7.

I lived the rest of the day hiding from Kiran; knowing at any moment he was going to demand the explanation I could not give him. But to my surprise, he appeared to avoid me as much as I tried to avoid him.

Seemingly all of my extra “energy” was gone for right now, and so I was able to relax slightly. Kingsley had a full eight period day, and the afternoon seemed to drag on. Lilly and I were able to sit together in most of our remaining classes. Thankfully, our other classmates preferred to ignore us.

I understood why they would want to avoid me; I mean, I was fully aware that I was a total freak. But I didn’t necessarily understand why Lilly had no other friends. She was drop-dead gorgeous and completely sweet, yet all of the other girls in the class acted as if she didn’t even exist. Only the teachers talked to her and even they seemed to do it out of necessity; well, and Talbott, who found any excuse necessary to say something to her. Maybe the other girls were just jealous.

All of my teachers, without exception, were demanding and irritable. They appeared to hate their profession in some unexplainable way. They did show favoritism to a select group of students, but no surprise, it just happened to be the Seraphina-Kiran crowd. Oh well, I’d never been much of an honor student.

The students were the real enigma. They gravitated around Seraphina like she was the sun. Even her supposed friends, Evangeline and Adelaide were in a constant sort of reverent worship. So why was I not surprised that Kiran and Talbott had also been victims to her gravitational pull? It was disgusting really.

The constant flipping of her long, blinding blonde hair and the incessant giggling were enough to make me want to burn down this school as well. If it weren’t for Lilly, I would have never made it through the day.

It was as though we were made to be friends, and similarly made to be outcasts. I wondered to myself what she did before I came; and then I realized probably the same thing I did at all of my other schools: sit alone, stand alone, eat alone.

Lilly could have been my exact opposite. She didn’t have to fill in the silence with needless conversation like I did, but didn’t seem annoyed if I babbled on and on either. Even though I could tell the other kids bothered her, it didn’t affect her sweet demeanor, the way I lashed out at anyone who gave me a dirty look.

Lilly and I said goodbye to each other after our last class, chemistry, and she promised to save me a seat in homeroom tomorrow morning. With something now to look forward to I watched her climb into an elegant, black SUV and drive away. She seemed much too small for the oversized monster truck she was driving and I imagined her barely able to see over the steering wheel.

I looked around the student parking lot and realized that everyone was driving an elegant, black something or other. All of the cars were classy and stylish, all of the students driving them obviously born with privilege. The extraordinary colors the students exuded were a stark contrast to the dark, glossy veneers of their automobiles.

I wondered if a black car was part of the dress code as Aunt Syl drove up in her cherry red convertible. I smiled widely, happy to not fit in and jumped in the passengers’ seat. I only felt slightly embarrassed for getting picked up from school, as we drove away, leaving the looming towers of Kingsley behind us for now.

“How was your day?” Aunt Syl asked, glancing at me from behind her oversized sunglasses. Her shoulder length hair whipped around her face in the wind, but she barely noticed.

“Oh, you know,” I sighed, thankful to be on my way home.

“I don’t know actually,” Aunt Syl gave me a longer look, and I realized she was looking for assurance that I would be allowed back tomorrow.

“Well, I didn’t set anything on fire,” I gave her a smirk, keeping the exploding fern episode to myself. Aunt Syl smiled slightly back; she always put up with my sarcasm.

“Well did you make any friends?” she questioned further, very maternally.

“Um, yeah, one. Her name is Lilly Mason and we sit by each other in most of our classes,” I prayed she didn’t ask about the rest of my class, I had no idea what I would tell her.

“Well that’s nice,” she paused, glancing at me quickly. “What about the boys?” a mischievous grin flashed across her face and I couldn’t help but smile too.

“Oh, I don’t know….. there are some good looking boys, but they all seem too immature,” Kiran’s perfect face passed through my mind, but I shook it out quickly, remembering his antics.

“Sounds like high school to me,” she smiled bigger, “So what do you want to do for dinner?” I realized then, that she was dressed nicely, in a light blue short sleeve blouse and black pencil skirt with killer heels, precariously pressing on the gas. It was a nice change from the doctor’s scrubs she was usually in.

I sometimes found it hard to believe we were related at all. Aunt Syl, or Dr. Sylvia Matthews was very tall, very tan, and very blonde. I was naturally tan as well, but only moderately tall. And as blonde as her hair was, mine was black. She made me keep it long, something about my natural color and volume being a crime to cut short, not that I minded; at least I could hide behind it. My eyes likewise were black, or nearly black; and hers were crystal blue. She looked like the stereotype California surfer, and I looked like the Adams family. How we could both be related to my mother was beyond me, but since I’d never even seen a picture of my mother I guess I didn’t really know how it was possible.

“I’m in the mood for steak,” I sighed whimsically.

“Steak it is. But first, pedi’s. Unless of course you have homework?” Only Aunt Syl would put a pedicure and steak dinner before homework.

