Chapter 36: Estrogen

Corrie didn't see Darcy on the way back, though, and when they arrived at Gilkey thoughts of the meeting were quickly wiped away. Dawn, Roe, Talia, and Annie were sitting in the common room with a big bowl of popcorn. They waved at Corrie and Edie through the big window, and they quickly joined them.

"What's going on?" Edie asked, taking a handful of popcorn. Corrie squeezed onto the couch between Dawn and Roe, leaving Edie to sit on the floor next to Annie.

"We're watching Labyrinth," said Dawn, gesturing to the screen.

"Awesome!" Corrie took some popcorn. "However, I am very disappointed that you didn't wait for me to start the movie. I should never have to miss even a moment of David Bowie." She waited a moment to let Jareth the Goblin King speak, then asked, "Where are the guys?"

Dawn shrugged. "They said this is too girly of a movie. Well, Rico admitted it was good, but between Sarah and the rest of us there was too much estrogen in the room for him."

Corrie snorted. "Estrogen seems to be the topic of the evening." In between letting the movie distract her, she (with Edie adding a few things) told their friends about what had happened at the Circle of the Goddess meeting. They all agreed with her assessment--that it was prejudiced, absurd, and unfair. Dawn was all for Corrie and Edie starting their own, competing club. Annie said that if they were going to have such ridiculous rules they would probably sabotage themselves before too long anyway. Roe, however, held a different opinion.

"They have meetings every day of the week, right?" she said. Corrie and Edie both nodded. "So there's a meeting on the full moon tomorrow."

"Yeah," Corrie said. "We did wonder if that might be what your vision meant. You didn't get more of the vision, did you?" she asked eagerly.

"Unfortunately, no," said Roe. "But I have... just a feeling, I guess. I think you should go to that meeting. It might be your last meeting, but it seems important."

"Will you be able to get to that and the Rainbow Alliance meeting on the same night?" Annie asked, glancing at Edie.

"I don't see why not," Edie responded. "I mean, what time is it now?"

Annie looked at her watch. "Quarter after nine."

"We've been here for a while, and the Rainbow Alliance meeting doesn't start until ten," Edie said, nodding. "So even though they said there's going to be more stuff tomorrow because of the full moon, we should still get back in plenty of time."

"Is it really that late?" said Dawn with a sigh. She looked up at the TV and grinned wryly. "I was going to get something done tonight. Well, I suppose I may as well finish watching the movie."

"You can't resist the Bowie," Corrie teased.

They waited for the movie to end, then--as they had planned--went up to Corrie and Edie's room to study. Tonight's readings were about magic books throughout history; fairly dry, but the subject was interesting. Corrie wondered if Professor Lal would have any examples of magic books to show them. She would be surprised if the professor didn't have any books. She might be a faerie with natural magic, but she was also a teacher, and not everyone had natural magic like that.

She felt restless, for some reason. She took a break from reading the book to get up, move to the head of her bed, and look out the window. The light of the nearly-full moon was illuminating the grounds, but there was a dark shape near the building--a person. She tried to look down and get a better look at him or her, but it was hard to get a good angle without opening the screen. She tried that and it didn't work. It must have been bolted closed for safety. When she looked down again, the person was either gone or further into the shadows next to the building. She shivered slightly, telling herself it was because of the rapidly cooling evening, and went back to where she was sitting with Dawn.

Dawn looked up from her book. "You okay?"

Corrie nodded. "Just restless."

"You weren't thinking about jumping out the window, were you?" asked Edie from across the room. She looked so honestly worried that Corrie almost laughed, but that wouldn't have been very sympathetic.

She settled for smiling fondly. "No, definitely not!"

Edie looked down, embarrassed. "I just--saw you trying to get the window open."

"There was someone out there. I was just trying to see who it was." She glanced out the window again, at the trees whose tops were barely illuminated by the light from the moon and the building's windows. "Besides, I think if someone jumped out of this window, they'd just break a couple of limbs, and if Professor Lal is truthful, some of the magic teachers can heal that right up."