Chapter six-Wizard City News
The next morning was cloudy and cold. There was more frost in the windows and on the ground and many people were heating up the ground with fire magic so they wouldn’t slip.
I looked over to my sister’s bed, and I saw she was still in it. I let her sleep- she wasn’t the one with school. She was only nine.
I looked at the clock: 7:10. I got up out of bed, and went to my drawers. I picked out a purple T-shirt with a light blue, flowery skirt. I put them on, and brushed my hair. Today, I was going to wear my hair down. Naturally, a lot of my mother’s old friends complimented me on my thick, blonde hair. It always curled into locks sometimes, so it would curl around my face so perfectly. Another thing I’m glad to inherit from my mother.
I heard my mother upstairs, making breakfast. I hurried downstairs quietly, and slowly walked into the kitchen. Really, I didn’t know how my mother was going to be today, after her breakdown last night. However, when she looked at me when I came in, her face was bright and glowing, even though her eyes were like two blank, sad mirrors.
“Hi mom.” I said carefully.
“Hi honey. I’m making pancakes, is that all right with you?”
“Um, sure.” I replied. I sat myself on a wooden chair, and traced the patterns on the wooden table with my finger.
“Today is your second day of school.”
“I know.” I mumbled. Who knows how this day will turn out?
“I got you some school robes.”
I looked up. “Really?”
My mother walked out of the kitchen, and I heard her bedroom’s floorboards creak. She walked back in with a set of robes, pink and yellow \colors.
“Why those colors?” I asked.
“Because, they look cute on you, with your golden hair.” My mother explained.
I looked at the girly clothes dreadfully. “I could have just worn the life robes you bought me, mom.”
“Yes, but if I sold those, and bought a more appropriate robe for your school, it would work better.”
I looked at the colors. “I don’t think those are Balance school colors, mom.”
My mother smoothed out the robe, and I realized it was a dress. It was mostly pink, with a yellow trim on every edge of the dress. In the middle was a brown belt, with a pocket and a cute collar.
“See how cute it is? And I bet it will fit you, too!” My mother exclaimed. I sulked. She walked downstairs to put the dress on my bed, and walked back up to finish the pancakes she was making.
“Mary, I want you to eat breakfast, get into your new robes, brush your teeth and hair and wake up Sabrina so she can help me with some household chores.” My mother announced as she served me up two pancakes with butter and maple syrup.
“Ok, mom.” I replied as I shoveled the pancakes in my mouth. I finished my breakfast with a large swallow of milk, and I put the dishes in the sink. I slowly walked down to my room, despite the fact that every step was getting closer to a hideous dress I had to wear.
Unfortunately, my mother was right. It did fit. It was uncomfortable, and hard to get into. I looked in the mirror, and it didn’t look half bad. It was just the colors.
I heard a laugh from behind me. I turned around, and I saw my sister sitting on her bed. She had just woken up, evidently from her rat’s nest of curly hair and her bloodshot eyes.
“You look funny.” She giggled. “What are you, princess of pink?”
“Shut up, Sabrina. Our mother bought this, not me.”
“Ooh, do you hate her now? It was about time you got on my side.” She smiled menacingly.
“No, Sabrina.” I glared at her. “I’m not on anybody’s side, especially you. Do you even realize how much you hurt our mother?”
“Yeah.” Sabrina messed with her fingernails, as though it was nothing. “Yeah, I notice. I mean, I do it on purpose- so how could I not notice?”
I sighed. “Why do you even hate her? She hasn’t even done anything.”
Sabrina sat up with fire in her eyes. “She has done something! Does it occur to you at all that she is the reason daddy is gone?”
I stared at her, cold stone against burning fury. So this is why she hated mom. “It wasn’t her fault. Our ‘daddy’ left us because we turned out to be girls, not boys.”
Tears came to Sabrina’s eyes, and I rushed over to her bed to hold her in my arms. She sat there and cried. “I’m the reason daddy is gone? Because I- I’m a girl?”
“No, no, no.” I whispered in her ear. I smoothed out her hair, and rubbed her back. “It’s not your fault, honey. It’s not anybody’s fault but his.”
It took me a half hour until Sabrina was able to be left alone. Half hour late, I thought. I hurried to get ready while Sabrina ate her pancakes. Her face was still sulky and red.
At the end, I was ready at the door, ten minutes before I was supposed to walk to school. I sat at the window, sweating and trying to cool myself off so I didn’t look like a total mess at school. The window was frosted up, so I couldn’t see outside anyway.
Suddenly, there was a knock at our door. I got up from the couch and peaked through the little hole in the door. There, stood Richard, magnified by the glass in the little hole, holding something black and grayish-white.
I unlocked the door and opened it. Richard smiled when he saw my face. “I thought I saw you in the window, but it was hard to make sure.”
I stood there, awed. Didn’t he live all the way on the other side of Wizard City
The black and white thing happened to be a newspaper, and in fact, he had a whole bag of them. He handed me a newspaper, wet from the dripping ice. “I’m a paperboy, Mary.”
I giggled a little. “Is there anything you aren’t, Richard?”
