More than Magic: Semester Aboard (9 page)

"They just got a bad wind in their sails.
This year will be ours."

"Danio," TS groaned. "You've lived in New
York for how long now? Forget the Lions and go for the Giants.
Hell, you'd do better with the Bills!"

"I'm from Michigan! I'm not going to give up
on my team just because they've had a couple of bad years."

TS crammed another load of bacon into his
mouth, swallowed it almost whole, and then laughed. "A couple of
bad years? Detroit hasn't won a championship since before I was
born!"

"That isn't true!" Dani snapped. "They won in
nineteen-fifty..." he hesitated and then grumbled, "seven. Fin-rot,
you're right."

TS laughed. I couldn't believe the thing he
did with his tongue hadn't reminded me of a dog before. He and Dani
started arguing about all sorts of football stuff that went way
over my head. If anyone asked, I said I cheered for the Ravens, but
that was only because I was from Maryland. I didn't know anything
about football. Eventually Dani stomped off for his third cup of
coffee and had a new defense ready when he got back.

"It's a blue shirt, you know. I'm being
festive."

"You're Greek."

Dani rolled his eyes. "I've lived in America
longer than you, vlaka. At least I'm wearing the right colors."

"I don't think I own anything red," TS said.
"While we're on the subject, are you even wearing any?"

Dani batted his eyelashes at him. "Yes. Care
to find out where?"

"In your dreams, Danio."

Since I had been thinking about names
earlier, I was struck by an idea. "Is Danio your real name or a
nickname?" I asked.

"It's my real name," he said.

Then I recognized it from my high school gig
in a pet store. "Like the fish? Zebra Danios?"

Dani laughed. "Exactly. It's an easy one to
swap for a more human name." He frowned. "Although Pike has an
irritating habit of calling me Zebra."

"Pike?" I asked.

"My brother."

"Are we talking about Pike?" Charlie arrived
and sat down next to TS with a cup of coffee and a plate of
pancakes filled with red, white, and blue sprinkles. "He is
so
hot."

"Excuse me?" Dani cried.

"I'm sorry, Dani, but Pike is gorgeous. If he
was gay, I'd-"

Dani reached across the table and smacked him
on the head. "That's
my brother
you're talking about!"

Charlie and TS laughed. "Just saying it like
it is," Charlie chuckled, dodging a second hit. "Happy Fourth."

Dani grabbed Charlie's coffee and started
drinking it, still glaring at him. His eyes weren't very dark
though; I had a feeling he wasn't actually mad. I thought about
what Charlie had said and wondered if he was joking or not.

"Charlie, are fire elementals gay?" I
asked.

I wasn't sure how he'd feel if I just asked
if he was gay outright, so I tried to make my question more
general. My timing couldn't have been worse. TS laughed so hard he
started choking on his bacon and Dani guffawed and spat his stolen
coffee everywhere.

"Are humans gay?" Charlie countered.

I blushed. "Sorry."

He shrugged. "Don't be sorry, it was a fair
question. If you were wondering about me in particular, yes, I am."
He turned to Dani and gestured to his coffee-soaked pancakes. "You,
however, should be sorry."

"It's just a little coffee," Dani said
innocently.

I decided not to point out that, not only had
he been the one to spit it onto Charlie's pancakes, it had been
Charlie's coffee to begin with.

"We were discussing names before you got
here," I said quickly, changing the subject for Dani's sake. "Is
yours really Charlie?"

"It's Char," he said, giving his newly
caffeinated pancakes a prod with his fork.

"Oh. Like, burned stuff?"

Charlie laughed. "I prefer to think of it as
a verb. You know, to char."

"Sorry," I said, blushing again. "I didn't
mean it like that."

"It's fine," he said. "I'm just teasing." He
looked at Dani and groaned. "Oh, god, I just noticed. Couldn't you
at least wait until pre-season?"

"At least I pick a team and stick with it,"
Dani grumbled.

"You could've picked a better one," TS
laughed. I realized they must have been talking about Dani's shirt
again. "It's just sad, mate." He turned to Charlie. "Can't you do
anything about this delusional nonsense?"

"You don't think I've tried? You have no idea
what I go through. I have to spend every season with this
delusional nonsense."

"Hey, I'm right here," Dani said.

