The alarm went off, and I opened my eyes, already feeling tired. Why did the next few days of school always feel like such an energy drop from the first? It was like the honeymoon phase was already over, and I had no need to try to look extra nice as I got ready for the day. Then it hit me.

It was Wednesday. I had work. I scowled slightly, knocking my head against my dresser mirror. Not that I hated the gaming cafe, but I had only been working since the Summer. Now I had school, Mr. Dekoran wanted me to stay after, and I had a three to seven shift too. Not to mention if I had homework once I got home...

Great. There goes my life.

Sticking a toothbrush in my mouth, I checked my phone really quick as it buzzed in my pocket. I was surprised to see that I'd gotten a text from Elliot.

'Hello. I know we haven't seen each other all Summer. I'm really sorry about that, what with work and my studies taking up most of my time. Do you want to hang out today, after your Apothecary training? I'd love to catch up.'

The one time he asked to hang out first, and my day was filled. What was my luck? I texted back a short: 'Sorry can't today. Got work' and hoped that'd be good enough. I didn't even have time to eat breakfast in the morning, much less type out the kinds of books Elliot had the tendency to reply with.

With a quick grab of my backpack and tie of my shoes, I was out the door and into the cold early morning air. There was a thick fog outside, but I still made my way down to the bus stop just fine. The song blaring in my earbuds was catchy, and I sang along as the chorus came up, until a yawn hit me.

"Hey man. That was some pretty nice singing."

"What the-" I jumped back, startled. Next to me was a guy wearing a bright purple sweatshirt, the hood up to cover a scruffy mop of blond hair, and the zipper down to reveal a pink shirt with cartoonish dead fish on it. "Where the hell did you come from?"

"...I've been here. Waiting for the bus," he replied absentmindedly, almost as if I hadn't freaked out a second ago. "Was also here yesterday... and the day before that. You sang pretty well then too." His voice came out slow, like it was thoughtful, but I had no idea where the thoughts came from, or where they were headed as he continued to stare up into the grey blue sky.

"Uh, thanks I guess."

"I like that band too, even though I'm not a Witch. I think it's interesting, listening to that side of life, imagining what it must be like."

I didn't know if he wanted a response from me on what life was like, or what he was looking for as a silence filled the air. After all, it wasn't like I was the best person to ask. Aside from a few required classes and a single T-shirt, being a Witch didn't exactly affect me. That was a whole debocale I didn't feel like getting into though. Instead I just clipped the small earbud over my piercings again, making sure not to sing this time, and waited for the bus to finally pull up.

After that, school blurred by as a boring average day. Science had a bunch of lab safety packets, Basics to Magik hadn't become any easier no matter how much Dekoran glared at me to get a rock to inch across the floor, and gym was a hot sweaty mess. It wasn't as if I actually put any effort into the last class, but even with me walking the mile instead of running it, I was more than glad to finally take a seat in Mr. Dekoran's cold drafty tower of a room by the end of the day.

"All righty," I announced, tilting my neck back on the chair to try and work out the kink that was now sitting there. "What am I doing today?"

"Hmm," I heard him muse. "You seem in a bit of a rush to get started. And here I thought you were going to be rather reluctant after how you were two days ago."

I turned my head to look out the window for a moment before answering. "Yeah, but I have work today, so I want to learn whatever I have to, get the credit, and head over there so I'm not late." At least it's not too far of a walk, and I grabbed my clothes ahead of time.

"Oh, is that so? Where do you work?" he asked politely, tilting his head at me.

"The gaming cafe a street down or so." I jutted a thumb towards the stained glass of the window. "Nexus Games. It's a pretty nice place." Except when you work the three to seven shift, and every not-working teenager heads there after school. A frown settled on my face as I thought about it for a moment. Today was not going to be fun.

"Is that a place for video games?" I nodded, confused when I saw his mouth turn down slightly. "It doesn't seem like a very accurate job, for a Witch."

I shrugged. "What difference does it make? I still like games, and the pay is good. Not like I'll be working there forever."

"Technology is for Humans. Mixing too much of that with our magik is never a good idea," came his terse reply. His lip twitched a bit out of frustration, but he dropped it after a moment. "All that aside, I want to go over some basics before you jump headfirst into anything."

"Okay, but I've been going over Basics all day," I reminded him, spreading my hands out a bit, annoyed. If I had to do this stuff anyway, couldn't I at least do something a bit more fun while I was here? 

"Not Basics to Magik. Basics of being an Apothecary. Based on everything I could find on the subject, there are certain things you'll need to know. Without a solid background, you could very easily have it blow up in your face. Literally."

"Oh great." I rolled my eyes up to the ceiling, tall as the stone craned up to a single point. "Knowing all the little details and fine print. Let me guess, it includes how to not burn myself on a pot? Do the magikal verson of stop, drop, and roll if I light my clothes on fire even though that's never going to happen? I already did lab safety today," I groaned, the words on the endless packets filling my mind again.

