Lillian was beyond excitement and was yawning by the time we reached dessert and her parents were more or less up to date. Dissected step by step by parents, the story that the other two girls were telling was less gripping and more like some exceptionally boring lab report for school. "Are you tired?" I asked her quietly.
"No." She shook her head and yawned again.
"Yes you are," Cornelia disagreed.
"Am not!"
Mrs Hale gave them a weary look. "Don't fight girls."
"Well since you're not tired, would you like to meet Will's pet, Mr. Huggles?" I suggested quickly before it could turn into an arguement. Somehow I didn't think that that would go well.
Lillian blinked. "Is he cute?"
"I don't know," I admitted. "Why don't you tell me?"
The little girl pushed her chair back and took my hand as I guided her to Will's - to Will and I's - bedroom. "Are you really not real?"
Ouch. "You're the one holding my hand, Lili'. Do I feel real?"
"It's Lillian, not Lili'!"
"And I'm a real girl."
"Okay," she agreed with a pout.
I opened the door to our room and ushered her in.
"So many frogs!" she exclaimed. There were indeed frogs everywhere: stuffed toys, pictures, logos on bedding, clothes and all sorts of decoration. My sleeping bag (now sharing the bed with Will's duvet) was among the few things that didn't share that trend. Then Mr. Huggles popped his head up over the duvet and all the frogs ceased to matter. Lillian's eyes went wide. "He's so cute!"
"Don't scare him," I warned, catching the girl by the shoulders as she started to throw herself towards the dormouse. Her getting bitten would probably please no one. "Gently does it."
When I lifted my hands off her, Lillian approached the bed at a more sedate pace and dropped to her knees so that her face was on the same level as the rodent. "Hi, Mr. Huggles. I'm Lillian."
He squeaked back cautiously and then apparently decided to treat her the way he did Will: scrambling forwards and rubbing his furry flank against her cheek. It worked out the same way on Lillian: she giggled and rubbed at his other flank with one hand. (I'd frozen up and Will had to rescue me.)
"You'll probably be more comfortable up on the bed," I suggested after a moment and Lillian scrambled up onto the top of my sleeping bag without even looking back. Clearly I was reduced to furniture in comparison to the interest value of something small and furry. That worked out well for me so I could hardly complain. Instead I perched myself on the desk chair and opened the book Taranee had lent to me again. She and Hay Lin had agreed it was an absolute classic that I had to read but I was finding it heavy going and there were another nine hundred or so pages to go.
About fifteen minutes later I put my bookmark about ten pages further on than it had been, kicked off my shoes and padded across to pull the duvet over Lillian. This babysitting was easier than it sounded.
Eyes turned to me as I went back into the lounge, shoes in hand. "She's asleep."
Mrs Hale smiled slightly and rose. "Mind if I...?"
Mom followed her while I refilled my glass and asked if anyone else wanted some. Mr. Hale was back on soda, after his one glass of 'something stronger'.
"So you've never seen this Phobos?" he asked.
Will shook her head. "Just his work. I went into his garden once." She shuddered.
"His garden? What's so horrible there?"
"Actually it's strangely beautiful. Thousands upon thousands of black roses. But once you know that they were all people who sought to lead with him for mercy... and were transformed into a barrier around his palace..." Will wrapped her arms around herself. "You'll never look at a rose the same way again."
The dark mood broke as our mothers returned, Mrs Hale holding her phone in one hand. "That was adorable," she announced. "You have great promise as a babysitter, Hope. Can I take you home with us? We'll leave Cornelia in exchange."
"Mother!"
"Not a chance," Mom answered before I could think of a response. She put one arm around my shouldr. "Right, Will?"
"Yep." Will boxed me in from the right side. "She's ours and we're not letting her go."
Mrs Hale raised her phone and took a snapshot of us.
"I'll want a copy of that," Mom told her and got a nod. "And I think we're more or less up to speed on what the girls have been up to. The question is what now? The girls aren't too enthusiastic about telling the authorities."
...and there was the jaw of the trap closing around Cornelia. She might refuse pressure from Mom about demonstrating magic to the authorities, but what about her own parents? I wasn't sure.
"Well of course we must -"
"There would be problems with that," observed Mr. Hale.
Everyone else in the room blinked.
"Dear!"
"I can see the benefits of doing so - no offense, honey," he added to Cornelia, "But it would be bad enough if you were fighting a war as a grown woman, with professional training. On the other hand, telling the authorities about this won't necessarily make any of us any safer."
"What do you mean?" asked Mom cautiously.
