Chapter Text
I always dread the night before classes begin, and my biggest fear came to life and manifested.
Now that it’s here, Whitechapel feels more magically charged than ever. Everything looming since the start of August finally settles its weight on my chest and now it is inescapable, I am the ‘new kid’ in town.
The morning of, I considered choking down an entire vial of rosemary, black salt, and slug’s spit to call out sick today, maybe even a week, but Winnie and Wanda would’ve smelt the con from a mile away.
I would much rather drone through school for 7 hours than find out whatever punishment they were thinking of... I was still picking fish scales from my scalp from the last time I disappointed them.
After settling on the correct cardigan,-vintage t-shirt, and skirt combo, I called to my closet, a small teal rug moved across the floor, and placed by my feet a freshly shined pair of leather ass-kickers. I slipped them on and started down the stairs, barely waving my hands over my shoulder, signaling my bags and books behind me. Bouncing in the air one by one, a parade of floating school supplies trailed me down the stairs. The bookbag placed itself on the front door hook, each notebook and pencil fitting in on the landing.
I took a right from the staircase and met my sisters in the kitchen.
Wanda, the firstborn, was waving her hands through the air like a composer ordering bread, eggs, berries, and honey through the air as she fixed breakfast.
Winnie was nose-deep in 2 spellbooks, pointing at the page and looking back and forth from the books to the set of vials on the counter in front of her.
“Good morning Sisters,” I said reaching for the fridge for breakfast. Debating if being late was worth whatever Wanda was whipping up, her food was otherworldly but took ages. Before I could settle I was met with an assumption.
“Y/N I need you to do something for me.” It was Wanda, not looking from the kitchen counter, mesmerized by her stuffed french toast.
“You can’t say no,” she punctuates, “it’s for the Coven.”
The last time I did something ‘for the Coven’ it ended with me covered in bird saliva and soot; clean up duty from both of their failed spells. And of course, my sister wants to use me for one of her chores on the first day of school.
“Wanda,” I huff “ I start school today, remember? Why can’t Winnie do it?”
Winnie scoffs, still in the book. “So do I Y/N, WCC classes started at 8 this morning I astral projected into my first block to make you fresh Vampire Repellant.” I roll my eyes, picking up the vial and putting it in my back pocket to put on later.
I look from Winnie to Wanda. “Fine, whatever, I hate you both, what is it?”
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I shift my weight cautiously on my feet, standing across the street from Whitechapel High.
Dozens of kids crisscrossed through the school’s courtyard, an ensemble of teen adolescents carried through the air. The details of my mission left from Wanda rang in my ears, making my stomach twist in knots.
“So here's the short of it. When we moved here we did a sweep of the town for any threatening auras, energy wielders like us, it was clear besides some remnants of an ancient coven that’s essentially harmless.
But, Winnie did a sweep last week and that’s changed, now there's a young but powerful force.
He’s your age and still inexperienced at wielding, but he comes from a strong ancient lineage, filled with a risky amount of untapped potential.
We might’ve pulled some strings to assure you’re in the same classes. Which helps since you’re both major honor roll nerds.
We need you to keep a close eye on him. Maybe even befriend him and get some information. Our coven should have the upper hand information-wise, just in case they start sniffing near us.”
My ‘so-called target’ didn’t look all that intimidating. I undoubtedly could beat him up, given the circumstances. The school photo Winnie slid to me across the kitchen counter now in my hand only made my argument more accurate. His big head, goofy smile and equally big brown hair made him look like a bobblehead atop his skinny tall frame.
He was cute, though. At least the view isn’t torturous I chuckled a beat to myself before putting the photo away. I tried scoping out the crowds of students but failed to spot him. Maybe he will be easier to find in class or at lunch, I thought to myself and started to cross the street to the academic building.
The moment I stepped foot on the asphalt, I felt a rush of energy and air, moving like the sound of light In what felt like the longest quarter of a second, I found myself alone again, safely by the front gate.
I shook my head in confusion and felt for my pockets and bag, the photo was still in my pocket.
Reaching around, I felt a sharp corner poke out of my cardigan pocket, I pulled out a business card “Rory Vampire - Vampire Ninja. Call 547-622-3267.” A brazen and irresponsible show of supernatural power? From a Vampire with business cards?! This town was already getting on my nerves.
I didn’t want to move from our home nearly across the country, but both of my sisters were adamant about leaving that place, our past, and any lingering feelings of our life before Whitechapel, Ontario. We are starting fresh.
I nervously straightened out my wind-blown hair and skirt that grazed above my knees, I grabbed the vampire repellent from my skirt pocket and dabbed it behind my ears, maybe Winnie wasn’t exaggerating on that. I swallowed a mix of pride and fear and continued through the front doors. The hallways are busy as students rush to class, I take in every beige and gray detail of this school, drowned out by the students until one voice cuts through it all.
“Once, we were lowly high-school noobs...now we're vampire-killing, spell-casting rock stars. The world is our oyster.” Interested and surprised by the open conversation about the unspoken, and without really thinking, I turned the corner to two guys with their backs turned to me.
