The Children of When (Complete)

Chapter 10: The Plan

Raff kicked at a random leaf blowing across the pathway. He so did not want to sit in a classroom and listen to some boring old codger talk about the history of Florisia. He was way more interested in finding out what Gifts he might have, and hanging out with the horses in the meadow behind the school.

Belle and Leah walked in front of him, obviously discussing 'girl stuff' from the whispering and giggling he could hear. He needed to find some other guys to hang out with. Not that he didn't like Belle and Leah, but they were girls, and he wasn't sure they'd be into the same stuff he liked.

Admittedly, he didn't really know much about girls. He'd grown up in a household full of males, and the girls he'd met at school had been pretty boring. His stomach grumbled; he needed breakfast, now.

He moved up to walk between the girls "Can you two get a move on. I'm starving!"

Leah laughed and nudged him. "How could you possibly be hungry after the amount you ate last night?"

Belle nudged him from the other side. "Yeah, I kept thinking you'd explode if you ate one more mouthful."

Raff felt the usual heat rising up his face "Well I'm glad you both found watching me eat so entertaining." He felt much better at the sight of them both blushing as badly as he was.

Belle's smile lit up her face. "It was a pretty spectacular dinner though. I've never seen so much food in one place."

Raff caught Leah's eye. Poor kid probably hasn't seen that much food in her entire life. From the look on Leah's face, she was thinking exactly the same thing.

Sick of their dawdling pace, Raff moved off ahead of them. "Well, if we don't hurry, breakfast will be over before we even get there. I am so not missing out."

The smell of bacon, sausages, pancakes, and maple syrup invaded Raff's nostrils before he'd even stepped into the dining room. He strolled past long tables filled with students shovelling food into their mouths and chatting noisily. The food tables sat at the far end of the room, in front of the floor to ceiling windows overlooking the meadow. They were loaded up with a selection of every breakfast food imaginable. As well as the bacon, sausages and pancakes he'd smelled from the doorway, there were eggs, beans, potato cakes and an assortment of breads. He grabbed a plate and started piling on the food, as Leah and Belle caught up and snickered at his enthusiasm.

They headed for the tables they'd learned last night were for first-year students. Raff tried not to stare at the guy with one pointed ear and one normal sitting opposite them. The guy grinned, and touched his pointy ear self-consciously.

"Yeah, I know. I'm hoping the other one changes soon so people can stop pretending not to stare. I'm Jack, by the way."

"Hey, I'm Raff, and this is Leah and Belle. Have you been here long?"

"A week yesterday," Jack said. "Pretty cool place eh?"

"Well, from what I've seen so far it is. Although we only got here yesterday, so we haven't really seen much yet."

"Yeah, I thought I saw you guys at dinner last night, looking a bit lost." Jack chuckled. He looked at Leah and smiled. Leah blushed, and smiled back, before dropping her eyes to her plate.

Raff's stomach did a flippy-floppy thing, and he realised the smile had caused it. Don't be an idiot, it was just a smile. But it had annoyed him anyway. He attacked his sausage with his knife and fork, feeling like the sun had suddenly gone behind a cloud. As he lifted his fork to his mouth, he noticed Belle was looking at him with a knowing grin. Oh great! He stabbed the sausage on his plate with more force than necessary, and stuffed the food into his mouth grumpily, trying to ignore the fact that it suddenly tasted like sawdust.

* * *

Raff was still in a foul mood as they headed towards the classrooms, which were in the same building as Madame Persimmons' office. They were walking down the path on the other side of the lake, so they could check out the older kids' dorms, when Leah grabbed his arm and stopped.

"Hey, there's Dub," she said, pointing towards the edge of the lake, where the ugly little man was lounging on the grass. "I'll be right back. I really need to talk to him."

As Leah ran off to talk to Dub, Raff scratched his head, wondering why she had this effect on his stomach.

"Bit of a crush there, eh Raff?" Belle whispered in his ear.

Raff felt his face burning, and he turned ready to give her a piece of his mind. He stopped when he saw the look on her face. Instead of gloating nastiness, as he'd expected, there was genuine concern in her eyes.

"It's ok you know. I'm not going to tell anyone. But I thought you should know, I think she likes you too." Belle grinned at his astonished reaction.

"Did she say something?" He watched Leah chatting to Dub.

"Nope. It's just a feeling I get," she said, her eyes watching Leah as well.

And then Leah looked up at them and waved them over.

"Dub has been telling me some cool stuff about secret amulets and ancient prophecies. We think I might have a piece of some missing amulet, so he reckons we should go visit this old crone who lives in the forest, on the other side of the meadow. Apparently, she knows all about this kind of thing. What do you guys think?"

Raff grinned. "Absolutely, I'm in! When do we go? I'm totally up for missing history class!"

"No, it would have to be tonight, after everyone's in bed. Apparently we're not supposed to go into the forest, but I need to find out about this amulet thing."

"Woohoo... even better."

"Of course we'll come Leah. As if we'd let you go off and do this on your own," Belle chimed in.

Leah smiled at them both, and turned back to Dub. "See, I told you they'd want to come."

"Fine, fine. Ok, I'll meet you at the tree where you saw me last night. Ten o'clock. Don't be late!" Then he turned and walked off without another word.

Raff chuckled. "Not big on conversation these coblynaus, are they?"

"And we are going to be late for history if we don't get going right now," Belle reminded them. Raff groaned as they ran all the way to the classroom.