Shifting (12 page)

“Why does a Catawitch have two different colored eyes?” A boy called out an answer before allowing the teacher to call on him.

“Because they have one normal eye, and a white one, which is said to be able to see really, really far.”

“Oliver Stamm! How many times must I remind you of the rules? Do we ever allow blurting out of answers in this class?” The teacher reprimanded the boy, who the twins guessed to be around ten.

“Sorry, I forgot, again,” he frowned.

“Forgetting isn’t a good enough excuse anymore. To the board!” Oliver Stamm already knew what was coming, and depressingly picked up a piece of chalk and began writing: 58

I will not forget to let Teacher Lindy call on me before answering a question.

Why?

Because it is disrespectful to the class.

“How many lines this time, Teacher Lindy?” the boy asked, humiliated.

“Since you can’t remember, after all the lines you’ve written thus far, Oliver, you can stay right there until the end of the school day!”

“But I’ll miss my other classes. I’m barely caught up from the last time.”

“And whose fault is that?” the teacher asked.

“Mine, ma’am, and I’ll have to try harder to catch up.”

The twins sent rapid thoughts to each other.

“I wonder if I have to raise my hand for everything,” sent Meghan.

“Guess that’s what the huge blackboard is for,” thought Colin.

“Okay then. Continuing with the lesson, the answer Oliver gave was in essence correct. The white eye is believed to be capable of seeing long distances; the exact distance has yet to be proven. There is also much debate over whether this eye can see more than just distance. That just perhaps they can see into the very soul of the one they call master.” She paused, allowing the students to finish their note taking, then continued. “How does one tell a good Catawitch from a bad one?”

One child raised his hand slightly then put it back down. Another raised her hand and waited for the teacher to call on her.

“Yes, go ahead, Maria.”

“By their masters. Catawitch’s are loyal to them until death.”

“Good, good. But also remember,” started the teacher, lowering her voice. “The cat chooses the master, or in this case, mistress, based on their own predisposition for good or evil. Alas, this fuels our fascination with these creatures, leading us to the ever burning question, are you a good cat, or a bad cat? Sometimes, one never knows until it is too late.” Teacher Lindy’s eyes peered over her spectacles in Meghan’s direction, as if expecting an answer. The class studied Meghan; the new stranger. Banon Blackwell trusted her. Shouldn’t they?

“Why am I always being gawked at?” she complained.

“Because, people want to know if you’re a good cat or a bad cat!” Colin sent, mocking the teacher.

The class eventually moved on to another topic. The rest of the day went smoothly now that the introductions were over. By the end, they had been assigned three essays, a take home quiz and magic practice. They decided that Uncle Arnon was not that hard of a teacher after all.

Even Colin was a little anxious about the workload.

It was too late to visit Uncle Eddy once school ended. Jae showed them instead how to send him a message. They stepped outside of the Svoda Wagon. Jae held a freshly picked leaf from Bedgewood in his hand.

“Recordo,” he said, handing it to Meghan. “Say what you want written in the message.” 59

“Uncle Eddy,” she dictated. “The first day went okay. Did you realize the kitten was a Catawitch? It caused quite a bit of ruckus. We hope to come and visit soon, tons of homework to do. Love, Meghan and Colin.” After she spoke, the message appeared on the leaf, briefly, and then vanished.

Jae took the leaf.

“Uncle Eddy,” he told it. The leaf lifted off his hand and drifted away in the breeze. “Now it will find your uncle and only he can read the message.”

“That’s cool,” said Colin.

“It’s a lot easier and faster than hand delivery,” said Jae.

They raced home and dug into their homework. When Irving Mochrie arrived home that evening, nothing seemed to please him more than seeing four students hard at work.

7

A week passed. The twins had no time to think about anything other than school work.

Exams were fast approaching and the teacher was afraid they might not be ready in time to pass.

She scheduled an appointment for them with the school advisor, to see about studying with a tutor. Normally, the students had months to prepare. They had only six weeks until early November, and exam time.

A short, stubby, balding man with a grumpy face met them in the hallway of the school and motioned for them to enter the advisor’s room. The walls were bare and windowless, and the only furniture was a small couch, desk and chair.

