Fated Fantasy Adventure

by Humphrey Quinn

  “Not too hard, that’s right up Meghan’s alley,” jested Colin.

  “Ha ha, very funny,” she retorted. “To be perfectly honest, Jae, I’m glad you’ll be in our class. I know I’ll need your help. It’s not fair though, you getting into trouble for helping yourself stay alive. And lying, for us.”

  “Fair does not have the same meaning here. If you break the rules, you pay a price, no exceptions. But it won’t be so bad doing it together,” he said.

  “If I were Juliska Blackwell, or anyone else here, I would be nothing but proud. Do they even realize what you were up against? What do they expect?” Meghan practically shouted it.

  Jae stood speechless at the buildings’ entrance. Mireya snuck up on the trio, nudging her brother.

  “Are you blushing?” she asked him.

  “No!” he defended.

  The four of them jumped in unison at the clanging of a bell.

  “We better go. Don’t want to be late, especially on your first day,” said Jae.

  Mireya raced away, waving goodbye. She had already graduated from Elementary level. The twins followed Jae closely. As they reached their classroom, they found the corridor was blocked.

  The Three D’s. Great! cringed the twins, in unison silent thoughts.

  “I can’t believe they let a criminal into the school,” scoffed Darcy Scraggs.

  “Yeah,” agreed Dulcy. Today she was snapping gum, instead of twirling her hair. Before she could say another word, Darcy motioned for her to zip it. Daveena laughed heftily.

  “Oh, Daveena, have you left Elementary?” questioned Jae, not in the mood to take any of their taunting. “When was the happy occasion?”

  Daveena’s face went blank and she growled.

  “C’mon Dulcy,” ordered Darcy. “We don’t want to be late for our higher education.” They left Daveena behind for the elementary class, which she had not yet successfully passed.

  The three let her enter the room first and made sure to go in the opposite direction. The class laughed as she stumbled to her chair. Colin did not join in. Daveena scowled, but Colin felt momentarily bad for her. Meghan caught a whiff of his thought.

  “She was about to pound you not too long ago, remember?” Colin still didn’t join in the laughing, but lost his sympathy for Daveena rapidly.

  A stout, middle-aged woman appeared at the door’s entrance. “Since you’re here I expect you’ll be helping your new roommates,” she blathered upon seeing Jae. “Exam time is not far away. I only hope we can get them caught up in time.” She spoke as if the twins were not in the room.

  The classroom was windowless and a chalkboard covered the entire circumference of the wall. A precariously hanging chandelier dimly lit the room. There were no desks. The students each claimed a square pillow from a stack off to the side, sitting and creating a circle around the teacher. Jae motioned for the twins to sit next to him.

  In the middle of the students, the teacher positioned herself onto another pillow, which rose a few inches in the air, slowly rotating as she spoke.

  “Silence please,” she requested.

  Speaking ceased. However, the student’s attention focused on the twins, not the teacher.

  “Yes, let’s get this out of the way, shall we. Two new students today, actually three, including Jae.” The twins could not tell whether she liked Jae or not. “Tell us about yourselves, it’s not often we get new students among us.”

  Daveena, who had finally gotten situated onto a pillow, snorted.

  “We don’t need to hear from you, Daveena,” said the teacher dryly.

  “What should we tell them?” Meghan asked her brother through their thoughts. He only answered in grunts and squawks. He hated public speaking, and his face was already turning red. “Fine, leave it to me. Again.” She took a deep breath to explain.

  “My name is Meghan Jacoby, and this is my twin brother, Colin. Until recently, we lived with our uncle and had absolutely no idea we came from a magical background, bloodline, or whatever... until we met Jae Mochrie, and ended up here.” She was sure they already knew that part of the story but hoped it would suffice.

  “To introduce myself, I am Teacher Lindy. Now, any questions before we get started anyone?” Numerous hands shot up, surprising the teacher. She called on a boy, no more than eight or nine years old.

  “I heard that you guys battled Scratchers,” he blurted out enthusiastically. The other hands went down; obviously, they had wanted to ask the same question.

