Chapter nine- The Scarab
I woke up the next day with a refreshed feeling. I did feel a little queasy, however, it didn’t faze me one bit. The homework for yesterday turned out to be easy, just to write a one page note about Ravenwood, the source in the history books. It wasn’t much, nothing I didn’t know, anyway. All it was talking about was the schools, much like the enrollment.
I dressed myself in a blue and yellow dress; it was comfortable and nicer than the green dress. I wonder why I didn’t wear it yesterday.
I ate cereal for breakfast, and it didn’t taste disgusting as it did yesterday. I brushed my teeth and put my stuff in my bag. Sabrina came into the room to eat her breakfast and I realized my mother was still sleeping.
“Sabrina, it’s a bit strange that mom is sleeping in, isn’t it?” I asked.
Sabrina swallowed her food loudly. “I guess, but I don’t really care. It’s not like I have to go to school.”
“Whatever, Sabrina.” I sighed. You can always count on her to not care.
When it was time to go, I wondered if I should walk up to my mother’s room to say goodbye. I crept upstairs quietly, and opened my mother’s door a crack. She was in bed, sleeping like she never slept before. Perhaps I shouldn’t wake her…
“Bye, mom.” I whispered. I closed the door gently, and walked downstairs.
“Any luck?” Sabrina asked, sitting in a big chair by our bookcase. She had a book in her hand.
“No, I think I will just walk to school and leave her be. She seems exhausted.”
“Hmm, I wonder why.” Sabrina said, frowning.
I almost gaped at her. “Am I actually hearing this? Sabrina, are you caring?”
“I care when I feel like I want to care.” Sabrina stuffed her face in her book.
“Ok then.” I laugh. I put my bag over my shoulder and walk out the door.
The walk to Ravenwood was just like any other day. It was still drizzling with rain, however, not like yesterday. I entered the commons, and into the Ravenwood Gates.
The view was still gorgeous and funny since there was no rain coming down. The huge tree of Bartebly covered the sky, so there was no room within the school for rain to fall through. The six schools surrounded the amazing scene, with the seventh school of Balance
Students were walking into their buildings according to their school, and I walked over to Professor Wethersfield, standing at Bartebly’s Gates as he always does. Balance students surrounded the teacher, as usual, and he was taking out our large pieces of wood for desks.
I tried to look around for anybody I could possibly befriend. There was the red, pigtailed girl, who asked a question two days ago. I saw Tara, whom looked sour. There were some other girls who looked uninterested, and the boys that somewhat gaped at me at times. I would just roll my eyes in annoyance.
The school bell rang, and the school’s courtyard was completely empty. Professor Wethersfield waved his staff, and the pieces of wood floated up in front of everybody. I stared at mine in amazement; I was still incapable of learning properly without a desk. Perhaps I will just have to deal with it.
“Take your parchment and quills out, if you please.” Professor Wethersfield announced. “We will turn in the homework, and I believe I have a small test on what we have learned about our books! We will also be experiencing your first spell, named Scarab!”
Many students whispered in excitement. I grinned eagerly- I have been waiting for this day, even though it’s only been three days. Learning a spell- my first spell!
“Now, give me your homework while I pass out the test.” Professor Wethersfield insisted. He took our homework in his left hand, passing out our tests with his right. When he turned around, I was distracted by the tail wagging out of his suit, and I couldn’t help but giggle. I excused it as a cough when a few students looked at me strange.
“Cheated will not be tolerated, so if I catch any one of you glancing at another student’s paper, you will be given an immediate detention. Please pick up your quills and begin the test.” Professor Wethersfield explained. Some shifted into their nervous state, fumbling with stuff such as their pencil, clothes and hair.
I looked at the test. It wasn’t much… I had read a lot of it yesterday.
1) Who destroyed the death school?
Well, that question was easy. I wrote:
Malistaire Drake, Teacher of the Death school.
Question two was just as easy: “What is the purpose of Bartleby?”
I wrote: He created Wizard City
Well, it was true. The test had basic questions, and only five. I finished mine in around ten minutes; people looked up in jealousy as I walked up and gave it to Professor Wethersfield.
Professor Wethersfield smiled. “I had a feeling that you would end first. Once the others finish, we will continue with learning the ‘Scarab’ spell.”
I walked to my ‘desk’ merrily, smiling and feeling a whole lot prouder than the others. I waited until the last student walked up to give the test to Professor Wethersfield.
“Now we are ready to learn your first spell!” Professor Wethersfield announced cheerily. He stacked up our tests, and put them in his bag. He moved his paws around his staff, doing some strange motion. Suddenly, the staff turned into a stick- no, a wand.
“Everybody take out their wands, please.” Professor Wethersfield proceeded. He rolled up his sleeves, and everybody took out their wands.
“Now, just follow my steps. If you can make the balance symbol, you will be able to learn the spell.” Professor Wethersfield explained. “You have to always twirl the wand in a slow, but smooth manner. It’s good if you move your wrist more than your hand itself, and your arms are always far away from your body when casting the spell, unless doing a shield spell. However, a shield spell is what we will be learning farther on in the year.”
