 |
 Chapter 16 ~ Madrigals Plans were made and in three short days, Erin was off to Scanra. It was defiantly different without her in the apartment. We had ridden with her to a mile or two outside of Corus. We had just gotten back in the early afternoon, and were thinking of things to do. "I know what we can do..." I chimed in. "We can go see the pages and squires in the training yard." "Hmm, I wonder why?" Sara joked. "Who do you want to see, could it be, nah not Cleon!" "Maybe I do and maybe I don't. Who's to say." I paused briefly. "But, I was thinking we could go check up on Kel. I mean we have to see how our female counterpart is dealing." "Alright, you've convinced me, I'll go," Sarah said. "Were already dressed for it and all." "Hey wait a minute..." Kelly said puzzled. "You can't even see..." "I can see bright colors, it started to come back this morning, and every hour or so, it gets a little better..." "That's great!" Kelly said. "How come you didn't tell us?!?" "I didn't want to jinx it." "Well then by all means let's get going..." Sara grabbed me by the arm and we started off to the training yards. As we got closer I could hear horses, "What are they doing?" "Jousting." Kelly answered. "Is anybody else watching?" I didn't want to look stupid, just a group of girls just 'watching'. I knew Sara and Kelly didn't mind being around them, they knew them. Heck they saw them almost every day. "Not many, there's a few others." Sarah jumped in. "Hey I think they recognize Kelly...." Sara joked. "I don't know what you mean.?...!..." Kelly turned slightly red. Obviously it was a joke they did not intend to share. I guess Kelly wanted to change the subject because she asked, "How's your vision now?" "Better, it's still a bunch of blurs, but after nothing blurs are good." "HA! Did you see that? That one, over there, he was checking me out! No it gets better, the Stump caught him and," she paused to laugh. "He smacked him upside his head." I didn't get it, I guess it was funny, maybe you had to see it. "Hey, Kelly he's checking you out, who's he?" Sara asked. "I don't know, but I intend to find out. Mmm Good!" Kelly said, getting away from her goodie goodie image. "Where's Cleon at?" I asked. "Oh, I don't know, could it be, hopelessly staring intently into your eyes? Yes I think so." Sara joked. "Actually he's pointing you out to a couple of people." All of a sudden my vision came almost to normal, as if my happiness kicked in or something. "It looks like he's trying to sneak over here." Sarah said. "Yeah, and he's still not of the punishment for coming to see you." Kelly jumped in. "I heard him talking about it in class." I smiled, and it seemed as though my vision got a little clearer. I was probably just imagining it though. A loud bell gonged and I heard horses moving away. "Sorry, got to get to class." Kelly said walking away. "Yes, duty calls mi' lady." Sara was just joking with me, she knew how much I absolutely hated that. "Well, Sarah. What are we going to do?" "Umm, you could come to Numair's with me." "Cool, I've always wanted to meet him whenever he wasn't pestering me to translate or explain something." "I can't guarantee that won't happen. He's been trying to think of a way to get your vision back a.s.a.p.." "Whatever." I said as we went up the stairs to the teachers quarters. Sarah was getting ready to knock on the door when it swung open. "Good, you're here. Maybe you can remind me why I still love him." It was Daine. "Oh, no here she goes." I jumped in. Sarah had a list going of why Numair and David Duchovey were perfect men. "Well for starters, he's the perfect height, he's the tall dark and handsome type, and I'd bet he'd look killer in a leather jacket. Oh I'm sorry, Daine I brought Leah with me, I hope you don't mind." "No I need all the help I can get. He's in one of his moods today." "Well, I can cheer him up. A certain somebody is getting back her vision." "What, where, hi Leah, how many fingers am I holding up?" Numair came out of nowhere. "See, I told you." Sarah joked. "I don't know, why. Should I be offended?" "No, no, but can you see some?" he asked with an obvious intent, and without waiting for a reply he said, "Because if you can I can cure you and you could see again." "Heck yeah, sign me up for the doctor." "Numair did a little chant or something and blew on my eyes." I had to blink, my eyes were watering like crazy, and in no time, my eyes were back to normal as if nothing had happened to them. "What did you do?" I asked. "Why is something wrong?" He sounded sincere. Go Daine, found yourself a keeper. "No, I mean wow, I can like see. Cool" "Great, I'd like you to translate