CHAPTER 9
“I have a full day of classes today,” I groaned as I sat in the seat Hazel had saved for me. “Qualitative Spellcraft and then Charms and Potions.”
“The morning will be taken up with trying to unravel the spell cast on Professor Reynolds,” Aiden pointed out, using his fork for emphasis.
“And you’ll be with me in the afternoon,” Hazel added, wrapping her arm around my shoulders.
I brightened slightly. “That helps. Thanks.”
Headmistress Blackthorn stood at the front of the room, drawing my attention.
“She doesn’t usually make announcements at breakfast,” I murmured.
“Maybe it has to do with the Olympics?” Aiden suggested.
I considered that, watching her get everyone’s attention. “Makes sense. If it had to do with Professor Reynolds, she’d come to us directly.”
“Good morning, students,” the headmistress began, and any lingering whispers dissipated. “I wanted to update you on those of you who qualified for the Magical Olympics. We have quite a long list of names who signed up, although not all of you have been approved by the overseeing committees. As a reminder, you have to be passing your classes—I know it’s only the third day of term, but we took your prior three years into account—and have a good standing with the school. Once our professors approved your application, we submitted those names to the Olympic committee along with your portfolio. We received the list of competing students this morning.”
She cleared her throat and pulled a scroll from the depths of her robes with a flourish. “In alphabetical order by last name, our participating students are...”
Several students beat at the tables in front of them, imitating a drum roll punctuated by the clink of metal cutlery against the china plates. It sent a ripple of nervous laughter through the mess hall.
“Thank you,” Headmistress Blackthorn said with a small smile, and the noise quieted. “Sylvia Adams.” A surprised squeal went up from the girl, followed by polite clapping. “Bruce Blackthorn.”
“Hey, I guess being three hundred years old didn’t matter to them,” Aiden said, clapping a hand on his old roommate’s back while Clarissa’s name was called and our table clapped for our friends.
“Idil Brahma. Justin Cockburn. Lawrence Crunch. Siobhan Doyle.”
I was surprised to hear my name, even though I had managed to find the time to submit my name, and I knew my school records were impeccable.
Who knew what the Olympic committee was looking for?
My friends cheered for me.
“Paul Dunne. Shi-Yun Ellis. Trevor Emord. Brian Ertrung. Aiden Evans.”
Our table erupted in applause again.
“Is that everyone into our group who applied?” I asked.
Pierre raised his hand, but chuckled a little. “We have a long wait for my name to be called. My last name is Thoreau.”
I nodded my understanding.
“We’ll be encouraging you guys on from the stands,” Hazel said, hugging my arm.
“Someone has to be your cheerleaders,” Una added, batting her eyes at Pierre, who shrugged. Una frowned at his dismissal.
I wondered why she was continuing to pursue him. He had made it pretty clear that he wasn’t interested in her, in my opinion. Then I realized that I hadn’t seen her with any other man since she’d met Pierre two days prior.
That didn’t seem like a lot of time for most women, but this was Una. She was perpetually falling in love with a new man daily.
Perhaps it was because Pierre was a challenge. She’d never had a challenge before.
The names continued as I was thinking about my friends. I recognized a few here and there. They were my classmates, after all.
There was some confusion when the first Mohammad Mohammad was called, but the headmistress held up her hand and called Mohammed Mohammed immediately after. The two men, completely unrelated, got up from their separate tables and hugged, clapping each other on the back with wide smiles.
Several more names were called, and then the T’s started with Matthew Talon.
Pierre closed his eyes and crossed his fingers.
He was called next, and he visibly relaxed, all the tension gone from his shoulders.
A few more people were named, and then Headmistress Blackthorn rolled up the scroll and tucked it away. “There will be a meeting for the successful Olympians tonight after dinner in the first lecture hall. You will decide which events you wish to participate in and mingle with your fellow teammates. The opening ceremonies are this Saturday, where you will meet the rest of the European contingent. Everyone is invited to attend to support our team.”
The mess hall erupted in cheers, which made the headmistress smile.
“I’m excited to be a part of this!” I exclaimed, bouncing a little in my seat. “We’ll get to meet so many people.”
“You want to meet people?” Hazel said skeptically.
“I like meeting people,” I replied.
“Not really. You have your close friends, and that’s pretty much it,” Rhiannon said quietly.
I bit my lip, trying not to laugh. “That’s because you’re the only ones worth being friends with at the academy.”
