Eternity

by M.E. Timmons

  Chapter 18

  That day in Skills Development I paired up with Melissa so that we could work on our abilities together for the first time. She was getting a lot better at controlling her fire, so I figured it would be fairly safe. She was more eager to test my ability than I was, since being close to fire still made me a little nervous.

  When we were both ready, with a fire extinguisher nearby at my request, Melissa lit a fire and held it carefully in her palms. She told me to hold my hands out over the desk, so I did. I started to get nervous when she slowly started to bring her hands under mine. I panicked and pulled my hands away before she got too close.

  "Jules, we'll never be able to see if you can handle this if you won't even try," she complained.

  "Sorry. It just seems a little crazy to let someone try to burn me. It goes a little against nature, don't you think?"

  "All of us are freaks of nature. Get used to it, and hold out your hands."

  I sighed and held out my hands, but I closed my eyes. I knew I would move my hands away again if I saw the fire coming.

  "Hey look, it's working!" I heard Melissa say. I couldn't feel anything, but I opened my eyes and had to fight the urge to pull my hands back. Melissa's hands were a mere inch underneath my own, and the fire in her hands licked harmlessly at my fingers. I couldn't help but grin.

  "Nice work, ladies," Mr. Ramirez said as he walked by.

  "This is kind of awesome," I said. "I wonder if I could do it with my whole body."

  "It might be better to try that in a safer environment with a change of clothes," Melissa said. "Still, it would be pretty awesome." She sounded wistful.

  "We should do it. We're both resistant to fire, so we could do it together. We just need to find a place."

  "We could do it out by the lake. That way we'll be out of sight, away from the trees, and close to a water source."

  "Sounds perfect. Let's do it tonight, after bed time."

  "What if we get caught?"

  "Just blame it on me," I said. Melissa laughed, and she agreed.

  We switched partners halfway through the class, and I ended up with Rhea. I had never seen her use her ability before, so I was a little excited. I brought out some paper to work on a drawing, but I didn't end up drawing anything. I was too interested in what Rhea was doing.

  She had a simple dark blue coffee mug on her desk. She picked it up and held it with one hand, and she ran a finger of her other hand over its surface in a pattern. I watched as gold streaks appeared where her finger touched the mug. She drew a flower, and looked pleased with herself until she looked inside the mug.

  "Darn," she said.

  "What?" I asked. "That was amazing!"

  "I was trying to only put the pattern on the outside, but it went all the way through," she explained. She tilted the mug so I could see inside. The pattern was there as well.

  "Still, that's awesome. You must be rich," I said. Rhea just laughed, shaking her head at me.

  Melissa and I snuck out that night as planned. Heather decided to come with us after Melissa told her what we were going to do. I didn't think it was a good idea, but I couldn't convince her to stay no matter how hard I tried. Rhea, thankfully, was asleep when we left. I didn't want to risk getting her in trouble too, though I doubted she would have come even if we asked. She seemed to have a little more sense than the rest of us.

  Somehow we managed to get out of the school unnoticed. It was a little harder getting across the open yard, especially with teachers patrolling the grounds. We had to take a longer route so we would have more tree cover to keep us hidden.

  When we got to the lake Adrian was there. I wasn't expecting to see him, but it was probably one of those places in which he spent most of his time, away from the rest of the school. He was in wolf form, but luckily he could tell who we were because he saw us coming from a distance and didn't attack us. The other girls freaked out for a second before I told them it was a werewolf, not a wolf, though they weren't too comfortable with that either. He sat by the water and watched us intently, since he didn't know what we were up to.

  Melissa and I had both worn our oldest and ugliest clothes because they weren't expected to survive. We each had a change of clothes that Heather was in charge of holding. She sat on the dock to watch us, and kept at a distance from Adrian. Melissa and I spent a few minutes gathering dry sticks from the woods to keep at our feet. They weren't actually necessary considering that Melissa could create and maintain fire with no fuel, but she said it was easier to have it anyway. When we had enough we went back to the edge of the lake.

  "Ready?" Melissa asked. She couldn't help but smile widely with excitement.

  "Definitely," I answered. "It's time to light up!"

  Melissa started the fire in her hands like she usually did, and then she bent over and held the flame to the wood at her feet. Adrian watched with wide eyes as the wood caught on fire. When Melissa lit the wood at my feet he turned human, ignoring his naked state as usual.

  "What are you doing?!" he exclaimed, coming toward me.

  I held up my hand to motion for him to stop. "Don't worry, Adrian. Just watch."

  With a little extra help from Melissa, the flames at our feet jumped higher and higher until they were as tall as us. It was amazing, but I didn't feel a thing. I couldn't help but laugh a little as I watched my clothes turn black.

