Rebirth: The Awakening Of A Witch (5 page)

I was really irritated this time. I didn’t even know him! When I turned to face the front of the room, mimicking his action, the string of the balloon hit the side of my face. That’s when I realized that the pink balloon was now sticking, on its own, to
the side of my head
.
I couldn’t
help myself
.
I laughed
, immediately covering my mouth before Mr. Burns
calls on me
again. I sneaked a glance
in
his direction
and saw a smile threatening to
escape
his lips.
He was still staring at nothing at the front of the room
.

Before I could stop myself
,
I grabbed the balloon and directly started rubbing it on his hair. I hurriedly turned back to fac
e
the front of the room after doing that.
I heard him snickering silently, but I didn’t look at him right after that again.

By the time the bell rang, I already had all my things in my bag. I was waiting for Anne to finish fixing he
r
things when I noticed someone standing in front of me.
I looked up to see him staring down at me.
I raised my eyebrows at him, ignoring the fast beating of my heart.

“Adrien Fields,” He
sighed
and stretch
ed
out his hand to me. I stared at how his jaw was clenched and how his eyes seemed to be uncertain. What a weird guy.

“
Skylar
Matthews,” I replied, shaking his hand very briefly before
instantly
dropping it because of the current I felt at th
at
small friendly action.
H
e just nodded and turned to leave the room, and I
ended up staring
at his back, completely bemused.
He was s
uch a bizarre dude.

After that odd incident in Physics class, I concluded that my luck was finally running out.
Apparently,
Dagger Eyes was in every one of my classes
,
and we spent each of them
in a closed room together
, except in gym class because Mr. York, our
G
ym teacher, decided to divide the class into two groups. He was out in the field handling all the guys while the girl
s were left with Ms. Thomas, the
assistant
g
ym teacher.

By the time I arrived home, my head was hurting so bad that I was worried about developing a migraine.
I immediately went to my room, dropped my things on the study table, kicked my boots off, and dove for the bed, not bothering with a change of clothes. Before I know it, I was already fast asleep.

She was laughing so hard. It was the first time I heard her laugh like that for a very long time. He must have said something hilarious, because only he had the ability to make her laugh like that. I gazed at the two perfectly loved up couple in front of me. He was feeding her grapes
,
and she flicked his nose, an affectionate gesture she only did to the two of us.

We were out picnicking on a field somewhere. It was bright and sunny today.
Celine
turned to look at me and gave me her sweetest smile. She lifted her hand to me and cupped my f
ace with
it.

“I love you, my Angel. Stay strong.”
She said, her eyes growing misty with tears building up inside them. She bent her head down and kissed my forehead. I just stared at her, confused.

Nicholas ruffled my hair, so I turned to him. He smiled as he looked into my eyes, his own dark blue showing all the affection he held for me.

Then I saw something blue moving above us. I bent my head skywards to see what it was. It was a beautiful tree
that looked like marble, blue and green was scattered everywhere on it. Even the leaves had the same color. The entire tree sparkled as the wind hurtled
pas
t
it.

Just then, I felt my eyelids grow heavy
,
and I yawned out loud. My dad just laughed and placed both his hands under my
arms
, lifting me
to him like I weighed nothing. I must
hav
e weighed nothing because I felt small in his arms. I felt him kiss the top of my head before I finally succumbed to
unconsciousness.

I
woke up with tears streaming down my face. I lifted my hand to wipe them and curled myself to a fetal position afterwards. God, I miss them so much.
I now remember why the masterpiece han
ging on the wall behind me was extremely
special. It reminded me of my parents.
It was the first time I had that dream since I was 14 years old, exactly on the night when my parents died on that car accident.
Somehow, the words my mom said stuck to me. I knew it was a coincidence when she said
them
a few years back, but now I wasn’t really sure.

I kept on hugging my bed covers tightly, calming the sobs that still kept on coming.
Then I felt a soothing presence surround me. It had the same aura as the previous ones, like it was right there with me, actua
lly touching and enveloping me, trying to appease me.
I instantly felt at peace and was drifting back to sleep much faster than I expected.

