Chapter 21: Chapter 16 – Success and Failure

The bus I took in the morning wasn’t like the travel bus we took to the game. This one was just a basic orange bus. During the ride, I tried reading some of my history book. The problem was that the seats weren’t very comfortable, and the shocks were so bad that I bounced around with every bump. I gave up and closed my eyes to rest. I only opened them when I felt the bus cushion dip as somebody sat on the same bench. A boy about the same size as I was, was now beside me. I looked around and noticed all the other seats were filled with either students or backpacks. The spot he took had been the only one open. Knowing he wasn’t trying to pick me up, I smiled and relaxed again.

Last week I received over a dozen letters asking me out, mostly from the smaller freshmen. If it wasn’t for my friends also receiving letters, I would have thought they were playing a game with me. But Janet and Victoria got even more than I did. It was just that theirs were from the older boys. It was just so common that I began thinking that a letter would be thrust into my hands whenever a smaller boy approached me.

Thankfully, he just sat there until we got to school. After getting off, I made my way to homeroom. I was actually looking forward to meeting up with my new friends. Over the last two weeks my suspicion of them had faded as I got to know them a little better. Ann, while a little slutty, was generous and shared her food with me if I was still hungry. Janet was a bit ditzy at times but seemed to always have her heart in the right place. While Victoria seemed lost and searching who she was. She was the one that resonated the most with the new me.

But for once I got there before the others and opened my history book to catch up on what I should have read over the weekend. I was almost done with the chapter when I heard Carl’s voice saying, “I finally caught up with you. I got a room; can you do it tonight?” His voice wasn’t low so when I looked up, I saw the six other kids that were already in the room were now staring at us.

“Can you not destroy my reputation?” I glared at him. While I didn't have much hope of going back to my world, I still didn't want the other me to come back to rumors of sleeping around if it ever happened. I add, “You sound like you opened a hotel room for a hook-up instead of using a school room to take game photos,” in the tiny hope that my explanation was enough to distill any rumors his stupidity probably caused.

He paused as if it took a second for my words to sink into his thick skull and then quickly said, “Sorry, sorry, I was just excited. So, can you?”

I thought about it. I didn’t have a bathing suit, but I did have my spandex shorts and crop top I was going to use to jog home in. It should be ok, and it was best to get it out of the way so Carl would stop bugging me. “Fine, which room?”

“Mr. Rodgers is going to let us use the gym room. Just come up after classes today.”

I didn't ask why he didn't wait until we saw each other in class later today, but just nodded and waited for him to leave. As he rushed out, Victoria and Ann walked in. They came over and we began catching up on what everybody did Sunday. Ann started by saying, "You guys should have come over the Neal's place. His parents are out again so we had the place to ourselves for the entire day. I spent the day swimming and playing games with him."

"We'd only get in the way of you love birds," Victoria said. I didn't think either Neal or Ann cared if there were extra people around but didn't say it. But Ann's reply of, "the more the merrier" caused me to think of how I found her at the party last week and I had to stifle a laugh.

Victoria saved me from dying of laughter by changing the subject. "Well, I hung out with Brad. He went to the movies." She glanced out of the corner of her eye to check my reaction and when I didn't get angry, she continued, "He's not bad but I don't know, I didn't feel any sparks between us.”

“Not your cup of tea, huh?” I asked

“Not really, he’s really clingy and his hands tend to wander.”

Ann didn’t say anything, so I took the lead, “Well, there are plenty of fish in the sea and we are still young. Let’s just take our time and look for the perfect person for us.” I was surprised she went on a date and wanted to say “guy” but not knowing if she wanted to date men or women, I changed it to “people”.

She looked bummed out, so I took out my phone and after clicking on the picture I took of me in heels said as excitedly as I could, "Look how tall I am! Ha, ha, ha, you can't tell right now because I'm sitting but I grew taller."

Victoria looked at my phone and whistled, "Looking good."

And looked at me, then my phone and finally asked, "You look really good. Whose room is that? It’s bigger than yours. And that dress, isn’t that Fancies newest design?"

“I have no idea. I didn’t buy it. Look,” I swiped to the next picture. “My mom has the same dress. I’m not sure where they were bought.” I ignored her first question. Who my mom dated wasn’t any of her business. Instead, I changed the subject again, “do either of you know where I can practice duel so I can get use to casting? I lack experience and I heard that was the best way.”

“While the school offers such a thing it’s during the same time as cheer practice, so you won’t be able to get in until our season ends in a month. There are gyms that offer sparring, but they cost money. You could fight outside but that is dangerous without people and equipment to protect you.” Victoria held up a finger for each one but finally said, “I think you should wait until you can get into the school’s program. You can privately practice so you won’t be too far behind.”

