Eternity (15 page)

“I didn’t know
that you could draw the future. I knew you could see auras, so I
thought that was your ability, but now people are saying something
to do with fire too. There’s a rumour going around school that you
and some other people got in trouble for making a fire in the woods
at night, though I had a hard time believing that. I guess it’s not
true anyway.”

“Well,
actually, it is true,” I admitted. “We were just testing our
abilities, but we ended up getting caught.”

“How many
abilities do you have?” Michael asked, sounded surprised. “I
thought heroes only had one.”

“Three, I
think, but it doesn’t matter. I just wanted to show you that
drawing. I’ll let you get back to your band.” I took the paper
back.

“So, you don’t
know what this could mean at all?”

“Nope. I don’t
usually know anything except what’s in the drawing and sometimes
what I’m trying to draw, like time, person, or place. This time I
was trying to draw someone else, but it ended up being you.”

“That sounds
complicated,” Michael commented.

I shrugged.
“I’m still learning. Anyway, I should go.”

“You can stay
and listen if you want,” Michael said. “Can’t hurt to have an extra
set of ears around, especially those belonging to someone with so
much talent.”

“I think you
guys have a bit of work to do before you should have an audience,”
I commented, and then I blushed. I hadn’t meant to be rude. Luckily
Michael wasn’t offended. We said goodbye and I headed to the
cafeteria to eat.

I got about
halfway to the cafeteria before I realised something. I could try
to do another drawing of the same event to get more information. I
headed to the south wing instead of the cafeteria so I could draw
and grab some food from the kitchen.

My fatigue
continued to get in the way. The first drawing I made was of Leon
trying to play the drums, which I didn’t think had anything to do
with the other drawing since they weren’t even in the same place. I
managed to finish one more drawing before I had to go to class, and
it wasn’t in the cafeteria either. It was of Melissa standing next
to a broken pot on the floor in the greenhouse.

I spent the
next week trying to draw something else about the other drawing,
but I didn’t have much luck. Whenever I was in the cafeteria I
worried that something would happen, especially if I could see
Michael. I talked to him a few times and told him what I was trying
to do, but he didn’t seem concerned at all. I only managed to
create one drawing that was at all promising, since it was the only
one that was in the cafeteria, and it had a similar theme. It was
of Ms. Coleman, and she was running toward something, and she also
looked afraid, though not as much as Michael did. It was a small
bit of information, but it was information nonetheless.

It didn’t
happen until the next week. It was supper time on a Friday, and the
cafeteria was almost full of happy students, eager to get on with
the weekend. I was sitting with Jack, and we were discussing what
Ms. Coleman had told us about in History that morning, since it was
an interesting topic. I could see Ms. Coleman on the other side of
the room, where she was talking to one of her students. Jack ended
up leaving early to get in a game of basketball with one of his
friends from his classes, which left me all alone until Michael
came and sat with me.

“Did you hear?”
he asked. “The band is finally going to get to play a show for the
school. We booked the ballroom for a day in the middle of April.
It’s going to be great.”

“I did hear,
actually. I think Melissa mentioned it this morning, though I don’t
know how she knew,” I said.

“Oh, I told her
yesterday. Do you think you’ll come?”

“Yeah, I don’t
see why not,” I said. I secretly hoped that they were playing
better than they had the last time I’d heard them, but I didn’t say
anything. Michael seemed confident enough, and I thought he had
good enough taste.

“Great! Want to
get together afterward? Leon and a few others booked a TV and
managed to get their hands on a movie. It’d be great if you could
join us.” It sounded like he was asking me on a date, which I
wasn’t too comfortable with, especially since I was with
Adrian.

“I probably
shouldn’t,” I said. “I’ll probably still be on probation after the
whole fire incident.” That was a lie, but I didn’t think he’d know
that. I got up to go, since I wanted to go for a swim, and Michael
got up as well.

“Well, maybe
some other time, then,” he said, and he gave me a quick hug before
turning to go.

