Daniel felt a bit sheepish as he sat at the border of his coven’s circle, the girls talking quietly about him while the rest of the class ran dueling drills.

“So you’ve been casting telekinetic spells like this the whole time?” Asami asked, eyes wide as she marveled at it. “Just…sort of shoving things around?”

“Yes,” Daniel grumbled. “Because how are you going to move things without pushing them?”

“Well, it’s–your mom graduated top of her class, didn’t she?”

“Third,” Daniel corrected. “Third in her class, not top. She’s not like a prodigy or anything.”

“But your name on the application still got you in the door,” Hazel pointed out. “So–she was pretty damned good.”

“My point being,” Asami cut back in, “didn’t she teach you how to do this?”

“She helped on my homework, sometimes, but I was always kind of a self-taught learner. Anyway, I’m not seeing what the problem is here.”

“When you pick up an object,” Mathilde cut in, leaning on her hand in thought. “Do you feel it? Can you sense its presence?”

“I can tell when it’s pressed against my wards, kinda,” Daniel explained. “I kind of have to feel it out, though, to see how much energy I need to get it to move how I want.”

“But that’s just feeling your ward, not the object,” Asami interjected.

“When I pick something up, I’m not feeling my hand,” Daniel shot back. “I’m feeling the thing in my hand. It’s the same–I’m feeling the thing in my ward.”

“I’m just wondering,” Radha began, “Daniel, how’d you get through the entrance exams if you don’t get this?”

“Barely,” Daniel growled. “Can we please stay focused? I really don’t want to talk about my academic failings, as comical as it might be.”

“Besides, it’s actually kind of cool,” Cassie added, reaching over to pat Daniel on the shoulder. “The fact that he was still able to do enough to pass, even though his technique was way off? It’s like finding out someone did a triathlon without knowing how to ride a bike–the fact that he got it done at all is impressive.”

Things were getting infuriating. Daniel had started to suspect that he wasn’t doing the magic wrong at all, but that he was simply describing it poorly, and the issue was with his skill. The conversation wasn’t making progress, he was just being told over and over about his failings, and reminding him of how bad his control was wouldn’t actually help make him better at magic.

Trying to shut the conversation down, he began, “I didn’t–”

“That’s not what I mean,” Radha continued, bowling over his attempt to interject. “You passed the written test really well, right? And that’s how you got in?”

Exhaling through his nose, Daniel nodded.

“So how’d you pass the written part if you, y’know, don’t understand the fundamentals?”

“I memorized the answers,” Daniel explained. “It’s all just…math and formulas and knowing what words they want.”

“He knew the description of Kinetomancy,” Cassie added. “But it was just that he was applying it wrong.”

“But how was I applying it wrong?” Daniel asked, face burning as he lashed out with the question. “You keep saying I’m doing it bad, but like…how?”

“When you move things, you’re grabbing them and then throwing them,” Radha explained. “You need to just move them.”

“Grabbing things and throwing them does move them,” Daniel objected. “You’re just describing telekinesis differently. I feel like someone’s running me through a set of ‘Who’s on first’, except you forgot to tell me my lines.”

“But it’s not the same at all,” Asami said. “Using the object’s own center to move it, versus trying to push it with a physical construct–it’s completely different!”

Daniel wanted to rip his hair out. “But how?”

Clearing her throat loudly, Hazel rubbed at the bridge of her nose, getting the attention of the circle. “Look–I’m sorry Daniel got a piss-poor education, but are we really postponing the entire group’s practice for him?”

“That’s not fair,” Cassie replied immediately. “We’re a team. If one player’s not able to play, we’re all going to be worse off.”

“Okay, but he can figure out Kinetomancy 101 on his own time,” Hazel shot back. “We’re not his tutors, it’s not our fault he doesn’t know this stuff, and I know that I have to practice my dueling.”

“Hazel,” Mathilde began, shaking her head slowly. Before she could finish, though, Daniel cut in.

“She’s right.” Pushing to his feet, he wobbled slightly, mana-saturated diaper still hanging heavily around his waist. “I’m not going to delay everyone else’s work for myself.”

“But–” Cassie began, standing to address him.

“Nope, no buts,” he replied. “I’ll figure this out on my own time…once I’m not scrubbing floors.”

“I’m not sure she can even make you do that,” Radha said. “That’s a pretty intense detention.”

“I think teachers have a lot of latitude,” Asami interjected.

“And even if they don’t,” Daniel interrupted. “I’m not going to start an argument over it. You might have noticed that the faculty hate me, I’m not going to get fair treatment from them.”

“Alright.” Asami got to her feet as well, stretching out her arms. “Well…I guess, Daniel, can you do wards so someone can practice attacking you, at least?”

“Yeah.” Nodding, he straightened a bit. “I can do that.”

“Cool, then let’s get to work, okay?”

The rest of the class passed without incident, though Daniel felt rather sheepish as the rest of the coven rotated out around him, needing to alternate with one another so everyone else could get experience with both attacking and defending from the goopy paint attacks.

