Discovery: Olde Earth Academy: Year Two

by Amabel Daniels

  Not everyone made a big deal out of it. Like Paige had accurately explained, it wasn’t as though we went to sleep one night and the next day woke up glowing with superpowers itching to escape. For the sake of maintaining past practice, many from traditional families treated the dates as a second, once-in-a-lifetime birthday ordeal. Like a Quinceanera or Bar Mitzvah. After a while, it was hard to keep track of who’d had their dates and who hadn’t.

  Mine came and went like nothing, which was a huge relief. I was still the same old me. Maybe I felt unchanged because I was an Early Pure and I was technically already elven, but realizing I was still me after my date was like shoving a boulder of anxiety off my shoulders, that fear that I’d become even more freakish and able to do other odd things.

  Hitting my elven date meant that Sabine had to have as well, yet I’d heard nothing from her. I assumed if she’d come into any kind of power, she’d tell me, maybe to rub it in my face. She hadn’t. I didn’t even hear of any kind of party on her behalf, and she was the queen of special occasions—the ones about her, at least. Then again, I hardly crossed paths with her much. Like all my other peers, I saw them at reduced class times because of my mentorship with Wolf.

  At the end of Bateson’s Zoology lecture, I gathered my books and tablet, cramming everything in there so Flynn and I could meet at the side exit of Main Hall and drive to first, the Menagerie, for me, and then he’d take the golf cart to the greenhouse. Marcy hadn’t been hard-pressed to teach both of us how to drive the cart, and there wasn’t much to it anyway. All the upperclassmen who went to do their work studies in the Menagerie and greenhouse used shuttles from the dorms. Since Flynn and I were something of a special case, she’d given us permission to get ourselves there.

  “What’s the hurry for?” Ren asked as he stood up and bumped into my desk, his arm not-so-accidentally swiping into my belongings and scattering a couple of notebooks to the floor. They landed, spines open and pages revealed. Notes I’d taken from the bi-weekly night meetings Ethel had set up for Flynn and me at the Green House. Our own, selective history sessions about Olde Earth.

  His laughs scratched at my nerves and a couple of his friends chuckled behind him. As I stooped to gather my things before he’d see my words, Lorcan shoved through the trio of bullies to help me.

  “Wow, I thought that huge elven date party your mom had meant that you’d be older now. Not so clumsy.”

  “Look who you’re calling clumsy.” Ren stood taller, his black hair falling back as he turned his nose up at Lorcan. Then he shoved. “I heard you had your date last week and you can’t even stand on your own two feet.”

  One of Ren’s cronies, another traditional who I’d heard was of the fish sect—yuck—pushed at Lorcan as he lowered to help me pick up my stuff.

  “Are you ever not a bully?” Lorcan stood again, putting himself between me and Ren, puffing his shoulders up. “You think since your mom’s a bigshot here you can do whatever the hell you want?”

  Uh, actually, let’s not provoke that particular beast of pride. I was sure that was exactly what Ren thought. And it was likely the very reason why no teachers ever truly disciplined this smug jerk, even when he disrupted class and put down others. I’d been so busy in my own lessons about my powers and spending time at the Menagerie that the lesser yet crueler headaches of bullying fell to the back burner. Not that I could ever forget how much of an ass Ren could be.

  Like I could forget his taunting just before we went on the bridge last year…

  “I can do whatever I want,” Ren argued back, getting in Lorcan’s face.

  “Okay, okay,” I mumbled, not really wanting Ren’s wrath to return to me but not wanting these boys fighting either. “It’s just a couple of notebooks.” I’d already begun shoving them into my bag again. “No big.”

  No one even heard me because Lorcan retorted, “The hell you can.” He crossed his arms. “Not by my watch, at least.”

  Jeez, what was this? Lorcan woke up and decided today should be the day to bring Ren down a peg or two? I appreciated him standing up for me, over a tiny issue that was better left alone because it was just that insubstantial, but I had a feeling this attitude was something more like male posturing.

  “No one can tell me what to do.” Ren sneered as he stepped into Lorcan’s space.

  Oh, hell. They really were going to fight about…about…God, I didn’t even know. Who was the bigger guy? Who was more invincible?

