Hawthorn Academy- Year Two

by D. R. Perry

  "Just a sec." I went to pull my hair back but realized I didn't have an elastic.

  "Here." Faith handed me a familiar-looking one.

  "Thanks for letting me borrow—"

  "That's your lucky one, remember? I'm returning it. Now put your hair up, and let's go."

  I did. We went.

  Izzy played reverse point instead of Jonah, who remained in the infirmary with my brother. I'd taken Noah's place as first defense, with Faith off reserves at my usual mid position. Before the starting whistle, Dylan glanced at me. He said nothing, but the puffy redness around his eyes spoke volumes. We shared this grief.

  "For Noah," I said.

  He nodded.

  Elanor did the coin toss with Izzy, and Messing got first throw.

  The cestus the psychics wore gave their orbs colors. On the surface, the gameplay looked the same, but it felt totally different for one major reason: none of the psychic energy mingled with our elemental magic. That meant we couldn’t absorb orbs. They either bounced off or canceled each other out.

  That was how it had always worked for the Messing kids, who seemed used to it. We suffered due to the learning curve. A psychic orb bounced off Dylan's ice defense, tagging Faith out on the first throw, but after that, we didn't repeat the mistake. All the same, we lost the first match against Messing.

  Fortunately, today was best two out of three. We won the second match quickly but by the skin of our teeth, still adapting to the gameplay difference. It was a real nail-biter, with just Izzy and Elanor left at the end.

  The third game went much longer. Faith hung in for a long time, undeath magic enhancing her endurance, but in the end she went out, taking their second defense with her. Messing still had four players, with their remaining mid left recharging her orb. Only Dylan, Elanor, and I remained on our side. It looked bleak. As soon as Izzy finished her conjure, we'd be toast unless we played perfectly.

  Messing's last salvo before Elanor's final gambit was a trio of orbs thrown at the same time. I got tagged out leaping into the air to absorb two with my body and left the last for Dylan, the only way for two defense to counter three throws at once.

  That was a move Noah would be proud of.

  "Thanks."

  "You're welcome?" Messing's first defense blinked.

  The buzzer sounded. Izzy was out, tagged by Elanor's throw. We'd won.

  Everything else about our victory went by in a blur of purple and gold. I only remember the roar of the crowd, a sense of being carried, and Elanor's face: a smile on lips under tear-streaked eyes, embracing Coach Pickman.

  All of us celebrated and mourned at the same time in some way. Dylan alone, howling with his face turned heavenward. Lee off the bench, leaning on Izzy's shoulders, the green and orange of her uniform clashing with his. Faith sobbing openly, her arm linked with mine. My eyes had no more tears, so I cried on the inside.

  Like everything else for me that day, the victory was hollow. In the locker room, that same sense of futile routine motion took over. Shower, dry, change. Head out. I avoided looking in the direction of the gender-neutral area, but a flutter of yellow caught my eye there.

  "Police line, do not cross." I read.

  "Come on, Aliyah." Dylan linked hands with me. "You don't need to be here."

  He led me back out into the now-empty gym.

  "I've had a crush on you." I blurted. "For ages."

  "I'm gay."

  We stopped, let go, and stared at each other. I blinked first.

  "But Grace?"

  "That was awkward because I loved her, but physically, nothing was there."

  "I get it." I nodded. "You can be in love without sex."

  "I'm surprised you understand."

  "It's the way I feel about you."

  "Aliyah.” He shook his head. “You're like a sister."

  "I'll live." I nodded. "I'm going to the infirmary. Come with me?"

  "Sure."

  We stopped at the cafe for sandwiches, got them to go, and headed down.

  The only other person in the room with Noah was Dorian, who slept on his side, hooked up to some kind of beeping machine. Professor Luciano’s strix perched on the headboard, head under her wing. A white box sat on his bedside table, surrounded by flowers. I'd seen one of those every time Bubbe lost a patient. Mercy was inside. Her earthly remains, anyway.

  "Where's Jonah?" I blinked back tears. "Didn't Stephanie save him?"

  "Salem Jail." Noah sighed. "They arrested him because of my new sun allergy."

