Chatoyant College

They did the spell in much the same way as they had the previous night, holding hands in a circle, pulling energy from the earth and moon, and passing the energy around. Once again, Elena directed the casting. Corrie didn't feel anything much, but she wondered if Edie did. And how Darcy felt about it. They were basically cleansing the circle of her friend's energy, after all.

Payton sat back down slowly. She and Elena turned to face the rest of the group again. Elena let out a sigh, but Darcy was staring at them in shock. "Theresa is my friend!"

"There's nothing wrong with having men for friends," said Payton in a perfectly calm voice. "But they're not allowed in the circle."

Darcy jumped up and started to go towards the door. Elena said, "But Darcy, if you choose that man over us, you will no longer be welcome in this group." Slowly, Darcy sat down, clasping her hands in her lap and staring at them.

Either they were a little later this time than last time, or Payton and Elena had gotten there earlier. The purple silk curtains were already up. Most of the people who had been there the previous evening were there again; Ash and Meg weren't there yet. The others had left the couches that Corrie and Edie and Ash and Meg had used free again--in fact, they were all sitting in the same configuration as before--so Corrie sat down on the couch they'd chosen last night, Edie sitting with her.

They'd already gotten their food and sat down to eat dinner when Lorelei joined them, followed by Charlie. "Hey!" Corrie said. "If you keep hanging out with us, other people in Gilkey are going to accuse you of favoritism."

Lorelei laughed. "I don't think having favorites affects our duties as RAs."

Corrie returned to her dorm after lunch with a light step and a happy smile on her face. She really liked spending time with Byron. They would just have to figure out how to get more time alone. Maybe next time Edie went out with Leila, she'd call Byron. It was just annoying that dating in college was so different from dating in high school. It might not have been, if there had been a movie theater or anything in the town, but from the visit she, Dawn, and Edie had made to it, she'd ascertained that the only thing to do there was shop. Maybe they could go into the city sometime.

Corrie once again took the time she had alone between classes to first call her mom--it wasn't that she didn't want Edie to overhear their conversations, but she didn't think she'd like sitting in a room trying to do homework or something while the other person in the room had a long conversation that she was only privy to half of. Her mom, she was glad to hear, was doing well, and her grandmother was visiting, so she was able to talk to her as well. After hanging up, she wondered once again whether she should tell her mother about the faeries.

Corrie thought it was a little odd that Darcy seemed so much more confident and trusting about the club than she had last night, sitting with her hands between her knees and barely participating. But she supposed she and Edie had barely participated either--maybe even less than Darcy had--and they were still trusting and planning to go back to the club. Besides, they had done that spell, and maybe its result had been, not to make Darcy's class any easier or anything, but to give her more confidence. Corrie wouldn't be at all surprised if that had been Darcy's difficulty.

Tuesday, September 9

Corrie ran through a light fog that morning. Thankfully, this time it wasn't enough to make her feel soaked and icky when she returned, but she was still grateful--as she always was--to have a shower. When she and Edie left the building to head to breakfast, she was surprised to see that the fog hadn't burned off at all. "The weather on this campus never ceases to surprise me."

"Huh?" was Edie's understanding answer. "That campus security guy told us to expect fog, and so far, he hasn't been wrong."

"Okay." Edie nodded. That was something she remembered from her readings. "Maybe we'll ask them about the list of goddesses tomorrow."

"Yeah, that's a good idea." Corrie shook her head. "It was a really weird assortment. I don't remember all the names, but there were a bunch of different pantheons, and different things that the goddesses were related to, or ruled over. And they didn't even go in any special order."

"Maybe these people are just weird."

Corrie laughed. "Probably. Where was Payton hiding that athame?"

"Well, that should do it," said Payton with a grin. "Darcy, you'll have to let us know how things go next time you have your class! I guess we're done for the night." She and Elena walked to one of the curtains and started taking it down. Chandra and Erika went to another one. Corrie and Edie looked at each other and shrugged. Apparently they'd both had the same thought--they may as well help with the curtains, too. In a few minutes, all the curtains were off the walls, and they could see out through the big glass wall again. Payton and Elena carried the folded curtains under their arms.