Chapter Eight-Openness for Love

Two Weeks Later

 

For the past two weeks, I’ve been feeling very tempted to cast that spell again to examine the image more and see if it really is Margie. But I’m worried to see the truth; what if I’ve been wrong this whole time?

 

Because Margie is likely in Spirit Prep, I somehow get nervous when I walk through the halls to my classes. Its strange how I’m so scared because it would be amazing to reunite with Margie, but that would also mean finding out if I’m wrong which an event I do not want to occur. I do believe it’s logical she’s in Spirit Prep though, because I only really leave the Terra common room to go to classes or the dining hall, as I prefer to stay in my room reading in my free time.   

 

I step on the bus with my left hand temporarily clutched on the round, metallic railing and the vision of the light tan face and long dark hair permanently glued to my mental vision. As I step in the same bus which I rode to the school in and take my seat on Malissa’s left on the soft blueish violet seat, my mind quickly switches back to my curiosity about the magical world because Malissa told me that there’s this holiday called All Hollow’s Eve coming up on the end of the month. I’m pretty sure it’s their version of Halloween; it’s even on the same day. There’s a big festival on the 31st, but today Malissa is taking me to a Witch’s Faire which is this big event for spell casters, and she wanted to check out the magical items there, as she also originated from the human world.

 

When the bus commences into motion and I slouch on the back of the seat, Malissa gives me a friendly grin and faces me which I notice while looking around. It seems like she wants to have a conversation with me, so while searching my mind for possible topics, I remember the black hallway which scared me.

“Did you find out about what the…black house is like?” I ask.

Malissa’s smiling face suddenly turns to a nervous expression after the mention, “Um, I don’t think anyone is in this house anymore,” she says hesitantly.

 

I then brainstorm for another question after a short moment of silence, “Do you, um, have any clue what all these humans are doing here in Spirit Prep? Do you know who Lucie Brooks is?” Okay, what I said was just rushed out of my mouth.

“I have no clue why humans are here but I do know Lucie. She’s in my house. She seems to blend in well with everyone.”

 

After another brief silence, the bus stops over at Star Central (where Mrs. Watermelon dropped me off on the first day). Only this time, I can see rows full of black and dark purple tents with young woman wearing long flowing dark colored dresses. Many have dark makeup on. While waiting to stand up, I look at the tiny objects on the shimmery purple and black silky cloth covered rectangular tables from the window behind Malissa’s dark haired head. Maybe I can get some magical item that can guide me in my new quest.

After Malissa and I finally step off the bus and head away from it, I scan my eyes through the covered table tops on my left side noticing copper jewelry hangers of rainbow colored sparkling bracelets and necklaces. I also notice tiny, clear glass cork covered bottles with mysterious colored liquids.

 

“Look at this jewelry Daisy!” Malissa enthusiastically tells me while trotting to a black covered table on the other side. Each of the necklaces and bracelets on the hangers has slightly burnt parchment tags tied to it with twine with the meanings of the jewelry. The meanings of the jewelry remind me of the meanings of the Fortune Suckers which Nora gave me on the first day that I haven’t eaten. I look at all the hangers neatly in a line on the table, but the one I pay the most attention to is the tallest one on the far left side. Each necklace on there is bronze, silver or gold and each one has a different round glass jar of a different color of fairy dust hanging from it. The fairy dust has a flat and round silver charm with an engraved cursive word hanging from it.

Malissa notices me admiring the fairy dust necklaces, “You should totally get the love one! It looks like you’ve never been in love!”

Malissa is right about that. At first I think; “No way, the love necklace likely connects to romantic love and I don’t understand or care about that at all.” But then I remember the first few days of school, back when I was still sort of uncomfortable in the new environment, I talked to a handsome elf named Artemis in the hallway. Between then and the purple moon and the purple moon and now, I never thought about him because I doubt he likes me, because no boy does. I don’t ever get interested in boys either.

 

Artemis gets me thinking about the necklace even more. The prettiest necklace on the hanger in my opinion is the one with the rose colored fairy dust and the Love charm hanging from it. I look at the necklace and think; I would want to get this necklace because it’s the most likely to help me connect with old friends, but it might get me wound up in romance. But is romance a bad thing? It would be nice to find out if Artemis does like me, and I could find out why people make such a fuss about love. So the necklace could be a win-win purchase. It takes me a while to decide as I don’t want to waste this magical currency Malissa has on something that’ll bring me romance stress, but after staring at this one necklace for a while, I remove it from the thin strip of the hanger it’s hanging on and add it to Malissa’s purchase.

 

I head over to the Star Central bus stop again and get on the bus when it arrives, feeling satisfied with the outing. Malissa enthusiastically saw one of her friends from school, so she immediately sits next to her. I sit near the window on the seat across from her. While the bus stays stationary for a bit, and I gaze in my window feeling relaxed and at peace, this unfamiliar looking girl that looks about my age with slightly pale skin and smooth chocolate colored hair heads over to my seat. At first glance, the girl looks sort of attractive and someone I would’ve recognized if I’ve seen her before.

“May I sit here?” she asks in a sweet sounding voice.

“Sure.” I say smiling. I’m assuming she’s a new student at Spirit Prep or something because I never seen her at school before and this bus only travels back and fourth from Star Central to the school, which is why only students that are mostly in their uniforms are riding this bus.

 

I know this girl stands out, and it’s not just because she’s new. While she talks to Malissa and her friend in the seat across to our left and I lean on the clean, shiny glass window, a vision begins to appear in my eyes. It’s the vision of a rectangular building with sand colored bricks and rectangular glass windows with crosses on them. I can immediately tell that this vision is from an environment that’d kind of dull compared to the one I’m in. On the upper part of the building are black letters that inscribe, “Country Road Elementary School”. That was the elementary school I attended for one year, and that was kindergarten, the one Margie and Lucie attended. 

 

The reason why I only attended that school for one year is because when I was little, my parents didn’t think I was normal. Unlike most kids my age, I’d rather read (yes, I was literate back then) than play with other kids. In fact, I was even aggressive with other kids when they tried to get close to me in play dates Mom forced me to be a part of, and in preschool. After preschool, I was suggested to be put in a special needs classroom in the morning in kindergarten and be in a normal classroom in the afternoon. This was the first time in my life I actually felt like an outsider as everyone else only had to attend school half day. Full day kindergarten made me really stressed in the first few days after just having half day preschool. When kindergarten ended and first grade began, mom decided it was time for me to go to the closer elementary school in a regular classroom, which I stayed until fifth grade. As the years of elementary progressed, I didn’t want to remember kindergarten. I didn’t care about it. I was upset how many of my friends knew certain people and had been to this school since kindergarten and I didn’t. Before Teagen mentioned Lucie, when a memory of Margie or any part of kindergarten temporarily reentered my mind, I wanted to immediately forget about it. I was really happy when I realized Country Road Elementary doesn’t merge with my elementary school in the same middle school.

 

I glance back at the chocolate haired girl again; why did she cause me to think of kindergarten?

 

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