Alexandra Quick and the Thorn Circle

The Short Bus

Alexandra didn't say much on the ride home, and Ms. Grimm didn't push her. Alexandra was actually getting quite sleepy. In fact, she nodded off several times in the car.

As they reentered Larkin Mills, Ms. Grimm said, "Now, I want you to stay completely away from that pond. The Department of Magical Wildlife will be sending someone from Pest Control to deal with the kappa, and they'll probably try to track down those redcaps as well."

Alexandra nodded, suppressing a yawn.

"The day after tomorrow, the academy will send a bus to bring you back to Chicago, this time for an all-day shopping trip at the Goblin Market. You're going to need robes, books, a wand, a familiar, magical equipment, all things you can't buy in Muggle stores. Your scholarship provides you with a budget to be spent on necessary school supplies, and there are a few students like you who don't have the opportunity to shop for magical supplies on their own."

Despite her weariness and her thoughts about Brian and having to stop using magic, Alexandra was rather excited at the idea of going back to Chicago. A wand? A familiar? Her parents had never let her have a pet.

"Are you going to take us shopping?" she asked, a little dubiously.

Ms. Grimm smiled tightly. "I'm afraid not. I don't normally escort students around personally. This trip was... special. In any case, I'm going to be very busy getting ready for the new school year. There will be an older student volunteer and a Charmbridge staff member to chaperone you. I already explained to your parents about the need for this shopping trip - in less magical terms, of course - and they've agreed."

They pulled up in front of Alexandra's house. "It has been a pleasure to meet you, Alexandra. As I said, you show a great deal of potential, so I look forward to seeing you at Charmbridge." She gave Alexandra a stern look. "But remember -"

"I know," Alexandra sighed. "No magic."

Her parents were both still up when Alexandra entered the house, and she was a little surprised when she saw the time. It was past her bedtime, but not as late as she'd thought it was.

"So, did you and Ms. Grimm have a good time?" her mother asked. "That was a long trip for ice cream."

Alexandra studied her mother, wondering if she suspected anything, or if she was at all curious about this mysterious school and the scholarship that came out of the blue, or if the Confundus Charm Ms. Grimm had told her about simply made anything seem sensible and not worth questioning.

"Yeah. She's... interesting."

"Well, good." Her mother looked down at a puzzle she was doing in a little book of crosswords. "You'd better go to bed, then."

Alexandra nodded, and trudged upstairs. She lay awake in bed for long time, with ninety-nine unexpected flavors of ice cream still dancing on her tongue, and even more thoughts dancing in her head. If her father had been a wizard, was that why his mother had left him? Couldn't he have used magic to make her stay? Would she ever be able to ask her mother about him? And what had Brian and Bonnie told their parents?

Eventually, she did fall asleep, but she had dreams about the man in the locket, and the kappa in the pond reaching out of the water to drag her under, and eventually the two of them became switched so the kappa was hissing at her from a photograph and the dark-haired man was trying to pull her underwater.

---

The next morning, Alexandra woke up later than usual for a summer day, but after washing her face she still got down to the kitchen before her mother had left for work. Archie was already gone.

"Am I still grounded?" she asked. She knew she probably shouldn't. The outburst and disciplinary excesses that yesterday's trip to the pond should have provoked had apparently been staved off by Ms. Grimm's Confundus Charm, but Alexandra feared that might have only been a postponement. On the other hand, she'd never been reluctant to push her luck.

"Of course you are," her mother replied, but at least she didn't sound furious. "Other than going to get supplies for this trip tomorrow, you're not to leave the house until school starts. You can spend the rest of your summer vacation thinking about rules and boundaries, which I'm sure there will be plenty of at Charmbridge Academy."

"Okay," Alexandra said, a little sulkily, though she made a funny expression when her mother again kissed her on the forehead before going out the door.

"I will be calling during the day and you'd better be home!" her mother said.

Alexandra decided to actually behave herself that day. Naturally, before the day was over, she would have broken every rule she'd just been told not to.

It started with the locket. More determined than before to see the magical, moving picture, she spent almost an hour try to squeeze, pry, twist, unscrew, pop, or even break it open. (She didn't really want to break it open, but when she banged it on the tabletop in frustration, she didn't care at the moment whether it did break.)

Defeated, at least using mundane means, Alexandra began pacing the house while swinging the locket from her fingers or twirling it by its chain. Ms. Grimm had said no magic. But surely the "trace" she had been talking about couldn't detect every little thing Alexandra might do, even when it probably wouldn't even work? And besides, she reasoned to herself, she was home alone, there was no possibility her parents or any other "Muggles" might see her, and it wasn't as if she were going to throw fireballs or turn the kitchen table into a goat.

