Goody magic academy year.., p.1
Goody Magic Academy Year One, page 1
GOODY MAGIC ACADEMY YEAR ONE
M GUIDA
Copyright © 2023 by M Guida
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Created with Vellum
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
When I went to Space Coast Booklovers’ Convention, I met some wonderful readers who helped me develop Finn and Kamaron. My character Jaxon is a banished vampire. The Archangel Michael cast a spell that no one knows who Jaxon is or where he’s from. He’s actually from Royalty, but now, he is a lowly dishwasher at Goody Magic Academy. He hates witches and doesn’t want to be there. He’s definitely a morally gray character.
But he needs some friends. So my wonderful reader group came up with these two characters—Finn and Kamaron. What they didn’t know is that one of them would become a rival for Peyton’s affections!
I would like to personally thank:
Bella Mia
Amanda Hickman
Kandis Dicks
Maggie Eckert
Patricia Concannon
Natalie Korandovitch
Sonya Carter
Barbara ODea
Ray Ackerson
Dana Zamora
Jackie Shadrake
Gabi Brockelsby
Without your help, I don’t know if I would have gone in the direction that I did. I didn’t have any pixies in my world, so Kamaron isn’t a pixie, but he’s a beautiful Fae. Of course, he doesn’t know that yet. But he will!!!
CONTENTS
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Dear Reader
About the Author
Also by M Guida
CHAPTER ONE
“Peyton Storm, that’s it. You’re expelled.” Mr. Henry, the principal of Boston Harbor Preparatory High School, drew his thick eyebrows down and put his hairy knuckles flat on his desk. It was the sixth school I’d been kicked out of in three years.
I rolled my eyes as if to say whatever. “Don’t I get due process?” My bored tone only earned me a deeper scowl that would rival Professor Snape.
“You do, but I think the school board will agree with me. Burning down the bleachers is no laughing matter.”
My mom glanced at me nervously and then back at the pissed-off principal. “Mr. Henry, how did Peyton do this?”
“According to witnesses, she threw her palms up, and the bleachers started smoking. She must have tossed a lit match or a lighter. There were three students sitting on the bleachers at the time. They could have been seriously injured.”
“Three bitches, you mean,” I mumbled under my breath. The head cheerleader, Susie Vaughn, had spread a rumor about me, saying I was a witch. On my locker, she had sprayed Broomstick Storm and PeytHex with pink paint. Mr. Hairy-Knuckles didn’t give a shit about that—especially since Susie’s father was the president of the school board.
“For the love of starlight, Peyton.” Mom flashed her best you’re-only-making-things-worse gaze at me.
Whenever she used that phrase, I knew I was in deeper than a lost Uber driver. I folded my arms and slumped down lower in my chair. The truth was, I didn’t have the faintest idea how the fire started. I didn’t have a match or lighter, lit or otherwise. All I knew was that when I had extended my hands, the bleachers burst into flames.
As if by magic…
“Mr. Henry, is there any possible way that Peyton could stay here?” Mom’s voice sounded as weary as the look in her blue eyes. It was as if all the energy had been drained out of her.
I almost felt guilty.
Almost.
I hated school. I should have graduated months ago, but I kept getting expelled and never finished my senior year. Meanwhile, Mom insisted I get my diploma.
“No.” Mr. Henry sat taller in his chair. “She can do her classwork online and hopefully get her diploma that way. But she can’t stay here. And since she’s eighteen, we will be pressing charges against her.”
A heavy silence covered the room like plastic wrap, cutting off the air.
Tick Tock Tick Tock Tick Tock
Only the large clock on the wall dared to break the quiet.
With each swing of the pendulum, Mom bowed her head more and more and her shoulders slumped lower and lower, as if the clock itself was beating down on her. Her long, blonde hair cascaded around her face. She put her hand on her forehead lightly, rubbing it in circles as if she had a headache, and a soft moan escaped her lips as if someone had punched her in the gut.
I extended my arm out slowly, gently taking her hand in mine. It felt like an ice cube—frozen solid and unyielding. Why was it so cold?
I ran my thumb over her fingers, trying to warm her hand in mine. “Mom, are you okay?”
She didn’t answer. I wasn’t sure what to do.
Mr. Henry looked at her with concern and then cleared his throat. “Mrs. Storm, are you all right?” He buzzed his intercom.
“Yes, Mr. Henry?” answered a tinny voice over it.
“Margaret, could you please get Mrs. Storm a glass of water?”
“Yes, sir.”
Mom remained bent over, as if she’d gone into a trance.
I rubbed her back. “Mom? Mom!” I couldn’t keep the panic out of my voice.
“I’m all right. I’ll be fine. Just give me a minute.”
A minute for what? What was going on? Why was Mom acting like this? This wasn’t the first time I’d been suspended or expelled.