this one little ity bity thing." "Numair!" Sarah scolded. "This girl got her vision back, less than a minute ago and you want her to work?" "No, it's like I'm back to normal. Where is it." My Spanish was getting good now. I had been practicing it a lot, and now was almost as fluent as I was going to get without a teacher and a higher book. It was a rather boring page. It turned out to be a children's story about a rabbit and a turtle. Kinda like the Tortoise and the Hare fable by Asoep, but not quite. Numair was a little disappointed, but he got over it. "Wow, time to get to class Sarah." Numair grabbed a couple of bags, and they started off to the class for the gifted ones. "Hey, can Leah come? She hasn't seen that much magic being used.?!" She gave him a look. "PLEEASE?" "I was going to say 'yes' anyway. I'm not that mean." "No, only little children, women, and basically everyone who doesn't know you well, are scared of you." Daine joked. "Come on we don't want to be late." We weren't, we just got there, a few minutes after they did. We stepped inside as the bell rang. "Alright, today's lessen... 'Levitating Objects'." Numair said very teacherly. A series of 'Cools' went through the class. "And Leah, here is going to demonstrate." "Ha, I thought you let her come easily, a little too easily." Sarah and him started bickering, sort of. "Don't worry, they're always like this." Someone called from the field of faces. "Ha, Sarah's usually worse." I was going to break this up and make them wonder about me at the same time. "Hey Sarah..." she instantly turned away from Numair to me. "Yeah?" "Do it,... do it now!" "Now, dammit, now!" She broke up laughing, while I tried desperately not to do anything, but when she said, "I want to play!" I couldn't help myself, I had to laugh. Who doesn't find that freaky murderous doll, frieking hilarious? Numair put on one of his looks of, 'Now stop it you two, I don't need this.' "Am I going to have to separate you two?" "Umm, no Master Numair, honestly, I didn't do it..." I paused, "SHE did!" I pointed at Sarah. "Here, take this, and go to the corner." He was joking, it was an old yellowed piece of paper. I did as I was told, easily. My 'corner' was right by Cleon. I thought I was going to actually get to talk to him, when Numair called him up. 'Damn, that sucks.' I thought. That was one of the only reasons I had agreed to come to this class. Because, right now, I was feeling very self-conscious and could feel eyes on me. I absorbed myself into this work. It had turned out to be a spell and was very difficult to translate. After about a little over a half and hour, I had figured out what it was. It was a healing spell that would cure a person ailing from a spell placed on them, so theoretically as it said, if a person had a spell cast on them, this spell would lift it and then cure the ailing person, with the color gift of the person who placed it, so I guess you could almost pick the person out who did it. Cool, defiantly something that Numair would want to know about. I waited for a convenient time, when he had the others working on a project. "Numair," "Yes,?" he called going over some homework. "I think you'll like this one. It probably would have helped when The King almost died when he was young." I added the last part in a whisper. It drew Numair in. "What do you mean?" "I think I should explain it later. I don't know if you would like the others to hear." "Oh, well then, CLASS DISMISSED. Have fun, and don't try that spell out when your gone, it could go terribly wrong, and I'll tell you why next time." The eager boys jumped out of the classroom, and once again, no free time with Cleon. "Well, you certainly didn't have to do that." "Don't worry he does that a lot." Sarah came over, "I'm surprised that they learn anything in this class." "So, spell?" Numair said anxiously... "Oh, yeah, can we go someplace where this cannot be heard, I don't know what will happen if this gets out." "Oh, don't worry about that." In a few seconds, Numair had a shielding spell put on the whole room. "No one can hear us." I explained the spell, "Wow, that's cool" Sarah commented. "But, there's more and I think it's a warning, so I was going to finish working this out before we try it out. "Oh, of course, you work on that, and come and find me when you're done." He started to walk out of the room. "What am I supposed to do?" Sarah called after him. "Oh, yeah. Umm, work on that spell in the more advanced form and then when Leah's done, bring her to me. You'll know where to find me..." he walked away. "Yeah, and he didn't even take off the silence spell." The room still glowed of his