Sophie was about to say that she didn’t understand the difference, about to ask the many questions dancing on the tip of her tongue, but stopped herself from doing so. She was currently distracted by the vehicle that both Jared and Ethan stopped at, the one she now assumed would be taking them to the academy.
A golf cart.
It was a golf cart.
She had ridden in a town car and flown on a private jet. Now, she would be making the conclusion of her journey in a yellow and black golf cart.
Will must have seen the confused look on her face because he asked, “What? Expecting a limo or something?”
Sophie shot him a look but didn’t respond. She took a seat in the back of the cart—facing backward—and Will took the vacant seat next to her.
“All right back there?” Jared asked as he slid into the driver’s seat, Ethan sitting next to him. Sophie noticed that Jared was wearing a Chicago Bears baseball cap.
“Go ahead,” Will replied.
Sophie’s heart jumped in her throat as the cart started unexpectedly, but she calmed down once they turned on the main road. She still didn’t understand why they were riding in a golf cart as opposed to a regular car. However, as Jared drove them to the school, it began to make more sense to Sophie. Even if Ethan owned regular cars—and Sophie had a feeling he did—it seemed to be more common for the people that resided here to use golf carts instead of actual cars. In fact, the cars that were used were taxis, ferrying tourists around the island. Maybe this was another way for the residents to spot the tourists. It probably amused them in the same way it amused her.
The island itself was small, and as a result, it didn’t take them very long to arrive at Ethan’s school. She tried to get a good glimpse of the island since they were so far up, but all she could see were clusters of houses down below and slews of people around the beach area. It didn’t surprise her to see so many people despite it being September; it was Southern California after all. She would have to do more exploring of the island later on. The one thing that remained true no matter where she went, though, was how gorgeous the Pacific Ocean sparkled under the sun. Hopefully her room would have an amazing view.
The school itself was a large mansion that had a black, metal gate in front, blocking potential tourists from entering. Besides that, the school was surrounded by a wall that encompassed a good portion of land so people couldn’t look in. If it was true that there were peculiars here who shifted into animals and then back into humans and students who moved inanimate objects with merely their minds, then it was probably a good thing. The world didn’t need to know about peculiars just yet, in Sophie’s opinion, and in a way, the wall offered them protection. But just as it kept people out, it also kept people in.
“Can people leave when they want?” Sophie turned her attention to Ethan who was sitting up front next to Jared.
“Absolutely,” he said with a nod. “What we offer here is education and training, and save for a select few, peculiars can’t live here forever. They need to learn how to make it on their own too. But if they are ever in need of a place to stay, they are always welcome. There is an enforced curfew, of course, but students have the freedom to explore the island on their own time.”
She leaned back in the cushy seat and allowed herself some time to process what Ethan had said. She felt as though this was still going to turn out to be some cruel joke. Ethan seemed too nice, too compassionate to be real, and even though he still wanted to run some tests on her, she felt like that wasn’t asking for a lot. Not for what he was giving her. A home. She hadn’t had a home in so long. It made her wary and hopeful at the same time. She desperately wanted to believe that this was real, but it felt like a dream. Could a person as nice as Ethan Curtis truly exist? She hoped so. God, did she want this to be permanent.
Ethan reached over and typed in a key code in the panel and the gates slowly began to open. There was a long, curved driveway that was completely bare except for a couple of golf carts parked off to the side and palm trees that provided shade and beauty.
“If anyone needs to get something from town that requires a golf cart,” Ethan explained as he parked his golf cart next to the other two, “they come here and rent one. Obviously there are time restraints and similar rules you might encounter if you were borrowing your parents’ car, but sometimes it’s nice to get away from all of this.” He gestured at the school. “Everyone deserves a break.”
Sophie nodded in agreement. This school felt like it was going to be her break from living on her own. At least she hoped it would be.
“The yellow and black colors signify that it’s ours,” he continued. He glanced over at Will, who had been suspiciously silent for the duration of the drive, and gave him a smile she couldn’t decipher.
