Eduardo y Ravena

By Jeune Ecrivain

Summary: Just when Eddie is realizing new feelings for Raven, she gets another psychic cold.

Rating: PG

Part 3

Eddie Thomas strutted triumphantly out of his Spanish class, apparently quite pleased with himself. He victory-danced his way to his locker, where Chelsea eyed him in puzzlement. "Uh,…Eddie," she said. "What's got you all dancy?"

Eddie chuckled. "You mean why am I bailando en la escuela!" he declared, holding up the test he had just gotten back from Señorita Rodríguez. "B-plus, mi amiga!"

Chelsea smiled brightly and grabbed the paper. "What? Eddie, that's great! Felicitaciones!"

"Muchas gracias," replied Eddie proudly, taking back the paper and beaming at it like a little boy. His smile then turned from proud to warm. "And I owe it all to Raven."

"Well, hey, I helped," Chelsea protested.

"Oh, right. Thanks, Cheals," Eddie responded.

"De nada," said Chelsea, giving him a satisfied smile as she turned back to her locker.

"Speaking of Rae, where is she?" asked Eddie, looking around the halls.

"Oh, that's right. She probably didn't get a chance to tell you," observed Chelsea.

"Tell me what?"
"Raven has a really bad cold and she went home about an hour ago."

"Oh, man!" exclaimed Eddie. "I was really looking forward to showing her my B-plus."

"Well, duh, Eddie. I'm pretty sure she's still conscious," quipped Chelsea. "I'm sure it would lift her spirits if you stopped by after school and showed her. She's probably still stewing about that algebra test she's going to miss."

"Right. She was talking about that earlier when she was helping me get ready for this test."

"I think it'll be okay, though. Mr. Fredders isn't as much of a stickler as he'd like us to think he is."

"Ain't that the truth," Eddie remarked with a role of his eyes.

Chelsea laughed, then her eyes lit up as a tall, handsome boy with beach-blond hair approached her. "Hey, Ben!" she said, a trace of flirtation in her voice.

"Hi, Chelsea," Ben replied. "I've…uh…been wondering…Would you go to the Valentine's Day dance with me?"

Chelsea smiled warmly. "Sure! I'm surprised you even had to ask. We pretty much figured out how we felt about each other with that whole Rayne Bow concert fiasco."

Ben opened his mouth to respond, but a vision stopped him. He turned to face Eddie. "You don't…have any feelings for Chelsea, do you?" he asked somewhat awkwardly, hoping that he had somehow misunderstood the vision he had just had so that he wouldn't have some hefty interpersonal drama to deal with.

"What!" Eddie replied, surprised and taken aback at the idea. "No! Of course not! What gave you an idea like that?"

"I just had a vision of you saying to someone 'Look, we've been friends for a long time, and I don't want to ruin that. But I can't help that I feel something more for you.'"

Eddie let out a nervous chuckle. "Well,…uh…it wasn't Chelsea, if that's what you're thinking." He avoided eye contact with both Ben and Chelsea, unsure of whether or not he wanted either to be aware of his feelings for Raven but knowing he had to reassure Ben that he wasn't looking to enter into competition for Chelsea's affections.

"But it was someone you've obviously known for quite a while," Ben observed.

"Is it…Loca?" Chelsea guessed.

"No!" Eddie said automatically, grabbing his arm protectively at the mere thought of the tallest member of Alana's posse. He instantly regretted his response, because he had inadvertently narrowed the possibilities to virtually one person He sighed, realizing it was no use now. "It's Raven," he admitted reluctantly.

Chelsea arched her eyebrows. "Raven? You have feelings for Raven? Our psychic Raven Baxter?"

"Yeah. Is that so hard to believe?" replied Eddie, his tone sounding somewhat defensive of Raven's romantic appeal. "I mean, I didn't expect to feel this way about her either, but now that I do, I'm starting to wonder what took me so long."

"Oh, sounds like you're in love!" Chelsea teased.

"Yeah, man. Good luck with that. I know the whole friends-to-lovers thing can be tricky," said Ben.

"You don't know the half of it. I'm going to try to ask her to the dance, but I'm still not if I want to take the chance. Our friendship means a lot to me."

"Aww!" cooed Chelsea. "That's really sweet!"

Just then, the bell rang for the last class of the day. "I guess I'll see you guys tomorrow," said Eddie. "I'm going to stop by at Raven's and show her my test. Hopefully it'll make her feel better."

"Alright," responded Chelsea. "Bye, Eddie."

Eddie walked away, books under his arm.

"So, Chels," said Ben. "Is Raven sick or something?"

"Yeah," Chelsea confirmed as she started towards class. "She has a bad cold." No sooner were the words out of her mouth than she stopped dead in her tracks and her eyes grew wide.

Ben approached her. "What's wrong, Chelsea!"

"I forgot to tell Eddie Raven has a psychic cold!"

"The kind that makes you telepathic?" asked Ben.

"Uh-huh," Chelsea answered, an expression on her face that could best be translated as "What have I done!"

"Well, we gotta get to class," Ben observed reluctantly. "Maybe you can catch him before he goes over to her house."

"I hope so," Chelsea replied.