The front door slamming shut woke her from her thoughts. The group noise had ceased and footsteps could be heard moving towards the bedroom. As the footsteps moved past, Eva rapped her knuckles on the wall. The footsteps paused, then moved back towards the office.
The door opened just a crack at first, letting a small amount of light fall just to the side of Eva. He opened the door wider, reveling the mangy form of Edgar Spencer.
“Hmph,” her father grunted. “I figured I’d be seeing you soon.” He stepped into the office, bringing with him the thick smell of whatever drugs he fancied these days. “I’ve warned you not to draw attention to me. You’re lucky they weren’t cops. Or child services. If I ever–”
“Spare me, daddy.” Eva waved her hand in front of her nose, not that it helped. “Just tell me what they wanted and we can go back to pretending neither of us exist.”
He took a threatening step forwards, but Eva didn’t budge. “I didn’t raise you to be–”
“You’re right, daddy, you didn’t raise me.” Eva stood, causing her father to flinch back. “What did they want?”
He eyed his daughter. His upper lip twitched the way it always did when he got mad. Yet there was no cowering daughter before him. Not this time. Just a young woman glaring back.
Eventually he sighed. “They came by yesterday to invite you to one of them magic academies. Once I realized they weren’t after me, I told them that you still went to Auvlub Junior and that I hadn’t seen you since your parent-teacher conference in January.”
Eva scoffed at that. When her father didn’t continue, Eva said, “that’s it? No messages in case I should show up?”
Edgar Spencer shook his head. Shavings of dander fluttered to his shoulders from his long, dark hair. Eva had to force herself not to take a step backwards.
“Well, I’ll get out of your hair then. I hope to not see you soon.” Eva turned to the open window, but a clearing of a throat gave her pause.
“Are you planning on going?”
Eva considered for a moment. “Don’t know. I’ve other people to talk to first. Not sure why it would matter to you in either case.”
Without another word she stepped through the window, heading to her home.
—
“Aww, did poor little Evaleen lose her cat.”
Eva repressed a flinch. “The name is Eva,” she said through grit teeth. She turned away from the school bulletin board where the final missing owner poster hung. “What do you want, Todd?”
Todd Farkas grinned, showing off a set of shiny braces. His baggy shorts were belted half way down his thighs. A shirt clearly designed with someone of considerably more size and girth covered most of the area left bare by his shorts.
Eva couldn’t help but to shake her head. It would be pitiful if he dressed the way he did because of hand-me-downs, but his mother gave her children the initiative to dress themselves. A poor decision when they had the fashion sense of a troglodyte.
Michael Porter, a boy of similarly deficient dress habits, stood just to Todd’s left. His interest seemed to be solely on a portable game system. Minus the occasional flick of his eyes to Eva, a light blush, and back to his game.
“What I want, Evey, is to just say hi. We’ve only got, what, three days of eighth grade left?” He glanced over his shoulder to a shrugging Michael. “Something like that. It would be a shame not to see my bestest buddy.”
“And just think, two of them are half days. Then I never have to see you again. There aren’t even tests scheduled for Friday. I might just skip.”
“Never again?” Michael said as he looked up from his game. He cleared his throat and turned his head back to his game, but his eyes were all but glued to Eva.
Eva just rolled her eyes.
Todd, if he was surprised, kept it off his face. “Not going to North High?”
“I have some people to talk to. I might be going to an art school out-of-state.” Eva shrugged. The two people in the alley had mentioned an academy and she would be lying to herself if she said she wasn’t a little excited. She almost regretted running from them, but it seemed to impress the woman at least. Of course, there was one other person to talk to before making any final decisions.
“An art school? You can’t do art.”
“You wouldn’t know art if Bob Ross himself bit you. That doesn’t mean others are so woefully lacking in culture.” Eva glanced over his shoulder. “Speaking of, I think someone I need to speak with just walked in.”
Both boys turned to watch the main entrance, opposite the bulletin board, where the woman from the alley was being led into the main offices. She spotted Eva and gave a small wink before disappearing into the office.
Their homeroom teacher emerged a moment later and made a beeline to the group. After a brief exchange, the boys were dismissed and Eva was following Mrs. Wheeler into the offices. She brought Eva to a small meeting room where the woman sat on the opposite side of the table.
She wore the same black three-piece suit, but added a bright red tie with a stylized butterfly on the front. Her brown hair hung to her shoulders in the front, but cut at a diagonal to the nape of her neck in the back. Her sharp green eyes completed her imposing look.
Eva took the seat opposite of the woman. Mrs. Wheeler, despite all the chairs being moved to the corner quite purposefully, dragged a chair over and sat adjacent to Eva.
The three sat in silence. The woman sized up Eva while Eva tried to do the same. The woman definitely didn’t look like someone to be crossed. She projected an aura of confidence. Confidence that wasn’t well reflected in Eva’s own aura. Eva had yet to discuss any of the possible schooling, if that is what the woman was here for, with her master.
Mrs. Wheeler fidgeted awkwardly the entire time.
Eva began drawing a small sloth rune, tracing the pattern on the under side of the table with her fingernail. It wouldn’t last long, but should be enough to put Mrs. Wheeler to sleep. She began to trace out the broken ring to direct its effects towards her homeroom teacher when the woman’s lips quirked into the start of a small smile.
She said, “Mrs… what did you say your name was?”
The homeroom teacher nearly jumped ten feet in the air at the break in the room’s tension. It took her a minute to realize she was the one being addressed. “Wheeler,” she said.
“Thank you Mrs. Wheeler, I think we can take it from here.”
“Ah, but…” she glanced nervously between Eva and the woman.
“Don’t worry. She’s just come to recruit me for her academy of fine arts. Right?”
“That is correct,” the woman said.
“The arts? Oh congratulations Eva. That’s excellent news. I’ll just,” she glanced between the two once again, “I’ll be out in the office if you need anything.” She stood and left the room, quietly shutting the door with a whispered “good luck.”
The two remaining occupants of the room stared at one another for another minute still. The woman across the table spoke first.
“The academy of fine arts?”
Eva shrugged. “It is just what I told a few other acquaintances of mine. I didn’t know your academy’s actual name, and I doubted you would have said. Magic’s existence might be an open secret, but it is vague enough to keep people guessing.”
“Hmm. And beneath the table?”
“A sloth rune with some Ogham modifiers, directed at my homeroom teacher with the intent of inducing sleep.”
“Runes?” The woman actually looked surprised, rather than her semi-condescending, ‘smarter than thou’ look. “Where did you learn about runes?”
“A book. Why?”
“We don’t even teach runes at Brakket. They are considered archaic, supplanted by most modern forms of thaumaturgy, and not worthy of learning by proper mages.”
“They’ve done alright by me,” Eva said with another shrug. “They keep people away from my home, among other useful things.”