The Ultimate Sacrifice by Talia Jager (reading fiction .TXT) 📖

grabbed two of everything for breakfast.

“Hey, Kassia.”

I looked behind me. “Hey, Lux.” Lux was a late bloomer. Her gift showed up when she turned fifteen instead of about ten like normal.

In the gifted world, parents would send their kids to one of the institutes to learn how to manage their gifts and learn their destiny. Most of the gifts manifested around a child’s tenth birthday. Occasionally there was a late bloomer, like Lux, or a gift that showed up early. Since it’s hard to keep our gifts secret, usually two gifted people will marry. Nobody has ever known of two gifted parents having a child that wasn’t gifted. If only one parent is not gifted, the child may or may not be gifted.

“Good morning, Kassia!” Bren yelled and waved from across the cafeteria. I smiled back, not really wanting to chat with her. Being a mind-blower had its downsides. Sometimes it was hard to tell if someone liked me for who I was or just because they were scared I’d hurt them if they weren’t nice to me. I had never used my gift on someone who didn’t deserve it.

No matter how much I tried, I could not control my gift. After a few of the kids had witnessed the aftermath of me getting mad, word spread fast. Some kids got especially nervous when Mira wasn’t close by. It was actually quite funny because I knew the school had a fail-safe. There were panic buttons placed around the school. If a situation spun out of control and someone couldn’t control themselves, a panic button was pushed. This set off an alarm and a light started flashing, alerting everyone where the situation was.

The closest adult would take down the target. Literally. They had a special medication they would inject with a high-pressure jet injector that would knock someone out.

The rules were very clear. Don’t interfere with each other’s gifts unless absolutely necessary. Don’t force people to use their gifts. Don’t use your gifts for malicious purposes. Don’t hurt people—emotionally or physically. Most of the gifts or powers we possessed weren’t hurtful, but every now and then there was someone like me.

I made my way back to the table where Mira and Zane sat. He was hanging on every word she said. I plopped down in the seat next to Mira. “Here,” I said, handing her the food.

“Thanks.”

A few minutes later, Auralee showed up, dressed in capris and graphic T-shirt. She was known for wearing opinionated shirts. Today, her T-shirt read: It is what it is. Sitting down across from me, she ran her hand up the bare nape of her neck and rested it on top of her head the way she always did when she was thinking. The short length of her hair showed off her delicate features perfectly. I wished being beautiful came that easy to me.

Noe appeared in her usual bright and colorful long skirt and blouse. She sat down next to Auralee, flipping her long, brown hair behind her, out of the way. While Auralee had a heart-shaped face and a pale complexion, Noe had an oval face and was darker.

We chatted about normal stuff until the bell rang. The first half of the day I had academic classes—math, science, social studies, English. The second half of the day was about our gifts and talents. One class was about our history, another about how to use our gifts, and the last was a physical education class that included martial arts and yoga.

Mira was in every one of my morning classes. Always had been. That way if anything happened, she’d be there to stop me from getting upset. It was annoying sometimes, but I dealt with it. I didn’t have a choice—not until I could control myself.

Between science and social studies, I made her go to the bathroom with me. “I need to reapply my make-up,” I told her.

She rolled her eyes, but took out a brush and smoothed out her long, shimmering hair. “Your make-up is fine.”

I touched up my eye shadow and lipstick. “Now it is.” I kissed the mirror, leaving behind a lipstick print, and skipped out of the bathroom ahead of her. The hallways were empty. If we didn’t hurry, we’d be late.

I grabbed Mira’s hand and we rushed into our next class, social studies, making it in the door just as the bell rang. Our teacher, Mr. Raymond, gave us an annoyed look. “Glad you girls could make it in time.”

We smiled innocently at him and took our seats in the back of the room. Mr. Raymond had us take out our textbooks and follow along as he taught about some old war. My mind wandered, as did my eyes. I found myself staring out the window, thinking of my parents.

They had left me here at the school years ago when my gift had showed up. I had only seen them a couple times since, the last time being over three years ago. I hadn’t heard from them since. I knew it was my fault. They probably hadn’t wanted anything to do with a monster like me, a gifted girl who could cause pain with her mind. I didn’t blame them for not wanting to be around me, but it still hurt.

“Miss Lagos, would you care to answer the question?” Mr. Raymond asked.

Uh-oh. “I’m sorry, Mr. Raymond. I didn’t hear the question.” I looked at him sheepishly, hoping the apology would keep me out of trouble.

He frowned. “Please pay attention, Miss Lagos.”

“Yes, sir.”

Focusing on schoolwork had always been a problem for me. It bored me. Who cared about algebra and who did what in some war? I kept my eyes on the teacher, forcing myself to pay attention and not daydream. The only thing I could focus on completely was my gift. When my emotions were high, it was very hard for me to snap out of it.

