“Augh,” Anwen groaned. “Who knew college could be so…exciting.” She added, not quite sure if it was the right choice of words.
“Anyway, first you have to go out on a date with him.”
“Are you crazy?” she placed both hands on her waist. “How on earth am I supposed to go on a date with him?
"Easy," Eudora said. “You have to talk to him.”
“Uhm, excuse me. Have you seen him?”
“We are seeing him, right now, together.”
Anwen just realized that talking to her roommate about this was useless, because Eudora was a nutcase that came up with crazy ideas.
In the afternoon they tried to come up with the perfect plan to make Harvey and Anwen go on a date together, and needless to say, it turned out unsuccessfully.
“I’m sure there must be a spell here somewhere that can boost up your confidence.” Eudora ruffled through the book.
“How about I just talk to him?” When she realized how crazy this plan was, Anwen decided to ignore her insecurity. She had to stop this nonsense and just talk to him.
“You’d do that?” She glanced at her with amusement.
“Mm-hmm.”
“How?” a guffaw came out of her. How could Eudora possibly manage to be so obnoxious?
"I'll do it. See, when we try to find something in that book, it always ends up badly, considering that you sometimes—well, always—forget that we’re not witches just yet. We cannot cast complicated spells.”
“Hmm…” She cupped her chin and squinted. “Maybe not this time.”
“Still, we don’t have to take that risk, when I might as well go talk to him, like a normal person.”
“But I don’t trust you.”
“And I do not trust you casting a spell.”
“Come on, it was just a one-time thing. Do I have to remind you that the book was completely undescriptive?”
“You should’ve figured it out. A book doesn’t include tips that you are supposed to know already.”
“Anyway, what time do you plan on going to talk to him?”
“Hmm, how about now?” she shrugged. “Everybody’s out enjoying campus life, except for you and me. We’re just trying to come up with some devious scheme.”
“Now who’s the one to act all stupid?” she raised a brow that was followed by a burst of obnoxious laughter, and they didn’t even realize that they were both cracking up.
They run through the spacious, gothic, hallways looking for Harvey.
“There he is,” Eudora pointed at the bench on the corner of the lawn beside the anchor light, which was yet unlighted.
Apricot chased after her, rubbing against her legs for attention. She bent down to reach him and petted his head.
“You don’t approve of this, do you?” she talked to the cat. “Well, don’t worry, you’re always gonna be my number one crush.”
“Now that’s creepy. Anyway, eyes on the price.” Eudora grabbed Anwen by the arm when she noticed that Harvey’s friend was leaving him alone. “Go ahead.”
Anwen looked at Harvey—he was the most precious dream she’d been holding so fondly for all these years. But he was here now. All tangible and real.
Despite her weird ways, Anwen could play it cool too. She was actually the definition of pretty. She had dark purple-nuanced hair, dark lipstick, pretty eyes and long lashes. She walked around with her black dress and her purple thigh-high stockings.
“Hey,” she tried to stay calm. “Hmm, I saw you in one of my classes today.”
“Oh, yeah?” He raised an eyebrow, sitting there confidently.
“I’m Anwen,” she laid her hand out.
“Harvey.” He said—as though she didn’t already know it—and shook hands with her. “Do you wanna take a seat?” he offered.
“Well,” she looked at the empty side of the bench endearingly.
“How was your first day, Anwen?”
Well, look at him, they just met and he was already drenching her with questions. Er, it was only one question though, and he probably asked it just to be nice. But she liked to believe that he asked that question because he was interested in her. Augh, she wouldn’t have it any other way.
“You look so familiar.” He noted. “Where do you come from?”
“Oh, far away from here.” She was a little bit sad that he hadn’t even noticed they lived on the same street. How was that even possible? But anyway. Now that he was there, she had to find a way to get closer to him.
“Um, where exactly?”
“Pumpkin Valley.”
“That’s where I live.”
“Oh really,” she wrinkled her brows as if she couldn’t believe it. “Now, what are the chances?” Boy, she was horrible at pretending.
“How come we’ve never met before?”
“That’s weird.”
“Growing up, I’ve attended a lot of clubs, but my favorite one is on Pumpkin Valley where we practiced this cool game called guibbis where you could actually score points using magic tricks. The rules consisted in using the right spell to draw this furry rat-like thing into the arches.”
“Sounds fun,” she lied.
“It is. Maybe I’ll teach you someday.”
Now that was interesting. Sure, she had a lot of things to do, but right now she was happy with what she had.
“There’s one thing though. We’re gonna have to eat something after the game, so we might need to find a nice luncheon.”
"So you want us to go on a date together?"
“Well, that's very nice of you to ask.” She could hear the high-pitched tone in her voice.
“I didn’t…”
“So…you can choose a nice luncheon where they serve roasted beef and berry juice. These are my favorite. I thought that, since you actually planned the date all by yourself, you might want to carry it through rightfully.”
“But—I…”
“Uh, I almost forgot, I don’t like the beef to be too roasted. It kinda destroys all its taste.”
