Magical Mischief (Magic And Metaphysics Academy Book 1) Page 2

  "Estelle is hard-core addicted to coffee," Tyler stage-whispered.

  "Mmmm." She smiled. "I never want to stop."

  "Shouldn't we get going to class?" I asked, looking at my watch and noticing it was a quarter to ten already. Time had passed quickly.

  "It only takes five minutes," Tyler said.

  "Alright." I stared at the detailed list in front of me. How would I ever remember that? Hopping up, I started unpacking, opening the enormous chifferobe beside my bed. There was more than enough room for my things. My clothes were in decent shape, but they were just sort of basic tops and jeans. Nothing terrible, nothing great. I'd always been happy with them.

  I managed to get one of my bags unpacked before Estelle hopped off of her bed. "Let's go," she said brightly.

  Tyler twirled her fingers again and the list disappeared. "If you have questions, just ask us. We kind of keep to ourselves. It's okay to hang with any of these groups, but be careful with the vampires and witches." She stared at me solemnly. "They're volatile."

  We exited the amazing dorm room and headed downstairs. Our dorms were on the bottom floor. "Is there any rhyme or reason to the dorm assignments?" I asked.

  "They mainly gender-sort, but there are a few of us that are non-binary that might not fit in one floor or another, whether by physical difference or internal."

  It didn't pass my notice that she included herself. My curiosity had me wondering which category she fit into, but it wasn't my business, so I didn't ask. If she felt like sharing at a later date, she would. In the meantime, she'd introduced herself as female, so that's who she’d be until she told me differently.

  "Our first class is PD," Tyler said as she led the way down a flight of stairs I hadn't seen before. "In the basement."

  "PD?" I had studied the course catalog but wasn't sure what PD was short for.

  "Physical Defense," Estelle said, grabbing the handle of a huge door that opened into a gigantic room full of contraptions for all the physical things we needed to learn. Vampires had to learn how to stalk and attack humans without alerting anyone to their presence. I'd been looking forward to this class. As a half-vampire, I didn't need to feed very often, but when I did, I was ridiculously bad at it. Mom usually helped me.

  Shifters, depending on their type, spent a lot of time doing bodybuilding, running, and fighting. It was in their nature.

  "What do witches do in this class?" I asked Tyler as we walked around the perimeter of the room.

  "Defense magic. Sometimes they'll end up in a literal fight with another paranormal creature or another witch. They have to be able to cast quickly and accurately in the face of danger or attack."

  Nodding, I pressed myself against the back wall and watched the other students walk in. Three girls walked in followed by three guys. The one in the front middle, a tiny blonde, flipped her hair behind her shoulders and laughed at something the brunette beside her said. "Who are they?" I asked softly.

  "The Sparkles. That one’s Kristi Franks. She's basically the queen of the school," Estelle said bitterly. "All the girls want to be her—"

  "Not me," Tyler said waspishly.

  "And all the guys want to be with her," she finished. "But really, when it comes down to it, everyone hates her."

  Watching her walk in, I was struck by how pretty she was, sure, but what really stood out was that everyone in the room turned to watch her enter. Her two friends were pretty too and dressed to the nines. The tiniest one was actually prettier than Kristi. "Who’s the brunette?"

  Tyler leaned over and whispered as the girls neared. "Sadantha. One of Kristi's Lackeys. Everyone calls her Sadie. She once had the potential to be pretty cool, but Kristi corrupted her. The blonde on Kristi's other side is Madison. She's only accepted into their group because her parents are insanely powerful and wealthy. "

  They looked toward the back of the room, but their eyes glanced over us as if we were part of the wall and totally didn't matter. Turning toward the front, they whispered among themselves while the room filled with students.

  As they turned, my eyes fell on the three guys that had followed them in. "Who are they?" I whispered, awestruck. They had to be the three hottest guys I'd ever seen in my life.

  "Gorgeous, aren't they?" Tyler asked with a wink. "They're the Shifts. Like a hundred years ago, this school was mainly shifters, and that’s what they started calling the most athletic. Even though now most of the group is made up of vampires, they still use the name."

