction to let me know that I was the exception.
Damian slung his arm over my shoulders as we walked back from the field. “That was incredible! Even better than I thought it would be. But why didn’t you fly with us?”
“Just couldn’t get the hang of it,” I muttered. I held up the broom. “The coach said I should carry this around everywhere so we can ‘get to know each other.’”
Damian laughed. “What, you mean you didn’t carry it everywhere before you came back to school? As soon as I got this thing, I didn’t want to let it out of my sight.” He held up his red-and-yellow broom. “Coach wants us to use the lockers in the gym to store them, but mine is staying in my dorm closet.”
“Well, good for you,” I grumbled. I shrugged his arm off me and marched away.
Damian tried to call after me, but he didn’t follow when I sped up to get away from him. I felt bad to put a damper on his good day, but his enthusiasm was too much to take right now.
I spent a week carrying around the stupid broom, but it didn’t do me any good. Every time I got on the practice field, my feet stayed rooted to the ground while everyone else seemed to have no problem with flying. I stood and watched them learn how to do gentle turns, to rise and fall with wind currents, and then make laps around the field.
The longer I stayed earthbound, the worse I felt. I didn’t know how Coach Bloodgood would grade our performance, but I was pretty sure that I had to fly if I wanted to pass the class. Failing a class would devastate my GPA. The problem was I still didn’t want to fly at all. Even seeing how much fun the other students were having, my fear was so great that sometimes just thinking about flying made me want to throw up.
So after the first week, I stuffed the broom into a locker unless I had to take it to flight practice. I didn’t even like to look at the thing. Besides, it got heavier when it was wet, and it was a pain to keep it dry when it rained almost every day.
My other classes weren’t going very well, either. I screwed up on a few math tests and one of my English essays came back with a C-. Crystals was easier because we were just memorizing the stones, but in Nature Meditation, I was going through the motions and getting nowhere. Midterms were coming up, and I was afraid my grades would slip.
It was so much harder being on the quarter system. The academy insisted on quarters for the high school students so they were on the same schedule as the college and postgrad. I sat down with the calendar and counted how many days of classes I got, and it was only forty-eight. Almost no time at all! We’d barely gotten into a class before we got tested, and once I started falling behind, there was no time to make it up with extra work. I felt like I was struggling just to keep my head above water.
The only things that were actually going well for me was swim team, which didn’t count for much, and Water magic, which I had to keep a secret. With Samantha’s books, I was actually ahead of her in her Water classes. She was taking Empathic Reading and Potions I.
Yes, the Water te
acher called them potions. They were different from the tinctures, poultices, and other nasty concoctions that Ms. Murphy had told us about. I could brew potions with anything, from ordinary kitchen ingredients to inedible objects like sea glass. Meanwhile, Empathic Reading built on the previous theory course about emotions and helped me read other people’s emotional state, which came in handy. I could tell when Samantha was in a bad mood and give her space, or when Damian was about to surprise me with a terrible joke.
Water classes made sense how they progressed from one to another. Earth didn’t. Crystals had nothing to do with Herbalism. Nature Meditation was like the opposite of Grounding. Instead of being stable inside yourself, you were supposed to reach out into Nature and sense stuff.
While I hated to admit it, I missed Gabriella like crazy. There wasn’t even a way I could contact her. I wrote letters telling her about everything that was going on, but I didn’t want to risk sending them all the way to Mexico. The magic might not be as reliable for going so far away.
So I moped, and my grades slipped more, which made me feel even worse. It was a vicious cycle that I couldn’t break out of. I neglected Damian and stopped attempting to be nice to Erin. Damian backed off like he could see that I needed space, but Erin just kept on chatting to me in all our shared classes, which got on my nerves. It was all I could do not to snap at her again.
Until it was almost my birthday—and the stupidest holiday of the year. They covered the halls of the school in construction paper hearts and students were lining up to buy carnations, which would be delivered on Valentine’s Day, which would be Friday. We had a three-day weekend afterward because of Presidents’ Day, so I had talked my parents into letting me come home for a visit. All I wanted was a break from everything.
16
I sat outside the campus coffee counter in the quad. It was my special day, so I’d treated myself to an extra foamy latte and a blueberry muffin, but it didn’t feel very festive. Damian hadn’t gotten out of bed early enough to join me, so I was all by myself. Not the best start.
Happy couples walked by carrying expensive presents to display their affection. It didn’t matter if you got a red heart-shaped box of chocolate, a giant teddy bear, a bunch of balloons, or a bouquet. It was a status symbol, a way to tell everyone who was paired up. Classes would be disrupted with the clutter of gifts and student volunteers popping in to deliver the pre-purchased carnations. On days like this, the witch academy was just as bad as any regular high school.
Damian had offered to buy me a birthday balloon, but I didn’t want to parade around with a sign to remind everyone. People didn’t need to feel obligated to wish me a happy birthday. The important people already knew what today was for me, and the rest didn’t matter. The real celebration wouldn’t come until I was at home.
I kept my gaze down at the table, trying not to look at anyone else, so I was totally surprised when someone covered my eyes from behind. But then a familiar salty scent reached my nose, and I knew who it was.
“Happy birthday,” she whispered, her lips brushing the top of my ear. “Do you know who it is?”
“Gabriella,” I whispered back. I grabbed her hands and turned around, pulling her down to me. Much as I hated public displays, I couldn’t resist a kiss after so long.
She kissed me, then glanced up to check the quad, but no one seemed to notice one more smooching couple. She dropped into the seat next to mine, still holding both my hands. “It might be a little risky showing up here, but I couldn’t wait to see you.”
