Burning Hearts (5 page)

As the class went on, Jenna felt more and
more used to her body, recognizing its strengths and when not to
utilize them. Testing her theory, she took her pen and slowly
started to bend it, up until the point it would crack and shatter,
and then brought it back, unscathed.

Jenna kept her voice low. “Hey, Kylie?”

Kylie finished writing the lecture notes that
was on the board. Then she turned to Jenna. “Yeah?” she whispered
back.

“
Shake my hand.”

Kylie furrowed her brow. “Don’t you mean
‘pull my finger,’ and are you really gonna fart in the middle of
class?”

Jenna stifled a laugh. “Just shake my
hand.”

Jenna held out her hand, concentrating on not
crushing every one of Kylie’s bones. They made contact, squeezed
briefly, shook and separated.

Jenna smiled. “Thanks.”

“
What was that
for?”

Jenna had to lie. So she joked. “It’s for the
mother ship in space. You’ve been tagged. You’ll be taken and
probed thoroughly. You can thank me later.”

Kylie went to smile, but then her face fell.
“Tagged? Did you just get me sick with whatever you have?”

Jenna shook her head. “No, no. You’ll be
fine. Trust me.”

But Kylie took precautions anyway. She went
in her backpack and pulled out a small bottle of hand sanitizer.
She thoroughly cleansed her hands, even up to her lower arms.

“
Sorry,” she said, putting
the near-empty bottle back in her bag, “but I can’t stand to
puke.”

“
Sorry, again.”

“
It’s okay. Why’d you wanna
shake?”

Jenna didn’t have a truthful answer—and
thankfully, she was interrupted from conjuring up another lie—as
the door to the classroom opened with a loud creak!

“
Ah, our new student,” Mrs.
Quinn announced with a smile.

Everyone stared as they always do at
something or someone new.

But Jenna stared the hardest:

Tall.

Muscular.

Caramel skin.

Raven black hair.

Flaming blue eyes.

He was gorgeous, exotic, and somehow
dangerous.

Jenna loved and hated him.

“
Sorry, I’m late,” he said
with an indistinguishable accent, handing the teacher a slip of
paper from the main office.

Mrs. Quinn took it and gave him a smile.
“That’s all right.” She turned to the class. “Please welcome
Malcolm King, newly arrived from Egypt.”

The class was silent, staring. Even the
Stuck-Ups were speechless. Malcolm held his head down, looking shy.
He nervously adjusted his red backpack, his hand wringing around
the strap against his chest. He was wearing black sneakers, blue
jeans, and a white T-shirt.

It was all very casual, but somehow staged as
well. To anyone else, it seemed that he’d thrown on whatever had
been lying on his bedroom floor—but Jenna sensed that he’d
meticulously thought over each article of clothing—down to his used
backpack that had threads hanging out.

“
Why don’t you take a seat
next to Jenna?” Mrs. Quinn turned to her. “Jenna, hold up your hand
so Malcolm can see you.”

But Jenna’s hands were clasping the edge of
the table, trying not to tear it to crumbs.

Kylie lightly jabbed her in the ribs.
“Jen!”

Jenna came back to reality. She was in
school. Act normal, she told herself. She raised her hand, but
Malcolm had already been staring at her. He gave a slight smile and
walked to the lab table next to her—with no partner. He sat on the
wooden stool, laid his backpack down on the table, and smiled when
Mrs. Quinn delivered his chemistry textbook.

The lecture went on and everyone forgot about
Malcolm King—all except Jenna.

She just kept staring at him.

Malcolm had been copying the lecture notes,
but he stopped, and turned to Jenna. “Hi, how’re you?” he greeted.
She now recognized his accent to be hard clipped English mixed with
a soft lingering Arabic. He smiled, all very polite, but there was
apprehension written all over his gorgeous face.

Jenna stared at his blue eyes, unlike
anything she’d ever seen. They reminded her of the visions—except
the people who she’d killed had red eyes—like fiery wreaths around
black pupils.

“
What’s wrong with your
eyes?” she bluntly asked him.

Malcolm’s fiery blue eyes widened. He looked
nervous.

“
Jenna,” Mrs. Quinn called
out to her from the front of the room. “Could you pay more
attention to me and not Mr. King?”

