Not after this.
“I don’t think this was her, though,” Kiera said carefully. She looked around, as though she didn’t want to be overheard, which was strange since there was such a big group of people here. What could she possibly have to say that she didn’t want anyone to overhear? All around us, people were gossiping about last year and what could have happened. They were talking about everyone who had managed to get turned into different kinds of creatures.
Okay, last year had been weird in more ways than one.
“Why not?” I asked, motioning toward the little creatures. A few of them were sitting perfectly still, but every so often, one of them would run and try to get away. A couple of the students were trying to catch them. Most of us were just standing around, wondering what had happened.
“Somebody call for the headmistress!” A student yelled out. A couple of fairies hurried off toward the main office, but I turned back to my friends.
“It’s got her work written all over it,” I said. Who else did we know that turned people into hamsters? No one. As far as I knew, no other student had ever tried that. Yeah, shapeshifting was a part of life at Hybrid Academy, but most of the time, people who shifted were, well, shifters. It was unusual for people to transform each other into different creatures. Aside from Patricia’s act of aggression toward me, it had also been done by a couple of magical chess players, and then there had been transformations that happened the year before I arrived, but oh, those were things of legend.
“I don’t know,” Kiera said. “I mean, Patricia is mean, to be sure, but she also didn’t turn anyone into a hamster for blatant attention. You made her mad, so she reacted. She didn’t go out of her way to do it, if that makes sense.” She shrugged.
It did, in a weird sort of way. I didn’t like to admit that my friend might be right, but there was a chance that she was correct, at least about this. There was a chance that Patricia was not behind turning twenty students into furry little hamsters of multiple colors and sizes. There was a chance that she was innocent.
But there was also a chance that she was responsible.
I wasn’t about to leave any stone unturned when it came to finding out who did this. If it was Patricia, then we’d need to have a serious talk. This was my second year at Hybrid Academy, and I wanted it to be a good one. I wasn’t about to let someone bully the students here. Not when it came to something like being able to attend classes in human form. Besides, something told me that these students hadn’t asked to be turned into hamsters. Someone had done this to them against their will, and that so wasn’t okay.
“Where is she, anyway?” I asked, looking around.
“Haven’t seen her today,” Henry said.
“Me neither,” Kiera added. “Which is unlike her.”
I had to admit she was right. Patricia was known for being the center of attention. Like many demons, she loved having people look at her. She loved causing mischief and having people know that she was responsible. She absolutely adored it.
“If she had done this, she’d want to take credit for her handiwork.”
We all exchanged knowing glances.
Patricia wasn’t here to laugh at the situation or to accept responsibility. As far as I knew, she wasn’t the kind of girl who was going to let another person take credit for her work. So if she hadn’t turned a bunch of kids into rodents, then who had?
And where were they now?
More importantly, how were we going to get all of these students turned back into humans by the end of the day? I didn’t know a transformation spell. I doubted anyone else did, either. Well, except maybe for the headmistress or the nurse, but they were just two people. It could take hours, if not days, to get the students back to their normal selves.
“All right, break it up,” we turned at the sound of Headmistress Gregory’s voice. She was followed closely behind by Mr. Brax and Miss Roe.
“What happened?” Mr. Brax asked. “What’s everyone standing around for? We were called for an emergency. Where’s the emergency? What’s the problem?” Then he saw the hamsters and instantly sighed. For just a very brief moment, the talkative teacher fell silent. Then he took a deep breath. “Has anyone seen Patricia?” He asked.
“She isn’t here,” one of the students offered.
“No one has seen her,” another said.
“Figures,” Mr. Brax shook his head and looked at Miss Roe. “Last year, we had several incidences involving hamster spells.” He reached for his head and rubbed his temples, as though he couldn’t believe it. He looked as though he had some sort of headache coming on, and I almost felt sorry for the guy.
Almost.
He wasn’t the one who had been turned into a hamster, after all. That was something I’d personally experienced, so the people I felt the worst for were the hamsters themselves.
“Really?” Miss Roe chuckled. “How fascinating. Perhaps we’ll practice writing similar spells in my class this year.” She looked down at the hamsters with what appeared to be absolute delight. She looked happy to see them. She looked content. If I had to guess, I’d say that Miss Roe was something of an animal lover.
Instantly, my curiosity was aroused. That’s right. Miss Roe was teaching a class on how to write your own magical spells. That was going to be very interesting indeed. I wanted to know more about that. Maybe a class about writing spells could be beneficial for someone like me. Maybe it could help me with my own magical skills.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Mr. Brax, ever the pessimist, said. He shook his head. Mr. Brax enjoyed teaching students how to use spells, but he was also a firm believer that students should know how to do things “in the real world,” too. We had spent a lot of time talking about tonics and potions in his class last year, as well as practical first aid skills.
Mr. Brax didn’t exactly think that students were adept or trustworthy enough to actually write spells, though.
Miss Roe didn’t seem to have that same opinion.
She cocked her head and seemed to consider what he was saying, but then she just shrugged.
