Magic High

By Christina Gaudet

Welcome to Andrew High, a school for mages...

That is, until its doors are opened to the non-magical, or "normie," population. That means no more magic allowed on school property. For Tabetha Long, whose powers are directly related to emotions, hiding her magic is difficult. When her mother is hired as the new gym teacher, and her father comes back to town with his reality television show, difficult becomes impossible.

Now her every move is being caught on video and everyone else at school wants in too. All Tabetha wants is to become invisible.

But then the mysterious and cute new guy, Eric wouldn't be able to see her either...

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christina Gaudet
• Release date: Feb 18, 2019
• ISBN: 9780986922169

Book preview

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I can’t thank my family and friends enough for not only helping me bring this book to life, but also for being so encouraging along the way.

A special thank you must go to Patti Larsen for her editing skills, Mary Gaudet for photographing the cover and Brenda Little for being my cover model.

Also thanks to Joan Bunty Albert, Richard Snow and Mom who read and edited countless copies of the story.

1

Shuffle. Shuffle shuffle. Nudge. Resist urge to shove. No, no Tabetha. You can’t put a hex on them because they cut in front of you. Not even if they do keep looking at you like you’re the jerk.

Assemblies suck. Trying to get through the overcrowded halls to get to the stupid assembly sucks more.

My friend shoved her way through the crowd toward me, knocking kids against the wall so she could have a better path. Her brown braids swished behind her, smartly smacking people in the face if they tried to fight back. I watched Eleanor with a smile. No one would dare mess with her when she was wearing braids. And in a few minutes she would be walking beside me, helping me move through the crowd faster too. What else were friends for?

Elle! I called to her over the noise.

Tab! Eleanor waved. Hey! Can you believe this crowd? You’d think someone would have thought of a better way to herd us.

Of course everyone glared at her when she spoke since she was being super loud. The couple next to us popped on matching earmuffs to block the sound, but I was used to it. I felt particularly pleased to be Eleanor’s best friend on braid days. It meant we would always get the best table at lunch. And it meant there was less chance of people paying attention to me, which was how I liked it.

Where do you want to sit? she asked.

We paused at the doorway to glance around the already crowded auditorium. The way Eleanor dressed and wore her hair each day determined who she was willing to hang out with. This meant today there were only five people other than Sylvia and me who suited her personality.

After only a second’s consideration, she led me towards a group of five hacky-sac playing, longhaired, hippy wannabes. They’d gotten rid of a few of the seats so they could better play their game, but when one of the teachers came over and glared, they quickly zapped everything back into place.

Eleanor’s friend Lucas waved hello as he sat in one of the returned chairs. He was one of those people who always had a huge grin on his face. Either he was ridiculously happy all the time, or he was in fact the Joker, and there was no way he could get rid of the smile. I secretly thought it was the second one. He nodded to me to acknowledge my existence before turning back to Eleanor. That’s how most of Eleanor’s friends reacted, if they saw I was there at all.

Eleanor plopped down next to him and I sat on her other side.

There you are, Sylvia pushed her way through the crowd, trying to get to us. Eleanor didn’t seem to notice her. Guys! Hey, I found out...

She must have seen Eleanor was busy chatting with Lucas and not listening to her, because she stopped talking and attempted to get closer. Listen. This is big news. Guys, I found out...

Ladies and Gentlemen, Principal Latner said, though the students mostly drowned his words out.

After some quick shushing from teachers, everyone went quiet. Sylvia sat back and made a face like she couldn’t decide which was more important, staying out of trouble or telling us what she’d heard.

If you’ll please settle down, we can get started. I have a couple of announcements. I would like to welcome you all back to class after what I hope was a fun and adventure-filled summer holiday.

The room burst into cheers with someone shouting More summer! followed by giggling and more shushing.

This year is going to be a very special one for Andrew High School for many reasons, not the least of which will be the introduction of many new students and faculty members.

People started talking again, but this time at a lower murmur to friends. No one seemed to know what he was talking about. New teachers?

Sylvia leaned toward us and opened her mouth, but was once again cut off by Latner.

While most of the new teachers will be joining us on Monday, I’m pleased to introduce one of them today. Would everyone please welcome Vivian Long!

