The next morning he sat, staring at the calendar, willing it to be Monday. It was Saturday. He couldn't meet with Connolly for at least two more days. It was worse than when he’d waited for Christmas as a kid, so much worse.

“It’s gonna be a long two days.”

Of course he had plenty to do, so he did his best to bury himself in his homework. Still, the time dragged by, as the biggest secret he’d ever known lay just out of reach. By Sunday he'd suffered through the bulk of his assignments and couldn't take another moment in his cramped rooms.

Throwing open the door, he winced at the glare. It had snowed while he was in, and everything was blanketed in white, reflecting the sun intensely. With nothing better to do, and no clear destination, Levi began walking. He just needed to get out to clear his head. Toying with the adder stone, he lifted it to his eye every now and then, idly wondering if might see anything. Of course nothing showed up.

It was disappointing that he’d never seen anything with it, well, beside the book. But, if magic were that common I'm sure we'd hear more about it.

He shrugged and kept walking.

"Hey!”

He cringed internally. Just my luck.

Across the street, the girl from his math class was waving to him. "Hey, wait up."

He thought about pretending he didn’t see her, but they’d already made eye contact. “I guess there's no getting away this time.” He muttered.

"Hey," he said, waiting for the girl to catch up. She was petite, not much over five foot, with pale cheeks, rosy from the cold, and coppery hair sneaking from under her hood. She nearly fell as she skidded across the frozen street, catching hold of a telephone pole as she came to a stop next to him.

"Wow, they've got to get the plow through here, that's dangerous." She said with a laugh.

"Yeah, no kidding, you almost lost it." Despite his discomfort, her laugh made him smile.

"Yeah but I didn't, I totally pulled it off. I could be a figure skater with my moves."

"Yeah, sure could," Levi said, laughing in spite of himself.

"I'm Liz," she said, holding out her hand.

"I'm Levi, uh it's nice to meet you," he said as he took her hand.

"Nope."

"Huh?"

"Nope you can't say that, we've already met. Or have you forgotten me already?"

"Oh, yeah, I mean, no I didn’t forget you, I mean, sorry about that."

She laughed again. "It’s ok, but hey, you ran out way too fast the other day, we didn't get a chance to finish talking. That is sooo not good manners."

"Sorry, I uh had an appointment with my advisor that I didn't want to miss."

"Your advisor huh?" she gave him a searching look. "That was quite a hurry to meet with an advisor, I haven't seen mine since I first started here. Is she cute?"

"What, who?"

"Your advisor. That's the only reason I'd be in such a hurry to meet one."

He laughed. "No, he isn't cute, He's a dusty old chem professor, but I still didn't want to be late." Of course the story was a lie, but it’s not like the truth would have worked, even if he hadn’t been sworn to secrecy. He could just see it. ‘Sorry, I’m actually an apprentice monster hunter and I didn’t want to tell you about the magic book I was sketching.’ No that wouldn’t work at all.

"Chem major huh?” she said. “Why'd you do that to yourself?"

"What? Oh, no I'm," How would he explain this? He shouldn’t have lied in the first place, but she kept asking questions and those big, searching eyes made him uncomfortable.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

"He's a special advisor for one of the scholarships I'm getting, I need to stay on his good side since he decides if I get to keep it. But I'm actually going into journalism."

"Ohhh," she said, giving a knowing sort of nod, "yeah that fits you better."

What did she mean by that?

"So, scholarship, that means you're one of those smart kids right?"

"No, I mean I'm not that smart, I just did well in high school. And that's not what it’s for anyway, not exactly. Anyway, I don't feel smart at all, not really, the classes are really tough." He stopped talking suddenly, realizing he was rambling.

Why does she keep asking me so many questions?

She kept getting closer as she was talking, peering up at him as she hopped on one foot than the other to keep warm. This close he could see each freckle on her delicate nose. She smelled really good.

Unconsciously he stepped back.

She broke into a laugh again, seeing his discomfort. "You're funny, you want to grab something to eat? I'm starving."

She didn't wait for an answer; grabbing his arm, she dragged him toward a sandwich shop just down the street. Realizing her intent, he pulled back

"Hey, what's wrong?"

"Sorry," he said, "I didn't bring any money with me."

