“It’s a date,” Hannah teased, and Malik stretched to knock her ankle with his shoe. We all laughed, but her eyes locked on mine with a slight raise of her brow. I knew what she was hinting at and shook my head.
She bit her lip and looked away. Luckily, Daniel changed the subject to the game, and the guys talked about their plans to beat the other year-four team.
I finished up my assignments and added a few questions I wanted to go over with Mrs. Hedgings during our Saturday tutoring session. She left a note for me in the dorms, stating we would meet each week in her office from eight to ten until she felt I was caught up. Niall told me he was open on Mondays and Wednesdays from seven to eight. Between my three different tutoring groups, I felt pretty good about my progress. As long as I stayed on track and kept my focus, I might have a chance to make it past the holiday break in December. I couldn’t let any visions or daydreams lead me off course, even when the subject of them tempted me from mere feet away.
Chapter 17
While I had some idea of what a rugby game looked like, it was ten times more brutal than I imagined. Each hit and tackle made me cringe and tense like I was the one getting thrown to the ground.
The first time Daniel was the victim, I grabbed Hannah’s hands and closed my eyes. It was too much. Football at my last school was tame, boring even, compared to this.
“It’s okay. They can take it. They’re tougher than non-supes,” she said, prying my fingers off her.
“How is any of this legal? Shouldn’t the refs be calling penalties?”
“No, this is how the game is played,” she reassured me.
Even without the helmets and pads, it was hard to recognize Malik, Sai, and Daniel. Hannah told me their numbers and the positions they coordinated with, but I couldn’t keep up. All it looked like to me was someone trying to throw the ball and then everyone on the field trying to kill whoever was unfortunate enough to catch it.
How no one broke bones on each play was an absolute miracle.
“How much longer?” I whined. I wasn’t sure I would ever want to watch another match. Maybe I’d just wait for soccer season to cheer for my friends.
“Thirty minutes.”
Great.
There was a pause in the game. The two teams huddled, and a really cute, tall guy with a mop of curly brown hair stepped away from his group and waved toward the stands. I followed his line of sight and spotted a pretty brunette waving back. She was sitting with three guys. At first, I didn’t think anything of it until the guy with messy hair and adorable freckles on her right kissed her cheek while the one on the left with blond hair and a serious expression was holding her hand.
I tapped Hannah’s thigh. “Who are they?”
She glanced over to the small group then out to the guy on the field. “Those are the Sorcerer's Society kids. The ones I told you about. Those must be three of her boyfriends. The other two are probably playing.”
Seeing them together was different from what I imagined. The guys didn’t seem jealous or in competition. They were a unit. She looked really happy. Huh.
My phone vibrated in my pocket, and I pulled it out. Masie. “I’ve got to take this.”
Hannah nodded, and I climbed down the metal bleachers to the grass and headed away from the field so I could hear without the crowd cheering in the background.
“Hi, Masie,” I answered.
“Saige, how are you?”
I moved to a nearby tree and leaned against it. “Overwhelmed still.”
“I’m sorry I haven’t called you back sooner. Things with my parents have been a little crazy.”
That wasn’t really an excuse to ignore my calls or texts all week. She dropped me off in a new world and vanished.
“What’s going on?”
She sighed. “You coming back into their lives was unexpected. They want to be more involved.”
“They want to know me?” I asked, somewhat surprised.
“Not necessarily. They want your teachers to send them weekly progress reports, and they want to be included in any decisions made about you or your education. I guess they found out Mrs. Hedgings is tutoring you, and they weren’t pleased.”
I nearly laughed. “Why not?”