Coed Witchery 101 - Chapter 7

It wasn’t quite a dungeon. The stairs descended in a spiral, with oil lamps hanging from the walls every half-spiral or so. As we got to the bottom of the stairs, I got a glimpse of a well-lit chamber ahead. I stepped out of the stairwell, and into a twenty-by-twenty room, lit by oil lamps, which looked like simply an underground classroom. It looked as if someone had taken desks and chairs from upstairs over the course of many, many years, because some of the desks looked ancient, and some looked like they were only a few years old. The mismatched desks were only a small surprise though.
The left wall was entirely taken up by bookshelves filled with books and scrolls and any number of things. Most of the shelves were covered over with cobwebs and the tomes stored on them had obviously not been used in a very long time, except for one set of bookshelves toward the other end of the room which looked well-used and well-cleaned. On the right wall were a few doors, built right into the stone walls, which led to who-knows-where. And at the front of the room was a huge desk covered in all sorts of papers, which I assumed must be Dr. Holden’s desk.
“Upperclassmen, go practice in the lab. I’ll need a volunteer from each discipline, of course, to stay behind. Freshmen, please choose a seat close to the front of the room where you will easily see our demonstrations. This will be your first night of class this year.” About eight people filed out of the room through the middle door set into the wall, and closed it. There were ten other students left in the room, including Vince, Yaseiko and Brenda.
“But professor… I’m not signed up for any night classes,” stammered a cute red-headed girl wearing jeans and a tight tee-shirt that read in small letters If you can read this, you’re staring at my chest.
“Of course you didn’t, child. You’ll understand everything soon enough. Please, sit,” Dr. Holden said, gesturing to the seats.
We took seats close to the front, and I looked around at the other freshmen. There were five of us, each looking as nervous as I felt. Besides the red-head girl, there was one other girl who was plump, with blonde hair and a fascinated smile. She sat at the desk to my right, wearing jeans and a tight-fitting pink polo top. She leaned over and said, excitedly, “Isn’t this amazing? I mean, magic!”
“Umm… yeah… I don’t know what to make of it,” I said warily.
On the other side of the portly blonde was a guy with red hair, wearing jeans and a Dave Matthews shirt. The red-haired girl was sitting on his other side, and now that I saw them next to each other I realized that they must be siblings, if not twins. They both had a hawknose, firey green eyes and identical expressions of confusion on their faces.
Finally, on my left was a short but skinny guy, obviously of Asian descent. He wore a loosely-buttoned dress shirt and slacks, and wide-rimmed black glasses. I almost expected to see a pocket protector in his shirt.
“Good evening, class, I am Dr. Holden. Now that we’re all situated, I’m sure you’re wondering why exactly you’re here,” said Dr. Holden from behind the main desk in the front of the room. The six upperclassmen that had stayed in the room with us were lined up on either side of him, looking passive, except for Brenda, who was smiling at me. I felt myself blush a bit, and struggled to pay attention only to Dr. Holden, and not to her.
“I have been teaching at this institution for about 26 years now. Before me, there was another faculty member who taught this course, and before him a whole line of them. This course has been taught since before the University itself existed, in fact. We call it ‘Magic 101’. Simple, and to the point.”
“Now, the million dollar question. How many of you have had some very strange things happen to you in the past six months or so?” We all raised our hands. “And how many of you can explain these strange events?” All but one of the hands went down. The blonde had hers up. “Yes, Ms. Seletyn.”
“Magic!” she said, obviously just a little too excited about the idea. I caught the red-haired girl roll her eyes where ‘Ms. Seletyn’ couldn’t see.
“That is correct, Ms. Seletyn. Magic. Now, we’re not talking about fairy-tale magic. There are no elves, no fairies, and no unicorns. We’re talking about raw magic, elemental magic. Science will tell you that the world around you is made of particles, of atoms and molecules, and they are absolutely correct. What scientists, for the most part, do not know about is that there are more forces at work in our universe than just Physics and Chemistry and Mathematics. All of these sciences are useful for studying our world, but there are some things that modern science cannot explain.” He made a waving gesture toward the students on either side of himself. “These upperclassmen are about to demonstrate the six elements of magic to you.”
A guy in his early twenties far to Dr. Holden’s left stepped forward. He was short, probably no more than five and a half feet tall. He had black hair cropped short and spiked, with the tips colored bright red. His eyes were hidden behind dark sunglasses. His nose was small and pointed, and he wore a grin that showed teeth that looked coffee-stained. He wore a tight red shirt with an image of a dragon on it, black denim pants that were a bit too tight for him, and large black boots.
“Mr. Fargo will now demonstrate the element of heat,” Holden said. The guy then raised a hand, palm-up, in front of himself. He stood there for a few seconds, and just as I thought that nothing was going to happen his fingers started to glow a faint red. The red color got stronger and stronger until suddenly a small flame burst into existence right above his hand. “As you can see, the ability to create fire spontaneously cannot be explained by science as you know it. We have our own brand of science with which we study these phenomena, and hopefully each of you will learn to use and control these magics.”
Fargo closed his palm, cutting off the flame, and stepped back. I could still see the red glow in his hand for a few seconds, but it quickly faded.
“Next, Ms. Ilane will demonstrate the element of cold.” A young woman stepped forward next to Fargo, about a head taller than him. Her blonde hair was pulled up in a long ponytail behind her back, and she had icy blue eyes and a faint hint of a smile on her lips. She was all legs, which she had accented by wearing a short miniskirt reminiscent of a cheerleader’s skirt. Her top was pink and had an artistic-looking, abstract pattern in sky blue sewn onto it.
