Gray (Awakening Book 1)

by Shannon Reber

  “Any brothers or sisters?” Kassia asked.

  “No.”

  She looked up. “Want mine? She’ll talk your ear off, make nonstop jokes and steal your stuff, but she’s yours for the low, low price of $19.95.”

  “Excuse me?” I said, my mouth open in shocked disgust. “I am worth so much more than $19.95.”

  “Okay, maybe $29.95.”

  Ben and I both laughed, but Ben shook his head. “I—” he began, though broke off as London flounced over and slid her arm around his waist.

  “Oh, aren’t you sweet to share your things. Maybe this can help our poor little Shayla to remember something,” she said, her chest thrust out again apparently to draw attention to what she had and I didn’t.

  Ben didn’t look at what she offered, but turned his eyes again to meet mine. “There’s something else,” he said and crouched down, which shucked London’s arm off his waist. He took out a frame and handed it to me. “The box of sketches is in here, but this one was so good, I’ve had it on my desk,” he said, those dark eyes of his full of compassion.

  I took the frame and tears came to my eyes. It was a sketch of Kassia riding Mom’s horse, with a creepy little creature next to her. The creature had my face. “Mom was telling me a story,” I said quietly, my eyes fixed on the paper. “It was about magical powers in this line of being that was half Black elf, half White elf. I was sure they were monsters. I thought I was one. I—”

  “Shayla. That’s enough,” the Chief said sharply, but I didn’t look at him.

  Enough? Enough of what? Enough fairy tales, or enough of the lie that I was ordinary?

  Not here. Not now. Forget, Gray One. You must forget.

  I blinked and turned my eyes up to find Ben and London staring at me. I looked hard at Ben, baffled to see his brow wrinkled as though he was worried. Those high cheekbones of his, which were so much like his mother’s, but his appeared to have been chiseled from stone. “Got any spare HGH? I would love to see what the world looks like up there,” I said with a smile just at him, pretending London wasn’t even there.

  He stood for a long moment, then shook his head. “Stand on a chair,” he said, but it was obvious something was wrong. He looked at me like blood poured from my body or something.

  Oh, it did. I picked up a napkin and tipped my head back to staunch the flow of blood from my nose.

  “Shayla, what happened to you?” Kassia looked ready to throw up.

  I shook my head and rose from my seat, to get to the bathroom.

  I had the urge to take the napkin away and throw it at London, yet that was too gross to contemplate.

  When I passed the blond kid’s table, he muttered “Lindbergh loser,” obviously too big a coward to yell it like he did at school, with the Chief and my sister in close proximity.

  It took a minute and a lot of toilet paper to get my nose stopped. By the time it was done, my head felt like it had been stuck in a vice while that stupid blond kid tightened it viciously hard. I wasn’t sure what had made my nose bleed and my head hurt. Strangely, it was like I had missed something, or forgotten something very important. Maybe I really was crazy.

  I grimaced and shook my head to dislodge that stupid thought. I wasn’t crazy. I was just . . . something. Weird, I guess. There was nothing wrong with being weird. All the greatest artists were, but I’d never cut off my ear and present it to an ex like they say Van Gogh did. Guess that meant I wasn’t as strange as some people.

  I rolled my eyes at myself and turned to walk out of the bathroom. We had come for pizza, but pizza hadn’t even been mentioned once. I would remedy that very soon.

  My heart leapt up like it wanted to escape my chest as a hulking figure loomed over me just outside the bathroom door. I’d have to be very fast to fight an opponent that much bigger than me.

  “I’d guess you wouldn’t give me a serious answer if I asked if you’re alright.”

  I rolled my eyes at Ben and rested my hand over my overactive heart. “Loom much?” I shrugged as though unconcerned by his question. “Nobody really wants to know the truth when they ask how you are anyway. I just save people the effort,” I said, my arms folded in a belligerent pose.

  He leaned back against the wall and folded his arms as well. “So you hide behind that smile of yours so nobody can see you bleed?”

