by D. R. Perry
"Do you want to see if Faith's still at Bubbe's?" I studied his face, checking for signs of fatigue. "Or maybe go back to campus and rest?"
"Bubbe's sounds great."
I blinked and stopped in the middle of the sidewalk. He glanced over his shoulder, then paced back toward me.
"Look, I didn't feel up to leaving campus for months. Ever since this growth spurt, I feel downright normal." Hal gave me a lopsided grin. "I don't know if that makes sense."
"It does." I nodded. "I'm happy for you."
We continued down Essex to the door of the school. I nodded at it, but Hal shook his head. He wasn't even winded. Ember swooped off my shoulder. Hal chuckled as Nin scampered down his arm, then hopped on her back. My dragonet flew with her passenger the rest of the way down Essex, around the corner, along Hawthorne Street, and up our driveway.
She landed on the front step in front of Bubbe's office, where Nin jumped off and excitedly squeaked while waving her front paws in circles. She hopped up and down a few times while chattering excitedly at Hal. He smiled and scooped her up into his arms, then stroked the top of her head.
"This is a good day." Hal beamed.
"With any luck, it'll only get better." I smiled back.
"I'm going to see how Faith is doing."
"This needs wrapping upstairs." I shook the paper bag. "I'll be down soon."
He entered the veterinary office while I headed into my apartment. I ran up both flights of stairs, gulping down air like I ran laps at the school gym. I huffed and puffed, struggling to wrap Logan's gift in brightly colored paper. I debated putting a bow on it, but then someone knocked at my bedroom door.
"Just a sec!" I jumped up, swept the gift under my bed, and threw the empty bag into my closet before closing the door.
"Aliyah?"
"Come in, Mom."
"Is everything okay?"
"I was wrapping a, um, birthday present." I chuckled. "For Logan."
"Oh?" Mom raised an eyebrow.
"I'm not breathing a word about what's in it. Doris hears everything, and it's a surprise."
"I understand." Mom nodded. "The letter came from—"
"Hiram Hawkins. He's the new headmaster. Hal told me. We hung out today."
"Oh. Well, that's a relief." She sighed. "Did he say anything about what Hiram is like?"
"No, but his father did." I told her everything I remembered about my conversation with Hal's dad.
"Interesting." Mom leaned in the doorway and pondered her next words. "I suppose there are pros and cons to having him back. Although, I had hoped Nancy Gauthier would have been their choice."
"Gauthier? Why does that name sound familiar?"
"Nancy's got long experience on staff at Weir Academy up in Niagara. Her presence might have proved restorative. Especially with Andre Gauthier on the Board of Trustees here. They're siblings."
"That would have been nice, I guess. But for now, everything's a mess."
"Perhaps so. It gets better, I promise."
"I'm not sure it will." I told her what Hal said about Faith's father living on campus.
"I need to make some calls, Aliyah. Don't be alarmed."
"You rush off to make phone calls and tell me not to be alarmed?"
"Yes. What I discover in those phone calls is more important than the fact I'm making them. If you've got cause to worry, I'll let you know."
"Okay."
I trusted her but knew nothing about her sources. My mother's back retreated down the hall. Once she turned the corner and descended the stairs, I followed slowly. By the time I reached the first floor of our apartment, she was already in her office with the door closed.
While heading down to Bubbe's, I decided not to tell my friends about Mom's concerns until I had the whole story.
Chapter Five
Logan opened the door, placed one finger over his lips, then pointed at the kitchen entrance. I nodded, jerked my thumb over my shoulder toward the stairs, and raised my eyebrow. Logan nodded so we headed back upstairs and sat on stools at the kitchen counter.
"Seth's checkup is over. Faith's having counseling. Hal's in there, but we shouldn't be." Logan got a banana from the fruit basket and peeled it.
"Makes sense." I took an apple, held it, and stared instead of taking a bite. I put it back, suddenly not hungry.
Those unknown phone calls are spoiling your appetite. Go and insist on listening in.
"I'll talk to her again."
"Faith?"
"Sorry, inside voice came out." I grimaced. "Mom."
