Magian High (6 page)

There was a stunned silence, and then Amity said, “That’s the smartest thing I’ve heard all year.”

“Magic,” I agreed.  With a flutter in my stomach, I stepped off the chair and into the water.  “I’m not dead, folks.  Come on in.  The water’s fine.”  I placed myself under Rikki and kind of squatted a little.  “Okay, who’s climbing me first?”

The kids slowly stepped down into the water, and a lot of the girls hugged each other out of relief.  Two guys moved a table under Rikki, and I climbed on top.

“That’s more
like
it!” said Rikki, flipping herself back upside down.

We started feeding people up into the ceiling.  They’d
get on the table next to me, step on my leg and then shoulder, and then use Rikki’s hands for balance until Hadley and Curry could pull them up.  It was wet, slick work, and hard to do in the dark.  I’m sure if I ever touched a girl the way I had to then, I’d get slapped.  But something amazing was happening.  Not just that we were getting out of a dark, flooded library.  We were working together.  No one had an advantage—except maybe Rikki—and I think it was good for all of us.  I felt a surge of emotion towards everyone there.  This was a bad thing turning good.  Like the strands of a braid squeezed together, we were one, even if it was just for now.

Amity was the last to go.  As I lifted her, I whispered, “I
think I love you back.”

Standing on the table, I looked up at the hole
after her.  I tried jumping, but I couldn’t get high enough, and when I landed back down, my wet shoes skidded and I fell forward off the table.  I landed hard on the floor with a splash, and I felt my chin crack.

“Kincaid!
  You okay?” yelled Hadley.  He shone the flashlight down on me.  “You’re bleeding man!  You okay?  Answer me!”

I pulled myself back up onto the table and rubbed my
jaw carefully.  It really hurt, but I’d worry about healing later.  Careful not to slip this time, I reached again.

“
Fly, Kincaid,” said Hadley.

“I can’t,” I said.

“You don’t have to go high.  The table’s enough.  Just your usual four feet, man!”

I measured the distance with my eyes and knew he was right, but… “I can’t!”  I didn’t have enough energy—magical or physical.  I was tired and dizzy.

The doors banged open.  I held up my hands to shield my eyes and looked over at the rectangle of dim light.  Mr. Blakely and Mr. Whittle hovered in the air above the flow of water escaping the room.

“Kincaid!” shouted Mr. Blakely,
flying over to me.  “What happened in here?”

I
tried to focus on the table I was standing on.  My blood dripped down my wet, bare chest.  Books floated nearby.  “I…”

I lost consciousness.

“He’s awake, Mom!  He’s awake!  He’s awake!”

I opened my eyes, but lay still, taking stock of how I felt. 
Mom came in with Kelsey shadowing her, and I could see relief on her face.  “Oh honey, you look much better!”

“Shouldn’t I?  You’ve always
healed me before.”

“Yes, but dear, you’ve been out for
over twenty-four hours.”

“What?!”

“It’s Tuesday, honey,” she said, sitting next to me.  “Are you still dizzy or sore?”

“How is that possible?”

“You’ve been groaning about the room spinning.  You’ve been fuzzy-headed.”  She winked.  “Even more than usual.”

Kicking
the blankets back, I swung my feet to the ground.  “I feel pretty good, actually.”  I stood up and stretched.  I gave Kelsey a sparking thumbs up—at least that’s what I meant to do—but big flames shot up.  “Whoah!  Sorry about that!”  I turned it off immediately and stared at the place where the flame had been.  Mom grinned at me and nodded.  “What?  Why are you looking at me like that?” I asked.

“You lost your Jump, didn’t you?” she asked, still smiling.

My mind raced back to my last waking memory.  “I tried to fly, but I had no energy.”

“Hadley says you helped every
Nomer in that room.”

“I had to, Mom.
”  Emotions rushed back to me, and tears welled in my eyes.  It had been scarier than I’d wanted to admit.  “They didn’t deserve that trick, and…I cared what happened to them.”