"Well, that won't do," she said, a frown crossing her face. "You'd hear it from my dad if he ever heard you say something like that. Money's a big deal to him, he’d be so embarrassed if one of his kids went out without at least some cash. He calls it proof of an honest day’s work. Here, tell you what, you can owe me."

"I don't know," Levi said. The way she said 'you can owe me' seemed ominous. Though maybe he was just reading too much into it. "I feel odd having someone else pay."

"Nonsense! I'm hungry and I want someone to talk to, now come on, it's not like I'm just feeding you, you can pay me back later." with that she pulled him into the shop.

Lunch was actually pleasant. He'd been worried she'd keep grilling him, and she did, sort of, she asked him all about where he came from, what his family was like, and just kept asking. But she seemed so intrigued by everything he told him, he had a hard time not talking. He never had girls be interested in him, not cute ones anyway. If anything they'd always gone for Joe, like Becca back in high school, she’d tried using him to get to Joe. Of course Joe’d shut her down real quick but it still stung thinking about it.

Liz was a local, and was studying illustration. Turns out she really liked kids books. And she had an opinion about everything. Actually, once she quit asking him questions she just took off on everything from snowflakes to classical Russian literature; her blue eyes flashing as she spoke. Honestly it was hard for Levi to keep up.

He was both relieved and disappointed when she stopped talking, standing so suddenly she almost knocked over an old man walking by.

“Oh, I’m so sorry, are you okay?” She asked, helping to steady him.

“I’m fine, not every day a beautiful young woman runs into you. Where are you off to in such a hurry?”

“Nowhere special, just gotta meet my sister. We’re off shopping.” She said as she made her way out of the diner, Levi following behind.

“Wasn’t that a cute old man? Anyway, that was fun. I’ll see you in class.”

“Yeah, see you in class.”

She left him at the shop, waving as she called over her shoulder.

"And don't forget, I'll find a way for you to pay me back."

And then she was gone.

He walked back, feeling a breathless from the red headed hurricane; breathless but happy. It was good to have someone to talk to, even someone as exhausting as Liz.

###

Monday found him at Professor Connolly's door, signing up for a time slot. "You've got to be kidding me,” he muttered. “How can a chem professor be this popular?" There wasn’t a single open slot till Friday afternoon. "It’s cause he makes his classes so difficult. That’s why." He scrawled his name on the open time slot, still grumbling to no one in particular.

"Hey Levi."

He felt something catch in his throat as he recognized the voice. Turning, he saw Liz waving to him as she came down the hall.

"Oh, hey Liz," he said, trying to sound casual, "funny seeing you here."

"Why's that funny?" she said, cocking her head to one side. "We both go to school here."

"Oh, yeah," yeah that sounded stupid. "Well, I didn't figure you for hanging around the chem offices."

"Oh, that makes sense," she smiled. "But you know, I probably spend more time here than anyone. I mean, I picked illustration cause I just don’t get things like chem. Well, that and I love drawing. But anyway, I'm over this way all the time to get help on stuff." She sighed tragically. "I can't believe they make us take those classes, when am I ever going to use college algebra in illustration? And don't say It’s part of life or bring up the Greeks or anything, cause that won’t help me draw puppies." She glared at him.

He held up his hands. "I didn't say anything, I'm not much a fan myself. Journalism remember." It was dizzying how fast she changed from one emotion to the next. "What do Greeks have to do with math?"

She stopped mid glare. "Oh, you're not? Really?" Then she launched into a lecture on the Greeks and architecture. It was really interesting, at least it was when she talked about it, but it went from that to something else, then something else. Finally she stopped mid sentence, "Hey, it's almost noon, don't you have a class soon or something?"

He groaned, he did have a class, and he'd spent the time he'd meant to use finishing his assignment talking to Liz. "Yeah, I do, sorry but I've got to run."

"No problem, you should really get going then. There's no way you'll pass your classes if you hang around the halls talking all day."

###

Liz shook her head as she watched him run down the hall. "Poor kid, if this is how he always is I don't know how he manages on his own. Without me he would've missed his class completely. . . Oh well." With a shrug she went her own way, all but skipping as she made her way down the hall, humming to herself.