He rubbed at his head. "Let's start with this: from everything that's been said, magic is both real and capable of things that at the moment our government could not reasonably protect themselves from. Which means that other governments can't protect themselves from it either, correct?"
"You can't possibly be thinking that the government - our government - would expect the girls to fight for them!? That sort of thing would belong in a bad TV series!"
"Our government? Probably not. But there are a lot of governments in the world and I imagine that several would want to have the girls working for them - or to be sure that they weren't working against them. And Elizabeth, that means that you, Lillian and I would be potential ways for unscrupulous people to try to control Cornelia."
"Oh my god," whispered Mom.
"It's not as simple a decision as it seems, is it?" he asked kindly. "And of course the other side of the question is that if this Phobos does win through, then he's going to be a very big problem if the authorities don't know about magic."
"Then we have to stop him." That was Will. "The Veil is keeping him on Meridian and as long as we can keep him from using the portals through it, he isn't a threat to the Earth."
"Caleb's resistance and Elyon should be able to take care of Phobos, particularly if we give them a little help," offered Cornelia.
Mom shook her head. "Meaning you go there again and you put yourselves at risk again?"
"We're at risk no matter what happens. At least this way we can put a stop to that."
Mrs Hale crossed her arms. "Cornelia, you seem to put a lot of faith in this Caleb. What makes you so sure that he'll succeed?"
"He's won at least one battle and I think Elyon listens to him," I offered. "The trouble is that we don't really know what Phobos plans to do, much less if he can pull it off."
"Then maybe we ought to meet him as well," suggested Mr Hale thoughtfully. "Would that be possible?"
"I..." Cornelia's cheeks were reddening.
"Oh Cornelia!" her mother exclaimed in realisation. "Don't tell me that you're involved with this young man!"
W.I.T.C.H. - W.I.T.C.H. - W.I.T.C.H. - W.I.T.C.H. - W.I.T.C.H.
It felt a little strange to walk into Sheffield Institute next to Will. Our secret wasn't secret any more.
Mom had dropped us off, collecting Taranee on the way... and arranging to have dinner with the Cooks tonight.
"I hope this goes well," the dusky-skinned girl fretted. "My mother's going to be furious."
"The Lins were okay." Will was putting a good face on it I thought. Perhaps too good a face, I didn't think that Mr Lin had been too happy about learning the secret that his mother and now his daughter had been keeping from him. Fortunately Mrs. Lin had insisted that she was proud of 'her daughter the superhero' even if she was far too young and wearing far too little.
"You don't know her like I do. I'll be lucky not be be packed off to a catholic boarding school! Or juvenile detention!"
"Oh, is the Judge's little princess getting in trouble?" The voice asking wasn't a welcome one but it was easily recognisable. "Well Nigel will be welcome back with his real friends, even if you do tag along with him."
"Shut up Uriah."
The boy, backed by his usual bookends started his usual sneer but then he got a good look at us. "What the - there's two of you?"
I gestured at Will and Taranee. "There are three of us, Uriah. Try counting on your fingers."
"Smart-ass bitch!"
"Language, Mr. Dunn!" snapped the pompadoured woman who had arrived behind him. "Now get yourself to class... unless you'd rather start the term with a detention?"
The boy made a disgusted noise. "Whatever." His two remaining cronies fell in behind him.
"Now then, which one of you is Hope Vandom?" she asked slightly more pleasently.
I raised my hand cautiously.
"I'm Principal Knickerbocker. Professor Collins told me to expect you. Getting into a quarrel on your first day isn't the best of starts here, whoever started it." She made a dismissive gesture towards the other two girls. "Off to your own classes, you two. I'll take care of your sister, Miss Vandom."
She waited until they were around a corner before moving towards the school offices. "Come with me, Miss Vandom. I imagine you've had some coaching?"
"I've been studying," I admitted nervously. For the few weeks that I had had a chance to that was true. But most of the students here had been at school for years. Was I kidding myself to think that I could do as well.
"That's good of course, but though I say so as shouldn't, there is more to school than studies. Don't take Mr. Dunn's behaviour as an example to follow or as cause to provoke trouble with him yourself."
I nodded obediently and made a mental note to check with Cornelia about what was proper behaviour in school. I had some idea of course, but it never hurt to consult an expert.
"Will!"
I turned my head slightly and saw Matt approaching around the corner. "Are you okay? Gramps was worried when you didn't..." He broke off sharply as he saw Principal Knickerbocker walking next to me. "Uh, sorry Principal, I just..."
"You were just on your way to class?" she asked with a slight emphasis on the last word.
"Uh..." he hesitated and then pulled an envelope out of his pocket and held it out to me. "Just giving Will this note on my way!" No sooner than my hand closed around it than he backed up, giving me an apologetic look.
