Midnight Metamorphosis
Daughter of Prophecy Book 1
by
Deborah E. Kehoe
© 2018 Deborah E. Kehoe.
This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to real people, or events, is purely coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission in writing of the Author, or as expressly permitted by law.
Edited and formatting for electronic reader by Derry Kehoe
Cover design, additional editing, and formatting for print by Michael Everson.
Photograph “Face from sky” by Branislav Ostojić, Belgrade | dreamstime.com/vukvuk_info.
Contents
1 Avery
2 Cole
3 Avery
4 Avery
5 Avery
6 Cole
7 Avery
8 Cole
9 Avery
10 Cole
11 Devon
12 Avery
13 Devon
14 Cole
15 Avery
16 Devon
17 Avery
18 Devon
19 Cole
20 Avery
21 Devon
22 Cole
23 Avery
24 Cole
25 Avery
26 Devon
27 Cole
28 Avery
29 Devon
30 Avery
31 Devon
32 Avery
Acknowledgements and thanks
Chapter 1
Avery
As I stepped into the hallway, I looked down at the piece of paper in my hand and promptly ran right into someone. I reached out to grab her as she flew backward, her books tumbling to the ground. The hand holding my class schedule was caught in a soft grip.
“I’m so sorry!” I said, my face flushing in embarrassment. The girl I ran into was small, shorter than my 5′5″ by a couple of inches. She was rather pretty, with soft brown hair and bangs cut straight over her brown eyes. She had a light dusting of freckles all over her face and arms. When I looked closer at the arm I had hold of, I thought I noticed an interesting pattern to the freckles. There were four or five spots grouped together, creating a larger freckle. It was kind of odd, but not ugly.
“That’s ok,” she said, picking up her books. “It was my fault, I wasn’t looking where I was going.” Her voice was so quiet that I had to lean forward slightly to hear her.
“Well, neither was I,” I said, laughing slightly as I handed her another book. I glanced down at the paper I still held in my hand. First period English, room 106. “I don’t suppose you know where room 106 is?” I asked her. “Today is my first day at Dover. They gave me a map, but I think I’m already late for class.” Nothing like walking in late when you were the new girl. A feeling I knew only too well.
“That’s actually my home room, too! My name’s Ana, what’s yours?”
“Avery.” I held out my hand and when she looked at me, put it down quickly and reached out to pull at my sleeve. I offered a shy smile. “Do you mind if I follow you to class?”
“Sure,” she answered. “It’s right down the hall this way.” She turned to the right and started forward. Now that I knew where I was going I took the chance to look around.
The school was pretty new, or at least well kept. The hallway was painted a regular beige, but had a broad black stripe running down the center of the wall, horizontal to the walkway. I felt like it was a large arrow leading me to my class. As we walked, Ana and I exchanged the basic where are you from, what year are you, and ended with comparing our class schedules. We realized that they were almost exactly alike, with the exception of my fifth period being gym and hers was Algebra.
We arrived at class. As we walked in the door, all the students were standing around and talking loudly to each other. I noticed a blonde girl all the way across the room seemed to be holding court to a handful of boys and girls. She stopped talking as I walked to the front of the room and everyone else grew quiet as well. Ana, took a step away from me and walked directly to an open seat in the middle of the class. I had to do the new girl thing and hand my schedule to the teacher at the front of the class.
The English Lit teacher, Mr. Newsome, was a large man, and by large I’m talking tall, not round. He was probably 6′4″ with a lot of white hair that grew over his ears, curling every which way. I didn’t think he was as old as the white hair made him out to be. His face was unlined, except for wrinkles around his eyes, which I hoped meant he smiled a lot.
“Class, it looks like we have a new student,” he said. In the hushed room, his voice sounded too loud. “Avery, why don’t you introduce yourself to the class,” and he gestured for me to move forward into the room.
Great. I hated these introductions. There must have been 30 students in this classroom. My stomach fluttered as I imagined each individual stare landing on different parts of my body. The girls were all sizing me up, and the boys were probably guessing my breast size. I crossed my arms instinctively across my chest imagining what they were all seeing. I was just an average girl. My hair was a dishwater blonde, with some darker brown lowlights, at 15, I had no breasts to speak of, so I’m sure that was some disappointment to the guys in the room. My mom had always said that she developed later, around 16. You could only hope, I thought as I glanced around. My birthday wasn’t too far away, falling on Halloween. Staring at the class I raised an eyebrow and blushed, maybe there would be a miraculous development. My eyes were hazel, turning brown or green, depending upon my mood. They were brown when I was uncertain or nervous, like I was right now.
