Inside the potions lab at the Otherworlder Academy, Inez Hidalgo, Cameron Baker, and Aidan O'Brien are working on a project that the headmaster of the new school, a fellow Enchanted named Headmaster Pierce, assigned them moments ago.
Inez stands behind a colossal lab table situated at the front of the classroom, wearing an apron, gloves, and a see-through mask for protection. She examines the various bubbling liquids in the cone-shaped flasks resting on the burners before her.
Smiling to herself, she lifts up a beaker, half-filled with shockingly blue crystals, and inspects its contents closer, ensuring she has just the right amount, according to Stanford Merriweather's Guide to Potions and Elixirs.
"Really, Inez?" Cameron, who's standing a few feet behind her, leans forward to get a better peek at the experiment. "Do you really think it's a good idea to mix iron sulfate and goblin ore?" His brows rise in question. "I've never heard of that particular combination."
"Yes, Cam! I do!" Inez snaps back playfully. "I think it's a brilliant idea, if I do say so myself," she coos with fake grandiosity. "Anyway, the assignment says to find a way to stabilize the goblin ore so that it doesn't release its arsenic fumes when it comes into contact with fire. I may be a Seer, but I do know my chemistry."
"Well, I've always been taught to use potassium, but..." Cameron raises his hands as he takes a few cautious steps backward, "...whatever. You're the one in charge," he responds.
Aidan, sitting with his feet propped up on a student desk, tossing a hacky sack ball from hand to hand asks, "What's goblin ore?"
"Aidan, honestly!" Inez rolls her eyes as she chastises him for his academic laziness. "It's cobalt. Don't you ever pay attention in class?"
"Have you seen my grades, Inez?" Aidan chuckles. "It's a lost cause. I mean, seriously, it's a good thing I'm a Spirit Guardian because if anyone put me in charge of potions and elixirs, well, the school would blow up or I'd end up burning it down."
Inez and Cameron laugh because they know the statement is true.
Inez gets back to work, adjusting the flames underneath her beaker. She carefully adds the iron sulfate to it. The concoction sparks and sizzles before she covers it carefully with a glass hood.
Aiden watches her for a moment, then asks, "Are you going to poison us, Inez?"
"Seriously, Aidan?" Inez cocks her head in response. "Oh, ye of little faith. That's what the glass case is for, silly." She taps it lightly with her finger. "It's fortified."
Aidan looks over at Cameron, who just shrugs. "Even though I'm the resident Mage," Cameron says. "I have to admit, she's the best chemist among us, so we should probably give her the benefit of the doubt."
"Yeah, you're probably right." Aidan agrees.
Inez looks up and arches a brow as her voice rises in irritation. "Probably? Probably? Precisely who was it that was first in our class in almost every subject, including chemistry, and also volunteered to handle our potions project for the day?"
Quickly, Cameron and Aidan realize their mistake.
"Oh, no, I meant definitely, definitely the best chemist out of all of us," Cameron nods as he corrects himself.
"Right!" Aidan straightens in his chair, eyes wide. "By far the best out of the three of us, for sure! Perhaps the best I've ever known!" he adds.
Inez rolls her eyes in response.
Both boys know that Inez actually likes to take charge during these group assignments, just to ensure that everyone, especially her, got an "A."
And while they considered her to be a truly lovely person-perky in her attitude and modest in her demeanor-she didn't take kindly to people underestimating her abilities, and neither of them wanted to piss her off and get stuck writing up the final report.
Aidan decides to change the subject. "So when are we going to meet these other students?" he asks as he gets up from the desk and makes his way over to the tall lead glass windows that line the castle walls.
"I heard the Vamp kids arrived last night, but I haven't seen any of them. And when are the Shifter kids getting here?" Aidan asks as he peers down into the main courtyard.
"That's a good question." Cameron ponders.
Having successfully finished her experiment, Inez jots down her notes and then joins Aidan at the window. Suddenly, she catches sight of something very interesting down in the quad-two guys and a girl walking into the courtyard with Crick, the head butler and house manager. "Wait. Is that them? The Shifters?" Inez asks.
