Katelyn and The Witch Party

Chapter 12: Naji

At the end of the class, the teacher handed back their first essays of the semester. Katelyn's seventy percent glared up at her. Her heart froze. Pathetic, I am terrible at everything. She glanced at Hanna's paper where a ninety-two percent was circled with a happy face drawn next to it. Katelyn hid her paper in her notebook and shoved it in her bag. If I cannot even get good grades, then what can I even do? I do not have a job. I do not volunteer. I am worthless. Katelyn closed her eyes against the oncoming tears. She almost wished that Hanna would say something to her to make her feel better, but why would she? Hanna was good at everything and she would never understand how Katelyn felt.

As Katelyn silently followed Hanna to their next class—they had all the same classes—she thought back to kindergarten. What had they done to that blonde student who had tried to help Nathan when the lines had spread along his skin? No one had ever figured out what had happened to the sink or what exactly had happened to Nathan. They had found a culprit in the young girl and that was enough, even if it seemed unlikely that the girl had done anything wrong.

Katelyn struggled to pay attention in the rest of her classes. Her mind kept wandering between Victoria, her terrible grades, and her fear of being discovered as a witch. Everything about Victoria's death still haunted her, everything from the sight of Victoria's lifeless corpse to her own guilt, but perhaps that was the effect of death. Her grades bothered her, because she had done so much better last year, and even the years before. Last year, she had gotten nineties just like Hanna, and the year before she had gotten mid-eighties. She had had her grades before, but now she just had the fear of her now deceased mentor revealing her secrets. She tried not to think about how she could no longer even trust her own vision not to lie to her.

It was not until the end of the day when she saw a pair of green eyes waiting for her at the edge of the schoolyard that she realized Ki had not been at school. Naji had the same eyes, but they were not as luminous. Hanna glanced at the dark-haired woman with an unreadable expression on her face.

"Miss Jean," Naji greeted with a smile that did not reach her eyes. A flicker of darkness had swept through her eyes as Hanna's eyes briefly narrowed.

"What brings you here, Miss Ailen?" Hanna questioned somewhat testily.

"I am temporarily looking after your friend," Naji responded as her expression became neutral. She clasped her dark hands behind her back and raised her chin, causing her large gold hoop earrings to sway in the wind. She had her dark hair pulled into a twisted bun behind her head. Rather than the white blouse she was wearing the first time Katelyn saw her, she was wearing a forest green blouse with a black leather jacket with lace cuffs, although she still wore black dress pants.

Hanna was silent after that, although the expression on her face betrayed her shock and concern. "I hope you won't try to do anything to her."

"I follow the law, Miss Jean," Naji snapped.

"People like you are the reason I don't trust the law," Hanna muttered. Naji scoffed and glanced at the election signs in the distance. "What happened to your parents, Katelyn?"

Katelyn felt the colour drain from her face. There was no way she was going to tell the story again. She fidgeted with her own pale hands.

"It's because they're anti-witch, isn't it?" Hanna decided, her bright blue eyes seeming to be silently calculating Naji.

"Yes," Naji responded as a slight smile spread across her face.

Katelyn had no idea how Hanna had come up with that answer. She had never heard anyone mention the anti-witch standpoint in a context where it might be considered dangerous before. Everyone was anti-witch. By Naji's smile, it seemed she was pleased to be deemed less anti-witch than Katelyn's parents, which perplexed Katelyn. Hanna could not possibly be pro-witch. But why would she think Katelyn's parents being anti-witch would be a problem? She could not possibly have known Victoria worked with Katelyn and she certainly could not have known Katelyn was a witch. Maybe, she thought they had gotten in trouble for being anti-witch in another way, but almost no one got in trouble for being anti-witch. Everyone was anti-witch.