Chatoyant College Book 4: The Flicker

Chapter 50: Secrets Told

Troy bent his head quickly, looking back at the computer screen. "I just have a couple more paragraphs to read, and then we can finish discussing the paper," he said, a little too loudly.

Corrie could take the hint. "Okay, we'll wait."

"I have a little more to read too," said Annie.

While Troy and Annie finished their reading, Corrie listened to the conversation, having nothing better to do. They were mostly discussing what they should put on the spaghetti they were cooking and some gossip about a guy they seemed to know. He was dating one girl, but was clearly in love with another, and they were of the opinion that he should dump the first girl and go out with the second. Obviously, they didn't care who overheard their conversation.

Troy looked up after a few minutes. "Okay, I'm ready."

Annie looked up a moment later. "Me too."

"Okay, I guess I'll type up the conclusion, since I have the end part," said Edie. "If you don't mind."

"Oh, sure." Troy handed her back her computer. "Um, there was a typo on the second page--you used the wrong their."

"Oh no, really?" Edie's eyes widened. After a moment she relaxed and clicked somewhere on the screen, then retyped. "Got it. Thanks."

"No typos in your part, Troy," Corrie said, handing him back his paper. They discussed other corrections and got started on the conclusion. All the while Corrie was acutely aware of the two girls chatting away in the kitchen behind her. Eventually, the four of them agreed that the conclusion should be three paragraphs long: one about the scientific aspects, one about the social aspects, and one to tie it all together. Edie typed what the others suggested--she was quite a fast typist--and then read it out loud for them to approve. They made a few tweaks, then started to discuss how they would put the paper together, even though all of them had pretty much the same idea. Since they couldn't get together the next night, they agreed that they would bring copies of their sections to class on Tuesday and staple them together there. Annie pointed out that they ought to each make two copies, just in case.

Finally, Corrie heard one of the girls in the kitchen say, "I guess we better bring this up to our room to eat."

"What a pain in the ass," complained the other girl, but neither of them said anything or even seemed to look at the four working on a project as they went past them and out the door.

When the door had shut firmly and the sound of their talking and footsteps had died away, Troy let out a sigh. "Sorry about that," he said. "I might be okay with telling you three, but that doesn't mean I want everyone to know what I am..."

"That's okay," Annie assured him. "We've avoided telling too many people about the faeries, too, and there's a lot of them. It is just you and Link, right?"

"Just the two of us here," he said, smiling at her.

"We are going to have to tell Dawn, Roe, and Talia, though," Corrie said. "We already told Dawn what we knew--I don't think there's anything Edie and I would hide from Dawn."

"No, definitely not," said Edie. "Especially since we wanted her help when we thought you might have been a faerie."

"Oh, is that what was really going on last week?" Troy asked. "She had one of the clovers too?"

Corrie shook her head. "She has the Sight. She can see right through faerie glamour. Apparently that didn't affect your illusion at all, though."

"Interesting," said Troy thoughtfully. "But who are Roe and Talia?"

"Oh, those are our friends who were there on Friday," Corrie said. "They heard our conversation and I'm sure they'll ask about it. Besides, we trust Roe, and she trusts Talia."

"And I think it's important that Roe has as much information as possible about the world around her," added Edie. "What if she has a vision and doesn't understand what it means, or that it's about Troy, because she doesn't know he's a... merman?"

"Vision? Your friend Roe has visions?" Troy sounded excited. Edie and Corrie both nodded. "I'd love to meet her, then. Actually meet her, I mean. I've heard of humans having visions, but it's not something that Djanaea can do."

"Are you sure?" asked Corrie. "I wouldn't have thought that humans had them, either, if I hadn't met Roe."

Troy nodded. "Believe me. There's not that many of us, and we have records going back thousands of years. If it was a Djanaea trait, I would have read about it."

"I'm sure Roe would be interested in meeting you, too," said Annie. "That is, if we can persuade her that mermaids exist."

"I think we can," said Edie. "She didn't believe us about faeries at first, but then she found out they exist, so she's more likely to believe us this time."