Nothing Comes Easy (Hiatus)

Chapter 17

(Star's POV)

I was sitting at my desk trying to comprehend the instruction book for my wand, with little success. "This is impossible." I said as I searched through the pages. "This isn't even the same information that was on this page when I passed it two seconds ago." I was looking for a powerful spell that would help the next time Ludo attacked; but this book had to be magic or something because every time I returned to a previous page it was like it had something new on it. On top of that, I had yet to come across a single offensive spell. "Is this thing enchanted or something?"

"It could be." I heard someone say. I looked over to the door to see Marco standing there, leaning against the door frame. "What spell are you looking for?"

"An offensive spell." I said, as I rested my chin on the book. "But I don't understand half of these spells, or why they are even here." I looked at the current page. "Take this one for instance, a spell that forces the target to tell the truth, how is that going to help?"

"I don't know, sometimes people hide stuff from you and you want to know what they are hiding; or why they are hiding it." Marco responded in a strange tone that almost sounded like he was being sarcastic.

I gave the spell a once over and rolled my eyes. "Well it doesn't matter because this spell is fifteen words long and I don't even know how to begin to pronounce half of them. And look at this." I turned the page then turned it back. "Now it's a spell about mending injuries."

"You mean like the one you tried to use on my arm when it was broken?" Marco asked.

I shook my head. "No, I don't think that one was meant to fix your arm … actually I'm not sure what it was meant for at this point."

"Well, good thing we fixed that mess." Marco said as he rubbed his arm. "Did you try the index?"

I shook my head. "I can't even get to the index, I try flipping to the last few pages but when I do, I'm still in the middle of the book, it's like this book is defying the laws of nature."

"You have a habit of defying the laws of nature with your wand, I hope you know." He said as he walked over. "Maybe you should take a break?"

I flipped through a few pages and sighed. "I can't, I need to find some spell that I can use to fight Ludo's new minions." I stopped at a page that had a picture of a heart on it and dropped my head on the book.

"What's that one?" Marco asked.

I lifted my head slightly to read. "It's a list of spells that come in handy when … courting."

"Courting?" Marco asked.

"This book has an annoying sense of irony." I said as I hit my head on the book again. "All it does is remind me that if I see Oscar again I'm going to blast him."

I heard Marco pull up a chair and sit beside me. "Star look … you have to relax or the stress is going to be worse than anything Ludo could do."

"But I have to." I said, with my head in the book. "If Ludo attacks then we might be in trouble, it was only luck that all four of us were there, and Ludo was just testing his new minions so he had them attack all of us alone, that might not happen next time."

Marco placed an arm around me. "Well remember, Marcus burnt Splinter Birch down to a twig; so until he grows back, we have you to watch our backs."

I looked at him and felt at ease. "Thank you Marco, but Splinter Birch won't stay a twig forever, and I don't think he'll start speaking English any time soon."

"Well, while we wait we can work on a way to beat them." He laughed a little. "But I have no idea what we're going to do about understanding him, we might be in some serious trouble there."

I giggled. "We could always have Marcus teach us Latin."

Marco stood up and placed a foot on his chair. "That's it, once we all speak Latin then we will be truly unstoppable!"

I laughed. "Oh Marco, you're too much."

He smiled back at me. "Well I try, at least this time I didn't have to lure a bunch of monster here."

"Awe, come here you." I stood up and wrapped my arms around Marco. "Hugs."

Marco hugged me back. "I'm glad I was able to cheer you up."

"Oh." I said as I let go of him. "That reminds me." I picked up my bag and pulled out my test from a few days ago. "Thanks to you I'm doing better in school!"

"Sweet!" He replied. "Keep this up and your parents won't send you away, right?"

"Yup." I said as I put down the test. "Think you can tutor me some more?"

"Sure thing." He said with a smile. "I'll be back in a moment."

I watched as Marco left the room. I turned back to the book and flipped through a few pages. It's a good thing Marco and I managed to get over the argument we had earlier. I thought. I like that we get to spend more time together, now that everything is behind us. As I continued looking I noticed my heart was racing. Well that's odd. I thought as I placed a hand on my chest. Why is my heart beating so fast? As I was looking through the pages I remembered something that might have been important. I lied to Marco about Jackie … I completely lied, right to his face … My heart was still racing. Why did I do that?

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