Beautiful Claws by: Tauriel Rogers

9) Strange Signs

"Anna, Anna! Wake up!"

"Agh!" I sat straight up in bed and clutched my mom's arm.

"Anna honey, are you alright?" my mother asked me.

"I...I had a bad dream," I answered in disbelief, slowly lifting my head.

"You most certainly did. Your father and I could hear you crying out!"

"I'm sorry mom, I didn't mean to worry you," I apologized. My mom smiled and put a loving hand on my cheek, but winced in pain, clutching her hand.

"What? What's wrong?" I asked worried.

"My goodness, you must have a fever!" she exclaimed. I put a hand to my forehead and then felt my cheek with the back of my hand.

"Really? I don't feel warm at all," I said.

"I'll be right back," my mom said, getting a thermometer to put in my mouth. We waited for 2 minutes until we heard it beep.

"Well?" I asked concerned. My mother looked at me and then back at the thermometer.

"That's impossible," she breathed.

"Is it really high?"

"No, it says you're at ninety five degrees but how can they be when you were hot to the touch?" she asked showing my the thermometer screen as proof.

"I don't know, but I'm fine really mom. I need some water and more rest before I have to be up again for school," I told her. I looked at myself in the mirror in my bathroom and touched my face again to make sure I couldn't feel anything. "Maybe the thermometer is old," I thought to myself.

Later at school, my friends and I were enjoying lunch together. "Yeah exactly! He tripped over the garbage can and when he got back up and kept going, he ran into the side of the fire hydrant!" Skylar laughed.

"What? No way! I have to see this," Candice said, looking at Skylar's phone and then laughed hysterically.

"What's going on here? You look like you're having all too much fun," Lily wanted to know.

"You gotta see this video Skylar found on YouTube, it's hilarious!" Chris said, still laughing. Lily and I watched interested as a man was riding on his bike and ran into several things. The video was hysterical! We were all laughing so hard to the point that even Melissa and Holly were giving us weird looks. I opened my water to take a drink and was putting the cap back on when Skylar asked if he could have a little sip.

"Where did your water go?" I asked.

"I forgot it," he said, taking a drink from mine. When he lowered the water bottle, he had a weird look on his face. "That is some ice cold water you've got there."

"It wasn't that cold when I took a drink from it," I said.

"Yeah right, it's partially frozen in the middle," Sky commented. I looked at it and sure enough, there was ice in there that wasn't there just seconds ago. I looked at my hand and saw that it was wet and then looked at the water bottle, confusion building up. "Hey, what's wrong?" he asked.

"I don't feel very good," I lied, but to tell you the truth, my stomach churned at the thought that I might have been the one to put ice in my water bottle.

"I can walk you to the nurse," he offered.

"No, no that's ok. We've got this report in History to do today and I can't miss that," I said. Skylar gave me a weird look and didn't question me further. I drank from my water bottle all through my other classes and sure enough, it stayed ice cold, but the ice was almost gone by the time I got to History.

"Ms. Wesley, your up," Mr. Washington called my name. I looked at Candice and Sky who both gave me encouraging smiles, and started my oral report summary.

"So like those who came from the European countries in search for a new start, many more from other areas of the world came to America in search of gold, silver, and other riches. Like before, those who migrated here were also subject to discrimination and persecution for their," I stopped for a moment because I felt a sharp pain in my head, but it passed quickly. "They were subject to discrimination and persecution for their beliefs because they were different. This is completely normal, even now, because people always fear what is agh!" I clutched my head in my hand and leaned on teaching materials desk for support.

"Ms. Wesley, are you alright?" Mr. Washington asked.

"My head," I grimaced.

"Let me take her the nurse," Candice offered.

"Me to," Skylar stood up with his back pack over his shoulder ready to go.

"I think Ms. Stanton is fully capable of being able to take Ms. Wesley there by herself, thank you," he barked.

"But I have all her stuff already to go," Sky argued with the teacher. Mr. Washington sighed.

"Fine, but Ms. Stanton hasn't presented her report yet."

"I'll stay sir, no worries," Candice decided.

I stopped Skylar at my locker and slumped to the floor as he shoved all my notebooks in my locker for me. "What is happening to me?" I cried. Sky sat down next to me and put an arm around me.

"Nothing is wrong with you Anna, I think you might have the flu," he said gently.

"No that's not it. I woke up from a bad dream early this morning, which I hardly ever have, and then my mom said it felt like I had a fever, but when she checked my temperature with the thermometer, I was fine. Then I find out my water bottle has this thing of ice in it when there wasn't seconds before I drank it and now I have a pounding headache in the middle of an oral report? Since when have I ever been afraid of public speaking? I'm not even overstressed!" I ranted to Sky who thankfully listened to me.

"We only have a few minutes left of school today and then you can go home and rest, come back tomorrow, and it'll be like nothing ever happened," he reassured me.

"I sure hope so cuz this is all weird," I whined, resting my head on his chest. "Do you think you could take me home?" I asked peering up at him. He looked at me with a sweet smile and answered,

"Sure," but he didn't get up; we stared at each other. The space between us was starting to close, but he pulled away at the sound of phone receiving a text. "It's Lily and Chris wondering if you're ok," he told me.

"I'll be fine after some sleep," I grumbled as I stood up. Skylar stood up to and looked at me in a way I've never seen him look at anyone before and then he gestured for me to lead the way out the doors.