Alchemist Academy: Book 1 (5 page)

Bridget was sobbing. I hadn’t noticed how quiet everything had gotten. The Dolls pulled at her and tried to console her, but she yanked away from their arms and pointed her finger at Mark.

“You don’t know shit, and you’ll regret this.” She pointed at me. “You both will.” She brushed off her friends and stomped away.

The anger left me. I watched Bridget disappear into the crowd of kids surrounding us and I felt like chasing her. At one time, a long time ago, we’d been friends. I never knew what had happened to her. Now I felt sorry for her, and wondered if Mark had been right. Had some guy literally screwed her over? How did Mark know?

I looked at him quizzically as he stared at the space Bridget had occupied.

“I shouldn’t have done that,” he said, and shook his head. “It wasn’t the right thing to do, and I created an enemy for you.”

“We weren’t exactly besties to begin with.”

“Yeah, but it wasn’t right. I need to make it right.”

Maybe he’d pushed it a bit far, but it was over and in the past. No take-backs.

“Line’s moving,” someone said from behind us.

Mark ignored whoever it was and grasped both my hands in his. He locked eyes with me with an intensity that felt like he was grabbing my soul. I held my breath and waited for whatever he needed to tell me.

“You made something for my mother yesterday, something extremely rare and very valuable.” He pulled the small penny purse from his pocket. “I took it from her. You remember this?”

“Yes.” I gawked at the small bag.

“This can turn back the clock a couple of minutes. If both of us use it, maybe only a minute or so. I’m not sure.”

I shook my head and scowled at him. I didn’t like being played with like a child. “That’s not possible and you know it.”

“Hey, can you speed
up
the clock and move the line forward?” the guy behind us asked impatiently.

Mark ignored the comment. “I told you I’d prove it to you today. If you won’t believe me, then you’ll have to see for yourself.”

He took my hand and held it palm up next to his. He turned the bag over above our hands and the stone rolled out, stopping where our hands intersected. The stone began to flatten and he took my hand and clasped it over his. I felt the spherical rock begin to melt into my skin.

A loud noise sounded, like wind blasting, but I didn’t feel anything. I closed my eyes and felt the ground under my feet fall away. Grasping at the air, I yelped, and Mark held me tight. Another second and my feet landed on solid ground. The howling noise disappeared.

“Hey,” Bridget said.

I opened my eyes and she was standing there, staring at Mark. The puffiness around her eyes was gone; her face was back to its normal spray-on-tan color.

“Hello, Bridget,” Mark said.

I looked from him to her and wanted to shake him. What had he done? Had he actually turned back the clock?

“So, you’re the new guy, and we wanted to welcome you to Summerford High.”

The
déjà vu
made me nauseated. This couldn’t be possible.

“Thanks for the offer, Bridget. Might I say you look great today?”

I stared at him as he flirted with her.

She smiled and pushed her shoulders back. “Thanks. You look good too. So, we’ll be at the bleachers in the gym if you want to hang.”

“Thanks. We’d love to visit with you guys.” He wrapped his arm around me and kissed the side of my head.

Bridget raised an eyebrow and looked me up and down. “You’re with
her
?”

“Yeah.” He squeezed me. My dumbfounded look did little to confirm the notion.

“Whatever.” Bridget turned and walked toward the gym. She glanced back over her shoulder and stared at me, looking as if she was trying to figure me out.

“Hey, can you move the line forward?” the guy behind us asked.

I was the one to ignore the tremendously hungry guy this time. I grabbed Mark’s hand and yanked him out of the chimichanga line. I glanced at each person nearby and kept pulling him along.

“No fried burritos, I guess,” Mark said, staggering along with my pull, obviously finding the whole thing amusing.

I had no room for amusement and wanted answers. Somewhere private, though. I hurried along past the gym and the shop classroom, all the way to my tree. Standing under my tree, I turned and crossed my arms, facing Mark.

He had a whimsical smile spread across his face.

I opened my mouth, wanting to curse him about how what he’d done wasn’t possible, but I had witnessed it with my own eyes. We’d gone back in time, if only for a couple of minutes, and not another soul seemed to notice.

