Zach had spent the morning in a daze.

Yup it was a complete write off.

He did find enough time however, between periods, to tell the coach he wouldn't be playing any more. He had to struggle with a shit ton of guilt about leaving them in the lurch one day before the big game, but he'd managed to do it in the end.

When the coach pressed him for a reason he couldn't lie, and he couldn't say 'I can't say' because that would sound too suspicious, and the coach would have had his dads on the phone in a New York minute; so he tried his method from earlier in the morning.

He asked him, "Why do you think?"

"I don't know," his coach had said angrily, "Maybe you're just like the other guys that thought their personal time was more important than their commitment to their team"

That hurt, but he wasn't wrong. Zach was just like the other guys. So he found he could respond truthfully with a caustic, "Bingo."

At that the coach had kicked him out of his office and told him not to think about coming back unless he grew a set beforehand.

Zach had cringed and muttered; "Ouch!" as the coach slammed the door after him.

He hoped the guys on the team took it better, but he had no clue how he was going to break it to them or what reason he was going to give them.

Turned out, he needn't have worried. Apparently the coach had done the honors and none of them would even look at him when he entered the cafeteria for lunch.

For the first time in a long time he had no idea where to sit and began wandering the cafeteria like some sort of social pariah – feeling like a complete loser. When all of a sudden he heard his name being called and looked over to see nearly his entire homeroom class sitting together in a far off table and beckoning him over, he knew it was lame to be that needy, but he couldn't help the feeling of relief that washed over him.

To his surprise they all started yelling, "Over here Angel Boy!"

That floored him. Weren't they supposed to be more discreet? He was about to ask what the deal was when he felt himself walk through an invisible membrane of magic.

There was no other way to describe it, but for the tray still in his hands, he would have vigorously rubbed his itchy nose. It felt like he had just walked into a gigantic gossamer spider web. In fact as soon as his tray hit the table he did just that.

CJ crowed, "He's just like me!"

"You can sense magic. Can't you?" He chirped.

"What?" Zach had no idea what he was talking about.

"You smell it, or hear it, or see it, like heat waves on a summer day, or sometimes you can feel it too. That one is especially fun." CJ said with a huge grin.

"The rest of the table just groaned, "TMI CJ," in unison while most of the girls threw food at him.

Zach chuckled to himself when he thought it's a good thing that CJ, short for Carlos Jose Rodrigues, was a tall dark haired Latino lothario, with a handsome face, big brown puppy dog eyes, and a killer smile, or most girls would be repulsed by what usually came out of his mouth; instead, they were usually putty in his hands when he turned his thousand watt smile their way, which made Zach wonder now if it was part of his affinity or just his Latin charm.

Zach couldn't help but laugh as he sat down bedside Lauren. Saying, "What gives? I thought we aren't allowed to use magic in front of the . . . humans?" He blanched thinking he was never going to get used to saying that as he took a seat next to her and Quinn.

"Nah," Lauren hooted, "We need to practice, don't we?"

"Yeah," said Cameron who was sitting with his arm around Meg, "How are we going to learn to control them if we never use them."

"Beside," said Quinn, "No one can feel it except you and pervert boy over here." He cocked his thumb in CJ's direction.

"Hey . . . Don't knock it until you to try it Dog Boy." CJ grabbed Quinn's head and tried to push it into his plate.

Zach's jaw dropped open when he swore he heard Quinn growl. Like honest to God full on growl!

He darted a look at Lauren who laughed at his expression.

He wasn't worried for Quinn, there was no chance CJ was going to win this battle. Quinn was seriously built, like sculpted built, and at over six feet he probably had a good few inches on CJ.

Quinn Walker was another guy who had no trouble with the ladies. And it was no wonder too; he was one of the lucky ones that had been gifted with those chiseled features the girl's always talk about. The fact that he had jet black hair shaved on the sides like a Mohawk and braided all the way down his back didn't hurt either, and piercing black eyes. His Navajo features marked him as one of the most exotic looking guys at the table.

When the fight finally broke up and CJ had to admit defeat Zach said, "So let me guess, Lauren is using her anti-eavesdropping spell, am I right?"

"He's got your number," Brenna snorted.

"Hey," Lauren cried incredulously, "When it works it works."

Brenna Tuluqaq was pushing her salad around on her plate dejectedly. Lauren came to him once worried out of her mind about the ex-patriot Canadian; she feared she was starving herself thin. He couldn't believe that the beautiful Inuit girl thought she was fat and struggled with her self-image.

He just wished she could see what he saw. Brenna had curves for days, but she was by no means fat, and who cares if she was. She wore it well. The girl was fine AF. With raven black hair that fell to the middle of her back and shone in the fluorescent lighting, gorgeous chocolate brown eyes that sparkled when she laughed, high cheekbones, button nose, and full plump lips. She was the complete package of raw unadulterated beauty.

