Illusions

Tamani couldn’t look at Laurel as she took her seat beside him in Government. He was wrong to shove David and he knew it, but after spending the whole weekend stewing, his temper had gotten away from him.

And it could have been an accident.

From her stiff posture, Tamani could see Laurel knew better. She was mad at him and he was tired of apologizing.

He had to admit, seeing her with David day in and day out had proven harder to handle than he expected. If he was honest with himself, he had kind of expected Laurel to be his by now. He always assumed that if he could just be in the same place as Laurel for long enough, he would win her over — awaken the chemistry that had sparked between them so many times in the past. But he’d been in Crescent City for more than two months and clearly that wasn’t happening.

He was essentially failing on all fronts. He had lost the trolls — and hadn’t found a single sign of them all weekend — he still had no idea what to do with Yuki, and the one time Klea had shown herself, he hadn’t been able to do anything at all.

Maybe Shar was right. Maybe this was a bad idea. Maybe it had always been a bad idea. But he couldn’t give up now — it just wasn’t in his nature. He tried to catch Laurel’s eye one more time, but she had her head down over her notebook and was scribbling furiously on the pages, taking down Mrs. Harms’s every word.

Fine, Tamani thought stubbornly. I don’t want to talk to you, either.

When class ended Tamani saw Laurel turn to him, but before she could speak, he presented his back, slid his books into his backpack, and hefted it onto his shoulder. He gave her one quick glance, met her narrowed gaze, then stormed out of the classroom.

He tried to look over the heads of the students around him, cursing his stature. But he managed to glimpse Yuki heading toward her locker and pushed through the crowd to get to her.

“Hey,” he said, a little breathless.

Her eyes widened and then she looked at the floor, trying to hide her smile. “Hi.”

“I so don’t want to go to class. Any interest in ditching with me?”

Her eyes swung to both sides before she stepped closer and whispered, “Ditching?” in a voice so mortified you’d have thought he suggested murder.

“Sure. You’ve never done it?”

She shook her head sharply from side to side.

He held out a hand. “Want to?”

She stared at his hand for a long moment, as if it might jump up and bite her. Or, more likely, Tamani thought, that it might be a trap.

“Okay,” she said, a smile crossing her face now as she put her hand in his.

“See,” Tamani said, kind of enjoying himself now. “That wasn’t so bad.” He grinned as he pulled her with him, through the sea of warm bodies, toward the front doors. He had skipped class enough times that he knew there was no one standing in the parking lot waiting to pick off truants, but Yuki’s gaze was darting all over the place as if waiting for someone to jump out from behind a bush to catch her.

Tamani opened the passenger side door for her and said, “I’ll keep the top up till we’re off school property,” before slipping in the other side.

Yuki was staring at the windshield. “It’s fixed,” she said in surprise. “The hood too.”

“Yeah,” Tamani said casually. “I know a guy.”

Know a guy who likes money, more like. It was comical how quickly a little money could get something fixed in the human world. The mechanic had insisted it wasn’t possible in such a short time, but when Tamani dropped a stack of hundreds on the counter the mechanic had explained that by impossible, he really just meant outrageously expensive.

Yuki slumped down in the seat beside him so as not to be seen through her window and Tamani had to stifle a laugh. Faerie or not, she was clearly intimidated by the human school’s authority; she really felt like she was doing something bad. Once they were off school grounds and out of sight, Tamani pushed the button that opened up the top of the car and Yuki visibly relaxed, pulling her hair out of its ponytail and letting the wind flutter through it.

“So where are we going?” Yuki asked, her head lolling against the headrest.

“I don’t know. You have a favorite place?”

Yuki grimaced. “I don’t have a car. I can’t go too far.”

Tamani didn’t want to admit that his range was limited too. He couldn’t get very far from Laurel. Even though there had never been a troll attack at her school, there was no point tempting fate.

He saw a park off to his right and pulled over behind a bush so the car was hidden from the main road. “How’s this?”

“For what?” Yuki asked shyly, not raising her eyes to his.

It was obvious what she was thinking. And he had come on a little strong today. But he didn’t want to follow through on his false intentions quite so soon. “Thought we could just chat,” he said, his tone deliberately casual. “I haven’t been by your house lately and at school… there’s just so much pressure. Conversations are better out of school.”

“In a park?” she asked with a smile.

“I don’t see why not,” he said, leaning his head close. “You got something against parks?” Without waiting for a response he slipped out of the car, knowing she would follow. Sure enough, within seconds he heard the passenger door slam shut. Yuki caught up quickly.

“So are you tired of everyone asking you to say things in Japanese?” he asked, starting off on a nice, neutral topic.

She rolled her eyes. “Am I ever! Everyone wants me to tell them how to say their name. And when I tell them their name would be the same in Japan, they want a Japanese name. And then they butcher the pronunciation. At least you speak English.”

“Aye, but they still all want to hear me say ‘Top o’ the morning!’ I don’t have the heart to tell them that’s Irish, not Scottish.” Not that Tamani knew that before he’d looked it up on the internet after the tenth time someone said it to him.

“And they want to know if I watch anime.”

“Do you?” Tamani asked, wondering what anime was. He’d have to ask Laurel later. If she’d speak to him.

She snorted. “No. I watch regular shows. HBO”—she ducked her head—“and, I admit, some Disney Channel.”

Tamani chuckled because it seemed like the right thing to do. He had no idea what he was laughing about. He’d learned about television, but had never really watched any. Without context it was hard to apply many of the terms he’d picked up at the Manor. And he’d never been able to keep all those acronyms straight.

“So how have you been?” he asked, serious now as he leaned on a set of monkey bars and studied her.

“I’ve been pretty good. Nothing exciting.”

“You don’t call last weekend exciting?” he said, smiling.

“Oh, um, yeah,” she said, flustered now. “That was exciting. I meant besides that.”

“Is Klea okay with it all?” Tamani prodded. “She didn’t seem too worried about the accident.”

“Yeah, well,” Yuki started, walking away from Tamani and stepping up onto a swing, grasping the chains to steady herself. “She’s in law enforcement and sees a lot of stuff like that. Even when she is worried, she doesn’t show it.”

“Are you happy living with her? Well, kind of living with her, like you said.”

“Sure. I don’t see her much, but it’s fine.”

Tamani went out on a limb now, knowing she wouldn’t show her cards unless he tipped his hand a little too. “You seemed… nervous when she came by. Scared, almost.”

Yuki grimaced, almost imperceptibly. “I wasn’t scared,” she said, lifting her chin a tiny bit. She’d coaxed the swing into swaying side to side. “I hate calling her off a job. She doesn’t like it. It’s not that she’s mean or anything,