03 - Wary Is Her Love

<< Bright Is Her Sight

The School Of Necessary Magic

Strong is her Hope >>

It’s just another day at your average American high school for the magically gifted. Dark magic is bent on destroying the school. A Drow princess is gaining powers faster than she knows what to do with them. Her best friend, a Jasper Elf can’t remember who she is, and her boyfriend turns into a wolf at night and runs with his pack. By day, they’re trying out for the school play, worrying about who’s going to the fall dance, and oh yeah, are excited about Halloween when the dead can finally talk to the living again. Just your typical teenager in America when magic returns. Alison, the Drow and her best friend, Izzie, the Jasper Elf are determined to get everything they can out of high school… even if they have to stay one step ahead of the Dark families to make it to graduation.

THE TRAIN

Chapter 01

Shay and Alison, at Starbucks, end of summer. Almost time for Alison to go back to school in Virginia. Alison has learned martial arts during the summer (Brownstone), Shay helped her work out at Warehouse, exercises to help Alison’s spatial awareness of souls and energy. Brownstone came in, and all ordered their favorites, double expresso for him, Chai tea with soy milk, and Alison with her green lemonade. They head toward the magical train, and a Light elf is spotted, who had given James bad info at one time. As they make their way down to their station, Brownstone gives her s “dad” talk – boys, importance of school, keep your legs together, etc. All Shay says, is “Have some fun. The rest will fall into place. Life has a way of doing that. Say hello to Izzie for us and go have fun with your friends. Make memories.” Alison boarded, found a window seat, and watched as the train whooshed away. A few minutes later (twelve), across the country, Alison was met by Peter, Ethan, Aya, and Kathleen. Kathleen had taken thirty-two minutes from Paris.

THE CONSEQUENCES

Chapter 02

Peter showed them a spell he had learned that sum (how to cause the ground to crack open in front of you), but he hadn’t learned how to turn it off, so some of the School’s wizards and withes cast a security bubble around them, and re-formed the side walk, with the warning to not do that in the town. They were back to school, and could not cast spells when “normies” were around! When they arrived, they were told that the Headmistress, Mara Berens, wanted to see them ASAP. Emma, Kathleen, Alison and Aya all went. Izzie was already there. “I am wondering exactly what happened to your room, because when we went in this morning to deliver linens, it was torn up from top to bottom. I wanted you girls to learn the lesson on your own,” she said sternly. “Normally this could get you suspended, but I gather from the astounded looks on your faces, that you did. Nonetheless, you will be responsible for cleaning up the dining hall for the next week… at every meal. Maybe next time you will know not to bring random creatures up to your rooms.” Mara smiled at them all, behind their backs, as they left.

THE DRAGON

Chapter 03

The girls went to their room, and saw damage, even though it had been repaired already. Yes, definitely dragon claw marks. Izzie had taken the egg out of the barn, and put it in their room before she had left, unbeknownst to them all. After they had unpacked, they went to find the dragon, looking at the entrance to the cave in which they had found the egg (all piled high with stones, and brush), so decided to go to the orchard, and on the way met Horace, who had been watching over him until they got back. He was in a small cave, deeper into the trees, where small game abounded. Horace described dragons in general to the group (See Creatures, Silver Dragons), and took the group to see him. Bonded with group, even from inside the egg, and seemed to acknowledge them all as his mother when they met. Voice sounded like a teen-age girl’s. Can’t fly yet, too young. He will be left to grow in the woods, as a silver dragon is designed to take care of itself. He invited them to come and visit.

THE FIRST MEAL

Chapter 04

First official meal in the cafeteria. . They had spelled the place to look extra-special for the first day of school. Magical stars flickered on the curved ceiling high over their heads. Alison watched, entranced by the energy. Oriceran sky on ceiling, live plants, with flowers, moving around the walls. Berens made opening remarks at first official dinner of the semester. General rules of the school, etc., and new week-end curfew rule. Group missing Tanner and Luke. Tanner comes in, and everyone remembers that he’s a “Toombie” – has a small ball of dark in his soul.

