Free Eternity by M.E. Timmons Page B

usually
tell when people lied because I could see their guilt and fear.
    I didn’t
confront him about his lie because he probably had reasons behind
it and I didn’t want to offend him. I lapsed back into silence
again so I could work on my assignment. I ended up being the next
one to break the silence anyway. I couldn’t control my
curiosity.
    “Why do I never
see you around school?” I asked. It was true that I had not seen
him anywhere other than at the ball, even though I saw everyone
else I knew regularly.
    “I eat in the
dorm. I don’t like noise.”
    “If you don’t
like noise, then why did you go to the ball?”
    “I was hoping
to see you there.” He looked straight at me as he said this, and he
wasn’t lying.
    “When did you
see me before then?” I asked. “I didn’t see you before that night.
I would’ve remembered if I had.”
    “I saw you in
the library with Leewood. I didn’t expect to see anyone in there
before classes started, but there you were, poring over old books
like there was something you desperately needed to know.”
    “There was
something I needed to know, and I never found it.”
    “Then perhaps
the library is not where you need to look.”
    “There’s
nowhere else I can look. It doesn’t matter anyway. I don’t expect
to find answers.”
    “How badly do
you want them?”
    I frowned. “I
don’t really know. I want the truth so that I don’t have to
question it anymore, but I’m worried that the truth isn’t what I
want or expect it to be.”
    “What do you
want it to be?” Adrian asked softly.
    “I want it to
be nothing. I want to find out that there’s nothing wrong with me
at all, that I’m perfectly normal.”
    He looked
surprised. He hadn’t known what answers I was even looking for, and
it wasn’t what he expected. “Why would you think there’s something
wrong with you?”
    “It’s kind of a
long story,” was my answer.
    Class ended
then. Adrian collected his things and then smiled at me before
quickly departing. I headed to the cafeteria, since it was time for
supper. When I got there, the first thing I saw surprised me.
Melissa was standing in the corner talking to Mrs. Espenas, and she
held in one hand a single rose. It was exactly like in my drawing,
which shocked me. I actually stopped in my tracks, though I was
standing in the doorway. Someone cleared their throat behind me and
I realized I was blocking the way.
    When I sat down
and Melissa joined me, she explained that the rose was from her
last class, which was Botany. She had just been talking to Mrs.
Espenas, who was the teacher of the class, who said she had a lot
of talent with caring for roses, which was what they had spent the
class doing. She was really excited about it, so I listened to her
talk happily about it during the rest of the meal, all the while
pondering my newfound ability.
     

Chapter
12
     
    The next day in
Skills Development we actually got to practice using our abilities.
I was kind of glad that I actually had something to work on. Mr.
Ramirez told us to get in pairs, and I ended up partnered with
Melissa, who was eager to get started.
    “Check this
out...oops,” she said. The flame she had been holding in her hand
had fallen through her fingers and ended up on her desk, where she
quickly extinguished it, though it left a mark.
    “Maybe you
should get a fire extinguisher to use during practice,” I
recommended, eyeing the burnt desk wearily. I was a little glad
that I was supposedly fireproof. I hadn’t told Melissa yet, but I
had no plans to do so that day. I wanted to work on my drawing
instead since I actually felt like I needed the practice. I was
careful to keep my sheet of paper as far away from Melissa as
possible, which was good because that wasn’t the last time she
dropped her flame.
    The drawing
came easier this time, and I didn’t have to pay attention to what I
was doing at all. I watched Melissa instead, who was struggling to
transfer fire from one