The Haven High Book Series (Wattys2017)

Chapter 25

The gang met at Lauren's after training and he wished he could say he played it cool, and he could if . . . playing it cool meant . . . he couldn't keep his eyes off the affectionate power couple and his mind on what was being said. But yeah no, that never happened.

It was obvious to almost everyone in attendance that he was miserable and by almost everybody he meant that Kelly and Xander were as usual too absorbed in each other to notice, but there were times when he would catch Kelly's eye, and for a moment she would look like she wanted to say something, but inevitably her smile would turn to a sneer before she looked away.

Which made him wonder again what he could have done to make her hate him so much?

He wanted desperately to transform into his cat form and to take a long nap. The circle was cramped and looked ridiculous around his human form, but he couldn't respond to questions or make remarks as a cat, so here he sat wretchedly eating a sandwich that Lauren had prepared for him.

He was beginning to lose weight because of the scarcity of decent meals. He missed his cousin's cooking. In Italy meal time is special. It's family time. Besides his trousers were beginning to bag off him and his face was starting to look a little gaunt. Soon he would have to shop for a whole new wardrobe if things didn't turn around.

And nobody wanted things to turn around more than he did, but that would require him actually paying attention while the gang talked, so he put on his 'listening ears' as Sister Marguerite used to say, and set his mind to hyper focus mode.

To his surprise Zach was just getting to the end of the sordid tale of le Fay and King Arthur when Quinn piped up and said with a low whistle, "Wow they took the whole sibling revelry thing to a whole new level."

Zach rolled his eyes at Quinn before continuing, "I think we all know what the obvious solution is to finding the misty Isle? Lauren could you scry for its location if we get the ring?"

Several people laughed nervously, but the laughter petered out when they saw that Zach was serious.

"No way Brah!" Kyle whined, "You can't be serious! Look I've gone along with some really harebrained ideas with you guys before, but this is never gonna fly."

Donnie's mouth began to water when he noticed that Kyle was looked through a delivery menu for an Italian place in Mission Hills, and he thought yes please.

Travis pointed to something on the menu before he announced, "Yeah Dude I'd rather face the death worm and the mystical Library together than go head to head with No-Nonsense-Knight."

Donnie snorted, which earned him a hard stare from Zach, but he couldn't help it. He liked the knick name it suited the acerbic teacher.

"Well if you guys can think of a better idea, be my guest," Zach said sarcastically.