Page 36 of The Goddess is Awakened
West played guitar. Played was being generous. He knew exactly five major chords and was terrible. West also couldn’t carry a tune if someone wrapped it up and put it on a forklift for him. Church impressed her with some song and now West was intent on writing her something. Church was helping with the lyrics and it wasterrible.
Oscar and I went down to the dining hall to eat and so I could get away from it. We’d finished eating, but we were still sitting at our table. Oscar was drawing like usual. He was an amazing artist. Magical painting wasn’t as big as it used to be back in the day. There weren’t rich people adopting artists and caring for and feeding them so they’d produce art for them. Society had really shifted toward the worst when it came to how they treated all of the arts.
Oscar had a plan, though. He always did. Oscar was going to be a tattoo artist. People might not be lining up to buy magical paintings anymore, but magical tattoos? Everyone wanted those. The Academy of the Profane had an amazing magical art program and then he would just need an apprenticeship to learn to tattoo and he’d be set.
I could watch Oscar draw for hours. His brow would furrow in concentration while Chantico draped herself over his shoulders and napped. I was blissfully watching when I heard Kaylee. She managed to get racistandhomophobic at the same time and it was directed at both of us.
Fuck that. We hadn’t done anything to her so far because of her mom, but as far as I could tell, nothing had happened to George Bell for turning her hair to snakes. I rubbed my fingers together and her feet went over her head as she went ass-up in a nasty fall. It wasn’t past my notice that her hair erupted into snakes again. George was apparently, right behind usspyingon us.
Oscar rolled his eyes. He grabbed his sketch pad and got up to leave. His tolerance for bullshit was absolutely zero. I stayed behind, mostly because I didn’t want to hear West getting on with that awful song and I was curious how this was going to play out with Kaylee.
Kaylee got to her feet and brushed off her skirt. Her snakes were angry and attacking her. She shrieked at George before Professor Jinx stepped in again.
“You still haven’t figured out how to remove the Medusa Hex? Fifty points from Avalan until you learn to stop starting things you can’t finish. Off to the infirmary with you.”
I would have liked to have seen that continue, but I would imagine if George really put her in her place, she’d get expelled. Headmaster Krauss gave me those vibes. I was about to get up and follow Oscar, but George slipped into the seat across from me.
“Please tell me that was you that made her go ass-up.”
“Can I help you with something?”
I wasn’t bonding with her over putting Kaylee Krauss in her place. I needed to know why she was spying on us.
“Oh, yeah. I noticed Oscar’s drawing. I was going to ask him, but he left and I get the vibe he doesn’t like me. Does he take commissions? I get my mom book-related Yule presents every year and I have the perfect idea this year. I can pay him whatever he wants. That sketch was amazing. I wasn’t trying to spy on you, it just caught my eye when I was walking by. He should talk to my dad.”
“The god?”
George just laughed.
“No, that dad is terrible at art. He can’t even draw stick figures. Gabriel Morningstar is one of my dads. He’s been begging the academy to let him do a guest lecture on magical painting for ages, but they refuse to let him teach anything but Dark Arts. I think he was hoping one of us ended up artistic. My little brother is amazing at music, but all of us suck at drawing.
“Anyway, my mom knows sign language for work and she taught it to all of us. I can technically ask Oscar myself and I would have if he hadn’t walked away, but he seems kind of intense and I’m not sure if he walked away because he noticed Kaylee being a turd or me standing there.”
It could have been both. Chantico would have told him where neither of them could hear. Chantico wanted him to go full brujo on Kaylee and go introduce himself to George. Oscar usually listened to her when it came to everything, but he didn’t want to get expelled over Kaylee and I think we were both tired of hearing about how the sun shone out of George Bell’s ass.
Still, I’d give it to her. Oscarwasintense with strangers. I was much more approachable. Instead of approaching Oscar and possibly making him uncomfortable, she came to me rather than scrap her idea for a commission.
Oscar never wanted for anything growing up. We’d lived next door to each other since we were toddlers. He was just as comfortable as I was. My boyfriend was a stubborn fucker who thought as soon as he turned eighteen, he needed to make his own way. Oscar was here because he got a scholarship and anything that wasn’t covered by that was paid by him busting his ass drawing flash for some local tattoo studios.
Oscar could use this commission, so I was willing to hear her out. And why hadn’t West mentioned she knew sign language? He’d been blowing smoke up our asses about how perfect she was and a lot of that just seemed like West being West. George knowing sign language would have been bonus points in my book. So many people didn’t bother learning and two people I cared about needed it to communicate.
“Tell me about this commission.”
It was book related since her mom was a librarian. Apparently, all her mom’s Yule gifts were. I started chuckling when she got started and then I was cackling by the time she was done. I wanted to be there when she signed that to Oscar. I wasn’t going to tell him she was fluent in sign language. I was just going to let her signthatand watch his reaction.
I held out my hand.
“I’ll get you a meeting.”
MaybeWest and Church were right. George Bell might be pretty fucking cool after all.
george
My first instinct with Azren’s homework assignment with the ghosts was to call my dad or my mom. Lilith gave her witches domain over spirits and I was used to watching my dad boss around the library ghosts when they got rowdy. My aunt had a ghost at the museum that liked dropping ancient dildos in everyone’s tea and I always thought it was funny watching her yell at him.
Aside from one particular ghost at the library who kept stealing my panties, I wasn’t really all that good at bossing the spirits around like my dad was. Like, I never did get that particular ghost to leave my dirty clothes hamper alone. Something this important should be in the hands of a god who was older than eighteen-years-old. But I was also eighteen-years-old and needed to stop calling my dad for everything.
Matilda and Mags were lying on my bed. Mags was a witch, so she had experience with spirits.
