Chapter 19

It has been a couple days now. I am going back to school for the first time being 17 and engaged. Ezra was assigned in to the same classes as me, and was seated next to me or each one: to make sure we became good partners. Some people would love that idea, and others: not so much.

You can also imagine how I felt when I walked into first period, Magic 103, and Joe wasn't in class. It was a mistake to not bring him to my ritual, but I wasn't going to give him false hope in a platter. He needed to know I didn't like him anymore.

Ezra places the palm of his hand to the small of my back, slowly gauging me to my seat. I wasn't right by the window in first period, but I was several seats next to it.

Outside, in the parking lot, a couple of black birds cawed and flapped violently about. I watched them, through a couple of heads next to me, and avoided any contact with Ezra. He was purposely placed next to me, and the person who sat in the seat before him had been moved to an empty chair in the back of the room.

I felt like a sore thumb next to Ezra, and the entire time during class was overly uncomfortable. He wasn't going to leave me alone, unless I had to go to the bathroom: so that was what I did.

I made my way to the girls bathroom during lunch and dipped my hands in to one of the middle sinks. The water was pretty warm, and I delved in the heat it brought.

The bathroom door swings open and a girl calmly makes her way to the bathroom. She doesn't look toward me, but I marveled at her beauty. She had the longest, bright red, curly hair and to contrast it she wore dark clothing and combat boots. I gawked for a moment, and glanced down at my hands. My nails were chipping and only some nail polish survived my crazy week last week. My skin was cracked, and a couple scars could be seen if pointed out.

A woman exits from a stall she was just in as I reached out for a roll of paper towels. She dips her hands in to the water and stays quiet. I can't help but watch her, wondering what it would be like to stand as tall as she does.

"You're staring." she mumbles toward me, shaking excess water from her fingertips.

I shy away, embarrassed that I had been watching her for too long. She didn't look up at me once, though, and it made me wonder to myself how she knew I was watching. "Sorry."

She shakes the water from her hands, and comes to stand next to me. She ripped off a piece of the brown paper towel and shrugs. "Don't apologize, it's not like you shoved a knife to my throat." she winks and starts to walk away, but as soon as she reached the closed doors of the ladies-room she spins around and says, "the name's Christine."

I reluctantly follow her out.

*

"You sure took a while." Ezra teases me, shoving a shoulder into my shoulder.

I don't smile, a little annoyed with him, and shrug. "It happens."

He shuts his mouth, and we walk in silence to my lunch table. My friends raise expectant eyebrows at us. Only one of them had the sense to ignore him and come up to me with a big hug: wishing me a happy birthday.

"I know, it's a little belated, but I got you something!" Lucy, my best girlfriend, shimmies back to the lunch table to rummage through her bag. Ezra and I follow her, and we sit at the end of the long table. The large red umbrella gave enough shade so that it covered my face but kept my left arm in the bare sun. "I'm going to get a tan on my left side, while my other arm stays white." I glance at my friends, wondering if they got my little joke. A couple of them giggle, but as soon as Lucy pulls out a wrapped box all the attention was on her.

"Here." She states while handing me the shoe-box sized red box with white poka-dots on it. "Open it." she states as soon as I place it on the table and stare at it.

I cleared my throat, and started to nearly un-wrap the paper folds. It was very cleanly wrapped and I wasn't going to rip it up: I could use the paper later.

"Come on, just rip it open already." One of my friends complained but I ignored them and opened it even slower: "Really?"

I smiled and slowly start to lift the lid of the cardboard box. "It's not going to eat me, is it?"

"Nope!" Lucy replied sweetly.

My fingers flip open the top and survey the little jewelry box. It looked homemade, but it was delicate and hand-carved in delicate swirls an designs, I pulled it out and slid the box out of the way so I could get a better view of it. Unlatching the wooden lid I peeked inside. Little vials and a couple pieces of jewelry were tucked neatly inside. I smiled cheerfully, and stood up and walked around the table to give Lucy a hug. She laughed, "I know how much you are into the potion stuff and charms."

I returned to my seat and Ezra was placing the jewelry box into the cardboard box, wrapping it back up for me. I took it, after the bell rang for lunch to be over, and placed it inside my locker.