Mara shook her head, slightly exasperated that she had to explain the little things. She had, however, learned that lesson early on. She’d given past classes way too much credit for thinking about the small details and ended up with a huge mess to clean up and a whole bunch of human memories to erase. Suffice it to say; the government had not been happy with her.
“Now, I will be there if you have questions, as will Professor Hudson and Horace, so find us at any time. If everything goes well, I have a special treat for you all afterward. Follow the professors single-file out to the bus, and please try to keep the voices low. Classes are still in session.”
Mara watched with concern as the students excitedly filed out of the auditorium. She knew that most of them had some, if not tons, of experience blending with normies from before they attended the school. The funny thing about magical beings—especially teenagers—was that when they started to live in a magical world, they seemed to forget how to integrate into normal life. Luckily the headmistress of the prep school was a close friend of hers and a Light Elf, so if anything went wrong, she would be able to assist with the cleanup.
The bus was packed, and the students’ conversations were excited and loud. Alison and Tanner sat at the back across from Izzie and Luke. Ethan and Peter were in the seat in front of them, and to the other side Aya, Emma, and Kathleen squeezed into another one. Ethan looked over the back of his seat at Luke.
“Hey, if all hell breaks loose, just turn into your wolf and let them pet your belly. That should do it.”
Luke balled up his list and threw it at Ethan’s head, making a face. Izzie giggled at the two of them and watched the front as the professors boarded and took seats. Mara looked nervous, not that Izzie could blame her. She wouldn’t want to be the one taking that group out and expecting there not to be trouble. Just Ethan alone had the potential to make a huge problem for her.
Mara nodded to the bus driver and sat down next to Horace. “What could go wrong?”
Horace raised an eyebrow and Mara shook her head, facing forward as the bus headed to the restaurant. When they arrived, everyone was on their best behavior as they filed excitedly into the restaurant and took their seats. They were mixed in with the other kids. Lunch had been selected for them, but no one really cared about the food. Mara had been nervous about her kids, but what she hadn’t accounted for was the curiosity level of the prep school kids, and just how mischievous they could be for humans.
Izzie and the others had chosen to stay together, sitting at a large round table in the back corner with four of the prep school students. There were two boys and two girls, and they immediately launched into a barrage of questions, slightly disappointed and unbelieving when they got normal high school answers. As lunch progressed they started to loosen up with each other, laughing and talking about the different happenings at the prep school. One of the boys looked at the professors and saw that they were engrossed in their own conversations.
He pulled his bookbag up and whispered to the others, “Look what I got from my uncle over summer vacation.”
He pulled out a small firecracker and smiled. “It’s a new kind from London. You’re supposed to be able to click the wick, and then you can stop it at any time before it hits the explosive. It’s not even loud. It just makes a really gross-smelling fog that takes forever to get out of a building. I haven’t used one yet. I just like playing with the wicks.
Izzie raised an eyebrow, feeling this was not a good idea. The boy flicked his fingers against the wick and it turned red, slowly moving toward the base. He flicked his fingers again, but nothing happened. Over and over he tried, panicking when it wouldn’t turn off. Right before it hit the base, he tossed it into the center of the table.
“Oh, no! This is so bad. We’ll be expelled for sure.”
Ethan looked at the others, holding his wand beneath his robes. They watched as a small trickle of smoke poured out, steadily getting faster. The smell was already terrible, and they all knew that if it spread they would all be in huge trouble. Finally, Ethan shook his head and pulled out his wand, whispering a reversal spell. The normals watched with wide eyes as the light curled around the smoke and pushed it back into the firecracker. Even the wick was returned to full power.
“Whoa,” the boys whispered. “I knew it! You all are magical, aren’t you?”
“We aren’t supposed to let normal people like you know,” Izzie hissed. “We will all be held back if our headmistress finds out.”
Ethan shoved his wand back into his sleeve. “And she’ll have to wipe your memories.”
The kids looked at each other, then back at Ethan and the others. “You saved our butts. We would have been toast for sure. Your secret is safe with us, we swear.”
They all smiled at each other and Izzie breathed a sigh of relief, watching the boy carefully pick up the firecracker and put it back into his bookbag. By the end of the luncheon, they all felt like friends and agreed to meet up in town again some weekend during free time. Izzie walked up to Alison as they climbed back onto the buses and let out a deep breath.
“That was a close one.” Alison chuckled. “I knew that boy was trouble. I could see his soul, and it was pure mischief until the firecracker went off. Then it was pure fear. I bet he peed his pants a little.”
They laughed and took their seats at the back, and looked up as Mara happily climbed on board. “All right, guys. You did an amazing job; probably the best any class has done their first time out. Thank you so much for behaving and doing exactly as you should have.”
Izzie glanced at Luke as he stifled a laugh. The doors to the bus shut, and Mara smiled at the students.
“As a treat for doing so well, we are going to head to downtown Charlottesville and visit the mall!”
