How to Make Friends and Not Incinerate People

by Devin Harnois

Holding back a sigh, he sat down across from Dylan. He thought he should say something, but didn’t know what. Thank him? Tell him not to be a jerk? Dylan picked up his cheeseburger and started eating. Aiden poked at his salad.

  Some other kids sat at the far end of the table, giving them odd glances. As more and more kids found seats, the side where Aiden and Dylan sat stayed empty. Kids walking by gave them odd looks.

  Finally, Aiden had to say something. “Why isn’t anyone sitting with us?”

  “It’s me, not you,” Dylan said between bites of fries. The cheeseburger was already gone.

  “Why?” Aiden started to worry that he was sitting next to something so dangerous that other monsters didn’t want to get near it.

  Dylan shrugged. “People don’t like me.”

  Aiden rolled his apple around on his plate. “Why? What are you?”

  Dylan gave him a look and there was something in his eyes, a glint or a glow. It made Aiden feel like something small and helpless, a mouse standing in front of a lion. Then it faded and a slight hint of a smile touched Dylan’s lips.

  “You’ll find out.”

  CHAPTER THREE

  English and biology were after lunch. By the end of biology, Aiden could barely keep his eyes open. It was the middle of the night and the only thing keeping him awake was the fear of being teased if he fell asleep in class. Taking notes helped and he wrote down the chapters he’d have to read to catch up to the rest of the class.

  The last class of the day was called Major Magical Control, the room listed as A-1, which he couldn’t find. The warning bell rang and he stopped a fellow student to ask where it was.

  “Go out the doors at the far end there.” She pointed. “The annex is the building out back. There’re three rooms; A-1 is the first.”

  “Thanks.” Aiden ran, hoping he would make it in time. He got there just before the final bell.

  A-1 looked like a gym, but there were no basketball hoops or any sign of sports equipment. The walls and floor were all painted white, weird symbols drawn all over them. High above was a gray ceiling. The room smelled strange, like ozone with a hint of burning.

  Aiden was surprised to see Dylan there, wearing torn-up jeans and a ratty AC/DC T-shirt.

  “Aiden Spencer?”

  He turned to the teacher. “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Welcome. I’m glad to have you. Did you bring any clothes to change into?”

  How many times today was he going to feel like an idiot? “No. I didn’t know this was a gym class. It says Major Magical Control—”

  “Don’t worry about it. Tomorrow bring old clothes that you won’t mind ruining. I was going to have you observe today anyway. Have a seat.” She pointed to a long bench.

  On the bench already. It was almost funny. A tingle went through him just before he reached the bench and he stopped, blinking.

  “Make sure you stay behind the wards,” the teacher called.

  Wards? He looked down at the symbols on the floor. A circle surrounded the bench with glyphs both inside and outside. He leaned closer, noticing they weren’t painted but rather metal pounded into the floor. He touched part of the circle and drew back at the shock. It was like that time he’d stuck his finger in a wall socket. Frowning, he sat on the bench.

  “Dylan, we might as well start with you. You won’t wait your turn anyway.” The teacher pointed at a girl with straight black hair. “Riko, you face off against him.”

  “Why me?” the girl squeaked.

  “Because I think you’ve been holding back and he might scare you into using your full strength.”

  Dylan rubbed his hands together and smiled. Not a smirk, but a full smile with teeth. It was creepy. Swallowing, the girl moved to stand opposite him.

  “Remember this is practice, Dylan,” the teacher said. “She needs to stop holding back, but you need to learn control. You’re not trying to hurt her.”

  “Right. I know.”

  “Get ready. One, two, three… go!”

  Fire erupted from Dylan and streamed toward Riko. Aiden let out a choked cry. The girl, eyes wide, held up her hands and the fire seemed to hit a wall. The air crackled and iced formed in a rough circle around her feet.

  Aiden’s heart pounded, and he fought an urge to run. This was definitely not floating a piece of paper across the room. What the hell was he doing in this class?

  “Stop.”

  The fire disappeared and the girl dropped her hands.

