How wrong I was. But I didn’t find out until it was too late…
11
Late that night, I halfway woke to a strange cool, tickling sensation in my right ear. Thinking that maybe one of the chimelings had flown over and was licking me with its little tongue, I shook my head, trying to shoo it away.
“Go on,” I mumbled, waving a hand near my ear. “Go back to Jalli and leave me alone. I’m trying to sleep.”
“Hmm?” Megan murmured, turning over in the bed next to mine. “What’s that you’re saying, Emma?”
“Nothing.” The cool sensation had dissipated now and I was beginning to think it had all just been a dream. “Sorry—go back to sleep.”
“Mmm-kay,” Megan yawned and rolled over and I did the same.
I didn’t think any more about it until later…much later.
12
When I woke up, I had a kind of weird fullness in one ear—like I was getting a cold. I hate that stuffed-up feeling you get when you’re just getting sick and I sighed to myself as I got dressed. I really didn’t need a cold right now—I had a lot of classes to study for and I had taken on some extra shifts at the I Scream Diner because the slimy landlord who owned the apartment complex mom and I lived in, had raised the rent again.
Honestly, there just weren’t that many places to stay if you didn’t own your own house in Frostproof. And since the only other apartment complex the tiny town boasted had recently become a smoke-free building, we were stuck in the place we were currently at.
I wished, not for the first time, that my mom could give up her four-pack-a-day habit—not just for health reasons but for practical and monetary purposes too. If she could only quit, both our lives would be better.
But nicotine addiction is hard to kick. My mom had tried with the patches and gum before—both of which are even more expensive than cigarettes—and failed every time. She had even tried hypnosis once, but that hadn’t helped either. So we were stuck in the one apartment where she could still smoke and the landlord/owner knew it and continued to raise the rent.
Which meant I had to take more shifts at work. Which further meant I couldn’t afford to have a cold right now.
Isn’t it weird how your brain goes around in circles? Anyway, mine does.
I was so involved in thinking about my mom and worrying about getting sick, that I didn’t say a word to anyone as we got dressed and went up through the trapdoor and out into the Dining Hall. It wasn’t until we were seated and I was eating breakfast—which was scrambled eggs and not bad for a change—that I said anything at all that morning.
“You okay, Emmers?” Avery asked me as he sipped his morning coffee, filled with cream and sugar. “You’re awfully quiet this morning.”
“Maybe she’s just enjoying her breakfast,” Kaitlyn remarked. “It’s actually edible for once.”
I nodded at her and smiled in agreement.
“I like the eggs,” I said and then, for some reason felt compelled to add, “They’re good for your legs.”
“Huh?” Megan frowned. “Because of the protein or what? Or are they specifically good for your leg muscles? The way the Beta Carotene in carrots is supposed to be good for your eyes?”
I didn’t have an answer for that so I just shrugged. Anyway, Avery was already saying that the helpfulness of Beta Carotene for eye health had been way over exaggerated, so I was able to duck out of any further conversation.
It was weird, though—the thing I had said about eggs and legs—and I had no idea why I had said it.
Probably still just half asleep, I told myself, a bit uneasily as I finished my breakfast and waved goodbye to my Coven-Mates.
But in my next class, I got a brutal awakening.
13
My first period class that semester was US History and I was grateful it was. So far, the class had been a pretty easy ride and excellent for my GPA. Case in point, since it was February, we had been given the option of doing an extra credit assignment—an oral report on any prominent Black American we chose.
I’m all over any kind of extra credit—I need to keep my scholarship, after all—so I had been one of the first to sign up for the report. As my subject, I had chosen George Washington Carver—a prominent agricultural scientist who had been born around the time of the American Civil War.
Carver was responsible for all kinds of innovative farming methods but he was most famous for inventing all kinds of things from the common peanut, including such diverse products as flour, axle grease, hand lotion, ink, plastic, rubber, laundry soap, and even laxatives.
Which seems like a weird thing to get from something you generally just add to a candy bar, but whatever.