Page 11 of Surviving in Everton

“She kept trying until she got it in the box and we cheered for her when she finally did. She was so proud of herself, Mommy. It made me so happy to see her laughing and having fun. She’s always so sad all of the time,” Violet tells us, shoulders hitched.

Why is this poor girl so sad all of the time? She’s only five-years-old. She should be thrilled to go to school and have fun with her friends every day. But from the sounds of it, she doesn’t have many friends or even know how to play. Whose fucking kid is this? They should be ashamed of themselves!

“Well, I’m glad she has you to teach her how to play new games. Did y’all have fun?” I ask her, all the while pondering who this poor girl is.

“We had sooo much fun, Mommy! I haven’t seen Emma smile or laugh like that. I think she’s finally starting to understand that Chloe and I are her friends and that playing should be fun,” she says with a smile.

“You must be very proud of yourself for showing Emma how to have fun. It sounds like that’s new to her, and obviously something she very much needed to learn,” I praise her.

“Yeah.” she frowns. “She looked so sad the first day of school when her mommy dropped her off. After you left, I saw her walking around the room, not looking happy to be there, and it made me sad. So I introduced myself to her and talked her into sitting next to me. I decided she was going to be my friend, so she’s stuck with me now,” she giggles.

“Well, you’re a good friend to be stuck with,” Logan speaks up with a grin.

I smile at Logan then give Declan a proud look.You did a good job with him Dec. He’s a great kid. I think to him. He smiles and dips his head to me in thanks.

“Logan, how was your day?”

“It was okay. I’ve got a lot of friends in my class this year. Mrs. Rhodes has us reading kiddie magic books. I guess it’s two lessons in one because we have to read, and we’re learning new magic,” he tells us.

“Oh yeah? Did you learn any new magic today?”

“Nah, not today.” He sighs. “It’s still too early in the school year. We’re concentrating on the rules of magic first.” He rolls his eyes at that and we all chuckle. “We’re insecond grade. I think we know the rules of magic by now. Teach us some good stuff already, gosh,” he grumbles, and the guys all laugh.

“Well, thatisimportant stuff, you know. Besides, they do that at every school, always gotta make sure the rules are crystal clear before it’s safe to move on and learn new stuff,” I explain. “You’ll be learning all sorts of fun things in no time, don’t worry.”

He smiles at me then goes back to eating his extra cheesy pizza. Declan walks by me to get another drink and stops to kiss my head.

“Thank you, love,” he whispers so only I can hear. I can’t help but smile. He’s such a good dad.

We finish our dinner in relative silence, the guys and I lost in thought, just listening to the kids talk animatedly about a game they want to play when they go back to the playhouse. Once they’re finished, they say their goodbyes and take off outside. I wonder how long it’ll take before one of the guys brings up the elephant in the room. I catch them all exchanging looks, silently asking each other the same question.

Hudson sighs and shakes his head before finally speaking. “We know you don’t wanna talk about it, Rowe, but we need a plan, and I think you should be a part of that plan,” he gently informs me.

“Fine, let’s plan. What are we planning first? Me completely losing my memory because of this?” I gesture to my head. “Or me falling back under that asshole’s spell again?Maybeyou want to plan medying?”

“Fuck, Rowe! Don’t say shit like that!” Nate yells at me.

“What? It’s the truth. We have no idea what this spell is still doing to me. We have no ideahowto counteract it.Andwe have no idea what will happen to me if wedon’tfigure it out!” I yell right back. Everyone sits there staring at me in shock. Oh, I’m sorry. Am I not allowed to be pissed off right now?

“Of course you are, Rowen. You have every right to feel any way you feel. Hell, you’re not the only one that’s a swirling mess of emotions right now,” Declan growls.

I take a deep breath and slowly let it out. “I’m sorry. I know y’all are upset about this too, I’m just scared,” I admit.

“We know you are, Rowe, but we’ll figure it out together,” Hudson promises. “We’re trying to figure out how to determine who helped him. We think it had to be another magic user at your school,” he continues and I nod my head in agreement. Makes sense to me. “Well, Ayden remembered a guy we went to school with that went to college with you. He’s going to call him and see if he knows of any other magic users that were there at the same time as you.”

I look over at Ayden, my eyes searching his. “You think this guy will be able to help?”

“It wouldn’t hurt to ask,” he tells me. “Plus, he’s the quiet, nerdy type. No one notices him, but he noticeseverything. Maybe he saw something? Who knows, but it’s worth a shot.” I can tell by the look in his eyes, he really thinks this guy could help us. I don’t even know who it is, but I hope to hell he’s right.

“Okay, so is that the extent of our plans?” I question them. I know they talked about this while I was asleep on Hudson’s lap. Hell, they probably talked about it some more when I took my bath. Thinking about what happened in that bath, while the others were out here, makes me blush.

“Right now, our plan is to take care of you and make sure your condition doesn’t worsen. You said it yourself, we don’t know what this spell is still doing to you. You thought you were coming out of the spell because it had been so long since it was given to you and because your memories were coming back. But we don’t even know exactly what it did to you when you were under its influence. Obviously, it made you more compliant and messed with your memories, but what else? What should we be looking for that will tell us the spell is taking hold again?” Hudson sighs heavily as he runs his hand through his hair.

“I don’t know, Hud. Probably anything that would be unusual for the old me?” I suggest with a shrug. “I have to imagine Harris wanted to punish me, what better way than to make me into someone I’m not?”

“Okay. Then the easiest way to tell if you start behaving differently is to always have someone with you. We can take shifts,” Kayden tells me. “One of us will stay the night, every night. Whoever’s night it is, can pick you up from the bakery and bring you home.” All of the guys seem to agree with his plan. There’s just one problem.

“There’s only five of you. In case you forgot, there are seven days in a week,” I snark. I hate having my life planned out for me. I know they’re trying to be helpful, but it’s kinda pissing me off.

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