  Estelle snorted. "Which is odd, because shifters are considered the dredges of the school." She clenched her slight fists. "I wish I could show them a thing or two," she said in a tight voice.

  Estelle seemed a bit angry, especially for someone so small. I stood close enough to her now that I could attempt to place her scent. Trying to be discreet, I inhaled slowly and deeply, letting my instincts filter the smells. Ahh, she was a deer of some sort. Maybe antelope. Turning my head to my other side, I tried to do the same with Tyler, but she was more complicated. Some sort of predator, for sure, but what? I'd have to think about it and see if I could place it. I'd smelled it before, I was fairly certain of that.

  Returning my gaze to the Shifts, I watched them goof around with each other. All three guys were big, but one of them was gigantic. He had to be nearing seven feet tall.

  "The big one got your eye?" Tyler asked with a wink. "That's Jayse." She dropped her voice into a fainter whisper and put her mouth close to my ear. "Lots of us are relatively private about our shifted forms, but literally, nobody knows what he is. He's like the biggest mystery in school. Everyone is dying to know, but nobody can figure it out."

  Studying his body movements, I tried to think about what I'd learned from my parents zoomagology. They studied all manner of shifters as a standard part of their jobs. I couldn't recall any particular shifters being gigantic, except maybe elephants and whales, but elephant scents were distinctive, that wouldn't be a mystery.

  "Whale?" I asked softly. "They're usually big and have to live near the ocean."

  Estelle shook her head. "No, my cousin Amanda married a whale, I know that smell."

  Stumped, I looked at his friends, who were trying to throw a magically enhanced ball over Jayse's head. They weren't successful. He grabbed it every time, but they all enjoyed the effort.

  "The short Asian is a witch. Brooks. Everyone says he's got that ancient Chinese black magic, Jincan running through his veins, but he doesn't seem dark to me. Plus, if he was, he'd be hanging with the Noires and doing all kinds of dodgy shit. He was always a loner until they all started playing lacrosse a couple of years back, and then he started hanging with Jayse and Francis." Estelle waved at a kid toward the wall to our left, but I couldn't take my eyes off the guys. The third guy would be Francis, then. He was clearly a vampire. Nobody ever had to tell me when one was around. I could pinpoint every single one in the room, and they undoubtedly could me.

  "So that's Francis," I said.

  "Yeah, he's Kristi's ex. Bit cocky, but nice enough, usually. All three of them are a little nicer than the rest of the Shifts. The others can get pretty cruel." Tyler's voice took on a sad quality as if she was speaking from experience.

  My head was spinning so fast with all the new information the two of them had thrown at me, I didn't even know where to start. Thankfully, I was saved from having to speak by the teacher clapping for attention.

  "Split into your usual groups," Coach Cates shouted.

  Everyone moved instantly as if that was all they needed to know. I frowned. Well, I needed more than that. Especially if no one seemed to know what I was.

  "Excuse me?" I stepped forward, trying to get the teacher's attention.

  He turned to me and looked down his nose. This was someone who didn't want to be doing the job he was then. I could always recognize them anywhere.

  "What?" he snapped.

  "I'm new here..."

  He raised an eyebrow. "You're the Davidson girl?" he asked.
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  I nodded.

  "Join the others of your kind and get on with it." He turned away.

  "I have two kinds," I whispered, a rock in my gut. I really didn’t want to do this in front of the class that was now staring at me.

  Behind me, Estelle and Tyler both sucked in a shocked breath. I didn't know how they managed, but my parents somehow managed to keep my hybrid status hidden when I was younger. And since then, they'd just pressed me to never act like a witch or a vampire in social situations. That way, rumors of what I was wouldn't leak out. The vampires would smell me as a vamp, but nobody else would be able to tell.

  It seemed that wasn't going to work here.

  "Then choose one." He waved me away, going back to his own thoughts and not even attempting to engage with me.

  I glanced longingly over at the vampire side just as one of them picked up another and threw them across the room. The body crashed into the wall, and the student slumped down, unconscious.