  Ren’s lips curled into a devious smile. “Not anymore.”

  Anymore? Why? Because he’d come into his powers? Why else would he be upping his bullying and tossing around I’m-the-king kind of comments now? I swallowed hard. Bullying was one thing. But being a prick with elven powers up his sleeve…?

  I gritted my teeth and pulled on Lorcan’s sleeve. After I’d kind of tugged him to the side, I stepped closer, trying to stand between them.

  “Lorcan, I gotta get going. Ren? Can you move over?”

  He stepped his right foot to the side and hovered it, but then stomped right back to where he was. Like mocking my request. “I don’t move over for anyone.”

  Oh, my God. Seriously? Did his elven powers come on so quickly he was suffering from a hangover or something? Was that possible? The bell rang for the next period and I nearly cringed. Flynn was going to be wondering where the heck I was. I should’ve been outside already, but I’d wanted to jot down every last word Bateson had droned on about.

  “Fine. Fine.” I flung my hand up. “You’re the man. You’re the best. Gooo, Ren. You’re the shit. Now can you please step aside?” That does it. I’m never sitting in the middle of the room again. Had I sat anywhere else, we wouldn’t be having this standoff trapped by two rows of desks. No way to physically bypass him. Unless I climbed up and over the desks…

  “Watch that temper,” Ren teased, wagging a finger at my face.

  I smacked his hand away.

  “You never answered my question,” he said as he crossed his arms.

  I lifted my chin. “Because I don’t report to you.”

  “You keep getting all these perfect grades and you’re hardly around.”

  Glorian never told her son that I was being mentored? Weird. I’d think she’d pump Ren full of all the latest happenings of Olde Earth. Not as gossip, but wanting her son to be superior in knowing what didn’t even pertain to him.

  “You having fun out there with the Wolfman?” he sneered.

  His shorter buddy, not the fish guy, howled. They all cracked up.

  “What is it? He’s letting you pretend that you have some legit powers? You guys having fun playing with the dogs and brushing the little ponies?” He said in such a clearly mocking tone, like cooing the words for talking to a three-year-girl.

  “Move aside, Ren.” I was done asking nicely. And I was through with his taunts and questions about my powers. It was none of his business. Yet I was immensely glad he seemed ignorant of what I could do. Glorian must really not know the extent of my powers.

  “Make me.” He roared back with an ugly laugh and Lorcan stepped forward, pushing into my back.

  “I’m sick of you thinking you’re better than everyone else and—”

  Ren leaned over, still laughing, to directly speak to Lorcan around my shoulder. “Well, I am better than you—than all you Diluted pieces of trash here.”

  I gripped Ren’s button-down shirt and squeezed my fingers until the cloth was snared under my nails, his stupid necklace trapped in my fist beneath the garment. “That’s enough.”

  He shoved at my hands, but I refused to let go. His eyes flared brighter, like he wanted to summon lightning down on me, and I pushed my clutch of his shirt into his chest. Hard enough to mean it. Fast enough to startle him. His heart beat fast under the material at my knuckles.

  “I’m certainly better than you will ever be.”

  His cockiness was almost so ridiculous I could laugh. “Don’t try to prove it.”

  In a flash, the
heated hatred glaring from his stare crumbled. His face slackened and his brows shot up as he cried out a sound of anguish. Pain. He thrust my hands away. I let go, frowning at the tears in his white shirt. Rips in the material I’d just been holding.

  My nails were my own. Not long glued-on tabs of plastic like Sabine used to have. I couldn’t have cut him…

  Yet I had.

  He gaped in horror at the slices I’d somehow left on his shirt. Several inch-long tears that showed his tanned skin beneath.

  “What the f…?” One of Ren’s buddies studied the damage on the shirt and Lorcan pulled me back.

  How…

  What…

  I brought my hand up to see how this was possible. As I turned my hand over, I extended my trembling fingers. Burrs? What are— Brown tips, almost like tiny bits of branches rolled off my flesh. Poky, firm, barbs just like—

  Thorns.

  Five thorns fell from my skin and dropped to the ground.

