Eternity (9 page)

“Check this
out...oops,” she said. The flame she had been holding in her hand
had fallen through her fingers and ended up on her desk, where she
quickly extinguished it, though it left a mark.

“Maybe you
should get a fire extinguisher to use during practice,” I
recommended, eyeing the burnt desk wearily. I was a little glad
that I was supposedly fireproof. I hadn’t told Melissa yet, but I
had no plans to do so that day. I wanted to work on my drawing
instead since I actually felt like I needed the practice. I was
careful to keep my sheet of paper as far away from Melissa as
possible, which was good because that wasn’t the last time she
dropped her flame.

The drawing
came easier this time, and I didn’t have to pay attention to what I
was doing at all. I watched Melissa instead, who was struggling to
transfer fire from one hand to the other without dropping it.
Usually it just went out instead, but she managed it a few times.
Mr. Ramirez saw her do it once and clapped politely before moving
on to the next pair.

This time my
drawing ended up being of Heather, who was standing in a hallway
with everyone else moving around her. She looked like she was
concentrating really hard on something, but I couldn’t tell what
she was doing or why. I also didn’t know when it would happen. I
decided to try to find a book in the library that described my
ability and what I could do with it.

Calculus was
quite a bit like the day before. Adrian sat next to me again, and
he would ask me random questions about my past when we were
supposed to be working on some questions that the teacher had
assigned. I didn’t mind answering, and I asked a few questions
myself. I learned that he was born in Romania but grew up in
northern California, and that he had been arrested twice, but he
wouldn’t tell me why.

“I won’t tell
anyone else, I promise,” I said. “And I won’t judge!”

Adrian shook
his head and answered a problem on his sheet, with a small smile
playing at the corners of his mouth.

“If you don’t
tell me, I’ll just think it’s something really bad. You didn’t kill
anyone, did you?”

He chuckled.
“You can think whatever you’d like. I’m still not going to tell
you.”

I kept asking
until class ended, but he was stubborn.

The next day
was the first full moon of the school year, and there was an almost
tangible level of tension permeating the hallways, especially with
the first year students. The werewolves were keyed up and anxious,
and the rest of us were a little nervous about being so close to
them at such a dangerous time. When I sat with Michael at breakfast
he could tell that I was as nervous as everyone else.

“Don’t worry
about it,” he said. “I’ve never seen anything bad happen here. We
were all scared the first time the full moon came in first year,
but when it passed without incident we learned not to worry. It
isn’t that big of a deal.”

“I know that,”
I said. “I’m more worried for Jack than for myself. He hasn’t
changed yet, so this could end up being his first time. He did seem
a little more temperamental yesterday than he usually is.”

“I have a few
friends who are werewolves, and they like changing. It’s part of
who they are. Hopefully Jack will see it that way too.”

I sighed and
picked at my pancakes. “He didn’t even know he was a werewolf until
he got to school. It hasn’t been a part of his life before like it
probably was for the others. It’s all new to him, so he might not
know how to react.”

“He seems like
he can handle it. I’m sure he’s been through enough in his life to
be able to cope.”

I wasn’t so
sure, but I just nodded in response. Leon sat down a minute later
and grabbed the plate of pancakes from the middle of the table
without a word. I was learning that he wasn’t much of a morning
person. He merely grunted in response to a question that Michael
asked him, though he still managed to throw a somewhat flirty grin
in my direction before he started shoving food in his mouth like he
hadn’t eaten in days.

I sat next to
Jack in History. We were there early, so we had a few minutes to
talk before class started. Jack noticed when I kept glancing
worriedly at him, and he got annoyed.

“I’m fine,
Jules,” he said. “I promise I won’t flip out and attack
anyone.”

My eyes
widened. “I wouldn’t expect you to,” I said. “I’m worried about
you, that’s all.”

“Don’t be. I
think it might happen this month. I do feel kind of different. My
skin keeps tingling and I think my vision and sense of smell are
stronger.”

I was
surprised, especially by what I could see in his aura. “You’re
excited?”

