Hawthorn Academy: Year One

by D. R. Perry

  Professor DeBeer finished her portion of the lesson. Nurse Smith took over, asking us to give our familiars some basic commands. Dylan and Logan did this with the poodle and the cat. As they worked, the creature in the box finally decided to make its appearance.

  The first thing we saw was a long snout and a bulbous pink nose, which I immediately recognized. Its wrinkly pink ears and gray fur were unmistakable, and before her shoulders emerged, everyone knew the little gray lady was a possum.

  "Gross." Faith shook her head and rolled her eyes. "There's no way that is a magical creature."

  "She definitely is," Grace corrected.

  "You're correct, Grace." Nurse Smith nodded. "She knows precisely when discretion is the better part of valor, and is an excellent companion for anyone who hides their true self frequently. I hear they're a favorite amongst magi in intelligence fields."

  "Interesting." Faith snorted. "Not. Still think it's gross."

  The possum definitely wasn't ordinary. She had a red tail that glowed faintly. I wasn’t a magical creature encyclopedia so her species name eluded me, but Grace was right. In moments, she headed straight for Logan, ears perked up and eyes bright.

  "Oh." He turned away from the incoming creature, paying extra attention to the cat. "Um. You're looking for someone else, girl."

  "Moving along."

  I hadn't noticed Nurse Smith's note-taking during the earlier part of the lesson. The scratch of his pen against paper continued the entire time we practiced. He finished without having us demonstrate individually, which was a relief. Ember was usually well-behaved, but I couldn’t handle any more attention.

  After dismissal, Faith left. Logan and I were stuck until the nurse cleared us. Dylan and Grace didn't have to stick around but did anyway. After another check that took slightly longer than the one he’d given in the hall, we were allowed to head out for dinner.

  I didn't want to go.

  Don't get me wrong. I definitely wanted out of the infirmary. In fact, I was the first one through the door. But once we were in the lobby, I stopped, balking at the prospect of entering the cafeteria. I couldn't help it; I was afraid.

  "What's up, Aliyah?" Logan stepped in front where I could see him before placing a hand on my shoulder.

  "Isn't there any other way to get dinner?" I sighed. "Without going in there."

  "I get it." Grace nodded. "Those sliders tasted amazing, Dyl, but they were tiny."

  "Hmm." Dylan chewed the corner of his bottom lip, thinking. "You know what? I'm not sure."

  "Are you guys talking about a to-go bag?" Lee stood at the bottom of the stairs, holding a paper shopping bag—the kind with handles. "Because I know how to get those. This one's for Hal."

  "Oh, so you've seen him?" In the battle between hunger and concern, concern won. I'd better appreciate this trait of mine before it got swallowed by extramagus awfulness.

  "Not yet, but the headmaster told me he's up in our room and can't make it down." He raised the bag, showing it off. "This is usually for second and third years cramming during exams, but they'll let anybody have one for dinner as long as you know where to ask."

  "Wow, that's awesome." Logan grinned. "We sort of missed some stuff and have to study." He shrugged, lying easily about our reasons. That wasn’t why we wanted to avoid the caff. "Where do we go for that?"

  Lee gave us unexpected but somehow easy instructions. The four of us followed them, heading around the corner along the side of the staircase and then under it. We found ourselves in a tall yet narrow hallway. At least it wasn’t a closet under the stairs. This hall was like something out of a dream, the confusing and only mildly disturbing kind.

  The only door was at the end, which looked much farther away than it was. One little touch that had me instantly homesick was that it was a half door like the ones in Bubbe's office. My eyes stung, not from the smoke but threatening tears. I didn't want to cry anymore so I knocked, hoping whoever answered would shatter the impression of home and banish this feeling.

  It worked. The door opened, revealing a matronly woman with a befloured floral apron. Her gray hair was tied into a low bun, over which she wore a hairnet.

  "Hello, and welcome to Lunch Lady Land." She chuckled. "I'm Penelope, how can I help you?"

  "Hi there, Penelope." Logan amped up his already high-watt smile. "We'd like some to-go bags, please. One kosher and the rest regular."