“Have you ever actually had oysters? Not something you wanna swallow. More like something you cough up,” The other one retorted.
“Yeah, nice. Nice image to start the day.” The original one shuddered. I let out a small, almost reflexive laugh. Although quiet, it was enough for both of them to whip their heads in my direction– like they were shocked someone could hear them.
Just my luck.
My “target” was looking straight at me. It’s Benjamin ‘Benny’ Weir. I sucked in a breath as our eyes met. His were widened in surprise at first; even bigger and dreamier than I was prepared for.
His gaze was quick but did not neglect a visual trail up and down my figure. I’m far from used to being perceived like this. I felt my cheeks growing warmer and at the same time felt like my boots were cemented to the ground, oh god I already fucked this up.
I eventually broke from my daze and whipped my head away, overlooking the two boys as I sped past them, tucking away into my biology class. Once I took a seat, I let a long-withheld breath out and wrung my hands, trying to ignore the fluttering in my stomach.
The feeling was cut short when a crying girl walked into class holding flowers surrounded by other students. I couldn’t hear much besides her wheezes and exasperated gasps for ‘Puffles.’
It distracted me enough to not prepare for Benny and his friend to enter the classroom as well. God I hope we aren’t in every class I will certainly fail with this pressure on me. Students filed in yet the seat next to me was empty, at this point, I could feel my heart and lungs racing to see which would give out first. Please don’t sit here, please don’t sit here, I manifested.
He scanned each row of long black work tables and laid his messenger bag on the last table of empty chairs, a row in front and to the right of me. Not without stealing another glance.. A few moments later, his friend and a new blonde guy came in together. The friend from earlier sat with Benny, and the blonde nearly beelined toward my empty seat.
One neat trick I’ve gained from being raised around the supernatural and unspoken is the ability to feel the power in others. And both Benny and his friends are emitting that energy. Honestly, the school was a bit of a hotbed of different auras and presences more than Winnie or Wanda warned me of. I knew what a witch or sorcerer felt like, but there were different energy patterns across the halls.
Before I could decipher the unique pattern coming from the guy sitting next to Benny, his blonde friend was slipping into the stool to my right. Then scooted the chair further away from me, but still close. He had energy too, I just couldn’t figure out what it was, I swear it's on the tip of my tongue.
“Hey there–” he started, checking out each component of my outfit that morning before starting again, “Zom-babe.”
I groaned and rolled my eyes. The ‘Night of the Living Dead’ t-shirt I had on in view.
“It’s a really cool movie, and you seem cool enough to appreciate the art of improvised pet names. I’m Rory and between you and me I’m something of a living dead myself. ” he motions his fingers between us. I rolled my eyes and kicked his shin.
Then It all clicked. His aura is a vampire and the same name as on the business card from this morning. He has to be the cocky showboater in my way.
“OW, what was that for?” He groaned, leaning down to rub his leg. I shushed him and leaned in as he raised his head above the table. Yelling at him in barely more than a whisper.
“I know what you’re doing and you need to knock it off, I can’t deal with vigilante vampires trying to use their speed to get into girls' pants right now. Do you know how much shit you could get in with this if the wrong person came into possession of this?” I pulled his business card out of my pocket and ran it across the table to him. “You know there’s such a thing as Vampire hunters, right?”
“I thought it would be a way to pick up chicks in like a damsel in distress kinda way, you could’ve been hit by a car– how do you know about Vampires so much?” I raised an eyebrow and turned my body to face the front of the class.
“I read Dusk,” I replied out of the side of my mouth. It wasn’t true, but the words of Wanda were still running through my thoughts.
“This is the most important part, you must not let Benny know anything about us. There has to be a reason the coven is splintered in this town the last thing we need is to attract any attention to us. We can handle camouflaging your aura but the rest is on you. For now, you are mortal, you are normal, you are lamer than usual, and it has to be believable.”
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I woke up Tuesday morning to the sounds of my familiar fighting off a herd of mice and viciously winning. I looked over at the rodents my cat, Roswell, attacked and nearly gagged at their appearance, torn skin sickly green in color, and chilling yellow eyes. I called out a protection spell for my bedroom that caused the pack of zombie-looking animals to thin out into the air. I called for Roswell and stroked his back as he stretched across my lap and purred. I heard Winnie yelling incantations from downstairs in a high-pitched squeal.
Both of my older sisters, my metaphysical superiors, and legal guardians, were cowering on top of the kitchen counter holding on to one another.
Wanda looked down and cried out “Y/N, oh, thank Mother, command Roswell to kill all these rodents! We’re the ones with egg on our face right now for having an Owl and a Toad as ours.”
I laughed at my sister's distress, holding myself up with my hand on my hip, and called out the same protection spell I used earlier, the hoards of yellow-eyed mice, hamsters, and guinea pigs vanished in a puff of dust again. I scrunched up my nose, even with the undead animals gone, their decaying stench still lingered. I reached out my hand to help the two terrified sisters down from the island.
