r e d

10. Zander

I heard a gasp nearby and noticed a few college students had witnessed what just happened.

Laughing awkwardly, I clapped my hands. "Ha ha! Nice magic trick dude! Well done! No squirrels were harmed during this trick. Good job. Yay." Pinching on the hem of Zander's flannel, I dragged him all the way to the library, ignoring the confused faces of the people around us, their eyes glued to him.

"You're a shitty witch."

"Am not."

As we entered the library and made our way to the back of it, I grabbed a couple of random books in the non-fiction section. I set the books on a desk and forced Zander to take a seat on one of the chairs. "Here. Read this while I'm in class. Don't burn anything. Don't do magic or whatever. You don't want people to freak out on you, don't you?"

"Yeah, I know." He mumbled, looking down at the books glumly. He opened one of the books, squinted his eyes, then looked at me. "Oh, I just remembered something."

"What's that?"

He pushed the book an arm length away from him. "My eyes are kind of terrible when I'm not a cat. Especially when I'm trying to read."

"But you're a witch. Go magic yourself some good eyesight."

"That's not how it works." Zander scoffed. "I thought you're supposed to be a genius."

"Well, sorry I don't know the Physics of Witchcraft." The male witch grinned. "We'll get you some glasses after school. For now, just do what you have to."

Zander waved his fingers as I started walking away. "Come back soon. I'll miss you." I sent him a sarcastic smile in return before disappearing from his view. I can only hope that he doesn't burn down the school by accident.

***

How unfair is it that witches can just summon fire out of thin air, while here in the lab we're struggling to turn on the Bunsen burner because our Flint strikers are so shitty. If Zander was my lab partner, we would have finished our solution within thirty minutes and I'd be able to leave class and have a bit of free time before my next one.

"Did you hear that wolf howl like at 3 am?" Efren asked as the two of us waited for our solution to heat up. "It was full moon too! Aren't werewolves in love with the full moon or something? I just know full moon is associated with werewolves for some reason."

My mind is so wrapped up on my witch companion that I almost forgot about the possible werewolf in Jupiter that almost ate us the other day. What's next? Aliens and robots? A robot alien? A Dalek? I wouldn't be surprised at this point.

"The full moon is pretty. The wolf is probably just singing about how much it admires the massive space rock, you know?" Efren gave me a 'Are you okay?' look as he stirred the blue solution. "But in all seriousness, who knows, maybe something spooky happened at 3 a.m?" I grinned, my mind once again going back to Zander. I can't believe I know a witch. A living witch. A dumbass dorky shitty pretty witch. "Like, maybe a witch decided to come to Jupiter. Maybe the werewolf is planning a party and Jupiter is the location, and the wolf invited all its friends and now all the supernatural creatures are coming here?"

Efren stopped stirring and put a hand on my shoulder. "I think you may have inhaled some of that Horcrux drug coming around because... I'm not judging..."

I rolled my eyes and smacked his arm. Just as I did, my chemistry professor caught me. "Rivera! Stop goofing around the lab. I thought working in Virgo would teach you that."

"Sorry."

***

Professor Snow cancelled class today at the very last minute. I was walking to the classroom when I got an email saying that he got the flu and won't be able to give lectures for a couple of days. And so, I went to the library instead. However, when I went to the table where I left Zander, he wasn't there. I searched the entire library and only bumped into people I didn't want to see, so I ran out. He wasn't in the cafeteria either. The only other place I told him about is the small park behind the library.