“
You cared and showed it, and it drained your magical energy.”

I flipped my thumb in the air and let up another huge flame, careful not to let it touch the ceiling. 
“Oh, really?  When have I ever been able to do
that?
”

“You cared and showed it, and
they
cared and showed it.”

Kelsey bounced excitedly.  “A million people came to see you while you were sleeping!”  She jumped off the bed and closed my door so I could see the back of it plastered with Get Well
cards.  “There’s flowers and balloons downstairs, and Hadley even brought you a new HydroPlane game.”

I bolted out the door and
flew down the stairs.  The living room was stuffed with gifts.  Mom and Kelsey came up behind me, both hugging me.

“I’m so proud of you, honey.  You loved, and have earned real love back.  You had Mages,
Wisers,
and
Corporals visiting you.  Everyone will be so happy that you’re better.”

“Was I asleep when they came?”

“Mostly.  Sometimes you mumbled stupid stuff,” said Kelsey.

My empty stomach flipped. 
“Amity?”

Mom patted my shoulder.  “She came
with all your homework yesterday and read to you in your sleep, hoping you’d hear some of it.”

I laughed.  “I doubt it sunk in since I don’t even understand it all when I’m awake,
but that’s…”  I didn’t know what to say.

“Probably what
fueled your flame,” said Mom with a knowing look.

***

While I was getting dressed, the doorbell rang, and a minute later, Amity was pounding on my door.  “Open up!  I’ve got awesome news!”

I open
ed the door a crack.  “No peeking, now.  What news?”

“Petercriss is gone!”

“What?  How?”

“Mrs.
Bagler came down from the district offices to investigate what happened in the library yesterday, and they traced the door sealing thing to him.”

“
Whoah.”

“I know!” she said happily.  There was a pause before she continued.  “
Mr. Whittle subbed in chemistry class today and even explained the science behind what Petercriss did.  I guess he used water like long skinny Water Balls, but he found a way to make it adhere to the metal door frames, which takes a knowledge of chemistry.  So, duh…”

“He sealed water in with water?”

“Kind of cool in a criminally sick way, isn’t it?  It leaves no evidence once it’s broken.”

Downstairs, the doorbell rang again, but I stood staring at the floor. 
The idea that Petercriss was behind the trouble scared me.  “So he’s fired?  Tell me he’s going to jail for this!”

“Not sure about that.”  She
poked her head around the door.  “Aren’t you done changing yet?  You’re slower than a girl!”

“What? 
Oh, sorry.”  I pulled my door open.

Hadley
bounded up the stairs and into my room.  He actually picked me up with a hug.  “Man, I’m glad you’re okay!  Word of what happened to you has spread all over town.”

“
What are the people at Wiser saying?” asked Amity.

Hadley
shoved some books aside and sat on my desk.  “According to my cousin, even the Mages doing the Protest didn’t like what happened.  Sparking and Water Balling is one thing.  Flooding the library is crazy.”

“
By a teacher, no less,” agreed Amity.

“Man, I knew that guy would lose it
someday,” said Hadley.  “The guy was a bomb waiting to blow.”

“
He blew all right,” I said.  “Did your aunt hear anything about what’s going to happen to him?”

“No, too soon.
  But you know what she
did
say?  Mrs. Bagler is getting pressure to mix the teachers up, too.  Spread the Mage teachers around to the different schools.  That way there’s healers in every building.”

“It’ll also make it harder for teachers to favor or pick on any one group of kids,” noted Amity.

My mouth fell open.  “This is fantastic!”

“It’s a revolution!” laughed
Hadley, punching my arm.  “Mrs. Bagler will have to restore order and enforce the rules, or she’ll lose her job.”

“Which means
Jack will have to go to Wiser now,” I said grinning.

