Gifted

Chapter Twenty-one

Mina

I get called into the office just after lunchtime. Shit. I walk out of General Physics, trying not to look at anyone, while I hear people whispering behind me.

Mr. Elliot, our principal, a small, balding man in his fifties, looks up as I enter the room and sit down in the single chair facing his desk. He doesn’t say anything to me, but gets up and walks to the door, closing it slowly, watching for my reaction, like he’s trying to be all dramatic or something. Well, it’s working; as the door shuts with a little click, I feel dread pooling in my stomach at what I’ve just gotten myself into.

He sits back down, facing me, staring thoughtfully at me. God, can he just scream at me or something, already—this calmness is creeping me out.

Finally he clears his throat quietly, speaking in his soft, nasally voice. “Mina. I assume you believe you are here to be punished. And, well, you are. However, I want to say that I understand the stress you must be feeling right now, with the recent Enhanced Human Registration Act passed this week in New York, and the implications it may have on your family and those like you if it spreads to other states.” He pauses, seeming concerned he may have upset or offended me, but I say nothing, and so he goes on, very sternly: “Now, frightened though you may be, Mina, your actions this morning were inexcusable. You assaulted a young man named John McGreere, and I assume you realize the law against assault applies to you, too, don’t you?”

A block of ice slides into my stomach. Is he going to call the police to arrest me?

“He threatened me, he threatened my family,” I choke out, fighting a sudden wave of tears. “He said the new law meant we were going to be killed!”

Mr. Elliot’s stern expression softens slightly. “Mina, no one is going to kill you, no one is going to kill your family. The new law just—”

He stops as I look up, tears still running down my cheeks, feeling so angry I can feel my body trying to change into something which can handle my anger better...but I control that impulse and look right at him.

“Mr. Elliot, that law said we had to go and register, to give them our names and our addresses and our powers, and anyone can find us. It’s going to be a public database, like we’re goddamn dangerous criminals or something! Don’t you know how many of us have died from people who hate us, in just the past few years alone? It’s not just been this last year, either, when we’ve been ‘out’ about who we are!” I cry, feeling a hopelessness so powerful I almost burst into tears again.

He looks deeply uncomfortable now. “Mina, you’re terrified, I can see that. I understand—”

“STOP SAYING YOU UNDERSTAND! YOU UNDERSTAND NOTHING! YOU’RE NOT US!” I scream at him, and an animalistic snarl rips through my teeth, the shaking almost too much to control now. He blanches, swallowing, blinks quickly.

Too much shaking now. Too much. I can’t hold this in much longer, I have to give in soon, I have to—

Another wave of crazy fury rolls through me, and I almost lose it right there. Shit, I have to get out of here before I—

I stumble to my feet and run from the office, not heeding his feeble calls for me to stop, to come back, to let him explain himself. I do not care. I charge through the front doors and then throw myself into the strong form of the wolf, bursting into the familiar four-legged, much faster animal as I tear down Otmann, heading for the outskirts of town, where the forest begins. I need to be by myself for a while.

I stop when I reach a small clearing deep in the woods, forcing myself to calm down long enough to resume my human form. That takes a long time. Once I’ve stabilized back into a girl, I look at myself and think unhappily at the thought of having inadvertently destroyed the clothes I asked Liza to create last night when I showed her the designs I’d made earlier. Just a pile of rags now...