Reckless Magic (14 page)

“
No, I’m not. Seraphina has
nothing to worry about, trust me.”

“
Well that just hurts,”
Kiran shoved me gently and I realized that he was flirting with me,
although I was doing everything in my power to disengage
him.

“
Stop it,” I commanded
firmly. “You’re going to get me into more trouble. Just leave me
alone so Seraphina will leave me alone.”

“
That’s not very likely on
either account,” Kiran mumbled. “Besides, you’re done for now. I
wouldn’t be surprised if the whole class wasn’t plotting their
revenge.”

“
Well, you could at least
stop,” Talbott looked directly at Kiran, but his tone was
hopeless.

“
Yes, you could stop,” I
repeated and gave him an irritated glance.

“
Yes, I could stop, but then
I wouldn’t have any fun,” Kiran whined defensively. “If I left you
alone, who is going to blow things up when they get nervous? Or
nearly drown thirty people in a poor attempt at vengeance? I can’t
count on any of them to do it.” He pointed his chin towards the
group of students walking in front of us.

“
Very funny,” I responded
dryly.

“
Really though, you need to
control your magic. You are out of control,” Talbott said
seriously, although I knew he was only mocking me.

“
If only it was that
simple,” I muttered under my breath.

“
Well you could at least
try; I think the teachers are going to stop believing that it is
all accidental behavior, especially when you involve them in your
antidotes,” Talbott was always the advice-giver, if only he had a
solution as well.

“
You’re right about that.
But I think when that happens, when they finally stop believing
it’s all on accident, they will finally send me where I belong,” I
laughed bitterly.

“
Oh yea? And where is that?”
Kiran asked.

“
The loony bin,” everyone
probably assumed the worst now anyways; I couldn’t hide the fact
that I was crazy any longer.

“
I told you, you’re not
crazy,” Kiran put a protective hand on my shoulder, sending both
butterflies and electricity soaring inside of me. After today’s
outburst and the strength of energy I felt in the river, at least
the electricity had become easier to control.

“
Oh right….” Sarcasm dripped
from my voice, “This is completely normal behavior; all teenage
girls can empty riverbeds with just the touch of their
hand.”

“
It is normal behavior if
you go to this….” But Kiran didn’t get to finish his sentence. All
of a sudden I was hit in the face with a giant ball of earth.
Rocks, dirt, mud and leaves splattered all over my face, into my
mouth and covered my hair.

I was blinded for what seemed like
minutes as I tried to scrape the mud from my eyes, nostrils and
tongue. Not only did it hurt, but it was also disgusting. My mouth
was open when the attack came, meaning I had eaten and tasted more
than anyone’s fair share of dirt for the day.

I could feel the mud caked in my hair,
in my eyelashes, up my nose, and I thought there was even some in
my ears. I was sure Seraphina was the one to thank for this,
although I couldn’t be positive because I never saw who threw the
mud ball in the first place, and I certainly couldn’t see anything
now. I coughed up rocks and leaves, gagging violently, doing
everything in my power to keep from puking. A few wet clothes did
not even compare to the grossness of this retaliation.

“
You could have helped her,”
I heard Talbott accuse Kiran.

“
If I would have seen it
coming, I would have gladly taken the bullet for her,” Kiran said
bravely, while laughing hysterically.

“
Thanks a lot jackass,” I
grumbled threw bouts of spitting out mud. I heard Mr. Lawly yell
something about keeping up with the rest of the group; clearly he
thought this prank was well deserved.

“
I wish I had a towel or
something to give you,” Lilly offered helplessly. “Would you like
some leaves or something?”

“
Yea, I guess,” wishing more
than ever I had worn a sweatshirt; instead of just a tank top and
jeans. I thought about using my socks, as unpleasant as that
sounded.

