True Gold

Chapter 1

The school bell rings so I pack up my books and leave the classroom. A jumble of conversations and unspoken words fill the air and I am forced to block out every word. No one else can hear them. Just me.

For as long as I can remember, I have been able to hear thoughts. Sometimes they just come at me, everyone's thoughts at once, and overwhelm me and sometimes I pick up on a single persons thoughts without warning, but neither of those things happen often.

Over the years I have learnt to control when I hear them and whose I hear, although I don’t listen to them often. After listening to someone's thoughts, I usually feel guilty for doing so. Invading peoples privacy is always a terrible thing to do and it isn't just terrible for the people whose privacy I invade, it can be bad for me as well; sometimes I hear things that I wish I didn’t hear.

I reach my locker and swap my books over for period 5 and 6 books before heading to lunch. The hall is crowded and I get pushed around by those hurrying to get to their lockers. Eventually I make it to the cafeteria and plonk my self down at my usual spot; an empty table in the far corner of the room. I open up my homemade lunch, which is spaghetti bolognaise and begin eating.

Halfway through my meal, I hear a voice which seems to be directed at me. I slowly lift my head up and my eyes rest on a girl with a long bleached blonde plait.

"Why are your eyes gold?" she questions. I look back down at my meal and ignore her. People always ask me why my eyes are gold. It annoys me so much. I always have to give the same answer: I don’t know, I was born this way. But I do know, I have always known.

 I wasn’t born with golden eyes; as a baby they had been blue, as blue as the pacific  ocean or so says my mum. But a week after I was born, they began changing colour. At first it was unnoticeable but by the time I was 5, my eyes were as golden as the sun, they still are.

All my life I have had to deal with people questioning me. I had been dreading the start of high school because I had known that people would ask me that one question over and over again. That’s one of the reasons that I never move schools or homes. My mum knows of the pain it causes for me to have to repeat myself to everyone who asks me that question. So even though, her work takes her all over Australia, we never move houses, and I never change schools.

When my mum has to go elsewhere for her work, she leaves my older brother, Calix, who is 18 years old, and me alone at home. Sometimes she can be gone for months but she always comes back, and when she does, we welcome her home with open arms.

My mum doesn’t know about my ability to talk with the elements or hear peoples thoughts. Neither does my brother. I keep it all a secret. No one knows but me.

"Hello? I asked you a question." says the girl. I look back up at her and take in her appearance. Blue eyes, blonde hair, tanned skin. She has long lashes and full lips covered with a thick layer of pink lipstick. Her blue school uniform has been dressed up with a few gold bangles and bracelets and she wears a pale pink scarf around her neck even though it’s nearing the end of spring. A ruby hanging on a golden chain can only just be seen beneath her scarf. Her eyes are outlined with eye liner and brown eye shadow, making them stand out. She seems to study me as I study her and I see her getting impatient as I make her wait for an answer.

I know of her kind. Stuck up, snobby, they think they rule the school. But she doesn’t, not yet. I can tell by the way she twists her bangles around and around that she is nervous. And I know from her question that she is new here. Everyone here has already questioned me about my eyes.

"I don’t know." I say, for the hundredth time. "I was born like this." She just stares before turning and walking away with confidence in every stride. I watch as she walks up to a group of stuck up people just like her and sits down for lunch.

I wish I had people to sit with. I always feel like such a loner at this school, but that's probably because I am. I have friends, but they don’t attend my school because it is too expensive. See that’s the thing with my school, it’s a fully private school. It costs a fortune to attend and only the best get in. And because of those reasons it is mainly populated with stuck up snobs or super smart kids that are lucky enough to get a scholarship. I'm in between. My mum can afford for me to attend this school because of her job but I'm most definitely not stuck up and I don’t consider myself 'smart'.

And so I sit by myself; at recess, lunch and during class. It sucks really. The only thing that gets me through the day is my school work. Strangely enough, I actually enjoy it. I forget all about my problems while I'm doing school work. It clears my mind of all I have to do and all I have to worry about. Not many things can do that.

I finish my meal and sit in silence. The bell never comes soon enough at lunch. I grab my empty lunch container along with my books and head out the Cafeteria door and down the hallway. When I reach my locker I put my empty plastic container in my bag and lock it in my locker. I am just beginning to walk back down the hallway to my next class in the hope that I will miss the rush of everyone heading to class when the bell rings, when someone runs right into me.

I fall to the ground, but I get up quickly despite my aching bones. The last thing I need is to become the laughing stock of the school. I look down and see a girl on the ground with light brown hair pulled back into a tight ponytail and olive skin; a mess of books and paper surround her. I make contact with her bright green eyes and without purposely doing so, I pick up on her thoughts.

At first I hear only a few sentences like 'Gosh, I'm an idiot' and 'I hope this girl is nice' before I venture deeper into her mind without even trying. Within the space of a second I know hundreds of things about her. Her name is Esta, she's 14 years old, like me, and today's her first day at this school. Her favourite food is Strawberries, she doesn’t have any siblings, and the only reason she is able to come to this school is because she gained a scholarship for English. Her family isn't poor, but they aren't rich either, her favourite thing to do is read, she misses her friends from her old school and is incredibly nervous about today. She isn't vain and she doesn’t think she's better than anyone else, nor is she amazingly smart, she is just normal, average and strangely likeable.

Hundreds of other things come rushing at me but I sever the connection and return to myself, feeling a little woozy. "I'm so sorry." she mumbles as she begins picking up the mess of books and paper. "I'm such a klutz."

I bend down and help her with her books. "Don't worry about it. I'm fine." She stands up and I hand her books to her.

"Thanks." she says.

"Your welcome." I am about to walk off to class when she asks me a question.

"Hey, uh, I'm new here. Do you think maybe you could tell me where my next class is? I have been getting lost all day."

"Sure." she hands me her timetable which has her name at the top: Esta Meye. I look for Monday, 5th period and I see she has science, like me, in room A12. "Your in the same class as me. I was headed there just now. Follow me."

We head down the marble hallway and then walk up two flights of polished stairs to get to the second level. We walk down a hallway lined with cream coloured lockers until we reach A12. Before we walk in she says, "I'm Esta, Esta Meye."

"Summer Jade. Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too." I open the door and enter the empty room with Esta behind me just as the bell rings. I sit on a stool in the 3rd row at one of the benches. Esta sits beside me.

My science teacher, Mr Grady, enters just after we do. He acknowledges our presence with a smile and unpacks his things for the lesson. People start to file in but I take no notice of them because my mind is trying to process something. I hadn't meant to stumble upon it while in Esta's mind. It just came to me; a thought that hadn't meant to be heard: He's coming for me.

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A/N

Hey. We are shayejaywriters and this is our first book. If you are enjoying this story please fan, vote and/or comment. Thanks, we really appreciate it <3