But just to be safe, she went upstairs into her room, locked her door, made sure the window was also locked and the blinds shut, and then for good measure, turned off the light. Now only a little light seeped into her room through the edges of the door and window. She held the locket in both hands, and rocked back and forth for a few minutes before chanting in a whisper:

"You can stay shut, but don't you hide,
Show me the picture I know's inside."

And as it had the first time she tried opening it with a rhyme, the locket clicked and unlocked.

The man in the picture was in the same pose he had been in before. And when she stared at him, he again winked at her, while maintaining his smug expression.

Alexandra didn't say anything at first. She just studied his face. It was hard to make out much in the darkness, so she moved over to the window and cracked the blinds open a bit so that sunlight fell on his face. He squinted and frowned, and held up a hand to shade his eyes.

Did he look at all like her? His hair was dark like hers, but he appeared to have dark gray eyes. His skin wasn't as pale, but there was something about his nose and the way it turned up just a little that reminded her of her own nose. His chin was covered by his beard, so she couldn't compare, and he had much bushier eyebrows. His cheeks were softly rounded, a little like hers. Alexandra could see a resemblance if she tried really hard, but it would be just as easy to conclude that any resemblance was superficial at best.

"Why can't you just tell me who you are?" she demanded. "If you're a magical photograph, can't you talk? Don't you even care if I'm your daughter?"

But he didn't seem to care, or even hear her question.

Perhaps someone else did, though, as there came a sudden tapping on her window that made Alexandra jump. She stared at the blinds covering it, and then the tapping came again, erratic and insistent. Whatever could be outside her second-floor window?

Without thinking, she snapped the locket shut, and then cautiously peeked out from behind the blinds, to find herself staring at an owl.

This surprised her so much she abandoned caution, and pulled the cord to raise the blinds. The owl was a fairly small one, sitting on the outside windowsill. It blinked once at her, and then leaned forward to tap again on the window with its beak, a little more insistently this time.

Alexandra was too surprised to do anything other than stare. This seemed to annoy the owl. It half-spread its wings and made an irritable hooting sound, and rotated its head back and forth to glare at her, then tapped against the window again, harder.

"Okay, okay," she said. She fumbled at the latch and pulled the window up, then had to detach the screen while the owl hopped impatiently. Once she did so, it flapped into her room and landed on the bedpost nearest her and held out a leg. Alexandra could now see that there was a piece of paper tied to it.

"Is this how wizards send messages?" she asked. "Why don't they just use the telephone?"

The owl hooted at her, and wiggled its leg insistently.

Carefully (because the owl looked annoyed now, and it had a rather menacing beak), Alexandra undid the knot that held the paper to the owl's leg, and pulled it free. It was a little slip of parchment, and when she unrolled it it read:

Dear Miss Quick,

It has come to our attention that at 11:14 a.m. this morning, you cast an Unlocking Charm in your home at 207 Sweetmaple Avenue. As you have already been informed, the use of magic in Muggle communities is a violation of the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy, and is strictly forbidden to underaged witches.

Consistent with our usual policy for handling first-time juvenile offenders, you are required only to take notice of and heed this written warning. However, this offense has been entered into your Permanent Record. Any further violations may result in more severe disciplinary action being taken.

Very truly yours,

Alcina Kennedy

Central Territory Trace Office

Alexandra was a bit disheartened by the fact that the Trace Office had known exactly what she'd done so quickly. The thought of such infallible surveillance being on her at all times was frightening. What if they started watching for other kinds of misbehavior, not just unauthorized use of magic?

The owl hooted again, as if to add its own disapproval, hopped back onto the windowsill, and took off.

Alexandra sat down on her bed, chin in her hands, and stared at the locket that was now sealed shut again.

"This sucks," she said.

In reply, there was another flurry of wings on her windowsill. She looked up, and into the beady yellow eyes of a bird of prey. It sat on the same spot where the owl had just departed, actually flung a bright red envelope that had been clutched in its talons at her, issued a screech that sounded almost like a sneer, and then launched itself away from the window.

Alexandra stared at the red envelope. It had fallen on her bedsheets, and was now beginning to smoke. She picked it up carefully between two fingers, afraid it might set her bed on fire, and tore open the flap over her wastebasket. Nothing came out, but suddenly Ms. Grimm's voice filled the room (and indeed the entire house).