gift. "Well, that's Numair for you." Sarah worked on a more advanced levitation spell, while I finished the page. "Hey, Sarah." "Hmm?" She was concentrating on the desk she was lifting. "I need to run back to the room to get a dictionary, but I'll be back." "What, huh, yeah, bye," She was slowly moving the desk over to another wall on the opposite side of the room. I grabbed the paper and my bag and went to the room," I was reading it when I grazed something. "Oh, I'm sorry." I looked at what or I should say who, I had hit. "I didn't see you." "Scholar aren't you?" He was a HOTTIE! With a capital H and OTTIE. Ouch. The person he most reminded me of was Nick Lachey from 98º. "What?" "Reading an old paper with only god knows what on it, and not looking where she's going." He was only joking with me, but it suddenly got very hard to talk without sounding absolutely stupid. Come on Leah, think of Cleon, but wow, he was cute! Mmm "Yep, caught me. I wasn't watching because this is very interesting." "Really?" "Yeah, it's all about how to get someone to give you their name." "Well, mine's Jeremy." "See it worked." 'Okay, why am I flirting with him.' I thought. Okay, you're supposed to finish this today. "Well, I have to go finish this, Numair wanted me to finish it." "Ahh, well then we cannot keep Numair waiting... By the way, what's your name?" "Well to find that out, I guess you'll either have to get a copy of this spell or find out." I walked away and hurried back to my room. I grabbed my dictionary, and unconsciously finished translating it. I was thinking about Jeremy when Sara and Kelly came into the room. "What's up with you?" Sara said. "You look as if you just had Christmas and your birthday, Or you just went to Kay's funeral." "Oh my god, I just met the most perfect man in Tortall. I mean holy Shiite, you should have seen him. And he was totally flirting with me! And I was back. He is soooooo Mmmmmmm Good!" "Okay sorry to be a spoil sport, but do you remember Cleon?" Sara looked at me as if I was crazy. "Umm, yeah, I know, what to do about him," "I thought that you liked Cleon? When did this change?" Sara asked sounding a little too much like my mother. "Hey, I think that it's cool our little Leah has gotten herself her eyesight back, and became a player all in one day." Kelly came over and sat down beside me. "Ignore her, she's upset." "Why, what happened, Kelly?" I knew that when Sara got mad, she didn't censer her mouth, heck she barley did that normally. "Well, it seems Joey doesn't like it here and is going on another 'trip'. No, hold on that's not the worst part." Sara left the room, "I don't want to hear it again." "What tell me..." "Well, we were talking to Lisa, you know, Joey's sister, and she's the one who told us. She said that he was feeling restless and since there wasn't anything here holding him back, he was going to go on another 'trip'. " "I thought he liked Sara." I said with my mouth gaping. "Yeah we all did. Especially Sara." At that moment Sarah came in and we told her about it. "Oh, poor baby." "Hey can you go drop this off at Numairs?" I handed Sarah the paper and the scroll I had translated it onto. "Sure, why?" "I can't find it by myself and I wanted to talk to her, I don't think we should leave her alone." "Okay, whatever." Sarah took off and I came up with a plan. Kelly and I went into the Sara(h)'s room. "Hey Sara, want to go get smashed tonight?" I thought getting her drunk off her ass might be a good idea to get her mind off of it. "We can go down to the Madrigal..." "Yeah, and we have our own clothes that we can wear. I mean it'll give us a chance to wear them and look good, and find you a nice new man. I hear that there are some pretty damn fine guys down there. Plus..." Kelly broke off. "My love life has been a little, well so dam dry I think you can just call me the Sahara." "Oh, yeah. ok. That'll be fun. I always wanted to see the 'slut' in you..." "So it's decided, were going to the Madrigals tonight." I stated and then tried to figure out something to do with my hair, I mean, you never know. Jeremy could be there. Chapter 17 ~ How to be a Table Dancer We waited for Sarah to get back and then told her. "Awesome, I've been wanting to break out the duds." We all got ready, me in my tan khakis and a black, beady top with a white tank under it, Sarah in a ribbed white tank, tan leather (foe) jacket, and wide legs, Kelly in a black mini w/ embroidery on it and a matching black tank, and Sarah in a short purple dress with a black jacket over it. "How, are we going to get out without being noticed, I mean you guys don't exactly fit into a crowd." Sara started to look down