Chapter Ten
No Platform Needed

The next few days were fairly calm, Simon notwithstanding. To Charlie’s relief, he wasn’t likely to get Dennis into trouble anytime soon, instead acting very much like a big brother. Jonathan caught himself smiling a few times when Simon was showing off his tremendous abilities to transform. Dennis was delighted, and Sarah was more than happy to show the boy the ropes of being a canine. By contrast, Jonathan realized he was… relaxing. It was strange, something he’d never really done. Sure, he was familiar with doing nothing, but not doing anything isn’t the same as relaxing. 

When you do nothing, like lying on your back and looking at the ceiling, you can still have the present, past and future, all fighting for attention in your head, and an afternoon spent doing nothing can be more stressful than three hours of hard work if you can’t find a way to really unwind. If you’re not in a safe or helpful environment. Jonathan was relaxed. 

He spent a lot of time as a cat, because it made a lot of surfaces a lot more comfortable to be on, and when he wasn’t roughhousing with the others, he enjoyed curling up on places and just lazily observing things and not worrying. Not worrying about what people would think or demand of him. Sure, school would be coming soon, but that was not that much trouble. Failing, Charlie had assured him after a small panic attack on his end, wouldn’t come with punishment. Just a little “please try again” note and maybe more tutoring. It was, all things considered, a completely alien sensation to him. 

He was still a cat when they all assembled in the main hall of the Unfamiliar House, ready to depart. Charlie was fussing over all of them. It had only been a few weeks for him, but it was clear she was a little upset over having to say goodbye to all of them in a way that didn’t make a lot of sense to him. Sure, he would miss the sort of dusty calm of the house, but she would have the place all to herself again for a while. Surely that was a relief, no?

“Simon, for the love of…” Charlie said, running over to the kitchen and quickly returning with a moist towelette. “Please do remember that dirt and so on comes with you when you turn back, and to stop poking your head into every mousehole you see.” Simon grinned cheekily as she wiped off some of the grime he’d somehow acquired over the past half hour. “It’ll have to do.” She took a deep breath. “Do you all have your spare clothes?” She looked at the four of them, all with their luggage. Apparently students at the school would be given a budget to expand their wardrobe, but Charlie had encouraged them to bring some of their own old clothes, if only for comfort’s sake. Jonathan had dutifully folded his own stuff, but he’d never really put a lot of stock in clothes. Grey and black shirts, a few pairs of nondescript jeans. 

“Yes, miss,” Dennis said, beaming. “Simon helped me fold everything!”

“Oh boy,” Charlie mumbled to herself, but seemed to resist unzipping the bag to have a look at the damage. “Well, if you miss anything when you’re at Waxing Weather, you can have someone send me a message and I’ll see what I can do, okay? Now, get your coats. I’d rather not have you all be late for your first day, okay?”

Sarah hurried over to the coat rack and quickly grabbed everyone’s stuff, handing it over to a chorus of thank you’s. It was raining outside, and while Jonathan generally quite liked the rain in the Unfamiliar House — it pattered against his bedroom window and was wonderful white noise while he was reading — he wasn’t looking forward to having to run through it in a bit. 

“How do we get to school?” Dennis asked as he struggled with a particularly testy sleeve. “Is there like a magic car or a train we can take?!”

“The bus,” Charlie said matter-of-factly. “We’re not going to magically hide the entire infrastructure of a country just to get kids to school, that would be ridiculous, not to mention difficult and dangerous.” Dennis gave a little disappointed ‘aww’, which dissipated like snow in the sun when Sarah reached over and turned his sleeve inside out. 

After giving Sarah and Simon an umbrella, Charlie led them outside. There was a quick moment where Jonathan felt like he was being forced to choose between the two, since he didn’t want to get drenched, but Dennis made the choice for him by rushing over to the boy he’d already sort of adopted as a big brother. 

Not that Dennis and Jonathan didn’t get along, of course. Jonathan just didn’t feel like he had any big-brotherly wisdom to impart on the boy, whereas Simon was a font of sagely and often ridiculous advice, which Dennis ate up with alarming enthusiasm. By comparison, Sarah and Jonathan would more often just sit near him and let him ramble on about his parents, his big sisters, and how grateful he was to have people like that in his life. Jonathan appreciated the comparison, because it very much felt like Dennis’ sisters gave him a lot of comfort and if there was anything Jonathan didn’t want, it was to recreate the anxiety-inducing environment he’d grown up in. 

Lost in thought, he almost didn’t realize the others were starting to pull up ahead, Sarah simply looking at him patiently as she held the umbrella over them both. “You okay?” she asked. She gave him that black-lipstick smile he had such a hard time looking away from, and he did his best to return it in kind. 

“Yeah,” he said. “I am. Just a lot to think about lately, I suppose.” She gave him a knowing look and then nodded her head at the others. 

“It gets easier,” she said, “so let’s think on our feet, okay?” 

“Okay,” Jonathan said, his smile splitting into a grin as they caught up to the others. “I actually have a question,” he added after a little bit of walking. Apparently the bus stop was a mile or so away. 

“Hit me,” Sarah said. “What’s up?”

“Well,” Jonathan said, “what’s the school… uh… like? You’ve already been there a year, right?” Sarah pursed her lips as she looked straight ahead for a moment, thinking. “I can take that if you want,” Jonathan offered, pointing at the umbrella. 

