Chapter Seventeen

Cassy grinned at them while her feet kicked back and forth like a pendulum. It actually bothered Amber a little that they weren’t moving at a steady beat. “Wow, you’re both quiet, aren’t you?” she asked.

“I think you’re confusing politeness for quiet,” Morgan said. Her voice was completely even and devoid of any emotion, and yet still somehow conveyed how annoyed she was with their new blue-haired teammate.

Amber sighed and rubbed at the bridge of her nose. “Okay, that’s not going to work,” she said. “Cassy, Morgan, let’s try to get along, please?”

Cassy raised both arms in surrender, then wobbled a bit to stay seated atop her broom. “Hey now, don’t look at me. I just wanted to say hi.”

Amber nodded. “Alright, fine. I think you just caught us off guard is all. Kind of surprised us. We weren’t expecting you to fall out of the sky.”

“Ah, damn, that’s fair,” Cassy said. Her broom lowered and her feet touched down. Standing up, she swung the broom around and held it out behind her head, arms looping around the haft. “So, do you want to redo the intros?”

“I... sure,” Amber said. “That wouldn’t be that bad. If we’re going to work together it would be nice if we all got along.”

Morgan nodded. “That’s true.”

Cassy’s smile returned full-force. “Brilliant! So, I’m Cassy, Cassy Bleriot, magical girl extraordinaire. Ah, that doesn’t matter as much here, does it? Well, whatever. I can fly, and make gravity my bitch.”

Amber nodded, then snuck a glance at Morgan. She’s definitely not going next. “I’m Amber Green, but I don’t think we care much for family names. Uh, I’m pretty new here, despite being here for a day or three. My power allows me to... I don’t actually know, really. Time stuff.”

“I thought it allowed you to predict the future?” Morgan asked.

Cassy’s eyes widened. “Whoa, that’s cool. Tell me, am I going to find a cutie with a nice ass while I’m here?”

“Uh, no,” Amber said. “I mean, I can kinda predict the future, I guess, but that’s more like a side-effect than how it actually works. Honestly, I’m hoping we have some sort of power testing thing so that I can figure it out.”

Morgan nodded along. “That’ll be one of our first courses. Don’t worry.” She sighed. “As for myself, I’m Morgan Armstrong. I’m afraid I have no magical specialty.”

“Wait, really?” Cassy asked.

Amber noticed the slight narrowing of Morgan’s eyes and jumped in. “Morgan’s really experienced. She’s pretty great.”

Cassy hummed. “So, Armstrong, eh?” she asked before reaching out to squeeze Morgan’s bicep. “Damn girl.”

Morgan pulled her arm back very carefully. “Please don’t fondle me,” she said.

The shorter girl backed up. “Sorry, no fondling without permission,” she said. “So, we’ve introduced each other. Now do we get to have fun? I heard there was some good shopping to be had around here.”

“We could go do some training,” Morgan said. “It encourages discipline and focus.”

If that wasn’t a targeted comment, I’m a duck. “I don’t mind either way,” Amber said. “But if I had to tie-break, um... wait, we’re supposed to have four members right? Do you think the last member of Svalinn is around yet?”

“Oh yeah,” Cassy said. She snapped her fingers and brought her broom around so that it landed bristles down. The staff stayed upright even when she wasn’t touching it. “I saw her with the others at orientation. Little Asian girl.”

“You’re not so tall yourself,” Morgan said.

Amber looked up to Morgan, who had half a head on her, then down to Cassy who was half a head shorter. “Right,” she said. “Maybe we can go find her and then... lunch or something? Just get to know each other before classes.”

“Eh, are teams that important here?” Cassy asked.

“What do you mean?” Amber asked. The two times she’d seen magical girls with her own two eyes they’d been in teams.

Cassy shrugged, then leaned to the side while gripping onto her broom. “Just wondering.”

“They are,” Morgan said. “If only to have a broader range of specialties, and because some nightmares cannot be faced alone. Now, if we’re going to find our last teammate, we should probably catch up to the orientation group.”

Amber nodded. They were still before the post office, in an otherwise quieter part of the academy. There were lecture halls across the street from them, and some teacher homes nearby, but nothing that really inspired much traffic.

“I’ll scout ahead, I guess,” Cassy said.

Before anyone could protest, she set one foot near the base of her broom, and then shot off into the sky above.

Morgan shaded her eyes with a hand and watched her go. “That girl’s going to be trouble,” she muttered.

“She seems nice?” Amber tried.

“She seems careless,” Morgan said. “But, I suppose we’ll have to see. Flight is useful to have on a team.”

Amber rubbed at the back of her neck. “Yeah, I guess. It’s pretty cool, at least. I just hope we all get along. I don’t think spending three years with people that I dislike would be amusing.”

Morgan made a noise at the back of her throat. “Well, I find you agreeable so far, so you wouldn’t be surrounded by people like that. At least, if you like my company back.”

Wow, that was awkward. Amber smiled at Morgan. “I like you too, so far.”

Cassy chose that moment to swoop back down. “Found them! They’re on the other side, in the bit with all the shops.”

“Alright,” Amber said. “Should we join them for the rest of the tour or?”

“Hell naw,” Cassy said. “The girl giving the tour is unbelievably boring. Let’s do one of those things where you pull someone out of like, a dangerous situation.”

“An extraction?” Morgan asked.

