Seth was just about to say that he hadn’t touched Zakir, and that the purebred must have imagined it, when Aerin suddenly stood up with enough force to send her chair crashing backwards. The large bang in the quiet library made both boys jump, and Seth smirked at the fact that Zakaboo had jumped higher than he did. He’s easy to spook, this’ll be so much fun he thought gleefully as Aerin began whispering angrily at the snooty boy. His muffled snickers probably weren’t the best back drop to her mini-lecture, but Seth couldn’t help but laugh.

“And Seth! Stop bugging Zakir!” she turned on him and Seth held up his hands in mock surrender. “I’m sure you still have all that Magical Sciences homework to do. Want to work on it together?” she asked, her tone becoming less severe. Seth glanced at the boy she’d deliberately excluded, and another grin spread over his cheeks before fading slightly when he didn’t look up or acknowledge the exclusion in any way. A pout at the lack of reaction touched his lips but was quickly replaced by another grin.

“Yes mother, I promise I’ll be good. After all, I don’t have any bugs.” He teased as he held out a loosely closed fist pretending to hold a big fat bug. When he opened it to reveal it was empty, and subsequently to divert her attention from his other hand, he reached out to try and snatch her hair tie while she was distracted by his pretend bugs. His smile turned devious as a new plan entered his mind. Now I just have to wait until she’s distracted with working he thought as he cast another look at the apparently oblivious Purebred. And anyway, she should thank me after he was such a jerk. Why does she want to hang out with him anyway? It made sense for Seth to do so, seems he just wanted to bother the boy, but after her little Elf meeting and how mean he was to her just now it really didn’t make sense for her to want to hang out with Zak.