The Eye Of The Storm

Chapter Two

On my way to school the next morning, Artemis answered all my curiosities. I learned about how the Academy used to be a sanitarium, which I learned later was an insane asylum. The Academy was definitely creepy enough to be a crazy house. Every room had dirty white walls, and most didn't have windows. The halls were lit by florescent buzzing lights. The place had an odd green glow to it. It was creepy as hell, basically. Apparently a group of patients committed a mass suicide in the basement around fifty years ago. I shuddered every time I passed the stairs to the basement.

"Hey." The boy with green eyes said to me when he took his seat next to me. "My name is Elijah Blithe. I'm sorry about yesterday, I was wrong to stereotype you."

"Yes, you were." I smiled at him. I liked to play games with people.

"You are really hard to figure out, Katherine Constante." I glanced at him.

"Please, don't call me that." He furrowed his brow.

"What should I call you, then?" I rolled my eyes.

"I never use Katherine. Call me Kat." Elijah smiled.

"Alright," he squinted at me. "Kat." He prolonged it, sending shivers up my spine. I was suspecting that a crush would develop between us. That was an understatement.

Three weeks later, I blushed every time Eli looked at me, and so did he. Artemis and I had become firm friends, and I was accepted into the Academy. I was enjoying myself. We had a whole class to discuss our feelings about being an orphan, and I was beginning to like it. The mean clique had just started to ignore me when...

"Katherine?" Mr. Geoff called.

"It's Kat, Mr. Geoff." I rolled my eyes. I had told him that at least fifty times.

"You need to go to the Headmaster's office. Now." Mr. Geoff had never been so serious, so I was worried. I shot Eli a confused glance before leaving the grade ten classroom.

When I arrived, Headmaster Delmann was at his desk signing some papers.

"Uh, hello?" I said, as I knocked lightly on the doorframe.

"Ah. Miss Constante, it is nice to finally make your acquaintance!" He stood and shook my hand forcefully. "I knew your father way back when, in the good old days."

"Oh." I said sadly.

"Oh, dear. Sorry for mentioning that. I can't believe ol' John's gone home. Anyways," he said, all in one breath. "I called you here because I'd like you to stay here, on campus. I'm inviting you to stay at Shadow House, which is at the top of the mountain. It is a place that I send the most, well, intelligent students from the academy, and they study different," he said the word carefully and filled it with a meaning I didn't understand. "Classes than the others. I'm sending you and one other student from grade ten."

"Who is it?" I asked, my hopes peaking.

"Elijah Blithe." My heart skipped a beat. I was so excited for Elijah and I. A smile found its way onto my face. I saw Headmaster Delmann's suspecting looks, but I didn't care. I will see Elijah much more often, I thought. "Is that alright with you? You will have to share a room, since there isn't much room there." I hesitated. I didn't know what would happen if we shared a room. Would I get sick of him? Or fall deeper in love with him? I didn't know, but I'd cross those bridges when I came to them, I decided.

"That'll be fine, Headmaster Delmann." I said bowing slightly, in respect. It seemed to be a custom at Shadow Mountain.

"You may return to your class now, Miss Constante. Please send Mr. Blithe here. Thank you." I nodded and floated down the hall and up the stairs again.

After Elijah came back from the Headmaster's office, he shot small smiles at me every so often. I could tell he, too, was excited.

"Hey!" He called after me on my way to Artemis's car. "So, we're gonna be roommates." He said shyly.

"Yup." I replied. "The only thing you have to worry about is not leaving the toilet seat up. My brothers do tha-" I stopped myself. "I mean, they used to leave the seat up, all the time." I turned away sadly, but he grabbed my wrist. At that moment, I remembered my boyfriend back in New York. I had entirely forgotten about Tyler these past few weeks. I smiled at Elijah and turned to leave.

"Kat." He said seriously. "We all do it." A smile played at my lips.

"Do what? Leave the toilet seat up?" With that, I turned around and walked to Artemis's car and fell into the passenger seat. "Hi." I breathed after a moment.

"Hi." She said knowingly.

The whole way back I was humming to myself. I had River Flows In You stuck in my head.

Elijah had shown me the song, and I had fallen in love with it instantly.

"Hey, Kat?" Artemis asked me when we were half way home.

"Yeah?"

"You're going to Shadow House?" I nodded. She sighed. "I was supposed to go last month, but I stayed."

"Can't you still go?"

"Yeah, but they don't have room, now. You took my spot in the room with Elijah. I would have been alone until this month. But, you can't always get what you want, am I right?" She didn't want an answer. She cranked the music really loud, and we were silent the rest of the way.

"Hello, Pumpkin!" Geoff exclaimed.

"How was school?" Gertrude added.

"Good. I got invited to Shadow House." I said, smiling.

"Oh! You simply must go!" Gertrude cried. Her wretched voice cracked as she screamed. Her beady eyes glared at me, although she seemed excited. Geoff's careful gaze followed me as I moved to the fridge for a glass of milk.

"Well, now, I don't know, Gertrude. Shouldn't we think about it, a day?" Geoff said. He held a valid point, but I didn't want to wait.

"Geoff, I'd really like to go to tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?!" They said in unison.

"Yeah... They want me to move in tomorrow or not at all." It wasn't entirely true, but I needed to get out of Gertrude and Geoff's house.

"We'll..... We'll think about it, pumpkin. For now, go rest up in your room." I had basically conditioned Gertrude and Geoff to believe that I required a nap, everyday after school. In reality, I snuck out my window and went to Artemis's house, where she loved alone, as she had no living relatives.

"Hey. Sorry about today, in the car. It was all my fault." I said as soon as Artemis opened her door. My hair was a mess from walking through the windy forest that separated our two properties.

"No! Please, don't be sorry, Kat!" We hugged and moved to the living room. Artemis's house was huge. She had had an uncle who was filthy rich, and she inherited the house when he died. "So. Wanna play Mario Kart?" I smiled at her.

At dinner time, I went home, only to find Gertrude and Geoff in my room. Where they thought I was taking a nap. Where I most definitely wasn't when they thought I was. I was in trouble.

"Where have you been?" Gertrude croaked. "We came up and your bed was empty!! Young lady, explain yourself!!"

"I-"

"Oh, save it!!" She screeched. "I don't want to hear your excuses. Geoff, we should send her up the mountain, so we don't have to deal with her!!"

"No, Gertrude. Let's not be rash." Geoff said slowly. "Katherine, do you realize that leaving without permission was silly?" He said the word 'silly' weird. Like it was a foreign word on his tongue. I nodded. "And, if you do stay, will you ever do it again?" I shook my head.

"No."

"Then, you can decide. Here, or Shadow House."

"Shadow House." I said, not thinking about it at all. For some reason, Gertrude and Geoff were creeping me out even more that day.