"I'm seriously shocked about how fast you guys did your school assignment!" Mr. Jonovach exclaimed his face molded into a cocky expression, arms crossed. "Telling you guys about it yesterday and then giving me your homework yesterday afternoon, then at dinner, and as soon as I got in the classroom way before class started? Wow!"
The senior Vanmourian class inside the medieval-looking classroom all looked delighted at our teacher's praise. It was totally surprising to know that these rich, spoiled snobs (mostly, anyway) were all hard workers. I saw some of the students gather in the library, in the Great Hall, in the lobby; all doing their homework for English lit. Of course they didn't exactly tell me that they were doing their school assignment, but I actually heard all of them, even if I was a several yards away from them.
"I'm glad to say that I am very, very happy and proud for all your determination in doing your first insanely hard homework, but I am not so happy to say that only some of you passed."
He eyed the students who all looked queasy and guilty, while me and three other students all looked perfectly casual and normal in our seats.
I was doodling a huge heart on my legal pad, but it was shocking to know that I was actually good at drawing; more likely, sketching: I never really had the talent, but then I started to draw in my dorm room while Georgie was chattering on her cordless phone with Liz who was still at the mansion. I drew Venus, if you seem so skeptical. I kept it in my locker, her eyes dark and her face beautiful as the Goddess of Love that she was. I finished the sketch in only thirty minutes. Maybe my drawing skill was a part of my past, or maybe my mother just passed it along to me. Either way, I had to say that I was an artist.
"Further more," our teacher announced, leaning away from his table and walking around the room slowly, "it's obvious that most of you did only the copy and paste maneuver. Clever, fellas," he said with a grin. "But I know a copy-paste when I see one. For the others who did the same, when you do such a move, make sure you change the highlights that are in blue to black with no underlines and sources. You guys have to learn. You'll read the book later till you can comprehend it-after I tell you about the students who didn't follow suit with your copy and paste trick.
"I know that the three students here love computers, and that I know also that you guys store up some major memory files inside your large heads," Mr. Jonovach kidded, his eyes glittering, "but there's also one particular student here who is the same as the three. Only this particular person did a handwritten homework, while the words containing the paper are remarkable." All the students began to look at each other, wondering who it was. But I knew better.
Mr. Jonovach gestured an arm to my seat, and he tapped my desk with a knuckle. "Miss D'Onofrio, I think your paper is badass."
"Badass?" I asked dumbly, blinking twice. "Sir, I don't do...badass."
He howled a laugh and the other students did too. I would have become completely at ease if my teacher hadn't exposed me to all about my "remarkable work" and hearing the two cheerleaders -- or lacrosse -- snobs, but there you go. "Good joke, Venise," Mr. Jonovach said jovially, "but you ain't fooling us! Now, I want you to stand in front of the whole class and read your paper. I'm sure it'll give these kids some new thoughts about the other life besides being a mortal as we all are."
I gulped. I mean, really, why did I have to stand in front of all these students and read it? It wasn't even my intention to get a totally impressive work on my assignment! I didn't know. I just read the book, got so engrossed, then I began writing what I felt about immortality, and there you had it. But I didn't know that Mr. Jonovach would actually like it. Not at all.
"Go on," he urged.
The room fell silent and all eyes were on me as I began to reluctantly get up from my chair, walk my way to the center of the room, and grab my paper that my teacher pointed which was on his desk, separated from the others' stacked work. My handwriting was -- truth be told -- elegantly beautiful. It was like from one of those 18th century writings.
As nervousness gathered up inside of me, my visions began to blur and my hands shook while my legs wobbled a bit. Oh yeah, I really wasn't used to talking in front, much less reading in front of all of the Vanmourians. I was holding on to my paper for dear life.
"Whoa," my teacher began, holding up his hands forward, fanning me. "You okay, Venise?" he asked gently.
I shook my head. I really wasn't sure whether it was because I was nervous that was causing me to feel extremely nauseous or something completely different. I stared out the Gothic windows of the room, but all I saw from the scenery outside was the foggy and dark morning sky, weeping willow trees and pine trees swaying from side-to-side as the cold, biting wind grew stronger by the second. The rain was pouring hard now, and I began to think of my long-lost sister, Anne. I imagined her outside, her lovely dark eyes glaring at me like shards of hard ice, her face masking none other than revenge. I could almost feel her presence and see her wicked grin plastered on her beautiful, heart-shaped face.
I felt like I was going to barf at the thought of my sister coming for me and kill me.
"I think you should head to the clinic," Mr. Jonovach said worriedly, grabbing my elbow gently with his hand. I couldn't speak. I was too sick and frightened to reply.
I looked worriedly at all the students who were all staring at me with pity and oddly, then I lifted my gaze to my teacher. I felt bile rise up in my throat, and I nodded frantically, placing a hand on my mouth, my paper still in my other hand. He walked me a few steps forward when a knock came on the door, making us all stare. Well, them, not me. I was too busy trying not gag while staring at my ankle boots. I closed my eyes, leaning all of my weight on Mr. Jonovach's side.
"Mr. Jonovach, I just came in to tell you that you are called at the office to..." I opened and eye and noticed one of Gabriel's soccer teammates. He stared at me with round eyes, probably noting my pasty skin and my perspiring forehead and tired eyes.
