Monday May 14th, 2018
The last few weeks of school were always the worst. As a sophomore, I didn't have any really important finals to worry about, except for my AP World History exam. But even then, grades didn't mean much to me this year, not that they really ever did. I was completely content to live the kind of life that didn't require Mortal higher education.
I periodically checked the wall clock at the front of the classroom while I pretended to read The Great Gatsby. It was our last section for English, and I already had a decent grade in the class, so I wasn't really putting in my best effort. Besides, I had read the book before, so I felt pretty confident in my ability to scratch up a thousand words on it by the end of the week.
Hey, let's go to the creek instead of the library today, a light yet mischievous voice sounded in my head.
Not yet, I thought back, let's just get through all our nonsense today and tomorrow and go Wednesday. We planned this, babe.
Since when are you so responsible? It was always so strange to hear Edie laugh through Kelting. Come on. I'll do two rough drafts tonight and you can pick one of them.
Like I'd trust you with my grades. Even I'm not that apathetic, I replied.
Edie snorted out loud. I looked at the back of her short bleach blonde bob, and watched her quickly duck her head as our teacher and a few students gave her strange looks.
Wren. Wren. Wren. Wren. Edie's voice was getting irritating, even though I wasn't really trying to concentrate. It felt like the equivalent of mentally poking my brain repeatedly. Let's go. Just for an hour.
It's never just an hour. I can't help but roll my eyes. But fine. Let's go.
The next twenty minutes were excruciating, with the plan to sneak away with Edie starting to make my heart pound. The village we lived in was tiny and relatively overpopulated for its size, but the town where we attended school was big enough to have a few good hiding spots. The San Marcos river split into nearly a fifty streams and creeks throughout the town, and over Spring Break, Edie and I had managed to find a few particularly beautiful and secluded spots.
When the bell finally rang, we both stood and darted to the door before anyone could beat us out. I heard a few snickers and whispers behind us as our hands entwined, but we were used to it. After the "odd occurrences" over the past year following Edie's sixteenth birthday, people knew better than to fuck with us. We made a bee line to Edie's Lexus SUV and I took my place as co-pilot and DJ. Edie had the route memorized already though, and we were at the parking lot in minutes.
The secluded part of the creek was tucked away in a thicket of trees, behind a newly built apartment complex. We parked in a spot without an assigned number and headed towards the erratic trail through the trees back to the thin point of the river that marked our spot.
"Hold on, someone's watching," I said, feeling several pairs of eyes on our backs. We paused, as I closed my eyes and positioned my hands to silently perform the Reality Warping Cast. I pressed my palms together, twisted, and for all the Mortals knew, we walked back to Evie's car and drove away. But in our Caster reality, we continued towards our spot.