“Other people are fair game?” Aiden suggested.
“I think of it as networking,” I said cheerfully. “It’s possible that someone we’ll meet could have a suggestion for my thesis.”
“Ah, there it is,” Una said with a chuckle. “I knew it had to have something to do with knowledge.”
I nodded. “I’ve got all the friendship I need right here. Knowledge, however...” I trailed off meaningfully.
“It is an honor to be considered your friend after only knowing you for a few days,” Pierre said, bowing slightly in his seat.
“You’re on probation to see if you’re worthy of friendship,” I teased.
“I’m not sure if you’re joking or not,” David said, narrowing his eyes suspiciously at me.
I grinned innocently at him.
“We need to hurry,” Clarissa said, glancing at her watch. “Classes start in twenty minutes, and I need to run back up to our room to see if I can find my mother’s diamond ring.”
“Did you lose it?” Bruce asked. “You usually put it on your side table.”
“I know I do,” Clarissa replied. “But it wasn’t there this morning. It’s the only thing I have of hers, and I only have it because it was on me when I was frozen in stone.”
I frowned. “Maybe you knocked it off the table in your sleep?”
She shook her head. “Unlikely. I have a little dish that I put it in, along with my earrings. I can’t sleep with them in.” She pulled her hair back to reveal the large silver hoops. “My mother’s ring has a pretty big diamond in the setting, and I’ve scratched my face in my sleep enough times that I’d rather take it off. Anyway, the earrings were right where I’d left them.”
“Did you forget to take off the ring, and it caught in your sheets?” Lilia suggested.
Clarissa brightened. “That’s a possibility.”
“If you can’t find it before class, we might be able to use a finding spell,” I offered. “Come get me at lunch if you don’t have any luck.”
She got up from the table. “Thanks. I will.”
“We should probably get going, too,” I said to Aiden and Bruce.
“Yeah, all right. Come on, Professor,” Aiden said, and turned to look at the empty seat on the other side of him, away from the rest of our friends. “Professor, where are you?” he said sharply, calling for the toddler.
“When was the last time you saw him?” I asked.
Aiden shrugged. “I’m not sure. To be perfectly honest, I kind of forgot he was there. I’ve only been a parent for a couple days, and he wasn’t mobile yesterday!”
I laughed, and some of the tension in his body vanished. “It’s okay. I put a tracking spell on him, remember?”
“Thankfully.”
I activated the spell, scanning through the mess hall for the indicator. “Well, it appears we have an escape artist on our hands.”
“We’ll take care of your dishes,” Hazel said, picking up my plate and putting it on hers. “You go find the professor.”
“Thanks.” I got to my feet and started pushing through the throngs of people leaving the room. I sighed and looked up at Aiden at my back. “Can you help?” I asked plaintively.
“Make way! Toddler on the loose!” Aiden bellowed.
The crowd of students in front of us chuckled, but made a narrow pathway for us to squeeze through. As we did, several of them made snide comments about how we were distracted by each other, that my mothering instincts hadn’t kicked in, and that we needed to focus more on the baby.
“First of all, he is your professor,” I mumbled to myself. “Second, everyone was listening to the headmistress. Third, you try to become parents in the middle of school when you weren’t expecting it, and then have your baby age randomly.”
“What was that?” Aiden asked, laughter in his tone.
“You heard me,” I snapped without bite.
“I did.” He rested his hand at the base of my neck, the solid weight and warmth soothing. “I also know that you’re doing a great job.”
“Thanks,” I said, almost melting at his praise. “You are, too.”
“I know.” His smugness radiated off him and I wanted to elbow him in the ribs.
Once we were out of the mess hall, I picked up the trail, a thin blue thread, leading upstairs.
“I guess he figured out how to climb stairs,” I said.
Aiden nodded silently and followed me up two flights of stairs to the third floor, and then down one of the boy’s hallways.
Professor Reynolds was sitting in the middle of the hall, staring up at a door.
“There you are, Professor,” I said, dropping to my knees next to him. “I know you’re used to being able to walk around by yourself in the academy, but you can’t just disappear like that while you’re still caught up in this spell, okay? You could get hurt.”
“Up!” the baby professor demanded, lifting his arms.
Aiden scooped him up and rested him on a hip. “That was really far that you traveled, bud. We really weren’t paying attention to you at breakfast. Sorry about that. We’ll try to be better.”