It didn’t register at first. I watched a woman in a pair of skin-tight pink pants and a matching shirt stand from her chair among the faculty. It wasn’t until the polite clapping began my brain caught on to what was happening on stage.

Oh no. No no no. That couldn’t be who I thought it was.

My ears filled with a sudden ringing and my stomach did a little flip. Why did she have the same name and look exactly like my mother? My mother, who was supposed to be substituting at some school today. Some school that wasn’t mine.

My jaw dropped when she waved to the crowd, wiggling her fingers a little extra when she saw me. And when I say dropped, I mean it. It fell right to the floor. Eleanor had to lean over and scoop it up for me since I couldn’t take my eyes away from my mother long enough to get it myself.

Usually, I’d be mortified at having lost control of my emotions so much to lose a body part, but I was too busy staring at the stage to care.

Your mom is working here now? Eleanor said. Why didn’t you tell me?

That’s not even the biggest news, Sylvia tried again. I just heard...

Ms. Long will be teaching a new class called... physical education? Principal Latner looked at a slip of paper in his hand and squinted at the words, clearly unfamiliar with the term, as any proper mage would be.

Thank you, Liam, my mom said.

My mother!

At my school!

As a teacher!

As some of you may have already heard, Principal Latner continued, Sterling High School was recently closed due to some unfortunate mould problems. As such there have been some unavoidable changes in our district.

Eleanor glanced at me in horror. She must have finally clued in about my mother and was checking to see if I was appropriately appalled. I couldn’t take my eyes off the hideous pink pants to assure her I was.

Starting Monday, we will be welcoming many new students. From now on, we will be accepting all local youth eligible to attend grades nine through twelve. For the first time in nearly twenty years, Andrew High’s doors will no longer be closed to the non-magical public.

Like I was trying to say, Sylvia whispered.

No one else made a sound for an entire breath, and then there was a loud thud as every jaw in the room dropped to the floor.



I can’t believe they’re doing this to us! Eleanor said.

She had been pacing up and down the hall for almost ten minutes. The day was over, but a large group of us still hung in the building trying to work out exactly what happened.

This can’t be legal!

Really, it’s pretty surprising we’ve gone this long without any normies, Lucas said. The government’s always looking for excuses to shut down small schools and shove as many students into one overcrowded building as possible.

I don’t care why they’re doing it, Eleanor growled. I want them to stop. They’re going to ruin everything!

Eleanor was right. Everything was ruined. We were finally in grade eleven, and I was looking forward to having at least a marginal amount of fun. We were going to learn some great new spells and I was finally starting to get my magic under control so every little emotion didn’t set it off. But best of all, we were old enough to date grade twelve students, but not so old we couldn’t date grade tens. That meant we could potentially have about any guy in school.

Except now my mom was here.

She’d probably be checking on me all the time and making things constantly awkward. My life was over.

I bet they won’t even teach us magic anymore, Eleanor continued complaining to everyone who would listen. This is one more way they are trying to smother our individuality.

Seriously, how could Mom not tell me she got a job here? I mean I know we didn’t always talk about stuff, but she could have at least mentioned she was starting work at my school. And why couldn’t she find a job at one of the hundreds of other schools in the province? Like, you know, one that wasn’t mine?

Do you really think they won’t let us do magic? Lucas had almost lost his smile entirely, though there were still hints of it around his eyes.

It’s a reasonable assumption, Sylvia told us with a sad nod. We can’t use magic in front of normies, and they can’t have the classes full of only Andrew High students. That would be suspicious.

Disaster! Eleanor shouted. It’s an absolute disaster!



It’s absolutely wonderful, Mom kept telling the person on the phone. The students were all very surprised of course, but they seemed excited as well...I know...You should have seen her face... Yes, of course she’s very excited I’m teaching at her school... Yes, you were right; surprising her was a great idea.

I spent all day Saturday watching my mother pace around the house. Apparently she was too worked up to sit still. If it had been another school, I probably would have been excited too.  Seeing Mom finally get a regular paying job was actually pretty cool. I wished she didn’t have to take her skinny pink pants to my school.

This will really help out, she said while buttering a piece of bread.

Since it was seven o’clock and she still hadn’t started making anything more substantial, I figured it was all she had planned for our supper. Again. I hate bread.

I didn’t bother grabbing a slice before slipping away to my room.

