by Tesha Geddes
“This is why potion-making isn’t allowed in the apartments,” Tanya continued. “There’s a perfectly good potion lab you could have used instead of smoking us out of the apartment.”
That explained the smoke and the firemen.
“Oh, Kaida, you’re back,” Erica said, noticing her roommate approaching.
“Hopefully your day was better than ours,” Tanya said, glaring at the blonde woman.
“Kaida,” Erica said, ignoring Tanya, “this is our last roommate, Sophie. Sophie, this is Kaida. There was a mishap with a potion, so the dorm is being evacuated until the smoke clears.”
“It’s nice to meet you,” Kaida said with a smile, still slightly confused as to what had happened.
Suddenly, Tanya looked up and frowned. “Oh, look, trouble’s coming,” she said, nodding to a spot behind Kaida.
She turned around to find their RA, Oliver, headed straight for them.
“Ladies,” Oliver said, when he reached them. “I need you to follow me.”
“It wasn’t their fault,” Sophie insisted. “It was all mine. They didn’t even know I was making a potion until after the apartment was filled with smoke.”
“And Kaida didn’t even get here until a few seconds ago,” Tanya said.
“Very well,” Oliver said with a nod. “Sophie, please follow me.”
Sophie gingerly followed Oliver into the office as the firemen left. The students began to file back into their dorms. Kaida was about to follow suit, but Erica stopped her.
“Best let the apartment air out a bit,” she said to Kaida. “It felt pretty toxic in there.”
Kaida stifled a groan — she’d really been looking forward to relaxing in her room. After a long day at work, the last thing she wanted to do was hang out where just anyone could come up and talk to her. But maybe there was something she could do...
“I might be able to help with that,” Kaida said with a smile.
Tanya looked at her quizzically, but Erica grinned.
“That’s right,” she said. “I forgot.”
The three roommates walked back to their dorm, and Kaida nearly choked on the air inside.
“Wow,” she coughed, “you weren’t kidding.”
“Think you can handle it?” Erica asked, doing her best not to breathe in the toxic air.
Kaida nodded. “I’ll have to do it in sections.”
She took a deep breath and exhaled as large a cloud of purification mist as she could. Tanya gasped as the silvery mist expanded and washed over her. The mist dispersed throughout the living room, leaving the air fresh and clean. Kaida felt a bit light-headed but was glad she was able to help, and that her Sunstar tree looked no worse for wear.
Tanya took several deep breaths. “Wow, that’s amazing! If you could bottle that up, you’d make a fortune. What was it anyway?”
“It was a purification mist,” Kaida replied.
“Does it only work on air?” Tanya asked.
“No, it works on a lot of things,” Kaida answered. “It also makes a surprisingly good stain remover.”
“So, is the entire apartment good now?”
“No, I was only able to do the living room. I’ll have to rest a few minutes between each room.”
It took Kaida about half an hour to purify the air in the apartment, and Sophie was still missing by the time she had reached the other girl’s room. She felt bad standing in her room without permission, but she couldn’t leave this room undone; the toxic air in here would just leak out into the rest of the dorm. Although, she supposed the air couldn’t be that toxic, as the firemen had left without posting a warning to stay away. When she was finished, she collapsed tiredly on the couch and closed her eyes.
At that moment, the door swung open, and Sophie slunk in with an armful of magical cleaning supplies. She stopped short and gave a few tentative sniffs.
“How is the air so much better already?” she asked. “Magic smoke tends to linger for ages.”
“Luckily for you, Kaida was able to clean up your mess,” Tanya said sharply.
It was clear she still hadn’t forgiven Sophie for smoking them out of their apartment. Sophie looked at Kaida in amazement.
“Is that true?” she asked. “Did you clean the smoke out for me?”
Kaida nodded tiredly.
“Oh, thank you!” Sophie exclaimed, throwing herself at Kaida.
Kaida scrambled back in fright before she could process what was happening.
“I’m sorry,” Kaida said at Sophie’s hurt look. “You just scared me. I wasn’t expecting that.”
Sophie nodded and shook her head. “No, it’s my fault. I’ll try to give you more warning next time.”
Kaida winced internally — she could barely handle pats on the back. How was she going to handle the enthusiastic kind of hug Sophie seemed to want to give her?
Kaida collapsed into bed that night, utterly exhausted. She’d never used her breath weapon so much before.
The next morning, she woke to sunlight streaming through her window and a frantic knocking on her door.
“Kaida, you need to hurry, or you’ll be late for work!” Erica shouted through the door.
