The classes had ended long ago, and it was ten p.m. when Julia decided to see what else was behind the hidden door. She had changed her clothes into shorts and a t-shirt, and brushed her teeth a long time ago.

She entered the room again. The chestnut wood wardrobe door was stuck and it took her a while to open it. She looked around to search for clues, as to why her classmates were different from her, and where her tuition was coming from, since she appeared to have little money, and no bank cards. Julia felt the top rack of her wardrobe, and a small box as well as a notebook and a pencil case fell as she almost caught it. It landed on the ground. Still no bag though, so thank goodness she got one from Cole.

She read the title of the box which had the image of a cellphone printed.

“Juice Flip Phone (Metallic Lavender 09)”

Julia had seen something similar in that dream, where Patricia was using a device which had a screen you could interact with. She knew so much about human life, but this phone thingy seemed alien to her. She opened the box. There was a handwritten note.

“Dear Julia,

This is the last item I can provide you with before they cut off my connection with you. I can provide you with money occasionally through online transfers, but I can no longer provide you with gifts. WiFi does work on this phone. It’s a hybrid, mainly a flip phone with smartphone elements. I hope you will like the charm and will attach it.

~Pat”

There was a lingering feeling within her that maybe Patricia wasn’t a bad person.

There was a charger and a plastic charm of a cake slice with fake whipped cream and a strawberry on top. It took her a while to figure out how to put the charm on. It refreshed Julia’s memory and she remembered the concept of a phone. She put it to charge using the port beside her bed. The instruction manual also came with an advertisement for a social media platform.

It was now twelve a.m. and she was unable to sleep. The phone let out a beep. Julia checked and saw the charge was full.

After tinkering with the phone for twenty minutes, she was able to access the WIFi. She registered for a password using her ID. The phone was controlled by a cursor and a keypad, the screen wasn’t a touch screen.

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She surfed the internet for a while before entering the social media platform called “Just Juice”. She created a profile without an image. After taking ten selfies and deleting the ones she didn’t like, she added her display picture. The first profile she followed was that of her university. She then searched for “Cole” and hundreds of results came. She then searched for “Cole University of Creative Arts” and found him. She then followed him, he had fifty followers. After Cole Letterman, she followed Lindsey Royce who had ten followers. The next profile was that of Silvio Maple, he had two hundred followers. Sunshine Roberts had a follower count of six hundred followers. Arthur Ash had a following of a whopping two thousand followers. Julia looked back at her followers. Zero.

She was about to fall asleep when a beep alarmed her and she jumped up.

“Silvio Maple has followed you back. Online two minutes ago. Send a message?”

Julia: Hello.

One minute later,

Silvio: …

Can’t sleep? I suggest listening to soft music.

Julia:

Then why don’t you listen to music and fall asleep?

Silvio: I’m trying. You should too.

Julia: Okay good night.

Julia played a song called “Moonlight” by Ai Tea

She somehow managed to turn off her phone before she fell asleep. It was really humid inside her room.

In her dream, a woman with black hair wearing a white dress with angel wings appeared in front of her. She looked exactly like Julia. Was it… no it couldn’t be Patricia. She was far from being an angel. After all, in the dream, Patricia had ripped Julia’s face off and pushed her down from a height, into the darkness. Upon closer inspection, the angel wings were fake, they were mere costume wings.

Julia woke up just as the announcement was made. She somehow took a shower and got ready for class. The first class was supposed to be Wand Creation and Use 102.

She rushed towards class, putting her phone (which was turned off) inside the satchel.

On the way, there were some stalls. She didn’t pay much attention to them, and wouldn’t either, if it wasn’t for Sunny who yelled at her to stop running.

“Take this,” said Sunny

It was a flyer for the Art club. As Julia was reading it, two others dumped flyers of two other clubs into her arms. Julia somehow caught all of them and put them inside her satchel.

She entered the Witch building and made it just on time.

“Julia,” Said a voice

It was Cole. Today for some reason, he was also wearing different clothes like Julia. He must have tried the spell himself as well. He was dressed in a black plain polo shirt with dark grey pants and had his usual spectacles.

“I saved you a seat,” He said

It was in front of Cole.

“Thanks,” said Julia

She sat down and kept the satchel near her.

The assistant professor came and said the students had to follow them all the way to the meadow to gather the supplies for wand making. They had very short hair and wore a smile.

“This should be fun,” whispered Cole

“I’m Gem Lint and I am your lecturer for this course. I’m queer and my pronouns are they or them and I’d appreciate it if you respected that. Anyway come on, let’s go to the meadow. We only have an hour and thirty minutes after all.” Said Prof. Lint

They all packed up and exited as a pack.