“Do you like it here?”
“I do. It’s actually really great. I’ve met a lot of cool people, everyone has pretty much been welcoming, and the classes are really great. It’s a lot different than my other school. They were very by-the-book there. It was boring, not a lot of hands-on.”
Alison wrinkled her nose, unzipping her backpack. “Ick, I would hate to learn about these things and not be able to try them. It would be agonizing. Then again, I am a curious person, I like to find out what things feel like. Try them out and test myself to see if I am strong enough.”
“I’m the same way.” He chuckled. “I really like to test the waters.”
“What classes are you taking this semester?”
“Oh, let me see… Advanced potions making, botany like 3000, study hall.” He chuckled. “Um, spell casting for the advanced, and there’s one more, but I forget.”
“They sound fascinating. I can’t wait to get to that point, but I gotta learn the basics first.”
He smiled. “The librarian is giving us the shifty eyes.”
“He’s just grumpy because he’s short,” Alison joked.
Tanner laughed, covering his mouth and looking down until Leo looked away. He stared at her braille reader carefully tucked inside her open backpack and smiled. She hadn’t come over because she thought he was cute. She was just being nice, which was really refreshing.
“So, did your parents move? Was that why you changed schools?”
“No.” He sighed, finding himself wanting to tell her the truth. “My parents both died quite a while ago, so I guess you can consider me an orphan. I lived with some family for a while, then in foster care, and when it came time to go to school, I pretty much jetted off into the sunset. I didn’t like the school I was in since I didn’t feel like it challenged me enough, so I transferred here with the state’s blessing.”
“Interesting.” Alison nodded. “What was it like being in the system? Living with foster families?”
“It was interesting, for sure. I, uh, I got along with almost everyone, but in the beginning it was tough because I kept ending up with non-magical families and they didn’t understand. Once I got over that hump everything was pretty chill, and then I started school. That has pretty much taken up my time, and I spend holidays with friends or distant family, or sometimes stay behind and just read or relax in the empty dorm.”
“I’m sorry about your parents. I know that sucks.”
“Yeah.” He chuckled nervously. “It does, but life goes forward, right? How about you? What is your family like?”
She smiled and looked at the book, grateful the teachers had helped her by casting a spell over the books she was using. “I’m an orphan too. My mother is dead, and my father wasn’t worth caring about. He was a bad guy, the worst.”
“I’m sorry.”
She shrugged. “So this is my first year at a magical school. I spend my holidays with my guardians, Mr. Brownstone and Shay Carson, and then I come back here, which is starting to feel more like home every day.”
“So you just started last semester?”
“Yep, newbie. Freshman extraordinaire.” She laughed.
“You think you’ll ever make up with your dad?”
“No.” She chuckled. “If he’s even still alive. But no, never. What he did was one of those unforgivable things.”
“That sucks. I’m sorry.”
Alison shrugged. “I just miss my mom. She was funny, smart, and beautiful, and she was both my friend and my mother. Some days are better than others, and this school has helped a lot. I’ve made some really good friends here, friends who already feel like family.”
“That’s really awesome.” He smiled. “I hope that I can do the same thing.”
“You seem nice, so I’m sure you will!”
Tanner blushed and looked down again. “Thanks. Can I ask you a question? I don’t want to be rude, but how do you know your mom was beautiful? I mean, you couldn’t see her, right?”
“I could see her spirit.” Alison smiled. “That was all I needed to see to know that she was beautiful.”
“Can you see everyone’s spirit?”
“I can see the energies around everything, and the souls of living creatures.”
“And what does mine show you?”
She paused for a moment, weighing her options, unsure whether she should tell him. Just from talking to him for the small amount of time that she was, she could tell that he wasn’t fighting the dark, not consciously. Whatever was inside of him, he wasn’t aware of it.
“I see kindness, caring, and some mischief.”
He laughed, shaking his head. “I think you nailed it.”
Alison smiled, deciding she liked this guy. He felt genuine to her, and it was really easy for her to open up to him, something that she had never experienced before. Usually, she kept things bottled up inside, careful about who she revealed her secrets to. But not him. He had been open with her, and she’d reciprocated without thought.
Tanner couldn’t help but feel the same way. She was so easy to talk to. He rarely told people about his parents or his previous life, but she’d asked the right questions. Not in a nosy way, but in a way that made him think she actually cared and wanted to know the truth about him. They talked about the school, the kemana, and other things there were to do in the area. They got no studying done, but both of them were okay with that. It felt good to talk to someone who at least partially understood what they felt. What they experienced every day.
Alison was curious about this guy. She felt like she had been shown him for a reason. The reason could have been small, like to build her friendships or expand her family, or it could be much more than that. Only time would tell on that front, but she was glad that she had taken the time to meet him. The dark didn’t scare her, not with him. She was sure there was a reason for it. Little did she know that reason would show eventually, but she was already invested.
