51 Shades of Mumu

Chapter 13

    When was it ever a normal day at Hempstead High? Like, honestly? As I walked in the next Monday, confidence oozing through each and every one of my orifices, I was certain it would be a good—and somewhat ordinary—day.

    Too bad Lydia had a thousand and one candles burning in her locker…

    "What are you doing?" I questioned as she stuck her colorful head further into the tiny space and mumbled unintelligible words.

    "JESUS! Don't just sneak up on me like that!" My seemingly harmless friend defensively eased in front of her locker door and eventually slammed it shut, setting out a great majority of the candles in the process.

    "Bitch you gon burn tha school down!" Kigurl vociferated, making her presence clearly known. "You is one badass ho, Lydia Bro."

    "Fine, fine. You wanna know what's going on? I'll tell you at lunch," Lydia whispered before sprinting off to math class with her precious Faeleb. Ugh, what I would do to kill that boy.

*

    By lunch, Ronan could not contain herself. She swore—on her life and everyone else's—that she was going to murder Trixie Dahlman, the irritating blonde girl we had encountered last week. Apparently, Trixie had not only slept with majority of the hardcore band members known to man, but also with more than half the male population at Hempstead High.

    And that last statement got all of us fuming.

    Especially Lydia.

    "Lydia, why the hell you got candles in yo locker, huh?" Kigurl asked, completely dismissing Ronan's death threats.

    "Okay, so…"Lydia began blushing, "I kinda know dark magic. YOU GUYS CAN'T TELL A SOUL! Like, really. This is super serious shit."

    "So you can cast spells and stuff?" Ronan asked, genuinely intrigued.

    I contemplated. Honestly, I didn't believe in magic in the least bit. Especially when Lydia was concerned. She was just too insane. And magic was just too serious. "I don't believe it."

    "Oh, but you will," she said ominously. "You will when Faeleb falls in love with me and…when other things happen."

    There was a silence at the table that I had never experienced before. Even Kigurl, who was guaranteed to say something brazen and slightly offensive, had her mouth glued shut. So there was more to Lydia than we knew………

*

    "Can you maybe kill Trixie?" Ronan asked as we climbed the stairs after lunch.

    "Nope. I do dark magic. I kill no one." Lydia smirked, and for the first time I noticed that her lipstick was the spot on color of blood. Was it just me or was something creepy in the air?

    "MUMU WAIT UP!" called a deep and luxurious voice behind me. Hoytt. That was Hoytt for sure. I whirled around and, without a question, there stood my Fijian prince with that chocolate mousse voice and that honeycomb hair and ugh I could have spent years staring at his perfection. Gorden, who?

    "Where are you going?" He asked, catching up to me in one step.

    "Class." My response was dreamy as I stared into his chicken curry colored eyes.

    "Sass and class is what I got all up in this bitch!" Faeleb chose that exact moment to ruin the fantasy.

    "What are you even saying bro?" Hoytt began to chuckle.

    Soon, everyone except for me was dying of laughter…but, why? "Yo, Lydia!" Faeleb called up the stairs. We all went silent in expectation. Was he about to make a move? Was Lydia a real witch? Had she seriously just gotten a guy to fall in love with her?

    "Can you send me your math project?"

    Faith in humanity = lost.

    "Sure," She mumbled, clearly upset.

    Faeleb's iridescent eyes lit up as he looked toward her. "Can you also sign me up for the school play? Oh my God! Do you think you could maybe…ya know, like…give me some of those 80s movies you had too? I'll give them back I promise! Oh, and do you know how to get brownies to not burn? I heard you're a good baker…"

    Ronan snorted.

    Kigurl made horse-like noises as she held back giggles.

    My eyes watered.   

    Hoytt fell to the floor.

    We couldn't help it any longer.

    The stairwell filled with the loudest laughter I had heard in my life and, for the first time in a while, I let my worries recess into the background. This was life—a good one, at that—and it was mine for the living.

    Not to mention that the guys were all mine for the taking.