Chapter 2
The Bracelet
Around and around in circles, Lily flew on a magic broom while wearing a pointed hat. It was like she had become a real-life witch like in fairy tales. No, that may actually have happened.
"So this must be what Harry Potter felt like," she muttered to herself, thinking about that famous character from those famous books and movies.
Lily wanted to keep zipping through the sky, maybe get a bird's eye view of the whole countryside that Bluestone Academy called home. But then a loud bell sound woke her from her dream-like glee and signaled the end of her magical fun time.
Ding! Ding! Ding!
A man's voice through the P.A. system announced, "To all students, teachers and staff. This is a friendly reminder that the school assembly will start in two hours time. All students, please collect your I.D. cards if you still have not done so and drop off your belongings in your dorm rooms while you still have time."
"Oh! That's right!" Lily cried out, suddenly remembering. "I completely forgot about my stuff!"
She had left her luggage case and all her stuff behind at the castle building while chasing after the parrot.
"I hope they're still there," she muttered to herself while finding a good place to land, preferably somewhere close to the castle building where she would not be seen. Lily had seen enough TV shows to know that magic powers have to be kept secret.
But when she touched down on the grassy space behind a white, rectangle building, she heard something fall down behind her and turned around to see a tall, redhead girl staring back at her with her jaws drop. On the grass by her right foot was a huge, black duffel bag while standing at her left was a familiar pink luggage case.
Wait, that's MY luggage, Lily realized. Why does she have that? No, wait. That's not important right now.
"Um . . . Did you see that?" she hesitantly asked the redhead girl.
The redhead girl slowly nodded.
"And by that, I meant me flying on a broomstick like a witch out of a fairy tale. Did you see that?"
Again, the redhead girl nodded.
"By the way, that's my luggage," Lily pointed out. There was nothing else she could think to say.
"I know," the redhead girl replied. "I was asked to bring this to you since we're going to be roommates. We actually met earlier today while waiting in line to grab our new I.D. cards."
"Oh, cool!" exclaimed Lily. "What are the odds we'd be roomies?"
"Yeah," said the redhead girl. Her voice had gotten higher. And then she shook her head furiously and went, "You know what? No! Forget about all that! What the hay-hay did I just see? You flying around on a broomstick while wearing a big, pointed hat, does that mean you're a magical witch or something?"
"I . . . guess?" Lily said, shrugging her shoulders.
The redhead girl crossed her arms and scowled. "And what is that supposed to mean?"
"Well, I only just found this witch stuff today," Lily explained.
She went on to tell the redhead girl how that happened. The redhead girl listened with her arms crossed and a frown on her face.
And then, when Lily was done, she said, "So let me get this straight. You chased that parrot that stole your I.D. card all the way to some strange underground basement, where you found the broomstick and decided to take it on a joyride?"
"Hey, I didn't decide on anything," Lily protested. "It was the only way out."
"But you did have fun with it, didn't you?"
Lily looked away and replied, "No comment."
The redhead girl raised an eyebrow. Her face twisted into a thinking look, and then she said, "Just to be clear, you only found this flying broomstick today? You never had any sort of magical power before?"
Lily shook her head and replied, "Nope."
For some reason, a look of disappointment flashed across the redhead girl's face. But she quickly recovered.
"Well, this is certainly an interesting day," she said. "I never expected on my first day at a new school I'd find a girl with a real, magic broomstick."
"That goes for the both of us," Lily said.
"Anyway, what are you going to do with that thing? Anyone who sees you bringing a broomstick to the dorms while wearing a witch's hat outside of Halloween is obviously going to think you're a weirdo."
Lily glanced down at the broomstick and muttered, "Good question."
She could do without being labeled a weirdo on the first day of school. But it wasn't like she could just dump a magic flying broomstick anywhere. And to be honest, she was reluctant to let it go. You'd have to be crazy to get rid of something as awesome as a real magic broomstick. If only it could shrink into something smaller and less noticeable.
