Free The Keeper's Vow by B.F. Simone Page A

office
before classes start. Can’t be late on your first day, right?”
Lucinda said, doing her routine check on Tristan. He raised his
eyes brows at her and shoved his hands in his pockets.
    Katie couldn’t help notice that some of his
facial expression sparked an instant spike of
dislike…paranoia…shock.
    He scowled at her, which meant one thing. It
was true, he could read her mind.
     
    Katie hated going to the front office.
Myrtle, the front desk lady, gave her the creeps. She was kind of
spacey.
    They walked to the front desk with Lucinda.
Myrtle waved, wearing a bright blue frilly shirt, her frizzy
straw-yellow hair in its usual beehive location, and her usual
strange smile.
    Lucinda and Myrtle talked for what was
achingly, too long while Katie and Allison sat in waiting chairs.
Myrtle took Tristan’s picture for his new school ID card and waved
Katie over. Her eyes sparkled when she asked to take Katie’s
picture for a school ID card.
    “It’s me Katie. Katie Watts. I go here.”
    “Sure. Sure you do.” Myrtle said, still
smiling. “I’ve been waiting for you. I have your new schedule. You
weren’t on the active list since birth, so you’ll have to take an
evaluation with Mr. Carver before winter break. If you pass, you’ll
be a permanent member of the program.” She handed Katie a piece of
paper: a new schedule.
    Her schedule wasn’t as new as she’d thought
it would be. The first half of the day she had regular classes:
English, Math, Chemistry—except she’d been moved into Brian’s
chemistry class—and Study Hall (normally that was her seventh
period class where she napped). The second half the day was what
she didn’t recognize: Natural History, Field Study, and Practical
Application. Last on the list made her cringe, but she knew it was
coming: After School Activities. For three years, Katie had counted
herself lucky that she got to go home to her comfy bed after
seventh period, while Brian and Allison went to their after school
activities four days out of the week.
    She already worked hard at being average.
How was she going to get the little bit of homework she did do done? Now Myrtle talked of an extra midterm test.
    “What if I fail?” Katie asked.
    “What?” Myrtle smiled.
    “The test. What if I fail the test.”
    “Well, Sweetheart. We’ll cross that bridge
if we get there. Won’t we?” she said, her eyes sparkling and
glazed. “Oh! I almost forgot!” Myrtle said, shaking her head as she
fumbled through papers on her desk. “Ms. Tisdall will be your study
hall tutor. Oh, here it is.” Myrtle handed Katie a stack of papers.
“This is the material you’ll need to go over by winter break—oh no
need to look through it now, Ms. Tisdall will go over that—oh you
dropped a paper right there. Should I staple those for you?”
    Katie shook her head as dread filled her
soul. This was a mistake. If they had told her she’d have this much
more homework to do she would have jumped into Glock’s arms.
    Tristan had only one sheet of paper in his
hand and, without a single word, he put it on top of her stack. It
was an exact replica of her new schedule. Why doesn’t he have a
stack of homework papers? Annoyed, she looked from Tristan to
Lucinda and to Myrtle’s smile.
    The bell rang.
    “You kids better be off to class then,”
Lucinda sang. She moved to straighten Tristan’s shirt, like Katie
had seen her do a dozen times to Brian, but stopped. He turned as
if he didn’t notice.
    They said their goodbyes to Lucinda and left
her to talk with Myrtle.
    Katie handed Tristan back his schedule as
she left the office dragging Allison with her.
    “Aren’t you going to show me around,
Katalina?” he called behind her. She turned around to his easy
simile and tripped over her own feet. Why did seeing that smile
creep her out?
    “Don’t call me that here.”
    “But that’s your name.”
    “People call me Katie.”
    “Katalina sounds better.”
    Allison snorted and stopped at