Ilane picked up a glass of water from the desk in front of her. After a few seconds her hand and the glass both started collecting moisture from the air, sort of how a glass of ice water sweats. A few more seconds went by and abruptly the water in the glass froze solid, as well as the water droplets that had collected on her hand and the outside of the glass. “The polar opposite of heat magic, the element of cold is literally the absence of heat, and using it allows one to slow down the movement of atomic particles in matter,” Holden explained. “As you can see, this allows one to change the state of gases to liquids, liquids to solids, etcetera.”
Ilane stepped back and handed the glass to Fargo, who warmed it just enough to melt some of the ice, then took a swig from it.
“Next up is Ms. Ito,” Holden said, gesturing immediately to his left toward the Asian girl from before, Yaseiko. “She will be demonstrating the element of force.”
Force? I thought. What could that mean? I had a flashback to Physics class in high school, when we learned that force was equal to mass times velocity.
Yaseiko stepped forward. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a handful of little pieces of paper, almost confetti. She dropped the paper flecks into a large jar that was sitting on the desk in front of her, then held her hand over the jar. As we watched, the paper flecks started shifting a bit on the bottom of the jar, then a few of them began to whip around. After about ten seconds she had created a confetti tornado in the large jar.
“Force magic,” Holden began, “is the ability to create motion at the molecular level of matter, as opposed to heat and cold magics which speed up or slow atomic particles. The simplest type of matter to manipulate in this way is air, which is what you see Ms. Ito doing now. As one progresses in the study of force magic, one can learn to move more dense objects in this way… liquids, for example. Some who devote their lives to the study of force magic can learn even to manipulate solids such as metal, to reshape objects with their magical ability.” Yaseiko stepped back and the paper settled back to the bottom of the jar.
“Ms. Romero will now demonstrate what we call ‘nature magic’ for you.” Holden gestured to Brenda, standing to his right.
She stepped forward and placed a small flowerpot with some soil in it onto the table. “Zach, could I have a bit of that water, please?” she was looking back at the fire guy. He passed the half-full glass to her. She reached into her purse and pulled out a little paper packet. When she held it up for us, I could see that it said “Marigolds” on the front, and must’ve been a small packet of seeds. She pushed her finger down into the soil to create a hole, then opened the packet and poured a few seeds into it. After pressing the hole shut, she poured a bit of water into the soil. She then held her right hand over the flowerpot and closed her eyes.
Almost immediately, a small green shoot popped out off the soil, followed by four others. The five little vines grew at an incredible rate, growing around her fingers and upward. After what seemed like only moments, the small plants had grown to the point of having flower buds, which burst forth with beautiful red, yellow, and orange marigolds. “As you can see, using nature magic can allow one to help plants grow rapidly. It also gives one the ability to understand and sometimes even speak with animals, and has a host of other applications that we will eventually get to.”
The stems of the flowers had grown around Brenda’s fingers in such a way that it looked like the flowers were growing directly out of her hand. She carefully extracted herself from them and looked up at me, giving me a stunning smile. She stepped back to her original place in line.
“The next element is difficult to demonstrate visually. This is the element of thought. It is believed that the element of thought is actually just an unknown part of our own minds being unlocked and used by some. It has known many names throughout the years, such as telepathy and clairvoyance. Ms. Rodriguez will be demonstrating thought magic to you by simply placing the image of an object into your minds, then explaining exactly what you saw.”
A young woman of Hispanic heritage stepped forward from between Brenda and Vince. She was around the same height as Yaseiko, with an oval-shaped face and very wavy, dark hair. She wore a simple blue v-neck top and jean shorts.
I suddenly got a strange feeling, like I was being watched, but from every side at once. The image of a speedboat, flying across a choppy sea in bright daylight exploded into my mind. The boat was driven by a Hispanic man in his forties, and pulled behind the boat on skis was Ms. Rodriguez herself, smiling and wearing a two-piece bikini. Her large breasts were practically trying to jump out of the bikini top. “Right now, you should all be seeing me being pulled behind my dad’s speedboat, wearing a red and white striped swimsuit, off the coast of Cozumel,” she said. Her voice was very loud and commanding, with a strong Mexican accent.
The creepy feeling faded along with the image, and it left me feeling a little violated, but none the worse for the wear. “I apologize for the invasion of your minds, but it’s the easiest way to make you understand that it’s real,” Stefanie said. Wait… how do I know that her name is Stefanie? She didn’t say it did she? The whole telepathy thing freaked me out a bit.
“Finally, Mr. Davis is going to demonstrate the most difficult and probably the most abused element, life,” Dr. Holden said. “Life magic is the ability to manipulate the raw energy created by and contained within living organisms.”
Vince stepped forward, holding a shoebox. He opened the lid and pulled a small white mouse from inside. To my shock and slight nausea, he used one hand to snap the mouse’s neck. I saw Brenda flinch, and heard sharp inhales of breath from several of the other freshmen.
“Why did you DO that?” the red-headed twins gasped in unison.
“Don’t worry, students, the mouse will be fine,” Dr. Holden said gently. “Just watch.”
Vince held the clearly dead mouse in his right hand, palm up, showing it to us. With his left hand, he touched one of the flowers that Brenda had just grown. He then closed his eyes and his brow furrowed in concentration. “Mr. Davis is going to transfer the life energy from the plant, back to the mouse, healing its injuries. It will be very taxing for him, as life magic is strong, raw energy which he must channel through himself.”
As I watched, the beautiful flower began to rapidly wither, finally turning completely brown, petals falling off onto the soil beneath. The mouse’s tail twitched, then it jumped up, obviously frightened by its ordeal, and jumped from Vince’s palm down to the desk. Brenda reached down onto the desk, and the mouse ran straight for her, climbing up her arm all the way to her shoulder, where it sat, shivering.
