As soon as Katy and Sandra hit the airport Deen ran up to them. “Katy! Guess what?” He yelled as he grabbed her in a hug,
“What?” Katy asked with a large smile, his excitement was contagious.
“Mom and Dad got me a broom, just bought it for me!” He said with a smile. “I will have to show it to you on the plane. Mom and Dad said I can’t pull it out in the airport. We stand out enough already they say, but I can’t wait to show you it is like the best one there is.”
Katy did not know much about brooms, they had ridden the school ones in Magical Transport and both Katy and Deen were really good, but it hadn’t occurred to Katy that she could buy her own. “What kind is it?” She asked as she made a note not to spend so much on sweets so she could get her broom. She still had ten berries left, about fifty jewels, and about a hundred crystals, she wondered how much a broom cost, as the money had to last all year.
“It is an Apus, it is so cool. We will have to check it out this weekend!”
“Well, don’t go to high.” Sandra said that reminded them of her presence.
“Sorry, I am so rude.” Katy said. “Sandra this is Deen. Deen this is Tony’s mom, Sandra.”
Deen reached out and shook her hand. “Nice to meet you.” Deen looked over his shoulder, there were two people coming their way.
Katy recognized them from January, they were Deen’s parents.
“Deen, are you not going to introduce us to your lovely little friend.” His mother asked with a smile.
Deen read the note Katy had just handed him and looked up. “Katy, this is my mom and dad, mom, dad, this is Katy.”
Katy held out her hand and shook each one of theirs. “Nice to meet you.”
“Nice to mean you to, you may call us Jane and Edgar,” Jane said.
“Yes, genuinely nice to meet you. I hear you have our boy working ahead. And you two are getting good at spells beyond your years. I will be going with your Archeology class for their adventure next break, so you will have to show me some, especially those little salamanders.” Edgar said with a smile.
Katy blushed, but did not have to respond as Sandra spoke up.
“Yes, she made a ton of them, we just got them all vanished this morning. Except for one, he was her largest, only one inch long, but a fiery red. We thought she should keep him.” Sandra stated.
“Wow, I am sure she will have our son, transfiguring something out of nothing soon. He has figured out how to stop us from listening in on his conversations. He said that Katy gave him the spell, they practiced it during History. Of course, that would explain his P,” Edgar stated.
“I only got the P because it is the most boring class!” Deen choose to speak up.
“But didn’t you say that Katy pays attention in class?” Jane asked, raising her eyebrow.
“Well, yeah, she’s a genius with a spooky memory, she tries to get me to pay attention, she really does, but it is a lost cause.” Deen said as he pulled Katy to the side. “Brilliant, always harping on the P, and always bring up the Celo spell.”
“Well, we will have to try to get you an S at least this term, and then they will stop. And it sounds like they don’t care we learn all these extra spells.” Katy said with a smile.
“Brilliant, Katy, do you really think you have the invisibility spell down?” Deen asked as he looked back at the paper, she handed him.
“Yep, I was reading a book that I borrowed from Antonio, and poof, I was able to make Starlight and Shadow invisible. We will have to try it out on ourselves, worse case we have to go to Nurse Rice.” Katy said, as she pulled out a box of sugar wands from her bag. “Here you are Deen; I bought them on a shopping trip, with Sandra, for you.” Katy said as she handed him the box.
Deen grabbed the box, opened it, and grabbed two wands. Then put it is his bag. “Here you are,” he said as he handed her one of the wands. “Thank you, you are the coolest.”
“I am thinking that I should buy a broom.” Katy said and brought up the subject, she tried to find out how much they cost from Deen.
“Yep, then we could race.” Deen said with a smile. “But until you get yours you can always use mine.” Deen looked over to his parents and saw they were speaking freely with Sandra and Antonio. “I wonder what they are talking about?”
“I can do the spell; we can listen in.” Katy said her wand out.
“Yeah!”
Katy flicked her wand in their direction, and immediately Katy and Deen could hear what was being said.
“That is outrageous, how does he think he will ever get that little girl?” Jane asked.
“He is blood.” Sandra said. “But we are putting up a good fight. With his past the Elders may look past the blood. I don’t know how he convinced them to speed up the process.”
“He has always been dirty, probably paid off one of the trainees to push the paperwork though. If I find out whom, he will be out of the program.” Edgar stated.
“I hope that isn’t the case. I know with the incidents at school we have been keeping a closer eye on Riley Solomon, but I don’t see how he would have gotten into the Fire house without someone letting him in.”
“Like that would happen, Fire and Air have been rivals for way to long.” Jane said with an air of disbelief.