  I tapped my nose. “I’d say everybody saw me bleed,” I said, but was disconcerted that he saw me so clearly, that he understood what no one else had.

  Ben didn’t respond to my comment, but stood straight again, his head cocked to the side like a quizzical puppy. “You know, Shayla, if you ever let down that shield you hide behind, you might find there’s a bunch of people around here who’d like to know who you really are. Not everybody’s like Paul and London are to you.”

  Oh, so the blond kid’s name was Paul, noted. “You want to know who I really am, Ben?” I asked, as anger rose inside me. “I’m a girl who woke up from a nightmare to find her whole world had disappeared. I’m trying not to lose my mind, so I laugh as often as I can, then I get criticized for it by some guy who can’t be bothered to stand up and tell his BFF to shut up calling me Lindbergh. That’s who I am. Who are you?” I asked, my lip curled back in a sneer.

  “Paul is no friend of mine, but you’re right.” He took a step in the direction of the dining area. “I should have stopped him the first time. He won’t call you that again, I promise,” and he walked toward that table.

  I grimaced. It would be amazing to see Ben beat the blond guy to a bloody pulp, but it was my issue, not his. He didn’t need to fight my battles for me and I shouldn’t have made him feel like he needed to.

  I jumped in front of Ben, my hand on his stomach to stop him. It irritated me to have to look up so far, but I shook my head in hopes he would pay attention.

  When he had stopped, I turned my lips up in a wide smile and whirled around, walking over to where that stupid kid sat. “You’re Paul, right?” I asked, but didn’t wait for him to respond. “I don’t like you and you have made it abundantly clear you don’t like me. Let’s leave it at that. You won’t refer to me as Lindbergh anymore and I won’t refer to you as the brainless blond,” I said and patted his shoulder. “Good talk. Let’s never do it again.” I walked back to my table, unsure how my sister and the Chief would react to the situation.

  It wouldn’t be over with Paul, especially since I heard several of those guys laugh. When a guy gets laughed at by his friends . . . yeah, he would get worse. Hardly mattered though. He moved with a swagger which told me clearly he would be an easy takedown.

  I sat and gave my little group a wide smile. They had ordered our pizza while I’d been gone and neither of them commented on the Paul situation. The pizza looked amazing and smelled even better. My stomach ached like it hadn’t seen food in years, so that feast was just what I had needed.

  “Busy tomorrow?” I asked Kassia, scooping a slice of pizza onto my plate.

  She nodded, but swallowed her bite before she responded. “Yeah, I’m teaching you how to drive,” she said, her eyes turned back to look at the group who pooled their money to pay for their pizza at the table behind us.

  I smiled, pleased by the idea, but also confused. Why would my sister ease off the nagginess which had been the mainstay of our relationship since my return?

  I wondered if the Chief had said something to her, but doubted it. There must be a reason for the change. Whatever it was, maybe I could scare the reason out of her during our driving lesson. Or maybe I could simply ask, whichever.

  Six

  I waved to Kassia as she dropped me off on Monday morning, my mind filled by dread for the day to come. I did not want to be inside. I wanted to be outside, to be free.

  My skin crawled as I opened the school’s main door. If I focused on my dread though, my day would be jinxed by that negativity. I had to think about something which gave me peace.

  “So you’re alive!” Francis said with a smile as he stopped
next to my locker. It was like my panic over being trapped inside had summoned him to me, my angel of cheerfulness.

  “And kicking,” I said and tapped my foot against his shin.

  He cowered like I had hurt him horribly, then came back with the world’s biggest smile. “So how’d the driving lesson go?” he asked, his cheerful face all I needed.

  I grinned at him, entirely happy and at peace since my friend was there with me. I would be fine. I was not a prisoner. I was free. “I’m amazing. Duh,” I said and kicked him yet again.

  “Hey now, abusing your friends is not something that will—” he began, but broke off. His mouth opened in shock as he looked at something behind me.

  An unnatural hush fell over the hallway full of people. They were all frozen, like a bunch of statues, their eyes fixed on something which was still behind me. I turned to see what it was, unsure what to make of the entire situation.