Kaida bolted out of bed and threw on the outfit she’d been planning on wearing yesterday. Instead of her normal shoes, she picked the sandals Tanya had made her. She quickly brushed and French braided her hair but left the beanie behind. Once again, she wasn’t going to get breakfast before work.
“Thanks, Erica!” Kaida shouted as she dashed out the door.
She arrived at the library right on time.
“Good morning!” she greeted Mathis cheerfully as she walked into the workshop.
“Morning,” Mathis said. “Are you ready to put covers on all those text blocks you made yesterday?”
Kaida nodded eagerly. And so, Mathis spent the morning teaching her how to put covers on the text blocks and taught her various techniques to get different effects. By lunchtime, Kaida already had five books drying in the book press.
❀
“I can’t believe you already have a job,” Tanya complained, plunking her tray down next to Kaida. “I haven’t even heard back from any of the places I applied to.”
“Neither have I,” Erica said.
Sophie sat down but said nothing — Kaida got the sense she was still on probation with her other roommates.
“I got really lucky,” Kaida said humbly.
Sometimes she still feared she would wake up one day that this would all be a dream. She’d be back in Maribeth’s basement with no job, no friends, no future, and no hope. She paused at that thought. Friends. For the first time, there were people in her life she would call friends.
“What’s up?” Erica asked. “You just got this really strange look on your face.”
“I… just…” Kaida stammered. “We’re friends, right?”
“Of course, we are,” Erica replied readily, and the other two nodded in agreement. “Why?”
“Well, you… you’re my first friends,” Kaida said quietly. “It’s nice.”
“Girl, that is both the sweetest and saddest thing anyone has said to me,” Tanya said with a soft smile. “And I agree with Erica. Of course, we’re friends.”
“I know we got off to a rocky start yesterday,” Sophie said, “but I’d like to be your friend too.”
“I’d like that too,” Kaida said with a smile.
After lunch, Kaida walked back to the library with a light heart — she could hardly comprehend how much her life had changed over the last few days. She was at school, she had a job, she could come and go as she pleased, and the people she lived with actually seemed to like her.
“Must have been some lunch,” Mathis remarked as she walked into the workshop.
“I was just thinking about how good life is,” Kaida said with a smile as she picked out the cover for her next book.
Mathis nodded but said nothing.
❀
“After they’ve dr
ied overnight, you’ll have eight beautiful new notebooks to do with as you please,” Mathis said as she put the eighth book in the press.
“Wait,” Kaida said, looking up in surprise. “I get to keep these?”
“Of course,” Mathis nodded. “Though beautifully bound, they’re still just regular notebooks, so we don’t have much use for them here.”
Kaida couldn’t believe her luck — that was one less thing she’d need to buy with her first paycheck. Even better, she’d have one notebook for every subject, and still have notebooks left over. She still needed a pen though.
“Once you’ve finished binding the rest of your text blocks tomorrow, we’ll move on to making magic books,” Mathis said.
“Really?” Kaida asked, excitement bubbling through her. “I thought it’d be longer before I’d be ready to move onto that.”
Mathis chuckled. “You’re picking up on this faster than I’d anticipated. I thought it wouldn’t be until next week, at the earliest, that you’d be ready.”
Kaida blushed at the praise — usually, she was told the opposite. She left that day with light feet.
❀
“So, Kaida, where are you from?” Sophie asked over dinner that night.
Kaida choked on the chicken she was eating. The question had come out of nowhere — it was a simple question, but one she was unprepared to answer.
“Um, nowhere,” Kaida replied and immediately winced internally.
Nothing was more suspicious than an evasive answer. Why didn’t she think to prepare for questions like this? She could have just picked some small town in the middle of nowhere. Or maybe a big city — large populations were good for getting lost in. In all her preparation to leave, she’d never thought to create an alternate backstory.
Under the table, Tanya kicked Sophie.
“Oh! I’m so sorry!” Sophie exclaimed. “I didn’t mean to be insensitive.”
Kaida wasn’t sure what conclusion Sophie had drawn, but she was grateful the other girl didn’t press the issue.
“It’s fine,” Kaida said with a smile. “I’d just rather not talk about my past.”
“How about the future?” Erica asked. “What does everyone want to be when they grow up?”
Tanya and Sophie chuckled at the question, but Kaida was confused. Weren’t they supposed to be grown up already?
“I want to be a fashion designer,” Tanya said. “Which is why I’m majoring in fashion design.”
“I didn’t even know this school offered a fashion design major,” Erica said.
“Of course,” Tanya said enthusiastically, waving her hands. “Different races of magicals tend to lean to different styles. For example, nymphs tend to like flowy, nature-inspired clothing. Shifters tend to like clothing they can get in and out of easily. Well, except for dragons, they really like their leather, at least from what I’ve heard. Can’t say I’ve actually met a dragon before.”