“Well, I suppose we’ll see. Let’s get the hamsters,” she said. Together, the teachers and students picked up the hamsters and then trailed off to take them to the infirmary. I wondered how many hours the teachers would spend working to get each student changed back into their human form. I shivered. I didn’t mind hamsters in general, but I had hated being one. I’d felt so small and so cold. Everything had seemed loud and overwhelming. I hadn’t realized until then just how big the entire world really was. When I’d transformed back into my human self, I promised myself I’d never take things for granted again.
“If anyone finds a loose hamster, bring them down,” Headmistress Gregory said loudly, looking around.
“Aye-aye,” Henry said, offering a little salute. Alicia Gregory smiled and looked at him for a moment, but then she just smiled and shook her head.
“Put a shirt on,” she said pointedly. “And you would do well to wear some shoes, too.”
Without another word, she turned and left. Henry looked down at himself in feigned surprise, as though he couldn’t figure out what had happened to his clothes or where they’d run off to. As far as anyone knew, he’d planned to walk around in only jeans.
Alicia Gregory’s response to Henry was a little confusing to me, though. Did she know he wasn’t a student? As far as I knew, I was the only person who realized Henry was both my pet cat and my friend. Miss Gregory was obviously clever, though. She was smart enough to run Hybrid Academy and keep it running seamlessly for years. Part of me doubted that anything got past her.
Maybe she could see through the fact that Henry wasn’t supposed to be here. He hadn’t paid tuition, he didn’t really attend classes, and he definitely didn’t live in the boys’ dormitory. Then again, it was a big school. Maybe the look she gave him was just part of my imagination. Maybe Henry really was doing the perfect job blending in.
May
be.
Once all of the hamsters were gone, Kiera looked at the space where they’d been. It was empty. There wasn’t so much as a little puff of fur left behind.
“Who do you think did it?” She asked.
I didn’t have an answer. Patricia seemed like the obvious choice, but then again, Patricia had been cocky. At least, she had been last year. I knew that people could change, but not really about stuff like this. She was the type of woman who wanted people to know how smart she was. Casting a big spell and then running off? That wasn’t her style. It never had been.
“Better question: why?” Henry said. He looked around and shook his head. “School hasn’t even officially started yet. Not until Monday. So why is someone causing problems before anything’s even begun?”
Hybrid Academy wasn’t exactly a drama-filled school. Oh, it was basically like a college for magical people, but I always got the impression that it was generally full of students who were driven, brave, and goal-oriented. We all wanted to be something one day. We all wanted to break out of where we were in our lives.
None of us wanted to deal with troublemakers. That wasn’t what the school was about. If classes hadn’t even started yet and someone was already doing things like turning people into hamsters, that was bad. It meant that the schoolyear wasn’t going to go smoothly. It wasn’t going to be neat and tidy. It was going to be rough and tricky and there were going to be obstacles.
Just thinking about the hamster situation made me feel exhausted. Traveling had taken the better part of the day and I was completely worn out and tired. Everyone was. Even Kiera had dark circles under her eyes, which was almost unheard of for a fae. She’d traveled longer and farther than I had. I was a little surprised that she wasn’t already holed up in her bed.
“I think I want to go back to the dorms,” I said.
“Good idea. We’ll hang out in the lounge so that Henry can come, too,” Kiera said. “Come on.”
It seemed as though the rest of the student body had followed the teachers to the infirmary because we were the only ones headed in this direction. We went into the dormitory to find the first floor almost completely isolated. There was no more luggage. There were no more people. There was nothing.
“What do you want to do?” Henry asked. He darted forward and leapt over the back of a couch. He landed precisely in the center of the cushions and let out a sound that could only be construed as catlike. It was the closest sound to a purr I’d never heard a human make. He closed his eyes, relaxing, and I had to admit that despite not being a “real” Hybrid Academy student, he seemed to fit right in with the rest of the student body.
Kiera looked at him, cocking her head. For a moment, I thought that the ruse might be up. Maybe she realized he was a cat. She opened her mouth, but then she quickly closed it. Then she just shrugged.
“I’m taking Potions and Poetry. I’m supposed to write a poem before the first class,” she said with a shrug. “Do you want to help me?”
“Yep,” I said. “Let’s go to one of the practice rooms.”
At the end of the lounge, there were several empty rooms that students who lived in the dorms could use for working on projects. There was a room specifically designed for potions, one designed for spells, and one that could be used for shifting. I’d spent more time in that room than I cared to admit. Learning to shift into a wolf and back again wasn’t as easy as it sounded.
We headed into one of the practice rooms. Henry came along, too. Kiera pulled out her notebooks and wand. I had my wand, as well, and I pulled it out and began to twirl it.
“Henry,” Kiera said, almost exasperated. “Where’s your wand?”
“Not today,” he said, shaking his head. “I’m just here to watch and observe.” He made himself comfortable on a pile of cushions in the corner. He leaned against the wall with his hands behind his head. If Kiera thought he was being strange, she ignored it. I knew that his cocky behavior was simply because he didn’t actually have a wand because he wasn’t actually a student. More than that, he hadn’t had any sort of magical training because he’d spent his life being my familiar: not attending wizard school.
