"MORNING!"
If your friends have ever thrown you a surprise party, you'll know it's probably one of the best feelings in the world. The exception being a) when part of the surprise involves them waking you up at seven in the morning and/or b) if you wake up and find out they've plastered your walls with badly Photoshopped pictures of yourself.
"You guys." I groan and pull the blanket back over my head. "I literally just got out of the hospital. What the heck are you doing here?"
"You haven't been to school in almost a week since your fall," Mel explains. "De said she was helping Jess with some project thing—"
"And I'm getting really sick of Mel," Van adds. "So we thought we'd come see you!"
"Great. Come back in like—what time is it?—three hours."
Mel yanks my blanket away. "No! We are getting you up. Things haven't been going great lately, but that doesn't mean you can sleep yourself to death."
"Not to death. Just to ten."
"Come on." She hoists a big bag and dumps it on my legs. "We brought stuff."
It's only then that I take a closer look at my new wall decoration. My head's been Photoshopped onto various bodies. I don't recognise most of them; it's only when I see one that's distinctly Hermione that I realise they're all famous witches. Sabrina, Elphaba, Glinda, Ursula, the Evil Queen, Maleficent, the White Witch, the one from the Roald Dahl story, Bellatrix...
"You guys, when did you do this?"
"We printed them last night and stuck them up this morning," Mel beams. "Your mom helped out."
"And you sleep like a dead person," Van tells me. She freezes a moment later. "I mean—"
"I know," I say quickly. "It's okay. Forget it."
We have a lot of fun, actually—and it's easy to forget stuff when you're having fun. I make them have an Indy marathon with me, while gorging on every remotely unhealthy food in the house (the microwave either hates or loves us). A good dose of amnesia never hurt anyone, right? Esther who?
The curtains drawn to block out Muggles, Mel shows us her shapeshifting trick—I still haven't attempted that after the grade-A disaster that was the first time—and flaps around our heads. Then she shifts back and almost destroys our popcorn bowl by landing right on top of it. "Ow!" She yells, except she's half-transforming, so the first part of it comes as a high-pitched screech that's matched only by Van's scream as the popcorn flies all over her. "Let's do something else!" She huffs and folds her arms. Then she says something totally unexpected. "Vin, can you fly?"
I blink. "No." But immediately I'm excited. I mean, flying, right? Literally everyone's dream. How come I never thought of that? "Let's do it. How do I fly?"
"Uh... that's your job, right? Because seriously, the only flying I do is as a bat."
"You're so helpful, Melbourne."
"What? I'm being honest."
Van's eyes light up. "I have an idea." Now Van is a total Type B. She doesn't do decisions. And when she does, you usually want to start making sure all your insurance policies are up to date. She whispers in Mel's ear. Mel grins. Then she snatches my phone, turns into a bat, and darts up to the ceiling.
"Hey!"
Van smirks. "If you want it back..."
"I could always telekinesis my phone back, you know."
She wags her finger at me. "But that's cheating. Use your telekinesis to help you."
Okay, I think. I can do this. Besides, sue me, I'm a phone junkie. I need it.
The official rule about telekinesis is that you generally can't lift anything heavier than what you could physically lift. The unofficial rule is that you can't directly lift living creatures. You have to manipulate their clothes, or whatever, which is not very helpful. The official unofficial rule is that you can't use it on yourself. Not that Van would know that—she's not telekinetic. Werewolf. Duh.
I think of any sensation of flying I've ever had. The time I went bungee jumping. Paragliding. The first my mom passed. The second she turned out to be a total pro—now that I come to think of it, dryads are probably good with stuff like that. Naturey stuff.—and we've gone a few times together. I remember the sensation clearly—the exhilarating rush of being in the air.
Freefall.
No, no. I shut out the memory. I'm safe. The ceiling is like four metres high, tops. I'm not going to die. I survived four stories; four metres is nothing.
And actually, I remember that jerk, right before I hit the ground. A jerk, almost like someone pulled me up telekinetically, or, for that brief second, I was flying. I do learn well in trial by fire, as I learned in that crazy paintball range. Could I have been subconsciously trying to fly, only to be weighed down by the stone? And when it cracked...
I surge into the air.
Mel lunges aside, surprised. I rocket upwards and nearly slam my head into the ceiling, which would be typical. Instead, I stop myself just in time and start to get a hold on my senses. I'm flying.
It's weird and it's right. This is how Wendy fell for Peter. I lean forward, push myself mentally, and I move. Too fast. Pull back, and I slow down to a drift. It's all in my head, I realise. Just like everything else.
Once I figure this out, Mel has no chance. I smirk at her, and then I dive.
"OW!" Mel yells as I grab her and she transforms and we both topple to the ground. Thankfully not on the table again.
"Sorry!" I say, dusting myself off. "But for a vampire with super cool powers you'd think you'd have better senses."
"I didn't think you were gonna suffocate me!"
"Yeah, well." I shrug, taking a drink of juice. "It worked, right?" I wave my phone and grin.
