Three weeks later, I sat up in surprise when Callan appeared in math class at SCC, two cups of steaming tea in hand.
“Welcome back,” I said when he slid into the seat beside me. He’d just dropped off a huge stack of papers at the instructor’s desk, and I assumed it was all the homework he’d missed while on his research trip. It seemed so silly that he was keeping up on homework for an SCC class he didn’t need to be enrolled in anyway, but I was secretly impressed that he’d done it.
“Was the instructor okay with you missing three weeks like that?” I asked.
“It’s not ideal, but she can tell I’ve been acing all the tests up until this point, so I think she was more flexible in working with me.”
“I’m sure your charm had nothing to do with it,” I mused, and Callan smiled.
“It sounds like someone missed me.”
“We had a test last week, and I barely scraped a B minus. I need my math savant around to carry me through this class.”
“Don’t worry. We’ll double down to make up for it,” he promised.
“Oh, joy,” I said sarcastically, though my stomach did a little flip at the idea of spending more time with him. “So, what were you doing on the field studies trip?”
“I’m afraid that’s only for the tree affinities to know.” He smirked and glanced down at his textbook.
I rolled my eyes, ready to retort, but our math instructor started class, and I turned to the front of the room. I had to suppress a smile. Callan was back and teasing me again. All was right in the world.
Later that night, when we met in the tree house to resume our tutoring, I tried the line of questioning again.
“So, was what you were researching on the field studies trip really restricted to tree affinities, or were you just trying to throw me off before math class?”
“I was just messing with you.” Callan flipped a pencil through his fingers, maneuvering it with ease. “We went to an area that experienced a large wildfire this fall. Our research group is working on some new theories in post-fire succession principles.”
“Sounds… interesting?”
Callan chuckled. “It was. Sad, too, though. To see that such old forests have burned. They’ll come back, but it’ll take decades, and the ecosystem’s composition will never be the same.”
I wasn’t sure at what point in my time at Evergreen I’d turned into a total nerd, but his science talk had me listeningwith awed appreciation. I switched to a question that had been bothering me for weeks.
“Did you know the verdant shield flickered again when you were gone?”
Callan looked down at my math book. “Professor East filled me in.”
“Yasmin told me that it gets recharged on the summer and winter solstices and the spring and fall equinoxes. If it’s flickering now, do you think that the recharge on the winter solstice is going to be able to restore it to normal?”
“I wish I could say the answer is yes, but I’m not so sure.”
“Professor Variegata said that sometimes once deterioration of a spell like this gets started, slowing or reversing it isn’t possible.”
Callan seemed to contemplate that. “She told you that, huh?”
“Is that a surprise?”
“I think you have a way of getting things out of people they didn’t intend to share.”
“This, from thekingof undersharing.”
Callan smiled lazily. “I’m just saying I’m impressed, that’s all.”
I glowed a little at his words, but I couldn’t help feeling that they were countered by the fact that I had no affinity powers. Despite my doing my best to fit in here, could I ever truly be part of school when I didn’t do affinity studies? When I couldn’t even get a simple Floracantus to work for me?
The next words were out of my mouth before I could stop them. “Do you think I belong here? With no affinity powers, I mean?”
Callan kept his face relaxed, but I saw his posture tense ever so slightly.