“Victoria is right. Plus, the school will punish you if you get hurt fighting.” Ann chimed in.

“So, I have to wait until November? That stinks.” I had to wait a full month? No, I needed a plan ‘B’. I didn’t like the sense of weakness I had facing this world. I didn’t get time to ask them though because Janet and a few other kids rushed in at the last minute. They plunged into their seats right before Mr. Stagnik walked in and homeroom began. I turned to listen to morning announcements before heading off to algebra.

Mr. Schmell gave us a pop quiz as soon as my first class began. His chubby body was pacing up and down the aisles while a pissed off look on his face never left. Because of his disagreeable attitude, the students kept their heads down and wrote furiously. I finished mine, rechecked my work, but I only got a glare from him when I went to hand it in. I wasn’t sure what his issue was, and I didn’t want to know. I sat there and waited until he collected everybody’s papers. Janet gave me a helpless look after he walked by her.

We happily left Mr. Schmell’s class together but had to split up since our next classes weren’t the same. Choir was more pleasant. Miss Phillips pulled me aside when I walked in, “Stephanie, since you can cast now, I want you to lead your group today. You can tell me what spell you want to cast, and I'll walk you through it."

From what I read; I already knew a little bit on how the process of the lead singer worked. First, they had to inform the people helping the spell and intent behind it. For example, I could use the 'Create Water' spell to fill a pool or disperse it into the clouds to create rain. That was the "intent" behind the spell. But I didn't know how to channel the other people's magic to get those effects. So, I told Miss Phillips I'd use that spell and listened to her explanation. Once she was sure I understood, she said something I didn't expect, "Don't be nervous, all your hard work and those extra vocal classes I taught you will now pay off."

I nodded. I wasn't that nervous. Compared to my male body, this one sang like a goddess. My voice seemed to convey the emotions I wanted with ease. But my teacher’s words reminded me that to pull that off required a lot of discipline, perseverance, and a great deal of practice. Her lessons must be why this body sang so well. Because whether in this life or the last, I hadn't ever practiced the basic breathing exercises.

Seeing me nod, we walked over to my group. It consisted of four other people, three boys and one girl. The girl was a year older than me and our usual lead singer. I watched her smiling face change as our teacher said, "Today, Stephanie will take the lead."

Lucy, our prior lead singer, frowned but didn't argue. But even though she didn't say anything, I could see the unwillingness in her eyes. Still the show must go on, so we moved to our section of the room, and I started explaining, "Today we are going to make it rain. I'm going to sing 'Rain is a good thing' and I need you to picture this." I held up my phone and played a video of a thunderstorm I found on the internet.

I heard Lucy snort and mutter, "dreaming big aren't you." I wasn't sure how to respond to that. I didn't think she meant for me to hear her, but the spell would fail if she didn't try to make it happen. In the end, I didn't say anything. It's just a class and there was no grade involved. I'd just take this as a learning experience. So, after showing them the video, I stood in front of a black box, while the others stood behind me. I clicked play on my phone and we began to sing.

As my voice filled the air, I felt my magic begin to move within me and the black box I stood in front of started to fade. It slowly took on a more weathered appearance. It wasn't until I heard the four behind me sing the first chorus that it turned crystal clear. Even though I was facing away from them I could "see" four beacons of magic forming. Three of them were mostly made of a yellowish energy with black smudges swirling within them. The fourth was the opposite. It was mostly black with yellow smudges. The dark one was like a black hole and the beacons of light wavered and bent, like candle flames in the wind.

I concentrated and began trying to pull the yellow energy to me. That was their magic that lined up with my intent. Their energy grew brighter and brighter as we sang, and I pulled it to me. I “watched” as their beacons twisted and stretched like pulled taffy. Sections distended toward the void, and I had to keep fighting to keep the energy from falling into it. While doing that, I also had to keep singing and entwining their energy together before pulling it in to my body. As it entered my body, their energy merged with mine. My energy level grew, and a fine misty cloud began to form around me. I pushed all that collected energy out of me and into the cube, as I pictured a wild storm of rain.

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It should have failed. After all, three energy sources showed that I was right about Lucy. But inside the box, a fierce storm was manifesting. It was working! I closed my eyes and put my all into my singing. The air became damp around me as the cloud became opaquer. Every time our four voices sang "Rain is a good thing" a gentle rain would fall from it and sprinkle onto me. It was just a few drops, like somebody was shaking their wet hand. And as the song ended, there was a soft rumble of thunder, and I heard a bunch of kids exclaiming. I opened my eyes only to be greeted by a bunch of students staring at me. They looked like drenched rats. Their wet clothes hung heavily on their bodies.

