Vinnie spent the rest of the weekend pouring over the ancient tomes that the coach had lent him. He frowned, as he painfully blew his sixth load of the morning. He wasn't sure exactly what the coach did to Ryan's memory, but his jockstrap had been milking him non-stop since his first lesson. The bus pulled to a stop in front of the high school. Vinnie glanced down at his crotch, and was relieved that Ryan was more super absorbent than ever. There was no wet spot.
He caught Stacy glaring at him a few times during the day. He wondered if she had power too, or if she had noticed that Ryan, Horst and Carter were missing. They weren't marked absent in the two classes he shared with a couple of the jocks. Hm. Were they even on the attendance rolls?
At lunch, he got a tray and got in line. Lunch Lady Borges was serving her delicious lasagna again, but today it looked different. She gave him three heaping servings. She had never done that before.
"Vinnie, if you and your three buddies are still hungry, I'll give you seconds," she said.
"Three buddies?" Vinnie asked in alarm.
"I can see that young fool Rafe has got you under his spell as his latest apprentice. Did he tell you what happens to his apprentices?"
"What are you talking about?"
There were people behind Vinnie in line, and one said, "Hey, getta move on, I'm hungry."
The lunch lady looked like she was in her early twenties, but she had referred to the coach as a young fool, Vinnie thought curiously.
She snapped her fingers, and time stopped, except for her and Vinnie. Everyone in the cafeteria was frozen. The clock was frozen too.
"You're a nice kid, Vinnie, so let's sit down and have a con-fab," she said. She walked right through the cafeteria cabinets full of food, as if they weren't there, and escorted Vinnie over to a table with the popular kids.
"Does it hurt walking through stuff?" Vinnie asked as he walked with the lunch lady.
"Oh, that parlor trick? Not at all. If you were paying attention in Chemistry Class, you'd know that most of atoms are empty space. Not that they called it that when I was a girl. We called it ether then, but it's like the comic books when Flash or Superman vibrate their atoms to move through solid objects. There's no such thing as a truly solid object," the lunch lady said with a lyrical laugh.
"Oh, they won't like me sitting here," Vinnie said after they sat down.
"They don't even notice, and won't notice unless you want them to notice. Besides Horst, Carter and Ryan always sit here," she said.
"How-?"
"How do I know?" she asked extending her hand to shake his hand, then she introduced herself, "Lucretia Borgia, at your service. I normally keep a low profile, but you and your buddies are basically nice kids, and that Rafe- well, he's not very nice at all."
"Lucretia Borgia? The Lucretia Borgia?"
"Yeah, the Lucretia Borgia from Disney's The Shaggy Dog, it was my ring, though they got the incantation wrong. Just as well really. And your history class has it all wrong, or mostly wrong. I never poisoned anybody. My brother Cesare, well that's another story, and back then "poisoner" and "witch" were interchangeably translated. Anyway, after she killed my second husband, I faked my death, and have been trying to live the quiet life ever since. Rafe is relatively clueless when it comes to magic. He hasn't even noticed that I am the same lunch lady that served him when he was a student, and I'm still working here, and haven't aged a day in all that time. I suppose he gave you the spiel about there being two types of people: users and scaredy cats? Well, from his perspective that's true, and if you haven't figured it out, he's the user, and he thinks you're the scaredy cat, Vinnie. But the world's more complex than that."
"Uh, Ms. Borgia?" Vinnie said nervously, she was still holding his hand, "My hand?"
"I'll read your palm in a minute. Just working a cleansing spell on you, Rafe really did a number on you. You're ten times the wizard he is, power wise. You'll be lucky if you last to the end of the school year. He probably wants you to boost some or all of his spells before he turns you into a drinking fountain or toilet."
"Drinking fountain or toilet?" gasped Vinnie.
"Well, that's what has happened to his last dozen or so apprentices. Rafe is obsessed with inanimation. He likes to turn people into things, so he can own them. He even turned his own master into a statue. You know the bronze statue to the school's first principal in the courtyard?"
"You mean that's a person?"
"Not just a person, Rafe's master. It's really his own fault. I sense Rafe gave you a line about manipulating memories, so that your victims reinforce their own spells?"
Vinnie nodded.
"Yeah, well not entirely true. You see if he was honest, he'd have manipulated Horst, Carter and Ryan, so that they would forget all about magic. It's what I usually do. There's no reason to transform a person into a thing, and make them enjoy torture to reinforce that spell to keep them from telling anybody about magic. And the amount of magical energy that the locker boys generate, not to mention the toilet boys, and water fountain boys, is more than enough to keep them transformed, and supply Rafe with a practically limitless supply of magical energy to boost his own naturally weak level."
"Wait you mean Ryan, Horst and Carter are boosting my power? Well, they would be, except you gave something to Rafe that gives him power over you, and diverts their extra magical energy to him. Now let's see that palm. Oh, and don't worry your lasagna will remain hot."
"What if someone else comes in?" Vinnie asked.
"Huh? Oh, you think I only froze time in this room?" laughed Lucretia, "Puh-lease, I simply took you and me out of time. The rest of the world is hurling forward, and we're resting in a moment in between."
"Hm, you've got a couple powerful enemies," Lucretia said running her index finger along the lines in his palm. "Coach Rafe is the lesser one. Who is the female that you crossed?"
"Stacy?"
"Ryan's girlfriend? Huh?" Lucretia said reaching through the table, she grabbed Vinnie's crotch, "Hm? Looks like she put him under a love spell, and your coach altered his memories to make the love spell make him love you. Damn, has he been milking you hourly? Poor boy." She shook her head.
Vinnie blushed.
"Stacy's got magic too?" Vinnie asked uncertainly.
"Possibly, or it could be bought magic. If she created it she's as clumsy as Rafe with her spells, especially since he so easily altered it, but this spell is definitely stronger than anything Rafe could manage without an apprentice to boost him. Maybe that's the real reason he didn't turn you into shorts or a locker? He probably knew he couldn't, and he knew he'd need to get you to willingly allow him to ensorce you, if he was going to use your power against Stacy."
"But if I'm enchanted by him, what can I do?"
"Not much without my help. But like I said you and your buddies are nice guys. I could probably make you all forget all this and change you back into your former selves, but Rafe wouldn't let you out of school. He's like a shark that tastes blood, once he tastes magic. No, we are going to have to deal with Rafe. Now you eat, while I work on spell to break his hold over you."
Vinnie was hungry, and her cooking was delicious. So he dug in to the lasagna. Lucretia Borgia smiled, she did like it when people enjoyed her cooking. She probably should have done something about Rafe forty years ago. She didn't tell Vinnie, but blood will out. He looked a lot like her kid brother Gioffre Borgia, and she could tell that Vinnie was of the Borgia bloodline. All of them from Cesare to Gioffre had some degree of magic. It might even be her own descendant, her son Ercole D'Este had several children. She wasn't sure about the one who went into the priesthood, but he might have? In any case, whether he realized it or not, Vincent Cost was kin to Lucretia Borgia, and she owed it to him to help.
Vinnie was still hungry after devouring the three helpings of lasagna. Everything still appeared to be frozen, but he reminded himself it wasn't, he was just living in an extended moment.