'Owen, this is my best friend; Simon Drewmorphin, and I'm Brendan Payne.'
'Brendan what?!' Simon almost roared in surprise.
'It turns out that my parents' last name is Payne. It sounds crazy, I know, but maybe it will give me a better chance of finding my father,' he said.
'You should inform the principal though,' Simon advised him.
Owen had already sat down beside Simon again, listening to what they were saying.
'Samantha's missing brother has returned,' Brendan continued their conversation.
'What…What in the world?!' Simon bellowed.
'Yep. He just appeared from nowhere somehow and he's calling himself, "The Flicker". '
'The who now?' he asked again in astonishment.
'Who's Samantha?' Owen joined the conversation whispering.
'Oh, no one special. Just a witch who likes to ruin people's lives, that's all.'
'She's not a witch, Simon.'
'Don't tell me you've forgiven her?'
'Of course not…But I'm thinking about it.'
'You're impossible, Brendan.'
'You're the one being impossible here.'
As they spoke, Susan, Natasha and Patricia joined them.
'Wow, who's the cute guy?' Susan complimented Owen, staring at him with eyes full of mischief and gossip.
'His name is Owen Sommers,' Brendan answered in a harsh tone.
'I don't know what you hate about me, Brendan, but I hate to break it to you; this guy's cuter than you.'
'So?' he defended himself.
'So…' Natasha picked up from where Susan left, 'he's taken over your spot as the most handsome eleventh grader.'
'I'm sure he doesn't go for girls who vomit on the first sight of a frog,' Brendan chuckled and both he and Simon broke into laughter.
Owen giggled yet he had no idea of what they were talking about.
Natasha breathed heavily in vehemence. 'I expected hatred from you, Brendan, ignorance too, but racism?'
'What are you talking about?' he asked her, all three stopping their laughter.
'You called Thomas a rotten bully,' Patricia picked up the conversation. Her voice was trembling, 'how do you think that makes me feel?'
'I didn't…wait…I just…he just attacked me because of his little racist paranoia so I fought back,' Brendan answered, his heart beginning to ache with grief because of the look on Patricia's face.
'By being a racist too?' she said, tears becoming visible in her eyes.
'I am not a racist, Patricia, I just handled the situation accordingly. I didn't even say anything…'
'Natasha's right…' A tear streaked down her cheek, 'You are a racist!' She stormed away from all five of them, heading for the cafeteria's exit.
'You see what your racism has done?' Susan squinted at him. They both followed Patricia.
He grew silent, confused by what had just happened.
'You did sound racial by what you said, Brendan,' Simon said.
'But I am not a racist!' he protested. 'You and I have been friends for ages but I've never said anything racial about you…'
'Yeah, sure, whatever,' Simon shrugged, turning his gaze behind Brendan.
He growled in anger and disbelief.
'Owen..,' Simon said when he spotted Samantha, 'this is where we leave and go sit somewhere else.' They stood up and went to sit at a table far behind the table Brendan was sitting.
Samantha arrived and sat right in front of Brendan.
'What is it that you want?'
'I just came for a conversation. I thought what happened between us is all in the past,' she spread her hands across the table imploringly.
'I'm not even close to forgiving you. You didn't think I'd just wake up and say "I forgive you" out of the blue, did you?'
'No…no of course not, it's just that you might take too long and…'
'After what you put me through? You better think, not twice, but thrice before you speak rubbish like that.'
'And…what about Simon?' she asked wearing a look of sorrowful guilt on her face.
'He's not even close to thinking about forgiving you.'
'Who's the new guy?' she changed the subject now staring at Owen.
'Owen Sommers,' Brendan grumbled a response, annoyed that he was actually talking to her.
'Owen, huh?' She bit her lip mischievously. 'He looks kind-a cute,' she added.
Now that she had brought up the subject, Brendan noticed how beautiful she, Samantha really was. She had not used too much makeup on her face and she was not wearing her blazer even though it was an obligation for every prefect to do so. This exposed her slim body which had always been hidden by the blazer, but then again, he was not going to say all that.
'I see you didn't swim in lipstick and face powder today,' he said.
She made a friendly laugh, 'That's nice coming from you.'
'You bet it is.'
He turned and stared at Simon's table and saw that both Simon and Owen were getting along quite well. 'I hope he's not on your "victims" list.'
'Victims?' She looked insulted.
'Yeah, that's right. Stay away from him.'
'Okay, okay, sheesh, you make me out to be some kind of fire breathing dragon searching for prey to devour. Or some gold digging…'
Gold. There it was, another thought sprung from his subconscious straight to the surface of his mind like a plastic bottle in water. A dilemma faced him; he still loathed Samantha but he had an attic full of money just lying there. His body and mind both fought the words that sought to reach his lips. He gave up.
'Can you do me a favor?' he asked her.
She looked more than excited, 'Anything, anything you want,' she did not hesitate.