again. "Well, you know we do have to take cloaks so we don't get cold..." Kelly suggested devilishly. "I don't know, say long ones that will cover up everything we're wearing,... hehe or not wearing." "Kelly," Sarah said fake mockingly. "I know, and everyone always thought you were so pure." Sara started laughing. "Come on people, let's get going!" I grabbed Sara and we started for the door. "Uh, guys, forgetting something?" Kelly had stayed in the Sara(h)'s room. "What?" I asked. "Well, for one thing, money and for another the cloaks???" "OK, smack me on the head and label me 'stupid'." Sara said as she walked back in her room for some money. "Come on people for a second time..." and once again we started out for the Madrigal. We passed all of the guards and made it to the Madrigal. It was crowded, as usual. This was a hang out in the city, a step above the taverns where the rouge hung out. "Nice, music." Sara said grumpily. She was right. It was some old guy playing a string? of some sort? "I hear it picks up." I tried to get her to cheer up. "Hey, Sara look! Vodka!" Sarah joked and we went straight to the bar. If we were going to get smashed, why not start early? Sara started over for the bar, "Mmm, nice bartender." There she got into a shots competition between herself and an old drunk. "Wow, she can hold her liquor. The last guy who tried to beat Old Kidney here passed out." It was a cute bartender. Kind of tall, Spiky hair. Cute. Okay Leah, what is with you. Two guys is enough. As if someone was reading my mind, I felt a hand slide around my stomach. "Well hello again Scholar. How are you doing?" It was Jeremy. After my heart got out of my throat I answered, "Fine Jer. How's about a drink?" "You drinking, nah." He laughed. "Why is a girl like you in a place like this?" He mocked acting shocked. "Trying to get my friend, completely smashed." "And is it working?" "Well let's just say she challenged Old Kidney to a shot match." I looked over at the counter. Old Kidney looked as if he had to pee really bad. I couldn't almost see the bartender behind the glasses. After about another minute, a crowd had gathered to watch. "Chug, chug, chug it, chug it!" The crowd dared Old Kidney to take a drink. He took one look at it and passed out on the floor. "Wow, Mistress Sara, I never knew." I knew that voice. Oh my god, they were getting smashed and their students were watching. Oh, I don't know if Sara will live that down. Well wait, an up tempo band had just started to play and someone was on a table dancing. In a mini skirt and tank top! Oh my god, Kelly was table dancing!!! The students moved on over to her. "What you look as if you've died and seen a god." Jeremy snapped me back to attention. "Well, see the table dancer, and the drinker at the bar, not the passed out one, the one surrounded by glasses." "Yeah why." "Well see all of the 16 year olds surrounding them," "Yeah," "Well table dancer and the drinker are their teachers, so they are watching their teachers get smashed!" We had a good laugh about it and then we took a walk over to a quieter area and sat down at a booth. A waitress came over. "What can I get you?" "I'll have a glass of the best brandy." Jeremy must have some money, or either be a very rich drunk. "And you?" "Lemonade, please." "What, don't want to get smashed like your friends?" Jeremy joked as the waitress got our drinks. "No, I'm like the designated non-drunk off my ass girl tonight. I'm here for them." Jeremy leaned over, "wow, you smell so great." Okay so Cleon was on probation for like forever, I need someone who can actually do stuff, like lick my ear, oh my god he was licking my ear! "Somebody's smashed." I sang. "Yeah, isn't it great!" Jeremy laughed and then for some reason or another I found myself in a make-out session with him. We were sitting, opposite the door when it opened and I was hit with an icy blast. I jumped back from him and when I looked at the door, I could have died. In were walking Joey and Mulder! Sara was drunk at the bar, and the other Sarah was talking to one fine guy. I think he was in the band, the dummer, typical Sarah. Mulder looked at Sarah and Kelly table dancing and Joey was looking at Sara at the bar, chatting it up with the cute bartender. They both went two ways. Mulder waded through the crowd of boys surrounding Kelly, threw her over his shoulder and grabbed Sarah arm and started for the door. Joey went to the bar threw Sara over his shoulder and did the same. All while I grabbed money threw it on the table for the drinks we had gotten a few minutes ago, and started out after them with Jeremy following after. I got outside, and gathered my cloak about