Social studies was our last academic class of the day. We would go to lunch next and then to our gifted and talented classes. Those weren’t quite as boring as the classes we had the first half of the day. I had two gifted classes before I had to go to therapy. My last class of the day wasn’t really a class; it was a one-on-one with a counselor, Dr. Frost. Mira went to the physical education class while I was in therapy.

Dr. Frost was a middle-aged lady with graying hair and big brown eyes. Her high forehead wrinkled when she was concerned. “I hear you had a little slip-up, Kassia.”

It always amazed me that Dr. Frost knew the things she did. It had only been Mira, Jana, and me. Mira had compelled Jana, so how did Dr. Frost find out? Maybe be a mind-reader or someone who saw it happen in their mind told her? It really didn’t matter. What mattered was what she did with that information. “I guess.”

“Do you want to tell me what happened?”

“Not particularly.”

Her brows pulled together. “Kassia, we need to figure out how to help you, and to do that, you need to talk about what happened.”

I sighed. “It was Jana.”

“Again?”

“I don’t like that girl.”

“I know. What did she do this time?”

“She was bugging me. I don’t even know how it started.”

“Something must have made you angry.”

I frowned as I remembered bits and pieces. “She made some remark about me being a bitch because I wouldn’t give her brother the time of day. Of course, she didn’t stop there. She made some comments about Finn liking her now.”

Finn was my ex-boyfriend. I had dated him for half a year before breaking up with him. The relationship just wasn’t what I wanted. Just because I broke up with him didn’t mean I wasn’t jealous when Jana suggested that he was interested in her. I imagined he might do something like that to get back at me, even though we had parted as friends. I think Finn got a lot of crap for being the one who got dumped.

“So, which made you more upset?”

I scoffed. “Both. It’s not always what she says, it’s how she says it. Her holier-than-thou attitude.”

When Jana had started dating my friend Alton, she liked me. Later on, she tried to set me up with her brother and I rejected him, which made her hate me. Finding out from Alton that we all had some sort of superpower made her irritated. She believed we thought we were better than regular humans. For some reason, she held it against me in particular.

“Do you think she deserves to be in pain because she annoys you?”

I had to think about that. “Sometimes.”

“Really?”

“I suppose not.”

“So, how do we get you to control your emotions better?”

“I have no idea,” I responded honestly.

“How about counting? When someone makes you mad, you count.”

“Seriously? Are you joking?” I chuckled.

“No.” She didn’t look amused.

“I try to ignore people, but sometimes they keep going and going. I can hold it together for a few comments, but it’s when those people keep at it that I lose it,” I explained.

“And what happens when people do keep at it?”

“The power consumes me. It taunts me,” I admitted. “It wants me to use it.”

“Then what?”

“Mira steps in.”

Dr. Frost sat back in her chair. “What if Mira wasn’t there?”

“Jana would have gotten very hurt.” That fact sat hard. “I don’t really want to hurt her. I just can’t stop myself.”

“What about walking away?”

“When it gets that far, walking away doesn’t seem to be an option.” My teeth played with my bottom lip. “Do you think I’d be able to give myself that shot, the one the teachers could use to knock me out?”

Our eyes met and she was silent for a minute. “If you can’t walk away, I doubt you could knock yourself out either.”

I hadn’t thought of that. “Probably not.”

The bell rang. “Kassia, if you find yourself in another situation, try to walk away or stop it. See if you can.”

I nodded, knowing that was pretty much impossible.

Mira and I walked arm in arm into the dining hall for dinner. We grabbed our food and sat down at our table. Mira had turned her chair around and was talking to someone else from another table.

As I started eating my dinner, Finn walked over and stood in front of me with his arms crossed. He was glaring at me. “How could you?”

“How could I what?”

His face turned red. “Jana. Last night. Ring a bell?”

“How did you find out?” I asked. Dr. Frost finding out was annoying enough, but having Finn know what happened really bothered me.

“I have ways. Really, Kassia, how could you even try to hurt her?”

“Seriously? That bitch? Why are you so upset?” I didn’t see what the fuss was about.

“What did you just call her?”

His raised voice made my heart start pounding. I felt the fire start to build in my body. I gripped the side of the table, turning my knuckles white. “A bitch.”

He closed his hands into fists and pounded them on the table. “Don’t call her that!” he yelled.

I shivered as the burning, tingling sensation shot through my body.

I heard Noe’s voice in the distance. “Mira!”

In a split second, Mira’s hand was on mine. “What are you doing?” she asked, looking back and forth between Finn and me. “It’s Finn!”

I wasn’t backing down. I didn’t care who it was. He was the one who came up to me and started it. I held my stare. Mira shoved Finn out of the way