The Key of Hearts

by Mia Rodriguez

  Chapter 2

  As usual, Selena complained after first opening her eyes when her rooster sounded his wake up call. Even though her love for her animals was stronger than her need for sleep, she still couldn’t help the noisy protests escaping from inside of her. When Selena walked sleepily to the barn, she witnessed the most spectacular sunrise she had ever seen and her grumbling complaints stopped. The deep and different shades of orange expanded in the sky and seemed to be igniting in a mesmerizing beauty of fire. Shimmering pinks and shiny beiges with yellow trim shone in the pastel blue sky.

  Selena breathed a vibrant breath, feeling an unbelievable energy coursing through her. She wondered if Xavier felt this way all the time with the strong energies moving through his body. And if he did, why would he want to get rid of them? Why would he want to do away with his ability to move objects with only his mind? Telekinesis. Magic. Magnetism.

  When Selena arrived at the barn, she gave her troop a heartfelt good morning. She started milking Eleanor who suddenly mooed loudly, Antonio Banderas barked incessantly, and the chickens clucked mercilessly. The rooster stood next to Selena while the rabbit stared protectively at her.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked with a furrowed brow. They hadn’t acted this restless since the day Xavier had arrived in her small town of Gran Estrella in the El Paso area and turned her whole life upside down.

  “Don’t you see how beautiful the day is starting out?” she asked, sighing.

  Zac Efron jumped from his corner and started to squeal wildly.

  “Stop that, Zac,” ordered Selena but he kept making the ruckus.

  Selena harshly pounded her hands together. “Stop that!”

  He hung his head and ambled over to Selena. Rubbing his snout on her arm, she petted it.

  “That’s better,” Selena said soothingly. “You’re a good boy, Zac, you really are.”

  He is such a delicate flower, thought Selena. Her BFF Moonflower naming him Zac Efron had been a good idea because even a pig needed good self esteem.

  Later, at school Selena couldn’t help thinking about how strange her animals had acted. And what a day it was turning out to be. She had assumed that the radiant sunrise would bring a beautiful day but instead, it brought the harshest winds she had ever seen. It almost seemed like a tornado had unleashed itself but because of the mountains, no tornadoes formed in the El Paso area. Still, the winds were strong enough that they had lifted some roofs off houses and were causing a whole host of problems.

  In the cafeteria, during lunch, Selena and Moonflower patiently waited for Xavier and Saul. Moonflower chatted about the movie she and Saul had seen during the weekend. Selena suddenly noticed a new boy sitting with the mega-uglies—those in school who thought they were better than everybody. He was very tall, platinum blond, thin but muscular, and he had searing blue eyes.

  “Who is that?” Selena asked, her eyebrows furrowed.

  Moonflower turned to see where she was looking. “That’s a new student.”

  “I know, but who is he?”

  Why do you ask?” Moonflower said, looking at her friend with both suspicion and amusement.

  “I’m just curious.”

  “Sel, you’re never curious about those things,” sighed Moonflower. “I’m the one who notices new boys.”

  “Well, I’m curious this time.”

  “You like him?”

  “What?”

  “Do you like him?" Moonflower questioned with a gushing voice. "He’s so gorgeous like an amazing Greek statue or a mega-watt movie star."

  Selena rolled her eyes. “Of course I don’t like him. I’ve got Xavier.” Selena wondered how her BFF could think that she would have eyes for any other boy than her wonderful and mega attractive boyfriend. Just thinking about Xavier's intense dark eyes, wavy brown, short hair, and modesty made her want to melt like a silly, totally lovestruck person.

  “That doesn’t mean you’re dead,” stated Moonflower, frowning. “You can look at other guys, you know. Just look.”

  “Moonflower, I’m not attracted to him. I just want to know who he is.”

  “Why?”

  “Just because.”

  “Why?”

  “He just gives me a strange feeling," Selena explained. "And he’s sitting at the ugly table. It’s good to know who your enemies are.”

  Moonflower nodded. “He’s trapped in their evil spider web and will be forever stuck there,” she sighed. “He got in that gross group fast, right?”

  “Very fast.”

  "His name is—"

  Xavier and Saul interrupted Moonflower as they arrived at the table with their food trays and large smiles.

  “Hi, dude and my butterfly dudette,” Saul said happily.

  “Sorry, we’re late,” announced Xavier, his dark eyes sweeping over Selena. Her heart gave a lurch as it usually did when first seeing him after a period of absence. "Saul was showing me his new tablet.”

  “We had to go back to my locker where I had left it,” explained Saul. “I thought I had lost it!”

  “Did you like Saul’s new tablet, Xavier?” Moonflower asked with curiosity.

  “What is there not to like about it?” Xavier answered, chuckling as he sat next to Selena while Saul plopped down at Moonflower's right side.

  “It’s just that I didn’t think you liked technology.”

