Eternity (7 page)

“You look
absolutely incredible,” he said to me. “May I have this dance?” He
even accompanied his query with a short bow. I giggled and accepted
his hand, and he led me to the dance floor.

Since neither
of us knew how to waltz, we just short of moved slowly in a circle.
There were a few people on the dance floor who did know how to
waltz, and I was jealous of their graceful movements. I noticed
that Michael was one of those people, and I hoped he wouldn’t
expect me to when he came to claim his dance.

I enjoyed
dancing to the beautiful music of the small orchestra that played
on the stage. When the song ended and another began Jack asked me
if I wanted to dance again, but I said no, I had better not. I
didn’t want to tire myself out so early in the evening.

I had another
idea instead. I brought Jack over to the punch bowl, where Heather
was standing by herself. Melissa and Rhea were dancing. I
introduced them to each other, and noticed that Heather acted
rather shy around Jack. When he asked her to dance, she didn’t
hesitate to accept. I couldn’t help but have some hope that Jack
might finally move on.

That left me
all to myself. I walked quietly along the wall, trying to stay out
of the way of the dancers. I was about to head to the doors to the
balcony when I noticed someone across the room. What I immediately
noticed was what he was wearing. He was wearing a tux, but instead
of the usual white shirt, he was wearing all black, making him look
like some type of dark angel. Indeed, there was something about him
that exuded darkness. He had long dark hair and handsome,
well-defined features. I couldn’t see what color his eyes were
because of the distance that existed between us, but I could tell
that they were looking in my direction. I suppressed a shiver, but
it was not one of fear. It was one of excitement. The next time I
looked up he was gone, and I couldn’t see him anywhere.

When the next
song started to play Michael came to claim his dance, so I went
with him to the dance floor. He held me a bit closer than I was
comfortable with for someone I hardly knew, but I knew no polite
way to tell him so. Besides, my thoughts at that moment were
centered elsewhere. He seemed to notice, and he tried to gain my
attention by making comments about the lovely night, and how nice I
looked in my dress. I responded as kindly as could. I was glad that
he wasn’t trying to get me to waltz or anything.

By the time
that song was over I could see my roommates converging on me, so I
figured it was time to introduce them to Michael, which I promptly
did before excusing myself to get some air, leaving them to get
acquainted. I looked back as I was walking away and saw Melissa
talking animatedly to Michael, who was smiling. Heather stood by
quietly, watching them talk.

I was correct
in my original thought that the courtyard would look lovely at
night. The twinkling lights lit up the paths through the bushes,
and I could see couples wandering them together, some holding
hands. The sound of the fountain drowned out the sound of the music
to some extent, giving the environment a peaceful and romantic
quality. I breathed in the fresh air and went down the steps,
holding up the hem of my dress so I wouldn’t trip on it. When I
reached the fountain I sat down on its ledge and looked down at my
reflection, which was distorted by the ripples caused by the
falling water. I sat for a minute in that manner before I saw
another figure in the reflection standing right behind me. I
turned, quite startled, but by that time he was already walking
away into the maze of paths. My heart beating hard in my chest, I
followed him.

I wandered
along the path he had taken, but after a minute I could no longer
see him. I thought I had lost him completely until I heard a twig
break behind me.

“Oh!” I cried
with surprise. I turned around and he was right there behind me,
much closer than I was expecting, and looking just as dark as he
had from across the ballroom. Before I could protest, he closed the
distance between us and kissed me. I gasped in shock, but didn’t
pull away. I liked the way my body responded to his, though I
seemed to have no control over it. I couldn’t help but notice the
way he smelled, which was somewhat wild and reminded me of the
forest. He was a werewolf, so I wasn’t surprised. He was
surprisingly gentle.

When he finally
pulled away I expected him to say something, but he just stepped
back and looked at me for a moment with eyes that I realized were
blue, and then he turned and walked away as if nothing had just
happened. I stood there for a minute, trying to control the rapid
pounding of my heart. I had just had my first kiss, and I didn’t
even know the guy’s name!

Somehow I ended
up back in the ballroom, without really remembering the steps I had
taken to get there. Jack found me standing in a corner gazing up at
the orchestra, though I wasn’t really looking.

