Chatoyant College Book 5: Parents' Weekend

Chapter 34: With Friends

Corrie unlocked her door and let Dawn and Naomi into her room, then sat down on her bed, staring at the blank wall above Edie's bed. It was so hard to decide what to do. If Leila was a faerie, Edie could be in danger right now. But if she wasn't and they said something, Edie and Leila would both probably get mad. And there was no way to prove or disprove it. None of them had seen anything.

Naomi's suggestion had been a good one. If the only thing that differentiated Leila's real appearance from human was something on her ears, neck, or hair, she could easily have been wearing it down in order to hide herself from Dawn, or anyone else who might have the Sight. But why today? Did she think that someone visiting their family might have the Sight?

That didn't matter, though. What mattered was getting to the truth of the matter. Without that, they couldn't make any decisions. Corrie straightened up suddenly and smiled. Of course, there was a simple solution—something that could give them a clue, if not necessarily the whole truth. They'd already mentioned it. They just hadn't done anything about it. "I have an idea," she said.

"What is it?" Dawn asked.

"We should look for Leila in the yearbooks. We were just talking about it, remember? How Ever and Professor Lal look the same in the yearbooks? If Leila looked the same when she was a student before, we should be able to find her." Corrie jumped up, feeling lighter now that she had a course of action.

Dawn smiled. "That's a good idea. And we have limits, so we don't have to look as hard as we did for Vertiline Gravette."

Naomi looked from Dawn to Corrie. "I want to help. But I don't really know what Leila looks like."

"That's okay," said Corrie. "You can come with us and... look for someone named Leila, I guess. You scan the names, Dawn and I will scan the faces."

"Professor Lal and Ever used different first names, though," Dawn pointed out.

Corrie pursed her lips. "True. I wish I knew her last name. Oh, but we can find her online, can't we?" She quickly sat down at her desk and turned her computer on. It took a minute, since she hadn't turned it on all day, but finally it was connected to the campus internet. Naomi and Dawn both leaned over the back of her chair, watching what she was doing.

She opened the student directory that was on the college's website and searched for "Leila." For a moment she was afraid that the site would turn up no matches (though that would be something of a confirmation itself), but then it turned up two people: a chemistry teacher and Leila herself. Her last name, as listed, was Scarborough. "And there's her face," Corrie said, pointing for Naomi's benefit. "You can help look for her too."

Having established that, they headed for the library. It was quiet and empty—not unusual for a Sunday afternoon. Emi waved as they went in. Corrie nodded and Dawn waved back. She usually worked on Sundays, but she had asked for the afternoon off because of Parents' Weekend. Emi had understood that she would be busy for most of the weekend and would need time for studying. Hopefully, she would assume that that was what the three of them up to now.

The room where the yearbooks were was, as usual, empty. Corrie had forgotten how small it was; there were only two chairs. Corrie claimed one, and Dawn and Naomi looked at each other before Naomi plopped herself down on the floor next to the bookcase. Dawn took the other chair.

Naomi looked over the titles for a moment, then pulled out a couple of yearbooks. "Should we just start at the beginning of the seventies?"

"Works for me," said Dawn, accepting the book that Naomi handed her. "I don't know exactly what years she would have gone here."

Corrie took the other book that Naomi held out. She had 1971. She flipped to the page where the photos of individual students began, and started to scan the faces.

There were no faces she recognized in that one. Of course, Leila had probably not been a senior that year, even if she was a student. She didn't see her in any of the club photos, though. She wondered, as she reached down to set the yearbook on the floor, whether they would have to take a club picture for their pagan study group.

Dawn had already finished with 1970, so Corrie picked that up and began to look through it, paying more attention to the names this time. It might be quiet and kind of boring, but she was glad she was doing this with friends.