Tales From Gulinger High: Tale Eleven
Love
Potion
Julie Steimle
A Hallowedspell Novella
Copyright © 2014 by Julie Steimle. All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the context of reviews
The characters, events, and locations portrayed in this book are entirely fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
Special Delivery
"Special Delivery for Selena Davenport!”
Michael Cogan, one of Selena’s many admirers, jogged up the stairs into the girl’s dorms carrying an enormous bouquet of blood red roses. He looked mildly irked at the flowers, but he was under strict orders to make sure the flowers made it into her hands. There was fifty dollars riding on it.
Glancing out her room where she had just finished applying her mascara, touching up the rest of her face to make sure nothing was out of place, Selena reached out for the bouquet with a smile. “From you? Oh, you shouldn’t have!”
Ducking his head sheepishly, Michael set the bouquet in her slender, nymph-like fingers. “I didn’t. It’s from another admirer—But I got something for you if you wait right there!”
He rushed off to get his gift for Valentine’s Day; as would many of her other admirers through the course of the day, something she loved.
Selena’s roommate Christina hopped to her elbow peering at the large cluster of roses. “Wow! It has to be from Rick. They’re amazing!”
Smiling, Selena plucked the pink note card from the center of the flowers, opening it up. Her ever-changing liquid sea-blue eyes silently read the first line. Automatically her hands stiffened, dropping the bouquet to the floor as if it were infested with leaping fleas.
“Yick!” Selena jumped back into her dorm room.
“Huh?” Her roommate walked over to the bouquet, picking up the card which Selena had also dropped. She read it aloud.
My love for you is like a Red, Red Rose,
Beautiful, Loveliest Selena
X O X O Ewan
“Morning!” Tom Brown hopped into the girl’s hall with an unusually sprightly step. Jogging through it, the pale, impish, towhead tossed candy conversation hearts to all the open doors like he was on parade. He stopped the moment his feet almost stepped on the abandoned flower bouquet. Lifting his eyes from the flowers, he looked up at Selena, her horrified expression, to her roommate, then to the card in her roommate’s hands before blinking at the flowers again. Timidly, he craned in his neck towards Selena’s contorted frown. “Happy Valentine’s Day?”
Selena pointed at the bouquet, leaning back from it. “Get that…that…that offensive bunch of weeds out of here!”
Tom blinked his orange eyes at her again then at the roses. “I take it you don’t like flowers. Odd. I’ll add that to my what-not-to-give-Selena-on-any-special-occasion list. However, can I ask the reason they’re so offensive?”
She snatched the card from her roommate and shoved it into Tom’s face. “This! Ewan P. Steed!”
Plucking the unpleasant card, Tom held it farther back from his nose and examined the fancy scroll. Frowning, he closed one eye and said, “I take it you don’t like this character.”
Nodding vigorously, Selena snapped, “Rick was supposed to be protecting me from him! Rick should have been the one giving me roses! Not Ewan!”
Tom shrugged. “Rick’s dad only gives him twenty bucks per month spending money.”
“That’s no excuse!” Selena blustered. Her hands were balled into little fists.
Sighing, Tom glanced at the flowers again then at Selena. He nodded. “Ok. I’ll take care of it.”
He stuffed a conversation heart into her hand then strode to the unpleasant bouquet. Plucking it off the ground with complete flair, grabbing the blossoms with a twist, Tom flung out the petals, making a grand sweep. “Happy Valentine’s Day everybody!”
Selena stared at first, blinking while wiping the trace of tears off with the back of her hand. She glanced at the conversation heart and smirked.
You Rock
Tom immediately went skipping about the girls’ dorms, this time flinging the petals to Selena’s bouquet in every direction, the candy hearts in his back pocket. All the girls came out, breaking into laughter as he jogged through their hall then back into the stairwell, leaving a trail of red petals behind him. But Selena leaned on her door frame, breathing easier. However, the offending card was still there. That she crumpled into a wet soggy wad and chucked in the nearest garbage can.
Amour
“I’m not sorry in the least! It is Valentine’s Day!” Tom wailed as the Science teacher dragged him by the ear to the headmaster’s office. His friends watched him, nudging red petals with their feet before heading off to breakfast.
His best pal, Matthew Calamori, frowned. The ethnically Italian brown-haired, brown-eyed boy wondered how long of a detention the headmaster would give Tom this time. Going on ahead to the cafeteria, their friends Randon and Troy (who were often mistaken for brothers at first glance due to their matching dark hair and blue eyes) marched straight to the food line with shrugs, while Rick Deacon peered at the rose petals, wondering if Tom had robbed a flower shop for his latest prank. It wasn’t until they were all leaving breakfast when another Valentine’s cry went out.
“Special delivery for Selena Davenport!”
Rick rolled his wolf-gray eyes.
Matt nudged him in the side with his elbow. “Aren’t you playing your fake date thing a bit much?”
Rick shook his head, lifting up his food tray to go. “It’s not me.”
His friends lifted their matching dark heads.
“Then who is it?” Matt asked, immediately curious.
Shrugging, Rick carried his trash to the garbage can. “Not a clue. Probably her fan boys making an enormous fuss for her benefit.”
Matt jabbed him in the back. “You could at lease pretend to be interested in her. This whole you escorting her is all for show, right? Then shouldn’t you be putting on a show?”
Rolling his eyes again, Rick did not respond. It was a good thing too, since Selena stomped down the stairs and cast him an extremely dirty look. She brought down an enormous box of chocolates onto his head.
“OW!” Rick ducked, rubbing his scalp, and pulled away. “What was that for?”
“This!” She shoved the card that came with the shiny scarlet box into his face.
Snatching it from right in front of his nose, Rick set it at a better distance.
Chocolate for my Sweet
Beautiful, Loveliest Selena
X O X O Ewan
“Ugh!” Rick pulled it back with revulsion.
Tom snatched it up, skipping into the cafeteria, grabbing the box also with a leap. “Chocolates for everybody!”
He opened up the box and passed them out, no objections from Selena; though Matt watched his best friend with an open mouth, not sure whether he should object or not. After all, the moment Tom took it Selena looked relieved to be rid of it.
Troy and Randon claimed their pieces, sauntering up with shared confusion at Rick’s and Selena’s mutual distaste at the small note.
“What is it?” Matt plucked the card from Rick’s fingers. He read it then lifted his eyebrows. Looking back to his friends, he asked, “Do we know a Ewan at this school?”
Both Troy and Randon shook their heads before Rick replied with a moan, “He doesn’t go to Gulinger. He’s this jerkoff that has been stalking Selena at these big fancy social functions—”
“He’s the guy my grandmother says is perfect for me,” Selena cut him off with bite. She glared at Rick. “You aren’t trying hard enough to convince her that we are a couple. Grandma is seeing right through you!”
Rick shrugged. “Your grandfather likes me.”
“Not enough!” she shouted.
His friends pulled back from the pair of them, clenching their teeth with shared glances that quite possibly they ought to back away and stay out of it. However, Tom unexpectedly popped between Rick and Selena, holding up the box of chocolates.
“Want one?”
“No!” both
Impressum
Verlag: BookRix GmbH & Co. KG
Tag der Veröffentlichung: 23.07.2014
ISBN: 978-3-7368-2715-8
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