Chapter Four: Learning to Believe
It was not dark, not light, not cold, not warm, all at once, all of this at first. But as time went on, it got better.
She still didn't have a body. She still couldn't feel. But she learned how to think, how to have emotions, and how to exist. She could sense things sometimes. And her magic grew to a level where even though she had no body to channel it into, she could use it a little bit.
Bloom's spirit knew that it was the last stone to be taken out of the bag. She knew Roxy was tired of picking specific girls, and Bloom would have shaken her head, had she had one. Roxy, as always, was trying too hard to please. This time, she was doing it for people who technically didn't exist anymore.
Even though Roxy's last choice was a haphazard one, when Bloom's stone rested in the hands of seventeen year old Sebeka Nathan, the soul of the fairy knew it was a good decision. Sebeka wasn't much like Bloom- she was smarter, more skeptical, less enthusiastic, with a powerful mind that could do anything it wanted to do. But Bloom liked that. If she had been cared for by someone exactly like her, she would worry for her safety a little. The fairy of the Dragon Flame had a habit of getting people into messes.
And now that Sebeka held Bloom's spirit, the real challenge would begin. Picking out who was who. Bloom immediately considered that the girl who had attacked Sebeka was one of the Trix Coven, but she couldn't be sure. After all, for some reason, Bloom's senses couldn't tell who was who, so she had reason to believe that none of the other girls could either. Maybe the girl who attacked held Aisha's spirit- the fairy of waves was impulsive, and if she had thought that maybe Sebeka could hold a Trix, there was no question that the dark-skinned (could she still say that, now that they didn't have bodies?) girl would strike first and ask questions later.
Bloom felt a little bit happy. Yes, she had hoped that the Spell of Arcelia would have worked differently and maybe given her a body by now. But this was okay. This was better than death. It was a new beginning.
"You're distracted," Paige said to Sebeka. The older girl twisted a small golden ring inlaid with amethysts on her pinky finger. Paige had never seen her tutor fidget before. "Did you have a bad first day?"
"No. It was just… stressful," Sebeka said.
"I'm sorry," Paige said. "Do you want to not do anything today? I've got some homework. I can work on that and ask you if I have an issue."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah," Paige said. "I think I've got this. The FOIL method. First out inner last. I can remember that easily enough."
"Remember to double check your numbers and make sure you aren't reading them wrong at the end of every problem," Sebeka said, but she already sounded less invested in the tutoring. Paige wondered what was going on. Sebeka didn't seem the type to have a bad first day of school. She was the kind of girl who liked learning, who found classes easy and fun. What could go wrong?
She stared at the page in front of her and for a moment, felt ashamed. This page was review of concepts that students learned in eighth grade. Paige was a sophomore, and she was doing middle school stuff. It was depressing. She sighed and looked at the first problem. Not too difficult. Still, the problem seemed to mock her.
(1 + x)(3 + 2x)
She knew how to solve it. First, out, in, last. First, out, in, last, she chanted inside her mind. But something about numbers always flicked her brain's panic switch on, and suddenly the math problem looked like quantum physics.
Desperately, she reached into her pocket and rubbed her lucky stone. Immediately, she began to calm down… her brain began to clear… and the problem looked like it was tough, but solvable. Paige's pencil traced brackets around the numbers in the order she was supposed to work with them. 3... Then 2x… 3x… 2x2. Combine like terms… so I'm working with 3, 5x, and 2x2...
"Hey, Sebeka, can you check this?" Paige asked.
The tutor looked at Paige's sheet of scrap paper. "(3 + 5x + 2x2). Great job, that's right! That's the quickest I've ever seen you solve a problem before! You're definitely improving!"
Paige smiled and rubbed her gemstone again, this time not for luck or for clarification, but just to say thanks.
The day ended, and Sebeka barely noticed. It was in a daze that she rode the bus home, in a daze that she handed her mother, Berry Nathan, the new forms for the beginning of the school year that needed to be signed, in a daze that she went to her room and stared at her hands for a good five minutes.
What the hell did I do?
No, wait. I didn't do that. The gem did!
She took her hunk of quartz out from her book bag and set it on her skirt, where it contrasted amazingly with the blue and gold plaid. It was out of place, completely out of place. A perfect metaphor of how it fit into her life. It just… didn't.
She reached out and touched it. Like she would expect a gem to be, it was cold to the touch. But… there was something else there, like a nagging at the back of her mind. She forced herself to focus. She forced herself to try to find out what was going on…
…beka? Sebeka? Sebeka? Can you hear me?
WHOA!
She quickly took her hand off the stone and stood up, so that the quartz crystal rolled off her lap and onto the hardwood floor of her second story room with a small thunk.
For a moment, it was silent. Sebeka stared at the gemstone disbelievingly. Then, slowly, she sat down on the floor and stretched out her pointer finger so she was just barely touching the stone. She braced herself for the gem to start talking again. But nothing happened.
She stood up and backed slowly away from the talking piece of quartz. Climbing back onto her bed, she reached under a forest green pillow that matched her eyes and pulled out her laptop. She unlocked it and opened Google Chrome (it was her browser of choice. She never understood people who used IE) and typed "talking gemstones" into the search bar. Okay, so it was vague, but she was a little bit freaked out.
The first page was all crap about the meaning of different gems, or using gems to get to heaven or something, nothing. Then there was some New Age crap about communicating with stones. Sebeka rolled her eyes. Apparently, the internet wasn't going to help.
She could talk to Addie.
