Deborah

After the concert, Corrie walked with her mom and grandmother back to the parking lot while Edie’s family headed back to the dorm. It was fully dark by then, and the skies were clear. The three-quarters moon was bright over the trees and the sky was spangled liberally with stars. Her grandmother tilted her head back as they walked, smiling. “How beautiful,” she said. “There’s never this many stars visible in the city.”

As it turned out, they were almost late to the concert. They went directly from the parking lot to the administration building, which was the easiest building to reach from there, and still got there just before they started closing the doors. “I don’t think there’s too many seats left,” said one of the students at the door. “Good luck.”

As Edie had expected, her parents agreed to go out to the Asian fusion place, and after a little persuading, Corrie and her family decided to come along as well. Dawn and her family were still off somewhere, so they went without them. It was starting to get dark, so they decided to walk over to the parking lot and drive to the restaurant. “I’m pretty sure it’s just as long a walk to the parking lot as it is to the restaurant from Gilkey,” Edie muttered to Corrie as they walked.

“Are four-leaf clovers the only thing that’s more common here?” Corrie’s mom asked as they all started walking again.

“I think so,” said Corrie. “I was just thinking about that earlier, as a matter of fact. I wonder if there will be weird flowers in the spring.” She kept one eye on the edge of the path as she walked. It made her faintly anxious to be without the one thing that she knew could allow her to see through faerie glamour, especially since Dawn wasn’t there. It probably wasn’t important to look for faeries today, but she wanted a new one nonetheless.

“They seem to have a lot of activities for us to do,” said Edie’s dad. “Are they afraid we’ll get bored?”

“I think it’s a combination of things,” Corrie said. “Part of it is that the school wants to show off. That’s what the musical performances are for. And I guess they want to make sure you have stuff to do all day so you don’t get bored staying here all weekend. But they also don’t want to make us entertain you in our tiny dorm rooms! We can barely fit three people in them when we want to study!”

They were nearly to the table where the food was being served when Corrie caught up to yesterday’s class, the second one in a series on the symbolism of Tarot cards. Professor Lal hadn’t explained how they were used magically yet, only hinting that there were uses other than divination, but they were interesting to learn about. “I remember being interested in the Tarot when I was your age,” her grandma said thoughtfully. “I didn’t realize it was still around, or as old as you say it is. I might start looking into it again.”

Corrie passed the time waiting for her mother and grandmother to arrive by hunting for four-leaf clovers along the edges of the path that led between the gates and Gilkey. She wasn’t planning on picking any—the one she had might have been torn and a little squashed, but it still worked—but it was a way to amuse herself. She quickly found one in each of the first three patches she looked in, so when she reached a fourth, she crouched down beside it and decided to look carefully through it and see how many four-leafs she could find in the entire patch.

Corrie and Liz hurried to the girl's bathroom, avoiding the glare of the principal. The noise of the students leaving school was mercifully softened when the door swung shut. "Here," said Liz, digging through her backpack. "I've got some foundation in here. It won't be perfect, but it should hide that eye."