me. Where were they. Then I saw them, taking an indirect route back to the apartment. I ran to catch up and grabbed Mulder's back to get them to slow down, "And where do you think you're going?" "Oh, it's you Leah." They turned around and came over to me. They each set down their burdens and watched them try to stand on their feet. "I think this explains it enough." "What were you thinking!" Joey asked. "You can't just go get drunk?. I mean were you even thinking, and besides half of their class was in there." "Umm, excuse me. We didn't know that and besides I'm not drunk!" "Well I don't think you could carry these guys back to the palace." Mulder joked "Who was going to do that?" "Well, I'm not worthless." Jeremy came up to us, carrying the cloaks. "If you haven't noticed it's pretty cold." "Oh, yeah." Mulder grabbed the cloaks and put them on the girls. "Come, on let's get them home." Jeremy grabbed Kelly and threw him over his shoulder. Man did his muscles flex when he did that. To bad I wasn't smashed. Joey did the same to Sara, and Mulder did it to Sarah too. We made it back and slipped past the one guard who when told how drunk they were, just laughed. When we got inside the apartment, I lighted some candles and pointed Mulder and Joey off the Sara(h)'s room, and Jeremy to Kelly's bed. While Jeremy put Kelly to bed, I spied on the Sara(h)s. They would want to know, every single little detail. They had taken off their cloaks, I give them that, but Mulder put Sarah in bed, with everything else on, even her shoes! Joey at least took those off. And now the good stuff, Joey kissed Sara on the top of her head, while Mulder planted one right on her lips, "Just in case I never have the chance to again." He told the sleeping Sarah. "Good show?" Jeremy had creeped up behind me. "Well, they'll defiantly want to know." "I'll bring by some hangover medicine in the morning." "Your my knight in shining armor." I planted one more kiss on him as Joey and Mulder came into the room. They started to leave when I heard Mulder say, "Well Jeremy looks like we each got one." I tried not to scream, they would defiantly want to know that! I went into the Sara(h)s room and took off Sarah's shoes, and over jacket, and Sara's jacket and then blew out the light. I went back into mine, and blew out the light. I couldn't wait to see them and their hangovers. Chapter 18 ~ Ivory "Could somebody please tell me, where the elephant went who sat on my head?" Sara moaned and stumbled towards the bathroom. "I could use some ivory..." "Don't worry," I called. "Jeremy's coming over. "He said that he would bring some medicine." "Please tell me you mean like the stuff Allanna gave Corum..." Kelly came up to me wrapped in her blankets. "Soon?" I was fully dressed and feeling fine. I could wait a few more minutes before telling them, Jeremy had already been here. "I don't know, he said he might sleep in a little..." "You're lying," Sara came out of the bathroom. "It's all in the eyes. You're lying. Now be a nice girlie and go get it." "I don't know..." "See, ha you do have it. She didn't even know!" Sarah had emerged out of her coma like state. "What's the matter, you never get drunk easily." "I had a 'spiced cider'. Apparently the 'spice' is everything in the bar." She took one step forward and fell down in a heap of blankets. "Tell Numair, I can't come today." I knew they were feeling bad then. Come on Sarah not wanting to see Numair... I got the bottle and about five minutes after taking it, all were feeling much better. Well, except for Sara. "What's wrong?" I asked. "Is it about Joey, cause-" "No, I'm over him. He doesn't like me, fine. More power to me to stay away, and besides..." "Well, okay." Sarah said. "What's his name?" "Okay, promise not to laugh?" "Yeah," Kelly had joined our group. "Well, it's... Brandon, you know the bartender. We had a certainly charming conversation the other day, and seeing as I left my purse there..." "Ahh, we have to go back tonight." Sarah sat plotting. "We have some midwinter shopping to do, so say, we could slip in for some tea and you could possibly strike up a conversation, and... you know." Then that stupid bell rang and we all went our separate ways. I figuring, I should get back to work, grabbed my bag and threw in my Spanish books and dictionaries and headed off to one of the workrooms that held the texts. I worked my way through a few frivolous spells that were cheap and probably didn't even work. One said that if you ate a frog's heart, (eww gross I know) then you would know your love at first site, and how to catch a man spells. Stuff I really didn't like. Then after lunch I found a thick book