The Touch Reader (#1 of the Elemental Originals Series)

Chapter Fourteen

I waited in line with an annoyed Jayden at my heels, glaring at everything and everyone.

"Moons, I am so glad that I'm a third-year. I only had to wait in these lines once. Tell me why we couldn't skip again?" He groaned out.

"Because I only skipped with you the first time because the line was long, like scary long. Besides, doesn't reliving this line give you warm, fuzzy and nostalgic feelings?" I asked cheerfully.

He shot me a look before sighing and taking another step with me as the line shifted.

It really was a long line, and it wasn't even for lunch. That, I could understand. I mean, it was food. But this line was for the money that we needed to buy our various dresses and suits and probably other stuff.

Apparently, every first-year would get 500 gold coins to begin with, and we could earn more by doing various jobs and other things if we wanted more money. Usually, the original 500 was more than enough to buy everything we needed for all four years, but sometimes there was an anomaly that would need more money than we had to buy.

According to Jayden, he still had around 300 gold coins left from buying random things the past two years. He never spent much, never seeing the charm in spending all your money and then panicking about not having any afterward.

He had told me that he wanted to just reuse his suit from his first year, but when he tried it on it ripped apart, so he now needed to buy a new one, to which I told him that I didn't have any money for a dress and I refused to go shopping again until I did, so he whisked me away to this wonderful line that he have been standing in for the last thirty minutes, waiting for my turn. It was in another two, though, so we shouldn't have to wait long.

"We are going back down after this, right?" Jayden asked.

I fought back a smile as I turned to him and blinked innocently. "Well, I promised Flamma that we would go shopping this weekend, and it's only the middle of the week. . ."

His eyes widened. "I'm sorry, are you telling me that we have been waiting in this line for the last half hour and we're not going down to buy clothes afterward?"

"Pretty much, yeah."

"I swear to the moons, Nix, I-"

"Hey sissy!" Flamma cheerfully called out, interrupted whatever tirade Jayden was about to start.

"Hey Flam."

She shot me a scowl before regarding Jayden. "Hey Denny. How are you?"

His eyes narrowed. "Very well, Flammy. And you?"

She stiffened and was about to respond when a soft voice interrupted. "Don't antagonize him, Flamma," came the gentle, scolding voice of Leo, who was a bit behind her, his brown hair looking like it was beginning to freeze at the tips.

Her jaw dropped in shock, making Jayden smirk. "Yes, exactly. Listen to Leo and stop antagonizing me."

She shook her head in disbelief before turning to me. "Are you waiting to get your coins?"

I nodded. "Yap. We've been waiting for a while but I'm up in a little bit."

"Oh. Leo and I got ours this morning when we woke up. Guess not everyone knew about it because there were only a few people in line. Took less than ten minutes."

I whirled around to look at Jayden in shock, who looked at me with wide eyes. "Why didn't you tell me about it this morning?!"

"I forgot! It's not my fault that my brain decided to momentarily blur that memory!"