Phenomena Willow once learned magic from a castle in the stars, but now, the only stars were the ones she was making in the dough at her baking job.

Deidre Love, her caretaker and employer chided her. “Mena dear,” she asked, in her sweet but stern tone. “Why are y’all making all these shapes in the batter. Don’t you know that the Count of Englewood like his cookies perfectly round?”

“Then,” Mena said, as she quickly molded the star shaped dough back into a round blob. “Why is he the Count and not The Circumference? At least that would make more sense.”

Deidre walked over, loudly clicking in her heels. Her signature chartreuse sundress shuffled as she reached Mena. She put her gloved hands on her hips. “Mena,” she lectured. “Humor is all well and good, and you know I appreciate yours more than anyone else, but it’s important to keep a good focus on the task at hand. What in the stars are y’all dreaming about?”

Mena looked across to the window, out onto the verdant fields where the sun beamed down brightly. The sky was cloudless…and much to her dismay, castle-less. “I’ve been waiting for my friends to send me a birthday card,” Mena said, resting her face in her dough covered hands. “Don’t they know it’s my birthday?”

“I’m sure your magic friends know it’s your birthday, honey-bun,” Deidre said, trying to reassure her young friend. “But I don’t think they use normal people postage.”

The front door of the bakery jingled and Mena’s least favorite person—on the ground at least—walked in. With his teeth jutting out at odd angles and his tight suspenders, Cletus walked in carrying the mail.

“Hmm,” he chuckled in his country drawl. “Seems all tha’ letters are for the lady of the house…”

Mena looked up with hope in her eyes. Cletus messed up Mena’s hair with his greasy hand, “Not you, of course, witchy girl. They’re fer the one and only Deidre Love,” and he handed the letters to Deidre.

He snickered to himself. The bells on the door jingled, as he returned to his farm work. Mena was tempted to turn that country hooligan into a buck-toothed beaver, but she refrained. In his one and only letter to Mena, Gemini, the headmaster, reminded her that magic off school premises was forbidden. He did claim that he’d keep a watchful eye on Cletus to make sure he didn’t misbehave, but so far, Mena seemed to be getting the brunt of Cletus’ mistreatment.

Deidre carefully shifted through the letters and frowned as the last vestiges of hope vanished from Mena’s face. “I’m sorry, sugar. He’s right.”

“Are you sure he isn’t stealing the letters from me?” Mena asked, trying to come up with some dire solution why her friends wouldn’t be writing to her.

Deidre lifted her sunhat so Mena could see her fully made-up face. “I watch him every day as he meets the post-man, and I never see him hide any letters. Otherwise, he’d get a strong earful from me.”

Mena sighed and grumbled to herself. “But uhm…anyway,” Deidre said with a kind smile. “Perhaps it’s best I finish up this order, dear.”

Mena perked up slightly. “Really? Why?”

Deidre tilted her head, causing her bushy orange hair to jostle. She raised a finger and with a wink, she said, “Because I’ve got a certain surprise for someone. I still gotta make it, or perhaps… bake it.”

Mena’s eyes glistened and her mouth hung open in a smile. At least Deidre hadn’t forgotten her.

“Now get,” Deidre said, brushing her away with a flick of her hands. Mena threw off her apron, washed her hands in the sink, and stepped out into the sunshine. She was about to head out into the fields to frolic and play, but a tiny, stuffy voice called down to her from the garden.

“At long last, that bakery owner lets you go free. Doesn’t she realize the importance of an education and how it will prevent you from doing blue collar work?”

Mena shrugged her shoulders. “Isn’t Deidre’s job a frilly pink apron job?”

A knee-high gnome in a red pointed hat and a business tuxedo strutted out of the tall grass. He adjusted his glasses which framed his squinty eyes. It was Gemini’s dreaded Learn Gnome. Or rather, Mr. Gnominski as he called himself. “You’re defeating my metaphor,” Gnominski sighed. “But regardless, it is time for us to brush up on the essentials.”

Mr. Gnominski tapped his large head and chanted the following words, “For the good of all creation, get this hardheaded girl some education.”

A large book the size of seven dictionaries appeared above Mena’s head; she quickly caught it in her hands, but it was so heavy, her knees wobbled and she fell onto the grass. Mr. Gnominski strolled over as the young witch struggled to pull her hands out from the oversized paperweight. “Miserable magicaps,” Mena moaned, sliding her throbbing hands out from beneath the book, “Am I really supposed to read this whole book in one day?”

The gnome rustled his bushy white beard and laid cane on Mena’s head. “You are to read the first five chapters of the ‘Gnomstic Bible: Creation according to the Garden Creatures’ and then we’ll review it together.“

“Five chapters?” said Mena as she paged through the book. Her eyes shot open. “Each chapter is 50 pages. That’s two-hundred and fifty pages in one day?!”

