Soul Forgotten (Blue Star Series Book 1)

by Laura Winter

  “Unfortunately for you, I do keep attendance at the beginning of class. If I have to be here on time, so do you,” she said in a monotone. She made her way to the podium and started reading off names as everyone responded with their best enthusiasm.

  “Nathaniel Beckett?”

  “Nate, please,” I corrected for the third time in as many years. She never seemed to care. She continued on without acknowledging my response. Glitch snickered, but I knew his turn was coming.

  “Oliver Hood?”

  This time, I was the one holding in a laugh.

  “Glitch, please,” he groaned.

  “That’s not a name, Mr. Hood.”

  I knew Glitch hated his name. He never knew his parents, but Miss Bonner had raised him using the name he was given. He always asked why he had to go by a name when the people that gave it to him weren’t around for it. I didn’t have a good answer to that, and Miss Bonner gave up trying to explain. There weren’t any answers as to what happened to them, or why they left, but she was always there for him. He knew he was lucky to have her, and besides arguing about his name, didn’t fight about much else with her.

  “One more time, Ms. Rivers?”

  Mrs. Roberts had reached the end of the list by the time I started paying attention again and was giving one last call to… wait, who had the last name Rivers? I looked over to Glitch who mouthed new girl to me. Yikes. She was already going to get crap from the students as a new girl and now she was going to be the new girl who was late to her first day of class.

  Just as Mrs. Roberts turned to her desk, the door creaked open and an unfamiliar student slid through the opening, remaining close to the wall. The entire room turned to stare at the tall girl with purple-red hair in a long sleeve shirt as she walked to the front of the room. She didn’t look at any of the students and headed straight to Mrs. Roberts, headphones still stuck in her ears.

  “Ms. Rivers,” Mrs. Roberts said, eyeing the girl. “I don’t take kindly to lateness in my class. I don’t get to sleep in, and neither do you.”

  “Ma’am, they printed my schedule wrong. I thought I was in calculus first period,” she said, lowering her head as she stuck out her right hand. I could see the schedule and yellow excused late slip from our calculus teacher. Her gray long sleeve hung loosely from her arm as she lifted it, shifting nervously in her stance as her eyes darted around the room.

  Mrs. Roberts’ cheeks turned a bright red. “Find your seat, Ms. Rivers. And take those headphones out when you’re in my class,” she snapped, trying to recover.

  I looked around and saw every student had their eyes locked on the new girl with long sleeves on in August, one of the hottest months of the year. I felt bad staring as she walked toward the back of the room, but I couldn’t look away. Here was this beautiful new girl who I had never seen around town before. News usually traveled fast if someone new moved in, but if she had been living here for a while, I should have seen her somewhere around town.

  She settled into the seat next to me and I felt a cool breeze follow her as she dropped her bag next to the desk. For a minute, I could have sworn her hair was changing color, but I was even more mesmerized by the bright blue eyes shining underneath the hair she had covering her face. She hesitated, but eventually pulled out her headphones and stuck them into her bag that was already stuffed full of papers. As she sat up, she tucked her hair behind her ears and tried to sink into her desk, probably because she knew everyone was watching her.

  Mrs. Roberts’ voice startled everyone as we jumped in our seats. “Since you are all being disrespectful to our new student, let me introduce Ms. Clara Rivers.”

  5

  Clara

  I sat down in the back of the room and reluctantly pulled my headphones out before stuffing them into my bag. I tried to pull my knee up into the desk to make myself smaller, but I couldn’t fit so I just curled my shoulders in. I could feel everyone staring at me, and their thoughts confirmed it as they came flooding in, mixed together in a garbled mess.

  She looks like a weird kid. Who let her dye her hair purple? How is she in a long sleeve? She is so tall. I hate these students so much. I wonder if she’s good at volleyball.

  Hell no. I am not letting a new girl steal the thunder here. “Aren’t you the one who moved into that creepy cabin at the edge of town?”

  The thought and voice belonged to a girl who looked to be several inches shorter than me, her blonde curls bouncing as she swung around to glare at me. What had I even done to deserve that? I had just walked into class late, that’s all, and it wasn’t even my fault.

  A common thought passing through a lot of minds labeled the girl as ‘Queen Bitch Emma’. I tried not to let out a laugh and just remained silent. I wasn’t about to cause another disruption, even though I wanted to snap back at her. Instead, I glared at her for a split second before turning my attention to my desk, poking at the scratches and carvings previous students had made in the surface.

  “Don’t mind QB over there, new girl. She’s just mad her fake tan didn’t make her a better volleyball player.”

  I turned to see the blond boy two seats down from me leaning so far forward in his desk to look at me that I thought it would tip over any second. Emma turned a brighter shade of orange as she blushed, the class erupting in laughter.

  “Settle down, students,” Mrs. Roberts groaned. Her eyes locked on the boy. “Keep the juvenile business to a minimum, Mr. Hood.”

  The boy rolled his eyes and set his desk back down, still looking at me as Mrs. Roberts started to hand out the syllabus.

