anyone else said: there was no way she was working with him. It was a matter of principle. She watched as Brenda raced up to him, but after a brief conversation, the demon slayer went away and Curtis continued to scan the room.
“Yes, but why?” Tyler craned his neck in confusion. “Is there something I should know?”
“She’s in denial,” Loni explained before lowering her voice and mouthing, “about Curtis.”
“Oh, is that all?” Tyler rolled his eyes before leaning across the table and swiping some of Emma’s uneaten dinner. “At least you got someone who knows how to use a sword. I got stuck with Glen Lewis, and tomorrow I have to let him show me how to slay an ogre. Only problem is that he never finishes his sentences because he forgets that Garry isn’t there to do it for him. Trust me, Curtis isn’t so bad.”
Emma kicked him in the shin.
“Ouch,” he protested. “Why did you do that?”
“It’s just, I thought you’d forgotten that Curtis Green is evil,” Emma informed him. “And if you like him so much, then why don’t you go and sit with him?”
“Because he’s leaving the cafeteria,” Tyler pointed out, and Emma let out a sigh of relief as she realized that after standing in the doorway and looking around for five minutes, he had indeed left the cafeteria and disappeared back out into the November evening.
“You know this isn’t going to work, don’t you?” Loni asked rhetorically as she pushed away the rest of her meal and Tyler instantly fell on it with a zeal she and Emma both ignored. “I mean, it’s not like we even go to a regular school where you can miss a few classes. This is Burtonwood, Emma, and that means you can’t run away from him forever.”
“I can while he has his leg in a cast,” Emma reminded her. “Anyway, until I change Kessler’s mind, there’s no way I’m going near Curtis in case he figures out my plan and tries to stop me.”
“You have a plan?” Tyler finished the rest of Loni’s dinner and looked up with interest.
“Well, it was to talk to Kessler, but since I can’t find him, I might have to come up with something else, and when I do, I don’t want Curtis nearby sticking his nose in it.”
“That’s it? Ruby, my five-legged pet cockroach has better plans than that.” Tyler raised an eyebrow, but before he could say anything else, Ryan Duncan came up to him and they started talking about some football game that they’d been betting on. Loni and Emma rolled their eyes and both stood up.
“So do you want to go to the gym?” Loni asked, but Emma shook her head and yawned.
“Actually, I might make it an early night.”
“Okay, well, I’ll see you in the morning. And Emma, try to remember that, according to your horoscope, you’re actually supposed to be having a good week.”
“Remind me to take cover when my stars say I’m going to have a bad week.” Emma only just resisted the urge to laugh as she said good night to her friend.
She jogged back toward her dorm. Normally she would’ve stopped and talked to the group of sophomores who were all sitting under an oak tree, but tonight she didn’t bother since they were probably talking about her. Instead, she hurried back to her room and halfheartedly pulled out her homework.
An hour later she decided to call it a night since apparently staring aimlessly at her homework wasn’t enough to get it finished. She was just about to turn off her laptop when her dad pinged her on IM.
She considered answering it for a moment before deciding to just call him in the morning. She’d promised after her accident that she’d update him every day about how she was doing, but she just didn’t feel up to it. Especially since, no matter how much he tried, it was impossible for him to understand what she was going through. Not just about her sore eye or even getting stuck with fairies, but because he was sight-blind.
As a rule sight-gifted people tended to stick together mainly because it was frowned upon to talk about elementals with civilians. However, it wasn’t actually illegal, and so when Emma’s parents had met and fallen in love, there was nothing to stop them from getting married. Plus, her dad had briefly worked at Burtonwood, which had made any explaining her mom had to do a little bit easier.