Jack Wilder: Sorcerer's Rising

Tiberius Crawford

Chapter 4

Jack was pacing in the living room the follow morning of the first day of school. He was in between two distinctly bad decisions and could not decide what was the worse of two evils. He could one, confront Gabriela and demand to know if she knows something or two he could not say a word and see how it plays out. Jack wasn't going to lie to himself, he knew if he just started questioning Gabriela calmly she would play innocent and not say a word, however there was always a third option. He could bring up random stuff to see if she would catch on to a subtle hint, or even more dangerously he could reveal his magic to her and see how it played out from there. Each option that came to mind seemed more and more dangerous though.

Brody woke up a hungry little child, having not eaten the night before the boys decided they would go into town to a drive-thru before heading to school. Jack was nervous about seeing Gabriela at school, he tried to keep up a calm facade, however his brother saw right through it. Brody asked, “Something on your mind brother?”

Being caught off guard Jack looked sharply at his little brother, “What? Me? No, I am alright. Just a little tired and on edge from last nights dreams. No big deal, what are you feeling for breakfast?”

Brody clearly decided to let it go not wanting to have to push his brother in order to talk to him. As Jack dropped Brody off at school they said their goodbyes and went on about their normal day to activities. Jack was a little thankful now that Brody decided he was going to play basketball for the team. That meant that Brody wouldn't need to be home till seven giving Jack more time to himself. Jack loved his little brother, but truth be told they spent way to much time together.

Arriving at school Jack seemed to be almost in auto-pilot until he arrived at his first period class. Already in her chair in the back she smiled brightly at the sleep deprived boy. Jack coolly walked to sit next her saying, “Good morning Gabriela.”

“Good morning Jack. What was all that about yesterday?” She asked with a hint of concern.

“Oh, that was nothing. My brother put himself in a bit of hot water at school yesterday by fighting slash defending himself, I resolved the issue with his principal though and everything turned out okay.”

Giving an unwavering smile she replied, “Well that’s good. I was a little worried something bad happened by the way you dashed out of the school.”

Jack shrugged that off giving a meaningless reply. Jack's mind weighed heavy this would be a good moment to just be direct and see what the girl would let up. This was no coincidence, that was something big, Jack just needed to lay his fingers on it. His eighteenth birthday was in two weeks, a huge milestone in his life, his dad was clearly trying to tell him something about this Fletcher girl. However he didn't know if it was to say 'hey you have a friend coming' or 'hey kill this person the first chance you get'. Jack was at a lost at what to do before he spat out, “So have you ever lived in this area before? Or even in Kentucky?”

Jack clearly spit fired that question to fast, because she rose her eyebrows in clear suspicion, “No, not that I remember anyways, why d you ask?”

Jack was about to retort something really stupid like 'well my dead parents left me a letter that was missing letters and those missing letters so happen to spell out your last name.' Jack wasn't as naive to believe that would go over well. He knew he was just going to have to play his cards carefully and see how things went. Adopting the wait and see policy he said, “I was just curious, you know it is the second day of school and I thought I would try to get to know you a little better.”

“You know most guys would just ask a girl on a date to get to know her better.” Gabriela responded slyly.

Flabbergasted Jack stared dumbly for a few seconds. Finally remembering who he was he responded, “That sounded like an offer. In which case I will be the gentlemen to ask you if your doing anything Friday night?”