Inception (The Reaping Chronicles, 1) (5 page)

Wow … he’s really thrown me.

She reached to pick her backpack up and grabbed her class schedule out of the front pocket. She handed the piece of paper to Lucas who smiled again and took it, brushing her hand—a simple touch that caused more warmth and flutters to pinball inside her body again.

After looking at it for only a moment, he handed it back. “Your first class is in the main building here.” Lucas motioned toward the two-story, brick building in front of them. “Just go through the main doors and take the flight of stairs on your left. Take a right at the top, and the room you’re looking for will be on that hall. I’d walk you, but my class is over there.” Lucas turned to his left and pointed to a long domed building with a flock of crows settled on its roof—all turned toward Gabrielle and Lucas. Gabrielle’s brow furrowed, but Lucas’s voice drew her attention away from them. “Gym first thing in the morning kinda sucks, but at least I can wait to take a shower here and sleep in a little.” He stopped talking and looked at Gabrielle as if he was waiting for something.

What am I supposed to do?

She just smiled. The sensation of being under a spell returned as she looked into his eyes, and all she could think about was how stunningly blue they were against his dark hair and sun-tinted skin.

The visions did
not
do you justice
.

The sound of the first bell breaking the silence made Gabrielle jump back into reality. They both began to laugh.

“Well … thanks, Lucas. It was nice to meet you. I really am sorry for almost hitting you. Not a good first impression.” Gabrielle reluctantly started to back away, turning toward the school and away from Lucas.

“No worries, Gabby. Do you mind if I call you Gabby?”

Gabrielle turned back to him. “No, I don’t mind.”

She’d never liked her name being shortened. Not for thousands of years. But she didn’t think she’d mind so much if it was Lucas. Gabrielle turned back toward the sidewalk that led to the main doors. She was about to turn to say thanks to Lucas again when she heard him calling to her.

“Hey, Gabby!” Lucas said as she turned. “I’ll see you in fifth period. We have the same class.” With that, Lucas waved and jogged toward the gym.

“
That
was interesting,” she said aloud to no one but herself. She hadn’t smiled that much in a long time. As a human or an angel. It felt good. She looked toward the sky, closed her eyes, and let the sun warm her skin.

“Thank you,” she said to the heavens.

A soft breeze moved across her skin; a breeze nothing else would have felt. It was meant only for her. She smiled again, feeling the familiar sense of Heaven that the wind carried with it.

Remembering the crows, she looked back in the direction of the gym. The crows, and Lucas, were gone.

The flutters in her stomach disappeared with them.

Chapter Five

Gabrielle ~ Fast Friends

G
abrielle made it through her first four classes without much of a problem although she noticed, as soon as she walked through the doors of the school, that the other students seemed to stare at her.

A lot
.

Every class she entered, she had the feeling all eyes were on her. She found herself wanting to disappear—just
poof
and be gone. She wondered if their attention was just because people recognized her as a new face in school or if she wasn’t doing a good job looking and acting like one of them.

If she could have stepped outside of herself to see what the others saw, she would have understood it was her face that drew all the attention and the way she carried herself so gracefully. There were pretty girls in the school, but none with Gabrielle’s striking, exotic looks. She had let her hair down and the dark, loose waves fell almost the entire length of her back. It was cut in long layers, the shortest just above her jaw line. Her large eyes, mostly green, were edged in a slight bluish hue. And her olive skin was so smooth she almost didn’t look real.

Not knowing this, Gabrielle found herself looking forward to the lunch break, which would begin in moments. She also wanted fifth period to hurry up so she could see Lucas again and wondered if he was wishing for the same thing.

I shouldn’t be thinking about him
at all
!

Staring at the clock hanging on the wall just above the door, she watched the seconds hand spin around the face, urging it to move faster. Finally, she heard the bell, then the immediate sounds of books closing, backpacks being filled, and voices freed to speak once more.

Springing into motion so fast she looked as though she moved before the bell even started, Gabrielle made her way to the door. Just as she was about to pull the door open so she could flee to momentary freedom, she heard a female voice with a fairly strong southern accent call for her.

