Authors: Lia London
Amity did one of those breathy laughs girls do. “It’s the new Amity! She skips classes, wears juicy pony tails, and hates school.”
The three of us Mages all kind of grimaced at that.
“
It’ll get better,” said Elizabeth. “People are just getting used to the changes. Hey, can you introduce us to some of the Wiser kids?”
“There’s only about seventy of us here, and most of them are underclassmen. It just worked that way when they divided us geographically.”
“But there have to be
some
that you know, right? Let’s meet them!” said Elizabeth. “We sensible people have to stick together!”
If Amity and Hadley hadn’t been sitting right there, I might have hugged Elizabeth out of gratitude. Fortunately, Amity did it for me.
While I ate my cereal, trying to ignore Kelsey singing the
Munchios
jingle next to me, Mom came in and gave me a huge hug. “Honey, I’m so proud of you.”
“Huh? What’d I do now?”
“The party you’re planning, of course.”
Kelsey started bouncing in her seat, waving her spoon around.
“Party? Am I invited? Can I come?
Can
I?”
“What party?” I asked.
Mom acted like she didn’t hear me. “That Amity girl sounds nice.”
Kelsey bounced even higher. “She
is
nice, Mom! And she made it to level
seven!
Do you think she’ll like how my hair is growing? I’ve been watering it, so it’ll grow faster!”
“That’s plants, honey,” said Mom, patting Kelsey’s cheek.
“What party?” I asked groggily. “When did you talk to Amity, Mom?”
“She and Elizabeth called to tell me about the party.”
“What party?!”
I yelled. Mom and Kelsey stared at me, and I kind of ducked behind the box of Munchios. “Sorry. But—”
“The ice-breaker thing next weekend here at the house. I think it’s a great idea for you to get some
Wisers and Corporals to meet the Mages. Is it going to be seniors only?”
“I…have no idea.”
“Is Hadley coming, too?” asked Kelsey. “I like Hadley. He makes funny faces at me.”
“He’s not trying to,” I mumbled. “Which reminds me,
he’ll be here soon. Are you okay with us going downtown today, Mom?”
“
Be back by two for when the girls get here to plan the party.”
***
After a week of holding our magic under wraps at school, Hadley and I decided to fly down to Binney’s to play some Gel Ball and eat pizza. While I stood at the counter waiting to pay, he went to stake out an open court. The attendant took forever to get the gear, so my eyes wandered around the room. Lurking in one of the corner booths, Curry, one of Jack’s right-hand men, was in a lip lock with an underclassman girl I’d seen at Orientation. More specifically, she was the Nomer girl who hadn’t known about fairies and chicken coops.
The worker finally got the gear, and I gathered up the Gel Ball guns. When I turned around, there was the girl, right next to me.
Now that I saw her body, I realized she was also that handspringing cheerleader. She had come up to the counter to grab some napkins or something, but she stopped when she recognized me.
“Oh, hey,” she said, kind of shy.
“You’re the proctor from test day, aren’t you?”
“
Yeah, hi,” I said, glancing back into the corner booth. “How do you like Magian High?”
“I’ve met some nice people, I guess. It’s way different from
Corporal, though.”
“
Corporal, huh?”
Just then Curry looked over. For a second, he looked mad, and then…dare I say
, scared?
The girl gave me a little wave. “Well, see you around. I’m Rikki, by the way.”
“Nice to meet you, Rikki,” I said, still in a staring match with Curry, but she didn’t seem to notice. She went back over to him and sidled in close, wiping his chin with the napkin coyly. Curry glanced over at me, and suddenly I smiled.
A Punker falling for a Nomer. If I were the type to blackmail…
But even as I thought that, I saw the look on his face. It was almost pleading. With a nod, I headed towards the hall with the Gel-Ball courts. Before I left the room completely, I saw him give me a subtle gesture, almost like a friendly greeting.
***
Gel Ball is one of those games that everyone likes, magic or not, but I think Mages with Water Magic love it best because, even after the gel splatters all over them, they can peel it right off and re-form it into a ball. That’s why Hadley totally slaughtered me in points. My Flash Jumps were fast, but once I got hit, I stayed hit, and I ran out of ammo after only fifteen minutes of play.
