Charlie's third day back at school was starting to get a little better. Though, she hadn't figured out what was wrong with her. However, at the start of homeroom at the end of the day, Alex tapped Charlie on the shoulder.
"After homeroom, I have something I need to ask you," she said. Then the moment she finished talking, the teacher started homeroom. Naturally it didn't take long, but it still was a pain for Charlie.
As soon as homeroom ended, Charlie quickly picked up her things and started to head towards the door with everyone else. As soon as they left the room, though, Alex pulled Charlie to the side.
"I was wondering if I could get your phone number," Alex asked, looking rather nervous, which Charlie found a little confusing.
"Sure," she replied, and told Alex what her number was, which caused Alex to scramble to write it down.
As she finished writing it, Alex asked, "You've memorized your phone number already?"
Charlie couldn't help but feel a little self conscious about that. "It's close enough to my mom's number that it wasn't that difficult, I guess."
"Anyway, thanks," Alex said and started walking away.
Charlie stood there a minute, not sure if she should try and get Alex to stay longer or let it go. When she started moving again, she couldn't figure out why she would need to try to get Alex to stay longer and started mentally beating herself up over that.
She was still in the middle of doing that when she closed her locker and found Beth waiting for her.
"Got good news!" Beth said before Charlie could react to her presence.
"You found a gate that gets to that canyon and you already got the crystal back?" Charlie asked, mostly joking.
"I said 'good news,' not 'great news,'" Beth commented.
"Sorry, just popped in my mind when you said that."
"No problem. Anyway, our hiking club got approved. We can start meeting in Mr. Samuels room for our club meetings," Beth said as they both started walking towards the nearest school exit.
Charlie had mixed feelings about that. "Ummmmm, why Mr. Samuels room?" Charlie wasn't really sure she wanted to know, but couldn't think of a way out of asking this.
"He's our faculty advisor or something for the club. I was surprised he hadn't been taken by one of the more mathematical clubs before now," Beth remarked.
"Just hope he isn't as bad as when he's teaching math class," Charlie said.
Beth laughed. "Yeah, but maybe this will be different. I mean, if you fall asleep in the club meeting, you're not missing out on what he's telling us. So, he probably wouldn't care as much and even if he did, he probably couldn't do anything about it."
Charlie couldn't help but laugh as well. "You're probably right."
They spent most of the walk towards Charlie's house in companionable silence, only breaking it occasionally with small remarks or comments about things that had happened during the day. At least until Charlie was able to just start seeing her house in the distance as they passed the turn on the hill, letting the rise of the hill stop blocking it from their view.
"By the way, I saw the news report about the centaurs yesterday," Beth said. "I have to say, I agree with you that the younger centaur is a girl. Probably around Stacie's age, if they age at the same pace we do."
"Would be strange if she started going to school with us," Charlie said.
"If she did, she probably would be great on the track team."
"Maybe, but do you think she'd stand the entire day in class or would they make a special seat for her?"
Beth thought about it for a minute. "Probably stand. Though, you could ask Amelia. Her aunt works in a stable, I think."
Charlie thought about that and didn't respond. It wasn't until they were about to separate, Charlie going to her house and Beth continuing on to her house, when Beth brought up Heathcliff.
"Should we go for a camping trip into Petals' forest for Saturday night and show up at Heathcliff's then or should we do it Saturday morning and 'just be out for a walk?' Beth asked.
Charlie knew right away that Beth was asking about what excuse to give their parents so they wouldn't wonder where they'd gone for a prolonged period of time. After all, from Charlie's estimate, the amount of time it took them to get to the center of Petals' forest usually seemed around an hour. Which meant that it would take a total of four hours for 'a walk,' not counting however long they took to talk with Heathcliff.
"Maybe it would be best to get it over with earlier," Charlie mused. "I mean, camping would be nice, but it's winter in Arachii's world now, and while there isn't much snow, it does get rather cold and unless we camp in Petals' forest, we would need some heavy duty sleeping bags."
"If you asked Alex, I'm sure she could keep you warm," Beth teased.
Charlie felt her face heat up in a flash. "Hey, we already agreed not to let anyone know who doesn't already know about magic," Charlie hissed in response.
"Yeah, I know, but I'm sure everyone would be fine if you told her, after all, aren't you going to the Homecoming dance with her?"
"Yeah, but does that mean we're going out?" Charlie asked, not sure if she wanted an answer.
"Why not ask Alex?" Beth asked, putting her arm around Charlie's shoulders.
"I'm not sure," Charlie replied, ready to drop the topic already.
Beth sighed, whether in annoyance or exasperation, Charlie couldn't tell, but was pretty sure it was one of the two. "You two can be so similar sometimes," Beth commented softly, Charlie assumed she was talking to herself with that, given the volume she used.
"Well, if you're not sure if you should ask her or not, then let go for now," Beth told Charlie as they started to pass the bush where the entrance to Petals' forest was. "Just keep it in mind, in case you decide one way or another."
"Okay," Charlie replied, extricating herself from Beth's arm so she could head to her house. "I'll see you tomorrow."
"Sure," Beth said. Then as they started to part company, Beth turned to Charlie "Oh, I'll probably see you in the morning before your first period. I've got a dentist appointment partway through first period and my mom will be picking me up about then."