“Gabrielle! Hey, wait up!”

Gabrielle turned and saw a tall blonde flashing a broad, friendly smile.

“Hi! I’m Nonie Daniels. Did I get your name right? I heard Mr. Friedman say it when he was checking attendance.”

“Hi, and yes, you got my name right,” Gabrielle said to the bubbly girl.

“Are you going to the cafeteria for lunch?” Nonie asked as they fell in step and entered the crowded hall. Students were going so many directions Gabrielle wondered how they made any progress.

“Is there another option?”

“Absolutely! Juniors and seniors can leave campus and eat anywhere. As long as we’re back on time, of course! I was going to meet my brother and a friend at the mall across the street to get pizza. If you want to come along, you can.”

Gabrielle studied Nonie for a moment. She was someone the other students would certainly consider pretty, though in a natural way. She wore little makeup. Her hair was long and thick with a slight wave, and her skin had the healthy glow of summer. The effect was stunning against the amber shade of her eyes.

“Unless you already have plans,” Nonie continued.

As much as Gabrielle wanted to take a break from all the human interaction and attention from the morning, she had a hard time saying no. Nonie’s chipper demeanor immediately put Gabrielle at ease.

“No, I don’t have plans. I’d like to go. It’s nice of you to ask.”

“Great!” Nonie said while adding a hop to her step. “I think you’d be much happier than if you stayed here. If I were you, I’d be getting pretty tired of all the eyes boring through me.” Nonie scanned the students. “Has everyone been staring at you like this all day? I noticed it in class, but now that we’re out here, I can see their boredom in World History wasn’t the reason.”

Gabrielle sighed and looked around at the sea of teenagers, their faces gawking back at her, then looked at Nonie and smiled.

“Yeah, I guess they’re just curious about the new girl.”

Nonie laughed as they began to descend the wide staircase. “That, and possibly that you have to be the most beautiful person to have ever walked through the doors of this school. Maybe any school for that matter. Seriously … I can hardly stop looking at you myself, and I’m an
only attracted to boys
kinda girl. You’re going to be beating guys off with a stick all year long. I’d be jealous, but I don’t think that would be fun for more than a couple of weeks.” Nonie stopped at the bottom of the stairs, forcing the stream of students behind her to part and move around her like a rock in a river. Several students protested, but most just went around.

Like they are happy to make her life easier by letting her do as she wants
.

Nonie just kept talking, kept smiling—seemingly unaware of her effect on others. People were still perplexing. She didn’t understand why some were perceived as more worthy or what made one a leader and another a follower.

“You want to ride with me? My car’s parked in the side lot, or you can just meet me there.”

Gabrielle found she liked Nonie. She had always liked people who didn’t beat around the bush. The direct approach was a characteristic she appreciated.

It makes my job easier.

“Yeah, I’ll ride with you. Thanks. Not just for the ride … thanks for being so nice.”

Nonie’s smile grew. Gabrielle guessed she was someone who wouldn’t often be caught without one.

“Well, come on then! If we don’t get out of here soon, we won’t have time to eat. And, by the way, you don’t need to thank me. I have to admit …
I’m
curious, too!” With that, she pushed open the doors and began to jog slowly toward a bright green VW Bug convertible, top down, gleaming in the sunlight.

Gabrielle caught up to Nonie, her laughter reaching her new friend before she did.

“If I had to pick any car in this parking lot that would be yours, this would definitely be it! It absolutely screams
Nonie’s car
, and I’ve only known you for about five minutes.” Gabrielle slid into the passenger seat, and Nonie started the engine. The sound of Bob Marley’s
One Love
was in mid-chorus as she put the car in reverse and then pulled out of the school lot.

They were stepping into the mall when Gabrielle saw Lucas. He was far ahead of them, and she could only see his back, but she knew it was him. Even blindfolded, she would have known. She could
feel
him. His energy seemed to stretch out to meet hers like it was seeking her out to pull them together.

