Winterwood Academy Book 1: Gifted

Chapter Two

Chapter Two“Luckily for me, Lola wasn’t in my class for P.E or volleyball may well have turned into Dodgeball. I’d seen her play so many times, forced by Peter to go to her stupid games all because she was the captain of the volleyball team. If the guys at school had any sense, she was the one they would be calling Beast.

For once, I didn’t actually mind playing. It helped to take my mind off the crappy situation I found myself in. It wasn’t until I found myself on the losing team - go figure - that I had a chance to sit and think.

Sitting on the benches at the edge of the gym, I kept myself to myself as I always did. I guess you’d call me a loner. Things were simpler that way. There was way too much drama when it came to having female friends, especially in high school.

But as I sat, I realised I wasn’t alone.

“Psst.” A squeak came from the bench behind me, and I almost jumped out of my skin.

Glancing back over my shoulder, I found Debbie—short, plump, and dorky—sitting behind me.

“I saw what happened this morning,” she said, her pasty cheeks growing red as though she was embarrassed to point it out, “Lola can be a real A-hole.” That was an understatement.

“Try not to let it get you down. She’ll get over it and move onto someone else soon.” Debbie spoke as though she was talking from experience, and I suddenly remembered the incident in the cafeteria a couple of months ago when Lola had accidentally barged into Debbie, sending her food tray flying. The poor girl had been up to her eyeballs in spaghetti before she even knew what hit her.

“Don’t worry about me,” I said, turning my attention back to the game being played by the two winning teams, “I can handle myself.”

“You should be careful with a girl like her,” Debbie warned. “She’s formidable.”

I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. As if I needed Dorky Debbie to tell me that. I know I shouldn’t call her that, but everybody calls her it. I’m probably about the only person in school who wouldn’t actually say it to her face. She didn’t help herself much, walking around with Star Wars badges stuck all over her backpack and I-Heart-Hans stickers all over her notebooks. I mean, can you get dorkier?

But even she didn’t deserve the way that Lola treated her.

“Thanks for the info,” I grunted.

Just then, Butch blew the whistle to end the game, announcing that the team that had beaten ours were the winners.

“Winters!” she yelled even as the other girls began to break away from the game.

I groaned inwardly and lifted my head to look at her.

“Yes. But...I mean, Miss. Eddings.”

I nearly dropped my foot right in it. As if I wasn’t in enough trouble for being late to class.

“Seeing as how you were late, and you found yourself on the losing team, I think you can be in charge of putting the nets away.”

She glared at me sternly, but there was an annoying amusement in her eyes that told me she got a kick out of ordering me around.

Urgh. Why me? Why was it always me?

“Hop to it!” she snapped and then gestured for the other girls to head off to the changing rooms.

I groaned once more as I got up from the bench. After all, the running around my body felt as though I had been run over by a cement truck. Yes, I was out of shape, and a half-hour game of volleyball about did me in. Did I mention I ran five laps around the track beforehand?

I quickly found myself alone in the gym, wrapping up the nets. But when I turned to take them to the cupboard at the other end of the hall, I found that Debbie hadn’t left. Instead, she shrugged at me and said, “I thought you could use some help?”

“Thanks,” I said begrudgingly. A huge part of me just wanted to be left alone, but it was kind of her to offer.

Together we wheeled the stand-alone net posts back to where they were kept next to the cupboard. By the time we had finished, Debbie was sweating and looked as though she had just run a marathon. Turns out I’m not the only one who’s out of shape.

She shoved her hand into her pocket and produced an inhaler. No wonder she looked like she was about to drop dead - she was asthmatic. I, on the other hand, had no excuses.

“Are you okay?” I asked, concerned. The last thing I needed right now was to handle a girl having an asthma attack.

“Sure. Just a little out of breath,” Debbie responded, shaking the inhaler before taking a couple of quick puffs.

“Let’s go and get showered, or we’ll miss the first break,” I suggested.

At least if she dropped unconscious in there, I could run to the PE teachers’ offices for help.

Debbie offered me a skittish smile and hurried after me as I headed out the doors and down the hall to the changing rooms.

Luckily for us, most of the other girls had already showered and changed, so we weren’t stuck waiting for a cubicle.

I grabbed my towel and shower gel from my gym bag, where I’d left it hanging on one of the three dozen pegs in the changing area and headed into the shower room.

The room was steamed up to hell just as it always was when class let out. Teenage girls seem to love having long skin-peeling hot showers.

I, on the other hand, loved lukewarm showers that left me feeling refreshed rather than damn near boiled.

Lathering up my body and rinsing away the layer of sweat I’d accumulated during class, I began to hum. I’d never been very musically talented, and I imagine I sounded way off key to anyone who might be listening, but the truth was I didn’t much care.

That was until I heard the sniggering laughter that came from the other side of the shower curtain.

Even before I heard her voice, I knew who it was. Lola.

“You hear that, girls? That’s the sound of a dead bird.” She chuckled.

I could hear the Lola-bots chuckling even over the roaring of the shower.

Just what I needed—an audience while I showered.

I rinsed off the soap and switched off the shower, grabbing my towel, where it hung over the side of the cubicle.

What else was I supposed to do? Hide in the shower and hope that she just went away.

I could never be so lucky.