“Yeah,” he
said, shrugging. “I’ve talked to some other werewolves and they say
it’s kind of cool. I’ve heard it can be a little scary at first,
especially if you don’t have much control, but it can be fun. At
least I’ll know what’s happening, and I won’t be able to hurt
anyone.”

He was telling
the truth, and I was happy. Knowing that he wasn’t worried made me
less worried, so I felt better during the rest of the day. I was
even a little excited for Jack, and kind of hoped that he did
change.

Adrian wasn’t
in Calculus that day, and I was disappointed. I got my work done
much faster, but it was boring. I realized that I had been looking
forward to seeing him. I assumed that his absence had something to
do with the full moon, but didn’t know for sure. Maybe he was just
skipping.

I didn’t see
Jack for the rest of the day, so I didn’t know how he was doing
then, but he was up at breakfast the next day and still smiling. He
waved me over when he saw me looking for somewhere to sit.

“So, how was
it?” I asked as soon as I sat down. I could tell by his mood that
he had actually changed.

Jack smiled
widely. “It was really neat. The actual changing part was kind of
painful, and it was weird not to be able to control what was
happening, but when I was a wolf it was awesome. I still kind of
felt like myself on the inside, though I had a few instincts that
weren’t there before, but my body felt so different. Walking on
four legs was easy, but it took time to get used to the changes in
my senses, especially with my eyes.”

“It wasn’t too
weird or anything?”

“Nope. It might
have been weird if I was by myself, but it’s not like I was the
only one going through the same thing. It just seemed kind of
natural.”

I couldn’t help
but smile and share his enthusiasm. It did sound like it was kind
of a cool experience. I wondered why Adrian didn’t seem to feel the
same way, even though he tried to hide it. I thought about asking
Jack about Adrian, but decided against it. They didn’t seem to like
each other anyway.

Chapter
13

Over the next
couple of weeks, Calculus grew to be my favourite class. I liked
History because the class was always interesting, and Skills
Development because I was getting better at my drawings, and
Defence because it was a good workout, but it was still Calculus
that I looked forward to the most every day. I didn’t care much for
the subject itself, since I found it quite boring, but I liked
talking to Adrian. No matter how rude or sarcastic he was, I always
felt like he actually listened to me. I was definitely falling for
him, despite his rough personality, but he hadn’t tried to kiss me
or anything since the ball and I never saw him outside of
class.

Strangely
enough, it wasn’t until about a month after I made my second
drawing that it came true, by which time I had pretty much
forgotten about it. I was walking in the hallway with Heather, and
we were on our way to lunch after getting our butts kicked in
Physical Defence. My opponent, who was actually smaller than I was,
had hit my leg pretty hard, so I was bruised and limping a little
bit. One second we were talking about the school food, and then
suddenly Heather stopped walking. I recognized the image instantly.
I stopped too.

“What’s wrong?”
I asked her, instantly worried.

“Nothing’s
wrong,” she answered, “I’m just trying to listen to something.”

She walked over
to the main stairs, which we had just reached, and sat down so that
she could concentrate more on what she was hearing. I came and sat
with her while she listened, and she didn’t explain what was
happening for a whole five minutes. It was actually a little scary,
especially because of the expression on her face. It was like her
mind was somewhere else.

“That was
really weird,” she said when she was finished listening.

“What were you
listening to?”

“I could hear
Ms. Coleman talking to the headmaster. At first I thought it wasn’t
important, but then they mentioned you.” She looked at me
funny.

“Me? Why would
they be talking about me?” I asked in surprise.

“They were
talking about your aura. Mrs. Bainbridge said she had only ever met
one person with a white aura before. You’ll never guess who it
was.”

“Really? She
met someone with a white aura before?” I exclaimed. I was getting
excited. My heart started pounding almost immediately.

“Yeah. That
person was Amun.”

That put a
damper on my excitement right away. I thought it was neat that my
aura was the same color as a god’s, but that still didn’t tell me
anything about myself. I said as much to Heather.