LIGHTS OUT

Chapter 05

Izzie and Alison talk about their summer, Alison’s training with Brownstone and Shay, Izzie’s sleep spell, the dragon, and then the girls made it outside and onto the grounds for the first night stroll of their sophomore year. girls made it outside and onto the grounds for the first night stroll of their sophomore year. Out of everything Alison missed about being there, these walks were number one on her list. Izzie felt the same way. They meet with Horace, as usual, talk about summer. He had gone to visit his Aunt Estelle. Alison tells Izzie she’s going to open up about her blindness this year. “I don’t want it to be a thing anymore.” Izzie agrees, and about then Luke shows up, in his wolf form. Izzie acknowledges him, pets him, and the howls call him back into the night. They go back up to the dorm, to wait until morning.

LOUPER

Chapter 06

Extra-activities sign-up sheets were posted on the wall, and the students crowded to get their names down, either with wand or pen. Luke signed up for Louper, Alison for the talent show, Peter for lighting crew and newspaper, Izzie for the play (Wizard of Oz), Ethan, Peter and Grace in the Entrepreneur’s club, other for the Future Leaders’ Club. Many other interests were represented, some with only two or three sign-ups, some with 0.

Chapter 07

In the Dark Magic class, Professor Powell informs the class of its goals and expectations, and Izzie “gets even” with some of the kids who snickered at Tanner. She has vowed to protect him, as he is Alison’s friend. Peter, using Ethan as an example, shows that counter spells can be pleasant.

THE TRY-OUTS

Chapter 08

Izzie goes to try out for the lead, Dorothy, in the school play. Emma goes along for moral support. The Future Leaders Club is meeting, having already elected a president, Secretary, and Treasurer. Club rules needed to be established. Will begin with a run-through of the rules. Izzie and Emma arrive at the auditioning, seat themselves, watch others. Role of Dorothy has only two applicants – Claire and Izzie. Emma thought that Claire sounded like a dying cat when she sang. As Izzie auditioned, Claire and her group made fun of her, so that Izzie started to react, her magic building in her until with the last note of Somewhere Over the Rainbow her energy exploded, pushing everyone in the audience back in their seats, and knocking Horace to the floor.

CHANNELING CLASS

Chapter 09

Izzie and Luke talk, getting to know more about each other, then walk to Channeling class. Max Regency , the teacher, a gnome, describes channeling as “ the essence of every kind of magic out there, including those shifters who walk in the shadows of the magical community. People think that channeling is only for those who can do magic, like elves and witches, but surprisingly, it is for all magical beings. In this class, I am going to teach you how to use that energy to empower whatever talent you have inside you.” Max groups the class into “magic” and “shifters”, and tells them what to do. “You can channel energy in two ways, really. By holding hands and concentrating, or by combining your magic streams. For elves, it usually works better if you hold hands, touch wands, or just mix the stream, and shifters....” “Shifters, this is my favorite. By pressing your forehead once against that of another shifter who is outside your pack in your human form, you form a bond of sorts. You will be able to communicate easier telepathically, and if you stand together touching fingertips, you will be able to track others. Of course, you can already do this in wolf form, but this is without any kind of change.” Alison and Izzie led the class.

INTEGRATION WITH NORMALS

Chapter 10

One of the main courses taught from the second year on, the very foundation of the School of Necessary Magic, was Integration with Normals. This was a class that every semester included different outings with the non-magicals. It started small during the sophomore year and grew over the remaining two years of the student’s high school career. The magical parents and teachers weren’t all that fond of the class, claiming it taught the kids to hide who they really were, but those who lived, functioned, and mixed with the normals knew that it was essential to maintaining the rules set forth by the governing bodies. It was considered inappropriate to use magic in front of the non-magical. This class was very important, and a cornerstone for graduation from the school. Mara Berens was in charge of it. First session will be a Meet and Greet with students from a local Private Boarding School. The meet and greet will take place at one of the small restaurants in town for lunch. You may not give away that you know magic. I have instructed Mr. Rigby to hand out little sheets to everyone with the lists of normals’ version of sophomore class schedules. If someone asks you, those are the classes you are taking. The problem was that, the funny thing about magical beings—especially teenagers—was that when they started to live in a magical world, they seemed to forget how to integrate into normal life. The luncheon goes well with one exception- one of the Boarding School kids had a magical firecracker he couldn’t control. Ethan had to use his powers to do so. They did not tell Mara, so everyone went to the Mall as a treat, where the magical history was shown along with the human history, available only to those with magical abilities.

