by J A Campbell
Back home, when she had a problem with math, she just asked her dad. He could look at an equation and break it down to its simplest parts so she could understand and solve it. How she missed both her parents.
Harmony would know. She’d taken the SATs last summer and done well. The girl was more than ready to jet out of high school and into college. She was smart enough, but was she socialized?
She let out an exasperated sigh when the bell rang dismissing them from Calculus. Next class was World History. At least a coach wasn’t teaching it. They had gym, but since there was no nearby school to compete in team sports, they really didn’t have football or any of the other activities. She didn’t miss pep rallies and Friday night games, though it made the school hierarchy quite different than someplace where the athletes and the cheerleaders were often the most popular kids.
Bless Harmony, she kept joking about starting a Quidditch team.
“Purebred.” Elise heard the mutters as she made her way to the restroom before her next class. Attending HH Club really had pointed out her differences with the rest of the students. Should they have opted to attend the Macrow House Academy?
“Go home.” The words appeared in the mirrors as soon as she stepped into the restroom. Elise stopped, her heart hammering in her throat. She managed to hold onto her backpack by sheer force of will. Yeah, Harmony was right. It was like people were throwing rocks at her. She didn’t know how to deal with this. She’d always fit in.
The notes changed. Obviously someone had magicked the mirrors. The hatred in the new words was far worse.
The words faded. The face of a frightened child stared back at her from the mirror. She’d never dealt with anything like this. Harmony needed to show up so she had someone to talk to—someone to tell her how to deal. She thought about calling her mom, but she didn’t want to worry her. Bad enough she had a daughter who injured herself after seeing ghosts. She had to find a way to get through this.
I’m a chameleon, she thought, looking into eyes that she knew weren’t her natural color. She could change into darn near anything if she had to, but she didn’t know how to blend in this place.
Where’s Harmony? It was near lights out and she wasn’t there. Elise placed a marker in Whispering to Ghosts, and went down the hall asking the other girls if anyone had seen her.
No one had.
The last she’d seen her, Harmony was storming out, furious at Professor Thompson. That really could not be a good thing. She slid on a jacket and went downstairs. Mrs. Mathers was in the dorm office, working on her computer. Elise tentatively knocked on the lintel before she spoke so as not to startle her.
“Mrs. Mathers, have you seen Harmony?”
Mrs. Mathers clicked “save” and shifted the display to a screen saver. “No, I haven’t,” she said, turning around in her chair to peer at Elise over her glasses. Her expression was sad and concerned. “When was the last time you saw her?”
“This morning,” Elise said, realizing it probably wasn’t a good idea to admit that Harmony had been furious when she’d departed. “She was going to see Professor Thompson.”
Mrs. Mathers picked up the phone and dialed a number. “Yes, I see,” she said after inquiring about Harmony. “Professor Thompson saw her this morning. He believes she went on to classes. But someone might have given her the news.”
“The news?” Elise’s stomach did a flip. What now?
“Her grandparents were killed in an automobile accident in Boston.” Mrs. Mathers’ expression was solemn. “Apparently, a pretty severe one.”
“Oh no.” Elise’s stomach tightened in a knot. Could Harmony take much more?
Mrs. Mathers slid on her jacket and headed out the door. “Let’s see if her car’s still there. She doesn’t have permission to leave.”
But when has that stopped her? Elise almost heard the words in the woman’s voice.
Harmony’s black Beetle was precisely where Elise remembered her parking it last. A hateful note was stuck in a broken wiper blade.
Mrs. Mathers gasped at the note.
“I—I convinced her to attend a club I thought would help us fit in,” Elise confessed. “It didn’t go so well…I should have done my research before I ever made the suggestion.”
But I’d trusted my teacher as I had always been taught to do. Elise didn’t add that.
“We have to call Marcus.” Mrs. Mathers sounded frightened.
Elise agreed. Cousin Macrow frightened even Harmony, and Elise was coming to think nothing made that girl even wary.