"Um, I'm..."
But he was gone.
"I'm going to get this a lot, aren't I?"
To my suprise the middle-aged Principal chuckled. "At least until people get used to you," she agreed. "You can give your sister the note at lunch." Then she gestured at the door to one of the offices. "But first we've set up this room for you to take some written tests."
When I looked inside, a small desk like those in the classrooms had been set up with a stack of paper booklets on it. The other furniture had all been pushed back against the walls and there was a clock set up so that it was plainly visible from the desk.
"All the exam papers have the time you're supposed to spend on them written on the front page," Knickerbocker told me. "If you run out of time before finishing just move on to the next. If you finish one early then note down on the front how long it took you and you can start the next paper early or go back to have another look at anything you had trouble with - make a note on anything that you go back to about how long you put in."
"Isn't that cheating?"
She shook her head. Amazingly it didn't loosen the mass of silvery hair at all. "Not as long as you keep a record of it. Remember, this isn't about passing or failing, it's about measuring your strengths and weaknesses. Now, do you have everything you need?"
I pulled my pencil case out of the bookbag I'd brought with me. It was the only thing in it except for my packed lunch and now Matt's note for Will.
"Good." Knickerbocker pointed across the hall. "There's a washroom there that you can use if you need it. My secretary is in the next office along, if you need anything else just let her know."
I nodded to show my understanding and I was surprised when she held out her own hand. "Good luck, Miss Vandom," she said and shook my hand when took hers.
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"I don't know anything!" I declared with some despair, clutching at my head.
"Sounds normal to me." Irma reached over towards my lunch box and I slammed my fist down right in front of her hand to keep her from snagging my sandwich. "Well you aren't eating it."
I picked it up and took a bite. Mmm. Chicken. Then I realised she'd used my distraction to filch a cookie out of the box and crammed it into her mouth. "I hope that goes right to your waist."
"Probably a little higher," she said smugly. She was probably right too, blast her.
"I'm sure you're doing fine," Will promised me. "Remember that history paper you did for Proffessor Collins? You did great at that!"
"Yeah, but then I had a week to research the Middle Ages," I pointed out. "I don't think the Principal will let me go to the library to research answers for everything on these test papers. I'm only managing to answer maybe half the questions."
"You're not supposed to answer all of them." Taranee toyed nervously with her braid. "Some of the questions are supposed to be too hard for us, so if you could answer all of them then it'd mean you were smarter than all of us."
"Well that's not going to happen." Will mussed my hair. "You might be better at class than I am, little sis, but there's no way you're smarter than Taranee."
"Lot of good that's doing me," the other girl sighed. "Remember me when Mom locks me up."
It wasn't until I put my lunch box away in my bag that I remembered Matt's note. "Will, something for you."
She took the envelope. "What is it?"
"Matt gave it to me earlier, he thought I was you."
"Hope!"
"I didn't get the chance to explain!"
"Never mind that, what's the note say?" demanded Cornelia.
Will peeled open the envelope and extracted the note. "..."
"What?"
"M-matt..."
"Yes, we know it's from Matt," I reminded her.
"He's inviting me to the Lodelyday!"
There were high pitched squeals from the other girls at the table. "That's awesome!" "Go Will!"
"The... Lodelyday?"
Cornelia leant over. "It's the coolest restaurant in all of Heatherfield. Will's got a date! And it sounds like Matt wants to do this in style."
"That's good, I guess." Hopefully not too much style since presumably had the same expectations of restraint for Will that she had for me.
Irma reached over and nudged me. "Not jealous, are you?"
I thought about that. Was I jealous? I'd met Matt maybe two or three times. Nice guy but...
Voices were raised over by the door of the canteen - it wasn't warm enough for anyone but the hardiest to be eating outside today - and heads turned in that direction. Our heads included although Will remained rapt in the note until Hay Lin nudged her and whispered "It's Matt!"
It was indeed Matt. And Uriah.
"Well maybe she's going to need some comfortin'. Seeing as you ditched her."
Matt pushed back the brim of his hat and favoured Uriah with a bemused look. "Look, I don't know what you're talking about and I'm pretty sure you don't either..."
There was a nasty grin on Uriah's face. "Well if you were really serious about Vandom, you'd not have snuck a note to her sister, would ya?"
"Sister?"
Will grabbed my hand. "Hope?"
"Just that one, I swear," I said hastily. "And it's addressed to you, isn't it?"
She checked it. "Okay."
"I'm just feeling the trust," I grumbled.
"Sorry, it's just... everything else seems to be going crazy..."
