Enchanted High Book I

June shot Nicole a look that asked ‘what’s going on?’ and she received a similar expression in return.

‘Take a seat Miss Price.’ Salvatore, who was now seated on his own chair, gestured to the remaining chair opposite his. He didn’t say anything for a while; he just kept a wary eye on the four.

‘I suppose you all had an enjoyable day?’ he said. He leaned on his backrest, picking at his long, dirty fingernails. June but her lip, disgusted. She would’ve thought that the Headmaster of Enchanted High would have proper hygiene habits.

The group nodded obediently.

‘Good, good,’ he paused and looked down at his bare desk. ‘I have a reason to believe that last night ...’

June felt her heart skip a beat. Could he have known that they were awake and roaming around the library at night? When every student was expected to be in bed?

‘Last night we had some ... what can I call them – intruders,’ he eyed James suspiciously, circling his finger across his desk. ‘In fact, there were four of them. A few things are stolen. The library has been destroyed.’

June froze at the word destroyed.

‘What do you mean?’ Nicole asked.

‘I mean,’ said Salvatore, ‘the intruders lit a flame, burnt several documents, capsized shelves, tore apart books.’

There was silence.

‘This morning our cleaning staff tended to the ruins. They found these ...’ he reached into his desk and pulled out a white wrist watch.

He lifted his head so he could look at June. She found it hard to return the gaze; but she fought it, looking at his expressionless face without even flinching.

‘Do you recognize this, Miss Price?’ he held it closer to her. Indeed, she did recognize it. It was her white watch. But how did it fall off? She pulled her sleeve up to check if it was there, wrapped around her wrist safely, but it wasn’t.

‘Very well then,’ he placed the watch on the table. ‘And you, Miss Fox –’ Once again he reached into his desk drawer and held out a pair of earrings.

There was a sharp intake from Nicole.

Salvatore placed the earrings beside the watch and retrieved a stack of papers. Their corners were frayed; brown-ish and bitten, falling slowly into a small pile of ash onto the desk.

‘Mr. Stuart,’ Salvatore held up the papers. ‘Do you remember these?’ he asked.

Yes, June realized – it was the papers she and Dominic were going through at the reception desk. She tried to figure out why it was burnt, when she remembered. She had asked him for a little light and his flame must’ve been too close to the papers, burning them without them even knowing.

A fire manipulators flame is like their fingerprint, Audrey’s voice said. With a burn mark, you can trace the culprit.

Salvatore placed the papers on the desk, aligning it neatly beside the belt and watch. Then he reached out for something else in his drawer.

‘And finally, Mr. Scott,’ he held up another smaller piece of paper, almost like a card, and handed it to James.

‘No,’ James shook his head. ‘This was in my room –’

‘You admit that you were not at your room last night?’

‘Y-Yes, but – we were completing a task for The School Beneath –’

‘I am aware of that. That does not mean you do not get punished for destroying school property.’

‘But we didn’t –’

′And I am aware that you four were also behind the loss of the Wishing Tree.′

‘What?’

’With all due respect, sir,′ June said. ‘You don’t have any proof.’

Salvatore pierced his gaze at her for seconds. June realized how truly black his eyes were; as if they could drown you into a cold, everlasting darkness. She shivered absent-mindedly; she felt as if she was in the presence of a horrible man.

The Headmaster pursed his lips. ‘I was coming to that,’ he replied. ‘I’m afraid we’re going to have to search your dorm rooms.’

‘But that’s not fair,’ Nicole burst out.

And they started yelling all sorts of comments at the same time; Nicole saying that their rooms had personal items; James agreeing with Dominic that they were completely innocent, and what Salvatore was doing was highly unjust.

But June stared the single wrinkle on Salvatore’s face; thinking. Something definitely odd was happening behind the scenes, she wasn’t stupid to realize that. Based on his satisfied grin, the Headmaster seemed to be enjoying the fact that they were going to be punished.

After a long, hard thought about the situation, June breathed in deeply and said, ‘Fine.’

