Chapter V Part I

Damien Clark walked with his hands in the pockets of his uniform’s slacks, enjoying the fact that the hallways of West Wilham High School were empty. Normally, when he was forced to traverse the corridors between classes, he was always finding himself desperately trying to maneuver around students who clearly were not paying attention to where they were walking. He had taken many an elbow to the side in his school’s hallways. So, despite having hardly any interest in participating in that afternoon’s club rush, he was grateful that it got him out of sixth period early, making his trip down to the courtyard peaceful and easy.

The boy smirked as he passed by a school bulletin board and noticed one of their club’s posters tacked to it. It was an utter abomination and it pained him to think that he had used any of his time and energy to draw it. Part of him had wanted to simply rush through the art since nobody in the club—except maybe Eric—actually cared about trying to convince new students to join. They were only participating in club rush because Mr. Lowe was forcing them to. Yet, as was normal for him whenever he started drawing something, he got more into the art than he thought he would and wound up putting far more effort than it arguably needed. However, despite how proud he was of his work, he was certain that the ridiculous combination of the detective and witch would easily put off anybody who would otherwise be interested in joining, something Damien was grateful for.

And if that doesn’t work, I’m sure one conversation with Eric and Vinny will change that, he thought with a wry smirk.

He chuckled to himself as he turned and made his way down the flight of stairs that would take him to the first floor. The staircase was close to the school’s front door and so he simply crossed the hall and walked out into the courtyard where club rush would be held. When he arrived, he found a handful of students already setting up. There were fold-out tables spread all across the lawn with students from West Wilham’s vast array of clubs gathered at their assigned stations. He always forgot just how many different clubs were at their school and club rush only served to remind him. Each table had a large piece of white paper hanging from the front with the name of the assigned club written in colorful markers so Damien knew without having to ask where each group was located.

In addition, each club was strongly encouraged to provide some sort of demonstration of the type of activities they participated in. He saw various watercolor paintings on easels surrounding the art club’s table, stacks of old books on the literature club’s table, and even a group of students cleaning their instruments where the jazz band was located. There were, however, a few tables where students were simply sitting and staring off into space, either not having anything to show for themselves or not caring enough to try and figure something out. Whether for good or for bad, the Magic Club was in that category since most of their so-called “club activities” revolved around Eric and Vinny calling meetings where they discussed anything from theories that their teacher was actually a vampire to attempting to brew a “smart potion” that would help them in school. Since Damien and Liz both had adamantly refused to let them do anything weird, they had managed to convince their friends to just do the bare minimum and show up.

As Damien finally made it around the various tables and toward where their table was located, he found that Eric was the only one there. When he noticed his friend approaching, the tall boy grinned and raised a hand in greeting.

“Welcome to our station, my friend,” he greeted dramatically, spreading his arms out wide as if to indicate their pathetic little table.

Damien immediately scowled upon seeing the item laying upon the table.

“Eric? Why is that there?” he growled, indicating the poster.

But his friend didn’t seem bothered in the slightest by his irritation as he maintained his grin and replied. “Well, we have to show our potential clubmates something! Since you and Liz didn’t want any of our props, I thought we could at least show the poster to them.”

Damien sighed. “And what purpose would showing them that damned thing achieve?”

“Well, since we couldn’t put our real name on it, I imagine people are quite confused as to why there’s a detective next to the witch,” Eric explained. “So, I thought we could explain it to them. Once they realize we’re an investigation team, I’m sure anybody would want to join us!’

“Oh?” Damien grunted. “Is that so?”

There was no doubt in his mind that explaining the poster would put people off more than if they were simply confused. Though, since he didn't actually want anybody to join, he decided just to keep his mouth shut and let Eric do what he wanted. The posters were already plastered on every community board in the school so he realized that there wasn’t any point in being embarrassed by it.

Hell, there’s no reason to be embarrassed in the first place, he thought with a smirk. Just being in this club makes everybody think we’re weirdos...and I guess some of us are.

He eyed Eric, who plopped himself down on one of the fold-up chairs behind the table before reaching into the pocket of his blazer and removing the orange gem. Ever since their first day of school, the boy hadn’t brought the stone up again, but Damien had noticed him fidgeting with it every time he was sitting down. It was almost as if simply holding it comforted him, which made sense to Damien given the fact that he was fully convinced it was magical. Because of the fact that Eric was so obsessed with magic, Damien had been certain that he would be badgering them about investigating it’s properties nonstop so he was genuinely surprised that his old friend had seemed happier keeping the stone to himself.