“Catalina, huh?” Sophie asked Ethan.
“Yes,” Ethan said with a nod of his head. “I felt that an island close enough to civilization but far away enough to give us necessary isolation was the perfect place to open up a school.” He shared a boyish grin with Jared.
“Like Alcatraz,” she murmured with a faint smile of her own.
“Yes, like Alcatraz,” Ethan said. “Except instead of housing the nation’s most ruthless criminals, we’re housing peculiars, teaching them what it means to be a peculiar, and helping them take control of their gifts.”
“You know,” she said, scooting up in her seat as far as the seatbelt would allow her to go, “Alcatraz really didn’t house the most dangerous criminals. In reality, they held former Public Enemies, escape artists, and war prisoners. A majority of the people who were brought there were bank robbers, not serial killers.”
“You seem to know a lot about prison,” Will said cryptically. He raised his brows at her. “Ever been before?”
“Actually no,” she retorted. “But I was almost arrested, thanks to you.”
“Well, you weren’t hanging on to my charm like most girls your age,” Will pointed out with an arrogant drawl. “If you hadn’t been so stubborn—”
“I’ll let you get settled in,” Ethan interrupted. As per his usual, he had a smile on his face, but this was one too enigmatic for her to figure out. He turned to Sophie and shook her hand once more. Before releasing it, he placed his free hand over hers, smiling at her. His hands felt warm and not clammy like she knew hers were. “Miss Harper, I want to thank you again for coming here. You don’t realize it, but you’re incredibly special and we are lucky to have you.” He released her and looked back at Will. “Since you are her RH director, I think it would only be fitting if you showed her where she’ll be staying. It was nice to meet you, Miss Harper.” With that, both Jared and Ethan turned and headed to the main building.
From where she was standing, Sophie could make out five tall buildings. Four of them seemed to represent each of the four directions, with the main building Ethan and Jared walked toward placed directly in the center. The building was long rather than tall, with three floors rather than seven. The fifth building was off to the side, directly across from the South building and it had twelve stories. Four balconies wrapped around its narrow frame in total, one on every third floor.
“Come on,” Will said, tilting his head in his intended direction.
He led her to the building directly across from the entrance of the main building, the south building. They had to cross the driveway and a large field of grass before they reached it. Will opened the door for her once they reached the building, and Sophie walked in. There was a desk with a man behind it. He looked up and nodded at Will before offering a polite smile to Sophie.
“Sophie, this is Mark,” Will said. “He’s one of our guards. Mark, this is Sophie, our newest recruit.”
“Glad to have you,” Mark said before looking back down at whatever it was he had been doing before Will and Sophie had interrupted him—probably Sudoku or something.
Sophie’s eyes were immediately drawn to the painting hanging on the wall behind the man. It took up the ma
jority of the space and had a thick gold frame. A woman was bent over a large male lion, petting his snout as he licked her hand. The woman was wearing a white long-sleeved dress with flowers that decorated her hair and wrapped around her waist. She had an oddly shaped halo—the infinity symbol, Sophie realized—against a yellow sky. In the background, there were blue mountains, green trees, and green grass.
“It’s Strength,” Will said from beside her.
“It reminds me of you,” she murmured before she could stop herself. When she realized what she said, she tilted her head so her red hair pooled over her shoulder and masked Sophie’s red face. “So, I’ll be sleeping …?”
“First floor,” he said and then pointed down a long hallway. “Unless you have medical problems, everyone uses the stairs. There’s a backdoor you can access at the back of the building, but you have to have your id card which I’ll take you to get tomorrow. For now, just tell the guards you’re Sophie Harper and they’ll know who you are, or else you can only get in by going to the front. You’ll need your id for the Ack Building and any of the other dorms. There’s also a special code for Ignis: 1-4-4-5. He typed in the code and the door clicked open. After shutting it, he proceeded to lead her down the hall. “I’m on the seventh floor—the entire floor—if you need me for whatever reason.
