Coed Witchery 101 - Chapter 9

The next morning, after being disappointed to find Allie still playing WOW and just going to bed wishing I didn’t have a roommate, I woke at nine am, since my first class on Tuesdays wasn’t until eleven. Allie was already gone. I made a mental note to ask her for her schedule and then post both of them up in our room somewhere. I got showered and dressed without incident and headed out at about 10:30 for my first class of the day, Physics.
The Physics and Chemistry building was directly behind the student center, so I walked through the middle path across campus, past the library, as I had for my classes the day before. As I passed the student center I saw Brenda walking with a group of ADO girls toward me, and flagged her down.
“I’ll meet up with you guys at lunch,” she told her girls. “Hey! How’re you doing today? Still reeling?”
“Yeah, I mean it’s all pretty hard to take in, ya know?” I was speaking a bit quietly, given that there were so many people around.
“Well hey, if you want to talk some more about it, I’m free after lunch until like 4, so we could sit down somewhere quiet and discuss it a bit.”
“That would be awesome, Brenda. How about three o’clock in the library? I’ve kinda got a ton of questions and wanted someone to tell about the weird stuff that happened to me recently.”
“It’s a date! I’ll see you at three in the entranceway.” She waved and headed toward the student center.
I headed to Physics class. The professor ended up being the same one that Allie had, Dr. Jacobs. He was a younger guy, probably early thirties, with an excited way of talking about Physics that made me think he must not have been a professor for very long yet.
“Today, we’ll just go into some introductory stuff. I know that a pre-requisite for this class is to have taken a Physics class before, but I want to make sure everyone is on the same page. We’re going to go through chapter one of your text, going over each formula that you should all be familiar with already. For Wednesday’s class I’ll be assigning a short quiz that will tell me if you’re adequately prepared for this course. If you do badly on it, I will recommend that you be placed in Physics 101. However, I don’t really expect any of you to do that poorly on it, because it’s pretty straightforward. Let’s get started.”
Of course, class was boring since it was just a review of stuff I’d already mastered in high school, so I sat there acting like I was paying attention and thought about other things, as I could tell most of the class was doing. At the end of class, Dr. Jacobs gave out his quiz like he’d promised and sent us on our way to “becoming the physicists that this world needs”. Right.
Noon was lunch hour for me so I stopped in the student center for some pizza then pulled out my laptop and surfed the net until almost one. Then I headed over to the A&H building again, for English 101. As I expected, it was boring and monotonous and we were assigned to read the first two acts of Romeo and Juliet, which I had read a long time ago, and write a three-page critique of it by next Tuesday. The professor, Dr. Yantz, reminded me of that guy from the eye drops commercial… “the study of the English language is awesome,” he had declared at the beginning of the class, in the most monotone voice possible. Okay, maybe not that exact phrase, but you get the idea. The guy sucks.
English got out at 2:30, so I headed to the library to wait for Brenda, surfing the net for a bit longer before she came in and smiled at me. “Where should we go?” I asked, not sure if anywhere was really quiet and secluded enough for the conversation we were going to have.
“Follow me.” She led me to the elevator and then up to the ninth floor, which was marked on the elevator as “Conference rooms”. We walked past about four large rooms with projectors and whiteboards in them and then came to a small hallway with three doors on each side of it. Brenda led me to the last door on the left and we entered a tiny room, almost a cubicle, with a chalk board on one side and a desk with a chair on the other. She pushed the chair over to the wall, motioned for me to sit in it, and then sat on the desk across from me. “So, what kinds of questions do you have?”
“Well, I don’t know. I guess I could start with my own stories.” I detailed each of the incidents for her, even the embarrassing one with Rand. She laughed a bit about it but I could tell she felt bad about it too.
“Those things happen after we turn sixteen. That’s the age when magical ability starts manifesting, it seems. It sounds like you have natural ability with all three lower magics, which is rare and impressive.”
I blushed a little at her use of the word “impressive”. “Thanks,” I said, “but I just can’t see it as anything but a deterrent to my life being normal. I mean, who has nipples of fire?”
“Well I mean, I started manifesting cold a bit when I came of age, including a very uncomfortable incident with an ex-girlfriend, but once I found out about nature magic, I decided I had to focus on it. It becomes easier to control your powers as you start to understand them more. That’s the point of the Magic 101 class… to teach you how to NOT accidently hurt yourself or someone else.”
Ex-girlfriend. The word stuck in my brain. So she’s gay.
“Why nature magic?” I asked, trying to get images out of my head that would shame a pornstar.
“Well, I guess I’ve always been kind of a hippie. I love plants and animals, and really like being able to talk to them. You’d be surprised the conversations you could have with a squirrel.”
“So you can actually hold a conversation? In words?”
“No, not in words. And conversation is probably a bad term for it. You really can only convey and understand feelings, except for really intelligent creatures like dolphins. Oh man, swimming with dolphins becomes a whole new experience when you can actually speak to them. They really are almost as intelligent as us.”
“Wow… what else can nature magic do?” I was intrigued by her, but I have never been the type to go all mushy over fuzzy creatures. Dolphins though… that’s a whole different ball game.