He
started peeling the gel off my clothes (Mages almost never wear the smocks). “You’re pathetic, man,” he said, like he did after every game. “You have got to get some Water Magic going. Can’t you even get a
drop
to do what you want it to?”
“No,” I said, brushing his fingers away from my sleeve. “But I’m getting better at
healing.”
“
Yeah, so I saw.” He winked. “Actually, that’s pretty awesome. That’s not so common. Hey, you can be a teacher at Magian when you grow up,” he laughed. “Help all the kids getting bugged by the Protests. I heard it’s happening over at Wiser, too.”
I hadn’t thought about bullying or Protests at the other schools. “How bad is it?”
“Nothing too dangerous according to my cousin, but without healers around…”
“Doesn’t the
ir principal do anything about it?” I asked.
Hadley
kind of burbled with a laugh. “Like
that
would do any good. This is way above him.”
“What do you mean?”
Hadley leaned in, mushing a multi-colored ball of gel in his hand like a wad of dough. “The Protest thing was the new Superintendent’s idea.”
“
What?”
“My aunt
is a secretary at the district office,” he said, pulling apart the different colors of gel and forming each into its own ball. “She says it’s crazy.” He started throwing each ball at the floor to watch it splatter. “Sometimes the people down there sound pro-segregation, and other times, they want us all together, but my aunt says the Super mostly just wants to see things stirred up.” He swirled the splash marks together with his foot.
“Why would he want that?”
“She,” corrected Hadley. “The new Super’s a
she
. And get this…She’s Jack Bagler’s mom! The guy skipped the whole first week at Wiser, but when he shows up, I bet he’ll act like he owns the place.”
***
Hadley and I rounded the corner, flying low, and saw Amity, Elizabeth and Kelsey on the porch steps. Kelsey was jumping from step to step and chattering excitedly, asking stupid questions like always. I came forward casually, hoping to catch them talking about me.
“Kelsey, are those the new shoes Mom specifically asked you not to wear outside yet? She wanted them to last at least a day without getting dirty.”
She turned and pouted at me with her hands on her hips. “How long do I have to last them for?”
“
Go inside, Kelsey. I need to talk to these guys.”
Kelsey scowled at me. “They’re not guys. They’re
ladies
.”
“And you’re a pest,” I barked. “Go inside and leave us alone!” Suddenly I felt a pang of guilt. “Hey, Kels
ey, come here.”
She looked at me dubiously, but I reached for her. “Come on. I need a hug.”
With a leap, she threw herself off the third step and into my arms, all forgiven. I sure wish I could be more like her. We squeezed each other tight, and when I put her down, I whispered, “You can use my gaming board 3XL if you don’t bug Mom with the noise.”
“Thanks!” She gave me another hug and ran up the stairs. At the door, she paused. “Where do tornadoes sleep?”
“
Go inside!
” I roared.
Hadley,
Amity and Elizabeth laughed. “That was so sweet. Your sister’s cute,” said Amity.
“Yeah, she works it, too. That’s
her magic. So what’s this I hear about me hosting a party?” I asked, looking mock-sternly at Elizabeth. “You’re not pulling another Prom Party thing on me, are you?”
Elizabeth chewed her lip sheepishly and wrinkled her nose at me in the way that always melts Hadley. “Oh, come on, Kincaid
, it’s just a little get-together. You’ve got the best house for it, and your mom is the most open to…”
“People like me coming over,” finished Amity with only a trace of bitterness.
“How big is this party? I don’t
want a whole room full of girls!”
Hadley gave me
a look. “Speak for yourself, man!”
“Twenty
kids tops,” said Elizabeth, getting down to business. “Ten Mages, ten Nomers. We can play some Twerp, eat some snacks.”
I sat down next to them. “Are you sure Twerp is a good, neutral game? It kind of favors speed, and Flash Jumping—”
“Oh, right,” said Elizabeth, smacking her forehead.
Hadley started up the steps.
“I think better on a full tank, you know.”
I took the hint, and we made our way inside. Mom had always made it a point to keep our fridge stocked with the best stuff so friends would come to our place to hang out. I joked about this, and the next thing I knew, Amity
grabbed a pencil and paper from her purse and made a list of snacks and treats for the party. I rolled my eyes. “What do you need me for? You’ve got it all planned without me.”
“Of course
we need you!” said Elizabeth.
