Triora's Trial

II

The school bus has just approached the large square in front of Triora's High School, as a crowd of students invade the school gates. It's like watching a flock of sheep entering their paddock, with the only difference that sheep are usually well-behaved.

Olivia and Tobia join the crowds and set foot into the school of the Ordinary, that they've been attending since they moved to Triora in August. The school is actually pretty nice, so the twins do not really mind going there, except for having to wake up so early as the Ordinary do. In Maleventum, in the South of Italy, where Olivia and Tobia are from, Sorcery School would not start until 10 a.m., and even though Olivia does not miss Maleventum at all, she does miss her morning routine.

Apart from having to wake up very early (yes, 7 a.m. is considered 'very early' in the world of witches and wizards), Olivia appreciates that teachers in her new school are not evil spinsters (they are just ordinary spinsters), as they were in her old school. Also, she loves the fact that from now on she would never have to be crucified publicly for 15 hours straight in front of school just because she didn't know a magic spell by heart, and neither did she miss being hung upside down in the potions' cellar after chuckling with a friend during black magic class.

In her new school, teachers would normally treat students with kindness and respect, and it was surprising for her to see that, somehow, it was the students who disrespected the teachers. Where she is from, students would never even think about talking back to teachers, unless they would want to suffer, I guess. The ordinary world seemed odd at times and, compared to the world of witches and wizards, some things seemed to work the other way round.

One thing that she has learnt to appreciate about the ordinary world is that ordinary humans have a soft spot for dogs: cute little dogs, sturdy big ones, they came in a thousand different ways. She knew that also in Maleventum the Ordinary would like to own dogs, but she never realized how much they really loved these animals until she arrived in Triora.

Olivia still remembers the first time she was able to pet a dog. It was an old lady's golden retriever that she crossed on the street on one of the first days after her arrival in Triora. The dog approached her on the street, the wagging of its tail was so cute, as was the old lady herself. Differently from people her age, the elderly in the ordinary world were usually good people. They talked for a while and then the lady told Olivia that she could pet the dog if she wanted to. She had never touched a dog before, because cats can feel when you've had contact with dogs, and they would refuse to even come close to you for a long time if you have touched one, which is exactly what her cat Felix did after she petted that dog. She just couldn't fight the temptation.

When Olivia returned home, not only did Felix stay as far as he could from her, but he stopped talking to her for almost a year. He would not even look her in the eyes and he would just live his life with the family as if she had never existed. Now, even if he hasn't officially forgiven her (in spite of Olivia's most heart-felt repentance), and wouldn't miss any opportunity to remind her how fool she was for petting that dog, Felix speaks to her again and seems to have left that episode in the past.

Olivia had always been surprised at how easily dogs will let you touch them and pet them (they are the opposite to cats when it comes to that). In Triora she even noticed that dogs are generally happy when they see a human (also different from cats), unless humans have treated them badly. In that unfortunate case, they would behave suspiciously and would try to avoid humans, which Olivia thought was pretty fair and possibily even too soft. She expected that they could at least bite them or bark at them, but what they generally do is run away instead, or try to hide, disapper from sight. The reason why they would not react against their human oppressors was still unknown to her, given that most dogs would prove to be stronger than humans if they wanted to (well, maybe not the little shaky ones she saw being carried around in women's bags, but most of the others would definitely be).