Chatoyant College Book 5: Parents' Weekend

Chapter 54: Forgiveness

Corrie wouldn't have believed it was possible to be even antsier than she had been that morning and afternoon, but it happened anyway. She wrote three pages of her paper, which, for four days before the paper was due, was plenty. At least once she got into that it distracted her already. But Edie continued to not return to the room. She tried playing computer games to calm her nerves, including ones that involved shooting things, but it only helped a little.

She jumped at a knock on the door. Inwardly scolding herself for being so nervous, she jumped up and hurried to the door. Opening it, she saw what she should have expected: Dawn. "Hey, Corrie," Dawn said. "Edie's not around, is she?"

Corrie shook her head. "I saw her this afternoon, but she left and hasn't come back." She took a deep breath. "I wrote her a note apologizing. I hope she sees it. Maybe then she'll forgive us."

"I hope so," said Dawn. "In the meantime, do you want to come get dinner?"

Corrie suddenly realized she was starving. "I'd love to. I think I missed lunch. Hang on a second." She grabbed her purse, then joined them out in the hallway and locked the door behind her.

They collected Annie and Roe as usual, then started down the stairs. "Did you tell Corrie what we told you?" Annie asked Dawn.

"Not yet," said Dawn.

Corrie looked at them. "What's going on?"

"Rico and I talked to Professor Rook," Annie said, then fell silent, looking anxious.

"He said the same thing as Professor Lal did," Dawn said, picking up the thread after a moment of silence. "I really think that if you talked to your history professor, Corrie, that the same response would be the best we could hope for."

Corrie was about to open her mouth to protest, but reconsidered. While Dawn knocked on Rico's door, she thought about it. Professor Drehmer was not likely to be happy about being recognized as a faerie. And if two professors said the same thing, a third was not likely to say anything different. After they got Rico, she waited for a pause in the conversation, then said, "I guess you're right, Dawn. And I'm not sure we need to worry about it as much as we have been."

"Really?" asked Roe. "Why not?"

"Well, I've barely seen Edie for the past few days, but I have seen her. And I know she went off with Leila today, but nothing has happened to her. Leila has had plenty of chances to hurt Edie without us stopping her, but she hasn't yet, so maybe she won't."

Annie bit her lip and nodded. "I hope you're right."

"I hope so too. Anyway, that's what I wrote in my note to her, so maybe she'll forgive us."

Dawn nodded. "It's probably our best opportunity." She smiled, looking a little more relaxed.

Corrie felt a bit better at dinner, though that may have been mainly due to the fact that she was refilling her energy reserves. Plus, she was looking forward to the pagan book club meeting later that evening. After dinner, she and the others parted ways again, planning to meet down in the common room later.

She unlocked her door, opened it, and stopped in her tracks. Edie was there, sitting at her computer, typing something. Suddenly Corrie was nervous. This was the moment of reckoning. She took a deep breath. "Edie?"

Edie turned. Corrie let out a sigh. Edie was smiling. She pushed her chair back, stood up, ran over and hugged Corrie. Corrie, happily, hugged her back. "Am I forgiven, then?" she asked when they let go.

Edie nodded happily. "I knew you'd come around. It was hard to stay mad at you!"

"Yeah." Corrie grinned. "I just had to think of what to say. And as long as you're happy, that's the important thing." She raised her eyebrows at Edie. "You will tell me if you're unhappy, right?"

Edie nodded. "If you do the same for me."

"No problem. So will you come to the pagan book club tonight?"

"Of course, if no one else is going to nag at me."

"They won't," Corrie promised. They would probably all be so happy to see Edie that they wouldn't say anything.

"Great," said Edie. "I'm just working on a paper. I'll be ready in time for the club!"

"Okay!" said Corrie.

She felt better. But also as if something was missing. There was something she'd forgotten to do. Turning to her bed, she realized what it was. She climbed up and moved the sticker on her mood poster from "worried" to "calm." There. She smiled and felt the calm wash over her.