Jamieson, p.2
Jamieson, page 2
“You’re THAT, Jamie?”
“Yeah, why? What’s she been telling you?”
“That you are really secretive, and the best friend that she’s ever had, all that sort of thing, she said she hasn’t seen you for a while though, I’m guessing I can see why…”
“Yeah, well duh! So does your family know about you then or don’t they care about where you are?” I started to get a little defensive.
“No, they think this is a normal boarding school, well apart from my brother, he goes here as well, what about your family, do they know?”
“Well, if it comes as any surprise they do know, I can’t really hide it that much. It’s better for everyone if I’m far away from them.”
There was a knock at the door.
“Jamie? Jamie, can I talk to you?” Scott stepped into the room.
The chat that I’d had with Alicia had sorted my wings out; I was standing in the middle of the room.
“What’s it about? Lights go out in a minute, don’t they? We might get caught.”
“Oh yeah, I’ll find you in the morning, night.”
“Night then.”
As soon as the door closed, my wings went mental again.
“I think that I have found the reason for your problem, my dear.”
“What is it? Please tell me.”
“Firstly, tell me who that cute boy was in our room, and then I will tell you.”
“His name is Scott, I met him yesterday, we met up again this evening as well, now tell me?”
“He is the reason, you are in love. Well, your body is at least, I can’t blame you, he is absolutely gorgeous!” she exclaimed whilst fanning her face with her hand.
“Give me a break and leave him alone.” The room went dark.
“I like him too,” I muttered to myself.
Chapter Five
(Monday)
Jamie
I woke up in a sweat, the dream still on my mind. A memory really, from back home.
My uncle was never around after he had adopted me, so the rest of his family took their anger out on me. That was before my wings grew, back when I was just the strange one.
To start with, I was able to hide the growth of my wings beneath large baggy clothing, until roughly a month ago, they had a spurt during the night, I woke up with them taller than me. As I was debating a strategy to hide them, my adoptive brother burst through my door. He saw me, more importantly, my secret.
As he ran to blab to the rest of my family, I hurriedly packed a few essentials and ran from the house, thankfully my wallet had money inside. I didn’t stop to find out what the expressions behind me were. That was the first time I had managed to fly. Luckily, being 5:30 in the morning, the neighbours were all still inside, and I managed to slip unnoticed into the woods behind the house.
I looked around the room until my eyes met the clock–5:55 am. Alicia was still asleep so I gathered my clothes and silently made my way to the bathroom. After washing, pruning, dressing and organising my hair into a mess, I opened the door and found Scott on the other side reaching for the handle. My heart started to flutter and my wings opened a fraction unintentionally.
“Morning, you’re up early, aren’t you?” he asked.
“Couldn’t sleep, must be jet lag, what about you?” I tried to get them back into alignment behind me.
“I’m always up this early. On my way for a run really, do you wanna come with?”
“Alright, let me get a couple of things first though, meet you here in five?”
He nodded then dove into the bathroom.
I found my way back to my dorm, herded up my cell phone and scribbled a note to Alicia. I then found one of my tailored jackets and went to wait for Scott.
He was waiting for me as I rounded the corner, looking very dishevelled which, I was soon beginning to realise was his normal way. We started moving towards the main entrance when I noticed a symbol again above one of the rooms ♓︎ I stopped to look more closely at it this time. Scott had made it a few paces further before realising I’d stopped and quickly came back towards me.
“What are you doing?”
“Have you seen these?” I pointed at the marks on the wood.
“Seen wha—Oh wow, that’s weird, they weren’t there earlier, I’m sure of it, I would have noticed, this is my science classroom. I’ve been through here so many times.”
“I’ve been seeing them since I walked through the doors Saturday, they are everywhere.”
“I feel like I’ve seen this before, I just don’t know where though.” Scott looked from me to the symbol and back again.
“Come on, we will figure it out as we go.” I pulled him towards the front door, and Scott produced a key from his pocket to unlock it.
“Where did you get that?”
“Well, the last term, I kept getting caught sneaking out, so this year the headmaster gave me my own key to stop me sneaking around,” he replied cheerfully.
“Okay, so where are we going?” I asked as he was trying to close the door behind us, seeming to have a bit of trouble, after the third try it slammed shut, and locked.
“Just a trail I’ve found, that’s nice and private…unless you want to stay out in the open, so we aren’t completely alone?” He looked so vulnerable, I agreed to go on the private route he’d found.
We walked for what seemed like hours, I can’t even remember what we talked about, and I realised I really liked him, a lot. By the time we rounded a corner on the final stretch, we were holding hands and laughing about something, I don’t remember what it was, we started playing a small game of catch, with me in front, when I sensed something odd. I jumped into the air and hovered a few seconds before I noticed Scott jump out of the bush next to where I had been standing.
“Ha! That will teach you to jump out at me!” I called down to him as he fell into a heap on the ground.
In the distance, we heard a commotion almost like a large group of people moving about. Scott glanced at his watch looking shocked at what he saw.
