Rebirth: The Awakening Of A Witch (4 page)

Then, as he was slowly
mov
ing his gaze in
my direction, I felt my heart start beating fast.
Silver-g
rey eyes locked on blue
-
green… and I immediately felt weightless. I just stared back at him and was about to smile
when I suddenly saw anger in his eyes. The shock of it made me recall something.
Silver-g
rey eyes
.
Long
, dark
-
brown hair
. He was in that
dream.
My
dream.
But it couldn’t be. That boy from my dream looked at me with caring and concerned eyes. This one, on the other
hand, was trying to shoot bolts of
fury towards me, and for no apparent reason, too. I felt my spirit
s sink, making me
miserable
for no explainable reason as cold, dark grey orbs continued on darting shot
s
of obvious rage at me.

That uneasiness continued on throughout the rest of the evening
,
even if they were sat on the farthest side from our table.
I couldn’t get his dark stare off my head or the lonely unexplainable feeling th
at
engulfed me because of it. I feigned interest
on the series of conversation at
our table, but I couldn’t fully concentrate on anything but him…and his
show of resentment
.
I tried to think of reasons for it.

Maybe I was just being paranoid, thinking that it was directed at me.
Perhaps
it was for the person behind me. I shrugged. Maybe that was it.
Then all that’s left is
the r
eason for my mysterious
unhappi
ness.
I was still bothered by it when the time came for
everyone
to say
thei
r goodbyes.
I didn’t see the boy and his companion on our way out of the restaurant. Yes, I wa
s totally convinced that he wasn’t channeling his anger at me. He couldn’t have. We don’t even know each other.

The next day at school was uneventful. Or so I thought. Nick, Anne, and I all went on with our normal routines. Nick headed to Anne’s first before picking me up
,
and we all drove to school together. We were happily chatting
beside our lockers when that same disturbing and strong presence bothered me again.
I turned to the direction where I felt the aura from.
That was when a sudden wave of murmurs flooded the hallway, interrupting the conversation between Nick and Anne. They both turned to the direction w
h
ere
I
,
and
everyone
else
,
w
as
already looking at.
The most unexpected person I anticipated to see on Masonville High
was
here.

He
was casually walking through the school corridor with confident strides, unmindful of the hushed whispers that surrounded him. He was magnificent. The dark leather jacket
,
the
teal-colored
shir
t he had under that, the washed-
out pants he sported, and the black Chuck Taylors completely suited his badas
s aura. But the clothes he wore—
and how great they look on him
—were
no match for the exquisiteness of his face.
He was blessed with s
traight
,
dark
-
brown hair
that reached the length of his chin,
h
igh arched brow, deep-set
silver-
grey eyes,
celestial
nose, and lips
to die for
.

I just gawked at him, thinking he would just pass me and my friends. When he stopped a few feet in front of us, Nick and Anne stiffened on either side of me. My mouth dropped open when he turned his eyes on me, amusement clear on his eyes before he shifted back to that
fuming stare. I wasn’t sure if I just imagined the amused expression I saw there, but I was now certain that he
was
targeting those blazing
silver
gawps at me.
Nick and Anne must have noticed
him glaring at me, because their heads
both turned back and forth between the two of us.
It was like a staring contest to which he lost. He turned back to his confident walking, heading towards the direction of the
P
rincipal’s office.

Nick was the first to recover. “What the hell,
Sky
? Who
wa
s that dude?” He said, his voice filled with contempt
. He didn’t bother
looking
at me while he said that and was busy
star
ing at the strange boy’s retreating back, probably trying to bore a hole on
it
. Nick was like that. He was extremely protective of Anne and
I
, always
ready to pounce on anyone who would want to hurt us in any way.
This was my first time seeing him react like this, though, since I was particularly civil with everyone at school
.

“
Skylar
?” Anne called, slightly nudging my right shoulder. “Are you okay?” She asked in a concerned voice. It took my brain a minute to register what she was asking.

“What? Oh,” I said, blinking. “Yes, Anne. I’m perfectly fine
,
”
I muttered while
I shifted
my bag on my shoulder.

“Who was that anyway? He acted like he knows you
,
” She asked, a trace of concern still ringing in her voice.

