by Кристи Кук
I looked up at him in surprise. “Sure. I mean, we can go over it now.”
“Okay, then, let’s go. To the café, where we can get you something to eat.”
I fell into step beside him. “The café?”
“Yeah, if you’d like, we can even order a tea service there.”
“A tea service? What do you mean, like little cakes and stuff?”
“Yeah, little sandwiches and scones with clotted cream. Just one of Dr. Blackwell’s eccentricities,” he answered.
Convinced he was teasing me, I followed him through a set of double doors and down a long, carpeted hall that looked vaguely familiar.
“Sixth period hasn’t let out yet, so it should be pretty empty. Here we go.” We reached the end of the hall and entered a big atrium with glassfronted stores on both sides. On the left was what looked like a school store — gray fleece sweatshirts with WINTERHAVEN emblazoned across the front were displayed in the window, along with backpacks and notebooks, all with the Winterhaven crest. On the right was the café, with several tables out front and several more inside. Just beyond the café, I spotted a bookstore.
Bells jingled in the door as I followed Aidan inside the café and past a counter filled with sandwiches and pastries. He headed toward a booth in the far corner.
“I’ll go and order. You like tea, right?” he asked, and I nodded as I sat down.
A minute or two later, he was back. “Okay, one tea service, coming up,” he said. Only then, as Aidan sat back down across from me and pulled out a notebook from the black canvas backpack I hadn’t even realized he’d been carrying, did I remember the vision. I hadn’t seen anything bad happen — not really. Still, it unsettled me. Why was I following Aidan around New York City in the dead of night? And what was he doing, moving silently through the fog like a shadow?
For a moment I allowed myself to wonder if the vision would eventually come to pass, but in my heart I knew that it would. Of course it would, no matter what I did to try and prevent it. That was my curse, the one I tried to hide from the rest of the world.
And then I could have sworn I heard a voice in my head— Aidan’s voice. We’ve all got something to hide, it said, as clearly as if it had been spoken aloud, as if it was replying to my thoughts.
At once my gaze snapped up and met his, and my heart began to pound. He looked startled, surprised. His eyes widened, the irises now as gray as storm clouds, then narrowed as he watched me bite my lower lip.
My head was buzzing, my palms suddenly damp. What the holy hell just happened? I was losing my mind, hearing voices. And it wasn’t just any voice — it had been Aidan’s.
Somehow he knew my secret.
4
Revelations
There she is,” Cece said as I stepped into the room and closed the door. They were all there — Sophie, Kate, and Marissa, sitting on Cece’s bed.
Waiting for me, obviously.
“So, how was it?” Sophie asked. “Your afternoon, I mean.”
“It was okay,” I answered, dropping my bag onto my bed and collapsing there myself. “I’m totally beat.”
“Kate heard that someone saw you in the café with Aidan,” Cece said. “During sixth period.”
Word sure traveled fast. “Yeah, he was trying to catch me up on my classes. Dr. Penworth asked him to, remember?”
“And?” Marissa prodded.
I sat up, shrugging. They were all watching me expectantly. “And that’s about it.”
Cece jumped up and hurried over to my bed, sitting down beside me on the quilt that Lupe had made me, and tucking her bare feet beneath herself. “C’mon, inquiring minds want to know. What did you and Aidan talk about?”
“Just schoolwork,” I answered. It was the honest-to-God truth. After that weird moment where I’d imagined his voice in my head, we’d opened our books and gotten busy — all work and no play. A few minutes later, someone had come out from behind the counter and brought us a pot of tea and two dainty teacups on saucers, and then returned with a tiered silver tray holding miniature sandwiches and scones. An old-fashioned tea service, just as Aidan had promised. Weird, but nice.
I’d sat there picking at my food, listening to his hypnotic voice as he’d summarized a full month’s worth of lectures. I’d forced myself to concentrate, and I thought I’d done a pretty good job, too, all things considered. Maybe it was really fascinating material, or maybe it was all in the retelling. Either way, I just needed to read through a few more chapters and take some notes, and I’d be set for tomorrow’s quiz.
