Heart of Glass

Chapter 30

Ariel lay in bed, watching the rays of sunlight filtering through the window. Dust particles floated in the air, dancing in the light. Her eyes crossed as she tried to focus on a small group by the desk sitting beneath the window.

"Good morning." Emily shifted onto her side, her hair a crazy knot on top of her head.

"Morning." Ariel turned on her side to face her. "Nervous about today?"

Emily was being transferred to the beach house that afternoon. Ben and Harriet would be joining her, but Ariel knew she was worried. She would be the new kid again, and no matter what anyone said, being the new kid sucked. There was also the fact it was by the beach, which meant lots of water.

"I'm okay," she forced a smile, her knuckles whitening on the blankets around her neck.

"It'll be fine," Ariel tried to sound encouraging. "I mean now that the rest of us are either cured or...well... the Doc should be able to focus on your curse. I'm sure he'll find a cure in no time."

"That's true," she murmured. "I know he'll find a cure. It might take a while, but I can't give up hope, right?"

"Right!" Sitting up, Ariel drew her knees to her chest, resting her forehead on them. She had told the Doc she would meet him in his office when she woke up for her final session, but her feet seemed magnetized to her bed. Her stomach swarmed with nerves and she almost laughed. What on earth was she nervous about? Her life was nearly back to normal – or a better, newer normal at least.

Forcing her feet onto the floor, she moved over to her suitcase, neatly packed by Lainie and Paige the day before, and pulled out the black jeans and plain blue t-shirt, she'd left ready for today. Stuffing her feet into a pair of black Converse, she stood up, finally feeling ready.

Emily followed her out, heading for the bathroom and they said goodbye at the top of the stairs. Ariel had promised to help Emily pack the rest of her belongings - and also give her some of her own clothes, since a lot of Emily's had been lost in the 'cure-splosion'.

They both pointedly avoided looking at the hole in the side of the house. Ariel could see pieces of debris floating in the open space from the corner of her eye as she descended the stairs. The remains of their old room reminded them of that day, and while it had its positives, the negatives seemed to outweigh them.

Lucas was sitting in the dining room, reading something on his phone and she quickly edged past before he had a chance to look up.

The office door was already open and she stepped inside.

"Hello, Ariel," the Doc stood up from his chair and quickly cleared a stack of papers from her usual chair by the window. "As you can see I'm still trying to reorganise the chaos that Amelia has created with my files."

"Yeah, she mentioned you changed the system or something." She took a seat. "I tried to keep most of it organized, but there was never usually time while we were looking after Zeke."

He waved his hand. "That's fine. When I have time I'll try to teach Amelia the new system. Being over three hundred years old you would think she would be good at acclimatisting to change, but apparently not."

"How is Zeke?" Ariel asked. "Is he any better?"

"He's slowly improving. Hopefully soon he'll be able to tell us a bit about what happened to him."

Ariel took that to mean he still hadn't spoken yet. She had been hoping to see him before she left. She wanted to see if her aversion to him was completely gone. Knowing she had hated someone for reasons that weren't their fault made her feel bad. She didn't want to be like she used to be.