“Well, as you saw I can help things grow. That’s a manipulation of metabolism more than anything… I’m not actually speeding up the life of the plant or anything like that. Really strong nature mages can actually take on aspects of animals, like the werewolves you read about. The book sort of demonizes that side of it, but I hope to one day be able to grow wings and fly.”
“Has anyone ever been able to DO that??”
“You’ve heard of angels, right? That’s a nature mage playing a joke on some poor sap. So far, though, all I can do is this.” Brenda closed her eyes and suddenly her hair reshaped itself into a cascade of scarlet and white feathers. “Pretty neat, eh?” She smiled a brilliant smile and changed her hair back.
“Wow… you look beautiful like that…” I stammered.
“Aww, thanks Emma. You’re cute. So what have you read about the other magics?”
“Well so far just the basics of heat and cold, and that thought magic is basically telepathy. And that life magic sounds scary.”
“Well, Vince may look a bit dark, but he’s really a sweetheart. Life magic is extremely hard to learn, and his focus on it is mostly because of his father dying of cancer. He wants to find a way to keep that from happening to anyone he can help.”
I felt a stab of regret for thinking Vince was creepy. “What exactly can life magic do? That mouse that he revived… was it really alive, or just some type of… undead creature?” I had a horrible mental flash of a zombie mouse eating its way through a carcass.
“Oh no, it was truly alive. Small animals can be brought back completely. Scholar mages think it’s because they have no souls. Larger animals are tougher, but can be done. More intelligent creatures, like whales, dolphins and primates, can be returned to life, but stay in a catatonic state after that. There IS such a thing as ‘undeath’ though, which is a perverse mix of life and death. Only the most depraved life mages try it, and it almost always ends with them being killed by either their own creations or other mages.”
“Wow… heavy stuff. So how do you keep from just giving up and going completely loony?”
“Eh, same as anyone else. By partying.” She smiled. “We have some fun times together.”
“Speaking of, I’m thinking of having a get-together in my dorm room this weekend, would you be interested?”
“I would love to, but I’m an RA, so I can’t drink in the dorms.”
“Oh, that sucks. Which floor are you on?”
“First floor. I’m in charge of one wing of mixed suites, so I’m sure you can imagine the kind of crap I have to deal with down there. This is my second year of it though, so I guess it must not be too bad.”
We chatted for a while longer about partying and a little about ADO. She was very adamant that they weren’t the typical sorority girls, and given how awesome she was I couldn’t help but believe her. At around quarter ‘til four, Brenda said she had to head out to a TA session that she was giving for Chemistry 102, which I would have the following semester, so we parted ways outside the library and I headed back to Randall to get a head start on reading for Bio and Chem before my last class of the day, Beginning Scuba.
Allie was back in the room when I got there, reading some type of fantasy novel or something. I laughed to myself as I realized that if she knew that I was going to be actually practicing magic this year, she’d be extremely jealous. If anyone should have had these weird things happening to her, it should be Allie, not me.
“Hey Allie, would you be ok with a party in our room this Friday night?” I asked.
“Umm, sure I guess. Who all would be here?” She sounded a bit apprehensive.
“Just some girls from the floor and any guys they might want to bring, and Stacey from Broadwater. I promise it won’t get out of hand or anything.”
“Sure, that sounds like fun. How are we going to get booze, though?”
That’s a good question, I thought. “I’m not sure. I have a fake ID but I’m not sure how well it’ll work here. I always used it at the same place back home. Maybe I’ll ask Brenda…”
“Isn’t Brenda an RA?” Allie looked a little fearful again.
“Yeah but she’s really cool, I know she won’t cause us any problems. I’ll tell people to show up around 8 or so, is that ok?”
“Sure, sounds good.”
I laid down on my bed and read my Bio book for about an hour, getting through the first two chapters easily since it was very much a review for me. After that I played around online, learning about the newest stupid internet memes and which friends on Facebook had gone from “In a Relationship” to “Single” today.
At 5:30, I got changed into my one-piece and put on shorts and a t-shirt over it. Then I headed to the dining hall and had an early dinner before it was time to be at the gym at seven for Scuba. I picked Scuba because I’ve always wanted to try diving but I don’t want to have to pay out the ass for it. The equipment is all included so the only thing we have to pay for ourselves is a bathing suit, so I figured, why not? The only bad thing is that it’s from 7-10 on Tuesday nights, but I figured it’d be worth it. There would also be a few Saturday afternoon excursions to lakes to try diving in a more realistic setting, and the final exam would actually be a trip to Myrtle Beach, which we had to pay extra for, of course. We have the option of taking our final in the pool if we don’t want to pay for the trip. I hadn’t yet decided which I would choose. It would probably depend on whether I had the $150 available when it came time to sign up.