THE LOUPER TEAM TRYOUTS

Chapter 11

First year the sophomores were allowed to try for the team, and were very nervous. Luke had the support of his group - Ethan Kathleen, Izzie, et al with special T-shirts with Team Luke “The Wolfman” Jackson Written in big bold letters across their shoulders .They would be in the stands rooting for him. Professor Regency called out for the tryouts, on the Louper Field. “I want to point out that just because you were on the team last year does not mean you automatically have the right to be on the team this year. Now, since we do everything as a team, I want everyone to drop their things and do twelve laps around the field—no magic. You can all thank Wayne and Henry, since they can’t seem to handle the fact that I am short.” Luke took off, and Wayne and Henry tried to push him off the field. Max used a spell to make the, itch, then reversed it. Eleanor Hudson was conducting the try-outs for the cheer-leading team, and had few takers. Magical teens didn’t seem to be interested. Max divided the older players up into two groups, keeping the sophs separate. Luke told them, “It’s not about how strong they are. It’s about how smart you are. I watched a Milltown Kemana game once where the newbie on the team beat the other member with a simple baseline character with no skill level. He was seriously all about showing us that it’s what you do with what you have that matters.” Ethan and Peter brought out bins with equipment, which Max gave out, explaining that it didn’t matter how many years you had been playing, you would be starting out at level one, then progresses from there. Tryouts will be several weeks long. “All right, so you will be using magically-enhanced virtual reality headgear on the open field today. This is not a battle. You won’t be challenging anyone, but it will give you the chance to get used to being in a virtual world and learn how to maneuver in it. This won’t be as shocking to those of you who have played before but for the few where this is your first or second time, remember that you will physically be playing the game on this field with everyone else. They will be in the same world as you, only when you look around during a game, you will see them as their character. Be careful maneuvering at first. Don’t get overzealous since you can be a bit wobbly your first time around. Your characters have been picked at random, and won’t have any bearing on who you are if you join the team. “Put on the headset and click the green button on the side. When you’ve had enough, come over and watch the upperclassmen. It’s quite a show during tryouts.” Luke’s player was an Ice Creature with large shards of ice jutting out all over his body. He watched the frost wafting from him.

RELAXING

Chapter 12

Kathleen, Alison, Izzie , Luke and Tanner and the group were going into town on the week-end. As they sat in Starbucks, they heard a group of Dark Magic followers talking about ruining the school, the plans they had, and that “The Girl” they were all looking for was worth a lot of money to whomever found her. Alison thought that this might be her, and was nervous about that. Izzie suddenly was dizzy, and began seeing visions of fighting, dark magic being used, and ??? She didn’t know what it might mean. Alison saw her worry, saw the colors swirling in her soul, and was worried for her.

Chapter 13

The group had decided to go to the local roller rink to relax, and did so, to the Roller Rink-O-Rama.(See Locations, Roller Rink-O-Rama ) After a special number, five Dark Magic wizards and witches came in and started throwing magic fireballs around at the people, causing them to fall, etc. Alison’s group responded immediately with their magic, protecting the people, but Izzie got hit with a big bolt. Professor fuller came in, threw a protective spell around everyone as the dark ones opened a portal and escaped. Fuller then covered everyone there with a mind-wipe spell “ Never was, never will be”. But it would only last about twenty minutes, and everyone needed to be in a reasonable position when they woke up, so the group got moving, , pulling and pushing on the humans, moving their limbs like they were mannequins. Emma had a broken arm, and they tool her back to School to properly fix it. The bus driver had a spell put on him, so that he would calmly drive them back to the school.

