Chapter 23
The next morning was my Intro to Familiars I midterm, and I was shocked but not surprised when it was a much bigger production than was agreed upon. Honestly, I was annoyed that I hadn’t seen it coming with the way sexist men could be so petty and lived to put women in their “place.”
Wyatt was furious at how many turned out with their familiars and were trying to stack the deck so high against me it was beyond ridiculous. And the fact they were trying to interject themselves into the midterm of one student when they had no authority to do so… Ridiculous didn’t even cover it.
So while he argued, I pulled out my phone and sent a text to the headmaster. Then I started recording so he could really get a lock on the situation.
It wasn’t needed because he circled in behind it all and had a prime seat to witness the madness firsthand.
“Enough!” he bellowed after about five minutes. “This isn’t what was agreed upon.”
“Not even remotely, but I thought you would want to see how the children behaved behind your back,” I drawled, snorting when people gave me pissed looks.
Or several were like I was nuts to be so bold right then.
I simply rolled my eyes. “I’m not demeaning the headmaster to say he’s a cat and the rodents are playing while he’s away. ”
“That’s not the idiom,” someone muttered to me.
“No, but it’s accurate at the moment,” I purred before focusing on Wyatt. “I’ll do it. I’ll handle all of them. Because I can and I’m that damn impressive. We both know it. Just make sure no one interferes, if you please.”
“It will be their job if they do,” Headmaster Kerwynn warned and luckily, the people around us weren’t stupid enough to think he was bluffing.
We also had a huge audience instead of in the lecture hall. For some reason, this was now being done on the quad and that pissed me off. I turned to my security who had already asked for more guards. I felt better when I saw Link there.
“Kill the phones. I’m not a damn circus animal for people,” I told him.
“Agreed,” he bit out, waiting until Kerwynn nodded.
He adjusted his neck when people started bitching.
“Shut it!” He glanced back at Kerwynn. “With permission, I suggest a barrier around Ms. Millen to make sure no one tries an ill-timed prank now that could be laid at her feet if familiars were injured.”
“Is that why it was done outside in the open instead of the safety of the lecture hall?” someone asked, their voice cold.
I didn’t know who asked, but I wouldn’t put it past someone. Probably someone who didn’t offer their own familiar. I snorted when I saw several of the administration suddenly not liking the plan.
Idiots.
I shared a look with Wyatt and knew he’d be investigating who pulled the location switch at least. Good.
Thanking Link when he put up the barrier and got involved, I moved into the area with the two original familiars. The next arguments were the “extras” weren’t going to stand outside of the barrier while their familiar was inside.
“That’s your choice and not my problem if you won’t agree to the terms of the assignment when trying to stack the deck against me with an additional ten familiars because of your inept ‘mistake,’” I mocked.
“That’s enough of your sass, Ms. Millen,” one of them snapped.
“‘Sass?’” I chucked. “Am I five? A child you’re scolding like you have some right to?” I glanced at Kerwynn. “Is there some rule against calling out—”
“No, but let the people with the power to do something handle it instead of wasting more of your time,” he cut in, looking annoyed.
And I thought with me this time which made me flinch. It also annoyed me because none of this was my fault.
It also affected my feelings and how the familiars reacted.
The two I was supposed to work with were nervous and upset.
I slapped on the best smile I could and moved over to what I had brought, setting it all up and showing them that there was nothing to be scared of and we were just going to have fun.
When it was clearly going to be a test I aced, the others sent their familiars in.
All. At. Once.
Cute.
I turned and didn’t even acknowledge the warlocks, only the familiars.
“You will be kind and respectful if you wish to join this party where we will be having fun. I am the hostess, and I know you are not animals who don’t know what that means.
Behave in a way befitting your warlocks and do not embarrass them. ”
Instantly, they all froze realizing they could go against their most default setting by doing what their warlocks had wanted.
Which was why the warlocks trying to trip me up were beyond idiots and I was so hell-bent on mocking them. Like… Really?
“May I please have a treat?” the first asked when they didn’t seem to know what to do next.
“Are you going to be a troublemaker or are you going to enjoy our nice party here and get to know the others here like a polite guest?” I asked him seriously. I nodded and let him join when he said he wanted to have fun and would behave.