The bell rang and he packed up his things as Izzie brought over her bag and she put away her stuff. Izzie smiled at him but didn’t speak, unsure what had just happened. Alison reached out and shook Tanner’s hand.
“Thanks for letting me talk your ear off.” She laughed.
“Thanks for coming over.” He looked at Izzie. “I’m Tanner.”
“Izzie.” She nodded. “Nice to meet you.”
“Well, I gotta head off to spells class. The professor doesn’t deal well with tardiness. I guess I’ll catch you around.”
“Mmmhmm.” Alison nodded. “We’ll bump into each other, I’m sure.”
Izzie watched as he walked out of the room, a strange feeling floating through her chest. She wasn’t sure what it was about him, but he was different. His magic was different. She shrugged it off, looking up at the clock. They had to get to class, and she had more important things on her mind than figuring him out. Alison was a decent judge of character, so if she was cool, Izzie was too.
8
During study hall Izzie had sat there trying to concentrate on what she was reading, but she was struggling. Alison had been acting weird since before lunch, and then she just got up and sat down with some strange guy, spilling her life story. She had known Alison for a little while, and she did not seem like a loose-lipped kind of girl. She seemed more like Izzie, keeping her secrets buried deeply and only letting them out to specific people. Izzie had overheard her talking about her mom, which made her curious.
“I just miss my mom. She was funny, smart, and beautiful, and she was both my friend and my mother,” she had said.
This made Izzie sad, both for Alison and for herself. She didn’t have that kind of memory of her mother. In fact, she didn’t have any memories of her mother. All she had were blurred images of an orphanage mixed with her nightly dreams. Hearing Alison talk about her mom that way almost made her jealous that she couldn’t say the same thing about her own. She had no idea why she had been put into the orphanage, if her parents were dead, or ev
en what they looked like.
There was a hole in her memory and a hole in the way she felt about it. Sure, she had questions—questions about where she’d come from, who she was, and about her magic—but if she got three minutes with her parents, those wouldn’t be the things she focused on. She would want to look at their faces, hear them talk, and hear them laugh. She would want to have those memories so she could talk the same way about them Alison talked about her mom.
She had focused on what she was reading again after hearing that, trying not to listen to any more of the conversation. She spent the time taking and rewriting notes to stay focused, and going ahead into the next lesson’s chapters. Normally she was excited to read that stuff, but only half of her was focused on it today.
When the bell rang, Alison put her things away and Izzie introduced herself to the guy in question. She had to admit he was really cute, but something about him was off in her estimation. Alison put her book bag on her shoulders and pushed in the chair. As they threaded through the tables Alison stopped for a moment, her head turned toward the back of the library.
“See you tomorrow,” she yelled.
“Yeah, yeah,” the librarian grumbled, but Izzie could see a small smile on his face—something she figured had to be a first for him. They passed through the library’s door and moved slowly through the crowds of people.
“Can I ask you something?” Izzie asked.
“Absolutely.” Alison smiled. “Anything.”
“I overheard part of your conversation completely by accident, and it made me want to ask you about your mom. What was she like?”
Izzie and Alison walked to a bench against the wall that faced their next class. They still had a few minutes before they had to be in their seats, so this seemed like a perfect time to talk about it. Alison rubbed her hands on her legs, picturing her mother’s soul in her head.
“She was a really good person. She had this way of making you smile, no matter how much you didn’t want to. She loved magic, music, movies, and traveling. She was like this free spirit or someone who had been trapped but was finally released. She smelled like patchouli and coconut, and her hair was long and soft.” Alison absently fingered a strand of white hair.
“I remember sitting on her lap with my head on her shoulder, just running my fingers through her hair. I didn’t know what color it was or how it was cut, but it was very soft. She was always calm, never angry or short with me. Her energy was soothing, a deep, consistent blue.”
“You can see energy? That explains a lot.”
“I’m getting used to telling people.”
“That’s an ability that must come in handy.” Izzie smiled. “Your mom sounds amazing.”
“She used to take me to all these different places where I could hear and smell things going on around me. She would call it our field trips, and we would take them all the time. It was fun. I really didn’t care what we did, just wanted to be around her. Have you ever just met one of those people who made you feel good when you were with them?”
“I don’t know.” Izzie frowned. “Maybe.”
“Well, she was that kind of person. She made everyone around her want to be her friend, something I always told her I loved about her. My father told me once that her smile was like a warm summer day.”
Izzie smiled. She had really loved her mother. It was nice, and she enjoyed listening to her talk about it. It was probably good for her to do so. She never said anything about her family, and Izzie assumed it felt good. She was right. Alison was in a mode where it felt good to remember her mother, picture her energy, and remember the trips and the good things. She had focused on the bad for so long that she had almost forgotten what it was all like.
Alison smiled at the thoughts and patted Izzie’s leg, knowing she struggled with her past as well. “I don’t mean to make you sad.”
“You aren’t! I love hearing about your mom. I just wish I had some sort of memories of mine.”
“What memories do you have?”
