and a wolf will move among the lambs

[impetuous_force]

It's that afternoon after school when Bella next visits the Witchnook. (She already made another nighttime visit to pick up her powder, and it's safely stashed under the false bottom in the box full of notebooks under her bed.) This time she just needs beetle wings and a reasonably clear chunk of quartz. Her books and the goldvine bramble she ordered aren't in yet.

Comments

[impetuous_force]

"Do you."

[alicornucopia]

"I would go to that restaurant," says Angie.

[eversomuchfun]

"Perhaps I'll open it here."

[alicornucopia]

"If I want to be a teacher I'm going to have to live out of the enclave for at least a few years, for school," frets Angela. "But then I think I'll move right back. Unless there aren't any jobs at the time here..."

[impetuous_force]

"There are other walled enclaves," says Bella. "But the competition for work inside of them is probably pretty fierce if you aren't from there."

[eversomuchfun]

"You can work at my hypothetical restaurant," laughs Sherlock.

[alicornucopia]

"I want to be a teacher, though," says Angie wistfully. "Elementary school. Little kids like Isaac and Joshua."

[impetuous_force]

"Besides, to make hiring decisions you couldn't just be the chef, you'd have to own or at least manage the place," says Bella.

[eversomuchfun]

"If I hypothetically open one here, I hardly think anyone else will be stepping up to own and manage it for me. Unless you'd like to."

[impetuous_force]

"So you don't want to just be a chef, you want to be a restaurateur - you and what startup funding?"

[alicornucopia]

"We're sixteen," laughs Angie, "can't we talk about what we want to be when we grow up without wondering how we'll fund it?"

[eversomuchfun]

"I'm with Angie," says 'John'. "Practicality is depressing."

[alicornucopia]

"What about you, Bella, are you still on 'maybe a witch, maybe a doctor'?" Angie asks.

[impetuous_force]

"Yep," says Bella, "that's about the size of it."

[eversomuchfun]

"And do you have a lovely practical plan?"

[impetuous_force]

"Student loans will probably be involved."

[eversomuchfun]

"I imagine that of the two, witching is easier to get into without a formal education."

[impetuous_force]

"Yes. But probably harder to retain a decent relationship with my parents."

[alicornucopia]

"I'm sure you'd do wonderful things as a witch," says Angie, "and your parents would understand eventually, even if they worried. It's not as though Charlie's job is the safest."

[eversomuchfun]

"Do your parents disapprove of witching, then?"

[impetuous_force]

"Charlie more so than Renée," says Bella slowly, shifting in her seat. "Risk of draft, risk of botched spell, risk of addiction and magic accordingly taking over one's life."

[eversomuchfun]

"I suppose a career in medicine carries none of those risks."

[impetuous_force]

"They have better luck at enticing doctors into the USADI with mere large amounts of money," says Bella. "And the obsession symptom is a temporary feature of medical school, and if you botch something, that's what malpractice insurance is for."

[eversomuchfun]

He laughs.

[impetuous_force]

"But the scale and flexibility of a halfway decent witch are better." She shrugs.