I checked my calendar before leaving the house. Two days before my magic goes haywire. I should start wearing it today.
"Akemi!" Nathan called up to me.
"I know!" I yelled back as I slipped a black clasp on my wrist. My dad got one for both Nathan and I due to our magic. Mine goes haywire specific times of the month, while Nathan's can go haywire from many other factors besides the day.
The clasp stops our magic from doing anything we don't allow it to, a little like a safety seal for our magic.
I ran down the steps, grabbed my phone and binder and went out the door to school. Arriving at the school a few minutes later.
Kohanna hadn't been here for two days, I started to expect that she wasn't coming today either. I wondered if it was because of her run in with the janitor.
I pondered about the subject a little longer before reaching first period. I noticed that about half the class was standing in the hall. It was probably because Mrs. D wasn't there yet. I joined them in line next to the lockers.
After a moment I heard someone come up behind me and join the line, I tilted my head back slightly to see who it was. I didn't expect it to be Kohanna.
I re-directed my attention to the front of the line, I didn't want her to think anything weird of it. Why had she missed those two days?
Mrs. D came and gave the class permission to enter the room. I sat in my seat and Kohanna sat next to me. I debated on talking to her about her invisibility display earlier.
Considering how shy she was, the fact that everyone in the class were yelling, and that class was about to start, I concluded that it wasn't a good idea.
I'll talk to her about it later, I thought to myself.
First period passed over quickly. I noticed Kohanna looking over all her missed work, most likely still listening to the teacher while she did so.
She seemed to have started on it during class, and was struggling on one piece. I opened my mouth to explain it to her when the bell rang. I closed my mouth figuring there wasn't enough time to explain it anyway.
The rest of the periods flashed by quickly, and lunch came before I really even realized it.
I walked down to the cafeteria and waited on a bench outside the room. I didn't really want to deal with anymore petty girls.
Nathan, William and Micheal came out of the cafeteria after about six minutes, where luckily, I was able to finish my homework that I had so far.
The boys led the way while I hung behind, we walked passed the library, I looked through the windows as we passed and saw Kohanna sitting at one of the tables in the back.
I figured that she spent the lunch period in the library considering I hadn't seen her leave the cafeteria.
We made our way to the school courtyard. Since the courtyard was so large a couple of students spent lunch period out here to play games. We were pretty much the only ones that came out here to eat, though. We were sitting on the hill next to the school, while there were kids playing at the bottom of the hill.
I sat under the shade next to Nathan while Micheal and William sat across from us.
I stared at William, did anyone else notice how he was always covered in the scent of depression when he was around us?
"Nathan, help a friend out," Micheal spoke, pulling out a sheet of paper from his binder, "Because this makes no sense!"
"What is it?" Nathan asked him.
William glanced over Micheal's shoulder, "Mr Archer's math homework."
"Nah, you should'a payed attention in class." Nathan waved it off.
"Aww come on man."
I sighed before standing up and walking over to him to see the paper.
"Just let me show you," I said taking the paper from him and sitting next to him. I put my binder on my lap and used it to write on. I made slight marks under question one for a minute before I figured out how to do it, then showed him how you would complete the problem.
"Thanks," he grinned, taking the paper back.
"No problem," I said, standing up and starting to walk back to my seat.
The second I passed William, a scent filled the air, danger.
"Akemi! Move!" Nathan yelled, jumping to his feet.
I turned to my side to see a football rushing towards me. I stepped backwards abruptly, barely avoiding getting hit. I lost my footing and fell backwards but William caught me by the waist. Nathan had caught the football before it rammed into a window.
"Watch where you throw that thing!" Micheal yelled at a group of boys in the courtyard.
I grabbed onto William's shoulder and used it to pull me back to my feet.
"You're okay?" William asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine." I responded, surprised at how weird it felt, "thanks."
One of the boys ran up the hill to us, "Hey, sorry about that." He was Evans, Ryan. Also known as the captian of the football team.