“They’re pretty
good, aren’t they?” he commented.

“Huh? Oh,
yeah,” was my oh-so-intelligent response.

“Of course, you
can play so much better than all of them combined.” He grinned at
me, but seemed to notice that I wasn’t paying attention. “You
okay?” he asked.

“Yeah. Nice
night, huh?” I said, trying to bring myself back to reality.

“Yes, it is.
Want to dance again?”

“Sure.” I
couldn’t see the mysterious stranger anywhere, even though my eyes
constantly searched for his dark form. I mentally shook myself,
knowing it would be better if I didn’t think about him.

I finally saw
him again when we were dancing. He was dancing as well, with a girl
I didn’t recognize, and he didn’t seem to see me.

“Do you know
who that is?” I asked Jack, pointing him out.

“Oh yeah, he’s
one of my roommates,” he answered, frowning. “His name’s Adrian
Alvarez. He’s not a good guy. His temper seems to be ten times
worse than mine, and you know how I can be sometimes. He also kind
of keeps to himself as much as possible. Why are you asking about
him anyway?”

“I don’t know.
He just looks kind of... angry.”

“Yeah, I think
that word describes him pretty well.” Jack shot a disgusted look in
his direction.

I can’t say
that angry was really the word I meant. He definitely didn’t look
happy, but I suspected that there was a lot going on beneath his
dark exterior.

Jack was quite
surprised and a little affronted when Adrian cut in at the end of
the song. Without asking me if I wanted to dance, he grabbed my
hand and pulled me away from Jack. He danced even closer than
Michael had, but this time I didn’t even think to complain. He
moved with surprising grace, and when he looked into my eyes I felt
a shiver go up my spine. I think he felt it, but he didn’t look
away. He smirked instead.

“So, are you
actually going to talk to me now?” I asked, as calmly as I could,
which wasn’t very calm at all.

“Now that
you’ve spoken to me, it seems I have little choice. Personally, I
was content with just dancing.”

“And are you
always quite so silent?” I wondered.

“When it suits
me. I find that a lot can happen when one is not talking. Most
people find it necessary to fill a silence with words, but they
speak only to hear themselves talk, and not to say anything
interesting.”

“Well, most
people would find it quite rude to be kissed by someone without so
much as an introduction.”

“But apparently
you don’t, since you didn’t protest at the time. Besides, I’m sure
Leewood has told you who I am by now. You two seem to be very
close.”

“Yes, we are
close. Jack has been my best friend since I was quite young.”

“Really? It
seems to me like he wants to be more than just your friend.” He
glanced over to where Jack was standing by the punch bowl, openly
glaring at Adrian.

“What would
make you think such a thing?” I asked. I was amazed by how
perceptive he seemed to be.

“He’s hardly
taken his eyes off of you all evening, not that I can blame him for
that. I probably haven’t much either.”

“I see,” I
said, embarrassed. “May I ask you a personal question, Adrian?”

“Feel free to
ask, but don’t expect me to answer.”

“Have you
started turning into a wolf yet?”

Apparently that
wasn’t the kind of question he was expecting, because he stopped
moving for a second and looked down at me. I almost stepped on his
foot because of the sudden halt. “I have, yes. Why do you ask?”

“I heard you
had quite a temper. Is it worse near the full moon?”

“Not really.
I’d say it’s worse when someone is annoying me.”

“So you don’t
deny it, and yet you don’t blame it on what you are?”

“It’s part of
being a young wolf, so I can’t really deny it, nor can I say it
isn’t because of what I am. I just don’t think that the moon or the
change are the only influences.”

“So you’re also
disagreeable by nature?”

“I suppose I
am. Does that bother you?”

“I don’t really
know, because I haven’t yet seen you angry.”

The song ended
then, so instead of responding to what I said Adrian quickly kissed
me on the lips and walked away. I was left more confused than
before, but intrigued to say the least. My lips tingled where they
had touched his.

“So, who’s the
guy who just kissed you?” Melissa asked, suddenly coming up behind
me. “He looked kind of dangerous.”

“He’s a young
werewolf, so I guess he is dangerous,” I said.

