Some of them Witches

Chapter 2

When Marianne first met Virginia's niece, she had been excited at the prospect of her own apprentice and perhaps it had shown because Lily despised her at first sight.

Lily, only 10 years old at the time, not even having been introduced laughed, "Anybody could tell you're a witch from a mile away with that flaming red hair." Marianne had blanched, surely making her hair appear even redder and her freckles more pronounced while Lily went on, "Bet you have a mark too." Her mother said something sharp about minding her manners and how stereotypes were hurtful. The girl muttered an apology but it appeared to Marianne that she and Lily were destined to be at best neutral acquaintances and the last few years had not proved her wrong.

Hometree's many defensive spells warned Marianne of Lily's approach and eventually, she could feel more than hear Lily's tread on the stairs up to her door, taking a deep breath as the knock came. Marianne opened it and stepped inside to allow Lily in without a greeting, nearly closing the door on her dog Huckleberry who sauntered in behind her. Marianne wanted to protest but knew Lily took the bizarre-looking little chihuahua mix everywhere.

Lily was 14 and this last summer vacation was all that stood between her and high school. She was a tiny slip of a thing, perpetually clothed in black, with a round face like a doll's, framed by long wispy curtains of glossy black hair, and when she smirked at Marianne in her sly way, her almond-shaped eyes looked almost closed.

The girl sat across from her, little face panning around the room. If it were anyone else those looks might have filled her with joyful anticipation at the shower of compliments she typically received, but this was not someone else.

"This place is disgusting," Lily decided upon completing visual inspection as she ran her pale fingers through her stick-straight hair.

Marianne took in her surroundings. The beautiful window seat made of woven branches surrounded by vines of bougainvillea that she managed to keep in bloom all year round was covered in withered flowers and long discarded laundry. Her little kitchenette sink was filled with her few dishes and the trashcan overflowed with old wrappers and takeout containers, many of which were just piled around the bin. Her plush shag area rug strewn with throw pillows she usually luxuriated on while reading or sketching looked flat and dingy from lack of care.

"Your mom didn't give me a lot of warning," she shrugged, clearing some debris on the intricately carved wooden folding table she had taken to just leaving out in the corner of the floor.

"I thought she told you yesterday."

"So let's get started." Lily lifted an eyebrow at her but said nothing. "I thought we might do a basic skill assessment and go from there."

The girl visibly stiffened. "Like a test?"

"Just to see where you're at." Marianne lay the deck of cards on the table. They were worn down, plain plaid blue on the outside, with soft edges that had been shuffled and reshuffled into the malleable state they were in now, curling slightly from use.

"Those aren't tarot cards."

"That wasn't part of the test, but yes, you're absolutely right, they're regular playing cards. Pick ten."

"From the top?"

"From wherever you like," said Marianne, a tight smile stretched across her lips.

Lily picked up the deck and begrudgingly complied. "Now what?"

Marianne held her hand out for the cards and Lily looked from it to her face before handing the cards over. She fanned them, placing them face down before her. "Pick one."

"Are you seriously gonna teach me a card trick?"

"That's lesson two. Just pick one."

She sighed but drew a card in one lank movement, tossing it onto the table. The jack of diamonds.

Marianne reintroduced it to the original ten and shuffled them before laying them out in a neat row. "Now pick up the same card."

"Are you asking me to guess?"

"Witches don't have to guess. Use your intuition."

"How?" Lily managed somehow to look both disdainful and moderately interested at the same time.

"How do you usually use your intuition?"

Lily shook her head and shrugged her shoulders. "Just happens sometimes."

"Okay, let me rephrase that. How do you cast a spell?"

"Like the steps?"

"That's a good place to start, the first step is--"

"Yeah yeah, clear your mind, touch the object, and state your intent," she rattled off.

"Yes, so..." Marianne motioned to the cards in invitation, "do that."

Lily ran her fingers over the surface of the cards, "Jack of diamonds," and flipped over the four of spades. She hurriedly picked up another and found the seven of hearts.

"It's okay if you don't get it the first time. We're going to repeat the exercise a few times to determine an average."

They did it 36 times before Marianne and Lily's increasing exasperation caused her to call it quits and gather the cards off the table.

"We're done?" asked Lily.

"Yeah, I think we've done enough of this one."

"But I didn't get it."

Marianne felt this was an understatement. According to the site she pulled the test from, the average fledgling witch drew the correct card three out of ten times. Lily had gone 0 for 36, which was impressive in a different way since statistically, even a non-magical person would have drawn the correct card at some point even accidentally.

"There are some other intuition tests I still want to try." She wrote out an alphabet and handed Lily a dowsing crystal. The instructions were simple. Marianne would write a letter on another scrap of paper and put it face down on the table for Lily to figure out using the crystal.

"I've never used one of these before."

"It's easy, you just hold it above the paper and it should point to the correct letter when you ask it to." Marianne only let this one go to 22 failed attempts. "Why don't we stop here for today?"

Lily's face was red with indignation. "This is stupid, this thing doesn't even work." She tossed the crystal onto the table.

"It's not a big deal," said Marianne half-heartedly. "We'll try something else tomorrow."

"Whatever, I expect this place to be clean before I come over again." Lily got up.

Now it was Marianne's turn to be indignant. She scoffed, "Or what, you'll tell my mom?"

The girl opened the door and looked down at her. "No, I'll tell my mom, AKA your landlord about the disgusting conditions you expected me, her daughter, to do magic under." With that, she turned, swinging the door shut loudly behind her in her wake.