The Wanderers Beginning: The Wanderers, Reborn, & Unforgiven

by Jessica Miller

  “What’s the matter Dean? You look like you saw a ghost,” she giggled.

  “H-how?” Dean stuttered.

  “Look, long story short, she was an angel until she interfered and she’s being…” I tried to find the right word.

  “Punished,” Josie mumbled.

  “Riley, I think I need your glasses,” Dixon said, making Josie’s head shoot up.

  “Dixon? Oh my god!” she shrieked, running over to him.

  “I can’t believe it? You’re real,” Dixon said, looking her over. “You surprise us and this is what you decide to wear?” Dixon said with distaste.

  “It’s Ella’s,” Josie said, making a face.

  “Oh,” he said, understanding.

  “Hey, I’m right here you know,” I complained.

  Dixon squeezed Josie tight. Dean just sat there too shocked to speak. “Umm, okay, is anybody else here lost?” Cameron said.

  “I’ll explain later,” I said just as Billy walked into the room. “This is about to get very interesting.”

  When Josie saw Billy I noticed her eyes were starting to well up with tears. She stepped out in front of me and when Billy looked up and saw her, he stopped dead in his tracks. Josie took a step toward him, but he didn’t move. Then slowly, one by one, they each took a step until they were face to face. “Is it you? Is it really you?” Billy asked, lifting his hand to touch her face. Josie nodded unable to speak. Billy’s eyes flooded over with tears as he took Josie in his arms.

  I felt like we shouldn’t be here. It was like we were invading a private moment that should be between only them. Josie pulled back and planted a big fat kiss on his lips. I had to clear my throat to remind them they were still in a crowd of people. “I hate to break up this reunion, but we don’t have much time before we have to meet Gabe and I’m starving. You all know how cranky I get when I don’t eat.”

  “Sorry,” Josie giggled as she took Billy’s hand.

  When we got in line to grab food I asked Billy if he had seen Roman. “He said he’d be here shortly,” he told me.

  Roman showed up as soon as we sat down. “Everyone, this is Josie, and this is Cameron, Sienna, Riley, Justin, Blake, Reagan, Austin, and Roman.”

  “Wait, Josie as in the friend who died last year?” Cameron asked.

  “In the flesh,” Josie said.

  “But how is that?”

  “Long story, I promise I’ll explain later,” I said.

  “So, you’re Roman. I have to admit you look as good with your clothes on as you do off,” Josie cooed. Everyone at the table looked at her and then at Roman, wondering what the hell was going on. I had forgotten to tell Josie that my relationship with Roman wasn’t public knowledge. I squeezed her thigh hoping she would get the hint and shut up. “What?” she said, looking at me.

  “Spying in the boys’ locker room again?” Dean said laughing.

  “No, Ella’s room,” she said.

  “Josie!” Roman’s face paled and I just wanted to crawl under the table and die.

  “It must have been when Mackenzie was still living there,” Roman said, trying to distract everyone.

  “Not it was –”

  “Josie shut up,” I whispered harshly.

  Dean was the only one who caught on. His eyes turned on Roman. “That hot chick you were shacking up with was my sister!” he growled, eyes glowing.

  “Oh god,” I whispered to myself. Everyone turned to look at Roman and me. Both of us were speechless and looking guilty.

  “You’re dead meat Ashby,” Dean called, jumping out of his seat. Due to Billy’s excellent reflexes he was able to stop Dean before he leapt across the table and socked Roman. Even though Dean knew he couldn’t get through Billy he still tried.

  “Billy, please take Dean out of here so he can cool off,” I said.

  “It doesn’t matter,” Dean said, shaking Billy off. “You better sleep with one eye open,” he pointed at Roman.

  Once Billy took Dean out of sight I grabbed Josie. “We got to go,” I said, dragging her out. I was no longer able to eat with everyone’s eyes on me.

  “I guess the cat’s out of the bag now,” Josie said.

  “Josie, this is not the time to joke,” I snapped.

  “Ella, I’m sorry. I didn’t know it was some big secret.”

