Secret Wing

I was standing in a dark forest. The silence was heavy, suffocating even. A twig snapped, and I jumped. A girl stepped out from behind a black trunk, her face hidden by the shadows. I froze. Who was she? I could not help feeling like I had seen her before, but where? Then, I noticed a pair of silvery wings behind her back. Wings? This sight made me mentally shake myself. It's a dream, I realized, just a dream. I turned in my sleep and the image faded as I fell back into a dreamless slumber. 291 ~ 84 I woke up with a start. I had one of these dreams again. Strangely, I can never recall what they are about. Each time I try to remember, my head starts to hurt. The one thing I do know is that I feel some sort of call, like someone or something in the dream is trying to pull me towards them. 91 I sat up and stretched. With a smile, I realized that the pain between my shoulder blades had lessened. I could not fathom how I had gotten hurt there, but at some times the pain could become unbearable. Hopefully the ache will have completely faded by tonight. 282 I stepped into my adjacent bathroom and took a nice warm shower. I grabbed a pair of worn jeans and a tank top with a panda bear printed on it and brushed my long brown hair. I skipped down to the kitchen where I found my dad sipping his coffee. 112 "Good morning, Daddy!" I chirped happily. 339 "'Morning, Sweetie. Someone's in a good mood today," my dad remarked, chuckling. 43 "Yeah, I guess I just woke up on the right side of the bed today." I said while I grabbed myself some food. Usually, I was not a morning person. Not at all. Today was just a good day, I guess. 158 When I was done eating, I went back up to my room and grabbed my backpack. I left the room, but not before sending a quick smile to the picture of my mother on my desk. 46 I never knew my mother. She had left a few days after my birth without a trace. She had taken most of her belongings with her too, so I treasured the few that she had left. I had promised myself that when I was done with High School I would go and find her. I had no clue how, and I had no idea where to start, but I promised to find her nonetheless. 86 My phone beeped, signaling I had received a text message. I checked it to see that it was from my best friend, Allison. 89 'Hey! I'm at ur house.' 67 I looked out of the window to see her pink car parked in front of my house. Ali and I may have been best friends ever since I can remember, but that did not stop us from having different tastes. When I got a car, I would rather it not be pink. 377 I ran down the stairs to the front door, yelling goodbye to my dad as I went by. I walked up to the car and threw my bag in the back before sitting down on the passenger seat. 11 "Hi, Hailey! What's up?" My friend said in her usual cheery tone. Today, she was wearing a blue flower-printed dress with matching heels. We both had different opinions about the importance of dressing up for school. I really didn't care too much for it, but I guessed it was different when you were head cheerleader and had the pressure of people looking up to you. 57 "Hey, Ali! Nothing much, you?" 43 "Well, actually, I found this book at my house yesterday, and it's just amazing." 33 I smiled to myself. Ali loved to read, and had the ability to make the most boring book sound exciting. Sadly, I seemed to only be able of doing the opposite. Then again, Ali was a great speaker in general, so that probably helped. 102 Ali and I talked the whole car ride, as usual. We always found something to discuss, and awkward silences were rare in our conversation. 64 As I got out of the car, I got the weird feeling I was being watched. I must be becoming paranoid or something, because this had happened a lot for the past two weeks. It was the first time I had felt that way at school, though. This usually happened at home when Ali dropped me off or I went to get the mail in the morning. I looked around but no one was looking at me, so I tried to ignore the eyes boring into my back. As I had said earlier this morning, today was a good day. It was going to stay that way, too. I went to my first period class, and Ali went to hers. The teacher in that class had an annoying high pitched voice which did not help me pay attention, especially when I was always sleepy early in the morning. She was absent today, though, which made my day ten times better already. 72 Second period was Gym. I was not athletic, so it was one of my least favorite classes, but at least Ali was with me, which made it a little better. 102 "Alright, class!" Our teacher barked. "Today, we're running track. Try to improve on your time from last time!" 94 Some students cheered, but I felt like my good mood had just dropped. I got out of breath really easily and was a slow runner, which made my time one of the slowest in the class. 227 All the students lined up, and the teacher, Mr. Dawson, blew his whistle, at the sound of which all the students started running. Usually, Ali and I ran alongside each other, with her sometimes a little ahead of me. Ali was great at cheerleading stunts, but not so much at running. 86 Today, though, I was soon well ahead of her. I figured that she was probably tired, before I realized I had passed most of the students I usually ran a long side of. Maybe my good mood had affected my running? That seemed like an unlikely turn of events, so I dismissed this thought. I ran a second lap and still could not figure out why I was so much ahead than usual and why I was not out of breath already. 100 I finished all my laps, and Mr. Dawson looked at me appraisingly. 