[Author's Note: Hey everyone! Sorry that it took so long for this to be written—I was away at summer camp for two weeks, and I hadn't even started chapter two. But I hope you enjoy it now. The disclaimer is on the first chapter: I own only the characters you don't recognize from the book series Sweep and the plot. The rest is property of Cate Tiernan. Please don't sue. Thanks! ~Katie]
Shadow Girl
Book Two: Soul Searching
[Chapter Two: First Impressions]
April 5
Today was my first day at Widow's Vale High—not bad. The teachers seem okay, kids are okay. I even sort of made a friend. I met Moira in the library, and honestly, at first she seemed a little weird—she was staring at a rock, for God's sake. But, she seemed interesting, so intense and striking. So I went over and said hi. I think I scared her, though, because she kind of jumped and looked at me like I had two heads. But once we started talking, it was cool. Moira's really nice...kind of cute, too. She has a really nice smile, and her hair had red streaks in it—it looks awesome. And she had this necklace…I don't know why I thought it was so interesting. It was just a star in a circle. But I couldn't help but stare at it. I think that made Moira uncomfortable. I saw her after school with some of her friends, and I ended up getting invited to Moira's house on Saturday. I'm really looking forward to it.
Gotta go, Grams is calling me to dinner.
--Jordan
I got home from Arianna's house around five-thirty. My mom was sitting on the couch watching a talk show. When I walked in, she smiled at me and said, "Hey, sweetie. Did you have fun?"
"Yeah," I told her, biting my lip. Then I sat down next to her, took the crystal out of my backpack, and asked her, "What the hell is this?"
Mom looked at the stone in my hand. "What are you doing with that?" she asked me slowly, and immediately I felt a little guilty. I had stolen it from her, after all.
"I was just trying to figure out what it was," I said innocently. "And…I couldn't. I kept trying to get something out of it, but nothing came. I just got…mixed signals." Mom drew her legs up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them, a sign that she was intrigued. "So I sent some energy into it, like trying to jumpstart it, you know?" I continued. "And I saw…this kid. This gorgeous kid in the crystal, and it wasn't even like I was trying to scry or anything. And then I hear someone say 'Hi,' and I look, and it's that kid!"
My mom's eyebrows flew up. "Oh, really?"
"Yeah! And he's even more gorgeous in person, and I'm all"—here I rubbed my finger against my lips and made noises while my mom laughed—"and he's just being cool about it, acting like I'm not a total loser, and…and…I wanna know what that scary crystal thingy is!" I told her, brandishing a finger at the now light pink stone.
Mom grinned. "Well, Moira, this 'scary crystal thingy' happens to be my name stone: Morganite."
I raised my eyebrow. "Morganite?"
"Yes. It's a form of beryl. It changes color with the sunlight—sometimes it's pink, sometimes white, sometimes lavender. It's a healing stone, but that's not its only property." She leaned close to me, like we were little girls sharing secrets. "If a blood witch holds morganite and sends energy into it, it shows an image of what is deepest in his or her heart. Here, I'll show you." Mom held her crystal in her hands and concentrated. Soon I saw an image of my father in the crystal, then of me.
"But, wouldn't I have to know him first, for him to be deepest in my heart?" I asked. "I mean, I've never seen Jordan before."
"Well, you have extraordinary power," Mom said pensively. "Maybe, when you sent your energy into the crystal, it also inadvertently showed you a premonition of your múirn bea--"
"Ooh, no, do not even say it because you know I don't believe in that stuff," I told her, standing up from the couch. In Wicca, there's a belief that everyone has a soul mate, someone that they're meant to be with forever. The Wiccan term is múirn beatha dán, and I don't believe in it. My parents say that they're múirn beatha dáns, and I think it's nice that they love each other and feel that they were meant to be together, but I just can't see the possibility of everyone having a certain person they're supposed to be with for the rest of their lives. It just seems so stupid.
Mom just grinned. "You'll see in time, Moira. You'll find your múirn beatha dán."
"La-la-la-la, I can't hear you!" I told her rather obnoxiously, holding my hands over my ears and stomping upstairs. I could hear my mother laughing downstairs, and I smiled. Then I went into my room and called Claire, telling her everything that my mom had told me. She teased me about the múirn beatha dán thing for a while until I threatened to hang up on her.
* * *
The next day at school, I was putting my books into my locker when my senses prickled. I smiled as I felt Jordan's presence coming towards me. Soon, he was right next to me, and he knocked on my open locker door.
Unfortunately, when he did that, it swung forward and hit me hard in the left temple.
"Oh, Moira, I'm so sorry," Jordan apologized as I clutched my head, moaning in pain. "Are you okay? Here, let me look at it." He gently took my head in his hands and looked at the bump forming. My skin felt tingly where Jordan was touching it. "Hmm. You'll probably just get a bruise. Sorry about that."
"It's okay." We stood there staring at each other for a few moments. Then I asked, "So is there a reason why you nearly gave me a concussion?"
"Oh, yeah," Jordan said, shaking his head a little. Some of his dirty blonde hair fell into his eyes, and he flicked it away. I tried to manage the drool problem I was developing. "Well, I'm supposed to go to your house on Saturday, right? Well, I don't really know where you live, so…"
"Oh yeah. I'll give you my address right now," I told him, getting some paper out of my backpack. I was still a little nervous about him coming to the circle. It's always hard when you know that someone is about to find out you have the power to do unnatural things, like kindle fires with your mind and see the object of your affection in a crystal. I scribbled my street address down on the paper and handed it to him. "There you go." Jordan smiled and was about to leave when I blurted, "Do you want my phone number too?"
