Chapter 27: Interlude – Good News

=::= Kaylee's PoV =::=

"What do you think?" I asked. "Is that a good subject for my research project?"

Ms. Hughes looked thoughtful for a few moments before giving me her answer. "I honestly think it's a little too broad a subject, Kaylee. He was the second-last Byzantine emperor, and quite a lot happened during his reign. I think you could narrow your focus and pick one important event during that time, and do your research on that."

I frowned as I thought about what I'd read. I was planning to do my research project on the life of John VIII Palaiologos, since he was the emperor when Cass's lucky coin was made. That same lucky coin was still on a necklace hanging around my neck, and thinking about it or Cassandra made me very happy.

Turning my attention back onto history instead of my girlfriend, I knew John VIII was the emperor from fourteen-twenty-five to fourteen-forty-eight, and he was co-emperor for a few years before that. Ms. Hughes was right, there were quite a few significant events during that time to choose from. And after my preliminary research I could think of a few just off the top of my head.

"Ok," I agreed. "I think I'm either going to focus on his part in the defence of Constantinople during a siege by the Ottomans, or his role in the Council of Florence."

The history teacher smiled, "Sounds good."

I was about to ask which of those two she liked better, when my phone started playing my alarm tone. This was the last Friday of February, the full moon was tomorrow morning, and I was going to be late for another Club Luna meeting.

"Sorry Ms. Hughes I have to go!" I said as I quickly stuffed my books into my backpack. "Have a good weekend!"

She smiled, "You too Kaylee, see you next week."

I dashed out of her class and hurried through the empty halls to Miss Hawthorne's class. I was last one there again, and I blushed as the others all looked over when I raced in through the door. The candles were all lit and I could tell Paige had the circle set up. They were just waiting for me to arrive before beginning the meeting.

"There she is," Brooke stated. "Now we can get started."

"Sorry I'm late," I apologized as I closed and locked the door behind me. "I got distracted, doing some preliminary work for my history assignment."

Marissa made a face, "Brainwashed by the evil Ms. Hughes more like it. We should find an excuse to get your girlfriend in there with you for a class. She'll be able to spot whatever magic that teacher's doing to you, then she can dispell it and save you from Hughes' evil clutches."

I almost did a double-take when I saw how close she and Melanie were sitting to each other, like they were close enough Melanie could use Marissa's big hat as an umbrella or something. I already knew Marissa was interested in the werewolf, but now it seemed those feelings might be mutual.

It was none of my business though so I pushed that out of my mind and adjusted my glasses while I rolled my eyes. "Fascinating story Marissa, you should sign up for May's Creative Writing class next year."

She still hadn't stopped griping about our history teacher, but by this point I was pretty sure Marissa wasn't serious. I had a feeling she was just teasing me over the fact that I liked a teacher who gave her a hard time.

Still, Cass looked anxious as I sat down next to her. My cute brunette girlfriend leaned closer and whispered, "You don't think Ms. Hughes is really doing magic do you? We still don't know why her house was on Mrs. Reeves' map..."

"No," I made a face. "I think Marissa is being Marissa."

Brooke cleared her throat as she gave me and Cass a bit of a look, and both of us went silent as we cringed and blushed.

Then the tall blonde witch looked over at our two youngest club members and asked, "Marissa, Melanie, do you want to let us know how the training is going? And do you have plans in place for the full moon tonight?"

Technically the full moon wasn't till tomorrow, but it was early enough in the morning that we could basically say it was tonight. I was actually surprised to see Melanie here at the meeting. In fact I hadn't expected her to even come to school today, considering the moon would peak in under twelve hours.

Except something was obviously different now. Last month our newest club member seemed anxious and jumpy, she almost acted like a cornered animal. Now she was sitting next to Marissa, leaned back in her chair with her army boots up on the desk in front of her. She looked relaxed, calm, maybe even a bit cocky, but that actually fit Marissa's personality too.

"So my wolf-training's been going pretty good," the teen were replied. "Between spending time with Mom-iji and hanging out with Marissa I've started shifting once or twice a week, to get myself more used to it. I really didn't want to do that at first, but Marissa talked me into giving it a try."

Melanie went on, "Me and Marissa have had a few dates where I shift to wolf form and we hang out like that. And the last couple times I've seen Mom-iji we both shift then we go out and run together."

Hearing her say she and Marissa had started dating pretty much confirmed my suspicion about the wolf and the witch. Other club members were focused on something else though.

Paige asked, "Who or what is 'mom-iji'?"

Marissa grinned, "It's a pun. Melanie's wolf-tutor is a mom-type but she looks like a Touhou character called Momiji, so we call her Mom-iji."

She continued, "And Melanie's been doing great with witch training as well as her wolf stuff! I started teaching her the Will and the Word and the Way after the last full moon. She's been picking it up pretty good too. We're going to try getting her to start casting spells this weekend."

"Well just be careful about it," Brooke responded. "Try not to burn anything down."

The younger blonde smirked, while Melanie grinned.

"As far as the full moon," the werewolf spoke up again, "I'm probably going to change tonight but I don't think I'll bother running around. Me and Marissa are going to hang out at my place again, maybe play some video games or watch a movie or something."

Marissa added, "In case she gets hungry I'll have some more fresh meat with us. I've got some sheep chunks and guts and stuff in my locker, we'll grab that on our way out."

Brooke made a face, "That's what that smell is? You didn't even put it in a cooler or something? I'm sorry but you're not bringing that in my car."

