Page 60 of Gift from the Tree

“We’ll talk about what happened later, right, Gaster?” I ask him, still confused about what me and Oakly just did.

“Yes. I’ll see you at lunch. Be good. Have a good class, Oakly. I’ll see you this afternoon for your orientation with me.” He waves us both off as we walk out of his room.

Draken’s waiting right outside the door as we walk out and he puts his arm back around my shoulder, steering me in the direction we need to go. “So did you learn all kinds of boring history stuff this morning?”

“It’s not boring, Draken. And no, we focused on other things today,” I say vaguely, not sure what I can say in front of Oakly, even though I feel like I could tell her my whole life story and she’d be there for me.

As we make our way through the halls, it seems like everyone knows Draken. Guys give him high fives and fist pumps, basically pawing for his attention, while girls shoot flirty winks and little waves. Of course he’s the popular guy. How couldn’t he be with his drop dead looks and warm personality? But all the attention he’s getting is making me uncomfortable because that also equals the amount of attention I’m getting since I’m tucked up under his arm.

I try to pull away a little bit and step closer to Oakly, but that doesn’t work and he squeezes my shoulder to get me to look at him.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. I was just going to talk with Oakly,” I say, not wanting to tell him everyone looking at us is bothering me because I know he can be sensitive to feeling like he’s disappointing someone, but I don’t want to be the center of attention.

“You sure?” He eyes me skeptically.

“Yep.” I give him what I hope is a convincing smile. He lets go of my shoulder but still stands close enough that our arms rub against one another’s.

“Is today your first day?” I ask Oakly as we maneuver through the sea of people all trying to get through the hall.

“Yeah. Me and my parents came last month and toured the grounds, and I made a map so I wouldn’t get lost,” she exclaims proudly.

“Holy shit, how did you make a map? With my sense of direction, it’d just look like a shit ton of squiggly lines,” I tell her and she laughs at my serious joke, making my heart grow warm from her affection.

What in the world is happening today?

“I’m a tracker, so directions are kinda my thing.”

“A tracker? That’s a rare one I haven’t heard in a while.” Draken whistles low beside me.

“I know.” She sighs, resigned. “The E.F. teams have been trying to recruit me since my gift emerged.”

“Are you taking an E.F. training class?” I ask, hoping if she is, we’ll be together.

“Yes, unfortunately. My parents insisted, even though I made it clear I didn’t want to join the E.F. and this would look like interest. Plus, I hate working out. My first class isn’t until tomorrow afternoon.”

I suck in an excited breath, looking at Draken to see if he can confirm she’s in my class and he laughs, knowing exactly what I’m asking.

“Yeah, that means she’s in our class.”

“Wait, seriously?” Oakly asks, with barely restrained excitement, fueling my own.

“Yeah, Willow has the training class tomorrow as well and I changed my schedule to be there with her,” he tells her, grinning down at me, making me blush.

“Fuck yeah. Do we have any other classes together?” she asks, but Draken stops walking, halting me.

“This is you, girls.” He turns, stepping closer to me. “I’ll be waiting right out here for you to take you to lunch.”

“I know. You told me this morning.” I giggle at his persistence.

“See you soon, little wanderer. Later, Oakly.” He throws me a wink and Oakly a salute, then walks away.

“Damn, girl, you got it bad,” Oakly jokes.

“I don’t.” I might.

Thank fuck, in a classroom full of adults, the instructor doesn’t assign seats, so I follow behind Oakly as she leads us to the back where there are two open spots beside one another. After Professor Guyen introduces himself, he gives each set of us two enchanted items and instructs us to work together on dismantling the enchantment. None of the items are bound like mine, so we should be able to break the enchantment.

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