by Slick, Tabi
“Of course I am!” I replied, hoping I was convincing enough.
I was definitely excited about going to the social as Lee’s date. On the other hand, I was most certainly not excited to have to ditch him to undergo an impossible mission. We were most likely to fail and I was not stoked to see the messy ending.
“Then why do you look so gloomy?" She asked.
“I don’t know, maybe you’re just reading into things?” I suggested.
“Stop it,” she laughed, “I’m not going to let your rotten attitude ruin my day.”
“It’s not rotten,” I replied.
“Are you not looking forward to seeing your eye candy all dressed up?" She asked.
“Uh, yeah definitely!” I said, “I guess I’m just nervous and trying to keep realistic expectations.”
“What you should be expecting,” Kia replied, “is to have a wonderful time with the guy you’ve been crushing on all semester.”
“Yeah,” I smiled.
Little did she know this was not all I was realistically going to expect. Normally, I would just be a girl excited about going to her first formal with her new boyfriend. But it was, obviously, not that simple for me.
“So, who all do you know that’s going tonight?” I asked.
“Oh, well,” she began, “I’m sure it will be a pretty small group. Maybe thirty or forty students. I only know of Kain, Lee, and you. Possibly Amadeus, of course he made it to the Honor’s Society, but I don’t know if it’s really his scene.”
“Amadeus?” I replied, hoping she didn’t suspect my nervousness.
“Yeah, duh,” she laughed, “he’s like the smartest guy in school so, of course, he’s invited. It’s whether he shows up or not.”
“He doesn’t party much, does he,” I assumed.
“No,” Kia agreed, “but he does seem to have a dark and mysterious side.”
“Isn’t that what you like?” I teased.
Kia just rolled her eyes as she pulled leggings on.
“I can’t believe how cold it’s gotten,” she commented.
“I know,” I agreed.
“Does this mean I have to wear a coat tonight?" She complained.
“Eh, I don’t know,” I said, “maybe not. Depending on the dress. We’ll be inside mostly.”
“True,” she agreed.
“Now, to more important things,” I began, trying to distract myself from my dire thoughts, “what are you going to wear?”
“Oh, I was hoping you’d ask!” Kia exclaimed, “let me show you.”
She leaped to the closet and pulled out a dress bag,securing it to one of the drawer hooks so she could unzip it.
“I am wearing this gorgeous gown,” she said, as she pulled out a plum colored sequined dress with a strapless heart shape neckline.
“Wow,” I gasped, “it is gorgeous! Where’d you get it?”
“A little shop in the city,” she replied.
“What about you?" She asked, “what are you wearing?”
“It’s a surprise,” I winked.
“Okay,” she replied, “but don’t blame me when you can’t accessorize because you left your best friend out of the loop.”
“Ha, no worries,” I laughed, “come on, let’s get some food and head to class.”
“You have US History first, right?" She asked.
“Yeah,” I said.
“Cool, that’s on my way to Geometry,” she said, “let’s go.”
We headed out the door and towards the cafeteria. We stepped outside to be welcomed by a light drizzle and an ice cold breeze.
“Gah, I definitely did not dress for this weather,” Kia complained.
“I know, me too,” I agreed.
I crossed my arms as we forced ourselves out into the cool morning. I looked up at the gray sky, remembering what it was like to gaze up and not see anything but sky scrapers. New York was filled with people, noise, commotion, and yet it still felt more calm than it did here. Here everything was quiet, suspenseful, like it was waiting for something to happen. It made me uneasy.
“Don’t you think?” Kia asked.
“What?” I asked, not noticing that she had been talking this whole time.
“Did you not hear me?" She demanded, “What’s wrong with you this morning?”
“I don’t know,” I lied, “I just seem to be spacing. Not sure how I’m going to last through class today.”
“I know how you feel,” she agreed, “at least about the class thing.”
“So, what did you ask?” I asked.
“Oh, nevermind,” she said, rolling her eyes, “I’m not going to let whatever mood you’re in ruin my day. You know, you and your brother are more alike than you’d like to admit.”
“Ha!” I laughed.
“Seriously,” she said, “you both get into these weird pensive moods and completely spaz.”
“I do not!” I denied, “I stay completely in control of my emotions.”
“Of course you do,” she said, sarcastically.
“Whatever,” I laughed, hooking arms with her as we entered the cafeteria.
We entered the line for breakfast and I looked to see what was on the menu.
“Eggs benedict and french toast,” I said.
“Ugh, calories I can’t have,” Kia complained.
“Since when do you have to worry about calories?” I asked.
“Since I have a dress to fit into tonight,” she explained, “I have to look my best.”
“The eggs benedict look good,” I said, “and they’re eggs. Eggs are good for you.”
“Yeah…” she said, doubtful.
“Come on,” I said, “starving yourself doesn’t make you look good. Plus, I’ve heard it’s really bad for you to skip breakfast and can actually cause you to gain weight.”
“Fine,” she caved.
“Eggs benedict, please,” I said to the server, “she’ll have the same.”
We got our breakfast and headed over to the table where our friends were already sitting.
“You guys are up early,” I said, taking my seat.
