by M.E. Timmons
Chapter 2
We were headed to Winterwood Academy, an English-speaking school in the German countryside. I had never heard of it, and no one else had either. During our computer time on Tuesdays I had looked up the school and found nothing. It was like it didn't even exist.
I knew from my letter that you could not apply to the school. The students were specifically chosen by the school, and only those chosen were allowed in. The programs lasted for four years, past the normal age when one finishes high school, so the last two years were considered to be university level. Other than that, there wasn't really much in the letter, but that didn't stop me from speculating.
I believed that the school was for those with magical abilities.
I didn't share that thought with Jack because I didn't think he knew what he was, and I had never told him. Jack was a werewolf.
I knew this because I could see people's auras. Everyone radiates energy in different colors, depending on their mood. I spent my whole life observing people and finding out what the colors meant. I also noticed that some people have very distinct auras, and some have none at all. I learned when I was seven that those without auras were vampires. I learned when I was eight that those who had a gold ring surrounding their auras were witches. I learned when I was twelve that those with a gold ring around the inside of their auras had special powers, like the ability to fly. I didn't learn about werewolves until I was fourteen, though I had always wondered what Jack's silver aura meant, since he had been the only person I had ever seen with one.
I found out the same way I found out about the rest of them - by following them. Ms. Holland took a bunch of the older kids out to the park one day to see the waterfall. I was walking in the back behind some of the more eager people, Jack included, when I saw them behind us. There were four of them, a family, all older than me. They all had silver auras. They were talking and laughing and not paying attention to our group. I looked back at Ms. Holland, who was discussing the different types of pine trees with Jack, who was hanging onto her every word. No one was looking back at me, so when I saw the family slink off the path and into the forest, I followed them.
By the time I got back to the group only about ten minutes had passed and no one had noticed I was gone, but I had seen all that I needed to see. About a hundred yards into the forest the family had stopped, looked around, and then took their clothes off. I was considering leaving at that point, thinking something really weird was going on, but then they changed, right before my eyes. I had read enough books to know what had happened, and I already had a strong belief in the supernatural.
When Jack's temper started to flare up about a month after his sixteenth birthday, I knew that it might happen soon. He got more and more touchy, especially around the time of the full moon, but it didn't happen. I knew Jack, and I knew he was freaked out. We talked about it, and I knew that he would tell me if he actually transformed. I should have told him what I had seen, but I didn't want to make him even more worried, and there was still so much that I didn't know myself.
Sitting in the plane on our way to Germany, he still didn't know what he was, and I hoped that I wouldn't be the one to have to tell him. I could tell by his aura that he was both nervous and excited. I could also see a color that always made me feel guilty around him. That color was pink.
Pink can mean a few things. It can mean caring or compassion. It can also mean love.
It was one of the annoying things about my ability. It was so hard to shut it off that most of the time I didn't, which meant that I knew a lot of things that I shouldn't, especially about people's feelings for each other. For example, I knew that Jill had a crush on Henry, and that Mr. Andrews had a thing for Ms. Holland. I also knew from a young age that all of the other girls at Pembrook hated me, which was how I ended up being best friends with Jack. I also knew that Jack was in love with me, and he wasn't the only one.
He never said anything about it and he always acted normal around me, probably because we had been friends since we were five. I could catch it every now and then anyway, no matter how well he tried to hide it. Sometimes it was the way he was looking at me, or the way he defended me around the other girls, and there was always his aura, and how it would go almost completely pink when he was around me, but not with anyone else.
I felt guilty because I didn't feel the same way. He was my best friend, and I loved him, but I just wasn't in love with him. When I was around him my aura was generally its usual shade of white. It wasn't that he wasn't attractive, because he definitely was. He had thick dark hair that started to curl when it got too long, and sweet brown eyes that contrasted his strong features. Still, his friendship meant the world to me, and I just couldn't lose that. He was like family to me.
"Are we there yet?" he asked, waking up from a nap. He stretched and peered out the window, which was beside him. He groaned when all he saw was the sky.
"We'll get there eventually," I said, yawning. I hadn't managed to fall asleep, though I wanted to. It was going to be early morning when we landed, so there wouldn't be much time for sleep.
"I had no idea that plane rides felt so long," Jack commented. "I feel like I've been in here for days."
"It's only been a couple of hours, I think. It does feel like a long time though, especially because I can't wait to land."
"Me neither," Jack said, yawning. He curled up to go back to sleep. "I hope where we're going is better than where we've been." He closed his eyes, and in minutes he was snoring softly. I watched him for a little while out of curiosity. Auras are interesting when people sleep.
We didn't land until two hours later. After we found our luggage, we saw a man with a sign saying Winterwood Academy. There were already two people around our age standing with him from another flight, and when we joined them he said he was waiting for three more from a flight from Australia, which should be landing any minute. He introduced himself as Paul, and explained that he was a teacher at the school. He didn't really look that old, maybe mid twenties, and he had messy blond hair that almost covered his eyes. The two others were Sydney and Kyle, from Ontario.
