Opposites: The Staff of Light [Book One]

7. We Become Certain Recruits

Alice

After a few months, it was back spring. I never really spoke to Annabeth after that great big mistake. Everything went back to normal. She barely talked to me. She did smile at me a few times before, but she never spoke to me as long. I’d usually stay on the sofa watching TV while she just stayed in her room, slowly finishing off our entire library. Annabeth never ate with us a lot anymore.

The good part was that we never fought anymore. The bad part was we barely saw each other every day. At night, I’d listen to her as she muttered off quotes or verses from her books. I once heard an entire chapter of words from William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, but I guessed that was the only fun she could get by the time.

It was only one day until school went back on again. Donna and the other guys invited me out to play, but I refused their invitation. I stayed inside the living room, making ice sculptures, and if they melted somehow, my parents would find me inside the fridge.

When I couldn’t hold it anymore, I knocked on Annabeth’s room, and said, “Annabeth, aren’t you going to come out?” I waited for an answer. It seemed like she wasn’t even there, but I knew she was. I heard flipping pages blown by the wind. “Hey, come on.”

The last time I’ve ever seen her was when we took this screening exam for a school for the eighth grade. We both ended up in different classes. The worst part was that Mom wanted us gone. She said some lady came over three months ago, and invited her to enroll us to this in-school camp for gifted children. I didn’t know if it was my imagination but I swear I heard that lady say that the three of us siblings were gonna die if we didn’t follow government orders.

But how could that be possible? Government issues, seriously? I mean, what do three freaks have to do with the Whitehouse in Washington?

“Annabeth, have you packed up yet?” I asked finally. The door opened and I saw Annabeth before me. She’d changed so differently over the past three months. Her hair was braided on a fishtail that flowed over her shoulder. She’d dressed herself into a plain red shirt and a leather jacket, a black skirt down to an inch above the knee with chain accessories and her face matured just like that. I looked at her shoes and they were in fact plain black Texan boots. I believe I’ve never seen my sister for so long, I must have missed her. “Woah, look at you. Come on, sis. Car’s waiting outside.”

She grabbed her traveling bag and walked off with me.

Do you think Mom was gonna drive us? Well, dude, you’re wrong. The school’s service was over. It was a typical green van and it dazzled most of Alex’s attention. “Bye, Mom,” I said as I kissed my mom’s cheek then my dad’s. “Bye, Dad.” I huddled them together before I’d left for the rest of the school months. “I’m gonna miss you.”

“Stay safe, honey,” Dad said. I turned to the car and the vehicle rode off. I sat in the middle between Alex and Annabeth. It wasn’t much but I couldn’t help thinking. I would miss the patio. I would miss the cold weather. I would miss my family.

“Shut up, Alice,” I scolded myself in my mind. “It’s not like I’m gonna disappear forever.”

I looked at myself for one moment. I felt a little insecure wearing my iced outfit: iced jacket, iced mini-dress that I loved dearly and iced flats. They were all iced blue. My hair flowed down along my back with a golden bracelet with an ice gem around my wrist. “I don’t look overdressed, do I?” I asked the driver. “What kind of school is this anyway?”

“You, my girl, overdress?” the driver’s tone made me sense that he was hesitating. “No, you look perfect. The mistress strictly offered a policy on dressing to your gift. So, what’s your gift, then my young Alice Candum?”

I almost wanted to ask him how he knew my name, but to me, it didn’t matter so much. “I-I have a talent with ice,” I said carefully. “And I’m mortal.”

He chuckled. “I like you, kid. You’re cool. Now, once we get there, you’ll all enjoy your stay. I assure you. I know.”

 After he’d said that, I didn’t feel so nervous anymore. Then I realized that the van was picking up speed. Something sprayed from the vent, this cold spray that made me immensely sleepy. I looked at the driver and squinted at him. “Have a good rest, Alice,” he said. I glanced over my shoulders and found both of my siblings dead asleep.

It didn’t take long and I was fast asleep like them.

The next thing I knew after I woke up, we were already parking. My siblings woke up with me and we looked out the windows. There it was. We were in a camp, far from civilization. Valleys curved through the field, and we’d placed our attention on the cabins. A large lake planted itself from a distance. A bunch of kids were already there.

“Where are we?” I asked the driver as I got off with my siblings. Alex and Annabeth stirred to the back of the car where our luggage was stuffed into a trunk.

“Ah,” the driver smiled as he pointed to a sign nailed against a tree. “This is Haven Academy for the Gifted. Like I told you, you’ll all enjoy your stay here. Go ahead. What’s your room by the way?”

I honestly didn’t know. “We’ll be checking it in soon,” Annabeth answered for me, half-scowling. “Don’t worry. We’ll find our place here soon enough.”

She never saw a stranger like him ever in her life. That entrance screening thing was even held at home. Maybe she didn’t know how to deal with new people. I couldn’t fight that. But whatever the case, she acted like a jerk to an innocent driver who’d only asked what was our schedule and there she goes acting like she had become president before.

The driver shrugged and drove away. I looked at Annabeth for an explanation, but she saw it coming. “Don’t ask,” she beamed. “It’s nothing important.” She threw my bag at me. God, if I hadn’t caught it I swear… “Now, come on. Or you wanna be left out the barrier.”