The Magic Factory

“What are those?” Hazel mused aloud, squinting to try and see into the boxes.

Oliver craned his neck. In each box there appeared to be a small, white mouse.

“Mice!” he told her. “We’re not going to dissect them, are we?”

Simon appeared then with their worksheets. Oliver quickly read the title and saw that far from dissecting mice, their task was to rearrange their anatomical components.

“I’ll never be able to do this,” he stammered.

“Don’t worry, neither will I!” Ralph said jovially. “I mean, you saw me with the leaf. I’m useless.”

“At least you can do that,” Oliver replied. “I can’t do anything!”

His failure in Doctor Ziblatt’s class was still consuming his thoughts.

Just then, Edmund reached their bench. He was pushing the cart with the boxes on it, each with a white mouse inside. Edmund dumped a box in front of Ralph, then one in front of Hazel. When he got to Oliver he held up a box different from the others. It was covered in wires and had a computer attached to one side.

“More training wheels for Oliver,” he sneered, dumping the box down. “Most of us can do transformation without tools. But you’ll have to rely on some help just like those goggles in the last class.” He paused and grinned devilishly. “Speaking of which, it was so embarrassing for you. Everyone saw you staring at Esther in the holograph! And then your little panic attack! Haha, it was hilarious.”

Oliver felt his cheeks growing hotter and hotter as Edmund spoke. Not just from embarrassment but from rage. He thought he’d finally escaped the bullies in his life but clearly he had not. Even here, at this wonderful, magical place, he was being picked on. He tugged at the neckline of his overalls.

Beside him, Hazel spoke under her breath. “Just ignore him, Oliver.”

But Edmund wasn’t done. He could tell he’d gotten under Oliver’s skin with his comments. He laughed nastily. “You should know you don’t stand a chance with Esther Valentini, by the way. She’ll only ever date the best switchit player in the school. And that is me.”

A sudden lump formed painfully in Oliver’s throat at the thought of Edmund and Esther together.

Walter leaned over suddenly. “Edmund, we all know I’m the best switchit player. If Esther cared about switchit, she’d be dating me!”

Edmund snapped his mouth shut and glared at Walter. “You wish,” he spat, before storming off.

Oliver deflated. He looked over at his friends. “Thanks,” he muttered.

He turned his attention to the task at hand, and looked down at the box. It was covered in buttons, screens, and other electronic components. Inside, a small white mouse scurried around.

“Am I going to hurt it?” Oliver asked with concern. “Rearranging its atoms sounds painful.”

“It won’t feel a thing,” Hazel told him. “The first thing to do is suspend it in time.”

“Of course…” Oliver murmured.

Mr. Lazzarato began reminding the class on the first steps to freezing their mouse in time. Oliver, however, just had to press a button. It felt like cheating to skip out that first step, but his powers weren’t strong enough for him to attempt such complex things without his “training wheels.”

Oliver pressed the button and instantly the mouse became completely frozen, its little nose pointing upward mid-sniff. It was a peculiar sight. Oliver struggled to get his head around the fact the mouse was stuck in time, like his brain couldn’t fully accept it. A bit like with the invisibility patch. He was starting to understand why a human brain could explode if exposed to too much Seer-related information too quickly!

“Got it!” Hazel suddenly exclaimed.

Oliver looked over, stunned by what he saw. In Hazel’s box, the little white mouse had changed. It looked like an adorable cartoon character, with big eyes and eyelashes. It was even standing on its hind legs.

“Amazing!” Oliver stammered.

“Gosh, Hazel,” Simon added. “That was jolly fast work.”

Walter clapped Hazel’s success, clearly thrilled for her. But Ralph had still not achieved anything.

“I thought this was supposed to be easy for me,” he said.

As Hazel went to show Mr. Lazzarato her mouse, the rest of the gang bowed their heads over their worksheets. Oliver tried to absorb all the information but never before had he felt so challenged. School had always been easy for him. Finally, he was somewhere he would be pushed to grow and hopefully, one day, excel. But that seemed very far away from his reach right now.

Oliver attached the electrodes on the box to his temples. He felt a strange pulsing sensation which seemed to make his mind become foggy. Then he closed his eyes and visualized what he wanted to achieve; a muscular mouse like some kind of wrestler.

The sheet had said it would take thirty seconds to take effect, and so Oliver waited, counting through the numbers in his head. It was remarkably difficult. The pulses coming from the electrode made it feel as if his thoughts were swimming in soup.

Finally, he made it to thirty and opened his eyes. The mouse was exactly the same. Disappointment bit at him.

“I can’t do it,” he said, sadly.

“Don’t worry,” Walter said. “It’s hard.”

But in Walter’s own box, his mouse had changed. Not a lot, but he’d definitely made its head bigger and its tail longer. Despite Walter’s claims that magnetism was a bad specialism to have, he’d still had more success than Oliver.

“What’s the worst specialism for a Seer?” Oliver asked.

Walter pondered for a moment. “Sonar, probably. Why do you ask?”

“Because I’m sure my test will show me that I’ve got it,” Oliver replied. “Either that or it will show me I’m not a Seer at all!”

Walter shook his head kindly. “You failed at your first attempt, that’s all. It’s not the end of the world.”

“Don’t get disheartened,” Simon added. “Try and try again.”

“Easy for you to say,” Ralph huffed, clearly growing frustrated with his own failure. “Your specialism is molecular. It’s a close second place after atomic if you ask me.”

They returned to their work. Despite his best efforts, Oliver had no success. He started to feel like the electrodes were hampering him. He understood that they were meant to teach him how to get his mind into the correct state, but he found the pulsing irritating.

He decided to attempt it without the electrodes. Switching his mind into the correct mindset wasn’t easy but Oliver did manage to emulate the same soupy, leaden feeling the pulse had given him. Only this time, his mind was clearer. Counting wasn’t such a struggle. He felt more in control, and the image in his mind of his muscled mouse was easier to hold on to.

Twenty-eight, twenty-nine, thirty…

Oliver opened his eyes. He squinted at the mouse, then tipped his head to the side, searching for any sign of transformation.

“It looks a bit bigger,” Walter said.

“No it doesn’t,” Oliver replied. He knew Walter was just trying to cheer him up.

Giving up, Oliver pressed the button that would unfreeze the mouse. He watched it come back to life, scurrying around the box and sniffing. Then suddenly it rose up onto its back legs so that it was standing tall, and flexed its arm muscles.

Oliver gasped. The mouse returned to scurrying around the box. Had he just been seeing things, or had he actually managed to change the atoms inside the mouse? Only a little, and nowhere near the wrestler mouse he’d been attempting, but it was still something! Maybe he wasn’t completely useless after all.