Chapter Nine

"It's still raining," Orina said sourly. The hood of her raincoat drooped over her eyes and she flicked it back up again. It was a horrible raincoat; a faded, yellow nightmare that swallowed her up and left her wondering who it belonged to before it became Elgin's. She could hear Elgin humming in the kitchen as he attempted to repair the striped umbrella he'd also dug out of the coat closet in the study.

"Almost ready! Do you still have my briefcase?"

Orina looked down at the briefcase she held. It contained the graded papers as well as their lunch and was, according to Elgin, fantastic at keeping out the elements. "Yeah."

"It's not too heavy, is it?"

She rolled her eyes. "No, it's fine."

"Good, good... almost --" There was a metallic sound, followed by a squawk.

"What happened?" Orina asked.

"Um... well, our umbrella is no longer the folding kind," Elgin explained. "It also --" She heard him suck in his breath. "-- got a taste for blood."

Orina dropped the briefcase and rushed into the kitchen. One of the umbrella's spokes was broken apart and the fabric connected to it had acquired some green spots. Some wet green spots. She looked down at Elgin, who sat on the floor with his right hand gripped in his left, and saw some of that same green color smeared on his fingers.

"It looks worse than it is," he told her. "I don't think I got any on my shirt... did I?"

"Forget your damned shirt," Orina said as she crouched down next to him. "You're bleeding." She tugged at his left wrist, then sighed in annoyance as he stood up instead of uncovering the wound. She stood up as well and followed him to the sink.

"See? It's not so bad," Elgin said. He held his right hand under the running tap and, when he spoke again, she could hear the wince in his voice. "It's just a long cut, nothing serious. I was more surprised than anything."

"Let me see," Orina said. She took hold of his hand and examined the cut that started on the side by his thumb and ended in a scratch midway up his index finger. It wasn't deep, but it was still bleeding more than she was comfortable seeing. She let go of his hand and tried to ignore the churning in her stomach. "Do you have any bandages? Wash that out with soap."

"Yes, yes. There's a first aid kit in the bathroom cupboard, along with some rubbing alcohol and peroxide."

Orina retrieved the first aid kit as well as the two bottles. Elgin had turned off the water and stood with a dry dishtowel pressed onto his hand. She winced at the sight of the green blood staining it. "Hold your hand in the sink," she said. "They taught me a bit of field medicine as part of my army training."

"That explains the warmth and bedside manner," Elgin said with a chuckle, then sucked in his breath when Orina poured the peroxide over his hand.

"Yeah, yeah," Orina muttered. She waited until it had finished foaming and then blotted at it with the rubbing alcohol. She stuck a gauze pad on the cut, then started to wind the bandage around his hand. There were adhesive bandages of varying sizes within the kit, but she reasoned that those would fall off without much wear and tear. Once she'd finished with the bandage, she snipped the end with scissors and tacked it down with some medical tape. "Don't do that again."

Elgin nodded.

"Wait." Orina took hold of his hand again and cast a minor healing spell. "This isn't much, but it should speed things along. It's not a good idea to use magic to heal everything... it works, but it can work in unwanted ways." She then lightly kissed the bandage, over the cut. "There," she added with a half-smile. "Now I've done everything."

"Thank you, Orina. You can, ah... forget what I said about the, uh, warmth and --"

Orina rolled her eyes, but her smile widened. "You're welcome. And don't you dare touch that umbrella again except to put it in the trash."

"Then I'm going to have to bring along another suitcoat, or else carry the briefcase over my head," Elgin said. He started to reach for the umbrella, but Orina kicked it away. "Oh, no no no -- you wear it, please!" he added once she began to undo the closures on the raincoat.

"We can both wear it," Orina said. She slid her arm out of the right sleeve and held the coat out. "This thing's big enough to fit Mr. Clifton."

"It used to be his, actually. I acquired it after... well, three umbrellas ago," Elgin said with a shrug. "Maybe I should stop buying them, now that I think about it."

"At least try it." Orina walked over to Elgin's left side, then pulled the right side of the coat around him. He took hold of the arm with a laugh that became a cough when Orina put her right arm around his waist and pulled herself close. "See? We'll fit." She smiled at him. "It's still dark out, so it's not like anyone will see us looking silly."

Elgin slipped his right arm into the sleeve of the coat and awkwardly moved his left arm into Orina's side of the coat. He started to put his hand on her shoulder, then on her back, and then started to draw it back.

