Careless Magic book 1

Chapter 4

I took my sweet time walking over to the dividers and cringed when I looked behind them and found a tiny sitting area. I stared, mouth agape, wondering how I was going to get through this hour.

Kiran bumped, purposely, into my shoulder as he walked by and took a seat on the floor directly in the middle of the small space. Talbott followed close behind, although he was careful not to touch me as he entered. I was amazed at how quickly my infatuation with Kiran turned into disgust. Had I known he was going to sell me out in front of everyone, I doubted I ever would have found his faultless features so alluring before.

Regretfully I took my seat next to Kiran on the floor. I pulled my knees in as close as I could and disdainfully, rested my forehead on them. I gave myself hope that there was a way to avoid these irritating boys in the hole we had been banished to.

"So what are you?" Kiran asked pointedly. I lifted my eyes and found him staring at me intently. Avoidance was clearly out of the question.

"What do you mean?" I asked dryly. I had lost all patience with him. For the first time I noticed Talbott staring at me, as well.

"What are you?" he asked again, pronouncing each word crisply and clearly. If this was some weird game, I was not in the mood. I laid my head back down on my knees.

"What he means to say is.... which are you?" Talbott interjected, apparently hoping to elicit some type of answer from me; I, however, had no idea what kind of answer they were even looking for. After responding with silence, he continued, "We were not aware of you before we came; are you Witch, or Psychic?"

My head snapped up in reaction to his ridiculous question. I saw then that they were just playing another joke on me. How irritating. I was speechless, and my temper was slowly rising. I may have made a fool of myself before, but that did not mean these teenage boys needed to continue humiliating me.

"She's not one of you?" Kiran tilted his head towards Talbott and asked softly.

"No, not in the least. And I cannot get a read on her. Can you?" Talbott responded just as softly. They spoke to each other as if I was not there and my patience drew thin.

"No," Kiran responded, almost as frustrated as I felt. The strangest thing was that they actually maintained a straight face as though they really were serious.

"I'm neither," I almost laughed as I said it. "I am actually an elf, a Christmas elf. Santa gave me some time off so that I could go to school. He's such a nice old man," I rolled my eyes, not just at them, but at myself, I couldn't believe I was playing their games.

They both laughed a little nervously and looked at each other. Kiran adjusted his sitting position and our legs bumped each other. I couldn't tell if he did it on purpose or not, but as soon as there was contact between us, I began to feel the prickles and heat like before. It wasn't intense and my pride promised me I could handle it. There was no reason to panic and flee from the room, at least not yet.

"Where are the papers we are supposed to grade?" I asked Talbott, seeing a large stack of loose-leaf notebook paper in his hand. "Can I have some, please?" I choked out manners, trying to be the better person, although they were making it extremely difficult.

"Talbott will do it," Kiran answered quickly, without even looking at his friend.

"I would rather grade my share, thank you," I suddenly felt sorry for Talbott, to have a friend like Kiran, but I shook my head trying to rid myself of the feeling. I needed to remember that he had been just as bad as Kiran. Ok, well maybe not just as bad, but the mere fact that he indulged Kiran put him in the same category.