But I guess that doesn’t surprise me Damien thought, eyeing the stone curiously. If he truly thinks it’s magic then it probably reminds him of his mother.

It was for that simple reason that Damien found himself unable to reprimand Eric for being so obsessed with it. He wasn’t going to lie to his friend and tell him that he thought it was actually magical, but that didn’t mean he was going to try to convince him that it wasn’t. Eric wasn’t hurting anybody by being so attached to it and, if it was comforting him, then there wasn't any problem.

“So,” Damien began, “you making any progress with that thing?”

Eric glanced up at him, as if snapped out of some trance, before shaking his head. “Not yet. I know there’s something about this stone, Damien, but I can’t begin to guess what it could do or how to make it work. I can feel its power but…”

Damien nodded his understanding. “Yeah, well, don’t get too hung up over it. Knowing you, I’m sure you’ll figure it out one way or another.”

“Yeah, I guess,” Eric muttered, his earlier enthusiasm suddenly gone, replaced by a look of longing. “I wish I could just ask Mom. She would know. I’m certain of that.”

Damien glanced down at his feet, his thoughts briefly shifting to Eric’s mother, Abigail Reiner. She had already been gone by the time he met Eric, but his friend had often told him that she was a very kind and loving woman. He said she would always tell him stories about magical talismans and other worlds and he had been fascinated by them, even going so far as to recite a few to Damien every so often. While Damien always considered them nothing more than whimsical tales that Abigail came up with to entertain her son, Eric was absolutely certain that everything she said had been the truth. Abigail Reiner was the source of his unwavering belief in magic.

I do sometimes wonder what happened to her, he thought.

Eric had never said what really happened to his mother and Damien knew not to pry. All he said was that one day, she simply went out and never came home. They didn’t know if she was dead or if she left of her own free will but Damien was convinced it was the latter possibility.

“I suppose so,” Damien said after a moment. “But hey, there’s no rush, right? If you keep at it, I’m sure you’ll figure out something.”

Eric grinned, his earlier cheer suddenly returning. “Yeah, you’re right. There’s no use getting so hung up over it! For the time being, we need to focus on our current mission of trying to convince as many students as possible to join our club!”

“Riiiight,” Damien muttered.

The other boy simply laughed. “Oh, don’t be like that, my friend. I know it’s cozy with just the four of us but we’ll be graduating next year! If we don’t start recruiting freshmen then the Magical and Other Anomalies Investigation Team will vanish. Somebody needs to carry on our torch, after all.”

Damien snorted. He knew full well that no matter what they did, their club was not going to make it past their graduation. There weren’t many people like Vinny and Eric who were both weird enough to participate in a club as ridiculous as theirs and content being considered the idiots of the school. Especially given their reputation of being a bunch of cringy morons, there was no way any freshmen would willingly condemn themselves to such an image. In fact, Damien would strongly urge any curious freshmen to avoid them like the plague if they didn’t want their high school social image to be butchered so early on in their career.

“Carry on our torch, huh?” Damien replied with a wry grin. “Whatever you say, Eric.”

His friend laughed before glancing over his shoulder and waving his hand. “Liz! Vinny! Welcome!”

Damien glanced over his shoulder to see the two other members of their club making their way toward them. The boy grinned.

Well, here we go. Let’s get this damn club rush over with.

***

When the bell rang announcing the end of sixth period and the school day, Lilly immediately got to her feet, scooped up her backpack, and hurried out of her Inporian history class without a single look at any of the other students around her. With club rush taking place right after school, they had the day off from cross country practice and so she was determined to get out of the school and on her way home as fast as possible. The reason for her rush was simply due to the fact that Jay had made it clear at lunch that he wanted her to go to club rush with him and Alice and she found herself desperately wanting to not get stuck with him again. No matter what she did, she just couldn’t get him off her back. After nearly two weeks of being as obvious as she could, he still didn’t seem as if he was understanding that she didn’t want to talk to him. She still made excuses as to why she couldn’t give him her phone number and even that wasn’t enough. She was reaching the point where she was tempted to just be as blunt as possible and to tell him to fuck off. The main reason she hadn’t already was, aside from being annoying, he at least wasn’t mean to her. She was already being rather rude to him to begin with and she was starting to feel a little guilty, so she really didn’t want to have to be any more direct than she already was.

