"You shroud like pure shite," Valerie said for the hundredth time today. "Honestly, Ai, stop wasting your time with this."
Andrea got up from taking a knee and rolled her eyes. "Bruh, you don't have to be here."
Valerie was lying on her back looking up at the sky with her phone in hand, sitting next to Zoya. "Sure, but then I'd have missed out on you getting done in."
Zoya waved away Valerie's words and gave Andrea a thumbs-up. "Don't mind her, Andrea. Valerie is just being moody today."
Today?!
Aisling clapped her hands twice to draw their attention. "Zee is right. Don't worry about her, Andy. Worry about me, you've yet to land a hit."
"Fook that. The kid's yet to take a hit," Valerie laughed. Andrea was tempted to ask Aisling to tag out.
I don't think Valerie would go as easy on me as Aisling is…
It was Sunday off, and the four of them had decided to come to the field to train in the corner near the netball courts. Other girls in their year, like Kendra and Asuka, had come down to shoot some hoops—was that the correct terminology anyway?—whilst Andrea got her ass kicked.
"I've taken hits!" Andrea protested. "If you weren't busy on your phone and were actually tryna help me, you'd have noticed."
Valerie sat up with a raised eyebrow on her face before she broke out into laughter. "I'm sorry, Salem, I forget that you couldn't tell the difference between your arse and your face, similar as they are."
She rolled her eyes. "Do your momma and them know how much of an asshole they raised, or would it be a surprise if somebody told them?"
Valerie went back to lying down. "Oh, they know. They made damn sure of it."
Zoya sighed and got up. "Ryan, let me help out Andrea a little bit, yeah?"
"Be my guest," Aisling said as she went to join Valerie on the grass. She felt her heartbeat begin to quicken as Zoya approached her, unsure of just how dangerous she was.
"Let me think of a way to explain it… you've been using books to try and explain this stuff to you, yeah?"
Andrea nodded and her ears began to burn when she heard Valerie laugh. At the very least, Aisling had been good enough to silence her with a punch to the shoulder.
"Reading is fine," Zoya said with a shrug. "But in your case, you'd have to get to the advanced stuff early to get anything out of it."
Andrea frowned. "The advanced stuff? Bruh, I barely get the basics."
"The basics assume that you have ordinary magic reserves," Zoya said, sheepishly rubbing the back of her neck. "Which you don't. So that stuff won't really apply all that well for you."
She thought over what she was being told before sighing. "Okay, I think I hear what you're saying. So then, what should I do instead?"
"You need to concentrate magic instead of pure shrouding," Zoya said. "Think of it like…. like that American football of yours!"
Her frown deepened as the image of Drew Brees floated through her mind. "The fuck does football have to do with it?"
"Shrouding is like all those pads you guys put on," Aisling said before laughing. "Fair play, Zee, that's a grand way of explaining it."
Andrea was still just as confused but had decided to shut it and let Zoya expand on her point further. "You hit the nail on the head there, Ryan. Yeah, think of it that way. And think of defensive concentrating like catching the attack with those baseball gloves you guys use."
She took a moment to think over her words before snorting. "So… instead of putting on a suit of armor or whatever, I have to learn how to use a shield?"
Valerie whistled. "Boss girl. And here's thinking you'd be a lost cause."
Zoya and Aisling's praise was a lot more genuine. "That's a grand way of looking at it, Andy," Aisling said, getting back up onto her feet. "But that sorta fighting has its own problems."
Valerie sat up and grinned. "Don't tell her! Just go for it and have her find out the hard way."
Aisling frowned and shook her head. "Not a chance. And you better start playing nice with Andrea or we can't be friends anymore, Val."
She rolled her eyes and lay back down instead of answering.
"I will give it a go," Zoya said, falling into a boxing stance. "The thing with 'using a shield' is that you have to have either fast reflexes—"
"Or good tracking of your enemy's magical aura," Aisling said.
"Bang on," Zoya agreed. "Are you ready, Andrea?"
She took a deep breath before falling into her own stance, trying to focus her eyes on Zoya's magical aura. She could sort of see it, but it looked like the sort of shimmering someone would see staring down a road on a really hot summer's day. Andrea had to strain herself to see a very faint outline of red. "I'm ready."
Zoya's magical aura had gathered into her right hand and Andrea had gathered her magic into her stomach—the intended target—but not before the punch had landed, and she had to take a knee again.
Valerie had to suppress a laugh as Aisling snapped, "What the hell, Zee?"
"Sorry," Zee said, going down on one knee to put her hands on Andrea's shoulders. "I mean it, Andrea. I did not mean to hit you that hard. I thought if I concentrated more magic into my fist, the easier it would be for you to see it."
She smiled despite the pain. "No worries now, Zee," she said as she got back up onto her feet. "Let's get at it again."
Zoya hesitated but eventually gave in when she saw that Aisling was not going to tap herself back in. "Okay, but there is only so much I can hold back, yeah?"
Andrea did not respond. Instead, she got back into her fighting stance and focused. Follow the flow Andrea. If you can't see it, then dodge it…
It took two jabs to the chest and stomach, but Andrea finally blocked a strike, and by concentrating a lot more of her magic into the area, she was able to take enough off the blow to not have it sting. She failed to stop a few more before finally getting the hang of it enough to string along five consecutive blows taken without her getting down on one knee.
"About time you stopped falling to one knee," Valerie said. "You about proposed to Aisling a hundred times today."
"And a dozen more to me," Zoya added with a laugh.
Aisling tut-tutted as she shook her head. "Truly shameless behaviour. But I should've expected it. My mom told me about you Protestant women and your wanton ways."
They laughed and Andrea felt like she could run a mile with how good she was feeling. "At this rate, I'll be able to beat Rajesh's ass and get my lick back by the end of this term."
