Charlie

They brought Dawn back to her room with no trouble, Charlie carrying her. Once again, Corrie watched their path, and it was empty—though this time she did see a couple laughing, holding hands and running down the path from one dorm to another. At least they weren’t the only ones walking on the campus at all.

After Charlie had set Dawn back down on her bed and left, Corrie and Naomi wiped the makeup off her face, took her shoes off, and tucked her in as best they could. Corrie sighed, straightening up, then turned to Naomi. “Do you want me to stay here and help you keep an eye on her?”

Leading Charlie up the stairs, taking them two at a time, Corrie paused briefly at the fourth floor. She hadn’t knocked to see whether Rico or even Duncan were home. She didn’t think they were—she recalled Dawn saying something about wanting Rico to come to the party, but him being busy—but she still ought to check, since Dawn was Rico’s girlfriend and he would want to help. Then again, she really didn’t want to explain the situation to him. When Dawn woke up, it would be her choice what and whether to tell her boyfriend about being drugged and dancing with another guy.

Corrie stared at Dawn for a few minutes. Her brain was failing to come up with anything useful to do now. Finally she reached out and, without much hope, shook Dawn’s shoulder. She continued to sleep. Corrie grabbed her discarded bracelet and shook Dawn again, but just like before, there was no reaction.

“I don’t know if waking her up is even a good idea,” said Naomi. “If the spell or drug or whatever made her sick, she might just need to sleep it off.”

Corrie sighed. “You’re right. But what do we do? Other people might get sick.”

“You’re in my room,” Lorelei said quickly, passing Edie a bottle of water. “You needed to rest.”

Edie accepted the bottle, twisted at the top, and then looked at it in perplexity until Corrie took it and opened it for her. It was clear that Edie didn’t have the strength to even do that. Corrie and Dawn helped Edie sit up so she could drink the water. She gulped down almost half the bottle before taking a deep breath and asking, “How did I get here?”

“We carried you,” Corrie told her. “You passed out in the forest. Do you remember?”

After a moment, the breeze moved the trees enough that some light showed through. Corrie realized it was Charlie and stepped forward to hit him lightly on the arm. “Don’t scare us like that!”

“Sorry,” he said, grinning and not looking sorry at all. “I heard you guys coming and the grown-ups are all talking about boring stuff, so I couldn’t resist coming out to greet you.”

“Grown-ups?” Corrie laughed. “Aren’t you like twenty-one?”

“Well, yeah, but that doesn’t mean the stuff they talk about isn’t boring. Did you guys have a good chat?”

Corrie, Edie, and Corrie’s father sat on the rock in the stream for a long time, talking about their lives. Actually, Corrie didn’t manage to get much information out of her father, but she did get his cell phone number and a promise never to sneak up on her on campus again. He didn’t get the full story on her college experience out of her, either, but he did manage to persuade her to talk about something she hadn’t planned on explaining. “He seemed sweet in high school,” she sighed. “And he is sweet, I guess.

Corrie was actually glad the night was so cool. She had to unzip her jacket because she had warmed up from so much walking, and if it hadn’t been chilly out she would have had to take off her jacket entirely, and that would have been a pain to carry. Despite Charlie’s assurance that they didn’t have to walk much farther, she and Edie had to stop twice to catch their breath and take drinks of water. The second time, Charlie did accept some of the water, but still urged them to hurry.

“Maybe she was.” Corrie decided to drop it. They could argue all night, though with all this exertion it was only going to get harder. She would keep coming up with reasons, and Edie, it looked like, would keep coming up with excuses. Instead, she decided to change the subject by telling Edie about how she and Byron had broken up.

“What a jerk!” Edie said when Corrie had finished explaining. “Do you want me to go yell at him for you?”

Corrie laughed. “Only if you want to. I mean, I don’t think it will help, but he probably deserves it.”

“You don’t seem too upset.”

“You okay?” Corrie asked Edie quietly, as soon as she was sure they were out of earshot.

“Of course,” Edie said. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Oh, just because we were all kind of arguing with each other back there… If you’re mad at me, I understand.” If Edie didn’t realize that Leila was trying to control her and hurt her, Corrie would stay quiet about it. It certainly wouldn’t help if she just tried to tell her friend.

Corrie gulped and squeezed Edie’s hand even tighter. Edie must be seeing through Leila’s glamour. How could she do that with the steel bracelet, and Corrie couldn’t? Maybe she was touching her clover too.

Leila reached up to touch her ear, frowning. “There’s nothing wrong with my ears.”

Edie shook her head. “They look different.” She tried to pull her hand out of Corrie’s grasp, then looked down at it, frowning. “Corrie, let go of me, please.”

“No way,” Corrie said firmly. “We’re going. You don’t need to stand around talking to her.”