“Anwen—”
“Ah, and it better be someplace quiet. I don’t want our first date to be too…lousy.”
Finally, it seemed like Harvey gave up.
“Okay,” he surrendered. “How about Friday?”
“Friday’s perfect.” Anwen was over the hills. Despite her pushy ways, or the hesitating look on his face—which was still there by the way, refusing to go away—she was so taken with this whole dating idea, she ignored everything else.
Apricot had been waddling around her legs all along and he decided to jump onto the top side of the bench, meowing.
“What’s this?”
“Oh,” she smiled. “He’s Apricot.”
“He’s scary…”
What did he call him? Scary? Sure Apricot was all black and mean, but he was so precious too. So what if he was a little scary?
* * *
“So he finally asked me out on a date,” Anwen told her roommate when she came back home.
“Girl, you work your magic fast,” Eudora nudged her, mockingly.
“I better not ruin this.”
“Now how did he come up with it so soon?”
"Well, I must've been too convincing." She said remembering how she’d tricked him into taking her on a date and how she’d made him believe it was his idea.
Chapter Three
Fourteen Years Earlier
The portal was opened across the graveyard in a stone-cold night with ravens snooping around on top of the trees. The moon was shining among the clouds, silvering the dullness of the sky. The perfect night for a witch gathering.
“Isn’t it a lovely night?” The scratchy voice filled the place. “Right, Anwen?” Rhiannon looked at the little witch, waiting for her approval.
“Hmm, yeah, I guess,” she responded insecurely.
"A real witch would love a night like this," Audra noted mercifully.
/> “Give her a little time, Audra. In no time she’s going to be the best witch of the confluence.” Rhiannon interfered and then approached the little, insecure witch. "Here, this is the first gift of your coronation.”
“A brush?” she looked suspiciously at the old, scratched brush in her hand.
“Not just an ordinary brush. It’s going to be the best brush you’ve ever had.”
“Er—” she was trying hard to be convinced, still that little, old piece of metal and plastic wasn’t much to convince her.
“Cayenne, what are you doing in there?” Audra yelled at the old witch, who was sleuthing across a tree. “Why aren’t you participating in our little celebration?”
“Shhh, I think someone’s in there. I think I heard something!”
“Of course, you heard something. We’re in the graveyard, in the middle of the night. There must be some insomniac rat waggling around, or a raven cracking upon a tree branch.” Audra threatened.
“Rats should be waggling during nights. It’s what they do, it doesn’t make them insomniac.” Rhiannon corrected her.
“Meow…” The black cat lingered down the tree, writhing around the little witch’s legs.
“So, what am I supposed to do with this?” She pointed at the brush.
“You’ll figure it out!”
Audra looked at the tree branches shaking from the wind. The darkness and the occasional sounds coming from behind the trees scared her away. Despite everything, she was doing well, still though, she couldn’t understand why the prime-warlock’s mail wasn’t showing yet.
“What’s taking him so long to send the approval letter?” Rhiannon scowled.
“Why are you so sure it’s going to be a confirmation?” the little witch asked.
“What else could it be? You’re a huge hope on the witches’ confluence. This is a big day. Your big day. The celebration day!” She emphasized.
The little girl shrugged.
“I wouldn’t put it past him if he sent the best letter the history of witches has ever seen.”
“Shut it, Cayenne. I think I’m hearing something. This time for real,” Rhiannon snooped around to take a better look across the place.
A portal was opened afar. The letter was expected to be sent by some bat or whatever bird the council was using these days. But it never occurred to them that the minister of magic would show up himself to give them the message.
“Now that must be important,” Rhiannon murmured a little louder this time.
“More important than we must have thought,” Audra added.
“Hello, witches, and cat,” said the minister. "I've come with an unexpected message." He was standing across from them, holding a rounded letter on one of his hands.
“Hello, sir, such an honor to meet you in person. You look a little older than you do in pictures.” Cayenne posted.
Rhiannon pushed her with the elbow and the minister seemed to ignore the comment.
“Things have been a little unusual lately, and we were asked to make a lot of researches for the coronation day of the little witch who’s expected to be crowned as a witch in progress.”
“And we are so excited for that,” Cayenne joined both hands together with enthusiasm.
“But,” he emphasized, and the tone of his voice wasn’t really enthusiastic. "It seems that we won't be having that coronation after all today…"
“Huh,” they growled altogether.
“We never will.” He finally said.
“But sir, what’s wrong?” Audra asked slowly, drenched in concern.
“It seems that the girl was not born in our confluence of witches. From legal documents we verified that the girl has been, what’s the word,” he looked away as though trying to recall something. “Adopted.”
“But is that a problem? I mean, why should it be?”
“No girl can be adopted. This is an unusual turn of events in the whole history of witches.”
“But sir,” Rhiannon tried to insist. “Don’t you think that our little girl deserves to be treated equally and respectfully? I mean she’s already among us witches. And what’s more, look at how cute she is.” Her voice cracked with excitement and insecurity at the same time.
