While Sabine was fixated on Mandy, somebody grabbed her by the arm. She swung around hitting her elbow mistakenly in Scratch’s face. He keeled over at the waist holding his jaw in his hand.
“It’s you, scar face,” she said sarcastically with no remorse. “Get out of jail already?” Now that she had the dream about him, her body tingled in his presence.
He stood up, shaking his head as he chuckled. “Hell—you’re a strong one.” He rubbed his chin. “But I’ll tame you.”
“Fat chance.” Sabine rolled her eyes as she reached into her pocket for the blue diamond.
But before she could question him about it, a couple of student counsel girls in short skirts rushed over. “Scratch!” they called.
“Are you okay?” Candy, the cute, petite one asked as she grabbed onto his arm.
The other one, Madison, with pony tails and a pretty face scowled at Sabine and took his other arm. “Lay off Scratch.” She brushed his hair off his forehead. “You poor thing, Scratchie.”
He smirked and looked at Sabine, but right then the Chevalier’s family Suburban sped around the corner and up to the curb. “Get in,” Logan said sternly as he pulled Sabine in the car. Emily followed suit.
Their father was in the front passenger seat with a scowl on his face beside Logan who was at the wheel. The rest of the Chevalier family was in the back bench seats. Jane was passed out across Savannah’s and Jewel’s laps in the far back. And Andrew scooted over for Sabine and Emily on the middle seat.
“Don’t talk to Logan,” Savannah warned Sabine as she stroked her mother’s head lovingly while she slept.
“Wasn’t planning on it,” Sabine snapped back. She turned away from everyone and stared out the window at Scratch and the student counsel girls as they drove away.
“Thanks for booking the flights,” Emily said to Andrew.
He shrugged. “I just want to get this over with.”
Sabine focused in on Mandy Bowers throughout their lengthy travels, muttering about her every thought and mundane action. “She’s meeting a friend after school at the coffee shop on the boardwalk. They’re going to lie out on the beach.” Her fury never let up.
The others tuned out Sabine’s ramblings and made the best of the trip each according to their own ways. Steve decided to enjoy the excursion as a mini-vacation from his grueling job. Logan stayed frustrated with Sabine, but he lightened up during the flight while indulging in video games with Andrew and Savannah. Emily and Jewel gave each other makeovers and chatted about foreign films.
Jane made a couple trips to the aircraft bathroom and each time came back to her seat between Emily and Sabine dancing to a new beat. On her third trip, she returned with news.
“You know those new neighbors?” she asked the group.
Everybody ignored her except Emily and Jewel.
“You mean the Morrison family?” Emily asked.
“Yes,” she continued as she tied her chestnut hair into a low bun. “I saw their boy sitting in the back of the plane.”
“Scratch?” Jewel asked with surprise.
Jane pulled a magazine out of the storage pouch attached to the back of the seat before her and started fanning herself. “I don’t know the boy’s name, but I couldn’t forget his perfect face and gorgeous dark features.”
Emily and Jewel looked at each other. “I wonder what he’s doing here?” Jewel commented. “I thought he was in jail.”
“He got out, but it doesn’t make sense,” Emily explained. “Sabine and I just saw him at school before you guys picked us up.”
“I’m sure it wasn’t him,” Jewel and Emily said in unison.
But by now, Jane was already chattering on about dress styles in fashion magazines. As usual, when she was high, she talked on and on about meaningless topics that she perceived as profound.
***
Once they arrived in Los Angeles, they took a cab to Santa Monica High School. Though it was still hot out, the heat was less intense and dryer than Miami Beach. The surrounding palm trees and busy city life were much like home, but the houses along the beach were less gaudy with very few oceanfront condos like those that overpowered the Atlantic shores.
“I have to see Laurent,” Sabine mumbled to her family as they hid in a small forest of trees off to the side of the front office.
“We know,” Jewel and Savannah whispered simultaneously.
“Do you know what class he is in?” Emily asked Sabine.
Sabine nodded. “In my mind I saw the number 22 on the door when he walked in. It seems to be a history class.”
“Three minutes left to the bell,” Steve said. He was counting down by the minute.
As frustrated as everyone was about having to travel all the way to California, now that they were there, their excitement was rising. They couldn’t help but work together almost effortlessly. It was their nature to endeavor as one unit.
“Let’s find room 22,” Jane suggested as she bit her nails.
They walked down the rows of book lockers, passing classrooms as they determined the number patterns.
“Two minutes to go,” Steve said looking at a girl that was sitting at her desk watching him through her classroom window.
The tension rose in the group. Adrenaline rushed.
Suddenly, a big, husky man with a red t-shirt and baseball cap on grabbed Sabine by the arm. “Hall pass,” he demanded.
At once, she swung around to face him, her long red hair flying out. Sabine hadn’t expected a narc to interfere. Without thought, she pushed him to the pavement.
He looked up at her in shock. “How the hell did you do that?”
“I’m sorry,” Logan said as he held his hand out to the man to help him up. “We’re not students here.”
The narc’s face was beat red by now. He pushed Logan’s hand away and got up on his own.
“One minute to go,” Steve said.
“Without a pass, only students and faculty are allowed on school grounds while classes are in session.” The narc was almost shaking he was so riled.
“Session over,” Steve said pushing past him.
The school bell rang and the students rushed out of their classrooms, bumping into the group and into the narc.
“22 is in the next row,” Sabine called out to her family.
At once, they pressed through the crowds of students. When they got to the next row, Sabine yelled, her heart racing, “There he is.”
Laurent and his school of gorgeous mers, Pascal, Brigitte, Marcel, and Marine were sauntering down the hall toward their lockers. Their presences stood out glaringly amongst the other students. They were dressed in stylish clothing with a touch of eighteenth century French couture. And their hair was as long and shiny as the best of the mers…
***
Bluewicked (A Watermagic Novella) is available for download at online bookstores.
Heavenly Blood (Roseville Vampires, #2) Page 18