"Hey, Jen," Dani said happily when he opened the door. He was wearing an old, torn, band t-shirt and boxers. He looked like he was dressed for bed, and I realized that the lights were off.

"I'm sorry. I didn't wake you, did I?"

He looked confused. "No, I was studying."

I had to ask. "In the dark?"

Dani laughed. "Yeah. Come in. Let me turn on the lights for you." I joined him in the narrow hallway and closed the door behind me. Dani flicked on the lights, and I looked around. His room was a bit different from mine. It was bigger, and instead of two twin beds, there was one full and a small couch. Mariana was sprawled out on the bed, reading a book.

"Hi, Jen," she said.

I stared in shock. "Can you both see in the dark?" They nodded and looked amused. "Wow."

I noticed that there was a pillow and a sheet on the couch, and wondered if Dani and Mariana had been fighting. I hoped not; I hated to think that they'd get mad enough at each other to sleep separately during their honeymoon.

"So, what's up?" Dani asked.

I looked away from the couch and decided not to ask. "I got my wand!" I could hardly keep the excitement out of my voice.

"Splashy!" he cried.

"That's great," Mariana said.

Dani sat down on the edge of his bed and gestured for me to sit on the couch. "Wishing you picked a water one?" he teased.

"Nope."

They both laughed. "Out of curiosity," Dani asked, "what are you doing with the leftovers?"

"I was going to give them to Charlie."

Dani grinned. "How thoughtful, he'll be touched."

"But, he wasn't in his room."

"Mark kicked him out." Dani laughed. "Hey!" he yelled. "Some of us still need the bathroom, you know!"

A moment later the bathroom door opened and, to my surprise, Charlie walked out. I'd never thought of him as remotely overweight, but I usually didn't think of guys who were short and stocky, like him, as particularly in-shape either. Without his shirt on I could see that he was in more than just good shape, he was in really good shape. In fact, he was pretty muscular. TS may have been the size of a football player, but I had a feeling that a fight between him and Charlie would be pretty even. He was wearing boxers that looked just a bit too tight for him. He pointed his toothbrush accusingly at Dani. "Some of us don't take an hour to get ready for bed. Oh! Hey, Jen."

"Hey," I said. I noticed that he had a tattoo around his upper arm and almost laughed; I was pretty sure it was tribal-style flames. The dark ink accentuated his arm muscles, and I quickly averted my eyes, hoping he hadn't noticed the once-over. Instead, I looked at Dani. He arched an eyebrow at me and smirked. Embarrassed, I quickly held up the reject wands before he could say anything. "Brought you something."

"Toasty! Thanks!" Charlie said. "Those will be great. I love wand wood, and it's usually really hard to come by." He came into the room and started digging through a drawer.

"Oh slack tide, those were all folded!" Dani cried. He groaned and flopped back onto his bed. "You're killing me, C."

"Do you have any more night shirts?" Charlie asked. As he turned, I saw a second tattoo. There was a small, simple outline of a triangle and another shape, which looked like a square without a bottom, on his chest.

"Top drawer," Dani growled.

Charlie successfully found a ratty-looking college shirt and pulled it on. "Thanks. Mark didn't give me a chance to get a change of clothes." He held up one of the shirts he had unfolded. "You want me to fold these?"

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

"No, I'll do it," Dani sighed. "And I couldn't help but notice you bogarted my boxers too. What am I supposed to do?"

"You have a pair on, and I only need them for one night," Charlie said.

I realized that the couch must have been turned into a bed for Charlie. If his roommate had kicked him out, then Dani and Mariana's couch would have been a perfect place to crash for the night.

"So," Charlie said to me. "Where's the wand?"

"Here," I said, pulling it out from under my sweatshirt. "Thomas said I should keep it nearby, but I might just hide it in my room, I'm not sure how I'd carry it all day."

"I'd keep it," Dani said. "You never know when you'll need it."

"Will I need it? We're surrounded by norm — I mean, non-magic people. What would I need it for?"

"Well, in my experience the one time you don't have something to defend yourself with is the one time you'll actually need it," Dani said. I must have looked worried, because he quickly added, "Not that you'll need anything to defend yourself with! I just like to swim with the ‘better safe than sorry’ current."