Quickly, she pulled up a new tab with her Facebook. Looking down at the chat, she saw that Addie was indeed online. She created a chat and typed, Let's say I believe that the stones have powers. What then?
There was a reply within a few seconds. That depends on how much magic you believe in.
Sebeka thought hard for about a minute. Then, she decided to put her complete trust in Addie. Some shield thing shot out of my hands. And then my gemstone started talking to be me.
A minute passed. Then the chat sound was made. Sebeka looked at Addie's response. You should come over to my house.
Okay.
Sebeka closed her laptop and grabbed a tissue from the flowery box on her nightstand. Carefully, she picked the gem off from the floor and placed it into her purse. She changed from her white uniform shirt, blue vest, and plaid skirt into a green tank top and skirt and her favorite green boots (the tongue looked like a leaf!), then grabbed her bag and headed downstairs. Berry sat at the table in the dining room filling out forms. "I'm going out!" Sebeka said. Her mother didn't answer.
The seventeen year old hopped on her scooter. Addie's house was too far away to walk to, but scootering, she could get there in about ten minutes. She was very cautious not to let the gem fall out of her purse.
She pulled into the Addisons' driveway; she parked her scooter. Then, she walked up to the door and knocked, not too loudly.
Dr. James Addison, Addie's father, answered. "Miss Nathan," he said. "Good to see you. Are you here to see Phyllis?"
Sebeka discreetly bit her lip to keep from laughing. "Yes, sir," she responded.
Dr. Addison opened the door. "She's upstairs in her room. You know where it is. Are Nora and Michelle coming over too? Another girl already came, so I figure it must be a study session."
"I'm not sure, Dr. Addison," Sebeka said, frowning. Who's the other girl?
Sebeka stepped into the house's grand entrance, with its marble floors and cream colored walls that were so familiar. A mahogany staircase covered most of the left side of the hall, and it was up these stairs that Sebeka walked up. Once on the second floor, she took a left and walked to the end of the hallway to find another staircase, which she also climbed. This staircase ended in a door, which she opened to find herself in the spacious attic of the Addison home- Addie's room.
Sitting on the floor, on top of Addie's shag rug, were Addie and Violet. The two were laughing and talking.
Sebeka dropped her bag, and the girls looked at her. "Hi," Sebeka said.
Violet ducked her head, but Addie smiled and waved Sebeka over. "Hey, Sebeka!" she said. "Come on, we were waiting for you! Did you bring your gem?"
"Yeah." Sebeka sat down on the comfortable rug and pulled the tissue out of her purse. Carefully, she dumped the small quartz crystal onto the floor, right next to two identical stones. "Hey, wait. Aren't we going to get them confused? They all look alike."
"Violet and I tested that already. Here, I'll show you. Close your eyes." Sebeka obeyed, and ten seconds later, Addie commanded "Now open them. And pick your gem."
Sebeka stared at the three identical gems, but her gaze kept going to the one in the middle. It was like it was pulling to her. Like it was a missing part of her. She reached her hand out to retrieve it from the two others, and as she took it, warmth spread over her, like a fire. Shocked, she dropped the piece of rose quartz, and it fell snugly into the shag carpet.
Addie was smiling smugly. "Told you. Now, try to pick up one of the others."
Easy. Sebeka reached down and picked both of them up, which turned out to be a massively bad idea. Sensation overwhelmed her. It was powerful… but it was also wrong somehow. She set the gems down and as the weird energy subsided, she felt much, much better.
Violet snatched one of the stones up. "Don't touch my gem again," she snapped.
Addie raised one eyebrow. "Okay, so it was uncomfortable," she said. "I felt it too. It felt wrong when Sebeka held it. But it wasn't anything to be rude over."
Violet folded her hands into a position like she was praying, only with her piece of quartz inside. "My gem told me not to let anyone touch it. It isn't me who doesn't like it. It's the stone itself. I'm very sorry I got mad at you, Sebeka."
"It's fine," Sebeka said, and she meant it. She hadn't had the gem for a day, and it was already making her do things she wouldn't ordinarily do. She was actually talking seriously about magic with two other girls! She had thrown up a shield! She had been attacked!
Addie picked up her gem and took a deep breath. "Now that I know you girls are getting used to magic, I have something to show you." The albino girl placed one pale hand over her piece of quartz, waved it clockwise once, and the stone began to glow faintly, like a small pink light.
"Whoa," Violet said. "How did you learn to do that?"
Addie shrugged. "It just came to me. You focus your energy into the gem and just let the magic flow through it. Oh! Wait!" She quickly rose, went over to her desk, and took a leather book off of it. "I bought this blank book to write spells and stuff in. You know, a Book of Shadows."
"A what?" Violet asked. "That doesn't sound very nice."
"Well, we all have magic now. And as Sebeka brought up, we can't be fairies… that's genetic. So I figured, we must be witches. I even thought maybe we could call ourselves the Snowdrop Coven." She blushed a little, smiled. "Because of the scientific explanation of how that herb may have been used to bring on hallucinations, making the people who met the real Circe believe they were turned into pigs, when they may not have really been. We're smart, relatively skeptic people who have been brought into a magic world. I figure it makes a certain sense of poetic irony."
The two other girls looked at each other. "Well, I guess being a coven wouldn't hurt," Sebeka said. Violet nodded her agreement.
Addie fist pumped. "Awesome! I hereby declare us the Snowdrop Coven. And our first order of business is to find the pink haired woman that gave Sebeka her gem. All in favor?"
And the three girls raised their hands all at once- a motion that truly set the beginning into motion.