Glaston (The Gifted Book 1)

by C. C. Lynch

  “Where do you want the classroom to be? Do you want it upstairs on the track? You could have it in the middle of the basketball court. Perhaps the snack bar or locker room appeals to you.”

  “What?” I fought to suppress the aggravated feeling rising in my torso. “You are so weird, Vlaine.” I shook my head and looked around, mostly hoping to see my dream man again.

  “I’m your teacher for ISE. Well I am until your skills are deemed worthy enough for the headmaster to give you any hours of his busy day.”

  Giving him an incredulous look, “you are going to be my teacher?”

  “Don’t be so surprised, I’m a teacher’s assistant here.”

  I had completely forgotten that students could be assistants to the professors at colleges. “Okay, I’ll bite,” I still wasn’t convinced, “is there a syllabus or something?”

  “Where do you want the class to be?” he crossed his arms in front of his chest. The posture did not match his rather calm voice.

  I walked to the middle of the basketball court and followed the black line until it intersected with another line close to the wall and sat down. Vlaine jogged to a closet at the far end of the gymnasium and pulled out blue padded mats and brought them to where I was sitting.

  “We’re going to be here for a while, go ahead and get comfortable.” He flashed a brief genuine smile and took a seat on a mat in front of me.

  We are going to start today by practicing your telepathy since it is your strongest skill. Hopefully working on it will bring your other ones out. His voice reverberated in my head.

  Amazing. I smiled at the clarity of his voice. I knew that I had telepathy and was most definitely an empath, but how do you know I have other gifts?

  Your voice is weak. Try to talk louder and while you are doing that try to read my thoughts.

  Okay. I pushed into his mind like I had when he was taking on Nicholas’s appearance but found nothing.

  He waited patiently for ten minutes until I threw my hands up in the air. I cannot read you. I never could. You obviously have some sort of block that I can’t get past.

  “Sometimes when people have a really strong defense wall to their mind you have to come into physical contact with them. For instance you could try a nonchalant brush past them, anything that gives you a skin to skin connection. Here, take my hand and give it a try.”

  I put my right hand in his and tried to read him. I physically felt like I was walking into a wall repeatedly. Each time I would adjust my seating, take a deep breath, and squeeze my grip. Another ten minutes had passed and I still got nothing. Growling, I scooted closer to him and grabbed his other hand.

  Breathe.

  I opened my eyes and saw his purple fingertips from my grasping his hand so hard. Just then I burst out laughing thinking of how ridiculous we may have looked to an outsider, sitting on a basketball court holding hands. I with my eyes squeezed shut clenching his hands while he sat there placidly. I waited for him to ask what was funny but figured he was probably reading me while I tried to fight through his psychic wall. For all I knew he could know every secret I ever held.

  Right on cue with the fear of Vlaine finding out my deep secrets, dream man walked out of the locker room and through the basketball court and out of the building. It was impossible not to stare, I was fascinated with the fact that he was there and in real life. I wanted to talk to him and find out why I had seen him for more than half of my life.

  “What is your obsession with Draxe? I know all the girls have the hots for him, but at least they usually show a little self control when they drool over him.”

  “You would not understand,” I shook my head. “I’m not staring because he’s handsome.” I’m staring because he’s my dream man, I thought to myself.

  “Your dream man?” Vlaine guffawed.

  “You weren’t supposed to hear that,” I growled.

  I was getting so agitated that I put both my hands on his face and played back the dream in my head hoping that he could see it if I tried to plant the images in his head. For added measure I flashed the images as I saw it the first time and woke up in my frilly pink child room, then a couple more times throughout the years.

  “Hmmm,” Vlaine clicked his tongue to the roof of his mouth. “Why the hell have you been dreaming about my brother?” He looked up pondering his own question.

  “Your brother?” my mouth dropped.

  “Yup,” he grinned, “we’re twins. Too bad for him, I stole the good looks and personality.”