The pool was really easy to find in the gym, so I was actually there about twenty minutes before class was to start. There were a few people doing laps in the pool, and a couple of girls sunning themselves under a huge sunroof at one end of the pool complex, but it was starting to get dark so I figured they would head out soon. At the other end of the pool I saw a young woman bringing out diving equipment from a closet and setting it next to the pool, so I figured she must be our TA. I walked around the pool, admiring one guy that was doing laps in the lane right next to where I was walking as I went. He was doing the backstroke so I had a great view of his washboard abs. Sigh. I need to get laid soon. My night with Rand wasn’t very fulfilling…
When I reached the other end of the pool I saw that the girl bringing out the scuba equipment was actually older than I she looked from afar… probably in her early thirties. She must be the instructor, I thought. I walked up and said “Hi, I’m Emma. I’m in the scuba class.”
“Emma…“ she pulled out a clipboard. “Emma Dawes?”
“That’s me. Are you the instructor?”
“You got it. I’m Angela Akers. I’m not a professor or anything, so you can call me Angela. You excited to try out diving?”
“Yeah, definitely. I’ve always wanted to try. Any big tips?”
“Yeah. Don’t drown. That would look bad on my record. Mind helping me pull out some of this stuff?”
“Sure.” I put down the sports bag I had brought and helped her carry out three more sets of gear. There were nine total, arranged in a line along the edge of the pool. I assumed that meant I would have eight fellow classmates, or maybe seven if Angela used a set to show us how to put it on or something.
A few minutes later, other people started showing up, and Angela set about kicking everyone out of our half of the pool. The hot guy I had noticed moved over to a lane on the opposite end and kept swimming, this time freestyle.
“Alright, I think everyone’s here,” Angela said. “I’m Angela Akers. Call me Angela… I’m not a professor or a doctor. I’m actually a part-time nurse, and just teach this course on Tuesdays and the advanced course on Thursdays at the same time. I’m sure you all know that the equipment is provided, but if you have any of your own equipment, you’re free to use that instead. I see that you brought a wetsuit, Mr…?”
“Collins. Andrew,” said a tall, lankey guy who had come in wearing a full wetsuit with the hood pulled back to reveal curly brown hair. He had a round nose and some strange looking eyes, but all in all was a nice looking guy. “Yeah, my dad’s had me diving for years, but I never got certified officially, so I can’t take the advanced class yet.”
“Quite right, Mr. Collins. All of you will get certified in diving by the end of this course, as long as you are willing to pay the certification fee, which I think right now is $75. Don’t quote me on that.”
The other students were a fairly nondescript group, probably because we were all wearing simple swimsuits that we could fit under a wetsuit. Angela pointed us toward men’s and women’s changing rooms, where she had hung up wetsuits of various sizes for us to try on. I found one that fit me very well, although the constriction on my chest was pretty uncomfortable at first, and you could see my nipple ring even through the wetsuit. The other two girls in the class found some that fit them as well. One girl was short and Latino, and she introduced herself as Maria. The other girl was tall and sporty-looking, with her hair back in a ponytail beneath a visor, and she said her name was Crystal. We chatted just a bit while we changed but I got the feeling that the three of us wouldn’t really become friends.
Back out at the pool, the five guys in the class had gotten changed also, and Angela showed us first just how to put on our flippers and strap on the tank. She said that today we wouldn’t actually be doing much, just getting used to treading water with the tanks on. She assigned us each a spot in the pool and told us to jump in, using the flippers to get ourselves back up to the surface. I jumped in, expecting to sink way down because of the tank, but I suppose the natural buoyancy of the air in the tanks was enough to keep me pretty close to the surface. I barely had to kick to keep my head up.
Maria wasn’t quite so lucky. She came up sputtering after about ten seconds, grabbed the side of the pool and coughed for a minute before calming down. “I wasn’t really expecting to go under,” she said. I rolled my eyes to myself. What exactly did you expect, then?
“Excuse me! Who said that?” She was looking at each of us. “Who just made fun of me? I will rip you a new asshole, whoever it was.”
Well, she’s easy to piss off. But did she just hear me? That was weird. Maybe I have a little bit of thought magic in me. I told myself to be careful what I was thinking AT people. Maria was still looking very sour, but Angela got us started on breathing exercises to calm down during a dive, and it was forgotten. Angela let us go early instead of keeping us for the entire three hours that night, so at about 8:30 we finished up, put our equipment away and changed out of our wetsuits.
As we were all leaving, Angela called me back. “Hey, let’s go in my office just for a second.”
“Did I do something wrong?”
“No, just come on for a second.”
I walked into her office, which really just looked like a converted broom closet, and sat down. She closed the door and sat across from me. “You can’t be pulling that telepath shit around here.”
“What?” How in the world…?
“I know about you magic kids, and I have a pretty good sense for it. I could tell you said something to Maria with your mind, and you can’t be doing that in regular classes. I’d suggest you talk to Dr. Holden about how to control that as soon as possible. That’s all. See you next week.”
“Umm… ok, thanks. And, sorry.”
“It’s okay. Just something we have to deal with at this fucked up school. Have a good week.”
I walked out, wondering how she could have known what happened. Maybe she was a magic user herself? But she had said “you magic kids” like I was of a different breed or something, like I wasn’t human. It creeped me out, and I couldn’t stop thinking about it all the way back to Randall.