Conspiracies - Mercedes Lackey [52]
She’d gotten that question wrong, too, which only made her madder.
After that was one of the magic classes, and somehow she wasn’t surprised when Ms. Groves gave them all handouts on the Wild Hunt. Which was kind of like, as her mom used to say, “closing the barn door after the horses are out.” But at least it meant she could coast on this class for a little bit, too, which given that conditioning class, was probably a good thing. Maybe by the time Ms. Groves moved them on to something she didn’t already know, Spirit would be used to the conditioning class and wouldn’t feel quite so baked.
At lunch, she could tell that Muirin had just gone her three rounds with Mr. Wallis by the not-quite-dry hair and Muirin’s general look of weary shock. The two of them stood in line to get their food, and after a moment, Muirin finally gave her a sidelong glance. “My God. There is an eighth circle of Hell, and Mr. Wallis is in charge of it.”
“Oh yeah,” Spirit agreed fervently. “I don’t want to think about what I’m going to feel like in the morning.”
“Would you believe he knew exactly how many donuts I ate yesterday?” Muirin asked bitterly. “He was positively gloating. He threatened to load up the machine with an extra pound for every three donuts.”
“I don’t doubt it,” Spirit replied.
“I mean, look at me!” Muirin gestured to herself dramatically, before picking up her tray and heading for “their” table. “Does this look like the body of someone who needs to worry about a couple of donuts?”
Spirit had to shake her head, because in all truth, Muirin looked like the sort of person who might need to consider packing a few extra pounds on rather than trying to take them off.
Addie, Burke, and Loch joined them a few minutes later; Muirin repeated her complaints about the new class.
Burke just shrugged. “Didn’t seem bad to me,” he said.
“Well it wouldn’t, would it?” Muirin retorted resentfully. “You being the King of the Jocks and all.”
“I’m so not looking forward to this,” Addie replied uneasily.
“I’d like to know why they’re springing it on us,” said Loch. He took a bite of his sandwich thoughtfully. “Have you actually looked around at everyone here? We may not be Olympians, but we’re all pretty athletic. And magic burns the fat off you pretty quickly once you start practicing it.”
“Pretty athletic might not be good enough…” Spirit said slowly. “Not if we really are going to be in some kind of war soon. Maybe I was wrong about Doctor Ambrosius not taking the Hunt seriously enough. Maybe this is part of his answer. I mean … I don’t know how you’d have a war with wizards, but any time people fight, endurance plays a big part, right?”
“Huh.” Burke looked at her with new respect.
Muirin groaned. “You sure know how to suck the righteous indignation right out of something, don’t you?” she said with feeling. “Curses on you, Logic Girl!”
Spirit laughed weakly. “Oh, go right ahead feeling righteously indignant,” she replied. “After all, even if there is a good reason for it, Mr. Wallis is still a sadist.”
“Amen to that,” said Loch.
* * *
Lunch went a long way to fully reviving her, so Spirit went on to her math class feeling less like a damp rag and more like a human being. She took her place behind the empty seat that had been Judy King’s. It was with a bit of a shock and a lot of guilt that Spirit realized she couldn’t even put a face to the name, only the back of a head and a severely bobbed hairdo.
Ms. Smith waited for them all to get seated, then crossed her arms over her chest and regarded the class with glittering eyes. “There is absolutely no point in trying to concentrate on mathematics today,” she said, to Spirit’s shock. “Believe me, I understand. What’s probably making it worse for all of you is that most of the teachers don’t even want you to talk about it. They want you