Caution: Witch In Progress by Lynne North Page A

they were able to each choose a book to read in
their own room at night! Gertie chose a funny one about all the silly things
mere mortals do. She would enjoy that.
        By the time she arrived back in her room, it was going a little
dark. Gertie looked around to make sure no one was around in case it didn’t
work, then said ‘Lights on!’ On they came right away. She clapped her hands in
glee. After nipping down the corridor to the young witches’ bathroom, Gertie
got ready for bed. She would be up early in the morning.
        Gertie opened the window for Owl and told him to be careful,
then she read a few pages of her new book in bed. She felt too excited to ever
be able to sleep again. What a day it had been.
        Before long, the book slipped out of her hands. She awoke
briefly to hear Owl coming back in a few hours later, and murmured ‘Lights off’
as she realised they were still flickering.
        Trying to match the teacher’s names to their faces, she soon
drifted off again. Gertie knew nothing more until she heard a gong being banged
in the hall, the sign to let everyone know it was time to get up. Breakfast
would be in half an hour.

Chapter Seven
     
    The
first couple of days flew, and Gertie was happy at the Academy. She found it
easy to get used to the rules and schedules. She hadn’t even had time since
arriving to wonder how she felt about being away from home and amongst
strangers for the first time.
        Gertie made very sure Owl was happy on his log in her room, and
that Wart liked the stagnant pond she could see from her much sought after
bedroom window.
        She thought of her Ma and Gran, but not sadly. Things were far
too exciting. They had promised to come to visit her at the weekend anyway.
        Serious lessons at the Academy hadn’t begun yet. The purpose of
the first week was to let the new pupils settle in, get to know each other, and
meet the teachers. Not that Gertie had really got to know any of the other
witches and warlocks yet. She said hello on passing, and even got a reply
sometimes. Everyone seemed so busy though. Little groups gathered together in
corridors and study rooms, but Gertie wasn’t part of one. She didn’t mind at
all. She was well used to be alone in the village, apart from Ma and Gran of
course. If she wanted anyone to talk to, she talked to Owl or Wart. Miss
Fiendish always stopped to ask her how she was settling in too.  All in all,
Gertie was pleased to be at the Academy, and looking forward to her first real
lessons.
        Gertie had decided she wasn’t too keen on Miss Wick. She knew it
wasn’t nice to say you didn’t like someone, but as she said to Owl one night, ‘Well,
I don’t not like her, but I don’t really like her either.’
        Owl blinked in understanding. Well, Gertie thought he
understood, and that’s what mattered.
        ‘It’s something about the way she looks at me,’ Gertie explained
to Owl, ‘and says ‘You, Girl,’ when she wants me for something. She points too,
and that isn’t polite you know, Owl. Not unless you’re putting a spell on
someone, and then you have to point. Otherwise, how are they going to know you
mean them?’
        Gertie pondered a while on the confusing things about being
grown up, and a witch. A lot of it didn’t make much sense to her. She wondered
if it did to grown up witches either.
        ‘Now, I do like Miss Fiendish very much,’ Gertie continued to
tell Owl, who was already half asleep. ‘She isn’t as warty as the others, and
doesn’t have much of a hooked nose. Why, she almost looks as much like a mortal
as I do! Well, almost, almost.’ Gertie corrected herself. ‘And she smiles at
me, and remembers my name. Yes, she’s my friend.’ Gertie was soon asleep, with
only the soft lull of Owl’s snores to disturb her.
        Gertie made her first real friend at the Academy almost by accident.
She learned something about herself too.
        Bertha Bobbit, some