  “This is true,” Jae answered on behalf of the trio. “And without Meghan’s and Colin’s help, I might not have made it home.”

  “It was my brother who did it,” added Meghan. “Not me!” She didn’t want to discuss the Scratchers. Her brother glared at her, having hoped not to speak, however the entire class, including the teacher, waited breathlessly for him to tell the tale.

  As he opened his mouth, unsure of what would come out, a meow penetrated the silent, breathless room. The teacher scrutinized the students, their gazes stuck on Meghan’s sweater pocket, which was moving. A tiny little kitten face appeared over the top of the pocket, revealing its different colored eyes.

  “What have you got there, Meghan Jacoby?” asked Teacher Lindy. “How on earth did you come about this?”

  “My brother found her in Grimble and brought her home, and I guess she decided I was her new master, or mistress.” As Meghan said the last part, recognition dawned on the class. An electric buzz raced through the shocked students.

  “Well I’ll be! A Catawitch, right here in our little village! Aren’t you a lucky, lucky girl?” Teacher Lindy was astonished.

  Having confirmation of what they were thinking, the class looked at Meghan (as Jae had predicted), with extreme jealousy.

  “All right, back to work. The Catawitch stays.” The teacher’s plan backfired. The excitement over the Catawitch overruled getting back to work. It confused Meghan that everyone was stupefied at seeing one, since she had already encountered two during her short life in the magical world.

  Teacher Lindy, realizing she was not going to be able to ignore the news, decided to change her lesson plan for the day.

  “Since we find ourselves on the subject of the Catawitch, let’s review the basics shall we? These are important so take notes. Never know when we might have a pop quiz.” The younger students groaned but opened up their notepads and scribbled down notes as she spoke.

  “Why does a Catawitch have two different colored eyes?”

  A boy called out an answer before allowing the teacher to call on him. “Because they have one normal eye, and a white one, which is said to be able to see really, really far.”

  “Oliver Stamm! How many times must I remind you of the rules? Do we ever allow blurting out of answers in this class?” The teacher reprimanded the boy, who the twins guessed to be around ten.

  “Sorry, I forgot, again,” he frowned.

  “Forgetting isn’t a good enough excuse anymore. To the board!” Oliver Stamm already knew what was coming, and depressingly picked up a piece of chalk and began writing: I will not forget to let Teacher Lindy call on me before answering a question. Why? Because it is disrespectful to the class.

  “How many lines this time, Teacher Lindy?” the boy asked, humiliated.

  “Since you can’t remember, after all the lines you’ve written thus far, Oliver, you can stay right there until the end of the school day.”

  “But I’ll miss my other classes. I’m barely caught up from the last time.”

  “And whose fault is that?” the teacher asked.

  “Mine, ma’am, and I’ll have to try harder to catch up.”

  The twins sent rapid thoughts to each other.

  “I wonder if I have to raise my hand for everything,” sent Meghan.

  “Guess that’s what the huge blackboard is for,” thought Colin.

  “This is so much stricter than Uncle Arnon ever was.”

  “You got that right,” he agreed
.

  “Okay then. Continuing with the lesson, the answer Oliver gave was in essence correct. The white eye is believed to be capable of seeing long distances; the exact distance has yet to be proven. There is also much debate over whether this eye can see more than just distance. That just perhaps they can see into the very soul of the one they call master.” She paused, allowing the students to finish their note taking, then continued. “How does one tell a good Catawitch from a bad one?”

  One child raised his hand slightly then put it back down. Another raised her hand and waited for the teacher to call on her.

  “Yes, go ahead, Maria.”

  This girl looked to be older as well. The students were such a mix of ages.

  “By their masters. Catawitch’s are loyal to them until death.”

  “Good, good. But also remember,” started the teacher, lowering her voice. “The cat chooses the master, or in this case, mistress, based on their own predisposition for good or evil. Alas, this fuels our fascination with these creatures, leading us to the ever burning question, are you a good cat, or a bad cat? Sometimes, one never knows until it is too late.” Teacher Lindy’s gaze peered over her spectacles in Meghan’s direction as if expecting an answer.