"Just don't blame me if Mom hits the roof about him. Granted a date is a lot more normal than everything else going on right now."
"There are really two of you?" Matt's face paled slightly as he looked between us, having approached during our conversation. "But which...?"
"Uh, Matt... I can explain..."
"...that'd be nice."
I rested my chin on one hand and pointed with the other. "That's Will, I'm her sister Hope. I didn't get a chance to explain that this morning."
He frowned. "Have we met before?"
"Er... a couple of times." Truthfulness was allegedly the best policy. "And yes, I was pretending to be Will back then. So I guess I owe you an apology."
Matt sighed. "I hope there was a good reason."
"I was hiding." From Will, on one occasion, but that was beside the point. "And while Will trusts you, I barely know you. No offense."
"Alright." He looked over to Will. "Um. So, about..."
I cleared my throat. "One more thing."
"Oh?"
"If you hurt my sister, I will hurt you. Clear?"
"Hope!" Will's cheeks had gone almost as red as her hair.
Matt looked from me to Will, back to me. "Completely."
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"I don't believe that you said that."
"What isn't to believe?" I asked Will.
"But what if he changes his mind about our date?" she hissed nervously.
"If he changes his mind because of little old me then he clearly wasn't serious in the first place."
"What's this?" Mom asked, stepping out from the shelter of the gate between Sheffield Institute and the street.
"Mom?"
"I came by to pick you up - or did you forget that you're both grounded? Now what's this about someone changing their mind."
"Matt asked me out!" Will explained enthusiastically and then her face fell. "When I'm not grounded, that is."
Mom nodded, not without a bit of sympathy. "Well, at least you have something to look forward to. So why are you two falling out."
"I just told him to behave himself."
That remark got a laugh from Mom and she held out her hand. "High five."
"What?"
"Oh, don't kids do that anymore?"
Will groaned. "Not you too, Mom!"
"Nothing against you dating, Will - normally anyway," she qualified. "But that doesn't mean giving boys free license either. "It's just as well to let him know that you have standards: that way he'll feel obliged to live up to them."
We reached the car and Will paused. "Mom, Miss Rudolph asked us - the girls - to see her after school. I know I'm grounded, but this could be important."
"She's the teacher from Metamoor?" asked Mom suspiciously. "I've been meaning to talk to her, but we're meeting the Cooks tonight."
I coughed. "Could we talk about this in the car?" Without, for example, all the other Sheffield students who went past hearing about everything.
"Shotgun!" Will called suddenly and hopped into the front passenger seat.
"Eek!" I ducked down, hoping that whoever had the gun wasn't about to use it. I'd seen them on TV! They were scary!
Mom gave me a puzzled look and then sighed. "Not a real gun, Hope. She just means she wants to sit in the front."
"Well why didn't you just say so?" I asked Will as I climbed back to my feet. "I don't mind." Actually I'd been kind of hoping we could both sit up back so it would be easier to talk, but it wasn't a big deal.
Will shrugged apologetically. "It's kind of a thing. I didn't mean to scare you."
I climbed in and then across the back seat so that I was sitting behind Mom's seat. "Okay."
"Mom, I've got to get together with the girls and see Miss Rudolph! The last time she called us like this it was because there was an invasion force about to come through one of the portals! We can see her before dinner easily!"
Seeing a gap in the traffic, Mom pulled out. "And what if it's a trap, Will? You should keep at least a couple of you back just in case."
"Miss Rudolph's not like that! She's harmless!"
"And what if someone's forcing her to do this?" Mom shook her head. "I really want to go with you on this..."
"But you've got to go back to work, don't you?"
"I know, Will. And I don't think my boss will be happy if I keep making excuses."
"Welcome to my life."
I couldn't help but laugh at the resigned look on Will's face, but the laugh cut off when she gave me a pained look. It was more true than it was funny, after all.
"Oh honey. I guess I didn't make it easy for you, did I?" Mom turned her head slightly. "And I expect you to be more supportive, Hope."
"Sorry," I mumbled in a small voice.
"Alright, can you call your friends. You can go to see Miss. Rudolph, but I want you to call me right before you go in to see her and as soon as you are done. And two of you should stay away - at the Cook's house might be best if Taranee's one of the two." Mom looked in the mirror. "Hope, I'm not going to make you stay home while your sister doesn't have to..."
"Thanks. Do you want me to come along?" I offered to Will.
She shook her head. "I'd rather you stayed with the Cooks. Maybe you can break the ice a little. Taranee's pretty worried about how they'll take learning about her being a Guardian. You're pretty good at talking people around."
