Young Writers Society

Lesson 1

As soon as the bell rang to signal the end of the lesson, I gathered my books up and left the classroom, winding my way threw the corridors that led outside. I ran flat out until I reached the edge of the forest, when I was forced to slow down so that I didn’t trip over the sticks and pebbles that hid amongst the leaf litter covering the dirt path. Even though I had only been there once in the dark, I somehow managed to find my way to the little cottage with surprising ease. When I arrived Serena was sat on the small porch grinding something with a pestle and mortar. I walked slowly towards the house, trying to stay as quiet as possible so that I didn’t disturb her peaceful demeanour. I reached the steps up to the porch and just stood there, watching her.

“Come on up,” she said, without even looking at me.

I climbed the steps and put my books down by the railings before turning back to her. She tapped the pestle on the edge of the mortar and put it down on a small table that stood in between two chairs. Then she gestured me to sit in the empty chair next to her, so I did.

“Do you know what magic is, Amethyst?” she asked me, picking up a small object that looked a little bit like a Swiss army knife.

“Energy, I think,” I said, thinking back to the few things we were told about magic in non-magic schools. “Like electricity.”

“Did a teacher tell you that?” she asked, smiling as if remembering a joke I wouldn’t understand.

I nodded.

“I will teach you many things about magic, Amethyst,” she started, fiddling with device in her hands. “I will teach you how to control it, how to sense it, how to use it in potions and spells and, of course, I will teach you all about how it works. But there is one thing that I cannot teach you about magic – that is how to understand it. That will come in time.”

“And what happens if I can’t understand it?” I asked.

Serena flicked the device in her hands and it unfolded itself, looking like a rusty pair of cybernetic glasses, and held them out to me. “You won’t be able to use it if you don’t understand it. Only the best witches and wizards truly understand magic, others simply have a basic understanding of it,” she said, smiling. I took the device from her and looked at it. “But, like I said, that will come in time. For now I will teach you how to sense magic, starting with the easiest way. Put them on.” She gestured to the device.

For a moment I just stared at it, not sure what to expect from this rather unorthodox lesson, before putting it on like a normal pair of glasses.

“Now look at the forest,” she instructed.

I looked up and was shocked by what I saw; the sight literally took my breath away. Throughout the forest strings of coloured light rippled along the ground and hung from the trees. The sky looked like one massive rainbow where the colours repeated themselves over and over again, broken up only by the wisps of clouds, which literally had a silver lining.

“Wow,” I breathed after a moment.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Serena said. I nodded. “Magic is energy – that is one of the ways you can describe it. Like all energy it can be found just about anywhere. It cannot be created or destroyed, only transformed into other forms of energy. Casting a spell is basically transforming magic energy into other forms of energy or, sometimes, into other existences. Magic can be transformed into emotions, objects, medicines and, unfortunately, weapons. These are the basics of magic theory, things that every student in this school learnt when they were in primary school. However, do not be fooled into thinking that magic is that simple. Magic is different to any other form of energy, more complex. What exactly it is you must decide for yourself.”

“It’s beautiful,” I said, distantly.

“Please tell me you were listening.”

I turned to Serena and nodded.

“Good. Hand me the glasses,” she said.

I removed the glasses from my face and held them out to her, watching her make a series of flicking gestures to make them fold back up. Then she picked up the mortar and dabbed her finger in the paste she’d been making when I’d arrived. It was ash blue and had the texture of cream based make up. She swept my hair out of my face and gently dabbed the paste under my eyebrows.

“What’s this for?” I asked.

“It relaxes you and helps you sense your magic,” Serena explained, wiping her hand on a small towel on the table. “Now, go sit on the grass and meditate.”

“Meditate?”

She smiled at me. “It’s an important part of learning how to control your magic.”

“Ok,” I said, standing up and making my way down the steps. “But tomorrow, can we work on potions, ‘cause I’ve got a test, which I’ll fail otherwise.”

Serena’s smile became sceptical. “Ok, but only potion theory. I can teach you how to make the potion but it might not work.”

“Ok. It’s the making bit I’m struggling with.” I skipped into the middle of the grass and dropped into a sitting position. I closed my eyes, clearing my head and letting my thoughts all float away. Then I just sat there as I slowly became more and more relaxed and everything I had been worrying about became unimportant. Now that I wasn’t worrying about anything I was noticing things that before seemed unimportant. There was a slight breeze, cold enough to add a little bight to the autumn air and strong enough to rustle the leaves of the trees slightly, and was long enough to tickle my ankles. In the distance a single bird sang, and the only other sign of life was the occasional twig snapping under the weight of a hedgehog or fox or, maybe, something a little bigger. The different scents of fresh grass, autumn flowers and a day old bonfire smoke hung in the air, becoming less noticeable as the wind picked up and whipped my hair around my head. My surroundings offered a serenity that could only be achieved by nature. That serenity was destroyed in an instant as the sound of human footsteps grew closer and closer, breaking twigs on the path and disturbing the leaf litter. I considered opening my eyes to see who it was but thought that I should concentrate on my meditation. I slowly sank back into that peaceful state until the sound of Serena talking to the guest was nothing but a distant murmur.

