Rebirth: The Awakening Of A Witch (7 page)

Nick turned and look
e
d
at me
with a doubtful look on his face
, probably thinking if he sh
ould leave me alone with him
. I sighed. Nick was so overprotective.
Too
overprotective, I think. I raised my eyebrows at him, challenging him not to leave.

He sighed and smiled at me before turning to
go
. When Nick was far from earshot, I focused my attention to Adrien Fields. I gave him a questioning look
.
“Yes?”
I asked.

It wasn’t the first time I’ve seen him this day. We did share the same classes. Earlier this morning during Physics and Literature, we completely ignored each other. He didn’t sit next to me during any of these classes, which I’m really grateful for. And nothing like last week’s episode in Physics class happened again, which was great too. I wouldn’t really want to get in trouble with any of my teachers.

He bent his head down to look at me. My heart started its marathon run when our eyes locked. He didn’t say anything and just stared back at me.
This was starting to annoy me. I didn’t like how
I felt
light
right at that moment
, with only his eyes to hold me down and make sure I stayed rooted to the spot.
I didn’t want to do anything with him.

He opened his mouth, seemingly
wanting
to say something
at that moment
,
then closed it again. I just stood there doing nothing but stare back at him
. All of a sudden, he hardened his eyes and clenched his jaw. He
now
held that
same expression as th
e
night we met. I stepped back a bit, feeling my
spirits
drop
at that look he h
el
d for me.

He was the first to break eye contact. He turned his face to the side so he wouldn’t be able to look at me. I saw him close his hands, clenching them into fists. What the hell is
up
with him
anyway? I felt anger surge through me
,
and I stood firm on my ground.
By now
,
everyone was inside the lounges getting changed. So no one was going to hear any of this.

“What the hell’s your problem with me?” I snapped, looking at
him menacingly, hoping my eyes w
ould let him feel the uneasiness I felt when he threw me that dagger stare of his. He didn’t look at me like I wanted him to, but I did notice his expression tone down a bit.

“Nothing,” he replied silently. He still didn’t look at me. “Get changed. We’re already late for class.” He walked away from me and strode towards the
male
dressing lounge. I was left alone there, still outraged at what just happened. I seriously wanted to punch something. I took small, deep breaths to calm down before
making my way inside
the dressing lounge.

Everyone was already dressed in their uniforms. Crap! I started panicking and focused on my latest obstacle yet. Volleyball. I groaned inwardly and hurriedly changed into the grey shirt and red mid-thigh shorts that everyone else was
clad in
.

Gym class was unbearable.
Naturally,
I almost tripped and hurt myself a couple of times. My team mates just did their best to stay away from me
when
it was
my turn
to serve the ball.
I almost hit Nick
once, and
he
was on the o
pposite end
of the
volleyball court
. It was sheer luck that he had fast reflexes. I smiled sheepishly at him and he just laughed, probably
already
expecting things like that to happen.

Today, Mr. York placed the entire class together.
The guys were playing indoor tennis on the half
section
of the gym, and the girls were playing volleyball on the other half.
The situation was totally unfair. I wished we could trade places. I felt much safer with tennis than volleyball. At least the
ball was smaller.

Mr. York blew his whistle and told
us to change courts. It looked like he wasn’t ready to quit until every one of us knew how to
properly serve the ball, especially me.
So, when we were
on our
appropriate
p
lace
s
, he
passed
the ball to me and blew his whistle again, signaling me to
start serving. I made my way to the end line to take my proper position, settling for an underhand serve. It didn’t really work well for my first serve, but Mr. York told me to try again. So I did. This time, my serve perfectly went over the net and e
ach
one of my team mates tensed up, preparing themselves for the opposing team’s come back throw. They were particularly watchful of
Kaye Michaels
’ serve. She was a great volleyball player and can return one of the meanest spikes ever.

The game went well for a couple of minutes, the ball constantly making its way back and forth over the net. Each team was getting
tensed
in returning the ball to the opponent.
Of course
, I tried joining in my team’s effort. Every time the ball flew over my direction, I managed to hit it with my claspe
d hands and hurriedly stepped aside
so my team could bring it back over the net.

It was the first time that a game went this well for me. It was nice to feel some adrenaline rush even if the game we were playing wasn’t
a
competition. Finally, we scored another one. One of the girls from my team spiked the ball
,
and
no
one from the other team was able to touch it.