Eventually, Glinse sulked back into the class, though only to try and regain a bit of face and dismiss them before the bell could go off. She gave a little speech about discipline, but by that point, Daniel had lost what little respect he had for their voxavin teacher and he doubted that her self-serving monologue would contain any pearls of wisdom, so he drowned it out, thinking instead of what he had to do after class.

He’d been through plenty of humiliation that day, but he needed to put himself through a little more before moving on.

As the throng of witches began to disperse, collecting their things and moving on to their future classes, Daniel sought out a particularly pointy tip amongst the sea of hats. Spotting his goal and waddling his way through the crowd, he prepared what he had to say.

“Jen!” he called, once he was close enough that he could be heard over the hum of post-class chatter.

She turned, slightly surprised to see him only a few paces away. Her appearance was still heavily soaked with blue, though most of it had dripped out of her clothing, leaving smudges and a slight stain on her skin from their duel at the start of class. Turning, she commented something to a group of girls–her coven, if he had to guess–before stepping up to him. “Uh, heya, Danny.”

He almost corrected her to Daniel, but now wasn’t the time. “Can we talk? I kind of blew up at you earlier, and I need to apologize.”

She chewed on her lip for a moment before nodding. “Sure. And I mean–I get it, I probably wasn’t helping, and I could have asked first, but–”

“Hold it.” He held up a hand, shaking his head. “I’m apologizing to you, Jen, not the other way around. You were trying to help. We can…maybe coordinate better on how to deal with bullies, but…sorry. It’s not just about that.”

As the crowd thinned around them, he struggled with his words, trying to think how to phrase his question.

He settled on a blunt question. “Did you think you were going to be helpful when you challenged me earlier?”

She frowned. “Well, yeah. It’s like before–I thought, if you beat me, it’d make you look kind of…I dunno, tough? And since you’re kinda so-so with your magic, I thought it’d be better to be up against me, since I wasn’t going to go super hard against you.”

Shutting his eyes, Daniel sighed to himself, feeling stupid. That made a lot of sense, and it might have even helped his reputation, if it weren’t for the issue of his sheer incompetence.

“That’s…” he began, flushing and looking down at his feet. “Thanks, Jen. It was almost a great plan.”

Jen snickered, taking a step closer. “Well yeah, I didn’t know you were going to go all anarchist on the demonstration. Did you think it was a good idea to snub the teacher like that? I know she singled you out, but I dunno, making enemies might not be the best bet, especially if she’s…” Raising her hands, she gestured vaguely, waggling her fingers spookily. “You know. The one.”

“I wasn’t just trying to make a splash,” Daniel admitted, avoiding her eye contact. “I…well, my coven figured out during dueling practice that I actually just straight up don’t know Kinetomancy. At all.” Flushed, he glanced up, looking at her to see how she’d react.

Jen’s eyes widened behind her glasses. “I…how? You got into the school, how can you not know that?”

He quickly recapped the situation, and what they’d managed to piece together, ending with a summary of what he didn’t understand. “I really don’t see the difference between moving something and pushing something,” he grumbled.

“Oh! That’s easy.” Jen beamed, stepping back. “I can show you.”

Daniel raised a skeptical eyebrow. “Really? Because I already had five girls try to ‘show’ me, and none of them got anywhere.”

“Yeah,” Jen said, raising her right arm by her side, like she was going to ask a question. “It’s just like this. I’m going to wave my arm the ‘right’ way, okay?”

“Okay.” Daniel tilted his head as she waved her hand from side to side, as though she were saying hello.

“And here’s how you’re doing it.” Reaching with her left hand, Jen grabbed her own wrist and shook violently, sending her left hand flopping from side to side like a muppet throwing a tantrum.

It clicked, finally.

“I…” he began, staring. “Oh. Oh god.”

“What’s wrong?” Jen asked, lowering both hands and frowning.

“I just feel really stupid right now,” he admitted, emotions starting to bubble inside him. Frustration at his own stupidity, and at his learning materials, and at everyone who’d seen him try and cast spells before and never bothered to correct him. “Okay. I…I’m not sure I’m not sure I’m following how you do that.”

Jen smiled. “Oh, well that part’s easy. It’s like…you just…” She trailed off. “Okay, hold on.”

“‘It’s easy’?” Daniel inquired, raising an eyebrow. “But you can’t explain it?”

“It’s like trying to explain how to ride a bicycle,” she admitted. “I’ve been doing it for so long without thinking, I don’t even know how I could explain it–I just do it. But I think…okay. I have an idea. When’s your next free period?”

He thought back to his schedule, frowning as he sought out a clock in the room to check the time. “Kinda, at the end of the day, but then I have detention. Plus…oh, hell.” His next class was in ten minutes, and his over-soaked, heavy diaper still sagged heavily beneath his skirt.

“What’s wrong?” Jen asked.

“I need to get back to my room so I can change before my next class,” Daniel admitted, flushing. “And it’s gonna be kind of tight…I gotta go. Talk later?”

“Sure,” Jen said, “Just–meet me here after your classes are done, okay? I think I have an idea that’ll explain everything.”

...