The Prophecy of Arcadia

by M. H. Soars

  “Since when has Melanie become so short-tempered?” Mia asked no one in particular.

  “I kind of feel bad for Lucas. He was just trying to be nice,” Alexia chimed in as we all started to walk toward the school again.

  “I still think he’s sort of creepy, though, but I was trying to get a read on him before Melanie blew it.” There was something about Lucas that bothered me. He reminded me of someone, but I couldn’t quite figure out whom. He was as tall as Matthew, and strong. His hair was dark blond and wavy, cut in a classic airplane-pilot-from-the-60s style. He was attractive in an old-fashioned, all-American kind of way. He would be able to play the part of the “wholesome boy” pretty well, if it wasn’t for the hint of danger that emanated from him.

  During lunch break, I noticed Lucas sitting by himself again. He ignored our group altogether. We sat at the same table as yesterday. Matthew and Sean were still in line at the buffet when I heard the screech of someone pulling up a chair.

  “Hi, girls. Do you mind if I join you today?” My mouth opened in an involuntary O when I saw Julian sitting next to Alexia. What kind of game did he think he was playing here?

  “Julian! Yeah, of course! How are classes?” Alexia answered him, clearly delighted by his presence. It wasn’t like I hated him, but I couldn’t look at him and not remember our last, very steamy date. It had been nothing compared to the ones I had with Matthew, but Julian was the only other guy who’d made me feel things I couldn't rationally explain.

  “Not too bad. I heard you have Mr. Gardner for English Lit. Boy, I feel sorry for you.”

  Julian was acting like there hadn’t been any weirdness between us yesterday. He looked so easy-going and relaxed that he didn’t even notice when Matthew arrived and glared at him before giving me a questioning look. I just shrugged and patted the chair next to mine.

  We usually avoided sitting next to each other, but I knew that Matthew would want the proximity now. His hand found mine under the table, and I tuned out the conversation going on around us. Sometimes when we were alone together, Matthew would let me go into his mind. It was never invasive, he just wanted me to know what he was feeling. Since the first time I had done it to save him from the Phoenix, it had become quite easy. My connection to him was so deep I barely needed to concentrate anymore. Matthew also had the power to get into somebody’s mind, but his gift was too dangerous and he didn’t want to risk hurting me. I wished he could get into my mind right now and know that he had nothing to fear from Julian.

  “Hey, Rach! Come over here. I want to introduce you to someone.” Julian’s shout brought me back to the moment at hand.

  Rachel Winston didn’t walk, she glided. Unfortunately, her grace hadn’t rubbed off on her companions. As usual, per high school social etiquette, if you were the leader of a group of girls it was mandatory that you were always accompanied by at least two minions. So there were Rachel and her BFFs, Brianna, a short, stocky girl with wild, curly red hair and freckled nose, and Vanessa, the brunette version of Jessica Rabbit who would lose her pretty brown eyes soon enough if she didn’t stop ogling my boyfriend.

  “What’s up, Julian?”

  “Not much. I want to introduce you to Alexia. Alexia, this is Rachel.”

  “Hi, we've sort of met already,” Alexia said. When Rachel gave her a puzzled look, she continued, “At Julian’s party.”

  “Oh, that's right. You were the girl coming from Julian’s room,” Vanessa commented maliciously, and Julian choked on his water. Alexia blushed furiously and averted her gaze. Rachel gave her friend a disapproving stare, and that seemed to deflate her confidence a bit.

  However, I couldn’t keep my mouth shut. “No, that was actually me.” I felt Matthew tense up immediately by my side, and I totally regretted my words. Oh well, too late now. Even Julian seemed surprised by my outburst.

  “Well, now that we’ve clarified this misunderstanding,” Julian paused as he glanced briefly my direction, his eyes dancing with mischief, before returning his attention to Rachel again, “I want to ask if you have a spot in the Leopoldetes for Alexia.” Julian was using all of his charm on Rachel. The girl was not unaffected.

  “I don’t know, Julian. It’s a lot to ask. People usually audition for a spot.” Rachel started to play with her hair in a flirtatious way, and I almost gagged.