  "Burning the mid-evening oil, huh?" She clapped four times. "Your food's on its way."

  The woman pressed a switch embedded in the door frame. I knew from Bubbe's office that she’d activated an audio system. I shouldn't have been surprised that parts of Hawthorn Academy reminded me of the house I grew up in. They had been designed by the same magus, after all.

  Unlike Bubbe's, the switch here didn't play music to soothe magic beasts. Instead, it was a lively polka with plenty of oom-pah. In moments, we heard hooves clopping on the floor behind Penelope the self-styled lunch lady, in perfect time with the polka beat.

  A goat with curiously scaled horns appeared. He shook his head, then turned sideways. He was saddled with a set of panniers, which contained our to-go bags. One of them was marked with a K.

  How'd they come out so fast?"

  "Sandy's a Pricus." Penelope smiled, eyes gleaming with totally justified pride. Her familiar was extremely rare and very special.

  "Oooh, a sea-goat!" I clapped my hands. "Cadence would just about die if she were here."

  "What's a Pricus, if you don't mind my asking?" Logan treated Penelope like royalty, which for all I knew, she was. The headmaster's unorthodox hiring practices had taught me to stop assuming anything about his staff, including the ones in the background.

  "They're amphibious creatures who have command of time for short spans, enough to get your meals out to you a full minute before they've been cooked." She beamed. "Thanks for asking. You might be surprised to hear this, but nobody's ever bothered in the seven years Sandy and I have worked here."

  Penelope handed us our bags, and we thanked her. I took perhaps an unusual amount of time and effort on that since as far as I was concerned, Sandy and his magus were lifesavers. I could avoid Charity during two-thirds of my mealtimes now.

  The rest of the week, meals would be on easy mode.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  For once, I was right that first night at Penelope's window. The following days went far more smoothly than the disastrous first two. At breakfast each morning, Faith and Logan rounded out our table, making our numbers high enough that Charity couldn't do more than stare, point, and whisper cruel nothings about us in her circle's ears.

  Said circle included Noah, which stabbed like a knife in the back, but I said things went smoother, not perfectly. Our summertime high hopes had gone down in flames, and there would be no recovering them now. Life at Hawthorn Academy for the rest of the first week was like applying cream to a burn as far as my brother went.

  The other issue was all the bickering between our professors. Luciano and DeBeer hated each other for reasons still unknown, a fact they tried keeping on the down-low. By the end of the week, I didn't know whether it was a professional or a personal rivalry, but it was like one of those magic eye pictures, unable to be unseen and distracting once known.

  Their issues made it harder on the six of us because our class assignments weren't the same. Instead, each scrap of homework or required reading felt like a series of escalations in an epic academic arms race. We couldn't even be effective study buddies. What was worse, neither educator noticed it impacting us.

  By the way, you heard me right. I said there were six of us. Faith and Logan officially joined Hal Hawkins' little out-group. Logan still followed me around like he owed me his life, which I periodically reminded him wasn't true. But did he listen? No.

  I looked forward to the end of the week when I could find his lost dragonet already, because our dynamic was already pretty awkward, and this new element only made it worse. It also pisse
d Noah and Elanor off, judging by the dirty looks we got whenever they saw us together. And the first day they'd practically tried to arrange our marriage.

  Faith was just there for Hal. Whether she’d glommed onto him because he was the headmaster's son and she was making an indirect power-play or there was some other reason, I didn't know. Either way, she lavished small and random acts of ingratiation on him multiple times per day. Little snacks were common, but on Thursday she gave him a friendship bracelet, the kind woven from embroidery floss.

  She only tolerated the rest of us, reminding me of the cat Izzy's grandmother kept. Mittens loved Abuelita but had a withering stare for every other member of the household. The only other person she showed interest in was Bubbe, who had literally saved her tail the time she got frostbite.

  Like Mittens with my grandma, Faith showed a grudging respect toward Logan, which was surprising because when it came to anything academic, his unorthodox learning style frustrated her no end. My best guess was she felt a sort of kinship with him. His sister Elanor was almost as bad as Charity when it came to mean behavior.

