“Catch you later,” he said, setting off with a wave.
I headed up the stairs and through a curtain of blue and silver streamers that hung down from the second floor. Another school with too much spirit. I sighed. Fantastic. Jenna hated spirit.
My morning passed quickly, each class just as awkward and uncomfortable as I remember.
The first days were almost always the worst. Almost, because with Jenna around, the last days were also the worst.
I sat through the forty-two minutes of Anatomy and Physiology relieved to realize they’d picked up where my A&P class at Byron had left off. I also tried to familiarize myself with the school and my schedule. Independent Study was the official name for our magic lessons. It was hardly independent, since they gathered up all the magical kids in one room. But they had to call it something so the regular people didn’t get suspicious.
On my way to try to find my locker, I passed a poster of a yellow brick road with a green-
faced woman in the background. “AUDITIONS SOON” was scrawled in white along the bottom.
Of course, the school play was The Wizard of Oz. Everyone loved dead witches.
My locker number, along with the combination to the actual lock, was printed at the top of my schedule. I followed the line of lockers down, getting lost twice before I found my locker.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I said under my breath.
I looked back the way I’d come, and then further up ahead in the hallway. Every locker I could see was the same blue color, and there were bits of paper and things taped to a few here or there, but none of them were defaced. Only mine.
They’d assigned me a locker with a hideous tan splotch over the front, where the blue paint had been scratched off and revealed the color underneath. This almost looks familiar,I thought, and then I twitched. A circle, almost completely shaded in, with rays wavering around the sides. I’d seen this symbol before, at the house Mal and I had gone to. The symbol had been scratched into the door.
“I figured that was yours,” Mal said, nodding to the front of my locker. “I met one of the other kids in our independent study group. Someone here has a sick sense of humor.”
I cleared my throat, nervous and unsure why. “What?”
He tapped the graffiti design. “It’s not random. It’s theirs. It’s how you knew Moonset took credit for something. Like their signature.”
“And someone scratched it on my locker. Why?”
“I’m not the one with the devious mind,” Mal said nonchalantly. “But if I had to guess, I’d say one of the other kids here isn’t happy to see us.”
I found my homeroom with an extra thirty seconds to spare before the bell rang. Once again, I had to do an awkward pause at the door until I could find out where there were open seats. In homeroom, though, the teacher barely seemed interested in what was going on. She was flipping through a ledger when I handed her my class schedule.
“Over there, all the way in the back,” she said, waving me away after looking at my schedule.
“Over there” was probably the least helpful direction she could have given me, but I just went to the row closest to the windows and sat in the seat furthest back.
Several minutes passed, and then the announcements began over the loudspeaker at the head of the room. It was basically permission to zone out for the next fifteen minutes, as nobody else in the class seemed to be paying much attention.
Then she walked into the room, and suddenly my day wasn’t quite so bad anymore.
Ash swept into the room like every eye was on her, and once people started to realize she was there, it was. She wore a skirt over leggings, heels that clacked with every confident step, and a mauve long-sleeved shirt. In essence, she looked amazing. She waggled her fingers at the teacher as she passed the desk and headed down the aisle next to mine until she could take the free seat across from me.
“You are an overly ambitious boy,” she said, leaning across the aisle towards me. Her fingers tangled into the chain she wore around her neck, that ended with a cross at the bottom.
She thought we were getting close? That almost made my brain sputter into to a halt. “I’m what?”
She ran a hand through her hair, watching me with a teasing smile. “You’re the talk of the school, didn’t you know?” Ash waved a hand. “My own little celebrity.”
I squirmed in my chair. “I’m not,” I muttered. It was bad enough when I was around witches who did know who I was. I didn’t want to be a celebrity among the regular kids.
Her smile widened. “Don’t worry, I’ll protect you from the paparazzi.”
“Ashen Farrer, you aren’t even in this homeroom,” the teacher announced, looking up from her bookkeeping.
“I’m Justin’s student advisor, Miss G. I’m supposed to make sure he gets to his classes all day.”
They had student advisors? And Ash and I were spending the day together? Suddenly my day, and my life, were looking up. Maybe this school wouldn’t be so bad after all.
Someone further up in my row started giggling. Miss G, or whatever her name really was, was frowning in our direction. “You know we don’t have student advisors, Ashen. Now don’t you have a homeroom full of classmates that miss you terribly?”
“Ashen?” I asked.
She grinned. “If you knew the alternative, you’d be pleasantly surprised with Ashen. Why do you think I go by Ash? Ashen sounds so morbid, don’t you think?” She made no move to get up and leave the room, and the teacher didn’t seem to want to push the issue.
The voices over the loudspeaker were still going strong. Every few minutes they changed, as the next person stepped up to deliver their announcements. “ … for the spring play will be held in the auditorium Monday and Tuesday after school … ”
“Being the new kid doesn’t bother me so much.” I don’t know why I was confiding in her, but maybe the revelation of her real first name was a sign. “I’m more of the ‘stay quiet and keep my head down’ type, though.”
Her perfectly sculpted eyebrow lifted. “A few more days, and girls will be lining up to date you,” she said, brushing off any concern about what her friend was doing. “Secrets make you more interesting.”
I don’t want to date other girls. “I guess,” I said noncommittally. The bell rang and we both climbed to our feet. Ash followed me into the hall. She plucked the map out of my hands the moment I had tugged it free from my bag. “Hey!” I grabbed for it, but she darted out of the way.
“Come on, you don’t want to be late for your class,” she announced before sprinting down the hall.
Somehow in a matter of seconds, Ash had managed to worm her way through the crowd, leaving me a half-dozen heads behind her. Every time I tried to move around someone, or gain some ground, I got more dirty looks.
I finally caught up with her at the end of the hallway. “You’re heading down this way,” Ash said, turning to her left and starting off again.
“What are you doing?” I followed her. What choice did I have?
Once we were in front of my next class, she stopped and handed me back the map. “I told you, I’m your student advisor. Now go be brilliant!” As she started to walk away, she reached up and ruffled her hand in my hair, totally messing it up. Just like that, she wandered back the way she’d come like nothing had happened.