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

Chapter Three

That night, the same nightmare woke me again. People in black suits were chasing me. They wanted to capture me, to use me, to make me into something bad. I woke up in a sweat and glanced over at Mira to make sure I hadn’t woken her up. She was still sleeping calmly. I let out a deep breath. Okay. I was safe. I curled up in the window seat again so I could see the courtyard below. Nobody was out there, nobody was coming to get me…it was just a normal courtyard at 2:12 a.m.

I stayed in that spot until dawn. Right before I knew the alarm would go off, I slipped back into bed.

At breakfast, I noticed some new kids were sitting at our table. Maybe it was the lack of sleep, but this irked me more than it should have. I stomped over to the table. “Excuse me, who do you think you are?”

They all looked up with shocked looks on their faces. There were four of them; two girls and two guys. The smallest, a dark-haired Asian girl, stood up. “What?”

“This is our table. You need to go.”

She glared at me, looking me up and down. “And just who are you?”

Someone nearby snickered. “I’d move if I were you.”

“Shut up, Karis,” someone else whispered.

I ignored them. “I know you’re new here, so I’ll let this one go. Move now and don’t sit here again.”

The girl was about to say something else, but the boy sitting next to her stood up. “It’s okay, we’ll go,” he said in a light tone. Our eyes met and lingered for a little bit. His eyes were medium brown with specks of gold. He smiled, which made his face light up. Then he winked at me, which sent a spark, a very different kind of spark than I was used to, through my body.

The four new kids moved to a different table. I sat down and tried to take some deep breaths. Calm down, Kassia, it’s all over, I talked myself down.

Mira sat next to me. “You good?”

I nodded. Anxiously, I twirled my hair around my finger.

“Then what the hell was that about?! Our table? Since when do we have assigned tables?”

“Since today?” I knew she was right. Although we didn’t have an assigned table, we had always sat there.

“Okay…I’m gonna go get the food today. You…relax.” She patted my hand. “Zane? Sit with her.”

“What? Really?” Zane responded.

“Has she ever hurt you?”

“No.”

“Then chill, Zane!” she snapped.

Zane sat down. “Morning, Kassia.”

“Morning, Zane.” I smiled sweetly. “Listen, you’ve got to lighten up around me.” He stared at me, his jaw hanging down. “I have no desire to hurt you.”

“But that could change at any time…” he said, his voice shaky.

“I’m working on that. But even if I got mad at you, do you think Mira would let me hurt you?”

“No, but she’s not always around.”

“Can you think of a time she hasn’t been able to stop me?” I asked. He shook his head. “You’re Mira’s friend, you’re my friend, I like you. I’m not going to hurt you, but you have to relax. Can you do that?”

“I can try.”

“That’s all I can ask. Thank you.”

Mira arrived back with the food, placing a plate in front of me. Instead of my normal cereal or waffles, she had brought healthy food. “Fresh fruit and yogurt for you.”

“Is this a punishment?”

“Maybe.”

I laughed. “Fine,” I said in a sarcastic tone. I bit into the banana and stole a look at the new kids who had settled in at another table. “Wonder where they came from.”

“Does it matter? They’re here now.”

“Noe didn’t mention them.”

“Maybe Noe didn’t see them.”

“What didn’t I see?” Noe asked, sitting down with us. Auralee sat next to her, wearing a T-shirt that said, I respect your opinion, I just think it’s stupid.

“Them.” I nodded in the new kids’ direction.

“Oh yeah, I saw them.”

I looked over at her. “And you didn’t tell us because…?”

Noe’s piercing amber eyes shot me an annoyed look. “I didn’t realize I needed to report everything I saw to you.”

“This would have been classified as an important detail.”

“All I saw was them here at school. They didn’t do anything.” She looked over at them. “The boy, though…I see him talking to you.”

“Which boy?” I asked a little too quickly.

She laughed. “The one with the sun-kissed hair. He’s going to look over here in five seconds.”

I counted in my head and sure enough, he looked over and caught my eye. I didn’t look away; I waited for him to first. “What’s his gift?”

She was quiet for a minute. “Can’t tell. I can’t see him using it right now.”

“Hmmm.”

“The Asian girl, she’s a lie detector.”

“Nothing fancy.”

“The darker boy, he’s a telekinetic.”