They weren’t all upset, some were playfully stomping in little puddles that had formed on the floor, while others looked baffled as to what happened, but there were a few that grumbled and glared at me. Miss Phillips beamed and hurried over to our group. “That was perfect. I knew you guys could do it.” She looked at the soaked students and the water on the floor, “We should work on your power output. You released to much at the end.”

She didn’t seem upset about the mess I made so I nodded and assured, “I will try and correct it.”

“Good, I know you can do it.” She waved her hand, mutter a few words under her breath, and small beads of water from around the room began to fly to her outstretched hand. They seeped out of the student’s outfits and hair. They hovered up off the floor and as the beads flew to her the water formed a ball that just kept getting bigger until the room and kids were completely dry. “Ok, now that that’s settled, everybody can try again.” She flung the ball out the window as she said the last sentence and watched as the kids reformed their groups.

We couldn't start right away because our cube still held our combined magic. I knew these cubes were similar to lightning rods. As long as we focused our spell energy would funnel through them and help power the school’s defenses. This kept us from destroying the rooms and kept the schools energy costs down. But until they emptied, there was a chance of our magic overflowing.

So, we waited and discussed what song we should do next. I stepped down and let Lucy take the lead. I had a massive headache forming. While my spell was successful, I wasn't used to that level of multitasking, and it took a toll. My headache was the result. A few minutes later, I joined the others in singing 'I Feel the Earth Move' to create an earthquake using a second-tier spell called 'Rock Breaker'. It wasn't surprising that she succeeded. Our group worked well together. It was just that she wasn't powerful enough to create any secondary effects like I had. If she could, she's have been in the honor courses.

My headache only got worse as I walked in the noisy hallway after class, and I now knew why the old me carried aspirin. I took two as I walked to ‘How Different Earth Elements Influence Magic’’. I saw that Mr. Stagnik had a chunk of marble and granite as tall as he was sitting in the middle of the classroom when I walked into my next class. The desks had been moved so that they circled around them. I was pretty sure I knew why since the homework he had assigned was to learn and practice the level one 'Shape Earth' spell. Seeing the two stone slabs, I was confident that he was going to test our progress.

My conjecture was quickly confirmed. The bell rang, the class started, and Mr. Stagnik patted the marble slab and began to speak, “Today we are going to practice the ‘Shape Earth’ spell. Also, to demonstrate that different stones will have various benefits and restrictions based off the spell you’re using. Before I emphasized how the denser Gabbros increased the power of Earth type spells. That is a generalized statement. I realized I hadn’t clarified and if you didn’t read carefully, you might have missed it while reading the chapter. Therefore,” he slapped the piece of granite, “I brought in this so you can test it for yourselves. 'Shape Earth' is one of the few spells that work better with softer stones like Marble and Limestone. Now, I want you to try casting on each stone and feel the difference.”

As he finished, the students formed lines and like before, I lined up last. The level one 'Shape Earth' spell consisted of one line, ‘move and reveal my heart’s desire’ and a simple hand gesture. It was a simple spell that anybody with earth magic could learn to cast in less than a half hour. As I expected, the kids in front of me cast it easily. They were quick and my line moved fast. Soon it was my turn to cast, but when I went to pass like I always did, I heard Mr. Stagnik say, “Stephanie, you should at least try casting.”

His statement drew the eyes of almost every student to me. The problem was I didn’t have this spell and couldn’t cast it. But what could I do? I went through the motions, said the words, and cast. The magic within me didn’t move and the stone didn’t change. I saw Mr. Stagnik’s eyebrows crinkle. He looked perplexed but didn’t say anything, so I went to the back of the line again. I got to cast and fail three times before the class finally ended. And every time I failed Mr. Stagnik would watch me like a hawk.

When the bell rang, he pulled me aside before I could flee. “Stephanie, did you not practice the spell over the weekend? I can see your movements are correct but if you don’t apply your magic at the right time, it’ll never activate.” I could see that he was upset and concerned, as if I was being willful. I knew this was going to happen as soon as they knew I could cast.

Being able to learn first level spells wasn’t difficult. They ranged in difficulty but with practice anybody with the right element could learn to cast even the most difficult one in a week or two. To say it another way, anybody that tried could learn over fifty level one spells a year. Of course, knowing them and being good at them were completely different things. Take my mom as an example. She knew multiple bio spells, from accelerated healing to increasing her strength but the only ones she could cast well were speed type spells. Anything else, would activate but only at a tiny fraction of their power.

Because I knew the school would expect me to now learn like other students, I gave him the reply I had come up with, “Sorry Mr. Stagnik, I’m still trying to figure out how to learn more spells. For now, at least, I can’t learn spells the same way as others.”