"...If you put your arm around my waist, you'll be able to put your hand on my stomach," Orina said. She held back a laugh when Elgin loosely put his arm around her and his hand barely touched her stomach. "You may not be able to feel the baby move yet, but you definitely won't if you do like that. C'mon -- pretend to like me a little," she teased. "I won't bite."

"That's not the problem," Orina heard Elgin say under his breath.

"What is it, then?" she asked and laughed at his startled reaction. Then, she sobered. "If you seriously don't want to, we can figure something else out."

"No, it's fine," he said. "Like you said, it's silly fun and it'll keep us both dry." He rested his hand on her stomach. "And I do like you quite a bit, you know," he added quietly, then cleared his throat. "It won't be dark too much longer, so we should probably head out."

Orina nodded. As a friend. He means as a friend, she assured herself. "I'm carrying the briefcase, though. You're wounded."

"That reminds me, I banged my elbow last week and --" Elgin squawked when Orina pinched his side. "Oh, and that, too -- I'm kidding!"

"You're just lucky I like you, too," Orina said, then blushed. "Considering what I have to put up with, I mean."

"You started it."

"Yeah, but you're older so you should know better."

"Yes, but you're a terrible influence!"

Orina pinched his side again, gently. "Now let's get out of here."

"That wasn't so bad, was it?" Orina said once they reached the classroom. She set the briefcase down, then slid her left arm out of the coat and removed her right from Elgin's waist. He gave her stomach a pat before he pulled his arm back and took hold of the coat as she stepped away.

"No, not at all. We may have to figure something else out for the walk home, though," Elgin replied. He slipped the coat off and set it on a hook by the door. He looked confused for a moment, then crouched down to open up the briefcase and examine its contents. It was then that Orina realized that they'd both forgotten his suitcoat. She also noticed a tiny green splotch on the cuff of his shirt. "I don't think this rain is going to stop any time soon. I should probably get the coatrack and some newspapers from the utility room. Otherwise there'll be a heap of raincoats by the door and a mess to clean up -- the kids like to stomp through the mud and jump into puddles."

"Do you need any help?" she asked, with a nod towards his hand. "I can go home and get your coat, if you want."

"No, it's fine," he said. He closed the briefcase and placed it on the desktop. "I've forgotten it before and I'd rather have you here. I'll just have to remember it's not there so that I don't drop my chalk."

"Okay," Orina said. She watched him take off his glasses and awkwardly wipe the rain-spotted lenses on the front of his shirt. "Here -- let me." Elgin handed them to Orina and squinted at her while she polished the lenses on the edge of her shirt. She set his glasses on his beak, then smiled. "Better?"

"Oh, yes, er... thanks." Elgin chuckled softly as he adjusted the earpieces. "Right. Coatrack. Newspapers. I'll be right back!" He hurried out the door that led to the hallway.

Orina jumped when the door that connected the classrooms opened. She turned to face Lorca, who regarded her with disdain, and felt her smile grow strained. "Hey."

Lorca bared her teeth. "You two seem awfully cozy."

"Are you referring to the coat?" Orina replied. "Elgin was going to carry an umbrella, but it broke... and the raincoat was big enough to fit both of us. It was my idea."

"I'm sure it was," Lorca said. "I've been watching you. I've been keeping an eye on you both. I've noticed how you're always together and I've seen the way he looks at you. I've seen the way you touch him. It's all very cozy, agreed?"

"I think you need to keep your eyes on your own classroom and stop spying on us," Orina snapped back. "You sound jealous and delusional. You also need to brush up on your vocabulary. Last I checked, 'cozy' doesn't mean any of the things you're suggesting."

"Jealous?!"

"And delusional."

They both turned when the hallway door opened. Elgin backed his way into the room; he carried a small, tied-up bundle of newspapers with his left hand and had the tilted coatrack clamped under his right arm in order to drag it. Orina walked over to take the newspapers from him and his protests ceased when Lorca cleared her throat.

"I'm so sorry," he whispered to Orina.

"It's okay," Orina whispered back. She carried the newspapers to the other door, while Elgin followed her with the coatrack. Lorca watched them both, eyes narrowed, as they set up the coatrack and spread the newspapers by the entryway.

"Hello, Elgin," Lorca finally said. "We need to talk."

"I don't want to talk to you," Elgin replied, somewhat shakily. Orina started to reach for his arm, but stopped and placed her hand on her stomach instead. "Please, just leave us alone. Orina's my friend. We've done nothing wrong."