Suddenly, bright blue light flashed from the broomstick and startled the girls.
"Yikes!" they both cried out. They stumbled back and fell onto the grass on their behinds.
"What was that!?" Lily cried out while blinking colorful spots out of her eyes.
For a little while, Lily could not see anything except colorful spots. But when she could see again, she looked down to see the broomstick was no longer in her hand.
"Where'd the broom go?" she asked. She looked around but could not find it anywhere.
The redhead girl looked around too and said, "I don't know. Oh, but your hat's gone too!"
"My hat?"
Lily waved her hand over her head, but grasped only empty air. The pointed hat that came with the broom had also disappeared.
She dropped her hand down, but that was when she finally noticed something around her wrist that she was sure was not there before: a blue metal bracelet with four small sapphire stones evenly spaced apart around it.
Lily stared at the bracelet and blinked.
"Where'd this bracelet come from?" she wondered aloud.
The redhead girl looked at it and asked, "You didn't have it this whole time?"
Lily shook her head and replied, "Nope."
They stared at the mysterious bracelet, puzzling over it for a couple of seconds. Tick-tock, tick-tock, went their watches. And then -
"Oh!" the redhead girl cried. "Maybe it's actually the broomstick and the hat! The light probably swallowed them up and turned them into the bracelet!"
Lily looked at her incredulously. "You really think so?"
The redhead girl shrugged and replied, "Hey, the broomstick's magical, isn't it? Anything's possible with real magic."
"I guess," said Lily, looking back down at the bracelet again. If the bracelet really is the magic broomstick then . . . "Well, at least now I don't have to worry about looking like a weirdo."
"Think you can take that thing off?" the redhead girl asked.
Lily tried but -
"No dice," she said. Figures, she thought. Nothing surprised her at this point.
"I guess this means that they want you to be their owner now," the redhead girl said.
"Is that how it works?" Lily asked.
The redhead girl shrugged and said, "That's how it usually goes in comic books."
Ding! Ding! Ding!
"To all students, teachers and staff. This is a friendly reminder that the school assembly will start in . . ."
"We should get going," Lily said.
The redhead girl nodded in agreement and said, "Yeah. Oh, I'm Vivian Waller by the way. But everyone calls me Viv."
"Lily Wong. What were doing here, anyway?"
"Oh, I got held up by my brother and was taking a shortcut to the dorms."
Lily asked, "You have a brother?"
"Yeah, he's . . ."
Together, the girls hurried to the girl's dormitory building while getting to know each other better. After dropping their stuff off in Dorm Room 211, they rushed over back to the castle building, to a huge theater room with rows of soft, red seats that layered down to an elevated stage where a bunch of grownups in suits and dresses gathered.
An old man with a white beard stood behind a tall, wood podium and introduced himself as Julius Bluestone, the director and owner of the school. He gave a long-winded speech about how his family created the school, how lots of students became famous and important after graduating, and a bunch of other stuff.
Lily didn't last ten minutes and nodded off, missing almost the whole speech. But who could blame her after the day she's had? She didn't wake up until almost half the people at the assembly had already gone out.
Viv shook Lily awake and told her, "You snore loud."
"I do not!"
After the assembly came a tour of the school for the new students, led by older students close to graduating. During the tour, Lily and Viv met up with Viv's twin brother Eddie. The girls said nothing about the magic broomstick to him, deciding beforehand to keep it a secret between themselves.
The tour was just a brief walk around the school grounds which Lily didn't really need. Lily got to know the school's layout well enough thanks to her time in the air. Still, it was good to know that the library was housed in two floors of the school's center building that (no surprise) most people called the castle. Behind the castle was the main dining hall where everyone ate breakfast, lunch and dinner. She was pretty surprised to know that there were a total of five security guard stations) four around the school and one in the castle) and smaller security guard offices in every building.
