Those Violet Eyes

Chapter 8

Maxine took a deep breath to calm her nerves as she stared across the tables at Jax, slouching and poking at his food with his fork. His back was turned to her, so she couldn't see his face, whether he was sad or just bored. Sunlight from the window glinted off his golden curls.

Chillax, Maxine. Jax is way nicer than Gilly. You're not ordering him around. Just...asking a favor. Maxine thought, trying to reassure herself. A mean favor, thought up by the devil's spawn herself...but a favor nonetheless. She marched over to Jax's table with a fake air of confidence.

"Jax!" Maxine exclaimed, a little too loudly. Jax dropped his fork and turned around, perplexity and questions dancing across his violet eyes. "Sorry...sorry," Maxine turned shy again. She rubbed her elbow. "I didn't mean to yell."

Jax smiled puzzledly. "That's okay, Maxine...did you want something?"

"Me? Oh no...I mean yes! I have, well, a favor? To ask? Of you?" Maxine could feel a glob of drool forming at the corner of her mouth. While she had learned to control her drooling problem(for the most part), it did occasionally turn up when she got flustered. She swiped at her mouth with her sleeve.

"Okay," Jax said. After a few seconds he raised his eyebrows at her. "So...what is it?"

"What? Oh, the favor?" Maxine didn't know what was wrong with her. She and Jax were friends! This shouldn't be so hard. "Yes, well, the favor is..." In Maxine's mind's eye, a small gleaming crown formed on Jax's head. Suddenly, to her, he looked like an intimidating prince more than the rebel thief she'd come to know. Her words stuck in her throat.

"Is...what?" Jax prompted.

Maxine gulped. She squeezed her eyes shut and blurted, "I need you to study with April for me today!"

Maxine kept her eyes shut until she heard Jax say, "Well sure, Maxine. When?"

Maxine cracked her eyes open. Jax was looking up at her pleasantly. "You mean you will? Just like that?"

"Why not? April's not so bad. Besides, you're my friend, why wouldn't I want to help you out?"

Maxine just looked at him. "She does bite sometimes."

Jax laughed. "Oh, I know, Maxine. She's part wolf, so I kinda figured that out already."

Maxine let out a breath of relief. "Okay, well! Perfect. Professor Sebastian just told me that April needs more study time, so I scheduled us in the library after dinner, but then I remembered that I have a thing in the village, so I figured I'd ask you, because if I asked Gilly she'd say no cause she can't stand—"

"Maxine, it's fine. You don't need to explain. I don't mind doing you a favor," Jax interrupted, smiling at her good-naturedly.

Maxine fidgeted with her fingers sheepishly. "Well, thank you so much Jax! It really means a lot." Without warning, she wrapped him in a quick bear hug, and then she was off across the cafeteria to collect her lunch.

***

Gilly stretched out across the grass of FTRS's vast lawn, drinking up the setting sun that shone on her face. Her fingers brushed through the soft fur of Wilson, who was nestled snuggly on her belly.

It had been a long day of study time with Gilly's now-worst-enemy, so the moment she had free time she snuck out to her favorite spot to be alone. She was near the stables, the sounds of soft neighing and munching calming her. She came out here to forget everything that happened in the last few days, which was to say, not really anything. Physically, at least. But emotionally, she had been through the wringer.

Only one more week and you can go back home, away from Janelle, away from here...away from Jax. At the thought of his name, Gilly's stomach flipped unpleasantly, so she tried to switch her thoughts to something else: schoolwork, her family, tomorrow's breakfast, anything. But it was hard not to think about those eyes...

"Gilly!" A voice cut through her unwanted daydream. She sat up abruptly, knocking Wilson onto the ground with a SQUEAK!

Gilly shielded her eyes from the sun, only to see a certain redhead jogging towards her across the grass.

"Oh no. Oh no you don't." Gilly snatched Wilson and scrambled to her feet. She started to march in the other direction, away from Janelle.

"Gilly, wait!"

"No, Janelle! I don't want to talk to you!" Gilly yelled over her shoulder.

"But Gilly—!"

"Shut up, Janelle!"

"Kayla's here!"

Gilly stopped. She turned around slowly. "Kayla?" Kayla's family had moved away about a year after the fight with Alva. Gilly hadn't seen her in two years. "How do you know who Kayla is?"

"I've overheard you guys talking about her," Janelle panted, catching up to Gilly. "And I was around Ollie when he saw her so that's how I know it was her—"

"Where is she?" Gilly interrupted, already searching the grounds with her eyes.

"In the library. That's why I came to find you. I heard her crying!"

Gilly was striding towards the school in an instant. Janelle gazed after her, a smirk forming on her face. After a moment, she followed with a gleeful skip in her step.

A/N: I really need to stop waiting so long to write another chapter. I always end up staring at the screen thinking, "...why did I write that again? What was my plan? Huh?"

(In my writing notebook I wrote down what I wanted to happen in this chapter, so naturally I consulted it cause I was trying to remember what Janelle's plan was. What did it say in my notebook? "The plan." Thanks, past me.)