“Coach assigned us an early morning run,” Lee said, reaching his arm around me as I sat next to him.
“Hi,” I said to him, smiling.
“Hi,” he winked.
“Come on, you lovebirds,” Kia joked.
I just rolled my eyes and started eating breakfast. The social was all the table seemed to be able to talk about, at least for the ones who made it into the Honor’s Society or were going as someone’s plus one.
Izzy…
Someone else’s voice creeped into my thoughts. I looked up and saw Kain, sitting across the table, staring straight at me.
“Was that you?” I mouthed.
What do you think? a corner of Kain’s lip curled into a half smile as he saw my shocked face when his voice slithered into my brain.
I took a deep breath. He had been practicing. I focused inward, hoping I could reproduced what he had just done. I hadn’t even figured that one out so far from the full moon! It was one thing to do it hours before the transition, but weeks? That was amazing.
You’re not the only one with tricks up their sleeve, he winked.
I rolled my eyes.
That’s not all, his voice once again invaded my personal space.
He quickly looked around, making sure no one was watching, and raised his hand over his glass of orange juice. Within seconds his glass began to bubble.
I gasped.
Fancy, huh? his thoughts said, setting his hand down before anyone could notice, I’m able to increase its temperature to boiling in an instant.
Again, I attempted to push a message to Kain. It seemed so easy for him and it would be so useful for us to be able to communicate to each other without others knowing.
I squinted, wondering if that would help, but I couldn’t feel any communication being pushed his way.
“Izzy,” Kain’s voice called.
“What?”
I said, opening my eyes to the strangest view ever. I looked around the room and all the students were there, but didn’t seem to be moving. The only other moving creature in the room was Kain.
“What did you do?" He asked.
“I-I don’t know,” I stuttered in shock.
I glanced at Lee who was in the middle of taking a bite of food, holding his fork in midair. I waved my hand in front of his face, but there was no response. I looked up at the lunch line, even the servers were frozen. I wondered how much I could have frozen and how long they would be like that.
“Have you ever done this before?" He asked.
“No,” I shook my head, “I was just trying to communicate with you.”
“Well, I think we found our new secret weapon,” Kain said, “just hope you can do that again tonight.”
“Yeah,” I agreed, “and for long enough. I have no idea what all I’ve frozen or for how long they’ll be like this!”
“You can’t just, unfreeze everyone?" He laughed.
“I don’t even know how I did this,” I said, “let alone how to reverse it!”
“Want to go check outside?" He suggested.
“No!” I cried.
“Why not?" He asked.
“What if they unfreeze?” I asked, “If we’re not here in our seats then everyone will be asking questions.”
Kain looked around the room.
“Yeah, I don’t think they’re unfreezing any time soon,” he said, jumping up from the table.
“Kain!” I hissed, as if others could overhear me...could they? “Kain!”
He was already halfway to the doors and I had no choice but to follow.
“Ugh, you never listen,” I complained, tossing my napkin on the table and made my way to the entryway.
He pushed through the doors and we both stepped outside. We saw a flock of disturbed birds fly off from a group of trees and in the parking lot a teacher pulling a stack of papers out of her car.
“Well,” Kain said, “I think it’s safe to say your freezing only worked in the cafeteria.”
“I have to unfreeze them,” I said, panicking, “what if someone comes in and sees? What if Chuck sees?”
“Did you see him in there?" He asked.
“I didn’t notice,” I said, “did you?”
“No,” he said.
“Come on,” I said, heading back to the cafeteria entrance, “we need to figure this out.”
“Wait,” Kain said, “look.”
I glanced in the direction that he was pointing towards and realized why he sounded so panicky. Chuck was making his way from the path leading to the dorms and was most certainly headed for the cafeteria..
“What do we do?” I asked.
“Let’s get back inside,” he said, pulling me through the front door.
We had maybe three minutes before Chuck would enter the building and realize what we were.
“We’ve got to figure something out,” he said.
“How?” I cried, completely freaking out.
“You were the one who froze them,” he replied, “just try redoing whatever you did before.”
“I don’t know what I did though!” I said.
“Just try,” he urged.
I was fuming with frustration at this point. Wasn’t he listening? I had no clue what to do! I squinted my eyes and while trying to attempt to push a message to him I froze everyone.
“Iz,” he said, “we don’t have any other choice.”
“Fine,” I sighed.
I took a deep breath and tried to relax. I tried to focus on everything I could feel. I felt goosebumps crawl up my arm as a chill ran up my spine. I felt my chest rise as my lungs filled with air and I tried to focus even further inward to the deepest crevice of my being. I squeezed my eyes shut, pulling my fingers into a fist.
Did anything happen? I thought.
“Izzy,” Kain’s voice said, “wrong power.”
“Ugh,” I sighed, “you heard that? I was trying to do what I did when I froze everyone!”
“We don’t have time,” Kain said, looking towards the door, “he’s going to be in the cafeteria any second now.”
“No!” I cried, “I have to unfreeze everyone first!”
I kept my eyes closed, returning my focus inward trying to tap into the power I had unleashed earlier.
“Iz, he’s walking up to the door!" He cried.
“Just one more second,” I said, “I know I can do this!”