  Right. I was going to be a witch as far as the school was concerned. If my choice was between the two worst cliques, then I was going to go for the one that didn't throw people against the walls.

  "See you in a bit," I said to my new friends, shrugging at them before heading over to where a group of mostly girls was hanging out. The guys already seemed to be getting on with what they were supposed to be doing.

  The girls threw me looks as I walked closer, and even though it was only a few feet away from me, it felt like the longest walk I'd ever been on.

  One of the guys peeled away from the main group and headed in my direction. I mentally prepared myself from the onslaught. I wasn't naive enough to think it wouldn't come, but I'd hoped to have gotten through at least one class without the other students being asses to me.

  "Do you need help finding your way around the academy?" he asked, pushing his hand through his hair as he spoke. Not in a suave way, either. He clearly thought he was the hottest guy in the room.

  He, in fact, was not.

  "I'm all right, but thank you," I answered.

  "I can show you all the best hookup spots. The ones even the teachers don't know about." He winked at me. Actually winked. And in that instant, he went from mildly annoying to actually smarmy.

  "I don't think so." I hoped he gave up soon, I didn’t want to have to hurt him. I was a terrible vampire, but I was still freaking strong and a witch. My dad hadn’t been lax with my education all these years, even though Mom said I was hopeless as a vampire.

  "Is he bothering you?"

  I looked up at the sound of another girl's voice, surprised to find the illustrious Kristi coming towards us, with her cronies in tow.

  "Umm..." How was I supposed to respond to that? He obviously was.

  I glanced over at where Estelle and Tyler were with the other shifters. Estelle shook her head, warning me off, but it was already too late. Widening my eyes, I shrugged at her. She couldn’t help me now.

  Kristi put her arm around me and drew me deeper into the gaggle of witches. "Just ignore him. If you don't engage, he's harmless." She walked past him. "Shoo, Zeke. Go find a rock to crawl under."

  "Okay..." I wanted to tell her that letting guys like that get away with that sort of repulsive behavior just fed into the culture of boys will be boys, but I figured now probably wasn’t the time to point that out. Maybe another time.

  From the corner of my eye, I saw Estelle throw her hands up in the air, clearly exasperated with me for having any kind of conversation with Kristi. But I wasn't the kind of person who could easily extract myself from situations like this, especially not when the other person was being nice to me. She’d saved me from the creeper. I’d at least be nice to her.

  "Come practice with us. We'll teach you how it goes here." She smiled, the expression not quite reaching her eyes. Maybe she suspected that I'd already been told things about her. Or maybe it was just part of her personality. Some people had dead eyes. It was creepy.

  She flicked her long blonde hair over her shoulder. "So, what kind of magic do you have the best affinity for?"

  Should I be honest? Tyler had said that nature magic tended to be frowned upon. "I don't really know," I lied. "I've not really tried many."

  "If you're a witch, how come you haven't done magic?" Madison asked.

  "You can't just ask that," Sadie snapped, acting scandalized.

  "No, it's okay. I was home-schooled, so I only learned the magic my parents are best at," I told them.

  "Home-schooled? Interesting." Kristi tapped her finger against her chin. "Give us a moment."

  "Sure." Not that I had much choice, all three of them had already taken a couple of steps back and talked to one another, completely cutting me out of the conversation. The rest of the class carried on, but I noticed them cutting their eyes in my direction, watching the exchange between the Sparkles and me.

  "We're going to let you practice with us now," Kristi said after a couple of minutes of them conspiring. "And for the rest of the week too."

  "Oh, thank you." Even I could hear the hesitation in my voice, but I couldn't be rude to her just because of what Estelle said. Nor did I want to be. Plus, Kristi seemed nice. It would be good to have friends at the school from more than one clique. Maybe I could be one of those rare people that clique-hopped.

  Madison leaned forward conspiratorially. "On Tuesdays, we do charms." She beamed as she spoke as if she'd just told me the most important piece of information in the world.

  I just nodded, at a loss for what else to do. And worried. I didn't know any charms. I just had to hope that Estelle and Tyler had some pointers for me.

