Immortal Souls (The Immortal Souls: Magic & Chaos)

Chapter 32

It was lashing rain and the sky was a dark shade of grey.

Jamie stood outside the school building, the rain wetting his hair and dripping into his eyes, making them blur as he stared at the doors, too scared to go inside in case Sam had told people his secret. As he thought back to yesterday, again he wondered how she knew. Am I really that obvious?

The school bell rang, indicating the end of whatever class had been in session. Students from the outside buildings ran towards the main one, holding either umbrellas or coats above their heads. Jamie stepped aside to let them pass.

Sam was with the crowd.

She scrutinised Jamie passively as she walked through the doors. He held her gaze as she watched over her shoulder, and followed her into the building. Once inside she looked away and continued through the halls.

She knew he was following.

She didn't care.

Jamie walked through the halls with a crowd of students. A red-haired girl bumped into him, her books fell to the floor.

"Sorry," she mumbled, as she went to pick them up. Jamie bent down and helped her.

"It's okay," he said reassuringly as he stacked the books into a small pile and handed them to her.

She looked at him curiously. "Are you new?"

Jamie thought for a moment. "Sort of," he said and relaxed a little. This girl didn't know him at all. In fact, as he looked around he noticed that not only was there not a single person who looked at him as if they knew him, but none of them were looking at him at all.

Which they surely would be doing if Sam had told everyone about him.

The girl stood, as did Jamie. She smiled at him. "I'm Madison," she said, clutching her books to her chest with one arm as she extended the other.

Jamie took her hand and shook it momentarily. "Jamie," he replied.

"Is it your lunch period now?" she asked. "Because it's mine, so I'm going to the cafeteria if you need to get there."

"I'm actually just waiting to talk to someone," he said. "Thanks anyway."

"Oh." She looked disappointed. "Is it the principal? Because she usually doesn't see people during lunch."

"No, actually, it's a girl." Jamie assessed Madison, allowing his psychic senses to seep into her mind, not to read her thoughts exactly, but to get a grasp on what type of personality she had. He smiled to himself when he found confirmation of what he'd been thinking. "You seem like the sort of person who knows everything about everyone," he stated.

She smiled proudly, taking his observation as a compliment. "If you're looking for gossip, you came to the right girl."

"Her name is Samantha Jacobs," he said. Jamie saw a look of recognition sweep across Madison's face. "What's her deal?"

Madison smiled. "That's a story that could take a while." She directed him down the hall. "Walk with me." Madison started walking towards the lockers. Jamie moved alongside her. She stopped at one of the lockers, opened it, put her damp books inside, then closed it and started walking again.

"She moved here when she was thirteen," Madison began, linking her arm through Jamie's. "She didn't start in school until she was fourteen, though. She was homeschooled until then, so she didn't really have any people skills, I guess. She and her brother moved in with their grandparents after their parents were murdered."

"Murdered?"

Madison nodded. Then paused for a moment as if to think. "I suppose it was twice as bad for Sam, because her birth parents were murdered when she was a baby, then her adoptive parents were murdered when she was thirteen."