She walked the grounds with Mrs. Mathers calling Harmony’s name. She might not have seen her beneath the pines next to the river if she’d still been wearing her dark blazer.
“She’s here!” Elise yelled to Mrs. Mathers who was a few steps behind. The woman came, the globe of her magical lantern preceding her just a few steps ahead.
She sat on a rise overlooking the river. Harmony’s back was against an ancient oak. Her hands covered her face.
“Harmony! Harmony!” Mrs. Mathers rushed forward pulling out her cell phone to call an ambulance should one be needed.
Elise winced at the sight of her, eerily phosphorous by the mage-light. Bruises stood out on her slender wrists, her face, around her neck….
Someone had beaten her badly. How much more had they done where it didn’t show?
“Harmony.” Elise dropped to her side, reached for her wrist for a pulse.
“No,” Harmony moaned when Elise started to pull down her hands. “It hurts.”
“What, dear?” Mrs. Mathers asked softly.
“Head,” Harmony murmured.
“We’ll call an ambulance.”
“No,” Harmony groaned. She shifted and managed to roll to her feet. They held onto either side of her as they helped her back up the hill. She staggered and would not remove her hands from her eyes, particularly when they’d reached the perimeter lights of the school.
“Run ahead,” Mrs. Mather said. “Tell Nurse it’s a migraine, and abrasions.”
It wasn’t just that, Elise was sure of that. Something had happened to Harmony and it wasn’t good. She’d bet money it was Professor Thompson.
Despite Mrs. Mathers’ and the nurse’s protestations, Elise waited in the office while they cared for Harmony. Marcus Macrow arrived shortly, his face full of thunder. Behind the curtains, the nurse and Mrs. Mathers stripped Harmony down and made certain of the extent of her injuries.
Elise felt sick when she realized they were wearing gloves and they were expecting more of an assault than just the bruises they could see.
“Only her wrists and her throat,” the nurse said. “Someone held her down by force, but there was no sexual assault involved.”
“Or if there was, she managed to fight it off,” Cousin Macrow said, looking at the photos the nurse had taken. A rare smile crossed his features and disappeared so quickly Elise wondered if she’d imagined it. “Those bruises are not all offensive. The splits on her knuckles indicate she struck back. Possibly hard. Whoever she hit may well be hurt. Hopefully badly.”
Elise must have answered questions about what happened at least four times. First, to Cousin, then to the nurse, then to Campus Security, and finally to the headmaster.
She took the chair by Harmony’s bed and dozed off. She didn’t open her eyes and managed to keep her breathing even, when Marcus Macrow arrived sometime quite late. He consulted with the nurse in whispers and went out to the hallway to make a phone call, presumably to someone in House Macrow. His initial tone was angry.
“Regrettable,” he said. “I cannot be in two places at once. Next time, send someone else to do your errands.”
A pause. Cousin’s tone shifted to one a good deal more respectful.
“We don’t know what damage has been done yet, M’lord. She complained of a headache when they brought her in and she’s sleeping off some narcotics the nurse gave her for the pain. Oh, I’m certain she was tampered with. It also appe
ars she did her best to fight her tamperer off. She’s an excellent fighter even before I started instructing her. I’ll endeavor to better prepare her. No, there was no physical assault other than restraint….”
“Secure at the moment,” he continued. “I’ve minimized the other threat. I’ll remain here and determine if the assailant left her mind intact. I will report as soon as I am certain.”
Elise swallowed back her supper. Hadn’t Cousin Macrow been the one to say that they could use Harmony’s powers whether she was in control of them or not? What would they do to her if she’d been permanently hurt—and who’d done it?
She kept her eyes closed and her breathing even, despite Marcus Macrow walking close to her and probably peering down. Some part of her knew that he thought she was the obedient one, and she planned on keeping his good opinion. If there ever came a time for disobedience, she wanted it to be a surprise attack. Despite her wariness, exhaustion took over and she slept.