  Grace and Faith still came to Familiar Studies with us, even though they didn't have to. Faith wanted Seth to have an easier time on campus, but for Grace, it was a different story. She and Lune had the kind of bond Dad used to tell us about in bedtime stories—like a fairytale. While Faith stuck around out of necessity, Grace was there because she cared. Maybe too much.

  Grace had a crush on Dylan. I couldn’t blame her. He was kind, funny, smart, and one handsome dude. He’d turned the heads of practically all the straight girls in school, including Grace. She was also a super-supportive roommate, giving me privacy when I needed it. Without that consideration, I wouldn't have been able to have my rule-breaking calls with Izzy and Cadence every night.

  Grace was awesome. I didn't think I'd have made it past day one without her, so of course, I supported her crush on Dylan whenever possible even if I did feel a bit regretful about not letting Cadence push us into a date over the summer.

  Lee hung around with us too sometimes, usually for dinner and homework in the lounge after Familiar Studies. He was quietly friendly and his Sumxu was playful. When Scratch was around, all the animals had a blast, even the nervous Sha. Sometimes it was distracting, but their antics outdid the best cute animal vids available on the mundane Internet, so we never minded.

  Speaking of our familiars, the strangest thing happened. Ember flat-out befriended Seth. Somehow, the two of them put aside the instinctive animosity between their species to spend the entire Lab period and most of Gym curled up together, whuffing and peeping at each other softly. Nin often joined them, but she seemed fonder of Lune. These other unlikely friends had what I can only describe as dance-offs. If you’ve ever seen a rabbit dance and a ferret hop, you have some idea of what that looked like.

  If Charity's group was our enemy, Alex's was like Switzerland. He hung around with his roommate Eston, and Lee bounced between them and us. The twins almost always added themselves in that group, largely because they idolized Kitty, who appeared to be dating Eston. Why a fire magus would want to date a water one was beyond me, mostly because when I tried wrapping my brain around that dynamic, my awkwardness with Logan got in the way.

  Technically I was an extramagus, not straight-up fire, but the two elements were opposite, and my second magic wasn’t much better. Solar plus water had no reaction or synergy. Then again, my long friendship with Cadence the mermaid seemed to fly in the face of that.

  Alex didn’t give us any trouble and kept the twins off our backs, which was nice because they still hung on every word Charity tossed in their general direction. He never came to our rescue either. Lee spent time with us because he was Hal's roommate. Probably, he acted on his own. I leaned on the side of assuming he fell outside the complex ecosystem of Hawthorn Academy's cliques.

  That said, having both the first years' small groups go largely unmolested felt miraculous. Charity's circle included the entire third-year class and most of the second-years as well. Among those who didn't associate with her were Noah's ex-boyfriend Darren. He avoided everyone in our year, too.

  He had his nose in a book almost all the time, like the three other second-years who hung around him. They worked hard on advanced placement courses. Darren and company were often in a corner of the library when we went in for our period. The Ashfords never kicked them out. Otherwise, they kept to the lounge. We always saw them there, eating out of Penelope's to-go bags just like us.

  Logan, Dylan, Hal, and Grace accepted my invitations to visit and either meet or catch up with Cadence and Izzy that weekend. The days crawled, nights feeling truncated like sleep took no time at all. I didn't dream at Hawthorn Academy. Neither did any of my friends who talked about that sort of thing. And mine used to be so vivid. By Friday morning, I found myself wondering whether I'd have any during my weekend at home.

  The morning went by uneventfully with one notable exception. At Gym, Hal was finally allowed to join Bishop's Row practice. He made mediocre projectiles but was excellent at dodging. I suspected he was using his space magic for something other than conjuring his orb. If so, it worked for him. He'd be the sleeper star player on our team if he could only increase his stamina, but his skills would be perfect for last-minute plays and scores against the timer.

