First Project

by Jennifer Rose McMahon

  Just as I prepared to say the next thing that popped into my mind, I jumped from the sound of crushing gravel. Our heads whipped in the direction of the noise, and we stared as a black Jeep tore into the lot.

  "Shit," Shane fumed. "What the fuck is he doing here?"

  Chapter 11

  My eyes flew wide and glued themselves on Dom's form as he stormed over to us. His letterman jacket made him look massive, and I secretly rolled my eyes at its elitist symbolism.

  "Pulling out all the stops, I see," Shane spat. "Dick jacket and all. What? Did we miss a game?"

  "We all wore them today, asshole," he retorted.

  Shane huffed. "That's even worse," he murmured, shaking his head.

  I was slow on the draw to stop their squabbling, still in shock that he was even here.

  "How did you find us?" I finally asked.

  Dom pulled his glare off Shane and turned his eyes to me. His steely stare softened as his shoulders settled. He lifted his phone and shook it at me.

  "But I turned off maps," I faltered.

  "Not soon enough," he said. "Your bitmoji was last seen on the way here, traveling in a little red car."

  Shane smacked his hand to his eyes and grimaced.

  "Oh. Yeah," I mumbled. "We just didn't want to upset anyone, you know."

  Dom nodded. "Yup. Well, you failed. I might not have noticed if you had replied to my text."

  I glanced at him through narrowed eyes. Was he upset? I couldn't tell if he was exaggerating the situation or if he was actually brooding. I wasn't usually this clueless, but if I wasn't mistaken, he was acting like his ego had been bruised.

  I shook my head to stop myself from over-thinking too much. First of all, I had no idea what these guys were capable of and if they could read my every thought. And second, where did I get off thinking the hottest guy in school had even an inkling of interest in me. Duh.

  My gaze shot to Shane, and much to my horror, his confident stance had shifted to something else, now that Dom was here. He couldn't fully be himself around him, and I recognized the symptoms. I felt the same way around Laney and her friends—exposed, vulnerable, conquered. It sucked.

  Before I could say anything to reassure Shane that I still wanted to hear the rest of his story, Dom butted in.

  "So, something tells me you've been filling her head with your tales," he said to Shane. "Don't go making me out to be a monster, asshole. That was a long time ago." Then he turned to me. "Don't forget, there are two sides to every story."

  Shit. Dom knew Shane was telling me the story. Who knew if it was his psychic abilities or if it was just plain obvious that Shane would tell it as a means to gain my favor, or at least to pull it away from Dom.

  Feeling stuck in the middle was an understatement, and I was determined to extract myself from the vice grip.

  "It doesn't matter now, you guys," I blurted. "Whatever happened is in the past. We just need to move forward and figure out what happened in these woods."

  Dom shifted his weight with an uncertain gaze in his eyes. He wasn't ready to move on.

  "Did he tell you the part where he fucked me over when he came barreling out of the woods? It was like he'd seen a ghost." Dom said. "Did he mention that?"

  I turned to Shane. He hadn't had time to tell that part of the story yet. The part after his powers exploded. I had been giving him space, but then Dom showed up.

  Shane's eyes locked on mine as if hoping to freeze time—stopping Dom from saying another word.

  But it didn't work.

  Dom went on, showing no mercy.

  "When he burst out of the woods, like a frantic child, he crashed into me, sending lightning bolts of energy through my bones and every nerve." He shook his head as if feeling the impact again. "It fried my brain and all my insides, transforming me into something new. Something I couldn't control." He glared at Shane like he wanted to kill him. "And now, I have to live with it. As one of the freaks."

  What did he just call us?

  Okay, he just exposed his true colors.

  He thought we were freaks.

  But the joke was on him because he was one of us. He was a freak, too.

  I turned my back to him and moved closer to Shane. He left me no choice but to show where my loyalty was.

  "Jesus, Brynn," Dom backpedaled. "I didn't mean it like that."

