Chapter 2- Booklist

Clair woke-up the next day feeling sick and exhausted. It took her ten minutes to get out of bed. She couldn't understand why until she checked time: It said 7:42. She moaned as she steadily stomped down to breakfast where she noticed her mum holding a letter.

When she looked closer, she noticed it was a book list. "Eep," she thought to herself, after she realised what it meant.

"Mum, where not going to Booklist Cove, are we?" tilting her head to see the rest of it. Her mum waved it in front of her with a smile and said, "I know you don't like the boring drive down to Western Australia, so I asked your sister to give us a lift..."

Clair's eye's widened a bit as she straitened out her head. Her sister, Tabetha, was 30 and worked at a Rex port depot in Perth, exactly where they're going. Clair was excited because she hadn't seen her sister in 2 year's.

"She's coming by plane so be on your behaviour. It's small but fast so it won't be a long trip." teased her mother, "Also, you can talk to her about Sorcerer all you like because there will be Witch's and Wizard's on the plane with some mortal's that know about it, so ask her about it to re-assure your nerves, OK?"

Clair looked up at her again and nodded then realised, "wait, is Jordan going to be there?" Jordan was Clair's older brother. He was 29 and worked as an accountant in Queensland, and a bit like Tabetha, Clair hadn't seen him in 5 year's. Her mother thought then shook her head, un-sure.

Clair sighed with relief and started to eat breakfast. When they were done eating and getting ready- Clair changed into a green shirt and white shorts, while her mother changed into a blue and white, striped long sleeved blouse and white pants -they stepped outside. Mrs. Winday drove a mile, then stopped and waited in front of a runway of desert. They sat down and waited awhile until they saw something come towards the runway. When it came closer, they noticed it was a small, white coloured plane coming in for landing.

"Alright Clair. It must be Tabetha; remember to be on your best behaviour!" said her mum as the plane came gliding in.

When the plane landed, the door opened and out stepped a tall, beach blond girl, with light pink skin, bright green eyes and a white, plain coat. As she stepped down to meet them, she said, "Come on in, I have a little surprise for you." Stepping back into the plane.

As they got in, Tabetha took her coat off to reveal a blue office shirt and skirt. She pointed at four seat's near the front, with one occupied by a young man. Clair took a glance at him and was sure she recognized him.

When they got to the seat's, Clair held her breath in vain. Sitting there was a tall looking, scrappy blond guy wearing a dark blue office suit. When they came over, he looked up, with his dark green eyes, then said, "Hey, sis, what's up." Then he smirked.

"I thought you said Jordan wasn't coming." Clair interruption looked disappointed as she took a seat next to her brother. Her sister came back and took a seat between Clair and there mum.

Her mother replied, "no I didn't: I said that I didn't know."

"So, what's up Clair. Looking after mum?" asked Tabetha while they were buckling up for take-off. Clair nodded. She was still getting up the courage to ask her about Sorcerer. It was hard, specially since her brother was there, plus, he would probably laugh the second she asked the question.

It took Clair twenty minutes until she said anything, "Um, Tabetha," She looked around at Clair curiously, with her brother listening intently, "What's Sorcerer like?" She whispered, pushing her brother away slightly. Her sister pounded in the question.

"Well," she began, "It's not so bad, trust me. Most of the people there are nice, but I think you should keep away from Dr. Mist. He's a pretty shady character, but if you steer clear of him, you'll be fine. We use to go to school with him: We cracked up when we heard that he became a teacher," She finished off with a smile and faced her mum to finish there conversation.

Clair felt better after that. "Something is strange about this," she thought and realised that her brother hadn't responded to her question. Normally he would tease her about it; but no, he was just staring out the window.

***

When they landed there, Mrs. Winday decided to split them in two. Tabetha went with their mum and Clair went with Jordon. They just shrugged and wondered into Booklist Cove to get her books while the other two went to get the other utensil's.

Booklist Cove, as the name suggests, is a place where you got your books and other gear for magic school. It was located near Perth, so it alway's had a fresh breeze blowing in. It was protected by, what one would call, a distance spell where the place would magically move unwanted eyes if they got within eyeshot.

As they walked into the town, Clair turned to Jordon and asked, "What are you playing at? Why aren't you annoying me like you usually do!"

Jordon stopped and turned to face her with his hands on his hips. He bent down and said, "Look, I... have things on my mind, okay!" and he turned away.

"How come you get to look like dad and I'm stuck looking like mum. I know it's not a big deal, but with pictures that I've seen of dad and stuff..." she waffled on a bit as Jordon whirled around in surprise. She just continued to walk on. He followed her as they went to get her books.

As they went to get the last of her books, a bazaar thing happened: An old women walked past them and stopped. She whirled around to face them and said, "Oh, hello there, Clair." Clair whirled around herself and looked at her stunned.

