A Fox's Love (American Kitsune Book 1) (22 page)

"Okay!" Lilian replied, cheerful as ever. At least she seemed to ignore Ms. Vis' disdainful tone as surely as she ignored anything Kevin said that she didn't like. Not that Kevin thought this was much of a consolation prize.

Red hair fluttering behind her, Lilian made her way over to the spot right next to Kevin, which was occupied by Lindsay. Smiling down at the girl, who was blinking up at her in curiosity, she said, in a tone that was blunt enough to make hammers seem sharp. "Excuse me, but I need you to move."

Kevin choked on his own spit. Lindsay just looked nonplussed.

"I'm sorry, but did you just tell me to move?"

"Yes."

The befuddlement on Lindsay's face was as clear as day. Her eyebrows furrowed and a small frown came to her lips. She looked at Kevin, then back at Lilian, clearly wondering about the relationship this new girl shared with her friend. "Shouldn't you find an empty seat to sit in?"

"No," Lilian stated with absolute certainty. "I want to sit next to my Beloved."

"Beloved?" Lindsay mouthed the word, not quite sure what to make of it. Meanwhile, Kevin was making choking noises, his face burning with the light of a thousand suns.

Lilian frowned for a second as the girl didn't do what she asked. A second later, she smiled.

It was a very mischievous smile.

Making eye contact with Lindsay, Lilian's green irises began glowing with an abnormal light that seemed to reflect off Lindsay's own. In return, the brunette's own eyes took on a glassy, dull quality.

"Move."

And just like that, Lindsay stood up and began mechanically walking to the nearest empty seat.

Kevin stopped his choking long enough to look confused. What... what had just happened? What was going on?

"Excuse me, Ms. Pnév̱ma," Ms. Vis once more decided to make her presence known, it was her right as the teacher. This was
her
class, after all. She couldn't just allow people to disrupt her class. It interfered with the learning process. "What do you think you're doing? I told you to find an empty seat."

"This seat is empty." Lilian's eyes glowed as the demanding math teacher looked at her. "See?" Ms. Vis' eyes glazed over. "There's no one sitting here."

"Of course." Everyone stared. What the hell? "My mistake." Ms. Vis shook her head, her stern persona coming back in place. "Now sit down and get out your supplies. And ask Mr. Swift for the notes on my lecture. You won't be able to follow along if you only have the last half of notes for this class."

"Kay!"

Lilian sat down and class resumed, albeit a good number of boys were no longer paying any attention. They had something else to look at now.

Not that many of them had been paying attention before Lilian entered the picture anyways. It was way too early for a class like Math.

Kevin was staring at Lilian as well, but he was busy trying to figure out just what had happened a few seconds ago. How had Lilian convinced not just Lindsay, but also Ms. Vis (who was one of the strictest teachers he knew) to do what she told them to?

Seriously, what the heck was going on?

As for the girl herself, she had a notebook and pencil sitting on her desk and was now looking at him.

"Beloved?" Kevin blinked at the sound of Lilian's voice. He looked over at her, blue eyes meeting green. "Could you let me copy down your notes?"

"Um... sure..." Kevin handed over his notes before his mind snapped back into place. Then he glared at her. "Hold on a second. Why are you here? You're supposed to be back at the apartment!"

"Staying at the apartment without you is boring." Lilian began copying his notes. "You have really messy hand writing, Beloved."

"Stop changing the subject!"

"Mr. Swift, Ms. Pnév̱ma." Ms. Vis glared at the two of them. "That will be detention for disrupting my class. I expect to see you two after school today."

"What!?" Kevin stood up from his seat, aghast. "But I have track practice today!"

"Then I suppose you will just have to skip it." said Ms. Vis, who was uncaring to his plight. "Let this be a lesson on what happens when you interrupt the learning process of my class."

Kevin grit his teeth and sat back down. God this sucked! Not only had this girl disrupted his daily life, now she was interfering with his school life! Worse still, he had just gotten detention because of her and now he was going to miss track practice! This was completely unfair!

He glared over at Lilian, who seemed to be paying attention to the lecture, writing notes dutifully in a pink spiral bound notebook with hearts on it. Where had she gotten that thing anyways? He certainly didn't buy it for her.

For the rest of class, Kevin found focusing on his teacher to be an effort in futility. His mind and thoughts were so jumbled it was a wonder he could focus on anything. By the time class ended, he was a complete mess.

As the bell rang Kevin shot out of his seat and snatched up his school supplies. He looked over at Lilian who was putting her stuff away in another item that he didn't remember getting for her: a small one-strap school bag. And just where had that come from? He didn't see her carrying it when she walked in. Without preamble, he grabbed her by the arm and dragged her out of classroom before anyone else had a chance to do anything more than look at them.

Not like it mattered. Chances were these people had already come to their own conclusions about the relationship they shared. That was how high school students were. No one cared about what was actually going on. All that mattered were their own pre-misconceptions.

He took her to one of the more deserted sections of the school; a set of lockers that were no longer being used because of an incident last year that had ruined them. The school hadn't yet fixed the problem and the entire group of lockers were covered in graphite.

Letting go of her arm, he took several steps away from her, then whirled around to glare at the girl, who either wasn't bothered by his look, or purposefully ignoring it.

"If you wanted to get me alone, all you had to do was ask," Lilian told him. The small smile on her face let him know exactly what she was thinking. Which was pretty much the same thing she always thought about whenever he was involved.

"What are you doing here?" Kevin hissed, ignoring her play on words. He was not in the mood. His voice must have managed to convey what his expression could not because Lilian took a step back, her eyes widening and her mouth parting in a tiny 'o' of surprise. "Lilian, what are you doing here? Why aren't you back at the apartment?"