Vince opened his eyes, looking dazed for a second, before he stepped over to the side of the desk and sat heavily down in a chair. His hair was sweaty as if he had just been to the gym, and his hands were shaking a bit. He looked drained and defeated, but I stared at him in awe. He had just brought a creature back from the dead!
“That, students, concludes your introduction to the world of magic,” Dr. Holden said, with an air of finality. “Any questions about the demonstrations?” We all stared at him in shock. “No? Alright then, volunteers, you may go join your classmates in the practice hall. The freshmen and I have a lot to talk about.”

Coed Witchery 101 - Chapter 6

“Magic. Like… fairies and wands and spells… that kind of magic?” I stammered. Obviously this guy was nuts.
“No, not like you read about in fantasy books. There are no such things as elves or fairies or anything like that. And you don’t need a wand for this. We’re talking about the ability to change your surroundings, manipulate the very space around you. True magic.”
“Well, it was nice to meet you, but I think I’m going to leave now, because you’re not making any sense and I have a feeling that you haven’t made sense in a long time.” I turned to leave, willing myself not to look back at his black pits where eyes should be.
“You want a demonstration, then? Here, watch.” Suddenly a huge plush chair that was sitting off to the side of the aisle lifted, moved into the aisle, and dropped back to the floor. I stopped in my tracks.
“That’s impossible,” I said, my voice shaking.
“No, it’s not. It’s impossible for people without our gifts. Not impossible for me. Not impossible for you.”
I turned around to face him. His eyes looked normal again, sort of a hazel color. “Why do you think that I could do any of this? Be an ‘Elementalist’?”
His eyes went black again. “Because I can see it in you. You have the ability. You don’t know how to control it yet. We can help you with that.”
“Even if I did, what if I don’t want to join your little club? What if I’d rather just be normal?”
“Oh, you could never be normal. But we can’t force you to join our club. I’ll tell you what. Come to the dining hall tonight at seven and find me. You can meet the others. Then if you would like to, you can come with us to our meeting. If you’re not into it, you can leave. Deal?”
I didn’t know what to say. Strange things had happened, that was for sure. The door on graduation day. The burns on Rand’s bed. The ice on my blankets. This was too much for me to handle. “I’ll consider it. I don’t want to make any promises.”
“That’s fine. I trust you’ll make the right decision. See you at seven.”
I walked slowly to the stairs, looked back once more to see him smiling at me, and got out of the library as quickly as I could without making myself look like an idiot. Magic? Elementalists? What the hell was all that? And did he really move that chair, or was it a setup? I thought about all of these things on my way back to my dorm. The guy had really creeped me out, but after talking to him, I didn’t find him as scary. He wanted me to join a club. That’s not so bad. A club of magic users… ok no, he must be insane.
By the time I got back to my room, I still hadn’t decided what to do about it. My logical mind told me that magic was, of course, impossible. But some small part of me, very small, was telling me that it was all true. That the weird things that had been happening couldn’t all be coincidence. That maybe I was more than just a plain old girl from Kentucky.
That thought, that I might be someone special, is probably what made me go to the dining hall at seven. I looked around and saw the guy sitting at a table with four others, each of whom looked like they belonged to completely different crowds.
There was a punk-looking girl wearing Vans, a pink plaid skirt and a top not unlike the one I’d worn for Rand. Her hair was black with blue streaks, and she wore alternating black and pink nail polish. She was a little on the heavier side, but not at all fat, and looked to be pretty short. Hard to tell when she was sitting.
Next to her was a guy who looked like he could be a model. He had wide shoulders, was very tall and muscular, and had a crew cut. He also wore plaid shorts and flip-flops, which said to me that he was probably a douche.
Next to him was my creepy guy from earlier, and next was the girl I had seen him with that other night here in the dining hall. She was asian and super-skinny, with pigtails tied up in crazy little bows. She wore a tight, black, slightly transparent tee-shirt and obviously had a bright pink bra on underneath. Her black shorts were as tight as they possibly could be, and she had on black platform boots. She had black nail polish, black lipstick, and dark eye shadow to complete her sexy-goth-girl visage.
Finally, there was a girl that looked like she could have come directly from the soccer field. She had short brown hair pulled up in a messy ponytail, was wearing a workout top and sweats, and had dirty tennis shoes on. She wasn’t terribly tall, but definitely muscular. I could tell she had small breasts to begin with, and in a sports bra and workout top they were basically nonexistent.
Creepy guy spotted me and motioned for me to come over. There was an empty seat between the skater girl and the sporty one, and I sat.
“This is her, guys,” said creepy guy.
“Umm… hi. I’m Emma,” I said.
“Hi Emma. I’m Casey.” That was the skater girl.
“I’m Derek.” The model guy.
“Vince.” Creepy guy.
“Yaseiko,” the Asian girl said, with a slight accent. She had a very high voice, reminding me of some anime that I’d seen years ago.
“And I’m Claire. Welcome to our group. Hope you can handle it.” Claire seemed gruff, like she would be betting that I, in fact, would not be able to handle it. Honestly, I had no idea whether I could or not.
“Claire, be nice,” Vince said. “She’s a freshman, and just needs some guidance. That’s our job, remember?”
“Why do you guys think I need guidance from you?” I asked, slightly irritated that they apparently thought I was some kind of child.
“Because if you don’t learn to control yourself, you’ll be in for a world of hurt. Trust me,” Casey said.
“Alright guys, let’s have something to eat, then we’ll head over to the meeting,” Vince said. “You hungry, Emma?”