"MISS QUICK! WHEN I TELL YOU NOT TO DO SOMETHING, I MEAN FOR YOU NOT TO DO IT! IMAGINE MY EMBARRASSMENT UPON BEING INFORMED BY THE TRACE OFFICE THAT THE STUDENT I VISITED TO WELCOME TO MY SCHOOL THE NIGHT BEFORE HAS JUST VIOLATED THE VERY FIRST RULE I TOLD HER NOT TO BREAK! LET ME VERY CLEAR, YOUNG LADY: RULES ARE MEANT TO BE FOLLOWED AT CHARMBRIDGE, AND IF YOU WISH TO ACTUALLY ATTEND CHARMBRIDGE, YOU WILL LEARN TO FOLLOW THEM! LET THIS BE THE LAST TIME YOUR NAME IS BROUGHT TO MY ATTENTION IN THIS MANNER, OR EMBARRASSMENT WILL BE THE LEAST OF YOUR WORRIES!"

By the time Ms. Grimm's speech had concluded, Alexandra was squeezed against the wall behind her bed with her knees curled up to her chest and her hands over her ears. As the last vibrations from Grimm's tongue-lashing faded, she looked cautiously out her window, almost expecting to see neighbors looking out their windows, or perhaps hear car alarms that had been set off.

"Well how secret was that?" she retorted angrily, but the red envelope that had produced the howling denunciation had burst into flames and was now crumbling into ashes.

She guessed that Ms. Grimm must have had some way of knowing that Alexandra was alone in the house, and that no one outside the house would hear her "message." But the irony of such noisy magic being used to scold her for one quiet little charm that no one else could possibly have noticed had her simmering with indignation.

For most of the rest of the day, she was bored and a little jumpy; when the phone rang with her mother's first call of the day, she started and looked at the windows. She felt trapped, confined to her house and watched at all times by invisible spying wizard-eyes. Her initial exhilaration at discovering the world of magic and wizardry was replaced by frustration at having to pretend it didn't exist. And she wasn't sure how much she was looking forward to attending Charmbridge Academy now; she already had one black mark against her, and she'd be completely under Dean Grimm's authority.

Late in the afternoon, she was sitting in the living room, watching out the window. Some kids were playing kickball in the street, including Brian and Bonnie. Alexandra wanted very much to be outside with them. She was a pretty good kickball player, so she was usually chosen early for teams, even though the other neighborhood children weren't eager to play with her otherwise. She watched Brian, who was also a fair player (but she was better, she thought to herself), and Bonnie, who was terrible but tried hard.

When the game ended, as the late afternoon shadows stretched across Sweetmaple Avenue, Alexandra dashed to her front door and opened it, stepping out onto the porch. Brian glanced in her direction, but he and Bonnie walked down the street in the direction of their own house.

"Brian!" Alexandra called after him.

He didn't answer, so with a look over her shoulder to make sure her mother's car or Archie's wasn't coming around the corner, she ran across her front lawn, right to the edge of it (she was still on her own property so she wasn't technically violating her grounding, she thought, ignoring for the moment that her mother had clearly said she wasn't to leave the house) and yelled again: "Brian!"

He paused for a moment, and seemed to be struggling with some decision, then he said something to Bonnie and gave her a gentle nudge. Bonnie looked up at him and then over her shoulder at Alexandra. She looked worried and sad and (this was the part that struck Alexandra and gave her a funny feeling in the pit of her stomach) a little frightened. Brian pushed her again, and she reluctantly went on ahead. Brian turned to look at her, but he was standing on the sidewalk two houses down and made no move to come closer, so Alexandra made an exasperated sound and stepped onto the sidewalk. No owl swooped down to deliver a note from the Central Territory Grounding Office, so she continued down the street until she was face-to-face with Brian.

"Aren't you still grounded?" he asked.

"Well, yeah," she said, and looked over her shoulder again, but her parents still weren't returning home yet.

"Right. Why would that matter?" Brian didn't raise his voice or look angry, but his tone made her feel like she was being scolded yet again. She looked at him narrowly and said, "What's that supposed to mean?"

He shrugged. "Just that you don't care much what anyone tells you."

She glared at him. This wasn't going at all like she'd hoped. Brian had always been more cautious than her, and definitely more respectful of his parents, but he'd never criticized Alexandra openly for her devil-may-care attitude before. In fact, while she hadn't ever consciously thought about it, she had always been comfortable in her assumption that he rather liked the way she flaunted rules and did whatever she pleased. And to some degree, she had been correct. But something had changed, and she could sense it.

"Are you still mad at me about last night? Look, I'm really sorry. I really didn't think anything dangerous would happen. It's not like I wanted to scare Bonnie."

"Yeah, I know," he said. He was looking away from her.

"I promise I'll never talk you into anything again without telling you everything, okay?"

His eyes flickered back to her, but he didn't say anything. She decided to press forward. Surely her news would be exciting enough to get him to stop dwelling on their mishap at the pond.

"You'll never believe what happened when I got home!" she said, and she actually lowered her voice, as she took his elbow and walked with him, not towards his house, but back in the direction of her own house, where it would be easier for her to dash around the side and in through the back door if she saw one of her parents coming.

