The Haven High Book Series (Wattys2017)

Chapter 6

Zach woke the next morning to the sound of birds chirping in the trees outside his window. The sunlight was streaming in and he basked in its warmth as he stretched like a cat. Thinking he should be careful, he might knock Lauren out of the bed!

With that thought he shot out from under the covers and onto the floor like someone had hit him with a cattle prod. Looking here, there, and everywhere for his friend, he even checked in his en-suite bathroom, but there was no sign of her.

The tired teen chuckled to himself  and muttered,"Huh . . . she really did disappeared."

Oh shit he thought in annoyance as his eyes darted to the bedside clock. I'm late!

He groaned, "Thanks Lauren" and said under his breath, "would it have killed ya to wake me before you left?"

There was no time for a shower or even breakfast. He did the mad dash around his room pulling out clean clothes as he stripped off the wrinkled ones he had fallen asleep in the night before. 

Hopping around first on one foot and then the other to pull on a clean pair of socks, he nearly fell flat on his face when he tripped over a discarded book. Mentally he berated himself for not being neater. But he had no one but himself to blame for the mess. He really needed to throw out some of his clutter. It was time to get organized. It stopped him in his tracks when he wondered if angels were inherently messy.

He had to shake his head at how weird that sounded even to him. He couldn't wait to tell his Dads; they'd freak for sure. 

WAIT!

He couldn't tell them. How was that going to work? 

He told them everything. He couldn't keep anything from them. He was the world's worst liar, and hadn't the angel told him last night that he might find it hard to lie? He snorted, and thought . . . try impossible.

Zach had to give himself a mental shake again to help get his butt in gear. He'd have to run to school at this rate. He also had to wonder if super speed was going to be one of his magical talents. He hoped so. He could use the extra rack time.

He tore into the bathroom to splash cold water on his face and brush his teeth, and as he quickly rotated the toothbrush in concentric circles, he stared at himself in the mirror. He looked hard at his reflection, really looked to see if anything had changed. Was he different somehow? 

Nope he decided. His blue eyes hadn't suddenly changed to silver. His hair hadn't turned to white blonde curly locks, which he imagined all angels having. Nah it was still ash brown and straight as a pin, and his body hadn't gotten suddenly buff overnight either. He was his usual lanky self. Geesh he thought, why couldn't he have at least gotten chiseled features: girls always talk about those? Nope . . . Zach was still plain old Zach.

Zach mentally chided himself again. Geesh, he thought, get yourself together Reis. You're going to be late. Late equals no big game, remember? 

This did the trick and had him flying down the stairs putting on his back pack as he simultaneously flipped on his sneakers working his foot in so he didn't have to untie and tie them. He was just about to bound out the door when he heard his dad clear his throat behind him.

"And just where do you think you're going without breakfast?"

The sheepish teen went to explain that of course he was late again, when thankfully his other dad walked around the corner with a breakfast sandwich wrapped in paper towel in one hand and bottle of OJ in the other.

Zach groaned, blurting out, "I could kiss you."

His dad just laughed and said, "You can thank me by not running while you eat."

"One of these days you're going to learn to get up on time," His other dad said.

Everyone in front of the door chimed in, "doubt it" including Zach, which made them all laugh.

Zach stuffed the sandwich in his mouth and through a mouthful of juicy, bacony goodness he said, "I gotta go and as he swung around to pry open the front door, he turned and said solemnly, "You know I love you guys, right?"

His dads looked at him before looking at each other and back at him and said, "Sure son," but his legal beagle dad suddenly became deadly serious and asked with concern, "is everything all right?"

Zach nearly choked on the food that now felt like cardboard in his mouth. 

This is it: this is the first time you are ever going to out and out lie to your parents and there's no help for it, because there's no way in hell you can tell them the truth. That "no" absolutely nothing was all right and might never be again.

Zach sighed, swallowing the lump of now tasteless food in his mouth, and as he darted his eyes to the floor he said, "Geesh guys, does something have to be wrong for me to tell you I love you?"

Zach came to a wonderful realization in that moment. That all he needed to do was deflect a direct question with a question. If he kept that up he might never have to lie to them.

Without even waiting for a reply Zach blurted out nervously, "Gotta run see you after practice."

Zach dove through the front door onto the front steps. Once there he wasted no time in clearing the other ten steps to the front yard. He took all of them at once in an Olympic leap, thinking: Go, go gadget legs!

In a few quick strides he was in front of his house and had devoured the entire sandwich. He was just about to clear the corner of his driveway and start his sprint to school when Lauren came out of nowhere.

If Lauren wasn't stronger than your average bear, he would have plowed right into her, in his mad dash for school, sending her flying through the air when their bodies collided; instead she threw her arm out straight in front of her and stopped him dead in his tracks.

Her neck craned way back and she locked him in a deadly stare before wiggling her eyebrows and saying, "We gotta stop meeting like this Angel Boy."

Zach snickered and rubbed his chest stating emphatically, "You're telling me! Shit Lauren we really do have to stop meeting like this. It's going to get really hard to hide the bruises."

Lauren said with a smirk, "Oh we've got troll bile for that."

When Zach's mouth dropped open, she laughed.

"Lauren, I'm sure that's the most intriguing thing I've heard you say in the entire time I've known you, but there's no time for you to elaborate, I'm going to be late, and if I'm late there's no way I'm playing in the big game this weekend."

"Zach I've got to tell you something." Lauren said with a sigh as she took the bottle of OJ from his hand and placed hers in his.

Zach felt the pit of his stomach drop out. He just knew he wasn't going to like what she said next. 

This chapter is dedicated to @Hishma_Rizqi Thanks for your suggestions about the banner, and @Loyal_Knight123 you truly are a loyal knight. 

Ooooooohhhhhhhh  . . . what do you think Lauren's got to tell Zach? 

********************THANKS FOR READING***************

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Stay tuned, because you're going to want to read more; soon Zach's going to be introduced to the magic wing, and you are not going to believe the kind of things they get up to there. Not only is magic dangerous, the teachers can be too.