She rounded a corner and headed down the staircase two steps at a time before arriving on the first floor. The halls were naturally packed with students both heading to club rush and going home for the day so she had to try and maneuver around them as best as she could on her way to the school’s front doors. She could see the many tables scattered around the courtyard through the windows and there were already a large number of students walking around. When she reached the doors, she could see the front entrance just down the concrete path that crossed the courtyard and she knew she was almost home free. However, as was pretty typical of her luck, the minute she walked through the doors and was about to cross the courtyard, she heard the dreaded voice call out to her.

“Where are you going, Harper? I thought we were supposed to meet up by room 1-2?”

Lilly stopped in her tracks and sighed. Yup, that’s about right. I should have known I wasn’t getting away that easily.

She begrudgingly stepped off the path and out of the other students’ way before turning around to see Jay leaning up against the wall of the school, eyeing her with a sly grin. She wasn’t sure how to respond to him as it should have been obvious that she was trying to ditch club rush but, before she could figure out what to say, Jay continued.

“Well, it’s fine. I had a feeling you were going to forget about our plans,” he said. “Good thing I thought ahead and waited for you here. Wouldn’t have wanted you to miss your first West Wilham club rush, now would we?”

“Yeah,” she replied dryly. “Sorry about that. Silly me.”

He laughed. “I know, right? I’ve never known a more forgetful girl than you. I mean, what kind of teenager forgets her phone every day for two weeks straight?”

None, she thought bitterly. Nobody is that stupid! Just put two and two together and take a damn hint!

“Anyway, Alice and Ellie should be on their way,” he explained. “I sent them a text letting them know that we were changing the meeting spot to here so they’ll probably be here in a moment.”

Lilly sighed, glancing once more over her shoulder and in the direction of the front gates. She knew she could still make some half-assed excuse like telling them she had to babysit Natalie but decided that, since she had declined every other invitation from the boy, she might as well just stay. She hoped that if she appeased him the one time then maybe he would be satisfied and wouldn’t badger her the next day. Condemning herself to a longer afternoon than she wanted, the girl walked over to stand beside Jay against the wall.

“You know, I don’t really see any point in going,” she muttered. “We’re in cross country so it’s not like we have the time to join a club.”

Jay smirked. “So? Doesn’t mean it’s not fun to see what clubs there are. Aren’t you at least a little bit curious to check them out?”

Lilly grunted, glancing off to her left where the majority of the tables were set up. Despite Jay’s claims that it was going to be fun, she found that she wasn’t interested in the slightest. She couldn’t care less what clubs the high school had to offer since they all met during practice. Aside from the end-of-year spring festival that she had heard about, she wouldn’t ever cross paths with any clubs. Therefore, it seemed like a complete waste of time to wander around the courtyard—time she would much rather be spending at home, lazing about on the couch.

However, just as she was having second thoughts about not making up an excuse to leave, she noticed a familiar person in the crowd, making his way toward a table in the back. It was Eric Reiner, the boy from the Magic Club. She suddenly wondered what the booth for their club would look like. She had already heard some interesting rumors about them from Alice and Jay which only caused her curiosity to increase. Everything about them was so strange to her. She was the type of person who, aside from her running, preferred not to stand out and to go through her life drawing as little attention as possible. Eric Reiner and Vinny Mickelson seemed to be the complete antithesis of her ideals. They seemed to thrive on standing out and didn’t appear to care what anybody thought of them. They were living their lives the way they wanted. She suddenly wanted to go stop by their table just to see what they were doing when Alice and Ellie emerged from the school building.

“Sorry we’re late, guys!” Alice quickly apologized. “I wanted to stop by my locker to drop my backpack off. I really didn’t want to carry that heavy thing around.”

“Ah, it’s no problem,” Jay replied. “Harper and I were perfectly fine just waiting.”

Both of the girls looked at Lilly with expressions of both surprise and what seemed to her to be excitement. She didn’t understand why they still wanted her to join them when she wasn’t exactly the friendliest or most social person. All three of them really just confused her with how nice they were to her when they didn’t even know her.

“Alright, let’s be off,” Jay said, stepping away from the wall. “We ought to start off with the confectionery club. I heard from Ridley that they were giving out free chocolate samples.”

“Ooh, that sounds really good,” Ellie replied excitedly. “Let’s definitely stop there first.”

Alice nodded. “Then we ought to check out the art club. I heard Rich saying that they painted Principal Rickons and I really want to see that!”

Lilly silently listened to the conversations of the other three, having nothing much to add. Since she didn’t know any of the clubs or what they had to show for themselves, she didn’t particularly care where they went. All she planned to do was follow quietly behind and try to make the best of her situation. For a moment, she considered suggesting that they check out the Magic Club but quickly decided against it. She didn’t want them to think she was interested in them, after all. So, she chose to stay quiet.