Mr. Blakely was greeting everyone at the front door as we entered the building the next morning.  When he saw me, he gave me a big hand shake.  “Kincaid, you’re upright!”

“Yeah
, all better.”

“Thi
ngs are going to be better now,” he said confidentially.  “I’m sorry you and your friends had to be in such danger to wake everyone up, but…”

“We all survived, right?”  I waved.  “See you, Mr. Blakely.”  I stepped inside and noticed that no
Wisers were sitting in the halls.  In general, the atmosphere felt more relaxed than it had been all year.  Several people greeted me with cheers.  I felt like a returning war hero, except Hadley, Curry and Rikki were the real stars.  And there they were, waiting by my locker with Elizabeth.  I stopped in my tracks and pointed to the group with both hands.  “You guys are
awesome!
”  When I got to Hadley and Curry, I put a hand on each of their shoulders.  “Thanks, guys.  Thanks for coming after us.”  I poked Rikki lightly in the ribs.  “And thank
you
for bringing this guy around.  You should win a prize for that.”

She tucked her skinny arms around his burly body.  “I already got my priz
e!” she giggled.

***

“Ah, you’re better in time for the party,” said Mr. Whittle, standing outside of the chemistry lab.

“Sir?”

“Nothing, nothing.  Good to see you back.”

Amity was already at our station.  “
Whittle’s our sub again, huh?” she said.  “What’s his deal?”

I shrugged.  “
He’s nice enough, I guess.  He’s strict without being mean.”

“Does he know enough to teach this class?”

I flipped her hair with my finger.  “Do you need a teacher?”

As
it turned out, Mr. Whittle was surprisingly interesting.  He had us all gather around his lab station while he talked about the various properties of cabbage juice.  “It’s more than just a flatulent!” he pronounced importantly.  The room cracked up, and soon we were making our own litmus paper and guessing the acidity of different household cleaners.  It wasn’t anywhere near as hard as what Petercriss did, but everyone was engaged, and I could see the Corporals jumping into the discussion more.  When we all filed out after class, kids were in a good mood because they’d had fun, not because they were escaping a torture chamber.

***

“I’m not getting many commitments from people about tonight’s party,” said Amity on Friday at lunch.  “There’s still distrust.”

“Of
me?  What more can I do to show them I’m on their side?”

“It’s not about you,” said Amity.  “It’s Mages in general.  So far they’ve only seen you guys
be consistently nice.”  She pointed to Elizabeth and Hadley.  “Even Curry’s still an enigma.”

“Yeah, well, he wasn’t on the original guest list,” I pointed out.

“Neither was Rikki,” said Elizabeth.  “But we can’t very well leave them out now.”

Hadley shook his head.  “Well, if the
Nomers hear a Punker is—”

“A
reformed
Punker,” insisted Elizabeth.

“A
very
recently
reformed complete and total jerk,” said Hadley.  “
I
know he’s better, but give them time.  Should we postpone?”

Everyone looked at me.  I shrugged.  “Mom already got the food.  If they want to come, let them come.  If not, more chips and salsa for us.”

***

Amity and Elizabeth showed up early with a bag of streamers and glittery things and big, puppy dog eyes, begging me to let them decorate for the party.

“Oh, brother,” I said.

“That’s a
yes
, isn’t it?” asked Amity.  She and Elizabeth started moving chairs around.  I noticed that Elizabeth climbed up on the chairs to hang the streamers instead of flying up there.  She caught me watching her do this, and we exchanged a knowing smile.  Hadley got himself a good girl in Elizabeth.

I got to work laying out all the grub.  Mom
kept Kelsey busy in the kitchen doing all the “detail work”, like using tongs to put ice cubes in the punch one at a time, or squirting little dabs of whipped cream on each cupcake.  Mom’s brilliant at making Kelsey feel needed, and it’s amazing to watch how Kelsey responds.  She adores Mom, and gives her hugs and kisses constantly.  I’m pretty sure it’s because of Kelsey that Mom has any magic left at all.

