Willow's Perfect Storm

by D J DuMont

  Willow winced at the hurt tone in Alexis’ voice. Alexis had realized early on that Willow was hiding something big from her, but she had always understood when Willow had told her that it wasn’t something she could talk about. Now, though, it seemed that Alexis’ patience was finally running thin.

  Willow let out a long, exasperated breath, shaking her head sadly at her roommate. “It’s not that I don’t trust you. It’s that I’m not allowed to talk about it. You know that.”

  Alexis was silent for a long moment, and Willow had the uncomfortable sensation that the world was closing in on her from all sides. Dragon Heart Headquarters was angry with her, Anjali was watching her like a hawk, her fellow Dragon Heart students didn’t think she was worthy of being student captain, and now Alexis was insisting that it was time for her to spill her secrets—secrets that would definitely result in Willow’s expulsion from the Dragon Heart Academy if they were shared. If Willow willingly shared magical information with non-magical students, even the President himself couldn’t keep Willow from being kicked out of the program.

  Willow looked up at Alexis with as sincere of an expression as she could, silently pleading with her to understand. But after another stretch of silence, Alexis finally sighed.

  “Fine. But I wish you could tell me what’s wrong. You look like crap, you know that? You’ve got dark circles under your eyes and your hair looks like it hasn’t been brushed—or even washed—in weeks.”

  Willow winced, and reached up to touch her greasy ponytail. She hadn’t washed her hair since she got back from the island, and it showed. She’d forced herself to take a shower every day, but she hadn’t felt like she’d had time to actually wash her hair. She’d barely slept, too, which accounted for the bags under her eyes. It wasn’t a good way to start the new school year, but Willow didn’t care. All she cared about was helping her dad.

  Alexis, on the other hand, looked as gorgeous as ever. Her long hair was bouncing around her shoulders in silky waves, and her skin looked tanned from a summer spent on the West Coast in the California sun. She looked refreshed and ready to start the school year, and Willow felt a small pang of jealousy. As honored as she was to be able to wield magic and work with dragons, she did sometimes fantasize about what it would be like to be just a normal teenager, with normal teenage problems.

  “Why don’t you come to the rec center with me?”Alexis asked, breaking into Willow’s thoughts. “There’s still plenty of pizza, and everyone is having a good time. You can relax and we can catch up. Marcus is there, and you still haven’t seen him since you got back on campus. I know he’d love to say hi.”

  Despite her exhaustion, Willow’s eyes danced. Marcus was Alexis’ boyfriend, and the two of them had spent the summer together. She was sure that, given the pair’s fun-loving spirits, that the summer had been quite full of adventures. “How is Marcus?”

  Alexis blushed happily. “He’s really good. We had a great summer. And now, we’re having a great time getting ready for the school year. Come join us.”

  Willow hesitated. She knew she should make an effort to be social, but she was so exhausted. Besides, Alexis was right. She did look like crap. She wasn’t exactly dressed for a party, no matter how casual the party was.

  “Come on,” Alexis urged. “There’s a cute new transfer student here I think you’d like. I’ll introduce you to him.”

  Willow looked at Alexis in horror. “Are you kidding me? You want me to meet a cute new student looking like this?”

  Alexis shrugged. “Just get changed really quickly and wash your face. You’re a natural beauty.”

  But Willow was shaking her head, her mind made up. “Sorry, but I’m tired and I need to get some rest before classes start tomorrow. And I definitely need more than just a quick face wash and change of clothes to be ready to meet a cute boy.”

  Alexis sighed. “Fine, but you better come to the next party. You can’t just spend all of your time studying.”

  “I’ll do my best, but no promises,” Willow said. “Why don’t you get back to the party? I appreciate you coming to check on me, but there’s no sense in you having a miserable time just because I’m exhausted.”

  Alexis hesitated. “Are you sure you’re alright?”

  “I’m fine. Really. Now go. I’ll see you in Algebra II tomorrow.”

  Alexis groaned. “Don’t remind me.”