  A woman walked down the hallway, a staggeringly beautiful woman, ethereal to be honest. She was tall and slim, with a perfect face and the kind of body most girls would kill for. Every guy in the hall gaped, their mouths open as the blonde goddess walked past.

  Francis looked like he held his breath. His eyes were bright as he leaned forward like he planned to throw himself at the gorgeous woman’s feet.

  Contempt passed through me, not for the woman, but for the pathetic males. Why were they so easily bewitched? They would all do anything she said, it was written clearly on their enraptured faces.

  It was strange as that woman’s eyes met mine. It felt like we knew each other, like she was someone I had known well at some point in my life. I couldn’t remember when that would have been, but that was nothing unusual for me.

  When she passed, an audible sigh escaped every male, like she had released them from some kind of death grip. I wasn’t sure if it would be more appropriate to laugh or smack them upside the head. Maybe both would work best.

  “How’s it going?” Ben asked as he stepped up on my other side, his dark eyes very direct, but he was the only guy in the whole hallway who didn’t stare at the blonde.

  I closed my locker with a snick. If only I could disappear into thin air to avoid him. “What? Did I smile too wide? Should I ditch school to get myself a black vail so everybody can see how I feel?” I asked, my annoyance with him coming to life yet again.

  “Nah, just get a frown face tattooed on your forehead,” he said with a smirk at me like I hadn’t just snarked him out.

  I grinned. “Why a frown face? Why not a skull and crossbones?” It felt good to make a joke, but it did nothing to ease my irritation with him.

  “Great idea,” he said, his eyes still fixed on me.

  I tipped my head back and let out an exasperated sigh. “Look, Ben. This mask of mine you don’t like, it’s all I’ve got. I may internalize my feelings about everything that’s happened to me, but that’s my business, not yours.” But my irritation with London and Paul began to bubble out, despite how unfair it was to direct it all at Ben. “I get it. I do. London is as obvious as a goddess of bounty during a famine, but I have two settings, happy and pissy. You want to see pissy all the time, I can give you that pretty easily.”

  “I’ve seen more than two settings from you, Shayla. All I was saying is that the more you push it down, the harder it’ll be to handle it.”

  “What do you know about it?” I snapped, unsure what had made me so mad, until London started sashaying her way toward us. “You know what, Ben, I don’t care. Your girlfriend is coming. Why don’t you try telling her how she’s supposed to react to things rather than me.”

  “She’s not my girlfriend,” he said through his teeth.

  “Close enough,” I said without a glanced in her direction when she slid her arm around Ben and pressed herself into him.

  He didn’t acknowledge her, but turned his eyes away from me. “Guess I’ll let you get back to your thing.” He turned to walk away, his shoulders tight as a drum.

  Satisfaction filled me. I had showed him. I’d bet in the future, he’d keep his opinions about me to himself.

  I took hold of Francis’ arm and guided him away from London. His mouth was open, his eyes fixed on the perfect blonde just down the hall from us. I didn’t want to go to class yet, though since there were only a couple of minutes until the bell rang, there was no other choice. I had to suck it up and keep the peace which filled me when my friend was around at the forefront of my mind.

  It surprised me as we walked in, to find that almost the entire class was present, which was unusual. The problem was, only a few seats were left open and Francis appeared ready to pass out. Ugh. That was JUST what I needed.

  I deposited Francis in the first empty seat, then walked to the other side of the room to sit in an open desk.

  It made me smile when I recognized the guy directly in front of me. He was part of Francis’ group which had welcomed me in on my first day. He wasn’t the friendliest of the group, but if I couldn’t sit with Francis, he would have to do.

  “Hey, JJ,” I said with a smile as he glanced back to look at me. His wildly curly fro and rich brown skin made me think of coffee with caramel mixed in, my favorite flavor combination.

  “Hey,” he practically whispered, then flicked his eyes down.

  “How was your weekend?” I asked, not too sure if he even wanted to talk to me.

  “It was okay,” he said, but with what looked like a monumental effort, he turned his eyes to meet mine. “How was yours?”

