“Me, of course,” Bixby answered. “I say we owe it to the mayor to get involved. She’s one of the few people we can trust in this town.”
“Probably,” I said. “But like any politician, she has an agenda and she’s not disclosing what it is.”
Ren unclipped Bijou and let her walk ahead with Bixby. “Maybe the mayor just wants to keep us safe. Legitimately.”
“I’m sure she does,” Sinda said. “But she wasn’t happy Minerva was working at cross-purposes. That was legit.”
Bixby snorted. “The cat didn’t do anything but sit around. What use is a familiar who needs to call in novices to help her overlord?”
“Overlord? Is that what I am, too?” I laughed. “In that case, I have a list of commands for you.”
“List away. Expect me to comply as well as Minerva. If it’s good enough for the mayor, it’s good enough for you.”
Bijou deliberately stepped in front of him but he pushed right under her. For a second, the poodle was lifted off the carpet. “Wiener boy, you are asking for more trouble than you can handle,” Bijou said. “I have skills you can only dream about.”
“What other skills do you have, Beej?” Ren asked. “It would be helpful to know.”
“Helpful for you, not him, Renny. Need to preserve the element of surprise.”
No doubt both dogs had skills we didn’t know about—and a few they didn’t know about.
Sinda gestured to a dormer window with cushioned benches. “How about we sit down and eat the lunches we’re carrying? There’s still time before class.”
My appetite had dwindled but I managed to eat half a sandwich. Since Ren had started supplying the Beanstalk’s baked goods, the quality had gone up. Still, the food felt like sawdust in my mouth and we didn’t have water.
Swallowing, I glanced around at my friends. They looked a little wilted after a tough morning. “Whatever we do, let’s go into that classroom as a united front. Humans and dogs. We may need to work together to outsmart the instructor.”
“Isn’t that counterproductive?” Sinda asked. “We’re here to learn. Maybe we should keep open minds.”
Bixby made a buzzer noise. “No one’s the boss of us, Sinda. You and I escaped oppression to embrace freedom here, remember?”
“Maybe I could phrase it differently,” I said. “Let’s keep an open mind, learn all we can and then rise up to outsmart the instructor.”
Ren laughed now, too. Of all of us, she was the most nervous. Sinda had known most of her life that she had a trace of magic whereas Renata was convinced she was a dud, to use the unflattering colloquial term for the non-magical. None of us brimmed with confidence but I was gradually sealing the leak in the bottom of my cup and Sinda at least believed it was possible to grow in power. That said, I had a feeling the instructor’s number one goal would be to squelch us.
“We’re irrepressible,” Mr. Bixby said. “Like your flowers. Sunny, sturdy and stubborn as all get out.”
“Don’t give Witchy ideas.” Bijou bumped Bixby hard, but his center of gravity was low and he really was sturdy. “Sunflowers in witch school are a bad idea. Bad, bad, bad.”
I rubbed my midriff. “Tell it to my diaphragm. I was doing so well with Ruthann but when Minerva told me to disobey a direct order, I was thrown.”
“She told you nothing,” my dog said. “And you would have disobeyed anyway, am I right?”
“Not necessarily. When it comes to the magical police who create human missiles of destruction, I know when I’m in over my head. My plan had been to stay out of it unless Skye needed help. The ghost dog.”
“More like someone needs Skye’s help,” he said. “Isn’t that how it normally works?”
I nodded. “As far as normal goes, yeah. But now I can’t just stand around and wait for things to unfold. If Minerva is worried about her very powerful—what was your word, Bixby?”
He chuckled. “Overlord.”
“I like it but we’ll pop it into the lexicon for now,” I said.
Sinda tapped her watch and we all got moving again. It took us a few twists and turns in the old halls to find room 210. Our feet slowed on the approach and then stopped. I was trying to figure out what to do about the whole Angus situation before yet another authority figure told me what to do.
“Good plan,” Bixby said. “But never forget, I’ll be here to tell you what to do. Your overlord is always on duty.”
I bent to pick him up. “Can you tamp down your zest for life long enough to make a good impression?”
He slipped out of my grasp. “Nope. Authentic down to the last hair. And I’ll walk in of my own accord. Unless I’m much mistaken, your shock could end in my precipitous descent.”
Bijou’s nose was up, too. “Didn’t see that one coming.”
Uh-oh. A flutter started in my midriff and I knew somewhere—very likely in room 210—someone was welcoming a bouquet.
CHAPTER TWELVE
The instructor sat at the head of the table, head bent and pen scratching on newsprint. Setting the pen down, he said, “How nice of you to join us. Your commute down the hall took longer than all of ours, combined.”
He gestured to several other people seated to my right, but I didn’t turn before blurting,
“Mr. Crossword!”
“Normally I go by Norris or Mr. Strump, but I have no doubt you’ll hear cross words from me at some point, Miss Brighton. You’ve already annoyed me by being late.” He adjusted his omnipresent fedora to see me better. Then he pulled something out of his lap. Make that many somethings. “And trying to curry favor with sunflowers. It isn’t the first time, but you normally stop at one.”
I had indeed sprouted a bloom under his favorite table at the Beanstalk Café before. “It’s not intentional, sir. I have a… a condition, you might say.”
“You might say that. And Liberty might say it, as well. I remember her blunders, and it wasn’t sunflowers. Let’s call this what it is. Anxiety.”