I heard the door to the cafeteria move and I waived my hand, pulling the door closed.
“Hey, what’s going on?” I heard Chuck exclaim.
“Come on,” Kain said, dragging me back to the table, “this isn’t working.”.
“It has to!” I said in frustration.
“Iz, face it,” he said, “everyone is still frozen. We need to get back to that table.”
“But...,” my voice trailed.
Defeat sunk in as we raced back to the table and sat in our appropriate seats and tried to find ways to look natural.
“We have to pretend to be frozen,” he said.
“Oh sure!” I cried, “for how long? The whole school is going to be late for class!”
“I have no idea,” he replied, “for as long as it takes, I guess.”
I looked down at my plate so that if I needed to blink it wouldn’t be too noticeable. As I picked up my fork I waived my hand again and Chuck stormed into the cafeteria.
“What the heck?” Chuck gasped once he had made it through the “stuck” doors.
I heard his footsteps echo throughout the unnaturally still room. Nothing moved, not even the eggs benedict being plopped onto students’ plates, frozen in the air. I couldn’t imagine what was going through his mind, but I hoped he would just think himself crazy and go back to the dorms to get more sleep. If all those who were frozen weren’t able to hear then all that they would know is that time flew by in a blink an eye...literally. So, Chuck would be the only one who would know and without any proof he would be assumed delusional. The sound of his footsteps got increasingly closer to our table and I hoped that he couldn’t hear my elevated breathing. My heart was racing and felt as though it would explode.
He’s right behind you, Kain’s voice filled my thoughts and I cringed at the thought of Chuck so close to me.
I wanted to leap out of my seat and throw him across the room, making him feel the helplessness that he had made us experience when he kidnapped us. I knew Kain was feeling the same way, but if we did then we would be losing our advantage. At this point no one knew what we could do...well, except for Amadeus which was a whole other problem. I heard him move closer to me and felt his arm brush passed mine and I saw him try to take the fork from Lee’s hand. I heard him gasp when the fork would not budge from Lee’s frozen grasp.
“Whoever is doing this,” he shouted, his voice echoing throughout the entire hall, “you will regret this!”
I heard his phone suddenly ringing. Was he calling someone?
⎼“Hi, this is Chuck,” he said, “I need to speak with my Uncle...no it is important. I don’t care if he’s about to head to a meeting. Just hand the damn phone to my Uncle!”
I heard a muffled response on the other side of the call, but it didn’t take a genius to figure out the secretary was not happy with how they were being spoken to.
⎼“Thanks, I’ll take that into consideration next time,” Chuck replied, sarcastically, “my Uncle,now.”
There was silence for almost a minute and then the Uncle got on the line.
⎼“Youmust come down to the cafeteria,” he said, “there is definitely a being in this school. The whole area is frozen! Just get down here, you have to see this.”
Oh great, I thought, hoping Kain could hear me, the Uncle is going to join and see this, too.
You just have to figure out how to undo all of this, his voice replied.
I heard Chuck’s footsteps get farther and farther away. Was he leaving? I
carefully turned my head ever so slightly so I could see the front door. Sure enough, Chuck had just left the cafeteria. Probably to wait for his Uncle to get here. This was my last chance. There was no use having this ability and using it tonight if I couldn’t control it. I closed my eyes and tried to control my breathing. I tried to forget the situation we were in and just focus on the task at hand.
Breathe, Kain’s voice said, we can do this.
Suddenly, I felt a surge of power and when I blinked the room began to buzz with the sounds of students chattering amongst themselves. I opened my eyes and everyone seemed to be acting as if nothing happened. I looked at Kain who looked completely relieved.
Well, that was fun, I told him, sarcastically.
He just shook his head and began picking up his things for class.
“Hey, you all might want to check the time,” he said.
“Crap!” Leslie exclaimed, “It’s eight o'clock!”
“How?” Lee asked, surprised, “We barely sat down!”
“I have no clue,” Leslie said, “but I’m out. Bye!”
I stood up, following their lead, and as I did so I saw out of the corner of my eye Theodore Tompkin and Chuck entering the cafeteria.
“I’ll see you all later,” I said to everyone.
“I’ll see you tonight,” Lee replied, a dazzling smile spreading across his face that made my heart skip a beat.
“Yeah, I’ll see you then,” I smiled.
I grabbed my bag and headed towards the cafeteria entrance where the President and his nephew, Chuck, were apparently arguing.
“Now,” Theodore’s voice hissed, “if you demonstrate anymore of this foolishness there will be repercussions that will be most certainly unpleasant.”
I couldn’t help but glance in their direction and when I did so Chuck and I made eye contact. The look in his eye made me wish I had never looked over. There was nothing but pure hatred in his eye and I knew he would be gunning for us even harder than he had before. This time he wouldn’t be after us for answers, he would be after our lives.
‡‡‡
Classes were finally over and Kia and I decided to go straight back to our dorm room to start preparing for the evening’s festivities. The bathrooms were a crazy nightmare as there were only a few mirrors compared to how many girls were waiting in line to do their makeup so we had to set up our own area with a mirror and a table for our makeup and hair supplies.