Chapter Three

I looked away quickly, hoping he didn’t notice me. I really couldn’t handle another Embry in the picture. I didn’t look back up, but I could tell he was still looking at me. I tried to act like I was taking notes on the teacher’s ramblings. I glanced up to see is he was still staring at me, and he was. He smiled slightly when he saw I was looking at him. I smiled weakly and went back to my “notes”.

After class I took my time putting all my books in my bag, wishing he would just leave and not try to talk to me. Of course he didn’t though; he walked slowly over to me and stood there silently.

He was taller than Embry, but he didn’t have as much muscle. His darn brown, almost black shaggy hair made his blue eyes even more stunning.

“Hi Gemma,” he said sweetly. I could have said hi back, I knew his name. “You probably think I’m crazy, just walking up to you like this. But, I figured you’d understand, being, well you know.”

“No, I don’t know, you and that guy Embry both make it sound like you know something about me. I don’t know what either of you are talking about!” I said grabbing my bag and attempting to walk out of the room, but I realized his hand was gripping my wrist. “Let go of me,” I said sternly.

“Gemma, wait. You’ve talked to Embry? You don’t know what we’re talking about?”

“Yes, I talked to Embry,” I said trying to get my arm out of his tight grip. “And no, I have no clue what either of are talking about.”

“Oh, that changes things. You do know my name though? And you read other things too, right?”

“You’re name is Nate,” saying his name gave me the chills and I didn’t know why.

“Yeah, it is,” he said smiling.

“What did you mean “read” things?” I asked and he let my wrist fall to my side.

“Never mind about that right now. I’ll explain everything later.”

“Later?” I asked. There was a later?

“Do you have anywhere you need to be right now?” He asked looking at the clock on the wall.

“Uh, no I guess not. Why?”

“Come with me, I’ll explain things.”

“What things?”

“Everything Embry and I have been talking about.” That was enough. He could have been a serial killer, and I probably would have gone with him. I wanted so badly to know what he and Embry had been talking about.

“You’ll explain everything?” I asked.

“Everything or at least I’ll try to,” he assured me.

“Ok then, where are we going?”

“We could go get something to eat, if you’re hungry.” Which I was, I hadn’t eaten lunch.

“I’m starving,” I said and he smiled. I hope he doesn’t do that often, my legs tend to turn to Jell-O when he does.

He led me out of the school and he stopped a cab. We both got in and he mumbled the name of wherever it was we were going. I quickly called my mom to let her know I wouldn’t be home right away. She seemed oddly excited that I was going off somewhere with a perfect stranger. It wasn’t a long ride, but we didn’t talk much. He asked how I’d liked the school, how were my classes, what did I think of the teachers. None of which I could honestly answer seeing as how I’d been too busing thinking about Embry all day.

We arrived at the restaurant and I saw it was some kind of burger place. He walked beside me and opened the door to the building and I went inside. The small room only held about 10 booths, but very few were filled. It made me wonder about the food.

“The food is great,” Nate reassured me as if he had read my thoughts. I smiled at him and he led me to a booth on the corner. The waitress came and took our orders. I ordered a cheeseburger, but he assured me he wasn’t hungry. She brought out our drinks and he started talking.

“Gemma, when did it happen?” He asked out of the blue.

“When did what happen?” I asked clueless.

“When did the weird stuff start happening?” He asked and my mind quickly flashed back to my 6th birthday.

“Nothing weird has ever really happened to me,” I lied. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to tell him anything.

“You can’t lie to me Gemma,” he said looking into my eyes.

“Yes, I can, but I didn’t, I don’t know what weird things you’re talking about.”

“Your 6th birthday party, you got the feeling your dad was coming back, your mom didn’t believe you. But he did come back, didn’t he?” He asked. How did he know? Was he just a really good guesser?

“My, I, how did you know about that?”

“You’re special, you know that Gemma?” He asked. I was getting a little tired of his questions; I just wanted him to explain.

“Can you please just tell me what you’re talking about? Can you just explain everything?” I asked feeling a little exasperated.

“You really want me to just tell you everything?”

“Yes, I do.”

“Fine,” he replied nonchalantly as the waitress brought my food to me, but I wasn’t really in the mood to eat anything. I didn’t look away from him. “Aren’t you going to eat?” He asked.

“No, not until you start talking.”

“Ok, here goes,” he said as I took a sip of my coke. “Gemma Woodson, you’re kind of a witch.” I couldn’t help but laugh and it was all I could do to keep my coke from coming out my nose. He said I was a witch? What was he talking about? Was he crazy?

“Why are you laughing?”

“Um, you just told me I was a witch Nate. You actually think I’m supposed to believe that?”

“Well, I was hoping so. It would make my job a little easier,” he said looking out the window.

“What are you talking about, your job?”

“Ok, here, you promise to just listen this time and not laugh?”

“Promise,” I said and I did. I would at least try anyway.

“You can go ahead and eat, this’ll take a while.” I glanced down at my food and remembered how hungry I was. I picked up my burger, took a bite, and looked back at him.

