“Um, Anwen…” he turned to the girl who’d appeared to be really talkative during the lecture. “This is my girlfriend, Hespera.”
“And how do you know each other?” Hespera looked enraged.
“Oh, uh, you see, Anwen actually came up to me asking about the dean’s office.”
What? When did she do that?
“Oh, yes,” Anwen said, trying to gather herself. “That’s exactly how we met. I was asking for directions—that’s it.” She said, unsure.
“So, what was it you wanted to talk about?” he wiggled his brows at her expectantly, waiting to get on with his other engagements which were seemingly way more important than the current impromptu.
“Hmm,” caught by surprise, Anwen tried to recall whatever it was she came there for. What could she say? Given the circumstances, with his horribly pretty girlfriend around it’d be inappropriate to talk about the date…and what’s more, it didn’t seem like he was interested in discussing anything with her. “I just stopped by to thank you for the directions.” She lowered her eyes at the level of their sneakers. “And that I’m sorry…” she said and ran away.
So childish!
Sure, Anwen must have left them really confused.
Eudora didn’t ask further questions. One thing she was good at, she never became annoying at the wrong time.
She ran to her room and opened the door, the cat meowed at her feet. Like, she just wanted to apologize and maybe ask for a second date, but he had acted like they hadn’t shared a moment together whatsoever. How could he ignore her like that?
Augh, whatever.
Maybe dredging her love life from imagination to reality was probably a bad idea, after all. At least, on her mind, he couldn’t hurt her, since she was the one designing the events and the developments. But in reality, she was capable of none of it. She barely could be in control of her own behavior.
“I won’t allow him to treat you like that. You deserve better.”
“I do?” she looked at her roommate.
“Now that was horrible, even by my standards.”
“I know right? How could he not remember?”
“Honey, he did,” she looked at her as if she was a naïve pussycat. “He was manipulating you,” she turned her eyes on one side and added, “or maybe he was manipulating his bitchy pretty girlfriend.”
“I can’t even figure out how I’m gonna be able to even lay eyes on him from now on.”
“You won’t.”
“That’s not an option,” Anwen criticized her, stubbornly.
“He has got to pay for that, and I know just the way to make it happen.” There was a devilish glisten in Eudora’s eyes, and Anwen stared at it in the most gullible way possible.
Chapter Six
“Pass the rat’s tail.”
“Here.”
“Now the raven’s feather.”
“I’m not sure which one it is… Hmm, but…”
“Just give it to me.”
“Okay.”
“I need two flasks of unicorn tears.”
“Got it.”
“Another one of dog dribble.”
“M-hmm.”
“And finally the frog.”
“Yepp.”
Reading bossily the elements of this ointment, they were trying to create a spell, and they’d use it on Harvey. But boy was it complicated. She was reading all the elements and Anwen was giving them to her in a hurry.
“God, this is getting outta control,” Anwen yelled at the cauldron and the orange beverage materialized, with a lot of bubbles on top of it.
“Don’t sweat it,” Eudora told her off firmly. “It’s fine.”
“And tell me again, how am I supposed to make him drink that?”
“Augh,” she groaned, tired of her never-ending wonder. “You’ll get him into drinking it.”
“Um, hello, have you noticed how he doesn't even bother to talk to me? How is he going to sip this suspicious liquid? This is nuts.”
“Give me some credit. Do you really think I would put up with this insufferably complex ointment just to let you ruin everything?”
"Agree to disagree," she added. "But looking at your expression right now, I’d rather leave it at that."
“Good choice,” Eudora said.
Anwen looked at the green frog that she was holding, which was trying to escape. Silly frog, she thought; the only place nearby was the cauldron. Eudora was stirring the content of the cauldron with a wooden stick.
“And now put the frog in,” she ordered.
Just letting go of it, the frog managed to make its way into the orange liquid all by itself.
"Perfect. Now, all we have to do is wait for the water to tranquilize."
It’d probably require a lot more time than it did in the lecture experiment. After all, they were not professional witches who could create a complicated spell. Anwen couldn’t deny that she was surprised by the way in which Eudora organized the whole thing, even though she still wasn’t sure if it was a good idea.
Eudora was so convinced that Harvey needed to be punished for the way he treated Anwen in the hallways. So, with the help of her book, Eudora managed to come up with a magical spell that could make Harvey fall in love with Anwen. Well, at least that was the intention.
Now, was it extremely inappropriate and deranged to go along with this?
Absolutely.
Did she know that it was totally wrong and probably illegal to do such a thing?
Of course.
Then why did she become a part of this?
Well, she’d better not answer that question.
“So how do you plan on getting Harvey into drinking this?”
“Page 724, third line.” She kept stirring, untroubled.
“Huh?”
“The book,” Eudora pointed with her chin.
“Oh,” Anwen shrugged and ruffled through the book and kept reading. “How to make someone do what you want them to do? So that’s how you came up with this in the first place. You knew he was going to oblige.”
"Of course, silly. You see, I don't trust you, no offense…"
“None taken.”