She hadn't been intending to tell Brian everything, but Grimm hadn't exactly said she couldn't, only implied that she shouldn't, and as she began to talk about Ms. Grimm and the Charmbridge scholarship, Brian simply listened. He didn't look disbelieving, but neither did he seem thrilled or curious, so Alexandra kept talking, wanting her friend to share in her excitement, and she ignored the grave look that shadowed his face more deeply the more she went on. She told him about their magically-accelerated trip to Chicago and back, the trollbooth and the Automagicka, Goody Pruett's and the ninety-nine-flavored ice cream, and how she was going to go back tomorrow to buy a wand and a familiar and spellbooks and all sorts of other things, and how she was going to become a full-fledged witch. She did leave out the part about using magic to open her locket again today, and her subsequent visits by an owl and a hawk.

When she was finished, Brian stared off into the distance. For the first time since she'd started speaking, Alexandra faltered. "So, isn't that... kind of neat?" she asked. "I mean... I really am a witch! I'm really doing magic... and my father... he was probably a wizard..." Her voice trailed off.

"Neat?" Brian repeated. He looked at her. "So your parents know about all this? Your mom and Archie are cool with you being a... witch?"

She frowned. "Well, not exactly," she admitted. "Ms. Grimm said that they probably shouldn't be told all the details. I mean, they're grown-ups, they might get a little funny about magic and stuff."

"But it's okay for you to tell me? Ms. Grimm doesn't mind you telling all your friends about this 'wizard-world'?"

Alexandra opened her mouth, but Brian's reaction left her momentarily confused.

"Well... she said it's best not to tell M- non-wizards, except a few, you know, close friends, family, people who won't tell others."

Brian was looking at her again. Alexandra hadn't mentioned the Bureau of Magic Obfuscation, and she wondered if he was wondering the same things she had, about what wizards did about Muggles who found out about them.

"Brian, don't look at me like that. I'm telling you because you're my friend! I know you won't tell your parents. You shouldn't tell Bonnie either -"

"Of course I won't tell Bonnie or my parents!" he yelled at her, so suddenly she took a step backwards. "Are you crazy?"

She just looked at him. He shook his head. "Trolls, secret highways, magic ice cream, wands and, and familiars and -" He shook his head again, and stared at her, and there was both anger and fear in his eyes, and something else, as if he were looking at a strange magical creature shaped like Alexandra but which might be dangerous.

"When we were kids," he said quietly but very seriously, as if the age of eleven made them no longer kids, "magic was neat. You doing weird things, that was neat. 'Cause it was just little stuff and we were too young to know better."

Alexandra was truly flustered now. "What? I don't understand what you're saying."

"Magic isn't supposed to be real!" he shouted. "Redcaps and kappas and trolls, those things aren't supposed to be real! Wizards and witches, they're make-believe! They're Halloween costumes!"

"No, they're not," Alexandra said. "They're real."

"They're real for you, Alex," Brian said, slowly and deliberately. "Not for me." He shook his head, and backed away from her.

She stared at him, confused. "Brian, you're being stupid. You can't just say something isn't real because you say so. I'm not making this up."

"Yeah, I know you aren't."

He turned and walked away from her, then after a few steps, broke into a run. He ran all the way back to his house, and Alexandra watched him go, her thoughts too much in disarray for her to make sense of what had just happened. That hot, hard lump was back in her throat. She stood there for several minutes after Brian had disappeared inside, and only stirred from her spot when she heard a car coming around the corner. Instinctively, she knew it was Archie, and she ran back inside, barely entering the house before she heard him slam the door of his truck.

---

Alexandra was so quiet that night that her mother actually commented on it, though of course she misunderstood the reason. "It's all right to be nervous about going to a new school," she said. "You're going to have to adjust to a whole new environment, and I'm sure there will be a lot of rules that you're not used to." Archie seemed to smirk a little at that.

"It's going to be a wonderful experience," her mother continued. "This is such a great opportunity. And you can always call us if you need to talk. I'm sure you'll make new friends right away."

Alexandra looked at her mother, and wondered if she was just saying what she thought she should, or if her mind was still addled by the Confundus Charm. How would you know it's going to be a great opportunity or if I'm going to make friends? she thought, and when her mother said she could call, Alexandra wondered what she and Archie would do if an owl started delivering letters to them.

Tomorrow was the trip to the Goblin Market, so Alexandra actually went to bed on time. She placed her gold bracelet and the stubborn locket carefully in the top drawer of her dresser before going to sleep. She didn't want her mother to see them, but she wanted to be sure to take them with her when she went to Chicago.

