She was surveying him with unconcealed hostility at this point. “Did you mention what the other magic was?” Her voice had softened to a chill whisper.
“No, I didn’t. Why?” His wariness level had gone on red alert, and he responded quietly in kind. But at his response, she just smiled and shrugged.
“That’s fine then. You’re to keep what you saw last night to yourself.”
He shook his head. “But I already told them you’re a dual wielder…”
“Don’t you worry about that. I’ll handle it, as long as you didn’t say what it was. Pass it on to Jessica and Kaylee. I don’t want it being spread.”
He looked baffled. “But why?”
She growled, “Because I don’t want to be associated with being a zombie. So that should be the last time you mention that as well. Capiche?” He looked a little rattled as if he hadn’t considered that before. She leaned over the table, staring him down from about a foot away. “Are we crystal clear?”
“Fine. I’ll talk to them.” Oh good, she could reason with the man.
“Cool. I’ll be down when I’m done. Also, if you can get me a spare pocket watch, that’d be cool. I’m sick of not knowing what time it is.” Plus she wanted to tinker with it, but hey, that could wait. Standing up, she walked confidently back up to the stairs, ignoring the whispered conversations and gazes that followed her.
She made it back to her room and considered just changing into fresh clothes, then changed her mind. He could wait! Grabbing a change of clothes, she headed back to the bathroom. She had decided it was time for another first, a bath all by herself!
Filling up the tub and stripping down, she luxuriated in the feeling of being submerged in water. She scrubbed herself with a bar of soap she’d found in her desk, frowning at its roughness. Soap really needed to be first on her list of inventions. How did people get by here!?
She was supremely happy to note that her ribcage was no longer fully visible at rest. It was as she was staring at the phenomenon of not having her ribs stick out like a sore thumb that she noticed… Oh my gosh, I have boobs! Granted, they were tiny little mosquito bites, but there was a tiny bump where it had been totally flat before. Laughing happily, she did a little happy dance in the tub and promptly sent a ton of water splashing over the side. “Oops.” Having finished washing, she stood up and realized that not only had she already gotten water all over the floor… She had also forgotten to bring a towel. She hadn’t even seen one in her room.
Shivering in the air, she considered using her dirty tunic to wipe off, but she also didn’t want to leave water all over the floor, and it would take a lot of mopping up before her tunic would cut it. Grumbling, she stepped out of the tub, since the floor was already super wet anyway, pulling the plug on the tub so it would start draining. Apparently she needed to invent bathroom mats too.
Seeing her reflection in the mirror, she had an epiphany. She focused on the water, thinking, It’s just one of the components of blood. If I can control blood, how hard could water be? It’s like going down a step. Slowly, she felt that warm tingly sensation in her hands as the water started to collect into a ball. It was suuuuper slow though. Exasperated, she started collecting the water from her body with her right hand, then used her left to fluff her hair.
Ugh, I would kill for a blowdryer right now…but I can’t invent that. Stupid things needing electricity. And then it was like a light bulb smashed her over the head. Splitting her attention, she focused on the currents of the air. If she could coat her hand with wind like Raphael had coated his sword… The warm tinglies let her know she was on the right track, so she started fluffing her hair with her very own hand wind-dryer.
When she was finally dry, she’d siphoned all the water off the floor and back into the tub where she’d unceremoniously deposited it. She quickly got dressed, feeling refreshed. She wiggled happily out of the bathroom and towards her room, singing softly, “Do you believe in magic, magic, maaaaaaaaaaagic.” Thinking about it, she was a little bummed that she no longer had access to awesome bands at the click of a finger. A world without music was going to suck. Not as much as being trapped in a hospital bed, so she didn’t really want to go back. Still, she was going to miss music.
Dressed in her snazzy new clothes once more, she wondered if whoever had given them to her made them big on purpose. If they had been as close-fitting as the shirt she woke up in, she would have outgrown them pretty quickly.
Making her way down the stairs slightly more gracefully than when she was in zombie mode before breakfast, she entered the common room again. There were more people now, and she looked around for Raph, seeing him talking to several of the student people at one of the tables. Smiling, she walked over and announced, “Let’s do this thang!” When one of the students backed up, startled by her outburst, and promptly bumped into her, she sat down heavily and muttered, “You threw off my groove.”
“Sorry, what was that?” The kid was peering guiltily at her while she rubbed her shin.
She shook her head, waving him off. “Don’t worry about it…” You wouldn’t understand even if I tried to tell you. My pop culture references are completely lost on you people. Raphael had stood up by this point, straightening his clothes.
“You’re finally ready?”
“No, I just announced I was as a joke.” She bit back sarcastically. He raised a brow and she sighed in exasperation. “Fine, let’s go already.” He considered her quizzically, and she couldn’t help but retort, “Just let it go.” It was getting increasingly harder for her to not burst into Disney songs. When she learned ice magic, she was going to have fun trying to recreate it. Maybe she’d be an actress?
She had absently followed Raphael outside, smiling when he held the door open for her. Who said chivalry was dead? She did stop for a moment when she got outside to squint at the sparkling sunshine again. When was she going to get used to the light? Light? Was she forgetting something? “Hey, wait up!” She realized Raphael had already started off and she hurried to catch up, stilting quickly over behind him.
“Still not used to walking?”
She glared. “Still? It’s only day freaking two. I bet it took you at least two years to learn to walk! I’m miles ahead of you.”
He appeared confused at something she’d said, but she wasn’t sure what and he didn’t seem to be in the mood to elaborate. “Whatever. Can we just go? They were expecting us an hour ago.” She raised her brow and deliberately slowed down. He had started walking and only glanced back when he realized she wasn’t behind him anymore. “For heaven’s sake, can you just work with me here?” He muttered as he stomped back to her grumpily.
She crossed her arms and stopped altogether. “First off, you never gave me a time. Secondly, until you give me a watch, I’ll have no idea what time it is. Third, I’m not your subordinate, so stop trying to order me around. Fourth, I didn’t even want to do this today, so don’t get all snippy on me just because I’m not pumped to follow your little plan. I’m not a puppet to dance on your strings. If this is going to be an issue, then we can call the whole thing off right now and I’ll find somewhere else to stay. I’m sure a bunch of people would be happy to have a healer live with them.”