Chapter Nineteen

No one else really knew what happened after Dianna ran away; but when I explained it, I was praised. Even so, Ryan seemed rather quiet, even for him. He was on a look-out for other crazies, or something was wrong. Derek was the life of the party today, which is also out of character. Here's how it all went down: all three of us looked to the ground where I threw the ring. Derek looked to me. "Where have you been, Stel?" he asked.

 

Oh my God, I had a nickname! "I was finding out about that ring," I explained.

 

Ryan nodded and sighed, "Well, it's nice to know someone's on look-out."

 

I melted. It was like I turned myself into a snowman, but I was in Africa or something. He held up the giant stuffed black cat I wanted from before and held it out to me. "This was from the can-throwing thing," he said quietly. "You wanted this, right?"

 

I nodded wordlessly as I took it from him. The moment his hand touched mine made me feel awkward.  The awkard touch told me that I had to fix this, and fast. I shouldn't be so selfish as to keep him as is. I didn't care how I felt, but how I can fix this mess I've created.

 

The rest of the day went as normal, if we were normal at all. We were probably the strangest trio I've ever met. We had a retarded witch, a victim of poor magical practice, and a regular guy dragged into all this just because he knows. I feel awful that in the chain of events, everything led back to my screw-up. Then I thought back to the guy at the booth. "Who was that guy at the booth?" I asked, keeping my arms around the stuffed cat.

 

Ryan slipped his hands into his pockets. "Coach Nichols for the school baseball team," he replied simply.

 

"Yeah!" Derek chimed in. "They want Ryan to join the team!"

 

Ryan shook his head. "The idea is to keep a low profile," he said. "Joining the team won't accomplish that."

 

I decided to join the argument. I said, "Why? What if you like baseball?"

 

He let off a sigh and looked at me and Derek. "I told him I'd think about it," he said.

 

Derek shook his head at Ryan's modesty. "You seemed really good at it," he explained. "Why not just go for it?"

 

Ryan didn't bother looking over to him. "It'll attract a lot of attention. I don't need attention put on me like that." There was a silence. "I said I would think about it."

 

I looked from the conversation to my own two feet. I felt horrible that it was my mistake keeping him from being social. From what I can tell, he used to be a social butterfly. Because of me, this poor butterfly was forced back into the caccoon. I only wish that someday he can come back out again as he had before. All my thinking was haulted when I rammed into a man in a suit. I stumbled back a bit and looked up. Charles was standing there, hand in his pocket. I swear he was following us around. Ryan and Derek weren't pleased to see him either. In spite of the bitter atmosphere, Charles smiled at me charmingly. "Hello again, Stella," he greeted.

 

I had no idea how to respond to his sudden kindness towards me. I wasn't very sure if the feeling was mutual, but I nodded to him in greeting anyway. Derek narrowed his eyes to him. "What do you want, Charles?" he asked.

 

Charles shrugged and repied, "Just saying hello to a lovely girl."

 

Derek was definately stumped. Ryan took a half step forward and said, "Why the sudden kindness to Stella?" Charles said nothing. "I thought you hated all three of us."

 

"Me?" Charles laughed. "Hate Stella? No." Derek and Ryan exchanged glances. "Sure, I may dislike you and Derek, but I don't hate Stella."

 

I scratched the back of my head nervously. Ryan had a point: why was the kindness so sudden? Charles looked to me and grinned. "I'll see you around, Stella," he said before walking away.

Author's Note

Sorry it took so long to write! Ignore all typos (: