Jim Armstrong and the Goblet's Curse

Chapter 6: I Learn After School Too?

   "Summon your emotions. Channel all of your energy, the very essence of your being and force it through your hand, at the cup." I stood in the center of our dorm room, facing the bedside table that held a single Styrofoam cup. I held my arm out at shoulder level, my palm out towards the cup.

It was the next day, 3:30, about half an hour after the school day had ended. Noah had agreed to help me practice using my Vlakir and so far I had only moved the cup about a centimeter to the right. It was a very tiring task, even though it looked like I was doing virtually nothing. To be honest, I felt kind of stupid, just standing in the room, looking like I was trying to use the Force. And believe me, I'm a lazy person, so I've tried to do it before.

It's never worked.

But now that I knew that I had the ability to do it, I was determined to make it happen, so if I was watching TV wanted to get the remote or something, I didn't have to get up. Noah kept telling me that my powers were supposed to be used for things more important than that, but hey, if I could get food without having to get up, I was going to live it up.

"You know, if you stopped using such fancy language to try and teach me how to do this, I might actually make some progress," I said to Noah. "Or I'll at least understand what you're saying. I mean, the essence of your being? What does that even mean? And how am I supposed to know if I'm using it?"

"I'm just trying to make it sound more interesting," Noah replied. "Basically, just use all of yourself and your energy."

"Then why didn't you just say that?"

"Cause that sounds boring."

"But it's easier to-

"Just try again, goddammit!" I rolled my eyes and did as Noah said, trying to gather all my energy mentally (which is insanely hard) and pushing it out at the cup.

Absolutely nothing happened.

"Oh my god, I can't take this anymore!" I yelled, flopping on to the bottom bunk of the beds. The cup blew on to the floor from the wind I made from flopping on to the bed, which to be honest, was probably the only way I would get it to move more than a couple centimeters. I rolled over on the bed to avoid crushing Lumière. I'd thrown it there before we started practicing.

"Come on, don't just give up. It takes practice," said Noah, sitting on the floor. "I was no better than you are right now when Cecy first recruited me."

"Cecily recruited you?" I asked. This was new information.

"Yeah, she recruited me in March, and six months later, I'm finally decent at using Vlakir. Cecy got recruited in January, and of course, after about a month and a half of classes she could kick anyone's ass."

"Is Cecily bad at anything?" I asked.

"Well, she's... oh! She sucks at art. And she's super messy," Noah said. "That's about it." There was a sharp knock on the door. Noah rose off the floor and strode towards the door, pulling it open. Cecily stood on the other side, holding a notebook and textbook in her hands. She had changed out of her school armor and now wore ripped jeans and a grey sweater with her hair twisted into a bun with two pencils skewering it.

"Hey," Noah said, stepping back to let her in. I tensed. I still remembered the warning Cecily had given me in the kitchen last night, and I know you might think I was taking this too seriously, but you haven't met Cecily. I was willing to bet that one day, Cecily was going to get her revenge. I didn't know when she would make her move, but I was pretty sure she would do it soon.