Two things I would like your help with (anyone who reads this): 1) pranks. Especially a really big one. But anything will do. 2) What malicious things might Danielle Twain have written about Evelyn? And while we're at it- let's make it three things. 3) What about a title? School of American Magic: Freshman/Sophomore Year is kind of... eh. Ideas? Suggestions?
And of course, plot points, things you want to see, things you're just curious about. Let me know. I have an overall arc, but the one for this year is... only just beginning to come together. And FP isn't the best place to post blog-like entries or to keep in touch with me; for that, I have a "my writing blog at livejournal/a. I know I'm plugging this a bit too heavy, but there are also snippets up there from other things I've written, like the things I hope to publish one day, as well as updates about how works (such as SAM and Harding) are going. Also, would anyone be interested in seeing a map/lay-out of the SAM campus? I try to describe it in this chapter, but if anyone still wants a picture, I can put one up in the journal (doesn't know how to post things like that on FP).
As always, any corrections, please let me know. Without further ado:
Chapter Three
Bad News and Mysterious Names
Evelyn got off the bus and looked up at the ivy-covered brick walls of the School of American Magic. It was an old building, four stories, with windows every ten feet or so that stood tall and slim. The ivy curled around the windows, leaving them clear and bright. The sunrise glinted off the glass and made the building shimmer like a jewel.
Some of Evelyn's hair was tugged. Air wanted to go play on the Rubbish field. She snatched her hair down. "Later," she said softly.
"The auditorium is this way," Henna said as if they didn't already know. Then again, Evelyn supposed she ought to be patient; they had fifty freshman. She had heard them more than seen her; it seemed they were giving her a wide berth.
Henna led the way up the stairs, all the students, even the seniors, mooned after her and followed.
Evelyn turned to see BoBob, but he was already driving off. She sighed and followed the others.
The freshman were kept behind to receive their House assignments, but everyone else was sent into the auditorium. Evelyn paused in the doorway to look up; she loved how high the ceiling was here. She had theorized the year before that the building was larger inside through the use of magic, and that would explain how the auditorium was five stories tall when there were no traces of the auditorium above the first floor. Four banners fell from the arched stone ceiling, representing the elements. Fire's banner was constantly moving red, orange, and yellow. Water was a deep blue that shimmered like the ocean. Earth was green on top, seeming to blow like leaves in the wind, but brown on the bottom. Air was the symbol for House D, and Evelyn was partial to the element's banner for other reasons. She sent Air up to play with it, even though the banner, a light blue that was almost impossible to see except for when it flowed about like a breeze, moved enough without Air's help. The walls were draped with velvet that mirrored the colors of the banners above.
She turned her attention downward, where circular tables had been covered with white tablecloths and ornate settings. No table seated more than ten people, it seemed, except for the table in front, which was long enough to seat all of the teachers. Evelyn saw many faces she didn't recognize, some she did, and some she didn't want to. She waved to Mz. O and Mr Conway but conveniently didn't see Mr. Doggles and turned to the wooden stage where a podium and microphone had already been set up.
"What now?" she asked, but her friends, or "friends," had already passed her. Brittany had gone to sit with Marie, and the others were wandering toward one of the tables near the teachers with dreamy gazes. She hurried to catch up. "Hello? Guys?"
"Isn't she beautiful?" Rebecca murmured.
Evelyn scowled. So far the only high point of the day was Marie dabbing at her eyes and red nose due to all the cat hair.
She sat with them and gave up on trying to converse, seeing as how they were all so interested in staring wistfully into the distance before making trite remarks about how beautiful or smart or wise Henna was. Evelyn was ready to throttle them before long, but she was stopped by the arrival of five freshman who stared her down firmly.
"You're Evelyn Smith," one of them said. She was taller than Evelyn, with curly brown hair and silver spectacles that had difficulty clinging to her small nose. Her chin was stubborn, her dark eyes unkind. She clenched her wand, but her arms were crossed. Evelyn didn't know why she noticed; she supposed in case she needed time to run away from the freshman terror, she'd know she'd have a few seconds' head start. The girl, like Evelyn, wore the SAM uniform for girls: a navy blue skirt and crisp white shirt, nice shoes and white socks. Evelyn had worn one of her robes open for the sake of trying to look cool.
"Yeah," Evelyn responded cautiously.