THE FAERY FESTIVAL

Chapter 14

It’s the Faery Festival tonight. The faeries from Oriceran visit for one or two nights and they have like a ritual dance and flight to wish luck on the plants and animals for wintertime on Earth. They do it on Oriceran too, but they started coming to Earth as well since winters can be so harsh here.” Alison and Izzie go out into the forest, where they can watch, and sit and enjoy. The faeries were some of the loveliest creatures on Oriceran. They were only about five inches tall, with delicate wings that glowed different colors. They had cherubic faces and wore little green outfits, kind of like Tinker Bell. “Mara said that some years the Queen of the Faeries comes to the celebration. Her light shines gold, and brighter than any of the other faeries out there. When she sings the trees and grass bend toward her, drawn to the natural essence she puts out. Her coming depends on what kind of winter she thinks we are going to have. She usually only comes when it will be a bad winter.” The songs of the faeries were comforting too. The music was mild and carefree, and their voices floated through the air like soft flower petals. Alison and Izzie talk about what Alison would do in the Talent Show, and Alison admitted that she could sing. She sang “The Object of My Affection”, as a sample, and the faeries stopped their singing to listen and join in with her.

THE DARK TRAIL

Chapter 15

and Peter talk about the Louper try-outs. Luke is getting bored, and wants to get into a real game. Spells Class. Started today’s class with a spell to get their juices flowing. They were to move different objects from one podium to another. Aya was the champ, having been moving her dolls from one place to another for years. Even Ethan paid attention. Move on to a harder spell. This one will help you read magical trails, which can tell you where the being is going. It’s a form of tracking that is used almost daily by bounty hunters. For the spell, everyone, no matter how you muster your magic, you focus on the trails, release a thin fog, and say the casting either out loud or in your head. The words are ‘Trackius Beings.’” Different colors signifying different magical beings. Izzie found a dark magic trail, of someone who had visited the school within the last week, and had not gone into any classrooms. Eleanor (the teacher) and Izzie followed the trail, and discovered nothing. Izzie and Alison realize they make a good team, Izzie to find trails, clues, Alison to see the spirits involved.

TRANSFORMATION CLASS

Chapter 16

Izzie and Luke attend Transformation class. Elias Hodges, the Teacher. To me transfiguration is a complete change of form or appearance into a more beautiful or spiritual state,” Elias explained. “Like shifters.” He hated how much shifters were disliked. It wasn’t because of what they did, but because of the stigma that continued to be passed from generation to generation. If parents stopped hating, he would eventually have a class that understood what he was trying to tell them. He was tired of watching the shifters in his class hang their heads in shame. “There is a beauty to the shape and form of a wolf as it transforms from an everyday state to an animal that is sleek and strong and has eyes sharper than any other creature and hearing that could track a footstep a hundred miles away if it wanted to. Trolls are the same way, for that matter. They start out as these little furry things with sharp teeth and can grow taller or shorter, morph into the shape of a dog or cat or even a very large toucan. While the shifter changes completely, no matter what the troll turns into, he keeps the same fur and teeth. I think of the troll as the Cheshire cat of Oriceran; always watching and quiet, but incredibly intelligent and sneaky.” Well, in this class you are going to learn all about shifters and other creatures that transfigure, and hopefully, we can change your mind by the end.” “Yeah, right.” Luke scoffed under his breath. “We’ll live and die as outcasts. The group talk about what they will do during fall break. Alison volunteered that my DAD and Aunt Shay are taking me to this resort kemana for the whole time. I hear it’s like one of the best times you can have beneath the Earth.” “I’ve heard about that place,” Kathleen whispered. “They supposedly enchant the ceiling of the caves to look like the blue sky of the tropics during the day and the Oriceran sky at night.” Alison also asks for everyone’s attention, and tells them, in public, as a group, that she is blind. Can’t see a thin. There was little reaction, because Aya had already told them. Their acceptance overwhelmed her, and she KNEW that were all “her family.”