I shrugged uncertainly. People I knew, maybe, but I'd never met Taranee's family. And was I really that manipulative?
D for Drakensis
You're only young once, but immaturity is forever.
"No." She shook her head and yawned again.
"Yes you are," Cornelia disagreed.
"Am not!"
Mrs Hale gave them a weary look. "Don't fight girls."
"Well since you're not tired, would you like to meet Will's pet, Mr. Huggles?" I suggested quickly before it could turn into an arguement. Somehow I didn't think that that would go well.
Lillian blinked. "Is he cute?"
"I don't know," I admitted. "Why don't you tell me?"
The little girl pushed her chair back and took my hand as I guided her to Will's - to Will and I's - bedroom. "Are you really not real?"
Ouch. "You're the one holding my hand, Lili'. Do I feel real?"
"It's Lillian, not Lili'!"
"And I'm a real girl."
"Okay," she agreed with a pout.
I opened the door to our room and ushered her in.
"So many frogs!" she exclaimed. There were indeed frogs everywhere: stuffed toys, pictures, logos on bedding, clothes and all sorts of decoration. My sleeping bag (now sharing the bed with Will's duvet) was among the few things that didn't share that trend. Then Mr. Huggles popped his head up over the duvet and all the frogs ceased to matter. Lillian's eyes went wide. "He's so cute!"
"Don't scare him," I warned, catching the girl by the shoulders as she started to throw herself towards the dormouse. Her getting bitten would probably please no one. "Gently does it."
When I lifted my hands off her, Lillian approached the bed at a more sedate pace and dropped to her knees so that her face was on the same level as the rodent. "Hi, Mr. Huggles. I'm Lillian."
He squeaked back cautiously and then apparently decided to treat her the way he did Will: scrambling forwards and rubbing his furry flank against her cheek. It worked out the same way on Lillian: she giggled and rubbed at his other flank with one hand. (I'd frozen up and Will had to rescue me.)
"You'll probably be more comfortable up on the bed," I suggested after a moment and Lillian scrambled up onto the top of my sleeping bag without even looking back. Clearly I was reduced to furniture in comparison to the interest value of something small and furry. That worked out well for me so I could hardly complain. Instead I perched myself on the desk chair and opened the book Taranee had lent to me again. She and Hay Lin had agreed it was an absolute classic that I had to read but I was finding it heavy going and there were another nine hundred or so pages to go.
About fifteen minutes later I put my bookmark about ten pages further on than it had been, kicked off my shoes and padded across to pull the duvet over Lillian. This babysitting was easier than it sounded.
Eyes turned to me as I went back into the lounge, shoes in hand. "She's asleep."
Mrs Hale smiled slightly and rose. "Mind if I...?"
Mom followed her while I refilled my glass and asked if anyone else wanted some. Mr. Hale was back on soda, after his one glass of 'something stronger'.
"So you've never seen this Phobos?" he asked.
Will shook her head. "Just his work. I went into his garden once." She shuddered.
"His garden? What's so horrible there?"
"Actually it's strangely beautiful. Thousands upon thousands of black roses. But once you know that they were all people who sought to lead with him for mercy... and were transformed into a barrier around his palace..." Will wrapped her arms around herself. "You'll never look at a rose the same way again."
The dark mood broke as our mothers returned, Mrs Hale holding her phone in one hand. "That was adorable," she announced. "You have great promise as a babysitter, Hope. Can I take you home with us? We'll leave Cornelia in exchange."
"Mother!"
"Not a chance," Mom answered before I could think of a response. She put one arm around my shouldr. "Right, Will?"
"Yep." Will boxed me in from the right side. "She's ours and we're not letting her go."
Mrs Hale raised her phone and took a snapshot of us.
"I'll want a copy of that," Mom told her and got a nod. "And I think we're more or less up to speed on what the girls have been up to. The question is what now? The girls aren't too enthusiastic about telling the authorities."
...and there was the jaw of the trap closing around Cornelia. She might refuse pressure from Mom about demonstrating magic to the authorities, but what about her own parents? I wasn't sure.
"Well of course we must -"
"There would be problems with that," observed Mr. Hale.
Everyone else in the room blinked.
"Dear!"
"I can see the benefits of doing so - no offense, honey," he added to Cornelia, "But it would be bad enough if you were fighting a war as a grown woman, with professional training. On the other hand, telling the authorities about this won't necessarily make any of us any safer."
"What do you mean?" asked Mom cautiously.
He rubbed at his head. "Let's start with this: from everything that's been said, magic is both real and capable of things that at the moment our government could not reasonably protect themselves from. Which means that other governments can't protect themselves from it either, correct?"