“You’re
the one everyone says ‘yes’ to,” agreed Hadley.
“Just promise me no decorations. This
isn’t the prom, okay?” I went to the living room and lay down on the couch. Hadley didn’t follow, but then, he typically never left a snack bar. As I flipped through the channels on the TV, Amity snuck in and leaned her elbows on the armrest behind my head. “So, no floral arrangement or ice sculptures?”
It took me a beat to figure out she was joking.
“Elizabeth means well,” I said.
“I know,” she smiled. “And
this party’s worth a try. Maybe if we get enough of us together like friends, we can stop the Punkers.”
“Yeah
.” Our faces were really close, and I could tell I’d turned red. “Your new haircut looks good, by the way. Nobody would ever know you burned it off.”
She looked flustered and fluffed her hair. “Not too short?”
“Makes your eyes pop,” I said, imitating that stupid fashion guy on the teen celebrity show.
“You’re incorrigible.”
“Whatever.”
“You don’t even know what that means,” she laughed.
“And you’re crazier than a fairy in a chicken coop.”
Her whole body sagged, and she got this dramatic look on her face. “What
is
that? Some Mage euphemism for…what?
Everybody
says that!”
I chuckled. “I’ll tell you later.”
She let out a big groan and disappeared back into the kitchen. I found myself smiling up at the ceiling. And then I remembered that the Superintendent was Jack’s mother.
Monday morning, I was toasting a Jammy Tart with a low flame from my fingers, and Kelsey decided it would be funny to blow it out. She tries that all the time, so I moved my finger out of her reach, but not before she’d filled her cheeks. The next thing we knew, everything flew off the fridge—magnets, pizza menus, drawings, even the cereal boxes on top. Everything. We stared at the mess on the floor, and then she erupted with laughter. She’s still at that age where spills and crashes are hilarious.
“What are you two
doing
in there?” called Mom from the laundry room.
“Um, I think you need to come see this,” I said, my voice shaking.
Kelsey panicked. “No! Don’t tell her! I’ll clean it up! I’m sorry!” She moved to pick up the debris, but I held her back until Mom walked in.
Mom stopped short. “What happened here?”
“Kincaid!” whined Kelsey.
I puckered my lips like I was blowing out a candle. “She Blew, Mom.”
Mom’s eyes widened. “Kelsey?” She stepped over the spills, and Kelsey cowered. But Mom hugged her. “Kelsey! You have Elemental Magic! Wind! That’s
amazing,
sweetie!”
Kelsey looked doubtful
. “You mean I’m not in trouble?”
“Kincaid will clean up for you, honey,” she said with a glance at me.
“But Mom, I’m late for—”
“Let’s go out in the garden and try some things,” said Mom, leading Kelsey by the hand.
I looked down at the mess on the floor and knew I’d never get it all cleaned up in time. With the broom, I sort of swooshed everything to one side of the kitchen. Then I grabbed my cold Jammy Tart and my backpack and headed out the door.
I saw Amity sitting on the curb
about two blocks down and assumed she was waiting for me to walk with her to school, but then I saw her holding her ankle. “What happened to you?” I asked.
“Oh, I was looking up in the sky and tripped. Didn’t even see the hole and fell onto the pavement. Good thing no one was watching. It was a graceless tribute to gravity.”
“You okay?”
“I tweaked the ankle pretty hard,” she said, holding it up toward me. “I don’t suppose you can do that
healing trick again?” I tried not to pay attention to the long leg that was attached to the foot, but something got caught in my throat, and I had to clear it. She sat there, with her leg in the air and gave me a heavy-lidded look. “I promise I didn’t plan this so you’d touch me again.”
“Of course not.”
I crouched down and took her ankle in my hand and could see it swelling a little. She winced until I got it comfortable, and then I healed her. We kept grinning at each other and looking away, and then looking back and grinning some more, all while I held her foot on my lap. When I was pretty sure she was good to go, I set her foot down.
Amity wiggled her foot back and forth and shook her head like she couldn’t believe it. “That is
so cool
,” she said. “No wonder so many Mages are paramedics.” She reached her hand up to me, and I lifted her to her feet. After testing her weight on the ankle, she shrugged. “Okay. I’m ready!”
“And we’re running late,” I said.
