A Witch's Way

Chapter 30

Serena woke up at dawn, ready to go. The day before was a kind of lazy day. She just spent it with Melanie and Tawnee, walking around the courtyard and talking. The tension was full force in the air, and she could feel it already--it was going to be a long day.

Though, she was in a good mood. Even if she was woken up by another, loud banging on her door at four a.m., she felt good. Serena felt as if a weight had been lifted off her shoulders. She swung the door open, smiling at the person standing in front of her.

"Serena! There you are. I was just coming to make sure you're up and ready to go," Jasper said, holding Clark on his hand. Serena noticed that he was using the Raptor Glove that she had gotten for him.

"I am, yeah. I'm really nervous," Serena said, rubbing Rosemary's ear as she yawned and stretched, standing up. "Are you ready?"

Jasper shrugged, letting Serena come out of her room and he shut the door, following her down the hallway. "Ian told me to get you and then meet him and Stella out front. We'll wait for everyone there," he said, turning down the hallway and out into the room.

Ian and Stella were waiting, sitting next to each other. Stella was gripping Ian's hand, muttering something. She seemed even more nervous than the three of them combined.

"Oh, there you guys are. We'll wait thirty minutes, and we'll wake everyone else up. I wanted to get you two up earlier because..." Ian sighed and nudged Stella, who was still rigid.

Stella finally broke out of her trance and smiled at the two. "We just wanted to spend a few more calm minutes with you, even if Ian won't admit it. We don't know who's going to come out of this alive..."

Serena could feel Jasper's hand touching hers, and she opened her hand, feeling his slide into hers. Her ears burned but she kept a straight face toward the affection shown by Jasper. "Stella, come on, don't say stuff like that. That makes it worse."

Stella bowed her head, her black hair covering her face. "Sorry. I have a bad feeling about this. I know it's probably just the fact that we're going to fight a dangerous group but..."

Ian puffed out a small, amused laugh and grabbed her shoulder with his other hand. "We'll all be fine, Stella. I promise."

Serena watched with a small smile at the two's interaction, and a part of her wished that Jasper and her could be that like. "Ian's right. We'll do fine," Serena said, trying to be optimistic about the situation.

"Yeah, they're right. We have nothing to be worried about," Jasper said confidently to the group. He gave them a smile, bright eyes still optimistic about the looming situation overhead.

Silence for a few minutes, and they all dropped into their own minds, thinking to themselves. Ian was the first to break the silence by asking, "Hey, Serena, how are you faring about Rosemary's new body?"

Serena rubbed Rosemary's head affectionately, grateful that she was here once again. "Well it doesn't really matter to me what body she's in, honestly--I'm just happy that she's here again."

Ian was about to say something when he was cut off by the alarm bells in the building. The cue for everyone to get up and ready. He sighed and pushed up his glasses, standing. "I'd better go get the offensive team. Everyone ready? This is where we finish this."

Stella nodded, her face pale but a look of determination was evident. She quickly leaned up to peck Ian before drawing back and nodded again, this time looking a bit braver.

Serena looked away from the show of affection, feeling that familiar jealous feeling come up into her, but this time, it was not over someone's power or ability to learn. This time, it was the jealousy of the relationship in front of her. She rolled her eyes and shoved it back down, in her opinion, it was such a stupid thing to get jealous over.