The entire house was heating up. Waves pulsed from Petey, whose anxiety was driving her magical powers to go berserk. She had had problems ever since her specialty magic began. Some of the students were afraid of her lack of control, but I knew the feeling of uncontrollable magic. No one could be more afraid than Petey.
I stepped closer to Petey. She moved back instinctually, but I had already pressed a hand on her shoulder. Pain rushed through my arm at the point of contact, my whole body wanting to jerk back, but I could see that the action shocked her. There was a glint of hope in her eyes. I rubbed her shoulder comfortingly, biting back a scream as the skin on my hand sizzled. She appeared to be calming down, although I wasn’t sure if it was out of shock or hope. “Why don’t we see if a cold shower could work, okay?”
Petey nodded and I dropped my hand, hiding the pink skin behind my back and motioning the way with my other one. She began hobbling to the bathroom, wiping her cheeks dry. I wiped the sweat off my face. On the bright side, if Petey could learn to use her powers properly, we could save a lot of money on not having to book an air conditioning installation near Brisbane. There were still three months until summer when Petey could potentially become a summer wildfire hazard.
The kitchen door slid open, and I tried to comfort the other students away with a weak thumbs up (from my working hand). Following Petey into the bathroom, I found her meditating on the tiles. She burst into tears as I approached. “I’m so sorry,” she bawled.
“Don’t be, you’re like our personal heating service. Brisbane gets dead cold in winter at night time. You’d be surprised.”
“And now you’re burning,” she hiccuped, although she was wiping her tears away. The air was dropping to a comfortable temperature, finally cooling down. Petey looked exhausted.
“You’ll get your powers under control, Petey,” I said, taking a seat beside her.