Chapter Twenty Two
A Quiet Education

 

The rest of the week was remarkably light on magic, everything considered. There was a lot of theory, which made sense in that “read the manual before turning on the oven” kind of way, but Emily found that he and many others in the class were eager to try a more practical approach. There was at least one mention of ‘skipping the tutorial’, whatever that meant, and on more than one occasion, a teacher had to pause class to talk someone down, in one case, quite literally so — Dennis had managed to float himself to the ceiling, his short legs waving excitedly. 

So Emily focused on what he could and couldn’t do. Trying to figure out exactly how his ability to move things with his mind — telekinesis, Lady Lalonde had stressed — worked, how precise he could and couldn’t be. Telepathy, his ability to talk to Jenna in his mind, was something else they worked on when the two of them weren’t actively in class or doing homework. For now, they were limited to thinking words out loud, although the teachers had stressed that this kind of communication could become very quick and elaborate, sending back and forth ideas at the speed of thought. 

Instead, Emily and Jenna did their best to stay out of trouble, of course. Tempting as it was to join Jenna in thinking jokes about their teachers, it took only a particular kind of stern look to get Emily to shut down. One look in particular from one teacher in particular made him particularly uncomfortable. 

“There’s always one,” Simon groaned as they laid on the grass, looking at the sky. It was a nice day, probably one of the last nice days before winter and its many variations on the theme of ‘grey and rainy’ reared their ugly heads. “There’s always that one teacher who seems to wake up every morning and go ‘you know what? I’m going to make these kids wish school never existed!’” Miming with hand-puppets, Simon made a play of the whole conversation. “‘But teacher!’” he added in a high-pitched voice, “‘I love learning!’ ‘Well not anymore you little—’”

“You’re exaggerating,” Sarah said, her hair splayed out like a crown around her head. “Van Zant is just uptight.” 

“That’s one word for it,” Simon said. “Every time he looks like he’s about to fling a book at us for not paying enough attention during geography, I see Jonathan shrink a little bit. Look at him, he’s like, three feet shorter than this morning!” Right. They were all out here, without Warlocks. He was Jonathan again.

Sarah and Simon looked at him, and he felt a blush coming on. It was true that ‘Mister Case Van Zant’ seemed to have taken a particular dislike to him, and that he had not been very good at avoiding the man’s ire. “Hey,” he mumbled, “I didn’t get any shorter.” He propped himself up on his elbows to give them both a half-hearted glare. 

“And a good thing too, tiny,” Simon chuckled, then ruffled his hair. 

“Don’t worry,” Sarah said, “if you get too small, I’ll just carry you around in my pocket.” She winked at him. It just made the weird fluttering thing in his stomach worse. “Simon, I think we broke him again.”

“Both of you shut up,” Jonathan said with a groan as he laid back down. “What is his problem, anyway? If he didn’t want to be a teacher, why is he here?”

Sarah blew a raspberry. “Far as I understand it, most of the school’s staff this year is new. I didn’t even know Charlie’s aunt worked in the kitchen here now. From what I heard, a lot of the old faculty had to retire, so people like Miss Falls and Van Zant weren’t originally teachers.”

“Why not just get, you know, other teachers?” Simon asked as he produced some gum out of a pocket. Going by the pre-crumpled nature of the packet, Jonathan decided it was probably best not to ask for one. Who knew how long that had been there?

Sarah shrugged. “Dunno. Maybe they couldn’t find any.”

“So we’re stuck with Van Zant.” Simon blew a bubble. “There’s gotta be something we can do with that name, right? ‘Case Van Zant’? What kind of name was that?”

“How about ‘Basket Case’?” Sarah offered. “I think it’s German.”

“We can do better,” Simon said. “Y’know, for bullying Jonathan. That’s our job.”

“I’m right here,” Jonathan said. 

Sarah chuckled. “I know, that’s why we’re making sure to speak up, so you can hear us from all the way down there.”

“Because you’re so tiny.”

“That doesn’t even make sense, we’re all just lying down,” Jonathan said, “and I’m bigger than Simon when he’s a ferret.”

“I’m bigger in spirit,” Simon said. “Face it, honey, you’re just very small and pettable.” He nudged Sarah. “Even when you’re in cat form.” The two giggled for a moment while Jonathan tried to sink through the floor in embarrassment. 

“Can we move on, please?” he said. “I don’t even know how we got here.”

“By bus.” Simon giggled as he turned into a Ferret to dodge Sarah’s attempted attack, and before long the two were chasing each other in a circle around Jonathan. Despite the fact that he actually felt more comfortable in his Familiar form, a part of him did want to be a human every once in a while. Stretch his legs, so to speak. He looked out over the campus. The village. Whatever. The school. It was in the late afternoon, and everyone was pretty much out of class already and enjoying the nice weather while they had it. Most of the Warlocks sat outside, doing some diagram work for the focuses they’d be getting next week, something Familiars couldn’t help with. Those who didn’t have anything to do were playing games, or just hanging out in the grass. There were a lot of frisbees. 