"You're lucky it didn't hit Akemi, I wouldn't have thought twice before beating your ass." Nathan growled.
"I got it," Evans nodded, and Nathan handed the football to him. He turned to me, "Sorry about that, you didn't get hurt did you?"
I shook my head no to him. Not once did the scent of danger go away, it still lingered, strong.
William and Micheal looked away from Evans for a second. That's when I saw it, the second they turned away Evans smirked at me, then quickly turned it to a smile and ran back to the boys at the bottom of the hill.
He had planned to throw that football at me. It wasn't an accident. The scent faded, but still lingered weakly.
I payed attention to the scent for the rest of the day, it never went away and it was there wherever I went. The scent changed, it wasn't just danger anymore, it was both danger and a scent that I couldn't place. But it wasn't a good scent, I couldn't quite place why it felt so familiar.
When the school day ended, I saw William in the halls. Maybe he noticed the scent too? I remember that Nathan had told me before that William and I shared semi-similar Magic, so there was a chance.
When I walked up to William he greeted me with a wave, "What's up?"
I thought about bringing up the feeling that I had the whole day, but William's scent didn't show a single spec of acknowledgment of the danger. I decided that I shouldn't bring it up after all.
"Nothing much."
"You won't believe what happened in science." He grinned.
"Oh god, what happened?" I questioned nervously.
"Mrs. Stella had us do an experiment about the weather, where we had to combined all these chemicals a specific way." I nodded, I knew they had to do that in the older grades. "Micheal wound up blowing up his station."
I couldn't help but laugh at that. That explained the fire alarm in sixth period. "That seems like something he'd do. Bet he was banned from touching chemicals."
"He was," William laughed, and I felt like I had heard it before, which was weird since this was the first time I had heard him laugh.
I smelt anguish, but it wasn't coming from William. I took a glance around and saw Kohanna walking staring at us, when she saw me turn, she pretended as if nothing happened and walked out towards the school exit.
"I need to go, I'll talk to you later, William." I said and without hearing a reply I ran off after Kohanna.
When I reached her she was nearly at the front entrance.
"Kohanna!" I called out to her. She turned to me in surprise, but her scent had confusion laced in. I felt slight relief when I didn't catch the weird feeling in her scent.
"What is it...?" She asked me.
"I just wanted to let you know, just because it's a magic school you can't use your magic here." I spoke in a hushed tone, positive that only she heard my sentence.
Fear was added in with the confusion.
"I'm not going to tell anyone—" I stopped my sentence when I saw Nathan outside of the school walking down the sidewalk. "What the hell?"
He shouldn't be going home, he had practice today, and a game after. He would never go home before practice, even if he was sick or injured. I sniffed the air, he had the weird scent on him. That's when I realized why the scent smelt familiar.
"Oh God, please no."
Nathan's magic was dangerous, and it always was fighting to control him. It never went away but there were ways to subdue it, all of which Nathan despised. Nathan had never harmed anyone before when he wasn't in control, but he always got drawn to those who were injured and bleeding.
I ran after him, figuring I could always talk to Kohanna later.
"Nathan!" I yelled, I tried to grab his shoulder when I got to him but he stepped sideways and side kicked me.
I coughed as I hit the ground, holding my side in surprise. He'd never attacked anyone before. I had to stop him before he hurt anyone else.
I got to my feet and ran at him, fist raised. He grabbed my arm and flipped me over, but I caught him with my other arm and pulled him down with me.
When he hit the ground I pinned him down and hit his side with my elbow, the same way I always had to.
Nathan coughed before opening his eyes in pain.
"What..?" He asked.
I sighed in relief.
"I lost control didn't I?" He asked quietly.
"You're fine now." I said before pain rushed up my side, I winced as I clutched my side.
"Akemi!" Nathan said worried.
"I'm fine," I said with a smile.
"I didn't do that did I..?"