Cameron stands behind her and looks out over her shoulder. "I think so," he concludes. And while Inez stares out into the courtyard, barely noticing how close Cameron's standing next to her, he gets a whiff of her hair-that intoxicating floral scent from the shampoo she uses. As lab partners at Willowbrook, the Enchanted Academy, he was constantly caught off-guard by that alluring smell.
"I wonder why they didn't start last week, like we did." Inez asks.
"Hmmm...?" Cameron, distracted, has his eyes on Inez instead of looking out the window. Honestly, he could care less about the new kids arriving, especially since they were Shifters. And with all the gossip he'd heard about Shifters, well, Inez was far more worth his time and attention.
Aidan quips, out of the blue, "I heard they had to build a separate chamber in the basement to disinfect them before they could be let into the school."
"Aidan!" Inez squeals as she punches him in the arm.
"Ow!" Aidan laughs as he rubs the spot where she hit him. "Bloody hell, Inez! That hurt!"
"Good!" she retorts. "It was a terrible thing to say!"
"I know. I know!" Aidan admits. "I'm just tellin' ya what I heard."
"No, seriously." Inez says. "Attitudes like that are exactly why we know so little about them. We don't know anything about their culture, their history, how they learn, or even entertain themselves. I think that's why...
Inez turns to look at the boys and is startled to find Cameron standing so close to her.
"...a mystery to us?" she says as her voice fades. Only inches apart, they stare at each other for a moment too long before they both turn away.
Cameron can't help but think, if they were alone right now, he'd probably kiss her...
...again.
After a beat, he shakes his head, snapping himself out of his daze. He takes a step back from her to put some distance between them.
Their relationship was still a bit... well, strained. Even though the kiss they'd shared late one night in the Alchemy library at their old school was good-like, really, really good-ever since that night, she'd been kind of weird around him, even going so far as to avoid him altogether, which had him a bit baffled.
Not to be arrogant or anything, but-truth be told-he was a catch. Blond, good-looking, athletic, and from a very good family, he'd never had to work this hard to get a girl.
And even though most of the folks at their old school considered him a player, he actually wasn't. Okay, true. He did have girls constantly fawning over him, which-to be honest-was kind of annoying. But he rarely hooked up with them, despite how it looked from the outside.
And he thought that, after finally getting to know each other better, Inez knew that about him-knew he was more than just his playboy reputation, knew that overall, he was a pretty good guy.
Since they'd clicked so well over the past year as lab partners, he'd just presumed that, like him, she wanted to get together. But maybe he'd read the signs wrong.
Maybe he'd read her wrong...
Cameron turns and walks back over to the lab table.
"Gee, 'Nez, I don't know too much about Shifters." He says as he keeps his head down and tinkers with the alchemy equipment, pretending the moment between them hadn't just happened.
"From what I understand," he says, "they almost never leave their province, and when they do, they hole up in camps on the outskirts of town-kind of like gypsies." he explains. "I've never dealt with one before. In fact, I think I've only seen a Shifter once, maybe twice, in my life."
"Yeah, I've never run into one either," Aidan says with a shudder. "Thank the gods!"
"Well, you're going to meet a bunch of them soon," Inez says as she leans against the windowsill. "The Headmaster scheduled an orientation meeting for all of us in the library first thing in the morning."
"Ugh!" Aidan moans as he sinks back into the desk chair. He lets his head fall back and complains to the ceiling. "This is shite! Absolute shite! I was planning to sleep in late tomorrow."
Gazing down into the courtyard, Inez zeroes in on one Shifter in particular: dark, muscular, mysterious. Could he be Mexican like herself? South American, perhaps? Or possibly Native American? Who knows? Who cares! Whatever he was, whoever he was, he was the most beautiful and intriguing boy she'd ever seen in her life.
With an unfamiliar sensation fluttering deep in her belly and her heart beating just a little too fast, Inez says softly, more to herself than anyone else in the room. "I don't know. Despite what you guys said..." She cracks a slow smile. "They don't look so scary to me."
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A/N - My word! Deepening the story by turning it from script into prose is really turning out to be fun! I'm learning so much more about the characters. For you OG's, it's definitely worth a re-read.😊
~ Paula ❤️