It was then
when I realized that something was wrong. I didn’t really know how,
but I felt it coming, like a gut feeling. When I looked around I
saw the people in the drawings I had done, and in the same place.
Ms. Coleman was still in the room, and so was Michael. Then there
was Adrian.

I hadn’t seen
him until that moment, right when Michael started to walk toward
the table where Patrick was sitting, but I think he had been there
for a few minutes, and it was the first time I had ever seen him in
the cafeteria. He had an expression on his face that I had never
seen before. I was going to say hi, but I realized that he wasn’t
paying attention to me. All of his attention was focused on
Michael, who was walking near him. The colors of his aura gave me
all the warning I needed, but I was almost too late. In what seemed
like a fraction of a second, there was a large gray wolf flying
through the air toward Michael.

Chapter
20

Without even
thinking, I jumped in front of him. I could see Michael’s
expression change into an exact replica of what it was in my
drawing as if in slow motion, but I was in front of him before
Adrian’s sharp teeth and claws made contact. He hit me instead.

As we were
falling to the floor I could see Ms. Coleman running toward us,
also looking like she had in my drawing, though there wasn’t much
she could do. Adrian’s claws had sunk into the skin on my
shoulders, but I didn’t feel any pain. His teeth snapped at the air
in front of my face. I hit the ground hard, which knocked the
breath out of my lungs, and Adrian kept going so that he was
flipping into the air above my head. As he moved, his claws left my
shoulders, but they cut my skin as they pulled out, leaving gashes
going halfway down my arms that immediately began leaking blood
onto the floor around me.

I could hear
the sudden noise of chairs scraping the floor as people stood, and
voices as they expressed their shock about what was happening. I
looked at my arms, and my first thought was that I didn’t know I
had so much blood. Adrian’s human face entered my field of vision,
and I could see the shock he was feeling.

“Juliet!” he
said, and he touched my face. I could see tears forming in his
eyes. “I’m so, so sorry.”

Suddenly he was
being pushed away. Michael was standing over me, his face pale. Ms.
Coleman got to me, and she shouted something at someone, but I
didn’t hear what she said. She had some cloth in her hands. She
bent down.

“You’re going
to be alright, Juliet,” she said, and she pressed the cloth against
my arms to try to stop the bleeding. The pain was explosive then,
and it sent me into a world of blackness.

When I woke up
the first thing I noticed was the aching in my arms. When I looked
at them, I saw that they were covered in bandages that went from my
shoulders to my elbows. Blood had soaked through a small area near
my right shoulder. I tried to move my arms, but the ache turned to
a shooting pain, so I let them relax.

It took me a
moment to realize where I was. I was lying in a bed that wasn’t my
own, and there was a curtain pulled out on one side. On the other
side there was another bed that looked the same as the one I was
in. Further away I could see a desk area, and seated there was
Georgia Hughes. She looked like she was busy with paperwork, and
there was no one else around. I realized I was in the infirmary,
which I had only seen during the tour on my first day.

I had only been
to a doctor once before, and it was when I was twelve. There was a
new kid at Pembrook, and his name was Max. He was older than I was,
but he couldn’t have been older than fifteen. On his first day he
got in trouble for pushing Henry into the garbage dumpster. On his
second day he managed to break a window, but he didn’t get caught.
On his third day he came after me.

I was sitting
under a tree in the yard reading a book by myself. I didn’t notice
him approach, so I was startled when I noticed him standing in
front of me. He grabbed the book I was reading, which was one of my
favourites, and he threw it up into the tree. It caught on a branch
that was ten feet above the ground. Satisfied that he had caused me
trouble, he laughed and ran off to interfere with a nearby game of
jump rope.

Of course, I
had been in the middle of an interesting part of the book, and I
wanted to know what happened next. Without a second thought, I
grabbed a bottom branch and pulled myself up. I reached the book
easily enough, and the way down looked simple. I was trying to pull
myself toward a branch when my pants caught on a twig. The sudden
interference in my movement caused me to lose my balance, and I
fell out of the tree. I ended up with a broken arm, but I was lucky
that it was nothing worse.

