Page 16 of Magical Academy for Delinquents
She had a real knack for interrupting my moments, it appeared. But I was grateful for the distraction. “Donate?"
She pointed to a ghetto IV set up in the corner. A tube and needle dangled from a small hole in the wall. The needle glinted like an evil nurse’s wet dream. I walked over and looked at the setup. It was a very primitive, very awful-looking contraption. Whenever I donated and mailed in blood to Matthew, I always used a HemoLink, a little device shaped like a ping-pong ball that had four needles to puncture the upper arm in a spot without nerve endings. I’d never used a needle to draw directly from a vein. "That needle doesn't even look clean. And what am I supposed to do—just stab myself and hope I hit the right spot?" This place didn’t even have people to help you if you came to feed your kin. Fuck this place.
Potts rolled her eyes, then she came forward. She pulled out her wand and a tiny slip of parchment. She flipped the end of her wand and the tip turned dark with ink. Apparently, she’d splurged on a self-inking wand. As Potts muttered her spell, the parchment crinkled and dissolved into a gold mist. The mist enveloped the needle. The second she stopped spell-writing, the needle went from grimy to shiny and then the little barb plunged itself into the crook of my elbow.
The needle stung when it bit me, but I didn’t focus on that. I’d just seen Potts write a two-part spell. I had to work to keep how impressed I was off my face. Her spell writing skills were superb. Apparently, there was more to the chatty doctor than there seemed. I wondered for a second why she’d never tried to go Unnatural herself. But I thought I knew the answer, so I kept my mouth shut and focused on my arm.
Dark liquid filled the tube and traveled through the wall. Matthew’s rabid scratching stopped and instead I heard him snort and scuttle over to the corner. He picked up the other end of the tube, which looked more like a heavy-duty garden hose than a delicate medical tube. I realized why when he started chewing on it, slobbering on himself and grunting as he slowly drank my blood.
Tears filled my eyes and I turned so Potts couldn’t see. More memories of Matthew surfaced, of the time he bandaged my knee when I fell off my bike—after he’d pushed it too hard, of course. There was the time he’d switched the tags on our Christmas presents and pretended to be so excited over his new hair-color-changing doll. Of course, he’d relented when I’d opened my ‘really smokes when it shoots’ army tank; he’d offered to swap if I gave him a dollar and the toy. He was such a shit.
My hand reached out and touched the glass. He didn’t stop slurping and didn’t move to match his claws with my fingers, but he did eye me. And everything inside my chest ached to have my asshole brother back. Anything. I’d give anything for him to steal my stuff one more time.
“Hayley, that’s probably enough. You can’t give too much,” Potts said.
I blinked, like I’d come out of a trance.
Somehow, Potts was right next to me. And she yanked the needle out of my arm before I could protest.
She pulled me from the room as my brother realized his blood source was gone. A wild yowl went up. But as she shut the door behind us, I swore I heard a word between all the slavering cries. I swore Matthew said my name—”Hayley.”
It sounded like a plea.
Chapter 8
Four days later,I clicked the online order button with a little bit of glee. I’d just scheduled Tia a male stripper in thanks. She’d motherfucking done it. She’d gotten her mom and her aunt drunk on mimosas over the weekend and then brought up my sad little story, prodding her aunt’s ego until the woman was bound and determined to save me. They’d called my mother and gone to brunch—the rich female socialite’s version of ‘golf’—it was where things got done.
My mother wasn’t able to resist Tia’s mother and aunt, especially not when they’d combined their heartfelt pleas with a little visit from one of Metamorphose’s ‘reformed’ students. A hot dude in his mid-twenties, covered in tattoos, sat with my mother and drank tea, talking all about how Metamorphose ‘saved his life.’ Now he’s got some awesome Pinnacle job and is all straightened out, the picture-perfect walking advertisement for the reform school.
This morning, Mom had informed me that I’d just been accepted, which was bullshit because I’d hacked her email and seen the interest letters going back and forth weeks ago while I was still ‘struggling’ at Medeis. What she really meant was this morning she transferred over the cash and made it official.
Fucking yes—MAD here I come,I thought.
Then I texted Tia.
-Expect a “big package” after school.-
-?-
I just smiled but didn’t text her back as I grabbed my purse. It would be better if it was a surprise. And she really deserved it.
My packing had been half done, since I never fully unpacked from all the prior academy returns anyway.
I really only had to pick up all the magical magazines I’d bought in a search for a better motivation for my team. I’d scoured all the scientific and magical breakthrough articles, looking for something brilliant to tempt them into helping me. I didn’t have an answer for that yet; I didn’t know quite how I’d get them on my side. But intuition was telling me I’d find it.
I shoved the magazines in my backpack with my air gap laptop, regular school laptop, and tossed in my gold wand and two spares. Other than the backpack and a coat, I didn’t have too much to pack, since MAD was cross-country in Washington state, where weather was brisk, but nowhere near the godawful extreme cold of New York.
I was looking forward to the weather as well as meeting my new soon-to-be partners in crime. I did a little shimmy as I added some lip gloss, blew a kiss at an old family photo of the four of us—Mom, Dad, Matthew, and me all smiling as we stood in front of a waterfall. I’d manipulated the light and Matthew had manipulated the water so that a rainbow curved over us. It was the perfect happy family picture. Of course, Matthew had let the water fall just after we’d taken the shot—drenching all of us. But even that was part of the perfect memory for me. At the last minute, I decided to add the pic to my bag and bring it with me.
I had to remind myself not to grin as I tossed on my go-to black sweater. I wasn’t supposed to be thrilled about this school. It was supposed to ‘teach me a lesson.’ I tried to control my face as I went down the stairs.
I embraced my mother in a crushing hug. “I’m sorry, Mom,” I apologized to her for all I’d done and all I was about to do. “I love you.”
“I hope they can help you here, I really do,” she murmured into my hair. “You’re only a plane ride away. I’ll be there if you need anything. Just call me. And Doctor Potts still has a Facetime appointment with you every Sunday. Do not miss one.”
I sighed and pulled back. “I won’t. I promise.”
Mom’s hands came up to gently grip my cheeks. “I love you, Hayley Dunemark. Please make me proud.”