They both gave an exhausted “thanks Y/N” and began to light candles. Big Sisters and Bigger Cowards.
We spent most of the morning after that drafting a stronger and larger spanning protection spell. A magical extermination plan, really. At one point, Wanda looked up from her mortar and pestle, “Weren’t you supposed to be at school today?” I laughed a beat and tossed a sprig of dried lavender at her.
“Yes, and I was doing so well not to remind you two of that fact. Besides, I got an email 10 minutes ago saying the school has been canceled due to rabid animal attacks” I stood up from my chair and manually powered on the TV, and switched on the news. I slightly jumped back in shock at the sight of the News anchor getting attacked in the face by a spritely turtle. “I thought you said this place was safer than California– this is not safer than California” I turned to my sisters. They looked at each other with a knowing glare and nodded before turning to me, what are they thinking?”
“You know what it’s giving, Wanda?” Winnie asks Wanda sarcastically.
“It’s giving resurrection potion gone sour. Those rodents were beyond ripe, they were rotted. I wonder how that could happen” Wanda responds in the same tone. “Y/N, you wouldn’t have to know anyone making any resurrection spells? Maybe a certain fellow student?”
I gulped “I was barely able to see who he was let alone learn his plans! I did hear some girl in my Bio class’ dog died but that could be coincidental.”
“Well it’s not good if something like this is plaguing town on our first day. Could it be an attack?” Winnie concerned.
Wanda stood up and went into the kitchen/altar. A kitchen witch herself she poured holy water into a pot and heated it up. Adding herbs and rock salt to the mix. She waved for us to go away and I happily obliged, an hour or two of peace, just watching TV. Later in the evening Wanda carefully drained the liquid into 2 glass plant misters and thrust them to Winnie and I.
“Here. Go around town and get any more stragglers before it gets too dark out.. I’ll try to figure out a larger protection spell to cover at least the downtown area and our neighborhood. Winnie and I looked at each other and nodded. Grabbing our coats and protection satchels and hit the neighborhood.
The surrounding area remained empty and an odd airy tune screeched from two houses over. Maybe the zombie vermin killed a flutist and are haunting us our dead raccoon overlords. I started to walk over to the sound, and Winnie pulled me back into a bush. “You can’t go there,” She said in hushed tones.
“Why not?” I asked.
“The Weir kid congregates there, he cannot see you.”
“Wait-” I interrupted. “You’re telling me we live next to the Target’s house?” I stood in disbelief.
“Noo.” Winnie trailed. “He lives 2 houses down. I’m not supposed to tell you, Wanda told me to stay quiet because she didn’t want you freaking out and ruining the mission.”
I step back, waving my arms “Well, all you’ve done is freak me out! Don’t you think I’m already panicking over mortal things like surviving a new high school you have me doing reconnaissance missions on a boy! Who is cuter in the picture by the way, and that’s making it worse!” I ignored the change in Winnie's face, the smug ‘Y/Ns got a crush’ look.
“Ever since we lost Mom, it feels like Wanda is trying to take her place and boss me around and I hate it. It hasn’t even been 6 moons, and I’m still in pain over it. Let alone picking up everything we had there and leaving. Nothing is normal right now, all I want is to be a normal person for just a little while. Please.” I looked to Winnie whose face changed back to her normal gaze, her eyes welling with tears. She pulled me into a hug and squeezed.
“I know it’s been hard on you Y/N, it’s been hard on Wands and me too. I know it's a lot but Wands thought maybe the challenge could distract you from sinking deeper into your depression and we would lose you too.” She let go. “I’ll talk to her and we will take it easier on you, I had no idea that you were feeling this way. I love you, let's circle the block again and go home.”
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After an unsuccessful night killing zombie rodents, and the town back to normalcy I head to school with a million racing thoughts. ‘Now this ‘target’ is my neighbor and I have to be friendly to him while also flagging any suspicious activity.
Great. And I thought all I had to worry about was fitting in and doing homework.
After I head into Biology class, I see the target’s friends sitting next to one another with their heads down, a sense of defeat and embarrassment emanating from them. This almost confirms that the chaos from yesterday was their doing and now they have to live with the secret.
I take my seat from yesterday, noting that the vampire ninja, Rory, was avoiding me. I silently thank Winnie for the successful Vampire repellant and start prepping for class. I see the target walk into class, the same look of defeat on his face that quickly transforms to curiosity as he spots the seat next to mine looks back at me, and sits down. The target is inches away from me, and I have to remain cool calm, and collected. I ignored him, naturally, but my body was shaking internally which only stopped when he turned and held his hand out.
“I don’t think we’ve been acquainted yet, and that has to change. I’m Benny” I shake his hand.
“Ookay.. Im Y/N.” I feel my body ablaze feeling his hand, the strong powerful aura rushing through my veins mixed with nervous butterflies at his attention.
This is going to be a long class.