“Uhm… I really don’t know
,
” I managed to say, quickly searching my brain for the right answers. “I’ve never seen him before
,
” I lied. Anne just looked at me skeptically, probably deciding if she was going to believe what I just said.
Damn, this girl really knows me.
The bell suddenly rang, saving me from more questions.
She just shrugged and grabbed my hand, leading me to our first class of the day
—
Physics. I
turned to
wave
at
Nick.
The three of us don’t
always
share
the same classes
.
Anne and I have the
same Physics and Calculus class
while Nick
shared Gym and Social Studies classes with me.

The Physics room was already fully occupied except for three front row seats. Mr. Burns, our Physics teacher, wasn’t there yet. So Anne and I hurried to two of the seats. I was barely able to settle on my seat when that annoying aura appeared again.

When Mr. Burns appeared, he wasn’t alone. Behind him was that badass guy with the dark stares.
Mr. Burns settled the book he was carrying on his table before turning to the class.

“Ok
ay
. Settle down, children
,
” He said, scanning the room
through
his
eye
glasses
. “We have a transferee student joining us today.” He turned to the guy and cocked his head to the side, signaling him
to introduce himself.

“Name’s Adrien. Adrien Fields. Nice to meet you all
,
” He said in his deep velvety voice, smiling to the class. I heard the girl’
s squirm in their seats
, probably talking about the gorgeous guy in front of the class. Again, he didn’t seem to mind them talking about him. He just let his gaze
slide
the room,
clearly
looking for an empty seat.
When he drew his gaze to me, he
didn’
t bother hiding the anger that seemed to
automatically
plant itself there whenever he looked at me
.
What is it with this guy? Seriously.

But despite the annoyance
that was
now bubbling
up
inside me, I still felt my heart beat at a rapid pace
at that look
.
He
did something different
this time, though. He tried to hide his anger and settled with a flat, non-caring expression and sauntered over to my side to where the only vacant seat in the room was.

“Now that that’s settled,” Mr. Burns started. “Let’s
go about the discussion on
static electricity.” He s
tarted
walking to the back of his desk
,
pull
ing
out a small box from the drawer.
“Go on. Pass this around and partner up with the person s
it
ting to your left.” When he said that, I groaned. Great
!
Now comes the fun part.
When the box was passed to me, I slipped my hand inside and picked out a pink balloon with a string wrapped around it. I was still looking at it when it was suddenly snatched from my hand. I turned to glare at him and was about to say something when he started blowing on the balloon. I just blinked. Mr. Burns hasn’t even given out any instructions yet, and he was already fooling around.

When he felt me blankly staring at him, he turned his eyes to look at me. Wow. His eyes were a deep
er
shade of
silver than
grey.
They were truly
amazing
a
nd annoying
at the same time.
B
ecause just that simple
,
harmless stare
set my heart
,
which was already beating
way too
fast
,
i
nto a galloping speed.

“
Static electricity. I’ve done this before.
”
He stated in a matter-of-fact tone as he removed the balloon and tied it with the string.
He held it out for me to hold, and I eagerly and stupidly held on to it like a child.
I gazed back at him and caught him staring at
me, too, an amused expression i
n his eyes before he immediately masked it with a vacant one.
I m
u
st be imagining again.

“Ms. Matthews, since you already seem to know how this small activity’s going to work, please let Mr. Fields hold the balloon.”
He looked at m
e fondly, a teasing tone clear i
n his voice. I blushed. “Play nice now
,
” He winked at me and turned back to check how everyone else was doing. I instantly gave my ‘partner’ a death glare to which he only returned with a muffled laugh, turning it into a cough instead. He turned away from me then, pulling the balloon’s string
at the same time
.
Before he turned, I was so certain of the entertained expression I saw on his face this time. Why you little…

“Excuse me.” He said suddenly as he placed the balloon on the side of my head.
I immediately pushed it away, thinking he was up to something again.

“
What are you doing?
”
I whispered, not wanting to catch Mr. Burns’ attention once again.
I couldn’t hide the annoyance from my voice anymore.

He just shrugged and said, “Physics,”
as if that explained everything. Without warning, he placed the balloon on the side of my head again and slightly rubbed it against my hair. I immediately grabbed hold of his hand to stop
him.

All of a sudden
,
a little current ran through my hand from where I touched him.
I instantly withdrew my hand as
if
it was seared.
But I did a stupid
thing again by risking looking up at him. The expression he wore mirrored my own. His dark
silver
eyes appeared puzzled. Then
,
just as swift as that bewildering look surfaced, it
also
vanished
right away
, only to be replaced with a hardened expression. He dropped
the
hand
which
was holding the balloon to my head and turned to face the front of the room, probably intent on ignoring
me.