Charlie leaned over to TS and said in a loud
whisper. "You haven't seen sad until you've watched Thanksgiving
Day Football with the entire Pelagos family. Lions fans. Every one
of them. I'm pretty sure they've lost every game I've seen."

"That is so depressing," TS said.

"Watch it mutt, I'll spit coffee into your
breakfast too," Dani said.

"I actually
need
to eat this, you
know," TS said.

The way he worded it caught my attention.
"Need to?" I said. "What do you mean by that?"

"Oh, I don't need food," Charlie said. He
glared at Dani. "Not that I didn't
want
it."

"Yeah, yeah." Dani grabbed Charlie's plate
and got up.

"You don't need food?" I asked Charlie. Was
that actually possible?

"Well, not this kind. I still need some kind
of sustenance. Wood in fact. Well, wood is best, but other things
will do."

"So, you eat wood?"

"I
burn
it," Charlie said, "and absorb
the nutrients. Dani doesn't need food either."

Dani returned at that moment with a new plate
of pancakes for Charlie. "Nothing but water," he said.

I sat quietly, processing the fact that
neither of them needed food. I was still having trouble accepting
it all. It wasn't that I didn't believe it now, it was just a lot
to take in. Mariana arrived and joined us. I hadn't seen her since
before finding out about magic and I studied her while we all
exchanged greetings. It made even more sense that she and Dani were
married now; they both probably spent a lot of time in the water. I
wondered if the streaks of green in her hair became more pronounced
when she was a mermaid. If, that is, she actually grew a tail and
turned into a classic storybook mermaid. I wondered for a bit,
while everyone talked, and finally my curiosity grew too
strong.

"Mariana, I have to ask, do you have a
tail?"

For a moment she looked shocked, then she
laughed quietly. "I forgot you were told," she said. "Yeah, I do.
I'm like TS, but with water."

I stared at her in confusion, I couldn't
quite figure out what to make of that.

"Sorry, let me clear that up," she said,
looking embarrassed. "Magics like Dani and Charlie look human all
the time. But they aren't. Right now, I'm human." She picked up a
lock of her hair with a pronounced green tinge. "Technically, I'm
still a magic, but there's a lot I can do in the water that I can't
on land. Like how TS can turn into a wolf, but only at night."

TS laughed. "I think you're just confusing
her."

"Give her a chance," Dani said to him.

"I think I get it," I said. "Like how I could
see Dani's eyes changing color, right?"

"Exactly," Mariana said. "Non-magics can't
see that. They wouldn't be able to hear familiars either. I can,
even though I'm human. Now, in the water, I can still appear human,
but I can do things that I can't now, like spit ink. Then, if I
want to, I can shift into my mermaid form. If I'm in the water, I'm
always a mermaid, I just don't always have a tail."

"Ok."

"Did that make more sense?" she asked.

"It did. Thanks."

"I take it back," TS said. "Good job."

"Yeah, nicely explained," Dani said. He
ruffled Mariana's hair affectionately.

Even though she swatted at Dani's hand and
muttered, "Don't do that," she looked pleased.

"Hey, did anyone else hear that?" Dani asked
suddenly. He gestured up in the direction of the ceiling. I had
heard an announcement being made, but hadn't listened to it. It
seemed that nobody else had either. "That was the last boarding
call for the boat for your trip, Char."

"Clinker," Charlie spat. He jumped up and
shoved his ID into his pocket, then his eyes got wide and he patted
himself down. "Oh, ashes! My wallet's in my room!"

"Hang on," Dani said. He pulled out his
wallet and handed it to Charlie.

"Will you need cash?" Charlie asked.

Dani shrugged. "I wasn't planning on buying
anything today. Just get me something splashy. And use my MCU card,
not the company one."

Charlie gave him a scathing look. "I'm not
going to buy souvenirs with your company credit card." He pocketed
the wallet and jogged out of the dining room. “Thanks, Dan!" he
called over his shoulder.

"And try not to max it out!" Dani yelled
after him.

Had he seriously just given Charlie his
credit card? Nobody else seemed at all surprised. Apparently I had
a lot more to learn about the magical world than I thought. I could
understand lending a friend some cash, but I didn't think I'd give
even my best friend my credit card.

"I hope you have a high credit limit," TS
said with a laugh.

Dani pulled Charlie's abandoned plate to him.
"Probably not high enough." He started eating the pancakes.

"If you end up needing money today, you're
not getting it from me," Mariana told him.