Everyone was excited. They loved the mall area. The mall wasn’t like other large complexes. It was downtown Charlottesville, a historic wonder and the apple of the locals’ eyes. All the old buildings had been converted into stores, restaurants, and inns, but the heritage had been neatly preserved. The magical students liked it because any of the towns old statues or plaques with small stars at the bottom revealed the magical history of the town when touched by a magical being. Best of all, none of the humans could see it when it appeared, so they could literally be standing next to a normal and watch the magical history of Charlottesville without them being any the wiser.
It was a nice treat on a day that could quite easily have been a huge disaster.
11
Today was the day; the one Luke and so many others had been waiting for. It was the boys’ Louper team tryouts. They all sat in the cafeteria already geared up, looking through different Louper books to make sure they were completely ready. Of course, Wayne and Henry sat cockily with the upperclassmen tossing back eggs and some bagels, but the sophomores were more than nervous. It was the first year they were permitted to try out for the team, and for some, only the third or fourth time they had played the game.
The gang was having a leisurely breakfast since it was the start of the weekend and making plans for later that day. Kathleen glanced at the door when Luke walked in wearing his favorite Louper team jersey and a pair of windbreaker pants. He clutched the Louper bible to his chest. The book contained all the rules and tricks, and a description of the best players to start as. His eyes were red and puffy, and Kathleen could tell he’d spent all night studying the thing. She’d normally give him a hard time about it, but she felt for him, especially as a shifter trying out for a team of magical beings.
“Woohoo, look at Mr. Louper coming in for the kill.” Kathleen smiled.
The others looked up and gave him rousing applause, whooping and hollering and embarrassing the crap out of him. He bowed his head and grinned, his cheeks bright red. Izzie smiled at him as he sat down, and a plate of fruit popped up in front of him.
“Are you nervous?”
“A little.” He chuckled. “But hopefully everything goes smoothly.”
“Thanks.”
“Us too,” Ethan said, yanking Peter up. “And check it out!”
He pointed at the SNM Louper logo on the front of his shirt and they both turned around, jerking their thumbs over their shoulders. Written in big bold letters across their shoulders was Team Luke “The Wolfman” Jackson. Izzie frowned, wishing she had one too.
Luke laughed. “That’s really awesome. Are you trying out?”
Ethan sat down shaking his head. “Nah, but we figured we’d come sit in the stands and watch the action if old Regency lets us.”
“Nice, although I don’t know how much action you’ll see the first day.”
“We are there to support you.”
At that moment, an announcement echoed across the cafeteria.
“All those signed up to try out for the Louper team, Professor Regency is ready on the Louper grounds behind the school.”
Luke took another bite of his fruit and picked up his book, smiling at the others. “Well, wish me luck.”
“You don’t need it. You’re gonna kick butt,” Alison said happily.
Luke ran out of the cafeteria and through the back doors of the mansion, jogging out onto the Louper field. Everyone lined up quickly, the upperclassmen on the right and the sophomores on the left. Mr. Regency turned toward the group. He was wearing a miniature coaching jersey and held a clipboard that was half the size of his chest. A couple of the guys snickered, and Max stopped and stared at them. They were upperclassmen and had been on the team the previous year.
“I want to point out that just because you were on the team last year does not mean you automatically have the right to be on the team this year. Now, since we do everything as a team, I want everyone to drop their things and do twelve laps around the field—no magic. You can all thank Wayne and Henry, since they can’t seem to handle the fact that I am short.”
Everyone groaned except for Luke, who took off in the lead. Max took notice and nodded, jotting a note next to his name. He narrowed his eyes at Wayne and Henry, who tried to make a break for Luke, most likely to push him off the field or something equally juvenile. He waved his wand discreetly and shoved it in his pocket, looking up at the sky while he whistled and rocked back and forth.
Eleanor Hudson was on the side, conducting cheer tryouts for the Louper team. She looked suspiciously at Max and he tried to look innocent. Just then she heard groaning from Wayne and Henry. They slowed their pace, scratching feverishly at their crotches. She glanced again at Max, who was laughing, and gave him a stern look. He sighed and pulled out his wand, reversing the spell. She nodded and turned back toward the girls, chuckling. She knew they deserved it. They were little jerks, but she couldn’t condone it in public like that.
There had been a few times when she had wanted to do the same thing and worse to students, but corporal punishment was strictly against the rules. She put her hands up to restart the routine she’d taught. She grimaced at a couple of girls, who had absolutely no rhythm and ended up ramming into each other and falling to the ground. She didn’t know what it was about that school, but unlike normal high schools, there wasn’t a flood of girls who wanted on the squad. She had hoped Kathleen would come out with all her dance experience, but she didn’t seem even slightly interested.
The boys huffed and puffed around the long track, hitting the straightaway at the end for their final lap. Luke trotted up, barely out of breath, followed by a few upperclassmen, then Wayne and Henry, who held their sides as they huffed and puffed. Max raised an eyebrow and shook his head.