“And I couldn’t let you convince him to drink some weird orange bubbly juice you'd offer. Because first, he hates you and second, no one in their right mind would be tricked into drinking this." She pointed at the beverage.
“He doesn’t hate me.” She insisted.
“You could tell yourself that to feel better,” Eudora said, uninvolved. How did she manage to do that?
And how did she manage to be so cruel?
Apricot lingered at the end of her feet and walked around her in a circle. And it occurred to her that the liquid was almost ready by now. There were just a few bubbles floating nearby the surface. She couldn’t even help but feel insecure. The cat scuffled near the cauldron.
“Would you be dear and keep that thing away from me?” Eudora hissed.
“Don’t call him that,” Anwen pouted, and brought the cat to her arms, holding him endearingly.
The cat hissed at Eudora. It could be the understatement of the whole school year. They didn’t get along obviously and Anwen couldn’t do anything about that. She’d tried everything but nothing worked. Eudora was settled, she didn’t want to have anything to do with that freakish, black thing, as she’d called him. Now, how dare she? Apricot was nothing but a lovely piece of fur that didn’t have anything but love to spread, at least when it came to his owner. But Anwen was already confused by that whole scheming thing and wasn’t sure if she could handle two concerns at once.
“And now it’s already,” Eudora noted excitedly, poring at the flask in her hand. “Here comes the enchanting spell.”
Hurrying to her book, holding the glassware in one hand, she managed to ruffle through the pages of the book.
“Invitus ago proinde.” She said and a whirling halo seemed to swirl
around the flask and a second later, it disappeared without them being able to realize what was happening. "Now you're ready," she turned to Anwen. "Just hold the ointment and get in touch with him. First, he may try to act intrusively, but when you offer him this liquid, he's gonna drink it without question, because it is charmed. So he may not want it, he may even refuse it, but he won't help it and drink it anyways. Make sure to give him the ointment before you screw things up and he casts you out. Because he’s not affected by you, only by the ointment and he can throw you away anytime, but he cannot throw away the liquid.”
“Okay,” she said insecurely, drenched into doubt.
“I think it’s better to try the ointment on someone else beforehand and see if it works. You heard the faculty. It requires a professional witch to do such magic since it can turn into some other unimaginable thing at any time.”
“I thought you didn’t pay attention to lectures.” Anwen mocked. “But who could we possibly try it out on.”
“I’ve got an idea,” a devilish smile joined her face, as she was keeping her eyes at the level of Anwen’s hands.
“Oh, no. No, no, no, no, no.” Anwen yelled defensively. Not that they’d spent a lot of time together, but Eudora knew how her roommate went all crazy went it came to her pet. Still, though, her protective ways freaked her out. “Apricot’s not some laboratory rat that we can use to try the ointment, especially when it is prepared by you.”
“Oh, thanks.” Eudora tried to act like her feelings were hurt. A total failure. “I work my ass off to get on with this crazy scheme and now not only do you not appreciate it, but you manage to bring up offensive comments in the air.”
“Hm, excuse me. Who came up with this whole idea?”
“I did it for you.”
“However, don’t forget that you put this up and dragged me into doing it.”
“You know, you’re a stubborn-headed freak, and your ungratefulness is starting not to surprise me anymore. Hmm, you’re welcome!”
Anwen didn’t respond. She kept petting her cat, trying to ignore Eudora’s gabbling.
“Now shall we proceed?” all that anger seemed to vanish instantly as Eudora kept going on. "I did my part here. Now it's up to you to not screw things up and bring this plan to life successfully.”
“Hmm,” Anwen hesitated.
Anwen tried to not overthink it, knowing that if she went into detail, what she was about to do would seem so wrong. So she decided to stay uninvolved and she went along with it.
Was that an appropriate way to behave?
Absolutely not.
But had college life made everything more complicated for her?
Well, obviously.
So that made sense.
She tried to convince Eudora to companion her as she was trying to find Harvey, but Eudora had already made up her mind to companion Anwen regardless. Eudora just needed to make sure that her roommate wouldn’t screw things up.
"Are you sure this is gonna work?" Trembling, Anwen asked her when she spotted him hanging around with his friends on the bench by the anchor light across the other part of the lawn.
“Now why do you even ask that question? You know I’m not sure.” Eudora whispered, looking at Harvey.
That’s reassuring, Anwen thought.
Waiting for his friends to leave, they observed how fun these guys were having. Watching them have so much fun made it easier for Anwen to go along with her plan. She wanted that, she wanted to have fun and enjoy this experience in her life. But she wasn’t going to enjoy her college life with Harvey on her wrong side. Because he was one of the people who mattered at the academy. And if he hated Anwen, it meant that the whole college hated her too. And she couldn’t have that. She couldn’t have her college experience turn into a total disaster right off the bat.
“What are you doing?” asked Anwen when she noticed her friend texting on her phone while in the middle of this very complex and awkward activity.
“You’ll see,” she smiled, and Anwen brought her attention back to Harvey’s friends, who to her surprise were now walking away from him.
“Wow, how did this happen?”