"Unless you give me reason to, I will believe that you're smart enough not to touch a hot pot." Dekoran raised thick, mothy, grey eyebrows at me, and the intention was obvious. It was a shut-up-or-else look, but what was he going to threaten me with? Take away my magik? He was already having me stay after because he didn't even know how it worked. The threat was useless. 

Then he sighed, most likely realizing from the look on my face that I didn't really care. He shook his head, continuing. "This is much less a necessity for safety, however, and more a necessity of having background knowledge for what you're doing. Since you'll be working with several medicinal herbs, you should know that certain ones burn if they reach over a certain temperature, or what works well with another. There are several, several different combinations of potions and ointments that can be made, according to the historical translations of old Apothecary's notes. There are already hundreds of recipes, and no doubt hundreds more could be created from there."

"Okay, so it's a recipe. Why can't anyone else just follow them then?" I asked, looking over at the book he had put in front of me. It was definitely old, but still set up like a cookbook with the bullet points of ingredients, scribbled doodles of instructions and random footnotes in the margins. I sighed. At least it didn't list that it was the author's husband's favorite potion and that they had three kids and four pargraphs of their tearful backstory. Just a recipe, all jotted down on crusty pages that were lucky enough to still be attached to the spine at this rate. The only annoying thing was that it was scribbled out in a loopy font, in what looked like faded blackberry juice. Certainly didn't smell like blueberry juice though, and I moved my head back a little to hopefully get rid of the stench of the mildew.

"That's what I had thought when I first purchased this, years ago, but the answer is that they simply can't. They lack the magic to do so. Anyone can follow a recipe, but that doesn't mean they can cook. I could get shepard's pie from three different places in town, but none will ever bring me the same satisfaction as my mother's can. In that same way, an Apothecary can bring to life what could only otherwise be a bitter juice. Your intentions will give the potion its effect, and the herbs you choose will help aid that purpose, so long as they're right for the task. Which means..."

Please to every single god out there do not tell me I have to memorize a plant book.

"It would be most helpful if you could look over these herbology books I have borrowed from the school library for you!" he announced excitedly.

"Wait hold up. Books? As in, several? More than one?" I sputtered. The gods failed me. That's it. I was becoming an atheist.

"Well one book alone could not possibly cover all that there is to know." He blinked as if the request was no big deal.

I wrenched myself out of the chair, slamming my hands on his deck. "That's insane! I have work! I have other classes! I have to stay after all the time now with you! I don't have the time to read a bunch of books too!"

But instead of acting angrily too, he simply looked up at me directly, raising an eyebrow in a disgruntled fashion. "Crow. I thought we had discussed that this would be on the level of an AP class. That means that you will be putting in the same amount of effort, and studying, that an AP student would for any other class. Otherwise, they would not get the credit they had so kindly bargained with," he enunciated.

Really? That's what he was going to threaten me with, since he couldn't use his specialty on me, and he wasn't about to do anything with his frail, bony body of his? Heat rushed to my faace in anger, but if my grade in class today meant anything, I couldn't afford to lose the credit. "Fine!" I retorted, grabbing the first green book off the pile. I pulled the chair to the other end of the room, closest to the window. First entry. African Corn Lilies.

I tried to put all my focus into reading, evenetually losing myself inthe monotony of entry after repetitive entry before a constant, fast-paced beeping finally filled the room.

"What is that?" Dekoran practically jumped in his seat, his own book falling from his hands as I reached into my pocket to hit stop on the timer.

"...My phone? I set an alarm so I wouldn't miss the bus?" I raised my hand up as I questioned him. "I don't know if you realize this, but your room doesn't have any clocks in it."

It took him a while to regain himself before he finally looked at me, a flinty glare to his eyes. "There's a reason for that, boy. The sun is a perfectly good way of telling time. Now shut that off and get it out of here. I don't like being surrounded by those things."

I rubbed at my temples as I stared at him blankly. The sun? I knew he always wore long robes with a single brown belt strapped over his shoulder, but I didn't think his brain was stuck in the medieval era too. It was 2088; who was bothered by phones anymore?

As I snapped the cover of the book shut, I tried not to hate the fact that I'd only managed to make it to aloe. Not even half the As, and it had been a solid hour. Mr. Dekoran told me to finish reading it once I got home, and, not wanting to waste any more time, I rushed out of there. Thirty minutes later, I burst through the neon-lit doors of Nexus Games, immediately heading to the bathrooms to switch into the black tee with bright blue lettering and a logo of a controller on the front, and khaki pants. I had just clocked in and headed to the counter, when I heard a strangely familiar voice shout out.

"Woah Singing Witch Boy! You work here?"