Avis Blackthorn: Is Not an Evil Wizard! Read Online Free PDF Page A

to look weak. “My name is Avis
Blackthorn.” I announced. There was a kind of groan, some people
tutted and looked away. Some of the people nearest Ross nudged him.
I was losing them already, I didn’t want to be associated with my
brother, or any Blackthorns, I wanted to be my own person…
    “And the interesting fact about me is…” While
we were queuing, I decided that my fact would be that I had a
birthmark of the number seven on my bottom, it would be sure to
raise to a laugh. But, after the initial reaction to my name, I
stupidly, trying to win the crowd back announced: “And I am nothing
like my family in any way, they are all evil, I am not…”
    There was a wave of Oooing , as eyes
started to sway towards my brother. He played it cool of course,
his dark eyes fixed on me. I felt a wave of dread, I knew what
those eyes meant. He was really angry. I swallowed. Some people, I
think, looked kind of pleased that I had denounced myself from my
family, others didn’t look convinced, perhaps they thought it was a
Blackthorn trick. I hobbled from the podium in silence and joined
Robin at the other side of the Chamber.
    The next boy up caused a wail of laughter as
he tripped headfirst into the podium, which rocked on the spot. The
lad was quite large and got up not looking fazed at all. He laughed
at himself with this big booming laugh which made the crowd laugh
harder still.
    Then he said, causing more laughter. “My
name’s Hunter. My interesting fact, is that I am not a hunter.” He
hopped away to join us and nearly head butted me, clearly Hunter
was quite accident prone.
    We were swiftly given our form name and
table. Through sheer luck and good fortune, myself, Robin and
Hunter were all in the same form, we were The Condors . We
sat at this large round table in the middle of the Chamber. Also
joining our table, one by one were: Graham, a “Scottish” boy from
the Outside. Jess, this red lipped, pure white faced girl who
looked like she might break if you dropped her. Florence, a girl
with loads of freckles. Dennis, a short funny looking lad who spoke
so quickly it was hard to understand him. Ellen, this shy girl with
large glasses and long poker straight hair. Jake and his twin
sister Grettle, I’d never seen identical twins before, especially
not a boy and girl one. They were both blond, with green eyes and
this kind of naughty, mischievous look. I wasn’t sure if I liked
it, they sat side by side laughing intermittently as if passing
each other telepathic messages. The last four were, Simon, a plain
looking boy from Happendance like me. Joanna, a girl who looked
like she belonged more in the woods as her flyaway bushy brown hair
would otherwise indicate. Then Dawn, a very large girl who was
munching on a box of chocolate raisons.
    Apparently the last girl who was supposed to
be in our form hadn't made it, or had decided not to come… so we
were a form of thirteen.
    We all sort of sat there at the table not
looking at each other or saying anything. When everyone was seated,
The Lily stood and clapped his hands. Suddenly the tables exploded
with food! Plates and saucers of all kinds of stuff just appeared.
There was so much to look at my eyes kind of went all funny. The
food was barely on the table for a second before Hunter picked up
his plate and started spooning great clumps of mash, mini pies,
peas, peppers, cabbage, this weird sausage looking thing, all
sorts. I took a little while longer, before commencing
tentatively.
    “Weird innit…” said Hunter, he was speaking
with his mouth full. I hated that, but I didn’t say anything.
“There’s only three black boys including me in this year.”
    “Oh,” I said, I didn’t know what to follow
this up with so I kind of looked around and nodded. “I suppose
there is.”
    “Yeah, there’s thirty in the year above.”
    “Oh right.” I said, again not knowing what to
say.
    “Anyway, it’s not about how many or what
colour is it? We’re all the