"I..." Lilian seemed to shrink in on herself in the face of his anger. Even though her ears were not out, Kevin could almost picture the way they would be drooping if they were. "I wanted to spend more time with you," she told him, her voice sounding very small, like that of a child who had just received a very harsh, angry scolding from one of their parents. "I thought if I joined your school, I could see you more often... I miss you when you go to school and leave me all alone."

Kevin had almost no time to prepare himself for what happened next. Even if he had, it was unlikely he would have been able to do anything about it.

Lilian stood there, her left arm grabbing onto her right elbow, rubbing it up and down self-consciously. An aura of sadness seemed to permeate her very being. It felt almost like she had managed to manifest her emotions on the physical plane. Kevin could literally feel the depression radiating from the two-tailed Kitsune. Her head was tilted towards the ground, but she was looking up at him. Her big, teary, green eyes were barely visible beneath her curtain of red hair as it fell about her face. It was such a sad, pathetic look that Kevin felt like someone had just punched him in the gut.

"Do... do you not want to spend time with me?" asked Lilian, sniffling. Another punch. Kevin tried not to feel guilty. He tried to remind himself that
she
was the one who barged into
his
life. That all of this was
her
fault and
he
had nothing to feel guilty about.

It didn't work out very well.

"Ugh... look, it's not..." Kevin looked away, thinking that maybe if he wasn't staring directly at her, the effects of her expression would lessen. They weren't, but it was a good attempt nonetheless. "It's not that I dislike spending time with you or anything... it's just... just..." Come on Kevin, think. "I just wish you would have told me about this first."

"I thought I could surprise you," Lilian answered, her voice still sounding very small, very soft. It was nothing at all like her normally bubbly voice. The feelings of guilt increased and brought friends. Kevin cursed himself for being so damn soft.

"Oh, I was surprised alright," he muttered, then sighed as he looked at the girl. "Just don't surprise me like this again, okay? I'm not very good with these kinds of surprises."

"So you're not mad at me?" Lilian was looking at him with such big, hopeful eyes that Kevin felt the rest of his anger evaporating like a winter breeze in the summer heat. How could he possibly stay mad at this girl? All she wanted to do was spend time with him. He couldn't hate or even mildly dislike her for that.

"No..." he ran a hand through his messy blond hair. It was getting a bit long. Maybe he should get it cut? "I'm not mad at you."

That was the wrong thing to say. Or maybe it was the right thing to say. Kevin didn't know, and probably wouldn't know until the next installment of this series.

"Thank you!" The girl's eyes lit up like a tree on Christmas morning. He didn't have much time to be affected by her stare though, because a second later she had practically jumped on him, hugging him for all he was worth. "I'm so glad you're not mad at me!"

It probably didn't need to be mentioned, but Kevin once again found himself being affected by the girl holding him in a herculean grip. Her body was pressed up against his, her breasts pushing themselves into his chest, rubbing against him in ways that generated all kinds of feelings that were both wanted and unwanted at the same time. It was enough that Kevin was beginning to feel more than a little delirious just standing there.

"I-i-it's fine." Kevin placed his hands on Lilian's shoulders and gently pushed her off him to get some distance. Anymore of that and he was probably going to pass out from all that blood that was rushing to his head. That, or die via mortification when Lilian felt the blood that was rushing to another part of his anatomy.

Neither of those options were very appealing.

Wanting to keep the girl from hugging him again, he asked, "So what class do you have next?"

"Um..." Kevin felt his face turn into a boiled lobster when Lilian reached in between her cleavage and pulled out her class schedule. Couldn't she have used one of her shorts pockets or something? "It looks like I have French next."

Wow. That was the same class he had. What were the chances of them sharing two classes in a row...

…
.

A feeling of dread welled up inside of him again.

"Can I see your schedule?" asked Kevin. Lilian had no objections and handed over her class schedule. Kevin held it up and began reading, his face paling as he saw what it looked like. "You have all the same classes as me..."

"I know, isn't it great?" Lilian smiled, taking the schedule back from him. "I asked the Principle if he would give me the same classes as you." She folded the paper up and put it back in between her cleavage. Kevin didn't even notice this time, busy as he was lamenting his horrible luck. "He was so accommodating."

"How..." Kevin swallowed. "How did you manage to do that? For the matter, just how did you manage to get registered with this school so quickly?" It took a lot of time to get registered with a school. He couldn't see how she could have done it in a single day, and he had no doubt this was a spur of the moment idea she came up with this morning. Lilian didn't seem like the type who thought that far ahead. Plus, didn't she need an adult to register her?

"That's simple." Lilian smiled as she grabbed his hand, entwined their fingers and began pulling the near unresponsive Kevin to their next class. "I used an enchantment."

"An enchantment?" Kevin blinked, finally coming back into himself as curiosity over came shock. "What's that?"

"It's a special ability we Kitsune have." Lilian swung their hands back and forth between them as they continued to walk. "Most Kitsune do not enjoy fighting, and we often go out of our way to avoid battle whenever possible. Enchantments allow us to do that. They are techniques that let us manipulate the thoughts, feelings and actions of others. With them, we can turn best friends into bitter enemies, make a person fall in love with us in a single glance, or even control someone's very thoughts and actions like they were nothing more than a marionette on a string."

"Wow, that sounds like a really useful power." Kevin imagined what he would do if he had the ability to manipulate others like that. He could easily get out of his homework by making his teachers think he already did his assignments, and got an A on them. Yes, school would be super easy then. He wouldn't even have to study!

Yes, Kevin was thinking about using enchantments to get out of doing schoolwork. He might be a good student, but that didn't mean he enjoyed the amount of effort that went into maintaining his good grades.