28 "Wow! Good job, Ms. Underwood! You improved your time by a whole fifty seven seconds!" The teacher looked slightly output, but proud that a student could have improved so much thanks to his professional teaching skills. "Did you practice during the weekend?" 129 "Um... Yeah." I lied, figuring that he would not believe me if I said otherwise. 27 "That's good, Ms. Underwood. See, practice makes perfect!" 131 I sat down in the grass with the other students who were done running. Even though I felt short of breath, I was not panting as hard as usual. I could not understand at all why I was suddenly such a good runner. I mean, it's not like I was suddenly the fastest student in High School, but it was such a noticeable improvement on my previous running that there had to be a reason for it. 64 Although no one was paying me any attention, I felt someone looking at me. It was pretty uncomfortable, as usual, but I tried to ignore it. 53 Ali finally finished her laps and joined me on the grassy area. 10 "What in the world was that?" She asked, referencing to my improved running. 12 "I have no idea..." I answered her. "I'm actually really confused right now." 34 We walked back to the locker room and I felt relieved when the feeling of being watched disappeared. I was starting to feel like I had an invisible stalker. 109 The day passed by without any other bizarre occurrences. After lunch, I had a free period. Usually, I would spend it trying to do my homework in a noisy classroom, but since today was so nice, I decided to find a quiet spot outside and listen to music. When I walked out of the building, I saw a boy standing against a wall not far away who looked as if he was looking for someone. He was not familiar, but I had heard we were getting a new student in my grade and wondered if it might be him. Being new could be hard enough, but changing school in the middle of the year was usually even worse. Since I was in a good mood - and maybe also because the guy was kind of cute - I decided I would go and see if I could help him out. 49 "Hey!" I said as I walked up to him. "You look kind of lost. Can I help you?" 29 "Oh, hi! Um well actually, I think you can," The stranger answered with a charming smile, turning around to face me fully. "I was looking for someone, and looks like I found her." 86 "Oh. Uh, okay?" I replied, unsure. That was a little strange. To hide my embarrassment, I fixed my gaze on a tree a few yards behind his left shoulder. Suddenly, out of the corner of my eyes, I saw the air shimmer around him. What? I turned my attention to the spot, but the shimmer was gone. I tried to look out of the corner of my eye again, and sure enough the same trick repeated itself. 44 "Look, Hailey, I'm a friend, okay? Can we go somewhere less crowded? It's kind of personal." 182 I started when he said my name. How did he know it? Was he some kind of stalker? Wait a minute, was he the guy who I felt watching me? I surreptitiously took a step back. My gaze was drawn back to the shimmering air around him. I could see a faint shape, but when I tried to focus on it, it disappeared. 91 All of that was too strange, and I started to feel a little scared. I took another step back and told him, 10 "Look, I don't know what you want, but I think you're talking to the wrong person." 16 "Oh, really?" He asked with a somewhat amused look. "Yep!" I replied nervously. "My name's not Hailey, or whatever you said. Actually, it's... Uh... Allison! Yep, I'm Allison, so you have the wrong person here!" I laughed nervously. 92 The guy looked at me weirdly. To be honest, I probably looked really strange and completely unconvincing. But, hey, at least I did not know random people's name, nor had air shimmering around me. 12 He sighed. "Hailey, I really don't mean any harm. I was sent here to tell you about your new... You know." 51 Instinctively, I thought back to Gym class and how I had improved my running by fifty seven seconds. 19 "Okay, this is getting creepy, so how about you just leave or I'll call someone." 11 The strange boy wasn't fazed. 7 "Okay, then. Apparently you haven't seen them yet." 9 "Yeah, I haven't, because there isn't anything to see. Now will you please leave me alone?" 20 "Actually, I can't. I was sent here by people who care about you to make sure you don't get hurt." He answered calmly. 22 I decided I would just leave and turned around, but he grabbed my arm. 18 "Wait, wait! Okay, just take this okay?" He said, scribbling something on a piece of paper he took out from his back pocket. 9 I made a show of folding the piece of paper and putting it in my pocket. 8 He smiled. "Trust me, you'll be glad you have that when you see them." 13 "Okay, can you leave me alone now, creep?" 70 I should not have called him that, because upon hearing it his brow furrowed, and he started to get annoyed. "Fine, sorry for wanting to help! I don't know, maybe I'll just leave you to fight off the monsters by yourself when they learn what you are," he answered sharply. 115 That kind of scared me, since he looked so serious when he said it. He turned to leave and started to walk away, when he suddenly spun around. He closed his eyes and I saw the air shimmer around him faster until I clearly saw a pair of feathered wings. As fast as they had come, the wings disappeared from sight. The boy looked at me with a crooked smile and was gone. 91 I stood there dumbly, while my brain scrambled to make sense of what had just happen. 21 An angel came to see me to tell me important stuff about my life, and what did I do? I called him a creep and pissed him off. Great. 196 Today is officially one of the worst days of my life.