“I only have one more idea. Let's go somewhere to talk,” she said, tugging on his coat sleeve, “Don't you have a cap or something you could wear?”
“No, I don't even own a ball cap,” he said, walking beside her.
“Well, I think I have a black beanie in my locker. It'll have to do.”
“Thanks,” he said.
“So how did they?” she pointed to his hair.
“Don't point at it!” he snapped.
“Sorry.”
“They put something in my shampoo.”
“Well, at least it only took in some spots.”
“I look like I'm wearing the hide of a cross dressing cow on my head,” Hayden said.
“One second and we'll have a short term fix, anyway,” Tamara said, turning the combination lock to her locker.
Tamara dug through the bottom of her locker until she found the beanie she had put there at the beginning of the school year, in case of a bad hair day, and offered it to Hayden.
“Thanks,” he said, putting it on.
Tamara rose to her tiptoes and pulled it down over a patch of pink that was still showing. Her hand brushed against his cheek and he grinned at her.
“Thanks,” he said again.
“So I didn't sleep last night,” Tamara leaned back against the lockers, “and I had a lot of time on my hands and I think I put it to good use.”
“What do we now have a few faerie trap?” he asked, “Because I wouldn't mind catching the little..”
“No,” she cut him off, “Nothing like that. I doubt we could catch them even if we tried and if we did manage to catch just one of them it would just make them angier.”
“So what did you do all night?”
“I remembered what I read before the crow stole the book,” she grinned, “It said to leave them milk and honey.”
“We can get milk in the lunch room, but where the hell are we supposed to get honey?”
“At the store. We'll just have to survive another night and leave it in the morning.”
“I don't know if I want to risk another night of faerie wrath,” Hayden said.
“Well, you'll have to. Besides you didn't even believe they were real until last night.”
“Seeing is believing.”
“If you would have believed me to begin with maybe you wouldn't be wearing pink polka dots on your head.”
“Fair enough.”
“Bring some bowls tomorrow, okay?”
“Sure,” he frowned, tugging the beanie down as far as it would go when the bell rang.
Chapter Ten
Tamara examined the bowls carefully before placing them before Sir Bedivere. The statue's black eyes stared her down when her hand brushed against his wooden bust. She took a deep breath and coughed. The classroom smelled of sour grape lip gloss.
What, she thought, do the faeries live here?
“You don't even trust me to buy bowls that won't leak?” Hayden laughed. His forehead creased giving away his anxiety.
“I'm not leaving anything up to chance. I want this to be over with, for good,” Tamara said turning to her bag, “I had dad stop at the gas station this morning. The guy thought I was crazy when I asked where the honey was. He didn't even know they sold the stuff, but thankfully they did. At least in that luck was on our side.”
She handed the honey to Hayden and pulled out the milk, “Dump it all in there. I don't want them to say we cheated them.”
“Got it,” Hayden said, twisting off the top and pulling off the safety seal.
“And I'll pour the milk.”
“Of course you would take the easy job.”
“Yeah, I did,” she laughed, “but that's because I already gave up a lip gloss and had a dress ruined. Well, it might not be ruined, but still.”
“Fair enough,” he shrugged, “If you forget about my hair.”
“I haven't forgotten about your hair,” she said, stifling a giggle.
After she filled the bowl with milk she watched as the honey drizzled from the bear shaped bottle. This is going to take forever, she thought.
“We should have heated it up first,” Hayden laughed.
“Where would we have done that?”
“Maybe in the teacher's lounge.”
“Um. No,” Tamara shook her head, “I think we've broken enough rules for one school year and I'm not sure that I can breathe without pissing off the faeries.”
“I'm sure, it's okay to breathe,” he chuckled.
“I hope so,” she said, bumping into him.
“Hey, don't make me spill it.”
“I don't think it would be possible to spill that stuff. It's moving so slow you'd have time to juggle it in between drops. Maybe you could like lean it against the side of the bowl until it starts coming out.”