"Why didn't you fix it before?"
"We wanted to talk." Blaine continued.
"What did you talk about?" Dobin asked.
Lana put vegetables in a pan, "Amanda."
Dobin's face went white. "I see."
"Who's Amanda?" Kattie asked.
"Source of one of my nightmares. Blaine's helping me. I can't be screaming on a portal planet in the middle of the night. So, he's agreed to help me."
Kattie looked at him with a relieved expression. "On behalf of both of us, Blaine, thank you!"
"How bad are they, Kattie?"
"Most nights she whimpers in her sleep. Sometimes she flat-out screams."
Blaine looked at Lana with concern in his eyes. She glanced at him, quickly looking away.
Kattie looked at Dobin, "how did you do it?"
"I held her tightly through it then tried to sleep after. I couldn't make the dream stop. It didn't work."
Kattie nodded and sighed. Soon, lunch was done and everyone was fed. She had the tree put her outside her lab. She went in and put Alto's plate on the table. He appeared to be getting the hang of it and she smiled, leaving him to work on it.
She had the tree set her on the ground. She whispered to her friends, "he's getting better!?
Dobin in a hushed tone, "Lana, what did you do?"
She smirked, "Paul's family's company hired me to do commercials to sell this kitchen. I got paid for it this morning. I spent some of it on buying 2 books for Alto."
Blaine snapped his fingers, "I forgot!" He went up to the bedroom and grabbed his bag and came back down. "This is for you Almin. At some point they will come after level 3 as well. You won't be safe unless you are a 4 or higher." He handed Almin a level 4 book.
Almin took the book with big eyes, "why? Why would you do this?"
He looked at Lana, "he's against bullying, as am I and he considers all of us friends, even if we choose to not put him on our team. With everything going on, he wants our teams to be as strong as possible."
Almin held out his hand for a shake, "Thank you, man. Truly," then he smiled, "guess I'll pause on the game for now!"
Dobin chimed in, "and movie nights!" he chuckled.
Kattie then chimed in, "if everyone is going to focus like that, Lana can I practice with Sven in this area?"
"I'd advise it, actually."
With that decided, Almin and Dobin went back to the dorms, Kattie went into the open area outside the tree, and Blaine and Lana went to the library. They each sat down at a computer. Blaine bought a chair that matched the other two and a snow globe with a high price tag. Lana bought two books. They got done at about the same time and went to pick up their packages together.
Lana opened her package right there and smiled at each book. She opened one specific book and went back to the computer.
"What are you doing. Aren't you done?" he asked.
She chuckled, "I need ingredients," and she showed him the book cover.
"Oh no…" he chuckled. A lot of money spent later, they walked out of the library with him using telekinesis again to carry everything.
"Have I created a monster with these high-end desserts?"
"I wouldn't say so. But if I can treat us, why not?"
He just smiled a very bright smile at her.
They spent the next two hours cooking a small cake. She had to buy specialty pans for the various things she wanted to buy so the price was higher than it would be in the future.
"You know… I think I like being in the kitchen with you. This is fun."
"Really?" Lana smiled up at him.
"Yeah!" he smiled down at her.
They heard a ding.
"Well, that was the oven. Let's see if you encasing the ice cream in a bit of ice before cooking is the trick."
She pulled the cake out of the oven and it looked like it should. She popped it out of the pan and drizzled fudge she made using a separate recipe on top as well as a bit of caramel.
"Do you want the first bite or the second?" Without waiting for an answer, she got a fork and offered him the first bite. He took it and he closed his eyes in obvious enjoyment. She took a bite for herself and agreed it was great.
He bent to her ear, "I say we take this up to your room and keep it for ourselves. Besides, Kyle wants to try it."
She chuckled, "okay. Quick before the ice cream becomes cream!"
They sat in her room, Kyle enjoying her cooking.
Once they were done, Kyle used telekinesis to bring his box up. He opened and positioned the new chair telling Lana to stay sitting on the bed. When the chair was set up, he pulled a smaller box out of the box. This was a snow globe with a wooden base. It had a built-in key to play a song but it also had a button on it. Inside the globe was a girl sitting on a tire swing attached to a giant oak tree. A boy was kicking a ball and a dog appeared very interested in the ball.
"First turn the key. I want to know if you like the song."
She turned the key and closed her eyes to take in the song. It was beautiful.
"Next, this button. Kattie needs sleep and you need to be safe out there. The button activates a privacy feature. It creates a magical field around you that people outside a radius can't hear. It glows a different color based on the distance. Hit it once, it activates 5 feet, green, twice is 10, yellow and a third time is 15 feet, red. Hit it a fourth time and the light goes off and it deactivates."
She started crying and held the globe close to her heart. This just became an item she would always keep in her bag when not in use.
"Do you like it?" he asked.
She nodded, "how are you so perfect?"
"You make me this way."
He sat down next to her and just held her until it was time to cook again. By that time, Alto was ready to leave the lab. His watch now read 3.
Over the next two weeks, they met when they could to talk. The hazing team had not moved on to level 3 students yet but it was only a matter of time. Blaine was being diligent. The fateful day came when they had to choose their teams and Lana was ready. Blaine was not. Chekof and Karlen were easy to add and he had started talking to Rene, telling her she was recommended by Lana.
Rene was a 5'5" archer as well as a healer. She had short-cropped black hair, green eyes, and a toned body. She had figured out how to shoot a healing arrow at her party members so she could heal from a distance as well as shoot arrows with decent precision. She'd be a welcome addition to any team. As the teams started forming up in Blaine's class, suddenly there was a platinum blonde on his arm batting her eyes at him.
He pulled his arm away from her, "don't touch me! I don't like to be touched!"
"Aw, come on. Any man would be lucky to have me on their arm. I'll make you very happy."
"Oh no, no thank you. You're the one that is mean to Lana in martial arts class. I think you need to find another team."
"There is no other team," she said as she pointed to all the other areas teams were forming in around the room.
Suddenly, he heard jeering, "better luck next time!" "no one wants her!" "take one for the team, man!"
Chekof decided to chime in, "the only way we will accept this is if you acknowledge we are not interested in any…favors… you may choose to offer. Keep your hands to yourself. We are all very capable of defending ourselves."
"Of course! I would never touch a man unwanted!"
Blaine was gritting his teeth, "then why are you still hanging on my arm!!!"
"Oh, pooh…. You're no fun." She let go with a pouty stomp of her foot while brushing her hair back with her hand in an attempt to be sexy. Blaine rolled his eyes.
The watches of both girls said 4.
The teams had a week to get to know one another even though they were all in the same homeroom class. They were to practice fighting as a team at least once. Blaine was disgusted by this Star girl and wanted nothing to do with her. He suddenly wished he could transfer to Lana's class. They only practiced Saturday morning including Star. Rene was welcomed in pretty quickly even hangout with the guys, joining them at breakfast and even other meals. Blaine was never accessible, so Star was a little put out. She was convinced Blaine would be her next conquest.
After their practice, Star chased after Blaine and caught up with him outside Lana's tree. He didn't want to bring this trash into Lana's sanctuary, so he told Star to leave.
Star put her hands around his arm, "but pooh bear…"
Lana had heard enough and came out. "He said leave. I suggest you do as he asked."
Star chuckled, "are you jealous that I got a man you could never have?"
Blaine tried to pull his arm away without hurting her. Lana wasn't so nice.
"He said, leave. He also clearly doesn't want you touching him so let me help him."
She touched Star's hand and she started screaming. "Go see the doctor. Maybe he can help." She looked to Blaine as the branches parted, "after you."
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