Magicae

Chapter 9: A Team?

The building was somewhat anticlimatic, Penny thought. After the talk Ms. Proditor had given them on their way there, she was expecting something bigger. Maybe a castle. Penny didn't really expect it to look like Hogwarts, but maybe just a really old building. Plus a tower or two.

But the building they stood staring at was completely unremarkable. It looked just like every other school building, with reddish brick walls and windows spaced every few feet. It was two stories high, and not particulary large. Penny wondered where they would be sleeping.

Penny glanced over at the other two. Juliette looked calm, without a trace of emotion on her face. Then again, as far as Penny could tell, Juliette always looked that way. Alex, however, couldn't conceal the grin spreading across his face, and he was bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet. Penny thought that she probably looked the same way. However drab her new school looked, nothing could dull Penny's excitement.

Not saying a word, Juliette began marching up to the building, looking as professional as one can while lugging an old suitcase behind them. Everything that girl did was professional.

How does she do it? Penny wondered, wishing for a moment that she could do the same thing as she dragged her embarrassingly bright suitcase, following Juliette. Alex was close behind.

They headed up a long concrete sidewalked bordered on both sides by landscaping that had seen better days. On one side of the building, Penny noticed a basketball court.

"I hope they don't have PE here." Penny spoke mostly to break the tense silence between the other two. Already they didn't seem to be getting along, and Penny was trying to live up to her role as, as Ms. Proditor put it, the "glue" of the group.

It didn't do much. Juliette ignored her, but Alex grinned. "They do have it, but it's an optional elective." He paused, then corrected himself. "It's optional unless you're doing a sports team, or your 'specialty subject' is athletics."

Penny had no intention of doing any sports teams (she was about as unathletic as they come), so it was a relief to hear that she wouldn't have to do PE this year. Or for however long she would be attending this school. Penny had always loathed PE with a burning passion.

Without warning, Juliette spun around. "How do you know that?" She sounded almost angry.

Alex seemed surprised at her tone, and got a little defensive. "My parents. They went here too, you know."

"Your parents went here?" Juliette was definitely angry, and maybe a little jealous. She was almost yelling.

Now Alex was angry too. "Just because your parents are normal-" he spit the word out like it was a curse "-doesn't mean that all of us have parents like that too!"

That stung to Penny. While Alex had meant to insult Juliette, the same was true for Penny. Her parents were "normal" too. And Penny loved her family, her mother and all her siblings, even without magic. And to hear Alex, calling them normal like it was somehow an awful thing to be, like he was somehow better because his parents were Magicae too. And that made Penny mad. And when Penny got mad, she got mad.

Before Juliette could respond, Penny reacted. She stepped threateningly toward Alex, wagging a finger inche from his face. "We're supposed to be working together," she said, anger in every part of her body and voice. "How are we supposed to do that when you, Mr. 'My parents are better than yours because they're magic and yours aren't, so therefore I'm better than you," think you're above us somehow?" Penny annunciated each word with a jab to his chest, her voice rising to a near scream. "This is like Harry Potter all over again! You- you're just as bad as Draco Malfoy!" Her voice raised in pitch and volume, and as Penny paused to take a breath, Alex's eyes grew wide and he gestured frantically at her arm.

"You're on fire!" came out in a hoarse whisper.

Penny glanced down in horror to see flames spreading from her still outstretched finger, up her arm, and was now slowly spreading across her shirt. Doing the only thing she could think of to do when on fire, Penny stopped, dropped, and rolled.

Slowly the fire died down. However, when Penny stood up, she saw that her shirt was ruined. It was a blackened mess, covered in holes.

She awkwardly unzipped her suitcase and pulled a hoodie over the tattered, smoking mess. When she turned around again, Penny saw Alex storming towards the school, his suitcase in tow.

Penny heard him mutter something under his breath. "What a nerd." Followed by: "Draco Malfoy? Seriously?"

Penny felt like she might cry, and sure enough, tears began trickling down her cheeks, no matter how she tried to hold them back. She had always been prone to crying after getting mad at someone.

Penny had been called a nerd before, but this was somehow different. Worse, in a way. She was supposed to be working with this boy, and now he probably thought she was a complete weirdo. Or worse, he hated her. And it was pretty much her own fault.

The school year already off to a bad start, and Penny hadn't even had her first class yet.