Hadley showed up with a case of Hornet Soda,
my favorite.  “Is anyone here yet?”

“Just
the girls.”

Hadley downed half a Hornet and surveyed the living room with a bobbing head.  “You ladies are magnificent!” he said.  “You
make everything look better.”  To me, the room looked like a birthday party for a six-year-old, so naturally Kelsey loved it.  I told her she could stay with us until the other guests arrived because it made her feel grown-up.  Only they didn’t show up even when we passed her bedtime.  Mom eventually made her go to her room, and she went weeping and moaning at the injustice all the way up the stairs.

Even Elizabeth looked
a little deflated.  “What do we do now?”

Amity leaned back on the couch and kicked her legs up.  “Why don’t you tell me a little about your family
, Kincaid?  Are your parents divorced?  I never see your dad.”

“He died five years ago
of a terminal illness.”

“Oh.  I’m sorry.
  Healers couldn’t—?”

“No.  It came on too fast.” 
I could tell Amity felt bad for asking.  “It’s okay.  I’ve had a lot of time to get used to him being gone.”

“What was he like?” she asked.

I thought for a while, letting my gaze drift up to the fireplace mantle where our last family portrait sat next to the knickknacks Kelsey made in preschool.  “He did things people didn’t expect him to do.”  I looked at Amity.  “He married a Nomer woman, for one.”

Everyone gasped, and Elizabeth scooted closer. 
“Really?  That’s so awesome.  I didn’t know your mom…”

Amity
hugged her knees.  She didn’t say anything, but I could see the wheels spinning in her brain.  “What else?” she asked.

My mind flashed back to an early memory.  “You know where Mill Creek empties into the river?”  She nodded.  “Well, you know that little dam of river rocks that goes across the creek and makes the swimming hole
above that?  He started that.”

“What
are you talking about?  That’s been there for…about ten years,” said Hadley, catching on.

“I know,” I laughed.  “One day, Dad and I were playing there in the creek.  He got it into his head to build a dam with the river rocks, and so he and I
went to work.  He was probably just trying to burn off my energy, but we got a few feet of rocks placed—not a big wall like it is now—and then other kids started to join us.  He didn’t tell them to.  They just did.”  For some reason, I felt my eyes watering, and I was glad no one had shown up for the party yet.  “It was just an idea, and he went with it, and people went along.  By the time we left the creek that day, something like thirty people had joined us, and the dam went all the way across.”

“
That is so awesome,” said Elizabeth.  “It’s like being a part of local history.”

“Over the years, people kept adding to it,” I said.  “Now there’s even a log in part of it.  He has no idea how many people followed, finishing a project he did to keep a little kid busy on a hot summer day.”

Amity scooted closer.  “You’re like your dad.  You start things and people follow.”  She gestured to Elizabeth and Hadley.  “We’re your first rocks in the creek, and some day, we’ll be something big, too.  It may take time, but it’ll happen.”

Elizabeth smiled. 
“Rocks in a river.”

The
doorbell rang.  Hadley punched my arm lightly.  “Wipe your eyes, rock boy.  The party’s here.”

I opened the door wide and said, “Welcome everyone!  ‘Bout time you got here.  I can’t eat everything myself!”

“Am I seriously the first to get here?” asked Rikki, slipping past me into the room.

Squinting into the darkness, I saw a car stopped out front.  A man waved, so I waved back, and then he drove off.  By the time I’d turned back into the living room, Rikki and Elizabeth were doing the girl hug greeting.  “Are you
it?” I asked.

Rikki put her hands on her hips.  “Well, don’t act all excited to see me,” she said.

“No, no—I mean, yes!  I’m happy to see you, but…where are the others?”

“Cu
rry should be here any minute.  I think he’s picking up a few of the Mages along the way.”

“Flying?” I asked.

“Not sure,” she shrugged.

