Mr. Cole sighed and sat back in his desk chair. He crossed his arms over his chest and glared at Quinton. Ha! So it wasn’t just me.
“Is this really what you want, Ariel?” Mr. Cole asked me without taking his hostile eyes off of Quinton.
Was this what I wanted?
Well, to be honest, no it wasn’t what I wanted. I wanted to take the GED test and skip the rest. But, beggars couldn’t be choosers and at this point I’d take what I could get. And, hey, if I didn’t actually have to go to class it would still be a win for me.
“Yeah,” I lied easily. “That’s what I want.” I scooted forward until I was sitting on the edge of my seat. I clasped my hands together and held them up to my chest. Time to go for broke. “It would really mean a lot to me if I could have your support on this, Marcus. I know you’ve already done so much for me, given me so much. I have no right to ask for your support in this and if you really think it would be best if I go back to school then that’s what I will do. I won’t like it, but I’ll do it.”
Mr. Cole waved his hand in the air, as if waving my words away.
From beside me Quinton grunted. He knew exactly what I was doing with my hands clasped together and pleading eyes. I’d learned that Mr. Cole was a bit of a sucker when it came to me, something I loved about him. There was a lot to love.
“You’re a good kid, sweetheart, if that’s what you want to do then I will support it.”
I slumped back in my chair and let out a relieved sigh. I wanted to jump up and down and cheer. I didn’t have to go back to high school. That was easier than I thought it was going to be. I finally caught the break I’d been waiting for.
As they talked about the necessary paperwork that would likely need to be filled out, I let my mind wander. There had been so many changes in my life recently that it made my head spin. This was the first time in a month where I felt like my feet were planted firmly on the ground and a hole wasn’t about to suddenly open up beneath me and I wasn’t going to be sucked into the dark abyss.
Quinton and I both left Mr. Cole’s office at the same time. I thought I would walk him to the door and see him out but he had other plans. He took ahold of my hand and pulled me along behind him as he made his way up the stairs.
“Quinton-”
He squeezed my hand. “I want to see your bedroom.” He told me. “I know I’ve been in it before, but that doesn’t count because I wasn’t in the right state of mind to take in the view. And, I’m jealous because I know Ty’s spent time in there with you and both the twins and Julian have been in there. Hell, I know Ty’s even spent the night with you. I don’t have the patience to be last and I’m not nice enough to wait for you to invite me on your own.”
I laughed softly as I followed him to my bedroom. He barged into my room, dragging me along behind him. He liked to barge into other people’s space uninvited.
“You know,” I said quietly, “the only one I actually invited into my bedroom was Tyson. The twins and Julian weren’t invited and didn’t stay long.”
Having him in my bedroom made me suddenly nervous. He talked about his jealousy and not wanting to come last like it was normal. He was far from normal, they all were, and the arrangement they wanted to have with me was anything but. I wasn’t sure if he even knew that I’d overheard him with some of the guys talking about me, or if he knew that the twins told me that they’d all want to have a relationship with me.
Being a girl and having magic was a very rare occurrence these days. So much so, the girls with magic were treated like royalty, like a Princess. Or, so I had been told. Magic was a new development for me, something I never knew I had until recently.
Before I’d moved in with Mr. Cole the guys had all had a dream about me. They knew I was coming and some of them thought I was meant for them.
You see, the twins told me about the other female witches and their covens. Apparently, they ended up in a relationship with every member of their coven. They were treated special, precious and raised to think that kind of relationship was normal. The twins said that each coven dreamed of having their own female to share. My guys had almost had one but it didn’t work out because she was an evil bitch. Because of her, some of the guys weren’t open to trying out another girl. Well, that and one of them had a girlfriend and another claimed I was too young. They had no idea I’d overheard this last bit of information, but I had. It had slightly colored my view of them, and not in a good way.
None of this I was okay with and I had been avoiding thinking about it as a whole. I had a feeling though that with me moving in with them I would be forced to actually think about the situation. And I wasn’t looking forward to it.