A/N:  If I had remembered on Sunday that I hadn't updated this in a week, you would have had this chapter sooner.  But I didn't remember, so here it is today.  Be forewarned, I had a lot of fun writing this one.  (Insert maniacal laughter.)  The next chapter should be another…fun…one to write, and I'm hoping to have it up soon.  Until then, read and review!

Chapter 7: Startling Revelations

            Nita walked into the school cafeteria at lunch on Monday feeling better than she had in a while.  She hadn't seen Kit since Saturday, and was sure that whatever it was that was affecting her would have disappeared.  Plus, she had just aced a pop quiz in Biology.  She felt more content than she had all weekend.

            She scanned the cafeteria and saw that Kit wasn't there yet, so she went and sat at their usual table by the door to eat her lunch.

            She was halfway through her sandwich when she heard someone coming.  Thinking it was Kit, she turned around, but instead of seeing her friend, she saw a girl from her math class, Katherine.

            "Do you mind if I sit down?" she asked.

            Nita thought this a little odd, since Katherine had plenty of friends she usually ate with, but said, "Sure, have a seat."

            Katherine obliged, setting her lunch down in front of her.  Nita wracked her brain, trying to figure out where else she knew Katherine from.  Finally, Nita remembered.  She was in the same advanced history class as Kit.

            Trying to start a conversation, Nita asked, "How did you do on the math test on Friday?" 

            "Pretty good," Katherine said agreeably.  "You?"

            "Better than I thought," said Nita, still wondering why Katherine had come to sit with her.

            There was a moment of awkward silence before Katherine spoke.  "Um, Nita?  Do you think I could ask you a question?"

            Still a little confused, Nita said, "Sure."

            Katherine fidgeted, but looked straight at Nita.  "I wanted to know if you were planning on asking Kit to the dance."

            The look of utter shock on Nita's face must have startled Katherine, for she quickly added, "I know he says there's nothing between you, but I didn't know how true that was…I mean, you're always hanging out…"  She took a deep breath.  "I didn't want to ask him if you were planning to."

            If Nita had been shocked before, it was nothing to how she felt now.  In an instant, Nita's vision of Katherine had changed.  She had gone from being the girl two seats behind Nita in math to the girl who wanted to steal Kit.

            Nita had, in the past, idly considered what it would be like when she and Kit started dating other people.  In the past, it had seemed like something far away, an indistinct nuisance that they would somehow manage to avoid or skip over.  But now, hearing Katherine's interest, the menace was much closer at hand.  Katherine was a nice girl, and Nita knew that the students in Kit's history class had bonded over a lot of funny moments and inside jokes that made no sense when Kit tried to explain them to Nita.  It wasn't like Katherine and Kit had nothing in common.  Kit could, conceivably, be as interested in Katherine as she was in him.

            Not if I have anything to say about it! Nita thought, and before she had a chance to do anything else, she said, "I'm sorry, Katherine.  I've been waiting for the right time to ask him."

            "Oh," Katherine said, "thanks for telling me."  And she got up and rejoined her friends.

            It was about then that Nita realized what she had just said.  Wanting to scream but miraculously controlling herself, she forced herself to think about what she had told Katherine.  It didn't get any better as she thought about it.  Not only had she said the unthinkable—she had meant it.  For that one moment, she had been completely truthful about her intentions.

            Nita let out a small moan, her head hitting the lunch table.  She didn't know what to do.  It looked to her like she had only one choice left.

            She would have to tell Kit.

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            Kit sagged against the wall outside the cafeteria door.  His mind was racing.  Had he just heard Nita say what he thought he had just heard Nita say?  And yet, how could he have mistaken her words?  He had been only yards away from her when she said them.

            This left only one thing: he had heard Nita say exactly what he had both hoped and dreaded she would say.  He had heard her admit that she liked him—or at least, that she intended to ask him to the school's Sadie Hawkins dance.  But at this moment, to Kit, the two were one and the same.

            His mind racing like a hamster on a wheel, and going about as far, Kit walked away from the cafeteria, suddenly not hungry.  He dropped by his locker to pick up the books he needed for his last classes of the day, performing the task without thinking about it.  There were other, more important things to think about.

            Okay, Kit thought, trying to calm down, let's look at the facts.  Nita had told Katherine that she planned on asking Kit to the dance only after Katherine had declared her intentions.  Maybe Nita had some reason for Kit not to go out with Katherine, and had lied to keep her from asking him.

            Immediately, Kit brushed this from his mind.  Nita was a wizard.  She couldn't lie, not without taking numerous risks.  Therefore, what she had said had been true.  She was planning to ask him to the dance.  She was waiting for the right moment.

            She liked him.

            Kit's insides turned, not sure what they felt about this.  Kit knew what he felt—at least, for the most part.  If there was any girl he would ever be interested in having a relationship with, it was Nita.  But he had never been sure of her feelings, and had always ignored his.  They were both young.  If that was to happen, there was plenty of time for it to happen in, and he had not worried about it.

            But now, faced with the prospect of Nita acting on her feelings, Kit was a little squeamish.  Another reason he had always had for mentally postponing any relationship between them was that he felt they were too young for it to last.  Nita was the one person he could imagine spending the rest of his life with, but he doubted that that would happen if the rest of his life began now.  Give it a couple more years as friends, he always thought.  He valued Nita dearly as a friend; he wanted it to stay that way, even if it meant nothing else came of it.

            And now she liked him.

            He sighed.  How is it, he thought, that I can manipulate space and time, visit alien planets, talk to animals, and continue to defeat the one who created death, all with minimal worry—and still be so worried about this?  Why?

            The answer was easier to find than he had thought it would be.  Because it's Nita I'm worried about.