"Janice! What are you doing here! I'm actually here to buy something. Can you keep it a secret?" Landy whispered. Knowing that it is going to be something secretive, Janice quickly nodded. Landy quickly told her the secret and when Janice heard it, she shrieked with joy immediately, alarming the passer-bys nearby.
"I can't believe it! You were accepted too? So am I!" Janice shrieked. It turned out that her best friend was also accepted to Yap Ee Chian too. She was also wondering how to get into Vertic Alley when she spotted Janice.
"You, You mean that you were accepted too? That means that we would be in the same school together! Isn't this great? " Landy shrieked.
Just then, a man dressed in a kilt and a poncho walked towards them. His style of dressing, in Janice's opinion, was perfectly horrible. She could see Landy wrinkling her nose in disgust at the dress sense. " Do you guys happen to be Miss Janice Chan, Mrs Maureen Chan and Miss Landy Wong?" The weird guy enquired.
"As a matter of fact, we are," said Landy.
"Good. Everyone in the group is waiting for you. Please follow me to Vertic Alley. I'm Mr Hassim by the way." as the guy introduced himself. Dumbly, they followed the guy, who was walking towards a bunch of nervous looking people whom Janice presumed to be her future classmates.
It turned out that Vertic Alley, like Diagon Alley, was hidden but it wasn't hidden inside a pub. In fact, the only way to get in was through the HMV building. They had to take the escalator all the way up the fifth floor to Annex (a place where teenagers our age look for funky stuff), then walk through one of a graffiti wall to reach Vertic Alley.
Landy, Mrs Chan and Janice did as Mr Hassim said and true enough, Verctic Alley was right in front of them. Janice almost fainted when she saw what was in front of her. Spread out in front of her was a place unlike anything she had ever seen. The structure was still the same, but all the usual shops were gone. In place were shops selling books, supplies, wands, robes and broomsticks. "My goodness, Janice, this place is just fabulous." Mrs Chan gasped. Like Janice, Mrs Chan was stunned at the layout of Vertic Alley.
"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go!" Landy shrieked. They quickly made their way to one of the shops.
"But Mum, how are we going to buy all these supplies? We don't have any wizard money! " Janice shrieked. Mrs Chan stopped dead in her tracks. Her daughter was right. They didn't have any wizard money. What were they supposed to do now?
Just then, Landy shrieked, "There it is! I think that's the wizard's bank! Maybe they would provide money-changing service for people like us! Let's go! They quickly rushed to the bank, LKY Bank for Wizards.
The Bank, like Gringotts, was run by goblins. The moment Janice stepped in, one the goblins at the reception, stepped and said, "Muggles?"
Muggles? What is a Muggle? Janice wondered. Before she knew it she was following the goblin to a counter where another goblin was writing something into his ledger book.
"What is it you want? Grittle? Can't you see that I'm busy?" The goblin at the counter snapped without looking up.
" I can see that, Kruter, but this Muggle girl with her mother and her friend needs help with currency exchange." Grittle said shortly.
Kruter looked up this time and stared at them carefully. Janice felt like as though she was an artefact in a museum, with people constantly staring at her. "How much do you wish to exchange then, Madam? The exchange rate currently is at 3 warps per dollar." Kruter questioned.
"I suppose. We could open a account for Janice and Landy. Do you want a account, Landy?" Mrs Chan enquired.
"Well… my mum gave me about a thousand dollars this morning. Ermm… Okay then." Landy replied.
"Okay. In Janice's account, I'll think I'll deposit about eight hundred dollars inside, since I didn't bring much money today. All right with you, Janice? " Mrs Chan said.
"Yeah, its fine with me." Janice mumbled. She wanted to get away from this place as fast as possible.
Kruter took out two small books and began writing Landy's and Janice's names in front, followed by the amount of money each of them deposited (three thousand warps for Landy and two thousand four hundred warps for Janice) and finally the amount each of them withdrawed (five hundred warps for each) before handling the tiny book and the amount of money to them.
"See the bronze coins? They are pegs. It takes up about twenty pegs to make up the tresni, which is the silver coins and it takes about ten tresni to make up the warp, which is the gold one." Kruter explained.
"Thanks, now we better get going, we have a lot of things to buy." Mrs Chan said. They quickly walked out of the bank, with the money jingling in their pockets.