Page 17

AVERY

W ell, I don’t know what Megan did to the “Good Manners” spell, but she certainly didn’t break it. In fact, if anything, she somehow made it worse.

In the period after lunch, Armand Garcia told me my hair looked nice—“really soft and pretty” to use his words—and actually asked if he could touch it!

I politely declined but I won’t deny I was definitely a bit freaked out.

The period after that, Javier Alvarez asked me what I was doing that weekend and if I wanted to “hang out” sometime. He also gave me some flowers he’d picked—as though I was a girl he was asking out on a date.

And the gifts didn’t stop there. After that, Pedro Del Campo gave me a present he said he’d made himself—a batch of lumpy, chocolate chip cookies he must have gone to the Home Ec room to bake.

They weren’t very appetizing, since he had burned half of them, but he had found a heart shaped box somewhere and tied it up with a big, pink bow.

“I hope you like them,” he said, looking at me bashfully from the corner of his eye as he handed me the box, which had an enormous grease stain on the bottom where all the cookies had clumped together.

“I never baked for anybody before but you’re so nice, Avery—I wanted to do something special for you. ”

“Um…thank you.” I took the box but dumped it the first chance I got when he wasn’t looking.

Oh, yes—the spell was definitely getting stronger.

The Drakes who hated me weren’t just being polite to me now, they were going out of their way to be extra sweet and thoughtful, as though every one of them was my best friend or someone who wanted to go out with me.

There were going to be terrible consequences for this day’s actions, I could tell.

Though their smiles were friendly, I could imagine the anger seething under the surface.

Not only was Megan’s magic forcing them to be nice to the gay boy they hated, it was making them act like they were interested in a much more than friendly way.

I had a very bad feeling that I was going to be paying for this later.

I thought about trying to track my Coven mate down and asking her to try and take off the spell again.

Maybe this time I would go with her and help her a bit.

Megan was an incredibly powerful witch—the most powerful witch in many generations, in fact.

But she was still extremely inexperienced and I suspected she could use some help with the finer details of the “little magic” she was trying to work with.

I was in Study Hall by that time. But before I could raise my hand and ask for a hall pass to go looking for her, there was a knock at the door and then none other than Juan Gonzales himself entered the classroom.

“Oh, Mr. Gonzales!” Ms. Yasmeen, who taught Elementary and Advanced Casting as well as several other magic classes, looked up at the big Drake in surprise.

Apparently she had drawn the short straw and was stuck overseeing Study Hall that day.

“What are you doing here?” she asked, looking up at him blankly.

“I don’t think you’re on the Study Hall list.” She scanned a piece of paper with the names of students who were allowed to be there and shook her head.

“No, you’re not on the list—what do you want? ”

Indeed, I could see that most of the other students were wondering the same thing.

Study Hall was pretty full that day, with at least forty students in attendance and all the different kinds of Others were represented.

I saw Faes and Sisters and Nocturnes, as well as a big bunch of Drakes, sitting near the back of the classroom.

I, myself, had sat at the front of the class, for precisely that reason.

A few of them had already smiled and waved at me and I wanted to keep as far from them as I possibly could to try and keep the magic in check.

I didn’t need anyone else asking me out on a date or giving me flowers or cookies or doing anything else that would make them want to punch my face in as soon as the Good Manners spell came off.

“What I want,” Juan Gonzales said loudly, “Is Avery Connor.” He pointed at me with one blunt, stubby finger and since I was sitting right in the front row, he didn’t have far to point.

“Well, I don’t think—” Ms. Yasmeen began.

“I wrote him a poem,” Juan continued. He was staring longingly at me in a way I really didn’t like. Like a lovesick puppy or a desperately yearning lover.

“A poem?” Ms. Yasmeen said blankly.

“Yes, a poem. And I’m going to recite it to him right now,” Juan said, nodding and never taking his eyes off my face.

Then, right in front of the entire classroom, the big, bulky Drake dropped to one knee in front of me and began to recite.

“Hair of gold and eyes of blue

A heart of love, I have for you.

Lovely Avery, sweet and fine,

I want to make you mine, all mine!”

Oh no! I could barely restrain a groan. It was a love poem and Juan was reciting it to me in front of the entire classroom. He would never live this down—and he would doubtless make it his personal mission to pay me back for it.

But he wasn’t done yet. Clearing his throat, he continued with his extremely dubious effort at poetry.

“Cheeks as white and fine as linen,

Between the sheets, we’ll soon be sinnin’

An ass so cute I want to squeeze,

A gorgeous guy I want to please!”

At this point I wanted to point out that you really couldn’t rhyme “linen” with “sinning” but I was too horrified to do anything but watch as Juan went plowing on while the class sat in stunned silence, all eyes fixed on the way he was kneeling before me.

At any rate, I had a feeling we were about to reach the grand finale.

And sure enough, Juan seemed to be winding down.

He threw out his arms and looked me right in the eyes as he recited,

“Skin that needs my soft caress,

A body I will soon undress.

Lips as red as berry wine,

Avery Connor, will you be mine?”

At that point, the entire class broke up into hysterical laughter.

Jeering and hooting could be heard coming from every direction and people were pointing and whispering and talking behind their hands.

They were also taking pictures on their cell phones of Juan kneeling there.

Castle Nocturne messes with most technology but the Study Hall room happens to be one of the classrooms with the least magical interference.

I wouldn’t be surprised if someone had captured the entire poetic performance, which they would probably post all over social media as soon as they could.

I sat there, feeling almost as embarrassed as Juan—well, no, probably not. He was going to be completely humiliated by this little stunt and once the spell came off him I was going to be in trouble.

“Excuse me, Mr. Gonzales—is this a joke?” Ms. Yasmine demanded at last, when some of the laughter died down and she could be heard. “Because if so, it’s not a very funny one.”

“No joke!” Juan insisted. Rising from his knees, he looked down at me. “I’m in love with Avery and he’s gonna be my boyfriend,” he announced.

This caused the class to break into fresh laughter while I winced inwardly. Goddess, this was going from bad to worse! I’d be lucky if Juan didn’t murder me after this little performance!

“Mr. Connor, do you know anything about this?” Ms. Yasmeen asked, frowning in my direction.

Mutely, I shook my head. I didn’t want to get Megan in trouble, though of course she had certainly gotten me into it.

“Mr. Gonzales, I think you’d better go,” Ms. Yasmeen said sternly.

Juan got a mutinous look on his face.

“Nuh-uh!” he insisted. “Not until Avery says he’ll be mine!” He looked down at me. “Will you, Avery? Can I be your boyfriend?”

“This has gone far enough!” Ms. Yasmeen stood up and thumped on her desk with one hand. She pointed a finger at the door. “Mr. Gonzales, leave immediately or face the consequences, which I assure you will not be pretty.”

Finally, Juan turned away, an angry look on his lumpish face. He was almost through the doorway when he turned back for a moment to look at me.

“I love you, Avery!” he said, which caused a fresh burst of giggles in the room.

Then, mercifully, he stepped out the door of Study Hall and was gone.