And one of those things we got a chance to experience that weekend was a magical football game since our Artemis team had a home game. I hadn’t had a chance to even listen to the sports my first year, but now that I was done with high school, I could get into it more. I knew there was lacrosse, but that was about it.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t as cool as Quidditch from Harry Potter—and everyone laughed as I immediately went there—but was definitely more than just regular human football.
Oh, American football. I was reminded of that constantly, dating a born Irishman. I didn’t really care either way, so I promised him that my football could be the round kind that was kicked if he stopped saying it like idiot football. He actually looked embarrassed when I said that and swore hadn’t meant to sound that way.
I believed it. My prickly pear wasn’t a dick or condescending, simply… Prickly.
And very, very excited for me to see my first game. He worked with the hobgoblins and had a whole thing planned.
We started the day with a morning picnic in Faerie. He was somehow able to sense I wanted to be there more. There was something pulling me there more and… I had theories, but I didn’t want to get my hopes up. It could be years and years before I found someone in such a big world. I was simply happy the world was better and I could sustain it myself while making progress.
That was enough for the moment, right?
Then, we went to the hobgoblin bakery to pick up a ton of treats for the game and check in since I hadn’t had the chance to. My mood was even better getting to be around so much hobgoblins sweetness and joy at getting to live better lives. The kids were all there since we had rooms at that HAVEN location they used as a daycare. So we got to have fun there for a bit too.
We couldn’t stay too long, as all the kids really liked me as the only fairy they’d ever met, and kids didn’t always keep secrets the best. More than one of the women we’d helped had made a comment about how surprising it was that the shy hobgoblin kids were so open and friendly with me.
Whoops.
We brought the excessive amount of treats back to campus with the help of our friends, and I found out there was a whole tailgating experience waiting for us. Well, not just us, the school’s lunch was set up that way for home games.
“How did I miss this last year?” I asked, glancing around at all the crazy.
“You were studying for your high school tests one of the times,” Izzy answered. “I remember making, like, twenty trips, as you put away enough hot dogs for a full pig and fries for an entire potato farm. I think you were off campus one of the other home games.” She shrugged.
Yeah, fair enough. Who could keep it all straight, and I wasn’t big into the school and like school spirit stuff when I was more trying to survive it all.
We picked a picnic area with tables and a large grill already set up. We were back-to-back with Natalie and a whole bunch of scholarship students that were Darby’s friends as well, so it worked out.
Or until I realized they’d saved us the spot. Duh. We gave over some of the treats, and Darby went off to get our trays of meats and fixings.
“You look happy,” Natalie muttered as she looked over what was in the boxes. “I’m glad you guys worked it out.”
“Yeah, me too.”
“I never really understood why you guys broke up. None of us did.”
“Ummm, well…”
She sighed. “Got it. It has something to do with you being undeclared or all your many secrets.”
“Sort of, yeah.”
“Did you work it out?”
I thought about that a moment. “Sort of, yeah. It might pop its ugly head up again, but I think we worked through it enough as a team where we can handle it better next time.”
“Good. I’m really glad to hear that.”
Darby came back as Lucca finished getting our grill going. He was next to us on the other side with a bunch of the bear shifters. We thanked him, and he gave me a quick, heated look that he wanted to start a fire with me, and not the damn grill.
“Does Darby know about that?” Natalie asked under her breath.
I flinched, cursing mentally. She was talented with auras. Of course she would have figured it out. “Yes, of course. I would never cheat on him. It’s complicated, as Mr. Von Thann is one of my biggest threats. If he thought—it’s bad.”
“Then I would suggest getting a charm like you did with Craftsman and Hudson because the guy lights up like fucking fireworks when he’s around you.”
I couldn’t even get my mouth to work, her laugh trailing after her as she walked away. It was a miracle I hadn’t gotten completely busted yet, or had been able to stuff shit back into hiding with the way people found things out.
Were all the bad guys morons? No, so full of themselves they missed the signs?
Probably.
“What was that all about?” Darby asked.
“Natalie figured out about Lucca and wanted to make sure you knew,” I admitted with a sigh. “And apparently knew about Craftsman and Hudson so, you know, I suck at secrets.”
“We’ll get the right charms and handle it like we do everything,” he said easily.
