A Strange Way / Wessa

Chapter 16 - Almost there

Will

When he realized that Mortmain was gone, Will allowed himself to take a deep breath. Geez, I don't know what to do. I could tell Tessa, but that might incriminate her, too. And I can't bring her into this. If I let her get too close to me, Mortmain might mess with her even more than he already plans. But I guess I owe it to her to tell her, and we still have to meet at Taki's. Oh my, Will's thoughts drained on until he got to the cafeteria.

The first thing he saw when he walked in was his sister hunched over a notebook and smiling brightly with Sophie and Luna. Then he noticed who they were surrounding. Tessa sat at the table, smiling shyly. In front of her, there was a notebook.

As he approached, he began to hear them speak. Cecily and Luna were the easiest to hear, seeing as Luna was squealing and Cecily's voice had been built up to be naturally loud. That was the only way she could be heard, with Will as a brother. "We could do a whole frickin' album with these songs!" Cecily exclaimed, giving Tessa a hug, "Who knew my roommate was a lyrical genius?"

The girls laughed, including Tessa, her cheeks turned red. Now Will was close enough to properly hear everything said. "Thanks! A few of these are from a few years ago, though, so there are only a few that are good enough to use. We can try all of them." Tessa proposed. She looks cute when she's blushing. Will thought, smirking.

Cecily noticed him, and called him over. "William! Come look at these songs. We're forming a band with Tessa here!" Meanwhile, Tessa made to close her notebook. Unfortunately for Tessa, Cecily got to them first, and she gave the notebook to Will. Will smirked at Tessa's expression. It was a mix between anger and fear.

"Ooh, love song. Who might that be about?" Will asked. He was sure it was about a fictional character of some sort, but to his surprise, Tessa blushed. "It's not a love song! It's about a friend of mine." Tessa snapped, reaching for the notebook.

Will was now intrigued by the song, and raised his arms up so that Tessa couldn't reach the notebook without jumping, and she would never jump for sake of pride. "Really? This line says, Darling, save me, you know I'm drowning. I'll see you soon my beautiful soul." Will teased. Tessa narrowed her eyes at him and he faltered a bit.

This was the chance she needed, Tessa grabbed the notebook in one swift jump. Will didn't have the chance to take the notebook back. "Okay, it was about an old friend crush. His name was... John. This is from years ago, anyways." Tessa lied.

"Sorry, sorry. You know, you're songs are pretty good. Well, anyways, I have to go see Princie about something." Will apologized. Before he left, he heard Tessa giggle slightly. "What?" he asked. Tessa looked at him with humor in her eyes, "If you keep seeing him like this, he might expect you to declare your intentions." she laughed.

Jem came up at that moment and feigned offense, although it was difficult to do while laughing, "I thought I was your secret love." he joked. Will slung his backpack over his shoulder and huffed off, leaving his friends laughing in the cafeteria.

When Will was in the hallway, he saw that his schedule had fallen out of his backpack. He looked at it again before shoving it back in.

William Herondale

Period 1: Science

Period 2: Business

Period 3: Creative Writing

Period 4: English Advanced

Lunch

Period 5: Physical Education

Period 6: History

Period 7: Math

Period 8: Debate IV