Chapter 2

I kept looking at it. Every couple of minutes or so I would lift up the sleeve of my jacket to stare at the mark on my arm. It looked sharp and ancient. I thought I would always see a faint purplish glow radiating around the edges every time I looked at it, but I could be imagining it. Rounding a corner passing a café, I pulled down my sleeve to cover the tattoo. When I looked up I was met with an unfriendly sight. A girl with red hair so unnatural it would have had to come from a bottle was leaning on a yellow convertible. She was wearing skinny leather pants and a plain white t-shirt with the words ‘Acid Case’ printed across her chest. (Probably a band or something.) A pair of small rectangular glasses rested at the end of her nose. The redhead was leaning on the car in such a way that gave the guy at the wheel, who was wearing a light blue polo shirt and way too much hair gel, a full view of her breasts which he was not �" so - subtly staring at. She took a long drag of a cigarette pinched between her two well manicured fingers and blew it to her right, out of my view. Two other girls, also clad in equally skanky attire were chatting next to the girl talking to the guy in the car. I kept walking straight forward, not making any effort to avoid them. After a few steps the redhead girl seemed to wrap up her conversation with the driver and he drove away, the girl caught sight of me and gave me a cold smile, but she went on and pretended to talk to her friends as if she didn't see me. I shouldered my bag and continued forward.  I tried to nonchalantly walk past them but someone got hold of my arm and spun me around.

          “Hey Emma, where are you headed?” The redhead grinned.

          I glared at her. “None of you business Edith.” I spat her name like I had a bad taste in my mouth.

Edith’s eyes widened in mock surprise, “Dearest me Emma, why so hostile?” Her friends snickered.

          “Sorry, I’m allergic to b***h…” I said flatly. Edith has been my mortal enemy since the fourth grade. She was that stereotypical popular c**t that made you want to throw up every time she opened her mouth, and nothing good ever came from that mouth of hers. Although the most of varsity football team would say different. She hated me because I couldn’t be controlled by her, and she hated being powerless. She had nothing on me because I say nothing, and do nothing to feed her, and I also scared her. I was the only one who even dared stand up to Edith Bauer. I hated her with almost equal passion. Her false pride and arrogance glowed, and oozed out of her like poison. She treated me like a sick ugly puppy that needed to be put down.

          “Takes one to know one huh?” She sneered.

          I shrugged. “Just now you admitted to being a b***h, so I win.” I started to turn around and walk away, but my back pack was forcefully taken from my shoulder and I was grabbed on both sides by Edith’s friends. A blonde, Tiffany (Herpes) and dark skinned girl with tons of braids (Fucked last year’s English teacher.) “Hey, what the f**k?!” I struggled against the two girls’ grip and Edith tauntingly held up my bag with one hand and flicked her cigarette off to the side. I grit my teeth and we stared at each other intensely. Edith’s ice cold and cruel, mine red hot and pissed off. ‘If magic really does exist, I should be able to turn her to ashes where she stands.’ I watched as my arch-nemesis sorted through my bag and pulled out my notebook. Oh no.

          Edith flipped through the pages with a bored look on her face, and then she burst out laughing when she stopped at one page in the book. “Omigod!” She snorted.

          “What? What?” Said Tiffany.

          “Omigod,” Edith said again. “This is gold!” She showed her friends the page and I flushed a deep red.

          Victoria, Edith’s other friend, laughed. “Wow, is that supposed to be you Emma?” I grit my teeth and struggled against the two girls that held me. The picture they were laughing at was one I drew a long time ago - a girl with fluttery wings rising from a city of ash. Flames licked at the girls’ feet, but she was just out of reach. What Victoria said was true, the girl was indeed me, donning fairy wings and fleeing a burning city. Edith and her friends laughed and laughed while I got angrier and angrier until finally, when I thought I was going to lose it, a voice sounded behind me. “Am I interrupting something ladies?”

          The two girls let go of me and were gently pushed aside by a tall, Asian looking man with short black hair and rectangular glasses. He walked past them and took my bag from Edith’s hand. “I’ll be taking that as well,” he nodded to my sketch book.

          Edith blinked, bewildered. “Am I being mugged?”

          “More like, repossessing.” He said softly. He held out his hand and stared at Edith sternly as she put the notebook in his palm grudgingly. The man slid it in my open bag and turned around. He started walking briskly down the sidewalk with my bag in hand. “Come along Emma, we have much to discuss.” I hesitated, and then proceeded to follow him, not before giving Edith and the Tramp Pack the finger. I caught up to the man and walked with him. He handed me my backpack without a word and slipped his hands in the pockets of the brown trench coat he was wearing. His fingers and some of his hand were wrapped in white tape. I caught a glimpse of something under the collar of his coat and I craned my neck to get a better look while we were walking. There was a tattoo on his neck, one similar to mine. The same sharp, old, marks in the shape of half a saw blade. The man flicked his eyes over to me and I realized I was staring. Was this guy a magical being too? I slid up my sleeve to stare at the mark on my arm then looked back to the man with glasses.

          "Thank you." I said.

          The guy smiled. "Well I can't have you getting into trouble before I get a chance to talk to you." He looked straight ahead, "They don't seem like a friendly bunch."

          I rolled my eyes. "You don't say."

          We kept walking for a couple minutes before we stopped at a cross-walk, surrounded by people. The man nodded in the general direction of the opposite street. "We're going to stop up ahead if you don't mind. There's a diner I really like and it'll give us a chance to talk." I just nodded and shrugged on my backpack, aware I was only carrying it by hand for a full block now. The little white man flashed on the cross-walk signal and two crowds of people moved towards each other. For a few brief seconds, they clashed. A confusing chaotic mass of people all going opposite ways, but only lasted for a moment, and the man and I were on the other side of the street. He pointed up ahead at a sign that simply said: Fiona's. "Here we go." He said. We began walking again.