“Just schoolwork?” Marissa looked disappointed. “That’s all? You must have talked about something else.”
I shook my head, sorry to disappoint them. “Nope, ’fraid not.”
“Why did you skip sixth period?” Kate asked.
“Oh. That. I guess I didn’t eat enough and I got a little light-headed after anthropology class. I almost passed out, and Aidan had to take me to the nurse’s office.” I felt the heat rise in my cheeks. As embarrassing as it was, I figured I better tell them the truth. For all I knew, half the school had witnessed the incident, and word would surely get back to them.
Marissa eyed me sharply. “Well, I sure hope you weren’t faking it,” she said. “Because he’d know if you were. You don’t know how to block your thoughts, do you?”
“What do you mean, block my thoughts?” It suddenly felt as if something were strangling me, and I reached a hand up to my throat. Aidan’s scarf.
I was still wearing his scarf. I loosened it, hoping no one recognized it or I’d never hear the end of the questions.
“He can read minds,” Sophie explained. “That’s his thing. You know, his gift? So you have to know how to block your thoughts around him, if you don’t want him to know what you’re thinking. It’s easy, really.”
“Yeah, sure,” I said, laughing.
“No, really,” Cece said.
“Hey, you never told us what your thing is,” Sophie said, turning toward me. “You’re not going to make us guess, are you? I hate it when people do that.”
Kate picked up a pillow from Cece’s bed and threw it at Sophie. “She has to tell us; it’s against the code not to. Have you gotten a copy of the COPA yet?”
“The copa?” I shook my head in frustration. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Marissa rolled her eyes. “The code. You read it, sign it, and then you destroy it. Usually on your first day.”
“Maybe she hasn’t gotten it yet,” Sophie said. “It’s possible that she. you know, hasn’t figured it out yet.”
Marissa shook her head. “Everyone figures it out by the end of the first day, if they didn’t already know.”
“Guys, I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I’m tired, I feel like crap, and I almost passed out today. Any chance you could cut me some slack?”
Cece’s hand flew to her forehead, her dark eyes as wide as saucers. “Oh my God, she really doesn’t know.”
“Then she’s clueless—”
“Shut up, Marissa,” Sophie said, giving her a dirty look. “Just because you were a legacy and knew all along—” Suddenly they were all arguing at once, about who knew and who didn’t know. something.
“Will you all just shut up and tell me what you’re talking about?” I had to shout to be heard over the commotion.
“Yeah, shut up, guys,” Cece said. “Maybe we should go get Mrs. G.”
“Just tell her,” Marissa said, shaking her head. “We’re going to be late for dinner.”
“Tell me what?” I asked, my hands beginning to tremble. There was something I didn’t know, something about the school. I could suddenly sense it, as if I’d been ignoring the feeling gnawing at mind until now. A missing piece of the puzzle. My blood ran cold in my veins, and I shivered.
“I’ll do it,” Sophie said. “Okay. You must have realized by now that you’ve got some. I don’t know what to call it. a gift of some sort. A psychic gift.”
My heart pounding, I just shook my head. My visions. how do they know?
Marissa looked annoyed. “Oh, c’mon. Think about it. A sixth sense, maybe. Premonitions. Something. something out of the ordinary.”
Still I said nothing. There was no way in hell I was going to own up to it. “Well, everyone here does,” Sophie said. “Every single student at Winterhaven.”
No. No. It was impossible; it couldn’t be true. “You’re joking, right?”
“Does she sound like she’s joking?” Marissa snapped, tossing her hair over one shoulder. “C’mon, out with it. You’ve got to do something special, or you wouldn’t be here.”
I tried to swallow, but my mouth was too dry. “Maybe I do. But you can’t tell me that everyone here—”
“Yes, everyone,” Sophie insisted. “Every student, every teacher. Even the headmaster.”
“But,” I sputtered, “but. that’s insane. There’s no way—”
“Think of it as a school for gifted and talented kids,” Kate offered. “Only we’ve got a different sort of talent, that’s all.”
“So you’re telling me, what? That this is some sort of. of magic school?” I asked.
