Lovesick Witches

The Recent Past of the School

It was the morning of my first proper day at Cackle's Academy and I was feeling pretty tired after not getting much sleep in my freezing cold, lonely dormitory room that night. After the tour of the academy Mildred gave me and after meeting some of her friends yesterday, I tried to go to sleep early to be prepared for my first day of lessons, but the lack of heat and the hard bed didn't help with that. Nevertheless, I started the day with a positive and enthusiastic mentality despite my lack of sleep.

I was sitting in the Great Hall, a big and echoey room, with lots of other students, eating breakfast. Well, if you could call it breakfast. It was a sort of watery substance that Miss Tapioca, the school's cook, named "porridge", although the porridge we used to get at Pentangle's seemed far more eatable. I ate it regardless as Mildred said the food was always like that and that I would just have to get used to it. Not a brilliant start to the day but I was determined to maintain a positive attitude.

Mildred was sitting on my right and opposite us sat two of Mildred's friends, Maud and Enid. Both witches were shorter than Mildred and I, Maud with blonde bunches and round glasses, and Enid with darker hair, messily tied into two spacebuns. Both of them seemed just as kind as Mildred and welcomed me into their friendship group which I felt very grateful for. I already felt more settled into the school and lessons hadn't even started yet. Mildred, Maud and Enid were telling me all about the interesting events and incidents which had occurred in the four previous years.

"I didn't even think I was from a witching family," Mildred explained. "I ended up here because I accidentally saved the school after failing my entrance exams. I didn't even realise that magic was real before I came here, but somehow I've ended up as head girl! It's all very mad really. I've been expelled and sent home multiple times but somehow I kept ending up back here."

"That's because you keep saving the school, Mildred," Maud said, enthusiastically.

"I think I've lost count of how many times you have saved us from Agatha!" Enid added.

"Who is Agatha?" I asked curiously.

"Miss Cackle's evil twin sister, "Mildred answered. "She wants nothing more than to take over the academy, so she has tried many times."

"But thanks to Mildred, she has always been stopped and the academy has been saved," Enid said proudly.

Wow, Mildred had done so many amazing things! No wonder she was head girl! My new friends continued to tell me all the ins and outs of the stories and past experiences that they had had at Cackle's and as crazy and scary as they all were, I was so intrigued into this school's bizarre history and just everything about it in general. It was so nice to be filled in with what I had missed as it made me feel so much more welcome and at home.

"And there was this whole thing at the head girl competition when Ethel and Felicity messed with my spell, accidentally turning Miss Cackle into broken glass and therefore kind of letting Agatha take over the school," Mildred explained.

"Again." Enid added before giving a little giggle.

"And then HB sent me to Wormwood's Academy because she thought that it was me who turned Miss Cackle into glass. But that academy is closed now as the teacher there tortured her students," said Mildred.

"Oh. Wow," I said, shocked by this event. I paused for a moment. "Who's HB?"

"Miss Hardbroom," replied Maud, "HB for short. Deputy head mistress and potions teacher here at Cackle's."

"She's VERY strict," Enid said.

"She's nice really," Mildred explained, "But I think she is sometimes afraid to express her emotions in case it hurts her or the people she cares about. And she does care very deeply about people, whether it looks like that or not. She comes across as harsh but she is kind and caring really." 

Enid looked at Mildred and raised an eyebrow. 'I'm guessing Enid doesn't over analyse people in the way Mildred does. Or maybe she just doesn't like Miss Hardbroom,' I thought to myself. 

"Speaking of Miss Hardbroom," Maud said, filling the slightly awkward silence, "we have potions first lesson and I doubt you would want to be late on your first day. Ana, you want HB to have a good first impression of you. So we should probably head over to the potions lab." 

I agreed and the four of us left our porridge bowls and exited the Great Hall, making our way to potions.