“Whoops, it’s almost nine, we’d better hurry back, classes start soon.” He started to pull me along beside him towards the main doors of the school, we made it to our rooms and had about ten minutes to change into our uniforms (black trousers, white blouse and bright blue blazer) before racing towards the first class of the year.
The morning zoomed by, meeting so many different people I couldn’t possibly remember them all. Luckily, no-one was made to stand up in front of the class and introduce themselves, the whole environment seemed very relaxed and easy to cope with.
The teacher in my first class was Mrs Robinson, a stern but likeable mathematics teacher, who in our first lesson got us to go through a book of problems, to gauge where we were so far.
The next lesson was English with Mr Derby, a tall gentleman with a Monkey’s Tail behind him, where we read extracts from the book he was currently reading in his own time. His tail seemed to have a mind of its own and kept flicking random items off of the desk every time he turned around. What a strange place.
Lunchtime was spent outdoors, thank god, where I met up with Alicia, who wanted to introduce me to all of her new friends. I felt claustrophobic as her five other friends flocked around me, oohing and aahing and practically prodding and poking at my wings. I lost count of all the names and voices surrounding me. It felt like I was inside a very small box, which just kept getting smaller.
I couldn’t breathe.
They all screamed as I opened up my wings to their full span, knocking one of the red-haired girls to the floor in the process. Looking at the stunned faces around me I realised they were scared of me. Without thinking, I checked my forehead, well the top of my head, just to make sure nothing had surfaced. Luckily nothing had, so I came to the conclusion that they had never seen anything like me, or my wings, before. It was a strange feeling. Powerful. I also noticed why, apart from maybe two or three other students or teachers, I hadn’t seen anyone with obvious powers, they all ‘looked’ normal.
I felt my pulse quicken even more and looked into the familiar dark brown eyes. He smiled at me as I retracted my wings and waited for the crowd to stop wailing. We walked away from the group together and back towards the school in silence. Stopping beside the stream and our favourite tree. Scott stopped suddenly and turned towards me.
“What?” I asked suspiciously, he was just staring at me.
“Nothing, I. Well, I just wanted to give you this.” He opened his fist and inside materialised a purple water lily, floating on water in his hand.
“Happy Birthday Jamieson Jones, and welcome to the first day of craziness in this school!”
Chapter Six
(Monday)
Scott
Oh My God, what have I done? Thought Scott as Jamie stood motionless in front of him. She just stopped breathing, looking almost like a statue. He summoned a handful of water to place on her forehead, to try and wake her, but to no avail. Scott started to panic. How to get through to her, come on think…
“Jamie? For god’s sake, Jamie, Wake Up! Jamieson!” Scott put his hands to the sides of her face and looked into her eyes. Suddenly, she blinked at him and her eyes started to focus.
“Scott? What are you doing?” she asked maybe two inches in front of Scott’s own face. He tried to step back, without realising how close to the edge of the bank he was, and slipped, falling back towards the jagged rocks at the edge of the river.
The water flowed up and around him creating a steadying hand to push him back towards Jamie, who, when Scott managed to look over in her direction was staring at him, mouth open, wide-eyed, with her arms half outstretched as if to catch him.
******
Across the field, in the shade of the school, they watched the scene unfolding in front of them, Jamie freezing, Scott using his powers.
The boy took out his mobile phone and typed a message to an unknown number. The girl sighed and left first, disappearing in one direction, the boy scowling and slowly disappearing in the other.
Chapter Seven
(Monday)
Jamie
Wow, just wow. Watching Scott being propelled back from the rocks towards me; I couldn’t find any words to understand what had just happened.
“Jamie, what happened? Where did you go? In your mind just now?”
“Erm, I don’t. What was that there?” I pointed behind him, towards the river.
“Ah, yeah, now and again my power just takes over and I, well it’s involuntary. I can’t help it sometimes, please tell me though, are you all right?”
I had to think about this one…how to explain it.
“I, well, I guess you just surprised me. I haven’t had a proper birthday since my parents died.”
“Oh, Jamie, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you.” He held my hand in his and sat down beside me under the tree.
“No, you didn’t upset me, just a lot of memories came back and kinda overwhelmed me, I guess.”
“Do you want to tell me about them? I’m a good listener. Promise.”
He moved to sit across from me and waited.
“Okay, well I was about ten, and I remember going to this diner near our home for ice cream, we used to do that every year on the same day, it must’ve been my birthday thinking about it now. But back then, I just thought it was a fun thing we did. It must’ve been my eleventh birthday. It all started out fine, my mom and pop walked either side of me down the street, every few steps Mom kept checking around us, I don’t think I really noticed until now. I was just excited that we were getting ice cream. We reached the diner, Casey’s, and had our favourite table near the windows overlooking the car park out front.” I smiled remembering my mom and pops laughing about something mundane.
“We ordered our food; Chocolate Knickerbocker Glory for myself, Waffles with vanilla ice cream for my pops and an orange soda for my mom, then I noticed the sky outside darkening. I must’ve been staring at it because my pop mentioned something to my mom, and she shouted for us to go, to get out of there.”
“My pops froze, my mom ran outside. I couldn’t stop looking, there were around thirty ‘people’ out there surrounding her, and a larger one whom she was facing and talking with.”