I sat down next to Amity, who smiled brightly.  “So they’re all just fashionably late.  This is great!  Thanks so much for coming, Rikki.  How are classes going?”

Whatever boring scholastic conversation followed, I missed because Kelsey started calling out my name.  I could hear Mom trying to quiet her, but I ended up Jumping up to her room.  “What is it, Kelsey?  I’m trying to run a party down there.”

“Someone’s in the trees outside,” she whimpered, pointing out her window.

I slouched.  “Kelsey, please not this again.  There are no monsters.  No such thing.”

“But—”

“No fairies, either,” I said, more gently.  I leaned over and tousled her hair.  “You’re safe up here.”

“But—”

“I’ll save you some cupcakes, okay?”  I moved toward the door.  “I love you, Kelsey,” I whispered.  “Sleep tight.”

When I came down the stairs, Rikki was standing in the open front door calling out, “Hey guys!  Come on in!”  A minivan was parked outside, and the door slid open with a clunk.  Five kids got out, all of whom I recognized from senior classes as former
Wisers.  I was surprised that Rikki even knew any of them, but I appreciated her contagious enthusiasm.  She made me look like a social slug.  I joined her at the door and greeted each kid entering, introducing myself and the others already inside.  Four Mages flew up, Curry among them.  They looked around nervously, and hovered above the bottom step of the porch.

“Glad you could make it,” I said, feeling like
flying myself.  We had an almost 50-50 mix of Mages and Nomers, and from what I could tell, they were all pretty cool.  Curry stayed in the background a little until Rikki came forward to draw him in.

As I shut the door behind them, two sounds filled the air: a high-pitched scream from upstairs and a roaring
whoosh
from outside the door.  I opened the door to find the porch in flames.  The room erupted in shouts, and all the Mages with Water Magic started balling up Hornet soda and Mom’s punch to douse the flame.  I ran upstairs to where Mom was pulling Kelsey away from the window.  One glance outside told me all I needed to know.  Jack and at least half a dozen other Punkers hovered in the branches of the tree, looking in at us.  Jack caught my eye, and the smug look on his face chilled my spine.

“Out the back!
  Out the back!” shouted Mom.

Everyone
ran through the house and out the kitchen door to the back yard, but from there, we all ran around the side to see what had happened, even though we were scared.  Mom used her cell phone to call the fire department while the Nomers went for the hose.  I watched Jack and the Punkers in the trees.  Moving quickly, I took Kelsey in my arms and backed away from them, but Jack swooped down so he stood in the air above our heads.

“Hey, Curry!  Thanks for the invite!  This party’s
hot!
”  He showered us with sparks, and everyone shouted back at him while cowering away from the danger.  Suddenly the ground dropped about three feet.  The Punkers had opened a giant Dirt Hole under all of us.

Curry’s mouth fell open, his expression unreadable.  The other kids turned on him, accusing, questioning.  Rikki started to cry.

Jack flew down with his body parallel to the ground and his face close to Curry’s.  “Your baby doll is crying, Curry.  Better pick her up and take her home to bed.”

Curry picked Rikki up as easily as if she
were
a doll and started to fly away.  Jack’s crew sped after them, cursing and sparking.

Everyone scrambled up out of the Dirt Hole.  In my arms, Kelsey yelped and kicked free before I could stop her.  I saw her peek over the edge of the hole, take a huge breath, and Blow. 
An intense sound drowned out the yelling.  In the air, the sparks on the Punkers’ hands ignited into flames from the Wind.  The Punkers actually fell out of the sky and tumbled onto the asphalt.  I could tell they’d been hurt because it took them a while to get up, and when they did, two of them discovered they were on fire.  They dropped to the ground again, and the four guys fumbled and slapped and cursed until the flames were out.  They got up, stumbling a few feet before taking to the air again.  Whether they were chasing Curry and Rikki, or running away from Kelsey’s Wind, I don’t know, but they were gone.