Ah, my room. My sanctuary. Eleanor always said the best part of my room was my television, but I hated the thing. Then again, Eleanor’s parents believed, like every other mage, that TVs were unnecessary forms of entertainment. Even though my Mom wasn’t a mage, she thought the same way. My dad, on the other hand, loved television. Of course he did. He couldn’t be a normal mage, oh no.

My television was a present he gave me when he moved out five years ago to star in his own reality show, Long Night. The only times I had seen him since was on the machine.

The couch by the head of my bed was pretty cool though. As usual, it was covered in piles of dirty and clean laundry I hadn’t bothered to deal with, so I couldn’t sit on it, but having a couch in your room was way better than not. I glanced at the clothes for a second, debating the pros and cons of tidying before I flopped on the bed and stared up at the ceiling.

So bored.

Tab? Eleanor’s voice startled me out of my blank stare. You there?

Her voice was a little gurgled as it came from somewhere beside my bed. I relaxed at the familiar bubbling noise and knew she wasn’t actually in the room but using our secret form of communication.

Present, I announced as though she was taking attendance. I didn’t think she found me very funny though.

You coming tonight? Eleanor asked.

Saturday night meant movie night for Eleanor, Sylvia and me. We went every week, and of course this wasn’t going to be an exception. Eleanor’s parents decided a couple of years ago she could spend one night a week doing things like a normie, in case at some point she had to live like one.

For her and Sylvia it was a huge deal getting to visit somewhere outside of the mage run shops, but for me it was fun to go out with my friends, since Mom had been taking me to the movies since I was a kid. It was a bit of a pain to get there though. I could teleport to Eleanor’s house, but that was as close as we could safely move without being seen. The rest we had to walk. Walking was so not fun.

Yeah, of course, I said. Which movie?

I stretched over to the table beside my bed. Under a few papers and crumpled chocolate bar wrappers was a pile of what could only be described as goo. I scooped it up and started playing with it. The spell that connected my blob to the matching stuff at Eleanor’s house was old, but it still worked as well as it had when we were twelve.

We’d originally tried to make the goo form into statues of unicorns, but I was sort of happy that we’d failed. It would be lame talking to a unicorn at my age.

Dunno, Eleanor admitted. We’ll decide when we get there.

Each time Eleanor spoke, the goo vibrated a little, causing my fingers to tingle.

Can I stay at your place? I allowed the goo to slide down my arm. Mom’s been driving me crazy with her obsession over this teaching job.

Yeah, I bet the whole getting taught by your mom thing will be weird, she said. At least your mom’s pretty cool.

Obviously we weren’t talking about the same woman, but I decided to let it slide.

So, your place tonight? I asked.

Yeah, she said. My parents love you. They think you’re some wonderful and stable influence.

There was a noise from Eleanor’s side.

’Rents, Eleanor whispered.

Then she was gone.

There was no way either of us would let our parents know about the goo. It was our one form of communication late at night they couldn’t take away from us.

I tossed my blob back on the table and slid out of bed. Guess it was time to get dressed.

Once I pulled on my over-long baggy jeans, perfectly torn around the feet, I spent too much time choosing between my brown tee and my black one with Love written in Japanese on the chest. Finally I threw the black one on, brushed my not quite blonde, not quite brown hair, and bounced into the kitchen where Mom still paced.

Headed to Elle’s, I said.

Is it Saturday night already? Mom looked down at her watch and made a face. I have so much I have to do. I haven’t started on my curriculum plan yet. This is going to need some getting used to.

Without glancing at me she practically ran to her bedroom. I shrugged and was about to teleport myself to Eleanor’s when Mom stuck her head back out the door.

Don’t be too late, she said.

Staying overnight, I said.

She opened her mouth with a look that told me she wanted to ‘discuss the situation further’ so I teleported before she could say anything.

Before my eyes finished adjusting to Eleanor’s bright orange walls, she grabbed my arm and pulled me onto the bed.

Look what I got. She pointed at a magazine and giggled. Isn’t it amazing?

The front cover had more faces on it than I could count and under each was a caption. The only one I managed to read was, ‘Has Miley gone too far?’ before she flipped it open and jabbed her finger at one of the glossy pages.

It’s a quiz, she told me. "To see who your