Bailey
I hurried into the house, late, unforgivably late, yet I still hoped I wouldn't get into a lot of trouble. It's not like I was blowing off work, nor did I oversleep on purpose. It just happened. Mrs. Stinson and I talked for a long time. The next thing I know it's ten in the morning and I'm alone with a note next to my pillow reading:
Thought I'd let you sleep. You seem tired. You need to take better care of yourself. I left you some money for breakfast and the extra key to the apartment is on the counter. See you soon.
She signed her name with a heart. Isn't she just the sweetest? I'm not sure how I got so tired. In fact, I had every intention of making it home before midnight, which was my curfew. Yeah, I messed up big time. Madame was going to be all kinds of pissed at me.
I made sure to avoid her as I came into the house. It was around eleven-thirty in the morning. She'd be in the kitchen soon to make lunch for everyone who was still there. I'm pretty sure that was just Piper, Puck, and Anila.
Nila. I was going to have to school her soon. Not sure I was ready for that. I had to remind myself that she wasn't Natalia, regardless of how similar they were. Just a few months, and really, by the end of the week we'd probably be best friends anyway. Okay, that's an over exaggeration. We'd be a step below friends but one above acquaintances. Nila was just a girl. There was nothing to fear.
As I passed the kitchen, I made sure to be quick as well as quiet just in case Madame was in fact in there already cooking. I carefully snuck downstairs to the classroom where the others were. Puck was sitting on top of a desk reading a book and eating an apple. He must have been really bored if he was reading a book in public. Piper was busy playing on her cell phone while Nila also was deep in a text book. Something gave me the impression that they wanted to stay down there, pretending to work as long as possible. Avoiding Madame was kind of like a game for us. We tried to do it for a long time.
"Thanks for joining us," Puck muttered, turning a page.
I picked up a pencil from off of an empty desk and threw it at him. "Overslept."
"What happened to the alarm clock you had on your phone?"
"She turned it off." Why was he interrogating me? It's not like I'd never stayed over with Mrs. Stinson before. Eesh.
"I take it you had a good date," Nila said, closing her book. She gazed at me, folding her hands on top of the desk.
Shrugging, I sat down next to her. "Yeah, we had a nice night."
"You like this woman a lot."
"She's important to me, yes." I wasn't quite sure where this was going.
Nila scrunched up her nose. "She's married."
"Widowed, actually," I said stiffly.
"That's a relief."
I raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me? It's a relief that her husband is dead?"
"If you two are... involved... yeah. It'd be worse if he was still alive and you two were getting together."
Puck cackled. "She's like sixty years old!"
That's when I caught on. I sat back in the desk and folded my arms in front of me, making sure the glare I gave her adequately expressed all of my anger. "Are you freaking kidding me? You thought we were hooking up?"
"I don't know." She sank lower into her chair. "The way you were talking about her..."
"She has a point," Puck said. I shot him a glare as well. He gave me a shrug. "Just saying. But Nila, you need to understand that Bailey is only interested in curvy blondes."
Not true. I'm sure he was having a great time messing with everyone's head. When it came to my love life, he knew the most by far, but there was a lot I didn't tell him too. For good reasons. Just like I knew next to nothing about his. The most I knew was he occasionally saw someone. I also noticed that he liked Piper around the same level he liked me. What that meant, I couldn't be too sure. She might have been the girl he was seeing, for all I knew. Thing was Madame frowned on us dating each other. That rule may have started because of me. Okay, not maybe, it did. I basically ruined their chance of having any kind of happily ever after with one another.
Instead of addressing Puck's comment, I returned my gaze onto Nila. Her cheeks were flushed in an adorable way and she actually glowed a slight crimson. She was embarrassed – cute.
"Jealous?" I asked.
For some reason, Puck thought this was hilarious because he started to snicker. "You're in so much trouble." He got off of the desk and headed out. Not before giving me a firm pat on the shoulder, though.
It didn't take long for Piper to get up and follow, mumbling something about how she had more homework to do. I knew the real reason she was leaving. She didn't want to be around for Nila and I's private lesson. Couldn't blame her. Piper knew about magic and how it worked. Being schooled in that would only be boring to her.
Nila huffed in her seat. "I'm not jealous."
"Then why care so much?"
"Because I hold the establishment of marriage as something sacred. I thought you were violating that," she explained. "Now that I see you aren't, it's all just a misunderstanding."