  The class studied Meghan, the new stranger.

  Banon Blackwell trusted her. Shouldn’t they?

  “Why am I always being gawked at?” she complained in a whispered mumble.

  “Because, people want to know if you’re a good cat, or a bad cat,” Colin sent into her mind, mocking the teacher.

  The class eventually moved on to another topic. The rest of the day passed smoothly now that the introductions were over. By the end, they had been assigned three essays, a take home quiz and magic practice. They decided that Uncle Arnon was not that hard of a teacher after all. Even Colin was a little anxious about the workload.

  It was too late to visit Uncle Eddy once school ended. Jae showed them instead how to send him a message. They stepped outside of the Svoda Wagon, into Grimble. Jae held a freshly plucked leaf from a tree in Bedgewood in his hand.

  “Recordo,” he said, handing it to Meghan. “Speak what you want written in the message.”

  “Uncle Eddy,” she dictated. “The first day went okay. Did you realize the kitten was a Catawitch? It caused quite a bit of ruckus. We hope to come and visit soon, tons of homework to do. Love, Meghan and Colin.” After she spoke, the message appeared on the leaf, briefly, and vanished.

  Jae took the leaf. “Find Uncle Eddy,” he told it. The leaf lifted off his hand and drifted away in the breeze. “Now it will find your uncle and only he can read the message.”

  “That’s way cool,” said Colin.

  “It’s a lot easier and faster than hand delivery,” said Jae.

  They raced home and dug into their homework. When Irving Mochrie arrived home that evening, nothing seemed to please him more than seeing four students hard at work.

  A WEEK PASSED. THE twins had no time to think about anything other than schoolwork. Exams were fast approaching and the teacher was afraid they might not be ready in time to pass. She scheduled an appointment for them with the school advisor, to see about studying with a tutor. Normally, the students had months to prepare. They had only six weeks until late October, and exam time.

  A short, stubby, balding man with a grumpy face met them in the hallway of the school and motioned for them to enter the advisor’s room. The walls were bare and windowless, and the only furniture was a small couch, desk, and chair.

  The man motioned for the twins to sit on the couch. They did and waited patiently while he monotonously waddled his way to the chair, apparently in no hurry. Finally, he situated himself comfortably, and in the same monotonous manner sifted through a stack of papers that the twins could only assume were about them. After carefully separating each page, he spread them neatly across his desk.

  His mouth opened to speak, then closed. He opened a drawer and took out a plaque. The name read, Muckle Mauch, Advisor.

  Colin was thinking, what kind of name is Muckle Mauch, which Meghan overheard and was about to comment on, when at long last the advisor spoke. His rushed, high-pitched voice took the twins off guard.

  “Okay then, we have you in elementary, I see, yes. You’re a few months behind the other beginners. If you plan on getting to the next level, which I suggest and know you do, you will need some extra tutoring to catch up.” Colin and Meghan already had an extra tutor in Uncle Eddy, but of course, they did not bring this to Advisor Mauch’s attention. Plus they’d had little time to visit and practice with their uncle.

  He continued, without letting them speak.

  “I would say three, no, four times a week will do. That should get you caught up on history and beginner skills in time for your exams.”

  “At least it’s not every night,” thought Colin dejectedly.

  “In a couple of days I will send a tutor to your house. You’re staying with the Mochrie family, yes, yes all right. I won’t lie!” he barked at them. “This will be a difficult six weeks for you. But not to worry. A little hard work never killed anyone!” He laughed in his high-pitched voice, which reverberated off the barren walls. “After fall exams, there is no telling when the next chance of passing the class will be, since we have a break for the holidays, and then of course, we move on.”

  The twins gawked at each other and Meghan butted in without waiting, or asking permission. “Excuse me, Sir, but moving on to where?”

  Muckle Mauch stopped; the expression on his face went blank.

  “Sorry, what?” he asked, his eyes widening a little.

