Burnt

Chapter 14: Practice

Alison's POV

"He said what?" Cameron asks angrily as we walk into the pack house after school. "And all you did was break his nose?"

Chris nods. "It was a warning. Fire guy is on our shit list forever now. He called me 'Lockhart' like we know each other or something. I don't even know the dudes name."

"I'll find it later." Cameron says.

I walk into my room, leaving them to plot their revenge. I change into more comfortable clothes before going in search of Amelia. She should be in the library today so I look there first.

She's hunched over a book at the front desk when I walk in. "Hey." I greet, startling her out of her focused state.

"Crap, Ali, you scared me." She says, her hand held to her chest.

I laugh. "Sorry, would getting you out of actual work make up for it?"

Her mouth scrunches to the side as if she's thinking. "I wasn't doing much actual work anyway but sure, what's up?"

My eyes scan the room for other listening ears before telling her quietly. "I want to try to practice using my magic."

She gasps and gets up excitedly. "Yes! Finally! This is gonna be so freaking cool!" She practically squeals as she piles her books up. "Come on, we need space."

I follow Amelia to the back of the library. She stops in a big space with tables surrounded by shelves. "Believe it or not, one ever comes all the way back here."

It's definitely believable. The dust floats through the air and the trek back here has me short of breath. She sits down at a table and opens one of her books.

"I was reading this book I grabbed from our other pile about magic. The kinds of things you might be able to do are insane." She says, running her finger along the page.

I nod nervously. "Don't get your hopes up. I've only ever used them when I was upset. I don't know if it can just happen."

She looks up at me, her red curls bouncing with the movement. "Nonsense. You've got to be able to use them without being in a blind rage. It'll probably just take getting used to. Why the sudden interest anyway? You've been avoiding your magical DNA for like a week now. I was going crazy."

"This guy messed with me at school today. He was creepy and it really freaked me out. At first I was focusing on not making my magical abilities known to everyone in the hall. But then, after Chris rescued me and beat him up, he told me to use them to defend myself next time. I started to wonder if I even could when I was scared like that." I explain.

Amelia's mouth is gaping open when I look back at her. "We're gonna have to talk about that more. Are you guys getting along now?"

I sit down across from her. "Yeah, I guess. We were a little rocky last night after I fooled around with Cameron but then we slept next to each other and made out in the cafeteria at school today so, yeah, we're good."

"I should start going to school for no other reason than to stay caught up with your relationship developments." She jokes before moving on quickly. "What do you mean you 'fooled around with Cameron?'"

I explain everything to her the best that I can from the moment she left my room yesterday to right now. In the end, she only has one question.

"What do you mean you've never had sex before?!"

"Jeez, Amelia, could you have said that any louder?" I ask, lowering my head. "Wait, you have?" I perk up suddenly. She nods. "What the fuck? You're younger than me!" I exclaim.