I wanted to believe her. Something told me that was only part of it. "Try not to worry about me so much."
"Not worried, but I am confused."
"And I'm here to alleviate that confusion." Why did she keep making things so much harder than they had to be? I'm not even sure what there was to be confused about to begin with. Didn't I explain things pretty straight up on the way back to the mansion? Being a Muse wasn't rocket science. Nothing about it was overly complicated. It simply took a bit of practice and understanding. I supposedly was good at providing those things.
Nila looked down at her hands. "I believe you. Magic is real. It doesn't make sense to me, but I've seen too much evidence to support its existence."
Finally.
She held up a hand. "That being said, I'm still skeptical about a few things. What you said about soulmates and sparks... all of that is pretty out there. And I refuse to let some kind of magical superstition decide who I should be with for the rest of my life. It's stupid."
If I hadn't seen it happen on more than one occasion, I'd agree with her. Truth is, I wasn't the only one to be screwed over by the magic sparkles. It'd happened to more Muses than I could count on both hands, and that was just in my circle of contacts. One would think such a special and obvious sign of destiny wouldn't cause drama. Well it did, and lots of it.
For the time being, I wasn't going to argue with her. Like magic in general, the soulmate sparks were something one had to come to terms with on their own. To be so young and naïve again. I was almost jealous. Almost. And then I remembered the intense sting of having my entire world crumble around me. Losing Natalia wasn't just the loss of a love, it was the loss of all my ideals and future ambitions too. So while saying my whole world was gone sounds over dramatic, sadly, I'm being pretty literal.
"As long as you're willing to have an open mind, that's all I can ask for at this point in time," I said, making sure to choose my words carefully.
Her pretty honey eyes peered at me for a moment, before her expression softened. "Anyway, teach me about magic and how to control myself."
"You got it!" Already the mood was starting to lift. "The biggest trick to not letting your magic explode is keeping your emotions at an even level. I'm sure you've noticed that for the most part, everyone here is zen."
She nodded. "Besides you."
"I'm getting back to my happy place," I muttered. Then I realized how stupid and childish that sounded and decided to elaborate. "Being even has never been one of my strong suits. Like you, I have a potent amount of magic. You seem to like expressing yourself by jumping to conclusions and getting sassy. My magic tends to lead me more toward radical peaks and valleys. This isn't uncommon for people like us. We feel strongly. I'm sure you do too, but you cop an attitude as a defense mechanism. Nothing wrong with that necessarily so long as you make sure you deal with whatever is going on."
Nila rolled her eyes. "And you say I jump to conclusions?"
"Am I wrong?" I challenged her.
"No, I guess not. I suppose it explains my temper."
Good, she wasn't fighting with me. "Yes, but thankfully anger is the easiest of feelings to work with. Outside of happiness obviously. Happiness is more dangerous, though. Sadness can be lethal."
"Sounds... intense."
"It is, and that's why I understand the need for a defense against it even if you don't realize that's what you're doing. We all have them. Puck gets through it by being a cynic, Piper is a bubble of sunshine, and Olivia likes to be perfect." I shrugged it off. "Cayenne closes herself off and Kiel is... Kiel. He doesn't talk much."
Her eyes widened as if surprised. "He seems nice."
"I didn't say he was mean. I said he was quiet." And I made sure to give her a pointed look. "He's polite and friendly, but just try having a meaningful conversation with him sometime. You'll hit a wall."
She scrunched up her nose. "Defense mechanism."
"That's my guess."
"So what's yours?" she asked. "Being a cocky brat?"
Really? I was the brat? She was the one throwing temper tantrums on our way up to the mansion. Just let it go. That's all I could do, just let it go. Getting myself worked up again was going to set me back and make me useless to Madame, and if I was useless to her, then she was just going to get even more pissed off at me. At the moment, I was racking up enough strikes. I don't think she'd fire me or kick me out of the house. Then again, she was unpredictable and maybe a little bit crazy.
Smiling at Nila, I got up from the desk. "Anyway, our outline is going to consist of the following: history of Muses, magic control, uses for magic, and then whatever random miscellaneous information comes up as we go. At the end of it all, you should have a better grasp on how the whole thing works so you can go back home and not worry about any more incidents – hopefully. They should be less, at least, and easier to manage."
"How long will it take for me to become a master?" she said, and I think it was the first time she'd spoken to me in a joking, playful sort of way. Apparently she did have a soul after all.