Kaida hadn’t given it much thought, but all the dragons she knew did wear a lot of leather.
“So, my sweatpants and T-shirts can be called fashion?” Erica asked teasingly.
“Only by the greatest stretch of the imagination,” Tanya said with an imperious sniff.
“I don’t mind stretching my imagination,” Erica said with a grin. “It’s good exercise.”
Kaida snorted into her glass of water.
“What about you, Sophie?” Erica asked.
“I want to research and develop new potions, particularly medicinal ones,” Sophie said. “So, I’m majoring in Potion Making with a minor in Pharmacology.”
“That explains the cauldron,” Tanya said. “Just please don’t blow our dorm up again.”
“No worries, lesson learned,” Sophie said, raising her hands in defeat. “I’d make potions in my room at home all the time, but I guess it was a much more controlled environment there than my room here. I won’t brew potions in our dorm anymore.”
“Appreciated,” Tanya said dryly.
“How about you, Erica?” Sophie asked. “What do you want to be?”
“A vet for magical creatures,” Erica answered easily.
“So, if my future pet manticore gets sick, I can bring it to you?” Tanya asked teasingly.
“Sure,” Erica said with a laugh, “if you survive having a pet manticore, I’ll treat it for you.”
Sophie laughed and turned to Kaida. “Kaida, what about you?” she asked.
“Oh, no future pet manticores for me,” Kaida replied.
Sophie snickered. “No. What do you want to be?”
“Oh, I’m majoring in Accounting,” Kaida said with a smile she didn’t feel.
Her roommates were all excited about their chosen majors and dream jobs. She’d picked accounting because she was good at math and knew she could disappear anywhere and still get a job in that field, but she just couldn’t bring herself to be excited about it. She was much more excited about bookbinding than she was to spend her days crunching numbers.
“Ok,” Sophie said, sensing her displeasure, “but is that what you want? Nothing wrong with it if it is, but now’s the time to explore the things you’re interested in.”
Kaida looked down and picked at her food a little before responding. She really couldn’t afford to do much exploring — her scholarship only covered so much.
“Honestly, I’m not sure what I want,” Kaida said.
“Then you’re in the right place,” Erica said. “College is all about finding yourself while educating yourself.”
Erica’s words comforted a fear Kaida didn’t know she had.
Chapter 9
“Payday!” Stacy practically sang as she waltzed into the workshop the next morning.
“Since when do you come in here to announce that?” Mathis asked, grumpy at being interrupted.
“Since I have to bring your lovely new apprentice her paycheck,” Stacy replied as she handed Kaida her paycheck.
Kaida fought to keep a straight face when she saw the amount on the check. All that for just two days of work?
After Stacy left, Mathis looked at Kaida with a concerned frown and asked, “Kaida, do you have a bank account set up?”
“I… no,” Kaida said, looking down.
“You should do that over lunch break,” Mathis said. “My grandson can help you.”
“Oh, no, I really don’t want to be a bother,” Kaida said, embarrassed. “I’m sure I can manage on my own.”
“It’s no bother at all,” Mathis insisted. “You should always take someone with you who knows the terminology, this way you don’t sign up for something you don’t actually want.”
A short time later, Kaida walked out into the side courtyard with Mathis and stopped short in surprise when she saw who was waiting for them.
“Sen’s your grandson?” Kaida asked.
It may have been a small college town, but Sen and his sister seemed to be everywhere.
“One of them anyway,” Mathis said.
“Hey Kaida, are you joining us for lunch today?” Sen asked with a smile as he approached them. “There’s plenty of food.”
Mathis gave Sen a knowing smile. “So that’s why you’ve suddenly started bringing more food for lunch. And here I thought you were just trying to fatten me up.”
Sen blushed and looked away as he mumbled, “Just wanted to make sure everyone was getting enough to eat.”
“Kaida, would you like to eat with us?” Mathis asked, nodding to the table of food. “As you can see, Sen did bring enough food for all of us.”
“It’s chicken tacos… if that sways your vote at all,” Sen said.
Kaida wasn’t sure how to feel about such casual generosity. Was everyone like this? Or was this something unique to Sen’s family? Every time she saw them, they offered help, or food, or both. There had to be some ulterior motive, right? Only, she couldn’t imagine what they could possibly want from her.
“That sounds delicious, thank you,” Kaida said.
“I guarantee these will be the best chicken tacos you’ve ever had,” Sen said with a smile as he unpacked the containers of food. “Terri grilled the chicken, Rio made the tortillas, and the pico’s made from vegetables from our garden.”