Daniela and Emma giggled. The whole class was
staring at her. Kylie looked concerned about her friend’s state of
mind.

“
Yes, Mrs. Quinn,” Jenna
replied.

She hastily picked up her pen; the plastic
cracked, breaking in her hand.

As the class went back to staring at the
front, Jenna rummaged around in her backpack, trying to find
another pen, and trying not to destroy anything else.

“
Here,” said Malcolm,
holding out a black fountain pen.

She hesitated, not wanting to touch him, but
eager at the same time.

“
What if I break it?” she
asked.

He smiled. “I’m willing to take the
risk.”

As she reached over, their fingers grazed.
She was hit by a jolt of static electricity and jerked away, but
managed to hold onto the pen, secured in her hand.

He looked concerned. “Are you all right?”

She gave a slight nod before turning away
from his fiery blue stare. She wasn’t going to tell him that she
felt a mixed desire to kill him and protect him. No one wants to
hear that on the first day at a new school. And she definitely
wasn’t going to tell him that a language she didn’t know before,
had suddenly translated in her mind, and then morphed back into
nonsense; her memory was awful at this point, and she couldn’t
recall a single word.

He kept looking at her out of the corner of
his scorching blue eye—and she kept ignoring him. After awhile, he
gave up, and concentrated on note-taking. Twenty agonizing minutes
later, the class came to an end. Jenna watched as Malcolm left
without saying goodbye.

Kylie looped her arm around Jenna’s as they
joined the crowd in the hall. She didn’t seem concerned anymore
that Jenna could be contagious—or either really confident in her
germ-away ritual.

“
What’s up with
you?”

“
What do you
mean?”

She smiled. “Staring at the new guy, Malcolm.
Yes, he’s hot, but why’d you ask him about his eyes?”

“
Didn’t you see them? They
were practically on fire—but blue.”

Kylie shook her head. “They were just plain
blue to me. No fire.” She felt Jenna’s forehead. “Well, you’re
kinda warm, but not feverish.”

Jenna did a little jerk with her head. “Uh,
so you’re saying I imagined him with fiery blue eyes?”

Kylie raised her eyebrow. “Well, I’m not
calling you crazy, but…”

Jenna smiled. “The mental asylum called and
they have vacancies.” She shook her head. “I dunno. Maybe I’m going
crazy.” She held out her hands. “What human being has fiery blue
eyes?”

“
Exactly! He’s just like you
or me—except he’s a boy—with boy parts,” she contrasted
simplistically.

Jenna put a hand to her mouth, feigning
shock. “Don’t make me blush, Miss Vale.”

As they turned the corner, Jenna saw Malcolm
walking toward the water fountain.

“
Hey, I’ll see you later,”
she told Kylie. “I wanna give the new guy his pen back.”

Kylie grinned. “Yeah, right.”

Jenna thrust the pen at her. “Okay, you give
it to him then.”

Kylie refused, throwing her hands up in a no
way gesture. “I gotta get to class. That Arab heartthrob is all
yours.” She blew Jenna a farewell kiss before walking away.

Jenna held herself together
as she approached Malcolm, already done at the fountain; now he was
scanning the school’s announcement board about the premiere
of
Macbeth
.

She managed a smile and held out the pen.
“Here you go.”

He turned to her and smiled back. “You keep
it. I have plenty.”

She couldn’t help gazing into his fiery blue
eyes. How could Kylie or anyone else miss it? Was it just her? Was
she going mad?

“
I’m sorry for staring at
you,” she apologized. “I’ve been having a rough couple of
days.”

“
Oh?” He seemed
interested.

She shook her head. “I don’t wanna talk about
it.”

He gave her a warm, inviting smile. “Well,
when you’re ready, seek me out.”

He held out his hand. Inquisitive and also to
be polite, she took it and didn’t get zapped. She was very
gentle—too gentle. He squeezed. She squeezed back, keeping up the
pressure—until he winced in pain, trying to jerk his warm hand
away. She let him go.

He flexed his fingers, testing their
dexterity. “You have quite the grip, Jenna.”

She’d been testing him, seeing how much he
could take. His hand should’ve been a mangled mess. But it
wasn’t.

