Page 22 of Spelling Disaster

“Here is your key to your room.” She places a slender gold filigree key, as short as my pinky finger, on my open palm. “And the entry code to the dorm is the Fibonacci sequence, so it’s easy to remember.” She makes a little shooing motion with her hands.

Had I freaked her out with my question about Clerics?

So many questions, all of them swimming around my head. Because Clerics clearly exist…I’m here, and my mom.

“You’re not going to come inside with me?” I ask Amy.

Amy continues to giggle and steps back until she’s standing in the single sunspot on the lawn, shielding her eyes from the glow above. “No, hun, this is where we part ways. But you know where to find me if you have any more questions. Everything you need to know is going to be included in whatever file Gladys gave you when you registered. Take care!”

Amy waves a vigorous goodbye and leaves me standing a few paces away from the raised stoop of the front porch.It’s time. There’s no reason for me to be nervous putting in the keycode. No reason to be nervous as I step into the front entry hall, distracted by what she’d said.

The last Cleric had been executed for treason, but Eli or Lark never made mention of it. All my life I’ve heard about the honor of the Clerics and how we are important to our covens for keeping the balance.

Finding that damn book changed things for me.

I find the way to my room, which is catty-corner to one of the bathrooms. Loud and stinky. Already the sound of running water from the showers is painfully clear through the thin walls.

The dorm is co-ed as well. Which I discover when a half-naked dude wrapped in an old blue towel steps out of said bathroom and barks at me to get out of his way. He flings a bit of water my way as he steps past.

Well, this is going to be interesting.

I do my best to not stare after him, to not blush the way my body seems determined to do.

Considering how I’ve never had to truly deal with the opposite sex before, I don’t want to act as ignorant as I am. Up until this point, I’ve gotten my info from Remi and her boyfriend, or from the romance novels she’s slipped me.

And the guy in the towel looks nothing like Seamus in his kilt so I’m a fish out of water here.

I peel my eyes to the door, tugging on my suitcase, and finally enter the room beside the bathroom.

“Hello?” I call out. “Any roomies home?”

The room opens up into a typical square with two beds, two dressers, and two desks. What I’m not expecting is the boy-band posters splattered on every available wall space. Or the way my roommate has clearly taken over the entirety of the space. There is nothing left for me here, nothing that I can make my own except for the twin mattress.

“If you need any help—”

The voice sounds directly next to my ear and although I recognize it, in a second, as Amy’s, she still freaks me out. I jump off the ground and whirl around to face her with my heart racing and a hand pressed to my chest.

“I thought you left!” I slap a hand to my rapidly beating heart.

She shrugs, smiling. “I forgot to give you my cell number and let you know I’m personally available if you want to chat. I remember how it was when I first enrolled. Sometimes it’s not as easy as we hope.”

Amy gestures toward the room.

“Sometimes there’s a lot of patchouli,” she finishes.

My roommate isn’t there, and I’m happy she isn’t, to see me have a near heart attack.

“Thanks,” I manage to say to Amy. I pocket the number she’d written on a slip of paper. “I appreciate your offer.” Will I actually text her?

Her smile shifts into sympathetic territory. “You’ll adjust. I’m sure of it.”

Then I’m alone. Really, truly alone, with a thousand boy bands from the nineties staring at me from their decorated spots on the walls.

It’s only me and my suitcase in the bubblegum pop room, the color combinations garish enough to make me a little queasy. The eyes on the posters track my movements as I flop down on the bare mattress and let my luggage topple to the floor with a clatter.

I’m here. Now what?

I’m here, and it’s the last place I ever thought I’d be, the direction of my life changed irrevocably.

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