Chapter 17

Izzie goes to the station with everybody, seeing them off. She will stay at the school, helping with the horses, and further exploring the grounds. After everyone was gone, Izzie decided to go over to the Mall, and look around a bit, despite Mara’s warning that they should never go anywhere alone. While there, she saw the Dark wizards again, and again hallucinated – dark alley, fighting, fire balls- screaming. She didn’t know what it meant, or who the people were- but it had to be important. She would tell Alison when she got back. Alison met Shay and Brownstone, took the flight to Miami (Brownstone sleeping all of the way), and took a hired car to the kemana, right outside the city. Settle in, and it is beautiful to Alison – the energies in swirling colors, making everything into magical paintings. She wondered for a moment if it was as beautiful to regular eyes as it was to hers.

AT THE KEMANA RESORT

Chapter 18

After checking in and getting settled, the three of them went shopping on the strip. While they were there, they noticed three Dark wizards. “I heard about these guys. They are scouts on paid assignment, to see how humans might be able to take over the kemana one at a time. Whoever they are working for must have ties to the resort business. Big money for a place like this.” They watched as a local official approached the three. He questioned them, and when they were evasive one of them pulled his wand, and pointed it at the official. At this point Brownstone, shay and Alison stepped in, all backing each other. The three wizards were subdued and put out of the kemana, with a spell on them so that they would never be able to enter a kemana again. Then they all went for ice cream.

Chapter 19

Halloween coming, costumes were the talk of the day, each trying out their idea on the others, when Leira Berens drove up in her green Mustang. With Yumfuck. Leira had come there to visit her grandmother after hearing about all the dark magic happenings that had gone on near the school in recent days. Mara calls over the speaker system for all to meet in the Cafeteria, to celebrate Troll Day. Yumfuck takes over the mike, and shows off enlarging himself to eight feet, then shrinking to five inches, swimming in a bowl of Doritos, and morphing into different animals. He was enjoyed by all.

THE HALLOWEEN BONFIRE

Chapter 20

Carving pumpkins, both magically and the old-fashioned way. Toasting marshmallows, frying the pumpkin seeds and pigging out on them. Alison dressed as a Pirate girl, as Tanner was a pirate. Fireworks coming, by Mara and Horace. Grace sees her Grandmother's ghost, who is In-between. Talks with her, and almost gets kidnapped into In-between, but Yumfuck saved her.

GENERAL ANDERSON’S VISIT

Chapter 21

The General decides on a surprise visit on a week-end, call Mara about fifteen minutes from her office. Mara gives the Group ( Luke, Tanner, Ethan, Peter, Kathleen, Aya, Emma, Izzie and Alison) a pass to go to the kemana, so they’ll not be around to jinx the visit with the General. All OK. Mara wipes the ROTC sign-up board (no sign-ups). It was a constant work in progress, and Mara didn’t see that going away any time soon. The magical community was only going to grow larger, and she knew that in time kids would sign up for the program, but for now, they didn’t even know if they could trust the magicals working with the government. And Mara was worried about the Dark Magic showing up at the school.

THE KEMANA

Chapter 22

Everyone is happy to go down. They go to the Coffee shop to exchange their money for Ruby Falls, Kathleen goes shopping for dresses, and the rest browse around, meeting several hours later. Ethan want to take them to a magic joke shop he found, so he tries, and gets them all lost, in the willen section of town. A willen, Thomas, agrees to get them back to the center of town, but for a price. Kathleen’s bracelet. He did, and they again shopped in the center of town, Peter buying a skull and an old spell book. Time to go back up, before they got into trouble.

Chapter 23

Not having eaten in the kemana, they all went to the cafeteria for their meal. Ethan gave a gold cuff back to Kathleen, just like the one she had given up. Max Regency told Luke he had made the Louper team, and complimented him on his playing abilities. In the cafeteria, the Team asks him to join them at the Team table, and Luke is torn, because he really wanted to sit with the Group. He went with the Team, and the Group felt jilted, as they had accepted him when no one else had. They talk, and decide to “Let Luke enjoy his victory, even if it’s not with us.” Back in their room, Izzie is upset about Luke’s choice, but decides that she wishes him well, and is still his friend. All go to bed, and Alison decides to review the week, stopping at “now”. She doesn’t want to look into the future until she knows she can handle her abilities.

