InsaneJournal

"Okay, the kitchen is right through here…" Clover said, leading the way. It had been a few years since she'd been home for the New Sibling tour, but she fell right back into old patterns as they moved through the house. "The most important room in the house. Obviously! We usually try to eat dinner together at least, but when school's out or whatever, lunch is kind of just what you make of it."

Clover smiled at her new foster sibling, hoping she was making her feel at home and comfortable. She was bursting with questions, but she didn't want to overwhelm the girl, either; the first day in a new place was already overwhelming enough, let alone when the new place was a coven house. "You can basically eat anything here, except if it's like marked with a little X because it's being saved for a specific meal or ritual or potion or something. Dad calls those Silica. You know, because you're not supposed to eat them."

“Nice.” Vic grinned at the Silica joke, a little wider than was strictly necessary, as her nerves were on edge.

She’d been through enough foster homes that a quick tour of someone else’s house was a normal occurrence. Normally, the people inhabiting those houses weren’t self-proclaimed witches mentioning rituals or potions or… Well, she hadn’t heard the word sacrifice yet, but she was definitely listening for it. Even if, thus far, nothing screamed ‘danger!’ at her.

“What kind of rituals?”

"Oh, um," Clover said, realizing she'd missed a step. "All sorts! Both my folks are ritual witches. It's kind of … okay, so like, there are different branches of magic, right? For witches. And we're a whole coven on this block, so we've got all different sorts of us here. But ritual magic is usually for bigger stuff, like blessing the gardens to grow, or people hire them to do like, protection spells? That sort of thing. I know it's a lot!"

She weighed, for a moment, whether she should continue on, but Vic deserved to know, and Clover hated keeping secrets. "It's actually how we found you," she said. She really really hoped this didn't freak Vic out. "We have some special finding spells in place. One of them's with the foster system. So, if there's a supernatural kid in a tough spot, we find them and try to help."

“Like… the Find my Supernatural —” Even saying the world felt foreign. “— version of Find my Phone?” It sounded both ridiculous and less plausible then if there’d been an electronic device that located supernatural activity instead. Except, she was here. In Michigan. Surrounded by witches.

Clover shrugged. Her expression lay somewhere between a smile and a grimace. "Kinda? My last foster brother was a zombie from Toledo. He moved back there last year after he turned eighteen, but we still keep in touch, you know? Anyway I'm so glad you're here!"

“A zombie,” Vic repeated. It was proving harder and harder to keep up a pleasant demeanor when so little of what was being said made sense. “Like… I want to eat your braaaaains?”

"I mean, sorta, but the food thing's way under control," Clover assured her. "They're not like stumbling around slowly and attacking people, you know? Definitely don't believe everything you've seen in the movies. Also, um. We should probably go over the species basics before we head to school! Maybe we can even...figure out your situation?" (Zombie had actually been Clover's first guess. She decided to keep that one to herself.)

“I think some species basics sound great,” Vic admitted. Most of the last few days had filled her with incredible disbelief, but it couldn’t hurt to know a little more. Even if knowing more meant feeling even more like she’d stumbled into Narnia. “And knowing my… situation.” Which she was struggling to believe was a supernatural situation, despite all the evidence backing it up.

Clover nodded enthusiastically. "Totally. Um. And if we can't figure it out together, the teachers know everything," she said. "Well, I mean, almost. And you know, we get new students all the time. It's not like … you're not gonna be the only one who's new at this, okay?"

“I guess it’ll be just like every other new school, then,” Vic joked, half-heartedly. “Kind of.” Not actually. Not at all, really. But if there was one thing that Vic had gotten very good at over the years, it was adjusting to new situations. “Maybe more near death experiences than normal.” Though, it would’ve been more accurate to say more death experiences than normal.

"Probably!" Clover agreed, as though that could possibly be a comforting statement. "So. Do you want to see our backyard? Everybody on the block's with us, so we took down all the fences and it's just one big space. I could introduce you to some more witches? Or we can take a break if you want!"

Vic wanted to take the option of a break, but the desire to appear more at ease than she was won out. “The backyard sounds cool,” she offered, though she wasn’t sure she actually agreed with the statement. “Maybe that?”

“Backyard it is!" Clover said. "But hey, I know this is all a lot. So when you need a break, just say the word and we'll come back and play cards or something, okay?" Her expression scrunched as she thought about it. "Just normal, regular, non-magical cards."

“Okay.” Vic hesitated, but caved at the idea of doing something decidedly normal. “If you wanted to play cards, though, I don’t mind waiting on the rest of the tour.”

And Clover could read between the lines easily enough. She nodded, and smiled. "I would absolutely love to play cards."