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"Where do you even get that from?" Paige added.

Marissa grinned, "My uncle works in an abattoir, so I just told him I needed some sheep parts. And no it's not in a cooler, that's not how wolfs like their meals."

Melanie added, "Me and Marissa can walk home, it's fine."

Cass and I glanced at each other, both of us were grimacing quietly. We didn't have to say a word to know how gross we both thought that was. And I quietly thanked the Goddesses yet again that my girlfriend didn't get turned when Melanie tried to bite her. On the other hand I was kind of impressed how much Marissa was willing to do to make her new girlfriend feel comfortable.

"Anything else?" Brooke asked.

The wolf girl nodded, "Yeah. When I saw Mom-iji the other day she said her and May caught the guy responsible for the 'potion' my uncle gave me. She said something about a witch council taking care of the situation, but she wouldn't go into details. Anyways I guess the good news is the guy's been stopped. I just hope he didn't ruin too many other lives before they got him."

Paige agreed, "That is good news."

"Definitely," our club leader nodded. "And I'm sure May and the council will help any other customers who got turned by the guy's so-called potions."

That seemed to cover everything about our newest club member, so Brooke turned her attention to me. She asked, "Kaylee, do you want to tell us how the training is going with Cass? And last month you said you had an idea about her random power surges, did you figure that out?"

As usual my cute shy girlfriend cringed and tried to hide inside her hoodie now that the attention was on her. I did my best not to smile as I straightened up in my chair and adjusted my glasses as I prepared to give the others my report.

"At this point Cass's training is pretty much done," I announced. "All that's left is for her to learn more spells, because the ones she knows she can cast reliably. And her magic is as strong as any of us now."

I continued, "I still don't know what happened exactly but I feel like she turned a corner at new years. That's when she started casting reliably, and since then her strength has been on a steady upward climb. As for the bursts of power, those have actually tapered off in the last month or so. But looking back now, I'd say that's another thing that changed at new years? The sporadic power boosts started getting weaker around the same time the rest of her magic started getting stronger."

Paige asked, "Did you ever figure out what caused the random boosts?"

"Yes," I nodded. "They weren't random at all. When she breaks circles and spells fizzle when they touch her, she's not dispelling them. She's actually sucking the magic out of them. Then whatever spell she cast next would have all that power loaded into it, which made it seem like she had random power boosts."

"Well that sounds like good news all around," Brooke responded. "Good job getting Cass up to speed and figuring out what was causing those random surges. And I'm glad to hear that's not a problem anymore."

"So if she's not getting the big power boosts does that mean she's stopped breaking magic too?" Marissa asked. "Cos that was a pretty cool talent, right? Definitely came in handy with the witch hunter."

Cass was still blushing and cringing, but she kept quiet.

I grinned and shook my head, "She still does it. She's basically spell-proof, anything you cast at her she just absorbs the magic before it can affect her. And she still breaks circles and enchantments by touching them. I'm pretty sure the only thing that's changed is instead of all that power coming out the next time she casts, she only taps into enough power to make her spells work."

Brooke frowned, "So where the rest of us have to use the Way to gather in ambient magic from the environment, Cass can charge up on magic that's already been used? And presumably she's holding onto it somehow."

"That's weird isn't it?" Paige asked. The tall brunette was frowning as well as she added, "Like I've never heard of that before."

"Me neither," Brooke agreed. "I'll pass it on to May though, she might have some ideas."

I noticed Melanie was giving my girlfriend a sort of suspicious look, which annoyed me. Cass was the one who insisted we all go soft on the wolfgirl. Even after being attacked and nearly bitten, my girlfriend worried about upsetting or scaring Melanie. I didn't like the idea that the were was ungrateful or didn't appreciate what Cass did for her. And it made me wonder how much of that attack in December was an accident after all.

"Last question," our club leader's voice snapped me out of my thoughts. "Kaylee or Cass, have either of you got an idea of what Cassandra's forte or speciality is? Where's her magic strongest?"

My girlfriend finally spoke up, though she was still quiet and a mumbled a little as she talked.

"Um, Kaylee thinks I might be good at plant or nature magic?" After a pause she added, "Though it's hard to be sure of that in the winter."

Paige nodded, "Makes sense, considering it was autumn when you joined the club. You haven't had a chance to be out in a lot of nature since becoming a witch."

I agreed, "We're both looking forward to spring so we can actually test this? Me and Cass are going to go over to Island Lake again when everything's in bloom. I can't wait to see what she can do with some nature spells when the place is brimming with life."

Marissa grinned as she interjected, "We should all head back there in the spring anyways! We need to be sure that truck driver was really laid to rest back in October. Plus I bet it'll be a fun place for Melanie to wolf out!"

Brooke rolled her eyes, "We'll see. It's probably at least two months before the weather will be nice enough for that anyways. Likewise, things are still quiet around town thanks to all the cold and snow. And on that note, it's supposed to start snowing again soon so if there's no more club business I think we'll wrap this up and everyone can head home. Ok?"

Nobody had anything else to add, so Cass got up and poked a finger into the circle, dispelling it as she pulled all the magic into herself.

I noticed Melanie giving my girlfriend a wary look again, but Cassandra started talking about our study date tonight and that got my mind off the wolfgirl and onto much nicer things.

We bid the rest of our friends a good night, then the two of us got our winter coats on and headed out together.