As we reached the edge of campus, she tumbled again. I caught her before she landed in a bush. “What the—? You are Miss Clumsy today!” I looked down at the ground. “A Dirt Hole,” I said. We scanned the area, but couldn’t see any Punkers. In fact, no kids were in sight as the bell rang. “C’mon, get up.”
“I twisted it again
. This is crazy,” she said. “Heal me again?”
“No.”
“What? Why not? Can you only do it once a day, or something?”
I helped her up. “I didn’t mean it like that. I want one of the teachers to know about this, though. Let’s get you to the office.
Plus, we’re tardy two days in a row, and we need an alibi.”
Amity nodded, and we wrapped an arm around each other to help her hop along. At the steps, I picked her up and Flew to the landing. That gave me an idea, and I looked up.
Sure enough. “There!” I pointed above the tree tops.
“Are you
kidding
me?” groaned Amity. “Is that Jack? I
thought
I heard something up there.”
“I’m pretty sure it is. That explains two ankle twists in two blocks.”
“Jerks! Doesn’t he have anything better to do than to make sure I never make it to first period?”
I pushed open the doors, and Amity hobbled inside.
Instead of finding it empty, the hall was filled with kids sitting against the wall and reading their text books. Most of them looked up at us when we entered, but then went back to reading. Mr. Blakely stood over a few of them, talking to them in his stern, quiet voice, so I knew they were in big trouble.
“These are
Wiser kids,” whispered Amity.
Mr. Blakely finally noticed us, and his face
reddened. “You, too, Kincaid?”
“What do you mean?” I asked, helping Amity forward.
When he saw her limping, his face changed. “You’re not part of this?”
I looked at all the students’ faces. Some of them were glaring at me. “I…don’t know
what ‘this’ is,” I said. “Jack Bagler was out there opening Dirt Holes under Amity repeatedly, so…”
Mr. Blakely made a guttural noise. “I don’t have time for this! I’ve got kids protesting all over the school…”
“I’ll take her to Flinckey.”
“Good idea,” he said, looking tired. He smiled weakly at us. “Sorry about that. Miss Flinckey will have you well in no time. Have her write your pass to class, and…” He paused, lowering his voice. “And maybe you two should plan on arriving at school
a little earlier from now on?”
We turned toward the office, passing
Wiser kids as we went. A couple of them greeted Amity. When we reached the last girl, one I knew to be a senior also, Amity signaled me to stop. She leaned down and whispered. “Hey, I get what you’re doing, Lindsey, but give Magian High a chance. If we can work together…”
The girl looked at Amity with disappointment written all over her face.
“
You
, Amity? Of all people? After what you were there and what they do to you here?”
Amity stood up and drew a deep breath. She had tears in her eyes
and her lips were pressed firmly together. Without another word, she limped into the main office. I followed after her, glancing over my shoulder. I realized that the Corporal transfers were the only ones who hadn’t been complaining or forming any kind of Protest. I wondered if that was just a matter of time, or if they were way more adaptable than the rest of us.
I knocked on the door to Miss Flinckey’s office, a sort of cubicle thing along the wall to the right
. The secretary looked over her glasses at us and smirked. “She’s in the faculty lounge.”
“We’ll have to get someone else,” I told Amity.
“For a healing?” asked the secretary. “Good luck with that. All teachers are either in class or helping Mr. Blakely with the kids in the hall. You need to get to class.”
“Okay, thanks,” I said.
Amity grabbed my wrist tightly and whispered, “We don’t have a pass. We need to see Flinckey.”
“The faculty lounge is up two flights of stairs,” I said, gesturing to her ankle.
“I’ll have to fly you up, and I don’t know if I’m strong enough. It’s not that you’re heavy, but with the backpacks, too…” Her eyes were pleading, and I gave in. “Okay, come on.”
To my relief, the south stairs were empty, and we made it up the first flight without passing any more students or teachers. The
second flight, though, led to faculty-only type things on the third floor: their lounge, storage rooms, and record-keeping stuff. By the time we got to the top, I was about ready to drop her from fatigue, but before I could, she slid out my arms and backed down a couple of steps, and with good reason.
There was no floor!
We could see the doors to the different rooms, and the walls of the hall stretching away, but the floor was gone. We had a perfect view of the hall one story down, complete with students reading in “protest”.
“Um…Is it normally like this?” asked Amity.
