“We’ll have to tally up your final scores,” Tamlin goes on. “And we’ll report your official grade soon. But I think I can safely say that you’ll be receiving very high marks. You should be proud of yourself.”
My smile breaks free at those words, despite my efforts to keep a serious, professional expression on my face. I do feel like I’ve done well, which isn’t always the case. Despite the fact that I’ve never gotten worse than an A- on an assignment, I’m such a perfectionist that I’m never really happy with my work. I always feel like I could’ve done a little bit better, no matter what.
But today is one of the good days. I’ve spent hours taking exams and magical tests, and this obstacle course was the last one. It was designed to be a practical test to see how well students can control their magic under pressure when threatened.
And I know I did well.
Now it’s time for me to take everything I learned at Griffin over the past three years and forge ahead with it.
Watch out, world. Here I come.
Chapter 2
I shake the hands of the various professors who were watching me and taking notes, and then I head to my dorm room to take a shower. First, I was sweating from nerves, and then from physical exertion, and now I just know that I stink.
The shower’s relaxing, and I take a little extra time in there to soak up the water. For once, I have nothing to do, nowhere to be. I don’t have homework that’s due or a class to attend. It’s all… blank for the next few days on the calendar.
But only for the next few days, I hope.
My older sister Penelope offered to let me live with her as long as I want if I need some time finding a job, but I’ve applied to a few places already, and I should be hearing back from them shortly. They want to see what my final test scores are, I bet, but my grades are already pretty damn good. I don’t think they should have any reason to not hire me.
I lather my skin with body wash, letting the hot water sluice over my diminutive frame. I’m only five-foot-three, but all the bigger guys in my classes quickly learned to respect my abilities despite the fact that most of them had at least six inches of height on me. I may be little, but I pack a punch.
The heat and steam do wonders for my sore muscles, and by the time I step out, I feel like I could probably run another obstacle course if I had to. I swipe my hand across the mirror to clear away the steam that’s gathered, blinking at the bright green eyes of my reflection. I twist my long, dark hair to wring out the excess water before wrapping a towel around it.
When I finally emerge from the bathroom in a billow of lingering steam, I notice several notifications on my phone. I missed a bunch of texts from Penelope, and from my brother Max too.
Oops. I totally lost track of time. I was supposed to video call them after I got back from my finals.
I shrug on a bathrobe and relax back on my bed before dialing Max’s number. I got a single room for my final semester so that I could focus on studying without any distractions. Not that I’ve got anything against the roommates I’ve had during my time here. They were all great and easy to get along with. But when I found out that a single room had opened up, I jumped at the opportunity.
I know not everyone takes their studies as seriously as I do, and I know it makes me a nerd, but I couldn’t pass up the chance to be able to study at all hours of the day or night without worrying about keeping someone else up.
“Hey!” I wave as Max’s face appears on the screen.
“Hi, Rae.” He grins, pushing his dark hair back from his forehead. He turns his head to one side and calls, “Hey, Pen! It’s Rae.”
Penelope’s face pops onto the screen a moment later, edging Max to the side a little as she beams at me. “Hi, little sis! How’d it go? Do you feel good about it?”
“Yeah, I do.” A flutter of happiness works through my chest as I nod. “Tamlin said it was some of the best spell work she’s ever seen me do, and I know she wouldn’t just blow smoke up my ass.”
“That’s fantastic! Congrats.” Max shifts the phone a little as he speaks, holding it a bit farther away so he and Penelope can both be seen in video more clearly.
I can hear noise in the background of his place. He’s got two boys, Oscar and Caleb, and they’re both little hellions. I love them to absolute pieces. If I were to guess, I’d say they’re charging around the house playing monster or something equally likely to—
“No running in the house!” Max calls over his shoulder, right on cue.
I hear unrepentant giggling, and a grin spreads across my face. “Boys being boys?”
“They’re going to tear this place down one day,” Max replies with a shake of his head. His green eyes, almost the exact same color as mine, twinkle with resigned amusement. “Cassidy and I will be helpless to stop it.”
Cassidy is Max’s wife, and probably the sweetest woman in the entire world. He’s the middle kid, just a couple years older than me, but he got married young. Penelope’s like I am, more focused on other things—although she somehow manages to forget her own type-A personality when she lectures me about how I need to relax and chill out sometimes.
Neither Penelope nor Max are Unpredictable like I am. Her magic is potion brewing, and she’s made a lot of advances in the field, but it hasn’t left her a whole lot of time for a social life. She’s always telling me to be different, but isn’t her hard work ethic what’s made her so respected in her field? Isn’t it what’s enabled her to make such important advances in healing medicine?
She’s not really one to talk about putting a social life ahead of your career, and I can’t help but want to follow in her footsteps. I want to do important work. I want to make a name for myself in the magical community.
“Any big party plans now that you’ve graduated?” Penelope asks, her voice hopeful.
I wrinkle my nose. “Well, I don’t actually know if I’ve graduated or not. My professors still have to tally up the scores.”
“Oh, right, because we’re all in doubt about whether you’ll make it,” Max deadpans. Then he cocks a brow at me. “Your final exam is important, but you’ve kept your grades up this whole time. You could probably flunk your exam entirely and still have a high enough grade to graduate.”
The idea of flunking any one of my exams makes my stomach flip over.
“Don’t even joke about that.” I narrow my eyes at him, fixing an aghast look on my face.
“Well, someone has to make the jokes around here since you never make any.”
“Aw, that’s not fair, Max,” my sister puts in, grinning evilly. “Her face is a joke. That more than makes up for the lack of humor.”
“Hey!” I flip Penelope off as Max laughs. “Rude!”
She shrugs, laughing too. “I’m your sister. It’s my job to be rude.”
“Seriously, though,” Max interjects, “are you going to be celebrating?”
I tug my bottom lip between my teeth. I know there are a couple of parties going on now that everyone’s done with finals, but I haven’t made plans to go to any.
“Nah, not really. I mean, I’m sleeping in tomorrow. That’ll be nice.” After pulling countless all-nighters in my time here, I’m ready for a good night of rest. “But I think I’m just going to stay in and watch a couple movies.”