  Shane made his new confidence evident as he stood tall next to me.

  "Is there another way to take it?" Shane shot back.

  Dom dropped his head back and looked up to the sky. "I'm sorry. I just... I'm still trying to come to terms with this. I might seem like I have my shit together, but seriously, I feel like I could lose control at any moment. Like I might explode." His voice cracked. "Please..."

  I couldn't help but feel bad for him. And it always drove me to a crazy place when a guy pleaded. It broke down my defenses instantly. Plus, it made sense that he would be unhappy with his unexpected situation. I decided to give him another chance.

  I hoped Ms. Kelly knew how to help him. From the few times I'd seen them together, it had seemed like she understood what he was going through. There was an unspoken trust between the two, which left me hopeful that he would have the support he needed.

  Feeling awkward, caught in the middle of the two of them, I dropped my eyes to look at my phone. Poorva's name lit up, and I tapped on it immediately.

  R u with dom

  Oh my god. Was that the only thing people texted these days—asking who I was with? And now all I could wonder was how she knew.

  Ya shane too

  I shook my head, waiting for her reply.

  A three way?

  I chuckled, relieved she didn't seem mad.

  Yup

  Then I added more.

  It wasn't planned just kinda happened going home now. text later?

  I'd fill her in on everything once I got home.

  Ya I think u should wait for ms kelly before going there again. She knows a lot about it. xblock.

  Either Dom had his Snap map on or Poorva had stronger powers of perception than I realized. Either way, she was right. I should wait for Ms. Kelly's guidance before coming back here again. There was too much unknown, and that made it very unpredictable. And it was obvious the power of this place was profound.

  X-block couldn't come fast enough.

  While dropping me off, Shane had offered to drive me to school the next morning. For some reason, I felt it better not to accept. I just didn't want to send any mixed messages and thought it best to remain in neutral territory.

  I was glad I had Poorva as back up. She hadn't planned on picking me up, knowing that I liked the headspace during the walks to school, but she made an exception for this situation.

  "Okay, spill," she commanded as I hopped in her car. "You are way too vague through texting."

  I rolled my eyes with a loud sigh. "It's because there's nothing to tell. I bumped into Shane on the way home, so we went for coffee. The cafe was crowded, so instead, we drove to the woods to check it out again."

  "Mhmm." Her tone reeked of disbelief.

  "Dom tracked us on Snap before we were able to turn it off..."

  "So you didn't want anyone to find you?" she shot with suspicion.

  "Not like that, Poorva." I elbowed her. "We just didn't want the rest of UMA to know we went there again. It would only cause drama within the teams."

  "What the hell is Ooma?" she spat.

  I hesitated at my own comfort with the use of the term. I guess it just kind of stuck.

  "You know, UMA, the name of the group chat," I said.

  "Oh, right." She nodded with a knowing grin.

  "What does it even mean?” I asked.

  She chuckled. “Shane gave our advisory group a name a while back. He calls us the Urban Mystic Academy.”

  I nodded. “I get it. UMA.”

  I glanced out the window as we pulled into the student lot. My knee bounced in nervous anticipation. "I can't wait f
or X-block to hear more about our project."

  She glanced at me from the corner of her eye with a judging smirk.

  "I have a feeling you might be a little clueless about these projects she creates for us." Poorva parked and looked at me straight on. "They're our training. Like, no joke. So be prepared. It's usually pretty intense."

  I listened to her words, feeling slightly reprimanded like I wasn't taking it serious enough. And her read on me wasn't far off. I had no idea what we were heading into, so, of course, I probably seemed like an over-enthusiastic newbie.

  "Okay, yeah," I agreed. "I don't mean to be disrespectful or anything. I know there's something pretty powerful going on. But seriously, I'm just ready to start."

  "I know." She nodded. "We were all like that on our first project. Eager to begin, excited to get started, but then there's terror. Running. Screaming. That sort of shit."

