Lisa Smith: The Awakening

Frances looked surprised for a moment, then grinned and nodded. “Okay, Elena. I’ll try. I’ll meet you at lunch if I can get it.”

“Thanks.” Elena watched the girl go.

“You know, you really are crazy,” Meredith’s voice said in her ear.

“What’s the use of being queen of the school if you can’t pull a little rank sometimes?” returned Elena calmly. “Where do I go now?”

“General Business. Here, take it yourself.” Meredith thrust a schedule at her. “I’ve got to run for chemistry. Later!”

General Business and the rest of the morning passed in a blur. Elena had hoped to catch another glimpse of the new student, but he was in none of her classes. Matt was in one, and she felt a pang as his blue eyes met hers with a smile.

At the lunch bell, she nodded greetings right and left as she walked to the cafeteria. Caroline was outside, posed casually against a wall with chin up, shoulders back, hips forward. The two boys she was talking to fell silent and nudged each other as Elena approached.

“Hi,” Elena said briefly to the boys; and to Caroline: “Ready to go in and eat?”

Caroline’s green eyes barely flickered toward Elena, and she pushed glossy auburn hair out of her face. “What, at the royal table ?” she said.

Elena was taken aback. She and Caroline had been friends since kindergarten, and they had always competed with each other good-naturedly. But lately something had happened to Caroline. She’d begun to take the rivalry more and more seriously. And now Elena was surprised at the bitterness in the other girl’s voice.

“Well, it’s hardly as if you were a commoner,” she said lightly.

“Oh, you’re so right about that,” said Caroline, turning to face Elena fully. Those green cat-eyes were slitted and smoky, and Elena was shocked by the hostility she saw there. The two boys smiled uneasily and edged away.

Caroline didn’t seem to notice. “A lot of things changed while you were gone this summer, Elena,” she continued. “And just maybe your time on the throne is running out.”

Elena had flushed; she could feel it. She struggled to keep her voice steady. “Maybe,” she said. “But I wouldn’t buy a scepter just yet if I were you, Caroline.” She turned and went into the lunchroom.

It was a relief to see Meredith and Bonnie, and Frances beside them. Elena felt her cheeks cool as she selected her lunch and went to join them. She wouldn’t let Caroline upset her; she wouldn’t think of Caroline at all.

“I got it,” said Frances, waving a piece of paper as Elena sat down.

“And I have some good stuff,” said Bonnie importantly. “Elena, listen to this. He’s in my biology class, and I sit right across from him. And his name is Stefan, Stefan Salvatore, and he’s from Italy, and he’s boarding with old Mrs. Flowers on the edge of town.” She sighed. “He is so romantic. Caroline dropped her books, and he picked them up for her.”

Elena made a wry face. “How clumsy of Caroline. What else happened?”

“Well, that’s all. He didn’t really talk to her. He’s ver-r-ry mysterious, you see. Mrs. Endicott, my biology teacher, tried to get him to take off his glasses, but he wouldn’t. He has a medical condition.”

“What kind of medical condition?”

“I don’t know. Maybe it’s terminal and his days are numbered. Wouldn’t that be romantic?”

“Oh, very,” said Meredith.

Elena was looking over Frances’s sheet of paper, biting her lip. “He’s in my seventh period, History of Europe. “Anybody else have that class?”

“I do,” said Bonnie. “And I think Caroline does, too. Oh, and maybe Matt; he said something yesterday about how it was just his luck, getting Mr. Tanner.”

Marvelous, Elena thought, picking up a fork and stabbing at her mashed potatoes. It looked as if seventh period was going to be extremely interesting.

Stefan was glad the school day was almost over. He wanted to get out of these crowded rooms and corridors, just for a few minutes.

So many minds. The pressure of so many thought patterns, so many mental voices surrounding him, was making him dizzy. It had been years since he had been in a swarm of people like this.

One mind in particular stood out from the others. She had been among those watching him in the main corridor of the school building. He didn’t know what she looked like, but her personality was powerful. He felt sure he’d recognize it again.

So far, at least, he’d survived the first day of the masquerade. He’d used the Powers only twice, and then sparingly. But he was tired, and, he admitted ruefully, hungry. The rabbit hadn’t been enough.

Worry about that later. He found his last classroom and sat down. And immediately he felt the presence of that mind again.

It glowed at the edge of his consciousness, a golden light, soft and yet vibrant. And, for the first time, he could locate the girl it was coming from. She was seated right in front of him.

Even as he thought it, she turned around and he saw her face. It was all he could do not to gasp in shock.

Katherine! But of course it couldn’t be. Katherine was dead; no one knew that better than he did.

Still, the resemblance was uncanny. That pale golden hair, so fair it almost seemed to shimmer. That creamy skin, which had always made him think of swans, or alabaster, flushing faintly pink over the cheekbones. And the eyes… Katherine’s eyes had been a color he had never seen before; darker than sky blue, as rich as the lapis lazuli in her jeweled headband. This girl had those same eyes.

And they were fixed directly on his as she smiled.

He looked down from the smile quickly. Of all things, he did not want to think about Katherine. He didn’t want to look at this girl who reminded him of her, and he didn’t want to feel her presence any longer. He kept his eyes on the desk, blocking his mind as strongly as he knew how. And at last, slowly, she turned around again.

She was hurt. Even through the blocks, he could feel that. He didn’t care. In fact, he was glad of it, and he hoped it would keep her away from him. Other than that, he had no feelings about her at all.

He kept telling himself this as he sat, the droning voice of the teacher pouring over him unheard. But he could smell a subtle hint of some perfume — violets, he thought. And her slender white neck was bowed over her book, the fair hair falling on either side of it.

In anger and frustration he recognized the seductive feeling in his teeth — more a tickling or a tingling than an ache. It was hunger, a specific hunger. And not one he was about to indulge.

The teacher was pacing about the room like a ferret, asking questions, and Stefan deliberately fixed his attention on the man. At first he was puzzled, for although none of the students knew the answers, the questions kept coming. Then he realized that that was the man’s purpose. To shame the students with what they didn’t know.

Just now he’d found another victim, a small girl with clusters of red curls and a heart-shaped face. Stefan watched in distaste as the teacher badgered her with questions. She looked wretched as he turned away from her to address the entire class.

“You see what I mean? You think you’re pretty hot stuff; you’re seniors now, ready to graduate. Well, let me tell you, some of you aren’t ready to graduate kindergarten. Like this!” He gestured toward the red-haired girl. “No idea about the French Revolution. Thinks Marie Antoinette was a silent film star.”

Students all around Stefan were shifting uncomfortably. He could feel the resentment in their minds, and the humiliation. And the fear. They were all afraid of this thin little man with eyes like a weasel, even the husky boys who were taller than he was.