“Yeah, starving.” We all went up and got food, sat back down, and ate. It seemed almost normal, except that I was eating with a bunch of kids who apparently thought they had magical powers. The things I let myself get talked into…
After having a fairly awkward meal, sitting and listening in on what seemed like fairly normal conversation between the rest of them, we returned our trays and I followed them outside. We all started walking toward the academic side of campus. Luckily the path through the center of campus is well-lit, and the trees are sparse along it so it didn’t feel unsafe. We got to the A&H building, and went inside.
The building seemed much more ominous inside at night, with dimly lit corridors and doors with dark windows. We descended a stairwell off to the left of the main entrance of the building, and were suddenly in a basement storage area for tons of old art supplies and machinery. There were still doors along the hallway as if there were classrooms, but they had obviously not been in use for many years. We walked down the hallway and I started to hear voices coming from the end of the hallway. We came to a door that actually had some light behind it, and was obviously where the voices were emanating from.
Vince opened the door and I saw about ten other people there, milling around a large stone sculpture of a person in the far corner of the room. The room was lit with only a few bare lightbulbs hanging from the ceiling, so it was shadowy in the room, but even in the sparse light the sculpture was breathtaking. It depicted a man in a loincloth holding fire in one hand and a stone in his other. On his back were small, feathered wings, and he was standing on what looked like the crest of a wave, which had what looked like icicles hanging from its front end. In the middle of his forehead, there was a third eye. It was incredibly detailed, despite its obvious age.
I looked around the room and saw a couple familiar faces. Brenda was across the room to my left, and she smiled and gave me a little wave when she saw me. Her hand-made sorority letters were gone, replaced with a tight, dark green top and a flowing blood-red skirt. Her tattoo was much easier to see now thanks to her low-cut top, and I noticed that it was a Chinese symbol. I couldn’t tell what it might mean, of course. Brenda looked absolutely gorgeous, and it made me feel like I should have dressed up or something. Wait a second… since when have I ever cared what any other girl thought of how I dressed? It must be something about her…
I also saw Dr. Holden off to my right, holding a wooden cane and tapping it impatiently on the floor. He nodded at me, but I couldn’t tell if he recognized me as one of his new students or not. That’s strange, I thought, I wonder why Holden would be here at the meeting of a student club. Maybe he’s the faculty advisor or something?
Once we had all entered and the door was closed, Dr. Holden rapped his cane loudly against the bottom of the statue, calling for attention. “Alright young men and women, thank you for coming, as always. I see a few new faces tonight, suggesting that this year’s freshman class isn’t a complete loss.” He looked at me and winked. “I believe everyone is here who will be getting here, so let’s head downstairs.”
Holden closed his eyes, and I felt a strange sensation in the back of my skull. The statue started slowly rising, and I realized that it was attached to a large square stone underneath. The base stone rose out of the hole it had been wedged into, and then began sliding to the side of where it had been. As the statue moved, I saw a stairwell appear from underneath. The stairs were set into the floor and looked as ancient as the statue itself. After a few moments the statue stopped sliding and Holden opened his eyes. “Avanti, young ones!” he said, with a sly smile on his face. The others in the room started down the stairs. “I’m supposed to go down there?” I asked Vince, astonished at the prospect.
“Yep, down there is where we’ll teach you the ropes, kid,” he said, gesturing for me to follow the crowd. I followed Vince over to the stairs, and with only a bit of hesitation, took my first steps down into what I was really hoping wasn’t a dungeon.

Coed Witchery 101 - Chapter 5

I woke up to a sound like glass falling to the floor after a window shatters. Sort of a weird tinkling sound. I still felt cold. In fact… I felt really cold. I looked down, and saw that there was a fine sheet of ice across my blankets. I sat up, and more of the ice cracked and fell to the floor. I looked down, and there was a puddle of water on the floor next to the bed. I wanted to get down out of bed, but there was even ice on the top rung of the ladder at the head of the bed, which I used to get up to the top bunk.
The weirdest thing is, as I sat up, I realized that the room wasn’t cold at all. The air in the room felt sweltering to me. And the ice was melting very quickly to soak my blankets and make more of a mess on the floor.
“Ummm… Allie?” I said, wondering how I was going to get down.
“Mmm… huh?” she mumbled, obviously still asleep.
“Hey… could you turn on the light? I… can’t get out of bed right now.”
“Wha? Um… ok?” She stepped out of bed. “Aah! Why is the floor all wet?”
“That’s one of the reasons I can’t get out of bed.”
She turned on the light. “How in the world did all that freezing cold water get in here? Is there a pipe leak or something? Is that… ice?!”
“Yeah. It’s melting really fast though. I have no idea how there could be ice in the room when it’s so super hot in here.”
“You think it’s hot? I think it’s pretty chilly… Come on, I’ll help you down.” She reached up to grab my hand. But she yelped and pulled back. “Emma, your hand is so cold!” She reached back up and helped me down. “We’re gonna have to call maintenance or something. I don’t know how it’s possible that ice formed on your bed, but it’s gotta be a maintenance problem… right?” She looked at me expectantly.
“Of course. That’s the only explanation,” I muttered.
We called down to the desk, and the girl there said that they really couldn’t send anyone tonight, could we clean up the mess and wait until tomorrow night? I was a little upset that they couldn’t do something, but it WAS three thirty in the morning. I pulled my blankets off the bed. Strangely, the sheets were completely fine, although a bit cool. We dried the floor with the blankets since they were already soaked, then went back to bed. It was warm enough in the room to not need a blanket anyway. I fell quickly back asleep, wondering what kind of maintenance anomaly could possibly cause this weirdness.