GYM CLASS

Chapter 24

Annabelle Grant has taken over the class, and assigns them dodgeball. Magical dodgeball! . (See Miscellaneous Games) If they held on for five seconds or more, they won. In the past, others had tried to break the school record of two minutes and seventeen seconds. That record had been on the books for about seven years without anyone even coming close. Izzie won, topping the school record by four seconds.

Chapter 25

At dinner, Luke again sits with the Team, but makes a date to sit with them the next morning. Izzie and Ethan upset, and Kathleen takes some sausage out to feed the dragon. Can’t find him for over an hour, then he appeared. Now about the size of a St. Bernard. They talked about naming him, and Emma told them that he already had a name, his own. “His name is Dorvu, which means ‘one who understands the ways of a dragon.’” They discovered that he liked s sprouts. They played with him all evening, as they felt sorry that he had none of his own kind, his clan, to be with.

FIRST WINTER SNOW

Chapter 26

Izzie tries to describe the visual beauty to Alison of the pure white landscape, the snowflakes. In Alison’s mind fresh snow was, “The stuff on your front porch nobody has stepped on yet. Here, fresh snow is everything between and around you.” Alison senses the snow, because, “Everything gives off energy, magical or not, and snow gives off pure white light.” Izzie and Alison exchange gifts, as they will not be together at Christmas. Alison gave Izzie a beautiful red ruby bracelet, with the stones from Ruby Falls. Izzie gave Alison a silver necklace, with Sisters for Life inscribed on a bar on it, in English, on one side, and in magic, on the other. Alison could see the magical words. It was the first time she had ever seen anything spelled out before. Both girls put on their gifts. They dress for outdoors, and go to see Horace, to give him his gift from them. Horace had an oak fire going for them. They gave him his gift, a pair of new magical thermal-wear gloves. He was appreciative, and they sat at the fire, as he told them stories of his Aunt Estelle.

THEIR DATE

Chapter 27

Just before vacation, the Sophomore class did their second Integration the other school’s class, to Monticello, the historic home of Thomas Jefferson, his slave concubine, and their children. The others had not told of the magic they had used, but the same boy asked Ethan to do some magic for them, a ghost, or transforming a plant, or something simple. Ethan considered it, but Luke saw them talking, and stopped Ethan from doing anything rash. The boy threatened to blackmail Ethan if he didn’t, and Ethan promised to mind-wipe the boy if he told. Stand-off. While on the trip, Alison gave Tanner his gift from her, a pocket knife with his initials on it, and he kissed her. On the bus, Tanner gave her his gift, a Ruby Falls coin. It’s been charmed for good luck, and has the date when we first met and the date of this Christmas on it. They say if you keep it in your pocket, the person who gave it to you will always have you on their mind.” They sit together on the bus, and promise to be together at the Christmas Dance. Tanner admits he doesn’t want to share her with anyone else, and she felt the same way about him, and tells him so.

