Tales of Aradia The Last Witch Volume 1 (6 page)

Without much more
thought, the
Prestons packed
their things,
and never looked back.

Or Ross and Liza never
looked back, at least. Aradia couldn’t really help but do
so.

She wasn’t sorry to
leave. The only thing she really hated was hate itself, so she
wouldn’t say she had hated Arizona. She had certainly strongly
disliked it, though. Nonetheless, she was reluctant to start the
whole unpleasant process of social isolation over from the
start.

You never
know
, she gave herself a mental pep
talk,
you might find exactly what you
are looking for. You might find the one thing you want most in the
entire world right here in Salem. You might find
friends.

Suddenly, Aradia was no
longer back in Arizona, or contemplating her future. She was back
in the moment, gazing out the window at the sidewalks and buildings
which would be her new home. She was jerked from her reverie with
the realization that her father had just spoken to her.

“Sorry, what did you
just say?” she asked.

"Are you sure you're
okay with my driving you to school?" Ross repeated.

"Of course it is,
Daddy," Aradia confirmed.

"Sorry. I guess I am
projecting a bit," Ross said sighing.

Aradia bit her
tongue.
You’re not the only one who’s
nervous you know!

"Hey c'mon, Daddy.
You'll be great. I know you will," she eventually said.

"Is that run of the
mill motivation or your unique all knowingness?" Ross asked his
daughter, cocking his head to the side with a grin.

Aradia frowned and
said, "You know, Daddy, just because I can occasionally do the
whole 'Medium' thing, it does not mean I can predict everything
about the future."

"I know honey, I’m just
teasing you," Ross said smiling.

Aradia loved it when
her father made light of her abilities. It somehow made them feel
more normal. She smiled despite her own nervousness and said, "The
fact is, Dad, I haven’t been able to sense much at all about what
we can expect here in Salem. It’s kind of weird, actually. I’ve
seen less than usual, and I’ve been trying.”

“Maybe that’s why
you’ve seen less,” he proposed. “Maybe you need to just let it come
to you.”

She considered before
replying, “Maybe. I don’t know. It’s weird. Like this place is…
special.”

Ross didn’t reply to
that.

After a few moments,
Aradia continued, “I think there are some things in life you need
to see to know for sure, but other things you can figure out
without any psychic flashes."

"And all of us being
happy in our new home is one of those things?" asked
Ross.

Aradia grinned, and
though she was anything but certain, she said confidently, "Damn
right."

Chapter
Four

As her father drove her
through the main entrance, Aradia noted that Salem High appeared to
be a stereotypical American high school. It was primarily brick and
plaster, with exposed metal struts and enough marble to show it had
some prestige. The individual buildings that made up the school
were all large with almost-opaque windows. The school's name was
embossed in large, bold, red letters near the roof, prominently
displaying both its notability and its notoriety.

The school itself
seemed isolated. A low fence bordered the school, creating a weak
but meaningful division between the students and the
community.

As for facilities, it
was equipped with the usual football field and track. Salem High
also boasted a half-Olympic size swimming pool, which was pretty
noteworthy. Aradia couldn’t make those features out yet first hand,
but she could form clear mental images from the pictures she’d seen
on the SHS website and Facebook page. The school’s Twitter feed
hadn’t really been too helpful for her in that regard.

According to Aradia's
intel, her new alma mater also boasted an impressive computer lab,
classrooms of approximately fifteen to twenty students per teacher,
an assembly hall, not one but two gyms, and a library.

A single-story
library
, Aradia recalled with a sigh of
relief.

The one thing that
definitely set Salem High School apart, though, was the black logo
of a witch riding on a broomstick that seemed to be etched onto
every facet of the school, including the website’s
header.

“Have a great first
day, Aradia,” her father wished her well.

“You too, Daddy,” she
replied. He gave her a sharp, curt nod. Most people might have
brushed the gesture off, but Aradia knew that from her father, it
was a sign of both thanks and respect.

She stepped down from
her father’s SUV and watched as he drove off, obeying the school’s
five mile per hour on-campus speed limit the whole way. At that, he
was gone, and she was completely on her own.

Unfortunately for
Aradia, none of her research could help her navigate the school’s
confusing room numbers and maze-like hallways. Without any
experience in the new territory, her summoning ability wasn’t of
any use either. Her ignorance was completely understandable as a
newcomer, but it also reinforced her notion of being an outsider.
She felt hopelessly lost.

Luckily, her father
never got anywhere less than twenty minutes early, and she had a
fair amount of time to wander and get her bearings. Other students
milled about in the halls, mostly catching up on how they had
passed their summer breaks. She didn’t even cast them a glance.
She’d meet her fellow students later; right now, her number one
priority was making it to her first class of her first day at her
new school on time.

"Who is that?" Saul
whispered to Keon, his commander.

The pair stood near
their lockers, both wearing black and having no idea what clichés
they were. Keon leaned casually against his locker. Saul stood
dutifully on his right.

Keon shrugged
flippantly, but nevertheless narrowed his eyes and focused on her.
"I don't know. I have never seen her before."

"She’s definitely new,"
Saul continued. “Look how she interacts with her surroundings.
She’s not comfortable here.”

“Neither am I,” Keon
replied. “But I agree with your assessment. She is new. She smells
like she is of the hidden race though.”