He looked back at me, eyebrows slightly raised. "I mean, if you get lost on the way to my house, or something," I said quickly, heat radiating off my cheeks. "Or, you know, if you ever need anything, anything at all…"
Jordan smiled at me, and in that instant I felt like time around us had stopped. All the sounds of other kids shuffling around and yelling to each other faded away, there were no walls, no school, nothing but Jordan and I, in our own little universe. "Sure," Jordan said. "I'd like that."
I added my number onto the piece of paper, and said, "So, I'll see you around. Maybe at lunch?"
Jordan nodded, his eyes locked on mine. "That would be great. I'll see you then." And he walked away, and it was as if a glow surrounding him. I gazed stupidly at his retreating back, still feeling like the rest of the world didn't exist.
Someone grabbed my arm and whirled me around, pulling me out of my dreamy state. I was suddenly looking into a pair of clear blue eyes. "Whoa, Courtney, you've got to stop doing that," I told her, being reminded of the day Rusty McDown invited me to a party and excluded Courtney.
Her blue eyes looked frantic. "Did Jordan O'Brien just say that he would be at your house on Saturday?!" she squeaked, clutching my arm.
"Um, yes?"
Soon, I was surrounded by the Widow's Vale High cheerleading squad, one of the scariest situations I've ever been in. "I can't believe a hottie like that would be talking to you," Roxie Anderson said obnoxiously.
"It's obviously not because of her looks," Jess Parker reasoned, but I tended to disagree. I might be freakishly tall and undeveloped, but Jordan liked my red-streaked hair.
"What did you do, put some sort of spell on him?" Angie Martin spat.
"I bet he doesn't even know how much of a freak you are," Ashley Ballard, the squad captain, told me, splitting the crowd by walking purposefully toward me. "Not yet, anyway. But he will, and when he does, he isn't going to want anything to do with you." She smiled sardonically at me. "Enjoy your spot in the limelight while it lasts, witch."
I matched Ashley's gaze evenly. "I'm not afraid of you, Ashley. And when I do tell Jordan who I am, I don't think he's going to care." I sounded a lot more confident than I really felt. I walked away from the group of cheerleaders, trying to quiet the worries inside me.
* * *
At lunch, I kept a close lookout for Jordan. When I saw him walk into the cafeteria, I stood up and yelled, "Jordan! Over here!"
At the same time, Ashley Ballard did the same thing.
But Jordan's eyes met mine, and he smiled at walked over to our table. I looked over at the cheerleader table and smirked at Ashley's dumbstruck expression. Courtney was beside her, watching the scene with round eyes. She and I were sort of witnessing the same Apocalypse—the end of a world where she was popular and I wasn't. If things kept going at the pace they were at, she and I might even be equals at some point. Scary thought.
"Hey, Moira," Jordan said to me, sitting in a chair across from mine. He looked around the table at everyone else. "Hey…guys…"
"Jordan, these are my friends," I told him. Then I pointed them each out and said their name: "Claire, Arianna, PJ, Jamie, Mike, and Rusty." As I pointed out Rusty, I had to do a double take. Rusty was glaring. He wasn't even doing it subtly. His brown eyes were shooting invisible lasers at Jordan, who looked friendly enough at the moment.
Either Jordan was ignoring Rusty's unfriendliness or he didn't notice, because he seemed perfectly at ease. "Jordan just moved here a few days ago," I told my friends, giving Jordan a small smile.
He grinned back at me. "I'll be right back, I have to go get my lunch." And he left, leaving his stuff on the table. I could see the cheerleaders stare at him as he passed by.
Suddenly Rusty was leaning in close to me. "Since when is Stellaluna the Widow's Vale Welcome Wagon?" he hissed at me. Stellaluna is the name of our coven.
I could only stare. Rusty eventually stood up and walked out of the lunchroom, taking his stuff with him. "Whoa," I commented. "Fros-ty. What's with Rusty?"
The females seated at the table rolled their eyes. "Honestly, Moira," Claire said. "You're not gonna ignore the whole Rusty thing forever, are you?"
"What are you talking about?" I asked her, even though I knew perfectly well what she was talking about.
"Duh. Rusty likes you," Jamie said matter-of-factly.
"Ugh. Girl talk," PJ complained. "I'm out of here."
"I'm with you," Mike told him, and the two left.
"Aw, now look what you did," I told my remaining friends. "You're scaring people off."
"You know we're right," Arianna told me. "Rusty's got feelings for you. And now he sees you inviting some other good-looking guy to sit with us, and he's jealous."
"You're insane," I scoffed, even though I knew they were making sense. I just couldn't wrap my mind around a seventeen year old ever looking at me, a fourteen year old who wouldn't be fifteen until the summer, as more than a friend.
At this point, Jordan had returned. "…Weren't there three other people sitting here when I left?" he asked, looking at me.
"Well, you know how girls supposedly cannot go to the bathroom without being surrounded by five of their closest friends? In Widow's Vale, the same holds true for guys." I didn't know where that bit of witticism came from, but Jordan laughed and I smiled, and my friends kind of looked at each other bewilderedly.
"Sickening. Purely sickening," Claire muttered. I kicked her under the table.