Chatoyant College Book 8: From the Earth

Chapter 34: Energy

When Dawn had eaten three slices of pizza (and she'd never devoured so much so quickly in her life) and half a bottle of cola and was feeling a little better, she took a fourth slice and her bottle to the couch, where Corrie and Annie already were. "Wow, it's a good thing we ordered a lot of pizza, Dawn," said Corrie with a grin. "Hungry much?"

Dawn swallowed her bite and nodded with a rueful smile. "I'm guessing this is also a side effect of the magic. I've never been so hungry or so tired in one afternoon before."

"Well, we all thank you," said Annie with a small, shy smile. "Corrie told us about how you got the storm started early. I had an afternoon class that I was really not looking forward to."

Dawn grinned. "Happy to oblige. So we've got a whole party together today, huh?"

"Well, I was talking to Lorelei about my idea to order pizza before the snow got too bad, and she wanted to include Charlie, and I couldn't leave anybody out if I could help it," said Corrie. "We knocked on Rico and Duncan's door, too, but they didn't answer."

"Yeah, they went home for the weekend. I hope they made it through the snow okay."

"Oh, Lorelei put in for your share of the pizza, so you owe her fifteen bucks," said Corrie.

"That's nice of her." Dawn looked around for Lorelei, found her pouring a drink by the fridge, and nodded. "Why didn't you ask me before you ordered? I have the cash."

"We did," said Edie, walking up and sitting in one of the chairs by the couch. "Or we tried to. You didn't answer the door or your phone, so we figured we'd let you sleep until the pizza got here, at least, but we wanted you to at least know pizza was an option."

"Really? I can't believe you couldn't wake me up. My phone always wakes me. Maybe I need an alarm like Naomi's..."

"It's okay," said Edie. "You just exerted yourself too much today. With the magic, I guess. You need your sleep. And your food."

Dawn nodded slowly, looking at Edie thoughtfully. She'd been unusually tired and hungry after working on the trees with Leila, too. But Dawn was pretty sure she hadn't lost any time. She'd just been tired. "I don't know why I reacted so strongly, though," she said, since she'd wanted to bring up the subject anyway. "I've never gotten more than a little bit tired when I did magic before. I know this was a lot of magic, but the reaction seems disproportionate. Corrie, did you get this tired after you flooded the classroom?"

Corrie frowned and shook her head. "No, I wasn't really tired at all."

"You flooded the classroom?" asked Annie with a smirk.

"I didn't do it on purpose," Corrie groaned, putting her head in her hands. "We were doing water magic, it got out of control..."

"So why was that different?" Dawn asked.

"Well, that's easy." Corrie turned to her and raised her eyebrows. "You were using the trance magic, weren't you? Getting the power from the earth?"

"Yeah. I didn't think I'd be able to get the leaves to move at all with my own magic, but I guess it backfired..."

Corrie nodded. "I was using all my own magic. The different kinds probably make your body think different things."

Dawn shook her head, polishing off the last of the fourth slice of pizza. "I don't think that makes sense either, though. I wasn't tired at all when I used the earth energies to do water magic before. And shouldn't using that keep me from using my own energy?"

"That makes sense to me," said Annie.

Corrie shrugged. "Me too, but it doesn't seem to be the case. Or maybe there's something else we don't understand going on. Are you feeling okay now?" she asked.

Dawn nodded. "I think I'm full. I'm still tired, but not so tired that it seems bizarre."

"Well, if it happens again, maybe we'll be able to figure out why. And for today, let's just enjoy the snow!"

"What's to enjoy?" Edie asked, shaking her head and looking out the front window, where they could see the snow piling up. "There are no classes to cancel tomorrow. It's just going to be hard to walk in."

"We could have a snowball fight," said Corrie. "In the morning. I'm too full for that now, and anyway, snowball fights are more fun when the snow has stopped and you can see what you're doing."

Dawn grinned. "I'm up for it, if I'm feeling okay in the morning. I don't know if it'll be safe, though, having a snowball fight with a half werewolf."

"Hey." Corrie shoved her lightly on the shoulder. "We'll get Charlie in on it too. Then it'll be really dangerous."

"How about you, Edie?" Dawn asked. "I promise not to create any magic snowballs."

Edie was still frowning and staring out the window. Then she frowned and stood up, reaching for her coat. "I have to go."

"What? Where are you going?" Annie asked.

"The trees..." Edie said. She put her coat on, then her hat, then walked out the door to the hall. Corrie got up and ran after her, but Dawn just sat there and watched them, wondering what was going on.