When I
opened my eyes
again
, the sun was beating through the windows. I turned to my side and grabbed hold of my clock. It was almost noon. I stretched out before climbing out of bed. I went straight to the bathroom, fully planning on taking a long and relaxing bath. When I was about to undress, I realized that I still had my clothes on from yesterday. I sighed. I really need to stop sleeping with my
school
clothes on.
I continued undressing as I waited for the bath tub to fill up with water.
I picked up my hair
stick
from
the side of the sink and thoroughly concentrated on twisting my long hair into a bun, pinning the
stick
in place.
When I was done with that little chore, I slowly stepped into the tub and rested my head on the
side of the
now warm
fiber glass surface
.
I took my time soaking there and wasn’t really planning on leaving yet when Nana knock
ed
on the bathroom door, calling out my name.

She popped her head into the small opening of the door and said, “I thought we could go attend mass right after lunch,
D
ear. I heard Father Reynolds was doing the sermon.” She looked at me expectantly. I just smiled my approval. She smiled back and left afterwards. I hurriedly towel dried myself and went to prepare for mass.

Father Reynolds’ service was one of the most looked forward to sermons in Rattford Cliffs. In my opinion, the reverend had a knack for preaching, which is why I wasn’t surprised to have the town’s church packed with people. Nana and I walked to the side of the aisles, looking for an empty space that
c
ould fit two people. When I spotted one, I guided Nana in the middle sect
ion of the church were a nearly-
filled pew was located. As we slowly made our way to that spot, that familiar nagging p
resence sneaked up on me again. It’s been happening several times lately, and I was
gradual
ly starting to feel concerned. It wasn’t because it scared me. It was
because
I
wasn’t
frightened by it.

Just when Nana and I sat down, I spotted someone a few pews ahead of us. Adrien Fields. I noticed
that his previously relaxed position suddenly stiffened
. Then he started fidgeting, craning his neck
so he could see
above the heads of people
. He
obviously
looked like he was looking for some
one
. Wh
en his head made a complete 180-
degree turn to
the back, I held my breath.
I didn’t know why but I just did.

Our eyes met
,
and I was mentally prepared to see the raging look I was so
sure would be there
.
Instead, I was completely stunned when he gazed at me with sad eyes that were filled with sympathy and concern. The expression
on his face instantly brought back the dream I had of him. It was
almost the exact
look I’ve seen on him back then. I was still caught off guard by what I saw that I didn’t know how to react. So I just gave him a small smile before looking away, trying to focus on anything but him and the disheartened look on his face.

I
could
still fe
el
h
im throwing
that
intent stare back at me. Please
don’t look
.
Stop
watch
ing me.
Face
forward
!
I
commanded
him in my mind as
I
repeatedly chanted
this mantra in a singsong voice
in
side
my head
. I suddenly felt like I was going crazy
. I’ve never really done anything
like
this
before, and I was certain that I’ve n
ot once
felt this bothered with someone
in the past
.
W
hat disturbed me mo
st
was that I
seriously
didn’t know why I acted this way.

I found it painful looking at him
with
that
kind of
expression
imprinted on his face
, and like the
de
pressing feeling I felt when I saw him back at that restaurant
,
I couldn’t find any
logic
al
explanation
for the emotional turmoil I was currently experiencing.

The Reverend couldn’t have
made his entrance at a much more convenient time.
The church o
rgan
started playing a melodic hymn, signaling the appearance of
Father
Albert
Reynolds.
Everyone stood up
,
and I
silently thanked God for simple
custom
s
such
as the entrance of the officiating priest.
I stood like everyone else
and turned my body so that I, too, was completely facing the
direction to where Father Reynolds was going to
do his
entr
ance
march
.

Much to my dismay
,
the priest’s
arrival didn’t
have
much
effect on him
as I expected it to
.
I
could
still fe
el
hi
m
looking
at me.
He
just
stopped when it was announced that we were
allowed to
s
it
.
A
nd
o
nly then did
my
breath
ing
and galloping heart
start to calm down
.

According to Nana
,
the entire service was excellent…as expected of the Reverend.
I wouldn’t really know because I was completely distracted.

I kept glancing at his back during the entire duration of the mass. I couldn’t help it. It was almost
like a
magnetic
wave existed between us, and I couldn’t
bring myself to ignore the fact that he was there.