  “Excellent job, Riko,” the teacher said. “I knew you could protect yourself.”

  Dylan snorted. “Yeah, because I was holding back.”

  The teacher gave him a look. “Which is what you need to learn. When you’re in the outside world, you’ll need to control yourself. Your first reaction can’t be to burn things.”

  Dylan’s mouth turned down.

  “All right. Next pair.”

  Dylan’s frown deepened as he walked toward the bench on the opposite side of the room.

  For the rest of class, students came up two at a time to hurl magic at each other. Two girls who could have been sisters raced around the gym hurling fireballs at each other. One of the fireballs headed straight for the bench and Aiden ducked. It hit the wards and disappeared in a shimmer of blue light.

  He kept wavering between fear and awe, and yet it still didn’t feel real. It was like watching TV or a movie in 3-D. Nothing in his life had felt real since Mr. Johnson showed up at his house. Aiden felt like he’d been stuck in a dream for over a month. He kept thinking he’d wake up.

  In his notebook, he wrote “bring old clothes” so he wouldn’t forget. He had four pages of notes from the day, and most of them were mentions of things he needed to read in his textbooks. That was on top of the homework. There wasn’t much of that, but combined with trying to catch up, it made him groan.

  His backpack felt like it weighed fifty pounds. The sooner he caught up, the less he’d need to haul all his books back and forth. With any luck, tomorrow would be better.

  * * *

  His parents were asleep on the couch when he got home, an old movie playing on the TV. He shut the door quietly and headed for the stairs.

  “Aiden?” Dad asked in a fuzzy voice.

  “Yeah,” he said quietly and stepped into the living room.

  “How was school?” Dad yawned.

  “Fine,” he answered automatically. No, he should be honest. “Weird.”

  Dad got off the couch carefully, trying not to wake Mom. “Were you scared? No one tried to hurt you, did they?”

  Aiden shook his head. “It’s just… weird. Really weird.”

  “I know what you mean. I keep wondering what my new boss is, what my coworkers are. If they think of me as lunch.” Dad sighed. “And I’m afraid to ask because it might be rude.” He laughed, a strained sound.

  “I’m sorry.” Aiden looked at the floor. This was when it felt most real, when he thought about how he’d thrown his parents’ lives into chaos. They’d left their jobs, their home, and they couldn’t explain why to the rest of the family.

  “It’s not your fault. You didn’t choose this.”

  His stomach went cold and tight as he wondered if his dad would say the same thing if Aiden told him he was bi. Or would that be different? Aiden didn’t want to say anything about it because his parents had been through way too much already. Maybe in a year or two. Or a hundred.

  “I know, but I feel like I ruined your lives—”

  “Hey, we told you. Never, ever feel like that. It doesn’t matter what you are or where you came from. We raised you. You’re our son. We’ll get through this together because that’s what families do.”

  Aiden’s throat went tight, eyes burning with the threat of tears. All he could do was nod. Dad gave him a hug and for just a second, Aiden could pretend everything was okay.

  “Geez, what do you have in there? A whole library?”

  Aiden shifted his heavy backpack. “All my textbooks. I have to ca
tch up on three weeks’ worth of class.”

  “Well, don’t think about starting on it tonight. You look dead on your feet.”

  “So do you,” Aiden said with a little smile.

  “Yeah. I’ll wake your mom up, and we should all get to bed. I’m getting too old to stay up all night.”

  Bed. That sounded so good. “Okay.” Aiden covered a yawn and went upstairs. He set his backpack down next to his desk and stared at it for a moment. No, he’d start on his homework tomorrow. Even if he was really behind.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  “Dylan Galloway.” The teacher sighed. “You realize class is half over. You wouldn’t happen to have a pass, would you?”

  “Nope.” His usual seat in the back corner was taken up with the new kid again. Huh, he didn’t know his name. The desk in front of him was empty just like yesterday, so Dylan headed over, giving a slight nod of greeting to New Kid.

  “If you’re late to class one more time, I’m giving you detention and I’m calling your parents.”