“I ran out towards her, I’ve got no idea why. A strange feeling I had maybe, my pops followed me, which was a mistake, the ‘things’ swarmed us. I could hear my mom pleading with the larger ‘person’ to ‘let us go, she would do anything for us to be safe’” I stared off into the distance, almost reciting the events without emotion.
“But then everything changed. My pop must have done something to make them think he was going to fight them, I don’t remember now, but the ‘things’ killed him. One moment he was standing next to me, the next he was gone. My mom tried to fight them, but she too was gone.”
“I remember opening my eyes a few seconds later, alone in the car park. Nothing was there, they’d all disappeared, and I was alone. The waitress inside Casey’s called the cops and I was sent to live with my uncle, whom I’d never met until that day. So, every time I think about my birthday, I get that image in my head.” I stopped talking and looked up through my wings, which had protectively formed a cocoon around me.
Scott wiped a tear from his eye.
“Jamie. I, I don’t know what to say. I have a couple of questions, but how can I help, is the first one?”
He still had tears rolling down his face but made no effort to stop them. I took a deep breath; it felt better to tell him, well someone at least, but somewhere inside I felt that I wouldn’t tell anyone else. I reached over and traced the path the tears had made.
“Thank you for listening, I haven’t told anyone, not since it happened, I didn’t think anyone would believe me. It wasn’t long after that, about two weeks that these started to grow.” I pointed and flexed my wings.
“You must’ve been so scared and terrified, six years you’ve been alone for. Six years! I really can’t relate. Just a sec. What were those things…Why didn’t the police catch them? Why your mum?” He started to twirl water through his hands.
“I’ve thought about this a lot, Scott” – I took another deep breath, and the words just flew out of my mouth – “My mom, is, was, a demon, so technically that makes me part demon too I guess, but I’m not evil and neither was she. As far as I can tell, she was recalled to wherever, but wouldn’t go, because of me, I guess. It’s all my fault.” I finally couldn’t keep the emotions inside; the tears from falling. I curled myself into a ball, but felt a pair of strong arms come around me, and just hold on.
After I had managed to pull myself back together, we found our way back to the food hall. We’d missed our afternoon lessons, Swimming, Scott told me, pointless to both of us anyway. We ate our evening meal in companionable silence, never breaking our hands and returned to our spot, the tree by the stream.
Chapter Eight
(Monday)
Scott
“Okay, so I guess it’s my turn. I’m going to tell you about the ‘incident’ last year, but please don’t freak out. I’m also going to try this a different way. I think this will work.”
Scott took both of Jamie’s hands in his own and covered them in water. Taking a deep breath, he stared out across the water, as his memories came flooding back. Looking towards Jamie he could somehow sense that she was seeing the same.
The current was strong, the rain beating down rhythmically on the bank of the river. Scott was standing in the middle of the car park, adjacent to the river. He could hear a strange sound, almost a keening, nearby. He looked around trying to find the source of the sound, between the howling of the wind and the pelting of the raindrops. As he twisted, he could almost see the rain in slow motion, every single drop as it fell towards the ground. He spotted movement out to his left; a flash of yellow in this dark and dreary landscape. He started towards where he had seen the colour; the rain seemed to part as he moved through it.
There, in the middle of the river, clinging to a submerged rock was a huddled shape. Oh my good God, thought Scott. He started to feel warmer and warmer. He had to help, but how? There was no-one around, no-one to call. He needed to get to the yellow shape.
Without thinking, he jumped into the river. Not thinking about his own safety as the current swirled around him. Then everything just stopped. All he could hear was the strange sound, which turned out to be a young girl crying and wailing almost at the same time.
Suddenly, Scott was next to the girl.
He grabbed hold of her jacket and turned her into his arms, before realising he had no idea how to get back to the shore. He took a deep breath and noticed he wasn’t wet. How on earth was that? Focus on one problem at a time, he thought. Okay, the riverbank, how to get back there? He stepped away from the rock and found himself stepping onto the shore.
Peculiar, but handy. He looked down at the girl. She was around eight years old with short, spiky brown hair. She was freezing and soaked to the bone. Scott realised he was still dry, how on earth? It was still raining, but around him, it wasn’t.
The girl. Where did she come from? He looked around and noticed a darkened shape next to the closed corner shop. He tried to see if it was a person or an animal. The figure started towards him and the girl.
Headlights were to his left. A searchlight illuminated him from above. Scott noticed the whirr of the helicopter blades above him, before collapsing to the ground with exhaustion.
Scott peeked back towards Jamie, knowing that she was seeing the same scenes playing like a movie in her head in tandem with his own.
He woke up in a hospital bed to the sound of steady beeping. His dad was next to him asleep in the chair, lightly snoring but still managing to look alert in his sleep. Scott looked over at the door as a nurse and his mum walked through. “The girl!” he blurted out. “Is she okay? Who is she?” He tried to sit up in the bed but collapsed back into the pillows. The nurse walked over to the IV drip hanging beside his head and injected something into it. Muttering something to his mum as she did so. Scott noticed tears in his mum’s eyes before his closed again.
