Level 5

• { 32 } •

I immediately broke eye contact with Alyssa and swivelled to face the table again.

Hunching forwards, I silently cursed myself. That was twice I had gone against Alyssa in one day. I had already known I would pay for it the first time. What would she do now that I had done it twice?

"Oh Cassie, stop worrying so much." Jade said, rolling her eyes as she saw me start to cave in on myself. "Nothing is going to happen."

Famous last words, I thought. But what I really said was: "You don't know her as well as I do, Jade. Alyssa had a reputation for holding grudges at my old school."

She shrugged. "Who cares about what she's going to do? That was still the best practical joke I have ever pulled, whether you regret it or not. And she totally deserved it for trying to force you to show her how to be a proper Sorcerer, like you are." I sighed at the exaggeration, but smiled a little at the flattery too.

I glanced back behind me. Alyssa was no longer looking at me, but I saw that she had moved to another table, her boyfriend's. Her and Ben seemed to be in a heated conversation, grinning like little kids planning on doing something their parents had specified as 'naughty'. A chill went down my spin, and I shivered before turning back.

What would Alyssa do? I mean, the only thing Jade had done was pull her chair away. It couldn't be too serious.

I snapped out of my thoughts and turned back as Jade and Peter broke out into large conversation again. Fred, who had been absorbed in his notes the entire time, looked up, annoyed. "Can you keep it down? I'm trying to study."

Peter just stuck his tongue out at him and continued talking to Jade. Fred looked offended, and I sensed a brawl coming on.

Hesitantly, I asked, "Jade? Do you think you could take me to the library now?" I desperately wanted to get away from the fight that was about to happen.

Jade broke out of her conversation. "Yeah, sure." She kissed Peter on the cheek before she stood up. "Meet you back here after?" She said it like a question.

He smiled at her dreamily. "Sure." I saw Marie flinch slightly in the corner of my vision.

"If I may interrupt this Love Fest," Fred said, agitated, "I would like to come with you girls. I'm not going to get any studying done here. A library will be much quieter."

I blushed and said, "Sure, you can come."

Jade looked between the two of us as I said this, suspicion on her face. "Well then, what's the hold up? Let's go!" I said more enthusiastically than usual, so as to distract Jade from where her thoughts may be traveling. Cause she was clearly getting the wrong idea about Fred's and my relationship... um, friendship.

We got up from the table, Fred taking a few extra seconds to pack his bags, and then said goodbye to our other friends as we left the table.

Jade led us through the hallways, into one I vaguely recognized. Then she opened a small, old looking door I had always assumed led to a broom closet.

But the door was misleading. Because inside... was a library more magnificent than I any had ever seen before.

Humongous bookshelves sat in the centre of the round room. The shelves went all the way to the ceiling, books crammed in up to the very top. I wondered how long it would take a person to read them all; there were so many books!

Around the walls of the room were little cubbies with comfortable looking seats in them, and some lighting to read with. But the most magical part? Instead of librarians organizing the shelves, books organized themselves by flying over to wherever they needed to be.