We ended up waiting half an hour for the flight from Australia. During that time Paul explained that people had been coming in for about a week, and there was still another week before classes would actually begin, as people were still coming. The school was actually quite far from the airport, so Paul was going to drive us all there, which was a journey that would take about half the day.
Sydney and Kyle didn't know each other, but I could see that they both had gold rings around the insides of their auras, which meant they had special abilities. Sydney was a returning student, back from spending the summer at home, but Kyle was new like us. Paul was a werewolf, and he looked at Jack with interest.
"Are you related to the Sawyer family in Oregon?" he asked Jack.
Jack looked surprised, since we lived in Washington, near the border to Oregon. He shrugged his shoulders. "My last name is Leewood, not Sawyer, but I don't know who my relatives are. I was given up at birth. Juliet and I are both orphans."
"Ah, well, just thought I'd ask. You look kind of like Dexter Sawyer. He was in my year when I went to the Academy." He looked at me. "I can't say you look like anyone I've ever met before," he commented, looking at me with interest. I could feel my face grow hot with embarrassment, even though I was used to such things.
Once the Australians were with us we went out to the van that would take us to school. It was white and fairly large, with four rows of seats, so there was plenty of room for us and our suitcases. There was already a cooler and a few bags of food in the back to keep us satisfied during the journey.
The Australian students were all returning, and they all knew each other, so they kept to themselves and sat in the back of the van. I was sitting near the front between Jack, who got the window seat yet again, and Sydney. I asked her shyl
y about the school, and luckily she didn't hate me right away, like most girls did.
"It's the best school in the world," she said, with enthusiasm. "I'm really excited to be going back. There's the opening ball to look forward to, which was awesome last year. It's really formal, so you get to dress up and they even had an orchestra, so it was kind of like stepping back in time. The classes are generally really interesting, even though they have boring names. The names are just so that if someone on the outside sees a transcript, they won't be able to guess what the classes are actually about, or they'll be misled into believing it's something else. The teachers are all really cool, and they -"
"Why would other people not be allowed to know what our classes are about?" Jack interrupted, looking confused. "Is there something special about them?"
"What, you don't know?" Sydney asked, looking startled. Then she relaxed. "Oh, that's right, you're an orphan. I guess I shouldn't expect you to know already, since they don't say anything in the letter in case someone else reads it. Most of us grow up with parents who have gone to Winterwood, so we know what the school is for and we expect our letters when they come."
Jack waited a minute for her to continue, but she didn't. "So what's the big secret?" he finally asked.
Sydney turned to me, looking nervous. "Do you know?" she asked.
"Not for sure, but I have a pretty good idea," I answered. "I'm assuming it's some kind of school of magic."
Jack laughed. "This isn't a J.K. Rowling novel, Jules. There's no such thing as magic."
"Actually, Juliet's right. That's why you can't apply to attend the academy. Only those with special abilities get letters."
"You can't be serious," Jack said, looking somewhat stunned. I could see the whirls of his emotions in bright colors. "If you knew all this time, why didn't you say something?" he asked me.
"It's not the kind of thing you make casual conversation about," I replied. "I wasn't sure how you would react."
"We're best friends, Jules. We've had conversations that weren't casual before."
"It must be weird to grow up not knowing what you are," Sydney said, resting her head of black curly hair against the seat. "I'm a hero. That's what they call people with one special ability."
"I wondered what they were called," I said.
"Yeah? What are you, then?"
"Actually, I don't know," I said honestly. "I've never seen anyone else like me before. I can see auras. I know that people like you, heroes, have a gold ring around the inside of your auras. Witches have a gold ring on the outside, vampires have no auras, and werewolves have auras that are predominately silver. I have none of those things."
"Huh. So is your aura, like, normal?" Sydney asked.
"No," I answered. "It's predominately white. I've never seen anyone else with a white aura. Do you know what it means?"
"No. Heroes don't really learn about auras, and I've only heard a few basic things. They teach that stuff to the witches and wizards, but not until later years because it's a pretty advanced skill just to be able to see them, and they're generally the only ones who can anyway. Maybe you're a witch or something."
"What am I?" Jack asked. "I've never been able to do anything special."
"You're a werewolf," I told him.
He turned away from me to try to hide his reaction, but I could still see it in his aura. He believed me, and he was terrified. He stared out the window, obviously deep in thought.
I talked to Sydney a bit more, but didn't learn much else. She told me a little about some of the classes she had taken the previous year, and also about some of the events that occurred. After a while I closed my eyes, listening to the sound of Jack's soft breathing beside me. I didn't even realize that I had fallen asleep until I felt Jack roughly shaking my arm.
"We're there," he said sharply, and I looked out the window.
