Page 35 of Monster's Baby

“You’re on probation to see if you’re worthy of friendship,” I teased.

“I’m not sure if you’re joking or not,” David said, narrowing his eyes suspiciously at me.

I grinned innocently at him.

“We need to hurry,” Clarissa said, glancing at her watch.“Classes start in twenty minutes, and I need to run back up to our room to see if I can find my mother’s diamond ring.”

“Did you lose it?”Bruce asked.“You usually put it on your side table.”

“I know I do,” Clarissa replied.“But it wasn’t there this morning.It’s the only thing I have of hers, and I only have it because it was on me when I was frozen in stone.”

I frowned.“Maybe you knocked it off the table in your sleep?”

She shook her head.“Unlikely.I have a little dish that I put it in, along with my earrings.I can’t sleep with them in.”She pulled her hair back to reveal the large silver hoops.“My mother’s ring has a pretty big diamond in the setting, and I’ve scratched my face in my sleep enough times that I’d rather take it off.Anyway, the earrings were right where I’d left them.”

“Did you forget to take off the ring, and it caught in your sheets?”Lilia suggested.

Clarissa brightened.“That’s a possibility.”

“If you can’t find it before class, we might be able to use a finding spell,” I offered.“Come get me at lunch if you don’t have any luck.”

She got up from the table.“Thanks.I will.”

“We should probably get going, too,” I said to Aiden and Bruce.

“Yeah, all right.Come on, Professor,” Aiden said, and turned to look at the empty seat on the other side of him, away from the rest of our friends.“Professor, where are you?”he said sharply, calling for the toddler.

“When was the last time you saw him?”I asked.

Aiden shrugged.“I’m not sure.To be perfectly honest, I kind of forgot he was there.I’ve only been a parent for a couple days, and he wasn’t mobile yesterday!”

I laughed, and some of the tension in his body vanished.“It’s okay.I put a tracking spell on him, remember?”

“Thankfully.”

I activated the spell, scanning through the mess hall for the indicator.“Well, it appears we have an escape artist on our hands.”

“We’ll take care of your dishes,” Hazel said, picking up my plate and putting it on hers.“You go find the professor.”

“Thanks.”I got to my feet and started pushing through the throngs of people leaving the room.I sighed and looked up at Aiden at my back.“Can you help?”I asked plaintively.

“Make way!Toddler on the loose!”Aiden bellowed.

The crowd of students in front of us chuckled, but made a narrow pathway for us to squeeze through.As we did, several of them made snide comments about how we were distracted by each other, that my mothering instincts hadn’t kicked in, and that we needed to focus more on the baby.

“First of all, he is your professor,” I mumbled to myself.“Second, everyone was listening to the headmistress.Third,youtry to become parents in the middle of school when you weren’t expecting it, and then have your baby age randomly.”

“What was that?”Aiden asked, laughter in his tone.

“You heard me,” I snapped without bite.

“I did.”He rested his hand at the base of my neck, the solid weight and warmth soothing.“I also know that you’re doing a great job.”

“Thanks,” I said, almost melting at his praise.“You are, too.”

“I know.”His smugness radiated off him and I wanted to elbow him in the ribs.

Once we were out of the mess hall, I picked up the trail, a thin blue thread, leading upstairs.

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