  “I know you didn’t,” I sighed. “But after the first shut up you think you would actually shut up.”

  “I said I was sorry.” She batted her eyes and gave me her sad puppy face.

  “I know. It’s not all your fault.”

  “If you want I can help you smooth things over with Dean?”

  “I think you’ve done enough. I don’t have time for him right now. We have to meet Gabe.”

  “I can’t wait to see the look on his face,” Josie smiled wickedly as I pulled her to the teachers’ lounge.

  Gabe was waiting for us with Billy outside the lounge. When Gabe saw Josie he basically reacted the same way everyone else did. “I know I know, but we don’t have time to explain now because we have a meeting to attend to,” I said, hoping to avoid a million questions.

  Gabe managed to close his mouth and collect himself. He turned his attention back to me. “Are you ready for this?” he asked. I nodded as he opened the door. Right away I got dirty looks from some of the teachers.

  “Mr. Kelly, why are there students here?” asked one of the teachers who I didn’t know.

  “Because this concerns her too,” Gabe said.

  “Why does that not surprise me? You’ve been nothing but trouble since you showed up here,” said another teacher. His eyes narrowed in my direction. I glared back. I didn’t know this teacher either, but already I didn’t like him. He was a skinny, balding man with dirty brown eyes. He talked with a slight British accent and I wondered what classes he taught. Clearly it wasn’t mannerisms 101.

  “George, I suggest you keep your opinions to yourself for the rest of the meeting,” Ms. Kraft said as she walked into the room. “And who is this?” Ms. Kraft asked, looking at Josie. “I don’t believe you are a student here?”

  “No ma’am. I’m Josie,” she said, extending a hand.

  Ms. Kraft kindly shook Josie’s hand, flinching slightly. “My child,” she said, smiling and caressing her face. “You are a true gift to us.”

  “Sylvia, what nonsense are you babbling and why is this strange girl here?” The dickhead teacher said, clearly not taking Ms. Kraft’s advice about keeping his opinion to himself.

  “I am not strange,” Josie said offended.

  “No my dear, what he’s simply trying to say is we can sense you are different,” Ms. Kraft said, smiling at Josie.

  “You know what she is?” Ms. Whitney, the dance teacher asked.

  “Of course I do…and you do not?”

  “It’s impossible!” shouted some short, stubby old man with an overly large nose.

  “It is and she is proof,” Ms. Kraft said.

  “Will someone please care to enlighten the rest of us who do not know?” Aidan said, causing me to just now realize he was even in the room.

  Ms. Kraft placed her hands delicately on Josie’s shoulders and said proudly, “She is an angel.”

  There was a collective gasp amongst the teachers.

  I leaned in closely to Josie. “No offense, but I don’t see what the big deal is?”

  “Please, Ella you should know I was always a big deal,” she said.

  “Why I understand this is an amazing discovery. We have a more important matter at hand to discuss,” Gabe said, interrupting their gawking. It wasn’t like Josie didn’t like the attention. This was just one of those times when it was the kind of attention you didn’t want. The kind where after a while the stares became uncomfortable.

  Chapter twenty-five

  “Yes Gabe. Why have you called us all here today?” Ms. Kraft asked, turning her attention to him.

  “I have recently found out there is a threat on the school,” he said.
r />   “What kind of threat?” Aidan asked.

  “I was let aware of someone planning an attack,” Gabe replied.

  All the teachers started shouting at once. “Who? When? Why? How?”

  “Everyone needs to calm down and let Gabe explain,” Aidan shouted above the noise.

  They quieted down enough to let Gabe continue. “The attack is to take place this Saturday during the dance.”

  “And how did you come about this information?” Mr. Cormac asked.

  “I told him,” I said.

  “And let me guess. It came to you in a dream?” asked the balding British man, mocking me. I believe his name is Mr. Atkins, but I think I’ll be referring to him as Baldie from now on.

  “No. I told her and it’s true,” Josie said, standing up for me.

  “Please, we’re supposed to believe the ramblings of children?” Baldie said.

