Page 47 of Surviving in Everton

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Thirty minutes later,the front door slams shut and we all jump in our seats. We had started to relax while we waited for the hurricane that just walked in to get here. Guess break time is over and control the crazy lady time is about to begin.

“What’s going on?!” she cries as she storms into the room. “What’d the doctor say? Are you okay?” She rushes over to Rowe and starts checking her over as if she has some kind of physical wound that she’d be able to see.

“Calm down! Quinn! Stop it!” Rowe bats at her hands as Quinn rubs them all over her body looking for an invisible injury. “You know the problem’s in my brain, right? You can’t see that. Stop touching me!” Rowe laughs as Quinn pulls her hands away and steps back.

“Sorry. Guess I got a little carried away, huh?” Quinn bites her bottom lip. A nervous gesture she’s had since we were kids.

“Just a little. But it’s okay. Sit down, we need to talk. There’s a lot to fill you in on,” Rowe tells her.

“How can there be a lot to fill me in on?! I just saw you Saturday!”

“Yeah well, seems the guys have been sitting on some vital information since then.” She glares at us again. “Plus, you know, I went to the doctor today,” she reminds her sarcastically.

“Right! Okay, lay it on me. What’d these assholes keep from us?”

“Why don’t you have a seat next to West, and I’ll tell you what the doctor said first.”

Quinn looks at Rowe with wide eyes and slowly turns to look at West. I’m in the perfect seat to see her expression when she sees him for the first time. I don’t know how her eyes could get any bigger, but they do, and her jaw drops. She definitely likes what she sees. Good, maybe she’ll realize how much he likes her.

“West?” she gasps.

“Hey, Quinn,” he responds, all cool and collected. Even though Iknowhe must be flipping out inside.

“Wow. You’re definitely not a scraggly, awkward, kid any more,” she points out, staring at his now muscular physique in obvious interest.

“Still awkward, just not so scrawny these days.” He smirks.

“Uh… yeah… I can, um see that,” she stammers then shakes her head and sits next to him. “Okay, I’m sitting, what’s going on?”

Rowe tells her what the doctor said, while I sit here waiting for her response. Quinn has never been able to control her facial expressions, and I’ve always enjoyed observing her reactions when people talk to her. She goes from furrowed brows, to raised brows with wide eyes and an open mouth. By the time Rowe tells her what the doctor said could happen if she doesn’t get the dissipation potion soon, she’s out of her seat and officially losing her cool.

“No. Just no. We can’t let that happen! What are you doing about this?! Why are you just sitting around, like my best friend isn’t going todieif you don’t DO something?!?”

“Calm down, Quinn. We’re working on it,” Hudson attempts to reassure her, but damn, hasn’t he learned not to tell a woman to calm down?

“Did you just tell me tocalmdown?” Her voice is deceptively relaxed. It’s like the eye of a hurricane. Like a volcano before it erupts.

“Uhh… no? I was just saying… we have a plan and we’re working on it.” Hudson attempts to dig himself out of the mess he just made, but he’s only digging deeper.

The look Quinn is giving him right now, looks eerily similar to the look Rowe gave him not long ago. I’m glad she’s not looking at me like she could rip my head from my body. Rowen must be feeling generous, because she throws him a life vest.

“Hey, Hud, can you get me another Shirley Temple?” She flutters her lashes at him.

He smiles and shakes his head. “Sure thing, Sugar.” Then he’s off to the kitchen, barely escaping certain doom.

“Why’d you do that? I wasn’t done tormenting him yet,” Quinn pouts. “He should know not to tell a woman to calm down.”

“You would think so, but Rowen actually attempted to calm down when he said it to her. Though if she gets too upset, shit gets set on fire, so that was probably for the best.” West shrugs like my near death experience is no big deal.

“What?! Sounds like I’m missing a lot.”

“Oh, nothing big,” Rowe says sarcastically. “Apparently, when I get mad, my magic gets a mind of its own. I was pissed when I found out the guys know who helped Harris and kept it from me. The tumor magic decided that was great and took over. I shot a stream of pure magic at each of the twins. Luckily they jumped out of the way in time, but their seats both went up in flames.” She finishes with a casual shrug.

“Oh my god! Are you guys okay?” she asks Ayden and me, her eyebrows practically to her hairline. Good to knowshecares about our wellbeing, even though everyone else was downplaying what happened.

“We’re fine,” we say at the same time.

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