“Ace!”
Mr. York
cried out
enthusiastically. I could
t
e
ll
that he was pleased
with
how the game was going for both teams.
He blew his whistle again, signaling the end of another set. He once again told us to change courts. By the time I walked over
to
the other side of the court,
I was feeling confident myself.

Mr. York told me to start the serve again. This time I managed to get the ball over the net in one try. “Nice one, Matthews,” Mr. York called out. I grinned at that small compliment.

This set, like t
he
one before went well, too.
Both teams were tied.
Everything was fun until Kaye
threw all of
t
he
ir
team’s
passes at me
.
She must have seen me
as the weak link
and told all her team mates to pass the ball at m
y direction
, possibly hoping that I would just run away and leave my team mates to rescue me.
I was doing well at first.

I got
really
confident
,
and I was able to hit every single one of
t
he
ir pass
es
and leave my
team mates to return the ball.
Then she
suddenly
spiked the ball
towards me, and all my confidence crumbled. I just
stood there,
closed my eyes,
and
wait
ed
for the impact. But it never
came
. Despite the
panicked
chaos in my head, I felt a sudden rush of air coming towards me, carrying that strong aura that I
have been
extra
sensitive to
since last week.

I still waited for some sort of collision
to happen
. Nothing. When I
slowly
opened my eyes, I saw a tennis racquet just a few inches from my face. I blinked
back
once. Twice. Thrice. I was still confused when I saw the ball lying on the ground. That’s when I turned to my left.

Adrien Fields stood there with
his right hand
extended
, holding the racquet that saved my face from coming into contact with the ball. An overwhelming feeling washed over me at that moment
,
and I just
gaped at
him, completely in awe. I didn’t even notice that he was anywhere near me.

Someone shook
my shoulder
. I stared at Sarah, one of my team mates. “Skylar, are you okay?” she asked, checking to see if I was hurt anywhere. When she sighed, I turned
back
to Adrien. He already dropped the racquet by then
. His back was still facing me
, but he had
his head turned sideways
so he
could
look at me
.

“Thank you,” I mumbled. He gave me a small nod
, a blank expression on his face
. He started walking away when Kaye came running towards me.

“Oh gosh, Skylar! I’m so sorry,” she
said
, looking
really mortified. “I got all competitive. Are you hurt?” She held my hand and roamed her eyes to check if I was, not even bothering to wait for my reply.

“I’m a
lright
, Kaye. It’s really no big deal,” I assured her. She seemed to take that as a sign that I forgave her. And I did. No one got hurt so I didn’t feel the need to hold it against her.

“You’re so lucky Adrien happened to be there,”
she said, biting her lip and looking guilty all over again.

“Yeah.
Lucky me
,” I
said sarcastically
.
I didn’t consider myself lucky for having to owe
that guy anything
, but I guess that couldn’t be helped
anymore
.
And I already thanked him, after all.

When Mr. York was certain that everything was alright, he blew his whistle and announced that class was over. I hurriedly changed
out of my gym clothes and went straight to the
school
cafeteria,
fully
intending on avoiding Adrien.

I didn’t realize that I left Nick, too, and we usually go to the cafeteria together.

“Hey, Nick.” I smiled
apologetically
. “Guess what? I actually did pretty well in gym class,” I said, still a bit excited with what happened earlier. I really did feel proud of myself.

“Oh really?” he asked
, clearly not believing me
and totally forgetting that I left him after gym class
.
O
bviously
, he
didn’t watch me play. I just nodded and smiled at him
, glad that he didn’t seem to mind being left behind
.

When
we
were already seated
at our usual table in the now crowded area, I felt that same strong air
somewhere. I turned to my side and saw Adrien again. He was carrying a tray of food and was about to sit on one
of the tables not too far from us
.

He was soon joined by two of the best tennis players in our school. Wow. Looks like someone’s being recruited. I smiled to myself. At least he won’t be by himself anymore.

I immediately stopped myself there. Why would I care?
I was probably just feeling a bit grateful.
I was so annoyed with
myself and took it out on the apple in the middle of my
tray
. When I finished eating the poor fruit in a savage way, I had that weird feeling that someone was watching me. So I turned my head to the side
,
only to find a pair of amused,
deep
silver
eyes.