He clapped his hands together. “Perfect,” he said. Zoe didn’t think it was possible for his smile to widen, but somehow he managed. He walked over to the doorway and called out, “sweetie, come show the nice lady your magic.”
A short figure appeared in the doorway alongside her father.
At first, Zoe couldn’t tear her eyes from the girl’s face. Her heart sank as her eyes drifted down to the girl’s arms and hands.
A clearing of a throat caused Zoe’s eyes to snap up.
“This is my daughter, Des.” He gave her shoulder a soft squeeze. “Go on and show the nice lady your magic.”
The little girl gave a nod. Her face scrunched up in concentration. After a moment, a candle-like flame appeared on the tip of her finger. She absolutely beamed at her father.
His face never dropped the large grin.
“Alright,” Zoe said. She couldn’t say no to a smile like that–the daughter’s smile, not the doctor’s grin. “I’ve got time for a quick interview.”
— — —
“Got a plan in mind?”
“As long as she sticks to what you two told me, I’ll be fine.”
Juliana let out a short snort. “Good luck. I consider myself fairly decent and she still manages to thrash me. Not this year though. I’ve been training with my mother.”
Shalise frowned. She was nowhere near Juliana’s level and she knew it. Unlike Juliana, Shalise had a secret weapon. She was counting on that and being underestimated to snatch a surprise victory.
Her nerves sent jitters all throughout her body as they approached the outdoor amphitheater. She had missed every one of the seminars before the first year of school.
Not that attending would have done any good. According to Eva and Juliana, no first years aside from the two of them actually managed to put up any kind of fight, let alone a good one.
“You might be fine,” Eva said, “but Zoe Baxter isn’t aiming to hurt or maim. The real trick is getting a hit in.”
“Like you said, she won’t see it coming.”
“I don’t know,” Juliana said, “Zoe can be pretty attentive. She’ll definitely notice gloves that you have never worn before.”
“But,” Eva said, “she won’t understand what they’re for until it is too late.” The black-haired girl turned her head towards Shalise. “If you can keep from acting like they’re anything special, that might help. Just put them on now and try not to think about them.”
If there was one sure way to get her thinking about something she shouldn’t think about, it was telling her not to think about it. Still, Shalise complied and donned her black gloves. She resolved to keep them clenched or hidden until the last moment. Professor Baxter might recognize the metal plates on the last digit for what they were.
“Hey!”
Shalise and Juliana both jumped. Eva, Shalise noted, merely gave a light chuckle. As one, the three girls turned to look behind them.
A slightly sweaty Max was rushing up the sidewalk. He came to a stop just in front of them, slightly panting. “I’m glad you are here,” he said between breaths. “I thought I was going to be the only person I knew.”
His eyes lingered on Eva for several seconds longer than anyone else. Shalise knew why. Even with Eva slouching and keeping her knees slightly bent beneath her baggy pants, she was still Shalise’s height. A few weeks ago, she’d only come up to Shalise’s chin.
They’d had plenty fun teasing Juliana while towering over her. Much to the blond’s chagrin.
“No Jordan and co?” Juliana asked, breaking the spell Eva’s height had over Max.
He shook his head. “Irene and Shelby are vacationing with Jordan’s family. Somewhere in Europe I think.”
“We’ve had class with the same group of twenty-something students for a year. You must know someone else, surely.”
Max shook his head. “That might be true, but only vaguely. I know of Drew and Jason and people, but I’ve never really spoken with them.”
“Hmm,” Juliana tapped her finger on her chin. “I can’t say I’m much different. Something to work on this year.”
“I’ll pass,” Eva said. “I’ve gotten through a whole year not talking to anyone outside our group, I’m sure I’ll get through another with no trouble. Besides,” she waved a gloved hand, “it is hard enough keeping secrets in our little group.”
Max quirked an eyebrow. “Secrets?”
Eva’s face immediately twisted into a scowl. Juliana quickly gave her a little nudge. There was an unnatural wiggle beneath her shirt as Juliana’s elbow ribbed her.
Arachne, Shalise thought. Since Eva finished her vacation, the demon had been living in their dorm without trying to hide at all. It was a tad creepy watching her walk around in her humanish form. Shalise had to keep reminding herself that the demon helped to save her life.
For that demon that saved her life, Shalise did the first thing she could think of to pull attention to herself. She smiled and nudged Max in his side. “Oh you know, secrets like which boys we like and who among us girls is most developed.”
His face changed colors. It was almost imperceptible, but it was there. His eyes struggled to maintain contact with Shalise’s own.
Seeing his reaction, Shalise’s smile curled into a grin. “I’ll give you a hint: it isn’t Juliana,” she said in a stage whisper.
“Hey! I’ll have you know that I’ve got more muscles in my pinky fingers than the rest of you put together.” She glared at Shalise. “I’m not afraid to use them.”
“Ooh, spooky,” Shalise giggled. She half skipped, half hopped down the path. “We’re going to be late if we keep dilly-dallying.”
The rest of the group followed, though they skipped the skipping. Soon enough, all four were seated around the middle of the amphitheater. Just in time too.
Professor Baxter appeared on stage near a pile of silver marbles. She scanned the crowd. Her eyes stopped briefly on their group and she gave them a light smile. At the end of her scan, she frowned for just a moment. The frown vanished as quick as it came.
“Welcome to my seminar,” Professor Baxter said. She then launched into a short speech, one that was exactly the same as the year before according to Eva. Despite her mentioning discussing battle tactics, apparently such events were few and far between. It was similar to Professor Kines’ club except they fought the professor instead of each other.
She started off with some student she named Mr. Burnside. He put on a dazzling show of fire with the occasional pillar of earth to block her marbles. They kept the fight going for almost a minute before one of the marbles struck his shoulder. After that, more hit him and he went down to the ground.
“Excellent, Mr. Burnside. A vast improvement over last year.”
Mr. Burnside didn’t seem to think so. He was grumbling under his breath as he walked back to his seat.
Juliana leaned over as another student took to the stage. “A lot of them seem to show up for only a seminar or two to fight Zoe. He is one of those. In a few weeks he’ll be back with some new gimmicky way to fight.”
“I didn’t think that looked that bad.”
Juliana scoffed. “He used a massive amount of tiny fireballs in a vain attempt at getting a lucky hit in. None of them even made it close as a light gust of air extinguished them.
“His use of earth magic was atrocious, but as an earth mage, I might be biased. Still, he could have tried to open a pit beneath her feet to throw her off-balance.”
Shalise was feeling the butterflies settle into her stomach. What she planned on doing was in no way as impressive.
“Don’t worry,” Juliana patted her thigh. “I’m a little nervous myself. Last year I didn’t carry thirty pounds of metal around with me.”
“Thirty pounds?”
“I said I had more muscles than all you.” She rubbed her hands together. “Zoe likes to use lightning a lot, and she will with me because her metal marbles won’t touch me at all. But I’ve been doing some research lately; I think I can nullify her lightning as well.”