"I'll see you then," Charlie laughed in response.
"Bye."
Charlie hoped that things would continue to improve for her. She wished she could put what she couldn't remember about the hiking trip out of her mind, but since it was just so recent, she was having trouble doing so. It wasn't the knowledge that something occurred during that time that would probably give Charlie serious issued, but more that it was a blank spot in her memory that made her wonder exactly what it was. Yeah, she couldn't help but get a little freaked out when she would be around Shirley after that or when she'd be in the same car, but at the same time, it wasn't like Shirley had suddenly become an enemy.
Maybe I should ask Beth to unseal those memories, Charlie thought to herself as she opened the door to her house. Would it affect me that much?
As she went up the stairs to her room, she shook the thoughts about that from her mind. If Beth thought there was a chance it would force a delay in getting around to her search for Petals' crystal, then she needed to trust her friend and wait at least until they got that accomplished before asking Beth to unseal her memories of that incident.
_
Beth was a little out of breath. Not only did her homeroom teacher make them stay a little extra after the bell signaling the end of homeroom sounded, but not she was certain that she was late meeting her mother in the office. Adding to that, she wanted to stop by and say 'hi' to Charlie as she got her stuff for her first period class.
As she rounded the corner for the small detour to Charlie's locker, the sight that greeted her was not anything she expected. Not only was Charlie looking terrible, but it was almost looked like she'd been turned into a zombie.
"…sure? It might be best to go to the office and have the nurse take a look at you," Alex was saying when Beth came up.
"It's okay," Charlie said, her voice sounding a lot better than she looked. "I'll be al-"
At that point, Charlie saw Beth and clearly lost control of her body right then, as not only did she hurl at that moment, but Beth had to jump to the side quickly in order to avoid getting hit with it herself.
Of course, such an action caused a crowd to form around them. Which in turn drew the attention of the teachers. Charlie had sagged to the floor, while Alex used some pocket tissues to try and clean what she could of the vomit off of Charlie's face.
"What's going on?" Mr. Samuels' voice cut through the nose from the crowd like a hot knife through butter.
The crowd dispersed almost as quickly as it had gathered. "I think Charlie's not feeling good," Alex said, still doing what she could to clean Charlie's face.
Mr. Samuels looked at those few who remained. "Unless you're involved with this personally, please go to class," he directed, causing the rest of the crowd to quickly move on.
Beth stayed where she was, wondering if it was coincidence that Charlie threw up when she saw Beth or if there was some reason for the timing.
"Miss Howard, are you involved with this?" Mr. Samuels asked.
"Um, I was coming to say hi to Charlie when she suddenly threw up," Beth said, unable to look away from Charlie at the moment.
"I see," Mr. Samuels said. "Well, since you don't have anything for you next class with you, I assume that means you have a reason for that?"
Beth tried very, very hard to not roll her eyes at that question. Does he even know how this sounds? she asked herself as she forced herself to face him.
"Actually, I was on my way to the office because I expect my mom to be picking me up for a dentist appointment soon," Beth replied, seriously wanting to cause bodily harm to him at the moment, even though he was a teacher and she'd get in very serious trouble for it.
"I see," Mr. Samuels said, turning to Alex.
"Miss Samuels, if you would go to your next class, I'm sure Miss Howard would be more than willing to take Miss Rivers to the nurse's office and I can call the custodian to clean this up from the carpet," Mr. Samuels said to Alex.
Alex briefly looked at Beth then nodded to Mr. Samuels, not saying anything to him. "I'll check on you later," Alex said to Charlie as she stood up with her things and left for her first class.
Ignoring Mr. Samuels, Beth moved over to Charlie and helped her stand after gathering Charlie's things. Charlie had a vacant expression like she really was a zombie, but one that was compliant to the gentle pressures of someone urging them to move in a particular direction.
It was clear to Beth that Charlie was okay physically, but something had happened from when they parted ways outside of her home since then. Beth didn't have any real trouble, helping bear some of Charlie's weight, though it was almost like Charlie was mentally somewhere else at the moment.
"It'll be alright, Charlie," Beth said softly, not sure what else to do or say.
"You died," Charlie replied, just as softly. "I made a choice and it ended with you dying."
Beth was stunned. What was her friend talking about? "What do you mean?" Beth asked, confused. "How did I die?"
"You had a blade stabbing you through the chest. It was all because of a choice I made," Charlie said.
Beth sighed. While she had gotten a little more information, it wasn't helpful information. All Beth could attribute it to was a bad dream Charlie had. Though, while it could only have been a bad dream, why did it seem to affect Charlie so much that it put her like this?
Beth shook her head as she couldn't think of anything else to ask Charlie as she took her the rest of the way to the nurse's office, which was fortunately located right next to the main office, where she could see her mother waiting for her.
"Is everything alright?" Her mother asked.
"Charlie threw up in the hall and I was asked to help bring her to the nurse's office," Beth replied, carefully navigating the doorway with Charlie, then laying Charlie on one of the beds. As she then turned to the nurse, she gave a brief explanation of what happened before she left with her mother.
The last thought she had about Charlie before she left was, What kind of dream would make her so freaked out like that