I wrapped my towel around myself and tucked it under my armpit before I pulled back the curtain to find Lola and her minions circling. She was sat on the countertop beside the sink with one leg bent at the knee on the side, perching as though she was an eagle eyeing her prey.

“What do you want, Lola?” I glowered at her, crossing my arms over my chest as I began to feel self-conscious. If only I had her huge boobs to hold up my towel, I might not feel that way. No wonder Peter liked her. Even I was drawn to them.

“We never got to finish our chat this morning.” Lola glared back at me, her green eyes seeming to darken with malicious intent.

I opened my mouth to give some witty retort but was cut short when she slipped off the counter and came to stand in front of me. Her heeled boots clicked on the tiled floor, and even the sound made me feel nauseous. I hated everything about her.

She was so close now that the tip of her nose almost touched my own. Had she not been taller than me, I might not have felt so threatened. As it stood, I felt the urge to shove her backwards and make a run for it.

“How many times do I have to tell you?” I paused before adding, “I am not interested in Peter.”

Lola laughed almost hysterically and glanced over her shoulder at the Lola-bots.

“I don’t believe her. Do you?” she asked them, and both girls began to shake their bleached blonde heads.

Oh, how I would love to rip those terribly bleached roots from their heads just for agreeing with her. Maybe I’d even be doing them a favour. They’d both look better bald than they did now, trying to be something they weren’t.

“Only a lesbian wouldn’t be interested in someone like Peter. Are you a lesbian, Red? Is that what you are trying to tell me?”

I let Peter get away with calling me Red all the time, but there’s no way in hell I’m going to let her do it too. With him, it was a stupid pet name. Sure I hated it. But coming from her lips, it was a blatant insult, and I could feel my hands tightening into fists.

I wasn’t a lesbian, but so what if I was? Either way, she was still a hag.

“You should teach her a lesson,” Kelly, the one of the Lola-bots who was always more vocal during their leader’s attacks, said.

She glared at me over Lola’s shoulder, but I could see a barely veiled uncertainty in her eyes that said she only went along with Lola because she was frightened of her.

“I think you are right, Kel.” Lola chuckled, and the noise grated against my eardrums until I was forced to cringe.

Again I felt that tingling sensation beginning in my chest and radiating outwards until it consumed my entire body.

Lola whirled on me then, and before I even had a chance to react, she shoved me backwards. My back caught on the edge of the shower cubicle painfully, and I bit back a squeal of surprise.

“Show her who’s boss, Lo!” Kelly jeered her on, and Lola raised her hands as though she was going to shove me again.

“I’ll let you have that first one, but I swear if you shove me again, I won’t be held responsible for my actions,” I warned her.

Anger welled up inside me when I saw the enticed, almost excited expression on her face.

Maybe I should have just stayed quiet and taken the beating, but that wasn’t me. I wasn’t a Dorky Debbie.

“Or what? What are you going to do? Ging!” Lola snarled back at me, and not for the first time, I realised how ugly she was when she wrinkled her nose like that. For a moment, she reminded me of the Wicked Witch of the West from the Wizard of Oz.

When she shoved me again, I grabbed for my towel, fearful that it was going to slip off my body.

A sudden wind whipped up, seeming to resonate from around me, and Lola squealed like a little pig as she was flung backwards by some kind of invisible force. She barely managed to catch herself with her hands on the countertop.

“What the hell!” She glowered at me. “Did you just do that?”

“I didn’t touch you,” I pointed out, yet something inside me, something connected to that odd tingling sensation, told me that whatever it was, it had come from me.

The tingling sensation had grown to a powerful throbbing. It thrummed all around me, and I was sure that if I looked close enough, I could see it, like a glowing silver shield all around me.

“Look...look at her eyes!” Kelly gasped.

My attention was instantly drawn to the mirror that hung over the sink behind Lola.

My heart jumped into my throat when I saw my face. I was a familiar stranger. My usually grey-blue eyes sparkled with dancing lilac specks that lit up my entire face, and I could have sworn that there was the wind whipping through my hair even though there was no open window.

At the sight of myself, one word came to mind. Powerful.

“You’re a freak!” Lola yelled at me, and I was only mildly satisfied as she began to back away, never looking away from me as though she was scared to do so.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Kelly sounded breathless, her voice distant as though we weren’t even in the same room.

The pounding of blood in my ears was almost deafening.

I don’t know what came over me, but I smiled, a sickening smile that felt wrong on my face, and all three girls turned white as ghosts.

“Let’s get out of here!” Erin, the sweet, silent Lola-bot whimpered. I mean, she actually whimpered, as though she was a frightened animal.

“I’m not finished!” Lola protested, but her expression had become unsure.

“Boo!” I yelled, throwing my arms up, relieved that my towel didn’t fall down around my ankles.

The three girls practically jumped out of their skin, turned tail, and scurried right out of the shower room.

I stood for just a moment, unable to move, as I felt the throbbing sensation beginning to subside.

Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes and tried my hardest to regain control.

What the hell just happened?

I walked on shaking legs to the counter and looked at myself more closely in the mirror. Leaning over the sink, I drew my face close to the reflective surface and examined my eyes more closely.

They had returned to their usual grey-blue.

Had I imagined the whole lilac specks thing? Was I hallucinating?

The reaction of the three girls told me that I wasn’t. Whatever had happened, I had no idea what the hell it was.

What I did know was that Lola and her minions would think twice before trying to threaten me again. That was a win in my book.