Moonlight Magic

Chapter 20

Later tonight, the student body were going to return. I wonder what this place would be like with all the students at night.
I was awake with the sun high up in the sky. I kept yawning due to the running around last night. Anna and Chloe were sound asleep in their beds nearby.
Seeing as I was going to move in anyway, the two of them said I might as well start getting used to any strange sleeping patterns or movements. So far I've learned that Chloe was a constant mover in her sleep. Unfortunately, the springs in her bed were squeaky and emitted an annoying sound every time she disturbed them. Anna on the other hand was a talker. She mumbled random phrases in Latin. Or at least I thought it was Latin.

Last night we were at the uniform shop. We sauntered through the aisles of different sizes of skirts, shirts, vests and blazer jackets. Apparently, the uniform was black and grey. The guys' consisted of a dark grey shirt, black tailored pants, a vest and a suit jacket with white trim on the collar. The neck items included red-black striped ties, bow ties, neck scarf and red ribbon bows. It seemed that students were free to pair their uniform with whatever neck accessory however they preferred.
The girls' had to also wear a grey shirt, black vest and jacket but a black skirt with a white trimmed hem that was just slightly above the knee. We also got to wear either red-black striped black ties, bow ties and red ribbon bows. Whether we wore socks were up to us but if we did we had to wear black. Apparently, we could wear any type of shoes we wanted.
"Let's pick them out and have you try them on," Chloe suggested. She had already picked out most of the uniform as soon as I had told her my size. This girl was certainly enthusiastic about uniform shopping. "There's also a tailor here. Alyssa can make adjustments if the clothes don't fit you properly. She can do it within minutes." And sure enough, when we found that some of the clothes didn't fit me as well, the adjusting had only taken twenty minutes max.
By eleven, I had my uniform already to go. As for the shoes, I guess I'll just have to borrow some of Chloe's or Anna's for now.
"Next up is stationery." We entered 'Books' sitting across from the uniform shop. There was only one word to describe this place: disorganised. There wasn't a system to the shelves; everything was misplaced. Boxes were stacked everywhere with no label as to what's inside. There was no clear path around all the merchandise, I simply had to pick my way and be careful not to step on or knock down anything.
"Doesn't anyone manage this place?" Anna cried out.
"This is ridiculous," I agreed.
Chloe shrugged. "You know how Mr Pilgrim is. He's old and cranky so keep your voices down."
We silently looked among the shelves and dug through the boxes. We compiled the basics that were notebooks, pens, pencils and a side bag.
"I thought we had to write with quills dipped with ink on scrolls."
Anna laughed. "We're not at Hogwarts or before the nineteenth century."
Chloe had started to move on. "Now we need to look at the textbooks and et cetera, et cetera."
"Uh, problem, Chloe. We still don't know what Becky is."
"That has something to do with this?"
"Well we can look at her timetable, no?" Chloe asked. "I have it here."
"You do?" Anna sounded surprised.
"Yep. Got it early in the afternoon when you were still asleep." Anna appeared unbelieving, as if it was impossible for Chloe to have woken up before her.
"Let's see." Chloe's face scrunched up as her eyes read over the timetable.
"What is it?" Anna asked.
"Um yep, we definitely got a problem." She flipped the piece of paper around and showed it to us. We got closer to have a better view.
The timetable was divided into eight periods and seven columns -one column for each day of the week. There were still many blanks, other than English, Maths, Latin and Defence class filled in.
"You've gotta be kidding me," Anna exclaimed. "What's the damn point of giving you an uncompleted timetable?"
"Well we could just..." Chloe trailed off.
"Let's just get the books for the classes on the paper and figure out the rest later," I suggested.

We dropped off my stuff back at the dorms and spent the most of the night left at the library. I had settled down at one of the tables with 'Fate & Destiny' that I had pulled off the shelves. Chloe wandered around while Anna was deeply engrossed in what she was reading.
As I turned to the second page, I spotted Ivan enter through the double doors below.
He climbed the stairs and reached the level we were on. "There you are. I've been looking for you guys." Until he had come right up to us, he wouldn't have seen me, more hidden behind an odd shelf. "Oh, and Becky's here too."
"So now you decide to show up, huh?" Guess Anna was stilled pissed. "Didn't it ever cross your mind to explain every single detail no matter how small about a job before rushing off to who knows where?"
Ivan backed up a bit as Anna stood and stepped up into his face. The witch could definitely hold her own even up against a guy who was a head taller than her. Ivan put his hands up signalling his surrender but the smile on his face contradicted his sincerity.
"Look, I had something urgent to handle and I thought you two were more than capable," he said.
"Oh, so because we're complaining now you're calling us incompetent?" Chloe huffed, joining Anna in chastising the poor guy.
"No, I- I didn't mean-"
Watching the three of them banter reminded me of Talia and I. We would argue and make up. Even if we were angry at each other, we would still back each other up.
Now, I'm stuck at a supernatural school that Talia and I never thought existed while she was held prisoner in that asylum.
"Becky. Becky." Someone calling my name brought me back from my depressing thoughts. "Are you okay?"
All three of them were staring at me with worried eyes.
"I'm fine," I reassured them. "What were you saying?"
"I came to tell you that the Headmistress wanted to see you tomorrow night before dinner," Ivan informed me.
"About what?"
"I don't know." From his eyes I could tell he knew more than he let on. "Just make sure you are there at her office at six a.m." Avoiding my eyes, Ivan looked at his watch. "Look, I gotta go. These two will make sure you get there." With that he disappeared out the door, into the night.
"There's nothing to worry about. Maybe Madame Cremlim knows what you are," Chloe offered.
It would be great if it was that straight forward. It's not. We all knew it.