  “Why is that?” asked Xavier, puzzled.

  “I never see you with any electronic stuff,” stated Moonflower. “You don’t even own a cell, and we all know you can afford anything you want.”

  “Moonflower!” chided Selena.

  “What?" Moonflower said, her voice indignant. "We all know he’s rich. He knows it too. Asher brags that her family has more money than Donald Trump."

  Xavier winced when he heard his cousin's name. He hated having to live in the Montgomery household--Asher's home.

  "What I don’t get is why you don’t have any toys, Xavier?” Moonflower continued.

  “Yeah, dude, Moonflower is right. Why don’t you at least have a cell?”

  “I . . . I . . .”

  “You’re right, Moonflower,” rescued Selena. “He doesn’t like technology." Telling Saul and Moonflower the truth was out of the question. Only Selena knew about his special gift and that it was so powerful it made technology go bezerk around him.

  “I’d rather talk to people face to face,” asserted Xavier, getting his equilibrium back, “especially with Selena.” He grinned at his beautiful girlfriend. Selena with her straight black hair, chocolate eyes, non-skinny build and sharp intelligence filled his heartbeats.

  Moonflower smiled and sighed. “That’s so romantic like something Edward would’ve told Bella.”

  “Dude, don’t take it wrong but you have to come into this century. You don’t have a cell and you don’t drive—that’s kinda lame.”

  “It is, but that’s me.”

  “Sorry, dude, I didn’t mean to call you lame.”

  “It’s okay, Saul.”

  “Let’s eat before our food gets cold,” Selena stated, changing the subject.

  They started eating their beef tostadas. Moonflower exuberantly chatted about the new film she wanted to see.

  “Who is that?” asked Xavier, interrupting her as his sight shot to the new blond boy at the ugly table.

  Moonflower eyed at Selena with a puzzled expression as if wondering why she and now Xavier were so curious about him.

  “He looks like he’s new,” retorted Saul.

  “He just moved here from California,” stated Moonflower. “From the movie star state!”

  “California?” asked Xavier.

  Moonflower sighed, stars in her eyes. "He’s a surfer.”

  “What’s a surfer doing in El Paso?” asked Xavier, eyebrows knit together.

  “No kidding, dude, it’s not like we’ve got an ocean he can swim in.”

  “His parents had t
o move when his dad got transferred to a company here," explained Moonflower.

  “How do you know all this stuff, Moonflower?” Saul asked with thorns in his mouth.

  “You know me, I hear things here and there,” assured Moonflower.

  “Well, you sure know a lot of things about him,” snapped Saul.

  “Are you upset? Like Edward was with Jacob in Twilight? Moonflower asked, a small smile on her lips. “Are you jealous, my most awesome knight?”

  “Should I be?”

  Moonflower rolled her eyes. “Don’t be silly. You’re my one and only best dude—the only one to imprint on me, and you know it,” she said, pecking Saul’s cheek.

  “Okay, but stop being so nosy about other guys, my butterfly dudette.”

  “What’s the guy’s name anyway?” Xavier asked, his unwavering sight on him.

  “Sebastian,” answered Moonflower.

  “Sebastian?” Xavier asked.

  “Sebastian Crawley.”

  By the time Selena made it to sixth period, the whole student body was talking about the disorder and confusion of the day. The high winds had flung open a classroom window shattering glass on one girl. She was fine with only a few cuts, but the accident had discombobulated almost everyone as teachers frantically checked windows to make sure they were not only shut but also locked. Then the cumbersome entrance doors to the school flung open, and a heavy wind current smashed into what was in the way, causing pieces of paper to fly through the hallway, small light bulbs in the fluorescent lights to pop, and students to slip and bump into one another.

  “I’m so glad this day is almost over,” Selena told Xavier as his dark eyes reached into hers.

  “Me too.”

  When Sebastian Crawley was introduced to the class as a new student, Selena shook her head. There was something incredibly odd about how the day had started so beautifully and how it was now so chaotic. This somehow seemed to coincide with the new student who was seated a few chairs from Selena and Xavier. And to make matters even more questionable, every time she turned to talk to Xavier, Sebastian Crawley's eyes sat on them with a quizzical expression.

  By the time Selena and Xavier arrived at her home, the winds had died down. Xavier suggested they sit on her porch. While his presence next to her tended to make Selena a little foggy brained, she nonetheless pulled herself out of the vibrating sparks of pure energy that accompanied them whey they were together to ask him a very important question.

  “What’s wrong, Xavier?" Selena asked, concerned. "You’ve been quiet all day.”

  “I’ve been feeling off balance today.”

  “Me too.”

  “You have?” he asked, his deep eyes opening themselves to hers.

  “Yes.” She had to bite her tongue not to ask any more questions. He didn’t like talking about his gift and there was so much she wanted to know about it. “Very off balance.”