She lifted her head, and I gasped. Her skin had turned as white as a sheet. It was almost as if she had put on a Michael Myers mask.
Something was seriously wrong.
Mom’s face was ashen, her blonde hair dull and limp instead of long and lustrous with white streaks like it usually was. Her body, which had always elicited admiring glances, now looked more corpse-like than curvaceous.
This wasn’t my mom, surely.
And it had all happened in a blink.
A soft knock on the door broke the tension in Mr. Henry’s office. Mrs. Murray, the school secretary, stepped in with a paper cup in her hand and flashed my mom a sympathetic look.
“Here you go, Mrs. Storm.”
My mom nodded gratefully and took cup the cup with her shaking hand. “Thank you.”
Mrs. Murray gave me a deathly this-is-all-your-fault stare. This wasn’t the first time I had gotten such a glare from her, just as it wasn’t the first time I had been sent to Mr. Henry’s office. I had gotten both out-of-school and in-school suspensions. With all the times I had been sent to the office, Mrs. Murray had started to look at me as if I was Satan’s daughter.
My mom set the cup down on Mr. Henry’s desk.
There was another knock, and the receptionist, Mrs. Hansen, stuck her head into the room. “Excuse me, Mr. Henry, but Officer Ramsey needs to speak with Mrs. Storm.”
Officer Ramsey was actually a pretty decent cop. He was built like a tank, with broad shoulders and a muscular body. More importantly, he didn’t look at me as if I was a demon child.
Mr. Henry motioned with his hand. “Please come in, Officer Ramsey.”
The policeman flicked his gray eyes over my mom. “Are you all right, ma’am?”
Mom nodded glumly. “I’ll be fine.” She reached for her cup of water, but her hand was shaking so badly that she spilled it all over Mr. Henry’s desk.
Tears swam in her blue eyes. “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.”
Mr. Henry hurriedly moved his papers and his folders out of the way. There was hardly any water, and he quickly wiped it up with a tissue.
Officer Ramsey glanced at Mr. Henry. “Is the nurse still here?”
“Yes, I’ll contact her.” Mr. Henry was already dialing the number. “Nurse, can you come to my office right away?”
Panic froze my body as I watched my mother’s skin turn an even ghostlier shade of pale. She cautiously used her shaky palm to wipe away the sweat that had collected on her forehead and forced a weak smile. “I’ll take a nap when I get home.”
But before the last word escaped her lips, her eyelids fluttered shut and she sank to the ground like a melting snowbank.
“Mom!” I screamed as I crouched down next to her. Tears blurring my eyes and my heart threatening to shatter, I grabbed her hand. “Mom, what’s wrong? Answer me.”
Officer Ramsey put his hands on my arms and gently tried to move me aside.
I twisted away. “Get off me. Get off me.”
Mr. Henry clasped my arms, pulling me back from my mother. “Peyton, let him do his job.”
I gasped for air, my chest heaving as I stumbled int
Officer Ramsey pulled up to the emergency room. I didn’t wait for him to cut the engine. “Peyton!”
I rushed into the emergency room and bounced off a locked glass door. The guard looked at me. “Whoa, where do you think you’re going, missy?”
I could have throttled him. “My mom is in there. She was just brought to the emergency room. Please, let me in.”
“Who is your mother?” He turned to his computer and started clicking.
“Celeste Storm. She came by ambulance.”
He clicked on the computer some more. “She’s in room eight. Empty your pockets and then you can walk through.”
I quickly tossed him my backpack and put my phone in his plastic basket.
He checked my backpack over painfully slowly, and it took everything I had not to yell at the guy to hurry up already.
The door opened and Officer Ramsey came up next to me.
He smiled and tilted his head. “It’s all right, she’s with me.” He showed the guard his badge.
“Okay,” the guard said, and pressed the button.
I grabbed my backpack and phone and ran down the hall, past the waiting room, and through another pair of doors. Frantically, I checked the door numbers until I found room eight. Through the small glass window, I could see Mom lying against some pillows on the bed. It looked like all the color had been stripped out of her face.
I raced into her room, my breath coming in short gasps as I dropped into a seat beside her bed. My mom’s eyes were closed, and the only sound in the room was the steady, pulsing beep of a heart monitor.
With trembling hands, I grasped hers, tears falling unchecked down my cheeks. “Mom,” I murmured urgently, willing her to wake up and talk to me.
The beeps of the heart monitor suddenly became louder and more rapid than they had been before. Fear clutched at my chest, tightening its grip with every passing second that she didn’t respond.
“Mom?” I held my breath, waiting for her to answer.
Her eyelids fluttered open, and she turned her head toward me. “Peyton,” she croaked weakly, her fingers gripping mine tightly.