“Amethyst,” Serena’s voice grew louder, as if she was getting closer to me. “Amethyst.”

I forced my eyes open and squinted as the light suddenly overwhelmed me. My vision was blurry and my eyes ached from the light that I now realised was only the dim light of the sunset.

“Lose yourself a little?” Serena asked, chuckling at me.

“What time is it?” I asked drowsily.

“About six or seven o’clock,” she said, looking up at the sun as if to confirm her guess. “Time for you to go back and hope that you haven’t missed dinner.”

“Oh, right.” I stood up and brushed the dirt from my skirt.

“Will you escort her back?” Serena said to someone, the person who had arrived earlier to see her. I turned round to see who it was. “I don’t want her going back through the forest alone.”

“I may as well,” Parker said. “I have to go back now anyway.”

I reached up, remembering the blue paste on my face, only to discover that it wasn’t there anymore – Serena explained that my skin had absorbed it. Parker looked at me impatiently and said his goodbyes in a tone that told me he wanted me to hurry up. As we walked away, she called after me to let me know that I should come back at the same time tomorrow. We walked in silence for a while – Parker wasn’t exactly the talkative type and I was a little worried about how he’d react if I spoke first. His walking pace was annoyingly fast, not helped by the fact that his legs were longer than mine, and I was forced to run every few moments to keep up.

“Can you slow down?” I asked, finally plucking up enough courage to speak.

“Can you speed up?” he said mockingly.

“No. It would be easier if you slowed down,” I said.

His pace slowed slightly so that I fell into step with him. “You walk slowly,” he moaned.

“My legs are shorter than yours,” I said defensively. “I’m supposed to be slower than you.”

“We really will miss dinner at this rate.”

“Well I’m sorry. Next time don’t escort me back. Why were you up at Serena’s place anyway?”

“That’s none of your business.”

“Fine, be that way.” I suddenly remembered that I had left my books on Serena’s porch. “Damn,” I groaned quietly.

Parker turned and scowled at me. “What?”

“Nothing,” I lied.

His scowl became sceptical. “And now the truth,” he said.

I didn’t want to tell him because I knew he’d look at me like I was an idiot but, at the same time, I realised that there was no chance of me being able to make him believe or even accept a lie.

“I left my books behind,” I admitted.

He suddenly shoved the pile of books he’d been holding into my chest and said, “Don’t do it again, idiot.”

I looked down – they were my books. I couldn’t stop myself from smiling as I took the books from him. “Thank you,” I said.

“Don’t bother. Stop smiling – it’s creepy.”

“I can’t help it; I just saw signs that Phoenix Parker may actually have a heart.”

He scowled at me. “If you turned up without your books you’d be even more hopeless in class tomorrow.”

I couldn’t help but laugh at that. “I really am terrible, aren’t I?” I said. “But I’ll get better.” I looked him right in the eyes. “I’ll become a much better witch, just you watch.”

Parker’s lips pulled back in an amused smile. “Oh will you?”

I nodded. We were now getting close to the edge of the forest. The light peaked through the leaves and branches and lay in scattered shards at our feet.

“You should stop trying to find out about your family,” Parker said suddenly, catching me off guard.

“I need to know,” I protested.

“You’re better off not knowing some things in life.”

I didn’t reply to that. Something in Parker’s tone scared me into silence. We exited the forest and continued towards the school building, without saying another word the whole time. We entered the dining hall just as everyone else was finishing up and were intercepted by a small woman with a bun of straggly brown hair and a kind face with bags under her eyes.

“I was told that you two might miss dinner so I set some aside,” she told us cheerfully.

She led us to one of the empty tables and pulled out two chairs, indicating for us to sit down, before disappearing in the direction of the kitchen. Parker sat down and pulled his chair under the table. I hesitated before sitting down next to him. The woman came back a few moments later holding two plates of food and placed them down in front of us. We sat in silence, just eating, and I couldn’t help but wonder if Parker felt as awkward as I did.

“You know about my family, right?” I said.

He pretended he hadn’t heard me.

“What do you know?”

Still no acknowledgement.

“My family’s why you dislike me so much, right?”

I felt my heart sink a little. I quickly finished my meal and dumped my plate on a tray piled high with dirty plates. Then I walked as quickly as I could out of the hall, eager to get away from Parker.

