The Haven High Book Series (Wattys2017)

Chapter 8

Zach had spent the morning in a daze.

Yup it was a complete write off.

He did find enough time however, between periods, to tell the coach he wouldn't be playing any more. He had to struggle with a shit ton of guilt about leaving them in the lurch one day before the big game, but he'd managed to do it in the end.

When the coach pressed him for a reason he couldn't lie, and he couldn't say 'I can't say' because that would sound too suspicious, and the coach would have had his dads on the phone in a New York minute; so he tried his method from earlier in the morning.

He asked him, "Why do you think?"

"I don't know," his coach had said angrily, "Maybe you're just like the other guys that thought their personal time was more important than their commitment to their team"

That hurt, but he wasn't wrong. Zach was just like the other guys. So he found he could respond truthfully with a caustic, "Bingo."

At that the coach had kicked him out of his office and told him not to think about coming back unless he grew a set beforehand.

Zach had cringed and muttered; "Ouch!" as the coach slammed the door after him.

He hoped the guys on the team took it better, but he had no clue how he was going to break it to them or what reason he was going to give them.

Turned out, he needn't have worried. Apparently the coach had done the honors and none of them would even look at him when he entered the cafeteria for lunch.

For the first time in a long time he had no idea where to sit and began wandering the cafeteria like some sort of social pariah – feeling like a complete loser. When all of a sudden he heard his name being called and looked over to see nearly his entire homeroom class sitting together in a far off table and beckoning him over, he knew it was lame to be that needy, but he couldn't help the feeling of relief that washed over him.

To his surprise they all started yelling, "Over here Angel Boy!"

That floored him. Weren't they supposed to be more discreet? He was about to ask what the deal was when he felt himself walk through an invisible membrane of magic.

There was no other way to describe it, but for the tray still in his hands, he would have vigorously rubbed his itchy nose. It felt like he had just walked into a gigantic gossamer spider web. In fact as soon as his tray hit the table he did just that.

CJ crowed, "He's just like me!"

"You can sense magic. Can't you?" He chirped.

"What?" Zach had no idea what he was talking about.

"You smell it, or hear it, or see it, like heat waves on a summer day, or sometimes you can feel it too. That one is especially fun." CJ said with a huge grin.

"The rest of the table just groaned, "TMI CJ," in unison while most of the girls threw food at him.

Zach chuckled to himself when he thought it's a good thing that CJ, short for Carlos Jose Rodrigues, was a tall dark haired Latino lothario, with a handsome face, big brown puppy dog eyes, and a killer smile, or most girls would be repulsed by what usually came out of his mouth; instead, they were usually putty in his hands when he turned his thousand watt smile their way, which made Zach wonder now if it was part of his affinity or just his Latin charm.

Zach couldn't help but laugh as he sat down bedside Lauren. Saying, "What gives? I thought we aren't allowed to use magic in front of the . . . humans?" He blanched thinking he was never going to get used to saying that as he took a seat next to her and Quinn.