Then again, she thought, some of the kids in this school ARE supposed to be really, really rich.
So said the child of a high-ranking business lady and a doctor.
Once the tour was over, everyone was free to go wherever and do whatever they wanted. Lily spent her free time with the Waller twins at the outdoor eating space of a snack bar with huge hot fudge sundae bowls sitting in front of them.
It was the first time Lily had ever gotten ice cream on her own. Normally, she needed to ask her parents first before she could have any. Probably one of the few good things about going to a boarding school, she thought, is that it came with some freedom she'd never have at home.
Lily got to learn that despite being twins, Viv and Eddie like completely different things. Viv was more into computers and tech, while Eddie was more into music. Their father was the owner of a tech company, which was probably where Viv got her interests from.
Lily wondered if maybe Eddie got his taste in music from their mom. But when she asked, the twins suddenly went quiet with pained looks on their faces.
They quickly recovered, replied their mom was an artist and tried to laugh off their earlier silence. But it was clear to Lily that she had stepped on a landmine. She wondered why their mom was such a touchy topic, but thought it was best to just drop it. The Waller twins' mother was never brought up again.
Lunch was around Twelve in the afternoon, and dinner around Seven at night. Lily had expected something a little more fancy for a place with its own two-hundred year old castle, but to her surprise (and slight disappointment), both the dining hall was no different from a normal school cafeteria. She and the others trudged down a long line to a kiosk manned by men and women in white aprons, grabbed prefilled trays of food and ate on long white tables with narrow benches attached.
Despite the sky having long turned black, after dinner, while headed straight for the dorms, Lily noticed that there were still lots of students loitering outside. She wanted to see for herself what it was like to be outside so late but decided to do that another time. There was something more important she had to do, namely figure out what the heck is up with that weird, blue bracelet.
Once back in their room, Lily bolted the door while Viv closed the curtains. They sat down on the floor in the middle of the room. Lily stretched her right arm out so they could both get a better look at the mysterious bracelet while Viv shined a light on it from her smartphone's bright flashlight.
"First note the strange markings all over the bracelet," Viv said. "These have to be from some ancient, mystical language. Maybe German!"
Lily looked at Viv funny and went, "Hah?"
But then Viv laughed and said, "I'm kidding! I'm kidding! It was just a joke."
"Oh, good," Lily said, breathing a relieved sigh.. "For a second there, I thought there was something wrong with your head. You almost sounded like my Uncle Viceroy."
"Your uncle?"
Lily nodded. "He's my mom's younger brother and kind of a weirdo."
"I'd like to ask how so, but let's focus on the bracelet for now."
"Agreed. But what do we actually do?"
"Hmmm." Viv tapped her chin thoughtfully. "Oh! I know! That broomstick. We should check you still got that."
"Good idea," said Lily. "And how do we do that?"
Viv shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe ask it nicely?"
Lily frowned. "Come on, Viv. It's a bracelet."
"You got a better idea?"
No, she did not.
Lily looked down at the bracelet and then held her hand out in front of her.
"Ahem! Broomstick, come out!"
She paused.
"Please?"
Light flashed from the bracelet's four sapphires and then, floating a couple of inches off the floor in front of Lily, was the broomstick.
Lily was so happy, she had the biggest smile on Earth on her face. With this, she now knew for sure she could bring out the broomstick whenever she wanted.
"Okay, Broomstick," she said. "You can go back."
There was another flash of light and then, once more, the broom vanished.
"That. Was. Awesome!" Viv said. "Let's see if we can get something else."
"Like what?" asked Lily.
Viv thought again for a moment. "Oh! How about a magic wand? You can't be a witch without a magic wand!"
"You think?" said Lily. "Well, it won't hurt to try. So, bracelet. Think you can give me a wand?"
From a flash of light, a slender, long blue stick appeared with a jagged blue jewel stuck on the top.
"It worked!" Lily cried out. "Can this thing maybe give us anything we ask for?"