I looked out the wall of windows on the far side of the room into the quad below. There were picnic benches set up under the trees and I imagined kids hung out in the square during lunch and between classes. A half hour ago when I had gotten to school there were kids sitting at those tables even though the grounds were covered in fog giving the school a gloomy feel. As I stood in front of the class, I noticed that the fog still hadn’t lifted and I shivered. I twisted the gold ring I wore on my right hand thinking back to when my mom had given it to me only a few weeks ago. I looked down at it while I gathered my thoughts. The initials GC glinted on the gold shield and I drew comfort when I remembered my mother telling me that it had belonged to my great-grandmother, whom I had never met. As I twisted it I felt it tingle on my finger, and I don’t know if it was my imagination but it felt like it was sending a pulse of energy into my hand. I looked up at when the room lightened as the sun broke through the fog. That’s weird, I thought, noticing how the sun fell on four people in the room. Myself, Ana, the blonde girl holding court across the room, and a boy sitting in the back of the room, wearing a blue hooded sweatshirt, with a piercing through his right eyebrow. My mouth was probably hanging open as everyone in the class moved in slow motion, except the four of us. I snapped my mouth closed and we all looked at each other, and then looked at the now frozen students around the room. I heard Ana take a deep breath, the blonde girl said, “What the hell?”, and I thought, WTF is more like it! The cute boy in the back of the room cleared his throat.
I jumped slightly and everyone started moving again. I looked at the boy, and he gave me a slow nod. The teacher gave me an impatient look. Just get this over with, I thought to myself. “OK...” I said my voice quavering, “my name is Avery Anderson. I just moved from Oklahoma yesterday and I’m living with my aunt. She owns Come Sit a Spell on main street?” My voice trailed off and I gl
anced sideways at the teacher hoping that short synopsis was a good enough introduction. I cleared my throat. “Is anyone sitting in that seat?” I said hoping to stop him from asking questions. I pointed at an empty seat in front of Ana.
The teacher glanced over at Ana, looked puzzled for a moment and glanced at his seating chart. “No, that seat seems to be vacant,” he said. “Go ahead.” He then glanced at Ana and looked at the chart for her name. “Miss, uh Brookes, may I speak with you a moment?”
In a daze, I looked around at everyone moving at normal speed and sat in the empty seat slowly placing my bag on the ground. I looked around at the other students again, assuring myself things were back to normal and reached for a notebook and pencil out of my bag. I noticed that Ana and the teacher seemed to be having a minor disagreement. I heard Ana say kind of loudly, “I’ve been here since school started, I can show you my notes!” The teacher looked confused but seemed to take her at her word and she moved back down the aisle and slumped back down in her seat.
“What was that about?” I asked, glancing up at the teacher who was double checking the seating chart again.
“He doesn’t remember seeing me here before,” she said. I noticed she had a notebook in front of her with English Lit written on the front. She had been in the class before her notebook was full of notes. I shrugged it off as other than annoyed she didn’t seem to be really concerned about it.
“Did you notice what happened before?” I asked her trying to keep my voice down while Mr. Newsome was writing something on the board at the front of the class.
“Yeah, that was really weird!” She exclaimed.
“It was!” I said. I’d sure like to know how and why that had happened, I thought.
I looked over at the pretty blonde girl a few rows over. I nodded my head towards her and whispered, “What’s up with blondie over there?”
“That’s Summer. She’s pretty cool.” That seemed to be an understatement, I thought. Girls and guys were trying to get her attention, but she was staring at Ana and me, totally ignoring the kids talking to her. She got up from her desk and moved over to stand by the seat right next to mine. Someone was already sitting in that seat, but she set her bag next to it and looked at the girl with a smile on her face. “Sugar, why don’t you move over to my old seat, the light is better by the window and it will really show off that pretty face.” She spoke with a slight southern accent, which seemed really out of place in Southern California.
Mr. Newsome faced the class as Summer sat down and stretched her hand out to me, “Avery, I’m Summer, what the hell just happened?” I was about to reply with a “Hell if I know,” however, Mr. Newsome started his lecture. The class was reading Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Thankfully, I read that in my Sophomore English class and it wouldn’t take much for me to catch up. I grabbed that book out of my bag, looking for the correct page.
Summer whispered, “What period do you have lunch?” I held up three fingers. “Me too,” she whispered. “Let’s get together.” I looked at Ana, “Lunch?” I knew she and I had the same lunch period. I liked her, and since she was also “lit up,” I wanted her in on the conversation as well.
“Sure.” she whispered. Then she looked to the front of the class and started taking notes.
I smiled, feeling hopeful, maybe this new school won’t be so bad if I’ve already made a couple of friends. Remembering what had just happened, I looked around at everyone. They seemed normal, I thought, then tuned back into the lesson.
They were studying the fight scene in the first part of the play. Before concentrating on the lecture, I tucked my head down and snuck a glance over my right shoulder through my hair at the boy in the blue hoodie. He was staring straight at me.
Normally I’d get flustered and turn around, but our eyes caught and held, mine widening slightly. He was totally cute! He had dark brown hair, almost black, with a cowlick that flipped his hair up on the right side of his forehead.
His skin was lightly tanned as if he spent a lot of time outside, and he had dark eyes that looked more purple than blue. He raised a pierced brow at me in question.
Embarrassed, I flushed lightly, but I casually tucked my hair behind my ear and looked back towards the front of the class ignoring him, for now.