“You’ll be staying in room four-ten with two other girls,” he said before they made a right, turning down the female dorm rooms. He led her down a well-lit hallway. The walls seemed adorned with two colors, red and gold, reminding her of flames. There were also small paintings hanging on the walls and Sophie promised herself she would look more closely at them when she had the time.
Will stopped in front of a wine-colored door with the numbers four one zero written in black calligraphy. He knocked on the door, saying, “Girls, it’s Will. Can I come in?”
Suddenly, Sophie felt a rush of nerves attack her senses. She was about to meet the two people she’d be living with the next nine months of her life. She had absolutely nothing to her name except the clothes on her back, and those were dirty and torn. She hadn’t bathed in a few days, so she was certain she smelled, which meant that Will and his wolf nose probably smelled her and surprisingly hadn’t said anything. This, of course, just made Sophie blush. Again. She couldn’t remember a time when she had blushed this furiously except for the Incident she refused to think about. It was stupid, she knew, but she actually did care what these strangers thought of her. For the first time in her life, she cared about being liked.
“Coming!” a voice on the other side of the door called.
As though Will could feel Sophie’s trepidation, he reached out and placed his hand on her shoulder. Through the material of her thin hoodie and shirt, she could feel his warmth, feel the roughness of his hands, and for whatever reason, she relaxed in response to it.
Up until the door opened.
4
When Jane opened the door, she wasn’t all that surprised to see Will standing there with a girl about her age. She knew she and Elle couldn’t coast through AckPec without a new roommate, and she could only hope that this one was easier to get along with than the last one. Jane would never admit it out loud, but she was kind of glad Stacy got pulled from the school because her parents wanted her to move to England with them.
The new girl was pretty despite her lack of fashionable clothes and the dirt under her fingernails. She could be stunning if she wore clothes that actually fit her and weren’t so filthy. She had long red hair that reached her chest and like Jane, she had been blessed early with breasts, although, even Jane wasn’t sure if blessed was really the correct phrase. The girl was a couple of inches taller than Jane was. She was slender but curvy, perhaps softer in places that soccer for the past eleven years had toned in Jane, and she had naturally pale skin that contrasted greatly with her sapphire eyes. Yes, sapphire. Like blue and green mixed together and created a baby. Her clothing—loose jeans, a t-shirt Jane couldn’t quite tell the color of, and a purple jacket that zipped up in front—practically drowned her frame. A quick look at the floor told Jane that the girl didn’t have anything else to where since Jane couldn’t see her or Will carrying a bag. Jane would have to remedy that once Will left.
The RH director nodded at Jane and Elle, the latter still sitting on her bed with her Astrology textbook opened up, but her eyes focused on the door. “Good evening, girls,” he said. “This is Sophie Harper, your new roommate. Tomorrow I’m taking her to town to get her some clothes and her uniform. For now, will you help her get settled in?”
“Sure,” Jane answered. “Sophie, I’m Jane and that’s Eleanor.”
“You can call me Elle,” Elle said with a smile.
Sophie returned the smile somewhat tightly. “Hi.” She turned to Will and looked hesitant about something. Then she said, “Thanks. For everything.”
Will looked back at Sophie and Jane had to refrain from reading his thoughts due to their enigmatic nature. Jane was good at reading people—at least that was what Professor Berry said the angle of her pinky finger indicated—and noticed things that other people normally didn’t. For instance, the current look on Will’s face was certainly not the way a professor looked at his student. It wasn’t overtly sexual or anything, but it was intense. Then he nodded once to Sophie, bid them all a goodnight, and left.
“Come on in, Sophie,” Jane said with a wave.
“I’ll show you your bed!” Elle exclaimed, bounding off her own.
“Thanks,” Sophie said softly. She looked down as she followed Elle across the room to the vacant bed closest to the window.
