December 20 | Friday #5
Will glanced over with irritation, but his expression immediately softened when he saw Oscar.
“Hey,” Summers said with his wonderful smile.
“Oh. Hey,” Will replied in a whisper, instantly losing interest in the speech.
“This is actually pretty interesting,” Oscar noted in a low voice. “I thought it would be worse.”
“Yeah. Danny didn’t want to come.”
They exchanged smiles. Their conversations were always a little forced.
“We don’t have any classes together this year,” Oscar observed.
“Unfortunately not,” Will said with genuine regret.
“Too bad. I liked sitting with you in chemistry. I didn’t learn much, admittedly, but I still remember your rhyme about the piece of cheese in Professor Wilson’s beard.”
Will laughed quietly.
“Are you… very busy?” Oscar asked.
“Uhh… Right now?”
“No, just in general. We haven’t seen each other in a while, so I was thinking…”
Oh God. Oh God, oh God, oh God, this was really happening!
“…if you wanted to, of course…”
Will stared at Oscar’s lips, literally hanging on his every word.
“…we could…”
And suddenly, a sharp impulse shot through Will’s body. An impulse that seemed to burst from his skin, and then everything went dark as all the machines stopped working. Murmurs of surprise filled the air.
“No cause for alarm!” Kubrick called out. “We have a backup generator. Everything should be back to normal in a moment.”
And sure enough, within seconds the lights flickered back on and the machines whirred back to life.
Will felt uneasy. As if it were his fault, even though it couldn’t have been.
To make matters worse, Liam and Blake were staring at him strangely.
It wasn’t just them, either. That girl… Norma…
she seemed to have sobered up too, studying him intently.
“I’m sorry,” Will blurted out reflexively, then mentally kicked himself for his stupidity.
Seriously? He was apologizing for a momentary power outage?
After the commotion, one of Oscar’s friends started talking to him. And that was the end of that invitation.
The trip came to an end. Will reached into his pants pocket to check Dan’s reply, but to his surprise, his phone wasn’t there. How was that possible? He’d had it with him. He was sure he’d had it. He’d even been texting Danny on the way here.
He looked back toward the lab. He mentally retraced the number of rooms they had passed through and quickly concluded that no one would let him search them all again for a stupid phone. Dammit!
Although… maybe he hadn’t had it with him at all? The more he thought about it, the less certain he was that he had actually texted Danny on the way. Maybe he’d done it back at school? Before putting his things in his locker? Maybe he’d accidentally tossed his phone in there?
Will had to check.
He returned to the school. It was well after four, and classes seemed to be over. The hallway was completely silent. Rummaging through his locker, Will checked every inch of it for his own peace of mind but quickly realized his phone wasn’t there. He swore under his breath. What an awful day.
Hearing footsteps, Will slammed the locker door shut.
“Hey,” a girl’s voice called out. He turned his head and saw Norma. She twirled a golden lock of hair around her finger, smiling at him sweetly. “Can I ask you for a favor?”
“What is it?” Will asked uncertainly.
“I need to reach something, and it’s crazy high up. You know, short people problems.”
Will gave her a careful look. She wasn’t short at all.
“I’m barely taller than you.”
“Barely is enough. So? Gonna save a girl’s life?”
Will really didn’t feel like it…
“Sure.”
…but he wasn’t a complete asshole, so what else could he say?
He followed Norma into a nearby classroom.
Will had barely crossed the threshold when someone closed the door behind him.
Looking over his shoulder in surprise, he saw Blake.
On the other side of the room stood Liam, and sitting in one of the desks was that petite, dark-haired Asian girl he’d seen in the library.
“What’s going on?” Will asked, looking around.
Will remembered a news report he’d once seen—about some school gang that attacked students after classes ended. He had a feeling this was that kind of situation. That this was revenge for the basketball or something.
“You know, we were going to talk to you anyway, but that stunt… Wow,” Norma said, shaking her head.
“What stunt?” Will asked, not understanding.
“And then there was darkness!” Norma exclaimed dramatically, then giggled, hopping onto a desk. “You know.”
Was she talking about what happened in the lab?
“It was some kind of short circuit,” Will answered slowly. “I had nothing to do with it.”
“Uh-huh. Sure. And I had nothing to do with the fire at Mrs. Dwayne’s house.”
“What?”
“Nothing. Mistakes of youth. So? Are you going to tell us what’s wrong with you that you’re pulling a circus act like this, or should we tell someone?”
“Tell someone what?” Will asked, growing more and more confused by the direction of the conversation. He felt like they had him mixed up with someone else.