of sorts. It was full of a bunch of complex spells. Something I think that Numair would like. There were some power words that I couldn't translate, so I don't know how I was supposed to teach Numair those. I worked on a really tough spell for what seemed like forever before finishing it. When I looked up, all the candles were lit and there was only one person in the room. I started to gather my things up and the snotty librarian came over and took the book back. You'd think that I actually had magic the way she looked at me when she came over. As if I would turn her into a tree. Oh well forget her. I got up and left. When I got back to the apartment, I ran into Sarah, Kelly, and Sara on their way out. "Where are you going?" "Oh, remember how we decided to go out tonight... Well you didn't show up for dinner so we just kinda assumed you were somewhere else, or with a certain person, and weren't going to come." Sarah grinned. "Well, I was working, and no I haven't seen Jeremy since this morning, and yes, if you'll wait a minute I'll go with you." I scarily looked into the mirror. Hmm, what did my hair look like today? Surprisingly well. All I had to do, was grab my purse and cloak and we were off. "Well, what were you translating all day?" Sara inquired. "Well at first it was just dime and nickel spells and there was this thick book full of complex spells. Numair would probably love to see them." "Okay, I guess I'll just have to read some of what you translated." Sarah moved on to another subject, what had happened in class. "Well, at first it was just normal." Kelly replied. "And then Lindhall had to go run an errand and left us in charge." Sara laughed, "and then it got ugly." "How so?" I asked. "Well, for one. With me they kept commenting on how my skirt looked longer today. They were mostly joking." Kelly got a devilish look in her eye. "And then we told them that we would tell Lord Wyldon that they had been in the bar that night." "Well they can go there right?" I asked. "Yes, but," Sara jumped in. "They aren't supposed to be drinking alcohol and we did see quite a few of them doing just that..." "Oh, so you threatened them... I see." Sarah joked. "No not threatened, just a friendly persuasion." Sara went to the window of a shop. "Hey Kelly, do you think that Lindhall would like this?" And the shopping began. Seeing as how we hadn't gone out much since we had been there, we all had money to spend on gifts. Chapter 19 ~ Tea For Three After we had finished our midwinter shopping, we decided to go shopping for ourselves. "Oh, what I wouldn't give to go to a ball," Kelly was dreamily staring at a blue ball gown in a window. "We could you know," Sarah stated. "I mean come on, we do teach their children." "Then all the better we don't go, 'cause if they saw us, we'd be fired in a second." Sara joked. "Yeah, but still..." Kelly started to move on. "Who says we still can't have the dresses?" I asked. "I mean we could possibly sometime in the near future have to go to a formal dance..." I grinned, "Come on, what are we going to wear to Erin's wedding? We don't exactly have nice dresses." That seemed to cheer Kelly up. "Well when we get enough money so that we won't be poor for the next month, all of us will just have to go and get one." "You'd look dreamy in a light blue one Kelly." Sara looked at all of us, "and for you Leah, green. And lastly for Sarah, hmm, I'm seeing a darker blue..." "Well what about you Sara?" Sarah walked over. "Hmm, what color do you think out style guru shall have?" "I think, pale purple..." Sara kinda 'nee-d' that. "Peach." Kelly offered. "I don't know, we'll just have to ask an expert..." Sarah started off down the street. "Don't you dare...!" Sara took after her. Kelly shrugged her shoulders at me, and we went after them. When we finally caught up with them, Sarah was desperately trying to go down the street to a group of men. Sara looked as if she was going to kill Sarah or tell Mulder something. I decided to go help her out. "Hey Sarah," she looked up. "What?" "Well, do you know that Mulder carried you all the way back to your room from the Madrigal?" "What!?!" Sarah's face got flustered. "I'm gonna kill him!" "Thanks." Sara came over to Kelly and me. "You don't even want to know what she was going to do..." "Well, are we done shopping?" I asked, I was starting to get a bit cold. "Just about, we have one more stop to make..." Kelly grinned and started off in the general vicinity of the Madrigal. "Well I guess that we just have to follow her..." Sara started after and I followed. "Oh hi Jeremy..." Kelly was talking when we rounded the corner. "Hi Kelly..., Sara, Leah." We had just