"About school stuff?" He blinked.
"Maybe."
"She told you about Hal's grandfather, didn't she?"
"Yes. But there's something else. Something harder to deal with."
"Do you need a test run?" He broke off a banana chunk and popped it into his mouth, where it comically muffled his voice. "I can talk just fine."
He looked like a hamster with his cheeks full of fruit, so I giggled.
"What?" He blinked, then widened his eyes and puffed his cheeks out even more.
I held my sides, laughing too much for speech, reveling in the broken tension. In typical Logan fashion, he made things better by being himself.
There's a typical Logan fashion now? How interesting.
I recovered from my mirth enough to pat his shoulder, but I was still too breathless to speak. Or sit up straight. He set the banana on the counter and caught me as I toppled from the stool. We ended up hugging.
His longer than usual hair brushed against my cheek, soft and ticklish, like Doris's whiskers. All my worry about Mom's covert conversations in the other room melted away.
"Thanks, Logan." I leaned back. "Maybe I needed a hug."
"Hugging works for Elanor." Logan glanced down and to the side.
You've seen that before.
I kept my mouth shut, thinking my question at the voice. When?
All the time.
“Would you mind if I finished that?" Logan nodded at the half-eaten fruit.
"Not a bit." I let go of him, grinning.
After that, I went to the fridge for lemonade. He followed, so I poured a glass for us both. By the time we finished our drinks, Bubbe had opened the door from the stairs and beckoned.
We followed her down and into the kitchen, where Faith and Hal sat with the remains of their tea in front of them, Nin and Seth curled up in the corner. Logan stopped in the doorway, staring at Hal with his mouth open. Apparently, he hadn't seen him come in. They had a conversation off in the corner about the amazing growth spurt.
"Are you coming to Engine House? I asked Faith.
"Wouldn't miss it." She nodded. "It'll be good to get off campus and do something."
"You haven't come out for Piercing Whispers, though."
"Hal wasn't feeling up to it. But over the last couple of weeks, he's had way more energy."
"More energy?" Bubbe tilted her head. "Was that before or after the growth spurt?"
"Hmm." Faith stacked teacups and saucers on the tray as she thought. "I think just after. He was still tired when I noticed I could put my head on his shoulder without leaning. After that, he started running in the gym with me. He's still slower than Coach Chen's tortoise, though."
"Noted," Bubbe said.
I didn't like her flat expression or the appraising glance she gave Hal on her way to the sink with the tea things. Surely she'd noticed his height already, but his newfound energy concerned my grandmother enough for her to mask her reaction.
"I've got another appointment coming in, so you kids ought to head out. Enjoy your special day, Logan."
We nodded, smiled, and bid her farewell on the way out the door. Standing around in the driveway, we tried to decide how to kill time.
In the end, we knocked on Izzy's door, but she wasn't there. Her abuela said she'd gone to Hawthorn with Lee. We found the entry on Essex Street and went inside. Hal went upstairs to find Lee. The rest of us went into the café, ordered lattes
, and sat drinking them in the lounge together.
"Morgenstern. What are you doing here?" The voice was more haughty than hostile. I turned to find my ex-boyfriend standing over us, his basilisk hissing at us from his shoulder.
"Hey, Alex." Logan spoke to the magus but looked at his familiar instead. "I'm going out for my birthday. Want to come along?"
"You're not seriously asking me to some boring nerd party?" Alex blinked.
"It's just pizza. But yeah. I am." Doris chirped at his feet for good measure.
"I'm busy. But I guess it's a nice thought." Alex walked up to the counter, then around it, where he pulled an apron off the hook and tied it on. He narrowed his eyes. "Don't act like you've never seen work-study."
None of us knew how to react. Alex Onassis was the last person anyone expected to need financial aid. His mother was a trustee, his father nobility. He'd also disparaged Dylan for standing behind that same counter.
However, Faith, Hal, and Logan hadn't been at the hearing. They didn't know only his barely bilingual cousin had accompanied him.
He's had trouble at home.
Should I tell them? I thought at the inside voice.