Her statement halted the outbursts of the others, and was greeted with momentary silence that only the swimming fishes in the tank broke.

Nicole glared at her. ‘Are you insane?’

June shook her head, sending Nicole a meaningful expression. ‘We have nothing to hide.’

He seemed to understand, nodding faintly. He shifted his hand, pressing a button engraved into the table, and spoke into it. ‘Sara, come here please.’

Moments later a woman with curly orange hair and glasses stood at the door. ‘Yes, sir – you called.’ She spoke in a cool, collected voice, quite the opposite of Salvatore.

‘Have a team ready to conduct a search at rooms one-oh-nine and one-two-five.’ Salvatore instructed. ‘If anything is found – library books, documents from the office – alert me immediately.’

‘Yes, sir.’ She disappeared.

Salvatore returned his attention to June, Nicole, James and Dominic, tapping his forefinger on the table; June was forced to look straight into his lifeless eyes again. ’It is best if you know that I am aware the four of you have joined the

agency below. If evidence proves you’re guilty, you will be expelled from both the schools.′

Just then, somebody else joined them, walking casually into the office. Charlie.

‘You called for me sir?’ At first he didn’t notice the four seated there but when he did, his expression turned worried.

Salvatore let him in on all the details, the stealing, the search and the expulsion while June, Nicole, James and Dominic sat there watching everything fall apart.

Now and again Charlie would look at them, not in anger though, in understanding. And something told June that he was on their side.

The woman opened June’s closet door violently, as if she cared nothing about the value it had to its owner. She searched through her clothing; picking at every speck of dust, every strand of hair. While she did that, another woman went through the drawers at Nicole’s desk; the two of them watched the scene helplessly. Alexia stood at door, silently, grooming her wings, apparently unaware of the situation.

‘This sucks,’ said Nicole. She frowned, eyeing the woman who had just emptied the contents of her school bag onto the bed.

June leaned against the doorframe. She sighed, glancing down at her feet where Alexia now sat; he head upright like a guard dog, her ears twitching. ‘We have to let Charlie know that we didn’t do it.’

’But if we do then he won’t like the fact we didn’t listen to him in the first place. Remember? He warned us not to go to the library.′

‘I know, but what’s worse, the wrath of Charlie or the possibility of getting expelled from Enchanted High.’ June didn’t like the idea of getting back to Aunt Audrey and telling her that.

’That’s only if they find evidence– and we didn’t do anything there definitely can’t – won’t – won’t be anything here.′ Nicole said confidently.

June looked across the room, over the balcony where she could see the faint line marking the point where the ocean met the sky, reminding herself of her home, of Audrey, of her life. ‘I hope so.’

She had no intention of saying it, but her hunch that they were framed – that someone somewhere had planned for all this to happen – had begun to strengthen.

‘June?’ Nicole was saying.

‘Huh?’

‘June – look at Kendal.’

Kendal was murmuring words that were not clear to them. They strained their ears to make sense of it when, suddenly, he spoke audibly in a voice that belonged to someone else.

‘It’s James,’ said Kendal, ‘you won’t believe this.’

June’s heart raced. ‘What’s the matter?’

‘They found books.’

‘What?’

‘You heard me; they found a pile of books here, one of them is Gustavo’s Magic for Beginners.’

June began to feel as if she was drowning; which was impossible no matter how desperately she would have wanted to.

And then she heard Nicole gasp; her hand was extended, another covering her mouth in shock. She was pointing in the direction of the woman, who stood by her drawer, crossing her arms, raising her eyebrow at people who she now thought were criminals. All June could think of when she saw what was in her hands was: please let that be a wig...

For the woman held a head firmly in her hands, slim, polished fingers gripped a lock of hair, holding it up into the light so that the eyes of Gilda stared at June.

‘She’s dead,’ the woman whispered.

I felt a little faint headed when Polkadot narrated this scene to me. Maybe it’s just me - I’m afraid of everything. Again, how am I not dead yet?

Love from all the fear in my heart,

-THUG.