  “Oh, but you’re so humble!” I scrunched my nose and giggled.

  “So you agree?”

  “Vlaine, this isn’t helping my issue with not being able to read you.”

  Just clear your mind and try again. Be patient, it takes a lot of practice to be able to find a crack in a wall.

  The next three hours were spent practicing my telepathy. I still could not manage to read him, but he remained patient with me throughout the entire session. After four hours of practicing I was exhausted. If my brain could have taken a nap with my body functioning I would have gladly done it.

  Before he ran upstairs to the track Vlaine asked me to walk back to the dorms once the class was complete. I ignored his request and decided to look around the locker room. Aside from Vlaine, Draxe, and I there had been no other students in the building for nearly half of the day, none at all that I knew of.

  My footfalls against the tile floor echoed throughout the immaculate empty room. Rows of lockers divided a changing room from close to a dozen shower stalls. The changing area was tucked inside a small open area with a television, vanity, and some sitting furniture.

  With a complete lack of students visiting the gymnasium, I was giddy with the idea of making the locker room my secret studying spot. There was a locker there that I had already claimed as my own. With an accomplished smile I turned on my heel and headed for the exit. Just as I was about to push the locker door open I heard voices coming from the men’s locker room. The first voice I heard was one I didn’t recognize, but the second was definitely Vlaine.

  “Does Dad have you spying or are you curious to see the replicator for yourself?” Vlaine sounded angry.

  “I was just going for a run,” the other voice was defensive.

  “If Dad wants to know how her skills are going he can check in on her himself. He can’t be so busy plotting with the other academies that he has to send you to check up on me.”

  “Dude, calm down. Dad didn’t send me.”

  “What were you doing?” Vlaine was exasperated.

  Muffled words were followed by “curious.”

  A loud slam, the sound of someone hitting a locker, echoed through the wall. I jumped out of the room quickly before they found out I was eavesdropping.

  It had to be Vlaine and Draxe seeing how they were the only people I knew to be in the building aside from myself. Also, they were twins so they clearly shared a father. I did not understand why Vlaine was so angry about Draxe being in the gymnasium. Why would he be suspicious of his father sending Draxe to spy on our seminar anyhow? Even more curious was the insight to there being other academies. Glaston Academy had seemed pretty exclusive before, but it would make sense for there to be more institutions for people with particular abilities.

  My senses were heightened as I walked down the path back to the residence hall; it felt as if someone was watching me. As the eerie feeling began to grow I picked up my pace and jogged back quickly to the main school grounds. The stables were a tempting pit stop but I continued back to my dorm, exhausted from my skill seminar.

  The room was empty so I took the opportunity to pack a bag of clothes, shower products, and some snacks for my locker. Once I finished packing my secret kit I tucked it underneath my bed, ready for the next day.

  Homework proved to be too daunting with my exhaustion and after half an hour of effort I rolled onto my back and looked up at the ceiling. It may have been an infantile preference, but I missed the pla
stic glowing stars from my bedroom at home. Steph and Nicholas helped me decorate with them when we were in elementary school and I kept them there as little mementos.

  I decided my ceiling needed at least one star. I cut a misshapen one from a hot pink paper. “You’re a puerile one,” I laughed to myself as I stuck it directly above my pillow. I felt satisfied that a symbolic comfort of home was close, and I soon fell asleep.

  The next morning I awoke to a knock on the door. Liz was already in the shower completing her daily speed round. Groaning, I shuffled to the door and opened it to find Vlaine standing there adorning a well fitting black tee shirt, jeans, and black boots. His hair was still wet from his shower and he smelled like morning dew. I, on the other hand, was in a baby pink camisole and boxer shorts. Embarrassed I crossed my arms in front of me trying to cover as much of my body as I could.

  “How much of my conversation did you hear yesterday?” His eyes were cold and emotionless.

