Reckless Magic (7 page)

“
Mr. Angelo, your services
will not be needed, unless of course you are not able to continue
on to class alone?” Mrs. Truance’s voice was snide and demeaning
when she addressed Talbot, and I couldn’t help but let out a small
snicker; however, that got me a very dirty look from
everybody.

Mrs. Truance turned on her heel and
stalked off toward the Administration Building. I allowed Kiran to
pass, and followed in step behind them. What had I done
now?

6.

The principal’s office was on the
second floor of the Administration Building. The main floor was
just the lavish lobby and space for the secretary. The stairs to
the second floor sat right inside the door, I had not even noticed
them when I entered the building earlier in the morning. The
stairway was small and slightly winding; I felt almost
claustrophobic as I followed Kiran, following Mrs. Truance
upwards.

The small pricks I had felt near the
cafeteria were growing stronger in the small space and I was
getting very uncomfortable. The electrical pulses were buzzing
inside of me and my blood was slowly rising to a boil. It was a
different kind of energy though, an energy I felt I could almost
manage. Since I was already struggling to contain myself, I tried
to place the energy into a specific area of my body. My hands began
to tremble. I clenched and unclenched my fists, struggling to gain
control. The stronger the electricity grew however, the more I felt
I could control it and so the logical place for me to concentrate
was on my hands. As I did this, the collective energy rushed down
through my body into my fingers. I could feel the electricity
through my palms and fingertips, almost like I was holding
it.

By that point we were coming out of
the stairway and onto the second floor. Teacher’s offices
surrounded us on either side of the hallway. At the end of the long
corridor was the principal’s office, the gold nameplate read “Dr.
Amory Saint.”

Now that the energy was in my hands it
felt too much for me. My entire body was trembling from the force,
and I was struggling to contain the power of it. I had no idea what
that meant, all I knew was that I would like for these people to
continue thinking I was a normal teenage girl, especially if I was
on my way to plead my case.

Two potted ferns sat on either side of
Principal Saint’s doorway. As we approached, I thought of the only
logical thing to do; although in reality, this entire experience
was anything but logical. As casually as possible, I pointed my
hands in the direction of one of the pots and let the energy go.
This seemed the only natural course, although I was unsure of what
was prompting me to do it.

A bright light shot from my hands, and
to my shock and horror the potted plant exploded. Dirt, leaves, and
shards of ceramic flew everywhere. I let out a loud scream and
stopped dead in my tracks. That was not at all what I had expected
to happen.

My body had stopped shaking and the
electricity was gone. I felt wonderful; this was the best I had
felt in years. It was almost as if whatever had been building up
inside of me and causing all of those terrible things to happen was
finally gone. I couldn’t help but let out a small smile of
triumph.

My elation however, only lasted a
second. After being thoroughly proud of myself, and after I had
realized how good I felt, I looked up to see that not only Kiran,
but Mrs. Truance also, were covered in dirt and leaves.

They had turned around to look at me,
waiting for an explanation, mouths tightly closed, mimicking each
other. Mrs. Truance’s burgundy suit was covered in grime and her
glasses were completely worthless. She let out an angry sigh and
dirt spewed from her lips. Kiran’s dirty blonde tussles were turned
black from dirt and he was covered head to toe in white dust and
shrapnel from the ceramic. I held back a laugh when I noticed a
fern leaf resting precariously on the top of his head.

“
Oh my gosh. That was the
weirdest thing I have ever seen! Are you guys ok? What happened?”
words and lies rushed out of my mouth. I felt ridiculous, but I was
just praying they bought it.

“
You did this,” Kiran glared
at me, angry and accusing.

“
How could I have possibly
done that?” I laughed out loud; hoping to pass myself off as
incredulous, but soon realized I sounded more hysterical than
anything. “I was way back here. How could I have done
that?”

“
Mag…” Kiran
started.

“
Oh my, must have been a
prank. Those nasty little underclassmen are always pulling stunts
like this,” Mrs. Truance cut Kiran off and physically pushed him
out of the way of the office door. “Mr. Kendrick go clean up. Ms.
Matthews since you are unscathed you will see Dr. Saint first.” Her
voice was void of emotion and I could tell that she didn’t believe
a word she had just said. I doubted Kiran did either.

I followed the direction of her
pointed finger and entered Principal Saint’s office. Small bits of
dirt and ceramic littered the floor. I was careful to walk over
them.

“
Close the door behind you,”
a deep, sophisticated voice ordered me.

I did as I was told, moving the debris
out of the way with the sliding door. The door closed with a final
click and I turned to look at the man who had spoken.

Dr. Amory Saint was a man in his late
fifties. He was tall, with dark, almost black hair and even darker
eyes. He was handsome, or maybe more distinguished than handsome;
but either way he seemed to be a man that got things done. He
actually resembled one of the bad guys in a James Bond
movie.

“
Please sit down Ms.
Matthews,” He pointed to one of two elegant leather sitting chairs
opposite his large, mahogany desk. Again, I did as I was
told.

“
Welcome Eden. May I call
you Eden?” I nodded my head yes, almost afraid to make a sound. I
had never felt more intimidated and I wasn't sure if it was because
of the seemingly thousands of books lining every available wall
space and cluttering the gigantic and opposing desk, or if it was
because I knew that man held my fate in his hands.

“
I hope you are making
yourself at home in our humble school,” he looked to me again, and
I nodded; although I would have called Kingsley anything but
humble. “That’s good…. I wanted to check in with you, just to see
how you are adjusting,” here he looked to me and paused, I could
tell he was waiting for a verbal response.

“
Um, yes, I’m adjusting, um,
just fine. Thank you,” I stammered out.

“
That’s good.” He repeated
himself. “And everything is to your liking?” again he waited for me
to respond.