"Love you too, honey," Dani said.

Mariana rolled her eyes and turned to TS.
"Where's Thomas?"

"He was still asleep when I got here," TS
said. He cocked his head thoughtfully. "Em...he's up now. Not sure
if he's planning on breakfast."

He could tell if Thomas was awake or not?

Dani leaned across the table before I could
ask. "Is it just me or is he sleeping a lot?"

TS looked uncomfortable. "He's...been pretty
tired."

"Did you tell him what I said?" Mariana
asked.

“Right, he said no," TS said.

"Then he's an idiot," Dani snapped. His eyes
had gotten dark. TS jerked his head around and actually curled back
his upper lip and growled at him. Dani didn't flinch. "You know I'm
right."

TS dropped his head down in a way that
reminded me of a dog getting yelled at. "I'm sorry. I'm just...I'm
trying to get him to change his mind or something. I dunno."

Dani slumped back in his chair. "I know.
Forget it, if he won't listen to you, he won't listen to any of
us."

"What are you talking about?" I asked.

They all exchanged a glance. "Nothing you
need to worry about," Dani said after a moment.

Apparently, they weren't going to answer all
of my questions after all. I supposed that, even though I was a
witch, they weren't just going to automatically trust me. Dani
picked at his pancakes during an awkward silence. It turned out
that Thomas wanted breakfast after all. He arrived in the dining
room a few minutes later and sat down next to TS.

"You ok?" he asked. TS nodded and Thomas
turned to Dani. "And you?"

"Fine," Dani said softly. "Just a tidal
wave."

I wasn't quite sure what that meant, but
Thomas seemed to accept it. He nodded and then held an orange out
to TS, who stared at it for a moment.

"I can't fetch it if you don't throw it."

Thomas chuckled. "You're not fetching it,
you're eating it."

TS groaned. "I was afraid you were going to
say that." He frowned at it. "Please tell me that's not an
orange."

Thomas set it on TS' plate. "Eat it. It's
good for you. Lots of vitamin C."

"Oranges are antiscorbutic," Dani said with a
grin.

"You're so helpful," TS muttered.

"Teth," Thomas insisted. "You need it."

TS sighed heavily. "You know I hate
fruit."

"Isn't it annoying when people insist you eat
right?" Thomas asked.

After a moment, TS reluctantly picked up the
orange and started peeling it. I wondered if TS gave Thomas a hard
time about eating right. Thomas was really thin, bordering on
unhealthy looking, and from what I'd seen really didn't eat
properly. He had a festively frosted danish and nothing else on his
plate. But it was odd that he was encouraging TS to eat oranges and
things. It seemed sort of hypocritical of Thomas to worry about
what TS ate when he didn't seem to eat very well himself. Then
again, TS had looked sort of sick the other night. Maybe he had a
cold or something. That is, if werewolves could even get sick. Dani
and Mariana both picked at their plates while TS and Thomas
ate.

"Trivia question," Thomas said. We all looked
at him expectantly. He had a smug grin. "Who is the only
professional football team to lose all sixteen games in a
season?"

TS swallowed a slice of orange with a grimace
and smirked. "I believe that would be the Lions, Tom."

Dani flicked a perfectly round ball of maple
syrup across the table at Thomas. He dodged it and it splattered on
the wall behind him.

Thomas laughed. "I'm sorry, they aren't
that
bad. It's not like they've never qualified for the
Superbowl."

Judging from the look on Dani's face, they
hadn't. Thomas and TS both laughed.

Mariana leaned over to me and whispered, "I
have no idea what they're talking about. I don't watch
football."

"Neither do I." We giggled.

Then the speakers chimed and the next
departing lifeboat was announced. They listed my trip among the
ones that should board and I quickly got ready to go.

"Let me know when your trip is over," Thomas
said. "We'll get those seventeen narrowed down."

"I will," I said. "See you later!"

Narrowing down the wands was just as tedious
as it had been the night before. I tried, again and again, to make
sparks. Even worse was the almost palpable silence. I really wasn't
sure what to say to Thomas now that I knew he couldn't use magic. I
wondered if he could even still do things like see elementals'
eyes. But, I didn't want to ask. Thomas encouraged me as I made my
sparks, but didn't seem to be in the mood for conversation either.
At last, when I was so tired I could hardly keep my eyes open, I
had eight wands left.