“You came back just in time!” I cried, beaming at her. “Do you want something to eat, or maybe a drink? I can get you something from the counter.” I gestured to the menu.
“I’m supposed to buy you things today,” Gabriella said. She freed one of her hands and dug in the reusable shopping bag that was slung over her shoulder. “I’ve brought supplies. First up: you have a choice of a potato breakfast burrito or a peach pastry!” She pulled out two takeout containers with a flourish.
I pushed aside my half-finished muffin, which was too dry, and reached for both containers. “They both sound good. Wanna split them with me?”
She laughed and pulled out a set of utensils, cutting each item in half. She took a bite of the pastry first. “Mm, this is yummy. I didn’t know what flavor you’d like best, so I had to guess. There was a lot of strawberry stuff but I thought I should avoid reds and pinks because… you know.” She gestured at the tacky decorations around the quad.
“Peaches are delicious,” I reassured her with a smile. My first bite was the burrito, because I’d already had some sweets, and I found it lightly spiced with warm potatoes, onions, and bell peppers. “I like strawberries, too, although you’re right that they can be overdone today. Actually, I like most fruits, except for melons.”
She stared at me. “Like, all melons? Not even watermelons?”
I nodded. “Or cantaloupe, or even artificial melon flavors. I don’t know why, I just don’t like anything about the flavor or texture.”
Gabriella mimed writing a note on the table. “I’ll remember that. Are there any other food preferences I should know about?”
I shrugged. “You already know that I’m a vegan, which restricts a lot of things, so I try not to be too picky about what’s left. I try to get a balanced diet since I’m an athlete. Usually skip pastries for something heartier in the morning, like oatmeal, but today I’m making an exception.”
She grinned. “Good. Then try it.” She picked up my half of the peach pastry and held it up for me.
I took a bite and a huge slice of a peach came off the top. I put my hand under my mouth to catch it, trying not to laugh around the mouthful. “Mm-mm!”
“Sorry!” She giggled and wiped my sticky mouth with a napkin.
I was having so much fun, I almost forgot to check the time until I realized that the quad had emptied of students. Glancing at my watch, I realized I was about to be late for my first class. “Oh, no, I’m almost out of time. I can’t leave campus for lunch, either. Do you think you can come back at noon?”
Her face fell. “You have to go already? But I have so many more surprises planned for you. How late do your classes go today? I might have to save some birthday stuff for tomorrow and push the valentine out until Sunday.”
I groaned and smacked my forehead. “I’m supposed to go home after school and spend the three-day weekend with my parents.” All I’d wanted was to get away, but now I longed to stay. “Maybe I can play hooky from classes just one day and tell my parents I’m too tired to drive until tomorrow? Then we could maximize, like, twenty-four hours together.”
She grabbed my hand and squeezed. “Is that okay? I should have asked you if you were free.”
“No, I remember you told me that you wanted to spend at least two days so you could separate my birthday from Valentine’s Day. I just didn’t know if you’d make it.” I looked down at the ground, feeling like an idiot. All these months of waiting for her to return and now I was about to leave. My heart was being torn in two between my family and my girlfriend.
My girlfriend. I’d never called her that before, even in my mind, but Gabriella was… we were… We’d never defined our relationship. Shit, I had so much I wanted to talk to her about. To show her all the letters I wrote while she was gone, to learn about her favorite foods and other things she liked, to discuss our future. I couldn’t stand to be apart from her.
“Hang on.” I whipped out my phone and opened a message to both of my moms. “Better idea. I’ll tell them I’m sick, so I’ll have to delay the visit to another weekend, and then I’m all yours. Four days, every moment with you, to make up for all the time we lost.”
Gabriella squealed and threw her arms around me, and I almost dropped the phone. But I had to tell my parents as soon as possible so it wouldn’t sound like I was making excuses at the last minute. It made my stomach hurt to think about lying to them, but it was just a little lie.
I was
n’t sick, but I had come down with a clinical case of first love. The past three months without Gabriella had been torture. Nothing had made me truly happy when she was gone, not even winter holidays with my family. Now I had her back, and I refused to let her go.
I wrote a hasty text and sent it, then stuffed the phone in the bottom of my bag. Taking her hand, I stood up from the table.
“Someone will see us out here skipping class,” I said. I flashed the tracker on my wrist. “We’ll have to find somewhere to lie low until school is done for the day, or they’ll know I’ve gone.”
Gabriella smirked and grabbed the bracelet. It fell off into her hand. “Let’s drop this in your room, so it looks like you’re in there. Then you can go anywhere you want.”
I gasped. “How did you do that?”
“I’ll show you later. C’mon, I wanna see your dorm!” She tugged my hand.
I hoped Samantha hadn’t left a huge mess this morning. She got out after me, since I had early swim team before breakfast, and sometimes she left stuff out like clothes or makeup. My heart pounded as I led her up the hill. I’d never taken a girl I liked to my bedroom before.
Never skipped school, never lied to my parents about where I was, and never took off a magitek tracker before, either. Today was a day of firsts for breaking rules. But it was also the first time I had a girlfriend, so I hoped there would be a lot of other, better firsts to come. I couldn’t wait to share everything with Gabriella. I’d make it up to my family and my missed classes later.
Gabriella and I didn’t want to risk anyone seeing us taking my car from the school parking lot, so we stayed at the academy. She’d packed us a picnic lunch, and we ate it at the edge of the unicorn meadows. A light drizzle had started, but a redwood tree sheltered us. It felt like we were in the middle of the forest, away from the busier paths and buildings of the school. This was the place most like home because of the seclusion.
The Reluctant Witch: Year One (Santa Cruz Witch Academy Book 1) Page 14