Violin in my lap, I doodled on sheet music as Mrs. Chiles spot-checked the choir on their part, trying to fix the enunciation of the altos and tenors. Some of us were left to sit around aimlessly as a result.
A little clicking from the back caught my attention. Mason was seated at the keyboard just behind me, intently watching my little sketches with an amused smirk. He raised his eyebrows at the small witch I'd drawn, her likeness similar to Chelsea's leer. I pursed my lips in chagrin but he glanced up at her and shrugged approvingly.
I pulled my backpack out from under my chair and subtly tore a piece of empty paper from one of my books. The second and third chair violinists, Luis and Micheal looked over, unimpressed by the small noise, but I ignored them.
I placed the sheaf of paper on my stand and outlined a small crook onto the sheet with three groupings of letters beneath it: six, two, and four. Chin tucked to my shoulder cloyingly, I looked back at Mason. He inspected the little hangman setup with surprise, then grinned lopsidedly with glittering eyes. He tapped out a dot-dash.
Morse code, eh?
I tilted my head, eyebrows raised, but put an 'A' in the first grouping, third to last letter.
He narrowed his eyes in suspicion. Dot. I place an 'E' in front of the 'A' in the first word and one at the end of the third word. He rolled his eyes, shook his head, and sat back in his chair with his lower lip nipped under his front teeth.
A dark blush bridged faintly over his nose. He wasn't appreciative of me bringing up his current-favorite song; so be it. I'd try something harder. Something from my repertoire of knowledge. Three words: five, three, and seven.
Captured once more, he leaned in to inspect the new hangman.
Dash-dash-dash.
I wrote O and created the hangman's head.
Dot-dot-dash.
A line for the body beneath the head and a U was discarded.
Mason frowned, glancing at Mrs. Chiles as she chirped out instructions for us to start from the beginning. We dutifully took up our instruments and, from the corner of my eye, I watched Mason on the keyboard. His fingers danced across the keys, never missing a single note, though his expression wasn't present in the music. His emerald eyes watched Mrs. Chiles absently for the tempo, not paying the slightest attention to his own sheet music.
Mrs. Chiles was distracted again soon enough. A single tap resounded behind me. I caught Mason's eager, impatient gaze. I wrote multiple 'E's across all three words. His eyes were suddenly accusatory.
'Not English?' he mouthed.
I smiled. He pressed his lips together, then scraped a single dash. Two 'T's were filled in. Tap-tap-tap. An arm was drawn on the figure and an S in the discard. Scratch-Tap. I filled in an 'N' in the first and third words. Tap-scratch-scratch-scratch.
My eyebrows raised into my hairline as I drew-on another arm and I shook my head slowly in exaggerated disappointment. His lips formed a thin, disgruntled line. The letter 'J' didn't exist in my language, aside from a scant few foreign exceptions. Perhaps he didn't know Italian? No, his chagrin said otherwise.
He caught my attention.
'A hint?' he mouthed.
I obliged, drawing the jagged outline of a distinct mountain range and presenting it to him with a subtle wave of my hand. He ran a hand through his hair, frustrated. Tap-scratch-tap-tap. There's a single 'L' at the end of the middle word, right beside an 'E'. I tilted my head, examining it thus far; the first word was nearly complete, simply missing its first letter, as with the second word. The third was missing its first half.
Tap-Tap. I fill in the single 'I' in the third word. He still missed two letters, but he opened his mouth.
'Giant's Tooth?' he mouthed.
I smiled, scrapping the paper as the bell rang to signal the end of class. We packed our things quickly. Mason waited dutifully beside me as I tucked away my violin into the school locker.
"What is that?" he asked.
"A landmark in Italy," I said, "Dente del Gigante."
"Where you're originally from?"
"Er, yes, but if you could keep that just between us...?" I trailed off uncomfortably.
"Of course."
His jade eyes brightened with excitement.
"What?"
He looked about, then ducked his head a bit as he continued, "I don't usually earn peoples' secrets."
"Feeling human?"
"It's frustrating, but rewarding."
I chuckled, interlacing my fingers with his cool ones as we entered the cafeteria.
~
"So!" Kira said brightly, falling into step with Mason and I as he walked me to physics, "After some light research on the symbol, I can only seem to find likenesses as opposed to an exact match."
"She spent all day Friday glued to her laptop," Mason snitched.
Kira scowled.
"So did you!" she pointed out, bouncing up on the balls of her feet to catch Mason with a glare, but he deliberately avoided her gaze. "Anyway, I'm sorry we missed the car wash."
"She's sorry she missed the witch," Mason translated.
His eyes swept our surroundings for anyone within earshot. We were hanging back from a few seniors headed in our same direction.
"I missed out on an opportunity to get to know my brother's girlfriend too. Especially given she's so interesting -"
"Yes, I am a source of amusement and mystery."
"Inherently."
"Guess it's unavoidable."
"Don't harass her, Kira," Mason warned, leaving us at the classroom door. He paused, looking down into my face with cautious green eyes. His lips parted and his hand came up slowly to brush his fingers along my jawline,"I'll see you later, Sara."
"Of course," I said, trying not to sound breathless in front of Kira.
I noticed her stifle a snicker as Mason walked off.
"What?"
"He's just so new to all this."
"I am too, mostly."
"That's what makes it funnier," she said, tapping my nose with her pointer-finger. I huffed.
"Can you show me the symbols you found?"
She produced a set of sketches, sliding them over to me.
"Do any of these look familiar to you?" she asked.
"None of these," I said, separating the stack with a frown, "I know the triskelion - most people do - and I know the witch's knot, but...?"
"That first one's a Serch Bythol," she said, pointing at the dual sided knot. It looked like a flower with only two of its petals left. "It's meaning is debated, but most scholars seem to think it's something along the lines of everlasting love, hence its name. The sailor's knot here, on the other hand, is meant to symbolize close friendships and bonds."
I inspected the four symbols, picking out the elements that did, indeed seem similar to the knot Margret had seen. The sailor's knot pattern about the Serch Bythol's petals made for a busy sight. The three-pointed nature of the symbol was reminiscent of the triskelion.
"I took the liberty of completing the pattern Margret had started, since it all seems fairly symmetrical," Kira explained, glancing up as Mrs. Roberts entered the classroom. "What do you think it is?"
"New magic," I decided, scooping the papers together and shuffling them back toward her, "We'll have to analyze those meanings a bit more, see what they could mean when taken together. Looks like Carmen's gone and perverted something innocuous."
"Every culture has something or someone perverse about it," Kira shrugged, "Didn't the ancient celtic druids perform human sacrifices?"
"There's no archaeological evidence left behind, and much of the celtic history was passed on by verbal storytelling so it's changed a bit over time. But some of my family's historical records did report on the rare bad-actor."
"It's possible, then."
"Yes, it is," I sighed, cupping my chin in my hand.
"You know so much," Kira pouted enviously.
"I'm not a comprehensive encyclopedia. If you want to know how to kill something, I'd probably know. Other than that, I'm not particularly helpful."
"You? A killer?"
"You don't think so?"
"No," she pondered, folding her arms in front of her on the table, "It's always seemed that your bark is worse than your bite."
My mouth soured.
"I won at dodgeball; how can you doubt me?"
She rolled her eyes with a smirk, but we went quiet as Mrs. Roberts began class. Even so, I continued to tap my fingers, annoyed.