Summer school 2/9

The witch in charge made a short speech of welcome and then dismissed the students. On the way back to the changing room everyone else was having a good laugh at something, so she supposed there might have been some sort of joke at her expense. However, she didn’t find out what had happened, until all the girls were going to bed in their dormitory that night.

Before leaving the apprentice common room, the same young wizard who had helped organise the parade, had told her that she should polish her new bronze badge after every parade and had told her how to go about making a good job of it.

She had changed into her pyjamas, spread her cloak on her knees and opening her tin of polish was just about to spread a good finger full on her badge, when Maddy saw what she was going to do and stopped her just in time.

“Whatever are you doing? You’ll ruin your cloak if you do it like that, then you’ll catch it from the seniors!”

“The boy who helped us with our hats told me what to do. He said it was the only way to make a good job of it.”

“You don’t want to take any notice of him,” Maddy replied, “he only pretended to help everyone with their hats so that he could play a joke on you. ‘A hat must be worn squarely on the head at all times’, that’s straight out of the ‘Dress Code for Witches’. He’s always playing jokes on people, but telling you to ruin your lovely new cloak is a bit too much!”

Maddy unrolled all of the cloths that Jennifer Jane had been given when she received her uniform and found a brass plate with a long slot in it.

“This is a ‘button stick’. When you clean your badge or buttons, you slide the plate between the cloth and the item you‘re dealing with, then none of the polish goes where you don’t want it. You only need a smear of polish, then you give it a good hard rub until you can see your face in it.”

“Wouldn’t it be easier to do using magic?” asked Jennifer Jane.

“Yes of course, but this way is supposed to be good for discipline, whatever you do don’t let any of the seniors catch you using a twiddle to do any cleaning.”

So she polished the buttons on her cloak and her bronze badge the proper way and was rewarded by a deep shine on every item. Maddy came over to have a look and gave her approval.

The apprentice stripe and flight insignia were made of cloth and as they were sewn onto her cloak needed no attention. Jennifer Jane went to sleep thinking that all in all she’d had a pretty gentle introduction to her fellow pupils. If life was going to be no worse than this, then she could relax and enjoy her school time at the Witches’ Home.