*********************************************************************************
The next morning, maintenance came and went, saying there was nothing wrong that they could see. Very strange, but the incident was quickly forgotten, at least by me. I could tell that Allie wasn’t gonna give up on an explanation that easily, as she kept checking the ductwork after the maintenance people left. “There’s gotta be something that caused that…” she’d murmur to herself. I let her go, planning out my class schedule and doing other things normal college kids do when they move in. Normal. Totally normal.
That day, I called up Stacey for our shopping trip. We took one of the school shuttles to Super Target and bought a bunch of stuff that we needed. It was a fun trip, and it was good to know that there was a supermarket close that I could go to if I needed it. We got back and Stacey asked if I wanted to hang out at her dorm later, and I said sure.
Stacey and I hung out for most of the evening, and she introduced me to a few of her friends from Broadwater, none of whom I can really remember in detail. Her room was sort of a suite, with a two-person bedroom similar to mine, but instead of just a sink in their room they had a bathroom that was shared with the room next door, so that four girls had a bathroom of their own. That’s nice and all, but I figured I’d be ok with the communal bathrooms, especially with the hot tub available. They did have a much nicer lounge, with an HDTV and Blu-ray player, which Stacey informed me had been donated by her father. Hmm… must be nice, I thought to myself.
The next few days flew by in a blur. There were all kinds of activities planned for us freshmen, including a small concert featuring some local bands. I checked it out, but nothing struck me as amazing. There were also some workshops on how to study and keep sane, which I of course blew off. I can handle myself, thank you very much.
Before I knew it, the upperclassmen had arrived on campus. Suddenly the place seemed a lot more crowded. The arrival of the older students also meant that we only had a few days left until school started. The activities planned for the Saturday and Sunday before the first day of school on Monday were much more broad… free movies out on the quad, ice cream socials put on by sororities, even a beginners’ chess tournament sponsored by the chess club. I stayed away from all of that, even when Stacey tried to convince me to check out Alpha Delta Omega with her. I just couldn’t imagine joining a sorority, not even if my life depended on it. Hopefully Stacey wouldn’t turn into a caddy, bitchy…
Anyway, Sunday night we had another floor meeting. This time, the upperclassmen were there, of course, so where the chairs had been half full before, there weren’t enough for everyone now. There looked to be a total of about fifty girls on our floor, which is a lot to share four bathrooms. Thankfully we didn’t have to go through stupid name games this time, so the meeting only lasted about a half hour, and then we were free to go worry about what the first day of classes might bring.
My first class the next morning would start at 8:30 am, so I set my alarm for 6:30 to make sure I had plenty of time to get ready. I didn’t know how crowded the shower area would be. I lay in bed for a long time, wondering what would happen tomorrow. I hope I don’t screw this up. I really don’t want to have to go home with my tail between my legs. I drifted off to sleep, hoping above all that I had enough pencils and paper for the next day.
**********************************************************************************
I was glad I set my alarm early. The shower area was packed, with a short line of three girls waiting for showers when I got out there. I waited patiently for my turn, and when it came I was really glad for the partitions between the showers… some of these girls were not so good looking, and I caught one girl staring with a sly smile on her face as I was unwrapping from my robe. She was cute and all, but I’d never found any girl attractive enough to actually consider hopping the fence for her.
I took a quick shower, since I knew other girls were waiting, then toweled off and went back to my room in my robe. Allie had gotten up while I was gone, and was looking through her closet for something to wear. I’d learned early on that she wasn’t the type to shower every morning. Her habits so far had been to bathe every two days or so, and always at night. For the first day of classes, you’d think she’d shower, I thought, but I of course didn’t say anything to her. Who am I to judge?
My first class of the day was Biology 100. I had to walk across campus to the Life Sciences building for it, so I left at around 8:10 to make sure I had plenty of time to find it. I passed a few guys smoking and joking outside of Randall, and one of them said “Hi,” and smiled at me. I gave him a quick smile and mumbled a greeting, then kept walking. Now was not the time to strike up a conversation with a random guy. Besides, I don’t like the taste of a smoker’s mouth. Rand had been the exception to the rule, since he smoked only cloves and so always tasted more like cigars than cigarettes…
It took me about six minutes to walk across campus using the path through the middle, which was lined with trees and full of other students going the same direction. I reached the academic buildings and looked at a little campus map I had brought with me. The Life Sciences building seemed to be a few buildings to my right, so I walked past Arts and Humanities and Social Sciences to get there. The outside of Life Sciences was drab, a simple building with simple brick walls. From what I could tell, this building was not very new, but didn’t look as old as Arts and Humanities did. The place had a musty smell to it, like it hadn’t been given a good cleaning in years. There were elevators, though I didn’t have to use them since my class was in the auditorium on the first floor, room 106.
I walked in and found that it was stadium-style seating, with room for about 100 students. I sat toward the middle of a section of seats and waited for a few minutes, listening to an acoustic playlist on my mp3 player. About ten minutes later the professor walked in, pulling a cart full of notes and what looked like a DNA model. I had taken Advanced Placement Biology in high school, but only scored a 3 on the test, so I had a good amount of knowledge on the subject, but hadn’t gotten the college credit.
The professor’s last name was Docker, and she looked as if she’d been teaching intro Biology for about twenty years too many. Once she started speaking, though, I found her to be easy to listen to, and she had a good way of explaining everything. The first class was mostly Dr. Docker telling us about the syllabus and giving a broad overview of the subjects we would be covering. An hour later we all filed out of the room. I hadn’t learned anything new, but I felt like I would enjoy the class.
The rest of the morning was much the same, as I went to Philosophy 101, then Chemistry 101. The only class I was at all worried about so far was Chem, as the professor had seemed hard and formal, and spoke of pop quizzes. There were reading assignments for each class, which I planned to get started on that night. I may not look like the typical nerdy kid, but I have always taken my school work seriously.
