Chapter 15 Crocness
It was another cold day so I wrapped up warm before going down for breakfast, everyone was there except for Nightingale and Kookaburra. I'd only been there for 5 minutes until they walked down the corridor, Kook seemed to be in a bit of a state, he had a cut on his bottom lip and left eyebrow, and a large bruise underneath his left eye.
"What happened to you Kook?" I asked concerned.
"Oh, erm...nothing, I just walked into a door that's all."
"It looks too bad for just one door." said Gildar. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say that you've been in a fight."
"Who would I have wanted to fight, there's no one here who I hate that much to beat up, and I'm not the kind of person who would fight someone for no reason."
Kook's injury got me worried, I was sure that he's been in a fight, ever since the king had spoken to him, he's been acting very different, so has Nightingale, they seem like rather good friends now, but is that really the truth? I asked a few of the others about it and they didn't know anything about the situation, the only people who would know would be Nightingale and Kookaburra, but would it be a very good idea if I actually asked them about it, they're most probably putting on a brave face.
Nightingale was walking to the lookout tower when I stopped her to ask her.
"Nightingale, can I ask you something?"
"Yeah sure."
"Do you still have a crush on Kookaburra?"
She smiled. "Yeah. Why do you ask?"
"It's just that you seem a bit too relaxed with the fact that the rules say that you can't really be together."
I wish that I hadn't said that as now Nightingale's smile transformed into a frown, she lowered her head and tears started to form in her eyes.
"Did you have to mention that?" she asked.
"Oh sorry, I didn't mean to hurt your feelings."
"No, it's alright."
"So, you still have a crush on him. I thought that you were over him seeing as you don't seem as distracted as you were."
"I wish that you guys would make your mind up on how you want me to be behaving, first you were concerned because I was distracted and now you're concerned because I'm not as distracted as i was, how do you want me to behave?"
"No it's nothing like that, I was just wondering, like a good friend would."
"Well thanks, no I'm not over Kook, I still like him, I'm just trying to not let him distract me, we're just good friends right now."
"Oh okay. That's all I wanted to know, sorry to disturb you."
I felt slightly ashamed with myself, I'd disturbed Nightingale and upset her in just a few minutes, some friend I must be. I went to my duty, Ballista and Faetal were talking about something, I wanted to know what it was, maybe it was about Nightingale and Kookaburra.
"What are you two talking about?" I asked.
"We just think that we know why Nightingale and Kookaburra are acting the way that they are." Faetal replied.
"Go on then."
"Well, we think that they may be dating anyway."
"What, behind everyone's backs, breaking the rules."
"Yeah, it's possible."
"No, Nightingale and Kook wouldn't do that, they're only friends."
"How do you know?"
"I've just been talking to Nightingale, she told me that her and Kook are just friends."
"Are you sure that she meant it, she may have been lying."
"No, she wouldn't lie, she's not the lying type, and anyway, they know what happens when you break the rules around here."
"What?"
"You get fired obviously."
When I thought about it, maybe Nightingale was lying, she's acting way too calm around Kook for them to be just friends, and if she still had a crush on him then maybe she'd be looking in his direction more often and would probably go red when he's around her or when he's talking to her, like she did before, I'm a bit suspicious.
Christmas soon arrived and we were all given a few days off, we sat around the tables in the great hall with our families, everyone's families were there, except for Kook's.
"Kook, where are your mum and dad?" I asked.
"They had to go back home, something important came up."
"Oh, okay."
"But they left me this before they left, mum told me not to open it until today."
Kook revealed something wrapped in light brown paper with a piece of string holding it all together.
"Why don't you open it now?"
"Yeah, I might as well."
He gently started to unwrap the parcel, when it was open he paused before pulling out a knitted woollen jumper, with his name stitched across the front. It was hard to keep in the laughter, it really wasn't his colour, it was bright red with a hot pink collar.
"It's, erm...very nice." I managed to say without laughing.
"Nice? It's hideous."
"Still at least you'll never forget your name." Gildar joked.
"Ha ha, very funny, not."
"Don't be so mean, your mum and dad got you that out of kindness." said Nightingale.
"Yeah, you're right."
Apart from Kook's little embarrassing present, the whole day was fantastic, we had our families beside us to wish us a Merry Christmas, and we also had each other, all of us now the best of friends, our families were going to be leaving the next day so we made the most of the time we had and spent as much time as we could together, after a very busy day I was exhausted and couldn't wait to get to bed.