Know your enemy
Sara looked at Lavinia’s perfect shoes and
pleated skirt and knew she’d never live in a trailer like her. Then she noticed
her feet.
“Hey, your socks are gone,” Sara stated.
“It’s my…” for a moment Lavinia wanted to
tell someone, to share her secrets with the one person who might understand, to
make friends. Then she snapped out of it. Lavinia wasn’t even sure the formula
worked or how far it would go.
“Never mind,” Lavinia turned around and
pretended to walk in the opposite direction.
It didn’t work.
The day had to be overcast and the weather
conditions perfect. She took a second swig of her potion. Finally, she had the
perfect reason to use it; researching Sara Bright with her braided hair, pert
nose and smart girl glasses. Lavinia had wondered why Sara got to school early
and walked home in the opposite direction. In any case, Lavinia knew because
she’d stolen her chemical romance notes, that Sara was the keeper of secrets. Sara
was the only girl in school whose powers came anywhere close to her own. To be smart
and gifted wasn’t enough to get into Sloan Select on a scholarship. You had to
be more than special.
It was really weird. Lavinia had been
working on her chemistry skills since she was in preschool but it had taken
until now to get her most prized formula right. She’d mixed three of Sara’s to
come up with it and also taken note of, the
equations to make someone love you (warning: never to be properly used). They
had been written in Sara’s strong handwriting.
Lavinia knew she was not a natural
conjurer. Her inclinations always lay in the direction of mischief; she had to
rely on technology and potions; Sara had gifts that went way beyond what was
considered powerful. They were natural, innate, whereas Lavinia’s powers were
not. They relied on basics she’d been learning since she could breathe. Even
her trusty cell phone had been gifted to her by the previous queen bee of Sloan
when she left; there was no way she could compete without access to Sara’s
notes. Why weren’t they working?
Sara shrugged, turned her back on Lavinia
and walked on.
There
was no point in trying to strike up a conversation with someone like Lavinia.
For some reason, second sight rarely worked with her. Sara could only
occasionally see her deeds, thoughts or intentions. Lavinia was dark inside,
Sara could sense it. The last thing she wanted to do was compete with her. It
just made her the centre of attention – unwanted attention. At the children’s
home, she’d been thrown out of class for opening windows when she wanted to
feel the sun shine in and not just through glass. The trouble was, she’d opened
the windows without a touch.
Her own gifts and talents, which were
considerable, had been the source of way too much trouble. Her foster mom
forced her to live in a trailer in their backyard, away from her six foster
brothers, when she noticed Sara moving objects around the kitchen with barely a
glance.
“I don’t want you influencing the younger
children,” her foster mom told her.
Sara didn’t mind living in the trailer; she just
didn’t want others to hear about her gifts. Her foster mom agreed not to tell. After
all, Sara had won a scholarship to Sloane and that was all the younger children
needed to know. Sara liked her foster brothers. Even though they freaked out
when she changed the weather or merged them quickly through time to get to
school faster. They thought time travel was like a fair ride but Sara received disciplinary
action at Sloan for ‘not using her gifts wisely’.
Sara couldn’t wait until she turned
eighteen and could leave ‘home’ and Sloane Select forever. She wasn’t entirely
sure why she’d been born different but there was a kind of joy in knowing there
were others like her; Jack Hunter for one.
Meanwhile, as Sara reached her home, Lavinia
was near.
She’d pretended to retreat, knowing that
moment when she was about to give up made it perfect timing to push on. But she
had paused, wondering when the formula would take and make her invisible.
As Sara walked away from her, flowers grew
out of the concrete pavement behind her steps and the overcast sky changed to a
perfect sunset.
In that same moment, Lavinia was as clear as
air.
The queen bee looked at the sky and changed
the sun to a thunder clap.
Know your enemy, Lavinia thought. So she
followed her.
