The car ride home was quiet. And hot.
By the time they had finally left Garden's Lubbock office, the sun was already overhead, beating down on them with the intense early summer heat. The a/c in the car was put at full blast, showering them with a nice cool breeze in the oven that was their car.
The roar of the a/c filled the car, thankfully drowning out the awkward silence in a pleasant hum.
No one wanted to say anything. Isaac didn't even know if there was anything to say.
His mom, Soffia, was relaxed behind the wheel with her shades on like it was a normal car ride home. Not at all worried or bothered by the fact that her son just had his mind blown this morning. She hadn't said a word since they left, and it didn't look like she was going to. She'd said that they'd talk more at home and left it at that.
That's okay. Just like his mom, Isaac was perfectly fine with the silence. He preferred it, actually. He was tired, he just wanted to close his eyes and rest.
After they got done picking their classes, Henry was in a hurry to take them back to his office. He had another appointment coming up, and was running late again. Getting them to run with him, they blitzed through both Pommier and Riendal before making it back to the platform of doors.
Opening a door for them, Henry only had enough time to remind them that school started on August 25th before he had to go through another door to his next appointment.
Stepping back into Henry's office was weird. Everything felt so surreal now, like everything before was just a dream. The office was just how they had left it, a mess. Except now it didn't seem like that big of a deal. Herny probably had a spell that'd clean this up in seconds, so what was the point of worrying about it?
Isaac and Luci quietly left the office. Going down the stairs, they made it back to the main waiting area, where his mom had been waiting for them so that she could take them home, even Luci.
Apparently, she had talked to Luci's parents and got them to agree to let Luci stay for dinner. They'll pick her up later.
Right now, Luci was sitting in the front, staring out the window. Isaac had wanted to sit in the back so he could lay down and close his eyes. She just rolled her eyes at him when he told her, elbowing him in the stomach before she got in. He got her back by kicking her seat as he was lying down.
But other than that, the drive home was nice.
When they finally got to the house, Luci had to be the one to wake Isaac up and drag him inside. In the kitchen, his mom took off her purse and set it on the table. Walking over to the fridge, she reached in and got out some lemonade for them and a bottle of beer for herself.
Luci took a seat at the table, while Isaac went over to the cabinets to get them some cups.
It's funny, Isaac thought, even though his family is fine with letting their kids use toilet plungers as climbing equipment, they wouldn't let them drink beer.
Weird right.
After cutting up some lemons, his mom finally came over to sit down. Handing a lemon wedge to both him and Luci, she took her own and jammed it down the neck of the beer bottle. Once it was all the way in there, she stuck her finger in the spout, then turned the bottle upside down, letting the lemon soak in the beer.
" Ok, " she said when she was ready. " I know you guys have some questions. I'll try to answer what I can, so let me hear it. "
Isaac felt as Luci's eyes landed on him, hoping for him to say something. But he was too busy drinking his lemonade to care. She hmphed as she took a sip herself. Taking a few seconds to get her words in order, she finally asked.
" How long have you known?"
Soffia raised an eyebrow. " About what? Last Haven, magic, you?"
" Me. When did you know that I was going to be a part of all this?" Luci asked.
Isaac pushed his empty cup of lemonade aside. That was a good question. Isaac didn't think about it earlier, but his mom wasn't even surprised to see Luci back at the office. She just told them to get in the car and that they'd talk later.
He tried to think of any instances where his family treated Luci differently. But there was nothing. They never asked her any weird questions or brought up anything about magic. They all treated her like any one of his other friends.
That is, if he had any other friends. But that's beside the point. The point is, is that his family had never treated Luci as anything special.
" I barely found out yesterday." His mom said.
" What?" Luci didn't believe her. There was no way that she didn't know. She was way too calm back at the office not to have known that she was going to be there.
" Yeah, no one knew that you were going to have magic. There's no way to tell until they get to high school. I only heard about it last night when your parents called, asking if we had made up a school to prank them with. Obviously, I told them that Garden was a real school and that you should at least get a chance to check it out." Turning her beer back up, his mom took her finger out of the spout and took a long gulp.