  At Familiar Studies, Nurse Smith brought out the possum again. She tried befriending Logan once more but eventually gave up. After spending four days with him, I understood why. He was under enormous pressure from his parents to have a familiar who’d look good on stage and in promotional photos.

  I wondered what he'd do if my hunch was correct and the dragonet Logan's parents had picked out for him bonded with someone else. As awkward as the life-debt misunderstanding between us was, I'd do my best to help him.

  Instead of going to Penelope's door for to-go bags with my friends, I bid them goodbye. What felt like the longest week of my life was over, and I got my reward—a weekend at home, surrounded by my family and oldest friends.

  I hefted the knapsack with my library books, some laundry, and in the bottom, the forbidden communication orb. Walking across the lobby, I almost expected some incident, either an ambush by Charity and company or walking in on yet another argument between Luciano and DeBeer, but it was quiet and mostly deserted. In the hall leading to the school's exit, Headmaster Hawkins paced.

  "Headmaster, thanks for an interesting week," I said.

  "Oh?" Apparently, I startled him. His eyes were wide and his hands clasped under his chin. "And you came all the way over here to say that?"

  "No." I grinned, hoping to put him at ease, but he didn't relax. If anything, he looked more anxious than before. "Just heading home for the weekend is all."

  "I see." This revelation did what my smile couldn't. He dropped his hands, still folded but at his waist instead, and the wildness went out of his eyes. "Well, have a peaceful time, then. Remember, the doors are locked early on Monday morning, so it's best if you return Sunday night."

  "Thanks, Headmaster."

  Good thing he reminded me since I'd definitely have forgotten that detail. I waved before pushing through the door and out into the sunset light on Essex Street. It took a moment before I got my bearings. The door to Hawthorn Academy had migrated again, this time to the blank wall across the street from a touristy t-shirt shop. It was almost two long blocks away from Hawthorne Street and my house.

  But this was my town and my street, one I’d walked countless times through most of my life. The cobblestones beneath my feet welcomed me, the uneven surface lifting my spirits until the spring in my step was practically ineffable.

  Ember let out a series of musical peeps, and I shared her good cheer. She was less elated and relieved than I was, but she was content, and that was what mattered. In two minutes, I walked up the driveway behind Izzy's house.

  Just like that, I was home.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  I didn't need to
knock or ring the bell; I had my keys. The hallway was dark, usual for a Friday night. Upstairs, I kicked off my shoes on the landing, then entered the living room. Ignoring the tufted sofa with its fleecy throws and cushioned comfort was easier than I thought. I was here on a mission, after all, but the house was empty. Mom and Dad must've gone out.

  Sure enough, there was a note on the kitchen counter.

  Gone to dine at Bay Bridge. Pizza on counter. See you later! Love, Mom and Dad.

  Of course. It was live music night, so they were on a date. I’d never let them know I planned to spend the weekend here or asked the school to do so on my behalf. They had no idea whether I'd come home, although last year they’d figured Noah wouldn't after the first week. My parents demonstrated their love by leaving food out anyway.

  Last year, I was home alone while they went on their Friday night dates, but they always left more for dinner than I could eat, probably in case Noah felt the need to escape campus for even just one meal. Of course, they understood. Both of them had attended and graduated from the same school, after all.

  I leaned against the counter, not bothering to sit at one of the stools, and ate lukewarm pizza over one of the plates they’d left with the box. Ember perched nearby, devouring the slice I’d set aside for her.

  It was from Engine House, reminding me of slices grabbed all summer. I'd be sure to take my school friends there during the weekend, which meant plenty of pizza for everyone.

  Once my stomach was no longer growling, I decided it was time to visit Bubbe. The light was on in her office, so she was there, but first, I needed to put the contents of my knapsack away. It wouldn't do for either of my parents to find the seaglass, and I wanted to do some laundry. I left Ember on the counter to finish her dinner.

  I headed upstairs to my room, stowing the orb in my closet behind a bag of winter clothes. Once that was done, I set the library books on my bedside table. As I stood, I bumped my head, of course. I'd almost forgotten that low ceiling, which wasn't a problem at Hawthorn.