“I told you not to eat eggs and bagels before practice, boys. You never listen.”
The boys coughed and hacked as they caught their breath. Wayne laid down on the ground and splashed water over his face. Max took a deep breath and walked over to the upperclassmen, counting one, two, one, two until all of them had a number. He tried to keep it simple, knowing that some of the players weren’t the sharpest crayons in the box.
“All right, if you are a number one, line up on the right side of the field. If you are a number two, line up on the left. Sophomores, stay where you are. I will be back in just a minute.”
The sophomore tryouts milled in a circle making small talk with each other. “Who are we going to play?”
“Well, we can’t play the normies, and those guys would kick our asses just to laugh at us,” one of the boys responded.
“Maybe we will practice on each other. You know, start out easy, and then he will keep challenging us until we fall out.”
“If that’s the case, there will be like two of us standing at the end,” another boy said with a chuckle. “No offense, but I’ve been playing since I was a little kid and I couldn’t take on Wayne or Henry. Their players are so strong.”
Luke shook his head. “It’s not about how strong they are. It’s about how smart you are. I watched a Milltown Kemana game once where the newbie on the team beat the other member with a simple baseline character with no skill level. He was seriously all about showing us that it’s what you do with what you have that matters.”
One of the guys chuckled, patting him on the back. “Well, seems the shifter here has an after-school lesson for us.”
All the guys laughed, and Luke looked down at the ground. The guy nudged him and smiled.
“I’m just giving you a hard time. My stepdad’s a shifter; best guy I know.”
Luke smiled and nodded, glad that the antics hadn’t started already. He never understood why he got so beat up about being a shifter, since Henry— a shifter as well—was like Mr. Popular and no one treated him different. Maybe it was his athletics that did it, which is what his dad had told him from the beginning. Be athletic. You are stronger and keener than most because of your wolf. That will get the trolls off your back. He didn’t mean literal trolls, but Luke gave him a hard time anyway.
They looked at Max Regency as he got the upperclassmen started, then whistled to the stands. Ethan and Peter ran over with bins of equipment and not very excited looks on their faces. They stood next to Max, struggling with the bins and waiting for instructions.
“These two lovely ladies decided to show up just to watch the real men play the game, so I put them to work. I don’t want you guys to get too riled up over tryouts. You are new to the high school world of sports, so I made these tryouts several weeks long. I want to see how you are from the basics on up, and see—if I put you on the team—where you will need the most work. I know you all expected to roll out here, beast up, and take down some upperclassmen, but unless you’ve been playing for years, that isn’t going to happen. No matter what level you are in leisure, everyone starts the season at one and goes up from there, depending on moves and skill.”
Max looked at Ethan and Peter and nodded. They put the bins down and handed out the equipment. Ethan walked up to Luke and nodded proudly, then beat his fist on his chest before handing him the newest piece in the box. Luke chuckled and shook his head as they gathered the bins and ran off. Max watched, blinking rapidly, and shook his head.
“Idiots,” he muttered, then turned back to the group and clapped his hands. “All right, so you will be using magically-enhanced virtual reality headgear on the open field today. This is not a battle. You won’t be challenging anyone, but it will give you the chance to get used to being in a virtual world and learn how to maneuver in it. This won’t be as shocking to those of you who have played before but for the few where this is your first or second time, remember that you will physically be playing the game on this field with everyone else. They will be in the same world as you, only when you look around during a game, you will see them as their character. Be careful maneuvering at first. Don’t get overzealous since you can be a bit wobbly your first time around. Your characters have been picked at random, and won’t have any bearing on who you are if you join the team.
“Put on the headset and click the green button on the side. When you
’ve had enough, come over and watch the upperclassmen. It’s quite a show during tryouts.”
Luke chuckled, knowing the boys would go all-out on the other side of the field. He was pretty sure there were more injuries during tryouts than during the playing season. He pulled his headset on and clicked the button on the side, watching the opening screen. When the field came into view, no longer just shaggy grass but perfectly trimmed AstroTurf, he held out his hands and turned them over in front of him. He chuckled. His player was an Ice Creature with large shards of ice jutting out all over his body. He watched the frost wafting from him and looked at the other guys doing the same things.
“This is gonna be good.”
12
The year before, Mara had decimated a couple of dark wizards, sending one running back to his master to let him know the jig was up. Since then she hadn’t sensed any dark magic being openly used around town, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t lurking in the shadows. The magical community had scouted the area as best they could, but in truth, many didn’t want to get involved. They remembered the days of Rhazdon and all the deaths, and the ones who volunteered weren’t well-trained in finding traces of dark magic. Mara went out all summer to help, which was why she didn’t visit Leira in DC or go back to Texas to see her daughter. During the school year, though, it was a lot harder to keep track of who was coming in and out of the town.
Wary Is Her Love: An Urban Fantasy Action Adventure (The School Of Necessary Magic Book 3) Page 7
