Quest

Chapter 1

And from up here, I can see all of them.

Being the only sorcerer at my public high school was not without its occasional advantages, and the rooftop alcove next to the gym was one of them. The school had been constructed in a way where two large vents cornered off an entire corner of the roof. I was pretty sure no one else had ever been up there because it was basically impossible to do so without magic or an obscenely large ladder. Seeing as it would have been pointless for anyone to go through the trouble to use a ladder, I had been able to claim the spot as my own to eat lunch, smoke pot, and just generally be alone whenever the woes of my seven period day got to be too much, which, as it would turn out, was pretty often. Add in a lawn chair and solar powered mini fridge, and we are talking about a pretty sweet perch. I wasn't going to miss a lot, but my last trip here was doing a good job conjuring up tears out of the ducts from whence they came.

The rest of my one hundred fifty person graduating class milled about in their caps and gowns in the courtyard below me. The previous week had consisted of far too many rehearsals, for what I wasn't quite sure, but I guess some people needed walking instructions. The teachers had herded us together like sheep in a slaughterhouse, ready to unleash us onto the world whether we were ready or not. It was all rather morbid... the flowing, black identical gowns, the camera flashes, the disingenuous smiles. I was much more content to be up in my nest.

What's that thing called when you don't fit in in high school? Oh yeah, normal. It's not that I didn't have any friends, it's more that I didn't want any. No one in the fine town of Blair, Connecticut seemed interesting or funny or fun or any number of other adjectives. That probably includes me as well, although I would like to think I was working hard to prevent that. It's not that I'm better or whatever than anyone (I'm not), it's just that this whole high school thing seems sort of useless.

Don't get me wrong, there are people I like or at the very least tolerate, so I'm not a total solo act, but at the end of the day I don't really count on any of them to listen or be there or really anything that a normal friend would do. They're not bad people, I've just never connected to any of them like that. They're all perfectly good for scoring weed or hooking up under the bleachers during lunch or mindless conversation at Jenny's my-parents-are-out-for-the-weekend party, but that's about where it ends.

Now, I'm not mad or sad about any of this. Quite the opposite. I'm happy to be me, at least in the high school senior sense of the phrase.

My classmates looked like one giant sheet, all flowing together inside the too small courtyard. None of them can see me, but I can see all of them. If it wasn't totally lame, it might be profound. I'm just Eve Clark, that magic girl. Or my full name, 'Oh, Aren't You That Magic Girl?'

"Attention! Attention, students!" an elderly guidance counselor called out. His name was either Mr. O'Donnell or Mr. O'Connell but a healthy combination of my lack of attention and his stroke induced lisp meant that I didn't actually know what the man's real name was. He was known for the large, enchanted candy bowl he kept behind his desk in his room. It was perpetually replenishing though, so mostly people just stole from it when he wasn't looking. "It's about that time! Line up!"  Mr. O'D/Connell waved his hands above his head in some type of an attempt to get people to listen. No one did.

I sighed. The sooner this was all over with the sooner I could wake up tomorrow and go get pizza or go do literally anything that wasn't another day of high school.

I didn't want to draw any unnecessary attention to myself, so I pulled out my alabaster wand, cast an invisibility spell then floated down to the courtyard. Mr. O'D/C had recruited the rest of the guidance department, a lackluster bunch who looked like what I would imagine every guidance department across America looked like, and they were now shepherding the herd into some type of blob.