"I'm Lia Pierce. That's Wren, Cassidy, Aurora, and Vanessa. We heard about you. Is it true you eat your familiars?"
Evelyn blinked. Dusty, winding in and out of her feet, hissed at Lia. "I wouldn't do something like that," Evelyn said firmly, wondering if it was a joke. "I have enough trouble eating spinach. I don't see how catgut is supposed to taste better." She reached downward and petted Dusty.
Her cat nuzzled her hand and allowed himself a small purr. "Doggles wants to talk to you after dinner," he reported before darting off again. Throughout the auditorium, other familiars were delivering messages in a similar fashion.
"I heard you kill people!" Cassidy said excitedly, sitting down.
"Oh, may we sit?" The one Evelyn thought was Wren asked as she sat down.
"Tell us about how you kill people," Cassidy rushed. "I heard you stick your wand up their--"
"Excuse me," a voice interrupted. Evelyn breathed a sigh of relief. Now that the freshman had arrived, it was time to get started. She studied the person on the podium and saw a girl with olive skin and black frizzy hair, stocky without being plump. "My name is Rani Elavia. I am your student body president for the year."
Evelyn found herself liking the somewhat quiet Rani; she wasn't loud or offensive as Holder had been.
"I would like to make some announcements. First, I would like to welcome you all to the new school year. Second, I would like to say to the seniors that we have fifty new freshman and only forty seniors. We will do as we did last year, and some of us will take on two charges. As for the freshman, please do not be frightened by freshman initiation. The seniors, you will find, can be almost nice outside of initiation week." She grinned a little at everyone. "This afternoon and tonight, they will show you around the campus and help you find your classes. They truly will be kind until initiation begins. And now I would like to introduce our school principal, Mr. Doggles."
The first time Evelyn had seen Mr. Doggles, she had thought he looked like a kind man, with a wrinkled but youthful face despite his balding head, gray attacking whatever brown hair he had left. His eyes were bright blue, often cold when Evelyn was around. His nose was hooked, his chin pointed. Evelyn had grown to distrust him over her freshman year, only to find at the end of the year that some people thought he was perfectly trustworthy. Still, she couldn't look at him as a harmless, trustworthy person.
Mr. Doggles stood and looked over them all, his eyes kind and twinkling. "Good morning, all. I trust you're all excited to start a new year tomorrow."
The auditorium offered no sounds of agreement, and though some people scoffed, they did so under their breaths.
"I have a few announcements to make," Doggles continued.
The scoffs got louder.
"First of all, I'm aware that some of you have been offered money in exchange for stories or photos of other students. If you are caught -- and you will be caught -- you will be expelled. Secondly, as always, you are not allowed near House D. If you are caught there, you will be suspended. Thirdly, I've noticed many of you have noticed our newest addition, Ms. Lhayleon. She will be teaching our manipulations classes. Now, I will let you attend to your breakfast; I can always make more announcements at dinner." He smiled, but very few people laughed. Even the teachers were uncertain what they should do.
Someone flipped the switch for the spells that dropped food on the plates of each table. Evelyn had been looking forward to the meal until she found that all the rest of her table wanted to talk about was either Henna or whether Evelyn truly had once turned her dad into a toad after she'd stolen the neighbors car. The story struck Evelyn as ludicrous, since she was apparently four years old at the time, but Lia, Cassidy, Wren, Aurora, and Vanessa seemed to think she was evil enough to pull it off.
Evelyn quickly ate as much as she could, checked to make sure everyone else was still eating, and then left the room. It would be nice to have some time to herself anyway; maybe she could race Air around the Rubbish field.
"Hello, Ms. Smith," Doggles said as she bounced off his chest and fell to the floor. "I trust you enjoyed your breakfast?"
She rubbed her nose and glared at him, muttering something rude under her breath.
"Careful, Ms. Smith. I might begin to believe those horrible stories circulating about you. Follow me, please."
Evelyn got to her feet and made a face at him, but as he strode down the hall and his robes billowed out from behind him, she could only follow. Billings Hall was the main building on campus, housing the auditorium and administration offices and some of the classrooms. Doggles led her to the uppermost floor and down a carpeted hall. He threw open heavy oak doors on the east side of the hall.
