Black Mist: Seedling

7. Cannibals and Confusion

The new quarter began quietly for Alastair, his classes all remaining the same, his teachers picking up right where they left off. But, he was still forced to borrow books and supplies from Maggie. By the end of the week, they had a pretty good study schedule worked out.

In his core classes, Sarah had returned to her recent ways, refusing to look him in the eye, let alone speak to him. He wondered if she knew what her beloved Mason had done, and if so, he questioned how she could love him. He wondered if it was shame that kept her eyes glued to the ground, or if she had remembered why she hated him.

"You can't stay hung up on her, Al," Maggie whispered onto his shoulder, which she barely reached on tiptoes. They stood on line for food in the dining hall, and Sarah and Mason were already sitting at a table full of all the popular kids. "She's a bitch for staying with someone like that after everything."

"Don't call her that, Maggie," he said quietly.

Maggie became indignant, "Why not? She is. I mean, she flaunts her romance with him, she knows how he mistreats you, hell sometimes she even participates. There's no other word for it. She's a bitch."

Alastair rounded on her, "I said don't call her that. I mean it."

Maggie was defiant. "She's a bitch."

"Maggie, stop, seriously," Alastair was so tired of this.

"Why should I?"

"Because I love her," he pleaded.

"Then you're a fool," Maggie said acidly and walked away.

Alastair had no idea why Maggie was pissed off. He was the one who should be mad, he thought as he sat down with his food. She was attacking his oldest friend, the girl he loved. It didn't matter what she had done or what she had justified being done to him, like the pieces of meatloaf that were currently being thrown his way. He loved her, and that would never change. Maybe he was a fool. Maybe, but he didn't know how to turn his heart off and stop feeling, stop loving her. He couldn't. And even if he could, he still wouldn't.

««•»»

The second quarter was off to a good start for Rose, too, except for maybe Arts. The first day of the quarter, Rose was surprised to have a book of songs dropped on her lap.
"Study these. Read the words, hear the notes. You can read music?"

Rose shook her head. "Mon dieu!" Cowdrey disappeared for a couple minutes, then returned with a book for beginners, Learning to Read Music.

"Study," she said softly, handing over a folded cardboard piano keyboard and guitar neck with the notes labeled.

Filled with fear, Rose had to drag herself to class each day, sure that today would be the day Cowdrey would force her sit at the piano. But, as it turned out, Cowdrey left her alone, just as she had most of last quarter.

Rose actually liked school for the first time in her life. And a huge part of why was Mr. Bennett. He just made school fun. Myths of Magic now focused entirely on different creatures of lore, in preparation for Halloween. Bennett had transformed his classroom into a hall of horrors, each corner of the room and every wall lined with posters, statues, and books depicting different creatures that were said to possess some magical or supernatural powers.

"We know there were mummies in Egypt. Did they come back to life? Did they have some special powers? How about vampires from eastern Europe, were there really blood-sucking princes who turned into bats? Werewolves? Zombies? What other B movie monsters can you think of?"

"Aliens!" shouted Ellie Choi, the other ninth grader.

The seventh graders in the class snickered.