There was another flash of light and a piece of paper slowly dropped onto Lily's lap.
"What's this?" she wondered. She picked the paper up read, "Illegal or dangerous things are a big no-no."
She stared at the paper and the letter on it, and then looked up. "Soooooo, I guess it can't really give us anything."
"Then I guess a real lightsaber's out the window," Viv said with a disappointed sigh. "What about a crystal ball for fortune telling? That should be okay, right?"
Viv sounded really excited and wrung her fingers anxiously. But when Lily tried calling for a crystal ball and got another paper instead, her face fell further than Lily had ever seen a face fall.
The paper read: "Fortune telling magic can be used for spying, and spying is a bad thing most of the time."
"Are you okay?" Lily asked Viv.
Viv quickly replied, "Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine."
Lily bit on her lower lip to stop herself from telling Viv that she looked close to crying. Instead, she abruptly told the bracelet to conjure a rubber chicken.
Viv was both startled and confused.
"Why a rubber chicken?" she asked while eyeing the ugly faux poultry Lily clutched by the neck. It had its tongue stuck out, looking like it was getting the life choked out of it.
Lily answered with a shrug, "Because I felt like it."
She actually just wanted to stop Viv from getting more depressed and was pleased it looked like it worked.
"Okay," she said, clapping her hands together. "Let's see what else we can get out of this bracelet!"
Ding! Ding! Ding!
At the sound of bells from the ceiling, the girls looked up.
"Good evening, students," said a young lady's voice from the black box speaker stuck high up the wall. She had a British accent. "This is your friendly neighborhood dorm manager, here to remind you all not to stay up too late. Don't blame me if you end up oversleeping and get late to class."
The rubber chicken, the magic wand, and the two pieces of paper that the bracelet created all disappeared in a flash of light.
"I guess that's it for tonight," said Lily. "Whoa!"
As she got up to go brush her teeth, she was suddenly hit by strong dizziness and fell.
"Hey, watch it!" Viv cried out. She sprang up to catch Lily and happened to grab the bracelet. Her fingers touched the squiggly markings etched around the bracelet and suddenly, once more, the blue gemstones shined bright light.
The light gathered at one spot on the floor away from the girls and from there, a ghost lady appeared, a really young lady who looked around her late teens at most. Lily would call the lady a ghost because she was glowing blue light and see-through.
"Beware," said the ghost lady. "Beware!"
"Hey!" Lily cried out. "I know this voice! That's exactly what I heard back at the castle when I got my I.D. card!"
"You sure?" asked Viv.
Lily nodded and replied, "Positive. I knew I wasn't hearing things!"
And then to the lady, she asked, "Who are you?"
But the lady didn't answer. She just kept saying, "Beware! Beware!" as if she could not hear Lily. "Beware, o Wielder of the Sapphire Bracelet!"
"By that, does she mean me?" Lily asked Viv.
Viv shrugged and said, "Well, that thing's got a bunch of sapphires, so I guess."
"Beware!" the ghost lady cried again. "Magical blights befall the land! Wicked hands bring chaos to us all! The very nature of the world be warped!"
"Do you understand what the ghost lady is talking about?" Viv said.
"Barely," Lily admitted. "I think she's trying to tell us that something bad's coming."
"Oh. Why doesn't she just say that, then?"
"Evil is coming!" said the ghost lady.
The girls exchanged looks.
"Evil is coming!" the ghost lady said again. "And when it comes, this land and everyone on it is doomed! There is only one hope. You, Wielder of the Sapphire Bracelet."
She pointed at Viv.
Again, the girls exchanged looks.
And then Viv said to Lily, "I think she was supposed to point at you. You're the one wearing the bracelet, after all."
Ignorant of her mistake, the ghost lady continued. "You are the chosen one, Wielder of the Sapphire Bracelet. Please, save us. Save us all!
"You are our only hope, our hero!"
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