  "Can't you make it burn any better than that?" I teased.

  "You asked for it," Melissa said, grinning. She held her hands out and concentrated.

  Seconds later we were completely enveloped in flame. I couldn't see any of the others through the thick, licking tendrils that surrounded us, but I enjoyed the sound of the crackling wood and the way the flames flicked at my skin without having any impact. My clothes were gone in seconds, but I didn't have to worry about anyone seeing my naked body through the flames. I could hear the joy in Melissa's laughter from somewhere to my left, and I couldn't help but join her. Not even the hot smoky air that went into my lungs did any damage.

  I thought I heard Heather shout something through the roar of the flames, but I didn't hear what she said. Seconds later the fire was out, leaving me standing naked in the cold. Heather was close by with our clothes ready.

  "Why'd you stop?" I asked Melissa.

  "Heather said she heard someone coming. Quick, get dressed, we have to go."

  Adrian appeared at my side, and he was already dressed. He looked at me appreciatively before helping me get my clothes on.

  "You'll be lucky if half the school didn't see that fire," he said, but he was smiling.

  Once we were all dressed we ran off into the woods. We were just in time. I could see the beams of flashlights shining through the trees not far from where we had been. I was glad the snow was gone because we wouldn't have to worry about leaving footprints.

  They caught the four of us before we made it to the edge of the woods. There were more teachers out looking for us than I had realized. It was Victor, the Physical Defence teacher, who found us, and he didn't look too happy. We were led straight to the headmaster's office, where we had to wait a few minutes for her to come.

  "We are so dead," Melissa complained.

  "It was worth it," Adrian said, still smiling. "That was one of the coolest things I've ever seen."

  "What are we going to tell them?" Heather asked. She didn't sound as worried as I expected her to, considering that she didn't seem like the kind of person who ever got in trouble.

  "The truth," I answered firmly. "We'll probably get in more trouble if we lie anyway."

  Mrs. Bainbridge arrived a minute later. "Which of you is responsible?" she asked, glaring at us. I raised my hand, since it was my idea. She led me into her office while the others waited outside, carefully guarded by Victor.

  "So, Ms. White, would you like to tell me why four of my students were outside after hours playing with fire?"
Mrs. Bainbridge asked me once the door was closed. She sat at her desk and looked at me. Her features were heavily lined and stern.

  "Well, Melissa and I wanted to test our abilities," I told her.

  "Outside in the middle of the night?"

  "Night is the best time to work with fire, and it seemed safer to do outdoors."

  "If all you wanted to do was test your abilities, why didn't you ask permission? Surely Mr. Ramirez might have agreed to help out."

  "I don't know. It was a last-minute plan, so we weren't really thinking."

  "You're right about that. You could have burnt the forest down if you weren't careful, and you were out in the woods at night completely unprotected. The rules are in place for a reason, Ms. White. Can you also explain why Ms. Miller and Mr. Alvarez were present?"

  "Heather wanted to come with us, and we couldn't stop her. I don't know what Adrian was doing. He was by the lake before we got there."

  "Was Mr. Alvarez in wolf or human form when you arrived?"

  "I don't see what that has to do with me," I responded vaguely. I didn't want to get him in trouble. Mrs. Bainbridge seemed to notice, and she frowned.

  "Very well. I shall speak to each of the others alone before your punishment will be decided. Please send Ms. Cardenas in on your way out."

  I left the office and told Melissa to go in. Mrs. Bainbridge hadn't displayed much emotion during her questioning, so I wasn't sure how it went. I told Heather and Adrian as much.

  "Don't worry about it," Adrian said. "I don't think they ever kick anyone out. We'll probably get detention or something."

  Victor rolled his eyes. "Clearly whatever punishment you've received in the past has been ineffective," he said.

  Adrian ignored him. "Did you finish today's calculus problems?" he asked me.

  "Sure, I did them after supper."

  "Can you help me with the last one, maybe over lunch tomorrow?"

  "Um, sure," I said. Adrian never seemed to need help in Calculus, so I was a little confused, at least until he winked at me.

  After questioning each of us, which took an hour, Mrs. Bainbridge sent us girls to bed with the knowledge that we would be polishing the entire ballroom floor the following evening. She held Adrian back to give him a separate punishment, and I didn't hear what it was. I asked Heather if she'd heard while we walked back to our room, but she said she hadn't been paying attention.

  "We got off pretty easy," Melissa commented. "Of course, it's not like we were doing anything horrible anyway."

  I yawned. "Yeah, I think Adrian was right. It was totally worth it."

  "Agreed," Heather added.