It's not your story.
Hal returned.
"They're here but doing, um, some projects right now." His eyes moved from the floor to the table to the wall and the ceiling before settling on the floor again. "Anyway, we've got some time to kill before Engine House."
"I wonder if Creatives is open?" Logan pondered. "I haven't painted at all this summer."
"It is, but I haven't gone." Faith shrugged.
"Maybe we should make some art," I suggested.
Logan led us all down to the academic wing and into the Creatives room, where we spent time engaged in arts and craft projects. Our familiars played in the corner.
I'd arrived at Engine House before everyone else last summer. This year, we walked in to find the section in the back entirely marked off and halfway occupied. Elanor waved us over and ushered Logan toward a seat decorated with balloons.
"Peep!"
Ember flew in circles around the floating rubber orbs, careful not to touch them. Gale warbled and took off from Dylan's shoulder to join her.
"Wow." He blinked. "Thanks. I would have been happy with plain old pizza."
"You only turn eighteen once." She shrugged. "Anyway, Brianna made assistant manager last week. So she helped me with this whole birthday scheme."
"Scheme?" I raised an eyebrow.
"The second she knew the location, El made a plan," Noah said.
We shuffled around and searched for seats, which wasn't easy. The section was packed. Cadence sat with Crow and Bar in one corner, laughing over one of her mom's newspaper articles. Lee had his familiar Scratch on his lap, where the sumxu sat up, flopping his lop ears while twitching his whiskers. Izzy filmed the critter's antics with her phone.
Grace sat nearby, oblivious to just about everything besides Azrael. In moments, she climbed into his lap, and they put their arms around each other. He whispered something in her ear that made her blush.
I let Hal and Faith sit together, which meant I got stuck in a corner, wedged between Crow and Lee, who both had bony shoulders. My comfort didn't matter. This was Logan's day.
Brianna brought pizzas and pitchers out, assisted by a coworker I'd never met. We ate, drank, and socialized. Logan made it a point to grin at me from across the table more than once. The third time, I noticed something outside the window behind him.
No, someone.
Sure enough, it was Jonah Arnold out there, walking with a redheaded woman who closely resembled him, which made sense. After the hearing, the bailiff hadn't led him back to jail.
He glanced over his shoulder, eyes widening when he spotted Noah. Who, thankfully, didn't see him. The woman with him shook her head and tugged his arm. She looked to be my parents' age. Was that his mom?
Jonah caught me looking. He made a zipping motion across his lips and walked on. I nodded, agreeing with what I thought he meant. That it'd be better for Noah not to know he'd been there.
You're taking on an awful lot of burdens for other people lately. After literally saving lives so recently. What exactly do you think you owe them?
"Nothing."
"Huh?" Crow glanced over his shoulder. "You talkin' to me?"
"Um, no."
"Good."
"She's cool." Bar snorted. "Hey, Aliyah."
"Hey, yourself." I snorted back to stay in the spirit of things.
"What are we now, kelpies?"
I laughed, deliberately making it sound like a whinny.
"Cornball troll." Crow rolled his eyes.
"That's Mr. Cornball to you, pal." I raised an eyebrow. "And don't you forget it."
Cadence threw back her head and laughed. Crow sighed and shook his head. Then he looked at his watch. I blinked.
"Gotta go." He twisted his shoulders somehow, then untangled himself from the row of seats.
"Aww." Cadence pouted. "All work and no play makes Crow a boring boyfriend."
"So dump me again." He smirked.
"I'd rather do this." She stood and kissed him, wrapping her arms around him under the trench coat he wore even on the sultry August night.
Her response utterly confused me. Not because I couldn't recognize Crow's sarcasm. But because I couldn't imagine anything like it being endearing in a romantic context.
"Thinks he's Han Solo." Bar shook his head. "Maybe he's not wrong."
"What do you mean?" I was glad to have a distraction from Cadence's long goodbye.
"He's a Merlini."
"Hmm." I nodded and closed my eyes around the sting of tears as I remembered one of Professor Luciano's more memorable lectures about Salem. "Rum runners. Prohibition, right?"