He stood with his arms crossed, waiting for me to speak. I took in a deep breath and tried to find a question that wouldn’t make me sound like a crazy person. “Show me something else.”

He laughed. “You’re the alchemist, not me.”

“Prove it.” I wanted to find something to mix. I wanted verification. It couldn’t be real.

“My mom keeps the stuff in her hutch.”

“Fine. After school we’re going to see your mom. I want some answers.”

His expression changed from whimsical to serious. “No, my mom will use you to make stuff. You don’t know what you’re getting into with her.”

“You don’t get to do this. You don’t get to just drop this in my lap and act like it’s something normal. It isn’t.” It hit me right then and there: I didn’t even know this guy. “Wait, are you normal?” Maybe he was something or someone entirely different, hidden behind the veil of a cute face and a hard body.   

“I’m as normal as you are.” 

“I won’t take no for an answer. If I can do these things you claim, I need to know for myself. I have to see it, or I’ll go completely insane … if I’m not already.” I put my hand on my forehead and felt a headache building. I hated not understanding things around me. I kept people away for the most part and kept those around me close. Even Janet and Spencer, as awful as they were, were comfortably dependable. If this ability was part of me, I had to understand it and bring it into a comfortable realm.

“How about this: we meet at the treehouse right after school, okay?” he offered.

“Only if you bring something I can make. Some alchemy thingy. You got it?”

Mark stepped closer to me. I licked my lips a little as he moved his face near mine.

“I made so many mistakes today.” He put his hand on my shoulders. “I never should have used that stone on Bridget,” he said, then let go of me and looked behind him as he laughed. “Do you have any idea what’s going to happen when my mom finds that stone missing? She’s going to kill me.”

“Just bring something.”

“Fine, but we’re going to start off small. Alchemy is a dangerous path, and I don’t think you even realize it yet. People will do terrible things in order to acquire these stones.” He again looked behind him, toward our houses.

I paced at the foot of the tree with my arms crossed, staring at the path leading to it. Ever since Mark’s time-jumping act, it was all I could think about. Did every stone do something different? Was there a book on what different combinations of ingredients made? I wondered what the first thing I had made for Ms. Duval did. My mind refused to slow down and it scrambled with a million questions at once.

The bushes rustled and Mark appeared with a bag in one hand. It had better be what I’d told him to bring, I thought. He regarded me with a smile and lifted the bag, as if he was presenting a fresh kill. “Signed, sealed and delivered,” he said.

I shook my head and wondered if Mark had a list of lame sayings in his back pocket, or if he saved them all for me. The corners of my mouth tugged up at his dorky smile. It was hard not to smile around him. He had an adorable way about him … endearing, with a mixture of mystery. I mean, why the hell was he so interested in me?

The bag swayed in his hand like he might be trying to hypnotize me. I knew he saw my interest because I was making no effort to hide it. I had to know how this all worked and if it indeed was real.

“Come on,” I said. “Let’s go up to the tree fort.”

I scanned the nearby forest. I wasn’t sure why; I just felt as if we were doing something nefarious. Like going to hide and smoke a pack of cigarettes, or sneak a beer from the fridge.

The two-by-four ladder creaked under my feet. I flung the hatch open and climbed into the small room. Mark was climbing much more slowly, mostly because he was holding the bag in one hand and climbing with the other. I paced around the opening until he climbed into the room.

He closed the hatch and took what seemed like an hour to open the bag and place the bowl and two vials on the shelf in the corner of the room. “So, you just—”

“I know what to do,” I interrupted, brushing up against him in an attempt to move him aside.

He held firm and smiled at me. “You are one anxious person, aren’t you?”

I crossed my arms and tapped my foot. “I’m sorry, but I need to prove, or hopefully disprove, this crap. I can’t handle the uncertainty for much longer.”

He shook his head and raised a brow. “Well, you’d better get used to not knowing anything. This stuff is just the surface of the alchemist world. Once you start dabbling, it’s only a matter of time until they find you.”

“Who’s
they
?”

“The Academy, most likely.”

“The place your mom was kicked out of?”

