Chapter 19: Enrolling Jace in school
Chapter 18: The New Normal
Life, as Anita knew it, had officially taken a detour into the bizarre.
Jace had settled into the guest room at her house, his presence both comforting and unnerving. He was quiet, observant, and always seemed to know when Anita needed space—or when she needed someone to pull her out of her spiraling thoughts.
“You’re pacing,” Jace remarked one evening as Anita wore a groove into her bedroom floor.
“I can’t help it,” Anita replied, throwing her hands up. “How am I supposed to act normal when I’ve got a mystical fox spirit living under my roof and a glowing bead of doom fused with my soul?”
“Doom is a strong word,” Jace said with a faint smirk.
Anita shot him a glare. “You know what I mean.”
Meanwhile, Claire and Max were growing increasingly restless. The secrecy surrounding Jace and the events at the temple didn’t sit well with them.
“Why won’t you just tell us what’s going on?” Max asked one afternoon as they sat in the school cafeteria.
“It’s complicated,” Anita said, stirring her soup absentmindedly.
“It’s always complicated,” Claire cut in, her voice tinged with frustration. “But we’re your friends, Anita. Don’t you think we deserve to know what’s putting you in danger?”
Anita hesitated. She hated keeping them in the dark, but how could she explain any of this without putting them at risk?
Before she could answer, the school bell rang, sparing her from the conversation—but the weight of their worry lingered.
That night, Jace found her sitting on the porch steps, staring up at the stars.
“They’ll never understand,” Anita said softly.
“They don’t have to,” Jace replied, sitting beside her. “Your job isn’t to make them understand. It’s to keep them safe.”
Anita nodded, but the hollow ache in her chest didn’t fade. Keeping secrets was harder than she thought, especially when the people she was protecting were the ones she cared about most.
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Chapter 19: Enrolling Jace in School
The next day, Anita came to a realization: Jace couldn’t just hang around her house all day. It was too suspicious. He needed a cover story.
“I’m not doing it,” Jace said firmly, crossing his arms.
“Oh, yes, you are,” Anita shot back, holding up a neatly filled-out enrollment form.
“School?” Jace looked horrified. “Why would I willingly subject myself to that?”
“To blend in,” Anita explained, exasperated. “You need to stay close to me in case anything happens, and this is the only way to do it without people asking questions.”
Jace groaned but eventually relented. The next morning, he walked into the school as the mysterious “new transfer student.”
It didn’t take long for Jace to make an impression. His sharp features and enigmatic aura turned heads wherever he went. Whispers filled the hallways as girls and even a few guys speculated about the “brooding new guy.”
“Who is he?” someone whispered as Jace passed by, his usual stoic expression intact.
“He’s like a character out of a movie,” another voice chimed in.
Anita, trying to keep a low profile, cringed at the attention Jace was attracting.
“Can you at least try to blend in?” she hissed during lunch.
Jace raised an eyebrow. “I thought I was blending in.”
“Yeah, if blending in means acting like a brooding vampire,” Claire quipped, joining them at the table.
Max stared at Jace suspiciously. “What’s your deal, anyway? Where are you from?”
“Far away,” Jace said vaguely, taking a bite of his sandwich as if the conversation didn’t faze him.
Anita kicked him under the table, silently pleading for him to be less cryptic.
The rest of the day was equally chaotic, with Jace managing to both impress and confuse the teachers. His knowledge of history, thanks to centuries of firsthand experience, earned him high praise in Mr. Harris’s class, while his complete cluelessness about algebra made the math teacher groan in despair.
By the time the final bell rang, Anita was exhausted from damage control.
“Well, that went better than expected,” Jace remarked as they walked home.
“Better? You caused a school-wide frenzy!” Anita exclaimed.
Jace shrugged. “At least I’m not boring.”
Anita sighed, a reluctant smile tugging at her lips. Life with Jace was unpredictable, to say the least—but deep down, she knew she wouldn’t trade it for anything.