Novels2Search

Chapter 49

Sarah rushed to the little girl's side and found her breathing fast, it didn't look like she had suffered a head injury from the fall. The girl's complexion was still pale, and her forehead was glistening with sweat. Sarah carefully laid her flat on the ground as a group of concerned onlookers gathered around. In the midst of the commotion, Sarah noticed several students already dialing 911 for emergency help. Not knowing what else to do, Sarah checked the girl's pulse, which was racing under her fingers. She didn't know if it was too fast, but the girl's heartbeat was noticeably faster than her own pulse. The girl's eyes fluttered open as Sarah was holding her wrist.

"Does anyone have any juice? Gatorade? Maybe even some candy?" she called out. She looked back down at the little girl, "Just lay still, rest. Don't do anything, ok? Really, don't do anything."

The little girl nodded. Murmurs filled the air as Sarah scanned the crowd again, hoping someone would have something to help the little girl. She spotted a boy holding a blue bottle and pointed at him, yelling, "Hey! Bring that over here!"

Sarah took the drink, ignoring the boy who handed it to her, and carefully helped the little girl sit up. The girl sipped the drink slowly, looking around at everyone. The two of them both looked up at the tree above, the red mist that had coated the leaves was dissipating, leaving everything back to normal. They both watched quietly as it faded away.

"Thank you," the little girl whispered, her voice weak but grateful. "I did that?"

"It's okay," Sarah replied, a mixture of worry and relief in her own voice. "Just take it easy for now. My name is Sarah"

"Kayla."

"Nice to meet you, Kayla," said Sarah. "Just keep drinking that, you need the sugar. We can talk later, ok?"

As they waited, Sarah kept a watchful eye on the girl. Kayla's parents showed up fast, just ahead of a pair of EMTs. Sarah looked around for the ambulance before realizing that the school must have arranged for medical services ahead of the ceremony.

"She fainted," said Sarah to the first medic. "We were talking about my jewelry and she fell down. She seems better now."

"Thanks, kid," he said, setting a board down next to Kayla. "It's probably just heat stroke. This happens to a couple of people every time there's a big event in the summer."

Kayla still looked pale, but she was smiling at the two men who were already hooking her up to something arcane in their bag. Kayla's mom was kneeling by her head, touching Kayla's hair over and over.

Alexa had arrived at some point, and she knelt next to Sarah, her concern evident. "Are you okay? I saw the red magic."

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"I don't know," Sarah admitted. "I mean, she'll be fine, but... I didn't think there was anyone else like us. Who else is out there?"

"We'll deal with that if it happens." Alexa went on in a quiet voice, "Right now, let's focus on helping her. She's like Finn, yeah? I saw some of the red."

"Yeah, she saw me playing with some leaves, and anyway I think she noticed that Cuddles was special back during the speeches," whispered Sarah.

"And she's already trying it out. That's peachy. We'll need to talk to her then, won't we? Make sure she doesn't land herself in the hospital or lightning bolt someone. Beautiful. Do you know who she is?"

"Kayla," said Sarah. "And not really. She must be related to someone here though. I don't know who."

"We'll just have to watch," said Alexa. The paramedics had loaded Kayla onto a board and were carrying her over to a tent near the parking lot.

"Ok," said Sarah. "We'll need to get her away from her parents and the doctors though. To talk, I mean. For talking. About magic."

"No problem," said Alexa, hiding a smile with a hand. "So long as she doesn't knock herself out again, they'll let her out of the tent soon enough. You go talk to her again, just tell her she was interested in your jewelry and wants to talk about it or something, and I'll distract the parents. You can give her a rundown pretty fast, and then we'll see what happens."

"Sounds like a plan," said Sarah as she turned to see who was running up to them.

"What happened!" a piercing voice shouted, right in Sarah's ear.

Alexa flinched, "God, Bri, we're right here. Don't shout."

"A little girl passed out. The doctors said heat stroke," said Sarah, turning to look at Bri. Bri's gown was unzipped, showing off a miniskirt and t-shirt underneath.

"Is she going to be ok?" asked Bri.

"Sure, she just needs some juice and AC. Sarah and I were just talking about checking on her in a little bit," said Alexa. "She was curious about Sarah's snake bracelet."

"Kayla liked that thing? Weird, she's a total girly girl. She gets all screamy around spiders and dead birds," said Bri. "I still can't believe you wear that every day."

"Cuddles is cool," said Sarah. She folded her arms, making sure Cuddles was visible on top. "You know her?"

"Uggh. And you even named it." Bri rolled her eyes before going on, "Yeah, she's my cousin. The whole family is in town, which sucks. I'm probably not going to get to go to the graduation party tonight. If I'm lucky I can slip my leash late tonight. We're going out to eat and then there'll be all sorts of family fun time."

Sarah nodded, her attention on the conversation with Bri shifting as she saw Kayla's parents leave the med tent to talk to some other adults. "Family fun time, huh? That sounds... exciting."

"Ugh, not really. Just a bunch of boring adults and younger kids running around, making a mess, and talking about things I don't care about," Bri replied with a roll of her eyes. "But whatever, it's family stuff, so I get to participate."

Alexa chimed in, trying to keep the conversation light. "Well, maybe we can make some time to catch up later tonight at the graduation party. It'll be more fun than a family gathering, I promise."

Bri's face brightened at the prospect. "Yeah, I hope so. I'll definitely be there if I can escape the family chaos."

"Actually, you know what?" said Alexa, "Why don't we plan on picking you up? We can drop by after dark, like at ten? Show off Sarah's bracelet to Kayla, say hi, and then we drag you away. If we show up, it'll be easier to get away."

Bri threw her arms around Sarah and Alexa, drawing them both into a hug. "That's a brilliant idea, thank you!"