“I don’t think he gets it,” the other girl said quietly.
“Yeah, right,” Norma snorted. “Come on, Will. You’re among your own kind, go ahead.”
“Go ahead with what? And what do you mean, my own kind? I don’t even know you.”
Norma winked at him.
“You know,” she said pointedly.
Will didn’t know.
She rolled her eyes, then raised her hand, and a small flame flickered to life in her palm.
Will jumped back, not believing his eyes. How did she…? Never mind! To hell with news reports about gangs, these were some kind of pyromaniacs! She’d mentioned a house being set on fire. And now they wanted to burn down the school. Or him! What did they even want?
Panicked, he glanced around the room. Blake was leaning against the door.
They were on the first floor, so Will could escape through the window, but Liam was waiting there.
After a moment’s thought, he decided he’d rather take his chances with a twig like Alden than with the captain of the basketball team.
He lunged for Blake, but Blake shoved him away without the slightest effort.
Will staggered back a few steps, staring at Alden in disbelief.
“Please, let me go,” he said, his voice trembling. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I didn’t do anything.”
“Are you serious right now?” Norma asked.
“Yes! I have no idea what you’re talking about!”
“Damn it. Abby, are you sure…?”
The other girl nodded.
“The energy came from him. I can still feel it, though it’s weaker now.”
“I told you something was wrong with him,” Blake added harshly.
“What energy?” Will asked.
“The short circuit at KC. You caused it.”
“No.”
“Yes,” Norma insisted. “There’s no doubt about it, so don’t argue, just accept it so we can move on.”
“Move on to what?” Will snapped. “And how could I have caused a short circuit? I didn’t even touch any of the machines!”
“You used your powers.”
“What powers?”
“Magic.”
Okay. Now the situation stopped being scary and started being ridiculous. Will felt like he was on a hidden camera show.
“I want to leave,” he announced firmly.
“The thing is, you can’t, not until we’re done talking. Especially now that we know you’re clueless. So let’s start from the beginning, that’ll be easiest. My name is Norma. I’m a witch.”
“I know what your na—” Will stopped mid-sentence, only now registering the rest of what she’d said. “What?”
“So is Abby. And so are you.”
“Me? A witch?”
“Guys usually prefer the term wizard, warlock, or something similar, but it’s the twenty-first century, so no one’s going to tell you how to identify.”
Will stared at her, his mouth agape.
“You’re insane,” he declared.
The small flame reappeared in the girl’s hand. Will flinched away.
“I don’t know what kind of trick this is, but I don’t have any… powers,” he said with complete conviction.
“Yes, you do. You showed them off today. I thought you did it on purpose because you were even more bored than I was, but now I see things just got out of your control. Not the first time, is it?”
“What are you talking about?”
“You haven’t affected objects before? Nothing weird has happened around you?”
Actually… now that she mentioned it, Will had to flip the circuit breakers more than once after the power went out at home.
He’d fried Danny’s hairdryer. And sometimes appliances would turn on or off by themselves when he was around.
But he’d been convinced it was some kind of electrical overload.
How could he have possibly influenced it? With magic?
“It has, hasn’t it?” Norma guessed, even though he hadn’t answered. “It’s not your fault. Well, in a way. You can’t be at fault if you weren’t aware of what you were doing. See, the vast majority of people with these abilities go through their Awakening by the age of fourteen at the latest.”
“Awakening?”
“The moment they discover their powers. But you’re almost an adult. You should have been aware of your… difference by now.”
Will looked around the room, his eyes landing on Liam, then Blake.
“Are you serious? You think you’re witches and warlocks?”
“We think we’re witches because we are,” Norma said. “Me and Abby. Liam’s a werewolf, and Blake’s a vampire.”
Will snorted with laughter, but the others didn’t join in. They were completely serious.
“I’m not falling for this. I’m leaving.”
Blake didn’t move. He pierced him with a cold glare.
“Don’t you get it?” Will said nervously. “I want to leave.”
Liam reached into his pocket and pulled out a cell phone.
“I think this is yours.”
Will looked at him, first with surprise, then with indignation, and walked over to Liam to retrieve his property.
“You think?” he huffed. “Don’t you remember who you sto—Ouch!”
The moment his hand touched the device, he felt a jolt like an electric shock. The phone fell. Will hissed quietly, rubbing his hand, then picked it up from the floor and made sure it still worked.
“Do you really think that was a coincidence?” Norma asked.
Will didn’t answer. His head was spinning.