"Hello, Iris," he said. The woman sat behind a large oak desk, and Evelyn recognized her from her freshman year. Iris's face had been rounder then, though it had always been pointy, and her skin had gone from white to a pale shade of gray. The sand-colored hair was no longer glossy, but lank.
"Hello, Mr. Doggles," she said, looking up from a stack of papers. Evelyn was about to ask her if she was feeling right, but then Iris caught sight of her and quickly looked away.
Doggles threw open a second set of wooden doors, and led Evelyn into his office. She had been here before, when Webber was principal and Doggles had simply been borrowing the office, and she looked around with distaste as she noticed that Doggles had made the office his own. Books lined the mahogany shelves in an orderly fashion, their topics ranging from the Elements, Doggles's favorite subject, to politics, his least favorite. She sat down in a chair across from him and noted that the furniture was older.
The office was in the back of Billings Hall, and windows set in iron panes stretched against three of the walls. The one behind Doggles's desk looked out over the quad, with its bell tower standing bossily in the middle. Beyond that was Faulkner, the science building, where many students used the planetarium. To her left, Evelyn saw Lancelot Library. Next to the library, bordering the quad, was Stonehenge, the crafts building, and she could barely see A and B houses between Stonehenge and Faulkner. She was dismayed to see so much of B House; how much had Doggles or Webber seen when she and her friends had played pranks on B House?
The view to the right was less impressive; below the window was the Billings Courtyard, and her view of Seuss Hall was blocked by the western wing of Billings. She could, however, see Alberta Gym, and House C. Evelyn frowned. Doggles' view of House C was completely unobstructed.
He had seen where her eyes had gone and smiled. "You still think I'm your enemy, Evelyn."
She hesitated before answering. "Not really, sir. I just don't like you."
His smile widened. "Good thing you don't have to like me, then." He cleared his throat. "I of course wouldn't call you here if it weren't important." She waited as he quieted. He lifted his eyes to meet hers before he spoke. "Do you still have the Stone?"
She stiffened. "Of course I do!" After all the trouble she'd gone through to get it, she hadn't let it out of her sight.
He grinned, looking almost relieved. She supposed it was silly that she wondered from time to time if he could feel emotion, but after the hell he had put her through last year, what with his lessons and his interfering in the way things were done, she hated to think he might be human after all.
"Good, good," he said. He hesitated again. "And have you used it?"
She felt a blush rising in her cheeks. Was she supposed to? Or was she not supposed to? "Um..."
Impatient creases formed in his forehead. "Yes?"
Evelyn admired the moulding on the ceiling. "Well..."
His voice lowered and took on a more menacing tone. "Ms. Smith," he warned.
She cringed and coughed into her hand. "Not intentionally."
it might have been her imagination, but the temperature in the room seemed to drop a few degrees. " 'Not intentionally,' " Mr. Doggles repeated slowly, steepling his fingers and pressing them lightly against his chin. "Please explain to me what 'not intentionally' might mean."
"Okay." She thought for a few moments berore saying with absolute sincerity, " 'Not intentionally' means 'by accident,' 'not by one's own volition,' that sort of thing." She looked to see what he thought, knowing it wasn't the answer he had been looking for. After the amount of thought she had put into choosing her words, however, she was rather pleased to see a vein pulsating in his temple.
But then his eye took on an evil glint, and her eyes narrowed in wariness. He must have realized he was showing his true colors, because the evil glint quickly disappeared. "We'll discuss intentions later. In the meantime, you'll now not only need to learn control but all that the Elemental Stone can do." He seemed rather pleased by the thought, no doubt imagining all sorts of ways to torture her and call the torture "lessons." She frowned and wondered, quite seriously, if she ought to skip a few sessions with him. "There is very little known about the Elemental Stones; it's up to us to find out about them. No more lazing about like you did this past summer."
She looked at him in surprise and nearly gulped. Mr. Doggles's lessons were arguably what had caused her to lose control over her magic in the first place.
"I haven't been lazing," she mumbled.
The evil glint reappeared in his eye, accompanied by a tinge of omniscience which she didn't like one jot. "You didn't go out but twice. Once to Brittany's, once on the mandatory shopping trip. I'll be honest with you, Ms. Smith, I'd no idea you were so solitary."
Her eyes widened. "You've been following me?" she demanded, grasping the sides of her chair.