  Oh, fuck. I had to keep reminding myself that we were different. Our mission wasn't typical of the average high-schooler. More was expected of us since we were gifted. And the other UMAs were light years ahead of me with their abilities and their experiences of the supernatural. They knew the rules of the secret group, and I had to yield to their knowledge—and Ms. Kelly's instruction. I had to follow her rules to the finest detail or anything and everything could go wrong.

  Also, it was becoming clear that the UMAs were filtering the full details of what they'd accomplished in the past. Every time the stories began, they never quite finished. The others had probably been told not to share too much with me, that it was Ms. Kelly's role as the teacher to decide when and how much to tell.

  I just had to be more patient, but it was so hard.

  As we climbed out of the car, a voice called over to us.

  "Who's excited to get started?" Dom teased as he came up behind me. "Just like each of us when we started on our first project." He rubbed the top of my head like I was a child.

  I stared at him in shock as if he had overheard our entire conversation in the car. But that would have been impossible. The doors had been closed.

  His teasing annoyed me to the core. Particularly because his words were true. I was the new, naive member of the group, and the fact that he found that entertaining was infuriating.

  "Right," Poorva hissed. "You should probably know, Dom's hearing is insane. Never say anything within a mile of him if you don't want him to hear it."

  I shot my eyes to his in disbelief.

  "Kind of a curse, really," he said, looking around with a scowl. "Most conversations are white noise to me. No one has anything of interest to say."

  I froze for a second, reeling through my conversations in school, making sure I never spoke of Dom. Redness burned my cheeks as I panicked, getting lost in my various memories. I just prayed he hadn't heard all the things I was actually thinking. Some of it went far beyond PG-13, and I'd seriously have to move again if there was any chance he knew about any of it. But as for conversations, I figured I was probably safe if he heard any of those.

  Able to breathe again, I looked him in the eyes and said, "I imagine that skill can come in handy at times."

  He smirked with a nod. "Uh-huh."

  I pulled my eyes away in an instant, unsure of what his tone might have meant. I sucked at these head games and bailed every time they began.

  A moment later, Blake strolled along the sidewalk toward the front entrance and noticed us just before climbing the stairs. He bounded over, struggling with the weight of his backpack.

  "Hey, twerp," Dom greeted him.

  "Hey," he said, out of breath. "You guys need to stop messing around. Ms. Kelly's gonna get pissed."

  "Messing around? Us?" Dom teased.

  "You know what I mean. Just cut the crap," he shot. "And spread out. You're drawing too much attention to us. Wait 'til X-block." He darted away like he hardly knew us.

  Poorva’s eyes followed his stealthy retreat and then turned back to us. "He's probably right. We're supposed to be more discreet than this."

  "Oh, you're brushing me away." Dom's hands flew up in defense.

  "Actually, yes," Poorva said.

  "Actually, no," Dom retorted. "Brynn and I have first period together. Makes more sense for you to be the one to disperse."

  My eyes darted to hers in a desperate plea for her to stay.

  "You suck," she said to him. "Whatever. Cause a shit-show of gossip. You're the one who'll have to live with it."

  "Happily," he said, nudging me away from her, with an arrogant grin.

  Poorva shook her head as if she were irritated, but then shot me a secret glance of 'oh my god!'. I swore I could hear her giddy voice bouncing through my brain. And I wanted to kill her for it as it shot nervous jitters through me.

  Leaving the student lot behind us, Dom rattled on about last night's tedious homework as we aimed for the front steps of the school, but then my gaze fell on a student standing at the bottom of the stairs, staring at us.

  Shane.

  Oh no. I knew exactly how this must have looked—as if Dom had driven me to school, after Shane had offered. I smiled at him in panic, but he just turned and walked away.

  "What's wrong with him?" Dom asked.

  "No clue," I replied, keeping my focus on the stairs to be sure I didn't fall on my face.

  Hurting Shane's feelings was the last thing I'd ever want to do. He didn't deserve it. Especially when what he thought he saw wasn't accurate, at all.