The club rush wound up being nothing too impressive. It was a pain trying to get around the crowd of students and most of the stations they went to were just a handful of kids calling out to passersby and trying to convince them to join. The only one’s she enjoyed were the Confectionary Club’s chocolate and the performance by the jazz band, which was far more talented than she would have expected from a high school group. Otherwise, she was thoroughly underwhelmed and was once again playing around with the idea of making up an excuse and booking it home. Yet, much like the last time the idea crossed her mind, what made Lilly hesitate was once again the Magic Club.

She was standing behind Jay as he and Alice were talking to a member of the Newspaper Club when she glanced to her right and saw the table where the Magic Club was sitting. Aside from Vinny and Eric, she saw a shorter girl with glasses and a pair of headphones around her neck, and beside her was Damien Clark, the boy Jay had been talking about at lunch the previous week. She frowned then, realizing that there wasn’t much on their table. The only thing that stood out was a weird poster that Vinny was holding displaying their club name above drawings of a witch and a detective. She remembered seeing the same poster up on one of the community bulletins and being confused as to why they drew a detective. It was then that she realized she had made a mistake by staring too long.

Vinny must’ve noticed her looking as he made eye-contact with her before grinning.

“Good afternoon, my friend,” he called over to her. “Are you interested in magic?”

Shit! I don’t want to talk to them! And especially not about magic!

Vinny calling out to her caused the other three members of the club to look her way. Eric grinned excitedly while Damien and the girl both looked as if they felt bad for her.

“Um, no,” she quickly called back. “I’m good, thanks.”

“Ah, come on,” Eric began, grinning cheerfully as he walked around the table before spreading his arms wide. “You can’t tell me you aren’t at least somewhat fascinated by the supernatural. Here at the Magical and Other Anomalies Investigation Team, we are determined to unearth the secrets of magic so we can bend it to our will! Does that not interest you, Miss…?”

No, it doesn’t interest me in the slightest. In fact, it just makes you sound like a lunatic...especially with that stupid name! What on earth does that even mean?!

Ignoring his prompt to introduce herself, Lilly quickly shook her head, wanting to be free of the conversation as quickly as possible. As curious as she was about them, she sure as hell didn’t want to be stuck in a conversation with them. She could hardly handle Jay so she wanted absolutely nothing to do with magic-worshiping nutjobs.

“Uh, no,” she replied dryly. “Really, I’m good.”

“No need to be embarrassed,” Vinny quickly chimed in. “I saw you staring at us and, I mean, it’s only natural to be curious about the unknown, after all!”

Lilly clenched her teeth at their obnoxious stubbornness. “N-no, I was just...wondering what was with the detective, is all. I thought you were a magic club!”

She noticed Damien rolling his eyes at Eric and Vinny off to the side while the girl next to him looked like she was trying, and failing, to hold in her laughter. The two boys, however, seemed as if they were getting more into the conversation with everything she said.

“Well, you see,” Eric began, “we investigate magic anomalies, hence the detective. Unfortunately, however, we were forced by the powers that be to hide our true name and so, we are undercover for the time being. It’s quite an unfortunate situation, if I’m being honest.”

True name?! Was that what that Magical Anomalies and Other...or whatever he said was?

“Uh…” she stuttered, glancing over her shoulder, hoping Jay or one of the girls would step in and save her but they were still deep in conversation with the newspaper kids. Luckily, however, she was rescued not by them but by a member of the very club she was trying to escape.

“Alright, guys, leave her alone,” Damien snapped. “She’s clearly not interested.

“And why would she be with how annoying the two of you are?” the girl added with a snort. She then looked at Lilly and smiled. “Ignore them, friendo. They’re just messing with you. If you want to run, I would totally understand.”

“Hey, Liz!” Vinny protested. “You make it sound like we’re harassing her!”

“You are, dipshit!” she snapped back. “Now, sit back down and twiddle your thumbs again like a good boy. Then maybe you can have a treat afterwards.”

Just as Lilly was hoping that the girl, evidently named Liz, was normal, she called Vinny a “good boy” and she felt uncomfortable all over again. Yet, she found she was okay with it as Liz’s comment seemed to attract Vinny and Eric’s attention to her and away from Lilly, giving the girl the chance she needed to back away and hurry back over towards Jay, Alice, and Ellie.

Man, I knew they were weird but...that was far worse than I ever imagined.

Despite her earlier curiosity, Lilly was now absolutely certain that the four of them were a group she should avoid like the plague for the rest of high school.