“Oh, okay!” Sarah handed it to him, and he awkwardly took the handle, his fingers touching hers for a moment and it was like a jolt went up his arm which he intensely tried to pretend hadn’t happened. She didn’t let go for a moment, looking him in the eyes. “Um,” she said, and then again. “Um.” She shook her head, let go of the grip, and seemed to blush for a moment. Jonathan couldn’t really tell, because he was trying distinctly to look the other way. Maybe if he changed the subject or diverted the attention?

“Have I got something on my face?” he asked, trying to give himself an obviously joking tone. It didn’t seem to work, as Sarah’s face reddened a bit more. 

“No! I mean, yes, but not like that! I mean…” Her jaw tightened and she looked straight ahead. “Your eyes are different,” Sarah said. “From before.”

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“Different?” Jonathan asked. “Different how?”

“More blue,” Sarah said, still not looking at him. “I don’t know. Maybe it was a trick of the light or whatever. Forget I said anything.” They walked in silence for a little bit, staying a few paces behind the others. Every once in a while, Charlie looked behind her to make sure she hadn’t lost anyone, but other than that, she left them alone. 

“About the school?” Jonathan mumbled, scared to break the silence again, lest he ruin it any more than he already had. There was a weird feeling in his chest and stomach, that felt adjacent to anxiety, but was a little different, and it got worse every time Sarah shot him a glance out of the corner of her eye. 

“Um. Yes. So… it’s pretty interesting, honestly. I didn’t get like, a full year of classes, but that’s okay because stuff isn’t spread out over the whole year, so I can just take the terms I missed,” she said, biting her lip to think. Jonathan did his best not to stare. 

“What do you mean, terms?” he asked. He’d always gone to school in semesters, and this sounded like a distinctly different system.

“Well, because not everyone is found at the same age, people just take the classes appropriate to their level of education, right? But they also can’t just sort people by age because everyone does need to take first level magic classes,” Sarah explained. “So classes are taught in blocks, and staggered by year. You take the classes you have to, and get time off on the others. But everyone gets holidays at the same time. It’s a weird system, but you get used to it pretty quickly. The weirdest part is having the different classmates for every class. Especially much younger ones.” 

“That’s definitely strange,” Jonathan said. “And the school itself? I’m not sure what to imagine, really. Old castle? Dirty old boarding school?” They came up to the bus-stop and huddled up inside the little cabin while they waited. Dennis and Simon were happily chattering away while Charlie obsessively looked at her watch. 

“A bit of both? I think it used to be a couple of old country houses?” She looked over at Charlie, who confirmed her question with a nod. “Yeah, it used to be like a small town that was bought by the headmaster’s family centuries ago and they turned it into a school. So it’s a bunch of houses that have been converted into dormitories and classrooms. It’s very cozy, but very old.”

“Bought the town? Is he rich?!” Dennis asked, his every word dripping with curiosity.

“Yes,” Charlie said, “or rather, his family used to be. It’s pretty easy to get rich using magic, but it brings… complications. So we try not to take more than we need.”

“What about like… poor people?” Jonathan asked, frowning as the bus pulled up and Charlie ushered everyone inside. 

“That’s a hard discussion to have,” Charlie said more quietly once everyone was settled, “but let’s just say that it’s one we have every once in a while, and for now, the decision has been made not to disrupt things too much. It would cause chaos if we just started to magically affect the economy like that. People would ask questions, and it wouldn’t be long before everything was made public.”

“I guess that makes sense,” Simon said, but he didn’t sound absolutely convinced. 

“Is this one of those ‘You’ll understand when you’re older’ kind of things?” Jonathan asked with trepidation. Charlie closed her eyes and sighed.

“I suppose,” she said. The rest of the ride was mostly quiet. Dennis had a few more questions about the school, about bunks and dormitories, but Charlie informed him that most of that would be explained once they got to the school. Other than them, the bus was mostly empty, and Jonathan spent a lot of time looking out the window. Sarah sat next to him, and he tried not to think too much about how close they were sitting together. She had closed her eyes and was leaning back, against the headrest. Across from them, Simon was making faces at himself in the window, much to Dennis’ delight, and Charlie was reading a small booklet. 

The landscape drifted past solemnly, and Jonathan was happy to see the weather clear up a bit as they drove. He hadn’t seen much of the country in person a lot, outside of television reports and so on, and seeing it bathed in the kind of sun you only really get after a good heavy rainfall was nice. 

“What do they tell people about the town? Like… ‘We teach magic here’?” Simon asked. “Like, where does the bus driver think he’s dropping us off?”

Charlie looked to the front of the bus, and nodded. “School,” she said. “Officially, the school is an extremely exclusive boarding school for the exceptional.” She smiled at them. “Which you all are, so I think that’s quite apt.” Dennis beamed a smile at her, and Jonathan couldn’t help but feel his own mood light up at the boy’s genuine enthusiasm. “Anyway, it looks like we’re here,” Charlie added. “Shall we?”

The bus came to a stop, and, making sure not to forget their luggage, they all stepped out, Dennis needing a little extra help to get his large bag down the steps. Jonathan looked around and, for the first time, laid eyes on the Waxing Weather Warlock School (for the Exceptional). He had no idea what to expect but, for the first time in as long as he could remember, he was actually looking forward to what the future would bring.