  If I had any intelligence at all I would have been afraid of him, but for some reason I had no fear of Vlaine’s terrifying glare. “Good morning Vlaine, I slept well, thank you for asking! So strange because all I could think this morning was how I wanted someone to come and knock on the door so I could answer half naked.”

  “I don’t have time for your crap,” he grabbed my wrist, “how much of the conversation with my brother did you hear?” He squeezed my wrist tightly, “I’ll know if you’re lying.”

  I yanked my arm back and shoved him away from the doorway. “Don’t grab me. I did not hear much, just something about your dad and other academies. Nothing that I could make sense of if I cared enough about it to give it a second thought.”

  He seemed satisfied with my answer and a small bit of warmth melted the ice cold stare he was giving me. In one fluid movement he turned on his heel and walked away.

  Truthfully, I was extremely curious and his morning visit made me even more interested. I wanted to know why he would think his father would send Draxe to spy on me. Who was his father? How many more academies were there and where? Also, what was the deal with Vlaine being so nice when we were in class but so off-putting whenever we were in public? Was it just some method of keeping his intimidating persona when around other students?

  Leaning my back against the wall I shook my head, trying to clear it of all the unanswered questions. No matter how much they were bothering me I needed to push aside to focus on school work and, of course, taking care not to die at the hands of Professor Horicon.

  Liz came out of the bathroom unaware that we had gotten a visit from the dreaded Vlaine. She nodded her head towards the lavatory letting me know the shower was all mine. Pushing myself off the wall, I skipped to pick out an outfit for the day then walked into the wall of steam to prepare for the day.

  “We need to create a schedule and decide who does which section of the report,” Liz clutched onto her notebook and walked at an inhuman speed.

  Water beads falling from the ends of wet roped tendrils formed a large oval on the back of my shirt as I jogged to keep up with Liz. Quickly, I put together a schedule for the project then pulled out the notes and draft that I had already completed for it.

  A girl with a round face and a black pixie cut sat at the table just as I was pushing the work towards Liz. “Can I work with you two? The professor said that some groups could have three people if need be.”

  “That’s fine with me, if it is okay with Liz. The way I see it, the more eyes there are to edit the reference section, the better. I’m Abrielle, by the way.” I put my hand out to shake hers.

  “Tracy,” she cocked her head to the side and smiled, ignoring my outstretched hand.

  I hated when people cocked their head to the side like a puppy, it made me instantaneously lose trust in them.

  Liz was scanning through my notes and ignored Tracy’s presence. “This looks incredible, Abrielle. Oh my goodness, we are going to have this done tonight!” As the stress and fear washed away, I saw Liz smile for the first time.

  Satisfied that Liz was happy, I excused myself. “I’ll see you tonight to go over it some more. See you in class, Tracy.”

  I left the girls to help Susan prepare breakfast for the morning. Liz had gotten us to the kitchen so early that I was able to see the vast amount of work Susan put into getting the school fed.

  “Well aren’t you a dear,” Susan’s rosy cheeks turned two shades redder as she smiled at me gratefully and tossed an extra daisy patterned apron towards me.

  Standing on the opposite side of the kitchen watching the students take their seats was like viewing a movie. Everyone had their own patterns and little cliques. As I observed them I was slowly beginning to visualize what their abilities could be and identify each person’s own buzzing sound. The telepathy noise was easy to identify, innate even, but each person had their own noise.

  I watched Adele walk in and tuned in to see if I could discover what a pyro sounded like. Tuning everything out and focusing on only her I could hear the whirring of an electric oven. Fitting, I chuckled to myself.

  “Here you go honey,” Susan’s voice interrupted my meditation.

  I turned expecting her to be speaking to me, but she was handing both Vlaine and Draxe breakfast sandwiches.

  “Morning Abrielle,” Vlaine nodded and smiled.

  “Hi.” I was so irritated with how he acted just an hour prior that my inflection sounded more like a forceful question.

  “Want to split it?” He tilted the sandwich towards me.

