''I get it,'' he said, ''the sun so loved the moon...''
His voice trailed off. We both knew the story. We knew it all too well. He was looking at me thoughtfully. I, however, turned away.
''What if,'' I began, ''the sun didn't want to die for the m...
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Turns out, Johnathan Sterling had a sense of humor.
He'd explained, after I'd excitedly told him I could meet with him at 4 in the morning to get rid of the nightmares in my head, that he was only joking. He promised that we would meet sometime soon before an indistinct voice called him off. It had sounded like yelling, but when I'd asked he assured me that it was the television.
So for the remaining two hours I had before school started, I began looking at my college applications. Before we'd moved to West Acres, college wasn't an option. Sure Harry and I both had good grades, but good grades couldn't pay for school. Neither could we.
Staring at photos of Brown, Cornell, and Boston University seemed surreal. Tucker had made it real and, by extension, Owein had too. After an hour of looking, I shut the computer off.
Briefly, I wondered if Harry had thought about where he wanted to go. Or Ben. Leaving West Acres seemed impossible. Something made me want to stay, but I knew that that same thing was pushing me out.
I still had an hour left before we had to leave for school and searched for things to do with my time. I'd gotten dressed into a black hoodie with my oversized jean jacket on over the top and tied my sneakers- twice, for good measure. Still 45 minutes left.
I looked in the mirror and inspected the girl staring back at me. Her blue eyes were a muted gray color, darkened by the bags of exhaustion that hung from them. My skin was pale and my hair was limp. I groaned as I looked in the mirror. Brushing my curly hair wasn't an option unless I wanted to look like the bride of Frankenstein.
Part of me, as I looked in the mirror, searched for the parts of myself that were somewhat familiar. Everything had changed when we'd moved, even the look in my eyes and the draw of my cheeks. While my abilities were heightened by the strength of the ley lines in West Acres, it seemed that the strength of the lines was now having an outward effect on me too. I checked the clock.
20 minutes left.
Then, I proceeded to bang my head against the bathroom mirror.
***
School, luckily, passed a lot faster than my morning had. Everyone was talking about some fall festival that was coming up and even the teachers seemed excited about it. A town like West Acres was big on traditions and I, however, wanted no part of anything with a big crowd where the noise in my head would increase tenfold.
The day was...good. Part of me was afraid to even admit it. The football team had won on Friday so the gym teachers had us watch a movie so they could gossip about it. Lunch had some semblance of flavor and Tilly had brought some lavender brownies her Yia-Yia made.