I blinked away my tears and exhaled with a puff. “How are you feeling?”
“Weak. Very weak.” Her voice was barely a whisper.
I loosened my grip on her hand and headed for the door. “I’ll get the nurse.”
She shook her head. “No. Wait. I have to tell you what’s going on.”
I blinked. “Okay.”
The look in her eyes, not to mention her appearance, scared the crap out of me.
She licked her lips. “My power is weakening.”
I drew my brows together deeply. “Power? I don’t understand.”
She took a deep breath. “I know you don’t. There’s something you need to know.” She dropped her eyes, then turned her gaze back to me. “I’m a witch, Peyton. I’ve been using my power to protect you.”
This was just plain bonkers. “Mom, did you hit your head when you fell in Mr. Henry’s office?”
She gave me a slow smile. “No, honey, I didn’t. I’m a witch…and so are you.”
I put my hand on my chest and stared at her. “Me? I don’t think so.”
She gripped my hand tighter. “You have to listen to me. You’re being hunted. I’ve contacted a friend, and he’ll take you to Goody Magic Academy. You’ll be safe there.”
I shoved my hand through my hair. “Mom, you’re talking…you’re talking crazy talk.”
I could feel her trembling. “You have to listen to me, Peyton,” she whispered urgently. “I’m telling you the absolute truth. I’ve used up almost all my power protecting you. My energy is practically depleted—soon I won’t be able to speak at all, nor will I be able to wake up.”
“You mean you’re going to fall into a coma or something?”
“Just know that I love you, honey.” She exhaled another shaky breath. “Augustus Eastey will soon arrive. He’ll explain everything.”
Shock and confusion cascaded through me. “Eastey? Who’s that?”
Her breath was coming out raspy now, and it was a struggle for her to speak. “He’ll explain…everything…”
Beads of sweat had formed on my forehead, and I was gritting my teeth, willing someone to enter the room and tell me that this whole thing wasn’t real. I glanced at the door every few seconds, desperately hoping to see a doctor or a nurse who could help.
But it was just me and her.
“Mom, the doctors can help you.”
I could see the pain etched on her face as she tried to muster up a weak smile. “No, they can’t. Only you can. Learn your…powers.” She closed her eyes for a moment before looking straight into mine. I felt like she was trying to tell me something through her gaze.
“If I do this,” I asked hesitantly, “you’ll be healed?”
Her breath grew even shallower, and her voice faltered. “No. Your magic...needs...something...else.” With those words, her eyes fell shut.
CHAPTER TWO
“Mom?” My voice cracked as I grabbed her shoulders and shook her. “Mom, Mom, wake up!”
There was no response. Her skin was cold to the touch and her fingernails were turning a ghostly blue even as her face grew paler by the second.
I must have been screaming, because a nurse came running into the room, her shoes squeaking on the polished tile floors. She put two fingers against my mom’s forehead and her lips pressed into a tight line as she shook her head grimly. Two other nurses followed close behind her. The air in the room had changed—it felt heavy with worry.
The first nurse glanced up at me. “What happened?”
My throat was too tight to speak, so I just shrugged and wiped the tears from my cheeks. “I don’t know. She was talking and then…” My voice trailed off as I choked back a sob.
The nurse hit a button on the intercom and yelled, “Code Blue. Code Blue!” before turning around and barking orders at the medical staff that had just arrived.
I looked between the nurse and my mom in terror, my heart pounding. “What’s happening?”
A hand touched my shoulder from behind, and Officer Ramsey appeared next to me. His expression was grave as he spoke kindly but firmly. “Come on, Peyton. You need to let them work on your mom.”
I nodded and numbly followed him out of the room. Tears blurred my vision, and if Officer Ramsey hadn’t been guiding me with his firm hand, I think I would have run into the walls like a bumper car.
He opened the heavy door and led me to the waiting room. I collapsed into a chair, wondering what was going to happen. What if Mom died? She was all I had. I couldn’t lose her. I just couldn’t.
Officer Ramsey sat next to me. “She’ll be okay, Peyton.”
I sniffed and nodded, but I didn’t answer. I knew Mom was far from being okay. But his presence and words were comforting, and right now, that’s what I needed.
“Peyton, would you like something to drink?”
My throat had indeed gone bone dry, so I forced myself to give him a grateful smile. “That would be great, thank you.”
Officer Ramsey headed to the back of the waiting room where there were some vending machines.
“Peyton?” a husky voice asked.
I turned around, expecting to see the white coat of a doctor, but instead I found myself staring at a tall, muscular man, wearing a dark cloak with a hood that shadowed his face except for two piercing, deep blue eyes.
I glanced nervously over my shoulder for Officer Ramsey, who was heading back toward me with two bottles of water. I squirmed in my seat uneasily. “Who are you?”
