Starr Academy: Year Two

Starr Academy: Year Two- Chapter 24

Twenty-Four


    My shoulders were squeezed and looked next to me at Franklin. “So... How was your Christmas to you with my family?”

    I smiled. “I loved celebrating with you and your family.”

    He held up his finger. “Don’t forget your brother. He was there too.”

    Nodding, I remembered how much my brother had come over to ‘visit’. I think he was starting to really notice how much he liked me more than Derek and my mom. It also didn’t help that my step dad was there drinking constantly. There was one night Rod even stayed over because he didn’t want to be home with our blood family. Greg and Debbie just smiled and greeted him in with open arms.

    I had even talked to him more about college. He looked so sad when he talked about it as if it were just a dream that could never come true. I found out where he could go if he had the money and I felt a bit proud of my big brother. He had sent several applications out on his own with his councilor’s help and got acceptance letters from Harvard and Stanford of all places. I had told him that I would ask someone I knew to see if I could help him get a scholarship for one of those schools. He hugged me so hard that I couldn’t breathe for a good minute.

    Franklin smiled as we made our way through the gate to the main terminal of BWI. There was still about two hours before we were scheduled to be on the school’s private jet. We liked having time to relax and have some lunch here.

    “Hope?” I turned around at the sound of my name to see Zander jog over to us and lift me up, hugging me as if we hadn’t seen each other for years. “I was hoping our flights were close together.”

    He pulled back and I smiled at him. “I’ve missed you too.” I looked over to the restaurant and then back to him. “Are you going to join us for lunch?”

    His hand slipped into mine before I found myself being pulled over to the restaurant by him. Franklin chuckled as he followed behind us. He wasn’t fazed anymore by Zander and the way he treated me. Franklin hasn’t hated Zander for a while. Not since the battle that where Zander hurt Marek before the holiday break. Franklin confessed he wished he could do it too with how Marek has been treating me.

    Lunch was full of Zander catching up with how our holiday was. I thanked him for the gift that misted on my bed next to me Christmas morning. A beautiful set of gold linked earrings with tiny rubes that sparkled with the light. They didn’t weigh that much either.

    Zander beamed. “I’m so happy you loved them and thank you for your gift.” He pulled out the decorative notepad bound in red leather and with its own small pen. There was an imprint of a flame on the cover. The notepad was special like the one he gave me but a bit different.

    The notepad may seem the same as the one he created, but there was a major difference. Every night at midnight, the ink one the pages recedes back into the pen. An enchantment that Gilliett had shown me in one of the many books in his office. I had made a notebook for all my friends with mine linking to all of them. Each had a different color that I gave them. I needed a way to distinguish between them so I knew who was talking to me.

    Franklin frowned as he pulled his out. “I got one like that too.” His being a forest green color with a charcoal grey detail of a tree on the front. His color was also charcoal grey too.

    My hand went to my purse where one gift never made it to their recipient. Marek. His never left when I tried sending it out. I didn’t think he’d deny anything I was sending to him, but apparently I had been wrong.

    When it had come to the rest of his family’s gifts, they went out just fine. I even got the gifts from his folks and siblings. The moment I saw them, I cried so hard that Franklin came in and it took him an hour to calm me down. What a way to spend Christmas Eve.