“I can’t help it,” he called after me, catching up faster than I’d thought he would. “Your family represents everything that’s wrong with magic. They’re a family from high society with enough power to make them think that they can do anything they want including torture and murder. They’re the kind of people I hate the most. I can’t stand high society families and the Nights are one of the worst. If you knew what they’d done, then you wouldn’t be so eager to obliviously rush head first into their history.”

I stepped away from him. “You don’t have to be so harsh about it. It’s not like that’s my fault,” I said, looking around at the people who were starting to gather around us.

“I know,” he said, so quietly that I almost didn’t hear him. “I know that it’s not your fault they’re like that but I don’t care. It is your fault that all of this is being brought to light again. Some things are better off left in the past. It would have been better if you really were dead.”

I don’t know what exactly happened next. One second, Parker and I were arguing, the next he had flown into the wall behind him. I stood completely still, staring at the boy on the floor in front of me. What had happened?

“Amethyst?” Rune called out from the crowd worriedly.

I ignored her, highly aware of the fact that I couldn’t hold my tears in for much longer.

“What the hell is going on?” Celia Pitch shouted from somewhere in the crowd.

The crowd grew louder and louder every moment they stood there, more and more people slowly joining, but Parker said nothing; he didn’t even look up at me. Someone broke off from the crowd and came up behind me, letting their hand rest lightly on my shoulder for a moment as they passed by. It was Ryan, who was now stood at Parker’s side, helping him up.

“What happened, Phoenix?” he asked, putting a hand on Parker’s shoulder.

Parker didn’t reply.

“Ok, then, give me the silent treatment,” Ryan said. “Amethyst, what’s going on?”

I didn’t reply either. Instead, I just looked up, right into his eyes, and he instantly fell silent. I wondered, for a moment, if his silence meant that I was crying. Then, as if he sensed how trapped I felt, he waved at the crowd to tell them to leave. Most people did as they were told and left but some of the people from Ether stayed, scowling at me and expecting some sort of explanation.

“Now, Amethyst...” Ryan started.

I couldn’t hold back the tears any longer, so I did what I do every time things get too difficult – I turned and ran as fast as I could away from the trouble.

“Amethyst,” Leo called after me, but I just kept running.

Blinded by my tears and running too fast to stop myself, I ran right into Mr Keats when he turned the corner in front of me.

“Miss Night, what are you doing?” he asked.

I looked up at his face and his anger suddenly disappeared, replaced by shock and guilt.

“I’m sorry,” I mumbled, more tears flowing down my cheeks.

“What...” he stuttered. “Um...has...has something happened?”

I backed away from him. “It’s nothing,” I said, not looking into his eyes. “Just forget about this.”

“Miss Night, if something has happened you need to tell us,” he said.

I looked right into his eyes, daring him to look away first. “Why?” I hissed. “You won’t care and you won’t do anything about it. So just forget about it.”

His eyes narrowed in a scowl. “Miss Night,” he said in calm yet commanding tones. “What happened?”

“What do you think happened?” I said. “As usual, someone expressed their dislike for me and my family, someone knows more about my family than me and someone uses that knowledge as a reason to hate me.”

I pushed past him and kept walking down the corridor in no precise direction, with no precise destination; I just wandered around and ended up at the dormitory for the Ether students. Hesitantly, I pushed the door open and walked in. Everyone’s eyes were instantly on me.

“What is she doing here?” Celia Pitch hissed.

I ignored her and made my way through the common room.

“Amethyst?” Leo called after me.

Fey was following me and I was tempted to turn around to tell her not to, but I couldn’t bring myself to say it.

“Are you all right?” she asked.

“Is she all right? Is she all right? It’s Phoenix you should be worrying about,” Celia said, standing up and walking towards us.

I opened the door to the corridor of bedrooms and froze – Parker was stood in front of me. For a moment he looked as horrified as me; then he immediately forced a natural look onto his face and stepped to the side to let me walk past. His face looked slightly swollen, sending a pang of guilt shooting through my body.

“Amethyst?” Fey said just as I was about to pass him.

“Just leave it Fey,” Parker said, silencing her with nothing more than a look in her direction. “I deserved it.” He looked at me for a moment, as if he expected me to agree.

Deserved it? What did he mean? Was what happened in the corridor done by me? Surely not. I said nothing and simply walked past him in the direction of my room. I went straight into the room and closed the door without even looking in Fey’s direction, hoping that that would make it clear to her that I didn’t want to talk about it – she apparently got the message. Collapsing back on to my bed, I stared up at the ceiling until it started to move in swirls and made my eyes and head ache. I let the books that I had been holding the entire time tumble to the floor, making quite loud thudding sounds as they hit the wooden floor.