My doctor then
had been old and funny-smelling. He hardly said a word to me at
all, which left me feeling afraid, but he fixed up my arm well
enough. It wasn’t a pleasant experience, and being in the infirmary
kind of reminded me of that time, especially because of the smell
of disinfectant.

Dr. Hughes, as
I learned she was, finally noticed that I was awake. She quickly
finished up her paperwork before coming over to me.

“How are you
feeling, Juliet?” she asked as she started taking my vital
signs.

“Sore and
thirsty,” I replied. “Can I get up to get some water?”

“Nonsense. You
need to stay and rest for a while longer. I’ll get you some water
myself, and something for the pain.” She started putting a blood
pressure cuff on my leg, since she couldn’t put it on my arm. It
was an automatic one, so she let it work on its own while she went
to get me a cup of water. I felt better after taking a long drink,
though Dr. Hughes had to hold the cup to my lips since it hurt too
much to move my arms. When she took off the cuff she told me my
blood pressure was still quite low because I had lost a lot of
blood, but it wasn’t too low.

“How’s
Michael?” I asked, after I had finished the water.

“He’s fine,
dear. Everyone’s fine except for you. I suppose Michael was lucky
that you were there. Once he realized he had hurt you, Adrian
turned back to human and went to you instead of continuing to try
to hurt him. I heard Adrian was quite upset. The poor boy really
needs to learn to control his temper.”

“Is he alright?
He wasn’t kicked out or anything, was he?”

“Don’t worry
about Adrian, dear. Just get some rest.” She started to walk back
to the desk.

“Wait!” I
called, sitting up. I felt dizzy for a moment, but it passed. Dr.
Hughes turned.

“My goodness,
girl,” she said. “You’re going to hurt yourself. Lie back down,
would you?”

“You didn’t
answer my question,” I said. I was anxious and concerned about
Adrian. I knew he had hurt me, but I didn’t blame him for that. I
was the one who had jumped in his path.

Dr. Hughes
sighed. “Adrian has not been expelled, but he’s in a lot of
trouble. He’s on strict isolation from his peers, and he has to go
to counselling on a daily basis.”

“Why would he
be in isolation? He doesn’t like being around others anyway.”

“It’s because
he has proven himself to be a danger to others. I doubt that it
will be permanent. He’ll be attending his regular classes still
anyway, but his teachers will have to keep a close eye on him.”

“I see,” I
said.

“Don’t worry
about it. No one will let him hurt you again.”

I was startled.
“I’m not worried about him hurting me,” I told her. “I’m worried
about how he’s feeling. I saw him before I passed out, and he
looked so shocked. He probably feels guilty, and I don’t want him
to because of me.”

Dr. Hughes
sighed and shook her head at me. “All the same, don’t worry about
it. You need to rest and recover.”

“It’s hard not
to worry,” I said.

Dr. Hughes gave
me some pain medication and told me again to rest, but I refused to
stay in the infirmary longer than necessary. I left while she was
documenting my medication, though I was wearing a hospital gown. It
was closed enough in the back that I didn’t have to worry about
anyone seeing too much. I walked to my room. I had to be careful
not to swing my arms too much, and I needed help opening a door,
but I got there in one piece, though I received a few stares along
the way. I probably looked a little odd walking around in a
hospital gown with bare feet.

The room was
empty when I got there, since it wasn’t curfew yet. I tried to
change out of the hospital gown, but my arms screamed in agony when
I tried, so I just went to bed and promptly fell asleep.

I woke up about
an hour later when the other girls came into the room and started
getting ready for bed, but I kept my eyes closed because I didn’t
really want to talk about what happened. They seemed to believe I
was asleep, since they started talking about me.

“Do you think
she’s okay?” I heard Heather ask quietly.

“I hope so,”
Rhea said. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen so much blood before. I
hope that werewolf got kicked out. I can’t believe he did something
like that.”

“I think that
werewolf is her boyfriend. He was after Michael, not her. Juliet
jumped in front of him. I don’t think I could’ve done that, even
for someone as cute as Michael,” Melissa said. “She has a lot of
guts.”