  “Okay.” He really didn’t care. The rest of his classes were just things to sit through until he could get to Major Magical Control. New Kid had been put in that class for a reason, and he couldn’t wait until he found out what he could do. Maybe New Kid would be a bigger challenge than the fox sisters.

  The teacher sighed again and went back to her lesson. Blah, blah, Revolutionary War something. Dylan glanced back at New Kid. The dork was taking notes like it was the most important thing in the world. Dylan thought of how lost he’d looked in the lunchroom yesterday. The guy had turned as pale as a vampire when he was staring at the carnivore buffet. Dylan still wasn’t sure why he’d helped him or why he’d let the kid eat lunch with him.

  Because I’m lonely. He clamped down on that thought. He wasn’t lonely. He didn’t need anyone.

  He got proof of that in the hall after class. A girl walked by, stopped long enough to toss her hair and glare at him. He frowned, not recognizing her. Then he caught the flash of the necklace hanging just above her boobs, INDIRA spelled out in gold letters.

  “You got a new body.”

  “Do you like it?” She flipped her hair again, long and blond. Her eyes were blue, skin flawless and white. “Well, too bad. You’ll never get any of this.” She set a hand on her hip.

  Dylan rolled his eyes. “Whatever.” He walked away. They’d gone on a few dates last year, held hands and kissed a few times. Then he’d realized she was annoying and dumped her. They hadn’t really done anything, and she acted like it was a big deal.

  “Whatever yourself, asshole.”

  Several kids looked at him, then quickly looked away. Even as annoying as she was, he had to give Indira points for not being afraid of him. Her and the fox sisters… and New Kid. But New Kid didn’t know what he was.

  At lunch he claimed his usual table and looked around for New Kid, arguing with himself about whether he cared. Then he started to worry he’d scared him off with all the fire he’d thrown around yesterday. The poor guy was new to town and had probably just found out about all this weird shit.

  Then he appeared, carrying a tray and heading toward Dylan’s table. He hesitated, glanced around the lunchroom like he hoped to find someone. Had he made a friend since yesterday? After a moment, New Kid set his jaw and came over. His tray made a soft clack as he set it on the table.

  “So you can throw fire. And so can those girls,” New Kid said.

  “Did you guess yet?”

  He frowned. “Guess what?”

  “What I am?”

  New Kid waved a hand in the general direction of the room. “I don’t know what most of these people are.” Then he ducked, like he was afraid someone had overheard him.

  “What’s your name?”

  The change of subject seemed to confuse him. “Aiden.”

  “Well, Aiden, those are vampires.” He pointed to a group at one end of a table. “There and there are witches. Some like to use different names, like spell-caster or mage. Humans with magic powers. Over there are ghouls.” He shifted to point at the far side. “Werewolves. And over there are a selkie, a kappa, a harpy, two werehyenas, and a tengu.” He turned back to see Aiden staring.

  The boy blinked a few times. “Um, so… what are you?”

  “I want you to guess.” Dylan held up a finger. “No cheating. You can’t ask anyone. You have to figure it out some other way.”

  “Why?”

  He shrugged. “Because I’m bored.”

  Aiden took a bite of his pizza. His plate was full today, no more rabbit food. “Do you know what I am?”

  “No. But I bet I can figure it out before you figure out what I am.” The list of possibilities wasn’t too long if this guy had been put straight into Major Magical Control and yet didn’t know the first thing about magic.

  “Bet what?” Aiden looked skeptical.

  “Winner’s choice.”

  “No way. I’m not betting anything unless I know what it is.”

  Man, this guy was no fun. “Fine. The loser has to run through the hall in his underwear.”

  “I don’t want to do something that will get me in trouble.”

  “You won’t be naked. Just from the bathroom at the end of the hall”—he gestured in the general direction—“down and around and back in. Two minutes, if you’re fast.”

  Aiden poked at his food. “I don’t know.” His cheeks were slightly pink.

