"You bet!" Kayla said, though suddenly she was much less certain. I think I can deal with it, she thought. She'd thought quite a bit about it over the last three days, what it would be like to be back in school, meeting new kids and teachers. She hadn't felt nervous at all yesterday when Elizabet had taken her downtown to complete the foster parent paperwork. And then they had driven to the school so Kayla could register for classes. The school secretary had kept them waiting outside her office for ten minutes, but Elizabet only had to deliver a few seconds of what Kayla privately was starting to think of as The Eyebrow, a stern look that allowed no opposition, before the secretary quickly filed the forms, muttering something about needing Kayla's transcripts later. So now Kayla was a registered student at Laurel High School. And now, as of this morning, she was totally terrified.
It won't be so bad, she tried to tell herself. They're just kids like me. That thought stopped her. No, not like me. Not anymore. I don't think any of them can call magic with their hands or heal somebody or hear someone else's thoughts. I'm different now, totally different.
As if hearing her thoughts, Elizabet said, "Don't worry so much, child. It'll be fine. You'll see."
"Yeah, but what . . . what if I run into one of Carlos' guys or something? You don't seem to be worried about that, but there are a couple of street gangs out there who don't like me very much, remember?"
Elizabet walked to her closet, reaching inside for a blouse and skirt. "They did come by," Elizabet said. "Twice. But they haven't been back in several days."
"What?" Kayla asked, surprised.
"They came by when you were gone. From what you told me, my guess it that it was when you were in the elven lands. I think time moves a little differently there; you were there for only a few hours, but a week went by for the rest of us. Several boys pulled up in their cars at the foot of the driveway and sat there for a while. They came back, looked around, and always left without causing any trouble."
"I wish you'd told me that," Kayla muttered.
"I didn't think it mattered too much," Elizabet answered. "After all, they haven't been back in several days. And we have the LAPD keeping an eye on the house, while they get their warrants amd subpoenas together."
"But what if they come back?" Kayla asked. "What will we do then?"
"We'll deal with it then," Elizabet said, taking some pantyhose from her dresser drawer. "Go get some breakfast, child," she continued. "We'll have to get out of here in the next few minutes if we're to get you to the school on time."
Kayla was lost in her own thoughts as Elizabet drove. I wonder what kind of people I'm going to meet at the school? I wonder if there's going to be any good teachers? Like that teacher Ramon was telling me about. I wonder if . . .
"Stop that, child," Elizabet said from the driver's seat, not taking her eyes off the road.
"Stop what?" Kayla asked, surprised.
"I can sense the magic around you," Elizabet said. "When you worry, when you're not paying attention, you let your magic show. That's the real danger, child. You can't lose control of that, not for a minute. At home, you don't have to worry about it because I've taken steps to prevent any magic traces from leaking out. But if anybody is going to find you, it'll be because of your magic, not because of a street address."
"Yeah, right," Kayla said. She pushed all her worried thoughts away from her, concentrating on calmness, trying to find the burning fire inside her and quiet it down. Chill out in there, she thought, talking to the flickering blue flames as if the magic was a misbehaving child. Just chill out for a while. We'll probably do magic lessons again tonight. You'll get to do stuff then.
In the magic lessons, where Kayla was now learning to "hear" better, that was something that Elizabet had taught her, to think of the magic as a little child, somebody who wouldn't always do what she wanted but could be convinced if you talked fast enough. Her ability to hear people's thoughts and talk directly to Elizabet with her mind was getting better, as well. Maybe I'm finally starting to get the hang of this magic thing, she thought, and smiled.
"Well, here we are," Elizabet said, pulling into the high school parking lot. "Try not to raise too much hell on your first morning, will you, child?" She smiled at Kayla, who grinned back her. "I'll be waiting here at the end of your last class," Elizabet continued, "but now I'm going home and definitely going back to sleep."
"See you later," Kayla said, climbing out of the VW.
This is a great-looking school, she decided. Twenty million kids all running into their classes. And a few of them even have hair that's more punked out than mine. Not too many with this kind of cool leather jacket, though.