as strange, although I wouldn’t go so far as to call it magic.
But wasn’t that the definition of a miracle—something that happened without any logical explanation, caused by something bigger than us? Something magical?
“It has.” Kate smiled, bouncing on her toes. “Hasn’t it?”
“I don’t know.” I shrugged, not wanting to tell her the specifics. It sounded crazy enough in my head—how would it sound when spoken out loud? “But I guess I’ll go back with you for now. Only because the secretary said she won’t adjust my schedule until the end of the day, anyway.”
She smiled and led the way back to the classroom. Everyone stared at me again when we entered, and I didn’t meet anyone’s eyes as I took the empty chair next to her.
Darius nodded at us and waited for everyone to settle down. Once situated, I finally glanced around at the other students. The boy Darius had called Chris smiled at me, a girl with platinum hair filed her nails under the table, and the girl next to her looked like she was about to fall asleep. They were all typical high school students waiting for class to end.
But my eyes stopped at the end of the row on a guy with dark shaggy hair. His designer jeans and black leather jacket made him look like he’d come straight from a modeling shoot, and the casual way he leaned back in his chair exuded confidence and a carefree attitude. Then his gaze met mine, and goosebumps rose over my skin. His eyes were a startling shade of burnt brown, and they were soft, but calculating. Like he was trying to figure me out.
Kate rested an elbow on the table and leaned closer to me. “Don’t even think about it,” she whispered, and I yanked my gaze away from his, my cheeks flushing at the realization that I’d been caught staring at him. “That’s Blake Carter. He’s been dating Danielle Emerson since last year. She’s the one to his left.”
Not wanting to stare again, I glanced at Danielle from the corner of my eye. Her chestnut hair was supermodel thick, her ocean blue eyes were so bright that I wondered if they were colored contacts, and her black v-neck shirt dropped as low as possible without being overly inappropriate for school.
Of course Blake had a girlfriend, and she was beautiful. I never stood a chance.
“As I said earlier, we’re going to review the energy colors and what they mean,” Darius said, interrupting my thoughts. “But before we begin, who can explain to Nicole how we use energy?”
I sunk down in my seat, hating that the attention had been brought back to me. Luckily, the athletic boy next to Kate who’d said the thing earlier about magic not being a trick raised his hand.
“Chris,” Darius called on him. “Go ahead.”
Chris pushed his hair off his forehead and faced me. His t-shirt featured an angry storm cloud holding a lighting bolt like a baseball bat, with “Trenton Thunder” written below it. It was goofy, and not a sports team that I’d ever heard of. But his boyish grin and rounded cheeks made him attractive in a cute way. Not in the same “stop what you’re doing because I’m walking in your direction” way as Blake, but he definitely would have gotten attention from the girls at my old school.
“There’s energy everywhere.” Chris moved his hands in a giant arc above his head to demonstrate. “Humans know that energy exists—they’ve harnessed it for electronics. The difference between us and humans is that we have the power to tap into energy and use it ourselves, and humans don’t.” He smiled at me, as if I was supposed to understand what he meant. “Make sense?”
“Not really,” I said. “Sorry.”
“It’s easier if you relate it to something familiar,” he said, speaking faster. “What happens to the handle of a metal spoon when you leave it in boiling water?”
“It gets hot?” I said it as a question. This was stuff people learned in fifth grade science—not high school homeroom.
“And what happens when it’s plastic?”
“It doesn’t get hot,” I said slowly. “It stays room temperature.”
“Exactly.” He grinned at me like I’d just solved an astrophysics mathematical equation. “Humans are like plastic. Even if they’re immersed in energy, they can’t conduct it. Witches are like metal. We have the ability to absorb energy and control it as we want.”
“So, how do we take in this energy?” I asked, since I might as well humor him.
“Through our