Alpha Academy: Misfit's Rise

Chapter Five: The Confrontation

"That's her, that's the one I was telling you about," Kelly, one of my classmates, whispered from behind me.

"She was the one who destroyed Tanya's cake?" The boy sitting next to her asked.

"She did a lot more than that," Kelly said. "She took out half their living room."

"Why did Tanya invite her, anyway?" Kira, another girl, said. "I mean, she's from Mapleton. That whole neighborhood's creepy."

"I know," the boy said. "I once saw this old lady with leaves covering her hair. It was weird."

"How did she blow it up, anyway?" Kira asked.

"I heard she sprayed the whole thing with aerosol." Kelly sounded far too gleeful with this piece of gossip.

"Idiot, that wouldn't work," the boy said.

"Yes, it would." She hit him again, harder this time. "I even asked Mr. Green, and he said—"

But we never got to hear what Mr. Green said because at that point another group waved them over, and they took off.

Lucky for them. If I'd been forced to listen any longer I might've blown something else up.

It had been like this all week, and it was only Wednesday. Everywhere I went, people whispered and stared when they thought I wasn't looking. But I as soon as I looked over my shoulder, they hastily returned to their phones, their books, and their made-up conversations. Someone even ran away. It was like they were afraid I'd go Terminator on them. At least no one could say I didn't attract attention; it'd just be nice if it was the right kind.

"Don't look so worried," Sophie said, not looking up from her math homework. "Before you know it, you'll be at the Academy and you'll never have to see them again."

She hadn't even seen my face. Sometimes I was certain Sophie really did have magic and could read minds.

"When would you leave?" Ana asked. Like me, she'd given up doing her math homework and was instead lounging in the warm autumn sunlight. It was early enough in September that summer hadn't quite faded yet, and I was going to enjoy every minute of that.

"I'm not sure," I said. Of course, the real question was if I would go, but we'd decided not to consider that option.

"Hopefully soon," Ana whispered. "It must be hard to still go here while you have ... you know."

Ana always whispered when we talked about magic, even though I told her that was more suspicious than talking normally, and no one could hear us in the noisy schoolyard, anyway.

"I think my mom wants me to finish the semester though." They pursed their lips and didn't say anything, like they did every time I brought up my mother.

Neither of us said anything about our fight the morning after. She made me breakfast, and I thanked her. It was like we were trying to forget anything had happened, but it was there, hanging over us. Every day I asked her if there was any news from The Union officials. I somehow avoided using the "R" word, "A" word or even the "M" word, but she would either ignore me or change the subject. This morning, she'd scarcely even looked at me as I talked to her. I thought she would at least talk about what Mr. Gavon said about her banishing herself to the Rustlands with me, but she seemed much more content pretending the Realm didn't exist.

"So ..." Sophie said, noticing I'd wandered into the forbidden Billie-and-her-mother-analysis-land. "Do you know our mom said they have in-suite Jacuzzis in every room?"

I swatted her arm. "You're such a—"

She blocked my hand, grinning. "Fine, but she did say every room looked like a five-star hotel."