CHAPTER SEVEN

'So you'll be home at nine tonight then Holly? Straight after your driving lesson?' Asked Chris.

He was saying goodbye to the girls as they started to walk to school on Monday morning. He had relaxed a little after hearing that Danny and Holly had broken up, and allowed her one night out a week until her grounding was over.

'I think so, around nine,' Holly said distractedly from over her shoulder, the morning wind tugging at her almost black hair, 'God, does he ever stop?' She asked once they were out of his earshot.

Poppy laughed, but Lily gave her a sharp look.

'Don't be so insensitive,' She said, 'He can't help being overprotective. He's worried that-,'

'Oh please,' Holly interrupted, rolling her eyes, 'How much trouble can we get into at school? It's just swarming with demons, right? We don't attend Sunnydale High, it's not like we live on a Hellmouth…' She started but then went quiet. For one thing, she didn't want to admit that she watched reruns of Poppy's favourite unbearably geeky TV show like Buffy, and for another, she wasn't quite certain that they weren't living on a Hellmouth.

Despite the early start, Holly was walking her face set to a determined 'I'm-oozing-cool-and-don't-I-know-it' expression. Poppy bounced along just behind her, looking fresh with barrettes clipped in her hair. But as always, Lily looked drawn and pinched. She had been up all night wondering about Eric. He had not returned to the house when Uncle Chris did late last night, and she didn't fully believe his 'Oh-Eric's-Fine' when she questioned Uncle Chris about his whereabouts.

The moment they set foot past school gates, Holly was immediately hailed to go and join some friends. But to Poppy and Lily's amazement, she continued walking, as if she hadn't heard them.

'Er, Hols?' Poppy said, rushing to catch up with her sister. 'Alexi's going to be pretty pissed if you don't go over and tell her your weekend's gossip,'

Holly scowled.

'Oh I'm pretty sure Alexi knows what went on, I'm going to the Library to get a book,' She muttered, and hurried away.

Poppy gaped after her, doubting if she even knew where it was. What was ever-in-demand Holly Marston doing going to the library first thing on a Monday morning?

She saw a familiar figure come down the hall, notice her, and abruptly turn on his back and walk in the other direction.

'Hey!' Poppy called, hurt, 'Brice! Where're you going?'

She ran after him.

Even though Brice Whitepath annoyed the hell out of most of the time...he was a pretty cool guy. He kept his silky black hair long as he refused to have it cut, because he was trying to emulate some of his favourite musicians. He was a complete music junkie, obsessed with anything from Death Cab For Cutie to Iggy Pop and the Stooges. Brice normally dressed like a rock star too, tight fitting jeans, loose fitting cords, faded t-shirts and suede jackets...generally dark colours that brought out his Native American colouring. He was also Star Wars/Trek, comic books, graphic novels obsessed...you name it, and he was into it, an endless source of knowledge of Sci-Fi. But Poppy admired him. He was the youngest out of his five, very different brothers, and he wasn't afraid to be himself.

But Brice didn't turn around.

'Brice?' Poppy pressed, 'What's wrong?'

'Nothing,' He told her, looking at the floor.

'Yes there is,' she noticed his unusual shifty behaviour, 'What's going on?'

There was a long pause and when he finally did answer her a millennia later, his voice was barely audible.

'What?' Poppy was growing impatient, he was still trying to shake her off by walking really fast.

'My grandfather's coming to visit,' He said over his shoulder.

'Your Native American grandfather?' Poppy stared, stopping abruptly.

'Yeah, Huten Whitepath,'

Poppy could not have been more stunned. Huten had never once come to visit his son and grandchildren, he hardly left Minnesota. This explained why Brice was acting so strange. Whenever Brice and his brothers went to visit Huten, who lived on a Sioux reservation just outside of Mankato, Brice always came home a little different. The first time he went, when he was seven, it was for a month and when he came back he hardly spoke to anyone, ignoring Poppy for weeks on end. Over the years Poppy discovered that Huten, a revered Medicine man and the Chief of the tribe, put the boys through various trials, testing their 'magic' and core wisdom, which explained to some extent why Brice was always so odd when he was back in school.

Poppy rushed to catch up with him again.

