SYNERGY

What now? 21.

The next morning the sun was brighter then usual and high in the sky. The heat of it reached me through my window rustling me out of my dreams.

What time is it? I sat up, my eyelids were heavy, and my head was pounding.

Where's Kip? It's so unlike him to not wake me up for training...

I felt kind of bad for relying on him as an alarm clock, but he sort of was! The only time he wasn't here was when he was on a mission, but he usually lets me know when that is.

Kip.

the day before flooded back to me. The fight we had, him shape shifting, the kiss. Oh, my god the kiss my cheeks flared remembering it. Flashes of the night before played in my mind. His hands on me, the way it felt, I wanted more. I shook my head, I needed to get back to reality.

I better get up before I miss class. I threw on some clean clothes and ran out. The door was unlocked, which meant all the students must be up and off to class.

I accidentally bumped into a large student with faded pink and yellow hair. "Watch it!" She huffed.

"I'm sorry," I apologized, holding up my hands non-confrontational. "Do you know what time it is?"

She relaxed a little, "It's breakfast."

I nodded and headed towards the cafeteria. Thank God I didn't miss anything, I'm going to kick Kip's ass for this later. I missed training, but at least I got to sleep in. Looking around Violet and Kip were nowhere to be seen, but I saw Foster sitting next to chuck. He had some goggles on and was examining something. I headed towards them.

"Hey guys!" Foster stopped fiddling and looked up, "morning Astrid."

"Sup," Chuck said.

They were sitting side by side, but not speaking to each other. Chuck seemed pre-occupied writing something on a scrap of paper.

"We have group training today," I said breaking the silence.

Foster grimaced. "I know I'm kind of nervous, but at least it's all us newbies together. I think the more experienced students are there to help us."

"They are! I think it's going to be cool. I've been wanting to see what powers everyone here has."

"I'm curious to see if there's any more Animagus's, maybe I can start a gang," Chuck chimed in.

"I can't tell if you're joking or not," I giggled while observing the condescending look of joy on his face.

"Animagus's are stronger in numbers."

"Really?" Foster piped in, "like Ninja Turtles?!"

"Yes exactly!"

Fosters eyes lit up, "do you all love pizza too?"

"Who doesn't love pizza!" I exclaimed thinking about a white sauce mushroom pizza called white rabbit from a place nearby my old house. "Man, I would kill for a piece of pizza," I said dreamily.

"I think there's drool coming out of your mouth," Foster laughed and wiped my face with the back on his sleeve.

I batted his hand away laughing."First thing I'm doing when I get out of here is eating all the food I've been missing out on."

"Hell ya!" Chuck piped in, "my grandma makes a mean fish pie."

"I would even eat that fish pie," Foster said.
"Anything's better than this stuff. He picked up his spoon and sloshed the grey mixture onto his tray.

"Bro, I'm saying my grandmas fish pie is delicious!"

"Okay, I think I'm done this conversation, that just sounds weird," I laughed standing up. "I'm going back to my room for a bit before class, care to join me?"

"I've got to work on some notes for a new experiment I'm doing, but I'll catch you later." Foster stood up to give me a hug goodbye.

"All right sounds good, I can't wait to hear about it later! " I smiled. "See ya chuck!"

"Later," Chuck waved then went right back to writing.

                  ***********************

I headed back to my room and the first thing I did was pick up my guitar, it had been a while since I played, I listening to its soft lull. Previous memories filled my head. Sadness then joy, I felt it all. I placed my guitar down staring at a wall for a while. In this moment of silence, I was able to focus on my breathing, calm myself down. I started grounding myself like Mr. Endwell had shown me. My breaths became more level with each exhale. I closed my eyes and went into my meditative state.

The next couple days went by a lot slower than usual. I still saw no sign of Kip and was beginning to get worried. Violet said it was normal for him to disappear for a couple days, but I couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong.

I was sitting on my bed writing while Violet was drawing a picture of a wolf at her desk.

"I don't know you should have seen his face, he looked empty," I sighed.

She laughed, "more than usual? Look, before you got here, he looked like that all the time, always sulking around and giving people dirty looks that's why he has the nickname brown noser. Because he was a jerk to everyone here except the people in charge."

"Was he really that much of an asshole?" I asked.

She raised an eyebrow at me. Violet was always honest which was something I liked about her. It was nice to be around someone who was straight up instead of my old friends who had lied to me for months about my best friend and boyfriend being together.

"Violet have you ever been in love?"

She stuck her tongue out. " No, never I've never been able to form emotional attachments to people it's kind of a new thing for me to even be your friend."

"So, you've never been attracted to someone?"

"I find people interested to look at, but not in a sexual way. Where are these questions coming from anyway?" She wondered.

"My last relationship ended badly, and I've always told myself I would never fall for someone again, especially..."

"Especially someone like Kip?" She finished my sentence.

My cheeks flared.

"It's all over your face every time you come back from training. Every time we go to the lunchroom you survey the room looking for him."

"Is it really that bad?"

"Well maybe not to other people but to Foster and I, yes. You should see how many times he rolls his eyes at you in a day."

I laughed shoving my face into a pillow. "That jerk!" I mumbled.

"Don't be so hard on yourself! To be honest I've never seen him be interested in anyone and I think he likes you. Also he's easier to be around not brooding around as much." She laughed, "I think the best thing for you to do is take a moment, breathe, getting worked up over it isn't helping."

I crawled into my bed and yawned, "thanks girl." She didn't know it, but I was so grateful for her.

"Goodnight Astrid."

"Goodnight," I replied and put my earplugs in to get some sleep.