  “Alexia will audition. Right, Alexia?” Julian broke his seductive gaze with Rachel to look at Alexia.

  “Sure. I can audition.”

  “Okay then…” Rachel didn’t have the chance to finish her sentence, because just then Ethan appeared at our table. He went straight to Alexia. He didn’t say anything, just sort of pushed Julian out of the way, leaned down toward Alexia and kissed her on the lips in front of everyone.

  Rachel’s eyes almost jumped out of her skull, but she recovered quickly. Her friends weren’t so careful to disguise their surprise. Vanessa actually had a scowl on her face. Did the girl want every single hot guy in the school?

  Julian chuckled before he gave up his seat to Ethan. I hoped he was leaving our table now that his mission to introduce Alexia to Rachel had been accomplished.

  As Alexia was completely involved by Ethan’s presence, Rachel placed a hand on her shoulder to get her attention. “There’s no need to audition. You're in. Practice tomorrow after school, room 209.”

  “Really? But you said -”

  “You didn’t mention you were Ethan’s girlfriend. That changes things.” With that, Rachel and her entourage left, with Julian in tow as Alexia stared at them flabbergasted.

  “Wow, it seems I just got you in. You owe me big now.” Ethan beamed.

  Alexia turned to him, shocked. “I don’t get it. She doesn’t even know if I can dance.”

  “Oh, she doesn’t care about that,” I replied. “Didn’t I tell you that Rachel would let you join her group even if you had two left feet? Anything to piss off Chloe.”

  “It never ceases to amaze me how vicious girls can be,” Zach, who had joined our table five minutes earlier, commented.

  “Who cares? The important thing is that it got Alexia into the Leopoldetes. We should celebrate,” Mia rebuked.

  Her comment got Zach to raise an eyebrow. He actually stared at her for a tad longer than normal, and that got me intrigued. He noticed that I had caught him staring at her and blushed. Blushed! What the hell? Zach and Mia? I would be less surprised if it had been Sean, because I had always thought he and Mia had a closer relationship. But Zach? Wow. It made me wonder if Gary was slipping love potion into our food.

  CHAPTER 20

  Alexia

  The first week of school was over. Finally! After the initial bumps during my first days, the rest had gone by relatively incident-free. I had joined the Leopoldetes, and I soon realized the girls weren’t bad at all. Sure, it had taken some time for them to warm up to me, especially since I hadn’t auditioned for a spot. But as soon as they realized I could dance, they dropped their reservations. Vanessa still treated me coldly, but that had more to do with her bitchy personality than with me.

  It was a beautiful Saturday morning, and Ethan was taking me to the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden. I’d been there before with my cousins, but going with Ethan would have a totally different meaning. The garden was located on sixty-five acres in the foothills just above the city and had beautiful exhibits of California's native plants. Ethan borrowed his dad’s car for our little trip because I hadn’t gotten around to getting my own car yet.

  We got our backpacks and hiked along beautiful meadows, through a canyon and redwood forest, across a historic dam and along ridge-tops that offered sweeping views of the Channel Islands before we stopped for lunch. We picked a little meadow with a breathtaking view of the park and laid out our picnic blanket under a tree. The setting couldn’t have been more romantic. But something had been nagging at me ever since I’d met Ethan and heard his story. I needed to know what kind of relationship he had with Chloe. I was risking ruining our lovely time
together, but I just had to get it off of my chest.

  Ethan was admiring the view when I asked, “So, why did you date Chloe?” I pretended I was very interested in the pattern of our blanket.

  He moved closer to me and put his finger under my chin, raising my head so we were staring into each other's eyes. “Why do you want to know? Chloe is in my past, and I have no desire to relive it.”

  I bit my lower lip. “I know that, but I just want to understand how a guy like you could have dated a mean person like her. It just doesn’t make any sense. You must have really loved her.”

