It was unfortunately Monday morning yet again. I'd had an eventful week prior to starting this new one and was thankfully feeling a lot better with no apparent headaches, horrible dreams or violent up-chucking. It was still Monday however and nobody in their right mind, liked Mondays. My Auntie Morrigan was also starting her new job as the new Chemistry teacher here, taking over from Mrs Clarkson. Auntie M had mentioned before that Mrs Clarkson may have been what she called a "guardian" for the school and may very well have been a covenless witch. She said that Mrs Clarkson's health had obviously started deteriorating as she was keeping any spiritual nasties at bay. Auntie M went on to say that there were a few witches that didn't belong to covens for whatever reason, but pretty much all witches and warlocks dampened down their powers to keep themselves hidden and safe as some of their fellow magic users weren't all that friendly. And it stopped us from being detected by any demons and monsters who fancied a tasty magical snack.
It all made some kind of sense, especially regarding Mrs Clarkson being a guardian of the school as Auntie M went on to tell me that Saint Augustine's had something magical going on with it. And if Mrs Clarkson was in fact the guardian, she had done a decent enough job of keeping it off the books of other magic users; making it her territory and hers alone.
Auntie M had given me a few spells to practice and start off with. I did as she said and made my own little protection oil, which I kept in a small screw top dropper bottle and anointed my wrists every few hours with a smear of the concoction. She even gave me a verbal spell to say; to help keep my powers in check and hopefully keep myself under the radar. She said doing both would make for quite a powerful, but simple protection spell that would be easy for me to master.
But right now I wish I had a spell for making Mondays easier or something; even though I had slept well, my breakfast was staying exactly where it should be in my stomach and I had Chemistry in third period with my Auntie M.
Oh God I had had Chemistry in third period with my Auntie Morrigan. Everybody in the entire school would know she was my aunt. I don't know how I felt about that, should I be embarrassed or should I be happy I had a member of my own family as part of the schools faculty? Okay, I'm crossing that bridge when I get to it. The first period was pretty easy, I had English which was one of my favourite subjects then for second period I had History where my teacher was Mr Evans. I, unlike many of the other girls in the school had taken History long before Mr Evans even started working here. He was a good teacher, he actually made History pretty fun.
The only things that stressed me out a little was one; Auntie M had suspected that Mr Evans was a magic user and two; a lot of the other students were already talking about my Auntie Morrigan in between classes and sometimes even in classes. I heard them commenting about her wardrobe which even for a lot of the spoilt rich kids that attended this school was "expensive" and "amazing" as today she had turned up in a red Valentino tartan skirt, with black tights, a black silk Gucci blouse and all topped off with a pair of Louboutin Mary Jane style shoes. She was walking around Saint Augustine's wearing at least three grands worth of fabric and accesories. The students were calling her fashionable, stylish, kind, cool and spooky. Yeah I would use those exact words to describe her too.
But I nearly snapped my head clean off when I violently turned towards a kid who had said that her accent was "common and jarring" and "didn't belong in a place like this."
'You absolute elitist piece of shit" I thought. My Auntie M was my hero. She had two degrees, every penny she owned she had earned herself, she had travelled the world and to top it all off; I now knew she was a really important witch. My mother wasn't short of money however. She and my dad built up their own successful businesses shortly after they married and made a huge amount of money. They owned several car dealerships across the country and a few garages, which my mother was now in complete control of since my father died; he also had an enormous insurance payout. A good while after was when my mother decided to send me to boarding school, she said she wanted me to get the best education so I could do whatever I wanted. Both my Mother and my Aunt had told me that they were dirt poor growing up and barely had a "pot to piss in" as they so eloquently put it.
I considered myself lucky that I lived in a nice house and had everything I ever needed but these snooty rich kids at school obviously didn't think that way about their lives. Many of them would be heirs to fortunes or be given an important job in the family business but never be expected to do any work. That was what a majority of the students would end up doing, but there were thankfully a few taking their expensive boarding school education seriously. At least they were the nice ones you could actually talk to and they weren't the spoilt brats that treated school like summer camp and only had nasty things to say about everyone; students and faculty alike.
Like Francesca Millar-Brown, who sat at the bench closest to the window about two rows in front of me in Chemistry class. She was practically the Queen Bee of the School, the resident Regina George so to speak. Her father was the owner of a chemical company that mainly supplied the pharmaceutical and cosmetics industry and was probably the richest parent of any kid at the whole school. She was incredibly privileged, obnoxious, narcissistic and just downright horrible, even to her gaggle of minions who practically copied her on almost every way; down to her hair, her make up and the way she acted. It was so dumb.
