Sawyer heard there was going to be a new girl in their class, a young faerie. She didn't really care, nobody really liked her. People laughed at her for her green skin, and they were also afraid of her because of her powers. Powers she didn't really understand herself. Miss Darcy was teaching her, she taught every young warlock, but her powers were so strong they were hard to control. Sometimes, she accidentily took all light away. Or she broke things. Luckily, she could repair them as well. Rosaline took classes from miss Darcy as well, but she wasn't talented the way Sawyer was. Miss Darcy was an unpleasant woman, but Sawyer knew she was her favourite. Others resented her for it. The new girl walked into the classroom.
'Welcome, miss Love,' professor Brown said. Professor Brown was a warlock with not much power, who had the horns and the legs of a goat. He was a very intelligent man, and Sawyer liked him best of all teachers. He knew a lot about downworlder and shadowhunter history. The organisation, called the Wizard's order, adopted a lot of downworlder children, and they had to be taught properly. Professor Brown taught them history. The girl, Sawyer noticed, was beautiful. Which was not odd, for she was one of the fair folk. She had blond curly hair, and she was very short, unlike Sawyer, who was very tall. The girl wore a pink dress, and a lot of make up.
'Thank you, professor Brown,' she said, 'Are you teaching us history? Why dwell on events that happened in the past?'
Sawyer immediately didn't like her. How could she insult professor Brown like that? Sawyer concluded she was indeed as stupid as she looked. Everyone else seemed to like her, though.
'I assume you've been told you will be sharing your room with miss Sawyer Thropp?' professor Brown asked, as if he hadn't heard her insult.
'What?!' Sawyer said out loud, and when the faerie girl saw me, she screamed the same thing. Both of them were shocked, obviously. How could she share a room with someone like thát? She shared her room with Rosaline already.
'Professor, there must be some kind of mistake,' Sawyer said, 'My sister needs me, I share my room with her.'
'Your sister, miss Thropp,' professor Brown said, 'Will share her room with a werewolf girl her age, she gave her permission. Please don't worry too much. Now, we will be discussing Valentine Morgenstern, a shadowhunter who defied the clave, and was sworn to wipe out all of our kind, downworlders. Luckily, he was defeated, and he burned his own house down, with himself in it. Not only will this be a history lesson, we will also talk about good and evil.'
Sawyer liked discussions about good and evil, it was never quite clear who was good and who was evil. Most people had a bit of both.

'Miss Sawyer,' miss Darcy said, 'May I have a word with you, please?'
'Of course, miss,' Sawyer said. She knew it was not wise to be inpolite to miss Darcy. Though Sawyer didn't know why, miss Darcy was strict when it came to manners.
Sawyer waited, while the other young warlocks left. Another girl came in. Christabel, Sawyer recognized. What was she doing here? She was a Faerie, and miss Darcy didn't train their kind of magic.
'What is it, miss Christabel?' she asked in a cold tone.
'I'd like to take magical courses, miss Darcy,' Christabel said, 'You see, usually other faeries would teach me, but I was banned from the court. Faerie magic may be different from warlock magic, but you could teach me, couldn't you?'
Miss Darcy looked upon Christabel with cold eyes. Though Sawyer disliked miss Darcy for het coldness, she thought Christabel deserverd it.
'No,' she said firmly, 'I will not teach you. Faerie magic is hard to teach, and I don't sense that much power in you. No, I don't think you would be valuable enough. Try something on your own, but I don't think you'll ever get past making those pink dresses of yours glitter a little more than usual.'
Christabel looked at miss Darcy in shock, and then she bit her lip. Was she trying not to cry? What did it matter anyway. Sawyer didn't like Christabel, and certainly didn't feel sorry for her. Why would she? It wasn't like Christabel had ever been nice to her. Christabel walked away, without saying a word.
'What did you want to talk to me about, miss Darcy?' Sawyer asked, when Christabel wasn't anywhere near anymore.
'I received a message from the Wizard. It is indeed you he needs. You have great power, and you will be able to help him properly, with leading our order, and protecting downworlders. You must work hard, though, but I trust that you will.'
'Of course I will, miss,' she said happily, 'I feel so honoured.'
'You deserved it, miss Sawyer,' she said, 'You'll get extra classes in magic from me, private classes, so you'll be strong enough soon. I trust your history lessons are going well? And so are your classes in latin, old greek and demon languages?'
'Yes, miss,' Sawyer said. Sawyer was a clever person, and she learned fast. She was one of the best at reading the old languages. All the powerful magical spellbooks were written in those languages, and it was impossible to be a good warlock without being able to read those. She walked away, happier than ever, and started to sing the song "The Wizard and I" from the musical Wicked softly. She would be that girl, and she wasn't going to be exactly like Elphaba, was she? No, the wizard couldn't possibly be a bad man, he had helped her, and he would make her powerful, and loved.