Mr. Doggles shook his head. "Some of Cuppy's men kept vigil over your house to insure that Silverthorn didn't make another attempt on your life. That's all."
Evelyn stopped reaching for her wand. "That's- I should have been told!"
He raised an eyebrow. "With all due respect, Ms. Smith, there was no reason for you to know. Hence, you were not informed."
She growled. "And why- not that I don't appreciate Cuppy looking out for me, but why did he have men do it?" Another thought, and she tossed it out immediately. "Was it a trap for Silverthorn?"
His voice was quiet again, always a bad sign. "You're quite suspicious, Ms. Smith. It's unhealthy in one so young, you know."
Evelyn blinked at him. "You mean to tell me that men have been spying on me all summer long, and when I suggest a viable reason for it, you tell me I'm suspicious?" Her gaze narrowed on his face. "It sounds like you're dodging the issue, Mr. Doggles."
Doggles sighed. "Ms. Smith, it was not at my behest that anyone tried to insure your safety; it was Cuppy's. If you would like to discuss it with him, he ought to be coming around for tea sometime soon. But if we could return to the matter at hand. You will have class with me, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, at three-thirty."
"But that's when I have Rubbish practice."
"Rubbish is rubbish, Ms. Smith." His lips twitched at his own wit, but when Evelyn didn't join in, he elaborated. "I believe you'll have time, Ms. Smith. I'll see you tomorrow for your lesson."
She didn't need a dismissal; if he'd kept her there a few more minutes, she was prepared to bolt to safety. Or at least to Brittany, to tell the Rubbish captain that Evelyn wouldn't be able to come to as many practices.
Remembering the view Doggles had of the school grounds, Evelyn went out the front entrance of Billings and took the long way, around Seuss as behind the gym, to reach Cuppy House. On the way, she passed House D and stopped to shiver for a moment or two. House D was one of the forbidden areas on campus; it was reserved as a dormitory for ghosts and other formless creatures that might want to do harm to students. The wood was old and falling off, spider webs practically holding the place together, and the lawn was overgrown. She had once heard a conversation there that hadn't been at all pleasant. She frowned. She had never figured out who the man was she'd overheard; had he found any of the other Stones? Instinctively, her hand went to cover the Air Elemental. If he wanted the Stones, if Isabella Silverthorn wanted them, eventually, they were going to have to come after her to get them.
Which led to a more upsetting more question: When they came for her, would she be ready?
She shook her head. There was nothing she could do about it right now but prepare. She'd take on extra lessons, check books out from the library, learn as much as she could. If knowledge was power, she wanted to be able to beat Silverthorn easily. Or at least without dying. That sounded like a good idea.
As soon as Evelyn entered House C, Brittany jumped up from her seat in the living room. "There you are! I'm supposed to go meet Marie, but what the hell is going on?"
Evelyn blinked. She hadn't known she was missing, she hadn't expected Brittany to rush away from her in order to join Marie, and she didn't know what was going on, apparently. "Huh?" she asked, always intelligent.
"I just went down to the Rubbish field to arrange practice times. Why didn't you tell me you got kicked off the team? How'd you even get kicked off the team?" There was a knock at the door, and Evelyn heard Marie calling through the door. "Drat," Brittany muttered. "I've got to go. Don't know how long I'll be. Take care of the new kids. Talk to Penn and see if you can get this straightened out." She darted out the door, leaving Evelyn gaping after her.
Through the doorway to the kitchen, Evelyn heard whispers about asking her something and quickly went onto the stoop. Once Brittany and Marie were out of sight, she took off for the Rubbish Field.
House C was tucked between Faulkner, on the planetarium side, and the gym; the view from the front door was one of the gym wall in all its plain-ugly-brown-brick glory. Evelyn took a moment to look toward Doggles's office and frowned when she realized he could turn and see the front of House C for as long as he liked. She quickly turned east, past the path to the cemetery, past the small parking lot where BoBob kept the Magic School Bus, and down the slope of Mount Cleon until she reached the Rubbish Field, a flat field 70 by 290 yards. Seven nets waited on the ground in the middle of the field; during games and practice, the nets would rise in the air; though they constantly stayed on the same vertical paths, their heights constantly changed. At each end of the field was a goal, much like a soccer goal. Evelyn was glad the game had been invented before basketball; the mix of tennis, soccer, football, and flying were more than enough.