The laughter slowed before Valerie sighed. "Andrea, no you won't."
She frowned. "Shut your bitch-ass up, bruh. Everyone and their momma knows that you're just hating."
"She's not wrong, Andrea," Zoya said, and now Andrea was well and truly deflated. "Look, by year's end you might be able to beat a couple of the weaker kids. But someone from a magician family like Raj would easily eat you alive."
She turned to Aisling for help, but she could see it in the Irish girl's blue eyes that it was hopeless. "And why the hell is that the case?"
Valerie sighed and got up, walking towards Andrea. "Relax, Aisling, I won't hurt your precious little American, yeah. Just want to show her something, is all."
Valerie stood well outside the reach of her stubby little man arms as she jabbed at Andrea. "You can follow the magic when it's basic, alright. But how about now?"
Andrea only clocked that it was stored in Valerie's left hand after the fifth jab and frowned. "You were not throwing jabs with any magic?"
Valerie shook her head and stopped throwing jabs. "No, I was, the whole time. But I changed the flow after the first jab so that by the time my fist would've connected, it was all welled up in my left hand."
She was not entirely sure what that meant until Aisling interjected. "She means to say, Andy, that you're not following the magic fast enough to prevent feints from hurting you. You're still too focused on the physical body for a tell, and for you, where your style comes down to a game of seconds… well, you'd see why that is a bad habit."
Andrea threw her arms out in exasperation. "Fuck me! So all of this was just a waste of time."
"No," Valerie sighed and shrugged. "You're still shite, but are at least sound enough to leg it should the worse come to pass. Or at least contend with some of the worse kids. You're no longer dead last, is what I'm saying."
Andrea rolled her eyes and turned to leave before putting out a hand to stop Aisling in her tracks. "No, Ai. I need to be alone for a minute. Thanks for the help, you too, Zoya, but…" She did not even finish her sentence as she put up her hoodie and walked back toward the giant pavilion in the distance.
I'm going to die here, Andrea thought, and it was not the first time that sort of sentiment had crept its way into her mind. But all signs pointed toward it being true. She could not create a fireball and only ever seemed to create smoke even when saying the full incantation, and her physical combat skills were improving enough to take her from utter garbage to complete trash.
She entered the castle that was apparently passing for a school and found a spiral stairwell secluded enough for her to pull out her phone. Andrea stared at the number long and hard before she sighed and gave in. It only rang twice before her mother answered.
"Andy, baby. Is something wrong?"
Yep, I'm going to get sacrificed to the Source by Thanksgiving…
She cleared her throat and instead said, "No Momma, I just wanted to hear your voice is all."
She could hear her mother breathe a sigh of relief. "That's good, baby, glad you're doing okay. How's your first weekend over there?"
Andrea could have told her of her inability to shroud herself or create fire, or that some of her classmates' favourite past-times involved leaving notes telling her that she should kill herself because she was going to die anyway. But she decided to keep all that stuff to herself and instead said, "Good, Momma. No church this side, though, so looks like you're going to have to attend for both of us and get me into heaven as a plus one."
Her mother's laughter did her heart a world of good despite the stinging she felt around her eyes. "Now you know that ain't how it works, baby, you gotta earn your keep up there yourself. How is school, you holding up okay?"
Nope. "Too soon to tell but this magic schooling thing is easy."
"Is that so?"
"Yeah, I'm killing English Lit and mathematics."
Her mother snorted. "Funny how we had to send you halfway across the world to hear that. But what about the actual magic, baby?"
She hesitated and knew that the jig was up from there. "It isn't easy, Momma; everyone and their mother been a magician for the longest time over here. And here I come, greener than spring grass… I wish you'd have taught me at least something…"
She had tried to not resent her mother too much. For all her mother had known, Andrea would've been like the Earl of Essex and continued her life being human without worry of being sacrificed. But there were times when she saw her peers, her real peers from magician families, raise their hand and recite information that Andrea herself should have known.
"You're right to be mad at me, Andrea. I made some decisions that I've spent the last fortnight regretting, but… well, shoot—can't worry ourselves too much about roads not taken."
Easy for you to say; this road we're on is going to get me killed…
"Yeah, I guess so…"
There was some dead air between the two of them before her mother spoke up again. "Well, where is Julian? Has he been of any help to you?"
Andrea would've laughed had the name not made her angry. "That man's been as helpful as an umbrella with a damn hole in it! Haven't seen him damn near since I got here. Apparently he ain't even in. Some people are talking about him being away handling some business."
Andrea could tell that made her mother as mad as she felt. "Well, that just won't do. I will have a word with him, believe me that I will."
She sighed and shook her head. "No, Momma, I appreciate you considering that, but I don't think it'll do me any good." Andrea hesitated to continue when she saw Valerie standing down the hallway and making her way toward her. "Anywho, I'll be seeing you momma. I gotta go. I love you."
"I love you too Andy, baby."
Andrea slid her phone into the pockets of her yoga pants and prepared herself to confront her biggest hater. "What now? You come to talk more shit?"
Valerie glared at her a moment before sighing. "No. I've come to say sorry and to tell you that we're about to take a cabbage down to market if you want to come along with us."
Andrea raised an eyebrow before smirking. "Aisling threatened you, didn't she?"
Valerie snorted. "Told me she'd pull my intestines out my mouth if I didn't come here."
They both laughed at the absurdity of it before Valerie stood up and extended a hand out to help her up. "I don't know why, but she wants to take care of you. And I know Aisling long enough to know she won't change her mind, so fook it, I'll help her where I can too."
She looked at the hand a moment before taking it. "This mean we best friends?"
Valerie laughed. "Not even if you paid me!"