Chapter Thirty-Six
After a blissful morning, I managed to almost arrive on time.
A bus was parked in my usual spot, making way for students filing onto it for a field trip.
I shuddered, putting my cigarette out and whipping into a further space.
Chaperoning squirrely kids on the last day?
No, thank you. It was bad enough filling the time in classes after final exams and grades had been completed.
There was literally nothing to do the few remaining days before summer break, so I had become a glorified babysitter until that final bell rang.
Admittedly, I walked with a bit of a swagger to my classroom.
Whether that came from the jolt of excitement Milo had left me with or the fact his morning fuck left me sore, I couldn’t tell.
Either way, I hoped we’d have more mornings like this.
More afternoons. Evenings. Late nights. Everything, honestly.
My students were plastered against the wall, huddled close to the door, sighs on their faces and annoyance in their thoughts .
“What are we doing today?” Gael asked, sporting rainbow-colored hair for Pride Month in his usual spiky style. Speaking of spikes, He’d even painted a few that lined his arms to represent different queer flags.
“We’re going to finish the movie from yesterday, and I brought a few more for you all to pick from.” I opened the door and reached into my satchel, proudly displaying the selection I had. Sure, a few whined over the biopics, but once they settled in, most enjoyed the films.
Gael maintained a tight, strained smile not wanting to burst my bubble that he found the movies grueling.
“Ugh.” Gael Rios-Vega, on the other hand, collapsed on top of his desk, dramatically displaying his defeat at my horrible choices. “I can’t do it again. These movies should be banned. You should be charged for cruel and unusual punishment, Mr. Frosty.”
His rooster hopped on his back, crowing loudly to share in Gael’s protest.
Fuck off, King Clucks.
“They’re entertaining.” I loved these films. They were historically accurate and filled with exceptional acting.
Honestly, given all the content I had to cover this year, it was a shame we didn’t have time for more of these movies.
We’d spent this entire week watching them and had only gotten through half the collection.
“Why can’t we do something fun?” Gael groaned.
“I think the movies are fun.” Caleb smiled.
“Shush,” Katherine said.
“Other classes are in the auxiliary gym.”
“ I wanna go on the cast race. ” “They’ve got games.”
“Some homerooms are in the auditorium, too.”
“That could be fun.”
“ Actually, watching good movies. ”
“Even Mr. Peterson’s having a class party.”
“ They’re all so fucking annoying. ”
“Mrs. Whitehurst took her class to the Shedd Aquarium.”
“ I wish I was in her homeroom. ”
“If I sit in this class all day again, I might literally die.”
“Ba-ba-bawk.”“ My signal sucks in here. ”
So help me, Milo was right. I should’ve planned something fun.
The three days before the school year ended, admin always changed the schedule, so we spent that time exclusively with our homerooms since finals and grades were completed.
Usually, I’d train my students to a state of exhaustion and then send them on their summer breaks relieved.
However, given the year they had, the year I had, I aimed for something lighter.
If I’d taken Chanelle up on her offer to join her damn field trip, maybe they’d be less whiny.
Honestly, I didn’t have the emotional energy to invest into considering anything this last month.
It probably wasn’t too late to drag them to the auxiliary gym or auditorium, though.
I cleared my throat, quieting their voices and dulling their thoughts. “How about we vote on which you all would—”
Someone knocked on the door and immediately invited themselves inside. Rude, much.
“Hope you didn’t get started without me.” Milo winked, floating a dozen pizza boxes behind him while simultaneously rearranging empty desks into a makeshift table. “I see someone forgot to do the setup for me.”
“ Enchanter Evergreen. ”
“ Mr. Frost invited him. Yes! Okay, play it cool. ”
“ Oh. My. Fucking. Goddess. Think we should ask for another selfie? ”
“Cluck!” “ You’re right, we’ll just sneak some selfies. ”
“ Hell yeah! ”
“ Pizza? Hope he got something vegan. ”
“ He must really love these historic flicks too. So cool! ”
“ Why the hell is this showboat buzzkill annoying asshat here? ”
“ He must’ve seen the horrors Mr. Frost was inflicting… ”
“ Enchanter Evergreen saved us! ”
“ Anything beats another film. ”
Seriously? I could’ve shown up with a pizza if I realized this was a damn competition. I tuned out my students, linking to Milo’s mind.