  “Thank you,” I whispered back to him. I was actually kind of relieved he had distracted QB from my glare because she was pretty pissed about it.

  He smiled and winked back at me. Oh, she is totally Nate’s type.

  Nate must have been the boy sitting between us as his eyes darted to him. I glanced toward the dark-haired boy, catching his stare and his stray thought.

  How are her eyes such a bright blue? He turned away, embarrassed that I had caught him staring. I smiled to myself and turned back to grab a syllabus from the kid in front of me.

  I tried to pay attention as the teacher read the syllabus word for word in monotone, but everyone’s thoughts were distracting. I started to build up a wall around my mind to block them out. It was oddly reflexive; something that had kind of happened out of habit. Maybe this was something I could do before I lost my memory.

  As it quieted down in my head, I watched all the kids passing notes to each other while the teacher wasn’t paying attention. The kid who had stood up to Emma was Glitch; I had heard Nate’s thought come through before I had blocked him out. He and Nate must have been best friends because they were teasing each other quietly, trying not to be noticed. I stifled a laugh when I saw Glitch pass Nate a note that was written in large enough letters for me to see.

  She’s totally your type. Nate crumpled the paper quickly, his cheeks turning red.

  “You’ll do a project in groups of three. Pick any of these topics, one group per topic. Get both approved by me by the end of class.”

  As soon as the teacher finished her sentence, the class erupted into chatter. Great, first day group project and I’m the new girl who has no idea who she is. And I’m pretty sure everyone already hates me.

  Just when I thought all hope was lost, I looked up to see Glitch standing right in front of my desk, staring down at me.

  “M’lady, my best friend and I are in need of a third member to join our quest through senior year history. Would you be so kind as to take a plunge into the depths of mediocrity with us?” He spoke in some medieval mixed with southern accent and looked at me expectantly, eyebrows raised.

  Ugh, Glitch. You are the worst. Nate’s thought came through and I held back another laugh. It was hard trying to focus on multiple things at once while still blocking thoughts. Trying to have a conversation by only responding to spoken words would be a whole new challenge.

  “Sir,
I would be honored to join your group under two conditions. First,” I said, raising my finger. “Never use that accent again. And second,” I continued, raising another finger, “never call me m’lady.”

  Glitch’s face lit up in a smile. “Great. Also, my best friend Nate here thinks you’re cute.” And with that, he spun around to go tell the teacher about our group.

  Nate groaned and put his forehead into his book, his thoughts spinning in embarrassment. I did my best to distract him, because even if it was funny to watch, I knew how uncomfortable that must have been.

  “I’m confused. We didn’t pick a topic.”

  Nate lifted his head back up, surprised that I was talking to him. “Oh, well, Glitch always picks the Spanish Inquisition if it’s an option. Have you ever seen the Monty Python sketch?” I nodded. This version of me hadn’t seen it, but somewhere inside me I felt like that was the right answer. Why was it that memories like that came back to me so easily yet I couldn’t remember anything that was actually important? Nate continued. “He’s slightly obsessed with it and always picks the topic if it’s an option. On the bright side, all the research is done so we just have to change the format to fit the requirements.” Great, those are my first sentences to the cute new girl; talking about my weird best friend, Monty Python, and the Spanish Inquisition. Yup. I’m going to die alone.

  I had to stop focusing on his thoughts if I wanted to keep my cover. Or I just needed to stop laughing at all the funny things that went through Nate’s mind.

  “I’m Nate, by the way.”

  I had been so distracted with his thoughts, I must have forgotten to respond. Forget Queen Bitch, I was going to be Queen of Awkward Silences.

  “I gathered from your friend there. I’m… Clara, if the awful, full senior class introduction wasn’t clear. How’d he get that nickname?” I asked, trying to change the subject to distract from the pause I had before saying the name I had almost forgotten myself.

  Nate shrugged. “He claims he can magically make a video game glitch so he can win. Or, at least keep himself from losing.” Teleporting, video game glitching… same thing, right? At least our cover story hides his real powers effectively.

  Holy shit, Glitch has powers? I ignored my nervously pounding heart, trying to think of some comment that didn’t sound like I was responding to his thoughts.

  “So, does he?” I asked, raising my eyebrow.

  “Does he what?” he asked.

  “Have magical powers to win video games?” I emphasized the word, hoping to pick up a clue. At least if I could pretend to poke fun at the whole situation, it would draw suspicion away from myself. Could these two be from The Complex if Glitch had powers and Nate knew about it?

  “Controller trick,” Nate answered with a smile. “I looked up his Internet history.” Actually, new girl, my best friend and I have these weird powers that no one else seems to know about. But don’t worry, we’re not crazy.

  I laughed with him to hide the feelings of nervous excitement I had inside. Nate had powers too. First class, first day, and I’ve already found two boys who have abilities like me. Maybe I wasn’t the crazy one after all. As far as I could tell, they weren’t from The Complex, or at least didn’t know about me, but that seemed too convenient. What were the chances I’d run into them here without trying?