The minister looked at the little girl and hesitated for a while. He looked compassionately at the girl who clearly wasn’t realizing what was happening while she was looking at the old brush that was given to her as a gift, probably trying to realize if that thing could come in handy sometime.
The minister finally shook his head.
“Oh, sir—”
“Witch Cayenne, you know this can’t happen. The girl is not a witch. And she will never be.” He said harshly.
“But living among us, she could learn how.”
“You can’t learn how to be a witch. You should find a way to get rid of her.”
“Huh, how can you say that?” Audra drew back in shock. “We’ve grown so fond of her and we could never abandon our little girl. And for that matter, she was abandoned once by her real parents. We can’t allow it to happen again.”
“Well, that should be your problem. You should know that a human among us is not any better than them struggling in their own world…even if they’re abandoned.”
“Never!” Audra shouted and stepped in front of the girl as if to protect her.
"Anyway, witches, my work's done here. Obviously, I cannot stop you from keeping the child with you since there's no such law in the witches' confluence allowing me to do so. So since this law doesn't exist, I cannot do anything to enforce you to get rid of the girl. Although I hope that you'll find some reason in you and you’d do it yourself. A human girl does not belong here. Now if you’ll excuse me,” he touched his mantel and disappeared.
“What are we going to do?” Audra walked around, distressed.
“Well, obviously we cannot get rid of her, can we?” Cayenne’s eyebrows wrinkled.
“Of course, not!” Rhiannon added harshly.
“I’m not a witch, mother?” The little girl looked up to meet her mother’s eyes.
“No dear, you can’t be a witch until the coronation day.” Rhiannon looked at her endearingly.
“I mean, will I ever become a witch?”
“Augh,” she mumbled, unable to answer.
The rat-infested place became livelier as all sorts of animals had gathered around. The first light of the morning touched the sky.
“We probably must go,” Audra offered.
“We can’t just leave? What about the girl?”
“What about her?” Rhiannon showed her maternal instincts.
“We can’t just leave her here, all alone.”
“Why do you think we would ever do that?” she frowned and shook her head.
“Well, what are we supposed to do with her? How is a little girl going to live normally when she knows she’s not exactly who she’s meant to be?”
“What if she didn’t?” it seemed like Rhiannon had come up with some devious scheme.
“What are you thinking?” Audra looked at her in a susceptible way.
“We are going to erase this night from her memories.”
“Huh…”
“No, you didn’t say it.”
"Well, obviously, our hands are tight. What other choice do we have?"
“We don’t.”
“But it’s forbidden to use such a spell to someone like us.”
“Well, legally she’s not exactly what they would call ‘someone like us.’”
"I'm in," Audra stated; after all, if Anwen knew she wasn't a witch, it would be too risky.
“Me too.” Cayenne accepted.
“And who is going to perform the spell?”
“I’m gonna do it,” Rhiannon whispered firmly as though somebody could hear, though there was no one around beside them.
The two other witches moved back, gathering around in a circle, putting Anwen i
n the middle.
“Rerun praetero,” she pointed at the little girl, who moved up, swirled in the air, and then drifted back to place.
Three witches ran at her, looking all down.
“Is she okay?”
"She's going to be," Rhiannon reassured them.
Chapter Four
“This is awkward.”
“What is?”
“You brought your cat on our date.”
“His name’s Apricot.”
“Yeah, whatever,” Harvey muttered. He was sure that the cat looked at him weirdly.
“I couldn’t have him miss our first date. It’s such an important event.”
“Yeah? For us, you mean.”
“Yes, for you…and me, but Apricot is a big part of my life. He’s been there my whole life.”
Harvey tried to ignore her, but there was something about this cat the creeped him out.
“So where’s that game you were talking about?”
“Oh, I’ll bring you there, just after the luncheon. Should I order roasted beef and berry juice?” he tried to impress her with that statement.
“Oh, you remember?” she asked, flattered.
It seemed like his lame trick worked after all.
They talked about random stuff about university just to break the ice.
“Are you gonna try your beef or what?” he asked. “You begged me for it. At least give it a try.” He said after noticing how she was all lost in her thoughts. Was the date really so boring, he wondered.
"Oh, yeah." She trembled as if awakening from a frightening dream, even though her thoughts had been so mild.
Grabbing her fork and her knife, she was ready to gobble up her meal, as a shrilling noise broke through.
Apricot jumped up to the table and grabbed Harvey’s beef, without even asking for permission.
“Oh, my God,” she whispered, shocked.
Apricot turned about and looked at her in the most adorable way.
“Apricot,” she yelled.
“Meow,” the cat replied, giving her that innocent look.
“I’m sorry. I’m sure he didn’t mean to.” She excused him.
Since the girl he’d asked on a date had brought her freaky cat with her and was making excuses for the mess he created, Harvey was left with no choice but to go along with it. Anwen’s relation with that cat was a little bit strange and crazy—if you asked him. But maybe it was useless to overthink it. So, whatever. It was just a piece of beef, so he wouldn’t hold a grudge.
An Academy for Witches (A Witch in Progress Book 1) Page 2