  He looked at me with a frown before he laughed humorlessly at my comment and shook his head, releasing my chin in the process. He stared briefly down and ran a hand through his hair before he looked up at me again. “I didn’t love her. I just got caught up in the whole whirlwind idea of dating a popular, good-looking girl. I wanted to break up with her before the accident, but there was always something, an important game, an important party. It was never a good time to end things. I know it sounds shallow, and I’m not proud of it. Does my explanation satisfy your curiosity?” He asked me like he needed my forgiveness.

  His explanation wasn’t a noble one, but it was better than him confessing he had loved Chloe. There was one more thing I needed to know. “Just one more question and I promise I’ll never mention her name again.”

  “Okay,” Ethan replied with a bit of uncertainty.

  “Is it true that Chloe is a virgin?”

  Ethan’s eyes widened. His mouth popped open before I saw the blush creeping from his neck toward his cheeks. He avoided my gaze and stared straight ahead. “Yep. That is, as far as I know. Chloe and I, we…we never slept together, if that's what you wanted to know.”

  I couldn’t deny the immense relief I was feeling. I would have expected Ethan to leave it at that, but he continued, “I,…shit, I never thought I would have this conversation with a girl, especially a girl that I’m falling head over heels for.” My heart fluttered in my chest at his last comment, but I didn’t say anything. He continued, “I’ve never slept with anyone.”

  I froze on the spot at his confession. I couldn’t believe it. Ethan faced me again. My expression must have been pathetic, because his face crumpled.

  “You mean, are you saying, that, that…” I couldn’t bring myself to finish the sentence.

  “Yep, I’m the last seventeen year-old virgin in the great state of California,” he replied with a dejected smile. “You look stunned. Say something.”

  I shook my head, trying to get a grip on myself. “I’m just surprised. That's all. Wow.” I was still having a hard time believing that Ethan, looking the way that he did, hadn’t slept with someone. I had no illusions regarding girls in my generation. They viewed sex more as a tool to gain popularity than something special to be shared with someone they cared about.

  “I hope that my big revelation doesn’t change your opinion about me.”

  I smiled at him. “If anything, it just makes you more special to me.”

  He moved closer, and as he brought his face mere inches from mine, I could feel his warm breath skim my lips as he exhaled. “Oh, so I’m special to you, huh? How special?” He leaned down to nuzzle my neck, giving me goose bumps. I closed my eyes, enjoying the wonderful sensation before I answered him.

  “Special enough to make me want to damage your reputation,” I said without thinking, my voice huskier than I’d intended. I felt alive for the first time, and it was high time I threw caution out the window.

  In the next instant, I found myself flat on my back with Ethan lying on top of me. He trailed kisses from my neck up to my chin, until he reached my lips.

  Kissing Ethan felt like fireworks lighting up the sky. Soon I started to feel a tingling sensation spreading from my heart down my limbs. I barely registered that we were in a public space until I heard voices in the background. Ethan immediately rolled off of me and sat up again. I followed him just in time to see a group of people coming up the hill. They greeted us politely and continued on the trail.

  “That was close,” he said sheepishly.

  My head was still buzzing from the intensity of our impromptu display of passion. I didn’t know how I was supposed to behave. This feeling of being completely out of control wasn’t something I was used to.

  “Maybe we should eat something,” I said, trying to distract myself.

  He nodded in agreement and picked up an apple, which he immediately started peeling with his pocketknife while I rummaged through my backpack looking for our sandwiches.

  “Ouch!” Ethan exclaimed. I turned to see him sucking his thumb.

  I dropped the sandwich I’d been about to eat and reached out to him. “Let me see your hand.” He showed it to me, and I saw a big gash on his thumb, with blood pouring out of the cut.

  “It looks like a deep one. Maybe you'll need stitches.” He tried to pull his hand from mine but I held onto him. I felt my hand warm up and start to tingle. It felt like energy was pouring out of my fingers. Ethan stiffened as we witnessed something extraordinary and unbelievable happen. The big gash on his thumb knitted back together and closed, leaving only a faint pink scar. I dropped his hand and gasped.

  “What was that?” I heard him say.

  I looked up, bewildered, and saw my feelings reflected on his face.