The next morning, Alexandra's mother stayed home to see her off to Chicago. "Ms. Grimm said a bus from the school would come pick you up," she said. Alexandra was dressed in her best pair of jeans and a hoodie over a short-sleeved shirt. The hoodie's ample pockets concealed the bracelet and locket. Her mother handed her a paper bag. "Here. I packed a sandwich and fruit roll-ups for you."

Alexandra took the bagged lunch. "Thanks."

Her mother then dug into her purse and pulled out her wallet, and handed her a pair of twenties. "You're not supposed to need any money, since your supplies are coming out of your scholarship, but take this just in case you need some cash. I don't expect you to spend this unless you have to! This isn't spending money for you to buy games and junk food with."

"Okay," said Alexandra. She wasn't sure they even accepted regular money at the Goblin Market, remembering the gold coins Ms. Grimm had used.

Alexandra was a little embarrassed when her mother insisted on waiting outside with her at the time they'd been told to expect the Charmbridge bus. But she was even more embarrassed when she saw the bus. She'd been expecting a fancy full-sized chartered bus; instead what came around the corner was a little orange schoolbus, like the ones that took handicapped students to and from her elementary school. She watched with dismay as it rolled up to the curb. It said "Charmbridge Academy" in plain black letters on the outside. The front door opened, and she saw a fat woman with frizzy white hair behind the wheel.

"Good morning, dear!" she said cheerfully. "Are you Alexandra?"

"Yes," Alexandra replied. Her mother waved to the bus driver. "Hi, I'm Alexandra's mother, Claudia Green."

"It's nice to meet you, Mrs. Green." The driver looked puzzled for a moment, but then smiled again. "I'm Tabitha Speaks. We'll have Alexandra back home by eight p.m."

Mrs. Green nodded. She looked at her daughter. "It's going to be a long day for you; three hours each way is an awfully long bus trip. Make sure you behave yourself."

"All right, mom!" Alexandra said, now eager to get aboard before any of their neighbors saw her getting on a "short bus," and embarrassed that her mother would keep speaking to her like a child in front of whoever was watching from inside the vehicle.

She was grateful that her mother didn't give her a peck on the cheek this time. She stepped up onto the bus, and Mrs. Speaks closed the door behind her.

Alexandra gasped as she got to the top step and looked down the corridor. Inside the bus was not the cramped seating of a tiny schoolbus, but a long row of comfortable-looking booths, each with a table that couldn't possibly have fit inside. Far down at the other end of the bus, Alexandra saw lavatory signs that said "Witches" and "Wizards." And there were steps at the far end as well, suggesting that the bus actually had an upper level.

It was quite impossible. The space Alexandra was looking at was many times the size of the bus she had seen when she got on.

"Never been aboard a wizard bus before, dear?" Mrs. Speaks asked as she drove away from Alexandra's house. Alexandra shook her head.

"It's bigger on the inside than on the outside," said a teenaged girl, unnecessarily, coming up the aisle towards Alexandra. "The Charmbridge buses aren't as luxurious as a Wizardrail car, but they're better than brooms. Hi, I'm Gwendolyn Adams. I'm going to be a senior at Charmbridge this year, and I'll be your student mentor and chaperone."

Gwendolyn was about seventeen. She had long straggly blonde hair, a slightly protuberant nose with a pimple on it, and she was rather plain-looking. She wore glasses and a pointed black hat, a yellow shawl, and a brown and yellow dress. She looked very "witchy," and would have blended right in at a Halloween party, except that Alexandra could tell her clothes were not a costume, but her normal everyday wear.

"I'm Alexandra Quick." She turned to look at Tabitha Speaks. "Are we going to take the Automagicka to Chicago?" she asked.

"Yes, we are," said Mrs. Speaks. "So it won't be nearly the three hours each way your mother thinks it is. Still, you should go sit down and make yourself comfortable. It will take us a little time to get there."

"I'll introduce you to the other students riding along on this trip," Gwendolyn said, smiling and holding out her hand. Alexandra took it, a little reluctantly. Gwendolyn seemed nice enough, if a bit patronizing.

"Do they all have, umm, Muggle parents like me?" Alexandra asked, as Gwendolyn led her down the aisle.

"Some do. Others just live too far away for their families to take them shopping somewhere like the Goblin Market. They arrive at school a few days early, so they can get everything they need before the semester starts."

They passed several booths with older students, who looked at Alexandra with expressions ranging from disinterest to curiosity to the taunting smirks older kids always gave younger ones. Some were dressed like her, in "normal" clothes, while others wore robes or dresses or thick coarse jackets, breeches, and boots. At one table, she saw several kids playing a card game she didn't recognize. One of the players laid the deck on the table, and it began shuffling itself. They passed by a booth where two younger teens were pointing wands at each other and laughing as they blurted out what sounded like nonsense words. Alexandra made a face when she saw that one of the boys had broken out in bright purple and green zits, while the other boy's eyebrows were now growing down past his chin.