"Excuse me, were you... ah, talking to- me," asked Clair and turned around for support from Jordon; but, he wasn't there. Clair started to worry. Where is he, she thought. Had she got lost while getting her books, or had she wondered off on her own, or even, magically?

She turned to the old women who was still there. The crone was at least a head smaller then Clair with her buff grey hair tightly wrapped in a bun. She also had dark eyebrows, which seemed to always squint. Her wrinkly skin only matched up to her grey-green dress that looked like a cross between a robe and a kimono. It went down far, covering her feet.

"Do you think you could help me with my shopping, dear? It's really hard for someone like me you know." the old women asked.

"May I ask what your name is, please..." asked Clair, but the old lady just said, "No time for that now, you need to help me shop and get you back to your brother, Jordon, before he gets worried," Clair was shocked that she knew about her brother, "I saw him with you before."

"Oh," said Clair. So off they went, finding these weird ingredients and bazaar objects in the city.

First they went into a potion shop called The house of herbs for some herbs- obviously. Clair looked around at all the weird names of herbs that screamed out horror, litterly. The old lady decided to buy scented herbs and they left the shop.

The next shop they went to was a fancy Wicca shop. It was called Life measures. It was really weird and looked like you went into a forest where the unicorns lived. The old women went over to a shelf of amulets and charms and grabbed a necklace, a tiny, unicorn statue, an ornament of some type and a sparkling flute. Many objects within here had colourful, recoil magic dribbling off it.

Clair held the items while the old lady paid and they went to get something to eat.

They went into a small cafe and bought a vanilla shake for Clair and a tea for the old women. Clair collapsed onto a chair, shocked at how fast the old woman could walk. Clair just starred, depressed, as she finished her shake while the old women made sure she had everything.

"Here," said the old women, giving Clair a necklace, "I want you to have it for helping me out today."

"Oh, thank you ma'am." said Clair politely. They packed up and left the cafe. Clair just shoved it into her pocket carefully, not having a glance until she thought it was safe from prying eyes.

As they walked, the old women said, "it will be a pleasure teaching you Miss. this year. Now make sure you wear that when you come to my class, right, here's young Jordon now."

Clair just starred at her, shocked. "Teacher," she murmured to herself.

"Where were you! I was looking everywhere..." Jordon stopped dead as he noticed the old lady, "Oh, hello Mrs. Madison." he finished both dreamily and shocked.

"Hang on, I thought Dr. Madison was a man?" asked Clair suspiciously. She knew a lot about the teachers at the school, but who wouldn't with two, much, older siblings that went to the school prior. Both Clair's brother and sister had went to mortal schools before they went to Sorcerer, so they knew how nervous she was.

She looked over at Jordon as he starred sub-consciously at the Doctor, "Don't be so rude. Come on, mum's waiting outside the city." And they left the city and arrived at the plane just in time for it to land.

While Clair was on the plane, she had fallen asleep. She had the strangest dream- even stranger then the one of the night before...

She found herself in a dark chamber with stone pillars and red wood supporting the brown walls. Red and yellow recoil magic accompanied the light from the torches as they splashed themself across the walls as she heard voice drifting towards her from behind. Some cloaked people appeared through the depths of the darkness. All she could see was there ever black-blue cloaks and a pendant of a sword with a snake curling itself around it.

"Where am I," she thought to herself then quickly looked down at herself: she was wearing the very same cloak with no pendant on it. She had the hood over her head. But something else caught her eye: As she looked closely at one of them, she notice he was wearing a different pendant then the others. It looked exactly the same as the pendant on that necklace that Mrs. Madison gave Clair before. It had an emerald chain, and a silver cross with a white crescent behind it. Some of them were holding torches.

"It is time brothers and sisters, time to get rid of it. Time to make it disappear," said one of them as they reached a wooden, brown door; it had no handle. Clair pinned herself to a wall, hoping to get a glimpse of what was behind it.

The man who had spoken before, quite a tall man, lifted the torch he was holding and placed it in front of the door. The ground began to shake as the door stumbled open. Inside revealed a brown, stone pillar that wasn't that much lower then Clair's neck. On it was a white, deck calendar with the number 26 on it, and on the right was an hourglass that was almost three quarters empty at the top.

At that moment, she felt some sort of enlightenment. It happened to be the 26th, and it was almost 6 O'clock, pm. Looking at these made her realise something: these two pieces of knowledge will always be in her mind, and that she will never need a watch, or calendar again- because she will have these always.

She suddenly found herself on the plane, being shoved off the lap of her brother.

"About time you woke-up, sleeping beauty. How can you sleep vainly like that I'll never know," she lift herself up, still getting her senses together. She wondered if that was just an ordinary dream she had when she looked down at her watch: It said 5:50 pm.

"Something is wrong, very wrong," she thought as she and her mother left the plane. They waved goodbye to her brother and sister and went home. When they arrived, she went straight to bed after that exciting day, un-known to the excitement of tomorrow.