The Haven High Book Series (Wattys2017)

Chapter 51

In the days that followed Zach grew distant and cold once again. And the more Lauren tried to draw him out the more he retreated. Even though they were spending the majority of their time together Lauren never felt more distant from her best friend. Eventually, he managed to completely shut her out. Until finally she had to admit walking away to find her own happiness elsewhere would be the healthiest thing for her, but it didn't mean that it didn't rip her heart out to come to that conclusion.

So she filled her time with the study of magic. Every day after training, while the rest of her gang caught up on sleep, she could be found in the school library reading up on ancient spells, with a major focus on defense against the dark art of spellcasting. Oh why, oh why did she have to be the only spellcaster in their group. She could really use a regular DA meeting in the room of requirements.

As a result of all her long hours dark circles began to appear beneath her eyes. Thankfully, she couldn't study forever, she was inevitably kicked out before first class for the Night School Students, but she would just use the remaining time to go home to search the deep web for news of her brother. She just knew if she could find him before the Yule Ball she could talk some sense into him.

At quarter to midnight she would start her round of pick-ups, portalling nearly three dozen times in fifteen minutes in order to deliver everyone to the glen they'd chosen to practice in that lay deep in the recesses of Muir Woods.

There the physically demanding training sessions would begin anew. Zach took the lead in directing and coordinating their training. She didn't know where he was learning the techniques he was teaching them, but no matter, they were working.

Soon Lauren noticed he too was sporting his own set of luggage under his eyes and his nerves were even more frazzled than they had been before. It felt like months since she had heard him laugh or even seen him smile. And even though he pushed them incredibly hard, he pushed himself even harder.

There came a time that most of them could be seen falling asleep in class or in the lunch room after scarfing down the extra calories they hovered like walking Dysons.

They were all beginning to show the strain. Her grades were even slipping and she didn't even need to study due to her dryad abilities. She could only imagine how hard it must be to keep up for the others. If you don't have time for sleep; how the heck do you have time to study or write papers?

One day she heard Ryan Groan in English when he received his third F of the semester.

"AH MAAAAANNN! he cried, "Mom's gonna kill me. "

She ruefully thanked her lucky stars her mother wasn't with it enough to know all this was going down. It would kill her all over again.

Apparently, Ryan wasn't the only one struggling with his grades. One evening on the rare occasion she was home before dark. She sat up in her room checking her contacts on the ultra-web and reading the magical sub-sub Reddits for news about her brother and his merry band of dweebs, as she liked to call them, when the door bell rang.

Odd she thought she hadn't ordered any take out and people didn't just drop by her house unannounced. She checked her watch to see it was much too late for Jehovah Witnesses and wondered who could it be?

And even though she was already in her PJs for the night they were her least embarrassing pair so she padded down the stairs to answer the door.

When she made it to the bottom of the stairs she called out, "Who is it?" before undoing the deadbolt. She was young not stupid.

A male voice called out from the other side, "It's me."

Lauren had a moment to feel shocked before her heart started racing in her chest. It had been months since Zach had come over to her house to hang out and his presence could only mean one thing: bad news.