"The atomic bomb 'worked', and..." Mel trails off as the doorbell rings. "Who's that?"
"No idea. Lemme go see." Tucking my phone securely in my pocket, I head over to the front door. Please, I think, don't let it be another person claiming Esther tried to kill them.
It's not. It's Rae. "Rae?" Van says in surprise, coming to my shoulder. "What're you doing here?"
Rae blinks at the sight of Van and Mel, but she covers fast. "Oh, just needed to ask Vinni something. I was in the area, so I figured, you know. But... this isn't a good time?"
I glance awkwardly at Mel and Van. Did I invite Rae over today? I can't remember, but I'm always glad to see her. Except now. "Um..."
"Actually," Mel says, with a pointed nudge to Van, "we were just going. So feel free."
"You were?" Rae and I say at the same time.
Mel jerks her head in the direction of the living room. "Vin, can I tell you something?"
We step out of Rae and Van's earshot and Mel's expression turns serious. "Vin, we know."
That's never a good thing. "Know what?"
"About you... and Rae." She shrugs apologetically at my stunned expression. They what? "Abby, she saw Rae's drawing in the hospital, and she told us, and we kinda guessed. She's your teacher, right? That's okay, you know."
"I just..." I say lamely. "She wanted to keep it private. She's in trouble or something."
Mel looks concerned. "With who?"
"I don' t know, she won't even tell me. Dark creatures, maybe. You don't think Esther...?"
"It's possible," Mel says grimly. She claps me on the shoulder. "We'll let you have your training thing. Text us if anything."
"Yeah, course."
"See you in school tomorrow!"
"Maybe." Not looking forward to that.
Rae watches them go, looking embarrassed. "Sorry, I actually didn't know."
"It's fine, they've been here all morning. What's up? I didn't forget we were meeting, right?"
"No, no, totally random." She nudges the door shut. "I was thinking... you healed really fast. So you definitely have some kind of latent healing abilities."
"Like latent flying abilities." I update her on my progress and she laughs when she hears about Van's method.
"Nice," she grins, "I should try that."
"Don't you dare."
"Joking. Kind of. What I wanted to talk to you about was healing, anyway. See if I can help you amplify it. Because if you're doing it subconsciously, chances are it's one of your stronger abilities." Her expression suddenly deepens into this intense look. "And you always need healing."
Something bugs me. "I just have one question," I say, "don't you need to... uh... get hurt to practice healing?"
She looks at me guiltily. "How are you with bruising?"
"Oh, no." I hold up my hands. "What is wrong with all of you today? I literally just got out of the hospital, and Van takes away my phone and now you actually want to hurt me. What do I have to do to get a break around here?"
Rae sighs. "Okay, fine. We can try healing your old scar tissue—but that's way harder."
"Hey, as long as I don't have to get myself more hurt."
She gets me to focus on this scar on my right knee I got when my kayak crashed into a jetty where a piece of metal just so happened to be sticking out. Vera, classically, had collided into the jetty minutes earlier, but being shorter, had narrowly avoided the thing. Anyway, I've had the thing for a couple years now, and my self-esteem is fine, but, you know, why not?
"Healing is tricky," Rae starts. "Not as much if you're healing yourself; a lot more if you're healing others. You have to know what the thing is supposed to look like. Naturally, your body recognises itself, so that's not a problem—you just focus the magic in the right place. But if you're healing others, you have to understand what you're doing. The anatomy, and all that. Unless you're a unicorn or something, it's actually insanely difficult to be a healer—they all basically have med degrees."
"Wow. So no chance of any of my friends being one?"
"I like how you didn't include yourself," she says dryly. "But unless they're really, really into human bio, then probably not."
"Sad. Vera's smart enough, maybe she could do it. If she's even magical."
"I'd be surprised if she wasn't," Rae remarks. "Both your parents are. You are. Our magical world doesn't exactly have Squibs."
"But... she's too young, right?"
"Most of us have magic from the start, actually. Even you, remember? Dora? It's just when it settles enough for us to control it." She cracks a smile. "I started in kindergarten. My family has a tendency to bloom early."
I don't know what I'm more caught off guard by: her early maturity, or her sudden talk about her parents. Rae's brilliant, cool and fun to hang out with, and she can do things with Lego bricks I can only dream of, but ask her too much about her family and you might as well go and ask the wall. Actually, you might get more from the wall.
"Okay, so how do I do this?" I concentrate my magic towards my knee and try to imagine it whole, but it's hard to see it smooth when I've gotten so used to the scar. Instead I stare at my other knee and try to picture the skin on the other side just like it. It takes a moment, but then I feel a prickling sensation on my leg and look to the other side to see the scar disappearing. "I got it!" I exclaim. "Look!"
Rae has a weird look on her face. "Yeah. You did. I just remembered—I have to go. I forgot about this thing I had." She gets up abruptly. "I'm sorry. It's important."
"Hey, it's fine. Thanks for the crash course." I'm still marvelling at my knee, running my fingers over the place the scar once was. "See you in school!"
She offers me a rueful smile and sees herself out.