63
Tuesday morning I found a fly in my oatmeal at breakfast.
It was big one—a horsefly, I thought, as I stared down at it in dismay. The worst thing was, I hadn’t found it until I was almost done with the bowl.
Feeling sick, I wondered if there had been anything else in the oatmeal and if so, had I eaten it?
I looked over at Morganna automatically, but she was eating and talking, paying me no attention at all. I shrugged to myself. Well, maybe a fly just happened to get in there by accident. Things do happen—especially in a huge industrial kitchen where you’re cooking for hundreds of people at a time.
Still, I had lost my appetite. I took my tray to the slot in the wall and pushed it through before coming back to the table to join the rest of my coven.
“What’s wrong, Emmers—not hungry this morning?” Avery asked, sipping his over-sugared and creamed coffee. Since none of us had to eat Norm food now, he didn’t make Second Supper quite as often but he still preferred to live on coffee during the day.
“No, not so much. I—” Suddenly, I felt an itchy, crawling sensation on my leg.
Jumping up, I lifted my uniform skirt above my knee and saw that two huge ants were crawling up my thigh.
“Ugh!” I swiped at them quickly but missed. It was Bran who leaned down and flicked both of them off me with quick, economical moves.
“Thanks!” I exclaimed, sitting down again. “I don’t know where those came from!”
“Just ants.” He shrugged. “They probability came looking for food.”
“Well, I am not on the menu!” I said and shivered again. I really hate insects and creepy crawly things. I know it’s girly of me but that’s too bad—I am just never going to be an entomologist.
Again I looked at Morganna, wondering if she had anything to do with this, but she was still talking and laughing with the cool kids at the Fae table. I decided I was being paranoid and began gathering my books. It was almost time for first period.
Sure enough, the bell rang. But as we all got to our feet, I heard a buzzing near my ear. No, actually, I realized—the buzzing was all around my head.
“Oh my goodness, how did they get in here?” I heard Jalli exclaim.
“What? What is it?” I looked wildly around and saw that a wasp was hovering near my ear. I ducked away but nearly ran into two more of them. A fourth dive-bombed me, making me duck for cover under the table.
“Get them boys!” I heard Jalli shouting. “Go Spike! Go Sweet Tooth and Jelly Belly!”
“Yes, go, Mr. Seahorse!” Kaitlyn added.
Peeking out from under the table, I saw the four chimelings whizzing around after the wasps. They shot out tiny spouts of fire that fried the stinging insects in midair and then gobbled them up, chiming like a group of excited doorbells as they did.
“Are they all gone?” I asked Bran and Lachlan, who were standing guard on either side of me.
“I think so.” Lachlan frowned. “I think there were only four of them and all of the chimelings got one.”
“Hey, are you okay, Emma?” Jalli leaned down to look at me with wide, anxious eyes. Her three little pets had all resumed their places—Sweet Tooth and Jelly Belly on either one of her shoulders and Spike on top of her head.
“I’m fine,” I said, scrambling out from under the table. “Tell your little guys I said thanks!”
“Oh, it was a treat for them—they love wasps,” she said. “I just wonder how they got in here? I thought the Dining Hall was spelled against insects. But then, I don’t know much about magic.” She shrugged. “Guess I’ll see you at lunch!” And she hobbled off to her first class.
“Do you think it was some kind of magical attack?” I asked Bran and Lachlan.
“I don’t know.” Lachlan frowned, looking thoughtful. “I suppose we’ll have to wait and see if anything else happens.”
“I certainly hope not!” I exclaimed. “Especially if it has anything to do with insects.”
I didn’t see any more creepy-crawlies for the rest of the day, however, and by evening, I had mostly forgotten about the insect-related weirdness of the morning.
I was yawning as I took a shower in one of the stalls in the Norm Dorm when I saw a dark shape crawling on the pink shower curtain.
Now, as a native Floridian, I knew by the size and shape of that shadow exactly what it had to be. Down here we have these huge, flying roaches called Palmetto Bugs. They’re bigger than your thumb and let me emphasize again that they can fly.
Which means if you don’t kill them quick, they could end up chasing you around and possibly getting stuck in your hair—ugh!