Witch

Chapter Four

"Willow!"  A distant voice calls to me, but I'm too lured in by the sweet blanket of sleep.  "Willow, wake up this instant!"  It says again.  I choose to ignore it again. 

RAP! RAP! RAP!  I sharp noise sounds next to my ear.  My head flies of my hands and my back goes erect.  I feel a small drip of drool inching its way down my chin, but I quickly wipe it off before it can drip.

"Miss Mire?"  A stout woman holding a ruler folds her arms and stares at me.  "Why are you sleeping in my class?"

"I...uh…" A blink, my eyes barely adjusting to the brightness of the room. 

A few people stare at me and snicker.  I slump down in my seat in shame. 

"I would expect that an honor student - an College Honor Student, no less - would be expected stay awake during my class,"   She spits out every word in disgust.  More snickers.

I sigh.  "I'm sorry Mrs. Jameson I--"

"Don't give me an excuse,"  Her beady, blue eyes glare at me through thick framed glasses.  "Just don’t let it happen again, Willow."

"Yes, Ma'am," I mumble and sink down further in the desk.   As she walks away, and I smooth my long, blue hair that often gets loose in its braid.  I look down at my minimal notes, the chicken-scratch handwriting looks completely alien to me.  I smooth my hair again and wipe my eyes underneath my glasses. 

"Morning classes are the worst, huh?"  Piper, a peppy witch with spiraled, curly hair pokes my arm.  Why, oh why, was I stuck being partners with her? 

"Yes,"  I say.  "The worst."

"So...shouldn't we get started on the assignment?  I mean, it is due tomorrow," Piper smiles at me with her pink frosted lips and peachy cheeks. 

"Oh, yeah,"  I grab the slightly drooled on assignment sheet, look it over once and hand it to her.

"This looks really hard!"  She turns toward me.  "Healing potions?!"

I snort and give a quick chuckle.  "I made healing potions when I was six years old."

"Oh?"  She stares at me.  "Then I'm happy your my partner!"

Of course.  Being used for my brain.  I'm quite used to it, however it gets old.

"It's a cold potion,"  I look around at people heating up their hotplates.  I laugh within.  "So no hotplate needed."

I tell Piper the instructions to make the potion, the information automatically spilling from my brain.  She goes to grab the ingredients from the pantry at the back of the class.  It's a fairly long list, so she'll be gone a while.

I'd never had a dream like that before.  It was long and very vivid, the day I thought my life would be better.  But in reality, it was the day my life took a turn for the worse.

A week after I left for the new school, my aunt passed away from grief.  If witches experience any emotion in great amounts, they can become very sick.  Auntie Jeannie was in Nemiri's garden before my second month of College.

Mother is alone now.  Running a losing potions shop.  A shop that was once very popular, became a decrepit wasteland.  Rarely a customers visits it, and even more rarely does anyone visit my mother.

When I visited home over Holiday Break three months ago, I visited my old friends.  Sage and Juniper resented me.  They told me that I didn't deserve to go to the College and that I should have stayed home.  They're twelve years old now, full adults and living on their on in the town.  Kitten and Candle opened and enchantments store that does very well, and Candle had brewed a beautiful daughter whom she named Pin.  No one has time for me now, and I help my mother the best I can.