When Brenna looked up and caught him staring he gave her a quick apologetic smile and turned to look at the rest of the table.

Zach did a quick head count and only counted 15 kids at the table. Obviously a few of the guys were missing. "Where's Kelly and Xander?" He asked.

Kelly Armstrong and Xander Vash were the power couple of their school. They possessed supermodel good looks and an attitude to match. The Barbie and Ken lookalikes were the couple you loved to hate.

Ryan spoke up, "they're probably getting freaky in a broom closet somewhere. "

"Christo . . . they will be bumping the uglies, no?" Donnie interjected in his weird Italian accent.

"Pay up," Kyle crowed. Grabbing an old plastic peanut butter jar off the table labelled DB JAR and throwing it in Donnie's direction

Donnie groaned but deftly caught it. Zach couldn't believe his reflexes. Thinking shit that dude's wicked fast.

"What?"  Donnie pointed to Ryan, incredulously and complained, "Mio Signore he can say 'get freaky' but I can no say "bumping the uglies'?"

"Nope pay up" they all crowed.

Donovan Alfero was blushing with embarrassment, but he was smiling and laughing at himself too which brought out his dimples. He was another guy that had avoided the ugly stick, and Zach was beginning to sense a pattern here.

When Donnie ran his hand nervously through his wavy brown locks Zach gave him a good once over to see if his theory was correct.

Donnie had a classic Grecian nose, emerald green eyes and dimples that you could practically fall into, and even though he wasn't quite six feet tall, he wasn't short either and Zach could tell even through the button down shirt -- that the guy was seriously married to wearing every day -- that he had an athletic build with broad shoulders.

Yup his theory was right.

There really wasn't an unattractive guy or girl for that matter at this table, maybe even the entire school. Zach's head did a quick swivel nearly doing a 360 degree turn to take in the occupants of the cafeteria.

Wow he'd never noticed it before, but he guessed there could be worst things then being stuck in a school full of beautiful people.

When everyone started chanting . . ." Pay up. Pay up!"

Zach turned to search the faces around the table for some clue as to what was happening, he was obviously lost by the new dynamic of the group.

Travis spoke up then and explained to him in his patented gravelly voice, "Donnie grew up in an all boy's catholic school in Italy so we're trying to teach him what's acceptable to say in front of girls and what's not." Travis gave Donnie a hard stare as if to say we've talked about this Bro, you know better.

Connor cleared his throat and all eyes at the table fell on him.

Everyone waited patiently for him to say something, anything. Connor Anwell is one of those moody guys that spend half their time being quiet, and broody, and holding up walls nonchalantly. Zach had to wonder if these James Dean types actually thought it looked cool -- or if they well and truly didn't care.

The ex-Bostonian teen spoke up from his wall holding up spot behind Brenna, "Sheesh lighten up. You're bankrupting the poor guy. Rome wasn't built in a day."He intoned in his rich Southie accent. 

"I don't know was it?" Marley bit out as she locked the poor guy in a death stare.

Liv reached over to rub her arm, "Mars calm down," she reassured, "He didn't mean anything by it."

"Si," Donnie said, "Dio Mio, I'm sorry already I watch my mouth next time." and as he made the sign of the cross, he reached in his front pocket, and removed a wadded up dollar bill, and placed it in the nearly full jar.

Zach began to feel awkward; you could practically cut the tension in the group with a knife, so he decided to change the subject to try to lighten the mood, and asked, "Hey where' s Ollie; is he in today?"

The entire group groaned and rolled their eyes in unison, and Marley looked like she wanted to rip his head off.

"What . . . ?" Zach pleaded, "What'd I say?"

And as everyone: one by one left the table, it dawned on him that he'd said something incredibly stupid, God only knew what, he realized it wasn't going to be all fun and games being the new guy, and he'd better learn the lay of the land sooner rather than later.

Deciding he wasn't hungry after all, he got up to dump out the tray of cold congealed food, his appetite had fled with the rest of his crew.

Well at least he had training to look forward to after school today. He hoped he'd get the chance to participate. He also hoped they were practicing kicks.

Just maybe if he kept his foot busy; it wouldn't end up inadvertently in his mouth.   

This chapter is dedicated to @cassiopeia_ writes and  @camerons7752  Thanks for all your kind words and support. I love you guys. *HUGS*

Ooooooohhhhhhhh . . . what do you think training's going to be like? 

********************THANKS FOR READING***************

If you liked this chapter Vote, Comment, add, this book to your reading list, or suggest it to a friend. Thank you all for helping me reach my goal of 1000 reads by the end of the month. But alas Enlightened is still not listed because of a glitch when I first posted. Pray I can get it fixed or I'll have to delete this copy and start all over again.

Stay tuned, because you're going to want to read more; soon Zach's going to be introduced to the deadly training tactics at the school and the noxious troll bile they are given to heal their wounds.

What weapon do you think he'll choose?