“
Here, you can use my
shirt,” Kiran finally decided to be a gentleman. He handed me the
red cotton polo he was wearing and I cringed while using it to wipe
off my face. After glancing down at the expensive designer tag, I
felt guilty for punishing the poor thing by turning it into a
filthy rag.

“
Thanks,” I mumbled into the
shirt, peeking out from behind it to make sure I hadn’t left him
shirtless. Thankfully, he was wearing a white v-neck
undershirt.

I wiped as much off with Kiran’s shirt
as I could, feeling the dirtiest I had ever felt. Since Lilly,
Talbott and Kiran waited with me while I cleaned up, we had to walk
a little faster than before in order to catch up with the rest of
the group.

Not sure what to do with Kiran’s polo
now that it was completely ruined; I held it awkwardly in my hands.
I glanced up and gave him a sheepish grin. I could feel small
pebbles and bits of mud still in my mouth, so my grin quickly
turned to disgust and I tried to spit it out as quickly as humanly
possible. Not very lady like, but what other option did I
have?

“
You just invite trouble,
don’t you?” Kiran goaded, but handed me a water bottle I hadn’t
noticed him carrying before. I took it, very grateful I was able to
rinse my mouth out.

“
Looks like it,” I said
through bouts of gurgling and spitting.

“
What are we going to do
with you?” he laughed again lightly.

“
Ugh. Mud tastes awful,” I
changed the subject to what was really on my mind. The constant
grinding of dirt and pebbles between my teeth had me beyond
nauseous.

“
How are you going to get
them back?” Kiran apparently lived for my humiliation.

“
Are you kidding? I’m not. I
would like this all to just end,” I nearly whined.

“
What? With your kind of
power, they’re no match for you.”

“
Thanks for reminding me
what a freak I am,” I was all of a sudden irritated. “This thing is
ruining my life; I’m certainly not going to use it against anyone
else.”

“
Don’t be such a baby.
Seraphina could never have done that with the water and she
certainly hasn’t held back against you. You could get her back so
good. Come on, rain down hell!” Kiran pushed.

“
I’m not just here for you
entertainment. And isn’t she your girlfriend?” I spit harsher than
I had intended, electricity building with every emotion. “I can’t
control what is happening to me and it’s not some joke for you to
use to pit me against Seraphina. You are crazy if you think we are
going to battle it out all over you,” I picked up my pace and
refused to look back at him.

“
You’re wrong, you can
control it,” Kiran yelled after me. That was not really the point I
had hoped to leave with him and that irritated me even more. What
stung the worst however was that Lilly stayed next to Talbott,
leaving me to walk alone through the never-ending
wilderness.

14.

The day ended and slowly the sky
turned to dusk. Mr. Lawly had been to every tent, making sure all
of our fires were strong and we would be able to make them last
through the night. Lilly and I sat around ours on a couple of
rocks. Most of the other students were doing the same.

There were thirty students on the
camping trip and all of them were assigned to groups of four,
except Lilly and me. Thankfully we were the only two to get a tent
to ourselves, well besides Mr. Lawly, but his little one-man
lean-to hardly counted.

All of the tents formed a circle
around a large campfire set up in the middle of the clearing, but
occasionally Mr. Lawly set up smaller fires closer to the tents.
This seemed like a forest fire waiting to happen; but Mr. Lawly was
confident he had things under control.

Some people actually caught fish after
we returned from our hike and that was what we were nibbling on
now. Our lesson was how to gut and cook a fish over an open flame;
I had never done anything more disgusting. I am not exactly sure
how this trip was teaching us to survive in the real
world.

I couldn’t think of one situation
where I might be stranded in the wilderness and have to depend on
fresh fish and berries to survive. Except maybe if I was some type
of fugitive on the run or something; I guessed with my track record
that didn’t seem so impossible after all. I took a big bite out of
my smoked catfish and tried to enjoy the taste of my
future.