rounded the corner where they were talking. "Hi," We did the normal greeting and eventually I finally took notice of the man Jeremy was with. "Hi, I'm Leah." I aimed it at the man Jeremy was with. "Nice friend you are, Jer. We meet nice ladies on the street and they have to introduce themselves..." "Oh well, call me a daft prick... This is Riley of Finn's Lake. Riley this is Sara, Kelly,... and Leah." He pointed us all out and stayed extra long time staring at me. I blushed, god he is soo cute. Say something stupid, they were looking a bit uncomfortable. "Uh, we were just about to go to the Madrigal for some tea, would you like to join us?" "Sur-" "Sorry Jer, we still have to go check in and we're already late... Nice to meet you all, and I hope to keep you to your offer some other time." He smiled and I took notice Sara seemed offily interested in him. They took off back in the direction of the palace, and us off the Madrigal. "Rrrrrooowl, did you see him!" Sara laughed. "Well well well, that would have been nice to have a 'drink' with him." "Sara!" Kelly scolded. "God you are too horny..." "'Scuse me, I am not 'horny' *cough* you little slut *cough* I am just aware of the species around me thank you very much." "He was looking at you, trust Leah didn't notice because she was preoccupied, but I did." She sighed, "I am never going to get a man here..." "Yes you will," Sara grinned devilishly. "I know quite a few pages and squires, but mostly pages, who have you in mind as the ideal girl right now..." "Oh, shut up..." She laughed, "Am I never to forget that?!" "Come on, we'll go to the Madrigal and you can hit on the cute bartender if you want..." "Oh, you mean the one that you don't like?" She laughed. "I think I will." "Come on I'm freezing, lets get there already." We did and took a table by the bar. "3 teas please." Sara ordered as Kelly smiled at the bartender. "Coming right up." "Go get your purse," I urged. "I will when he doesn't have a customer." She glanced at me, "Well, okay, maybe I'll go get it now..." She went over and started a conversation with Brandon. When she came back a few minutes later, she was carrying her purse. "Oh my god, this is such a good day. I got to talk to two incredibly nice hotties and I went shopping." Our teas came and we busied ourselves with adding what we wanted. "Did he say anything interesting?" Kelly asked. "Well as a matter 'o fact, he did. He asked me what your name was." "Your lying." "No, I'm not. Okay do you see the other bartender? The kinda tall one? Well he wanted to know what your name was... If your wondering, his name is Andy." "Well then, does anybody need a drink?... Sara?" "No, do not look at me, I don't want Brandon to think I'm a drunk." "Nice time to start 'hun." I joked. We finished our teas and headed back to our rooms. --- "Hmm, I wonder where Sarah is?" I walked in, the only thing that had proven she had been here was the fact that all of her bags were in one corner. "I think she's been scouring the castle ever since she left us." Sara had seen the same thing I did. "Well I for one am tired, so if you'll excuse me, Im going to go wash up and go to bed." Kelly pushed passed us. "Well that leaves the two of us." Sara said setting her bags down. "I have been working all day, I'm kinda tired too." "Oh, well then talk to me while Kelly's in the bathroom. I have had a very interesting idea." "What??" "Well seing as it's almost Midwinter and all,..." "Yeah, go on Sara." "Well, the pages get time off, and poor Kel's been surrounded by guys a lot, and I think she deserves a girls night out..." "Yeah that would be fun, and besides, she's not that much younger than any of us... It would be fun. Who would you invite?" "Well," she started. "I was thinking of the four of us, Kel, and maybe Sarah could get Daine to come... Sound fun?" "Yeah, actually it does." I yawned, I am too tired, Kelly better get out of there soon... Chapter 20 ~ Office Space The next day at work, I finally took it upon myself to figure out how I was going to tell Cleon it was over. I took out a piece of parchment and wrote him, telling him how it wasn't going to work out. How since he was always busy with his page duties, we never got to see each other, heck I couldn't even give him the note... I was going to give to Kelly so she could subtly give it to him after class. I finished up and slipped it into my bag. This was the last day I had to work, so I had to finish one of the most complicated one's I had done yet. Lunch time came 'round and I gathered my things, including the note to Cleon and went down to lunch. I found them sitting at our normal table. We ate, and as we were leaving, I