Blood Diamonds

Chapter 27

Diana—1960

At school, the Monday following the epic disaster of their first dabble into the occult, Diana sat with Gillian beneath the cool shade of a blossoming tree that stood majestically in the centre of the lush lawn of the school grounds. The day was a sweltering one and it was their personal favourite spot (come rain or shine) to hang out during lunch breaks.

"Cheer up, Dee," Gillian reprimanded while casually biting into her tuna sandwich. "You're too good for Christian anyway. From what I heard from all the cheerleader gossip, he's way too full of himself anyway, and totally not worth the effort."

"Yeah, I suppose you're right," Diana gloomily replied. She thought that this time at least something would go right in her life, but so far nothing had worked out as planned.

Gillian looked at her with a bolstering smile, wishing she could do a bit more to cheer up her best friend. "I also heard from Stella that he broke up with that smug, catty bitch, V, because she stole his thunder. He said she was way too popular, always stealing the spotlight, you know, and of course every boy this side of the planet wants to bone her," she said excitedly, trying to cheer Diana up with a bit of saucy gossip.

Diana just kept staring at her uneaten, untouched sandwich with a glum expression while Gillian droned on.

"He's a douche," Gillian finally scoffed, trying harder and not giving up on the social slandering. The best defence against heartache was a good offense, in her opinion; so vilifying Christian with her razor-toothed mouth came naturally.

"I guess so." Diana wasn't convinced.

"Trust me, you're better off without him." Gillian gave another comforting smile and wrapped an arm around her sullen friend in a friendly embrace. "Besides, you don't need any boy when you have an awesome friend like me," she cooed. "I'll never leave you hanging."

"Hi." The two girls' moment was interrupted by an unexpected greeting. They looked up to see who had been so rude by imposing on their conversation and stared straight into Christian Thompson's blue eyes. They both gasped unwittingly, their mouths hanging open by the unexpected sight of his flawlessly chiselled jawline. They were dumbfounded by this sudden appearance. No one ever went to greet them, let alone speak to them—both girls were completely off the social radar.

"Can we talk?" Christian asked, flicking his lengthy, blonde air from his eyes.

"Uhm..." the two friends uttered out and looked at each other, confused.

"Why?" Diana blurted out. She had no tact whatsoever when dealing with matters of the heart.

"Actually... you're the one I want to speak to, Diana," he replied bashfully.

Diana was even more puzzled by that statement. It was probably a joke, a silly high school prank—throw the weirdo outcast a bit of candy and snatch it away in a cruel and very public swipe; typical high school immaturity. "Why?" Diana repeated, a little too abrasively. She trusted her gut feeling for the moment, which told her that things wouldn't end well if she continued.

"Of course, she'd love to talk, wouldn't you, Dee?" Gillian pitched in and gave her that hard stare that said 'What are you doing? Go for it!'.

Diana took the nudge and ran with it, going against every instinct she had. "Okay," she replied while standing up.

"I'll be over there to give you guys some space to 'talk'," Gillian said with a mischievous smirk. "See you later." She waved and retreated to hang out with another one of her friends on the football bleachers.

"So... er... hi," Chris repeated. He looked unsure of himself; unsure what to say; and jittery, like it was his first time talking to a girl.

"Hi," Diana mimicked him. "So, what's up?"

"I, uh, just wanted to say..." he took a huge gulp, "...that I, uhm, think you're really pretty and can't stop thinking about you."

It must have been a crude joke. "Thanks, I guess." Diana looked at him, trying to figure out his motive.

"And I wanted to know if you, er, wanna go out with me sometime? Maybe after school? We can meet up at the diner? If you want; grab a milkshake or something, you know..."

The poor boy was genuinely a nervous wreck. It couldn't have been a simple trick. Then it struck her—the spell! Had it actually worked? If so, how? It didn't matter, spell or no spell, no boy had ever given her attention before. "Yeah, why not," she obliged. Her pale cheeks had become blushingly red, but Christian eased up a lot at her reply and she could swear she heard him breathe a sigh of relief.

"Great!" He replied with joyous enthusiasm. His face lit up, relieved that the conversation had gone so well. "I'll see you later after school then?"

"Yeah, sure," she stammered, still shy and baffled. "See you then."

He bowed awkwardly, then traipsed off to join his football jock friends, who looked just as confused as Diana was.

Diana turned in a circle to see where Gillian had disappeared to. What was going on? What had just happened? she thought. Gillian waved to her from the bleachers and sprang from her seat.

"Oh my God!" Gillian shrieked gleefully as she came bouncing towards Diana, who stood thunderstruck under the tree. "So? What did he want? Christian Thompson doesn't just approach anyone, you know, especially unpopular nobodies."

"He wanted to know if I wanna go out with him after school," Diana mumbled, more to herself.

"What!" Gillian screamed. Her mouth hung open ridiculously.

"Yep, that's it."

"So, the spell actually worked then... Wow!" Gillian too was starstruck. "Oh my God, we have to talk about this more. Tell me everything he said. Wow, the dashing Christian Thompson with my very ordinary, but amazing nonetheless, best friend. Sounds like a fairy tale come true," she sighed with a dreamy look. Just then the bell rang, beckoning them to class.

Diana looked at her and giggled at the silly expression on her face as they made their way to the school building.

"You have to tell me what happened after school. Promise you will spare no detail, Dee. Don't laugh, this is important; a momentous occasion and victory for the losers."

Diana laughed harder at her dramatic statement. "Yeah, of course. He wants to meet for a 'milkshake' at the diner."

"Shut up!" Gillian shrieked. Her eyes went huge when the impact of Diana's words hit her. "I think I'm gonna like this magic thing after all. I can't wait to experiment a bit more," she gushed cheerfully.