Chapter Three

I made it to my Advanced Placement United States History class just as the tardy bell rang. Miss Minnick, my teacher, followed me with her eyes as she hovered above her cushion at the front of the room. Miss Minnick was an infernal, and she had tiny demon horns above her eyebrows, and a wispy angular tail. Her class always smelled faintly of brimstone.

"What do we say about being on time to class, children?"

I winced.

The class recited: "To be early is to be on time. To be on time is to be late. To be late is to write an essay!"

"Hmm, which essay shall we have you write..." Miss Minnick went to her 'special hat' where she had writing essay prompts.

I really didn't have time today to write an essay, not with being April's fool.

"I wasn't late! I came in before--"

"Class?" Miss Minnick said.

"To be early is to be on time. To be on time is to be late. To be late is to write an essay!"

"Dude, just take your punishment and chill out," Franklin Dell said. He and I were study partners in APUSH.

I sighed as Miss Minnick theatrically shuffled the slips in her hat. "Miss Contreras, would you be so kind?"

Anita Contreras snickered, put her hand into the slips, and drew one out.

"Analyze the causes and consequences of the Civil War."

I groaned, letting my head slump to the table.

Usually, I enjoyed APUSH, but today I was angry at the events before school. Miss Minnick began delivering her lecture on Progressivism and the Rise of American Power.

April and I had known each other since the fifth grade. Back then, she was just a funny, spunky girl that I used to play with at recess. I remembered waiting for her on the monkey bars, and she'd come running out from class and clonk me on the head with her hairbrush. "Hey stupid," she'd say.

I'd never been 'boyfriend' material until finally, as freshman, I confessed I'd had a long-standing crush on her. She laughed at first; she'd been dating the quarterback on the freshman football team, then when he treated her like shit, she and I found each other.

It was the kind of first love fumbling, tumbling, and first kisses that we remember our whole lives. At first, things were really good, and I think I was happy for the first, and maybe the only time in my life. I walked her to school, we'd spend every lunch hour together, and generally, every waking moment if I wasn't in school, doing homework, or playing baseball, it was with her.

Then her dad sold his company for big money, and they moved away. However, April threw a fit and forced her dad to allow her to remain at High Valley High with her friends. She started coming into her power around that point, the same time she entered womanhood, and she'd undergone a rather dramatic transformation.

Her mother was Desdemonia, the most powerful magic user in High Valley. She wasn't a good or bad witch; she was a chaos user who used magic when and if things aligned in their own interests. When April came into her power, she had to go through her initiation...and come out the other side as a snide, bitchy, feral witch who used magic on others in mean ways. She said it was her geas, but all I know is the spunky brown-haired girl-next-door was replaced by this gothic, black-tressed bitch we all knew and loved now.

Our relationship fell apart when she put a collar on me in wolf-form one month. That's another story for another time.

Anyway, now she was the terror of the school. She had her bitchy friends who did bitchy things to people bitchily. And I'd gone from being infatuated with her to dreading the sight of her.

"Mr. Atkins," Miss Minnick said, reminding me abruptly that I'd spaced out. "Care to chime in on our discussion?"

I blinked and looked around. All eyes were on me, and Anita even snickered. "Um, sorry, can you repeat the question?"

In a testy voice, Miss Minnick said: "What were the key goals of the Progressive Movement, and how did they try to achieve those goals?"

My brain quickly reviewed everything I knew about the Progressive Movement. "The key goals of the Progressive movement included improving social and economic conditions for all Americans, reducing corruption and inefficiency in government, and expanding democracy and citizen participation?"

She smiled at me. "Well done."

I liked answering questions correctly. It gave me a little thrill each time I did. "Thank you."

"Please see me after class."

The little thrill went away. After class? That would be a disaster since I needed to sprint to April's class to carry her books to the next class! Panic filled me, and my pulse started racing. What would she do?

Did I care what she would do? If she used magic on me, I'd call my dad. As a member of the Council of Magic in High Valley, he wanted to know when power was being abused, and since April was starting to lean toward the dark side of Magic, he'd want to know.

I took a breath and calmed my pulse. In moments of extreme anxiety, my curse could manifest, and I didn't want that to happen, not here, not in class, not in front of all my friends...

I calmed down a bit, and class resumed as normal.

------------------

If you enjoyed this please consider joining my patreon at https://patreon.com/rainemonday