"That does make sense," I said. I'd gotten the impression that MES did some police sort of stuff. It seemed logical that Dani liked to have something just in case. He didn't have a wand, though, so I wondered what he considered a weapon. I couldn't resist a quick glance around the room for something like a trident and immediately felt embarrassed.

Charlie held out his hand. "Well? Give me some sparks. Let's see you in action."

"In your hand?" He nodded, and I hesitated. Thomas had said I couldn't hurt anybody, but... "I don't want to burn you."

All three of them laughed. A ball of fire the size of a tennis ball flared up in Charlie's hand and went out. "You couldn't if you tried."

Yeah, I probably couldn't burn a fire elemental. I really had a lot to learn. Flushing, I aimed my wand at his palm and pictured sparks. "Mar," I said. Only a few weak sparks appeared. They flashed and vanished. "Oh, that wasn't very good." I was disappointed, but none of them seemed to think I should be.

"You'll get better," Charlie said. "You're probably tired anyway."

"I'm impressed," Mariana said.

"Looked pretty good for a new witch to me," Dani said. He put a hand on my head and ruffled my hair with a grin.

"The sparks were better earlier," I said.

Dani chuckled. "Remind you of anyone?" he asked.

Charlie grinned. "Sure does. My… niece," he added for my benefit. He frowned. "I still haven't found a good birthday gift for her, and she spent a lot on me this year."

"That's right," Dani said. "We better find something. I don't want to get set on fire."

"We're not getting back until the end of August. There's time," Mariana said. "And, while we're on the subject of time, I still need to use the bathroom."

Charlie laughed. "Yeah, yeah."

"I'm next!" Dani protested.

"There's room for two," Charlie said.

"There's hardly room for one," Dani said. "And, you're using my toothbrush!"

"Goodnight, Jen," Charlie said. He went back into the bathroom and the lock audibly clicked.

"Did you just lock me out of my own bathroom?" Dani demanded. He banged a fist on the door and stood back, glaring. His eyes were still a cheery blue, and he was smirking. "Well," he sighed, turning to me. "Have a great night, Jen. I'll see you bright and early."

"Goodnight, Dani. Night, Mariana!"

"Sleep well, Jen," Mariana said. "Good luck with your wand!"

I ended up hiding my wand in the drawer right by my bed, hoping it was close enough to make a difference. I was asleep seconds after my head hit the pillow.

~~~~

As it turned out, I didn't see Dani, or anyone else, bright and early. When Laurie got back from her workout, she informed me that our Latin American History professor was sick, and class was canceled. I gratefully slept in an extra hour and met up with Charlie in our Plants class. Carrie was out sick, too, and the professor spent a while discussing medicinal herbs to prevent seasickness, before he turned the lecture to our upcoming test. I spent most of my next class in dismay, looking over the huge plants study guide I had gotten. Spanish, thankfully, went quickly, and I went up on deck for a smoothie. TS was already up there. He abandoned his table to join me in line and ordered a smoothie with an immune system booster. After we got our drinks, he shoved some papers aside, and I sat down with him.

"Do you like smoothies?" I didn't think he liked fruit at all.

"Not really." He picked up a pen and a notebook and started writing.

"Are you getting sick?" The immune booster bit had caught my attention. Thomas had said we didn't get sick often, and TS had looked a bit off more than once. I worried that maybe he did have some sort of magical disease.

He shook his head. "I'm grand." He turned a page in his book and started writing again.

I pulled out my own study guide with a sigh.

TS chuckled. "Got a test, too?"

I nodded and pulled out a pen. He capped his own pen, picked up another, and wrote something else.

"Color coded?" I guessed.

TS nodded and held it out for me to see. "Blue is what I don't know, black is what I keep mixing up, and probably red is what I already have down. Feel free to steal my pens if you need them."

"Thanks. Did you say probably red?" That was an odd way of putting it.

He held up the red pen he was currently using. "Well, for all I know, or care for that matter, it's green. I just find that red is usually a safe bet with pens." He scribbled something with it and switched colors again.

I hesitated and, hoping I wouldn't offend him, carefully asked, "Are you colorblind?"

TS looked at me like I was crazy. "I'm a werewolf."