The bed, like Jane and Elle’s, was covered with white sheets and crimson-colored blankets with gold decorations. Because it was a four-poster bed, there were matching curtains that could be closed if the occupant wanted privacy, or—in Sophie’s case, due to the close proximity between her bed and the window—to block out the rising sun in the mornings.
“The bathroom is through that door.” Jane pointed to the room directly across from Elle’s bed. “It has three sinks, a toilet, a large bathtub and shower. We all have to share it, but Elle and I are pretty laidback about everything. We don’t really take long showers or baths or anything. Just keep your sink clean, you know?”
“And the closet,” Elle said, beaming as she walked over to the door next to Sophie’s bed, “is right over there.” She pointed to the door on the left side of where Sophie’s bed was positioned. “Wanna see inside?” Jane could practically hear Elle squeal with excitement as she all but dashed across the room and opened the door. “Come, come!” she called to Sophie, beckoning her over.
Jane brought up the rear, a tiny smile on her face at Elle’s enthusiasm. She followed the two girls inside the walk-in closet, taking in the rather big room—nearly as big as their own sleeping quarters—with a swell of pride. Their closet was well-organized, at Jane’s insistence, filled with everything from mandatory school uniforms to club attire to jeans and t-shirts. Shoes lined the walls: everything from high heels to sneakers, Jane’s cleats, and an enviable amount of flip flops. There were three sections of the closet. One belonged to Elle, who loved to dress in sundresses and sandals on days when school wasn’t in session, while Jane had more hoodies, jeans, and t-shirts. Both girls had a good collection of nightclub dresses, and Jane was thankful for the Internet so she could order from stores that weren’t on Catalina. However, Jane and Elle found a clothing shop targeting girls their age that was both fashionable and cheap called Serena’s, run by a man who named it after the love of his life.
“This is where we’re a bit anal,” Jane said, causing Sophie to pull her eyes away from the various articles of clothing. She looked awed by it all, Jane realized. “Over there is where your clothes will be placed.” She pointed to the empty portion of the closet, directly in the middle section. “Just make sure you keep your clothes in order. Feel free to borrow whatever you want, but make sure they’re washed and in the same condition you got
them.”
“And in the proper place,” Elle said, a teasing grin directed at Jane. “Jane hates it when things aren’t in their proper place. Or worse, on the floor.”
“Excuse me for being organized,” Jane drawled. She looked back over at Sophie, who had been silent for quite a while. Jane pushed her brows together. “Sophie? Is everything all right?”
“Yes, of course,” Sophie said. She seemed to snap out of whatever it was she had been thinking of. She flung her hair over her shoulders so it hid the majority of her profile from sight. “I just, I’ve never had anything so nice before. That belonged to me, I mean.”
“Oh.” Jane wasn’t exactly how to respond to that because, in all honesty, she had gone through life without wanting anything, really. Her parents were together and very much in love—though her father did go away on business a lot—and they ran their own successful company that produced parts to a variety of different things including cars and computers. She always had a roof over her head, a very big roof attached to a small mansion in Newport Beach with a beautiful view of the ocean, and food on her table with whatever she wanted to eat, actually, because she was quite picky. Her bedroom was as big as this one, but both her bathroom and closet were bigger than the ones she had here. And when her parents found out about her abilities, instead of punishing her, abandoning her, or taking her to some kind of psychologist, they seemed to love her more than they already did.
She had no idea what Sophie was going through, and in all likelihood, never would. She also wouldn’t patronize Sophie by pretending she did know. There was nothing left for Jane to do but change the subject.
“What are you, Sophie?” she asked once the three were back in the bedroom. “If you don’t mind me asking, of course. I’m a mental, myself, an animus. I can read minds.”
“I’m a shifter,” Elle said. “I change into a swan.”
“Oh, um, well I’m … I’m a physical,” Sophie said then pushed her brow down. “I think that’s what it’s called. At least that’s what Ethan said.”
The Stranger Trilogy Box Set Page 4