"Stuart, Torvald, stop throwing hexes at each other!" Gwendolyn said, snatching their wands out of their hands. She shook her head. "I ought to tell Mrs. Speaks not to fix your faces when we get to Chicago!" She handed the wands back to them, and they sulkily put them away.

"That's not allowed," Gwendolyn said, leaning closer to Alexandra to emphasize the point. Alexandra nodded solemnly, thinking that Gwendolyn seemed to like pointing out the obvious.

Almost at the rear now, Gwendolyn guided Alexandra to a booth that held five other girls who looked about her age. "Here, you can sit with the other new sixth-graders. I'm sure you'll all be friends. Everyone, please introduce yourselves to Alexandra. She's Muggle-born, so be considerate and help explain things about wizarding society she might not understand yet."

Gwendolyn sounded so sincere that Alexandra could almost forgive her for the way she patronized the lot of them. She wasn't thrilled about immediately being introduced as "Muggle-born," either. She supposed it would probably be obvious anyway, but she would have preferred to try to figure out as much as she could on her own without everyone looking at her like some sort of clueless visitor from another planet.

However, none of the other girls looked unfriendly. They waited until Gwendolyn had left their table and headed up the stairs to the bus's upper level, and then two of the girls burst out giggling. "I'm sure you'll all be friends!" exclaimed one girl, mimicking Gwendolyn with an exaggerated, syrupy voice. She was pretty and had hair as dark as Alexandra's, styled in a wavy perm. She wore a glittery pink top and striped pants with flared cuffs. She would blend in easily at any shopping mall. Her friend, a black girl who was also very pretty, was wearing a dark green blouse, black pants, and a matching green robe. Both girls were adorned with makeup and nail polish and jewelry. Alexandra didn't know many girls her age who wore makeup, and no one at Larkin Mills Elementary School seemed as determinedly fashionable as these two.

The black girl held out her hand to Alexandra, wrist bent downward and nails facing outward. "Don't mind Gwendolyn. I think she wants to be a day-school teacher someday. I'm Angelique Devereaux."

"Alexandra Quick," Alexandra said, taking Angelique's hand, a little awkwardly as she'd never been presented with such a delicate, feminine handshake before.

"Darla Dearborn," said the white girl sitting next to Angelique. She batted her lashes prettily as she shook Alexandra's hand. "Don't worry about being Muggle-born. Lots of kids at Charmbridge are. My grandmother is a Muggle, so I know what it's like."

What it's like? Alexandra thought. Darla made it sound like being born missing a limb. But she just nodded. She was not very good at making friends with other kids, as she was much too boisterous, impulsive, uncooperative, and most of all, unusual. But she thought she shouldn't be so unusual here, among other witches, and with Brian on her mind, the thought of starting out at a new school friendless bothered her more than it normally would have.

"This is Anna Chu," Darla continued, gesturing at the small Chinese girl across the table from Alexandra. "She's from San Francisco."

Anna simply nodded. She wore a red cloak over a red dress, which Alexandra thought made her look like Little Red Riding Hood.

"San Francisco? That's pretty far away. Aren't there any schools for witches in California?" Alexandra asked.

"Sure, there are smaller wizarding schools around the country, but anyone from a good family or who can pass the entrance exams goes to one of the Big Four," Darla answered for Anna. "Local coven-run schools can't compare in terms of education, and of course, the social opportunities are much better at a place like Charmbridge." She said this last with an air of worldliness which had Angelique nodding in agreement, but Alexandra caught Anna rolling her eyes, just a little, and the other two girls at the table just looked at each other.

Alexandra saw that these last two were both dressed in the old-fashioned clothing she'd seen some of the witches in Chicago wearing. They had long colorfully stitched dresses on beneath their cloaks, and their blond curls were tucked inside white bonnets. Both of the girls were fair-skinned and blue-eyed, and looked very much alike.

Seeing the question Alexandra was about to ask, Darla continued her role as self-appointed spokesperson for everyone. "These are the Pritchards," she said.

"I'm Constance," said one of the girls.

"I'm Forbearance," said the other.

"They're Ozarkers," Darla went on.

"Oh," Alexandra said, as if she knew what that meant, though the only thing that came to mind was a vague memory of the Ozarks being a place with mountains. In Texas, or maybe Ohio. Or was it Virginia? She would look it up later, but she wasn't going to ask in front of Darla, even if Gwendolyn had told everyone to "help explain things" to her.

"So how did you get into Charmbridge?" Angelique asked.

"I got a scholarship."

"Really!" Anna perked up. "You must have scored really well on the SPAWN"

"Spawn?" Alexandra frowned.

"Standardized Practical Assessment of Wizarding kNowledge," Darla said with an "everyone-knows-that" tone.