  “I have no idea.”

  “You did that! You healed the gash.” Ethan stared at his healed thumb.

  “You’re crazy. That’s impossible.” No way could I have done that. No way.

  “I felt something coming from you. A tingling sensation concentrated on the gash as it healed.”

  I shook my head. “There must be some other explanation.”

  Ethan grabbed both my hands and looked at me intently. “I’m telling you, Alexia, you did that.” His face changed then, like a light bulb had turned on inside his head. “Oh my God!”

  “What?!” I was really freaking out here, and Ethan’s behavior was not helping one bit. Why wasn’t he freaking out?

  “You’re the reason I’m walking again. You healed me!”

  Now the boy was delirious. I started to shake my head in denial, but Ethan insisted. “When we first kissed, I felt the same tingling sensation I felt just now as you healed my hand. Then the sensation spread through my entire body. The next day, I could walk again. Trust me, Alexia. You healed me.”

  “How can you be so sure? Ethan, this is high fantasy stuff. You can’t possibly tell me that you actually believe what you’re saying.”

  “I don’t know why I believe you healed me. I just do. You can call it a gut feeling or faith, but I’ve never been so sure of something in my entire life.”

  My brain was still trying to comprehend Ethan’s statement and his certainty when he pulled me to him in a bear hug. “I told you. You’re my miracle.”

  I was in no condition to continue our romantic date. We decided to head back. As we drove to La Maison Falafel, Ethan kept stealing glances at me with bright eyes. He was convinced I had healed him, but the whole idea was too farfetched to be believable. He stopped the car in front of the gate once we arrived at the house, and turned to look at me. “Are you going to tell your family about what happened?”

  “I don’t know, Ethan. I still don’t believe that I healed you. It’s crazy.”

  He reached for my face and caressed my cheek gently. “I know it sounds illogical, but I know what I saw and what I felt. And I think deep down, you know it too. Trust your instincts.”

  I closed my eyes briefly. “My instincts are telling me that I need a straightjacket.”

  “Don’t think that. If you don’t feel comfortable telling your family yet, it’s fine by me. It will be our secret.” He leaned toward me and placed a quick kiss on my lips. “I’ll call you later, okay?”

  I nodded and got out of the car feeling completely confused and scared.

  Samantha

  I swiveled in my chair to find Alexia standing j
ust outside my bedroom door. I didn’t need to read minds to know that something was very wrong with her.

  “What happened to you?” I reached her in two steps and pulled her inside, closing the door behind her. “You're shaking.” I dragged her to my bed, and we sat down facing each other. She looked scared. I wondered if by allowing her a little bit of privacy with Ethan we had made a mistake.

  “Sam, something happened to me today and I’m terrified,” she confessed as she grabbed my hands. Hers were ice cold.

  “It’s okay, you're safe now.” I squeezed her hands in reassurance. She closed her eyes in anguish, like she was having a mental battle with herself.

  “Alexia, you can tell me anything. You can trust me.” I hesitated before continuing, “Did Ethan do something to you?”

  She opened her eyes suddenly and shook her head. “No! Ethan didn’t do anything to me. It’s what I did to him.”

  I could feel the blood drain from my face. Had Alexia come into possession of her special abilities? If so, had she hurt Ethan with them? My mind flashed on one horrible scenario after another.

  “Please, Alexia. You’re not making any sense, and you’re freaking me out.” When she didn’t say anything, I pressed on. “What happened to Ethan, Alexia? You can tell me.”

  “You’re not going to believe me if I tell you. God, I don’t believe it myself.”

  “Try me,” I insisted.

  She closed her eyes again and blurted everything out. “Ethan cut himself by accident and I,…I healed him. With my touch.” She opened her eyes.

  I was dumbstruck.

  “I know, right?” She said. “Crazy!” She stood up and walked to the window.

  Alexia had healing powers? Now would be the time to tell her everything about the Prophecy, her powers, and about us. But I couldn’t. I needed to tell her something, though. Otherwise she would think she was crazy.

  “I think it’s possible that some people are born with extraordinary abilities.”