by Nissa Gordon
Anne signed all the papers to the parts that had been pointed out to her while Will stood on his tiptoes to try and look at what she was doing, but he couldn't really make anything out and then she passed them back over; the man snatched them out of her hand and then flicked through them to make sure that she had done what he had supposedly told her to do.
The stone stopped flashing, he pulled it back down and took her card out handing it back to her and snatching the papers checking that they were all signed before he stapled them together and a draw opened to his left; they could hear cluttering as he sorted their money for them placing it on the counter before them in five piles.
"Our money is called Silronze," he told them. "Large gold worth 20, large silver worth 10, small gold worth 5, small silver worth 2, small bronze worth 1/2; one pound worth three Silronze, understand?"
"Yes...I think," Anne answered as she already knew what the money was, but didn't really have the heart to tell him, considering that he hadn't realised already considering that the card she had given him was also connect to her magical account.
"You have seven hundred and fifty Silronze's," the man told them. "Twenty eight large gold, eleven large silver, ten small gold, twenty small silver and twenty small bronze which is one hundred."
He put them into a small green velvet pull up purse, and then handed it to Anne along with a small piece of paper that had what each coin was worth and the exchange rate.
"Thank you," Anne said.
"Will we really need that much?" Will asked her surprised that she had exchanged so much money.
"Probably, but it’ll still come in handy even if I don’t use it all today," Anne answered.
Will walked a little in front of her as she put the purse into her bag, not wanting to be carrying it out of the bank for all to see; Will wanted to get outside so that he could start spending the money as soon as possible.
"We can start buying my school thing's now right?" Will asked excitedly.
"Yes," Anne answered. "We'll get your uniform first seeing that it's not far from here,"
They walked across to the main doors which again opened by themselves outwards, they walked out into the sun light and down the main steps turning back up the road where they had just come from; there seemed to be even more people about now because it was getting closer to dinner.
Will had hoped that he could have gotten a look in the window that had been crowded on his way down but it was still crowded now, in fact there were even more people stood outside of it; he didn't care how he managed it he was so going to see what the new model was like.
"It's worth every Silronze," a man shouted somewhere in the crowd of people stood outside of the shop.
"Really, even grown men drooling over it; always the same," a woman said walking in front of her children who seemed to have hoped to want to stop as well, but she clearly wasn't going to give into them.
"I knew it, it must be a new broom that's come out," Will said excitedly next to Anne. "I think that dad said something about it a while back,"
"Come to think of it, Stuart did mention something...oh well, there's plenty of time for that later," Anne told him as she carried on walking through the crowd.
Will couldn't believe that he had forgotten about something like that, as it only happened every couple of years; though now that he thought about it Alex and Troy never said that they had seen it when they had gotten their thing's, perhaps it wasn't out to buy then, which means that he'd be the first one to see it up close.
They stayed close to the other shops on the left as they made their way back up the street, so not to be swept away in the crowd, Will could see the shop with all the different types of uniforms in the window and wondered which one was for his own school, as he hadn't really put much thought into it before, why would he? They all looked really good, in fact they looked better than any of the uniforms that he had seen for the secondary schools where he lived, they had all been boring and simple, these weren't.
They went up the small steps and pushed open the door ringing the bell over head, there were quite a few families already in the shop looking around at the different uniforms that were stood in pairs for boys and girls, and then behind them on the walls were racks of uniforms in all different sizes.
The uniforms weren't labelled for the school that they belonged to nor did they have crests on them with the schools name, Will thought this was strange, how were you supposed to know which one was for you, as it didn't tell you in the letter. Anne made her way over to the desk where a woman was stood refolding her tape measure; she had short curly hair and had layered robes in shades of green.
"Good morning," the woman said brightly when she saw the two of them approaching the counter. "First year?"
"Yes, I'm starting at Burnaby Advanced," Will told her a little louder than he had meant to, but his excitement had gotten away from him, now that he was finally able to tell someone where he had gotten into beside from his friends, someone else who would understand his excitement.
The whole shop went deafly quietly, Will looked over his shoulder wondering what was going on but they were all staring at him; he turned back around blushing deeply as he hadn't meant for everyone to hear and to get this sort of reaction out of them, but yeah he kind of understood.
"It may be a big school, but it's hard to get in there as you know," the woman said as if she needed to explain everyone’s reaction. "You know being the best school in the magical world and all,"
"Yes of course," Anne said.