  She gave Willow a quick hug and disappeared, and Willow breathed a sigh of relief as she watched her friend disappear down the hallway. She’d wished countless times that she could just explain everything to Alexis, but that could never be. Alexis had no magical capabilities, and never would, and so Willow would always be forbidden from explaining things to her.

  Willow started slowly walking down the dark, empty hallway that led away from the library’s entrance. Sometimes it felt like more trouble than it was worth to be friends with non-wizards, but Alexis was so sweet and caring that Willow couldn’t bear to push her away completely. She was worth the trouble, but still, Willow was glad that the trouble was over, for tonight at least. She’d been afraid for a moment that Alexis had noticed the book and was going to grill her about what “lie detecting spells” were. But if Alexis had noticed the title, she’d said nothing. Another crisis had been averted, and Willow vowed to be more careful about putting her books away before she left her little hideout in the library, even if she did think that the library itself was deserted.

  “Getting a head start on our classes for once?” a sneering voice asked.

  Willow, jumped, startled, and looked up to see Locke stepping out of the shadows caused by some faux potted trees that lined the hallway.

  “I…uh…yeah. I thought I’d get started on the right foot this year.” Willow swallowed hard and felt sweat starting to instantly bead up on her forehead. Why was Locke here? Had he been listening in on the whole conversation she’d had with Alexis? Had he seen the spellbook that she’d hurriedly shoved in her backpack in hopes that Alexis wouldn’t see it?

  I was wrong. The trouble definitely isn’t over for the night.

  “Starting off on the right foot,” Locke repeated in a sing-song tone. “Isn’t that sweet? So tell me, what did you think of the reading assignment for Intermediate Earth Magic? Those avalanche spells are pretty tricky, but the tips the authors gave were really good. Which tip was your favorite?”

  “I, uh, didn’t get to the earth magic reading yet, actually,” Willow stammered out, feeling her cheeks go hot. “I was too busy reading the other stuff.”

  “Oh? Like the practical magic reading? What did you think of the Mundus spell? Do you think it’s really as dangerous as it sounds?”

  Locke looked over at Willow expectantly, and she chewed her lower lip nervously. “I haven’t read that yet either.”

  Locke cocked an eyebrow. “No? Have you read any of the assigned reading?”

  Willow shook her head no. The only thing that made her feel worse than the fact that Locke was interrogating her was the realization that she had not, in fact, read a single page of the assigned reading. In her excitement over studying lie detecting spells, she’d forgotten that she had actual reading to do for her actual classes. She might as well turn around right now and head back up to her little library “office” to get started on that reading.

  It was going to be a long night.

  Locke started circling her, like he was a shark ready to sweep in for the kill. “So what have you been doing holed up in the library all this time? Extracurricular studying?”

  “Something like that, yes.” Willow could feel the beads of sweat starting to drip down her forehead. Locke was onto her, and if he told Anjali what she was up to, Willow was going to be in hot water all over again.

  Locke stopped circling and stood directly in front of Willow, narrowing his eyes at her. She wanted to look away. In fact, she wanted to run away. But she refused to let Locke see her looking weak. She met his gaze, and did her best to look confident.
r />   “Why are you studying lie detector spells?” he asked point-blank.

  Willow felt her heart drop. He had seen the book. Alexis might have missed the title and its meaning, but of course Locke hadn’t. She frantically tried to figure out a way to answer him that would not give away anything that Anjali had confided in her about the leak at the Dragon Heart Agency. But Willow had never been very good at lying, and she couldn’t come up with a story that seemed plausible. So instead of answering the question, she deflected it. “Why are you stalking me?”

  He leaned in closer, still sneering at her. Willow thought, not for the first time, that if he wasn’t so obnoxious he would actually be quite handsome. His sandy blonde hair, chiseled jaw line, and deep blue eyes were the sort of thing that could make a girl swoon—if only every word that came out of his mouth wasn’t dripping with venom.

