Reckless Magic (12 page)

“
Go to class,” instead of
shouting, Talbott’s voice was a low growl.

“
You cannot talk to me like
that. I won’t forget this,” Kiran snarled back, but obediently and
without looking at me again, walked on. Talbott did not continue
walking however, but stayed where he was. His demeanor remained
calm, and he turned his body to face me. After I refused to walk
any closer to him, he signaled me with his hand.

“
You can’t keep playing this
game with him,” he started speaking to me as soon as I was close; a
look of sincere determination on his face.

“
I don’t know what you’re
talking about,” I replied, slightly offended, and feeling like I
used that phrase an awful lot lately. If there really was anything
between Kiran and me, who was Talbott to get in the way? More
importantly, why was Talbott getting in the way? And even more
importantly, was there anything between Kiran and me?

“
I’m afraid you do,” he
alleged softer, making his accent thick. I continued walking and he
matched his strides with mine. “Listen, we are all curious about
you, I’m sure you understand, but Kiran is taking this too far.
It’s not fair to him and it’s definitely not fair to you. You are
only going to get hurt.”

“
Thank you for your concern,
but really there is nothing for you to worry about,” I tried to
stay polite, but get the message across at the same time. The soft
undulating energy that was only a hum a moment ago was steadily
growing stronger the longer I talked with Talbott, making my temper
even harder to control.

“
I am warning you for your
own good,” he persisted. “Stay away from him.”

“
I am trying to stay away
from him. Maybe it’s him you should be having this conversation
with.”

“
I’ve tried to talk to
him….. he is focused. When he finds something to…. entertain him,
it is hard to refocus him; and you Eden, are turning out to be much
more than mere entertainment. I am afraid the game is getting
dangerous,” When I opened my mouth to say something he continued
quickly, “You should know that he has a girlfriend,” he looked at
me out of the corner of his eye and I knew that he was waiting for
me to react. So I played it as cool as I could, continuing en route
to English class.

“
Really. Who?” I tried to
ask coyly, but I could feel my blood temperature rise and not from
the electricity this time, for whomever the girl was. The energy
rushing through my veins centered unexpectedly and surged out
through my fingertips into the grass, creating a small fire. I
stopped suddenly to stomp it out, hoping Talbott didn’t notice. And
he didn’t, or at least he pretended he didn’t.

“
Seraphina. That is why we
are at Kingsley. He moved here to be closer to her,” he reached out
to open the door for me and the gesture gave me a second to
recover.

“
Figures,” I sighed under my
breath. “Listen, I’m really not into him. As far as I’m concerned
there is nothing for you to worry about. Seraphina and Kiran make a
nice couple, really, they deserve each other,” I finished through
gritted teeth. All anger had vanished; instead I could only feel
disgust for myself. Clearly, I was making something out of
nothing.

“
So I have your word, you
will not distract him anymore?” his language was confusing to me, I
was not going to give “my word” about anything; the promise seemed
too binding. Besides that wasn’t really up to me, right?

“
Whatever Talbott, I won’t
bother him anymore,” we were almost to class and I could not wait
to be finished with the conversation; for some unexplainable reason
I was suddenly depressed. I hoped I wasn’t jealous of Seraphina. I
found that especially degrading.

Before I could get through the
classroom door however, Talbott put a soft hand on my shoulder,
stopping me. “Eden, he can be quite persistent. He is very
intrigued by you. He has never met anyone quite like you, so you
will have to give him a clear message,” I turned to look at him in
the face, hoping that he was joking, but I was met with
frighteningly serious eyes. “Even if you are human, Seraphina will
not be very forgiving if she senses any competition,” he tightened
his grip on my shoulder, sending lightning bolts running down my
arm. I was officially irritated.

“
Listen, this doesn’t sound
like my problem. If Kiran is unhappy with his relationship then let
them work it out. As far as I’m concerned, none of this has
anything to do with me,” I was finished with this, so I pushed past
Talbott into the classroom. I was late again and I could hear Mr.
Lambert lecturing me as I headed straight for my seat. Wasn’t it
just last night that I was looking forward to coming to
school?

----

The rest of the day went surprisingly
quick. I was very prepared to ignore Kiran completely, but as it
turned out, he was the one to give me the cold shoulder. This
irritated me more than anything.

All day I began plotting what I would
say to him if we happened to bump into each other. But I soon
realized all of our previous run-ins must have actually been on
purpose, because suddenly he was nowhere to be seen. By the time I
was sitting in eighth hour Chemistry, I felt terribly
mopey.

The most irritating thing of all was
that I had never noticed Kiran and Seraphina were a couple.
Seraphina was loud and obnoxious, always drawing attention to
herself; never once had I looked up to see Kiran at her side,
worshiping her like the rest of the sheep.

Occasionally they would sit next to
each other in class, and always at lunch, but I just thought those
were their social obligations, since they were the cool kids and
all. Now, every time I looked up they seemed to be side by side….
Laughing…. Touching…. Was I so consumed with myself I couldn’t see
what was going on around me?

On top of everything I could not
figure out why this bothered me so much. Or why I felt like Kiran
lied to me. It’s not like I had asked him if he had a girlfriend
and he said no. And he never really pursued me, or said that he
liked me. Most of the time, he made me angry.

I doodled on my paper, resting my head
on my arm. The electricity was at a medium hum, but my energy level
was much lower. I recognized my depression and it depressed me even
more. I shouldn’t let this get to me as much as it was.

Suddenly, I snapped out of my funk and
saw everything clearly. I was a game to him, just a game. Nothing
was real, not even last night. It was just like Talbott said, I was
only entertainment.