  I almost laughed at how difficult it was for him to ask even such a simple question. There was no way I would laugh at that sweet, shy guy though. “My sister started teaching me how to drive,” I said and beamed at him. “I think you could say my weekend was tense,” I exaggerated, not sure what to expect from a conversation with him.

  JJ’s lips turned up in a pathetic imitation of a smile. He looked almost like he might say something else, but just swallowed and turned back to the front as someone walked past him.

  Okay, guess that’s the most I’m going to get by way of conversation with him.

  The person who had thrown JJ into his tense silence was Ben. I grimaced at the sight of him. He didn’t appear any happier about sitting a few seats behind me than I was at having him there.

  It was a relief when the bell rang, so I simply resigned myself to my day inside and turned my attention to our teacher. He stood in front of us, a dazed look on his face, his eyes fixed on the door.

  “Class—” he broke off and cleared his throat, before he went on, “I’d uh . . . like to introduce you to my . . . uh our . . . uh, teacher’s aide. Miss Liadin is going to be with us in . . . class,” he looked like he might pass out as he finished faltering out that introduction.

  I didn’t have to look to know it was the perfect blonde. Who else could make our intense teacher into a puddle of hormones like the rest of the guys?

  When he turned his eyes away from her, his mind seemed to clear. “Open your books to page one hundred and five and read the chapter on language,” he snapped, his glower back in full force as he turned toward his desk.

  I sighed and pulled my book out, but my eyes turned of their own accord to look at Miss Liadin. There was something about her, something familiar, but where would I have seen her? She sat in a chair next to the teacher’s desk, looking unaffected by the world around her. It was like a bomb could go off next to her head and she’d just straighten her hair and go on about her business.

  A shiver passed over my skin when this image came into my head. Who was she?

  I shook my head to clear it and turned my attention back to the chapter we were supposed to read. I hated days like that. I had been desperate for the distraction of the teacher’s voice. It made my trapped feeling all the stronger.

  I swallowed to clear the panic from my throat, then started to read. I tried to make the words come alive, to speak to me, though something niggled at the back of my mind.

  My hand t
witched convulsively. All of a sudden I began to hyperventilate. The walls closed in and darkness descended on me like a switch had been flipped. It took all light from the world.

  I couldn’t breathe. I needed air, but the weight was too much, far, far too much. I would suffocate any moment.

  I pushed with every ounce of strength in my body, but those stones would not shift. Terror washed its way over my small, nine year old frame. Why was the Black Queen doing this to me? Hadn’t I been a good girl?

  Push, not with your arms, but with your mind, Gray One.

  I gasped in shock as that voice spoke in my mind. I knew the voice. He was of the Black Queen’s guards. How had his voice gotten into my mind?

  Focus, Gray One. Focus your mind on moving the stones. You need only to concentrate. The stones are your friends. You must only ask their assistance.

  I took in as much air as possible and focused on the stones around me. I wanted to ask that guard how a stone could be my friend, but didn’t know how to make my voice travel to him.

  I needed air. I needed light. I needed my mom and dad. It had been so long since I had seen them, but the Black Queen said I couldn’t go home.

  Tears rose in my eyes. Pain and fear shot through me as the weight on my chest got heavier and heavier. The stones would crush me if I didn’t figure out how to learn the lesson Gerik tried to teach me.

  Focus. I had to learn how to make friends with the stones. I could. I had to.

  I put on my best, brightest smile, the one Mom called my angel smile and looked at the biggest stone which was on top of me. “Can you help me?” I asked, my mind and body focused entirely on that ‘conversation’.

  The stone and I were alone. It was almost as big as me and I could feel the grooves where it had been cut from the earth. The stone and I were the same. We were the best friends ever.

  I took in a breath of relief as it rose from my chest, then the others followed along like baby ducks which followed their mom. They wanted to do more, I could feel it. They really were my friends!

  I asked them to stack themselves according to their size in the corner and they did. It was so cool. They asked me if they could do more, but I thought it seemed rude to say yes. I smiled at them, happy to have those friends there with me.