Alexandra frowned some more. "Wouldn't that be SPAWK?"

"Well, yes, I suppose, but it's always been called the SPAWN. I guess someone in the Department of Magical Education back whenever thought that SPAWK sounded dumb. Anyway, are you saying you've never heard of it? How could you get a scholarship or even be admitted if you haven't taken the SPAWN?"

"I dunno. Ms. Grimm never said anything about a 'practical assessment.'"

Everyone looked at her. Even the Ozarker girls' eyes were wide. "You met Dean Grimm?" asked Anna, her voice almost a whisper.

"Yeah, she came to my house to tell me about the scholarship and about my being a witch. She had to explain things to my parents too, except she didn't exactly tell them about the witch part. They think I'm just going to a normal private school."

"What do you mean 'normal'?" Angelique asked.

"You know, a non-magical one. For Muggles." Alexandra was starting to dislike that word.

Darla and Angelique looked at each other. Constance and Forbearance looked at each other. Anna was still staring at Alexandra.

"Dean Grimm came to your house?" Darla asked.

"Yes!" Alexandra was becoming annoyed. "She took me to the Goblin Market too, although we only went to Goody Pruett's. She had to explain a bunch of things to me since -"

"Dean Grimm took you to Goody Pruett's," Angelique repeated, her tone and expression conveying disbelief.

"Yes!" Alexandra glared at Darla and Angelique until they both looked away, and then she stared down Anna and then Constance and Forbearance. "Are you calling me a liar?"

"No... of course not," Darla said, clearing her throat. "It's just... well, Dean Grimm never visits students' homes or, or takes them out for... ice cream." She looked at Alexandra quizzically. "Usually the only time you ever see her is at school assemblies, or if you get sent to her office, and trust me, you don't ever want to get sent to her office."

"How do you know so much about her if you're just starting at Charmbridge yourself?" Alexandra demanded.

"My sister is in the twelfth grade. She's told me all about the Dean. And anyway, Dean Grimm is kind of... legendary."

"Notorious," Angelique said.

"But how could you get into Charmbridge without taking the SPAWN?" Anna repeated.

"I don't know!" Alexandra said, almost gritting her teeth.

"Well, are you all getting along all right?" asked Gwendolyn sweetly. She had come down the stairs and moved to their booth while they were all talking. She smiled down at the younger girls, while she pushed her glasses up on the bridge of her nose.

Everyone nodded and murmured in the affirmative.

"Oh, good!" The older girl seemed genuinely delighted. "Well, we're about to make our last stop, in Detroit, to pick up another student who's a new sixth grader. Then we'll be off to Chicago. You all just keep making friends!" With that, she continued down the aisle toward the front of the bus.

After a brief, awkward silence, Darla whispered, "You all just keep making friends!" doing her impression of Gwendolyn again. Angelique tittered, Anna covered her mouth, and even Alexandra started laughing. Constance and Forbearance smiled and looked down.

The mood was a little lighter after that. Darla and Angelique explained that the SPAWN was administered annually, usually starting when a wizard or witch was ready to enter the sixth grade. There were Junior Spawns for those children who went to wizarding day-schools, but they were considered optional, although some parents had their children tested as young as six.

"My parents started testing me when I was seven," Anna said. "And every year since then. They're obsessed with how well I rank compared to my peers. But the only SPAWN that really matters is the final one you have to take to get your Magical Diploma."

Then they lapsed into silence, as the bus came to a halt. Gwendolyn came back up the aisle, this time leading a dark-skinned boy who was not much taller than the diminutive Anna. He had dark curly hair trimmed in a tight afro, and wore a sports jersey and jeans and sneakers. He was eying Gwendolyn suspiciously, and Alexandra noticed he had declined to let the teenager hold his hand. Instead, he was clutching a backpack slung over his shoulder.

"Girls, this is David Washington. Won't you make room for him? The seven of you will probably be starting most of your classes together."

Alexandra, who was sharing her seat with Forbearance Pritchard, had remained at the far end of it, across from Anna Chu. She scooted over closer to Forbearance, allowing David to sit at the end with Alexandra between them.

"So this is a Wizard bus," David said, looking around.

"It's bigger on the inside than on the outside," Alexandra said seriously.

"Duh!" David snorted, squinting at her. Alexandra shared a look with Darla and Angelique and their shoulders all shook with suppressed laughter, as Gwendolyn looked at them, a little confused. "Well, enjoy the rest of the trip. We should be in Chicago in less than an hour." She gave them all a little wave, which Alexandra, Darla, and Angelique returned, all plastering cheery smiles on their faces, until Gwendolyn had disappeared up the steps again.

"She talk to everyone like they're in preschool?" David asked.

"Pretty much," said Darla.