"You can't possibly be thinking that the government - our government - would expect the girls to fight for them!? That sort of thing would belong in a bad TV series!"
"Our government? Probably not. But there are a lot of governments in the world and I imagine that several would want to have the girls working for them - or to be sure that they weren't working against them. And Elizabeth, that means that you, Lillian and I would be potential ways for unscrupulous people to try to control Cornelia."
"Oh my god," whispered Mom.
"It's not as simple a decision as it seems, is it?" he asked kindly. "And of course the other side of the question is that if this Phobos does win through, then he's going to be a very big problem if the authorities don't know about magic."
"Then we have to stop him." That was Will. "The Veil is keeping him on Meridian and as long as we can keep him from using the portals through it, he isn't a threat to the Earth."
"Caleb's resistance and Elyon should be able to take care of Phobos, particularly if we give them a little help," offered Cornelia.
Mom shook her head. "Meaning you go there again and you put yourselves at risk again?"
"We're at risk no matter what happens. At least this way we can put a stop to that."
Mrs Hale crossed her arms. "Cornelia, you seem to put a lot of faith in this Caleb. What makes you so sure that he'll succeed?"
"He's won at least one battle and I think Elyon listens to him," I offered. "The trouble is that we don't really know what Phobos plans to do, much less if he can pull it off."
"Then maybe we ought to meet him as well," suggested Mr Hale thoughtfully. "Would that be possible?"
"I..." Cornelia's cheeks were reddening.
"Oh Cornelia!" her mother exclaimed in realisation. "Don't tell me that you're involved with this young man!"
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It felt a little strange to walk into Sheffield Institute next to Will. Our secret wasn't secret any more.
Mom had dropped us off, collecting Taranee on the way... and arranging to have dinner with the Cooks tonight.
"I hope this goes well," the dusky-skinned girl fretted. "My mother's going to be furious."
"The Lins were okay." Will was putting a good face on it I thought. Perhaps too good a face, I didn't think that Mr Lin had been too happy about learning the secret that his mother and now his daughter had been keeping from him. Fortunately Mrs. Lin had insisted that she was proud of 'her daughter the superhero' even if she was far too young and wearing far too little.
"You don't know her like I do. I'll be lucky not be be packed off to a catholic boarding school! Or juvenile detention!"
"Oh, is the Judge's little princess getting in trouble?" The voice asking wasn't a welcome one but it was easily recognisable. "Well Nigel will be welcome back with his real friends, even if you do tag along with him."
"Shut up Uriah."
The boy, backed by his usual bookends started his usual sneer but then he got a good look at us. "What the - there's two of you?"
I gestured at Will and Taranee. "There are three of us, Uriah. Try counting on your fingers."
"Smart-ass bitch!"
"Language, Mr. Dunn!" snapped the pompadoured woman who had arrived behind him. "Now get yourself to class... unless you'd rather start the term with a detention?"
The boy made a disgusted noise. "Whatever." His two remaining cronies fell in behind him.
"Now then, which one of you is Hope Vandom?" she asked slightly more pleasently.
I raised my hand cautiously.
"I'm Principal Knickerbocker. Professor Collins told me to expect you. Getting into a quarrel on your first day isn't the best of starts here, whoever started it." She made a dismissive gesture towards the other two girls. "Off to your own classes, you two. I'll take care of your sister, Miss Vandom."
She waited until they were around a corner before moving towards the school offices. "Come with me, Miss Vandom. I imagine you've had some coaching?"
"I've been studying," I admitted nervously. For the few weeks that I had had a chance to that was true. But most of the students here had been at school for years. Was I kidding myself to think that I could do as well.
"That's good of course, but though I say so as shouldn't, there is more to school than studies. Don't take Mr. Dunn's behaviour as an example to follow or as cause to provoke trouble with him yourself."
I nodded obediently and made a mental note to check with Cornelia about what was proper behaviour in school. I had some idea of course, but it never hurt to consult an expert.
"Will!"
I turned my head slightly and saw Matt approaching around the corner. "Are you okay? Gramps was worried when you didn't..." He broke off sharply as he saw Principal Knickerbocker walking next to me. "Uh, sorry Principal, I just..."
"You were just on your way to class?" she asked with a slight emphasis on the last word.
"Uh..." he hesitated and then pulled an envelope out of his pocket and held it out to me. "Just giving Will this note on my way!" No sooner than my hand closed around it than he backed up, giving me an apologetic look.
"Um, I'm..."
But he was gone.
"I'm going to get this a lot, aren't I?"