  I was perplexed by his ability to jump emotions so quickly. “No, I’m good. Thanks.”

  “Suit yourself,” he shrugged, “see you in class, Abbs.”

  He and Draxe walked off together and for the first time I could see the striking similarities between the two. Draxe was the approachable all-American jock and Vlaine was the daredevil no one wanted to mess with.

  “You either get an iron maiden or Christmas morning with that one,” Susan had caught me scowling at Vlaine’s back, “but you won’t find a more loyal man in existence.”

  “I just wish he would stick with one personality,” I admitted.

  She tucked her hands into her apron pockets and pulled out a small glass container filled with a yogurt parfait and handed it to me. “That boy has no problem letting a person know if he does not like them. He’ll open up to you sooner or later. Now go on and enjoy some breakfast, I have it from here.”

  “Thank you Susan,” gingerly I took the yogurt from her and went off to my classroom.

  Sitting through classes waiting for the time to pass until I could go to my skill seminar was like a mild form of torture. The minutes ticked by slowly and even more so when I sat next to Vlaine. It felt like there was an inside joke between the two of us that neither one acknowledged, knowing that he would be teaching me a class two hours after one we sat in together; a silent understanding.

  Vlaine was one of those students that sat back without anything in front of them and just absorbed all the information given; whereas I was the type of person who needed to write everything down but was easily distracted by anything around me. My biggest distraction was the enigma sitting beside me that was Vlaine. His mood swings, notorious history, and connection to my dream man made him all the more intriguing.

  “Hey Abrielle,” Will caught my arm as I was running back to the dormitory to grab my study provisions backpack.

  “Hey Will, what’s up?” I spoke quickly trying not to let him know that I was out of breath.

  “Want to help me out with Cinnamon tonight?” White teeth gleamed through his expectant smile.

  “Yes,” my eyes glowed with excitement. “See you then,” I tapped his arm before continuing to the dorm.

  I was in the gymnasium building before Vlaine giving me the perfect opportunity to hide my bag in the locker room. Once I had it stashed away I set the mats out and cleared my mind for my skill session.

  I was determined to get through Vlaine’s wall but
an hour was far too short to crack his barrier. Though I could not read him, I was louder with my telepathic voice. By the end of class he asked if I wanted to continue for an extra hour that evening for extra credit so I answered by touching his hand and showing him the draft I wrote, my conversation with Liz and Tracy, and the short discussion I had with Will.

  “Very well,” he stood up and put his hand out to help me up, “the weather is perfect outside, let’s set up the targets out there.”

  “You’re my TA for archery too?” I reached for his hand and hopped up to follow him to the field.

  “I’m already here with you. Rather than screwing up a class that had already started I volunteered for the job.”

  How noble, I picked up a bow and quiver and took my stance.

  Do you have that? It seemed we would be talking via telepathy during my activity course.

  I’m no stranger to a recurve. I pulled the string back to my anchor point and shot an arrow just outside of the bull’s eye.

  Click, slide, and poing. Clicking the nock onto the nocking point, sliding the wood shaft against the arrow rest, and releasing the arrow played a therapeutic melody. Having an entire field to myself for target practice was incredibly liberating, but it proved that I was purposefully being secluded from the other students.

  I slung the quiver and bow over my shoulder and helped Vlaine bring the target back inside. “How exactly do I get graded in two classes that I have alone? I was told that grades are dependent upon the other students.”

  “As the assistant I decide how much effort you are putting into your work. If I think you are going above and beyond then you may get a B. If I’m in a bad mood you will fail.”

  I rolled my eyes at his terseness then smiled. See you tomorrow, Professor Vlaine.

  Liz and I finished the project before Tracy even got to the dorm. She apologized for being late but I could feel the insincerity in her words. I brushed it off and told her to look over the paper and make sure that everything was as the professor specified. Once the extra set of eyes approved the paper I left the two to gossip while I met up with Will.