The Black Time

STML, maybe?

Short Chapter warning, guys!!

Jessica left thanking. Lucinda, as said, returned at the sleeping time, while Jessica ensured Devin and Jackson, that she was fine. At night, Lucinda pressed the button used to disappear the ceiling and slept with the moonlight reflecting on her face.

Though Jessica and Jackson had ensured him that Lucinda was not angry, Devin wasn't convinced until the other morning, when Lucinda herself came to meet him.

"Hi Lucinda!" Devin welcomed as she entered his room at nine in the morning. She was wearing a frock quite different from the one she had worn on the day before. "I am sorry, about what happened yesterday. I hope you are not angry."

"Are you kidding me? Why on the earth would I be angry on you because of that half-imp? What is an imp, by the way?"

"Wow. Can't believe you got stuck with one!"

"Well, they are not actually 'wow' creatures."

"Yeah, right, sorry." Devin realized what his half-imp had done.

"From where did you get all these injuries?" Devin asked looking at the bandages she had put on her hands and ankle.

"Oh, this is nothing.... I just" she added as he raised his eyebrows. "I just got burned. I went to the Dragon Zoo to get a hair of the dragon's tail for my wand."

"Fine, so you might want some plants for your wand?"

"Yes I want the leaves of Moly herb and petals of a closed Fern flower."

"All yours!" He offered gesturing towards the garden. "But that combination won't go with dragon tail hair," he added thoughtfully.

"I know. I am trying my own combination."

"Really?"

Lucinda nodded in response

That day, they had Spell Casting. Lucinda entered the class with Jessica and Jackson. Until that point, they hadn't realized how many people they knew. They met Ethan, Chancy, Darien (Lucinda's best friend's little brother), Antonia and her brother Antonio.

The three of them sat together on the first bench. Lucinda however sat between Jessica and Jackson to prevent them from fighting. Devin, however, sat with a girl named Layla. Spell Casting were taken by Jessica's aunt.

The first charm they learned was tickling charm which they had to perform on each other.

The first three did it correct, but the fourth one started laughing so hard that he, by mistake, casted a spell that made the whole start laughing. Some of them doubled up and some of them were on all their fours, banging the floor with their fists. Even the teacher was unable to reverse the spell. At last the teacher flicked her finger and said "Haultenchante!"

On this, nearly everyone stopped laughing.

Everyone was breathing hard. The next charm they did was crunching charm. They had to concentrate hard on an empty cold drink can and had to crunch it.

"You need to concentrate hard and need to have some patience!" Jessica told Jackson as his can started moving away.

"You know what Jessica, you look worse than a blobfish, so kindly keep you ugly, largemouth shut!" these words left Jackson's mouth before he realized. And Lucinda could tell he didn't mean it, but she knew he was egoistic enough to not apologize.

"Shut up both of you! I am trying to concentrate!" Lucinda interveined. Her can looked like an elephant had stepped on it.

"You have already crunched your can. Crunch it some more and it will look like this blobfish."

On these words, Jessica tucked out her hair from behind her ears to hide her face and Lucinda had a strong feeling that she was crying. Lucinda opened her mouth to say something but closed it as they heard a scream. A boy named Aiden was acting as though someone was crunching him. He was shouting for help.

Then they heard hurried footsteps and saw the queen of the Southern part of the gem land at the classroom door, "What happened? Is everything all right?" there was fear in her eyes when she spoke.

"Just a spell rebounding." said the teacher.

Now, everyone was looking from the queen to the teacher to Aidan.

"Don't worry, I'll help you out!" the queen soothed. She pointed her finger at Aidan and gave a vertical flick and Aidan straightened up.

"What happened to me?" Aidan asked as he stood up from the

floor.

"What am I doing here?" the queen asked. Everyone looked confused. No one knew why they were staring at Aidan. Even Lucinda was not sure why she was looking at Aidan.

"Weird!" Jessica muttered as they sat on the table to take lunch.

"What's weird blobfish?" Jackson asked. Jessica ignored him.

"One moment you are teasing Jessica and the next moment we are seeing Aidan standing up and the queen is standing there not knowing what she is doing there! How is it possible?" Lucinda asked.

"STML, maybe?" Jackson asked.

"You mean to say that 22 people have faced short term memory loss together at the same time? Huh Jackson?" Lucinda asked.

"I-I didn't say anything!" Jackson cried.

"No...I heard you!"

"He didn't say anything, Lucinda!" Jessica said gently.

"It's a very lame joke, okay?" Lucinda cried looking taken aback.

"What is happening to me? I swear he said it! But why would they joke? Am I going mad?" she thought.

"I swear I didn't say anything?" Jackson spoke keepinghis hand on Lucinda's shoulder. Lucinda shrugged.