“
Yes, everything is just
fine,” I tried a small smile, hoping that maybe if this wasn’t a
meeting to expel me then I could go.

“
So nothing strange has
happened to you today? Nothing out of the ordinary?” his face
remained perfectly calm, but I began to panic.

“
What do you mean?” I asked
in a barely audible voice.

“
I apologize if I’ve
confused you. I just want to make sure everything is going smoothly
on your first day here. It is my job to make sure every student
feels well adjusted,” he smiled calmly, waiting again for my
response. Was this some kind of test?

“
Everything’s fine,” I
blurted out. “If you mean the plant, I mean what happened in the
hallway, Mrs. Truance said that it was a prank. I didn’t do it. It
wasn’t my fault. And I don’t know what came over me this morning, I
didn’t mean to faint. I’m sorry, it won’t happen again. It’s just
that I guess I was nervous and…” he cut me off with a shake of his
hand.

“
Calm down, please. I didn’t
mean to upset you, I was simply inquiring about your first
impressions of Kingsley. You may go now,” he motioned towards the
door and I got up quickly to leave. I had a hand on the door knob
when he stopped me again. “Oh, Eden, one more thing, please don’t
hesitate to speak with me if something ever is on your
mind.”

Dr. Saint’s last comment caught me off
guard and I hurried through the door, feeling very uncomfortable. I
could feel the anxiety growing inside of me, along with the
electrical pulses. I was so concentrated on his last words to me
that I was not paying attention to where I was going and ran face
first into the chest of none other than Kiran.

At first I looked up to apologize, but
something happened when our bodies came into full contact with each
other. Quicker than I realized what was happening, the electrical
pulses were seizing my entire body. They were stronger and more
painful than anything I had experienced before and as a gut
reaction I forced them out of myself just like I did before. Only,
this time, their point of exit was not a potted plant, but
Kiran.

Kiran was suddenly flying through the
air and across the hallway. The strong impulses that exited my
hands hit poor Kiran directly in the chest. He landed fifteen feet
away on his back looking up at me. I stood there shocked,
completely unharmed. At least he didn’t explode.

“
What the hell was that
for?” he demanded, scrambling to his feet and rushing over to
confront me.

“
I, um, I have no idea. Um,
I am really sorry,” I was mortified, there was no way, I could have
ever explained that to him.

“
How dare you!” he yelled at
me. I hung my head, not having a clue how I could make any logical
excuse for my behavior.

“
Mr. Kendrick, please come
into my office,” Dr. Saint was standing in his doorway, as calm as
ever.

“
Did you see what just
happened?” Kiran shouted incredulously.

“
What I saw, was an
accidental collision. Ms. Matthews meant no harm, nor did she do it
maliciously. In fact I have already heard her apologize to you.
Now, please, come in to my office.” We both stood there, staring at
Principal Saint. “If you please, Mr. Kendrick,” he asked again with
less patience. Dr. Saint opened his arm wide, directing Kiran
beyond his office door.

Kiran walked by me shaking his head,
and as I made my way back down the hallway towards the staircase I
heard Kiran shout, “Who is she Amory?” before Dr. Saint closed the
door behind him.

7.

I lived the rest of the day hiding
from Kiran; knowing at any moment he was going to demand the
explanation I could not give him. But to my surprise, he appeared
to avoid me as much as I tried to avoid him.

Seemingly all of my extra “energy” was
gone for right now, and so I was able to relax slightly. Kingsley
had a full eight period day, and the afternoon seemed to drag on.
Lilly and I were able to sit together in most of our remaining
classes. Thankfully, our other classmates preferred to ignore
us.

I understood why they would want to
avoid me; I mean, I was fully aware that I was a total freak. But I
didn’t necessarily understand why Lilly had no other friends. She
was drop-dead gorgeous and completely sweet, yet all of the other
girls in the class acted as if she didn’t even exist. Only the
teachers talked to her and even they seemed to do it out of
necessity; well, and Talbott, who found any excuse necessary to say
something to her. Maybe the other girls were just
jealous.

All of my teachers, without exception,
were demanding and irritable. They appeared to hate their
profession in some unexplainable way. They did show favoritism to a
select group of students, but no surprise, it just happened to be
the Seraphina-Kiran crowd. Oh well, I’d never been much of an honor
student.

The students were the real enigma.
They gravitated around Seraphina like she was the sun. Even her
supposed friends, Evangeline and Adelaide were in a constant sort
of reverent worship. So why was I not surprised that Kiran and
Talbott had also been victims to her gravitational pull? It was
disgusting really.

The constant flipping of her long,
blinding blonde hair and the incessant giggling were enough to make
me want to burn down this school as well. If it weren’t for Lilly,
I would have never made it through the day.

It was as though we were made to be
friends, and similarly made to be outcasts. I wondered to myself
what she did before I came; and then I realized probably the same
thing I did at all of my other schools: sit alone, stand alone, eat
alone.

Lilly could have been my exact
opposite. She didn’t have to fill in the silence with needless
conversation like I did, but didn’t seem annoyed if I babbled on
and on either. Even though I could tell the other kids bothered
her, it didn’t affect her sweet demeanor, the way I lashed out at
anyone who gave me a dirty look.

Lilly and I said goodbye to each other
after our last class, chemistry, and she promised to save me a seat
in homeroom tomorrow morning. With something now to look forward to
I watched her climb into an elegant, black SUV and drive away. She
seemed much too small for the oversized monster truck she was
driving and I imagined her barely able to see over the steering
wheel.

I looked around the student parking
lot and realized that everyone was driving an elegant, black
something or other. All of the cars were classy and stylish, all of
the students driving them obviously born with privilege. The
extraordinary colors the students exuded were a stark contrast to
the dark, glossy veneers of their automobiles.