  I was really getting tired of him. “I am not a child,” I said angrily, stepping forward. “And you bet your ass this is a valuable threat. The man who plans to attack us, his name is Jack Lennox. He is the same person who broke in here a month ago.” That got some attention.

  “I’ve been tracking Jack for months and he has led me here. Through my contacts I have learned he is building an army to help carry out the attack,” Billy said, stepping in.

  “We should cancel the celebration and send everyone home for their safety,” said Ms. Kiel, my art teacher.

  “No, you can’t,” Josie said.

  “And we’re supposed to listen to you? A fallen angel,” said the man with the overly large nose. I will call him honkers.

  “What is he talking about? I am not fallen,” Josie said, looking from me to Ms. Kraft.

  “Then how do you explain you being here? Only the fallen are cast down to be punished,” honkers spat. He looked at Josie as if he was disgusted to be in the presence of her.

  “Shows what you know. I’m here because I came to warn my friends about the attack,” Josie sneered.

  “But how are you still here? You should not be allowed to preside here for this long without fore going a punishment or serving some sort of consequence,” Honkers said suspiciously.

  “You know, you sure do know a lot about this for someone who seems to look their nose down on me,” Josie said.

  He looked spooked for a second, but quickly recovered. “I’m a teacher. It is my job to have knowledge of such things.”

  I could tell Josie wasn’t buying it, but we didn’t have time to argue. “Look,” I said, getting frustrated. “Josie came here to warn me and got in trouble for it so now she’s here.” Baldie went to open his mouth again but I interrupted him. “She is also the perfect person to help us out along with all the information Billy has collected about Jack.”

  “And how exactly is she going to help us?” Mr. Miller asked, curious.

  “Um, hello? Jack killed me. So I think I know a little bit about he works,” Josie said annoyed.

  “Clearly she would be no use to us. He already killed her once. Who’s to say she’s not the reason he’s coming here,” Mr. Hendal, my royal economics teacher shouted.

  “No! He’s coming because of me! He wants me!” I flipped. Clearly we weren’t going to get anywhere.

  “What do you suggest we do? Just set all the students up to be slaughtered?” said Ms. Kiel, panicked.

  “No. We just need to figure out a plan,” I said, trying to calm myself.

  “I say we evacuate the school,” Honkers shouted.

  “And what do we tell the students as to why we have to leave?” Aidan asked.

  “The truth,” said Mrs. Bickler, the secretary.

  “That would create panic amongst the students and cause chaos. No. I won’t do that. We will figure out a way to handle this rationally,” Aidan stated.

  “I stand by Aidan and Gabe,” Mr. Miller said, standing up. “I say we make up an attack plan of our own.” Everything was chaos again. The room was split fifty- fifty. One half wanted to stay and defend the school, the others wanted to leave. Honestly, I didn’t blame them.

  Gabe leaned in closely. “I warned you this could get messy.”

  “You’re telling me,” I said.

  “People please!” Aidan tried shouting above all the voices. “This is not getting us anywhere.”

  “This is all your fault! I say we just get rid of her. Problem solved,” Honkers said. Gabe stepped forward, puffing his chest. Ms. Kraft placed a gentle hand on his shoulder, calming him.

  “Playing the blame game is not going to solve this,” Ms. Kraft said.

  “Maybe he’s right. Maybe I should go,” I said, not wanting to cause any more problems.

  “No,” Mrs. Daniels said. “We are teachers sworn to protect our students. All of them.” She looked at me with kind eyes and I silently thanked her.

  “I am headmaster and I am calling the shots here,” Aidan said.

  “Why should we listen to you? You’re still a child yourself.”

  Aidan’s eyes started to glow as he stared down Honkers. “I am still your boss and if you don’t like it you can leave,” he growled. “We stay and defend the school. Gabe you make sure all the guardians are on board and prepared. Call in more if you have to. Mr. Miller, how far have you gotten with the students in their training?”

  “You expect the students to fight?” Mrs. Bickler asked appalled.

