EMBER IN DARKNESS Chapter 9 (Summoner)

Our topic for class has something to do with psychology, mostly about anger issues.
Perfect for River. I shot him a little glance from the southwest part of the room-turned out he was looking right at me.
Feeling my cheeks flush, I faced front and pretended to copy some notes, even though those were there for thirty minutes already.
“Hey Rione, somebody asked me to give this to you.” My seatmate, Shade, placed a letter on my desk.
“From who?” I asked.
He blinked and looked straight ahead.
“Hello?” I waved my hand in front of his face. Shade didn’t acknowledge it. “I’m not going to read this if you don’t tell me where this came from.” I returned the letter to his lap and returned to my so-called note-taking. From my peripheral vision, I saw his hand clench into a fist. His knuckles gave out loud cracks. Gross.
“Ugh!” I exclaimed when his fingers wrapped around my wrist. Proves River is not the only one with anger issues. With a disapproving response carved on my face, I looked up at him.
Whoa! His iris changed color-a deep green.
I slowly withdrew my hand from his grip and stared at the letter which he inserted between the pages of my notebook.
Maybe River is not the only one… Shade smirked and turned his eyes back to its normal color, a dark hazelnut. Does he also have those tattoos like River does?
My eyes travelled to the exposed parts of his skin. There are tattoos on his left hand; a three-word line starting from his wrist to his palm.
What are they?
He saw me ‘reading’, then, looked at me.
“So, it’s true that you’re the summoner.” His eyes bore a hole through my mine, summoning goosebumps on my arm.
I looked away, feeling the need to ask for a restroom break.
When I was about to raise my hand to get our professor’s attention, Neon, who sits five chairs in front of me, swiveled his head, but he wasn’t looking at me-he was sending violent stares at Shade.
The air in between them seemed to burst into flames with conflict.
There are some things in this world best left to those who know about it and completely kept from those who are innocent-like me. I have a lot of problems that exclude the supernatural. Why should I take part in this? Just because Neon’s my ex doesn’t mean I’m a vampire too, if that’s what they suspect. I don’t look like Dracula’s wife, I feel sorry for those animals whose body parts turn out to be an ingredient to soups, casseroles, dishes and other stuff. I am in the process of being converted into a vegetarian, but, duh, dairy products give meaning to desserts. They are the life of sweet, creamy things. It’s too hard to resist.
How can anybody snob a good scoop of chocolate chip ice cream, for example, right?
Never did I find drippy blood as an appetizing thing. It’s not even proclaimed as edible. I’m perfectly warm-blooded and I don’t have fangs, only canines that shouldn’t even be considered as canines; they’re too flat. Sometimes, I even wonder why I can still chew meat.
Shade and Neon still sent invisible charges to each other. A small part of me insisted that I get another seat for the sake of safety. The chance of Neon being a vampire is still under question. If he is a vampire, what is the issue between him and these guys with changing eyes, and why am I suddenly declared a summoner by my seatmate?
I can’t stand this.
“Excuse me, I’ve got to go the clinic. My tummy hurts. ” I yelled in the middle of the lecture.
Our professor raised an eyebrow but still nodded and studied the class before letting me out.
Now, what?
“Accompany her, Shade.” She ordered.
I’m perfectly fine by myself. I don’t need another…creature. For all I know, he could charge at me like River had a number of times. Who could predict what he’d do?
“His strong perfume’s making me dizzy. I’d rather go alone. Thanks.” I scurried off and jogged to Dr. Burke’s office. Shade doesn’t really smell bad. I just have this feeling that he’ll be interrogating me once we’re left alone.
Dr. Burke’s office is sort of my comfort zone. I can play World of Warcraft for about fifteen minutes on his computer.
I glanced behind my back, to make sure that nobody noticed, and climbed the fall-prone stairs and passed by the hall where I almost fell from. It still lacks banisters. Well, not to worry. If I fall off again, the clinic will attend to me right away since they’re just in front of this building.
“Lily, what are you doing here in the middle of class?” Dr. Burke immediately exclaimed when I knocked on his door. Good grief, he hasn’t opened the door and he already knows it’s me.
“Uhm…” I went inside and flashed an apologetic smile.
He waved his hand for me to come closer and pointed to the screen. I walked beside him, dragging the leather chair which is always propped beside the door.