“Probably the same place your shirt and shoes went, huh?” Kiera raised an eyebrow. If Henry was bothered by Kiera’s words or her obvious questions about his choice of apparel, he said nothing.
I wondered when Henry would reveal himself to Kiera, or if he ever would. Would I graduate from Hybrid Academy at the end of my time here without anyone realizing I had a shapeshifter as a familiar? Is that something that anyone would find concerning? More importantly, is that something I could really get away with?
Henry enjoyed being in his cat form. He liked the freedom that came with being a familiar. Sometimes I wondered if he’d enjoy being an official student, though. He’d gone to quite a few of my classes with me last year. He understood all of the first-year material.
What if Henry attended as a student?
“Earth to Max,” Kiera said, drawing my attention back.
“Oh, sorry,” I said, realizing she’d been speaking to me. I’d been so busy spacing off and thinking about Henry that I hadn’t been listening to what she was saying. “What did you say?”
Kiera rolled her eyes, but then she repeated the line of the poem she had been working on.
“Hmm,” I said, trying to focus. I had so many thoughts bouncing around my head that it was harder than it should have been. I wanted to know who was responsible for the hamsters. I wanted to know who my roommate was. I wanted to know where Patricia had run off to. I wanted to know who had managed to copy her spell.
“Should I use procured or acquired when I talk about the flowers?” Kiera asked. She scratched her head. “Which one sounds more…witchy?”
“Definitely procured,” I said. Her poem sounded nice. I wondered what activity they were going to do in class with it. Maybe they’d practice creating their own spells or perhaps they would just learn about the importance of choosing the perfect word.
The thing about language was that having a word that was “close” wasn’t the same as having a word that was “perfect.” If you were going to write a spell, you needed to make sure that you chose the perfect word and not just a word that sounded good enough.
At least, that was my opinion.
What did I know?
I wasn’t the teacher.
Kiera and I took turns saying her poem out loud. Then we ran through some other witching exercises. Henry curled up on the cushions in the corner and soon he fell asleep. After awhile, his gentle snores filled the room.
“He’s an interesting guy,” Kiera said, whispering. She jerked her head toward Henry, as if she could be talking about any other guy. There was no one else around.
“I know,” I said, agreeing with her.
“No,” she shook her head. “He’s an interesting guy. I mean, I never see him in classes. I didn’t see him in the halls much last year, either.”
“So?”
Kiera looked at him with suspicion.
“So,” she said. “Be careful, Max. I think there’s a lot we don’t know about this guy. I think he’s hiding something.”
“I’m certain you’re overreacting,” I told her. “Henry wouldn’t hurt a fly.”
She shrugged. “Maybe not, but something really weird happened today, and I have a feeling it’s not going to be the only mystery we encounter this year at Hybrid Academy.”
Chapter 6
The first few weeks of school were uneventful. It was a little strange, honestly, after such an intense start. I figured that there would be more dangerous and mysterious events that happened, but as it turned out, the only bad or mysterious things I had to deal with were incredibly boring amounts of homework.
Every night after my classes finished, I’d sit in my room and practice writing spells. The journal Aunt Erin gave me proved to be useful. I actually did start to look forward to writing in it. I was a little reluctant at first, but soon I f
ound myself pouring my heart out into the little notebook.
Life at Hybrid Academy: Day 20. We still don’t know who turned everyone into little animals, but most of the students seem to have forgotten about it. After just a few weeks of school, everyone has slowly found their own routines and we’ve all gotten used to our new schedules for the year. Kiera and I spend a lot of time practicing our spells. I can open doors pretty much perfectly now and I’m even learning some defensive spells! Grandmother would be so proud. I can’t wait to show her.
Sometimes I’d go to Kiera’s room and write with her and her roommate. Sometimes we’d have competitions to see who could complete their homework the fastest. Most of the time, Kiera won. I blamed her experience growing up in a really magical household, but the reality was that Kiera was just a better student than me.
She worked hard for her grades and she deserved the good ones that she got.
Me?
I struggled.
By the time I’d get back to my room and collapse into bed, it would be late, which was weird because my roommate was never there. Ever. She was gone when I woke up and gone when I got back from classes and gone all of the time in-between.
I knew that I had a roommate because I was assigned a double room. Her things were all there, too, when I moved in. Sometimes I would check and sure enough, they’d move around from place to place. Sometimes her hairbrush, for example, would be next to the sink. Sometimes it would be on her bed.
Her bed was always made, and she was never there.
Was she avoiding me?
Was she shy?
I didn’t know.
For a brief moment, I worried that my assigned roommate had been turned into a hamster and had somehow gotten away, but Headmistress Gregory had assured everyone that the students who had been shifted into hamsters had all been successfully turned back. Fortunately, that meant I didn’t need to worry about my roommate’s health. I just needed to worry about why she was never around.
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