“Yeah,” he chuckled.
“Come on, back to normal life we go,” she laughed, leading him down the stairs.
Life wasn't back to normal yet, but Tamara was willing to fake it until it was. She chose to ignore the dirty looks of her ex-volleyball team mates and the vicious looks Cindy shot her way whenever they passed in the hall. She quietly enjoyed her first faerie-free week since the mess began when she and Hayden ate Sir Bedivere's apples.
“Come on, we've got to go or we'll be late and Amber might leave us,” Tamara whispered to Hayden towards the end of Friday's chess practice.
“Ah, let Greg give his speech, at least,” Hayden chuckled, “I have a car, remember. If we have to we can meet them at the restaurant.”
“Fine,” Tamara sighed, sliding back into her seat.
“This is it guys,” Greg said grimly. “Tommorrow's tournament will make or break our team. You heard the announcement at lunch today, if we don't kick butt tomorrow the school doesn't get a Halloween dance. We've pulled ourselves out of tight spots before. True, none of them were this tight, but I think we can do this. I do. We just have to put aside our personal problems and right now we all have plenty of them. They'll be time after the tournament to bicker and rant. For tonight, everyone get a good night of sleep and eat a good breakfast in the morning. Let's give Sir Bedivere his sweets and get out of here. Thank you, whoever retrieved the knight pieces.”
The pair were the first to leave their things for the faeries. Hayden left another package of lemon drop rocket ships and Tamara left a tube of the peach mango lip gloss, after all, even faerie girls need variety in their lives. Tamara grinned at Cindy's narrow eyed 'bitch' look as they left.
“My phone's vibrating,” Hayden said, at the bottom of the stairs, flipping his phone open, “Hey, Dad.”
“No, Gilligan was there when I left,” he spoke again after a moment of silence, “Yes, Dad, I'm sure.” “Fine, I'll be home after I drop Tamara off.”
“Is every thing okay?” Tamara asked, after he ended the call.
“Yeah, Dad thinks Gilligan is missing again,” he sighed.
“Do you want me to help look for him?”
“No,” Hayden shook his head, “He's most likely hiding under my Dad's writing desk.”
“Okay,” Tamara nodded, “Do you want to meet up after you find him?”
“If it's still early enough, yeah,” Hayden nodded, wrapping his arms around Tamara and stepping closer to her.
“Get a room,” Greg laughed, leading the rest of the club down the stairs.
“Let's go,” Hayden sighed.
“See you tomorrow,” Tamara called to the others.
Chapter Fourteen
“Did you find Gilligan?” Tamara asked, as she slid into the passenger's seat of Hayden's car.
“Yeah, I was right, he was hiding under Dad's desk. Sorry, I didn't call or text last night, Dad was looking through old photos,” Hayden said.
“It's all right,” she smiled, “Is everything okay?”
“Oh, he's always this way around Halloween. Mom died of breast cancer when I was young and someone told him something about the dead being closer than ever around that time. He's never been able to shake it.”
“It's sorta sweet,” Tamara looked at him in the rear-view mirror.
“Maybe,” he shrugged, “Still normal?”
“Yep. No sign of them,” she shook her head, grinning, “I've even put my mirror back up.”
“Now all we have to do is win the tournament,” Hayden laughed.
“There's still hope,” Tamara said.
“Maybe.”