Careless Magic book 1

Chapter 7

Knowing at any moment he could demand the explanation I could not give him, I survived the rest of the day hiding from Kiran. To my surprise, he appeared to avoid me as well.

All of my extra "energy" was gone for right now, and I was able to relax. Because of Kingsley's full, eight-period day, the afternoon dragged on. Lilly and I sat together in most of our remaining classes. Thankfully, our other classmates preferred to ignore us.

I understood why they wanted to avoid me; I was fully aware that I was a total freak. But I didn't understand why Lilly had no other friends. She was drop-dead gorgeous and completely sweet, yet all of the other girls in the class acted as if she didn't even exist. Only the teachers talked to her and even they seemed to do it out of necessity. The exception was Talbott, who found any excuse necessary to say something to her. Maybe the other girls were just jealous.

All of my teachers, demanding and irritable without exception, appeared to hate their profession in some unexplainable way. They showed favoritism to a select group of students; but no surprise, it happened to be the Seraphina-Kiran crowd. Oh well, I'd never been much of an honor student.

The students were the real enigma. They gravitated around Seraphina as if she were the sun. Even her supposed friends, Evangeline and Adelaide reverently worshiped her. So, it shouldn't have been surprising to me that Kiran and Talbott were victims to her gravitational pull. It was disgusting really.

The constant flipping of her long, blinding-blonde hair and the incessant giggling were enough to make me want to burn down this school as well. If it weren't for Lilly, I would have never made it through the day.

It was as though we were made to be friends, and similarly made to be outcasts. I wondered what she did before I came; and then I realized probably the same thing I did at all of my other schools: sit alone, stand alone, and eat alone.

Lilly could have been my exact opposite. She didn't have to fill in the silence with needless conversation, like I did, but didn't seem annoyed if I babbled on and on either. I lashed out at anyone who gave me a dirty look, but even though other kids bothered her, Lilly's sweet demeanor remained unaffected.

Lilly and I said goodbye to each other after our last class, chemistry. She promised to save me a seat in homeroom tomorrow morning. With something now to look forward to, I watched her climb into an elegant, black SUV and drive away. She seemed much too small for the oversized monster truck she was driving and I imagined her barely able to see over the steering wheel.

Looking around the student parking lot, I realized that everyone drove an elegant, black something or other. All of the cars exhibited class and style; all of the students driving them were obviously born to privilege. The extraordinary colors the students exuded bore a stark contrast to the dark, glossy veneers of their automobiles.

I wondered if a black car was part of the dress code as Aunt Syl drove up in her cherry red convertible. I smiled widely, happy not to fit in, and jumped in the passenger's seat. As we drove away, I felt slightly embarrassed for being picked up from school, but relieved that we were leaving the looming towers of Kingsley behind us for now.

"How was your day?" Aunt Syl asked, glancing at me from behind her oversized sunglasses. Her shoulder-length hair whipped around her face in the wind, but she barely noticed.

"Oh, you know," I sighed, thankful to be on my way home.

" Actually, I don't know." Aunt Syl gave me a longer look, and I realized she was looking for assurance that I would be allowed back tomorrow.

"Well, I didn't set anything on fire," I smirked, keeping the exploding fern episode to myself. Aunt Syl smiled sweetly; she always put up with my sarcasm.