The Dark Ice Chronicles - The Magi

Chapter 6 - They Say, "Have Courage"

To my surprise, when I walk down to Independence for the final show of Goodnight Desdemona on Saturday night, there’s no sign of the three boys from that Fire gang. Which is sad, because I wanted to see if they’d still be scared of me, thinking I was Ice. But then again, if they were there and they weren’t scared, then I’d be in deep shit, ‘cause they’d realize pretty quickly that I must be some kind of freak, and beat me down that much faster.

At the theater entrance, the ticket-taker girl remembers me from last Saturday’s show, so she doesn’t bother checking my ID to confirm that I’m a student. Even better, tonight they have iced Starbucks drinks available at the snack bar - which sure as hell beats the cartons of crap my ‘rents keep buying at the grocery store.

I have no trouble spotting Kevin in the audience - the big guy’s blond head towers over pretty much everyone around him. He’s sitting three seats in from the center of the middle row, between two red-haired girls. One of these looks so much like Evan, she must be her little sister Adele. The other looks to be closer to my age, and her red hair is curly and bouncy. To Adele’s other side is a smaller girl who also looks a lot like her and Evan - the difference being that she’s got long, straight golden hair. Basically, Lannister blonde as opposed to Evan’s Targaryen blonde.

“Hey there, Jason!” Kevin says, waving me over. “Evan told me you were comin’, so we’re gonna make some room for you here...okay, maybe you could scoot over, Michelle?”

The curly-haired girl moves over one seat, allowing me to take her place next to Kevin.

“Who’s this guy again?” the blonde girl asks.

“Evan’s friend,” Kevin says simply. “Jason Cross. Jason, meet Adele Michaelsen” - she waves down the row to me - “and Rachel Aster.” The blonde girl leans out to take a closer look at me. “And this,” Jason adds, pointing to the curly-haired girl, “is Michelle Dunn.”

“Charmed, Dark boy,” Michelle says, smiling nastily.

I raise my eyebrow, feeling unnerved.

“Don’t worry,” Michelle says, laughing lightly. “I’m the one Fire who’ll make friends with anyone. As long as they’re good people.” She turns serious. “You are good people, right?”

“Of...of course I am.”

“I hope so,” Michelle says. “I’ll shoot anyone who lies to my face. With a Fire arrow, natch.”

I look at Kevin with a bit of worry, and he says, “Don’t worry. Michelle acts dangerous, but she’s really a big ol’ teddy bear. Like me.”

“You may be a teddy bear,” Michelle says, “but I’m a grizzly. Need I remind you of the time-”

“Yeah, yeah, we all remember the Day of the Thousand Ice Flechettes, thank you very much,” Kevin says, waving his hand to cut Michelle off.

“Do I wanna know-?” I begin.

“Trust me, you don’t,” Kevin says. “It’s totally embarrassing, and I want you to be scared of me, remember? I’m the one who’s gonna lay the smack down on you if you don’t treat Evan right, capisce?”

Adele’s face brightens. “Oh, you’re Evan’s boyfriend, Jason?”

“No,” I say, glad none of the others are Dark, because they’d have a tougher time seeing me blush in the half-lit gloom of the theater.

“So you’re just a friend friend, then?” Adele asks. “Like Harris?”

“Uh, yeah, kinda.” Except I’m not. Or, at least, I hope I’m not. Not forever, anyway.