  "That’s not the only rule," Madison continued. "I know it’s fun to wear robes in homage to our ancestors, but we only wear them on Fridays, if at all." She wrinkled her nose. "Probably best to just not."

  Kristi flipped her hair and looked cooly around the gym, seemingly ignoring her friend’s words, but she also didn’t contradict her.

  "It doesn’t matter your affinity. When you’re at school, you sparkle. It’s a simple charm. We’ll show you."

  I didn’t have the first clue what she was talking about. "Sparkle?" I knew that was what Estelle and Tyler had called them, but she said it as a verb.

  "Look at our auras," Kristi said.

  Blinking, I tapped into that part of my vision that let me see auras. I generally didn’t prefer to see other people’s inner character. It sometimes told too much about a person and swayed my judgment.

  Their auras were full of... glitter? I couldn’t even tell what they were supposed to look like, or their natural color. "How?" I asked, awestruck. I’d never heard of a spell to change an aura.

  "It’s just like a glamour. No big deal." Sadie giggled and looped her arm through mine. "We’ll get you up to speed in no time."

  Chapter Three

  Estelle laughed maniacally, rolling around on the bed. "They want you to hang out with them?"

  "Yes." I frowned. Why was she finding that so hard to believe? I was half-witch, it wasn't that odd that other witches wanted to hang out with me.

  "You have to do it," she announced, jumping up. "You can report back to us."

  I glanced at Tyler, hoping she'd help convince Estelle that it was a bad idea. She just shrugged.

  Great. No back up there.

  "I don't know if I can," I said honestly. I had no problem being nice to them, but intentionally being catty was outside my wheelhouse.

  "Of course you can," Estelle insisted, calming down and sitting up. "All you have to do is hang out with them again in PD, and tell us all about it."

  "They did seem nice," I started.

  "They. Are. Not. Nice," she growled.

  "What do you have against them?" This seemed like something more personal than it perhaps should be, and if I was going to do what Estelle wanted me to do, then I needed to know all sides of the story.

  "They went to school together and..."

  "Tyler!" Estelle warned.
br />   The other girl shook her head.

  Right, then. I wasn't going to find out what was going on from them. But maybe if I hung out with Kristi some more, it would come out on its own. Not that I should do that. I'd never had friends before, never mind fake friends.

  "I don't think I can do it..."

  "Of course you can," Estelle contradicted. She liked to do that. For such a tiny person, she held a lot of force of will. I wondered if it was linked to whatever kind of shifter she was. I didn’t know of a forceful deer, though.

  "So, you're a witch?" Tyler prompted, her tone revealing the question she really wanted to know.

  "Hybrid," I responded. "But no one really knows." I didn't see the point in lying to the two of them. We were going to live in the same dorm for the next three years, at some point, they'd probably see me feed. "I guess the vampires know now. They would’ve smelled me, then see me join the witches. But they’re too much for me."

  Tyler whistled loudly. "I've never met one before."

  "We're pretty normal." I shrugged. I was just me.

  "Have you seen yourself?" Estelle demanded.

  "Erm..." Was that a trick question? I knew what I looked like, obviously. But what did that have to do with anything?

  Tyler nodded. "Hybrid explains it. All the looks of a witch with the allure of a vampire."

  "I don't think..."

  "If you want Jayse, you'll have no problem getting him," Tyler promised me.

  "Pfft." They were nuts.

  "She's right," Estelle promised. "You're hot."

  "Erm...thanks?" I didn't know how to respond to any of this. Was it normal for friends to tell each other they were hot? Right now, I was cursing my parents for not sending me to normal school sooner, then I'd have some kind of experience with other people at least.

  "So, you'll do it?" Estelle asked, excitement written all over her face.

  "Do what?" I'd already forgotten where the conversation had been going, my mind on the three guys I'd seen across the room and the huge one in particular. Jayse had come across like a gentle giant, but that was without me actually talking to him. Maybe once I got to know him and his lacrosse buddies, I'd feel differently and want to stay out of their way.