The man motioned for the twins to sit on the couch. They did and waited patiently, as he monotonously waddled his way to the chair, apparently in no hurry. Finally, he situated himself comfortably, and in the same monotonous manner, sifted through a stack of papers that the twins could only assume were about them. After carefully separating each page, he spread them neatly across his desk. His mouth opened to speak, then closed. He opened a drawer and took out a plaque. The name read, Muckle Mauch, Advisor.

Colin was thinking, what kind of name is Muckle Mauch, which Meghan overheard and was about to comment on, when at long last the advisor spoke. His rushed, high-pitched voice took the twins off guard.

“Okay, then, we have you in elementary, I see, yes. You’re a few months behind the other beginners. If you plan on getting to the next level, which I suggest and know you do, you will need some extra tutoring to catch up.” Colin and Meghan already had an extra tutor in Uncle Eddy, but, of course, they did not bring this to Advisor Mauch’s attention.

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He continued, without letting them speak.

“I would say three, no, four times a week will do. That should get you caught up on history and beginner skills in time for your exams.”

“At least its not every night,” thought Colin.

“In a couple of days I will send a tutor to your house. You’re staying with the Mochrie family, yes, yes all right. I won’t lie!” he barraged. “This will be a difficult six weeks for you, but, not to worry! A little hard work never killed anyone!” He then laughed in his high pitched voice, which reverberated off the barren walls. “After fall exams, there is no telling when the next chance at passing the class will be, since we have a break for the holidays, and then of course, we move on.”

The twins gawked at each other and Meghan butted in without waiting, or asking permission.

“Excuse me, sir, but moving on to where?”

Muckle Mauch stopped; the expression on his face went blank.

“Excuse me?” he asked, his eyes widening a little. Meghan wondered if she had spoken out of turn, and would end up doing lines, instead of her homework.

“This is not part of my job,” he explained. “I advise you how to succeed in passing class levels, which should be your number one concern. However, I suppose, it’s possible you don’t understand how things work.” He then took a long breath and said in a well-rehearsed manner,

“We are not advised where we will go next, that is for Banon Blackwell and the Viancourt to research and decide.” Then Muckle Mauch added, “Get use to it. It happens every few months or so.”

It was not exactly the answer the twins were looking for but they had no chance to think about it. Their advisor had them back on topic and scheduling tutor times in the blink of an eye.

On their way to class, they regretted that the time was coming when they would say goodbye to Uncle Eddy. Even more so, they regretted that the time they did have, would be lessened by schoolwork.

“I know it seems inevitable, but we haven’t yet asked him about staying behind when the Svoda leave Grimble,” said Meghan.

“Somehow, I think I already know the answer, Sis. But we can still ask,” he added, trying to keep up hope. They headed to class, which was already in session, running into Jae at the door; he held a stack of books, with his hand on the doorknob.

“How’d ya like Muckle Mauch?” he asked sardonically.

“Considering all the tutoring he set up for us, not so keen right now,” answered Meghan.

“Teacher Lindy asked me to grab a few books for her. You guys coming back to class?”

“Unfortunately,” droned Meghan. Jae finished opening the door and entered, followed by Meghan. Her eye caught a lit candle sitting in the corner of the room. That’s all it took! Meghan touched the door knob and the floor swayed beneath her. From the corner of her eye, in the flame, there was a shadow. She jerked her head away, not wanting to see it, hoping desperately it was not another warning of an imminent attack. Colin steadied her, shutting the door gently.

“Are you all right? Is it the Firemancy thing again?”

“Maybe,” she said, wishing she hadn’t touched the door knob after Jae. She detested this new ability.

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“We need to get to class,” reminded Colin.

Meghan’s pocket stirred and the baby Catawitch poked its head over the edge, meowing softly.

As Colin took hold of the doorknob, Meghan turned and suddenly fled the school.

“What are you doing?” Colin flung the thought at her disappearing figure.

“Something I gotta do,” she sent back. She then blocked her mind.

“Wonderful,” Colin said through his teeth. “What am I going to tell the teacher?” He entered the classroom, and thought, half-sarcastically, and half-worried, “I think she’s completely lost her mind!”

