Harriet Roswell and the School of Witchcraft

Chapter 6

A school of witchcraft. A school of witchcraft. Gay youth in a school of witchcraft? How had homophobic christians not boycotted the building to death? What if poor Alex had been - scammed? This didn't sound real. Worry, worry, worry. Her poor tummy doing loops. Still, it was the same loops she got when attending school usually but this year, there were more questions, and in a way, at least her worrying made sense.

They had breakfast early that morning, and they pulled up at a cafe with free parking, and a 10 minute walk from school. Alex ordered a coffee for himself, and a de-caf ice caramel latte for her.

"Where's my caffeine?" Harriet pouted as Alex slid the independent cafes coffee to her.

"You have been vibrating the entire ride over here, you do not need caffeine." Alex said. It was true, but she didn't appreciate it. She spent her time in the cafe browsing memes, and worrying. She was too unfocused to read, and judging by the cute animals Alex kept showing her, it seemed he was just as worried.

"If you want to come home at anytime, even midnight, you just phone me and I'll drive right over" Alex reminded her, reaching out a hand to touch her arm.

"Thanks" Harriet said, that didn't seem the best choice, still if it turned out the homophobic christians did decide to burn down the school she'd only have to last an hour before Alex would appear and save her. Even if the school was surrounded by an angry mob holding up pitchforks, Alex would just drive over the mob in his car. Not on purpose, but the hours ride over seemed to suggest Alex wasn't as good as driving as Harriet had originally thought.

Forty minutes before the day began, they left the cafe, picked up Harriet's suitcase and began the walk to school. The roads were already packed with traffic, busses, cars, even a helicopter flying over head (christians?) just as Alex had predicted (the packed roads not the christians). Alex dutifully placed a kiss on Harriet's forehead, placed the wheelie suitcase in her hand and then pushed her off, to follow the multiple signs with arrows drawn on and 'this way first years' written beneath them. Several students of a higher year, wearing lanyards and 'helper' tags pointed and pushed the scurrying first years into the building.

The first years were all bundled into what appeared to be a huge cafeteria, mixed with square and rectangular tables, with wooden chairs placed around them. People streamed in from every angle and seemed to be yelling and tumbling. Harriet needed to sit at a table. She needed to do do fast, she needed to choose a square or rectangle table. Her immediate thought was square - but what if some of the tables were left empty? She was trying to begin this year with friends! Try, being the key word. No, she needed to go for a rectangular table, she headed to a large empty one.

The long rectangular table she found could fit six people along the sides, and two at the edge if you really wanted to push your luck. She chose a seat at the side, at the very edge, pulled out her phone, and began to chew it, and then immediately stopped. Now she was the phone chewer kid. Someone pulled out the chair at the end of the table.

"Hi there" they said.

"Hi" Harriet said. They had sharp angular features, ginger hair that looked like it was only half blown dry, freckles, and large round ears. They, also had a sticky label stuck to the centre of their chest which read 'they/them' underlined.

"Nice pronouns" Harriet said. They grinned.

"Thanks, I mean if no one starts by misgendering me they're not going to have an excuse to keep doing it, right?"

"Makes sense, I'm Harriet."

"I'm" they pursed their lips and squinted.

"I'm? Harriet asks as she begins to wonder if that's their name.