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“What do we do for the weekend?” he asked, sitting up and leaning on his knees, and then paused, a horrified look on his face. “We get weekends off, right?”

“Of course we do,” Sarah said, the white fox panting in place. “There’s activities organized by older students, actually. It used to be a thing teachers did. Leah told me, anyway.” She rolled over, feet up, and she pawed at the air. “I think the new teachers need a bit to find their sea legs, so as far as I know, there’s no like, extracurricular classes or anything. There’s a couple of kids who play music that get together.” 

Simon rolled in little circles trying to scratch an itch he was having trouble getting to, until he bumped into Jonathan’s leg. “We could always go to Trewood. It’s the next town over. As long as we tell someone where we’re going, we’re always allowed to go. I hear they have a bowling alley. Or we could go…” he paused for dramatic effect, “find a pub.”

“Nope,” Sarah said. “Nu-uh. I’m not going drinking with you.” She rolled back onto her stomach as a ball flew past overhead and an eagle soared past to pluck it out of the air. 

“I didn’t think you’d be against drinking,” Simon said, cocking his little head as he looked at her. 

“Oh, I’m not,” Sarah said. “I’m not exactly a party animal, but I love a drink. I’m against you drinking because you seem like the type to be up at four in the morning ordering us all shots of tequila. I’m too young to die, Simon.”

“You know what,” Simon said, “that’s completely fair.” He balanced himself on his hindlegs, then made a dramatic bow, falling forward on his nose. “Point taken,” he mumbled into the grass. “But I think having a little look around can’t hurt, right?”

“If we’re not going drinking,” Jonathan said, “we could take Dennis with us. I think it’d be good for him, you know?” He thought of the young boy, and the promise he’d made. He hadn’t forgotten. The boy deserved to see his parents again. But Dennis needed protection in general. In that sense, he was glad Van Zant had picked him, Jonathan thought. That way, the little boy wouldn’t have had to deal with the glares and the constant barrage of questions he didn’t know the answer to. 

“Maybe we could make it a trip with the whole group, then? Bring our Witches and Wizards?” Simon offered. “Benjamin is cool, and I’d like him and you all getting to know each other a little better. “

Sarah nodded. “Sure, that works for me. Jonathan? Would Jenna be interested in that?” Jonathan gave it a moment of thought. Jenna would very likely love to be included, and she seemed to have taken a liking to Dennis too. And to his Wizard, Jacob, for that matter. The two had gotten along very well in the past few days. 

“Yeah,” he said. “That sounds like fun. So… how does that work? We just, like, tell an adult, and head out? Is there a bus, or…” He trailed off. “I just… don’t want to get into trouble.” He looked across the field, where the two Headmasters walked past, clearly in heated conversation. He briefly locked eyes with Lord Mangrove. The man stopped, frowned, then shook his head, back to his conversation with Lady Lalonde, who also shot Jonathan a glance. 

“We let people know ahead of time,” Sarah said. “You let a teacher know, the night before at the latest. That way, a teacher can be in town. If something were to happen, they want to be able to be on the scene quickly.”

“That sounds fair,” Simon said. “As long as we get to explore and stuff.” 

Sarah nodded. “I think we are. The teachers have a way of telling when we’re in danger, like the spell that’s over the school, but only when we’re within a certain distance, I think. So as long as we stay in town, we’ll be fine.”

“Gotcha,” Jonathan said, making a mental note to ask Dennis where his parents lived, to see if it would be possible to go and visit them and be back before anyone noticed they were gone. Sarah scooted up close to him and leaned her head on his knee. He stroked the soft fur between her ears idly as he considered what he’d tell people. Simon was curled up, eyes closed, seemingly enjoying the sun all the way to unconsciousness. He sighed gently. This was… nice. Really nice. He worried what would happen if he was caught helping Dennis sneak out, but he’d made a promise. Even if it meant he’d be punished for it.

Sarah seemed to notice the expression on his face, so he gave her a reassuring smile. She returned it as best she could as a fox, and suddenly Jonathan realized why foxes had always been considered mischievous. To call it a sly grin was an understatement. Did she know what he was planning? Could he tell her about it, then? This weekend was going to be for exploration first anyway, without the others, so he had time to consider it. 

“Trewood, right?” 

“Yup,” Simon said, eyes still closed. “You know, they have a saying about Trewood.”

“Oh?” Sarah raised an eyebrow. “I didn’t know you were familiar with the area.”

“Yeah,” he said. “When England was at war with Spain, a Spanish galleon crashed ashore and the crew came all the way inland. Only three of them made it this far, actually.” Jonathan looked at Simon as he calmly told the story, only pausing to take deep, huffy ferret breaths. “It’s said that they tried to take refuge in the forest to hide from the English soldiers chasing them, so one of them stayed behind to offer a distraction.”

Sarah squinted. “I don’t…”

“Yeah, Un and Dos were pretty well hidden, but that’s because you couldn’t see the Wood for the Tres.”

“Oh my god!” Sarah roared as she jumped at Simon, who was already sprinting away, cackling loudly.