Chemistry, third period was going to be fun. The class had filled, there were only about sixteen of us in this class and I always sat with Katie. Francesca was sat with her head minion Louise Wandsworth who I'm pretty sure took this class just because Francesca did. The bell had rang and as if on cue, Auntie Morrigan breezed in wearing a white unbuttoned lab coat, holding some books in her left arm and a reusable coffee cup in her right hand. She laid down the books on her desk in front of a desktop PC.
'Good afternoon everyone, how we all doing?' She sounded cheerful. Most of the class answered back with "good afternoon" or "hello Miss." All except Francesca who was busy clenching the end of an expensive looking pen between her teeth. She had obviously taken notice of my Aunts accent.
'Wow I didn't know they were letting the cleaners teach now.' Francesca guffawed, earning a stifled giggle from her minion Louise.
I watched as my Auntie M stood at her desk at the head of the classroom, with one hand on her hip as she drank out of her coffee mug. I watched her eyes focus on Francesca.
'Ah! Shit!'
Francesca was squealing expletives now as the end of her pen had apparently exploded all in her mouth and round her face, The black ink had instantly stained pretty much all the right side of her face, down her neck and up to her cheekbone. She even had some on her right hand, ruining her immaculate manicure.
'Nice one Auntie M.' I thought to myself.
'Thank you.' I heard her voice clear in my head. She was smirking ever so slightly, hiding behind her coffee cup. Francesca was still squealing and flapping her hands about in some kind of dramatic panic, with the occasional heaving sound coming out of her as the ink had got in her mouth. Her minion had a pack of pocket tissues out and was attempting to help her friend but Francesca just snatched them off her like the ungrateful cow she was. The rest of the class were either silently giggling at her, or they were sat in awe at what had just happened..
'Now, Miss Millar-Brown. If you're quite done with your snarky comments and irritating flapping, go clean yourself up before that ink dries, go see the school nurse and see if she has some isopropyl alcohol or hand sanitizer.'
'Why would I want that?' Francesca sneered.
'Alcohol dissolves ink.' Auntie M said dryly.
Francesca sighed heavily and grabbed her stuff before hurrying out of the classroom, trying to cover her face with the ink stained tissues. Louise looked like she was about to get up and follow her leader who was rushing out of the door. Auntie M just glared at her and she instantly sat back down.
'I'm not gonna get any trouble out of you am I?'
'No Miss.' Louise replied looking a little sheepish.
'Right then class. My name is Miss Taylor. And before you ask, yes I am Madelyn's Aunt.'She stood with a fancy tablet in her hand which she was scribbling on with a stylus. Our classrooms were quite tech based so there were screens on the main walls were a traditional blackboard should be. The screen on ours was now showing "Miss Taylor" in my Aunts own writing.
Everybody in the class turned to look at me. I could've done without Auntie M saying it but I guess it was better being brought to light sooner rather than later. And I guess it was better being out instead of being gossiped about behind our backs. The funny thing is, a lot of the guys in my class sort of turned to me and nodded in approval.
'Now I know Mrs Clarkson, God rest her, was taking you through Organic Chemistry so we'll continue on from there. Organic Chemistry can be difficult, but it's not as complicated as everybody thinks. I'll try and make this subject easier to understand and more importantly, fun because understanding Organic Chemistry means understanding how life works. How does that sound guys?'
The whole class was sat nodding away and smiling, I haven't actually seen my class on board with what a teacher had to say.
'Great! Now everybody get your lab coats on and your safety gear out and ready. I'm gonna show you how to make soap.'
Everybody just sort of looked at each other in slight confusion. Making soap? Some of my classmates mouthed. My Auntie M noticed everybody looking a touch perplexed and decided to explain why. Auntie M started looking a little concerned, I think she was wondering what Mrs Clarkson had actually taught us up to now. She slumped her shoulders and sighed.
'Saponification, consists of combining fats or oils with an alkali to cause a reaction that converts said fats or oils in to soap. So that's taking an organic compound and mixing it with an inorganic compound to create something...' Auntie M trailed off as she was scribbling down key words on her tablet that were appearing on screen. The class looked a bit dumbfounded.
'Why don't I just show you to begin with. Gather round folks.'