I went to get lunch at noon, at the student center in the middle of the academic buildings. It felt like a mall food court, and I ended up with some chicken pasta which wasn’t bad but wasn’t great either. Oh, well, what can you expect on a student meal plan? I sat by myself at a small table and ate, taking my time since I didn’t have another class until 1:30.
As I was chowing down, I noticed Stacey walking toward me, and flagged her down. She was walking with a few girls from ADO, and they kept walking over to a larger table a ways away. “Hey!” Stacey said as she sat down across from me. “How was your first day of classes so far?”
“Oh, just about what I expected. Chem might be a bitch, but the others seem fine. I’m looking forward to the seminar I’ve got this afternoon. It’s on the portrayal of scientists in the media. Should be cool.”
“Yeah, that sounds really fun. I’ve only had one class so far, Art History 101 this morning. A joke, really, for anyone who’s studied Art History before, but that’s how it works. Hey, would you want to join me over at the ADO table?” She looked at me with an almost pleading look in her eyes. I knew she wanted me to get along with her possible future “sisters”.
“Umm… yeah I guess I can do that. They’re not gonna steal my soul?”
“Haha no they’re pretty cool. Very laid-back. Give them a chance.”
“Alright, just because we’re shopping buddies though.”
I walked over with her and sat at the large table next to her. There were maybe twelve other girls there, a few wearing letters and a few others that I assumed were prospective members, like Stacey. “Hey guys,” she announced, “this is Emma. Emma, this is…” and she rattled off the names of every girl at the table. None of them stuck, except for one girl who I remembered was also on our floor, named Brenda, who was sitting directly across from me.
Brenda had strikingly dark eyes, dark brown hair with highlights, and a pretty nice body. She was wearing her ADO letters, but they looked like they had been sewn by hand, giving her a more free-spirit look than the other girls around the table. I also noticed the hint of a tattoo peeking out from under her shirt above her right breast. All-in-all, a very nice looking girl.
The girls all said their greetings to me, with none of the judgemental looks that I was expecting. They went back to the conversation they had been having, about a social they were planning with one of the frats. Brenda asked me what my major was, and I of course answered “Undecided, but something in the sciences.”
She smiled and told me she was in her third year of Biochemistry, and was loving it. “If you’re considering it, I’d be glad to show you some of the stuff I’m working on, and help you out with your freshman Chem class. That is always the tough one for everyone.”
“That would be awesome! Thank you so much, Brenda!” I meant it. She seemed like a great potential source of information about the school and the program. We talked for a while longer, then it was almost time to get to class. I exchanged numbers with Brenda and said goodbye.
Stacey had a class starting at the same time, so we walked together out of the student center and turned left, toward the Arts and Humanities building, where both of our classes would be. The A&H building seemed to be the oldest academic building on campus, with pillars out front and gargoyles on the roof. It seemed out of place in the midst of the other buildings, which each looked like they couldn’t have been more than forty years old. The hallways were wide, the echoes loud, and it creeped me out. I went up to the second floor to my classroom.
The seminar class was really interesting. The professor, Dr. Holden, told us that he was a Chemist by trade but that he’s always had an interest in television and movies, and the way that scientists are either portrayed as insane villains or unlikely heroes in much of pop culture. He was a small, round man, with a slight limp when he walked, as if he might have a prosthetic knee. The top of his head was bald, surrounded by a ring of pure white hair, carefully trimmed and well-managed. His pug nose held up his tiny glasses, and below that was a thin white mustache. His eyes always seemed to be hiding a secret, and his cheeks were always rosy from the exertion of his teaching style. That first day, he wore nicely tailored dress slacks, contrasted horribly by a dress shirt that looked like it was from the early seventies; all purples and greens in an erratic design. He wore green suspenders and no tie.
I liked Dr. Holden, he seemed like the type of teacher I always hoped to have for any class in high school… full of jokes that were actually funny but not afraid to tell us when he wants us to work hard. The grade for the class would be determined almost exclusively by a pair of long essays, one at midterm and one as our final. He said that he’d give us more details about those later.
For the rest of the period, he showed us clips of scientists in various forms; Professor Fink from The Simpsons, Dr. Frankenstein from the old black and white movie, Dr. Manil from Mutants, and many others. All in all, it was an amazing start to what I expected to be an amazing class.
After walking out of the A&H building, as I was on my way back to Randall, I noticed the creepy guy from the dining hall before. He was sitting on a bench in front of the library, and he was staring at me again. The same dark, ominous stare he had given me before. My heart froze over again, and I quickly looked away. When I dared to take a quick look back, he was walking into the library. Alright, that’s it. I need to see what this guy’s deal is, I thought, and started walking toward the library.
I went inside, through the small security area, and looked around. The first floor was mostly filled with computer labs and little computer stations where you could look up the card catalog. I looked toward the other end of the room, past all of the computer labs, and saw the back of the guy’s jacket going down a stairwell marked “Journals M-Z”. I kept following him, wondering what he might be looking at journals for this early in the year.
When I got to the bottom of the stairs, I saw that the room was nothing but shelves of journals. This must have been a part of a storage basement that they had turned into usable space. It was shadowy and dusty down there, like no one had messed with these journals for years. I started going down the main aisle, looking for the weird guy. I spotted the back of his head over the top of a shelf ahead, and quickly hid.
I waited for him to go a bit farther, then turned back into the main aisle. Unexpectedly, he was standing in the aisle, staring right at me. Taking a second to really look at him, I noticed a bunch of silver rings on his fingers, and a celtic-looking symbol on a necklace he wore. His eyes were solid black again. This time they stayed that way.
“I’ve known you were there all along. You can’t hide from me.”