" Haa, I even let them know that Isaac would be going to the same school, which made them even more skeptical, if you could believe it. But luckily, I talked them into letting you go to the interview."
" So you didn't know that I would…"
" Oh, Luci. No one could have known. I don't know how Garden finds you kids, but without them, it's practically impossible for anyone to know if someone from Earth is gonna have magic."
Luci looked at her cup of lemonade. Her fingers tapped against the hard plastic as she took a second to think.
Isaac, seeing as Luci wasn't gonna ask anything, figured that meant it was his turn.
" What about me?"
Soffia turned to look at Isaac. " No, same as Luci. There was no way of knowing before they reached out. But we knew that there was a chance. We just never told you causes you were too young, kids don't know how to keep secrets, and we didn't want you screaming to the rooftops that magic was real. Even if no one believed you, it still wasn't worth the trouble. So the family usually waits until the kids have matured before telling them."
" You'll be waiting your whole life," Luci muttered under her breath. Soffia and Isaac choose to ignore her.
His mom took another swig of beer. " Anything else?"
Isaac thought about it. And there was really only one thing that was bothering him.
" How come I've never seen anyone else use magic before?"
" 'Cause we can't. No one can, not on earth at least. Here, watch." Soffia reached into her shirt and pulled out a small arrow-shaped ruby on a necklace. The bright red ruby barley, the size of a quarter, drew their eyes to it, demanding their attention as his mom held it between her fingers.
He'd always seen her wear it, but she never talked about it. He always thought it was a gift from somebody. It was the only piece of jewelry she ever wore.
But it was never a piece of jewelry, it was her focus. Henry had said that they were called stones. Isaac had seen some people waving them around in Last Haven. Each one different than the last, but he'd hadn't seen one that shone as brightly as his mom's did.
Bringing the stone up against her beer, Soffia took a breath, and said. " Frig."
At first, nothing happened—one minute, then two. After five minutes, Isaac started getting bored. Sitting there, Isaac and Luci starred at the bottle, waiting for anything, but after another minute, it was still just the same bottle of beer.
Isaac looked back at his mom, wondering what was going on. Maybe she did the spell wrong or something. He was just about to ask her but then he saw her face.
His mom was concentrating on the bottle. Her eyes were narrowed in painful focus as she squeezed her stone between her fingers. She was pressing it so hard against the bottle, Isaac half thought that she was gonna punch right through it.
From the tips of her ears to the bridge of her nose, her entire face had turned red. She grit her teeth as she pushed harder against the bottle. Every part of her body was focused on that bottle. She looked like she was pushing a boulder uphill, trying so hard to get it over that hill, but it wouldn't budge.
Finally, when Isaac was about to tell her to stop, they saw it.
Right where the stone touched the glass, frost had started to build up. From there, the frost crept along the bottom of the bottle before crawling up towards the top. When the bottle had been completely covered in a light sheen of frost, his mom dropped her hand and started taking huge gulps of air.
Isaac got up and took the beer out of her hands. Setting it on the table, he grabbed her shoulders, steadying her so that she wouldn't fall off her chair.
" Huff…Huff..Huff…That's..Huff..why."She said, brushing Isaac off.
Grabbing the beer again, she tilted her head back and started chugging it. Like a thirsty woman in a desert, she finished the bottle in seconds. Slamming it back on the table, she tried to catch her breath.
" Huff Magic..on earth.. is gone. There's not ..even enough to …do a simple cooling spell." Soffia placed a hand on her heart. Closing her eyes she started to breathe normally afer a while.
Isaac couldn't believe it. He knew Henry had said something about the magic on Earth being gone, but he didn't think it was this bad. How can a whole part of the world just be gone? It's like saying that all the water on the planet disappeared.
" Why don't you just live in Last Haven then?" Luci asked.
" Because this is our home." His mom smiled as she got up.
Throwing away her beer she came back with a cup. Pouring herself a glass of lemonade she took a couple of sips before turning back ot them.
" Ok, enough of that, tell me what classes you got."