Teacher Lindy was guiding a student through moving objects, without touching them.

“Concentrate, Marvin. This is where you always mess up! I know you can do this.” The rest of the class cheered the boy on as he focused on moving a heavy stack of pillows through the air.

The goal was to have them land neatly in an outlined square.

Colin waited near the door, not wanting to interrupt or get in the way. Once the stack was positioned nicely in the square the class cheered and crowded around the exhausted boy.

Teacher Lindy cheered happily.

“Splendid job! You’re going to pass the exam this time, Marvin, I can feel it! Well done.” Marvin looked to be around eleven, and was one of the older students in the class.

“Okay, back to your pillows and we shall begin again. Who would like to go next?” There were no volunteers. Teacher Lindy noticed Colin working his way to an empty pillow. Her eyes perked up. “Aha! Colin Jacoby. I think it’s time for you and… where’s your sister, still with advisor Mauch?”

At the name, the students squealed under their breath. The teacher gave them a, you’re-a-naughty-class look, and the giggling ended. Colin tried in vain to think up an excuse.

“Uh, she is… she fell ill, had to go home, I think.”

“Home? Did she get a letter of excuse?” the teacher prodded.

“A what?”

“Letter of excuse, excusing her from school. Only valid written permission allows a student to miss school.”

“Oh, um, you’d have to ask Meghan. I’m not sure, Teacher Lindy.” Colin didn’t know what else to say. He knew his sister did not have a letter of excuse.

“Too bad,” she exclaimed. “Exciting day today, trying to move pillows.”

“She’s a little too excited over such a simple task,” whispered Colin to Jae, while taking his seat on a pillow. Jae winked his reply.

“Since you’re here, Mr. Jacoby,” the teacher then said, “why don’t you take a turn?” She used magic to move the pillow stack out of the square, strewing them about. “All you need to do is collect and stack the pillows neatly, then move them into the square. The goal is to have them exactly lined up in the square. In the exam, if you are outside of the lines you lose points!” Colin was instantly anxious, although he knew he could do this task, no problem. It was completely different though, with a classroom of twenty scrutinizing his every move.

“After fighting Scratchers, moving a stack of pillows should be easy, right?” he muttered.

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“All you need to do is reach out and feel the energy around you,” the teacher instructed.

“Collect it, focus on what you want to accomplish, and use that energy to move those pillows.” Colin had already practiced moving objects with Uncle Eddy. Piece of cake he repeated over and over in his mind. Colin closed his eyes forgetting the students watching. He was aware of the energy surrounding him; it felt diminished in the crowded classroom. There wasn’t enough for what he needed. Colin peeked at the boy named Marvin, who was still recovering. It had taken nearly all the energy he had to move them.

“How can I draw more?” mumbled Colin. He reached out beyond the classroom, then the school, and then, beyond the Svoda wagons, where copious amounts of energy were just waiting to be collected. Within seconds he was over-filled. Colin’s eyes popped open. He moved his hand swiftly. The pillows were collected and stacked. He hovered the stack three feet in the air and then moved them deftly, landing them softly in the square, perfectly aligned.

The class observed Colin in impressed stupor, including Jae and Teacher Lindy.

“On the first try. So easy. Spectacular! ” she stammered.

Colin smiled, quite satisfied with his performance. He was not tired at all and sat down next to Jae, who patted him on the back.

“That was great!”

“How did you do that?” asked the boy named Marvin. “You don’t even look winded.” Colin answered honestly.

“I could do it again. I’m not winded at all.” Actually he felt incredible. Powerful. Like the day back in Cobbscott when he had tackled the three bullies. “I get what you mean,” he abruptly whispered to Jae.

“ ’Bout what?”

“The power you feel. It makes you feel… huge.” Colin did not know how else to describe it.

“I wish I could feel it again,” sighed Jae. “I haven’t since I got home.” Colin wondered if he could help Jae, but how? Jae already knew more than he did.

The class forged on, with students trying their hand at moving the pillows. None of the remaining students succeeded.

Meghan never returned to class. Colin tried to reach out for her.