I bought into the whole good-looking,
charming accent, playfully-mischievous persona and allowed myself
to get emotionally involved. I was sure that if he didn’t have that
damn accent I would have seen through him immediately. Oh, those
Brits could be so charming and manipulative with their proper way
of talking.

I tried to sort through my feelings
further. I never really felt anything more than physical
attraction…. did I? I mean sure, the whole kiss thing last night
left an impression, but I was sure any girl would have had the same
reaction. He was the one who was practically stalking me; he showed
up at my house uninvited. I never wanted anything to do with him;
he forced himself on me.

What may have been construed as
jealousy or resentment for Seraphina was really just pity. I felt
bad for her; she had no idea what kind of person she was dating. He
was probably just using her too. He seemed like that type of
guy.…

I was no longer depressed; there was
no more reason to feel sorry for myself; because I was livid,
absolutely livid. I saw Kiran for who he was now, a disgusting,
narcissistic pig. Albeit a completely gorgeous, perfect pig, but
definitely a pig. And I certainly didn’t want anything more to do
with him.

I was interrupted from my epiphany by
someone knocking on the classroom door. Mr. Hayman looked up from
the chalk board at the front of the class and walked across the
room to open it. A tall, athletic man in a black track suit
entered, carrying a clip board and wearing a whistle.

“
This couldn’t have waited
until the end of class?” Mr. Hayman asked the man.

“
Who is that?” I whispered
to Lilly.

“
That’s Mr. Lawly, our PE
teacher,” she whispered back.

“
We have PE?” I said
shocked. I didn’t realize I had signed up for PE, and I was sure I
would have found a different elective if given the
choice.

“
Upper classman have a
special kind of PE,” she replied, but didn’t get a chance to
explain. The two men had stopped talking to each other and Mr.
Lawly called for the attention of the class.

“
As you know our camping
trip was scheduled for later in the quarter. But due to unforeseen
problems in scheduling and the fact that I am worried about weather
if we wait any longer, we are going to take it this weekend. The
arrangements have been made and your parents notified. I am happy
to say I spoke to all of them personally and not one of you has a
legitimate excuse to miss,” audible groans were heard throughout
the classroom. “You can pick up permission slips and a list of what
to bring on your way out of class. And may I remind you, all of you
are required to attend,” when he said this last bit, he looked
directly at Kiran. I found that amusing.

“
What camping trip? I don’t
remember signing up for a camping trip,” I looked, panicked and
wild eyed to Lilly, hoping she would have some answers.

“
It’s on your class schedule
as Special Elective,” she rolled her eyes. “The camping trip is our
PE class. The school board wants us to get ‘real life’
experience.”

“
So the whole class is over
in one weekend?” I asked hopefully.

“
Hardly. Kingsley believes
itself too important to fill our day with a menial class like PE.
So to fulfill the requirement they send us on one of these
god-awful trips every quarter. I think next time we go rock
climbing or something as equally terrible as camping. Everybody
hates them, but there is seriously no way to get out of it. They
think of everything, trust me.”

“
I have never been camping
in my life,” I was terrified. The only thing I knew about camping,
was that every camper in any scary movie I had ever seen was always
hacked to pieces.

“
That’s the idea,” she
rolled her eyes again. “The trips are meant to get us out of our
comfort zone, make us do something we would never choose to
do.”

“
Oh. Fantastic,” It was my
turn to roll my eyes.

A weekend trapped in the woods with
this group of people sounded exactly like a horror movie to me.
Could I request specifically that they check everyone’s bags for
chainsaws and hockey masks? Because surely, I would be the first
one to die.

12.

“
We’re here,” Lilly sighed
despondently and I opened my eyes. I hadn’t really been asleep, but
there was nothing else to do on the four hour journey to the middle
of nowhere.

“
This is it? Please tell me
we don’t have to hike for hours into that jungle,” I whined. Our
bus was parked in the middle of a gravel parking lot surrounded
completely by trees. There was literally nothing else but trees. I
searched frantically for a gas station, or convenience store
nearby, but all I could see were trees. I was not even sure if this
was a legal camping area.

I yawned widely and had a feeling that
my breath smelled awful. I glanced down at my wrinkled sweats and
t-shirt and realized I looked as bad as I felt. I was pretty sure
this was what the rest of the weekend was going to be like: sloppy
clothes and bad breath. Our 4:00 am departure time didn’t help the
fact that I had been perpetually grumpy since I set foot on the
bus. Mr. Lawly seemed like such a nice man at first until I
realized he was a drill sergeant with the intention of fully
entrenching us in the wilderness. My idea of camping entailed an RV
and heated swimming pool; it was obvious I was about to be sorely
disappointed.

“
I think it’s a forest, and
yes, there will be some hiking involved,” Lilly gave me a dejected
look. “Your shoes are cute though,” she offered me a bleak
smile.

“
Not for long….. is it too
late to go home?” I rubbed my bleary eyes, trying to focus on my
brand new hiking boots.

“
Afraid so. Come on,” we
grabbed our things and followed the rest of the students out of the
bus.

Someone started pulling backpacks from
the luggage compartment and Lilly and I found ours and strapped
them on. Aunt Syl and I had to go on an emergency shopping trip
since I owned none of the essentials. Normal people don’t keep
things like sleeping bags, hiking backpacks, portable stoves,
canteens and two-person tents lying around. Ok, well some normal
people did, but not me.

I looked around at the other thirty
students and doubted any of them did either. Everything looked
brand new and high tech; I even saw a random price tag still
attached. We might as well have been a commercial for
Coleman.

Lilly looked so tiny underneath her
gigantic backpack I was convinced she was going to tip over. Her
bright red hair covered by an army green hat, she peered out from
underneath it barely able to see. But she bore the burden
surprisingly well as we made our trek into the wild
unknown.