Page 24 of Elmwood Inclusive Magic Academy
“Pay attention, Maggie,” Pan whispers tightly, nipping my forearm.
“Ugh,” I moan quietly, closing my eyes again.This is so stupid.
“Excellent work!” my mom praises. I hastily open my eyes again, expecting her to be by the witches, but she’s at the dolphin shifter’s table. A student with two long, dark braids smiles delightedly at herself. Between her hands is a burning candle.
Even the dolphin shifters can do it, I chastise myself.What’s wrong with me? I did a light spell in the woods the other night!
But it’s different here, with everyone around. I look across the room, and all of the witches have managed to light their candles. My mother is the teacher of this class, and I can’t even do it. June looks over her shoulder at me, smirking when she sees my candle.
“Try to tune everything else out.” My mother is suddenly beside me, crouching down, her hand on my shoulder. “Don’t try so hard. Imagine what it would be like if you weren’t putting any effort into it.”
“Imagine what it would be like?” I can’t help saying. It just sounds so ridiculous, how am I supposed to do that?
“Yes,” she responds, patiently. “You’re putting too much pressure on yourself. See if you can shift into a state that’s less effortful.”
I have no idea what she’s saying, but I humor her, closing my eyes with a grimace. She goes over to June’s table and I can hear her congratulating the witches, showing them how to make different colours and get the candle burn brighter or more softly. The jealousy and anger that’s been building up inside my chest suddenly reaches my cheeks and I can feel them turning a bright red, making me even more self-conscious. I have a rush of envy for June, a familiar but miserable feeling. Everything comes so easy for her.
She was brought up in a big coven, probably with tons of helpful witches around her. She knows exactly who she is and she’s never felt incompetent for a minute of her life, probably. She’s always fit in, always belonged. I wish so badly that I didn’t care about all of those things, but I know that I do.
“Maggie,” Hallie whispers. “Hey, Maggie, class is over now.”
With a start, I realize I’ve been stewing for quite some time. The other students are packing up their notebooks and leaving. My mother is deep in a conversation with June, a glowing smile on her face. I roll my eyes.
“Maggie!” Hallie says, more urgently.
“What?” I turn towards her, then I feel a strange, cool sensation between my fingers. I lower my gaze and see my candle.
It’s burning…with a steady, black flame.
Rae
“Where are you going?” Rory asks, grabbing my elbow as we leave class. Tala and Kaenan are ahead of us, heading toward the nearest exit so they can go on a run. I was going to head back to my room and take a quick nap before the evening hunt.
“I just need to get some rest,” I tell Rory, expressionless. “I didn’t sleep too well last night.”
“Yeah…” they say, brushing a strand of brown hair out of their face. “You haven’t been sleeping in our room lately.”
I can smell the concern in the air, even if I couldn’t read it in their eyes.
“Sometimes I just need a bit of space, you know that.”
We were raised together, and nobody knows me better than my three packmates. Since the battle with the Cherry Creek panthers, we’ve been even more reliant on each other.
They look uncomfortable, like they don’t want to be having this conversation any more than I do.
“You’ve been avoiding us,” they say quickly, not meeting my eyes. “You didn’t even come out hunting the other day.”
I don’t know what to say. I don’t want to think or talk about this right now.
“It’s just…” I trail off hopelessly.
Somehow, my hesitancy gives Rory more conviction. “Nobody at this school likes us, Rae. The witches and vampires look down on shifters, and even the other shifters just see us as exiles who have lost our land. You know that they all talk about our pack. We’re all that we’ve got right now! And it’s soannoyingbetween Tala and Kaenan,” they nod at the pair ahead of us. “They just argue all the time, or they’re goofing off together.”
I can’t help smirking, “I wonder if there’s something else going on there…”
“Ew, Rae!” Rory moans. “That’s my sister.” They shake their head.
I sigh. “Listen, it’s not a big deal. I just need some space sometimes. Like you said, nobody here likes us. And Kaenan and your sister can be a lot. It gets really incestuous really fast with small packs like our’s, you know how it is.”