THE TALENT SHOW

Chapter 28

Mara receives a request from a contact in Charlottsville. Some of the elves had sensed more dark magic moving toward or inside of the town. They wanted her to come out and do a sweep. They hoped that whoever it was had left as quickly as they had arrived. This reminded her of Izzie and her finding of the Dark Magic trail, and Mara knew it would only be a matter of time before Izzie found out the truth regarding who she was, and who her parents were. She had hoped it would not come so soon. She went to her closet and got out the three memory balls. The dark spots pulsing on them had grown. The orbs now showed more darkness than light. Mara was worried for Izzie, not knowing what might happen when she remembered. She looked outside the window, at the Louper field, and the Teams then practicing there, and remembered her first experiences with the game, their first win. The money had been nice (maintenance), but she loved the comeradery it created. She watched Luke high-fiving other players, laughing, and joking with people who had gone out of their way to bully him during freshman year because he was a shifter. The game brought people together and helped to take away some of the stigmas that the kids dealt with on a regular basis in high school. Mara goes to the Talent show. Alison is ready, and watched some of the other acts. The first student up was a magic act that included a dog his parents had brought through a portal for the event. He was funny and made the audience laugh, especially when the dog answered any question the student asked. The next couple of acts were comedians, some funny and some not, but the kids in the audience were good sports about it, laughing even when they struggled to find the humor. The next one was a tap dance, who used his wand, but it wasn’t working well, and his act was a flop. Needed a new wand. Next up is Alison, a sophomore who will be singing the great jazz tune Round Midnight by Thelonious Monk.” She walked to the center of the stage and stood in front of the microphone, just like during rehearsals, and cleared her throat. She felt a bit more than nervous. Her stomach was doing flip-flops, and her heart beat wildly. She saw all of the energy in the audience, with Izzie and Tanner in the front row. Izzie cast a spell, surrounding her with Faery light as she sang. The crowd was silent as they listened to her bluesy voice sing the song with ease. She closed her eyes and swayed her shoulders, listening to the chiming of the piano keys. She felt right at home up on that stage and stopped worrying about all the people in the audience. This was the song her Mother used to sing, and she remembered. The song ended with just a few extra notes on the piano. The whole room was absolutely silent, and she slowly opened her eyes, wondering if they liked it. Before panic set in, the whole room jumped to their feet and exploded in applause and cheers. She brought the house down. Ethan ran down the aisle and tossed her a bouquet of flowers that everyone had chipped in on. Alison saw him coming and smelled the blooms just before she saw the flicker of energy flying toward her. She caught them and waved again, taking her leave from the stage.

THE WINTER MIXER

Chapter 29

Grand dining hall decorated, snow, winter sky, frozen pond, Christmas trees, garlands, ferns. Mara wondered what Leira and Yumfuck would be doing for Christmas, and sent them a bolt of energy, getting one in return. The students were flooding in now, and the dance was about to kick off. Everyone was dressed to the hilt. The boys looked more than suave in tuxedos, and some had added a holiday touch of their own like a red bow tie or reindeer socks. The girls wore floor-length gowns and carried the small nosegays Mara had gifted to every girl in the school just for that event. There are detailed descriptions of what each member of the Group wore. The Entrepreneurs Club took the stage, showing a project they had been working on all year (See Technology, Connectivity) The party was a blast and lasted until the early morning. By the time they dragged themselves off the dance floor, bow ties had been undone, jackets were off, and girls were carrying their shoes in their hands. The guys left the girls at the top of the stairs, and Tanner stole one last kiss from Alison under the mistletoe before heading off to bed. The whole thing had been a huge success. An awesome night with an amazing group of people.

THER LAST DAYS

Chapter 30

Alison to go to Brownstone’s, Izzie to go with Mara, and have lots of company with Leira and Yumfuck, who will teach her lots of card games. They will call each other while they are gone. Meet with the group, group hug, and all get on the bus to Starbucks and the train station. Alison boards the train, Izzie on the platform, seeing her off. Just as the train is leaving, she tilted her head to the side, noticing a dark energy pass behind Izzie. It didn’t seem to be a person, because she couldn’t detect a soul, not even a dark one. It was more of a magical energy mist. She started to point behind her friend, but the train whooshed out and then she was too far away to catch Izzie’s attention. Besides, it had already passed her, and Izzie wouldn’t be able to see the energy anyway. She shrugged and hoped that what she had just seen wouldn’t return. Izzie, on the platform, feels a dark rush, and see the original fight, and then jolted back into reality, confused. She stayed still for a few moments, then wondered, “What the hell was that?” Alison touches the coin Tanner had given her, saying I miss you already, and he replied! It was like a cell phone, except it was connected through touch and you couldn’t have a full conversation. She was pleased and surprised. At her arrival, she was met by Shay and Brownstone. “Welcome home, Alison,” the bounty hunter said. “Thanks, Dad!”