"So, are you...err...from a magical family?" the woman asked them.
"Yes of course." Anne answered as the back curtains were pulled open.
A young girl about the same age as Will walked through first, she had brown hair with a thick fridge with her hair concaved; her mother came up behind her and lead her over to the counter, she had her hair up neatly braided into an elegant bun.
"Will...hi," the girl said surprised to see him.
"Hi Lucy," Will said, not sure if it was a good thing or not that he had bumped into her, considering what had happened last time they had all been together.
"You alright? I haven't seen you for a while," Lucy said and blushed slightly as though she remembered what had happened the last time that she had seen him. "Err...isn't Troy and Alex here as well?"
"No, they've already come and got their things," Will told her trying to hide his disappointment that they hadn’t been able to all come up here together.
"Yes of course, we've had to wait until Charles could get some time off as well, as he wanted to come with the kids," Joyce told him. "So where is your dad then?"
Will couldn't look at either of them, he knew that they would understand because her father worked just as long hours and had a dangerous job also, but it was different because Lucy had her brothers and sister, and she also still had her mum; he sometimes felt as though he was all alone.
"He was called away on urgent business, you know how it is?" Anne answered for him.
"Really?" Joyce said surprised. "Charles never said that anything was going on,"
Will looked up at this, if there had been something going on then Lucy's dad would have heard about it because they worked together.
"Dad's over in the Firmasca shop with Jake and Craig, checking the new broomstick out," Lucy told him.
"That's where we're heading after here," Joyce told them.
"We'll wait if you want to come over with us?" Lucy asked him, wondering if he was alright.
"Err...no...thanks I mean...but I need to finish getting my things for school," Will told her; he was confused to why his dad would get called away on the last minute and not hers as well, seeing that they practically worked together.
"Isn't that nice, the two of you are friends, and you’re going to the same school," The woman behind the counter said smiling. "At least you'll know someone when you start there."
"Oh, did they get in as well?" Lucy asked him smiling.
"Your dad came around that day when the letters arrived," Joyce said scowling disapprovingly as she remembered the day. "Lucy ended up breaking her arm when she was out with them,"
"What?" Anne said surprised.
"You went out with them?" Will asked just as surprised, as he had never been allowed to go with his dad on any of their missions because he had been told that it's far too dangerous, but they let her go, why?
"It was an accident...and we had a healer on hand so it was fixed in a matter of minutes..." Lucy said blushing, not wanting everyone to know that she had broken her arm.
"Yes well, I don't like you going out with them...but no, no one listens to me," Joyce said annoyed.
"I know how you feel," Anne agreed.
"Excuse me..." the second woman said from behind the counter. "But that will be 14 Silronze’s please,"
"Oh yes, sorry about that," Joyce said quickly fishing her purse out of her bag to pay.
"So...err...I'll see you at school then..." Lucy said smiling slightly, but it didn't seem to help Will's mood.
The other woman stepped forward seeming to feel that it was alright now to lead them through to the back, Anne followed her through as Will lingered.
"Yeah...sure..." Will said before he followed Anne through to the back, not looking back at Lucy who seemed generally sorry for upsetting him, he had known her since she was little and knew that she didn't say anything on purpose to upset others.
"It won't take long to measure you up love," the woman told him, as she directed him to stand in the centre of the room on a slightly raised stool.
She pulled out her tape measure from her pocket and then threw it at Will, it didn't hit him nor did it fall to the ground, it actually started to take all of his measurements as she pulled out a notepad and pen, it to began to work on it's own recording all the data that the tape was taking.
"You'll be able to take your school uniform with you, but of course since you don't know what estate you're going to be in you can't take your estate uniform with you," the woman told them.
"Yes of course, I'd almost forgotten; it had been a couple of years since my son started," Anne said.
"So I only get my school uniform today?" Will asked a little disappointed, but he had heard the so-called rumours about how one got into one of the six estates at Burnaby.
"Yes, but the measurements that we've recorded down will be used for the estate uniform, which will be then delivered to you at school before the morning of your first classes," the woman told him. "It's always a very busy night, but we don't mind of course since it's only one night of the year."
Will had thought about that, as he had actually known that they got placed into the six different estates when they got to the school, not that he knew how that happened as his dad wouldn't tell him, which meant that he only had rumours to listen to and to worry about. Will wondered how they were supposed to find out what estates they were all placed in, unless the school contacted them and then they worked the whole night through, making up everyone’s uniform.