She looked around for Mr. Penn and saw him near the storage shed behind the levitating seats. She called out to him as she walked closer.
He looked up and waved, but she didn't think he seemed entirely pleased to see her. He quickly went back to sorting through the brooms.
"Hi, Mr. Penn. Brittany said you wanted to see me?" Not a complete lie. Well, maybe a complete lie. But it seemed like the most diplomatic thing to say.
"Yes," he said slowly. He set aside the brooms and looked at the levitating seats. "We're supposed to get towers soon. Maybe. Doggles is pushing for them; says they're safer than these."
Evelyn nodded. "Sounds like Doggles, interfering in everything." Though she could sort of see the point.
Mr. Penn sighed. "Evelyn, he has the school's best interests at heart. He has the students' best interests at heart."
She didn't want to talk about what a good guy Doggles was, so she opted to change the subject. And there was really only one way she could think of to change it. "Brittany talked about my being kicked off the team."
He frowned and nodded.
She gaped. "So... it's true?"
He nodded again. "The news got out about the Air Elemental. The Rubbish League isn't certain you won't cheat," he said gently.
"That's rubbish!"
He closed his eyes in pain. "Evelyn, please don't make bad puns at a time like this."
"Fine. You're right." She crossed her arms and muttered, "but it's still rubbish."
Mr. Penn sighed and shook his head. "But that's the state of things. If you play on the team, House C is disqualified. The same if you go to games."
Her jaw dropped. "What?"
"They can't be sure that even if you aren't on a team, that you won't make it so one team wins and another loses. They're taking precautions." He spoke calmly, reasonably, and it just seemed to upset her all the more.
"But they can't do that! It's- They're preventing me from attending all the sports here? That's r-"
"Don't say it," he interjected.
"-idiculous!"
He sighed in relief. "I'm sorry, Evelyn. I'll try to talk to them, but to tell you the truth, it doesn't look like I'll have much success. Doggles agrees with them on this one."
Doggles. Of course. It would have to be Doggles. He seemed to have a hand in everything that was ruining her life lately, all in the name of keeping her safe, of course.
Evelyn felt her face go red with the indignity of it all but didn't really care. She clenched her fists at her sides and glared at Mr. Penn. "May I ask," she asked coldly, "why the Rubbish morons think I'm so likely to cheat? They haven't even met me!" Her face started losing its coloring. "Wait. Don't tell me. They read Danielle Twain."
Mr. Penn looked almost abashed. "It's a possibility," he admitted.
She studied him for a few minutes with a frown on her face and then walked away without saying another word.
Her next stop was the journalism department in the basement of Billings, on the building's west side. She expected to find the room empty, since classes hadn't even started yet, but when she got to the bottom of the stairs, she was confronted by a girl who was stocky and wore a tank top and jeans too small for her. The girl's hair was brown at the roots, but a bleached blond everywhere else. Evelyn had a sneaking suspicion the girl's blue eyes weren't entirely real either.
"Who're you?" the girl demanded. Coming closer and getting a better look at Evelyn, though, she frowned and then smiled. "Don't tell me. Evelyn Smith."
Evelyn nodded. "I'm here to work on some stories."
The girl raised an eyebrow. "Oh? I wasn't aware you work on The Weakly Wizard."
"I worked on it for most of last year." Evelyn looked at the girl more closely. She was familiar... Evelyn had been mostly blind to anything outside of her books, though, and had no luck placing her.
"Well, that doesn't mean you're working on it this year," the girl said snootily.
Evelyn frowned. "Who says?"
"I say. I'm the editor this year. Dawn Wendell."
Dawn Wendell. Evelyn looked at her anew. The editor last year, Christine Jones, had been a great editor, even if she had demanded too much from some people. She had always made it clear that she was in it for the paper and for what the paper could do, not a bunch of whiny kids who wanted to write articles on people whispering too loudly in the library.
"And why do you say I'm not on the paper anymore?" Evelyn asked, trying to keep her voice calm.
"Because," Dawn said with a shrug. "We don't need you. You're more trouble than you're worth. Now scram. I need to do real work."
Evelyn looked at her for a few minutes, trying to decide what she ought to think of Dawn. Did the girl just not like her, or was it the bad press she was worried about? No matter. She'd just talk to Conway later and see if she could work anything out. Thinking it sounded as good a plan as any, Evelyn turned and went to Conway's classroom, only to find he wasn't there.