“No, nothing like that,” Sophie said, shaking her head. “This is just a regular prep school, where all the kids happen to have psychic abilities. We can’t even use them in class, by the way. It’s against the COPA.”
“Code of Paranormal Activity,” Cece clarified. “Basically, it says you’re not allowed to use your gifts in class, to manipulate or harm your fellow classmates in any way, or for any sort of personal gain. I forget what else. ” She trailed off, shaking her head.
“You’re lying,” I said. They had to be; there was no other explanation. This was a normal school. expensive, yes. Elite, maybe. But normal.
“Why do you think you’re here, then?” Marissa asked, her tone a bit softer.
“Because my stepmother moved to New York, that’s why, and this looked like a good school. That’s it. No other reason.”
“Didn’t you feel somehow. drawn here?” Sophie asked.
Oh my God. I did. It was true, and I couldn’t even explain it. Was it possible that they were telling the truth? Taking a deep breath, I searched my instincts, and my eyes suddenly filled with tears.
She was telling the truth. As crazy as it sounded, she was. Now it all made sense — the strange comments and questions that I hadn’t understood.
“A day of discovery,” Dr. Blackwell had said.
Cece reached for my hand. “See, that’s the way it works,” she said softly. “Winterhaven somehow finds its students. They apply, they come. No one knows how.”
“If you build it, they will come,” Kate intoned.
“But. but what if someone came who wasn’t. who didn’t. you know,” I stammered. “Have gifts?”
“They don’t,” Sophie said with a shrug. “So, are you going to tell us what your gift is now?”
“Yeah, I’ll show you mine if you show me yours,” Kate said with a laugh.
“Here, I’ll go first, if it’ll make you feel better,” Sophie offered. “Remember this morning, about your shoulder? After I’d touched your hand? Well, all I have to do is touch someone, and I can tell if anything is, you know, wrong. With their body. Illness, injury, stuff like that. It’s some rare form of clairsentience. I want to be a doctor someday. I’m really good at the diagnosing part, but as far as treatment goes. ” She trailed off, shrugging.
“What did you call it?” I asked. “Clair. what?”
“Clair-sen-ti-ence.” She enunciated each syllable, as if she were talking to a child. “It’s when you can sense or see something just from touching a person or an object — like, about the past or future or whatever.”
I nodded. “Okay, what about the rest of you?”
“I’m a tellie,” Kate volunteered, her voice full of pride.
“A tellie?”
“Yeah, telekinetic. I can move stuff. With my mind. There’s a lot of us here at Winterhaven. Wanna see?”
Wow. People could really do that? I mean, having visions was one thing, but actually moving things with your mind? Goose bumps rose on my skin, a shiver working its way down my spine. “Maybe later,” I murmured. “What about you?” I asked Cece, silent beside me.
“Astral projection. Thank God for Winterhaven, because I couldn’t really control it before I came here. You know, like it was sort of involuntary? It was getting scary.”
“It’s still scary,” Marissa said with a frown.
Astral projection? I didn’t even know what that meant.
“Marissa’s just grouchy because her gifts are a little more undefined.”
Marissa shot Sophie an icy glare. “I’m just your basic empath is all. Pretty low on the gift-o-meter, as my friends here like to remind me. Whatever you have, it can’t be any lamer than that.”
“Visions,” I blurted out. A sense of relief washed over me, taking me totally by surprise. It felt good to say it out loud. “I have visions. About the future. Usually bad stuff.”
Cece frowned. “Uh-oh, precognition. That must suck. Can you. you know, prevent the bad stuff? Once you’ve seen it?”
I shuddered, thinking about my dad. “Sometimes. But I. I have to be subtle about it. Otherwise people just think I’m psycho.”
“Ah, I see the problem there.” Cece nodded, squeezing my hand. “That does suck.”
Yeah, it did. “So, what else is there?” I asked. “The other kids, I mean.”
“Mostly run-of-the-mill stuff, like us,” Marissa answered. “Clairvoyants, clairsentients, telekinetics, a few like Cece here who can project. Aidan can read minds, and I bet he’s telepathic, too. And then there are a few freaks who can shift.”