  “It doesn’t take much stalking to figure out that you’re up to something,” he said, his voice sounding almost like the hissing of a snake. “You haven’t been around anywhere, and I know it’s not like you to work ahead in class, so I got curious. I followed you here, and realized you’ve been spending hours in the library. When you came out, I saw you with your head in the lie detecting spellbook. I was about to confront you, but Alexis beat me to it. She only confirmed for me that you’ve been acting strangely and spending all your time studying, but of course she didn’t notice what the book you were reading was about.”

  “It’s just some outside research on a subject I’m interested in,” Willow said, sticking her chin out defiantly. She was doing her best to look like Locke wasn’t intimidating her, but she had a feeling she was failing horribly on that effort.

  Locke smirked. “Then I guess you won’t mind at all if I mention to Anjali that the reason you’re behind on your reading is that you’ve been busy studying lie detecting spells.”

  Willow felt the color drain from her face as Locke threw back his head and laughed. He knew he had one-upped her, and he was enjoying the moment immensely. He took a step back and leaned casually against the wall, raising a lazy eyebrow in her direction.

  “So, what’s it gonna be, Willow? Are you going to explain everything to me, or am I going to have to go ask Anjali to explain.”

  Willow frantically tried to figure out how to get herself out of this situation. She couldn’t tell Locke the truth, because she’d promised Anjali she wouldn’t tell anyone. But she couldn’t let Locke go to Anjali, because then Anjali would know she was sneaking around researching a situation she’d essentially been told to leave well enough alone. There was no way out, or so it seemed.

  She decided her only option was to stall.

  “Okay, fine. I’ll talk to you about it, but not here. It’s a highly sensitive subject, and I can’t risk any non-wizard hearing even the smallest bit of this information.”

  Locke looked around at the empty hallway, and Willow thought for a moment that he was going to protest that there was no one there right then. But after a moment’s hesitation, he nodded. Even Locke, who thought that he was God’s gift to the Dragon Heart Academy and that the normal rules should not apply to him, could not deny that one could never be too careful about keeping all magical information away from non-wizards.

  “Fine,” he said, keeping his voice low. “I’ll wait until tomorrow after class. Meet me on the top floor of the main Dragon Heart building, and be ready to talk. If you don’t show, I’m going straight to Anjali’s office to discuss things with her.”

  With one last, sneering smirk, he turned on his heel and walked off. Willow stood for a long time, watching him go, and wondering how she was going to come up with a story that would both keep him off her back and keep him away from Anjali.

  It wasn’t going to be easy, but she had to figure out a way. She couldn’t afford to get in trouble for one more thing right now.

  She also couldn’t afford to start off on the wrong foot in any of her classes, which meant she had to finish up all of the reading she’d forgotten to do. With a weary sigh, she turned around and headed back to her spot at the top of the library.

  It didn’t look like she was going to be getting any sleep that night.

  Chapter Eight

  “Willow! Willow! Hey, wake up!”

  Willow blinked her eyes open and lifted her head from the hard wood it was lying on. She winced at the brightness of the sun shining in her face, and blearily tried to rub away the last vestiges of sleep.

  “Have you been up here all night?”

  The voice sounded too loud, and Willow winced. Exhaustion dragged her body down like a heavy anchor, and she wanted nothing more than to close her eyes and go back to sleep. She put her head down and swatted at the hand that was shaking her, but the hand did not go away. Instead, it only shook her harder.

  “Willow! Wake up!”

  Willow opened her eyes again, then sat up violently as she suddenly realized where she was: her makeshift “office” at the top of the Birch Point library. But it wasn’t dark as it had been when she’d laid her head down and told herself she’d just close her eyes for five quick minutes.

  Now, the sun was streaming in brightly through the squeaky clean window in front of her. When she glanced over to her right to see who had been shaking her, she met Sylvie’s very concerned eyes.