Izzie sighed and shook her head. “I don’t know. I remember the orphanage, but it’s weird. I don’t have a lot of really specific memories. I mean, I haven’t been gone long from there—less than a year—but it’s all very blurry. I remember my room. I shared it with two other girls, and I had the bright blue bedspread and pictures hanging on the walls. I just can’t remember what the pictures were of.”
“What about things you did there?”
“I can remember eating dinner at this long wooden table, but every time I picture it, I’m alone. I remember a woman’s voice, so I guess she was the person who took care of us. It’s strange. I don’t feel sad about leaving there, but I also don’t have negative feelings toward the place. It was just a place to live, and that’s what I did. No traumatic events occurred, and nothing spectacular either. It was a plain building with lots of girls of all ages and some people who worked there, and I had my own little corner with books and magazines. I think I had a journal there, but I didn’t bring it with me. I literally woke up here at the school with the clothes on my back. Ms. Berens provided my uniforms, books, toothbrush, deodorant, and anything else I might need.”
Izzie searched her mind, trying to find anything else she could. Flashes of smiles, of laughter, and of tears went through her head, but she didn’t know what they were connected to. She had three really strong memories, but she didn’t know what they led from or to. They were her only vivid memories. She could remember the sounds, the smells, the colors, and even the way everything had felt around her.
“When I was little, maybe five or six, I remember visiting this house. Not sure why, but the man and woman were so nice, and they had a sprinkler and a pool out back. I played for hours out there in my little polka dot bathing suit. I remember how blue the sky was that day, and how everything was so happy, no stress. They fed me cake, like it was someone’s birthday, and the memory ends with me curled up exhausted on their couch.”
“That’s a nice memory, but you don’t know who the people were?”
“No. I am assuming maybe possible adoptive parents? I have two other memories with them. The second is a holiday, maybe Christmas dinner, and we sat at a big table. It was just the three of us. There was so much food, and we ate and laughed, and the guy made funny faces with his food, and his wife—she looked at him with this intense love, like nothing could ever come between them. It’s the only feeling I have that I can compare to how I feel about the people, you and the other girls. Like I had a family, a bond that couldn’t be broken. I don’t know.”
“And what’s the third memory?”
“It’s not very clear, but it’s that woman’s face, and I’m older. Much older. She is hugging me, holding my face and telling me how much she loves me. She is sad, though. At first, I thought it was a memory from when I was a baby, but then I realized it had to be more recent. I understood everything she was saying, and I could see my arm in the memory. I was older, and the ring on my finger—I was wearing that.”
“Weird! I wish I knew how to help you. If there was a spell, I would do it.”
“I’m sure there is a spell but it’s probably so advanced that neither of us would know how to do it. We’d end up frying our brains or something.”
Alison laughed. “I already feel fried. Maybe you should ask Ms. Berens? She knows where you came from and your history, so maybe she can point you in the right direction.”
“She said the orphanage won’t give me information anymore because I’m her ward now.” Izzie shrugged. “Maybe over time all of it will come back. It’s come in pieces, but they are getting clearer with time. The rest is about cleaning the orphanage, being scared in my bed, and watching friends leave—the normal crap that happens to kids in homes like that. We get lost and eventually we lose who we are, but I think I got out in time. This is my new stage in life.”
“That’s right. This is a new stage for both of us. We are going to be stronger and wiser, and we are going to take
charge of our lives.”
“Yep,” Izzie replied, standing up. “Let’s start by not getting written up for being late to class when we were sitting right outside.”
“That’s probably a good start.” Alison laughed, happy to see Izzie’s energy brighten again.
The girls went into the classroom and shut the door behind them, ready to start class. The hall was empty. Everyone was in their rooms, focused on getting through the day. Around the corner from the bench behind a podium stood Mara, her hands crossed on her chest. She had originally been standing there just to watch everyone, make sure no one was starting problems, but then she heard Izzie talking about her memories, so she had stayed and listened.
Mara knew what memories she had planted in her head. They were supposed to be concrete, like actual memories—no questions, everything explained. As she listened, her concern grew. The girl had realized that some of her memories were real. She was mixing real memories from her life with her parents into the memories that were given to her.
Mara had done that spell several times with great success, but for some reason it wasn’t working as well with Izzie. The fact that she didn’t remember her parents or what had happened was good—it was the whole purpose of the deception—but she knew Izzie wouldn’t just accept things if they didn’t make sense to her. She was already searching for answers, and it hadn’t even been a full year. The woman in her memories—the man too—they were her family. Those were her mother and father.
Being at their house for holidays and playing in the sprinkler were from her youth, growing up as an only child with them in their house. The last memory worried Mara the most since it was from the night she was brought to the school. It was her mother telling her she loved her, saying goodbye knowing she might not see her again. That was a dangerous memory for Izzie to have. It meant that she might be in a position to figure out what had happened right before that—to know who was chasing her and why she couldn’t control her magic like the others.
Bright Is Her Sight_An Urban Fantasy Action Adventure Page 7