  Chapter Fifteen

  “Damn, that’s a sharp ring you’re wearing.” Lorcan rushed with me from the room. I’d turned and fled when I’d seen how I’d ripped into Ren. Literally.

  Oh, my God.

  Oh, my God.

  That can’t be real.

  It wasn’t real.

  I closed my eyes for a moment as I hurried out of the Main Hall, Lorcan at my side.

  “I didn’t even think you wore jewelry,” he said.

  I fisted my fingers tighter together and shoved my hands into my coat pocket. Anything to hide them. Jesus. Could I cut through my own clothes now? I ran my thumb over my bare knuckles to check. No rings. He was right, I wasn’t fond of jewelry. No thorns either, thank God.

  It couldn’t have been real.

  Yet, they were. All five boys saw the tears I’d inflicted on Ren’s shirt.

  Jesus Christ.

  “I’m glad you showed him, though.” Lorcan laughed and slowed as we approached the side door Flynn had to be waiting on the side of. “Have fun with your work studies, Layla. See you later.”

  Work studies. That was how Flynn and I had been instructed to describe our absences from class. After that fiasco with the griffins at the stables, it wasn’t so hard to convince our classmates that we were chosen for selective mentoring. We’d never truly had to say exactly why, either. Now that everyone was near, at, or past their elven dates, it was assumed everyone would need different levels of guidance. But we weren’t about to mention the word Pure to anyone.

  “Work studies,” I whispered. I’m not working on anything today but figuring out what the hell just happened. “Yeah.” I cleared my throat and spoke even louder so he’d actually hear me. “Later, Lorcan.” Then I opened the door and turned back to call out to him, “And stay away from that creep. He’s bad news.”

  I hoped Lorcan had his fill of standing up to Ren for one day. I’d had enough for a lifetime.

  “What took you so long?” Flynn asked from the driver’s seat of the cart. He was rubbing his hands along his arms. Couldn’t have been warm sitting here.

  “Sorry,” I said. One word was all I could manage as the reality of what just happened stuck in my head. Thorns. I’d…grown thorns? How? My heart raced too fast and I panted for breaths. Ah, a panic attack. It’d been a while. I hunched over, my messenger bag on my lap thrusting into my stomach. With my hands still lodged in my pockets, I labored to breathe and not pass out.

  Flynn had started to drive but jolted to a stop. My skirt offered no friction on the plastic seat and I slid forward, bumping the top of my head into the dashboard.

  “Ow,” I said the word only because I should be maimed from the impact. It did hurt. But the sting of that pain was so insignificant to the roaring rush of blood in my head.

  “Layla!” Flynn’s hand was on my back, rubbing up and down over the coat. “What happened?”

  Good Lord, I didn’t know. How the hell could I say I grew thorns?

  “I… I…”

  “What is it?” He shoved the gear stick to park and then I heard his footsteps. He ran around the cart to crouch next to me.

  “Layla, what the hell happened?”

  I turned my head a little, just enough to see him. To absorb the intensity of the concern on his face, the harsh slant of his brows, the fast puffs of his breath.

  “I don’t know.”

  “Did someone hurt you?”

  I shook my head. But I almost did. There wasn’t any blood, so I must have only pricked through Ren’s shirt. Thank God. Not that I’d cry if he was ever injured. But I wouldn’t want to be the one to own up to physically harming Glorian’s cocky golden boy of the earth Ren.

  “Did…you use your energy? Your power?”

  I blinked and then frowned. Did I? Check yourself. I hadn’t at the time. In the classroom, I should have. I should have heeded Wolf’s sage words and should have taken stock of myself. I was pissed. Threatened. Enraged. Annoyed. Ren had pushed a few too many of my buttons. All those thoughts and feelings—they channeled into my energy.

  Yet…there weren’t any animals in there to react to it, to me. Bateson’s Zoology room had plenty of animal presence. Only it was in the form of illustrations on the walls, inanimate models and diagram structures of all kinds of lifeforms.

  Thank God there weren’t any creatures in there…

  I swallowed hard. “I don’t know.”

  I sat up then, my logical thoughts a comfort. I could work this out. I’d managed living with a connection to animals for all my life. I could think this one through too.