My blood turned to ice, and I turned to run.
“Stop.” There was something strange in his voice that forced me to stop. I turned around. “I don’t want to hurt you. I want to induct you.”
“Induct me… into what?” I asked, shakily.
“Just a little club. A club for people like you, who have strange gifts. I’m sure you’ve noticed things happening recently, right? Fires start where they shouldn’t, things might fly across the room randomly. Am I right?”
I slowly nodded. Weird things HAD been happening lately.
“These things are all the signs of our kind.”
My knees were jelly. I wanted to run, but my feet wouldn’t listen. “Our kind? What… kind?”
“Witches. Warlocks. Magic users have had many names over the years. That’s what you are. The name we like to use, though, is Elementalists.”

Coed Witchery 101 - Chapter 4

My roommate hadn’t shown up yet, apparently, because the room was empty. There was a sink in the back corner with a mirrored medicine cabinet above it. There were two wardrobes with drawers at the bottom of them, and two desks, and two of those extra-long twin beds. Just as expected. The setup of the room wasn’t ideal, I decided, and set to work rearranging things a bit. I’d have to ask my roommate if we could bunk the beds. I wouldn’t mind having the top bunk if she’d be ok with it, and it would give us some more room to work with.
We had a large window on the far wall, and an A/C unit below it, and I decided that having the desks arranged to allow some light in from the window if we felt like having it would be good, so I put the two desks on opposite sides of the room around the window. That put one desk right next to the sink, which I didn’t like, so I moved them both to the left wall. I put the wardrobes next to the desks, and the beds on the opposite wall. After I was done, it seemed a bit more cozy, and we had a little bit of floor space where we could maybe put a refrigerator if we decided to rent one.
I had a flash of jealousy for the first floor residents. We were on an all-girls’ floor, and right below us on the second floor would be the guys, but the first floor was all mixed suites, with single bedrooms and bathrooms for four people instead of the whole floor. I envied them, but I just couldn’t afford the suites. Maybe once I’ve got a campus job…
I moved my bags into the room then, and started unpacking a few things. I put my red satin sheets, which I love, on my bed and started putting some clothes in the wardrobe that I had claimed for myself. A lot of my clothing would be coming in the mail, so I really only had about a week’s worth to put away. After that was done, I set up my laptop on the desk, plugged it into the Ethernet jack, and started surfing the net. We had gotten our login names and passwords in the mail, so I signed on and checked my e-mail. I was about to start browsing to my favorite weblogs when my roommate walked in.
The first impression I got of her was “nerd”. That’s fine with me, of course, I was a nerd too. I remembered from our orientation packet that her name was Allison and that she was a Computer Science major. Her hair was very dark brown, a bit mousy looking. She had glasses and a bit of a pudgy face, but she could be a cute girl if she put some effort to it. She was wearing jeans and a t-shirt, and carrying a military-issue duffel bag. Must be an army brat. Her t-shirt, stretched across her chest, said “+5 shirt of smiting”. Hmm… a Dungeons and Dragons kid too. This could be a long year…
She seemed startled to see me at first, but quickly recovered. “Hi, I’m Allie,” she said in a quiet voice.
“Hey Allie. I’m Emma. Need a hand with anything?”
“Oh, no, I’m fine. Thanks though.” She smiled at me.
I let her get a little settled in while I surfed some more. Once she had unpacked a little, I pitched the idea of the bunk beds. “Hmm… I guess we could try it out. I’m afraid of heights though…”
“Oh I can take the top bunk. I don’t mind a bit of climbing. It would give us enough room in here to maybe put a TV stand and a small TV. Maybe even a small futon. What do you think?”
“That could be cool,” she said, still obviously shy. “I’d like to be able to watch Mutants every week.”
“Awesome, I’m into Mutants too. We can have roommate bonding time drooling over Peter,” I said with a wink. She giggled just a bit and we went to work bunking the beds.
About an hour later, after we had gotten pretty well settled in, there was a knock on our doorframe. “Hey guys!” said an enthusiastic-looking girl at our doorway. She looked to be a couple years older, short and muscular. Obviously our RA. She must be an athelete, I thought to myself. “I’m your RA, Natasha. We’re going to have a floor meeting at 5, so if you guys could meet us all in the lounge that would be awesome!” A little too perky. Ugh.
“We’ll be there,” I said.
“Okay, see you soon!”
I gave Allie a look that basically summed up my feelings about Natasha. She nodded her head very seriously and then we both burst out laughing.
I decided to check out the shower facilities before the meeting, so I walked down the hall until I found a restroom. I looked inside and saw about ten sinks with mirrors above them, six stalls, and the entrance to the shower area. I walked in and saw that there were ten showerheads with partitions between them, a small shelf below each to put your shampoo and such, and a little hook on the opposite side of the shower area to hang your towel. Not bad, really. At least they try for a little bit of privacy. None of the showers were in use now, of course, it being the middle of the day.
I saw another opening on the other end of the shower area, and got curious. I walked through and found that there was a hot tub in there! Not a really nice one, of course, and only big enough for two people at most, but it was nice to know that if I needed to soak and veg out a bit, I had somewhere to do it. Finding the hidden hot tub made me curious if all of the bathrooms were that way, so I walked down the hall some more and checked out the other ones. There were four womens’ rooms on the floor, and two for men, surprisingly. I suppose it didn’t make sense for visitors to have to walk down a whole floor.
Two of the other rooms were smaller, with only 6 showerheads and no hot tub, but the one all the way at the other end of the hall was identical to the first one I found. I was genuinely impressed with the facilities in Randall, and wondered if the other dorms were like this.