  “No. I expect the students to be able to defend themselves if need be. Isn’t that why we’re training them in the first place?”

  “Yes Aidan. I believe most of my students are prepared enough. I’ll even work in some extra time this week with them if I have to,” Mr. Miller said.

  “I’ll help too,” Billy said and Mr. Miller nodded his head in approval.

  “Then it goes without saying. We stay and we fight,” Aidan said, trying to end the meeting, but it was obvious some of the teachers had more to say.

  “I don’t think you need to be here for this,” Ms. Kraft said to Josie and me. “Why don’t we head to my classroom and work on the things I wanted to go over with you. That’s if you’re still up to it.”

  “Yes I am. Thank you. Gabe, is it okay if I leave?”

  “Yes Ella. There’s no need for you to be here anymore. You did well,” he said, reassuring me, although I didn’t think I helped much. Josie and I followed Ms. Kraft to her room while Billy and Gabe stayed behind to fill in those who cared on what they knew about Jack.

  “So why don’t you tell me what you have learned so far Ella?” Ms. Kraft said. I nervously bit my nails. I hadn’t had a chance to look over much. Roman had ‘distracted’ me.

  “I really didn’t get that far,” I admitted a little embarrassed. Josie giggled, knowing full well what I was doing instead. I shot her a look to shut up.

  “It’s fine Ella,” Ms. Kraft smiled. “Why don’t we start here?” She pulled out one of the flyers for the dance.

  “The dance?” I asked confused.

  “Do you know what the significance of the dance is?” I shook my head. “The dance is to celebrate the spring equinox or what we call Ostara. As spring reaches its midpoint, night and day stand in perfect balance, with light on the increase. We give thanks to the goddess Eostre. It’s a time of renewal and rebirth where we take time to celebrate the new life that surrounds us in nature. Although it is known as a Wiccan holiday, we all celebrate in different ways. We are all thankful for the beautiful things that surround us and this is why we have the dance to acknowledge the earth’s wonderful gifts. In the morning before the dance, each student is given a different seed that we plant around campus.”

  “That is really neat,” Josie said and Ms. Kraft smiled.

  “Okay, got it. Now, what did you mean the other day when you said the spirits told you not to wake me?”

  “Witches are more in tune with nature and all the elements. That is where we pull our strength from, which is why it is so important that we give back to nature to thank them for the gi
fts they allow us. The more powerful the witch the easier it is for us to communicate with the spirit world. They can see what we can’t and sometimes help guide us when we don’t even know their doing it.”

  “So does that mean physics are witches?”

  “Not all of them. You have to know how to weed out the fakes.”

  “That’s easy. If they’re human than their fake,” I said, feeling sure of myself.

  “No dear. Even humans can still communicate with the spirit world. You have to be careful because most will pretend they can.”

  “How can you tell then?”

  “You’ll know,” she smiled. I looked at Josie and she shrugged her shoulders. “Now, how about we work on some spells and your power control?”

  We spent the next couple of hours learning different spells that hopefully would be useful in the event of an attack. Mr. Cormac joined us to help me work on how to channel my powers better and control them. By the end of the night I was exhausted and happy to go back to my room and crash.

  I had learned a lot from Ms. Kraft and Mr. Cormac today and was getting more confident with controlling my powers. On the way back I asked Josie, “So. Do you like, sleep?”

  She rolled her eyes. “No offense Ella, but I don’t remember you being this dense,” she said.

  “Thanks jerk,” I said, shoving her. “You know this whole angel thing is new to me. I don’t know how it works. Hell, before you, I didn’t even know angels existed.”

  “Ella you’re half-vampire. You think you’d be more open to believe there are other creatures out there.”

  “So, I’m a creature now?”

  “You know what I mean,” she said, bumping my shoulder.

  I laughed. “I’m so glad you’re back even though it’s only temporary. I hate to sound selfish, but I wish you were here permanently.”

  “I know. The longer I’m here the longer I want to stay. Who knows they might end up banishing me here forever.”

  “Would that be so bad?”