He smiled a little. “Well, I’m not a Questure.”
“Oh yeah, the people who protect Wizard City
“Yeah, something like that. I heard it’s a pretty cool thing to do.” Richard said thoughtfully.”It’s not really my thing, though.”
“Why not?” I asked.
“Well, I always wanted to be a Fire teacher, you know, after Professor Falmea retires. She has to get old someday!”
“Cool.” I put the newspaper on the coffee table. My mother walked into the room.
“Who’s this, Mary?” My mother asked. Her eyes narrowed at Richard’s good looks, and her smile was tight. I realized that Richard was wearing his fire school robes.
“Uh, this is my friend, Richard.” I mumbled.
“Hi Ms. Ravengem. Are you Mary’s mother?” Richard asked, despite my mother’s cold look, his voice sounded rather warm and cheery.
“Yes, I am. What are you doing here?”
“Um, mom, he is the paperboy.” I told her.
My mother eyed him. “So you’re the one who ruins my flower pots by throwing useless paper at it.”
I cleared my throat. “Mom, he is Fire, but he’s different than da-“
My mother’s eyes snapped. “Don’t you dare talk about your father!”
I looked at Richard. “I think you should go…”
Richard shifted his bag onto his other shoulder. “Ok, but I would look at the front page of the newspaper if I were you.”
“Why?” I asked.
“You’ll see for yourself.” He walked out the door.
My mother grabbed the newspaper, and ripped open the plastic like an animal. She unrolled it, and I heard her gasp and her eyes go wide. She stared at the front page like it was a ghost.
“What is it?” I walked over to her, and took the newspaper. My mother’s hands were over her mouth.
I gasped. The front page was- was about me. I read it out loud:
Novice Mary Ravengem wards off Malistaire
Mary Ravengem, a Novice whom just enrolled in Ravenwood School of Magical Arts yesterday, was up for a surprise in Golem Court . Earlier yesterday, Malistaire Drake visited Golem Court for a reason that is still being investigated. Of course, the powerful Headmaster Ambrose of Ravenwood, Academy of Magical Arts Wizard City
“Holy crap!” I cried out. I threw the newspaper on the ground. “How did they figure that out? Who told the publicity?”
My mother sat down on the couch, apparently exhausted. “I don’t know, Mary. This world is so strange, it’s almost impossible to comprehend. It shouldn’t surprise me to see that you’re on the front page. Indeed, you did in fact make it out alive after Malistaire was done with you. That, honey, is a very big thing. Like it said in the newspaper, it may be historical.”
“Great. Just great.” I growled. I ran my fingers through my hair. “Now I will never be normal!”
My mother looked at the clock. “Mary, you’re going to have to go to school anyway. I don’t care what people think of you, it’s not going to affect your education.”
“Mom!” I threw up my hands. “Can’t you see that I’m never going to make real friends? How can I concentrate on schoolwork when people are going to be making fun of me about how I almost killed the freaking headmaster?”
My mother cupped my face in her hands. “Mary, you’re a good girl. You are going to be great someday, and people won’t make fun of you. You’re too good for that.”
I sighed. There was no getting past the day. I was going to be known as a stupid, reckless historical figure, and I also had to wear this dress. Yes, mother, I won’t get made fun of! Help me get past the day! How could I bear being a laughingstock when I have no friends? I don’t know any better!
I picked up my bag, and slammed the door to our house with a last glance at my mother. She had her head in her hands. Perhaps she knew how this day was going to turn out. I was going to be made fun of, and probably the biggest nerd of all eternity in Ravenwood School
“Mary!” I heard my name from my house. I turned around, and saw Sabrina poking her head out of the window. In her hands I saw the life clothes my mother sold.
“Sabrina!” I gasped. I ran back into the house, and my mother looked at me in alarm.
“Uh, forgot something.” I ran upstairs to the room where Sabrina was while my mother looked stunned. I ran into the room to find her sitting criss-crossed on a chair, waving my life robe around.
“Sabrina.” I gasped. “How did you get it? I thought our mother sol-“
“She sold my old life clothes, Mary. She thought it was yours.” Sabrina interrupted. She looked at me up and down. “I wasn’t gonna’ let you go to school dressed in that.”
“Thank you so much, Sabrina!” I kissed her on the forehead, and took my old clothes. I hurried to the bathroom, and dressed myself in the light green, pretty dress. It was much more comfortable than the pink dress.
I put on a long trench coat to hide my clothes, because my mother would surely make me change. I rushed downstairs, not wanting to talk with my mother long enough that she would realize I’m wearing something else.
My mother looked at me in a strange way, but perhaps she thought I had just forgotten my coat; she had not said anything to me as I walked out the door.
I was running late, so I took off the coat and stuffed it into my bag when my house was out of view. I ran through Unicorn Way , and past the Central Commons. I took a right, and hurried into the dark tunnel of Ravenwood.
I looked at my wrist watch as I entered the beautiful, natural area of Ravenwood, with its tall trees and architectural buildings. I had five minutes to go to my teacher, Professor Wethersfield. I looked by the gates in front of Bartebly, and saw the dog professor.
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