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Chapter 1: North Cobalt Ave.
The brown bat thumped so hard against the window that its tiny body went flat, moonlight shining through the thin membrane of its wings as though it were nothing but a well painted etching on stained glass. It’s pink mouth gaped open to issue a series of incessant clicks until it straightened itself out, clawing its way upside down to hang from the wooden top rail. It coiled leathery arms around itself and twitched its gaze inward at the house that sat quiet and dark in these graveyard hours of the morning.

It would wait there for only a couple hours before even the hint of motion would stir inside the modest North Cobalt house that sat stark and pale against the rapidly approaching sunrise, on the corner, adjacent to Monkshood N/E. There was nothing at all strange about the exterior of the house, except of course for the tiny bat clinging to the kitchen window. It was very narrow and very tall, very grey, and had an average manicure to its lawn, and there were two economy cars in the driveway.

Now that it was morning there were perfectly average things going on inside, also. A pretty, pregnant woman was standing in pink slippers at the stove now, cooking ham and eggs, hair freshly pulled from rollers and bundled up on the top of her head to keep in the heat. This was Linda Finch, mother of soon to be three. She had a habit of rubbing her round stomach whenever she did anything mindless, such as cooking.

Just then coming down the stairs, holding a reading tablet and a business jacket over his arm, was Loch Finch, using the metal board to shield his eyes from the orange sun.

“Good morning, love.” Loch said, slipping down to the round breakfast table and continuing to read the news on his tablet.

“Good morning.” Linda replied, casually flipping a few eggs onto her husband’s plate. He gave a weary smile, rubbed at his eyes and then poured himself some orange juice from the pitcher on the table just as two bouncing children leaped down the steps like ravenous animals. Both were blonde like their mother, but only the taller boy had her brown eyes. The smaller one had her father’s stormy blue hews.

“Are they here? Are they here??” Ruby asked, practically standing up in her chair. Her twin brother was quiet, helping his mother scoop his breakfast onto his plate. They seemed to have different priorities.

“Oh….and what are you talking about?” Asked Loch, looking at his daughter over his glasses, playing dumb.

“You know what!” she said, pursing her lips.

“oh, well…I think I did see something on the kitchen window…” he said, the corners of his mouth twitching upwards slightly as he exchanged a knowing glance with his wife. They both chuckled slightly as ruby darted for the window and slapped it open, reaching out to coax the tiny bat inside just as he was disturbed by her squealing.

“They’re here, they’re here!” She said, her face bright with excitement, freckled cheeks flushed pink with anticipations as she carefully untied a tiny scroll from around the bats neck, while it yawned and wrinkled it’s piggish nose at her. She unraveled it and noticed her brother’s name.

“Maggy, this one is yours.” She said, tossing it to him. It dropped onto his plate and rolled into his eggs. He glared at her and picked It up.

“Read it out loud, Maggy.” Linda said, grinning at him. The young boy tightened his lips but did as his mother said,

{“Mr. Magnus Finch, we’re pleased to inform you that you’ve been accepted to the First Witches Academy of Magick in Salem. You’ll be expected at Substation B, which is the closest transport from where your current home is [North Cobalt].”}

The rest went on to give more details on the boys acceptance but he was sighing each word before finally dropping down the letter and looked pleadingly at his grinning parents.

“I don’t WANT to go to a girls school.” He said, distress evident in his voice.

“Oh sweetie, it isn’t a girls school. It hasn’t been a girls school for more than a decade, your father went there.” Linda said, placing a proud hand on her husband’s shoulder.

“Yeah…and he’s a lawyer, he doesn’t even work in magick.” Magnus pointed out, grumbling and folding his arms. It was just looking like there was going to be a fight, when the sound of sniffling came from the other side of the room. It was Ruby, standing with the bat cupped in her hands.

“at least…at least..” she sniffled more, tease welling up in her eyes as she looked at her family, all of whom were now staring at her, “At least you got a letter!” she said, her whole facing going red, and in a whirlwind of sobs the young girl darted from the room and ran back up to her room.
Linda placed her hand on her lips, watching her go.

“Oh dear…..oh no, I worried this would happen.” She looked at Loch, what do we do…should we tell her?” Loch was staring after his daughter with a pained expression.

“No…” he said with a heavy sigh, folding his glasses and reaching into his pocket for his cell phone.

“I’m going to make a few calls…I’m not telling my daughter that she’s a squib. I won’t. Doing magick is all she’s talked about since..well, since she could talk.”

“Oh Loch…we can’t hide it from her.” Linda said, sitting down in the seat that had been meant for their daughter.

“I’m going to make some calls,” Loch insisted, “eat your breakfast, Maggy.”
Magnus stared at his parents,

"Ruby....Ruby is a Squib?" he seemed shocked.

"We've suspected for awhile now..." his mother replied, "your father is right, just eat your food, it will get cold.

How could this be, his own sister....a squib. He ate his eggs quietly.