To my suprise the middle-aged Principal chuckled. "At least until people get used to you," she agreed. "You can give your sister the note at lunch." Then she gestured at the door to one of the offices. "But first we've set up this room for you to take some written tests."
When I looked inside, a small desk like those in the classrooms had been set up with a stack of paper booklets on it. The other furniture had all been pushed back against the walls and there was a clock set up so that it was plainly visible from the desk.
"All the exam papers have the time you're supposed to spend on them written on the front page," Knickerbocker told me. "If you run out of time before finishing just move on to the next. If you finish one early then note down on the front how long it took you and you can start the next paper early or go back to have another look at anything you had trouble with - make a note on anything that you go back to about how long you put in."
"Isn't that cheating?"
She shook her head. Amazingly it didn't loosen the mass of silvery hair at all. "Not as long as you keep a record of it. Remember, this isn't about passing or failing, it's about measuring your strengths and weaknesses. Now, do you have everything you need?"
I pulled my pencil case out of the bookbag I'd brought with me. It was the only thing in it except for my packed lunch and now Matt's note for Will.
"Good." Knickerbocker pointed across the hall. "There's a washroom there that you can use if you need it. My secretary is in the next office along, if you need anything else just let her know."
I nodded to show my understanding and I was surprised when she held out her own hand. "Good luck, Miss Vandom," she said and shook my hand when took hers.
W.I.T.C.H. - W.I.T.C.H. - W.I.T.C.H. - W.I.T.C.H. - W.I.T.C.H.
"I don't know anything!" I declared with some despair, clutching at my head.
"Sounds normal to me." Irma reached over towards my lunch box and I slammed my fist down right in front of her hand to keep her from snagging my sandwich. "Well you aren't eating it."
I picked it up and took a bite. Mmm. Chicken. Then I realised she'd used my distraction to filch a cookie out of the box and crammed it into her mouth. "I hope that goes right to your waist."
"Probably a little higher," she said smugly. She was probably right too, blast her.
"I'm sure you're doing fine," Will promised me. "Remember that history paper you did for Proffessor Collins? You did great at that!"
"Yeah, but then I had a week to research the Middle Ages," I pointed out. "I don't think the Principal will let me go to the library to research answers for everything on these test papers. I'm only managing to answer maybe half the questions."
"You're not supposed to answer all of them." Taranee toyed nervously with her braid. "Some of the questions are supposed to be too hard for us, so if you could answer all of them then it'd mean you were smarter than all of us."
"Well that's not going to happen." Will mussed my hair. "You might be better at class than I am, little sis, but there's no way you're smarter than Taranee."
"Lot of good that's doing me," the other girl sighed. "Remember me when Mom locks me up."
It wasn't until I put my lunch box away in my bag that I remembered Matt's note. "Will, something for you."
She took the envelope. "What is it?"
"Matt gave it to me earlier, he thought I was you."
"Hope!"
"I didn't get the chance to explain!"
"Never mind that, what's the note say?" demanded Cornelia.
Will peeled open the envelope and extracted the note. "..."
"What?"
"M-matt..."
"Yes, we know it's from Matt," I reminded her.
"He's inviting me to the Lodelyday!"
There were high pitched squeals from the other girls at the table. "That's awesome!" "Go Will!"
"The... Lodelyday?"
Cornelia leant over. "It's the coolest restaurant in all of Heatherfield. Will's got a date! And it sounds like Matt wants to do this in style."
"That's good, I guess." Hopefully not too much style since presumably had the same expectations of restraint for Will that she had for me.
Irma reached over and nudged me. "Not jealous, are you?"
I thought about that. Was I jealous? I'd met Matt maybe two or three times. Nice guy but...
Voices were raised over by the door of the canteen - it wasn't warm enough for anyone but the hardiest to be eating outside today - and heads turned in that direction. Our heads included although Will remained rapt in the note until Hay Lin nudged her and whispered "It's Matt!"
It was indeed Matt. And Uriah.
"Well maybe she's going to need some comfortin'. Seeing as you ditched her."
Matt pushed back the brim of his hat and favoured Uriah with a bemused look. "Look, I don't know what you're talking about and I'm pretty sure you don't either..."
There was a nasty grin on Uriah's face. "Well if you were really serious about Vandom, you'd not have snuck a note to her sister, would ya?"
"Sister?"
Will grabbed my hand. "Hope?"
"Just that one, I swear," I said hastily. "And it's addressed to you, isn't it?"
She checked it. "Okay."
"I'm just feeling the trust," I grumbled.
"Sorry, it's just... everything else seems to be going crazy..."
"Just don't blame me if Mom hits the roof about him. Granted a date is a lot more normal than everything else going on right now."
