“You’ll do amazing.” She grins and winks. “You always do. I’ve never seen you so down so stop it. I need my amazing best friend back.”
Soon other kids begin filing in, followed by Mrs. Palmer.
She makes her way to the front of the class and pulls out her attendance list. After the bell rings and attendance is taken, her eyes find me. “Since we have some that didn’t pass yesterday, I thought it would be best to go over that first thing.”
Shit, first thing? There goes the little bit of cushion I was hoping I’d have to calm down.
“All right, let’s head back into the assessment room.” She grabs a piece of paper off her desk. “Let’s get this over with so we can focus on our next lesson on channeling them to their appropriate afterlife.”
The room hushes and the girl on the other side of me murmurs in excitement.
This is our senior year; the final year before we get to devote all our time to training with our parents for the next two years, so we have to prove we can master these last two skills. Charlie passed with flying colors and I’m struggling on the first task. What the hell is wrong with me?
A couple of people stand up in the front and then some of the class behind me follows their lead. I don’t want to get up. That just means I’m heading to my potential failure.
“You’ve got this.” Christina’s hand lays on my shoulder. “Be the confident best friend I’ve always known.”
I’m not sure that person is anywhere around right now. I take a deep breath and force a smile. “Of course, I’ve got this.” I grab her arm and follow the rest of the class toward my doom.
When we walk into the room, my eyes find my parents. Holy shit. I didn’t think they would be here first thing. I guess when Mom mentioned Dad would be home in a few minutes, she truly meant a few minutes. I wish they could miss this.
Dad winks at me at me and leans back against the wall, giving me a thumbs up. He mouths, “You are going to nail this.”
“Wait, Beth.” Mom grabs Dad’s hand and pulls him over to me. “We want to talk to you for a minute.”
I glance around and take a few steps away from my class. “What’s up?”
“Well.” Dad smiles at me and reaches out to put both hands on my shoulder. “You are capable of this. I know doing this in front of everyone is nerve wracking but ignore them. Pretend it’s just you. Just do what feels natural. What is natural.”
That’s easy for him to say. Both him and Charlie were the top of their classes. I didn’t struggle until now.
“Honey,” Mom reaches out and cups my cheeks. “Just remember, without you people would die and their spirits wouldn’t be able to find their afterlife. They would spend their time wandering Earth and our world would fall out of balance. We’re like guardians of balance and maybe if you look at it that way, it might make it all click into place.”
That’s true, and she’s right. But I don’t know why I’m struggling. But here with my parents surrounding me, it’s hard not to believe everything will be okay.
Dad lets me go and takes mom’s hand. “We gotta head back over there. But, also, as soon as we leave here, we both have an assignment to attend to, so it’s going to be later before we get back home.”
Wow, another assignment. Sometimes, you may not have an assignment for a day or two and sometimes you can have them back to back. Dad goes out on more than Mom, but not by many. “Okay, thanks for letting me know.”
He bops me on the nose. “Just remember we’re here for you. And you’re going to nail this.” He winks at me and they both return to their place by the wall.
Here’s hoping he’s right. I walk over to my teacher who is standing next to the dummy.
“All right,” Mrs. Palmer turns to me. “Let’s try this again.” She motions toward the dummy. “Please take your place.”
I close my eyes and take a deep breath, and then make my way to the dummy. I can feel whatever life force spell they put around it. Yesterday I couldn’t, so either they had a witch put a stronger spell on it for me or I’m more in touch with my magic today. I’m hoping it’s the latter.
My hands shake as I reach out to the dummy. My stomach churns, and I push all those thoughts aside. I’ve got to accomplish this. Once my hands are on the dummy, I lock into the life force and something inside me shifts. It’s almost as if it’s trying to kick start, but it still falls flat.
This has to work. I can’t give up. I’ve heard rumors if you fail, your family is stripped of their rank but it’s hearsay. I’m not sure what the true repercussions are.
A chuckle distracts me, and it’s followed by a boy’s voice. “She’s messing up again. She’s going to be a working in the mansion in no time flat.”
“Why don’t you just keep your mouth shut?” Christina’s tone is soft and angry. “She’s going to show us all up. It’s all just a matter of time.”
I’ve never been on this side of the fence before and had people making fun of me. Not too long ago, it was me there standing up for Christina. The ripped picture from this morning pops into my head and whatever was beginning to work inside me disappears.
Holy shit. I’m not going to pass this. I stand and tears pool in my eyes.
“That’s enough.” Mrs. Palmer appears beside me and shakes her head. “I thought you had it for a minute.” She sighs and pinches the