Saul sniffed. “Agreed.
I can tell that even from here. I can’t place her scent,
though.”

“No,” Keon agreed.
“Definitely not vampire or werewolf.”

“Fae?” Saul
proposed.

Keon sniffed twice,
quickly, before definitively replying, “No.”

By chance, her path led
Aradia right past the two agents. After she was out of earshot,
Saul suggested, "Could she be a shape shifter? Might that throw off
her scent?"

Keon shook his head,
rejecting that hypothesis. "She is something more exotic, I am sure
of it. Shapeshifters can only change their form. Their scent
remains. They smell acrid and bitter, regardless and always. And
she definitely does not smell like a shape shifter."

"Smells pretty damn
good though," said Saul with a crude smile.

Keon glanced at Saul
disdainfully.

Aradia was wandering
back. They were on a twenty-five minute break between the second
and third periods. Keon studied her as she glanced around the
hallway. He presumed she was learning her environment, but she
looked like a lost kid who had wandered away from her parents at
the mall.

Finally, Keon muttered,
"I should report this to the Sovereign."

Saul looked at him
quickly. "Sir? She’s definitely something strange, but do we have
enough cause to notify the Sovereign? You know how he can
be."

"More than you know,"
Keon replied, "but that is irrelevant. We are duty bound. He
commanded we report all strange activity."

"So far she only smells
strange," Saul argued, but Keon was no longer listening. “She might
just be something unusual from overseas.”

“I’ll make the journey
tonight, personally, after sundown.”

Taking pity on his
crestfallen comrade, he added, "While I am gone, you will keep an
eye on her."

In spite of the fact
that it was his command, Keon was concerned to see Saul's eyes
light up at the order.

"Passive observation
only," Keon added. “You are not to interact with her in any way
without my explicit instructions. Understood?"

Saul nodded eagerly and
distractedly, all the while keeping his gaze fastened upon Aradia,
slowly licking his tongue over his fangs.

Aradia managed to get
herself all the way to her third class without a hitch. Her first
period, English Literature, had been a bore, and she was not at all
looking forward to starting her day with that class. She found the
subject dull, and the teacher had the strangest habit of looking
directly to the left of the person she was addressing. It was both
creepy and annoying.

Her second period,
Biology, was much more promising. She looked forward to the section
on botany. She imagined she was the only person in the class who
could say that.

She enjoyed Break, the
twenty-five minutes between second and third period. Most of her
classmates used it to socialize and eat a snack, but she took the
opportunity to wander the halls. The corridors were indeed
extensive, but she was nearly familiar enough that her
latent summon
, as
she thought of the non-glowing version of the power, would become
useful. Once she got there, navigation would not be a primary
concern.

One aspect of her new
school did concern her somewhat: the students. At first, Aradia was
too distracted to notice the students’ reactions to her. Indeed,
most did not seem to notice her at all. After a while, she noticed
some kids seemed fixated on her, not with repulsion or revulsion,
but with fascination.

She had to admit seeing
so many cute boys looking at her intensely was flattering. What was
discomforting though was the fact that the girls seemed to be
staring at her the very same way. As if they were seeing something
that none of them had ever seen before.

Only a certain amount
of the students seemed to be staring at her. Some of the kids, who
appeared to be ordinary, slammed their lockers and chatted with
their friends without taking a moment's glance at Aradia. However,
right next to them there would be people who seemed a bit too
beautiful to be real, and they would be gazing at Aradia
vividly.

Is it just me or is
this school seriously weird?
Aradia
asked herself. She then heard the warning bell ring, and quickly
scuttled down the hallway to get to her class. All the while trying
to avoid and forget the stares of the students.

Without realizing, she
rubbed the spot on her left forearm where, after her and Kasey’s
fall, her tibia had actually pierced her skin.

Eh
, she thought,
it’s probably just curiosity about the new
girl
. She put it out of her mind as
well as she could and focused on the moment.

Third period was
Algebra, and she imagined she’d enjoy that even less than English.
At least in English class she might get to read Macbeth or The
Crucible or Nancy Drew. She doubted they would find their way into
her math course, though.

If a bathtub, volume
V, is half full of water
, she
imagined,
water drains at rate A from
the drain, and Grendel drinks water from the tub at rate 2A, how
quickly would Harry Potter have to cast a water spell to fill the
tub within three minutes?

She was pretty sure
that equation wasn’t solvable with the information she provided.
She was the first to admit, though, that math was not her strong
suit.

She was shocked out of
her mind-numbingly dull daydream by, what else, a boy. He had light
hair curling down to his shoulders. Most people would call it
golden blonde, but she detected a hint of strawberry. She usually
thought long hair looked silly on a boy, but this boy in particular
looked anything but silly. He was clean-shaven, but his skin tone
was so fair that subcutaneous facial hair was clearly visible,
giving him something of a permanent five o’clock shadow. That
looked good to Aradia too. He wore a buttoned up purple shirt, dark
blue jeans, and appropriately fatigued black boots. The way the
clothes hung on his slight frame, Aradia imagined he was thin, but
very toned and muscular.

My God, he is so
hot!
Aradia thought before she could
catch herself.
Aradia, you don’t usually
fawn over a handsome guy
, she chastised
internally.
And by not usually, you mean
never, of course
.

She still allowed
herself to stare. He seemed less like a real person and more like
some living, breathing teenage girl fantasy.