“Watch this.” He whispered, clicking on play.
The screen flickered a bunch of times before revealing something. It’s a blurred image, but still recognizable. A man in a lab coat entered a room. There was a moment of silence…afterwards, a loud growl was heard, succeeded by a loud cry and rustling.
Something rolled on the floor, from the room where the guy walked in. We waited until the camera zoomed to get a clearer view of the object.
“It’s a freaking head! That is so disgusting.” I stood up, sighing from my dislike in gory movies and looked at myself in the mirror. My hair’s still in a neat ponytail. The thin, sparkling rainbow-colored scarf around my neck went well with my sleeveless peach top, better than I imagined. Dark-colored jeans and silver strappy sandals are nice to look at too.
Dr. Burke continued watching the clip. I, on the other hand, sat on the sofa and took a deep breath.
The fragrant scent of vanilla and rose calmed me down-that’s the scent Dr. Burke chose for aromatherapy. Maybe, that’s the mystic factor that relaxes me in here.
“I just dropped by, but I’m going now. Thanks.”
He didn’t say anything, eyes intently following the movements on his computer screen.
I took one more sniff at the sweet scent, rose from my seat and walked back to class.
The faint scent clung to my clothes. I should get a perfume close to that. It will save me from stress.
Speaking of stress, here comes Neon, accompanied by our professor. I think they’re also on their way to the clinic.
“What happe-“ I gaped at the huge wound on Neon’s cheek, dripping with blood.
“He picked a fight with Shade. Luckily, your seatmate dodged the scissor that he threw, which Shade threw back at him.” She was almost out of breath…must’ve dragged Neon out of the classroom. Neon looks like he isn’t content; his eyes are still glinted with evil intentions. I hope Shade doesn’t end up in his kill list.
“I’m going back to class.” I told her, ready to run off to safety.
“Go ahead, and please, warn River. He almost attacked the two.” She sighed and walked off.
What was River thinking?
On the way to the classroom, I found River outside with a pair of bloody scissors in his hands, playing with the instrument by the doorway.
As soon as he caught sight of me, he clasped it in his hands and approached me.
“Don’t use those to kill me.” I warned him.
He rolled his eyes and opened his hand. “You wanted proof that he is a vampire? Here it is.”
Puzzled, I stared at the scissor and the drops of blood. At first, there was nothing to watch, but when he stretched his arm to a ray of sunlight, the drops bubbled, then, vanished in thin air.
Cool…I mean…weird.
I erased the thought from my head and remembered Shade’s eyes.
“My seatmate, had eyes just like yours. Only thing is, he had green ones. It changed from hazelnut when I told him that I didn’t want to read the letter he was trying to give me, which came from somebody else.” The scissor is now clean from bloodstains, glistening under the sun.
“Don’t read it.” he tossed the scissor to the ground and loafed back to class.
I’m not going to. He just threatened me with the eye trick.
When I was about to step inside, he took the note from where Shade inserted it, crumpled the sheet and threw it.
Even if I have no plans of reading it, he should’ve read it for me, checked if it was something of my interest or showing interest in me. It might’ve been a love letter.
Stupid grump.
“Where’s Shade?” I asked as he sat in Shade’s seat.
“At the principal’s office…” he flatly declared in a low tone. He obviously doesn’t want anyone but me to hear him.
“Oh.” I sat and checked the blackboard for any notes I’ve missed. There are about five sentences…
When the next subject professor came, River sank lower in his seat and sighed. It’s our History teacher, Ms. Lolita Fames. She’s a total pain, always giving us individual homework. The last homework she gave was a summary of the French Revolt, which I miserably completed in one whole night without sleep…so did everybody else.
Imagine our reaction when an announcement came to save us from an excruciating hour and a half:
Students and faculty members, please vacate your classrooms now and proceed to the gym. There will be a discussion about your tuition fee increase, our school programs, scholarship grants…. The list went on.
I’m not going there. I’d rather go to my other area of tranquility, the cafeteria. While our classmates lined up for the gym, I grabbed River’s shirt and hurried outside, weaving our way around other kids until we reached the cafeteria.
Perfect. Today’s menu has blueberry cheesecake on it.
I grabbed two large platters of cake and gave the other one (with lesser berries) to River, sat on the cushioned seat and drove my spoon into the soft lump of calories.