Chapter 17

As I left the dorms with the other girls and walked to the cafeteria, my stomach felt heavy. We sat down after getting our food and started talking about our holidays with the boys. No seemed to notice that I was abnormally tense as I waited for Nicholas to come in. He never came though and I slowly began to relax and enjoy being back with friends who I didn’t have to lie to. Well, I didn’t have to lie to them that much.

I felt someone trying to get into my head and jumped so much I knocked my water over. It spilled across the table and I blocked whoever had tried to contact me while I cleaned up the mess and apologized profusely. Finally I sat back down and opened the connection between me and Nicholas that he had been trying to form.

What, I unintentionally snapped at him.

Meet me outside the gate at nine o’clock, he said before ending the connection. Then he left my mind and I sighed. Was I going to go or was I going to ditch him? It was a tough decision. We got back to the dorm around eight thirty and I hung out in Laila and Kelsey’s room. They kicked me out around nine-fifty to go to bed. I wasn’t tired and I knew it wouldn’t help anything if I didn’t go to see Nicholas so by nine I found myself walking to path to the gate to the trails. I told myself that I would just tell Nicholas to leave me alone and then leave.

I found the gate already open, ominously waiting for me.

“Nicholas,” I called out softly and I sensed him somewhere nearby. I heard a twig snap and I turned to watch him walk towards me.

“Grace, we need to talk,” he said, motioning for me to follow him. I did. Fifteen minutes later we had reached a clearing and he stopped to wait for me. I approached him slowly. “I just need to know where I stand with you and if the prophecy is true,” he asked me, his voice serious. Suddenly I wished I had stayed in Georgia.

“I don’t know,” I whispered, hugging my arms around myself.

“How do you not know,” he asked me. I sighed.

“I’m scared,” I admitted.

“Of me,” he asked, sounding sad.

“Of us,” I whispered. Nicholas sighed.

“Why,” he asked.

“Because of how people would react,” I said. He took a step towards me and put a hand on my shoulder.

“Is that it,” Nicholas asked me, looking right into my eyes. I looked away.

“Maybe? No,” I admitted. I was so confused as to what I wanted and what was right. I was such an outsider to all of this, how could I make a decision that could possibly end the few friendships I had managed to create yet create something that was possibly better. Did I even get a choice? These questions seemed to be the only thing on my mind lately.

Nicholas didn’t say anything and an awkward silence stretched for long moments. A thought popped into my mind and I couldn’t stop myself from blurting it out.

“What happened to that girl you killed,” I asked quietly and Nicholas looked just as surprised as I felt. “I’m sorry,” I quickly amended. “I shouldn’t have asked.”

“No, it’s okay. You should know the truth. I actually haven’t really told anyone but Caveo the whole story. Are you worried about getting back to the dorms anytime soon,” he asked and I shook my head no. Nicholas sighed and rolled his shoulders back. He sat down against a tree and I sat down against a log that was lying nearby.

“Well, I was just like Mark last year. I thought was all that because I am a high ranking Everto and more powerful than all of the students here and even some of the teachers. This was before I met Caveo,” he added. Nicholas glanced at me and I nodded for him to continue. “One night Mark and I decided to mess with an Angelus named Jenny. She was really weak and couldn’t do anything to protect herself.” Nicholas’s eyes were distant and staring somewhere above my left shoulder.

“Mark and I were taunting her at the same time and suddenly she stopped crying and moving. I stopped to check on her to make sure we hadn’t messed her up too much but she didn’t have a pulse. Mark freaked and ran but I didn’t want to leave her there. The rest I assume you know. I took her to Mr. Well’s house and the rest is history,” he said. Silence stretched again as I processed. Nicholas still focused on the spot above my left shoulder but his eyes were hazy and unfocused.

“Is that why you don’t hate Angelus anymore? Because you feel guilty,” I asked. Nicholas took a while to respond and I was afraid he wasn’t going to. I was afraid I was asking him too many hard questions but he finally answered.

