Sunwell Academy

Love Potion

"So, Emma. How was Professor Zimmerman today?" I say through a mouthful of stale cafeteria french fries. The school may be different, but the food stays the same. Zimmerman is her English teacher. She absolutely despises him.

"Horrible. As per usual," she complains, stealing one of my fries. "Paired me with one of the worst students in the class for our project."

"Hey," Gray says. "I'm not the worst student!"

I laugh and push the rest of my fries toward Emma. "Sure you aren't, I've seen your writing in social sciences."

"Both of you shut up. I'm a great writer. Right, Finn?"

Finn laughs nervously. "Uh, yeah. Of course. The best."

Gray's jaw hangs open in shock. All of us laugh as the bell rings.

"Off to general magic we go," I cheer, wrapping an arm around Emma's shoulders as we walk out of the cafeteria.

"Lauren wants me to skip class with her, I'll see you guys later," Gray says. He waves goodbye and runs off to the wickedest witch of all the land.

I sigh. "I can't believe he's still going out with her after what I told him. Granted, he doesn't trust me so he's probably just ignoring it."

We get into class and the teacher, Professor Bates, starts almost immediately, "Go get your textbooks, grab one of the metal cubes in the basket up here on my desk. Turn to page 153 to begin learning how to melt the cubes then reverse it."

I grab the textbooks and Emma grabs our cube. We start practicing saying things in unison and sounding out the words. Granted, it's Latin so I'm sure a smart girl like Emma already knew it. Poor Finn was having to practice on his own and couldn't even do the spell because Gray skipped.

A few minutes later, the door opens and Gray walks in being led by a janitor. "Found him in my closet with some red-haired girl."

I furrow my brows. Red hair? Lauren was blonde, really blonde. I smell trouble. Gray quietly walks over to Finn at their workstation.

I turn back to Emma and nudge her to get her attention. She smiles and we link arms, both of us speaking at the same time as we stare at the metal block. "Liquescimus."

The block quickly starts melting. Along with our entire work desk. We both jump back before the liquid hits our feet. "Solidium," I yell and it slowly starts to reform.

Bates sighs, pointing to our half-melted table. "This is why all parties involved in a spell must have their head clear and focused. Girls, please review the spell before next class and show it to me for credit."

We nod as the bell rings for our next class. I walk up to Gray, ready to go to Social Sciences. "Red-head, huh?"

He just shoots me a glare and walks past me. "Don't start."

I turn around and follow him the opposite way of our classroom, outside, and towards the woods again. "Wait, Gray! We're not supposed to be out here unsupervised!"

He stops and turns to look at me. "Then go inside. I never asked you to follow me out here."

"I just wanna know what's going on," I plead. "You may not care about me but I consider you my friend."

He rolls his eyes, turning to leave. I groan and throw my hands up in frustration. "Why are you such a dick? You don't let anyone get close to you, Finn and Emma probably had to worm their way into your heart. Which I've gotta give them credit, they do very well. But that's not the point, what's your deal with me?"

He turns around and walks closer to me. "I don't trust you. Whenever I look at you, I see pain and suffering."

"Well, what am I supposed to do about that? I'm not here to hurt anybody. I don't even know how to," I argue. "You know that."