The woman took hold of the notepad and walked back through as she read through the notes, Will though stayed where he was as the tape-measure hadn't actually stopped; Anne grabbed the tape-measure as she walked past to follow the woman through, Will stared after her for a moment and then stepped down and followed the two of them through. Lucy and her mum had already left and so had several of the other people.
"I do believe that we actually have your size in stock," the woman told them. "I'll just be a minute while I check in the back for you...that's your uniforms over there if you want to take a look at them,"
She went behind the counter and then through the curtains, while Will walked over to the set of three manikins; the front one wore a dark green jacket and trousers; the one on it's left wore a shirt, waist coat and trousers all in different shades of green and blues; the one on the right wore a shirt, waist coat and a skirt which was cut to different levels, in different shades of red.
"I've always liked the uniforms," Anne said. "At least the students can't complain that they're boring,"
"No I guess we can't," Will said staring at the uniforms, wondering which colour he'd get to wear.
"The centre one, we get to take home," Anne told him. "You'll wear that on your first night,"
"So the rest of the time, unless something’s going on we wear the estate uniforms?" Will asked.
"Yes, that's why you buy more of them," Anne told him.
"Yes, we have one," the woman said brightly as she walked back over to them carrying a nicely wrapped package, and handed it over to Anne. "Lucky as well, it was the last one,"
"It is luck," Anne said walking over to the counter to pay while Will stayed to have a longer look at the uniforms. Anne came back over a couple of minutes later after she had paid and ready to go onto the next shop. "Thank you, bye," Anne added over her shoulder.
"Bye, see you again next year," the woman said smiling as they left the shop.
They walked over to the door which rang out again and then shut behind them as they stepped down back onto the street rejoining the bustling crowd and headed back up to the square, for the next items off their list.
"So, where are we going now?" Will asked, as he wanted to still have a look at the new broomstick but he didn't really want to run into Lucy and her family again; it was just another reminded that she had something that he didn’t.
"Which ever shop we can find next," Anne answered. "See normally I would have a plan to which shops we were going, but seeing that I don't really know my way around that well, we'll just have to see what we can find,"
"Which is more fun, we'll be able to have a proper look around then," Will said smiling.
As they approached the main square they could once again hear singing from the poster of Abigail.
'As I look out of my window
And see my greatest promise,
stood in the rain.'
"I did actually ask for a poster like that once, but dad said no...I kind of understand why now," Will said slightly smiling, it had seemed like a good idea at the time, but probably would have annoyed him after a while, especially considering that they can’t be turned off, meaning that it wouldn’t have gone off even when he wanted to sleep.
"Yes, once activated you can't turn them off or turn the sound down, unless you destroy it," Anne said. "We had that argument with Stuart about something as well...I can't remember what it was now, it was a couple of years ago...but I'm sure it was some sort of band..."
Will smiled to himself wondering what group it was, but mainly because Stuart hadn't gotten his own way like he normally did; then he seemed to suddenly remember that he was allowed to have a treat to make up for his birthday and for his dad not coming along with him, he had no idea at the moment of what he could get and hoped that he would see something as he walked around. They carried on up ahead, being careful not to get too jostled by the crowd when he looked up to see what the shops were that he was coming upon; he was looking ahead at the signs above the shops when one court his eye.
"That’s a strange name, Soapwort," Will said.
Anne seemed to recognise the name and made her way through the crowd to get to the shop with Will close at her side, as they got closer they could see all of the books in the window stacked up high so you could hardly see inside of the shop itself; Will rushed in front of his aunt and opened the door to go in first. It was just as crowded in the shop as it was outside; it was filled with families buying their children of all ages the books for their new term.
Will rooted around in his pocket for the list of books that he would need, he pulled it out and unfolded it and scanned through it as at last he was going to get something interesting that he might be able to use back home. Book might not seem interesting to a lot of people, but what they didn’t realise is that
they held so much power.
"There's an aisle saying school books and references, perhaps they'll be down there," Anne suggested.
They headed for the most crowded aisle in the store to begin their search squeezing past those who were already looking for their own books; Will wondered how he was ever going to manage to get them all, if he had to fight through this many just to get down the aisle.
"How are you supposed to find anything in this place?" a girl said irritably behind Will; but he couldn't see who had spoken because he didn't have any room to move to look behind.