"Uh!" Caleb made a noise somewhere between a grunt and a gasp as he was tossed from his heavy sleep. No, it was more like jerked; it was like a giant hand had reached into his gut and jerked him from his pleasantly calm slumber. His eyes flew open and he sat up quickly; his breath came in gasps as though he'd been running for a long time.
He ran a hand through his sweaty hair and looked over at the alarm clock on the nightstand next to the bed. Two twenty, it read, and he gave a small shudder. He glanced once out at the world outside his window, slightly blurred by the drizzling rain, before falling back onto the bed and staring up at the white ceiling. 'What the hell was that?' He thought to himself.
It must have been strong his thoughts told him as he tried to figure out what it was. He considered calling Pogue, but decided against it; it probably would just be better to call the guy when he was somewhat awake. He rubbed his jaw in concentration; maybe it was something that came when you were close to ascending. After all, his birthday was only in like, two weeks. He groaned; he only wished he knew what it was.
He felt the jerk in his stomach again, not so sudden this time, and he quickly pressed his fist to his abs. It was so powerful the first time, it'd dragged him one of his infamous deep slumbers. As his stomach returned to normal, he pounded his right fist into the mattress, but then he stopped. Caleb looked at his fist, then over at a stress ball that had fallen from his desk, eyes burning over black. He extended his hand out towards the ball and flicked a finger, igniting his powers, and the ball flew into his open palm. He felt a dull tremor in the pit of his stomach as the ball rose off the ground.
There we go! He silently celebrated before dread coated him thickly. He quickly turned his eyes back into their normal chocolate brown and sat up. He started bouncing the ball from one hand to the other as he tried to piece together all this information. If he used his power just a little, he got a small reaction; a big reaction must mean that someone was using The Power… a lot! He missed the ball and it rolled away on the floor.
"Oh shit," he whispered to himself. "Shit, shit, shit!" Caleb back onto his bed and stared at the ceiling. There wasn't anything he could do right now, and he couldn't feel anymore jerks in the stomach. Whatever was happening had stopped, so it must just be one of the guys messing around. "Reid," he muttered to himself. He rolled his eyes and flipped himself over so he was on his stomach; it seemed like a way to stifle anymore 'attacks' to it. His eyes closed gently, and with the rain in the background to calm him, he slowly fell back into a deep, but slightly troubled sleep.
Blepppt, blepppt, blep-! Victoria's alarm started to sound, and she hastily flailed around to turn it off before it woke up her sleeping roommate. Once she got it silenced, she looked over at Kate, who barely stirred. She gave a small sigh of relief and rolled off the bed, opening the curtain slightly on the window near her bed. Red light had started to peek over the trees, making the whole area shiny and metallically looking from last night's rain. Victoria smiled at the fact that it wasn't still raining, then left the window.
She grabbed a pair of running shorts and a tank top and changed quickly from the pajamas she had been wearing. Picking up her iPod from the desk, she gave one last look over at the sleeping Kate and slipped silently out of the room. In the hallway, Victoria hurried quickly down the empty corridors that made every little sound echo. After last night's events, she felt creeped out at the dormitory areas outside of her protective little room. She shivered and put the ear buds of her headphones into her ears and turned on a bit of music to drown out the echoing silence.
Victoria finally broke free from the dark looking school and stepped out into the vibrantly colored outdoor world. Smiling gently, she stretched out her arms and legs a little bit, breathing lightly and freely as she warmed up. When she was ready, she jumped off the stairs and onto the slightly damp road and started to run.
Her breathing relaxed and became deep and even as her legs and arms settled into a comfortable rhythm with her heartbeat. She loved the adrenaline rush she got from running. Sure, she was sometimes tired at the end, but after sitting down for a minute or two, the feeling of rejuvenation was so welcome to her. Today, however, it seemed she was trying to run to forget. She didn't want to have anything to do with 'The Covenant', and she didn't want to bring up old wounds that could open up with them. Sure, she'd talk with the boys and stuff, but they'd never find out who she really was.
Puddles started forming along the road as she ran, and she deftly jumped over and around them. But what if she should tell them what was up? Maybe they'd be able to help her, she was going to ascend soon, and she was really scared. Maybe one of them had already ascended and could tell her what it was like. She knew it was incredibly painful, but what did you see? What happened to you? She shook her head slightly to clear it and kept running, trying to ignore the questions that burned her.
Victoria couldn't believe how beautiful the scenery was here; the leaves were all sorts of different colors, the sky was crisp and clear, except for the occasional cloud left over from the night's storm, and everything glistened with dew and raindrops. She never saw anything like this, living in Boston's metropolitan area, and it never ceased to amaze her. She felt envious of those who lived here all their lives and said it was boring; it's better than living in a development.
She ran with a silent head for a while, just concentrating on putting her feet down in the right places and not tripping. She ran in front of a car once to see what would happen, and laughed as the driver drove by, swearing and honking the horn at her as he did so. About fifteen minutes later she caught sight of the school. Victoria jumped from the main road and went down a smaller, dirt one that led to the soccer fields.
She ran through a tunnel of fall color-splashed trees for a while; she turned off her music so she could listen to the birds twittering in the trees all around her. When the soccer fields came into clear view at the end of the tunnel, Victoria mentally kicked up her legs a gear and ran faster until she broke through into a large, open area.
