Loralie, of course, went straight to the alcohol and poured some in three plastic cups, and then added some juice to them to make the drinks taste better. She handed us our cups and then raised hers. “To a great year.”
Frances and I smiled and raised our cups, too. “To a great year.”
A fourth cup raised and tapped against ours. “To a great year,” Dante said, smiling wide.
Frances’s eyes widened, and she nearly dropped her cup, but managed to bring it close to her chest and almost hide her shakiness.
“Hi, Dante,” I greeted him. “How was your first day of school?”
It was an agreement we had come up with as soon as we started liking boys. If one of us was too flustered to talk to the guy we liked, another one of us would talk to him, so he would stay nearby and we could hear him talk even if we weren’t the one talking to him.
“It was alright. I hated standing so long in that stupid line for our schedule though. It wasted half the day,” he said, looking at Frances as he answered.
“We were afraid we were going to miss dinner,” she said softly.
“Same,” he chuckled and ran his hand through his flame hair.
Frances swallowed hard and took an involuntary step back as her eyes focused on the flames.
“Love the new style,” Loralie said. “How is it possible to make flames look messy?”
Dante smirked. “It actually takes me quite a while to style my hair. Once I do it when I wake up, though, it will stay the rest of the day until I sleep on it.”
“How do you keep from lighting the bed on fire?” Frances asked, her voice squeaking way more than usual.
“The fire only burns when I want it to,” he said. “You can touch it, if you want.” He took a step towards her, and her eyes widened so much I thought they were going to pop out of her head.
Loralie stepped between them. “Hey, Frances, isn’t that Ainsley? We should go say hi.”
Loralie pushed Frances away before Dante could say anything else.
Dante turned to me with a scowl. “Was it something I said?”
I fidgeted and shifted my feet. Should I tell him? She had a huge crush on him and I didn’t think it was going to go away. Would she be mad?
“Frances...isn’t a fan of fire,” I whispered. “I’m sure you’ve heard how terrified her grandfather was of it?”
His eyes widened. “Really? She’s scared of it, too?” He looked after her and his face fell. “That explains a lot.”
“She tries,” I whispered to him. “Don’t give up on her. Just...don’t try to get her to touch the flames, okay?”
I spun around and jogged to catch up to Frances and Loralie who had moved even farther away from the bonfire now.
Frances trembled slightly and chugged her drink.
“It’s okay,” Loralie assured her. “There’s no fire here.”
“I know. I know. I’m being ridiculous,” Frances growled.
“No, you’re not. We’re all scared of things and it’s okay. It’s great that you can admit your fears,” I said and patted her back.
“He must think I’m such a freak,” she whispered, and her head dropped forward.
“I don’t think he does, but if that is the case, then it is his loss. You’re an amazing catch. Any guy would be lucky to have you,” I said, and Loralie nodded.
“Maybe I should just let Dad and Mom set me up,” Frances whispered.
“You know they’ll probably try to make you a boyfriend,” Loralie said and swallowed hard.
Frances scowled. “Oh, dark gods. I didn’t even think about that. They totally would.”
“Look, all hope is not lost. If his fire really doesn’t burn you, then maybe he could help you get over your fear of it,” I suggested.
Frances shuddered. “I don’t know.”
“I’m not saying try it now. I’m just saying it is a possibility. So, not all hope is lost, Frannie.”
She glared at me. “Don’t call me that where others can hear.”
I raised my hands in surrender. “Sorry, it just slipped out.”
“Come on, let’s refill our cups and enjoy the rest of our night. Tomorrow we have our first real classes, and we all know it is going to suck,” Loralie said.
We headed back to the drinks, and I saw Rathik out of the corner of my eye. He crooked his finger at me and backed up into the shadows of the forest behind him.
I swallowed hard and said, “I’ll be right back. I need to find a secluded bush, if you get what I mean.”
Frances waved me off and I jogged into the trees after Rathik, following his scent a hundred feet or more away from the party before I found him leaning against a tree with legs instead of his snake lower body.
“Hey,” he greeted me with a smile.
"H-hi," I replied, my smile wavering. As long as he stayed back and didn’t shift to his snake body, I would be okay.
He stepped closer. "I was hoping we could talk more in person now. We talked a bit by letter over the break."
"M-maybe." Why did I always stutter around him?
"Well, let's start small, okay?" he asked.
I nodded. "Small. Is good."
Six
LORALIE
Tsukiko was hiding something. I’d felt it the day she came back from her family trip and as I watched her run off into the trees, I felt it even more.
“What’s wrong?” Frances asked as she drank from her cup.
She seemed mostly back to herself, which was good. I really didn’t want her freaking out about Dante when she didn’t need to be. It seemed obvious to me that he was interested in her.
“I don’t think she actually needed to go to the bathroom,” I said.
Frances’s eyes widened and she looked in the direction Tsukiko had run. “What is she actually doing?”
“We should find out,” I said.
“We are not spying on our friend,” Frances said and folded her arms over her chest.
“Spy is such a harsh word. I didn’t say we would spy. I said we should find out—you know, check on her. Good friends check on their other friends,” I argued.
“You think she’s in trouble?” Frances asked.
“No, but she’s been acting different since her trip,” I whispered.
Frances’s face fell. “Yeah.”
Truthfully, we had all been acting a bit different since our summer family trips. I didn’t want to tell them what had happened and it seemed they all felt the same. Being pushed by my father and grandfather to increase my power and learn new things was great. However, the number of souls I’d needed to ferry had taken a toll on me. If it hadn’t been for the girls and I developing our secret joint power, I wasn’t sure I would be nearly as cheerful. Being death was hard.
I wanted to ask them what had happened, to see if they had experienced similar things, harsh experiences that totally changed their outlook on life, but I didn’t dare ask.
It was putting a strain on our friendships which had revolved around complete honesty before. We used to tell each other everything, down to weird bathroom talks, but now...now there was something each of us was hiding. I would have pressured them, but I didn’t want to tell them what had happened with me, either.