"No! I got hit by a dodgeball at gym." I came up with the best excuse I could. If he knew he did it he wouldn't trust being alone or trust that he could keep his power in check.
I brought myself to my feet, pulling Nathan up with me. He winced as he gripped his head.
"Nathan?" His magic's scent hadn't left the air yet. "Close your eyes, take a deep breath, and focus on controlling it."
He closed his eyes and did as I said, the scent faded, but the second he opened his eyes again the scent grew stronger. He closed his eyes again.
"Listen, keep concentrating. I'll lead you home, but you have to trust me."
He held out his hand and I took it, walking towards the house, I walked slowly so he wouldn't trip, and made sure there was nothing to run into.
When we got to the house I lead him to the wall. I pull myself up, when up I say, "House wall, you're going to have to climb."
He opens his eyes quickly and I pull him up, the second we get on the wall I jump onto the roof and pull him with me, we did the same thing for the other rood ledge. Right when we get onto the roof he closed his eyes again.
Okay, so far so good. I thought.
I opened the latch and punched in the code, then opened the window with one hand. I pulled it up farther than I normally do and crawled inside.
"Sit down," I told him, since the window wasn't tall enough for him to just walk in. He knew where we were so he felt for the window then ducked inside. I led him to my bed and told him to lie down.
"Why can't we use my room?" He mumbled.
"Because it's a pigsty, and I refuse to be going in and out and trip every five seconds." I replied to him before walking to my door. "Keep it at bay, I'll be back soon."
I opened the door and closed it quietly. Mom and dad wouldn't be here, so I had to deal with it on my own.
I ran into Nathan's room and looked under his bed to see the cooler. I pulled it out and opened it to see nothing.
"You have got to be kidding me," I said when I saw the empty container. This could explain why his magic was so restless, he hasn't been drinking blood lately. I only knew the longest he held out without blood was two months before his magic took control. Even then, he didn't act that way last time.
I ran downstairs and grabbed a water bottle, knowing if he knew what was inside of it he wouldn't drink it. I filled it with water and dumped it out a couple times to clean it, then dried it.
I grabbed a knife and took off my cuff, then cut under where the cuff would normally be. I let the blood flow into the water bottle, and I made sure that I didn't loose too much that it would start to harm me. Once the water bottle was about seventy-five percent full I tilted my hand upwards so the blood would drop less.
I grabbed a paper towel and wet it, then started to clean my wound. When I knew it was clean I wrapped it in an ace bandage and hooked the cuff on top of it
I slid the lid onto the water bottle and went back upstairs. I went into Nathan's room one more time and grabbed his cuff, then went back to my room. I opened the door, the faint smell of his magic radiated in the room.
"Here," I said, handing him the water bottle.
He opened his eyes slightly, "Water? How is that going to help?"
"It'll help," I shook it in front of him again, he signed before taking it and started to drink it. He drank for about twenty seconds before he had a look of confusion on his face.
"Water isn't sweet." He said, "What is it?" He shook the bottle, and reached for lid.
"Nope," I stopped him, "no looking inside."
"Oh my god you didn't," His eyes widened, scared and surprised, "Please tell me you didn't."
"Well what was I supposed to do? You emptied the cooler because you hated blood!" I threw my hands up in frustration, "And you've always said that wolf blood was sweet so I thought why not?"
He shook the bottle again, "All of this is yours?"
I nodded, "Yep."
"You idiot!" He yelled, "Blood drives wolves! Do you know how dangerous this is for you?"
"Of course I fricken know but I did it anyway!"
"You can't keep doing this!"
"Our blood cells regenerate so I can do it whenever I want to!"
He groaned in pain and gripped his head.
"Drink. It." I said, shoving the water bottle towards him, "It's the only way to help you."
He was reluctant but took it anyway and drank again. The scent faded till it was barely anything, and when the water bottle was empty I clipped the cuff onto his right wrist and the scent faded completely.
