“It does taste good,” he chuckled when the kiss broke.
“Come on, let's get out of here,” Tamara said, taking his hand.
Chapter Thirteen
Tamara waited impatiently at the top of the fifth floor stairs, bouncing on the balls of her feet and bring her hands together again and again. It was only seven thirty, which meant she was early for meeting up with Hayden, but Tamara was anxious to get it over with. She checked her bag for the brown paper bag, which carried their purchases from Friday afternoon, for the seventh time, in as many minutes.
“Hey, you're early,” Hayden said from behind her.
“So are you,” she grinned, “Do you have the whisker?”
Hayden thought for a moment, “Man, I knew I was forgetting something,” he said, frowning and hanging his head, “I still have time to run home and get it, right? I'll be right back!”
“You can't be serious!” Tamara stomped her foot, “Hayden Bradley, you better be joking or I'm going to send you to Antarctica.”
“Was it that obvious?” Hayden laughed, pulling a small empty spice bottle from his coat pocket. “Chill out, it's in here.”
Tamara snatched the bottle from him and sprinted to room five eighty five.
“Someone's in a hurry this morning,” Hayden chuckled, following behind her.
“I just want this to be over with so I can get back to my normal life,” Tamara sighed, pushing open the door.
“What's that supposed to mean?”
“What's what supposed to mean?” Tamara asked.
“Back to your normal life.”
“Well, I won't be playing volleyball, so as normal as I can,” Tamara shrugged.
“Back to Amber and your other friends?” he asked.
“Well, since not many of them will speak to me right now, because of the loss of the Halloween dance, it would be nice,” she sighed, pulling the brown paper sack from her backpack.
“Fine,” Hayden sighed.
“What's up with you this morning?” Tamara crossed her arms.
“Nothing,” Hayden said, “Let's just get this done. I wouldn't want to keep you away from your normal life.” He walked ahead of her, stopping in front of Sir Bedivere's table.
“Hey,” she bumped into his shoulder playfully and pulled away, “What's wrong?”
“Nothing.”
“God, Hayden! Quit being such a girl. That's my job. If something's wrong then tell me.”
“Let's just get this done first. Do you have the rest of the stuff?”
“No, I'm just carrying around a brown paper sack because I think it's a cute accessory.”
Hayden laughed and the tension dissolved. Tamara poured the lemon drop rocket ships into the empty bowls that had previously held the milk and honey before setting the other items around the bowls.
“How's it look?” she asked, turning to Hayden.
“Nice,” he nodded.
“Are we cool?”
“Why wouldn't we be?” he asked.
“You're acting weird this morning,” Tamara said.
After a moment of silence Tamara took his hand, “Come on, we can go hang out with Amber and Josh. Maybe go somewhere for a quick breakfast, I was too nervous to eat this morning.”
When he hesitated to follow her, Tamara turned and pressed her lips against his, looking him in eye. He grinned against her lips.
“You okay, now?” she asked.
“Yeah,” he chuckled.
“Come on, back to normal life we go,” she laughed, leading him down the stairs.
Life wasn't back to normal yet, but Tamara was willing to fake it until it was. She chose to ignore the dirty looks of her ex-volleyball team mates and the vicious looks Cindy shot her way whenever they passed in the hall. She quietly enjoyed her first faerie-free week since the mess began when she and Hayden ate Sir Bedivere's apples.
“Come on, we've got to go or we'll be late and Amber might leave us,” Tamara whispered to Hayden towards the end of Friday's chess practice.
“Ah, let Greg give his speech, at least,” Hayden chuckled, “I have a car, remember. If we have to we can meet them at the restaurant.”
“Fine,” Tamara sighed, sliding back into her seat.
“This is it guys,” Greg said grimly. “Tommorrow's tournament will make or break our team. You heard the announcement at lunch today, if we don't kick butt tomorrow the school doesn't get a Halloween dance. We've pulled ourselves out of tight spots before. True, none of them were this tight, but I think we can do this. I do. We just have to put aside our personal problems and right now we all have plenty of them. They'll be time after the tournament to bicker and rant. For tonight, everyone get a good night of sleep and eat a good breakfast in the morning. Let's give Sir Bedivere his sweets and get out of here. Thank you, whoever retrieved the knight pieces.”