“Yeah. Though she wasn’t kicked out exactly. She just didn’t graduate. Something about not showing enough promise. Some alchemists are weaker than others.” He paused to streak back his hair with his hand.

“So some are stronger than others?”

He nodded. “My mom has talked a lot about the Academy, and she trained me for much of my life, hoping I would have the touch like her.”

“But you don’t?”

“Would she be bugging you if I did?”

“I suppose not.” I stared at the three items on the shelf and then back at Mark. He pushed on his stomach with his fingertips while smiling at me.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

“Yeah, why?” He moved his hand away from his stomach.

I knew he didn’t want me to know, so I let it go. I would find the right moment to talk with him about it. Besides, I had a shelf of ingredients waiting for me to mix.

“Can we get to it?” I succeeded in keeping a calm tone, but my mind wanted to yell the words out and grab the items to mix together.

“This is the simple mix of two liquids. The blue one is ammonia, and the second is water from the tap.”

“I’m mixing two liquids together. Really? Your mom had some flaky stuff in the mix before. How is this going to turn into anything?”

“You’ll never know until you do it.”

“Fine.”

He moved aside and I sidestepped to stand in front of the table. I took the first glass vial and poured it in.

“Oh, I almost forgot.” He handed me a thin wooden spoon. “Your mixing stick, my lady.”

“Thanks.”

I poured the blue liquid in and watched it mix with the clear water. I stuck the spoon in and stirred. The anticipation of something happening put me at arm’s length from the bowl. The water didn’t froth or steam up like the other ones … it just looked like a bowl of water. I pulled the spoon out and tapped it on the edge of the bowl before placing it on the table. The liquid swirled under the momentum I had built and then slowed down to still water.

“Did I do something wrong?” I stared at the liquid.

He eased up next to me, gazing into the bowl. “What you did wrong is a lack of emotion. You have to channel a bit of yourself into the mix, otherwise you’ll be just another rube.”

“What’s a rube?”

“Someone who can’t channel their emotion into the mix.”

“Channel my emotion,” I parroted. The two times Ms. Duval had had me mix, she’d told me to feel my anger. It wasn’t hard for me to summon.

I stood next to the bowl again, and in a second, I had the rage I wanted. Spinning the spoon around, I felt the essence of the water … and a part of me actually went into the water. Steam flowed over the edge of the bowl and up into the air.

I heard a clanking sound and felt the spoon hit something solid in the bowl. I blew the fog away and saw a round object sitting at the bottom. A clear stone, about the size of a golf ball, with a hint of blue in it, almost like an ice cube. I reached in to grab it.

“No.” Mark grabbed my hand. “You don’t want to touch these things.”

“Why? What does this one do?”

“This is one of the simplest forms of alchemy, mixing two similar ingredients. My mom tried to get me to make that stone a hundred times before she gave up. All it gives you is a runny nose.”

“Show me.”

“I’m not touching it.”

“Big baby.” I picked the stone up. It felt cold and as smooth as ice. It sat on my palm and then flattened out like a scoop of ice cream melting and disappearing into my skin.

“I don’t feel—”

Snot ran down over my lip and stopped my sentence. I rushed my hand to my nose and looked at the back of my hand, thinking I might see blood. It looked like water but with more gel to it. The snot continued to drain from my noise.

“Oh my god, it won’t stop,” I said with my hands flying up to cover my nose.

Mark laughed and shook his head. “I told you.”

It ran down onto my shirt. He kept laughing, and I wanted to punch him for it. “It’s only supposed to last a minute or so.”

I hopped around, pulling at my shirt and stuffing it into my nose. The front of my soaked shirt acted as a poorly built dam, blocking the snot from running further along my body. I felt disgusting enough already. When was it going to end?

I pulled the shirt from my nose and felt the stream turn to a dribble and then nothing. But the damage and grossness had done its job on me. The wet cloth clung to me and I pinched it away from my body, trying to keep it from touching my skin.

“This is so gross.”

Mark unbuttoned his shirt. “You can wear this. I have an undershirt.” He handed it to me and I placed it on the chair.

He crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow in expectation.

“I’m not taking my top off in front of you.”

Mark turned around. “Is this okay?”

“Cover your face.”

Mark put his hands over his face.

With one quick glance at Mark, I yanked my shirt over my head. I brushed the dry side over my face, then tossed it to the floor.

Mark looked over his shoulder.

“Hey, no peeking.”

I adjusted my bra and yanked his shirt off the chair. It was too big and smelling of Mark, but I slid my arms through the sleeves. He looked over his shoulder again. Did the guy have no shame? Seeing me in his shirt, he turned around.

With the last buttons done, I had to admit it felt good to have it on. Maybe it was just getting my disgusting snot-ridden shirt off, or maybe it was the feeling of being closer to Mark. Such a stupid thought, but there it was. He strutted across the tree fort, staring at my chest.

“You wear that a whole lot better than I do.”

“You’re unbelievable.” I wiped my nose and felt relieved to have a dry face. I stared at the bowl for a while and then turned back to Mark. “This is for real, isn’t it?”

“Yes.”

“We really jumped back in time?”

“Yes.”

I felt nauseated and plopped down on the chair. A stack of books fell to the floor, but I didn’t care. The room swayed and I saw Mark moving closer.

“You okay?”

I closed my eyes tight and stopped the world around me from spinning. I didn’t notice he had both of my hands in his.

“I’m fine,” I said, my words slurring. I couldn’t get past the realization that I was some rare alchemist person who could do things that no one should be able to do. Apparently there were more of us, a whole Academy of people like me.

The chair creaked and Mark rose as I sat up.

“Please, show me more.” I wanted to learn about every freaking stone in existence. The idea of it swallowed me whole and a tingling sensation through over my entire body. My thoughts ran wild with possibilities.

“I can, but I have to warn you, it’s a dangerous road to take. There are people like my mom who search out people like you. The fact that you can make a something like a time stone makes you even a bigger target. There are also dark alchemists who try to take people like you away.”

“I can handle the danger. Let’s get more stuff to mix. Something cool. Dude, we could do a million amazing things, I bet.”

“It’s not that simple. Not everything produces results, and I only know so many patterns.”

“Then we need to talk to your mom. You said she used to be in some academy, right? I bet she knows all kinds of stuff.”

“Allie, no. You don’t want her to be involved in this. She’ll find ways to manipulate you, create things that who knows what she’ll do with.”

“Yeah, but she knows how to make these stones. She might be able to help me understand.”

“My mom’s purpose is to manipulate people with them. I’ve seen it my whole life. It’s something you want to stay away from.”

“What do you mean, your mom uses these stones on people?”

“She won’t teach you. She’ll get you to make a stone, like the time stone or the insight stone. Things that can be used to create a situation of opportunity.”

“Insight stone? If we can’t trust your mom, then where can I go?”

He rubbed his chin and glanced out the window. “There’s the Academy, but I’m telling you that world isn’t one you want to get mixed up in. It’s filled with greed and deceit.”

I ignored the warning with my interest maxed out. I stared at the side of his head, wanting to turn it with my hands and make him tell me more. “Where is this Academy?” I had to know more about these stones and this ability I had. “How do I get in?”

“The Academy watches and listens. Making and using things like a time stone can bring out all kinds of people.” He looked at the ceiling and cringed. “I think I’ve handled you entirely wrong, and I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have shown you this stuff. It’s just when I’m around you... Listen, with your skills, there’ll be some people who will kill to get to you.”

“Are there really people out there looking for people like me?”

“If you’re looking in the right place, using the right stone, you can find a budding alchemist. My mom found you. How hard do you think it will be for others?”

I hated the idea of someone looking for me, and for what? Because I could make these rock balls?

“Is everyone in alchemy bad?” I asked.

“No. Don’t get me wrong. There are ways you can help people. There are ways to do good with it. It’s just that too many people get sucked in and consumed by it.”

I jumped on the good part. “Why don’t we grab some more stuff from your mom’s cabinet? I bet we could make some pretty awesome ones.” I wiped my nose. “Maybe even stuff we can protect ourselves with.”