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I knew what that meant. I’d done the whole, ‘wax and dress like a princess thing,’ but that was life or death. This was my dad milking my vulnerability for all it was worth. Should I fight him directly or subversively? “Free school and free clothes,” I said with a shrug. Subversive it was.
“Not free, but hopefully better classes than that other school.” My mom smiled suddenly, a rapturous smile that she rarely showed. She grabbed my hands and bounced. “You’re going to a real academy!”
I grinned back at her, then rolled my eyes while Miss Tertrue summoned the forces.
It was awesome to have three people in my tiny bathroom with me while my mother sat with Miss Tertrue on the couch with papers spread out on the coffee table. They were going over all the details, classes, magic structure, and even the transformation lessons with my dad. For a super secretive guy, he was being very open about things with my mom. He’d probably heard about her faulty memory, so felt she was a safe bet. He had no idea the things she could do with half her mind.
By the time the crew was done teaching me how to put on my makeup, and do my hair, because apparently they were there for coaching more than as a regular morning intrusion, the sun was up, I was starving, and my mother was making everyone waffles. How cozy we were.
“You look ready to learn,” my mother said with an approving nod at my white blouse beneath a dark vest, with a pair of dark slim pants and boots. It wasn’t incredibly feminine, except that it didn’t camouflage the fact that I was a woman, and apparently, I was pretty feminine even without a cinched waist and uber push-up going on. My hair was pulled back in a bun that looked almost messy, but the loose strands had been meticulously styled to get just the right amount of wave to frame my face. I wasn’t wearing a ton of makeup, but what I had on gave me a level of polish and sophistication that was a total lie. It could have been worse, but I was still washing everything off and changing the second I got to school.
I rode with Miss Tertrue in her modest looking gray sedan, belied by the cushy leather seats, my skateboard on my lap while she dropped me off at Gray College’s front gates, where I’d gotten a ride in Percival’s limo to the train station. This did not bode well.
“If you need anything, text this number,” she said. I got out my phone and put in her information without audible resistance. “I’ll be here at three to take you to the house this afternoon,” she said as I was getting out.
“Sure. Thanks.” I hesitated, because this felt a lot like a mother dropping off her kid at school. I turned back to her. “Are you with him?”
She raised her brows in shock. “With who?”
“Dating my dad. It’s just that this whole thing feels so parental. I’m twenty and I don’t need someone to drive me to school. For the record, this isn’t going to happen tomorrow. I will go to school like the adult that I am.”
She gave me a tight smile. “I am in your father’s employ. I have another person that I am with.” She sniffed like disclosing that much personal information was painful for her. “I have been driving you as a courtesy for your first day, but in the future, your bodyguards will take you.” She nodded at the car behind us, which I hadn’t really looked at. It was the same color as Miss Tertrue’s, but much larger, and the females in black suits smiled at me with terrifying confidence. They all looked like bodybuilders, and were those ogre fangs? I had an ogre bodyguard? Unreal.
“Of course. They can take me if they can keep up. Goodbye.” I closed the door on her and started for the gates, my four bodyguards surrounding me like I was the quarterback going for a touchdown. No demons were getting through this lineup. I couldn’t help but do a quick calculation of the cost of this kind of protection, plus the school, plus the cars, plus the benefits, plus the makeup and hair crew, plus… My brain exploded. It was too much, way, way too much, but I kept walking towards the front doors, because I had an entourage that made anything else unthinkable.
“Gabriela!” Percy called me from the side, waving like sporty people waved, not emotionally distant musician geniuses did. The next thing you know, he was going to get a nice preppy haircut.
He fell in beside me, ignoring my bodyguards like it was normal. “You look like you got up early.”
I gave him a death glare that promised a future of pain, and then I remembered my escorts. Did I have to act like we were really betrothed? Maybe, but me being betrothed wasn’t ever going to be a sweet princess of conniving manipulation. I wasn’t pretending to be someone I wasn’t. “It’s the dark circles that tipped you off, or the fact that you can’t see my dark circles under an hour’s worth of makeup that tipped you off?”
He snorted and looped an arm around my waist, pulling me close while he murmured, “Still with the night janitorial crew, hm? To me, you will always look perfectly exhausted.” He added even more quietly, “Even when you look like you’re going to throw up from nerves. Did someone tell you how expensive it was? That is your hundred-bucks-steak face.”
I pushed him away and shook my head. “There’s a fine line between honesty and kindness.”
“I make it a point to cross both of them regularly. Did you eat all the cupcakes? That was the deal, but I’m worried your mom might eat them, particularly the chocolate swirl.”
“If you want me to eat more cupcakes, you’ll have to make me more.”
“Such a threat. Are you coming to watch me play during lunch? I’ll save you a table if you get a chance. You can study and watch me, except…”
“How could I possibly concentrate on books when my beautiful betrothed is pouring his heart and soul into his music?” I rolled my eyes.
He smirked. “That does sound dangerous, but seriously, you need to hold back with the studying and watch for migraines. Your magic came in late and hard, which can lead to a literal burn out. You should take regular breaks to relax and recharge. I hope to see you there. I’ll be playing, so I won’t get the chance to stare mindlessly into your eyes, but I’ll buy you a pizza.”
We got inside the main doors and with a kiss of my hand that made me hiss at him while my heart pounded like timpani, he took off to the left while I continued upstairs to one of the rooms I’d mopped last night. Surreal.
At some point, my real life might come knocking on my door, but until then, I guess I’d get as much as I could out of this whole thing.
By noon, my brains were fried. I could see things, see the magic in bright bursts of agonizing color, but touching it was like touching a live wire, and I didn’t have the necessary rubber gloves to handle it properly.
I fled the school with my four bodyguards around me, their presence making certain that no one said anything about me being a janitor. Honestly, I really didn’t care. I just wanted pizza and five minutes without magic.
When I went into the Osprey, a wave of relief came over me as the familiar sounds and smells blocked out the remnants of hard-to-understand theory and even more difficult-to-apply spell work.
“Hey, Gabby, I have a booth for you,” a friendly server said, leading me over to the place I’d sat last time. I looked like one of the students, but I felt like one of the servers. Who was I kidding? I’d be a server at the Cat’s Pause tonight after I wrapped up the tea party with dear old daddy. “Your pizza will be right out.” She left me there without giving me the chance to order.
Whatever. I leaned back and watched Percy play his guitar and sing a song that he’d probably written, about facing reality and knowing who you are. Maybe he was incredibly superficial, but at least he knew it, admitted it, and didn’t let other people tell him who he was. If he’d been like me, working hard to get a degree and then had this opportunity dropped into his lap, he’d take it and run hard, because he was ambitious and wanted to do things with his life. I wasn’t sure exactly what those things were, but they required power and influence.
