Wilhelmina Quigley: Magic School Dropout
by Liese Sherwood-Fabre
Genre: Teen Fantasy
Family wields the greatest magic.
A missing father. A mother bewitched. Wilhelmina must use her unpredictable magic to catch whoever—or whatever—is stalking her parents. Will her powers be enough to restore her family?
When Wilhelmina accidentally sets her remedial magic class on fire, she is sent to live in the ordinary world with a mother she barely knows. Her adjustment gets off to a very rocky start. She has sudden, unexplainable bursts of magic—mostly while navigating the middle-school minefield—and her mother’s behaving like she’s under some spell. Despite her handicapped magic, Wilhelmina vows to get to the bottom of it all—even if she could vanish without a trace just like her father.
"Wilhelmina Quigley: Magic School Dropout" is a fish-out-of-water story with touches of mystery, fantasy, and humor. A witty tale of enchantment.
Buy this book now to laugh along with Wilhelmina as she learns about the ordinary world.
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Wilhelmina Quigley: Magic School Dropout
Magic School Dropout
Chapter One
Flames exploded from my wand’s tip, followed by Gorp’s surprised “Ouch!”
I jerked my head up from the puddle of wax that had once been the candle I’d been trying to light. The top tuft on Gorp’s oversized ogre head had disappeared, and the stench of burning ogre hair drifted toward me. What was more concerning was the hole now in our remedial magic class’s wall behind him.
The fire causing it was growing bigger by the second.
Before I could warn everybody, Gorp shouted, “Fire!”
Miss Mayweather, our teacher, spun around to check where he pointed. Flames now lapped the ceiling. The rest of the class caught Gorp’s panic and joined his shrieking. Without hesitating, our teacher aimed her wand at the wall with an assured calm and muttered a spell.
“Löschen.”
But her incantation had no effect.
The ceiling beams next to the wall glowed red.
“Attention, class,” she said in the same tone she’d use when she started the morning lesson. The screams quieted, and I could hear her cast a protection spell about us.
“Schützen.”
Her wand’s tip glowed bright white, and the edges of the room shimmered behind the charm’s bubble.
“Quickly now,” she said, pointing to the exit. “Single file. The same as we’ve practiced.”
We filed out as we’d drilled. Once we had assembled at the edge of the schoolyard, Miss Mayweather scanned our little group of ogres, gremlins, goblins, and me and asked, “Who can tell me what happened?”
My stomach jerked. I could hear a bell clanging, calling the volunteer fire brigade to action. Soon every witch in town—including my grandmother—would know I’d set the school on fire. Might as well confess before…
Gorp raised his hand. “It was Wilhelmina, Miss Mayweather. I saw her.”
The entire class turned to glare at me. I dropped my head and blinked back the forming tears. If only I could’ve conjured an excavation spell and buried myself in the ground.
“Wilhelmina the Walking Disaster strikes again.” Flek, the nastiest gremlin in the class, snorted. “Can’t even do a Licht machen spell to light a candle.”
The class’s laughter sent pinpricks along my arms and back. We’d only been in school a week, and already I was the outcast. The misfit. Flek couldn’t even produce a puff of smoke from his wand, but no one remembered that. I was the one who didn’t belong.
Miss Mayweather’s boots and gown appeared within my range of vision as the snickering continued. I raised my gaze to meet hers. She stood, hands on hips, and asked, “Well?”
“I-I-I don’t know what happened.” A slow burn rose from my neck to my face. “The spell wasn’t working, so I leaned forward to get closer. Suddenly, this flame shot out.”
“And fried me.” Gorp dipped his head so the teacher could see his scalp.
Behind our teacher, I could see the first of the fire brigade arrive on their brooms. Some circled overhead, shooting water from their wands at the flames rising from the roof. Others positioned themselves around the building and doused the sides. Because the structure wasn’t attached to the main school, the fire probably wouldn’t spread any farther. Our classroom, however, seemed a total loss to me. With any luck, we’d get a few days off before I had to hear the jokes about this mishap. At the very least I’d have the weekend for the news to die down.
Miss Mayweather studied me and then sighed. “Wilhelmina Quigley, it’s bad enough you can’t seem to complete the simplest of spells, but now you’re endangering the other students’ lives.”
“It’ll take a lot more than a little singed hair to harm an ogre, Bettina.”
My cheeks glowed hotter as I recognized the voice. Oma, my grandmother, appeared next to my teacher. Her gold Elder Council belt glinted in the sun.
Then Mrs. Winston, the school director’s secretary, pulled to a halt between Miss Mayweather and Oma. The secretary’s fairy wings buzzed to hold her in place. “Grayson sent me out to check on the class.”
“Everyone’s fine,” my teacher said.
“Any idea who—?” Miss Mayweather’s gaze shifted to me, and Mrs. Winston sighed. “Wilhelmina, Mr. Osborne will want to see you in his office.”
“Good,” Oma said. “I’d like to speak with him too.”
“Of course, Hexenmeister.” The fairy’s head bobbed up and down. “If you’ll follow me, Elder Quigley.”
The secretary buzzed back into the building. I trudged behind my grandmother under the scrutiny of the entire school. Their faces filled every classroom window. Then there were those assembled outside: the Havenwood fire brigade and a crowd of witches, fairies, ogres, gremlins, gnomes, and elves drawn by the general alarm. Smoke and flames swirled into the sky. The only thing hotter than the annex was my face.
This time, I was in deep voodoo.
Liese Sherwood-Fabre knew she was destined to write when she got an A+ in the second grade for her story about Dick, Jane, and Sally’s ruined picnic. After obtaining her PhD, she joined the federal government and worked and lived internationally for more than fifteen years. Returning to the states, she seriously pursued her writing career, garnering such awards as a finalist in RWA’s Golden Heart contest and a Pushcart Prize nomination. A recognized Sherlockian scholar, her essays have appeared in scion newsletters, the Baker Street Journal, and Canadian Holmes. She has recently turned this passion into an origin story series on Sherlock Holmes. The first book, The Adventure of the Murdered Midwife, was the CIBA Mystery and Mayhem 2020 winner.
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