The Maple Witches (Worst Witch Spin-Off)

Chapter One

She was late.

Persephone rushed through the dense undergrowth of the forest, the brambles tearing at her unattractive grey stockings and scratching her stiff hobnail boots. Why her new school had kept the old-fashioned uniform, she had no idea. But then again, Cackle's Academy wasn't exactly a "normal" school for "normal" girls.

Behind her, she was dragging two large suitcases, a school satchel and a broomstick. Yes, broomstick. Persephone wore a grey shirt and a black-and-white tie, mostly obscured by a black pinafore. A light purple sash was fastened around her waist and a long black cloak that fluttered in the light breeze was fastened around her collar. Finally, to complete the bizarre fashion statement, she wore a pointy black hat with the school's logo emblazoned on it. The logo featured a majestic black cat sitting on a saffron-yellow crescent moon. A banner curling around the base of the logo read "Miss Cackle's Academy for Witches".

Persephone had always wanted to be a witch, just like her mother. Her father was a wizard who excelled in potions and ran a small pharmacy in their village. Yew Tree Hollow was a small country village in the middle of nowhere. Being a small community, everyone who lived there was either a witch, wizard, or in training, except of course, for those who hadn't yet started their education in sorcery. She had always felt a twinge of jealousy towards all of the teenagers who came back from school for the holidays muttering magic spells, brewing potions and zooming about on their broomsticks.

But she would never, ever ride a broomstick now. Not after what had happened to her mother. She stared at the smooth, pristine, cherry-wood broomstick in her hand with loathing. Her father had tried to tell her that everything was going to be okay, but they had both retreated into sadness after the accident and before long, the summer holidays were over and it was time to join her new school.

Her father had told her she should go, that it would be good for her. Anyway, Persephone knew what her mum would want. She'd want her to go.

So here she was, lost in the middle of the woods and looking for the school gates.

She checked her watch again. It was one that her father had made for her. You could open the face like a door and see the cogs whizzing round. It even glowed different colours depending on your time-keeping. Right now it was shimmering an angry tomato-red - as if she needed reminding she was already five minutes late and counting.

She slumped down on a nearby log and pulled out the magical map that had been sent in the post along with her acceptance letter from Miss Cackle.

A magical yellow "x" glowed to life as she unfolded the map, showing her her location. Great. The "x" was so close to the academy, but she could see nothing but trees in every direction and there was no clear path. There was no landmark she could use, and the x only moved every 50m due to the scale of the map, which wasn't particularly useful because every time she realised she was going in the wrong direction, she had no idea how to get back to where she had been before. She'd already tried following the "x", but all that had happened was she had gotten even more lost and her patience was wearing thin. It felt like she was trying to find a needle in a haystack - except her needle was supposed to be a giant castle which just made the whole thing even more annoying.

So how on earth was she meant to find her way? What options did she have?

The obvious answer was lying on the ground beside the log. She had seen people from her village flying on broomsticks every day over the summer. It wouldn't be too tricky, but she had no intention of touching the damn thing.

But what else could she do? The only other things she had were clothes, trinkets from home and books and stationery for school.

Unless... didn't some of those books contain spells? She sprang into action, opening her suitcase and pulling out one of the first things she saw: Simple Spells for Beginners: A Witch's Bread and Butter. Maybe the title was cheesy and old-fashioned (and to prove her point, the picture on the inside leaf of the cover revealed the author to be a witch who looked almost skeletal), but hopefully it would be of use.  She flicked through the pages frantically until she finally found what she was looking for - a spell she had seen when she had leafed through the book upon its arrival a couple of days ago.