Was her strength fading? Or was he stronger
than the average human?

RESCUED

“
Lemme see your
arm.”

“
Which one? I got
four.”

Jenna rolled her eyes at Riddick during
lunch. “The one I hit. The one where I hurt you.”

“
I’m fine.”

“
Lemme see!”

Pru, Kylie, and Caleb stopped eating their
hard-to-stomach cafeteria meals to view the Jenna Has Gone Crazy
show.

Riddick slapped her probing hands away.
“Leave me alone.”

“
Please! I need to find out
something!”

He sighed. “All right—but don’t freak
out.”

She tensed. “It’s that bad?”

He replied by pushing his T-shirt sleeve up.
His whole upper arm was bruised.

“
Oh, no!” She slapped a hand
over her heart. “I am so sorry. I didn’t mean—”

“
It’s okay.” He pulled his
sleeve down, covering the damage. “It’ll pass. Speaking of
passing—are you feeling any better?”

“
Why? What’s wrong?” asked
Caleb.

“
Jenna was sick this
morning,” Kylie informed, “but I have a feeling something else is
going on.”

Jenna sighed. “I have to tell y’all
something—but not here. Come by later? At my house?”

Everyone nodded.

She turned to Riddick. “I feel so bad.” She
lifted up his sleeve and gave his bruise a gentle kiss.

“
Jenna…” Riddick trailed
off, not knowing what to say.

“
Knew those two freaks would
hook up!” Sadie screeched, resonating from two tables
down.

“
I can’t believe I’m related
to that bitch,” Kylie expressed with a disgusted face about her
cousin.

Jenna turned to see Sadie huddled with the
Stuck-Ups. Val looked sickened but kept his mouth shut. All
throughout history, he and Sadie had made her feel like crap, going
on about how she looked like a “sickly-pale, freckled-freak.” Kit
kept silent.

It took every ounce of her being to not snap
their necks—which she was fully capable of doing. Her only sanity
was the black fountain pen Malcolm had given her. When she held it,
she thought of him. He was a mystery—unlike most of the students at
Oasis High who she’d grown up with—knowing who used to pick their
noses, or pee in their pants.

His pen—just an ordinary writing
utensil—somehow connected her to him. It was his and now it was
hers. But as she saw him sitting with the Stuck-Ups—smiling,
laughing—she didn’t feel that great about his gift anymore. For all
she knew, he gave pens out to every girl, luring them into some
false hope of his attachment.

But then again, he kept looking at her,
smiling, but not in a smug way. It was a look that said: “I want to
know you.” It was mutual. She wanted to know his deal too. And it
wasn’t just the fact that his black pupil was wreathed with a fiery
blue flame. Take away that supernatural trait and he was
just…yummy. She could easily fall in love again—and possibly get
hurt again.

The bell rang.

“
Remember, guys, my place,”
said Jenna.

Pru and Kylie gave Jenna departing smiles
before going off in different directions.

“
Jenna, we need to talk,”
said Riddick.

She shook her head. “Caleb and I have to get
to class.”

“
No, y’all go on.” Caleb
waved Jenna away with a smile. “I can manage.”

Riddick reached for Jenna’s hand, but she
pulled it away, and clasped onto the handles of Caleb’s wheelchair.
“At my house, later, okay?”

He nodded, sealing his lips; but whatever he
wanted to say, made his face wrinkle with anxiety. She gave him a
slight smile in farewell, not wanting to hurt his feelings; but
also not wanting to encourage his stay, and pushed Caleb out of the
cafeteria, to the elevators. Caleb was silent until they got inside
the small box.

He held up his hand, motioning for hers. She
gave it and he brought her palm to his mouth, kissing it. “Don’t
worry, Jenna. Whatever you’re going through, we’re your friends, no
matter what.”

She bent down and wrapped her arms around his
neck, gently, with barely any pressure. “Perhaps there are some
people the Misfits just won’t accept.”

The elevator doors opened. He patted her
hand. “Enough with the depressing, huh? We’ll talk later.” He
smiled. “Now let’s go scribble and call it art!”

She chuckled and wheeled him to their spot in
the art room to only have her smile fade as she saw Malcolm,
already seated at a vacant table in the back.