The Last Apothecary

Chapter 9.

With no other options, I hesitantly opened the door to my house. Immediately, I could see my startled mother on the couch, looking extremely confused and worried. I hadn't even had time to take off my shoes before I heard, "Crow? Why are you home early? What happened?" She looked up to my face, seeing it looking crestfallen and ashamed rather than angry. "You- you didn't get fired, did you?"

I sighed. Walking over to the couch, I sat down, tossing my backpack aside. I brushed my hair out of my face, only for it to stubbornly bounce back in place as I looked away from her. "I- I don't know."

"What happened?" She seemed so concerned, then I saw it. Her face shifting from concern to disapproval. Her emotions dying down a little to show her thinking of how it possibly could have happened. What I could have done to screw up this badly. "You did not get into a fight with a customer, did you?"

"No, nothing like what happened the other day." I shook my head. "It's just... Eileen sent me home early. There was this kid there who knows that I'm a Witch from school and..." I took a breath. I hated admitting things. Why did it always have to be so difficult, and why did she have to give me such a look to make it even harder? "He called me a Witch in front of my boss, not as an insult or anything, but when I had filed my application, I put that I was Human on them, so they got mad. Then they freaked out because my wand was still in my backpack, and sent me home. They said they'll call me back when they figure out what to do. So not fired, but..." I decided to ditch that sentence and instead shoot for just a mumbled, "Sorry."

"Crow..." She sounded so exasperated, and I looked away as she ran her hand over her face, her body that had been sitting up straight with worry now falling back onto the couch with exhaustion. "You can't just go filing important documents wrong like that. We can get in huge trouble for stuff like that. Actual fines in the mail from the FTC. We can't afford that! Why would you even write that you're Human anyway?"

"I just figured since I didn't have, well, didn't know my specialty at the time, and I don't usually levitate stuff, that it wouldn't make a difference. Better and less embarrassing than me writing Witch, and explaining I was an Ord or something."

I grimaced as she dragged her hands down her face, red with anger. It was the same thing she did on the car ride home from the mall, every time she checked my grades online, last year as I'd waved hi from the principal's office... It hurt. Every time. 

"It does make a difference, Crow! Why do you think there are so many riots and strikes happening?" She didn't leave me time to answer the question before her snippy voice cut in again. "We don't have a single Witch representative in the Congress or Senate at the moment. Any laws made will be in the Humans' favor, same as always. Right now, they want to have us not paid as much per hour, because if we have magik, then then don't believe we work as hard. Like it just does our job for us, somehow. That's how they see it. If that's passed through, or anything else for that matter, and you're too young to have your paperwork grandfathered in, which you are, then you'd be fined. Heavily. Not to mention that having that on your files can decide whether you're even hired in the first place."

"Hold up. " I held up my hands, raising an eyebrow. "That's not even legal. The constitution says that no state can deny someone by sex, sexual orientation, race..."

"They don't count Witches as a race. They don't know what to classify us as yet, and right now they're too keen on taking advantage of all of us to figure that part out. We're lucky that your father is a fire investigator and allowed to use magik for his job as it is. Most aren't allowed to, because they're too afraid to actually learn to grow as a society." Her voice switched to a low mutter as she crossed her arms, green eyes glinting in annoyance. I knew that look. It was the same mentality I'd had none too long ago, annoyed at the government, but unable to do anything about it because really, I was just one guy. It was pointless negativity though. I knew that now.