“Well, Katy told us she saw a flash of light, yellow light. As we all know, our colors are based on our elemental power. Airs are yellow.” Sandra said her face went white as she finally said the words out loud. As if it really did not happen that someone shot a dark curse at Katy, until she said it aloud.
“So, we have to figure out how they got in.” Edgar stated.
“I think we should change doors. Hawthorne and Blackthorn are brother woods, I always thought it was strange that we had a Hawthorne door, when Blackthorn wands have a possibility of opening it; the Airs changed theirs from Blackthorn to Banyan years ago. I think we should switch ours to something else as well.” Antonio stated.
“Yes, I think that would be a good idea. It may offer better protection to the students. I will contact Jo and see if she can make you a new Fire door, it may not be ready until end of term, so I will send a couple of trainees to watch the door. Just give them a list of your students. We will provide a password for each year,” Edgar stated.
After they heard that Deen and Katy stopped listening and looked at each other. “They think an Air is getting in!” Deen said. “Maybe…”
“I know what you are thinking… you think it is Riley.” Katy stated. “I don’t know maybe it is, but what would he have against us?”
“I don’t know, but he is an Air and you heard them…. It was an Air that fired that shot at you, and probably me too. Wow, a new door… I wonder what kind of wood they will use. Do you really think an Air got in?”
“Wouldn’t it be hard to open the door with a Blackthorn wand, even with the Hawthorn wood being its brother?”
“Yeah, I would think, but it doesn’t sound like it with the two incidents.”
“Maybe someone is letting the Air in. But who would betray their house? Does anyone have ties to the Air house, besides me?”
“Well, Randall does, his sister dates Riley. But I don’t see him letting an Air in; he hates them more than anybody.”
“You know Oscar has been acting weird. What do we know about him?”
“Not much he is normal born; seems like a pretty cool guy. He doesn’t do well in classes, he likes to talk about football a little too much, but he didn’t grow up with Eleball and it must be hard to have a family that is completely normal.”
“He has been avoiding me lately.”
“Yeah, I noticed that, normally he is hanging around us, but he has been hanging around the other girls lately.”
“Yeah… I was going to talk to him when we got back… he seems a little weird around me lately, especially in Mythology.”
“I don’t know. If it is him, maybe we shouldn’t talk to him.” Deen said. “Oh look, they have stopped talking; it must be time to get on the plane.” Deen said as he pointed to his parents and the MacCathmhaoils.
“Come on kids!” Sandra called as she waved them over; she got them in line for the plane.
“Now you two behave and remember no showing off.” Sandra said as she grabbed them both in a hug.
“Yes, Sandra is right you must behave, I don’t mind you showing off though, just don’t get caught,” Edgar said with a smile.
“Don’t be rude. Edgar, you shouldn’t encourage them to break any rules.” Jane said, as she waved her finger at her husband.
“Ah, honey, you know getting in trouble is part of being a child. And they seem a little behind on the detentions, but of course they might just know how not to get caught.” Edgar said with a wink at them.
“Katy, Deen, I agree with Sandra don’t show off, don’t do anything against the rules, just behave.” Jane said.
“Come on, we have to get them on the plane!” Antonio said as he pushed them way from Sandra, Jane, and Edgar.
They all gave their goodbyes and boarded the plane. Katy and Deen kept to themselves for a little bit, they discussed how to protect themselves this term, and who could have been behind the attacks, now they knew it was an Air, and who let the Air in, if someone did. After a while though, the guys came over and all started talking about what they did on break and Eleball.
“Hey! They are holding tryouts for the Fire team this next weekend, I can’t wait! I wonder who is going to try out.” Randall was said.
“Hey, you two should try out you are the best flyers of the first years, and you won’t get on the team, they basically just need to fill out back up spots, and about everybody tries out, but it will be good to practice, and your name goes down for other tryouts.” Rory stated to Deen and Katy. “Of course, you would need a broom.”
“Deen got one from his parents.” Katy said as she grabbed a couple of crystals from her bag to buy a couple bags of gummies as the treat cart came by.
“Wow, what kind did you get?” Asked Rory.
“The Apus.” Deen said as he gave his jewels over for his sweets.
“Wow, that is supposed to be like one of the best brooms there are!” Randall exclaimed, as he bought his Cauldron Chocolates.
“Wow, I wish we could get one of those we have the Pegasus but they are no match for the Apus,’ said Riordon.
“Yeah the only one better is the Hawk.” Rory said.
Katy sat and listened, again she wondered how much the brooms were and where you bought them, she did not remember seeing any while she stopped with Tony or Sandra. She really wanted one now, everybody seemed to have one.
“I am glad we can bring our brooms now; I can’t believe they make us wait for second term, but I am sure we will do better in Magical Transport with our own brooms.” Randall said, as he got up. “I will talk to you guys later; I am going back to my seat.” He walked away and soon after Riordon and Rory followed.