She must have had a strange expression on her face because Nonie looked at her with curiosity.

“Gabrielle … are you okay? You look kinda’ funny.”

“I’m sorry, I’m fine. Just thinking about something.” Gabrielle tried to stay focused on Nonie. It was hard to not turn her attention back to Lucas—where she felt pulled to look. When she did, he was gone.

As they walked through the mall toward the food court, Gabrielle noticed Nonie didn’t get caught up in all the clothes and shoes they were passing in the windows. She never even brought up anything that had to do with fashion. That was surprising since it seemed to be one of the main topics of conversation for girls, second only to hot boys, that she had overheard since arriving here. Gabrielle was glad, though. She knew she wouldn’t be good at that kind of talk.

I can barely do my hair.

Instead, Nonie told her about the book she was reading—
Stardust
by Neil Gaiman—who she went on to explain was the most amazing author and insisted that she needed to read another book by him,
American Gods
. She asked if Gabrielle read much before launching into the hiking and camping trips she’d been on over the summer. Then, she talked a lot about music and art, mentioning her and her brother’s weekly touch football games that started in late September.

Gabrielle laughed to herself as Nonie covered more topics than she thought was humanly possible in such a short time, but somehow, she managed to do so and still breathe.

“Would you like to play on our team? It should be a lot of fun, and you could get to know some really cool people,” Nonie said as they turned the corner to the food court.

The merging smells of food—Italian, Chinese, burgers and fries, fresh baked bread from the sub shop—made Gabrielle’s mouth water.

“I should be able to.” Gabrielle was genuinely interested but had to focus harder to stay involved with what Nonie was saying as her attention was pulled away by food.

“The more the merrier!” Nonie chirped. “I know the guys are going to
love
that I invited you. The girls …
maybe
not so much, but only because they’re going to be intimidated by you.”

“By
me
! Good grief, why on Earth would they be intimidated by me?” Gabrielle tried to laugh convincingly. “I’ve never played football. They’ll all be way better than I am.”

I wonder if I’ll be any good at human sports? Acting like I’m
human
, that is.

Playing ball and running around for fun weren’t exactly things her kind did in their spare time. Really, they didn’t ever have spare time. There was always something to be done. Even here on Earth, Gabrielle still had her job. Luckily, time worked a little differently for her.

Nonie laughed, and her smile was absolutely contagious. Though if she were straight-faced, Gabrielle thought she’d smile back at her just from sheer enjoyment of how strong her accent became when she got animated.

“Gabrielle, you don’t have any idea how gorgeous you are, do you?”

Before Gabrielle could answer, a tall, blond male ran up behind them, grabbed Nonie in a big bear hug, and kissed her on the cheek before he sat her down.

“
Ugh! Nate!
Did you have to slobber all over me? Gabrielle, could you grab me a stack of napkins? Like,
ten
!” Gabrielle could tell she was kidding. She was already chasing the guy. When they made it back around, they were laughing and breathing hard.

Nonie playfully slapped him on the back of the head. And, though he may have wanted to retaliate, he looked up at Gabrielle and immediately stopped.

“
Wow!
” He paused a moment. A smile played on one side of his lips as he stared at Gabrielle. “Who’s your friend, Nee?”

“
Oh jeez!
” Nonie rolled her eyes. “
Heeere
we go.” She got a light thump on the head in return from the guy. “Nate, Gabrielle. Gabrielle, Nate, my annoying, but loveable, brother. Twin brother, actually.” Nonie smiled and pushed her brother toward the line for pizza. “Let’s get our food before my brother starts drooling over you and I lose my appetite.”

Nate and Nonie did look similar. His hair was darker, more like honey than Nonie’s wheat color. Their eyes were the same shade of amber, though, and his smile seemed to come just as easily.

Gabrielle fell in step with Nonie and Nate, feeling Nate’s eyes on her, then stopped abruptly.

It’s him …

She looked up and saw Lucas walking toward them. The flutters in her stomach woke again, and a smile spread across both of their faces as their eyes met.