“What about him?” I nodded toward a tall, blond guy headed our way. He looked pretty normal, like any high school jock.
“That’s Jack Delafield,” Kate answered with a smile. “A tellie like me, and hands off, he’s mine.”
“Hey,” he called out, bending down to kiss her cheek. “Coach called a special practice, but I’ll be around later if you want to do something.”
“Sure. Hey, Jack, this is Violet. Violet, Jack.” Kate made the introduction. “She’s Cece’s new roommate. A precog.”
Precog? It was going to take me forever just to learn the lingo.
“Cool. Nice to meet you.” Jack smiled warmly, then turned his attention back to Kate. “I’ll call you when I’m done, okay?”
“’Kay,” she answered, then blew him a kiss as he walked away.
“He seems nice,” I said as soon as he was out of earshot. “How long have you two been going out?”
“Almost a year now. He’s the star running back on the football team,” she added, pride in her voice.
“You said he’s tele. telegenetic, like you?”
“Telekinetic,” she corrected. “Yeah, but we’re different types. I’m a macro, he’s a micro.”
“There’s more than one kind?”
“Show her, Kate,” Marissa said, gesturing toward the salt shaker on the table between us.
Kate shook her head. “Nah, I shouldn’t. We’re not really supposed—”
“Oh, just do it.” Marissa picked up the shaker and moved it directly in front of Kate.
“Geez, all right.” She took a deep breath and focused her gaze on the salt shaker.
My heart began to pound in anticipation, and I clasped my hands together beneath the table. Seconds later, the shaker slid silently down the length of the table, stopping right at the edge. I let out my breath in a rush, my skin tingling all over.
“There, are you happy?” Kate asked. “Anyway, Violet, that’s macro. I can move big stuff, stuff you can see. But Jack, he’s micro. He can move molecules, atoms, stuff like that. Stuff you need a microscope to see. Apparently it’s pretty handy in the chemistry lab.”
“But. but I thought you couldn’t use it in school,” I stuttered. “Isn’t that against the COPA?”
“He can’t use it in chemistry class. But he can do his own stuff in the lab, in his free time. He and Aidan are always working on projects together.”
“He and Aidan are friends?” I asked, somehow surprised.
“Well, I wouldn’t call them friends, not really. They don’t hang out together, except in the chem lab. Oh, look over there. That’s the shifters, that group there in the corner.”
I turned to watch as five perfectly normal-looking kids sat down and started to eat — three girls and two guys, nothing remarkable about them at all.
“Don’t stare,” Cece whispered, and I turned back toward the food that sat in front of me, getting cold. Beef stew, and not half-bad, really, though I had zero appetite.
“So, what kind of projects do they work on? Aidan and Jack,” I clarified, curious now.
“Research,” Kate answered. “Medical stuff. I don’t know what Aidan’s working on, but Jack. well, he’s got a little brother who has this really severe type of epilepsy, so that’s what he’s working on.”
“I still don’t get the whole brother thing,” Sophie said. “It’s weird, isn’t it?”
“What? That he has epilepsy?” I asked.
Sophie shook her head. “No, the fact that he has a brother at all.”
I was completely confused now. What was so weird about having a brother? “I don’t get it,” I finally said.
Beside me, Cece shrugged. “Most of us here at Winter-haven are only children — at least, everyone I know is.”
“Except for Jack,” Kate put in.
“But. but why?” I stammered, looking around at the other girls, hoping for an explanation. “I mean, why is everyone an only child? It’s got to be more than a coincidence, right?”
“I don’t know,” Sophie said, shaking her head. “No one’s ever been able to explain it.”
I shifted in my seat, strangely unsettled by this latest revelation. “I should go,” I said, pushing back from the table. “I’m supposed to go to Dr.
Blackwell’s office, if I can find it.”
“I’ll walk you there,” Cece offered, and I nodded gratefully as she stood and picked up her tray.
Minutes later I was following Cece through several mazelike halls, up a flight of stairs, and down another hall that seemed to go on forever. Finally we climbed another flight of stairs and made our way past the old headmasters’ portraits before at last reaching the carved wooden door that led to Dr. Blackwell’s office.
“Here you go,” she said, a little breathlessly. “Do you want me to wait for you?”
“No, I’m fine.” I was breathless too. Probably nerves more than anything else. “Thanks, though.”
“Okay, I’ll see you later, then. Have fun,” she added mischievously, then turned and left me there.
I took a deep, calming breath, trying to steady myself before I faced the headmaster and the truths he’d no doubt tell. Just as I raised my hand to knock, the door swung slowly open, creaking on its hinges. “Come in, Miss McKenna,” he called out, and I stepped inside, my palms sweating like crazy.
“Sit down,” he said, gesturing to the same chair I’d sat in the night before.
I did as I was told, wiping my hands on my jeans. “Thanks,” I murmured.
“Tell me, how was your first day here at Winterhaven?”
“It was. good,” I said, barely able to speak. Why was I so nervous? He’d never been anything but friendly. Even now he was smiling warmly at me, his silver eyes twinkling in the firelight.
“I’m glad. Mr. Gray assures me that you will have no trouble whatsoever catching up with your coursework. All the classes were to your liking?”
I cleared my throat before speaking. “Yes, sir. I. um. unfortunately I missed my fencing class, but—”
“That’s fine, don’t worry,” he said, waving one hand in dismissal. “You’ll get there tomorrow.”