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.