Cassy snapped her fingers and pointed to Morgan. “That’s the one. I’ll fly in and yoink her right out of the group.”

“That’s a bit conspicuous,” Morgan said.

“I don’t know what that means, and I don’t particularly care,” Cassy said. She twisted to one side, then the other, her broom wavering under her. “So, we going?”

“Let’s just walk over, introduce ourselves, then ask, uh, the girl to come out?” Amber said. “It’s a bit less obvious.”

“Fine,” Cassy said. “You can do the asking though. That girl leading the others didn’t like me.”

“I can’t imagine why,” Morgan said.

It earned her a rather rude gesture from Cassy, but it was delivered with a smile. Amber took off, heading towards the southside. Cassy and Morgan followed after her.

They crossed the bridge, pausing only to watch a couple reunite in the middle with a pair of big hugs that turned into a sweeping spin all across the path. “I guess some students are returning now?” Amber asked Morgan.

“We have two vacations in the year, once every five months. A lot of the second and third years have been returning in the last week.”

“Just two months off?” Cassy asked.

“Our curriculum is fairly fast here,” Morgan said. “And we need to fit in a lot of courses that aren’t part of the standard college or high-school set.”

Cassy spun her broom around so that she was flying while facing Morgan. “Like what?”

“Classes on fighting monsters, general combat classes, some military doctrine courses. The nightmare identification and handling course is long too.”

“Oh, god that sounds awful,” Cassy said. “Normal school is already too much work.”

“A good work ethic is paramount to being a successful magical girl,” Morgan said.

Cassy snorted. “Not that kind of magical girl I want to be. I want to magical girl myself out of any responsibilities, thank you very much.”

Amber chuckled, and while Morgan looked a little indignant at the response, it was worth it to see Cassy’s proud smile.

They reached the south side, then, with some help from Morgan who pointed her in the right direction, started off towards the area of the academy with the shops. It wasn’t too difficult to find the group doing their orientation from there. They were the only band of boys and girls in plain clothes. Also, they were the only group larger than four.

A faint chant of ‘fresh meat, fresh meat’ was being muttered in low tones by some girls off to one side.

Amber turned to her teammates. “You guys want to stay here? It’ll be easier to sneak out if there’s only one of us.”

“Certainly,” Morgan said.

“Sure thing, carrot-top,” Cassy agreed. “You know what she looks like?”

“Ah, no, I don’t,” Amber admitted.

Cassy pulled out her phone, the standard-issue Academy sort, and flicked through the password screen to get to a team dossier. She switched to the file belonging to their last teammate.

“Jade Singer,” Amber read. The image on screen was of a pale girl with asian features and dark hair with a pair of pink bows in it. She’s cute. “Alright,” Amber said.

She waved her teammates--And maybe friends--goodbye, then moved over to the orientation group. The girl at the front, the only one wearing the proper academy uniform with a capelet over it, twitched her eyes over to Amber as she approached, but she didn’t say anything as Amber slipped into the crowd.

Finding Jade took a moment. The girl at the front was talking about money of all things, and how each student of the academy was responsible for their own meals and purchases using their allowance. I can almost understand why Cassy ditched. She’s droning on.

The magicals around her seemed vaguely interested, but most were gawking at all the shops and stores around them. Amber didn’t have the luxury of doing that much.

She found Jade near the back, almost missing her since the girl was making herself small with a big hoodie to hide her features.

Amber shifted over to the girl’s side as the group started to move on. “Hey,” she said.

The girl peaked out from behind her hood to look at her, then looked forward again.

“Um, my name’s Amber. I’m on your team. Team Svalinn.”

“Oh,” was the girl’s response. Amber wasn’t even sure she heard it, it was so quiet.

“Hey, so, uh, the other girls and I wanted to come over and steal you away from this group? Maybe have lunch?”

Jade blinked, then placed a hand on her stomach. I bet she’s just as hungry as I am. “The orientation?” Jade asked.

“We have one girl that’s really experienced, and I’m sure with the four of us we can figure out anything you miss. You have your phone and such, right?”

Jade nodded.

One new teammate talks too much, the other not enough. Brilliant. “Come on, we won’t bite. Well, Cassy might, I don’t know about her yet, but Morgan’s more the stern warning sort.”

The girl nodded again. “Alright,” she said.

Grinning, Amber took Jade’s hand and pulled her back and out of the group. “They’re waiting over here,” she said as she gestured to where she could see Cassy poking her head out around a corner.

When she brought Jade over, it was to find Morgan standing nearly at attention, hands tucked at the small of her back, and Cassy was sitting astride her broom ankles linked under her. “Yo!” Cassy said. “Jade right?”

Jade nodded again. “Yes. Jade Singer. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” She carefully extricated her hand from Ambers and bowed a little.

“Nice! I’m Cassy the Comet!”

“Because you’ll burn up when you inevitably come crashing down?” Morgan asked.

“Ouch,” Cassy said. “I’m still working on the nickname.”

“I don’t think you need one,” Amber said. “I’m Amber, but I think I’ve said so, and that’s Morgan.”

Morgan nodded. “Morgan Armstrong,” she said. “Pleased to meet you.”

Amber grinned. Her teammates seemed to be getting along. There were going to be some kinks to work out, she was sure, but then, those were the sorts of things that took a little time and some effort.

***