There was going to be a party, and oddly, Christabel had asked her to come as well. The party was host by a warlock who was not part of the organisation, but who was very well respected and powerful. And he was also known for his parties. Magnus Bane was his name. There would be other downworlders, and it would be in New York. Rosaline had been asked by Jamie to go with him. Jamie was a mundane boy, whose sister was a warlock. He wanted to become a vampire to be immortal, which would happen when he was eighteen. Rosaline obviously had a crush on him, but Sawyer had her doubts about him. Rosaline wouldn't listen though. She was happy with Jamie, and Sawyer let her.
'Sawyer?' It was Christabel. They were roommates, but they mostly ignored each other.
'What is it?' she asked.
'I wanted to give you something,' Christabel said, 'A hat, you could wear it to the party.'
The hat Christabel gave her was a pointy hat, the kind witches sometimes wore in movies. It looked nice, she thought. Suddenly Sawyer felt sorry. She felt sorry for being so cold to Christabel, mean even.
'Thank you, Christabel,' Sawyer said, 'It looks really nice. I'll see you at the party, tonight, but I have to do something before we go.'
'That's all right,' Christabel said, and she smiled. Sawyer smiled back. Maybe they could be friends after all. Maybe she had been to soon to judge. Sawyer went to miss Darcy. She felt sorry for Christabel for what miss Darcy had done.
'Miss Sawyer, shouldn't you be dressing up for the party? You are going, right? One of the most powerful warlocks in our world will be our host after all,' miss Darcy said.
'Yes, miss Darcy, I will,' she said, 'Be going, that is. But I would like to ask you a favour. I would like you to accept Christabel as one of your students in the magic classes, maybe even the special classes. I do believe she has talent, she is a better person than she may look on the outside.'
Miss Darcy looked doubtful, but then nodded. 'I will do as you request, miss Sawyer, and I will hope you are right about miss Christabel. You are after all more powerful than me, and if you sense power in her I don't, I believe you.'
'Thank you so much, miss Darcy,' Sawyer said happily. She had done something for Christabel in return, and she was sure that would help. Christabel would help her, and Sawyer would finally have a friend.

The warlock Magnus Bane didn't look like Sawyer had expected. Like she had a green skin, the warlock had catlike eyes. He wore make up and glitter. What kind of man wore make up? He looked part Asian, and he wore the most ridiculous clothes she had ever seen on a man. People were laughing. At her, she noticed. What was wrong? Was it the green skin thing again? But there were other warlocks, and they all had odd markings.
'Look at the hat she is wearing,' a faerie girl said.
'It looks terrible,' someone else said.
This confused Sawyer. Christabel had given her the hat. Surely, she knew about fashion?
'Leave my guest alone, please,' Magnus Bane said, 'I know what I was like when I was young, and couldn't always control my magic, and I really don't want anyone turned to ashes this night. Lot of explaining to the Clave, you know. Besides, this is a party. She should have fun as much as you do.'
Sawyer decided she rather liked Magnus Bane. No one had ever stepped up for her like that. She had herself, for Rosaline, for Christabel. But no one for her. Sawyer looked around. She saw Rosaline dancing with Jamie, in her wheelchair. She was obviously having fun. That was a good thing at least. She noticed a young man at the bar, probably her age. He was rather handsome. She recognized the markings on him. Shadowhunter. Were shadowhunters invited? Sawyer had been told Magnus Bane didn't really like them. Sawyer went up to him.
'So you're the green skinned girl,' he said, 'I've heard about you, from Magnus. He was excited to meet you.'
'Please call me Sawyer,' she said, curious about him, 'How have you been invited?'
'My best friend's a vampire. Don't tell my parents, though, they are quite conservative. Don't like downworlders. Neither do our leaders, the Lightwoods. Though their daughter is well known by downworlders for she has dated a few of them.'
'And her parents don't know?' Sawyer asked. She wasn't really that interested in this Lightwood girl, but she liked this guy alright, and wanted to keep the conversation going.
'I guess they do. Not that it matters that much. I'm Collin, Collin Greenwood. My parents are part of the New York conclave.'
Sawyer didn't know much about shadowhunters. They killed demons, they made the laws and downworlders had to follow those laws. They were part angel, created by the angel Raziel.
'Are you going to tell me how many demons you have killed already?' she asked him, 'Because I don't know if I want to hear those kind of tales.'
He laughed. It was a nice laugh, not in the mean way Sawyer was used to. He was actually nice to her, which felt odd.
'Not if you're not interested. But I'd like to hear about you. I don't meet young powerful and beautiful warlock girls everyday, you know.'
Did he just call her beautiful? She was sure she was blushing, as much as she could blush with her green skin.
'I am a warlock, like my sister Rosaline, but she has a different father, and she isn't as powerful as I am. In the organisation, miss Darcy teaches us warlocks to use our magic, and she will teach Christabel to. She's a faerie.'
'What about a dance, miss Sawyer?' he asked her.
No. 'Alright,' she said. Sawyer couldn't dance. She would make a complete fool of herself. 'Just try to follow me,' Collin said.
Sawyer tried to, but she guessed she wasn't that succesful. She did look ridiculous, she realised. People were staring, and Collin had stopped dancing. Then Christabel started dancing, together with her. Sawyer didn't know why. Christabel danced as odd as she did, even though, being a faerie, she was a great and graceful dancer.
'Alright, everyone, party's over,' Magnus Bane shouted, 'Get out!'