  "Tempe forced you!" Dylan slammed his hand on the bedside table. "Don't they make exceptions for that here?"

  "Did." I leaned back in my chair. "During and right after the Reveal, but those days are long gone, and the laws changed."

  "Jonah’s stuck unless Tempe’s convicted of coercing him. You need a permit ahead of time and clear consent with witnesses when it happens." Noah picked at the edge of his blanket. "Believe me, I checked. Recently."

  "What about you?" Dylan asked. "Will they let you out in time for the game tomorrow?"

  "They're giving me blood every half hour. New vamps need that until their bodies adjust to being undead." He sighed. "It usually takes twenty-four hours, but even when I'm out, I can't play."

  "Why not?"

  "I have to leave Hawthorn." He closed his eyes. "No vampire students allowed. The only reason I'm still on campus is that it's dangerous to move me for at least the next eight hours."

  "Headmaster Hawkins wouldn't kick you out."

  "He didn't." Alex Onassis walked through the door, holding a bouquet of lilies. "The Board of Trustees makes the rules for admission. All the headmaster decides on his own is faculty, staff, and events. The board’s meeting after the game with Gallows Hill. They might vote to replace him."

  "What are you doing here?" Noah's eyes gleamed red.

  "These are for Dorian." He crossed the room, placing the flowers in a jar at Dorian's bedside. "I was about to head in there last night. He stopped me and sent me to get a professor because I could run faster."

  "It would have been me in that bed.” Alex turned his back on us and sniffled before continuing, “Asceco in that box. I owe Dorian Spanos an enormous debt, so leave me alone, Noah."

  "He saved us too, then." I sniffled. "Because Professor Luciano wouldn't have gotten there in time without either of them."

  "And I called him selfish." Dylan hung his head. "Lazy. A coward."

  "Jerk," Dorian croaked.

  "What?" Dylan looked up.

  Dorian reached for water but missed. Alex got it for him. After taking a sip, he spoke again.

  "You forgot ‘jerk.’"

  "Yeah, I did." Dylan looked up. "And I'm sorry. It was easier to blame you for my problems instead of dealing with them."

  "Dorian, I'm so sorry." I stood, clenching my fists. "You might not know it yet—"

  "Mercy's gone." He closed his eyes, cradling the water glass in his hands. "The headmaster told me last night."

  "Oh. Thought you just woke up."

  "Nah."

  "What's the beepy thing for then?" Dylan asked.

  "Heart monitor." Dorian opened his eyes. "It stopped."

  "Dude." Dylan blinked.

  "I was dead for like thirty seconds."

  Everyone sniffled, noses and faces wet—even Alex.

  "Guys, it's okay." One corner of his mouth turned up. "Nobody can beat me in the goth cred department now."

  "You're taking all this extremely well." Noah raised an eyebrow.

  "No. With snark is how I take everything." He set the glass down. "But mostly, it's because your grandma visited this morning for over an hour while they fed Noah in the other room."

  "Ah." I nodded.

  "Now, if you all wouldn't mind keeping it down, me and my resuscitated ticker need more rest." He jerked a thumb at the strix on the headboard. “And the weird owl, too.”

  Noah shooed us out, insisting he was just getting to the good part in the late
st installment of his favorite space opera series. We left our friends in whatever peace they could salvage.

  We played Gallows Hill the next day, trouncing them rapidly in two matches. I'm not sure whether we had more ferocity because of Noah's being kicked out or if Brianna's team just didn't have the heart to compete after all the tragedy.

  Azrael was especially off his game, which wasn't surprising when I thought about it later. He'd grown up idolizing Noah and had been excited about competing against him on the court. Without that aspect, he lost focus.

  After the final whistle, Brianna rushed over and hugged each of us in turn instead of the usual post-game series of handshakes. All of the other Gallows Hill players followed suit, even Crow, who swallowed his bad-boy demeanor for once. At the end of the line, when I came to Bar, he lifted me off the ground.

  "Your friends, your brother, and your professor deserved better than what they got. I’m sorry, Aliyah." He put me back down.