'I can't believe it,' Poppy said in wonder, knowing that as soon as Huten arrived, Brice would immediately start acting weird, 'Why the sudden interest in seeing the West Coast?'

'I'm coming of age,' Brice shrugged, but Poppy could tell there was something more with the way he kept avoiding her eyes.

Poppy was hurt. She was supposed to be Brice's best friend but this was the first she was hearing about it and he was evidently keeping more from her.

'Is that a big thing then?'

'Yeah,' Brice said reluctantly. He frowned as they settled into their seats in homeroom, 'There's supposed to be this big ceremony but I can't take time off school so he's coming here. Henry and Joe are coming home too…although you can imagine Joe's not so hot about it,'

Poppy nodded. Joe, the second oldest Whitepath brother, was very into the independent thing and rarely came home or called…but he also deeply immersed in his Native American background. If Brice's coming of age was a big event, Joe would definitely put in an appearance. Poppy couldn't even remember the last time she had seen Joe he was that much of a ghost in the family.

'You're being very quiet about this...' She said, giving him an odd look as he settled put his long legs on his desk.

Brice blinked.

'What?'

'When is he arriving?'

'This Saturday,' Brice murmured, still being extremely cagey.

'On your birthday?'

'Uh huh,'

Poppy sighed. She could hardly look forward to it. She wished that Brice could tell her what was going on. If she wanted to tell anyone that she was a witch, it would be him. He would understand, after all, his family were extremely spiritual. But Poppy couldn't tell anyone. It was still all so new to her, and she had been told, time and time again, that you put people in jeopardy by telling them 'all' of the truth. She didn't want to be responsible for putting Brice in that position. Although now she was beginning to think that she didn't know all about Brice by the way he was acting now at the prospect of his grandfather infiltrating his western life. His grandfather scared her with his ability to change Brice into a stoic, thinking type for weeks on end. She didn't know if she could deal with any more changes.

'How long is Huten staying?'

'I don't know,' Brice shrugged, 'But he wants to meet you,'

'Meet me?' Poppy repeated slowly.

Brice didn't look happy about this either.

'He's heard all about you from Mom…I mean, I think he thinks we're betrothed or something.' Brice said a little too casually, 'He's doing this ritual thing on my birthday. All my brother's had to go through something similar. And Dad said he wants you to be there,'

'Well…' Poppy said, trying to figure out just what was going on, 'I guess I can't say no,'

There was a moment of silence but then what Brice said next surprised her.

'Freddy and I used to always stay up late with him around the fire when we used to go stay with him. Cal his never really enjoyed it, and Henry and Joe used to tease him all the time for being a wimp in the wilderness. Of course other things went on too, but it's really weird he's coming here. He never leaves the rev,'

Poppy had never heard him speak about his time on the reservation before.

'Will you be going to see him during Winter Break?' She asked, feeling morose.

'Probably,' Brice said distractedly, bending down and looking for something in his bag, clearly wanting to end the conversation, 'I doubt I'll have a holiday to myself now,'

Poppy couldn't help notice the way his blue/black hair caught the light as he bent down to get something out of his Jansport backpack.

She wanted to talk more but it was useless. Trying to get something out of Brice when he was like this was as easy as extracting blood from a stone.

When the second bell rang and Mr Jacobs came into the room, Brice was already listening to some old skool Belle and Sebastian and lounging on his chair with his 1970's Vans placed on the desktop and staring out the window. The ignoring her had clearly begun.

Lily was hidden in the library trying to do some serious revision. She had initially come in there to escape from Scott, who had been hounding her non-stop since homeroom. He didn't stop telling her how much he had such a great night and that they should do it again. He didn't even ask how Holly was doing. If he thought she wanted a repeat of Saturday, he was denser than she thought he was.

Myra liked him. She had told her last night on the phone. Myra had panicked when she heard that Lily and Scott had gone out and wanted to know what happened and grudgingly admitted she had liked Scott for years . Myra was annoying her too today, shooting her and Scott glances every five seconds as if thinking that there was something going on.

It wasn't like Lily could let anything go on anyway.