asked Kelly to give that to Cleon. "Why, is it a love note?" "Well, actually, just the opposite... I'm kinda going to have to break up with him because of Jeremy." "Well, Okay. But are you sure that you like Jeremy more? I have Cleon in class... he seems really nice and sweet and all..." "No, I thought and well, this was what I came up with." "Fine, I'll do it after class. Very last day too." "I know, I couldn't face him during Midwinter." "I understand, but now, I have to go to class. He has class with Lindhall after lunch." "Bye." "Bye, Leah." I went back to my little library. Hardly anyone came in here. No wonder either. It's not all that big, there's kind of an overall dusty feel in here, and the librarian is nothing more than a hag with glasses. Mean, extremely mean. Everyday when I get up to go, she comes over and takes all of the books and scrolls back as if I was going to keep them. I mean I don't even have magic and yet she still dogs me. When I finally got there I noticed that my table had been cleaned off. "Excuse me Danielle? Where are my books?" "Well since you didn't seem like you wanted to work, I put them away." I gave her a silent 'gurr' and then asked her to get my things back out. "No I can't I left the key in my bag, which I seem to have misplaced." "Well then Danielle, it would certainly be bad if it somehow slipped that you misplaced a key that was to a vault that held one of a kind, priceless materials, now wouldn't it." "That may be, but what about you?" "Well it is almost Midwinter and all, and besides, there is no one else..." "Now, do you remember where you had the key?" Now it was Danielle's turn to grumble under her breath. She stalked off and I was left alone in the library. I decided to look around, I hadn't done that much due to the fact of Danielle. There were very interesting books in here. As I looked around, probably not many people would understand what was in here, heck some might not even be allowed. Weird how I never noticed that before. A few minutes and a couple of books later, Danielle stormed back in. "Here's your copy." "What do you mean my copy?" "I accidentally forgot to give it to you, I don't know a month ago, but now you have it and I don't have to lug that stupid little key around any longer!" She went back over to her desk while I continued looking. I had just picked up a tome on Dragon Myths when she got all flustered. "Put that down! Don't you have work to do?" "Yes actually, it'll be nice to see what all's in here." I usually did whatever she passed to me. I couldn't stand arguing with her. But since I had a key, I decided to look around and take an inventory of sorts. The vault turned out to be the size of a walk-in closet with shelves and a table with things all stacked about. It seemed as though no one had been in here to clean in quite a long time. I went back out and got some cleaning supplies that Danielle kept to clean off the finger prints of the few people who ventured in. "HEEEeeyyy." The door muffled some of her incessant racket. I then started to clean some of the dust off of the desk and saw it was made out of mahogany. Nice, very nice. I felt that there was something else that Danielle hadn't told me. "Was this supposed to be my office?" She looked down at her desk and started rearranging things. "Answer me Danielle." "Yeah so what if it was? You don't deserve it. You're to young to be of any real good." I was just about to slap her when in walked Jeremy. "Hi mom. Oh hi Leah." "MOM!" "Yes Leah, this is my mother." "How do you know this ruffian? I demand that you answer me now boy!" "Well we umm..." I marched over and planted a kiss directly on his lips. "That." "Not my son. No you leave." She pointed at me. I walked back into my office. "And stay away from MY SON!" I started cleaning, and I was almost done with the desk top, when there was a knock at the door. "Yes?" "Can I come in?" It was Jeremy. "I'm sorry for my mom. She's just..." "She just now gave me the key into this thing. They must have thought that I was slacking off with what I've been doing. And do you know what else, this is my office. I didn't even know I had an office. She never told me." "And I'm sorry about that, but if you can't get along with my mother, then I'm sorry I can't date you any longer..." And with that he walked out of the room. I went over and sat in the dusty chair I had just cleaned, and then it hit me. I had just dumped Cleon for Jeremy because he was older, better looking, nice, and spent time with me and then he dumps me. So I just lost both of the men that I had in one day. I was so stunned that I got up and left locking MY door behind me.
 
 |