  As the crowd dispersed, that hollow feeling returned, but Logan came over and stood by my side.

  “Whatever happens, I’m here.”

  He took my hand and squeezed, gaze on the floor away from my face. Eye contact wasn’t the same for him as other people, but that little hand squeeze was worth a thousand intensely cinematic gazes. It gave me just as much comfort as hugging Noah back in the locker room in the wake of all that tragedy.

  “Thanks, Logan.” I squeezed back. “For everything.”

  I could end by telling you that Grace got hired on all summer at Ambersmith Fashions, or that Logan got an internship at Bubbe’s office.

  Or that Elanor Pierce rented a basement apartment in the Point with Noah before the ink on her diploma was dry.

  But I won't. None of those had the same impact on my year as the first day back on Monday morning, when life at Hawthorn went on without Noah, Mercy, and Professor Luciano.

  It started with a special announcement before breakfast by Headmaster Hawkins in the lobby. He stood at the podium, waving us toward the rows of chairs as we descended the stairs. Once everyone was seated, he spoke.

  “First, it is with great sorrow that I officially announce the passing of Professor Luciano, who graced us with his wisdom and guidance. He lost his life heroically, banishing a magical threat that could have caused mass casualties on campus. During this effort, Mercy, the gryphon familiar of Mr. Dorian Spanos, also perished. They will be sorely missed.”

  Headmaster Hawkins clapped his hands, activating the magipsychic display behind him. Pictures of Mercy and Professor Luciano appeared, with the words In Memoriam between them.

  “As a direct consequence of this tragedy, Mr. Noah Morgenstern has been deemed ineligible to continue attending classes. The nature of his condition is private at his own request. A student was responsible for this deliberate threat to our campus. Temperance Fairbanks was expelled and turned over to the Federal Bureau of Extrahumans, where her actions and motives will be investigated and prosecuted in accordance with national law.”

  He cleared his throat before continuing.

  "The Board of Trustees held an emergency meeting last night. I am instructing section one of the second-year cohort for the remainder of this semester in addition to my other duties. That said, I'll be stepping out of the headmaster's role at the end of this academic year, remaining to serve as a professor to that same group of students next fall."

  He raised his hand, quelling the voices that rose in protest.

  "The Board of Trustees voted to demote me but keep me on. They were generous, and the paperwork is already signed. A letter will go out this summer with the name of the new headmaster, selected from a list of candidates I have compiled for them. I will forever be honored by each and every one of my students. Thank you."

  After the meeting, we sat together in the biggest booth over breakfast.

  "Trustees?" Grace wrinkled her nose. "Doesn't that include one of Faith's parents?"

  "Yeah, my father." Faith opened her mouth and mimed sticking her finger down her throat.

  "Mine too," Logan added.

  "And Mrs. Onassis.” Hailey wrinkled her nose.

  “There are four more, you know." Bailey stirred her coffee.

  “That’s why my dad’s still teaching. Miss Dunstable and Mr. Thurston are his godparents, and Mr. Gauthier went to college with him.”

  “What about trustee number seven?” Dorian asked.

  “I don’t know him, but he’s an undeath magus from upstate New York.” Hal sighed. “I overheard Dad say he voted to spite Mr. Fairbanks. They don’t get along.”

  The string of words out of Faith's mouth made everyone stop and stare.

  "What?" I asked.

  "Temperance. I bet she was under orders."

  "Isn't that kind of paranoid?" Kitty tossed her head.

  "No." Faith and Logan answered in chorus.

  "This spells trouble next year for sure." I leaned my chin on my hand. "What if the new headmaster is Mrs. Pierce or something? No offense, Logan."

  "That won't happen." Hal tapped his temple. "Dad's smart. One of his terms for resignation was the list he mentioned. It says that any new headmaster must be one of the people on that list. We won't know what we're dealing with until the board chooses, though."

  "For now, let's just try to get through the week, okay?" Lee said. "And actually eat our breakfasts." It was good advice, so we took it.

  I wondered whether the headmaster would give us a reading assignment in the library or send us to Creatives, but neither happened. He taught us as promised, but did nothing as tone-deaf or heartless as attempting to take Filberto Luciano's place.