The soccer fields were well kept, considering how little people play soccer in Ipswich; the soccer teams here at Spenser had to travel some distance to play a game. She slowed down to a jog, then a walk, until finally she was able to stop on the wet grass. Her chest heaved as her breath caught up with her, but Victoria grinned as she examined the two fields.
They were your basic soccer fields. They were large, grassy plots with white paint edging the boundaries and the area in front of the net. The nets themselves were standard size, with white netting and silver posts that reflected the pinks and oranges of the rising sun. There where a few metal stands in the center on one side of each of the fields, and on each side there was a long bench for the players to sit on. Garbage cans were strewn around here and there on the outside of the fields.
Something light blue in the back of one of the nets caught Victoria's eye, and she ambled over slowly to go see what it was. She grinned and reached into the net, picking it up and tossing it up and back down into her hands. It was a soccer ball; a wet one, but a soccer ball none the less. She dropped the ball on her knee and bounced it up into the air a couple of time easily to see if it was flat or not. Finding that it wasn't, she dropped it to the grass in front of her.
Victoria pushed 'play' on her iPod again, and she tapped the ball slightly with her foot, just to get the feel of it. She took off down the field, dribbling the ball expertly and carefully in front of her over the slippery green grass. Looking up every once in a while, she dodged the invisible defenders her mind had placed in front of her. She totally got into her zone as she ran; 1, 2, 3 tap! 1, 2, 3 tap! Over and over again the rhythm went in her head as she approached the net. She could feel her eyes burning over black as she pulled her foot back to kick in into the net. Her hard kick sent the ball curling into the far left upper corner of the net.
Grinning with satisfaction, Victoria ran to retrieve the ball from the back of the net. Then she took off towards the other side of the field to do the same thing. Back and forth she went, and she fell into a pattern; dribble, bring back the foot, kick it, watch it fly, smile, retrieve, repeat.
Victoria continued the cycle until all the pink had disappeared from the sky, until it was a clear, pure light blue. She kicked the ball into the net one last time and sank down to her knees, smiling and panting. She loved a good workout, and she loved kicking her soccer ball. She pulled out her iPod and looked at the time; ten forty-five. 'Shit! I gotta go meet Kate and Chase.' She gave one last look at the soccer ball as she stood up. Remembering her eyes, she closed them, willing them to turn back. She stood up quickly afterwards and ran back to the school.
People were actually moving around in the dorms, now. Not, of course, the people who were at the party last night; just the losers and goody goodies who don't go to the parties were walking around and chatting amiably. Victoria's scalp felt cool from the hot sweat cooling at the base of her hair as she walked to her room. As she neared the shower room, she quickened her pace slightly and hurried on past, trying not to remember the nights events.
Kate was sure to be up by now Victoria thought to herself as she slipped her key in the lock and turned it until it clicked open. Sure enough, Kate was in front of the vanity putting on some eyeliner. When Victoria closed the door and walked over to her dresser, Kate stopped what she was doing and looked at her. "Where were you?"
"Just out for a run," Victoria replied, shrugging. "Sorry, I got a little carried away. How much time do I have?"
"About a half hour," Kate said returning to pencil her eyes dark. "Think you can do it?"
"Pfft…" Victoria scoffed slightly as she peeled off her sweat tank top. "I've gotten ready for a dance in fifteen minutes before. This should be easy." Kate chuckled a bit, dropping the pencil and taking her brush to her long, silky dark brown hair.
Victoria did manage to get ready in time. She changed into a pair of jeans and a light blue t-shirt in record time. She brushed her blonde hair back into a neat pony tail, and she washed her face off with a cloth and lined her eye lids lightly with black eyeliner. Within twenty minutes, she looked good; better than you'd think twenty minutes of work would look like. After one last look in the mirror, she turned around and stuck her tongue out at Kate. "See? Told you I could do it."
Kate, who was sitting on Victoria's bed, threw one of her pillows at her. "Oh, you proved me wrong," she said in a teasing, laughing voice. "You're good, you're gonna have to show me how to do that. Maybe I'll be able to wake up later for school."
Victoria laughed and took a bow. "Thank you, thank you! It does help though, during the week." She selected a track jacket from the closet and shrugged it over her shoulders. "All those helpless girls are waking up at five o'clock in the morning to go take showers and spend hours on their make-up, and I wake up an hour before class and get ready. It's pretty nice," she added as she grabbed her keys off the desk.
"That's why you always sleep in," Kate said, nodding. "I always want to hit you in the head with something whenever I'm leaving at five A.M. to go take my shower. Now I know why." She stood up and started walking towards the door. "Now c'mon, we gotta go meet Chase down on the stairs."
"A'ight, let's go." Victoria followed her out into the hallway, making sure the door locked behind her. They laughed and shoved each other around as they hurried down the stairs. Their laughs echoed strangely around in the hallways, and although Victoria was somewhat creeped out by it, she just ignored it and kept on giggling along with Kate.
"Hey!" Chase called out once the girls stepped out into the bright, sunny fall day. Victoria squinted and pulled her sunglasses from her purse, shoving them on her nose.
"Hey, how's it going?" Kate called out as she trotted down the stairs to him.
"Going good, going good," Chase replied, nodding. He gave Victoria a smile as she joined them at the bottom of the stairs. "How've you been?"
"Alright, I guess," Victoria said, giving him a small smile of her own. "Well? Shall we get going?"
"Yeah, let's go," Chase agreed, and Kate led them all to her car. Having no trouble at all starting it--unlike Victoria's car--she pulled out of the school parking lot and drove them to town.