Page 20 of Monster's Baby

“Thank you,” Hazel said, beaming at me.

I poked Aiden again.“Why didn’t you say anything to correct me before?”I demanded.

He raised his hands.“I didn’t know you thought that, and I wouldn’t have been able to argue as effectively as Hazel.”

“Humph,” I said, pouting.

“Eat your breakfast,” Clarissa suggested.“It makes me feel better when I’m wrong about something.”

I half chuckled.“I’m not usually wrong.”

“It shows,” Clarissa said gently.

I did my best not to take offense at her words, and took her suggestion to eat.

After finishing my breakfast in silence, listening to Bruce and Pierre bicker over which school was better, I was relieved to head to my first class, Qualitative Spellcraft.

As always, Bruce and Aiden joined me.

“I thought you were going to drop this class?”Aiden teased his friend as we found our seats.

Bruce rolled his eyes dramatically.“Hardly.This is one of the mandatory ones.If I want the headmaster job after Ophelia retires, I need to be the best.”

“Is that your goal?”I asked, interested.

“Eventually.Clarissa and I would like to travel a little, like you, first.But since the headmaster job is only held by a Blackthorn, my end goal would be to come back here to my home.”

“Does Ophelia have children?”I wondered out loud.

He wrinkled his nose.“Yes.I met them last Christmas.They’re older than me.Only one wants the job, but I think I’d be better at it than him.”

“Biased?”Aiden asked gently.

“Massively,” Bruce agreed with a chuckle.

Professor Reynolds entered the classroom at that moment, sparing further replies.His fangirls at the back of the room started whispering amongst themselves, reminding me that I had forgotten to speak to Emma last night before bed.I made a mental note to try to catch her at lunch and settled in to listen to the syllabus.

“Good morning, and welcome to your final year at Blackthorn Academy,” the professor began.“I will not go easy on you this year.You are expected to know how to build a spell, how to break one down into its simple components, and how to analyze the building blocks of spells.By the end of the year, you will have written up a report a week, minus the weeks of midterms and finals, on new spells you have designed.As a final project, you will build a new spell from simple components and report on its success...or failure.We can learn as much from our failures as we can from our successes.”

I thought about Hazel and her staunch defense of Herbology that morning at breakfast.I had certainly learned a lot.

“We shall begin today by reviewing simple spells.May I have suggestions?”

The rest of the first day of classes passed similarly, reviewing the basics that we had learned in the previous three years.Magical Nexus class was definitely going to be my favorite, as usual.Professor Akhtar had quizzed us verbally on the main nexuses and how we had to modify our spells at those locations to account for the increase in magical potential, and Professor Wainwright had given us a pop quiz on five simple potions and their ingredients.I was grateful that those were my only classes this year, because in my spare, I had to work on my thesis; ley lines and what caused them.I spent the first day in the library, making a list of potentially useful books.I had written my overview the year before, so I knew what each part was going to be about, but I didn’t have sources for anything yet.

I wished we had computers, to make editing easier.

I made another mental note to look up an editing spell.

I hadn’t seen Emma at lunch, so I made a greater effort to locate her before dinner, but she eluded me.

I settled into our usual table with my friends, craning my neck as I scanned faces.Everyone ate at the same time on the first night, because Headmistress Blackthorn made announcements about the year at supper.

She didn’t rise to speak at the platform until after we had started on dessert.

“Good evening,” she said.“I trust you all had an excellent first day.This year is shaping up to be an exciting one, and not just because of all of you; this year will be the Magical Olympics!”

She paused for the excited chatter to die down.

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