  He assigned us to make our own tribute as a class to our mentor and to Mercy. Logan sketched them both from memory, adding Mercy to his right shoulder instead of his strix. Faith made paper cranes, passing them around for everyone to decorate. Dylan wrote poems about courage and lost love, then dragged out his guitar and set them to music. Hal asked me what the professor’s last words were, then wrote them out on parchment with calligraphic ink, adding his thumbprint as punctuation at the end.

  Dorian didn't have the heart to do much besides watch. I overheard the headmaster telling him about the academic track. My classmate walked to the front of the room, his head held high, and announced that he'd be back to graduate with us next year, no matter what. We each went over and hugged him. Yes, even Dylan.

  At the last minute before the bell, the strix woke and swooped down from a rafter. She landed on the desk, hooting at the other familiars, and they assembled in a semicircle on the floor, howling, keening, caterwauling, and squeaking in their own mourning ritual, aimed at Dorian. For Mercy. Logan stood beside me, weeping. When the critters stopped, the strix hooted at Logan, then blinked at Dorian, hopping toward him.

  “What?”

  “She’s offering you her sympathies,” Logan said. “And her name is Julia.”

  “Thanks, Julia.” Dorian held out his hand. “My condolences. He was the best teacher I ever had. You must miss him terribly.”

  She tapped his hand with her beak, then peered at him and hooted.

  “Yeah, sure, if you don’t mind the gym.” He held out his arm, but Julia fluttered to his shoulder. “It kinda reeks in there, but you know that already.”

  “I think they’ll be okay, Logan.” I patted his arm. “Thanks to you.”

  He nodded, wiping away tears.

  Before we left, the door to Professor Luciano's classroom was covered from top to bottom with our handiwork. Finally, I added my own tribute: a single white feather and an envelope postmarked Genoa, Italy 1982, to Noah Morgenstern at 10-1/2 Hawthorne Street, Salem, Massachusetts. I'd keep the letter, but the envelope on the door would always be filled with love.

  The End

  I hope you enjoyed Hawthorn Year Two. The ending was bittersweet, but this series is not complete. Year Three is in progress already, and I'm beginning to discover just how much impact the trustees and the incoming he
admaster will have on Aliyah and her classmates.

  Stay tuned for more. And if you're curious about my other work, you can find it on my Author Central page.

  Thank you!

  D.R. Perry

  Author’s Notes

  Thank you so much for reading continuing with Hawthorn Academy with Year Two. In this book, we see life getting more complicated for Aliyah and her friends. Each one learns more about their world and themselves, and I feel lucky to watch them grow.

  The holidays we celebrate with the Morgensterns this time are Sukkot, Festival of Booths, and Hanukkah, Festival of Lights. I give a full accounting of three blessings on the first night of Hanukkah, but text does not do them justice since they are traditionally sung. Here's a link to the Chabad website with recordings, in case you're curious about how they sound.

  https://www.chabad.org/holidays/chanukah/article_cdo/aid/103874/jewish/Blessings-on-the-Menorah.htm

  One of the heavier subjects I tackle in year two is abuse, which we see in a few different forms through the eyes of Aliyah's classmates. I wanted to give some resources to any readers who might need them or know someone who does. The Hotline helps people experiencing domestic violence and abuse, with a survivor-centered focus. For minor children in danger, ChildHelp provides both prevention and intervention, and HAVOCA is a group for adult survivors run by survivors.

  http://www.thehotline.org

  http://www.childhelp.org/

  http://www.havoca.org/

  Once again, thanks for opening this book and stepping into the Revealed World with me again. Aliyah has one more year at Hawthorn, so look for the third volume in the future. Beyond that, I'm considering where in this world I'll go next.

  Perhaps I'll explore what life is like at Gallows Hill, Messing, or even Trout in Rhode Island. There's a chance I might follow Aliyah and her classmates to college. I'd love to hear what you think about the possibilities. You can find all of my social media contacts and my mailing list at my website, https://www.drperryauthor.com/, and reach out through one of them.