“Not entirely. I still thought I was better than everyone and I was still a pretty big jerk but then I spent the summer with Mr. Wells. He is a really cool guy you know?” I shrugged. I thought Mr. Wells was kind of strange but kept the thought to myself. “And then Caveo came along like you have Pax. They both helped take down my ego a notch,” Nichols said with a smile. He finally looked t me and I smiled back.

“We should probably head back,” I said. Nicholas nodded and we both stood up. He walked me to the gate and we parted ways with a simple goodbye. I felt slightly jilted and more than slightly confused and realized this was going to take a long time to process. I walked back to the dorms and went to sleep.

The next day I woke up late and hardly had time to shower and get ready before I had to be at breakfast. I sat with my normal group and acted like nothing had happened. But they must have noticed I was acting funny because Ethan asked me what was wrong.

“Oh, I just didn’t sleep very well,” I said and it was true. I kept waking up and reliving my meeting with Nicholas. As if my thoughts conjured him, he walked in then. He hardly looked at me, respecting the fact that I didn’t want my friends to know about us. It was weird to think that there might actually be an us now.

Ethan accepted this answer and the conversation returned to normal topics. In Politics Nicholas caught my eye and then looked away and I knew for sure last night hadn’t been a dream. I didn’t know if I wished it had been.

Then in P.E. we just hung out because Mrs. Ser was still gone on vacation. Kelsey and I played dots and tic-tac-toe on a stray sheet of paper. Then, in Focus, Pax pulled me out again.

“Welcome back,” she said. I smiled and gave her a hug. “So you had an interesting night last night,” she said and my smile faded. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“Not really,” I said with a shrug. I wasn’t being rude; I just still wanted to process it on my own.

“Well let me know if you do,” she said and then changed the topic. “So, you have learned how to read minds,” she said and I was hit with the startling fact that I could read minds. How weird was that? It was something I had never dreamed of being able to do. “And now we are going to work on your protection again.”

“I thought that was that bubble thing? I can still do that,” I said and showed her.

“That’s good but it’s time for us to go into more depth. Mrs. Ser will teach you how to protect yourself physically and the bubble, as you call it, is very weak and made only from mind power. Now we will be working will willpower,” she said. I gave her a confused look but she continued.

“Anyways, this part will be dangerous because I will need to attack you for you to be able to defend yourself. We will have to take this slow,” she said and I nodded in agreement. For the rest of the period Pax walked me step by step on how to form a sort of shield with my willpower. By the end I could make it, but not hold it for very long. And I was exhausted. Pax returned me to class and I caught Nicholas staring at me. I nodded subtly so he would realize I had been with Pax.

I walked out of the class behind Laila and Ethan but I told them I was going to take the lunch period off and go back to my room. I did and set my alarm for five minutes before the start of English. And then I fell into a deep sleep. When the alarm went off I quickly smoothed out my clothes and ran a brush to my hair before running to English. I made it just in time.

I sat down next to Laila and listened to Ms. Reel’s lecture about the book. Towards the end of the class she asked Chris how he got into the book. His response was:

None of your business.

Some of the students laughed but others, like me, were still amazed at the prospect of a man being inside of a book. To me it just seemed cruel and I wondered if there was a way to free him. Hm, that was an interesting idea but the bell rang before I could ask. Nicholas followed me to history and we walked in together. Nicole waved at me and I waved back.

“Hey,” she said. “Test today.”

“Oh no,” I said. “I completely forgot! How can we have a test the first day we get back anyways?”

“I know, it’s so not fair,” she said. We were sitting down but our conversation ended when Nicholas sat down. I took the test but it was easy and I was pretty sure I did okay. History was actually a pretty interesting class and I liked it for the most part. It was when we started talking about treaties and documents that bored me and these seemed to be Mr. Wells’ favorite topics.

After class, as I was getting ready to leave I felt Nicholas. When can we talk again, he asked.

Same time, same place? He nodded and left my mind. I left with Nicole, realizing it was pretty handy that we could communicate like that. I walked back to my dorm and dropped off my stuff before meeting up with Laila, Kelsey and others like usual. Only this time, no one answered the door when I answered and I couldn’t sense anyone inside.