"There are really two of you?" Matt's face paled slightly as he looked between us, having approached during our conversation. "But which...?"
"Uh, Matt... I can explain..."
"...that'd be nice."
I rested my chin on one hand and pointed with the other. "That's Will, I'm her sister Hope. I didn't get a chance to explain that this morning."
He frowned. "Have we met before?"
"Er... a couple of times." Truthfulness was allegedly the best policy. "And yes, I was pretending to be Will back then. So I guess I owe you an apology."
Matt sighed. "I hope there was a good reason."
"I was hiding." From Will, on one occasion, but that was beside the point. "And while Will trusts you, I barely know you. No offense."
"Alright." He looked over to Will. "Um. So, about..."
I cleared my throat. "One more thing."
"Oh?"
"If you hurt my sister, I will hurt you. Clear?"
"Hope!" Will's cheeks had gone almost as red as her hair.
Matt looked from me to Will, back to me. "Completely."
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"I don't believe that you said that."
"What isn't to believe?" I asked Will.
"But what if he changes his mind about our date?" she hissed nervously.
"If he changes his mind because of little old me then he clearly wasn't serious in the first place."
"What's this?" Mom asked, stepping out from the shelter of the gate between Sheffield Institute and the street.
"Mom?"
"I came by to pick you up - or did you forget that you're both grounded? Now what's this about someone changing their mind."
"Matt asked me out!" Will explained enthusiastically and then her face fell. "When I'm not grounded, that is."
Mom nodded, not without a bit of sympathy. "Well, at least you have something to look forward to. So why are you two falling out."
"I just told him to behave himself."
That remark got a laugh from Mom and she held out her hand. "High five."
"What?"
"Oh, don't kids do that anymore?"
Will groaned. "Not you too, Mom!"
"Nothing against you dating, Will - normally anyway," she qualified. "But that doesn't mean giving boys free license either. "It's just as well to let him know that you have standards: that way he'll feel obliged to live up to them."
We reached the car and Will paused. "Mom, Miss Rudolph asked us - the girls - to see her after school. I know I'm grounded, but this could be important."
"She's the teacher from Metamoor?" asked Mom suspiciously. "I've been meaning to talk to her, but we're meeting the Cooks tonight."
I coughed. "Could we talk about this in the car?" Without, for example, all the other Sheffield students who went past hearing about everything.
"Shotgun!" Will called suddenly and hopped into the front passenger seat.
"Eek!" I ducked down, hoping that whoever had the gun wasn't about to use it. I'd seen them on TV! They were scary!
Mom gave me a puzzled look and then sighed. "Not a real gun, Hope. She just means she wants to sit in the front."
"Well why didn't you just say so?" I asked Will as I climbed back to my feet. "I don't mind." Actually I'd been kind of hoping we could both sit up back so it would be easier to talk, but it wasn't a big deal.
Will shrugged apologetically. "It's kind of a thing. I didn't mean to scare you."
I climbed in and then across the back seat so that I was sitting behind Mom's seat. "Okay."
"Mom, I've got to get together with the girls and see Miss Rudolph! The last time she called us like this it was because there was an invasion force about to come through one of the portals! We can see her before dinner easily!"
Seeing a gap in the traffic, Mom pulled out. "And what if it's a trap, Will? You should keep at least a couple of you back just in case."
"Miss Rudolph's not like that! She's harmless!"
"And what if someone's forcing her to do this?" Mom shook her head. "I really want to go with you on this..."
"But you've got to go back to work, don't you?"
"I know, Will. And I don't think my boss will be happy if I keep making excuses."
"Welcome to my life."
I couldn't help but laugh at the resigned look on Will's face, but the laugh cut off when she gave me a pained look. It was more true than it was funny, after all.
"Oh honey. I guess I didn't make it easy for you, did I?" Mom turned her head slightly. "And I expect you to be more supportive, Hope."
"Sorry," I mumbled in a small voice.
"Alright, can you call your friends. You can go to see Miss. Rudolph, but I want you to call me right before you go in to see her and as soon as you are done. And two of you should stay away - at the Cook's house might be best if Taranee's one of the two." Mom looked in the mirror. "Hope, I'm not going to make you stay home while your sister doesn't have to..."
"Thanks. Do you want me to come along?" I offered to Will.
She shook her head. "I'd rather you stayed with the Cooks. Maybe you can break the ice a little. Taranee's pretty worried about how they'll take learning about her being a Guardian. You're pretty good at talking people around."
I shrugged uncertainly. People I knew, maybe, but I'd never met Taranee's family. And was I really that manipulative?
D for Drakensis
You're only young once, but immaturity is forever.