“Where am I?” Harmony’s question awakened her just as the light peeked through the shades.
“Nurse’s office,” Elise said. “Do you know what happened to you?”
“Headache.” Harmony reached for one of her bruised wrists and winced when she touched the tender black-and-purple flesh.
“I think the nurse gave you a shot for that,” Elise said gently, touching Harmony’s upper arm with her fingertips.
“Do you know what happened?” The room was suddenly full of Cousin Macrow, Campus Security, and the nurse.
“No,” Harmony said. “I…I think I was going to class and my head….” Her eyes widened when she raised her hand to her forehead to massage her aching temple and saw the bruises. “Maybe I got a beat-down.”
“Maybe you did,” the nurse said gently. “We’ll do our best to take better care of you.”
“I need—I need to get ready for class,” Harmony said. “Calculus test…I think?”
Elise could hear the exhales of relief around the room. That Harmony remembered at all spoke to the fact that whoever tried to hurt her had failed at least in some portion of their mission.
“I’m sure this one could be postponed. or retaken if your grade’s not up to snuff,” the headmaster offered. “We have some rather difficult news for you, Miss Hendricks.”
Harmony sat up and faced him. The nurse handed her a glass of water and she took a careful sip, nodding for the man to continue.
“Your grandparents were killed in an auto accident in Boston.” He went on to give details and offer for her to have time off this time with an escort for the funeral.
Harmony wept, her face buried in her hands, genuine tears that rocked her body.
Elise forced herself to steadiness. She hadn’t known Harmony for long, but she wasn’t that dramatic. More importantly, Harmony’s reaction seemed more appropriate for a person who’d known their grandparents all of her life. She’d only met them both at her mom’s funeral, and that was under adversarial circumstances. Elise would have expected a polite expression of regret and maybe a token of grief, but not this.
No, Harmony wouldn’t fake grief, either.
Yes, someone had done something to Harmony. They’d tampered with her memory. Harmony mentioned something like that happening to her science teacher and a cheerleader she’d known in Austin—the girl had been different, friendly.
Who had done this to her?
What was her kinswoman going to be like now?
Harmony’s eyes blurred staring at the beading pattern Mindy had laid out for her on the table. It was simple, a necklace for Judith in a five-bead pattern with tiger’s eye as the focus, black onyx surrounding, and outer stones of pyrite. She’d done much more complex patterns. Mindy wore a three-dimensional woven bracelet in the pattern of a California garter snake winding up her arm that Harmony had made when she first came to the school.
“No, here,” Mindy put down the butterfly shawl she was knitting for Mrs. Mathers, to come to her rescue. She slid the offending beads off the wire and restarted the pattern as it should be. “You want me to finish it? Judith wanted to take it with her to the ALA conference and she leaves tomorrow.”
Harmony rubbed her forehead and reached to pick up one of the quartz beads to start again. Her hand shook as she maneuvered the bead onto the wire. Her fingers were so tight the quartz slipped from her grasp and landed halfway across the room.
“Hey! You hit me with that bead.” Sylvia, the new girl, turned with her barely covered bosom facing toward Harmony and the others. She had been standing in the corner while Deborah put the final lacings on a corset she custom-made for her to wear in the upcoming season’s Ren Faires.
Sylvia had the kind of figure that’d feature on vintage French postcards, and she knew how to use it. Most of the girls who came to model one of Deborah’s corsets did so in the nearby bathroom. Sylvia turned away from the room and stripped her top off, being sure to make enough noise to distract everyone in the room, particularly the males.
“Sorry,” Harmony replied, not particularly meaning it. She could have thrown the whole container of quartz beads at the girl and they wouldn’t have hurt her. From the expressions on the faces of the other girls nearby who were trying to work on their projects despite the distraction Sylvia created, she could tell they wished Sylvia would go away.
