Page 17 of Elmwood Inclusive Magic Academy
Then she turns to the rest of us. “Witches and vampires, mount your broomsticks and start with a hover. Let’s see where your abilities currently are.”
June, of course, immediately takes off and begins doing turns in the air, her blond hair flowing behind her. Some of the other witches get off the ground as well, less confidently, but still airborne. One of the witches gets off to a rocky start, almost sliding off the end of his broom, but he manages to hold on and whizzes around with the others.
I stay firmly on the ground, broom between my legs. I wish I had practiced flying more, instead of always letting Lydia enchant my broomstick for me. But still, I thought I would at least be able to get off the ground.
“Doesn’t she have like, three witch moms?” whispers one of the witches from the air, loudly enough for everyone to hear.
I redden.
Professor Chan comes up to me, lowering her head.
“Don’t try to fly, Hall,” she says. “Close your eyes, and imagine what it would be like to not put any effort whatsoever into flying.”
I look at her doubtfully, then close my eyes.
My heart thumps loudly in my chest. I wish I could be like June, darting around effortlessly. I thought that I was just weird in the normal human world, destined to never fit in. But it turns out I’m weird here, too. At least in the normal world, I was starting to blend in and be accepted. What’s going to happen if I can’t call or text Timothy? If he thinks I ghosted him, will he break up with me? He’s the only boy in Cherry Creek who would evenconsiderdating me. I remember what he said the other night and I feel faint.
“Hall,” whispers the professor, from beside me.
I open my eyes and look around. A few of the vampires are hovering slightly off the ground. Hallie keeps inching upwards, then getting so excited that she psychs herself out and falls down again. The witches are still circling, occasionally looking back at me with condescending chuckles.
“No effort,” Professor Chan repeats. “When thoughts come to you, don’t engage with them. Just picture thoughts as clouds in a big blue sky. Let them go past. Do the opposite of forcing your attention. Imagine what it would be like to not put any effort in at all. Go ahead.”
I breathe out, slowly, trying to recenter myself. There’s nothing I can do about the whole Timothy situation, and I’m pretty sure things can’t get any worse with the witch bitches.
Closing my eyes again, I imagine what it would be like not to put any effort into this present moment.
To my shock, I feel my feet leave the ground. I gasp in surprise.I can’t believe that worked!
“Good! Great start,” the professor praises. “Now, try again. And this time, imagine all of the space around you. Forget about the boundaries between yourself and the air.”
Trying not to get to distracted, I relax my mind, and imagine the clearing around me. What it would be like if the wind and I were one and the same. Something about this cognitive shift changes my attention in a discrete way and lifts my body and the broomstick off the ground. This time, I keep myself centered, and I drift slowly upward.
“Really nice work, Hall!” Professor Chan smiles at me. “Try shifting your attentional states back and forth to go up and down.”
I practice, tuning out the other students around me. After some trial and error, I find that I can levitate consistently off the ground. I’m a bit wary about going too high, but I have a sense of control that’s…powerful? I can’t believe I’m actually getting the hang of something.
“That was amazing!” Hallie squeals, grabbing my arm as we walk back to the castle. “I can’t believe it! I never thought I would be able to get off the ground…you know, most vampires have to wait until they’re hundreds of years old before they can evenlevitate! It must be the broomstick, or something…or maybe how the professor was explaining it? Like the whole ‘stop trying to fly, imagine all the space around you’ thing, I never would have thought that was a part of it, I sort of thought you just…I dunno, just sort of did it? Like you’d get powerful enough and it would justcometo you, but I guess not…”
We head to the dining hall for a late-night snack. Hallie pulls out her notebook and I copy down the notes that I missed from the potions class. It feels good to have someone to talk to like this. For a moment, things actually seem sort of…normal, if that’s even possible.
After an hour or so, the vampires and shifters start to file out of the dining hall, and Hallie says she has to go for the nightly hunt.
“Ok, have fun!” I say as she goes, then I second-guess my wording. Is the hunt supposed to be fun?
“Thanks, see you tomorrow!”
I feel pleasantly tired and decide that I’ll go back to my room, go over my notes, and maybe read a bit before I go to bed.
As I open the door to my room, I’m hit with a familiar, pleasant smell. Campfire and cedar. I turn my head to find the wolf shifter from the other night, reclined on the single bed opposite to mine. She’s clothed this time, wearing worn-in jeans and an old band T-shirt. Her feet are bare, and she looks up at me nonchalantly.
“Oh! Um, hello,” I say, awkwardly. I wasn’t expecting to find anyone here, and I’m pleased and nervous to see her again. I almost thought she was a dream, and having her in close proximity makes my head feel a little fuzzy.
“Hello,” she says, surveying me with her dark brown eyes. I can’t help thinking about when they turned yellow. “Are you my roommate?”
“Yeah, this is my room,” I say. “Oh, I hope that didn’t sound territorial! I mean,ourroom.”
I chuckle anxiously. She has a way of staring blankly at me that reminds me of the mermaid siblings. But she’s a lot less chatty.
