The Sorcerer of Miss Robichaux's Academy

1. Bitchcraft

Walking down the stairs, I heard Madison talking about a plan to prank the new girl with the other girls. Rolling my eyes, I said, "Madison, already planning to traumatize the new girl, I see." As I walked into the kitchen to grab something to snack on, Madison smirked behind me and said, "Yeah, you in?" I replied, "Yeah...no. I don't want to get in trouble with a girl who might not be able to control her power. Who knows? She might. For all we know, she could kill us with a touch, and I don't need that." After I said that, I walked out of the kitchen with chips in my hand and saw a car pulling up, so I quickly went back upstairs.

Later that day

They were all sitting at the table, listening to Cordelia tell them about witches. "In its heyday, the academy was home to as many as 60 girls. Over the years, those numbers dwindled." Zoe asked Cordelia, "Why?" Cordelia replied, "We're a dying breed, Zoe." She sighed and continued, "Many of the families who knew they carried the bloodline made a choice not to reproduce." After Cordelia finished, I asked her, "So, what's a Supreme?"

Cordelia explained, "An average witch is born with a few natural gifts, but in each generation, there is one woman who embodies countless gifts. Some say... all of them. She is the Supreme." I noticed that she kept saying "she" and hesitated to ask Cordelia, "Has there ever been a male Supreme?" Cordelia laughed a little and said, "Men are not equal to woman when it comes to magical abilities; their testosterone is a known inhibitor. It impedes access to the ethereal realm." I stared at her, a little shocked, thinking, 'What does testosterone have to do with accessing the spiritual realm? That doesn't make any logical sense.'

Madison smirked, looking at Micah, and said, "Well, I guess we all know who's not going to be the Supreme or equal to any of us, really." I glared at her. Not wanting an argument to start, Zoe tried to switch the attention back to Cordelia and asked her, "Are you the Supreme?" Cordelia replied, "No. I'm like you—just a witch and a teacher. I'm here to help you identify your gifts and teach you how to control them." Queenie added, "She means to suppress them."

Cordelia corrected her, saying, "Not suppression—control." Madison cut her off, saying, "She thinks it's still the 1600s." Cordelia replied, "No, back then, our kind understood the dangers. Today, so many families know nothing of their ancestry. Too many girls aren't lucky enough to have found us or weren't identified in time for us to have found them, like that poor Cajun girl just outside Lafayette a few months back—Misty Day."

Cordelia continued, "She wasn't much older than any of you, and she had a gift—the power of resurgence. Misty could reach into that place between life and death and draw a soul back from the precipice, back to this side, back to life. To some, this appeared to be the God-touched power of resurrection; to others, necromancy."

Zoe asked, "So what happened to her?" Cordelia replied, "The same thing that's happened to women and men like us throughout the centuries. We are under siege; our lives, our very existence, is always at risk. Know this or face extinction."

Well, that just made this a lot less exciting. I sat up from the chair and asked Cordelia, "Hey. Can I go to my room? I need a bit of time to process this." Cordelia nodded, "Of course, I understand this is a lot to process." I thanked her, said goodbye to the girls—who were still a little shocked—and went up into my room.

I was in my room reading the books of the Seven Wonders, thinking about what Cordelia said about there never being a male Supreme, which I thought was complete BS, but I didn't want to be rude to the girl who saved me. While reading the book, I saw most of the things I had to master to become a Supreme.

"Telekinesis: the ability to move matter with one's mind." I looked up from the book and scanned my room, spotting a candle on the other side. I held up my hand and focused on it. 'Come to my hand.' After a second, the candle flew into my hand. I stood there, shocked for a minute "Woah.." That felt effortless to be honest "That was actually pretty exciting"