None of them were part of Sylvia’s Sycophants and they unanimously failed to care. In a very short amount of time, the girl had managed to assemble the campus’s mean girls. The clique pranced about the campus in the latest couture doing their best to make the remainder of the female student body feel—at the very least—inadequate and unworthy.
“How’s that?” Deborah finished tightening up the laces and held up a vintage looking hand mirror for Sylvia to look into.
“What do you think, boys?” Sylvia sashayed around the room, pausing for each one of them to see in turn. She could only be more sleazy if she bent over to make sure her boobs fit in the cups. She paused in front of Ben, the most talented but the least “hot” of the crew, and deliberately leaned forward to look at his work.
Harmony could feel Mindy wince beside her. The two had been an item for years. Everyone expected them to marry and have a huge family of little mages. Ben generally had eyes only for Mindy, but tonight he was practically drooling over an interloper.
She picked up another quartz and dropped it, letting the bead ping on the table and roll across spoiling Sylvia’s moment.
“Maybe you should give up on anything that requires manual dexterity?” Sylvia’s sacchariferous voice made Harmony’s teeth grind.
“Maybe you should leave Harmony alone?” Mindy seldom raised her voice. Teachers had to ask her repeatedly to speak up in class, but every head in the room turned at the words.
Sylvia’s generous lip curled.
Harmony dropped the beading when Sylvia deliberately started to unlace the corset right in front of the room full of boys. Deborah grabbed the girl’s shirt and flung it in front of her like a curtain. Sylvia huffed and flounced out of the room with a sniffle that had all the boys following every move of her well-formed derriere. Harmony hoped she went to the bathroom to change, but she wasn’t going to discount the possibility of the girl flashing some male student passing by in the hall.
Deborah frowned but shook her head.
Sylvia arrived back in the room bearing the corset. A run, which spanned the length of the front of the corset, marred the silk brocade.
“Whoops,” she said. “I must have caught a nail in it. I don’t think I want it after all.” She left the dungeon without another word.
“Creep,” Harmony muttered.
Deborah sat down on the edge of the table hard, a tear running down her dark cheek. Mindy got up and picked up the corset which had fallen to the floor and examined the flaw.
“Hey,” Harmony said, trying not to cry. “You can bead. Finish the commissions I’ve got and you can have the money.”
“But....”
&nb
sp; Harmony held up the necklace she’d started. Ten beads and not a one of them right. She shook her head and passed the notebook she’d written her commissions down to Deborah.
“I don’t want to let these people down. Some of these things are gifts.” Harmony continued forcing out every word. She slid her bead box across the table toward Deborah reluctantly. “Everything you need is in there. Keep it until I can get myself together.”
“Then you take the corset,” Deborah said. “When you feel better, I bet you’d make it look better than her.”
Harmony started to shake her head, but she realized Deborah needed some dignity. She stuck the corset into her bag. She used to restore clothing more damaged than what Sylvia had done. She remembered at least that much, but not how she’d done it.
Deborah took over the necklace for Judith. Harmony closed her eyes and offered commentary when her friend needed it. Luckily, she’d learned from the artists in Austin to take extensive notes for custom orders. There’s no way she could remember any of what the people in her commission book wanted now.
“What do you think?” Deborah held Judith’s finished necklace up for everyone to examine. They all made the appropriate noises of appreciation.
“I think you should take it to her in the library now.” Harmony managed to smile despite the hard knot of grief in her throat. She’d learned to string beads at some children’s event her mom had dumped her off at.
What the hell happened?
“Come on,” Deborah said. “Walk with me.”
Mindy put up her knitting and rose to join them. She gave a last look at Ben, who stared at the Victorian dollhouse he’d been building for a while like it was some alien thing. Tears sparkled in her blue eyes, but she kept silent.
“Boys will be boys,” Deborah said, once they were outside in the uncharacteristically clear winter evening.
Stars!
Harmony’s gaze shifted heavenward. How long...?
She face-planted on the pavement when she forgot to take the last step out of the building. A chorus of high-pitched female laughter followed.