I shifted my gaze to the brown-skinned boy with short, black hair. There were a few telekinetic kids here, Finn included. It was neat to watch them move things with their minds. We finished breakfast and went to class.

When I walked into my second class of the day, the new girl was talking with some of the kids. Her eyes were wide and her lips were in an O shape. When she saw me, she stopped talking and stared. The other kids followed her gaze. I knew they were talking about me, about my gift.

“Morning, everybody.” I raised my eyebrows and smiled at her as I walked by. I glanced at the ridiculous outfit she was wearing and said, “By the way, whatever look you were going for, you missed.”

Laughter filled the room. Her face turned hot with embarrassment.

Auralee was on the other side of the classroom. Hey, Auralee, does she know about my gift now? I asked in my mind. She nodded without turning toward me. She scared? Again, Auralee nodded. I laughed. Auralee could read minds. I knew she’d be nosy enough to check out the new kids’ minds, but normally she tried to stay out of other people’s heads. If we said her name in our mind, though, she’d listen. The teacher came in then and class started.

“I controlled myself this morning,” I told Dr. Frost that afternoon.

“Really?” She seemed surprised.

“I didn’t let myself get too mad about a situation.”

“What was the situation?”

I told her what had happened at breakfast. “I didn’t lose control,” I repeated.

“That’s good, Kassia. However, it worries me that this small situation upset you so much.”

“But it didn’t!”

“You made these new kids move though?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“It’s our table.”

“You couldn’t sit somewhere else?”

Well, this wasn’t going the way I had thought it would. I sat back in the chair, reluctant to say anything more. Here I was proud of myself and she had to go make it into something else.

When the bell rang, she sighed. “I guess I’ll see you Monday.”

“Sure,” I mumbled and walked out.

The sun was out and the courtyard was full of students. Mira was by my side in minutes. “It’s the weekend!”

“Yes, it is.”

The school had events set up during the weekends that were optional to attend. Some were fun. There could be dances or parties while other times they had lessons like dance or art, but tonight was movie night. The weather was nice, so they’d bring out the projector and show movies on the side of the school.

“We going to the movie tonight?” I asked.

“Sounds good.”

“Let’s do lunch in town tomorrow though.”

“Okay.”

I caught the new kids looking over at us during dinner. Auralee was being especially open. “The little one keeps wondering about you, Kassia. She’s having a hard time believing what she’s heard about you.”

I laughed. “I don’t think she’d want to test it.”

Her green eyes met mine and she smiled. “The golden boy wants to talk to you. He keeps going over what to say in his head. He thinks you’re hot,” she said, giggling.

Mira rolled her eyes. “Oh, come on.”

“What? You have a man,” I teased.

“I do?” She looked surprised.

“Yes, he would do anything for you.” I nodded over to where Zane was standing.

“Really, Kassia? We’ve been friends for years.”

“Exactly. You’re made for each other.”

She stole another look at him. “I don’t know. But you…you could have any guy here.”

“Sure. They’d all be scared into loving me so I wouldn’t hurt them.”

Mira laughed. I loved how her eyes lit up when she was happy. “Should keep them from cheating.”

“Face it, Mira. I’ll have to marry you. You are the only one who could tell me how it is.”

She shook her head. “Great…if only you were my type.” We both laughed.

After dinner, we made our way to the courtyard. As we walked toward one of the small trees, we passed the new kids. “Are you going to make us move from this spot too?” the small girl asked. Auralee had told me her name was Arian.

A few kids nearby stared at her in horror. I thought about what Dr. Frost had said to me, and then I laughed. “Of course not, silly, this isn’t our spot. Gosh, who pissed in your Cheerios today?” I then continued walking until we reached the tree. I sat down and leaned against it. Mira was staring at me. “What?” I asked.

“You never walk away.”

“I’m trying. That is what you want me to do, isn’t it?”

Speechless, she nodded and sat next to me.

The movie started. It was an action adventure movie with some romance thrown in. About halfway through the movie, Noe leaned over and whispered, “Five minutes.”

“Five minutes until what?”

“He comes.” She winked.

“Do you know more than what you’re telling me?” I asked.

“There are some things that people shouldn’t know in advance,” she said and turned back to the movie.

“That’s not fair.” I pouted. She didn’t turn back around. I felt like tugging on her long ponytail and making her talk, but she’d know it was coming.

Of course,