  “Oh no,” Willow moaned as she realized she’d slept through the night. She had intended to go back to her dorm room at some point and take a quick shower, but it didn’t look like she’d have time to shower and change now. She was going to have to face the first day of Algebra II, among other equally terrifying subjects, while wearing two-day-old clothes and sporting a greasy ponytail. She looked over at Sylvie, afraid to ask the question but needing to know. “What time is it?”

  Sylvie glanced at her watch. “It’s just past one o’clock.”

  Willow’s jaw dropped. “One o’clock? In the afternoon? But…but I had class this morning.”

  “I know,” Sylvie said. “So did I. And when I showed up to all of those classes but you didn’t, I got really worried. Alexis said that the library was the last place she’d seen you, so I came to look. You never even came back to the dorm room last night, did you?”

  The panic started washing over Willow in waves. “No, I guess I didn’t. I was up here trying to do my reading for class and I must have fallen asleep.”

  Willow started throwing everything on the table into her backpack. Classes for the Dragon Heart Academy were starting in less than half an hour. She still hadn’t finished all her reading, but that couldn’t be helped at this point. She’d already missed all her regular academic classes, and trying to explain that to her Birch Point teachers wasn’t going to be fun. She didn’t want to add missing Dragon Heart classes to her worries as well. She couldn’t exactly tell Anjali that she’d been too tired to make it to class because she’d been too busy reading up on lie detecting spells.

  Willow felt her chest tighten at the thought of lie detecting spells. She remembered in that instant that she had promised to meet with Locke that very day after Dragon Heart classes to explain everything. She’d been hoping to spend some time figuring out how to explain everything away to him, but now she was running out of time. Once class started, it would be hard to think about anything except Anjali’s lectures, but Willow had to come up with an excuse. There was no way she could tell Locke the truth.

  Sylvie was still staring at Willow uncertainly, deep concern in her eyes. Willow was sure she’d never looked like more of a mess to her friend than she did right then, but what could she do? She should have had the foresight to set an alarm before closing her eyes.

  Willow stood, trying to smile brightly as she hoisted her backpack onto her shoulders. “We should start heading to class, shouldn’t we?”

  Just then, the hunger pangs hit. Willow realized that she hadn’t eaten anything in over twenty-four hours, and that she didn’t have time to head to the cafeteria and eat now. She was going to have to suffer throug
h classes on a very empty stomach, while worried about what to say to Locke. Never mind her worries over what she was going to say to her Birch Point teachers, or her worries over the fact that she hadn’t read any of the reading Anjali had assigned. The stress of it all suddenly felt like it was going to crush Willow, and her voice caught in her throat as she tried to choke back a sob.

  “Willow, what’s going on?” Sylvie asked, standing along with Willow and seeming to search Willow’s very soul with her green eyes.

  “Nothing! I just fell asleep while trying to study and get ahead. Happens to the best of us.”

  Sylvie looked doubtful. “We don’t have any lessons on lie detecting spells coming up in any of our classes.”

  Willow let out a sigh. Sylvie had seen the book, and was just as curious as Locke. She was being much nicer than Locke had been, but now Willow was faced with a situation where she had two fellow students questioning what she was doing. She couldn’t tell them the truth, but she hated to lie, especially to Sylvie.

  “Willow?” Sylvie prompted. “What’s going on?”

  Willow chewed her lower lip, unsure of what to say. She decided that the best thing to do was punt the conversation to later. “It’s a long story,” she said, already turning to leave the little room where she’d accidentally fallen asleep. “But I promised Locke I’d talk to him about it after class this afternoon. Why don’t you come along and I’ll explain things to both of you at the same time?”

  Sylvie opened her mouth to protest, but then shut it again. She considered things for a moment, then gave a slow, exasperated shake of her head. “Fine. I should push you to tell me right now, but since we’ll probably be late for class if you do, I’ll settle for later. I’m not happy about having to hear at the same as Locke, though. And I’m worried about you. Are you sure you’re okay?”

  Willow nodded and gave Sylvie a bright smile, even though she didn’t feel very bright on the inside. “I’m fine. Just tired. Now let’s go, before I miss any more classes than I already have.”