One agreeing always made the others get in line. They weren’t people and sometimes idiots forgot that. Also, that familiars weren’t robots who just did whatever they were ordered. They had enough intelligence to weigh choices and the consequences.
“Yes, yes, you can join us, Quinn,” I chuckled when I felt how agitated he was at being left out.
Almost immediately, I had him sitting next to me and snuggling cutely at my side.
I scratched his ear and reached into my bag.
“I brought fresh berries for you because I knew you’d be good even if you’d want to play with other new friends. ”
“I do like new friends,” he admitted, taking the container. “When you’re around. You make it not scary, Bevin.”
“Thank you, Quinn.” I thanked the others for behaving so well and waited until it was past time for my test to be over before looking at Wyatt.
“You can handle the other midterms you need to. I can hang here with the familiars for the whole period. I’m sure they’re going to complain next that the duration wasn’t really enough to test me adequately. ”
“You called that one,” Link drawled, nodding when I glanced at him. “You must have missed it, but you’re right.”
I snorted. “I know narcissists and men who cannot accept women are as good as them. I grew up with Charles and Alex Shaw.” I smiled when one of the familiars admitted that his warlock just wanted to leave and didn’t know how to get out of the situation now.
“If you have somewhere to be, you can leave. It won’t be rude. I understand and thank you for coming.”
And because I would never hold the actions of a witch or warlock against a familiar, I gave him a treat to have later since that was always the plan. The familiar gave me a few kisses and thanked me before hurrying over to his warlock.
“Yes, well, I do have matters to attend to.” He swallowed down his hostility. “Well done, Ms. Millen, and I appreciate you giving my familiar an introduction to campus.”
Close enough.
No, not really, but it was better than I’d honestly expected from any of them.
But again, it worked, and the others started caving especially with the headmaster watching. I glanced over and saw Wyatt gone when the last of the administrators left.
“He really did need to handle other midterms,” Kerwynn told me quietly. “And you reacted as if I’d yelled at you, so I wanted to clarify that I was simply upset.”
“Forgive me, but it sounded like you were chastising her even to my ears, Headmaster,” Link cut in.
“Maybe a bit because I can’t stand here and allow people to be openly hostile to the faculty and staff even if they deserve it,” he said with a heavy sigh.
That was fair and I said as much, handing over an extra treat for his familiar as an apology. He chuckled and accepted it, telling me to have a good break and he would also handle chewing on some people.
That I believed… I just didn’t know how much the board would let him actually do besides yell or lecture. But it wasn’t my job to worry about it. Link comforted me that he did record a lot of it and sent it to Mrs. Reid, so hopefully she could help Kerwynn at least.
It wasn’t even about me—it really wasn’t.
If the administrators at the “best” college we had were so ridiculous to go against the headmaster’s orders because of their personal beliefs, they all looked like idiots.
And I made it clear that was the stance we should take when I texted it all to Jasmine as well.
But at least it was clear that I aced my midterm.
And I aced my Physical Training I test too. Emma didn’t hide that she was pleased, praising me in front of others for taking it so seriously when the girls had started behind the guys because Coach had been neglecting us… While shooting the new teacher a challenging look.
So something was definitely there.
Not my problem at the moment, and I just wanted to relish the win of doing well for my first midterms. My first real schooling test period. Formal schooling and structure and—no one could ever seriously understand how hard it was at my age to adjust to that.
And apparently, I hadn’t acted like it was that big of a deal because the people close to me were shocked at how relieved I was. Well, I made a big deal about enough, so not everything had to be drama.
Who was I kidding?
In my life?
I just wanted to enjoy being done and having a break. The plan for break was simple. I would have already been at the house, but I needed to have the time to like settle in and go through the rest of everything. Most of it was done but… Fine, I was procrastinating a bit.
It happened.
Either way, I was still on campus for dinner and it was a deep, deep lesson on why not to procrastinate.
The air was off when I walked into the cafeteria.
“Yeah, this is definitely about you,” my guard grumbled.
“Oh good, I’m not paranoid,” I sighed.