  Meghan wondered if she had spoken out of turn, and would end up doing lines, instead of her homework.

  “This is not part of my job,” he explained. “I advise you how to succeed in passing class levels, which should be your number one concern. However, I suppose it’s possible you don’t understand how things work.” He sucked in deeply and said in a well-rehearsed manner, “We are not advised where we will go next, that is for Banon Blackwell and the Viancourt to research and decide. Get used to it. It happens every few months or so.”

  It was not exactly the answer the twins were looking for, but they had no chance to think about it or question further. The advisor had them back on topic and scheduling tutor times in the blink of an eye.

  On their way to class, they regretted that the time was coming when they would say goodbye to Uncle Eddy. Even more so, they regretted that the time they did have, would be lessened even more by schoolwork.

  “I know it seems inevitable, Col, but we haven’t asked him about staying behind when the Svoda leave Grimble,” said Meghan.

  “Somehow, I think I already know the answer, Sis. But we can still ask,” he added, trying to keep up hope. They headed to class, which was already in session, running into Jae at the door; he held a stack of books, with his hand on the doorknob.

  “How’d ya like Muckle Mauch?” he asked with a sardonic eyebrow lift.

  She let out a terse laugh. “Considering all the tutoring he set up for us, not so keen right now.”

  “Teacher Lindy asked me to grab a few books for her. You guys coming back to class?”

  “Unfortunately,” droned Meghan. Jae finished opening the door and entered, followed by Meghan. Her eye caught a lit candle sitting in the corner of the room.

  That’s all it took. A single flame. Meghan touched the doorknob and the floor swayed beneath her. From the corner of her eye, in the flame, there was a shadow. She jerked her head away, not wanting to see it, hoping desperately it was not another warning of an imminent attack.

  Colin steadied her, shutting the door gently.

  “Are you all right? Is it the Firemancy thing again?”

  “Maybe,” she said, wishing she hadn’t touched the door knob after Jae. She detested this new ability.

  “We need to get to class,” reminded her brother.

  Meghan’s pocket stirred and the baby Catawitch poked
its head over the edge, meowing softly.

  As Colin took hold of the doorknob, Meghan turned and suddenly fled the school.

  “What are you doing?” Colin flung the thought at her disappearing figure.

  “Just something I gotta do,” she sent back, putting her mind block firmly in place to keep him out of her thoughts.

  “Wonderful,” Colin said through his teeth. “What am I going to tell the teacher?” He entered the classroom, and thought half-sarcastically, and half-truthfully, “I think she’s completely lost her mind.”

  Teacher Lindy was guiding a student through moving objects, without touching them.

  “Concentrate, Marvin. This is where you always mess up! I know you can do this.” The rest of the class cheered the boy on as he focused on moving a heavy stack of pillows through the air. The goal was to have them land neatly in an outlined square.

  Colin waited near the door, not wanting to interrupt or get in the way. Once the stack was positioned nicely in the square the class cheered and crowded around the exhausted boy. Teacher Lindy cheered happily.

  “Splendid job! You’re going to pass the exam this time, Marvin, I can feel it! Well done.”

  Marvin looked to be around eleven, and was one of the older students in the class, other than the twins and Jae. And Daveena. And the girl named Maria. Colin wasn’t sure how old she was, her face looked young. And she always smiled kindly and said hello when passing them in the hall, or down the street. But she had to be older than anyone else in the class. He wondered why.

  “Okay, back to your pillows class, and we shall begin again. Who would like to go next?” There were no volunteers. Teacher Lindy noticed Colin working his way to an empty pillow. Her eyes perked up. “Aha! Colin Jacoby. I think it’s time for you and... where’s your sister, still with advisor Mauch?”

  At the name, the students squealed under their breath. The teacher gave them a, you’re-a-naughty-class look, and the giggling ended. Colin tried in vain to think up an excuse.

  “Uh, she is... she fell ill, had to go home, I think.”

  “Home? Did she get a letter of excuse?” the teacher prodded.