The Circle

Chapter Eleven

"What are you doing?" I smiled looking away from the grimoire I had out to see Chris awake and sitting up. His hair was messier than usual and he had an interested look in his eyes. Picking it up I climbed onto my bed next to him and he pulled me in for a quick kiss. "Good morning."

"Good morning." I crossed my legs and made myself more comfortable.

"I guess we are not going to school today?" I shook my head. It wasn't the first time we had skipped. We didn't do it very often but once in a while we just didn't show up, everyone did it. "What's the excuse this time?"

"You looked too cute to wake up." He laughed shaking his head as he stretched.

"I don't think that is going to be the one we use."

I tilted my head. "No?" He shook his head repeating the word and pulled me towards him again for a much longer kiss. "I'm sure we can come up with a more appropriate one." He nodded. Letting me go he fell back against the pillows, half sitting up and looked at the bowl on my desk which had smoke coming from it. "It's sage. My grandparents are home and seeing as I put a boundary spell on my room and they are nosy it will stop any spells they cast to listen in." I explained. I grabbed one of his hands and began playing with it. "Unfortunately, I give the boundary spell an hour more at most before they break through it." He suddenly grabbed the hand that was playing with his and pulled me forward, making me fall on top of him. His arms immediately wrapped around me holding me in place.

"No more secrets." I nodded looking into his eyes. I ran a hand through his hair and my other rested against his neck. "I get it. Family loyalty and that but no more. Promise?"

"I promise."

We stayed like that for a while before having to get up, he had spare clothes in my wardrobe that he changed into. I packed a couple of things into my bag before we left. Not wanting to get caught by my family we climbed out of my bedroom window, me casting an invisibility spell as we touched the ground. By now I'm sure the school had called and Chris's parents had called to say he wasn't their either.

We went to the beach and by lunch time we had been joined by Doug, James, Nick, Romeo and Lotte. I guess they had enough of school as well. We spent the most of the day swimming until school ended knowing that if we went into town or anywhere else we would be found. As soon as school had finished though we made our way to the Boathouse. I laughed as the twins shook their heads at us, water flying from them. An elbow in the side from Lotte made me quiet down though. Frowning I followed her eyes and saw the reason she had done so.

My grandparents were all standing next to each other looking livid and they were not the only ones waiting for us. On their right was Nick's Aunt and Romeo's mother. On their left were Jeremiah and Carmen Henderson along with Charles Meade. Ethan was sat down in the booth next to them, he was the only one not looking angry. He stood as Grams gestured for us all to sit there. It was a tight squeeze. Lotte sat next the window on one side next to James, Chris on the back of booth behind them. On the other side sat Nick and Romeo, Doug sat like Chris. I was on the table, leaning back against the window. We got lectured for skipping school, Chris and I more than anyone else since we missed the whole day. Ethan didn't mind that James had skipped and just told him to tell him next time where he was. He got glares for that. He got even more when he brought all of us over some sandwiches knowing that was what we had come for.

We were all taken home after Charles got into an argument with Chris and Doug's parents after saying Doug was a bad influence on Lotte. The guy still was not over his youngest daughter dating him. You would think after Doug and Lotte dating for over a year he would have learned to accept it. But nope, he is still trying to get her away from him. He still sees her as in innocent 5-year-old angel who can do no wrong.