“Sophie is exaggerating,” Kate said. “Yet another of her ‘gifts.’ They don’t really shape-shift, they just. go all fuzzy-like or something. It is kind of weird, though.”
“I swear I once saw Lauren Dwyer shift into. I don’t know, something like fog,” Sophie argued. “Totally creeped me out. I think they can shift into more than they let on, too. Probably why they’re always huddled together, whispering. Plotting,” she added, and everyone laughed.
“But how. how’s it all kept a secret?” I asked. “I mean, the school is right here in plain sight.”
“Who could tell, looking at us?” Sophie said with a shrug. “We’re just. you know, normal kids with unusual gifts.”
“And none of us are going to tell,” Kate added, reaching up to stretch. “We’re just happy to have a place where we can be ourselves. Besides, who would believe it?”
The reality was finally sinking in. I’d left behind everything that was familiar to me so that I could go someplace where no one knew I was a freak, where no one would notice that I sometimes acted weird and knew stuff I shouldn’t know. And now here I was, at a school filled entirely with freaks.
A bubble of hysteria welled in my chest, and I started laughing so hard that it hurt. I mean, c’mon, how could I not laugh? Next thing I knew, tears were running down my face and I was crying so hard I could barely catch my breath.
No one said a word. They just sat there and let me cry it out. Cece rubbed my back; Sophie brought me a glass of water.
At last my sobs were reduced to sniffles. Sophie handed me a clump of tissues, and I blew my nose. Feeling like a total moron, I turned toward Cece. “So that’s what happened to your old roommate?” I asked with a hiccup, still all sniffly and hoarse. “Allison? She tried to tell someone about the school?”
Cece nodded. “Yeah, something freaked her out. She wouldn’t tell me what, though.”
“I think Aidan Gray had something to do with it,” Kate said.
“No way,” Cece shot back. “Aidan never had anything to do with Allison.”
“Aidan never had anything to do with any girls, period.” Marissa looked at me pointedly. “Until now. Hey, isn’t that his scarf?”
When I didn’t answer, Cece continued on. “Anyway, Allison told her parents and they thought she’d gone nuts.”
“Couldn’t she just, well. prove her gift to them?” I asked.
Cece frowned. “Her parents are total nonbelievers. Allison’s a clairvoyant and she goes into a trance when she’s seeing. She tried to show them, and they had her committed. Just imagine if you didn’t believe in psychic powers, and you saw someone do that.”
For several seconds we all sat in silence, digesting that.
Finally Kate turned toward me and smiled. “I guess you haven’t met your GC yet, huh?”
“GC? I’m almost afraid to ask what that stands for.” I grabbed another tissue and blew my nose.
Cece laughed, and her friends joined in. “Guidance counselor,” she finally said. “You’ll get assigned a guidance counselor is all.”
“What, to tell me how to use my gifts to save the world? To benefit humankind? To fight off super-villains?”
Sophie smirked. “Ha-ha. Very funny. Your guidance counselor will do what any guidance counselor does — help you apply to college, decide which careers best fit your talents, that’s all.”
Cece nodded. “There are psychic coaches available, though, if you need one. Like if you’re having trouble with control or something like that. Or just want some help strengthening them.”
“My powers, you mean?” I asked incredulously.
“We try not to use that word here, Miss McKenna.”
I looked up and saw Mrs. Girard standing in the doorway, smiling at me.
“We say ‘gifts’ or ‘talents.’ I see you’ve come to understand Winterhaven’s unique situation,” she said, moving to stand beside my bed.
I rubbed my temples, desperately trying to wrap my head around everything I’d just learned.
“I’m willing to bet that you’ll come to appreciate it much sooner than you think,” Mrs. Girard said. “After all, this is a safe haven for people like us, like you.” She reached into her pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper. “I’ve brought you this.”
Warily, I took it. With trembling hands, I unfolded the page. Code of Paranormal Activity was written in script across the top, and beneath it was a long list of numbered items. Rules, I supposed, given what the girls had told me. The famous COPA.
“Read it, study it, absorb it. And when you’re done, bring it to Dr. Blackwell’s office to be properly disposed of. At that time, he will answer any questions you might have. I trust you girls will help her out in any way necessary through this period of adjustment?”
They all nodded in unison. “Of course,” Cece said, reaching over to hug my shoulders. “We’ll take good care of her.”
"Okay, please tell me I’m not the only dork who freaked when they figured it all out,” I said, setting down my dinner tray on the table and sliding into a seat.
Cece sat down beside me. “Of course you’re not. It’s just that we all came in as freshmen — it was a long time ago, and it was different, anyway. We sort of figured it out together by the second day of orientation. All the upperclassmen have to keep it under wraps until the newbies catch on. But it’s different with a transfer student. You were on your own.”
Sophie nodded. “I remember being pretty upset when I figured it all out. I mean, my whole family is really into academics, and I’d never met anyone with gifts before.”
“Luckily, Marissa was in our orientation group,” Cece said, “and she’s a legacy. She already knew, and that made it easier on all of us.”
I glanced around at the group of girls surrounding me. “So, besides Marissa, do any of you have relatives with. you know, gifts?”
Cece nodded. “My grandma does. Remember that voodoo stuff I mentioned? We’ve never really talked about it, but it’s just kind of understood, you know?”
“Nothing in my family,” Kate said with a shake of her head. “Unless it came from my dad’s side.”
“My dad doesn’t even know about me and my mom,” Marissa put in. “We decided it was probably better that way. Anyway, it’s not like we have a gift you can actually see.”
I was still a little unclear as to what Marissa’s gift was. I wondered if the admission requirements were a little more lax for legacies, but I didn’t dare ask.
“What about her?” I asked, tipping my head toward a tall brunette at the table beside ours. “Why is she wearing gloves?”
“Clairsentience,” Sophie said. “Like me, but a different form. When she touches stuff, she absorbs all the energy from people who touched it before her. Totally distracting. The gloves protect her from that.”
“And the blonde sitting beside her?”
“That’s Stacy Dalton, the head cheerleader,” Cece answered. “Also some form of clairsentience — same types usually stick together. I’m not sure, but I think Stacy’s gifts are weak, though. Kind of vague.”
Marissa frowned at her from across the table. “Just because you can leave your body and travel around doesn’t make you all that special.”
“Give me a break, I don’t ‘leave my body.’ Only my astral self does,” she said with a grin.
I still didn’t know what it meant, this astral projection thing. I’d have to ask her later. There were so many things I didn’t understand. The Hitchhikers at least got a Guide to the Galaxy. I got nothing.
After Mrs. Girard had left, I’d sat there in stunned silence reading the COPA while the other girls got ready for dinner. I felt stupid, totally blindsided by things that I should have picked up on.