"That remains to be seen. I spoke to Mr. Clifton, you know."

"I know," he sighed.

"I'll be talking to him again." With that, Lorca left the room.

Elgin walked over to his desk and sat on its edge.

"I don't like her," Orina said. "Did she watch you this much before I showed up?"

He shook his head.

She still sounds jealous. "She's delusional."

"I don't like her, either," Elgin said, then sighed. "With any luck, she'll be retired before the baby's old enough."

"Or Mr. Clifton might fire her," Orina said. She waved to a pair of approaching raincoats. "I think the twins are here."

Elgin looked at his watch, then slid off of the desk and hurried over to the door to let them in. The boys took off their raincoats and dropped them on the floor and then slipped off their rainboots and ran sockfooted into the classroom. Elgin picked up the raincoats and hung them from the coatrack.

Orina waved to another approaching student, who carried a flower-shaped umbrella and wore a bright pink raincoat. She edged past Elgin in order to open the door and let Callie in. "You'd better keep that umbrella away from Teacher," she said with a smile. "He got attacked by a bloodthirsty one earlier."

"I did," Elgin agreed. "Everything's okay, thanks to Orina, but..." He took an exaggerated step backwards. "...Oh, I don't like the way it's looking at me."

Callie giggled as she handed her umbrella to Orina, who hung it up with a glare. She handed her her raincoat as well and Orina covered the umbrella up with it. Orina smirked at Elgin and he held his bandaged hand over his heart.

The other students arrived and were each greeted and regaled with the increasingly-epic tale of Elgin's battle with the umbrella. Orina noticed that while her healing spell was often mentioned, the quick kiss she'd pressed to the bandage never was. That led to a discussion about magic and how, in Zeal, only magicians and Mystics were allowed to stay. That discussion veered uncomfortably close to Zeal's fate and Elgin was barely able to steer the class back on the day's lesson before Asher started another chant.

The rain continued throughout the first half of the lesson and showed no sign of stopping when it was time to break for recess. Orina expected the kids to be disappointed -- and she was sure that a few were -- but the rush to the bookcase surprised her more. She looked over at Elgin, who'd already taken a seat on the floor in front of the semicircle, then left her chair to sit down next to him.

The kids came back with Callie carrying a book. She handed it to Elgin, then settled down in the semicircle with the others.

Elgin chuckled when he saw the book. "We read this last time it rained, too," he whispered to Orina, then cleared his throat dramatically before he began to read it out loud. Orina rolled her eyes when he handed her the book in order for her to voice the princess's dialogue, but humored the students -- and Elgin -- by affecting the primmest, most upper-crust variant of the Zealian accent she could manage without laughing. They passed the book back and forth until the knight met up with a helpful witch. Elgin started to hand the book to Orina, but the kids stopped him.

"Do the voice!" Leif -- or, possibly, Bertram -- said and was echoed by his twin. There was a general outpouring of agreement and Orina hid a smile behind her hand.

"Um..." Elgin began sheepishly. He gave Orina a pleading look.

Orina prodded him with her elbow. "Do the voice."

The voice turned out to somehow be both screechy and fluting at the same time, and prompted claps and giggles from the students whenever the witch appeared. Orina found it nearly impossible to maintain her affected royal tone once they got to a scene where the princess and the witch had a conversation.

"The end," Elgin finished. "So... what do you think happened next?" he asked the class.

A few hands shot up, as did Orina's eyebrows. I would've just muttered something sarcastic, she thought.

"Let's see... Iris, what do you think happened?"

"The dragon apologized to the princess," Iris said. "He said he was sorry for breaking the castle."

"The knight slew the dragon," Cliff told her.

"The knight thought he slew the dragon," Elgin said. "And what did the princess say?"

"She said they could be friends," Iris continued. "And they helped the people in the kingdom."

"I'd like to read about their adventures," Elgin said. He looked around. The Lucases elbowed each other, giggling, and Lucas Two raised his hand higher. "...Is this going to be like the last time, Lucas?"

Both Lucases giggled some more.

"Er, let's hear from River, then."

River lowered his hand and popped his thumb from his mouth. "The knight and the witch got married," he said.

"Eww!" a few other students chorused.

"Oh, they did like each other, didn't they! What about the princess?"