"Gabe!" he hollered down the hall outside the classroom.
As if on cue, Gabriel ran down the hall and came inside the classroom, his face contorted with bewilderment and concern. His hand slammed hard on the frame of the door as he halted in the doorway with his startled friend, then he pursed his lips into a hard line, gravely nodding to Mr. Jonovach while heading toward me. He placed a hand on my back and the other on the back of my legs, scooping me up like a fainted lady, while saying in a deadly voice, "I'll take her to the clinic."
"You do that," Mr. Jonovach agreed. "I'll head to..."
"Headmaster Corsemithe's office," Gabe's teammate provided helpfully, giving me a frantic stare. My teacher nodded and he told the kid to head back to class, turned around to face the others, telling them to read about the Epic of Gilgamesh. All the students mumbled their agreement and began to open their books while giving me glances. I moaned softly, my brows knitting together in agony, while Gabriel carried me outside quickly. My head was pressed onto his chest. I could almost feel the beat of his heart, running faster and faster as he walked quickly. I opened my eyes a fraction, glimpsing his jaw; then, as Gabriel walked further down the hall, not heading to the clinic as I remembered the familiar area where the east tower was, I saw one lonely girl passing by, walking as if she had all the time in the world. I opened my eyes wider, and then I saw familiar black hair, her glassy moss green eyes sharp and narrowed. I looked behind Gabriel's shoulder, seeing Victoria Stokes, stopping and standing at the center of the hallway.
My protector was leading me farther away from the beauty, who was frozen in place, a look of momentary shock on her pale, lovely face.
"Don't move too much. Just stay still," Gabriel ordered sternly, making me flinch.
I stared up at him wide frightened eyes, and his handsome face softened. He sat on the edge of my canopied bed.
"What happened?" he queried softly, stroking away a lock of red hair from my face. "You were okay when I fetched you here earlier and escorted you to your next class after lunch."
"I don't know." And really, I didn't. I was actually fine hours ago, but look at me now.
Gabriel didn't stare at me with hard eyes since he knew I was telling the truth. Instead, he said, "What do you think is the reason this happened to you?"
I shrugged, feeling a pain in my throat, head, and stomach. I clutched his hand hard without meaning to. He squeezed mine gently, urging me to go on. "I..." I began, stammering. "All I remember is that at lunch, I ate pasta with you, Hugo, Georgie and Shersten. I think I got food poisoning."
He shook his head. "I got the food for you," he stated. "I would know if there was poison in it. I could smell poison a hundred miles away," he explained. "Think again. Think deeper."
"Then Shersten, Georgie, and I began to talk together. Sherst gave me a new phone as a gift, and then when she and your sister looked at me, I began to feel something different." My eyes rounded. Gabriel nodded for me to continue. "I saw Victoria, that lonely girl, looking at me while she was eating. Actually, she was staring at all of us at the table, but moreover, it was me she looked at the most," I rasped, my voice growing horse. I clenched my teeth at the pain. Gabriel loosened my tie because I felt like I was choking, and I took off my shoes, covering my body with the blanket. I felt cold inside. He offered me some water, but I refused. I felt sick just by thinking of drinking anything. What was going on with me?
"That girl..." Gabriel mused, scrunching his brows as he thought. "She's very strange."
Since I was too tired to speak, I thought about my words instead. You have no idea how weird and scary she can be.
Unintentionally, I heard my protector give a little chuckle at my remark. "I see. And great thinking of a way to speak to me without tiring yourself."
Yeah, thanks. Gabe, I'm afraid of her somehow. Victoria's always staring at me whenever we see each other. I feel like she's casting voodoo on me already. Also, besides you being able to read me well, I feel like she, too, can actually read me just as well as you do. She hates me. I feel that. Even if I didn't even do anything to her.
I could tell that he was pondering over this. "I have to tell you something, Venise."
"What?" I managed to speak out.
"She's a mystery to me, that girl. I -- I cannot read her mind at all."
I quirked my brows down. "What do you mean?" I whispered.
He stared at me with those hypnotic icy blue eyes of his. "It means she can completely block my entering her mind. She is the only one I cannot figure out. I can't read her thoughts. It's like she knows what I am and what I'm capable of doing."
I tried to sit up, but I only fell down unceremoniously back on the bed, groaning in pain. "That can't be serious," I tried to joke, but I saw that Gabriel's face was dire. I gulped. "She can't be like, you know, one of us?"
He shook his head, his face full of curiosity and frustration. "I'm not sure. Like I said, I can't read her mind. She's like a book that's full of blank pages." He took a breath. "But I believe she is on to something dark. I feel like she knows something that we don't. I feel like she knows what we are. I have no idea what she is or what she knows, but I believe Victoria is a threat.; a danger to us. And I think she's the one doing this" -- he eyes my blanched face and my tired eyes and body -- "is to you. She can't only be doing this for voodoo fun. She's doing this because she's seen something in us that we don't."
I clung to every word Gabriel said, and inside my heart, I felt an ice wrap around it with thorns spiking out from inside it.
"Anne," I whispered brokenly, realizing the truth behind Victoria's presence. My schoolmate looked as if she hated me because she did hate me.
She was my sister.