          "So what did you say your name was again?" I asked.

          He smiled and his glasses flashed in the sun. "I didn't." We reached the door of the diner and he held it open for me. "It's Confucius by the way, or you can call me Con for short, most of my students do."

          "So you're a teacher?" We both sat down at a booth looking out the window at the very corner of the diner. I now had an opportunity to get a good look at this man. He had almond shaped eyes, half hidden by the glare the sun off his glasses. He had taken off his coat and under it was a white dress shirt slightly unbuttoned at the top. His face was tired and unshaven, but patient and calculating. Now I could see more of the mark on his neck. It was a circular spiky ball like an electric saw blade and looked similar to the one Moon put on my arm, but mine looked more like a paw print with claws.

          "That's right." He said, picking up a menu.

          I did the same. "What do you teach?"

          "That depends..."

          I looked at him quizzically and he smirked. "Depends on what?"

          Con looked up. "Would you believe me?" He said quietly.

          I set down the menu and folded my arms. "After the stuff I've seen today, I'll believe anything."

          He smiled again. "Good. You met Moon in the park if I'm not mistaken, giving you that mark." Con motioned with his elbow toward the arm with the tattoo on it. I nodded. "Moon is a student of mine and told me about you. I understand you got into a fight with Derock?"

          "The a*****e with the fetish for black and attacking teenage girls in the forest?" I said.

          Con snorted. "Yeah, sounds like him," He set his menu on the table and folded his hands. "But what puzzles me the most is that there haven’t been any serious magical beings on earth for hundreds of years, yet here you are."

          "Can I get you two anything?" A waitress had just materialized beside our table, note pad in hand. She was probably in her thirties with plain brown hair tied in a bun behind her head. "Oh Con, didn't recognize you there for a second. You having the usual hon?"

          He flashed her a grin and scratched the back of his head. "Yeah, that'll be great Grace."

          The waitress, Grace, turned her head to me. "What about you babe?" I bit my bottom lip and looked at Con helplessly. I had no money.

          "Don't worry about it Emma, I got it." Said Con.

          "Oh," I instantly relaxed. "In that case I'll just have fries and a coffee."

          Grace scribbled it down. "How would you like your coffee?"

          "Black, six sugars."

          Graces' eyes widened slightly and shrugged, writing down our orders. "Ok those will be with you shortly." She walked away from our table.

          "Kay Grace, thank you." Con said sweetly over his shoulder. He turned back to me with a little smile on his face. Crush on the hot waitress, nice. Our food arrived after a few minutes.

          I took a sip of my coffee. "So first question."

          "Shoot."

          I pulled down the sleeve of my jacket for the umpteenth today to reveal the black mark on my wrist. "What's up with the tattoo?"

          'The usual' for Con was a waffle covered in blueberries and a coffee with milk, sugar, and honey. He finished chewing a piece of his waffle. "The mark on your arm, as you have probably already guessed, is magic. It's a basic tracking mark; it can be used multiple times and lasts alot longer than a charm or a spell. Moon put it on you so I we'd be able to find you whenever."

          I figured that to be an acceptable answer. So far this guy hasn't tried to keep secrets or lie; either that or he's a really good liar. "Mind if I ask you some more questions?"

          He shook his head. "Not at all, that's why I'm here Emma."

          "What kind of teacher are you? Where do you teach and what do you teach?" I asked.

          "I'm a warlock and a professor at a school of magic," He answered plainly. "I teach Magical Defense and History of Magic at Dawson Academy."

          "Dawson Academy?" I dipped a single fry into my ketchup and took a bite.

          "The school that I teach at, the one Moon goes to."

          "Ok, well if Moons' a student, why is she here fighting evil wizard dudes in the woods?"

          Con smiled. "Moon is a gifted fairy with powers that haven't been seen for decades," He explained. "She is in most of the advanced classes at Dawson, even though she really isn't that good of a student. She slacks off, doesn't do her homework on occasions, and nearly destroyed a lecture hall because someone got gum in her hair."

          "Damn..."

          Con chuckled. "Oh yeah, that girls' a piece of work. The only thing that kept her from getting expelled was her sister and I."

          I ate another fry. "The cat?"

          He laughed again. "Yes, the cat."

          "So, what's up with you guys on earth, fighting this Derock guy?"

          "Not only is Dawson Academy a school, it also takes on jobs assigned from The Elders, our form of government. We got a powerful magical reading here on Earth, so my team and I were sent to investigate."

          "And you guys ran into Derock."

          "Precisely."

          We ate in silence for awhile, which I was fine with. I needed a few to gather my thoughts. So far I've learned that the mysterious man that saved me from being eaten alive from a gang of s***s is actually a teacher at a school for magic, Moon is a powerful fairy that I saved from a wizard guy named Derock who's in trouble with the law, and I was wearing a mark that allowed these people to find me anywhere. I wondered how my mom would react to me getting a tattoo... oh s**t my mom! I turned on my phone and looked at the time. 5:45, I'm late. I was supposed to be home for dinner half an hour ago and I'm eating french fries with a warlock. "Con?"

          "Mmmm?" He was finishing off the last of his waffle.

          "I'm sorry and I have so many questions but I have to go!"

          Con swallowed. "No worries kiddo, I know where to find you."

          “Right. "Thanks for the food." I got out of the booth and bolted for the door. I sprinted all the way home.