"She lets them stay in the castle -- and the witch changed her back, 'cause she liked being a frog better!" Genesis said, then raised her hand when Callie nudged her.

"It sounds like they're friends as well," Elgin said and Genesis nodded. "I bet they take great care of the castle when the princess is out adventuring, too." He looked around the semicircle, but none of the other students raised their hands. "You're all very creative, even if you didn't speak up. In fact, I think we should hold off the rest of class for now and go directly into arts and crafts. How does that sound?"

It sounded like a mad dash to the supply cabinet. Orina smiled at the chaos that quickly unfolded as she went back to her seat at the desk. Elgin stayed behind to help distribute the supplies and settle any disputes that arose. "No wonder they like you so much," she told him, once he'd returned to the desk and the kids were hard at work on their art projects.

"Oh, I'm a pushover," Elgin replied with a chuckle. "I also needed a chance to rest my voice... story time is, uh, an experience for all of us. Thanks for helping. Trust me, you're better off not knowing what the princess sounded like."

"I can imagine."

"Please don't," he said solemnly. "It was terrible."

Orina rolled her eyes. The rain continued outside and, after a few minutes, Elgin left the desk to talk to the students and comment on their artwork. He stopped to stare at Genesis's drawing and Orina was amused by the cough she heard before he knelt down to talk to her. She watched as Genesis pointed out aspects of the picture, while Elgin nodded. He gave her a pat on the shoulder, then pointed to Orina before standing up and walking -- very quickly -- over to one of the other students.

Orina smiled at Genesis when she approached with the drawing held to her chest. "What do you have there?"

"Drew this for you," Genesis mumbled. She handed the drawing to Orina, then hugged her.

Orina patted her back with one hand while she studied the picture she held in her other. It contained two scrawly figures, one that was very similar to the picture that hung over the desk and another that was decidedly beaky. The figures were surrounded by a profusion of Genesis's signature green hearts and looked like they were holding hands. "Thank you, Genesis, I really really like it," she told her. "I'm sure Teacher did, too. Would it be okay if I took this home with me?"

"Yeah." Genesis wriggled away, then flashed Orina a shy, sharp-toothed smile before scurrying back. Lucas One said something to her when she returned, which prompted a startled look from Elgin. He rushed forward and barely managed to catch Genesis's upraised arm before she brought her fist down upon her smaller classmate's head. A quiet discussion followed, after which Elgin walked to the front of the classroom.

"Everyone, over here!"

Orina put Genesis's drawing away in the briefcase, then stood up. Elgin looked over at her and shook his head. She sank back down into the chair and an uneasy feeling settled in her stomach.

"I know we've gone over this before, but now that Orina's here... I think we need to go over it again, so there won't be any confusion," Elgin said once all the kids were seated. "Okay! How don't you get Contaminated? Let's all say it at once, since you all know it."

"You don't get Contaminated by hugs and handshakes, so it's okay to be friends with humans," the class said in unison.

"Exactly! What else won't get you Contaminated? Let's pretend you have a human friend. What would you and your friend do after school or during recess?"

"Tell jokes?" Cliff ventured. He grinned when Elgin wrote it on the chalkboard.

"Watch TV?" Asher said, and Elgin wrote that down as well.

The list soon grew to include playing sports, something called videogames, talking on the phone, and a number of other innocuous activities.

"It looks like you and your human friend would have lots of fun," Elgin said, once the list had filled the board. "And all of it would be perfectly safe. The same list would also work if you had a Contaminated friend. Now, do any of you know someone who's Contaminated?"

One of the students pointed to Elgin and the others followed suit. He nodded.

"Yes, that's right: I'm Contaminated," Elgin continued. "And I didn't get Contaminated from the phone or the pool or from playing tag or from hugging or holding hands, or anything else like that. I got Contaminated from doing things that grown-ups in love do because I was in love with a human woman. But, none of those grown-up things that can cause or spread Contamination will ever occur in this classroom. Okay?" He paused while the students nodded. "That's why I don't want to hear anyone tease anyone else about Contamination or use Contaminated as an insult here or on the playground."

There were more nods and a few of the kids looked guiltily down at the floor.

"But, look!" Elgin pointed to the board. "We've filled a whole chalkboard with ways to be nice to each other and with ways to make new friends and spend time with the ones we already have, whether those friends are Mystics like you and me or humans like Orina. This is a wonderful list and I'm so proud of all of you for making it!"

The students brightened up and most of the guilty looks gave way to smiles.