He did the twirling motion, and the students copied him. I surveyed him, taking notes in my head as he told us the instructions.
“After the twirling motion, you make two swirls on the left side and the right side, for a scale. You draw a line between them, making a scale symbol. When you do it, you must clear your mind and think of only harmony and equality.” He drew the picture exactly, it was beautiful and articulate.
We did the same thing. I cleared my mind, and thought of only equality. I did the smooth circle pattern, and swiftly drew two swirls with a line connecting them. I opened my eyes and saw the pattern in front of me. It turned into black dust.
Professor Wethersfield caught this, and he clapped in joy. “Ms. Ravengem has done it! She has made the symbol in less than five minutes, even though she had fizzled! Great job, Ms. Ravengem!”
I felt my face turn red, and other students looked at me at admiration.
Professor Wethersfield walked over to me as the other students practiced their circle. “Ms. Ravengem, I believe it’s time to teach you your first spell, however, you first need to clear your mind of only the spell.”
“Okay.” I whispered. I closed my eyes and concentrated on clearing my mind. “I think I’m ready.”
“Okay, picture the spell… Draw the symbol and picture the spell coming from it.”
I do what I am told, but I only see black dust fall to the ground from my wand. I sighed in disappointment.
“Its okay, Ms. Ravengem. It took me many times before I could get my first spell right. Just keep concentrating, and try not to open your eyes before you cast the spell.”
“Okay.” I tried again, without opening my eyes. I could hear a slight song, perhaps a hum…
“Ms. Ravengem.” Professor Wethersfield whispered. “Open your eyes.”
I opened them, amazed to see a very large bug, about as tall as my waist and thicker than three people standing side by side. It was brown, and looked a lot like a cross from a walnut to a beetle.
“Did I cast it?” I asked.
“You certainly did, Ms. Ravengem. Just keep practicing the spell, while I go help the other students whom have mastered the symbol.” Professor Wethersfield walked away, and went to go talk to a boy with black hair and brown eyes.
I started making the spell many times. Most of the time, they turned out to be “fizzles,” or black dust. To make it clear: a fail. Occasionally, I would get a Scarab, but by the end of class, only a few were able to cast the spell.
“Homework tonight is to practice the spell I have taught you today. I expect that you will know how to cast it properly by tomorrow. Good day.” Professor Wethersfield declared.
While Professor Wethersfield was putting away the floating wood and such, two girls walked up to me. One of them was the red-haired girl, the other was a blonde. I put my book in my bag and tried to act as normal as possible.
“Um, could I help you?” I asked. I noticed my voice sounded a bit nervous.
The blonde girl blushed, making her face go maroon. That was one thing in common- we both blush like crazy. “Well, we- uh. We were just-“
“We want to know how you did the spell.” The red-haired girl interrupted. “Oh, and by the way, I’m Jasmine, and she is Victoria
“Hi, and well, Jasmine, I was told instructions from the professor. I don’t think I can instruct as well as him…”
“Oh, it’s okay! Just tell us as good as you can, because we really want to get good grades here!” Victoria
“Well, all I did was concentrating on being in harmony, and equality, and then I closed my eyes and drew the symbol.”
“But we did that!” Jasmine argued. Suddenly, I saw Richard walking straight towards me. His face looked excited, and I was excited to get away from these desperate girls.
“Hey, um, my friend is coming. Maybe I can tell you later.” I dashed over to Richard, relieved to get away from Victoria
“Mary! Guess what? I found a place in Triton Avenue ; I think it’s a cave! We can maybe fight some monsters or something there!” Richard whispered excitedly.
“Um, where is Triton Avenue ? And isn’t fighting for Questures only?” I asked.
“You can get to Triton Avenue through the Shopping District, and down there is Olde Town Triton Avenue . Oh, and if we sneak in properly, we can pretend like we are Questures.” He explained.
“Isn’t that bad?”
“Nah, if nobody knows, its fine. Plus, it’s for the greater good!” Richard exclaimed.
“Greater good?” It sounded to me like some charity welfare project.
“Well, fighting monsters is good, right? It will be helping the greater good!”
I thought about it. I knew fighting wasn’t my thing… “I don’t know, Richard. I’m not a good fighter, and I don’t even challenge people in the Arena in Unicorn Way .”
“Aww, come on, Mary! Please… It will be fun! You get free loot from what the monsters drop- it gives good gold when you sell it!”
The word ‘gold’ struck my mind. My mother was hanging on by a thread with money. Maybe I could do it for some extra gold… “Okay, I will do it. We can’t tell my mother, though, because she will freak.”
Richard smiled widely. “Yes! Let’s go check it out!”
“Whoa, right now? I have homework to do!”
Richard chuckled. “Dueling monsters is homework! We can stop by your house if you want, so your mom doesn’t freak out when you don’t come home.”
“Sounds good to me.” I replied. We began to walk to my house in Unicorn Way .
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