Waiting For Sunrise - The Books Of Beginning AU

26. The Book

"Dare I ask what the two of you are doing this time?" Kate said with a heavy sigh.

Michael and Emma looked up at her with sheepish faces. She had found them on the floor of one of the larger classrooms, despite the fact that the lesson Rafe had been giving had been over for forty five minutes now. (That had spelled trouble, so Kate had immediately sought them out.) Emma's hair was sticking up at all angles, and a new stain had bloomed across the bottom of her shirt. Michael had the Dwarf Omnibus on his lap, and sitting beside him was some frothy concoction in a glass, which undoubtedly was the source of Emma's aforementioned stain.

"There's a recipe in the Dwarf Omnibus for a coffee drink that's supposed to be very good," Michael explained. "And since Addie had coffee grounds to spare, Emma and I decided to make it after class. Only we, uh..."

"We kinda shook it up too much," Emma said helpfully. "Especially since we didn't really put a lid on it, just my hand."

"And then we cleaned up with one of the spells we learned in class, but it made Emma's hair puff up..."

"So we couldn't let Jake and Beetles see any a' this, since they'd just tease us. So now we're just waiting it out."

"Right," Kate said, as if she was talking to perfectly reasonable people, not these two beings of chaos she called her siblings. She dropped her parcels on a desk. "Was the drink at least good?"

Michael and Emma exchanged looks. "Meh," Emma said, while Michael made a so-so motion with his hand. Kate supposed that wasn't necessarily good, considering they went to all this trouble for what seemed to be a waste of time and supplies, but she couldn't be too bothered by it. At least they didn't enjoy coffee. The last thing she (and everyone else) needed was her siblings up all night after ingesting a boatload of caffeine.

"What'd ya get?" Emma asked, pulling Kate's bag off the desk to go through it.

"A journal to make into the calendar. Have a look," Kate replied. She grabbed the mostly full glass of coffee and sniffed tentatively. It smelled good, so she turned to Michael. "Mind if I try this?"

"Go ahead," Michael told her. He and Emma, meanwhile, took out the journal and had a look at it. The boy made an approving noise. "The bindings are very sturdy."

Emma groaned. "That might be the most eggheaded thing you've ever said."

Kate shook her head fondly at the pair of them, but didn't bother to chastise. Instead, she commented idly, "I'm glad you approve. I thought it was a nice journal."

"It is," Michael agreed. Indeed, in the light streaming through a high window, the green leather making up the journal's cover was even more vibrant. Michael ran his hand across the leather in an appraising manor, then flipped it open to study the worn blank pages within.

Kate, meanwhile, gulped down the rest of the coffee. Emma was right, it wasn't anything particularly grand; it was frothy and the taste was too weak for her liking. Still, she drank it so it didn't go to waste - besides, she could use the caffeine, after the way nightmares interrupted her rest the previous night. She could feel a wave of tiredness starting to settle over her, and hoped that the Dwarfish drink her siblings prepared fought it off for the rest of the afternoon.

"Kate, look!" Emma exclaimed with surprise. Kate set the empty glass on the desk and sat down between her younger siblings. (Physically getting between them was instinctive by now - too many a time when they were left side by side, they began tormenting each other and disrupting the peace.)

"There were photographs stuffed in the back," Emma said excitedly. "They fell out when Michael started flipping through the pages."

Kate said, "I see." And indeed, there were three photographs, all laying in front of Michael, who immediately began arranging them into a neat row. Kate recalled how the vendor, Clarence, said the journal had been sent in a box full of second hand items his in-laws no longer had need for. The photographs must have gotten left in the journal by mistake. She'd probably end up making a trip sometime later in the week to return them to the man, just in case they mattered to him.