The Diaries Of Liz Davids: Secrets Uncovered (Book One : Complete)

Chapter 20

        July 26, 2011

Dear Diary,

School started two days ago; I only just finished all my homework. Professor Darthorion had told everyone in the Main Hall this morning about the plotted attack that Eruwen spoke of. I don’t think that was the wisest choice he’d ever made, ‘cause now everyone is stressing themselves inside out. That’s all everyone talks about.

Sigh.

I fall asleep each night with my little scrapbook in my hands, each night either on a page of Nicholas and me, or of Aaron and me.

The homework is now more than ever. We get about five or six (even seven, sometimes) essays to do per day. It takes me three hours to finish it all, and then I have to practice the spells we did in the practical classes, and on top of it all, I hadn’t memorized all the poisonous herbs yet.

With Nicholas it’s even worse. If he hadn’t been a vampire, I’d’ve thought he would’ve collapsed under all the work he gets. I don’t know how his classmates cope. He gets seven essays a day, because that’s how many subjects he takes, but his essays are much longer than ours, and the spells he has to practice for are much more difficult than ours, too. Sheesh.

Professor Darthorion has replaced Professor Gildeneye with another wood elf. She’s much sterner, but she doesn’t give as much homework.

Johnny had come to talk to me today. He’d practically begged me to be friends with him again, though he says Mekisha says she’s sorry, but she’s not going to beg. He said that he needs help with his clues and stuff, but I told him I can barely get to my own. Somehow he’d found out about mine and Nicholas’s little trip, and he wants to come with. He said Mekisha knew, too, but that she didn’t want anything to do with it. He says there might be clues with the elves. I told him I’d talk to Nicholas about it.

Sigh … things just get worse by the day …

I shoved the journal in Felore’s drawer and opened the book on herbs yet again. I only had three more chapters to go.

"Hey Nicholas," I said on Thursday morning. He was finishing the last of his homework in the music room. "Could Johnny come with us? On our little trip around the land?"   

"No, he cannot come!" he said heatedly, looking up from his work. "He will just slow us down. And how will he react when he sees I drink a vial of red liquid the twenty-fourth of every month?"

"He’ll think you’re a werewolf," I said truthfully.

He sighed. "He can’t come."

"Think about it, man," I said, "He’s Grim’s heir – he might have abilities that could help us."

"Did Felore not specifically tell you not to trust Grim’s heir?" He said. I had forgotten about that.

But, if I may ask this of you, please do not share anything with Grim’s heir. Just to be safe.

That’s what Felore had written in the letter she had given with the lavender crystal and pirate coin. I sighed.

"He might be useful, though," I said slowly, stubbornly.

"I’m not having this discussion any longer," Nicholas said, turning back to his homework, "Just think about what you’re doing before you make a decision that might be negative to both of us."

Another week passed, and the scratch marks on my neck had finally healed. They were mere scars, standing out of my skin, for which the nurse gave me a kind of oil. That was the only good news. All the other bad news were that I refused Johnny’s offer (even though he kept pestering me every time he saw me), I was terribly behind with my homework – just like more than half of the kids in my class – and I had not had any time to read through the herbs book again. I was smothering under all the work that had to be done, and was very glad when the weekend finally arrived, though of course it merely meant catching up with the work I had not been able to finish throughout the week.