When I got back to the room, Allie had her computer out and was playing World of Warcraft. Uh-oh, I thought to myself, she might stay up all night playing that crap. I guess I’ll find out soon enough.
I surfed the net for a while more until it was time to go to the floor meeting. Allie closed out of WOW and we locked our door on the way out.
The lounge was toward the middle of the hall, between the two smaller bathrooms. I saw other girls filing into it, looking about as excited as I was. As I walked in the door I saw that there were three refrigerators on one side of the room, with two ranges and some countertop space right next to them. On the other side was a fair sized television with a DVD/VCR combo next to it. In the center, currently, were about 40 chairs placed in a circle, half-filled with girls. Oh God, I knew we’d have to do stupid introduction games. NOT what I had in mind for my first night at school.
I’m not going to detail the stupidity of the next hour and a half. Suffice it to say that the peppy RA had three others just like her, and they made us do stupid name memorization games which would never work.
Several of the girls looked like the type I would want nothing to do with, the cheerleaders/prom queens, but I had learned on the bus that looks could be deceiving. I decided to give every one of them an honest chance.
I didn’t make any new friends at the meeting because there were just too many people, but as Allie and I were walking out we chatted with a couple girls who were walking our direction, Cynthia and Holly. We found out that they lived right across the hall from us. Cynthia had short black hair, a beak-shaped nose, and was a rugby player; tall, lean, muscular and obviously full of energy. Holly seemed to me like the typical girl-next-door; wavy brown hair down to her shoulders, a cute oval-shaped face, freckles, and dressed casually in jeans and a form-fitting tee shirt. Both of them were very friendly and we all decided to go get dinner together at around seven.
During the discussion, Allie hadn’t said too much. She was obviously a bit introverted, so I determined right then to try to break her out of her shell a bit. You can’t have people over to your place if you have an awkward roommate, so I wanted to make sure she wasn’t one. Despite her nerdy appearance, I could see a lot of potential there for having fun, I’d just have to bring it out.
Seven o’clock rolled around, and Holly knocked lightly on our doorframe. “You guys ready?”
“Yep, let me just put my shoes on,” I said. “Oh, hey, do you mind if I call someone and ask her if she’d like to meet us there? I met someone in Broadwater this morning.” I had almost forgotten about Stacey.
“Totally fine with us,” Cynthia said, from somewhere behind Holly. I gave Stacey a call, but she didn’t answer. Might be in her own floor meeting, I thought.
We walked out into the hallway, and it seemed as if a lot of people had the same idea… tons of girls were headed out of the dorm. We went with the crowd and made it outside.
“Do you guys mind if I have a smoke on the walk over?” Allie asked, surprising me. We all shook our heads, although it looked like Holly made a sour face after.
So, we walked and talked over to the dining hall. The dining hall is a low, ugly building set between two dorms about four buildings down from Randall. It didn’t look overly crowded inside, but there was a short line out the door to get in. We got at the end of the line and chatted a bit more, just small talk.
Once we got inside, we were assaulted by the smell of fried food and grease. There were separate stations for different types of food, and a lot of it seemed edible. I went to the vegetarian section first, just because usually veg food is more healthy. I found some really delicious-looking stir-fry and some hummus and pita bread. Then I went back over to the “Home Cookin’” section and got a bit of turkey and gravy.
I got myself some soda and found Cynthia already seated at a table. She had nothing but meat and fruit on her tray, which wasn’t terribly surprising. The other girls found us and we all ate, eyeing up guys that walked past and making comments. Typical female behavior, I suppose. I learned that Cynthia was an Econ major, and Holly was a History major, planning to minor in Religious Studies. I told them all that I was undecided, but I wanted to do something in science.
During all this small talk, I noticed a guy sitting at the table next to us, directly across from me. He wasn’t a bad looking guy, dark hair, blue eyes, a bit of stubble on his chin, wearing mostly black… normally my type of guy, I’d say. What I noticed about him, though, was that he was staring at me. It was starting to make me a little uncomfortable, because it wasn’t the “Ooh, she’s hot” type of stare. He wasn’t smirking. He was just staring at me solemnly, like he was trying to read my thoughts. I tried not to make eye contact again, but the next time I did, for a brief second, I could swear his blue eyes turned all black. Then it was gone and he looked away to chat with a girl sitting at his table. They got up, and just before leaving he gave me that cold stare again, and this time the girl with him did it too.
“… and I was thinking of taking Philosophy 101, but then I changed my mind… Emma, are you okay? You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” Cynthia said, rousing me out of my thoughts.
“Oh, yeah… sorry.” I tried to join in the conversation again, but over and over, that guy’s face came back to me. I couldn’t get him out of my head. We finished our dinner and headed out, but even when I was back at my room later, trying to fall asleep, his face haunted me. Who was that guy? Why was he staring at me? I felt cold, just thinking about him…

Long time, no post

Hey guys,
So yeah, sorry for going so long with no posts! It's been a busy few months. Brandi and I have moved in together into my new condo, and it's awesome. I've also joined a lab at Baylor and am working on my qualifying exam right now, which will be all finished in late September.
In other news, Stef is coming down to Houston to visit me next weekend! That's like... extremely exciting. We're also going to see the Warped Tour while he's down here (SAOSIN!!!!!!) so that should be amazing.
Other news... our new class of genetics kids is starting to show up in Houston, and so far they're gonna be a really great group. I think I'm gonna make some fast and lasting friends.
I'll be back in the Maryland area over the weekend of July 10th, so I'll be trying to visit everyone while I'm there. Brandi will be there with me (we're coming home for my friend Jeremy's wedding up in Altoona,PA).
That's about it... I'm gonna post several more chapters of my book after this for those of you who i haven't sent the whole thing to yet.
Tyler