Ordinary Magic (30 page)

We blinked, and the school year was over. The last weeks passed by smooth and quiet, like water over river rocks. None of the teachers mentioned grades, but I heard later that everyone quietly passed except Cesar, who’d been assigned Ms. Macartney as a personal tutor over the summer, to make sure he was ready for next year.

There were the last couple of tests, the last papers to hand
in, and the farewell dinner. That night, for the first time in forever, the dining hall was clamoring and noisy. The teachers sat quietly at their table; Mrs. Murphy opted out of a speech, only saying that this once we deserved to get straight to the party.

The teachers purposefully forgot about curfew. I guess they thought we just needed a party. Around two in the morning, the police showed up with complaints about the noise, asking if we could keep it down. Of course we’d keep it down, we said; had they eaten yet? So they took seats in the back to monitor the noise level and tuck into Cook Bella’s chocolate cake.

The next day, Mom and Dad came to take us home. Fred was going to spend the summer with my family. While Mom and Dad cast our trunks back home, we hugged … well, everyone who was willing to hug. That meant Mrs. Murphy and Ms. Macartney and Mr. O’Hara, and Dimitrios and Naija and Eila. Unless he was fighting, Cesar wasn’t comfortable touching anyone, ever, but he came with the others to see us off and nodded good-bye. Becky followed us out to the street and stood there, waving, as we climbed on Dad’s carpet and sailed up into the sky. We went up and up and up. Everyone on the street shrank to specks and disappeared, and then the school shrank into a brown square and blended into the city around it.

We landed in Thorten what felt like two seconds later. Ms. Whittleby offered us lunch, and Mom and Dad let her convince us to stay.

Afterward, Peter held me back as the others climbed on the carpet. “You have to visit,” he said. “You have to promise me, Hale.”

“Don’t be silly, Peter. Of course we’re going to visit,” I said. “And you’re going to visit us.”

“When?” he demanded.

I thought about it. “My birthday is coming up. You should come then.”

“I will.”

“Promise,” I teased him.

“I promise.” And he hugged me.

When I pulled back, I laughed. “I like you a lot better when you’re nice.”

Peter grinned. “No you don’t.”

I waved to him as we flew off. I waved as we got farther and farther away and he got harder and harder to see. And I kept on waving, even when we couldn’t see him at all.

After home and hugs, Dad took Fred and me downtown, where we bought a map and a ton of colored tacks. Afterward, we stopped by the Guild to make an appointment with Mr. Graidy for the next day. Mom said they still didn’t have an ord, so Fred and I were hoping to hire ourselves out in return for their resources and information.

When we got back, Dad helped us hang the map in the living room, and we divided the tacks into different-colored piles. We could already put up a few red and yellow ones. It was wonderfully satisfying to push them through the paper and into the wall. Red and yellow, and blue soon, and tonight I would dream of green.

In the meantime, I picked out five green tacks and put them
in a small box to carry in my pocket, where they rattled a reminder every time I moved.

That night we circled around the kitchen table, and Olivia cut us slices of strawberry pie as Dad set out our brown clay teapot. I watched the steam curl up into the air as he poured, the delicate scent of mint drifting out of the mugs.

I thought about the school, about Ms. Macartney at her desk in the dining hall, and Mr. O’Hara marching out into the streets every day. I thought about Becky waving good-bye, her belt glinting in the sunlight. There had been talk about improvements, new safety features. I wondered what everything would look like when we got back in the fall, if anything would look different.

Carefully, hopefully, I thought about Fran and the other kids. Not about where they were or what kind of people they’d been sold to, or at least I tried not to, even though it was there all the same. Instead I reminded myself that King Steve was looking for them, Ms. Macartney and the other students were looking, and that we were going to the Guild in the morning to get them to help, one way or another. With so many people looking, they
had
to be found. Sooner or later.

Right now, though, there was dessert. There were my mom and dad beside me, and Gil grumping because he’d only gotten two chapters done before we’d interrupted him, and Olivia talking over him about her last blind date, who was, literally, a troll, but still one of the better setups she’d been on. Fred, at what would very soon become his place at the table, had finished his dessert and was sneaking bites off Jeremy’s plate as Jeremy
looked up interrogation techniques for us to use on the mages tomorrow.

I kept one hand in my pocket, clutching the box of tacks, as I started in on the pie. The back door was open to let in the night air, but inside the kitchen it was bright and warm.

My profound thanks to my editor, Melanie Cecka, for seeing something there and being willing to take a chance on me, and for being an absolute rock star. Also Lauren Galit, my agent, who was critic, cheerleader, and advocate. Have I mentioned how much I like working for you?

Thanks to my mom and dad, for putting up with me through this whole,
long
process, and Nick for saving this baby when the computer tried to eat it. Also Jenn Rothwell for use of her brain, Diana Evans for being right all along, Marly Rusoff for her help and advice, and Kevin James Kage for his honesty, talent, and insight.

Finally, there is a real Mrs. Murphy, Ms. Macartney, and Mr. O’Hara out there, whom I had the privilege of learning from. Thank you for being my teachers. The great ones stay with you.

Copyright © 2012 by Caitlen Rubino-Bradway

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any
information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

First published in the United States of America in May 2012
by Bloomsbury Books for Young Readers
www.bloomsburykids.com

Electronic edition published in May 2012

For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to
Permissions, Bloomsbury BFYR, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10010

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rubino-Bradway, Caitlen.

Ordinary magic / by Caitlen Rubino-Bradway.
p. cm.

Summary: In a world where everyone possesses magical abilities, powerless
twelve-year-old Abby, an ordinary, is sent to a special school to negotiate a
magical world with her unmagical “disability”—and to avoid being prey of
the kidnappers, carnivores, and goblins ready to prey upon the ords.
ISBN 978-1-59990-834-2 (e-book)
[1. Magic—Fiction. 2. Boarding schools—Fiction. 3. Schools—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.R831328Or 2012    [Fic]—dc23    2011035100