She laid back down on the grass. Mena loved learning about magic, but it was a lot easier with fun and exciting teachers like Professors Stellaris and Caligari up in the sky. Not down on the ground with some stuffy gnome academic.

Mena flipped the dusty old book to page one, and slowly began to read the tiny print. As soon as Mr. Gnominski wandered off for a pipe break, Mena chanted quietly, “Send me some notes from Zap, reading this normally would make me snap.”

As electricity pulsated around her with a loud thunder crash, pieces of paper floated down in her hands. “Ta-dah! Zap Notes,” Mena snickered, “for anyone who doesn’t want to get an aneurism from school reading.”

She quickly shoved them into the book as Mr. Gnominski came running. “Gadzooks was that thunder?!”

“Err…” Mena muttered. “Possibly?”

“We might have to postpone today’s lesson. I would hate to have this age-old tome ruined by uncertain weather.”

“Can’t we have the lesson indoors?” asked Mena innocently.

“You know, the baking lady would faint if she saw what kind of well learned, dignified creature was living in her garden.”

Mr. Gnominski snapped, and the book vanished, complete with Mena’s Zap Notes. Mena wasn’t sure if she should be relieved or horrified that he might find out. Instead, she played it cool. “Right,” she said, and she flickered her fingers at him. “I’ll go get Straw-Woman and tell her it’s raining soon.”

As soon as Mr. Gnominski wandered back into the weeds, Mena skipped into the fields where she found a light green hill with an enormous oak tree that covered the whole hill with shade. She somersaulted into the grass and closed her eyes. “I hate working and learning from a boring old gnome…” she said, catching her breath. “Oh how I wish I was at school, where every day of learning is a magical adventure.”

Mena found herself captivated by the daydreams of everyone she had met over the year. The clumsy May Cumberson, who had lent Mena her only copy of Love In The Days of Magic, their favorite romance series. The gloomy but sweet Janus Harvestar who made the best skeleton puns you could shake a bone at. Even her frienemy, Ashlan, who had admitted recently that she had set up an elaborate quest for Mena, all so they could have one last adventure together. Mena loved Deidre with her whole heart, but she couldn’t compensate for her friends all at once. Mena had so much fun over that one year, it was hard to admit she had reached the end of her adventures for now.

But even if the fun was over, she couldn’t fathom one thing: How come none of her friends had written to her?

Mena opened her eyes as the sunset tinted everything a beautiful shade of auburn. She heard Deidre’s sweet country voice calling to her from the bakery, and she knew it was time to leave this one tree hill, and all her daydreams behind. She was going to be celebrating her thirteenth birthday with only one of her closest friends this time around. She got up and slowly walked back.

Inside the bakery, Mena was immediately blinded folded by Deidre’s manicured hands with their ruby fingernails. “What gives?” Mena asked, and she snorted loudly. “Wowie zowie, what’s that miraculous smell?”

Deidre removed her hands and clicked over to the table, presenting a boysenberry pie with a big thirteen carved into the center. Mena danced excitedly in place. At least someone hadn’t forgotten her big one-three. “If you think it smells good,” Deidre said with a smile. “You should taste it. It was George’s favorite.”

“It’s an honor,” Mena said, remembering George Love, Deidre’s husband she had lost to Anguish, and she ran to fetch a plate. As she did, however, the door swung open, and there was the loud sound of fireworks outside. Cletus stood at the door. “All those ijits over there are having that big Book Fair they always have at Summer’s End.”

Mena dashed over to the window, and sure enough, there were large maroon balloons shaped like books rising out of the castle town walls. Vendors pushing carts full of books were entering the castle town one by one. Mena had long finished the thirteenth book of Love In The Days of Magic…Perhaps in the span of the next year, Melina Penwell had written a new masterpiece. She held her hands together as the fireworks danced in her eyes.

“Why are you so excited?” Deidre asked Cletus with an irritated scowl. “You can’t read.”

“Of course not, but I know this witchy woman can…” Cletus gave a loud chuckle and slapped his suspenders again. “But she can’t go.”

Mena immediately flashed back to the time she was almost executed in Growden for being a witch. She imagined a scale in her mind balancing that logic with her desire for new books. “I can go incognito,” she said at last.

“More like y’all won’t go at all,” Deidre responded, and as gentle and kind as the motherly woman could be, Mena saw her face was firm.

“Please…” Mena begged, but Deidre was unwavering.

“No…I won’t risk losing you again,” Deidre said, “Now are you going to enjoy some of my homemade pie?”

Mena let out a loud exhale from her nose. “Fine, I won’t,” she said, and she pulled up a seat at the table.

“Good,” Deidre smiled, and she cut Mena a fresh slice. Little did she know that the young witch had her fingers crossed behind her back. She was finally going to have an adventure again, but this time around, it was more than a few books that she bargained for.