“ Figured you might need some last day backup, call it a hunch, ” he thought.
“ You can’t just waltz in here. ”
“ I’m Enchanter Evergreen. I can pretty much waltz wherever I want, but… ” He tapped the visitor pass taped to his chest and smirked. Great. Not one person in the office bothered checking with me that he’d come to visit. “ I can totally leave if you’d prefer. ”
Between the eager expressions on my students’ faces and the slightly somewhat kind of a little bit bearable ideas for entertainment Milo had floating in his head, I caved.
Begrudgingly, I waved him into the room and watched Enchanter Evergreen’s three biggest fanboys fawn over him as they assisted in bringing in more goodies Milo had brought.
Both Gaels helped carry in the cooler of drinks and snacks.
Caleb carried in boxes of casting games Milo just happened to have on hand.
Nope. He’d gone and bought these, believing they’d be enjoyed. Damn clairvoyants.
I took the backseat in my own classroom as Milo floated through the classroom, literally levitating, and arranging game stations while the kids ate and laughed and talked his ears off with countless questions about the industry, warlocks, the demon attack, and a million other randomly blurted thoughts or ideas .
Gael stole an entire box of veggie vegan pizza.
“Share,” Layla snapped.
“I am shurring,” Gael said with a mouthful of half-chewed pizza.
“You’re fucking gross,” Melanie hissed.
“Cl-cluck.”
Layla and Melanie cringed at the puffed rooster, which made Gael snort, spitting sauce and goopy crumbs on the floor. Disgusting. I had no energy for it.
Tara strolled behind Gael and King Clucks, telekinetically waving away the box of pizza from the desk.
Gael gasped. “The betrayal.”
“Ba-bawk!”
“Tara, you’re breaking King Clucks’ heart,” Gael said. “You can’t just take our pizza.”
I perched against the wall by the window to enjoy the show unfolding before me but noticed a much subtler performance outside.
Icicles lined the top of the window. Sure, Chicago had unbearably cold winters that seemed to stretch on forever, but there was no way we would get a cold snap this strong during our hellishly humid summers.
The weighted blocks Tara used sat idle at her desk, seemingly unused. The symbols etched on each of the sides glowed and dimmed, dependent on the branch magic Tara cast. The magic she trained even discreetly.
I shared a silent joy in how she continued growing and improving.
Developing a fourth branch wouldn’t derail the strides she’d made so far with her other three.
In fact, I could feel excitement leaping out, high above her ocean of sorrow, invigorating her with a new game plan on everything she planned on accomplishing over the summer.
Though part of the happiness radiating off her might’ve come from her obnoxious bestie on his knees beside a woeful rooster, each begging her not to give Layla or Melanie a slice of the pizza .
“Enchanter Evergreen brought this pizza especially for me and King Clucks.”
“Did he now?” Tara cocked her head, half-grinning and fighting back an all-consuming smile. “That’s weird. I don’t see either of your names on it.”
“He brought this for everyone.” Layla transformed into her therianthropy form, used her giant stature to snatch the box, and then chomped down onto two slices of pizza before tossing the box to Melanie.
“Thank you.” Melanie took the last slice.
“I’m going to die.” Gael collapsed onto the floor. “Tara, how could you?”
“Cl-cl-cluck!” King fucking Clucks mimicked Gael, each sprawled on the floor feigning death.
“ Enchanter Evergreen, ” I thought to Milo, pulling him from a card game he’d set up. “ You need to control your classroom. ”
“ Oh. ” He beamed. “ On it. No worries. None at all. Easy fix. ”
While Milo attempted to cheer up Gael and King Clucks, I went over to the card game he’d abandoned between Jamius, Carter, Yaritza, and Jennifer.