  “Well, you already sound like you’ve given up. If you’re so sure that you’re gonna lose—”

  “Okay fine, I’ll do it.” Aiden looked up. “Are you a demon?”

  “Nope.”

  “What if somebody says what I am? And you overhear them?”

  “Then nobody wins. Same thing if you overhear what I am.”

  “How do I know you’ll be honest about it?” Aiden frowned and picked up his pizza again.

  “Guess we’ll just have to trust each other.” It was nice to have someone not know what he was. Maybe that’s why he was bothering to talk to Aiden. Of course, now that Dylan had made a game out of guessing, that might not last long.

  * * *

  Aiden stopped in front of the locker room door, thinking about what had happened a few months ago. The way everyone had stared at him like he was going to go Carrie on them or something. Cold fear twisted inside him. What if it happened again?

  No, it was different here. That kind of thing was normal to these people. They’d probably think it was lame. Dylan and those girls could throw fire, that other girl had formed ice around her feet. One boy had summoned things of smoke, all the way from swords to a pair of snarling dogs.

  Taking a few deep breaths, Aiden made himself push through the door. He almost crashed into Dylan.

  “Whoa!”

  “Sorry.” Aiden stepped back.

  “Can’t wait to see what you can do.” Dylan’s eyes weren’t glowing, but there was an eager light in them. He was like a different person from the boy who slouched in front of him in homeroom.

  “I don’t think you’ll see much.” Aiden was nervous all over again, thinking about what he’d seen the day before. He couldn’t do anything like that and if someone threw fire or whatever at him, he’d be toast.

  Dylan left, and Aiden had to face a locker room again. It was different than the one at his old school, and that helped. There it had been bright white and blue. Here it was dim and gray. Creepy, like a scene from a horror movie. Aiden bit back a laugh. Everything about this school was like a horror movie.

  Someone shuffled around farther back, and a locker door slammed. Shouldn’t there be more boys in here? Aiden shook off the creepiness and found an empty locker. He changed as fast as he could and hurried into the gym.

  Dylan stood in the middle of the room, bouncing on his toes. Right, the possibility of getting roasted.

  Aiden went to the teacher. “Ms. Yang, I don’t think I can protect myself if anyone throws… stuff at me.”

  “Don�
�t worry. We’re not having matches today.” She pointed to the far side of the room where a row of targets leaned against the wall. “We’ll be working on precision. I won’t put you in matches until I believe you’re ready.”

  “Thanks.” He let out a little sigh of relief, but a moment later he felt guilty. So now he was holding the whole class up?

  Ms. Yang had them all line up opposite the targets and told them to work on accuracy. They let loose while Aiden stood there like an idiot. The boy who used smoke magic was next to him, firing smoke arrows from a smoke bow. The first arrow hit the edge of the target and disappeared, leaving a mark. Then the target shimmered and the mark was gone. Farther down, one of the fireball girls made her target burst into flame. A moment later, it shimmered too and looked like nothing had happened.

  Magical regenerating targets? That was… neat.

  Ms. Yang came over to him. “So, what have you been able to do so far?”

  “Nothing. I don’t know what I can do.”

  She smiled. “Don’t be nervous. I’m here to help you learn. Focus on the target.”

  Aiden stared at the red rings and the circle in the center. The ozone smell was sharper when he wasn’t sitting on the bench behind the wards, and the air tingled, making the hair on the back of his neck stand up. It must be all the magic.

  “Dig deep inside yourself. Find your center, where your power is. I want you to throw it at the target, just the raw energy. Don’t worry about the form it takes. It might help if you use a physical motion.” She put her hands up, palms out at chest level, and pushed like she was shoving someone away from her.

  He copied her. “Like this?”

  “Any way that helps. Try different things. Do your best to ignore everything going on around you and focus.”

  For the rest of class he made shoving motions, kicking motions, punching motions. He tried closing his eyes, staring at the target, yelling. All he got was frustrated and sweaty.

  “You can try again tomorrow, Aiden.” Ms. Yang half-turned and shouted over her shoulder, “I said that’s it, Dylan. Class is over.”