to me
before saying, “Nice to meet you, Miss Roseman. I’m Horace, Horace King.”
Is he for real? This isn’t
one of dad’s banquets. “Call me Avalon, or Avvi.”
My eyes drift over to the
older boy standing next to Horace. He has to be at least a year or two older
than me. His sandy blond hair reaches just the middle of his ears and is swept back.
His eyes are a deep blue. He seems to be waiting for me to ask him who he is. I
swear he’s annoyed that I didn’t ask him who he was before the others started
to introduce themselves. “And you are?” I ask.
He smiles and puts a hand
to his chest. “I’m glad you asked.”
The boy directly behind
him—he has dark, long black hair with an odd white streak within his bangs. His
eyes remind me of ice—He rolls his eyes and makes a ‘blah’ ‘blah’ motion with
his hand. This causes me to snicker. The boy’s eyes narrow and he looks behind
him, the other boy has gone back to normal. “Excuse my brother, he can be
immature at times. As I was saying,” The other boy goes back to making fun of
his apparent brother. I try to hold in the laugh, the other boy is smiling at
me now. I look at the ground, trying to regain my composure. My mother would
have a fit if she saw me acting this way while being introduced to people. “I’m
Paden Hansen and the moron behind me is Maverick. Except for those three,” He
points to Horace, Amr and one brooding boy—who is standing with another blond
boy—“We’re all Royals.”
My eyes go wide. I
instantly go into a curtsy. “I’m so sorry for any disrespect I may have shown
you.” My mother’s going to kill me when she found out I laughed at a Royal.
‘Dear, Sun god, please show kindness on this day.’
The kid named Dante comes
forward and throws a lazy arm around my shoulder. “Relax, except for him, the
rest of us don’t care about the title. He leads me over to the other two I have
yet to meet. “These losers, but my best buds, are Triton,” he motions to the
blond haired boy. His hair reaches just above his shoulders and his eyes remind
me of the time I saw the sea for the first time. A small mole sits on his right
cheek. I give him a smile.
“And that brooder is Lusk.
Ignore his bad mood. He’d rather be at home playing with the alchemy set he
just got.” His hands are shoved into the pockets of his jeans. His short, dark
brown hair is swept back with gel. He has sharp features and his eyes are as
grey as rain clouds.
“What model do you have?”
I ask.
“2009.”
My eyes go wide and I
practically run up to him. “That one has the set of extra-large beakers and it
comes with that rare sample of Sangiunaria Canadensis. Have you gotten to use
it with anything?”
“Not yet. I was dragged
here,” he mumbles.
“Sangiunaria what?” asks
Dante.
“Sangiunaria Canadensis,
bloodroot. It has some awesome properties,” I say.
“Right. Great, we have
another bookworm in the group. As if three weren’t enough already.”
Triton turns to me. “Want
to show us that trampoline? So we don’t have to listen to Dante’s whining all
day.”
I take his hand and smile.
“Sure, come on!”
“That was the day I met the
boys. Well, all except for Bullock. I only met him because I needed tutoring in
Air magic. You’d think because it’s my element, it would come more naturally to
me.”
Dad nods. “You’ll get there.
One day you will be a powerful air shifter.”
“Are we done here then?” I
move to stand, but he places a hand on mine.
“Not yet. There are still
some things I want you to watch with me and remember.”
I sigh and sit back further
in the chair. “Fine, but you have to ship in some Dr. Pepper for me.”
He looks at me with a raised
eyebrow. “Really? You want me to get you Dr. Pepper ?”
“Well, duh. It’s like my
favorite soda ever. You know that. You’re the one that turned me onto it.”
He blinks and nods. “Oh, yes,
of course. I’m just joking with
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