  I dropped my head back, replaying what he must have witnessed, and I grimaced. There was probably no other interpretation in his mind.

  I knew I could explain exactly what happened, but I wasn't sure if Shane would even listen at this point. And making him wait over two hours until X-block was just cruel. I decided to text him from English class in hopes he'd see it before our advisory meeting. I wanted our X-block to be as drama-free as possible.

  But, at this point, it was pretty clear it was an impossible expectation.

  The minutes ticked on like eternity, but then the bell for X-block finally rang. Shane hadn't responded to my text, so I had no clue where things stood with him, but I could certainly guess.

  Entering the guidance suite, Poorva and I went straight for the conference room. It was obvious we'd need privacy for today's X-block. I'd only wished we had hours for this session, instead of minutes.

  Dom and Blake entered next like a most mismatched pair, followed by Courtney, who kept her head down.

  Shane came in last and without a word, sat at the far side of the large table. He refused to lift his eyes to mine, and I fumed. I kept my gaze on him, hoping he'd feel the burn of my glare, but it seemed to have no affect, annoying me further.

  "Um, have you checked your text messages?" I snarled across the table at him through clenched teeth.

  Dom and Poorva turned their heads to me at the same time, but I kept my eyes on Shane.

  His eyes lifted for a split-second, then Ms. Kelly entered.

  "Good morning, everyone," she said with a firm tone. "I notice a fair bit of tension in the air. Eager to get started?" She glanced around the table.

  "You could say that," Blake replied with sarcasm.

  Ms. Kelly nodded as she surveyed the rest of us. It was clear that either Blake ratted us out or Ms. Kelly had a powerful sixth sense. Both options were valid, and either way, she knew what was up.

  "You're getting ahead of yourselves," she said. "I like your enthusiasm. However, a few of you have ignored our code." She paused, waiting for one of us to confess.

  Everyone remained silent, staring at the top of the table.

  "It was my fault," I interjected. "I couldn't control my curiosity and just wanted to see what the woods were all about."

  I wasn't even sure what I'd done wrong, but the twist in my gut told me I should have been more patient, particularly since I had no idea what I was really getting into.

  Ms. Kelly nodded.

  "Thank you, Brynn. But of everyone here, you were the
one who knew very little about our code. I would expect the others to share our rules as needed." She glanced around the room.

  Courtney kept her head down, and Blake sat comfortably with his hands folded on the table.

  Shane lifted his gaze. "You're right," he said to Ms. Kelly. "I got carried away with the mystery as well. I thought Brynn should know more about the history of that place before we got too involved in the project. I lost perspective for a moment." He confessed. "But, I've been corrected now."

  "Anyone else?" Ms. Kelly asked.

  Dom and Poorva began speaking at the same time, taking responsibility for their involvement in our early explorations, but the sound of their voices blurred into static as I hung on Shane's words.

  He had sent a very clear message to me.

  And it stung.

  Had he still not seen the text message? Or maybe he didn't believe what I told him.

  "Perspective is an easy thing to lose," I blurted. "When you're choosing not to see."

  My hand threatened to smack across my mouth as I cursed myself for speaking my mind. Why couldn't I just stay quiet?

  Shane shot a narrow-eyed glare at me and then looked back to Ms. Kelly as she spoke again.

  "Well, today, we'll have a review of our ethics to be sure our group stays safe and concealed within the school and community. It is our secrecy that gives us our strength, and this term's project will rely on it."

  After words like loyalty, privacy, and self-control were reinforced, everyone looked to Ms. Kelly in agreement, assuring her that we understood the code and would abide by it for the safety of our group.

  She continued. "So, the reason it is important to discuss this today is because of the volatile nature of our project and its connection to our gifts. We need to hone into our skills more than ever for this one and trust our instincts." She looked at each one of us. "We have a really powerful group this year. One that will likely evolve into something even stronger. So, collectively, we must understand each other's strengths and weaknesses."