"Hey. You okay?"
"I'll live." I opened my eyes. "I guess you've got a point. Families have room for variety."
Like the birthday boy. And Faith.
Being reminded of my friends and how they'd survived boosted my mood.
"Yeah. His kid sister's their straight and narrow." Bar sighed. "Wish I'd rubbed off on him more, though."
"I hear you." I thought of Alex.
"Look, more root beer."
Bar pointed, nearly clunking his elbow into the side of my head. Ember swooped down from where she'd been perched beside Gale and peeped at him scoldingly. I laughed into my hands while Bar guffawed and slapped his knees. Ember hovered in the air, blinking at us. Then she circled back and landed next to Gale again. Their tails hung down and waved momentarily before twisting together.
They're holding hands, essentially.
"Cute." Bar jerked his chin at the dragonets.
"Yeah." I nodded, my throat suddenly tight.
"How'd it go, by the way? With that guy last year?"
"Nowhere, but we're cool being friends." I realized where Bar was trying to go with this. "I'm cool being friends with everyone, pretty much."
"Oh." He reached across the table and tipped the root beer pitcher over his cup. "So, who's pretty much?"
"Um." My face felt like I'd run ten laps around the gym. "I mean I can't imagine myself doing anything like that."
I glanced at Grace and Azrael, still intertwined together on one seat, their pizza entirely ignored. Cadence chose that moment to sit back down and lean in front of Bar while raising her eyebrow.
"What in the world did you say to my friend, Bartholomew?"
"Don't look at me." He shrugged. "It's Ambersmith's fault."
"I suppose their PDA pushes the bounds of R-rated." Cadence shook her head. "Seriously, Aliyah. You go to boarding school. Surely you've seen stuff like that before."
I ignored her and focused on finishing my now tepid pizza. At least the Sprite in my cup was still cold and fizzy. Bar followed suit. Cadence's banter was usually harmless, but it had never made me feel this uncomfortable before.
By the time I set my pizza crust down, the lights had dimmed.
I glanced at Logan, who looked a little lost at the head of the table. Almost like he was alone in the crowd. The lighting change must have surprised him but not too much. A moment later, Elanor started singing Happy Birthday and Brianna came out of the back carrying a large sheet cake, decorated with the words "Happy Birthday, Logan" and eighteen candles on top.
Logan looked at Elanor, smiling. Right then, I thought he wished for peace in his family. When he turned to blow the candles out, he glanced at me, and I wasn't sure. After putting the candles aside, Brianna used one of the semicircular pizza slicers to cut the cake. Inside it was vanilla with vanilla frosting, Logan's favorite. I ended up with a piece that had half his name on it.
After the cake, Brianna shooed us out because Engine House was closing. Outside, friends exchanged hugs along with promises we'd see each other again soon. They trailed away in small groups or pairs. Elanor, Noah, Logan, and I lingered. At first, I thought they stalled to invite us over. When Brianna shut the lights off inside the restaurant and came out, I realized something else was going on.
"Okay, I'm ready to hear that new song." Brianna stepped beside Elanor and grabbed her hand. She glanced over her shoulder before crossing Derby Street. "Happy birthday again, Logan."
"Thanks." He scooped a sleepy Doris up in his arms. "Can we go, Aliyah? I'm tired."
"Sure."
I started down Derby with him. Ember landed on my shoulder and curled around my neck, also exhausted. Was I the only one with any energy left?
You're nervous.
I couldn't imagine why.
The gift. And me. You were going to tell him.
"Do you think you could stay up a little longer? After we get back, I mean."
"Maybe." He glanced at me. "Why?"
"I've got something for you."
"Oh, you shouldn't have. I didn't get you anything back in June, and that's bad manners."
"Logan." I stopped and stepped in front of him. "In my family, we give gifts because we care, not to get something back."
"Wow." He blinked. "Well, lead on then."
I did. After another minute, we stood in front of my house.
"Do you want to come up?"
"Um—" He swallowed and stared at the entrance to Bubbe's office.