THESE HIDDEN WINGS

[69.1] I SPY

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"I'm not asking you to jump in, I'm just asking you for a chance. I need to know you're willing to give this a proper shot."

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SO TASTY," CLAIRE mused, smacking her lips together, turning to David who sat cross-legged beside her.

"You're a genius, these are... chefs kiss," she replied licking all of her fingers and then the ends of the stick that had bits of marshmallow stuck at the ends.

David shrugged at this but the smile on his face couldn't hide the fact that he was certainly happy to be here.

I chuckled at this licking mine too. It was the first time I had ever had s'mores thanks to Lira sneaking in some crackers.

"The fires losing heat," Lira muttered examining a marshmallow she had just extracted from the heat which was clearly not ready yet.

Her eyes trailed out in a random direction, "Hey orange, over here!" she called out to some guy who was standing near the bonfire, wearing a white vest as if that was supposed to let the air in.

He looked our way, jogging towards our section of the fire before relighting the fire, flames spiking out from his outstretched hand until it was back in full bloom. He turned around giving us a thumbs up before jogging back to where he had been.

I plopped another marshmallow at the end of the stick, lowering it into the fire-

"Wait- not so close or it will-" David began and my eyes widened when my poor stick caught on fire and I had to wave it in the air rapidly like a flag, getting to my feet blowing the flame off all whilst Claire panicked beside me until my marshmallow was nothing but burnt ash.

Claire looked at it half as disappointed as I was. We exchanged looks and ended up laughing at the moment.

Lira gingerly turned to David who was looking up at Claire and me, with his eyebrows drawn seemed to be confused at our behavior.

"See what I have to deal with every day?" she huffed, biting into a s'more, David nodding in acknowledgment, "so glad we have another blue now."

My eyes trailed around to the people seated cross-legged on the grass who had witnessed our elevated panic, chuckling amongst themselves in the small groups they made.

I frowned at this as Claire beckoned me to sit down allowing my body to flunk onto the ground, closing the half-circle Claire, Lira, and David had formed.

"So, David," Lira began licking her lips, after biting into the tasty treat that I looked at in envy, "Tell us a little bit about yourself, everyone has a story that led them to Kingsland," she mused, leaning back, and taking another bite in.

David glanced amongst all of us that were seated around him in a circle sighing for a moment before letting out a shallow breath of air his shoulders falling, "well, it's not very complicated," he began.

"I have a feeling it is," Claire huffed while I stifled a chuckle.

He glanced between her and me whilst Lira bade him continue with food still stuffed in her mouth.

"My Dad sent me here," he shrugged, "he is a professor of advanced mathematics and Physics at Oxford University. One of the first Latino professors there, he just wanted the same for me I guess, but before I turned thirteen, I wasn't really..." he trailed off glancing among us, before shutting his eyes, "bright." He finished.

My eyebrows drew together at this statement, exchanging looks with Claire before we all shifted our Gaze to Lira.

Lira rolled her eyes, "he was a dud," she put in plain terms.