The Golden Lily

That quirky smile of hers returned. "We prefer the term coven, not witch club. Though that does have a nice ring. But, to answer your question, I don't get anything out of it - at least, not in the way you're thinking. My coven can always use strong members, and you have the potential for greatness. It's bigger than that, however. Your perennial argument is that it's wrong for humans to have this kind of power, right?"

"Right," I said through gritted teeth. I'd made that argument a million times.

"Well, that's absolutely true - for some humans. You worry this power will be abused?

You're right. It happens all the time, which is why we need good, moral people who can counter those who would use the magic for selfish and nefarious reasons." The bell rang, freeing me. I stood up and gathered my things together. "Sorry, Ms. Terwilliger.

I'm flattered that you think I'm such an upstanding person, but I'm already caught up in one epic battle of good versus evil. I don't need another." I left our session feeling both troubled and angry and hoped the next two months of this semester would speed by. If this Alchemist mission continued into next year, then creative writing or some other elective would become a very viable choice for my schedule. It was a shame too because I'd really loved Ms. Terwilliger when I first met her. She was brilliant and knew her subject area - history, not magic - and had encouraged me in that. If she'd shown the same enthusiasm for teaching me history as she did magic, we wouldn't have ended up in this mess.

My dinners were usually spent with Julia and Kristin or "the family." Tonight was a family night. I found Eddie and Angeline already at a table when I entered East's cafeteria, and as usual, he seemed grateful for my presence.

"Well, why not?" Angeline was saying as I sat down with my tray. It was Chinese food night, and she held chopsticks, which seemed like a bad idea. I'd tried to teach her how to use them once, with no luck. She'd gotten angry and stabbed an eggroll so hard that the sticks had broken.

"I just... well, it's not my thing," Eddie said, clearly groping for an answer to whatever her question was about. "I'm not going at all. With anyone."

"Jill will be there with Micah," pointed out Angeline slyly. "Won't you need to come keep an eye on her since it's not at the school?"

Eddie's answer was a pained look.

"What are you talking about?" I finally asked.

"The Halloween Dance," said Angeline.

That was news to me. "There's a Halloween Dance?"

Eddie dragged himself from his misery to give me a surprised look. "How do you not know? There are signs everywhere."

I stirred around my steamed vegetables. "They must not be anywhere I've been." Eddie gestured with his fork to something behind me. Turning, I looked back toward the food line I'd just been in. There, hanging above it on the wall, was an enormous banner that read HALLOWEEN DANCE. It listed the date and time and was decorated with badly drawn pumpkins.

"Huh," I said.

"How can you memorize entire books but miss something like that?" asked Angeline.

"Because Sydney's brain only records 'useful' information," Eddie said with a smile. I didn't deny it.

"Don't you think Eddie should go?" pushed Angeline. "He needs to watch out for Jill. And if he goes, we might as well go together."

Eddie shot me a desperate look, and I tried to find him a way out of this. "Well, yeah, of course he'll go... especially if it's off-site." The banner mentioned some venue I'd never heard of. We'd seen no sign of the Moroi who were after Jill, but an unknown place presented new dangers. Inspiration hit. "But that's the thing. He'll be on-duty. He'll spend the whole time checking the place out, watching for mysterious people. It'd be a waste for him to, uh, go with you. You probably wouldn't have much fun. Better to go with someone else."

"But I should be protecting Jill too," she argued. "Isn't that why I'm here? I need to learn what to do."

"Well, yeah," he said, obviously trapped by her logic. "You'll have to go with me in order to look after her."

Angeline brightened. "Really? Then we can go together!" Eddie's look of pain returned. "No. We're going together. Not together." Angeline didn't seem to be fazed by the nuances. "I've never been to a dance," she admitted.

"Well, I mean, back home, we have them all the time. But I don't think they'll be like the ones here."

That I agreed with. I'd seen the types of social events the Keepers had. They involved raucous music and dancing around bonfires, along with some kind of toxic homemade alcohol that probably even Adrian wouldn't touch. The Keepers also didn't think a social event was a success if at least one fight didn't break out. It was actually kind of amazing that Angeline hadn't gotten into one yet here at Amberwood. I should have counted myself lucky that her only transgressions were dress code violations and talking back to teachers.

"Probably not," I said neutrally. "I don't know. I've never been to a dance either."

"You're going to this one, aren't you?" asked Eddie. "With Brody?"

"Brayden. And I don't know. We haven't even had our second date. I don't want things to move too fast."

"Right," Eddie said. "Because there's no bigger sign of commitment than a Halloween dance."

I was about to get him back by suggesting maybe he and Angeline should go together after all when Jill and Micah joined us. Both were laughing and had a hard time settling down to explain what was so funny.

"Janna Hall finished a men's suit in sewing club tonight," said Jill between giggles. Once again, I felt a rush of joy at seeing her so happy. "Miss Yamani said it's the only guy's outfit she's seen in there in five years. Of course, Janna needed a model, and there's only one guy in there..."

Micah attempted a tormented look but was quickly smiling again. "Yeah, yeah. I did the manly thing and stepped up. That suit was awful."

"Aw," said Jill. "It wasn't that awful - okay, it really was. Janna didn't try to go by any size guidelines, so the pants were huge. Like, tents. And since she didn't make any belt loops, he had to hold it all up with a sash."

"Which barely held when they made me do a runway walk," said Micah, shaking his head.

Jill gave him a playful nudge. "Everyone probably would've loved if it hadn't held."

"Remind me to never ever sign up for an all-girls club again," said Micah. "Next semester, I'm taking something like shop or karate."