“Alright, witch might not be the best word to use, but when you turned 6, you had reached your age. Most of us are older, 12 or 13; you were much younger, which I’m sure made it harder. And having normal parents didn’t help either I’m sure. Thing is Gemma, you’re adopted. Every witch has at least one parent that’s like them. Your mom wasn’t. Well, I suppose your dad could have been, but he wasn’t 

around much was he?” I nodded no, but by this point I had stopped eating and was concentrating fully on what Nate was saying. “That’s what I thought. We really need to find him, he could help a lot.”

“No,” I said.

“No? Why?”

“He…hit my mom and me. He’s in jail,” and I would like it if he stayed there I thought to myself.

“Oh, I guess I missed that, sorry about that. But you don’t have to worry about him hurting you again. I won’t let him.” I looked at Nate. He wasn’t short or scrawny, but I remembered clearly how big my dad was.

“How do you plan on doing that?” I asked curiously.

“I’ll get to that in a minute; let me go on with the story. So when a…witch reaches their age, they start receiving their gifts. Your first was that you can see what’s going to happen, your psychic. I know it doesn’t seem like that right now because you only see when bad things are going to happen, but it’ll get better. You need to practice, and you need someone helping you. A few years later, you received your second, you can read minds. I know right now it feels like a terrible thing to be able to do. But again, you need someone to show you how. You need to be trained. Then you’ll be able to only read the ones you want to, and only what you want of it. Soon enough, you’ll receive your third and final gift. It’s usually the best of the three.” He stopped, I couldn’t tell if he was done of not. I didn’t know what to think. I didn’t know if I should believe him or not. I’d only just met him, but I felt like I could trust him.

“You have any questions now? That is, if you actually believe me,” he said smiling slightly.

“I do, or at least, I think I do.”

“Well, good I’m glad,” he smiled and took a sip of his coke.

“Can I ask a question?”

“You’ve only got one?” He laughed.

“Ok, more like a few thousand,” I smiled.

“Well, go for it. I’ve got a little bit before I need to get home.”

“When did you reach your…age?”

“I was 11, my older brother Dan was 13, and my little sister Jenny was 12.”

“There’s more?!” I asked, shocked.

“Yes,” he laughed, “my mom, dad, brother, sister, and my grandmother all are.”

“Wow, so you think my dad was? A wizard I mean.”

“Well, I would assume so. You could have been adopted, but there’s no way to tell right now. Do you favor you mom at all?”

“No, not at all really, she has light skin and blonde hair, almost grey eyes.”

“What about your dad?” He asked. It was hard for me to think of my dad very much, it brought back a lot of terrible memories.

“I look just like him.”

“Interesting,” he said looking out the window again.

“What about my eyes?”

“What?”

“My eyes, your eyes, and Embry’s eyes are all the same. Are they not?”

“They are. We all have the same blue eyes.”

“So does that mean Embry is too?”

“Yes, but he’s a different story for another time. Do you have any more questions? I’m going to have to leave soon.” My mind raced, there were millions of things I wanted to ask him.

“What…gifts,” I said stumbling over that word. It was still hard for me to see them like that, “do you have?” I asked.

“I thought you would ask that,” he said and smiled. “I have a gift similar to yours. I can’t read minds, but I can read thoughts. I can’t see everything in your mind, just what you’re thinking right then. I must say I’m a little jealous of you for that.”

“And what’s the other gift?”

“I can control people. I can’t make them do things they weren’t going to do, but I can stop them from doing things they were planning on doing.”

“I imagine that comes in handy,” I said smiling.

“Yes,” he laughed. “But I try not to use it very often; it tends to freak people out a little.”

“And what about your third gift, do you have it yet?” I asked, very curiously.

“Yes. I do.”

“What is it?” I asked.

“Are you done eating?” He asked. I looked down at my half eaten burger and nodded that I was.

“What is it? What’s your third gift?”

“Check please,” he called to our waitress who was sitting in an empty booth watching the TV I hadn’t noticed before. She brought the check over and Nate handed her a ten dollar bill.

“You didn’t have to pay for me,” I said.

“It’s not a big deal, but let’s go,” he said as he stood up and put his jacket on.

“What’s your third gift Nate?” He walked outside, ignoring my repeated question. I followed him and stood behind him on the cracked sidewalk as he got a cab.

“Get in Gemma, I’ll explain.” So I did what he said. It was already chilly here and the warm cab was nice. I waited for the car to start moving before asking him yet again.

“What’s—”

“I’m invincible Gemma,” he said looking straight ahead.

“You’re what?” I asked think I’d head the wrong thing.

“I’m invincible; I can’t get hurt, ever.” I didn’t know what to say. That was incredibly hard to believe, but I did.

I didn’t say anything for the rest of the way. The cab stopped in front of my apartment and I reached for the handle.

“Gemma wait, you aren’t afraid of me are you?”

“No, of course I’m not. I just don’t understand why you were making such a big deal about not telling.”

“I was afraid you wouldn’t take it so well, most people haven’t.”

“After everything you told me today, that somehow doesn’t come as a shock to me,” I smiled.

“You’re really ok?” He asked.

“I’m fine, but I need to go. I’ll see you tomorrow?” I asked.

“Sure thing,” he smiled and I got out of the cab. New York wasn’t going to just be an adventure. It was going to be life changing.