Yaritza had a winning hand but didn’t realize it because Milo hadn’t properly explained the rules to her before racing off to wrangle the chaos of kids.
Jamius had such a confident smile I almost mistook him for one of his clones until the depth of thoughts revealed themselves in the well of his inner core.
It’d taken time, but he finally found himself branching out and trying to be the person he envisioned himself as when creating the confidence in his duplications.
It helped that he had a cocky Carter next to him. “I’m telling you, she’s bluffing one hundred percent.”
“You sure?” Jamius raised his eyebrows, studying Jennifer’s unfazed expression .
“Definitely.” Carter grinned. “But it’s important when playing against Jen, you’ve gotta keep your poker face strong in your head as much as on your face.”
“Right.” Jamius nodded. “Her empathic magic is like a built-in bluff detector.”
“Wait? I thought we were playing Enchanter Roulette.” Yaritza sighed. “I don’t know the first thing about poker.”
“It’s an expression,” Carter said, his gaze shifting and locking onto Jennifer, who remained completely neutral, making it impossible to gauge where her head was.
He believed she’d quieted her branch so she could keep cool.
In truth, I saw the aura of each of them.
Jennifer’s emotions mimicked Carter’s excitement.
Not in an unintentional empathic way where his emotions overwhelmed her branch, but more in a way where Jennifer sought to feel his sensations, his confidence—and his arrogant smirk as he tried to manipulate everyone into thinking he had a winning hand. He did not have a winning hand.
I was happy to see a bit of the old Carter returning, cockiness and all. Jennifer was about to burst that cocky bubble with a third winning hand in a row, so I let the group be.
In the back of the classroom, Kenzo stood propped against the wall, observing Gael use his spikes to help Katherine with a casting fishing game Milo had brought. Caleb approached, offering Kenzo a can of orange soda.
“Saw this was the last one and know you like—”
“Whatever.” Kenzo snatched the can.
Caleb sulked, turning to join the others.
“I never thanked you,” Kenzo said, much to my surprise.
“Huh?”
“For helping Gael when the gorgon showed up. He said you were really fast on your feet. ”
Caleb ran a hand through his short hair, curls slightly grown back, and he nervously grimaced. “It wasn’t the best plan.”
“Not surprising. You have a lot of terrible ideas and overthink everything.” Kenzo cracked open the can. “It’s annoying as fuck.”
Caleb’s face twisted, unsure how to respond, if he should, or if he should politely walk away.
“Also, maybe you do belong here or whatever.” Kenzo guzzled the drink to keep a hundred nicer thoughts to himself.
“Thanks, Kenny… Kenzo.” Caleb smiled.
“Stop smiling, weirdo.”
“Sorry,” he said, bright-eyed and happy.
“Seriously, you look like some sick fuck. Wipe that smile off your face, you creepy prick.”
“It’s just... This is the first time you’ve acknowledged I belong here. You haven’t said anything like that since way back when we first started considering Gemini Academy.”
There was a stilled silence between them, a quiet memorial of memories both boys shared for Kenzo’s mother and father, the life they had, the friendship they’d built over years of trust and love, and then the horrible day that broke their bond.
An outburst that Kenzo fueled for years, clinging to in order to move forward.
A memory Caleb held onto, reminding himself even the best people sometimes needed time.
“You’re still second rate and bound to fail out next year.” Kenzo pressed the empty can against Caleb’s chest and walked away.
“See you at the finish line, Kenny.”
Kenzo stuffed his hands in his pockets and stormed toward Gael, immediately complaining he was holding the fishing rod incorrectly.
“It’s just a game.” Gael beamed.
“You’re not losing to this know-it-all.” Kenzo snatched the fishing rod and challenged Katherine to the game, thoughts lost on all the things he wanted to say to Caleb but realized he was too weak to admit.
Static sparked, and Kenzo’s mind went silent.
Not sure I could call that progress, but it was something.
I spent the rest of the day moving around, helping students with games, and enjoying the simple happiness bubbling along their surface thoughts.