Chatoyant College Book 7: Upon What Soil

Chapter 40: Science and Magic

Dawn slowed down once they'd left the building, looking behind them, but Roe didn't seem to be following. She grinned at Corrie and Edie. "You think they're talking?"

"They better be," said Corrie, who was also grinning. "Who would have guessed, weird faerie magic bringing people together?"

"Everything at this school is because of weird faerie magic," Dawn said, shaking her head.

Edie smiled. "I don't know, I'd like to imagine that my French class has nothing to do with weird faerie magic. Though, that is where I met Marlin..."

"I'm sure it has nothing to do with magic otherwise," Dawn assured her quickly. "I mean, they can't control everything, can they?"

"Of course not," said Corrie. "Only a few of the professors are faeries anyway. Are we really going to talk to Professor Lal?"

"I thought it was a good idea," Dawn said. "If we can find her." She felt a guilty twist in her stomach. She knew she was avoiding going back to the dorm for now. She hadn't seen Rico since Friday morning and after what had apparently happened to her that night, she wasn't sure how to talk to him.

Edie nodded. "She has to know something about the craft fair. And what happened at the party."

It didn't look promising, though, as they approached the magic building. The lights were all out, and while it was a sunny day, quite nice for November, that didn't mean there was enough light inside for the professors to see by. Sure enough, when they went inside and knocked on the doors, they didn't receive a single answer. Corrie walked to the end of the hallway (Dawn did find it odd that the hall held so many more offices than there were teachers to fill them) and looked at the now-familiar last door. "Do you think we should ask her?" Corrie said, frowning at the door. "I'm sure she would know where Professor Lal is..."

"No, I don't think that's a good idea," Dawn said, shoulders slumping. "She's not supposed to help us, remember? Even if she did get Professor Lal for us, she might get in trouble—or we might—and Professor Lal will be annoyed anyway, because if she wanted students coming and asking her questions she'd be in her office. It's not as though this is urgent or anything."

"I think it's urgent," Edie said, frowning. "We don't know what Tom is doing, and we don't know what effects the dolls might have. Or if anything else from the craft fair has been affected."

Dawn shook her head. "There's nothing we can do about Tom or—what was his name? Elrath—that couldn't wait until Monday. And we do know what effects the dolls have, at least. As long as we're careful about everything else we got there, we should be fine. I'm not giving that dragon to Rico until his birthday, and I have it in a drawer for now. So even if it comes to life, it won't be able to do much damage." She tried to grin at the mental image of an origami dragon coming to life, but it was too possible to be funny. "You got something too, didn't you, Edie?"

Edie nodded slowly. "I got a little bag. I can't imagine... no," she said with a little, self-deprecating laugh, "I can definitely imagine what weird things a bag affected by faerie magic would do. I'll check inside it when we get back, and assuming nothing has spontaneously generated in there, I'll try putting something inside that I don't care about and see if anything happens to it."

"See, we don't need professors," Corrie said with a grin. "We just need the spirit of scientific discovery."

Dawn smiled. "I was about to say that science and magic don't mix, but I actually think Professor Lal would disagree with that one. Okay, let's head back, then."

Corrie yawned, leading the way back out of the building. "I think I'll take a nap. I'm exhausted."

"That's what happens when you stay up all night," Dawn said. "You... oh, crap, that's something else we should talk to Professor Lal about. The faerie ball."

Corrie groaned. "I'd rather not. But you're right, we should. Weren't we going to ask Tom about that? Do you want to go back and try again."

Dawn thought about Tom's expression just before he'd vanished up into the trees and shook her head. "Not today. I don't want to deal with him. Maybe if I see him again."

"He's probably still busy, anyway," said Edie. "Reading that guy the riot act." She swiped her card to open the door to Gilkey and they all headed inside and up the steps.

As they were reaching the fourth floor, they heard footsteps from above. They met at the landing—it was Rico. He grinned when he saw Dawn, and she automatically grinned back. All of a sudden she felt lighter. Even though she'd been dreading having to talk to him all day, seeing him immediately improved her mood. Maybe because she didn't have to be anxious anymore. "Hey, sweetie," he said, coming closer to take her hand. "I was just looking for you. Were you at the craft fair?"

"A little earlier," she said. "Um, I have to talk to you. Is Duncan in your room?"

"No, we have the place to ourselves," he said. "Come on." She smiled at her friends and waved them up the steps.