Now that she had a better idea of what to look for than she had last year, when Evelyn went to the library, she searched for books on the Elemental Stones, as well as some names that had come up. When she had visited Aleridge, she had dreamt of a fight between Culleran and Alger. She was surprised when she actually found books on both of them, though most of them seemed to be more like the King Arthur romances she was used to. She checked them out anyway.
"One shall lead to the other," she murmured, looking around at the shelves upon shelves of books. "The first shall be found by a brother. The same and the rest by the Blood, who from the darkness will have to hide, fight, or run." She frowned and went to the section for magical creatures. She dug through the indexes, looking for references to 'the Blood,' but found nothing. Yet when she did a library search (using the card catalog; she didn't trust the librarian not to rat her out to Doggles) for 'the darkness,' she found a little more.
She took her books with her to House D, her arms straining by the time she got there. She was about to settle down in the living room when she heard the freshman again. Apparently, they didn't know she was back, so they couldn't argue about who was going to ask her whatever questions they might have. Evelyn darted up the stairs to the attic, where the older students had their bedrooms, and settled down to read. It wasn't difficult to decide not to go to dinner.
The 'darkness' naturally intrigued her more than the biographies, but the references in the books were vague. All she could gather was that it had been around for ages, was very mysterious, and was primarily responsible for the things that went bump in the night.
Evelyn sighed and picked up the biographies. These were so steeped in myth and legend that she couldn't believe anything she read. Culleran and Alger had been the best of friends till a woman had come between them; each man had wanted Blodouin for himself, but the final straw had come when they hid the Elemental Stones. They had fought over the Stones. One of the books pointed out that while Culleran and Alger were known to exist, it was primarily because of their business with the nonexistent Elemental Stones that so many of their deeds were considered myth.
She looked at the Air Elemental, looked back at the book, and rolled her eyes. She could tell her research was really going to help.
Tired of running into dead ends, she read her mother's diary until she fell asleep.
She found herself in a glade, the trees and grass a lush emerald-green. Buildings were in the trees above, but she couldn't see any way to get there.
"So you've finally come," a voice said. It was low, and if it had been a human voice, it might have been gravelly, but instead it had a musical quality to it.
Evelyn turned to see a woman with silver hair falling down her back like a waterfall in moonlight. The woman's features were pinched, especially her gently pointed ears. Her skin was as white as milk, and she wore a dress of a gauzy, dark-blue material.
"Hello," Evelyn said, with the irrational thought that she had taken a wrong turn somewhere.
The woman smiled. "You are Evelyn Smith," she said softly. "I am a friend of yours, perhaps."
Evelyn blinked at her.
"In our tongue you are Eflyn," the woman said, tactfully ignoring Evelyn's stupidity. "Your mother chose a good name for you."
"My mother?" She was instantly paying attention. She knew little about her mother, which was one reason she was so fond of her mom's diary; she leapt enthusiastically at any chance to find out more about her mom.
The woman nodded. "Lake of life. I wonder sometimes if she suspected..."
"Suspected what?" Evelyn prodded.
The woman met her eyes and held them. "That you are the Blood, Eflyn. As such, your life is... Priceless. You will be kept safe."
"I- I already am," Evelyn said. Really, she felt she was protected enough; any more protection would probably mean she'd spend the rest of her life in a cage.
The woman smiled again, and Evelyn had to wonder if the woman could read her mind. "Human protection, yes. But we will offer ours as well. We betrayed Maba." Even though she continued to smile, Evelyn thought the sadness in her voice would make the girl cry. "We abandoned her when she needed us most. We will not fail again."
"Maba?" Evelyn asked.
The woman looked at her for a moment. "There is much you do not know, Eflyn Marligand."
Evelyn nodded. "I know. The more I find out, the stupider I feel."
The woman's smile grew. "I see. This is welcome news."
Evelyn gaped at her. It didn't feel so welcome.
The woman's smile spread to her eyes. "I shall be in touch, Eflyn Marligand," and with that, Evelyn felt herself waking up. She repeated the name to herself, knowing she couldn't let herself forget it. Though she hadn't argued or questioned what the woman had called her when she was asleep, now that she was waking up, she had questions.