Hearing My plea

6

6

An uneventful Thursday passed along. Classes had been canceled due to a horrible storm coming off of Lake Michigan heading our way that was said to last the entire weekend. None of it mattered though since I doubt I would have gone anyway. The looks I had been receiving and the whispers I had overheard led me to believe that no one knew that I was a Specialist. Not that I was exactly going around and advertising it, but still... So after lunch I headed to Nora's office for a quick meeting. 

"They say things that basically say they don't know about me," I said to her as I lied upside down on the couch, my hair pooling on the carpeted floor. Nora nodded, indicating that she was following along as she crouched on the couch across from me and painted her toe nails a bright blood red. 

"We don't teach everyone about Specialists until their last week of their last year. Since they are rarely born and very unheard of, we don't usually see a point. Of course, there are a few kids who have parents that choose to enlighten them early on, but we advise they do not 'kiss and tell,' so to speak."

That made sense, I guess. But still... "But what do I tell them? I've seen the looks they give me, heard the things they say. They all look at me like I'm some kind of freak. What does that make me, if I have no answer to give them? I would much rather walk along the grounds as the odd one out than the extraterrestrial they all take me for."

Something I said made Nora click. She put aside her nail polish, (only six and a half nails painted) and ushered me out. I hadn't entirely closed the door before I heard her dial her official principle phone and say, "Yes, this is Nora. I'd like to speak with Gregory... Of course it's important, otherwise I wouldn't have bothered-"

And now Willis and I sit at the small round kitchen table in out wooden cabin, playing go fish and drinking diet coke. 

"Wanna hear a secret?" Willis asked, fishing for a card in the pile of random numbers that face down on the table. I shrug. 

"Might as well," I said, after asking if she had any 3's. She didn't. 

"I have a crush on Chip." 

I giggled. "That's not a secret, Willis."

Her eyes instantly widened and she put down her cards. "Is it that obvious? Do you think he knows?!" 

"No... I could just kind of tell I guess. I don't know, its like... like I already know you."

We went a couple more rounds. I got a pair of 5's, and Willis finally got the 2 she'd been waiting most of the game for. 

"Now it's your turn," she said. 

I frowned. "I just went."

"No, I mean for a secret, silly!"

I put my cards down and thought. Did I have any secrets? I could always enlighten her on me being a Specialist, but I already know Nora would advise highly against it, best friend or not. 

"Oh come on," Willis said. "I'm pretty sure I know who you like!" When I stare at her blankly she rolls her eyes. "Aspen!"

I sat there silently for a minuet, then burst out laughing. "Yeah, ok," I said sarcastically and picked my cards back up. 

"It makes sense! I can just feel it! You two were made for each other." She said this like it was a matter of fact. "And anyways, I've seen the way you look at him, and don't think he doesn't look back!"

"Willis, you're crazy!" I said as I rolled my eyes. 

"Whatever. You don't have eyes in the back of your head to see the way he checks you out. I wouldn't even say that! Its more romantic! Like it's a doomed love or something!"