The Salem Chronicles

Chapter 5

~Eileen~
A sleepy Zoe was not a happy Zoe. She remained in a coma-like zombie state through breakfast, until lover boy showed up. God, those two were so...
"Ugh."
Zoe blinked, pausing as we made our way to Diagon Alley. "What?"
I sighed. "Nothing. I just-"
Bzzzt!
Zoe looked up, startled. "What was that?"
I pulled out my phone. "Oh, it's Oliver. He says he'll meet us at the platform with Mark tomorrow at 10:40. Typical. We were supposed to stay together!"
"No, I meant what is that?" She pointed at my device.
"Uh, it's a phone."
"A what?"
I laughed. "You're kidding, right?" Then, seeing the look on her face, my eyes widened. "Wait, really?"
My phone buzzed again.
"Yes, that! Why does it do that... noise thing?"
And that's how I got her addicted to Dragonvale.
•••
"Zoe."
"Hm."
"Zoe."
She looked up, annoyed. "What?"
"Can I have my phone back?"
"But... I think I got you a Leap Year dragon!"
"Wait really? I mean- no. No. Just give me my phone back, I need to text my mom."
"Just one more minute!"
A minute passed, and Zoe hadn't even looked up from the screen. Frustrated, I reached out to grab the phone. Zoe squawked indignantly and moved away, causing me to fumble and push the phone out of her hands. We both watched, horrified, as it made an elegant arc straight towards the Pondering Lake. Just as my beautiful, new, $649.99 gold iPhone 6s was about to meet its horrifying death, it started glowing an emerald green hue, and floated up, gently, into an outstretched hand.
"I believe this is yours," the stranger said.
I took it, heart slowly returning to its rightful pace. "Thanks," I said, looking up, but they were already gone. I stood there, staring at the place the person had been, until Zoe came up behind me.
"Sorry about that," she apologized. "Who was that?"
I shook my head. "I... I don't know."
"Huh. Strange."
"You know what's strange?" A new voice came up behind us. We turned around, coming face-to-face with a skinny, bespectacled Chinese girl.
"The Pondering Lake appeared in the late 1700's, and no one knows how it got there. They don't remember what was there before, and can't recall what happened the day it appeared. Isn't that cool?"
We answered with a chorus of "yeah"'s and "who are you?"'s.
She stuck out a hand. "I'm Yolian Lao, but you can call me Yoyo. I'm a fourth year, coming from the Massachusetts branch of the Salem Institution."
Zoe shook her hand excitedly. "We're also from the Salem Institution! Michigan Branch. I'm Zoe, and this is my friend Eileen." I waved. "D'you want to accompany us on our shopping trip?'
Yoyo's eyes lit up. "Sure, why not?"
As they started making their way down the shops, my mind was only on one thing.
The dark-haired boy.