Chapter 2
Cole
The hood of my sweatshirt was uncomfortably bunched up between the back of the chair and my neck. As I reached back to straighten it out, the door to the classroom opened. A girl walked through who looked slightly familiar. I was puzzling out how I knew her when a slightly taller girl walked through the door after her. The first girl walked to an empty seat and sat down, while the other girl talked to Mr. Newsome at the front of the class. Everyone in the room stopped talking and stared at her, including me. I could feel my heart pulse pick up. Interesting, I thought to myself.
I checked her out while she was talking to the teacher, noticing her hair first. It was a cool dark blonde, but with really dark brown streaks running through it. Mr. Newsome cleared his throat, “Class, we have a new student. Avery, why don’t you introduce yourself to the class.”
Avery. The name gave me a jolt in recognition and I straightened in my seat. As she spoke briefly to the class, the room stilled, and by stilled, I mean everyone started moving in slow motion except myself, Avery, Summer, and that other girl that walked into the class with Avery. In the next instant I was surrounded by a soft glow of light. I could feel it’s warmth on my body, generating heat, but I didn’t feel my temperature rise noticeably. My pulse sped up more as I locked eyes with Avery. She raised her eyebrows looking surprised. I nodded at her and cleared my throat startling her. That seemed to break the moment, because the light diminished, and everyone started to move again as if nothing had happened.
This had to be her, I thought, rubbing my damp hands across my jeans. My mind raced with instructions and possibilities. I watched her as she took her seat and noticed Summer getting up from her assigned seat across the room to switch with another girl. She, Avery, and the other girl spoke softly and nodded at each other.
If this was her, I thought, how was I going to work my approach? Avery gave me a quick glance through that cool hair, and our eyes caught again. She held my gaze for a minute then looked back up at the teacher. I reached up to the barbell in my eyebrow and gave it a tug. When my finger hit the barbell, I sent a small jolt of electricity through it, feeling its tingle make the hair on my neck stand up. I stretched out my fingers and popped my knuckles, letting the air roll between my fingers like I was moving a pencil. I shrugged off the current and tilted my head forward to listen to Mr. Newsome’s lecture. I could take some cues from Romeo and Juliet, I thought. My eyes swept Avery’s body, noticing her sweet curves and delicate features. She is cute, I thought.
When the bell rang I met up with Ben in the hallway. We bumped fists and walked towards our lockers. He and I had gotten pretty close since I moved here, being on the same soccer team. Ben was an amazing goalie, with an incredible reach.
“Dude, that physical was lame. I got a little closer to Nurse Ratchet than I wanted,” he gave a small shiver.
He leaned up against the locker next to mine and watched me open the lock. I touched the dial and it started spinning to the right on its own. The wind moved the hair on my head and a piece fell forward. I quickly brushed it back. The lock finished spinning and I opened my locker.
“You passed, though, right?” We had a big game coming up next week and we needed our star goalie.
“Absolutely!” Ben ran a hand through his sun-streaked hair, leaving it sticking straight up. “I wouldn’t mess up our chances against Oxnard, don’t worry!” He glanced lazily around the hallway. His attention caught by a girl walking down the hall, her hips swaying gently. A tail peeked out from under her jacket and twitched. Looking back at me he asked, “Did Newsome give us a load of homework?” He looked slightly worried.
“Nah, but you did miss the new girl,” I said, p
utting my books in the locker and slamming it shut. Not looking directly at Ben, I put my hands in the pocket of my hoodie and we started moving down the hall.
“Cool! Is she hot?” Ben looked around like he was trying to spot her.
“What do you care? You’ve been hooked on Summer since that party on the beach in August!” I bumped him against the wall with my shoulder, and when he bounced back continued, “She’s all right.” I said, downplaying her looks. “The interesting thing about her was this thing she did with the room when she entered.” I told him about the light spotlighting the four of us and how everyone seemed to be in super-slow motion.
“Dude, that’s awesome! Man, I wish I hadn’t had to deal with the Nurse.” He shuddered again. “You’ll have to point her out to me at lunch.”
“It shouldn’t be too hard, Summer moved her seat close to her, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they were buds already.” Ben and I approached my next class. “Let’s meet up after next period and we’ll scope them out.”
“Do you think she’s like us?” Ben raised his eyebrows and wiggled them slightly.
I shrugged, but I had a feeling she was exactly like us. “I don’t think she’d be going to school here, if she wasn’t, but I guess we’ll find out.”
“Cool.” With a hop in his step, Ben moved off down the hall towards his class, joining up with some of the other guys from our soccer team as they opened a door down the hallway.
I took my phone out and sent a quick note to my dad before I entered the classroom.
3 Years Ago
Right before my 13th birthday, my father came into my room and sat down. I had been doing some homework, but at the serious look on my dad’s face, I sat up and put my pencil down, straightening from a slouch.
“Son, I have some things I need to go over with you.” My father looked at me with a serious glint in his eyes and I nodded without answering.
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