As We Go Along

KAT

Cleaning up the booths was a nightmare. I poked my head into my assigned dorm room and grinned widely as I spotted Epimetheus passed out on the floor, a glass of milk in his hand and his stuffed lamb sprawled on his face.

"Epi!" I exclaimed in a hushed tone, I had come to learn that the sleepy boy would only respond to low and quiet tones.

Epimetheus sat up and rubbed his eyes sending a wave of sleep crashing into me. I winced and quickly blinked away the sleep from my eyes as I stared at him through squinted eyes.

"Hefsh, henlo Kat!" He mumbled out in a high tone as he sleepily crawled towards me. I secured his wobbling glass of milk with a Sticky Safe. Which was probably not the best spell to use in order to keep the milk from spilling out of the glass, but it did its job.

I got down on my knees and patted his head with a soft smile. "Good to see you bud." I picked up the fallen stuffed animal and tossed it onto his bed. "You really need to see someone about sleeping all the time," I commented as I watched him stumble off of the floor and lean into his bedpost.

"I was going to," he slurred out with a slow shrug. I squinted at his form, some wizards could spot odd magikal energy around others who may be possessed or had a Wiked attached to them. I hadn't seen my Wiked ever since our argument we had during Midsummer. I spotted a fuzzy-looking outline around Epimetheus, yet that had always been there thanks to his sleepy submerged state. "But, I got too tired." He finished off as he drunkenly stumbled to his dresser and pulled out his wand.

Unlike every other wizard or witches wand, Epimetheus wand was milky white and gave the appearance as if it was freshly picked off of a tree. Just like him, it gave off the odd magikal feeling of sleep. He stuffed it into his pocket and looked at me. "You want to get food?"

I hadn't realised how hungry I was until now. The thought of eating made me think back upon my Wiked, I quickly shook my head to get rid of the thought and looked up at Epimetheus with a wide grin. "Sure, let's get some food." He nodded at this and stumbled out of our room in only socks and sheep-styled pyjamas.

I quickly tossed on some sneakers, pocketed my wallet and wand, and quickly followed behind him.

Three Fifteen Burger wasn't as crowded as I thought. In fact, the only people who were there, was a sleepy teen, a hungry wizard, and a girl walking through the door.

I squinted my eyes and glanced at Epimetheus, "hey Ep do you know that girl?" I whispered to him softly as I nudged his cheeseburger with a finger.

"Wha-" he looked up and his eyes widened. "Alice," he slurred out. I assumed that was the closest to yelling he was ever going to reach.

"Alice?" I rubbed the back of my neck awkwardly, I could have sworn I saw her somewhere...

"Ep! Good to see Cramer didn't leave you sleeping at the booth on our first night." She called out, she then focused her attention on me and knit her eyebrows as she continued to approach our table. "I remember you signing up at my booth, The Teachings Against Darkness. The name's Alice."

I sat up a bit straighter as my brain put two and two together. That's why I recognised her, she must be one of the leading members of the club. "Kat," I shook her hand with a friendly smile. "Care to join us?"

I scooted over to make room for her and slid the restaurant's menu to her. Ep happily dozed in his seat, he peacefully sprawled out over the restaurant's rust-coloured booth. I began to rack my brain over conversation starters that could be said, to break the awkwardness that would soon develop between Alice and me. Before I could utter a word, the waiter came by to take our order.