“Sure it does,”
she said. “They think you’re Isadora. Mrs. Bainbridge even said
she’s planning on calling Amun to ask if you are, so they’ll know
for sure. They have no other way of knowing because there are no
known paintings or photos of Isadora, so no one knows what she
looks like except those who have seen her with their own eyes.
Apparently no one has seen her for a while.”

“I’m not a
goddess,” I said with a level of certainty. “I would know if I was.
It seems ridiculous that they would even consider such a
thing.”

“Well, there’s
more. Ms. Coleman said she talked to some guy named Omeye, though I
don’t know who that is. Anyway, she said that he said you have a
lot of power within you, but you can’t reach it. He couldn’t tell
how much power exactly, but he said it felt like more than he had
ever felt in someone before.”

“Omeye is an
ability reader,” I explained. “I met him on the first day of class.
He told me that I had power I couldn’t reach when I met with him,
but he didn’t say it was unusual.”

“Well it still
seems like there’s a bit of evidence, no matter what you believe.
You could really be a goddess. Wouldn’t that be amazing?”

“I don’t know
if it would, because I’m not one,” I said firmly. “I don’t think
I’d want to live that long anyway. Things would probably lose their
charm after a thousand years or so.”

Heather still
wasn’t convinced by my doubt, but at least she agreed not to say
anything to anyone else. I didn’t even think of it again until the
next day, when we were in History. Ms. Coleman was telling us
another story about the gods.

“After about a
hundred years, Isadora came up with a new idea. She didn’t like
having to go from village to village, always an outsider. She also
didn’t like constantly carrying the burden of her powers. She
wanted to try to live an ordinary life, so that’s exactly what she
did.

“She found a
woman and her husband in a small city in Greece. The woman
desperately wanted a child, but she was having trouble. She had
lost three babies already, and it was a constant source of pain to
her. She was pregnant again, but her baby was already dead, and she
didn’t know it yet. Isadora decided to take the place of the dead
fetus in order to be born again to a family who would be happy to
have a child.

“This may seem
like a very strange idea, even unethical, but it was one of the few
ways by which she could really start a new life, and the woman
really wanted to have a child. Since Isadora was so powerful, she
could not only be born again, but she could do so by her own terms.
She decided to hide her powers and her memories from herself until
her new physical form died.

“She was very
successful in her attempt. She lived like a normal person, and she
was well loved and cared for. She was happy, and when she was older
she fell in love and got married. Of course, she couldn’t have
children of her own, but she never knew why.

“She was
murdered before she turned thirty. As soon as her body died, she
was free again, and she had her powers and memories back. She was
saddened by the life she had lost, but she had enjoyed her chance
to be normal. From then on, being born again was something she did
many times, and Amun did it as well. It was probably what kept them
from losing their connection to the ordinary world because they got
to be part of it, if only for a short time. It also allowed them to
have a chance to live without the memories that haunt those who
live for so long.”

I wasn’t
sitting next to Heather during that class because I was sitting
with Jack, who knew nothing of what Heather had told me. When Ms.
Coleman finished the story, Heather looked at me, and I could tell
that she saw this as more proof that I could be a goddess, but I
was in no way convinced.

Adrian was very
moody that day. I knew it was the day of the full moon again, so I
didn’t take it personally. I was worried about him instead, and
surprised that he had actually come to class. He really seemed to
hate the full moon, but I still didn’t know why. I couldn’t figure
Adrian out at all most of the time. I could see what he was
feeling, but I couldn’t understand the reasons behind his feelings.
He hardly said a word to me the entire class.

That night I
decided to do something very risky, but I wanted to help Adrian and
I didn’t know what else to do. I was also curious, which I was
beginning to think was a fault of mine. I snuck quietly out of bed
at around 12:00. I think Rhea was awake, but she didn’t say
anything to me as I put on some clothes in the dark and left the
room. I almost knocked over a vase that was on a table by the door,
full of some roses that Melissa had taken from her botany class.
One of the roses fell out, and it made no sound as it hit the
floor. I picked it up and took it with me. It wasn’t until I was
out of the dark room that I saw it was red.