Ethan headed to the cafeteria for breakfast that morning with Eugene. Usually he would wait for Dawn outside her dorm but Emily had told him she had already gone to breakfast with Deryk. When they got to the cafeteria Ethan felt his face begin to burn as he saw Deryk and Dawn laughing with each other as they reminisced with each other of days at their former school together. Ethan gripped his tray tightly as he watched them.
“Come on, it’s not going to help just staring at them.” Eugene pulled him to sit with them. Ethan took the other seat next to Dawn and immediately interjected himself in the conversation to try and draw any attention away from Deryk. He didn’t want to admit how intimidated he felt by Deryk and he didn’t know what Deryk’s intentions were with Dawn, but he didn’t want to know. He wanted to know her intentions with Deryk and even more, her intentions with himself.
“So, did you check out the schedule, Dawn? It looks like we have Brewing first. It’ll be nice to chat with Mr. Watkins again, don’t you think?” Ethan broke between whatever nostalgic story was going on between Dawn and Deryk.
“Yeah, I really want to talk to him actually.” Dawn replied and turned to him with a smile.
“About what happened at the festival?” Ethan asked.
“And more. I didn’t get a chance to talk to him much before we left last year.”
“Well if we go early I’m sure we can talk to him, come on.” Ethan went to take Dawn’s hand and go to Mr. Watkin’s office.
“It won’t do you much good,” Kai’s voice came to stop them. “He’s not here.”
“What do you mean? Is he ok?” Dawn asked in a panic.
“He got called away for some business. I saw him talking to Misturry about it this morning before he left.”
“Hi,” Deryk stood up and held his hand out to Kai. “I don’t believe we’ve formally met. I’m Der-”
“Yeah, I don’t care.” Kai turned away from him and back to Dawn and Ethan “But he said he’d be back next week or so.”
“So who’s teaching Brewing?” Eugene asked.
“I don’t know. Some sub we can torture.” Kai’s eyes flickered with mischief.
“Kai.” Dawn groaned in disapproval.
“Oh I’m just teasing. See you in class.” He walked away. Dawn looked over to Deryk who was still standing in confusion and a hint of anger towards Kai.
“Sorry, he’s kind of tough to get through to. He’ll warm up to you eventually.”
“You certainly hang out with a strange crowd, Dawn.” Deryk sat down but then quickly looked up apologetically to Ethan and Eugene. “No offense.”
“None taken.” Ethan looked away with a huff.
“It’s just everyone back at Creekland is so simple. Here you’ve got half-breeds running all over the place with dark personalities.”
“Do you have a problem with half-breeds?” Ethan looked at him offensively and Eugene cowered in fear of Deryk’s answer.