  “I leave you for three minutes and you’ve already given away my biggest secret?” Glitch asked as he walked back up, poking Nate in the shoulder before looking at me. “If you have some sort of power over him and you steal my best friend away from me, I’ll make us dress up and perform the sketch in front of the whole class. See if you make any more friends after that.”

  Friends? I have friends? I felt my face get warm and looked away. I could feel the headache starting to build in my neck so I played with the key necklace that I had thrown on this morning. It helped me focus on what I needed. Answers. If these two had powers, maybe they could help me figure out my own, but the first day of school probably wasn’t the best time to announce my weird abilities. I needed more information about my previous self before I went around telling people what I could do. Besides, I didn’t know if I could trust them yet. I glanced up to see them exchanging weird looks.

  Dude, talk to her. I’m trying to set you up, idiot. That thought was definitely Glitch who was not so subtly nodding toward me.

  Stop embarrassing me. Shit, she’s looking at us. Nate lowered his head, his cheeks turning red again.

  “So, what class do you have next?” Glitch asked, looking over my desk to read my schedule upside down. He spoke over the bell that started to ring. “Oh, English next, then you’ll have PE and Calculus with Nate. Make sure you come sit with us at lunch; we’ll save you a seat.”

  “Okay, thanks,” I replied, smiling as I picked up my things to walk out the door. Behind me, I could still hear them talking in the back of the room.

  “Dude, she is so cute. Open your mouth for once,” Glitch groaned. Actually, it almost sounded like he smacked Nate’s arm somewhere in there.

  “I know, man. I’m just nervous. She’s totally out of my league. I don’t understand why she’s talking to us.”

  6

  Nate

  I spotted Clara sitting at the bottom steps of the bleachers, headphones stuck in her ears again as she flipped through a worn book. She had probably already picked up her gym clothes and put them in her locker. Luckily, that’s all we ever did on the first day of class.

  She didn’t notice when I walked up so I gently tugged one of her headphones out. She looked up at me and smiled, her bright blue eyes shining. “So, English is the greatest class here. Can you really just read whatever you want as long as you reach a page count by the end of the year?”

  Clara tossed the book back into her bag. I couldn’t see the title as it settled with the crumpled papers inside, but I could clearly make out a tree on the cover.

  I sat down next to her and laughed. “Yeah. You’ll have to do a few book reports. Glitch found a loophole and does all of his reading with comic books.”

  She raised her eyebrow, surprised. “Wow. The teachers here really don’t care about anything, do they?”

  “Oh, absolutely not. They are just as miserable here as we are.”

  “So, does that mean this is going to be one of those typical movie PE classes where they make everyone play dodgeball? Like, the jocks pick on the weirdos while the teacher pretends not to notice?” Clara asked. She pulled her foot up on the seat and rested her chin on her knee to look at me.

  “I wish. I’d bet money on us weirdos flipping the script on them all. I wouldn’t mind getting a few shots in,” I said, pointing to a few individuals before gesturing to the entire class.

  Clara gasped, holding in a laugh. “Weirdos? Speak for yourself. Just make sure you save that one for me.”

  I followed her finger down to Emma. A few of the volleyball players had gathered and were practicing their serves over the net while QB tried to coach them. Well, that would imply she was trying to help them. Really it just sounded like she was bossing them around.

  I shrugged. “Just don’t do too much damage. If QB can’t play in the rivalry game, you’ll have to answer to the whole town.”

  “Your town is weird,” she said, rolling her eyes.

  Says the new girl with purple hair and a long sleeve on in the middle of summer. “So, why did you move here?”

  I could tell that question made her uncomfortable. She hesitated, pulling her knee in tighter as the air around us got cold. Her key necklace, stuck between her chest and knee, tugged at her neck, leaving a red mark underneath. Yikes, maybe that was a touchy subject between her and her parents.

  “Sorry,” I blurted. “You don’t have to answer that. I won’t ask any more questions.” Shut your big mouth, Nate. This is why you don’t talk to cute girls out of your league. Serves you right for only hanging out with Glitch.

  “No, really, it’s okay,” Clara said, trying to reassure m
e. “I just… haven’t really been asked about it yet. I needed a new start; maybe to be a new person. It’s just tough being new.”

  There was a sadness in her voice as she frowned. Maybe something bad had happened at her old school. But before I could say anything to break the uncomfortable silence, she perked up and put on a huge smile.

  “Truth is, I ran out of ice cream and root beer and had to brave the supermarket in town. Next thing I knew, I was here.”

  “Let me get this straight. You wanted a root beer float and somehow got sucked into public high school? That sounds like a horror movie.”

  “Or maybe I wanted to see the psychological effects of toppling the social hierarchy that these girls are so obsessed with. Think of it like an experiment.”

  I laughed, but when I caught a glimpse of Clara’s face, I almost thought she was serious. No, she was staring at me, like she was trying to look into my soul. Wow, brilliant and confident enough to own her uniqueness. That was definitely my type. She broke her gaze away just as a volleyball bounced between us and settled into the seats. Clara picked it up and tossed it between her hands before looking directly at me, a mischievous smile growing on her face.