“And
attractive,” Melissa added, “though not really my type. I like
nice-looking boys, like Michael.” She looked over to where he was
standing, talking to Leon, who was wearing a bright red tux. “He
really is something, isn’t he?”

“You can have
him,” I said.

“Are you sure
you wouldn’t mind if I went for him? I think he likes you, so you
could easily have him if you wanted to.”

“There’s just
no...magic between us,” I tried to explain. “So really, I’m not
interested.”

“Well, if
you’re sure...” Melissa said, still staring at Michael. He looked
over at us and waved when he saw us looking. Melissa waved back
eagerly, but I was already looking around for someone else.

The rest of the
evening passed by rather uneventfully, at least for me. I kept
thinking about Adrian, but I didn’t see him again. I think he left
early, but it was hard to tell since there were so many people
around. I danced a few more times with Jack, Michael, Leon, and a
few guys I didn’t know who asked me, though they didn’t leave much
of an impression. Eventually the ball ended, and we all went to bed
feeling quite exhausted. We couldn’t help but stay up a bit later
to talk about what happened. Melissa couldn’t stop talking about
Michael, and Heather said that Jack had seemed nice. I still
couldn’t stop thinking about Adrian, but I didn’t say anything
about him. Eventually even Melissa managed to fall asleep.

Chapter
10

The ball was on
a Thursday, and classes weren’t set to start until the following
Monday, so there were three days in between to enjoy the remainder
of our freedom. Because I wasn’t used to having so many possible
things to do, I was pretty excited, and I didn’t waste a moment. I
swam, walked, played tennis outside with Heather and basketball
inside with Rhea, and I spent many hours poring over books in the
library, which I decided was my new favourite place. I spent a lot
of time with Jack and with my roommates, though usually not at the
same time.

We got our
schedules on Sunday. Out of my seven classes I only had one with
Jack and shared three in common with my roommates, since they were
mandatory for our class. My schedule was as follows:

7:00 – 8:30
Breakfast

8:30 – 9:30
World History

9:30 – 10:30
Skills Development

10:30 – 11:30
Physical Defence

11:30 – 1:00
Lunch

1:00 – 2:00
Biology 1

2:00 – 3:00
English 1

3:00 – 4:00
Psychology

4:00 – 5:00
Calculus

5:00 – 7:00
Supper

The first three
courses on the list were the ones that were required. World
history, my first class, was the one I shared with Jack, though I
also shared it with my roommates. My friends had some other classes
in common with me, but not at the same time. I hoped I would meet
some new people.

Monday morning
came swiftly enough. I almost fell out of bed when the alarm went
off, but instead I ended up sleeping ten extra minutes so I had to
hurry to get to breakfast. I found Jack in the cafeteria and sat
with him, though I didn’t talk much because I was trying to eat
quickly. We went to class together and found seats. The room was
almost full by the time we got there, so we didn’t get to sit near
my roommates. They waved to me from across the room.

The history
teacher’s name was Ms. Jane Coleman, and she told us to call her
Jane, which was something that would take some getting used to.
Indeed, it seemed like everyone called her Ms. Coleman anyway. She
looked young, no older than 30, and she appeared to be very neat
and organized, yet open in manner. She began class by getting us
all to introduce ourselves, and then she promptly started into the
class content.

“I know it says
on your schedules that this class is called World History, but that
is a very loose term. History is incredibly expansive, and there is
no way that we could cover everything in one course. Instead, we
are going to focus on the perspectives of two very important
people, though one more than the other. That one happens to be the
founder of this school. Can anyone tell me who that is?”

“Amun!” someone
shouted from the back.

“That is
correct. You may have seen his portrait in the front entrance.” I
sat up in interest at that statement, eager to learn more about the
familiar-looking man in the painting. “The other person we will be
focusing on is Isadora. Some of you may be wondering why we would
be basing an entire history class on the perspectives of only two
people, though I’m sure many of you already know why that is. These
people have had an incredible impact on our world, and yet most
people don’t even know they exist, and that they’ve been on this
earth for over five thousand years. They are gods. I don’t say that
because they created the world or anything. That type of god does
not exist. They are called gods because they have endless power,
and they cannot die, even if they want to. They are doomed to walk
this earth for the rest of time, always helping us in ways we don’t
even realize.