“No, nothing I can’t finish later,” I lied, but honestly who really expected me to learn the entire French language in one night? I looked down at my beloved back pack filled with so many odious books. I had enough homework to last me several weeks, a few hours of procrastinating would not get me any farther behind than I already was.

“Great,” she headed in the direction of her favorite nail salon and I laid my head back against the seat and relaxed, for the first time all day, completely.

----

After a pampering spa pedicure, and a giant steak dinner at our favorite Omaha steak house, I sat down to what looked like hours, maybe days, of homework. Aunt Syl had been called to the hospital and so I had the house to myself, like usual. Her on-call schedule had given me a lifetime of freedom; I was used to solitude and independence.

My house, a cozy Tudor style, four bedroom, three bath, sat in the middle of one of the most beautiful neighborhoods in Omaha. All of the houses were built in the same style, but each looked uniquely different; located in a neighborhood named Happy Hallow, sitting almost exactly mid-town. The trees were tall in this part of town, and overshadowed most of the houses and streets.

Although Aunt Syl made enough as an ER doctor so that we could almost live anywhere in town, she preferred it here, as did I. The neighborhood was safe and since there was only the two of us, we didn’t need anything bigger.

Sitting at the desk in my room, overlooking the street, I could see my yellow Land Rover looking back at me. I stared back longingly, one day I’d be able to drive it again; hopefully one day soon.

I had never been the child that needed much discipline and Aunt Syl had never been the type of adult to really administer much anyways. I did, however, lose my car after getting kicked out of the third prep school. I couldn’t really blame her.

I tapped my pencil on the desk rapidly, knowing I should get to work, but lacking the will power. I had done everything I could think of to avoid French; but I was running out of options. I did the dishes, even though we ate out. I worked through my yoga dvd twice and I even finished every other bit of homework I had, which was a considerable amount.

French was too overwhelming, and after just finishing Calculus my brain was fried. Besides, I really was going to need a tutor. A pit began to form in my stomach as I remembered the students in my French class, mentally picking them off one by one. French 101 was an underclassmen class, and the majority of the students were freshman, I learned from Lilly during 8th hour Chemistry. So not only was I unable to function normally at school, I now needed tutoring from a freshman…. awesome.

I could ask Kiran. Or Talbott. My stomach tightened at the thought of asking either one of them for help. Talbott seemed harmless enough, but his devotion to Kiran was disturbing. The way in which he followed him around and could be so protective of him was not normal. I thought of Lilly and hoped that eventually his loyal energy transferred to her.

That left Kiran. Barring the fact that he would even talk to me again after I threw him down the hallway with my unexplainable electrical powers, we hadn’t exactly gotten along. Something about him both excited me and terrified me.

And with swirling thoughts of all of his exciting and terrifying attributes I drifted off to sleep at my desk. I couldn’t escape him; he was even in my dreams. Even subconsciously I knew that I was dreaming, but there he was staring at me, as real as anything else.

He moved closer to me and I instantly felt the electricity coursing through my veins, only since this was a dream it was even more intense. I turned and ran away, but he chased me. I could hear him only steps behind.

In my dream we were in a forest. The trees were thick and the ground uneven. It was nighttime in my dream as well, but the stars were bright enough to light the landscape even through the thick canopy above.

Although I was running, I wasn’t scared. I knew that I was running because Kiran wanted to ask me a question, and I didn’t want to answer it. But he was too quick for me.

He grabbed my arm and the force of the electricity from his touch pulled both of us to the ground. I found that we were now in a meadow, both laying on our backs looking up at the million stars lighting up the sky.

I wanted to get up and run again, but I couldn’t. My limbs felt weak and although the electricity hadn’t left my body yet, it was at a dull humming, keeping me very conscious of Kiran’s hand intertwined with mine.

My hair was fanned out all around me and I noticed that I was in the shorts and tank top I was in while I did my homework. There was a warm breeze that swirled around us, lifting my hair off of the ground and then laying it gently to rest again. I could feel Kiran’s eyes on me.

I looked over at him, unable to speak a word. I was transfixed to the ground, but it was not an unpleasant feeling. Kiran reached over with one hand, still holding my hand with his other to brush the hair away from my face.

“Eden,” he whispered in a hypnotic voice. “Will you please tell me what you are?” he smiled so sweetly that I couldn’t help myself. I wanted to tell him what I was, because I knew that I was something, something different, although even I didn’t know what it was.

I opened my mouth to speak, but no sound came out. He leaned closer to me and I inhaled his intoxicating aroma, something earthy, something herb-like, but something sweet as well. He placed the palm of his hand against my cheek and electricity surged from his touch. The feeling was heady and overwhelming.

I wanted to struggle, to get away from him, but I couldn’t move. It felt as though someone was invading my mind, or my soul, or both. It was all very confusing because of the intensity of the pulsing. I began to tremble under the force of it.

Suddenly I heard a deep and commanding voice, “Eden, wake up,” And I did. But seconds before I regained consciousness, I lifted my head to see Principal Saint standing at the edge of the meadow, dressed all in black and with a terrible, foreboding expression on his face. He was the one who commanded me to wake up.