  Thorns.

  Arthur, Wolf’s favorite grog had a thorny club at the end of his tail.

  Maybe…I could summon the traits of ancient species?

  Oh, no. I slapped my hand to my forehead. What if I could grow or interpret animal traits. Like a unicorn’s horn. Or wings. Or scales.

  “Layla?”

  I lowered my hand from my forehead and glanced at Flynn still standing at my side.

  “Why’s your hand…”

  I gasped and looked at it. Normal, pasty white flesh. No thorns. Nothing.

  “Why’d you put your hand on your head like that?” He held on to the roof of the cart and lowered to be more at my eye level. Concern and worry still shone strongly in his dark-blue gaze. “Do you have a headache? Or are you sick…?”

  I swallowed. “No.” I inhaled a deep lungful of cold air, hoping it could help calm my confusion and reaction to this crazy incident. It helped. I could breathe easier. I stuck my hands back in my pockets and nodded to the side, indicating for him to get back in the car. “I’m…okay. I will be. But I really, really need to talk to Wolf.”

  “Want me to come with you?” he offered as he walked around the front of the cart and got back in.

  “No. It’s…” It’s too hard to explain. I can’t even explain.

  “I get it. I get it.” He shook his head as he drove, still glancing at me every few seconds. “You trust that guy. I should try to as well.”

  I frowned then, a new slice of confusion cutting into the recession from this panic attack. “You don’t?”

  Flynn grunted like he regretted saying something he probably shouldn’t have. “I do… It’s just… Well, Marcy talks about him sometimes.”

  Huh. Wolf mentioned Marcy too. Not often. And usually with a forced manner of indifference.

  “Talks crap about him, more like,” he admitted.

  “Did they know each other when they were here in school?”

  He nodded. “I get the feeling they used to be friends. Now, she seems to resent him.” With a flip of his hand, he seemed to want to dismiss it. “Probably something stupid. People hold grudges over anything, right? But you do trust him, right? You’ve been doing well since we started this mentorship.”

  I inhaled slowly, still recovering from the crash of a panic attack. “Yeah. If I wasn’t comfortable with it, or with working under him, I would have told you.” Even though he was separated into the gr
eenhouse, I still considered Flynn my go-to guy. The one person who ever truly understood me and what I was going through. Even more than Paige, or Suthering. I wasn’t sure if our friendship, our relationship or whatever it was, was so strong because we shared similar pasts as Early Pures in the real world, but it was a fierce connection I couldn’t think of abandoning. But I was still hesitant to voice my new concern of sprouting thorns because it just sounded too damn out there. I would tell him, later. Like, maybe after I could come to terms with whatever this phenomenon was. For now, it was too much. Despite how frantic the idea was bouncing around in my head, it was at least containable there.

  He gave me the peace and quiet to stay rooted in my thoughts and worries for the remainder of the ride to the Menagerie. Still, he glanced at me as though he had to check on me, “We’ll talk more later, okay?” I said as we neared the door for the Menagerie. “About…everything. Before Ethel comes tonight for our history and lineages meeting, we’ll hang out. Dinner maybe?”

  He nodded and leaned forward on the steering wheel to watch me exit the cart. I offered a wave back to him as he waited until I’d entered the door of the cliff. Once I followed far enough into the dim lighting, I heard the clinking rattle of the cart driving off.

  Then I ran. I sprinted to the inside of the Menagerie, my messenger bag flapping against my lower stomach and upper thigh.

  I usually found Wolf in something of an office-slash-breakroom near the Mammalian branch of hallways.

  “Wolf?” I said as I rushed into the room. It was empty. Save for Merlin.

  I breathed hard as I strolled into the room. Huh. It was unusual for me to be this late, so he must have taken off. Today was Thursday…so he was probably out with the primates. He’d mentioned yesterday that some of the babies were due for vaccinations. Those wouldn’t take too long, though. So…where else could I find him under the earth?

  “Where is he?” I asked Merlin as he stood and yawned. He stretched out, his forelegs splaying out and along the floor. Then he rose and shook his head.

  Uh, that almost looked like a no. He normally wasn’t this rebellious.