I tried to look pitiful so he’d leave it alone, but I might have overdone it because he said, “Ok, ok, don't cry. You can at least cast spells now and there will be more in the future. No matter what I want you to participate in class. Your magic might trigger with repeated attempts or stressful moments. Until you know, you should keep trying new things.”

I quickly nodded, "I will."

"Ok, you should go to your next class. If you figure out how you learn spells and need help, please let me know."

I nodded again and darted away. Even if he wanted to help there was no way I could ask for it. Still, he meant well. I ran through the emptying hallway trying to make up the time I lost. The bell rang before I got there but Mr. Richard barely noticed and just waved his frail looking hand and let me take my seat. To show my gratitude, I listen intently to how Holy magic started and played a significant part in the Crusade during 1096 - 1099. By the end of the class, I couldn't help thinking of all those lives lost over something that was supposed to bring wellbeing to the masses. It was sad and oddly ironic.

Janet was laughing as I walked into the lunchroom. It was easy to see she was in high spirits. I went to grab my food and when I got back the others were smiling, caught up in whatever made her so happy. Her voice held excitement as I heard the last half of her sentence, "... and my mom signed off on me doing it."

Curious what could make her so happy, I asked, "Doing what?"

"I'm going to be in a television show! Star Entertainment was having auditions and I went. I was bummed all week because I didn't think I did well. But my father called a few people to see how I did. Today his boss called him back and said if I wanted the spot, it was mine. Can you believe it?"

"That's fantastic! I'm so happy for you." And I was. The first time I saw Janet, I thought she had the prettiest face among us. The fact that she succeeded in getting a job only surprised me because I didn't know she was interested in acting.

Ann chimed in with a wistful voice, "I wish I had gone with you. You're so lucky."

"I asked but you said you were busy. Next time, you should come. You never know what'll happen. I'm going to keep trying to become an actress. This is going to be my first step into the industry."

Ann pouted but still said, "I'm definitely going next time."

Janet took out her phone and pulled up a website called 'Backstage’, and they began searching for roles they could play. They talked about jobs for theater plays, student films, ads, and even movies. From there descriptions they seem legitimate, but most of the ones for their age group were either unpaid or had a low pay rate. But watching how excited they were was fun, so Victoria and I observed them with amusement. Janet's job turned out to be a reality show, but it was popular, so it was a chance to become famous.

Between bites I let Victoria know I was going to do Carl's photo shoot and then jog back home, so she didn't have to wait for me and just enjoyed listening to my friends’ banter until the end of lunch. I was a good mood as I walked into my taekwondo class. It didn’t last. The annoying blockhead named Carl came rushing up as soon as I walked in and kept making sure I was still going to show up after school. He wasn't quiet nor were his words concise. His "Did you bring a change of clothes" and "I'll meet you in the room" quickly pissed me off. I was going to kick his stupid head off, but I didn't even get that chance.

I was paired off with a boy I didn't know. At a glance, he looked much tougher than Carl and I wasn't confident I'd last long. He was all muscled up but still moved fluidly. It was easy to see he practiced a lot. A little disgruntled that I wasn't going to be able to beat Carl, I started sparring with the new guy. It soon became apparent that Mr. Rogers was acting weird. His eyes never left my match and when I took a kick to my head, he glared at the kid until the kid apologized as if he had done something wrong. It was a legal blow. We moved to the starting position, and I landed a quick jab and got a smile from Mr. Rogers. The next round I took a mild punch to the chest. It was easy to see the kid had pulled his punch, but he still got a glare from Mr. Rogers. I felt uneasy under his gaze and quickly shot the kid an apologetic look before conceding the match.

I moved off to practice on my own. I spun around kicking and punching as I fought off imaginary foes, but I soon noticed Mr. Rogers watching me out of the corner of my eyes. If that wasn’t bad enough, the growing bulge in his pants was becoming more obvious. What was he doing? Did he want the entire school to know he slept with me? Damn it! I didn't want people to know. I felt my eyes moisten and I dabbed my eye with my sleeve. I didn’t understand why I was crying, but I was making a spectacle of myself. I quickly said an excuse, ran to the bathroom and hid there for the rest of the class. I felt so foolish as I sobbed into my dobok because I didn’t know why I was even so upset.

I finally calmed down enough to at least look normal in English class. Miss Vellum started off with giving us a reading assignment, 'A Wrinkle in Time' and we had to do a book report on it. It wasn't a book I knew so I would have to find time to read it in my busy schedule. While Mr. Montgomery just lectured for the entire class. He only paused to take sips of water. I furiously wrote down everything I thought might be important and felt my hand was going to fall off by the time class ended.

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