The Haven High Book Series (Wattys2017)

Chapter 4

It had been nearly three in the morning by the time they got home and thank God his fosters parents were chill because they would have been grounded for sure otherwise. He had to feel sorry for CJ and Ryan and the others whose parents had them on a tighter leash. Their parents were probably having kittens by the time they got back.

As it was he and Kyle were so exhausted from the escapades the night before they never even opened their eyes until noon. Travis was still tired, but there would be no rest for the wicked. It was family day so it was move it or lose it in his household.

The plan was to head down to the shelters downtown and dole out hot meals to the homeless. Every Sunday they gave back in one way or another to the community. Their agnostic foster parents insisted that was better than going to any church and praying for change. They told them time again: "Kids be the change you want to see in the world."

Ever the hippies that they were: they were still activists at heart, but now instead of sit-ins and protests to change the world they had a new philosophy to change the world one person at a time. They insisted too that Trav and Kyle pick an organization to donate their time to.

So Travis volunteered at an animal shelter and Kyle was a mentor for troubled kids. He said he'd been the epitome of troubled, so he had an inside track on how they felt. Kyle was really good with them too -- a real natural.

He often told them if he could change so could they. He was a great example of how they could turn their lives around. It didn't hurt either that there was a smoking hot Un-enlightened girl that volunteered with the SF Boys and Girls club. Travis would never consider dating outside of the magical world; they have to keep too many secrets as it is, but Kyle seemed to really like her.

So he and Kyle donated a couple of evenings a week and all day Saturday to animals and kids and Sunday to one community project or another, but they didn't feel like it was too much. They loved sharing their foster parent's passion in making a difference.

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After spending the afternoon in Mission Hills at the community center, Travis and Kyle headed out to meet up with the gang at their usual hangout : Lauren's. Now if any of them could do whatever they wanted it would be Lauren. Her mother wouldn't even notice if she never came back at all last night. She's been holdup in her bedroom for years. She's a full blood Fae, who the human world is convinced is suffering from the stay at home phobia. Agor . . . phobia or some shit. Talk about tough. He and Kyle could relate their parents had abandoned them but at least they weren't in the next room. That was some next level shit.

No she didn't even have that phobia thing, she was suffering from iron sickness. Lauren had explained it to them. Fullblood Fae need to go back to fairy or the Summerlands every once in a while, but time passes differently there. If she went back she might not even come back in Lauren's lifetime. If the Fae stay here for too long all the wifi and electricity and the iron that is all over the place starts to slowly poison them and they go crazy from it. And she can't leave and take Lauren with her because halfbloods are not welcome. The fullbloods are all like: do whatever you want we don't care, but keep your Halflings to yourself; we don't even want to know they exist. That's just one way that halfbloods are discriminated against in his world; there are plenty others.

On the bus ride over to Lauren's he had fallen asleep and would have missed their stop, but thankfully Kyle didn't, he woke him just in time. Travis was grateful he didn't even have the energy to walk several bus stops back, he barely had the energy to drag his ass off the bus.

When they knocked on Lauren's door her doorbell was covered in cobwebs and neither of them wanted to fight the giant spider guarding it just to get the occupants of the house's attention. Travis wondered if he could get her house on some sort of community project thing and get volunteers over to fix it up. It really was falling apart. Why not? If he and his family could do so much for strangers, why not for his friend? Maybe he should ask Bruno about it later; he's handy. He might have some ideas.