Just Stick To The Plan

“Okay so the plan is to never admit to the fault. Just let them speculate.” This is what Jackie kept telling herself as she dug herself deeper and deeper into the mess. She was currently being probed by her school Principal who was threatening to bring her parents and the authorities into the situation. She had to avoid it at all costs. In her defence, she didn’t think that it would get this big. She just needed money and she was using her talents to get it. After all, sharing is caring. It’s not fair, being born poor. You don’t choose your family or your race or anything of the sort. Otherwise, who would choose to be born in the lowest caste. Despite this, Jackie was pretty and skilled; witty and street smart. One had to use all their assets, don’t you think?

She attended Hodgkin’s Mythical Boarding School and needed to keep her scholarship to maintain her education. However, being the eldest meant that she always felt pressured to excel and to be set free from the endless cycle. First, she started with doing others’ homework, writing essays and doing applications for sixth formers. Then, she discovered that she could do charms extremely well. Charms were a tricky thing. They had a signature to them, similar to fingerprints, so they can be traced back to the source. It could be a scent or a taste, or even a lingering feeling. Regardless, this is why persons never dabbled in any illegal or strong charms because they did not want to be traced.

While staying at the lab during lunch period; something that usually would not be allowed but since she was a model student, it was. She decided to do a cloaking spell and then do the charm. This sounds simple enough, and obvious for others to try right? Well, it needed serious concentration because the person needed to focus on keeping the spell while simultaneously creating the charm. The longer it takes to create the charm, the weaker the veil becomes and the easier it is to trace. One also needed to visualise the outcome of the charm for it to work best. She did the easiest one, a simple ‘cheer up charm’. One teaspoon lavender, a squeeze of lime, dash of salt and high-quality bottled laughter. Then bring to a boil. It was a longshot but a successful one as it turned out. The next day, she tested it out on her friend Lila who was utterly awestruck. She couldn’t sense a signature, not a trace. This meant that Jackie could have another source of income and would not have to resort to hours of schoolwork for others which burdened her since she also had to study to keep her scholarship (an exhaustingly long sentence just like her hectic hustle.)

Thus “Price Charming” was born. Love charms, Illusions, Mild Revenge Charms, Charmed bracelets and rings, charmed gummies and mild memory alteration charms were offered. Business was booming and so was the growing headache that was created from the energy drain. Jackie and Lila had to lay low because students aren’t allowed to have access to charms. They were strictly 18+, similar to alcohol as their effects last longer than those of adults. This, also coupled with the fact that mild revenge charms were not taught in a school setting. Word was getting bigger, so big that outsiders began to contact her. She had to play it smart, money was coming in but everything else was spiralling. Energy was low which meant that her schoolwork was even more difficult to concentrate on and if she got caught her future would be seriously affected. Off course getting caught was not an option but she needed to draft a contingency plan.

Finals were coming up. Oh my goodness FINALS WERE COMING UP!!! She had no idea how she would get out of this. Maybe if she did fail and lose her scholarship, her business could cover for her. But she was special needs, a sudden outflow of money would be suspicious. She had to teach Lila the charms maybe that would help with the energy drain. Jackie had resorted to vitamins and energy boosting non-cloaked charms(pharmaceutical companies made these,(as non-cloaked is good for branding), energy drinks and coffee, just to paint a picture of how drained she was. Obviously, if she went through all that trouble to prevent her product from being traced, she had to hide her identity too. She got her products sold in school by Lila’s boyfriend so only the three of them knew who the source was and she gave them a percentage of her earnings.

To save herself from disaster, Jackie halted business for exams. With a month to go she needed to prevent herself from derailing. But first sleep, for a full 24 hours. She began endless studying but knew it was not enough, her grade will be at most average. Maybe she could come up with a cheating spell or find a way to sneakily cheat the old-fashioned way. Maybe she could find a way to strike a deal with her competitor Johnny Milburn. Word was that he was so rich that he just paid for the papers beforehand. She decided to put that as a last resort because Milburn was not the best person to strike deals with. Between classes, assignments and slightly more energy she tried her best to power through.

Then, she finally got a plan with two weeks more to go for finals. She would create a memory charm. It was a delicate thing to do but she was up for it. Usually her memory charms were to make people forget or to muddle a weak memory. Something with a strong emotional attachment would not be affected. Remember spells would be trickier and it may not last long. She would need to charm a bracelet as her best bet. To be very honest Jackie was terrified. She felt as though she was in so deep and that her future was cloudy and unsure all she wanted to do was pause. Pause enough to breathe and to relax. Pause all of the responsibility and the constant fear. Pause and enjoy life a little bit. In the beginning before the charms as well as the orders became so demanding she actually got to enjoy a few luxuries. Now it’s just pressure all over again. To make matters worse the after effects of the charm were becoming a bit much depending on the charms. The effects were mostly headaches or a love dazed stupor. They were mild but annoying. The entire school seemed to be in a state of perpetual PMS and the teachers could not put their finger on it  so they just matched the mood in the end.

 Jackie researched the herbs and their properties needed for the spell and was able to successfully charm the bracelet. This was kept hidden from the other two because they would want in and she literally could not make anymore. It still needed a good cloaking spell otherwise others would be able to sniff it out. She still had to study though but it was helping tremendously. Finals week arrived and even though Jackie was on fire with the exams she was burning out, health-wise. The entire week was going as planned and she was confident that she would get away with it and put it all behind her. The last day dawned and she could literally see the light at the end of the tunnel. The water was sweeter, her spirits began lifting and her step began to get peppy once more. She was grateful that this was the end because she was ready to pass out from exhaustion at any minute. And unfortunately she did just that- midway during her final exam. She spent three days in the school hospital unconscious and when she finally did wake up she was still tired. Her bracelet was gone and her homeroom teacher visited to tell her that she had to go to the Principal office by the end of the week. She was incredibly despondent, and her only plan was to not admit to anything. Her charm would have to be her wits this round.