The Divinity of Anila

Chapter Twenty-Four

Bailey

I hurried into the house, late, unforgivably late, yet I still hoped I wouldn't get into a lot of trouble. It's not like I was blowing off work, nor did I oversleep on purpose. It just happened. Mrs. Stinson and I talked for a long time. The next thing I know it's ten in the morning and I'm alone with a note next to my pillow reading:

Thought I'd let you sleep. You seem tired. You need to take better care of yourself. I left you some money for breakfast and the extra key to the apartment is on the counter. See you soon.

She signed her name with a heart. Isn't she just the sweetest? I'm not sure how I got so tired. In fact, I had every intention of making it home before midnight, which was my curfew. Yeah, I messed up big time. Madame was going to be all kinds of pissed at me.

I made sure to avoid her as I came into the house. It was around eleven-thirty in the morning. She'd be in the kitchen soon to make lunch for everyone who was still there. I'm pretty sure that was just Piper, Puck, and Anila.

Nila. I was going to have to school her soon. Not sure I was ready for that. I had to remind myself that she wasn't Natalia, regardless of how similar they were. Just a few months, and really, by the end of the week we'd probably be best friends anyway. Okay, that's an over exaggeration. We'd be a step below friends but one above acquaintances. Nila was just a girl. There was nothing to fear.

As I passed the kitchen, I made sure to be quick as well as quiet just in case Madame was in fact in there already cooking. I carefully snuck downstairs to the classroom where the others were. Puck was sitting on top of a desk reading a book and eating an apple. He must have been really bored if he was reading a book in public. Piper was busy playing on her cell phone while Nila also was deep in a text book. Something gave me the impression that they wanted to stay down there, pretending to work as long as possible. Avoiding Madame was kind of like a game for us. We tried to do it for a long time.

"Thanks for joining us," Puck muttered, turning a page.

I picked up a pencil from off of an empty desk and threw it at him. "Overslept."

"What happened to the alarm clock you had on your phone?"

"She turned it off." Why was he interrogating me? It's not like I'd never stayed over with Mrs. Stinson before. Eesh.

"I take it you had a good date," Nila said, closing her book. She gazed at me, folding her hands on top of the desk.

Shrugging, I sat down next to her. "Yeah, we had a nice night."

"You like this woman a lot."

"She's important to me, yes." I wasn't quite sure where this was going.

Nila scrunched up her nose. "She's married."

"Widowed, actually," I said stiffly.

"That's a relief."

I raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me? It's a relief that her husband is dead?"

"If you two are... involved... yeah. It'd be worse if he was still alive and you two were getting together."

Puck cackled. "She's like sixty years old!"

That's when I caught on. I sat back in the desk and folded my arms in front of me, making sure the glare I gave her adequately expressed all of my anger. "Are you freaking kidding me? You thought we were hooking up?"

"I don't know." She sank lower into her chair. "The way you were talking about her..."

"She has a point," Puck said. I shot him a glare as well. He gave me a shrug. "Just saying. But Nila, you need to understand that Bailey is only interested in curvy blondes."