So much had happened in the last few months that made the idea of getting involved in a relationship ridiculous. There was no one at school she was interested in. Was there? Ever since Freddy Whitepath had helped her and Holly on Saturday, she couldn't stop thinking about him. She tried to focus her brain on reading through her French textbook but the thought of Freddy kept emerging in her head. She just couldn't believe someone like him knew who she was and seemed to understand her. It was impossible to concentrate and there was no way she should be thinking about this now. Lily angrily got her books together, stashed them away in her shoulder bag and dashed down the library stairs. The bell went for third period just as she left the library and as she walked off to break, she noticing Holly coming towards her, looking furious and close to tears.

'Holly?'

'Oh Hi, Lily,' Holly avoided her sister's gaze.

'What's up?' Lily asked immediately.

'Everything it seems,' Holly spat, eyes flashing, 'I can't do anything right. Mr Giddens just put me in detention for not doing my homework. And it seems as if I've lost all of my friends...'

'How d'you mean?'

'The vindictive wench also known as Alexi Newberry took Danny's side about the whole punching him thing, and said that I embarrassed them on Saturday and that I have a warning and couldn't hang out with them anymore-'

'No way!' Lily exclaimed, 'It was his fault! He drugged you-'

'I know,' Holly nodded, 'I've seriously had enough of them at the moment. Alexi acts like she's above me, and Danny's flirting so much with Chelsea it makes me want to puke. I was the one that created that group and their kicking me out of it! Anyway I'm staying in here, I need to get my mind off them,'

'Seriously?' Lily asked, 'Holly, you should just turn the other cheek, not hide from them. You can't let them show you that they're affecting you-'

'Lily,' Holly sighed, 'seriously, I could do with the escapism.'

'Hol, please just-'

'Oh Lily, stop fussing. I'll see you later,' She snapped, and pushed past her and slammed the library door behind her. Lily turned around, her mind still on her sister when she walked straight into someone.

'Easy,' someone laughed, putting their hands on her shoulders to steady her.

'Sorry,' Lily muttered, looked up and locked eyes with Freddy Whitepath, 'Oh! Hey,'

'Hey yourself,' He said, smiling. She noticed that his eyes were the strangest, most stunning colour. She knew they had been blue but she hadn't realised that they were the exact colour of Lapis Lazuli.

'How've you been since your adventure?' He asked, beaming that wonderful smile of his and folding his arms casually across his chest and looking like he wanted to chat.

'Oh…OK,' She said, feeling flustered. Her mind had gone completely blank. 'Uh, how about you?'

'Yeah good too,' He said, still smiling even though Lily felt she was behaving like a mute goldfish, 'Though I can't say the same about Danny Greenborough. Half of his face is black and blue, don't think I want to get on the wrong side of your sister anytime soon. She has a serious right hook,'

Lily laughed. Yep, she thought, especially since her power of molecular combustion was the most active out of Charmed sisters' powers and she could actually do more than give him a broken nose.

'She and our dad used to do sports together all the time. I think they must have covered boxing by the time she was in third grade'.

'When I was in third grade I had buck teeth and an awful haircut. I could have done with your sister around to defend me against the mean classmates who called me Freddy Toothpath'.

Lily found it hard to fathom the Adonis in front of her looked anything like that. It was sort of trying to imagine an green coloured tiger, somehow it didn't quite work.

'I've been meaning to thank you, for what you did on Saturday,' Lily said earnestly, leaning against the wall, 'I mean, we don't really know you and you proved a lot more helpful than Scott-'

'-Oh, please' Freddy looked embarrassed, 'don't mention it. How is Holly?'

'She's fine,' Lily said, 'She's doing work in the library,'

'Oh good-' Freddy started, but Peter Jefferson, PJ, one of his friends and bassist in Gooseberry, called, 'Hey, Fred! Come on bro, Coach Young is gonna kick your ass if you're late for track again!'

'Be right there!' Freddy hollered back, then looked at Lily again,

'See you around sometime?'

'Oh,' Lily stammered, blushing under the intensity of his smile, 'yeah, well we both do go to school here,'

Why did she just say that? Kill me now, she thought.

'It was nice to talk to you, Lily,' He said, touching her arm before dashing off to join his impatient friends.