“Shift?”
Sophie nodded. “Yeah, shape-shift. I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes. I had to room with one my freshman year.
Pretty creepy. I’ll point ’em out in the dining hall; they all stick together.”
“Sophie is exaggerating,” Kate said. “Yet another of her ‘gifts.’ They don’t really shape-shift, they just. go all fuzzy-like or something. It is kind of weird, though.”
“I swear I once saw Lauren Dwyer shift into. I don’t know, something like fog,” Sophie argued. “Totally creeped me out. I think they can shift into more than they let on, too. Probably why they’re always huddled together, whispering. Plotting,” she added, and everyone laughed.
“But how. how’s it all kept a secret?” I asked. “I mean, the school is right here in plain sight.”
“Who could tell, looking at us?” Sophie said with a shrug. “We’re just. you know, normal kids with unusual gifts.”
“And none of us are going to tell,” Kate added, reaching up to stretch. “We’re just happy to have a place where we can be ourselves. Besides, who would believe it?”
The reality was finally sinking in. I’d left behind everything that was familiar to me so that I could go someplace where no one knew I was a freak, where no one would notice that I sometimes acted weird and knew stuff I shouldn’t know. And now here I was, at a school filled entirely with freaks.
A bubble of hysteria welled in my chest, and I started laughing so hard that it hurt. I mean, c’mon, how could I not laugh? Next thing I knew, tears were running down my face and I was crying so hard I could barely catch my breath.
No one said a word. They just sat there and let me cry it out. Cece rubbed my back; Sophie brought me a glass of water.
At last my sobs were reduced to sniffles. Sophie handed me a clump of tissues, and I blew my nose. Feeling like a total moron, I turned toward Cece. “So that’s what happened to your old roommate?” I asked with a hiccup, still all sniffly and hoarse. “Allison? She tried to tell someone about the school?”
Cece nodded. “Yeah, something freaked her out. She wouldn’t tell me what, though.”
“I think Aidan Gray had something to do with it,” Kate
said.
“No way,” Cece shot back. “Aidan never had anything to do with Allison.”
“Aidan never had anything to do with any girls, period.” Marissa looked at me pointedly. “Until now. Hey, isn’t that his scarf?”
When I didn’t answer, Cece continued on. “Anyway, Allison told her parents and they thought she’d gone nuts.”
“Couldn’t she just, well. prove her gift to them?” I asked.
Cece frowned. “Her parents are total nonbelievers. Allison’s a clairvoyant and she goes into a trance when she’s seeing. She tried to show them, and they had her committed. Just imagine if you didn’t believe in psychic powers, and you saw someone do that.”
For several seconds we all sat in silence, digesting that.
Finally Kate turned toward me and smiled. “I guess you haven’t met your GC yet, huh?”
“GC? I’m almost afraid to ask what that stands for.” I grabbed another tissue and blew my nose.
Cece laughed, and her friends joined in. “Guidance counselor,” she finally said. “You’ll get assigned a guidance counselor is all.”
“What, to tell me how to use my gifts to save the world? To benefit humankind? To fight off super-villains?”
Sophie smirked. “Ha-ha. Very funny. Your guidance counselor will do what any guidance counselor does — help you apply to college, decide which careers best fit your talents, that’s all.”
Cece nodded. “There are psychic coaches available, though, if you need one. Like if you’re having trouble with control or something like that. Or just want some help strengthening them.”
“My powers, you mean?” I asked incredulously.
“We try not to use that word here, Miss McKenna.”
I looked up and saw Mrs. Girard standing in the doorway, smiling at me.
“We say ‘gifts’ or ‘talents.’ I see you’ve come to understand Winterhaven’s unique situation,” she said, moving to stand beside my bed.
I rubbed my temples, desperately trying to wrap my head around everything I’d just learned.
“I’m willing to bet that you’ll come to appreciate it much sooner than you think,” Mrs. Girard said. “After all, this is a safe haven for people like us, like you.” She reached into her pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper. “I’ve brought you this.”