I walked outside looking for them because I could sense a large group of people out there. When I walked out of the dorm I saw Laila and Molly going at it. It was a normal catfight and I rushed in to break it up, like everyone else was failing to do.

“Stop it you guys,” I yelled, pushing Molly away. She punched me right in the nose and I backed up, holding my now bleeding nose. Thank goodness it didn’t feel like it was broken. I stumbled away from the fight and swears began to pop up into my mind but none made it past my mouth.

Are you okay, Nicholas asked me. I couldn’t see where he was.

Pissed but fine, I replied. Ethan offered me a tissue and I held it to my nose. Lila and Molly were still fighting about who know what, oblivious to everything but their anger at each other.

“That was why no one was trying to break them up,” Ethan explained and I nodded, accepting the late advice.

“Ladies,” Miss Reilly yelled as she approached to scene and Laila and Molly both froze. Kelsey was helping me with my nose, saying it had happened to her once and I needed ice right away. We abandoned the scene and went to the cafeteria, letting Miss Reilly deal with the mess. After finding me ice I sat at a table, holding my head back and the ice on my nose. It had stopped hurting so much.

“So how did it start,” I asked, sounding funny because of my nose.

“Molly was taunting Laila about you,” Kelsey said, waiting for my reaction.

“What! Why would she do that,” I asked.

“Yeah, it was weird. She was saying you were going to be a Solita someday and you know how protective Laila is of you,” she said. I nodded, knowing Laila would be pissed if any of her friends became a Solita. “Something about a prophecy,” Kelsey hinted and I let myself look shocked. I actually was surprised. Why would Molly tell someone about that? My nose stopped bleeding and I looked Kelsey right in the eye.

“Strange, I don’t know anything about that,” I said. “Ms. Reel wouldn’t let me read my prophecy,” I said, not technically lying. Kelsey nodded, accepting my answer and changed topics. Thanks to the ice, my nose didn’t swell a lot but it was still sore and bruised. Stupid Molly, hopefully Laila got in a few good punches for me. At dinner, it was all we talked about. After I hung out with Laila and Kelsey and talked about how mad we were at Molly. We were being bitter and we knew it but we didn’t stop. At eight-forty five I excused myself again and threw on my warm jacket and then went to the gate.

“How’s your nose,” Nicholas asked, laughing.

“It’s not funny,” I complained as we walked. “Laila is still pissed.”

“I heard it was started because of you,” he said.

“I heard that too. About me becoming a Solita,” I said.

“Are you going to,” he asked me and I didn’t answer immediately.

“I don’t really want to,” I said. “I’m mad at Molly too and I still want to keep my friends. It would be messy if I even mentioned it.” He was silent for a while and we arrived back at the clearing we were at before. The snow crunched under my boots and I picked some up, letting it numb my hands as it melted. Nicholas took my hands and warmed them back up again for me.

“I wish you would,” he said. I frowned but didn’t say anything. “Well, I’m going to since I don’t have anyone to impress.”

“Hey, it’s not like that. It’s not a matter of impressing them it’s just I know how they think and I’m not that different from them,” I said.

“You don’t think we’re going to work out,” it wasn’t a question.

“No, I don’t,” I answered honestly. “But I’m willing to try.”

“I guess that’s all I can expect,” he said and kissed me. I almost immediately pulled away. “What’s wrong? Did I say something,” he asked.

“No, my nose hurts,” I complained. Nicholas laughed and I smacked him on the arm. “S’not funny,” I complained, holding my nose but laughing a little too. He kissed me again, careful to avoid my nose and I kissed him back. We stayed like that for a while until I pulled back with a sigh. “I need to go,” I said. “I still have homework to do.” Nicholas laughed and we walked back to the gate together. I was happy.

AN: Ta-da!!! A super long chapter to make up for the time it took me to upload it. Don’t blame me; blame my teachers who assume I don’t have anything better to do than homework. Speaking of homework I should probably be getting to that now. I hope you liked it! Would you believe me if I told you the story is almost finished?!?!? Well, it is. I just need to do a major cleanup of the final scene and then Pondera will be completed. Wish me luck!