“Because I don’t remember ever looking up and seeing the third floor rooms just hanging there.”
“I’ve only been up here a couple of times, but I’m pretty sure
I would have noticed a missing floor,” I said. “What do we do now? The faculty lounge is over there, but I can’t fly that high off the ground.”
Amity narrowed her eyes and looked at the space that should have had pale green and gray tiles on it. “This isn’t right.”
“No kidding.”
“No, I mean it’s a ruse
, a trick.”
“How can you be sure?”
“You told me yourself that Mages can’t actually make stuff disappear, so it has to be here.”
“But—”
She tugged her backpack off her shoulder and chucked it into the space before I could yell to stop. It landed with a ploff exactly where it should have—if there had been a floor. No one below indicated that they heard a thing.
“How…?”
“It’s some kind of optical illusion. Probably put there to stop us Nomers from coming up here.” She leaned, holding on to my arm, and hopped forward. I flinched, afraid she would plummet, but there she stood. She looked like she was flying. A grin spread across her face and she signaled to me that I should join her.
I took a step and felt solid ground underneath me.
It was so weird. I picked up her backpack and handed it to her, and together we shuffled across the nothingness, trying not to look down, yet unable to look away from our feet. As we moved, I thought of how Flinckey always walked. Amity was right. Of course they couldn’t remove the hall. Not if Flinckey couldn’t get around without her Jump or any kind of Travel Magic.
We reached the faculty lounge and I knocked on the door. A moment later, Miss Flinckey opened it. “Well, look who’s here!” she laughed. “You made it past the
invisible floor, I see. Good for you.”
“Can we come in?” asked Amity, eyeing the solid-looking floor of the lounge.
Miss Flinckey pulled the door wider and motioned for us to sit on the green vinyl couch near the door. When she saw Amity limping, she said, “Looks like you tried to leap across.”
“Nah, this happened outside.”
“Dirt Holes. Twice,” I said.
Miss Flinckey’s sm
ile faded. “Jack Bagler and his associates?”
“Do I need to answer that?” I asked.
In two minutes, she had Amity doing jumping jacks, all pain gone. As she searched for a stack of blank passes to get us back to class without being marked tardy, I looked around the room. “Is it true that Jack’s mom is the new Superintendent?” I asked.
She stopped searching for a second. “You heard about that?”
“Yeah, there goes the district, huh?”
Miss Flinckey didn’t answer, but her lips tightened. She finally found the passes in a drawer of one of the counters, next to plastic forks and packets of non-dairy creamer.
“How does she think generating all this animosity is going help?” I asked.
Amity nudged me with a wink.
“‘Generating animosity’! Good words, Kincaid.”
“I read the dictionary in my spare time,” I said, giving her a goofy look.
Miss Flinckey watched this, half-smiling. Then she sighed and spoke solemnly. “I don’t think Mrs. Bagler cares what she generates, as long as it’s a strong feeling one way or another. Anger is easier to stir up.”
“Yeah, but love has power,” I said.
Suddenly I felt like I had a Gel Ball in my throat. I still hadn’t told Amity about that whole thing.
Miss Flinckey glanced at Amity. “Yes, it’s more potent
, but it carries risk, doesn’t it?”
Amity looked back and forth between Miss Flinckey and me. “What are you talking about?”
I forged ahead, figuring I’d explain later, or she’d figure out it with that genius brain of hers. “Miss Flinckey, did you really lose your Jump because you loved a Nomer?” I could almost feel Amity’s skin start crawling.
Miss Flinckey’s
face lost all discernible expression. “I ‘lost my Jump’, as you say, because I loved the wrong type of
person
. Not because I loved a Nomer. Mage or Nomer doesn’t matter when it comes to character, does it?”
I looked at Amity. “No.”
Miss Flinckey handed us the passes and then put her hand on my arm. “Don’t waste strong emotion on people who only want to feed off your power. Good or bad emotion, Kincaid. It all requires energy. Jack and his Punkers—or Mrs. Bagler and her grown-up Punkers in pressed suits...They will do what they can to get you to spend your emotional—and thus, magical—energy.” She tapped my chest. “Don’t spend anything on them.” She set her hand on Amity’s shoulder kindly. “
Invest
your emotions, and you’ll find marvelous rewards.” She winked.