Katy waited until they sat back down in their seats, and then put up the Celo spell. “How much is a broom, a good one?”
“Well, the Apus is ten berries, and the Hawk is twenty berries. Of course, the Pegasus is only four berries.”
“Where do you order them from?”
“58 Racing. They are the best place to get your brooms. Do you really think we should try out?”
“Well, you should you have a broom, I will have to wait on a broom before I can.” Katy’s face fell, but quickly put on a smile as Antonio walked up.
“What were you two talking about?” He asked as he waved his wand.
“Umm…” Katy did not really know what to say.
“Katy was asking about brooms, she wants one, everybody has one of course, she was just asking about them,” Deen said.
“Why put up the Celo spell?”
“We were just practicing.” Katy said.
“Okay, but no more on the plane. Okay?” He said and walked away.
“Why didn’t you want to tell him about wanting a broom?” Deen asked he tapped some more of the gummies.
“I was going to tell him about that, I didn’t want to tell him about talking about the Air house. I just didn’t think quickly enough to just go with the broom thing.” Katy said as she grabbed a gummy.
“Oh, hey maybe Tony or Sandra or Professor MacCathmhaoil will loan you the money for your broom, you can pay them back in January when you get you second year money.”
“Nah, I may be able to swing it, I already did my birthday shopping for people, and got some good Christmas gifts too. Sandra said I should have waited but I told her that it is easy to spend money, if I buy them now, I don’t have to worry about it later.” Katy said with a smile and wondered if she wanted to empty out her money bag for a broom. She wished she could ask someone what they really thought, but Deen would say do it, Sandra would say be responsible there is nothing wrong with the school broom, so Katy was confused about what to do.
The plane ride for the most part was uneventful; they landed, went to their dorm, first year’s password was Meadows; they dropped their bag off and headed down to dinner. They sat down at their usual seats and waited for the headmaster to give start of term notices.
Headmaster O’Cuinn stood up and cleared his voice. Again, before he spoke he seemed to look over at Katy. Katy locked eyes again, and again he turned away. “Welcome back, a reminder, no dueling other students except during classes where appropriate, no staking of your vampire professors, and no sneaking of liquid silver into the drinks of your werewolf professors. The following houses are also having Eleball tryouts this weekend, Earth on Friday, Fire on Saturday, and Spirit on Sunday. Now let’s dig in.” He sat back down, and the food appeared upon the tables.
Deen and Katy talked about Eleball all throughout dinner with the boys, they all thought about trying out. Katy wanted to so badly she loved flying, and she might be small, but she was strong, Martial Arts, was really paying off. But first she was going to have to get a broom, she was going to have to buckle down and pay the rest of her berries for one.
They went upstairs, Katy helped Deen unpack then said she was going to study a little and go to bed. So Deen went to his dorm room and Katy went to hers. When she went to her room and before she could unpack, she found a package on her bed. It was large and wrapped in the prettiest wrapping paper she had seen, full of the colors of the elements. She opened it. It was a broom, more so it was a Hawk! Deen had said this was the best one! A card fell out of the wrappings; she picked it up and read it.
Dearest Katherine Lillian,
You do not know who I am, but I am from your mother’s side of the family. You just need to know that I am watching out for you. Please don’t seek me out. Please don’t go seeking out anybody from your father’s side that includes young Riley. He may be the one out to get you. I will not reveal myself until the time is right, but know this, I care deeply for you. May this broom remind you that you are loved, not only by myself, but others as well.
My love to you.
It was not signed but Katy ran to the other room and grabbed Deen’s hand. “Come on you have to see this!” Katy dragged him to her room and handed him the card.
Deen looked at the broom after he read the card. “Wow, you will have to let me try that Hawk out! I wonder who sent it.”
“There is no name just that they are from my mom’s side of the family. They say they care for me, but won’t reveal themselves until the time is right, whatever that means.” Katy was curious but now she could try out for Eleball with Deen and that excitement overtook her ability for a moment to realize there was someone out there that could have saved her from her time on the streets, and then the idea struck her. She had the best broom out there, and now she knew she had family out there that was, at least for now, keeping an eye on her. There were a million thoughts in her head about where they had been, maybe they did not know about her. Maybe it was like Antonio said they just could not locate her until the trace turned on, there were a thousand maybes and Katy decided not to think about them for now. She turned her attention back to Deen and her new broom.
Deen and Katy stayed up until midnight as they planned their tryouts and then went to bed exhausted and hoped that the week would fly by, so they could try out for their Eleball team. They wanted to see the field and fly it and that was their main purpose of trying out.
Kris Charles - Author 