Introductions were made again around the table. David seemed a little uneasy about being the only boy at a table full of girls, but he was obviously curious about the bus, Charmbridge, and his fellow students.

"You're Muggle-born too?" Alexandra asked.

David nodded. "Yeah. My parents thought someone was putting us on for a TV show when they got the letter by owl, but they actually handled it pretty well. My mom says she always thought Great Aunt Ems was kind of bizarre, and this explains a lot."

"What's a teevee show?" asked Darla. David blinked at her.

"It's sort of like the Wizard Wireless, but with pictures," Anna said.

David looked at Alexandra. "Are they for real?"

Alexandra nodded. "I think kids who grow up in wizard houses don't know much about the rest of the world," she said deliberately. She felt a little bit of satisfaction when Darla frowned.

"Did you take the SPAWN?" Anna asked.

David shook his head. "How could I take a test for something I didn't know anything about before this summer? They said I'd have to take it when I get to Charmbridge. They gave me a study booklet, though."

"Ms. Grimm didn't give me a study booklet. She didn't even tell me about the SPAWN," Alexandra said, disgruntled.

David turned and stared at her. "You've met Dean Grimm?"

"Yes!" He leaned away from her at her sharp tone. Alexandra decided to change the subject by asking Darla what else her sister had told her about Charmbridge, and Darla was more than happy to spend most of the rest of the journey to Chicago talking about the teachers, the subjects, and the amenities at the academy. The other girls didn't say much (not that Darla gave them much opportunity to), but Anna occasionally piped up to talk about the classes they would be taking at Charmbridge, like Charms, Transfigurations, Magical Principles, Basic Alchemy, and Wizard World Studies. Apparently she was one of those children who'd been sent to Wizard day-school to begin her studies before her formal schooling began, so she had more book-learning than the rest of them. "I've never had a wand, though, so I'm really looking forward to actually being able to do magic," she said.

"I can do magic," Alexandra said, eager to prove herself as much a witch as any of them. "Transformations and charms and I've even made fireballs."

While David looked interested, the other girls just looked at each other, and Alexandra felt as if she'd said something unintentionally foolish.

"We can all 'do magic' like that," said Angelique, not unkindly. "Even little children can cast spells accidentally. But it's not the same as when you have a wand and you know what you're doing. That's why we're going to Charmbridge. You'll see. Once you've learned how to cast real spells, you'll laugh at what you used to think of as magic."

Alexandra was tempted to ask if any of them had ever fought redcaps or kappas, but was afraid they'd tell her that only children considered those things dangerous. Maybe there was a spell that "proper" witches could use that would just make redcaps disappear.

"We have wands," said Constance. She pulled a long, polished hardwood stick out of her cloak. It looked as if it had been worn smooth by many years of handling.

"We've had them since we were eight," Forbearance said, showing her own wand.

"Ooh!" Angelique breathed, and Darla and Anna both looked a little jealous.

"The Department of Magical Education doesn't allow minors to have wands unless they're either enrolled in a formal wizarding school or have passed the twelfth-grade equivalent SPAWN," Darla said, almost accusingly.

"That's Confederation law," said Anna. "Individual Territories can grant exceptions. Like for Ozarkers."

Constance and Forbearance nodded. They had said little the entire trip, but they seemed to be enjoying the fact that for once, they were the center of attention. Or rather, their wands were.

"Ozarkers usually get home-taught," said Constance.

"Our brothers educated like that," said Forbearance.

"But our parents decided to wizard-school us," Constance went on.

"The first in our family!" Forbearance added, a little proudly.

"But we begun learning folk magic when we was little," Constance continued.

"We know basic conjures," said Forbearance.

"And we can even wish a few hexes," Constance finished, dropping her voice to a whisper.

"Shame on you for boasting about it!" declared an older boy who'd come up the aisle to stand at their table. He was dressed in a home-spun tunic and jacket and thick, heavy trousers, and he had a bit of an accent similar to that of Constance and Forbearance. The two Ozarker girls flushed and hung their heads.

"Put those away! You're not a day from home and already a' blaggardin' like a pair of sorceresses!"

That made Constance and Forbearance flush an even deeper shade of red, simultaneously, and they hastily tucked their wands back into their cloaks and looked down. Alexandra noticed that the bossy older boy had been staring at Darla and Angelique when he said "sorceresses."

Alexandra glowered at him, but he just muttered, "Better for girls to stay home," and walked back to his own booth.

"What a jerk!" David exclaimed.

"The heck with him," Alexandra said. "And girls rule!"

David rolled his eyes, but Constance and Forbearance both smiled a little, as Mrs. Speaks yelled out to the passengers, "Here we are, dears! Pick up your things and get ready to get off the bus!" They had arrived in Chicago.