CHAPTER 5

Emma's POV

I walked in to Anik's room, collapsing onto his bed with a yawn. The black tiger sleeping on the floor stood up and stretched, wandering over and placing his head on my lap.

'Hey Kitty,' I teased, scratching his ears and he growled indignantly. Laughing, I reached into my bag and tugged out my homework.

'I met this guy called Edison today,' I began with a smile. Anik raised his head, suddenly looking alert.

'I actually found him quite sweet, once he stopped acting like a jerk.' I smirked. 'He also says he is an expert at scrabble. I'd like to see him beat me. He likes marshmallows, and is gluten free. Wait, are marshmallows gluten free?' I glanced at Anik, who did the equivalent of a shrug. 'You'll meet him soon, and you can decide for yourself. Don't ask me how I know all this by the way. Well, you can't really since you can't talk.' I put my pen down and stared at him. 'You know, it is really hard to have a conversation with someone who doesn't talk.'

'I'm sorry to interrupt but we need to have a conversation,' Kelsey said from the doorway just as I reopened my books. Anik glanced up and I frowned, immediately attentive.

'Sure. What's wrong?'

'Nothings wrong,' answered Ren, walking in. 'We just need to… discuss what we are going to do.' Anik looked at me, and I instantly knew what he was thinking.

'This summer,' Kelsey began, clarifying our thoughts, 'we are going to India.'

I pursed my lips but nodded, my chest tightened slightly as I inhaled deeply.

'The first step is to see Phet,' Ren continued. 'He will give you instructions on what to do next. We,' he said, glancing at Kelsey, 'are coming with you of course, but we suspect we won't be able to accompany you on the quests. That will be up to you. We have organised the trip with Emma's father already and he has agreed. We are going for three weeks.'

'Sounds great,' I said weakly. They all looked at me, and I rolled my eyes. 'I was joking.'

'So… basically just act as if everything is normal for the rest of the year,' Kelsey aimed at me. 'Anik will have the rest of the time off school, watching Lord of the Rings marathons and catching up on episodes of Star trek.'

I grimaced as my heart twinged with sympathy. Poor tiger, I thought. Cooped up in the house all day with nothing to do but watch T.V. I scratched behind Anik's ears affectionately and he licked my hand in return.

'So that's that,' Ren concluded, standing up to leave. 'We have been thinking about taking Anik away for a couple weeks to the mountains, so he's not locked up all day, but nothing has been finalised. As Kells said, just try and act as if everything is normal. Emma, any questions, feel free to ask us. We are always here.'

'And don't stay up too late,' Kelsey added typically. I nodded and smiled as they left, exhaling deeply. Anik immediately morphed into human form and I quickly averted my eyes, feeling a lurch of nausea. Not used to that just yet.

He lay beside my on the bed, grabbing my hand in his, tracing small circles on my palm. I stared at my best friend, wondering why this had to happen to him.

I walk into the biology classroom and sigh when I saw Edison sitting at our lab bench. He had dark circles under his eyes, and he smiled at me wearily.

'Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight! For I never saw true beauty till this night,' Edison quoted softly and I blushed.

'Thanks Romeo and Juliet!' I exclaimed, widening my eyes as I sat down next to him. He shrugged.

'I know,' he answered. 'I was up all night reading it.'

'May I ask why?' I asked with a disbelieving laugh. 'Who stays up all night reading Shakespeare plays?'

'Me,' he replied. 'Because you said you like Shakespeare. I thought the most well-known love-tragedy was a good place to start.'

I stared at him, speechless. Edison grinned at my incredulous expression.

'So what did you think?' I questioned as soon as I had recovered from my initial shock.

'That Romeo was stupid. He didn't deserve Juliet, but everything would have been so much easier if he confessed their love to both families. Keeping it a secret was his downfall.'

'You didn't like the romance of it?'

'Of course I did. But like I said, he didn't deserve her.'

'You think deserving one another is relevant as long as they both love each other?' I countered, resting my chin on my palm. Edison just smiled.

'I'm just saying he was a foolish man.'

'Love makes us all do stupid things, in strange ways.'

'Love is strange, afterall.'

Hey beautiful people what did you think? Please comment in the review box! Thank you! Who else reads these series over and over again or am I just extremely obsessive? Any way, all rights to Colleen Houck, the best author in the world!