“You so underestimate me sometimes,” she smiled, and it took Anwen a second to realize what she was talking about. She looked down at the phone to see the group message that Eudora had sent to all his friends, except Harvey.
MEET ME AT THE OFFICE.
–DEAN FLINSTONE.
Anwen smiled, sometimes Eudora came up with the best of ideas.
“Now go talk to him,” Eudora said.
“What about you?”
“I’m gonna see the whole thing in detail from here,” she said, while they were snooping together under a tree.
“And you’re gonna be okay?”
“It’s not me I’m worried about.” Eudora frowned at her.
Hesitantly, Anwen wandered towards the bench, while Harvey was fixated on his phone, she tried not to weigh her actions too much. She knew, if she as much as gave this a second thought, she would definitely draw back, and Eudora would be so pissed, since she’d spent nearly the whole afternoon stirring the cauldron and convincing Anwen how awesome this idea was.
This time, for a brief second, he drew back from his phone and laid eyes on the area around, without expecting to see Anwen in front of him. So on the fence, he tried to avoid looking at her, but their eyes were already fixed upon each other. And then he tried to figure out how he was going to react to what was about to happen.
Well, that was awkward.
However, Anwen kept walking forward. It seemed like the unbearable, torturous energy that he caused her to feel, made her so tempestuous, to the point where the whole uncertainty she was dealing with disappeared. She couldn’t really handle two problems at once, so she decided to only deal with the easiest one, that is trying to act naturally.
One thing at a time.
“Hey,” she greeted him, her voice shaking.
“Hey,” he repeated, doing his best to smile, as much awkward as this was.
Aw, if she compared her relationship with Harvey in her head and the one in reality, she would most definitely choose the imaginary one.
“What’s up?” he asked.
“Well, actually…” what could she say? Actually, she had a lot of things that she wanted to discuss with him, but she better hushed, since according to her roommate she’d screw things up if she had it her way. "You know, just trying to fit in the new life."
“It’s cool, isn’t it?” his voice was so careless now as if they were lifelong friends—well, they were, only not in this dimension.
“Huh?” she lost in her thoughts while looking at the little flask in her hand and that was enough to anchor her into this confusion.
“Look, about last day…” he proceeded.
“What about it?” She said hurriedly, fearing that somehow, with anything she could say, she might destroy this well-detailed plan.
“I didn’t mean to be so rude…”
“Nah, it’s fine.”
Was she okay or had this awkward atmosphere made her so stupid?
Of course, she wasn’t meant to say anything stupid that could distract him since she didn't want to ruin her plan. She just had to get it over with.
Harvey should sip the ointment and fall in love with her.
That was the whole plan.
“Really?” he raised an eyebrow and smiled, confusedly.
“Yep, don’t sweat it.” Anwen tried to sound convincing.
“Oh,” he frowned.
This was awkward enough. She didn’t want him to say anything else, so she thought it best to give him the ointment and then get it over with.
She brought her hand out of her pocket and pulled the flask out, reaching toward the desk and offering him the juice.
“You can drink this, you know.” Aww, her voice was so unsure, trying not to overthink it. Actually, she wasn't tryin
g to think anything at all.
She could notice him frowning and his hand hesitating to do so, but against his will, he reached his hand out, trying to get hold of the flask. But when he was about to sip the ointment, Anwen came to realize that this was not okay, and nothing good would come out of it.
“No,” she yelled and extended both her hands to grab the ointment off his hands, as it occurred to her that if Harvey sipped on it, it wouldn’t make her feel any better.
Besides his arrogant behavior, she still wanted to hold tight to the Harvey she’d created on her mind, who was caring and compassionate. And it didn’t feel right to trick him into loving her, after all. It was not right! And even she could tell that. She either had him love her genuinely than enforce him into it.
Trying to draw back from the plan, she tried to grab his hands, touching his fingers in order to get the ointment off of him, though it seemed to have been too late, since as the professor had said, it required only a single taste and the effect of the potion could be immediate.
That’s what occurred in front of her eyes.
What she was witnessing at that moment made her cringe.
She put her hands to her mouth, shocked by the spell. It seemed inexplicable and confusing. The entire experiment they performed in the class came back to her mind.
First, his hands turned into a consolidated, grey, firm material that was immovable. Then like a virus this thing spread to his arms and body, moving hurriedly just like a wave and in no time he became solidified.
With her hands to her mouth, Anwen remained speechless and shocked.
Hurriedly, Eudora ran to her and looked at the outcome.
“What did I do?” Anwen yelled.
Eudora put her hand on Anwen’s shoulder, trying to calm her down.
“Just stay calm. We’ll figure something out.” She said, though she was just as horrified as her roommate.
“How? I petrified him.”
“No, you did not. I prepared the ointment.”
“And I was okay with it.”
“Come on. We can’t stay here looking at him like this. It can probably get us both expelled, and the college has barely started.”
“We can’t leave him here. It’s very suspicious.” Anwen whispered.
An Academy for Witches (A Witch in Progress Book 1) Page 4