Mr. Lawly passed out cans of baked
beans and ingredients for s’mores all to be cooked over the fire. I
knew that this was the ideal camping cliché but I wasn’t buying it.
I was filthy dirty, my long hair was in endless tangles and I was
tired of being picked on. I wished I could say I was the outdoorsy
type, but I would have done almost anything for a shower right
then.

Lilly and I sat silently, consumed
with our own thoughts. I pushed the food around on my tarnished tin
camping plate and wondered what Seraphina had planned next for me.
I looked over at Lilly and saw a small smile on her face, clearly
her thoughts were elsewhere and infinitely more
enjoyable.

I wanted so badly to ask her if
anything was going on between her and Talbott, but I couldn’t bring
myself to do it. She had been so great about giving me my privacy
that I just couldn’t invade hers. If she wanted to talk about it
with me, she would.

I looked over at Talbott, he was
sitting in the middle of all of the “cool kids,” right where he
belonged. His olive skin was darker from the sun today and his
black curly hair was pushed out of his eyes. His posture was
perfect and his white teeth glimmered in the coming darkness. All
around him sat equally as beautiful girls staring at him, but he
happened to be staring at Lilly. I didn’t understand why he was so
tied to that group of followers, clearly he liked Lilly. Was he
that much of a robot?

I glanced over at Kiran sitting next
to him. He too was staring in our direction and so I quickly looked
back at the ground. I didn’t get him, plain and simple. He was
apparently dating Seraphina, yet barely had anything to do with
her. She was gorgeous and popular; the very girl high school social
standards required him to date.

But me, the social outcast and
resident freak, Kiran wouldn’t leave the hell alone! Either this
was just some really messed up game he was playing, or he wasn’t as
attached to Seraphina as she was to him. It didn’t really matter
which one it was, I was getting sick of being in the middle. And I
was definitely tired of providing tonight’s
entertainment.

I pulled my knees closer to my chest
and laid my head between them. My dark hair spilled over and made a
pool on the ground. Normally I would have worried about dragging it
through the dirt, but since it was probably dirtier than the
ground, I decided not to get upset about it.

I contemplated revenge against
Seraphina, but I couldn’t think of anything legal. I was already in
enough trouble with Mr. Lawly anyways and I was pretty sure his
list of rules said something about an ongoing prank war being
forbidden. A small jolt of electricity shocked my system and made
me sit upright; I looked over to see Kiran about five feet away and
coming closer. Great.

“
Go away,” I picked up a
rock and threw it at his legs.

“
Don’t be so grumpy,” he
caught my rock effortlessly and tossed it back at me.

“
You’re going to get me into
trouble again,” I complained, catching the rock and throwing it
back at his shoes. He didn’t try to catch it that time, but I
doubted he could even feel it through his thick hiking
boots.

“
You are trouble,” he sat
down next to me, a little too close for comfort. Electricity shot
like sparks in my veins and gave me goosebumps all the way up my
arms. “Listen, I’ve negotiated a cease fire on your behalf.
Seraphina has agreed to stop this nonsense as long as you can agree
to as well. I think you officially owe me now.”

“
I don’t owe you anything,
you’re the reason I’m in this mess,” I stood half way up and moved
the rock I was sitting on over, away from Kiran. I didn’t need this
right now; I didn’t need him right now. And it irritated me that he
was right: I was grumpy.

“
Eden…” he scolded
tauntingly. I couldn’t help but love the sound of my name when he
said it with his seductive accent. I laid my head back down between
my knees to hide the smile I was having trouble keeping off of my
face. The roller coaster his presence sent my emotions on was
overwhelming.

“
What are the terms?” I
asked, my voice muffled underneath my massive amount of
hair.

“
Oh, right. You leave them
alone, they leave you alone.”

That was way too easy. I peaked at
them through my wall of black hair and realized that none of them
were looking this way. Seraphina and all of her groupies were
laughing, but not at me, they were thankfully completely absorbed
with themselves. It seemed I had faded into oblivion once again.
Thank God.