Haven (6 page)

“What did you call it?” I asked. “Clair . . . what?”

“Clair-sen-ti-ence.” She enunciated each syllable, as if she were talking to a child. “It’s when you can sense or see something just from touching a person or an object—like, about the past or future or whatever.”

I nodded. “Okay, what about the rest of you?”

“I’m a tellie,” Kate volunteered, her voice full of pride.

“A tellie?”

“Yeah, telekinetic. I can move stuff. With my mind. There’s a lot of us here at Winterhaven. Wanna see?”

Wow. People could really do that? I mean, having visions was one thing, but actually moving things with your mind? Goose bumps rose on my skin, a shiver working its way down my spine. “Maybe later,” I murmured. “What about you?” I asked Cece, silent beside me.

“Astral projection. Thank God for Winterhaven, because I
couldn’t really control it before I came here. You know, like it was sort of involuntary? It was getting scary.”

“It’s still scary,” Marissa said with a frown.

Astral projection? I didn’t even know what that meant.

“Marissa’s just grouchy because her gifts are a little more undefined.”

Marissa shot Sophie an icy glare. “I’m just your basic empath is all. Pretty low on the gift-o-meter, as my friends here like to remind me. Whatever you have, it can’t be any lamer than that.”

“Visions,” I blurted out. A sense of relief washed over me, taking me totally by surprise. It felt
good
to say it out loud. “I have visions. About the future. Usually bad stuff.”

Cece frowned. “Uh-oh, precognition. That must suck. Can you . . . you know, prevent the bad stuff? Once you’ve seen it?”

I shuddered, thinking about my dad. “Sometimes. But I . . . I have to be subtle about it. Otherwise people just think I’m psycho.”

“Ah, I see the problem there.” Cece nodded, squeezing my hand. “That does suck.”

Yeah, it did. “So, what else is there?” I asked. “The other kids, I mean.”

“Mostly run-of-the-mill stuff, like us,” Marissa answered.
“Clairvoyants, clairsentients, telekinetics, a few like Cece here who can project. Aidan can read minds, and I bet he’s telepathic, too. And then there are a few freaks who can shift.”

“Shift?”

Sophie nodded. “Yeah, shape-shift. I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes. I had to room with one my freshman year. Pretty creepy. I’ll point ’em out in the dining hall; they all stick together.”

“Sophie is exaggerating,” Kate said. “Yet another of her ‘gifts.’ They don’t really shape-shift, they just . . . go all fuzzy-like or something. It
is
kind of weird, though.”

“I swear I once saw Lauren Dwyer shift into . . . I don’t know, something like fog,” Sophie argued. “Totally creeped me out. I think they can shift into more than they let on, too. Probably why they’re always huddled together, whispering. Plotting,” she added, and everyone laughed.

“But how . . . how’s it all kept a secret?” I asked. “I mean, the school is right here in plain sight.”

“Who could tell, looking at us?” Sophie said with a shrug. “We’re just . . . you know, normal kids with unusual gifts.”

“And none of us are going to tell,” Kate added, reaching up to stretch. “We’re just happy to have a place where we can be ourselves. Besides, who would believe it?”

The reality was finally sinking in. I’d left behind everything
that was familiar to me so that I could go someplace where no one knew I was a freak, where no one would notice that I sometimes acted weird and knew stuff I shouldn’t know. And now here I was, at a school filled entirely with freaks.

A bubble of hysteria welled in my chest, and I started laughing so hard that it hurt. I mean, c’mon, how could I
not
laugh? Next thing I knew, tears were running down my face and I was crying so hard I could barely catch my breath.

No one said a word. They just sat there and let me cry it out. Cece rubbed my back; Sophie brought me a glass of water.

At last my sobs were reduced to sniffles. Sophie handed me a clump of tissues, and I blew my nose. Feeling like a total moron, I turned toward Cece. “So that’s what happened to your old roommate?” I asked with a hiccup, still all sniffly and hoarse. “Allison? She tried to tell someone about the school?”

Cece nodded. “Yeah, something freaked her out. She wouldn’t tell me what, though.”

“I think Aidan Gray had something to do with it,” Kate said.

“No way,” Cece shot back. “Aidan never had anything to do with Allison.”

“Aidan never had anything to do with any girls, period.”
Marissa looked at me pointedly. “Until now. Hey, isn’t that his scarf?”

When I didn’t answer, Cece continued on. “Anyway, Allison told her parents and they thought she’d gone nuts.”

“Couldn’t she just, well . . .
prove
her gift to them?” I asked.

Cece frowned. “Her parents are total nonbelievers. Allison’s a clairvoyant and she goes into a trance when she’s seeing. She tried to show them, and they had her committed. Just imagine if you didn’t believe in psychic powers, and you saw someone do that.”

For several seconds we all sat in silence, digesting that.

Finally Kate turned toward me and smiled. “I guess you haven’t met your GC yet, huh?”

“GC? I’m almost afraid to ask what that stands for.” I grabbed another tissue and blew my nose.

Cece laughed, and her friends joined in. “Guidance counselor,” she finally said. “You’ll get assigned a guidance counselor is all.”

“What, to tell me how to use my gifts to save the world? To benefit humankind? To fight off super-villains?”

Sophie smirked. “Ha-ha. Very funny. Your guidance counselor will do what any guidance counselor does—help you apply to college, decide which careers best fit your talents, that’s all.”

Cece nodded. “There
are
psychic coaches available, though, if you need one. Like if you’re having trouble with control or something like that. Or just want some help strengthening them.”

“My powers, you mean?” I asked incredulously.

“We try not to use that word here, Miss McKenna.”

I looked up and saw Mrs. Girard standing in the doorway, smiling at me.

“We say ‘gifts’ or ‘talents.’ I see you’ve come to understand Winterhaven’s unique situation,” she said, moving to stand beside my bed.

I rubbed my temples, desperately trying to wrap my head around everything I’d just learned.

“I’m willing to bet that you’ll come to appreciate it much sooner than you think,” Mrs. Girard said. “After all, this is a safe haven for people like us, like you.” She reached into her pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper. “I’ve brought you this.”

Warily, I took it. With trembling hands, I unfolded the page.
Code of Paranormal Activity
was written in script across the top, and beneath it was a long list of numbered items. Rules, I supposed, given what the girls had told me. The famous COPA.

“Read it, study it, absorb it. And when you’re done, bring
it to Dr. Blackwell’s office to be properly disposed of. At that time, he will answer any questions you might have. I trust you girls will help her out in any way necessary through this period of adjustment?”

They all nodded in unison. “Of course,” Cece said, reaching over to hug my shoulders. “We’ll take good care of her.”

O
kay, please tell me I’m not the only dork who freaked when they figured it all out,” I said, setting down my dinner tray on the table and sliding into a seat.

Cece sat down beside me. “Of course you’re not. It’s just that we all came in as freshmen—it was a long time ago, and it was different, anyway. We sort of figured it out together by the second day of orientation. All the upperclassmen have to keep it under wraps until the newbies catch on. But it’s different with a transfer student. You were on your own.”

Sophie nodded. “I remember being pretty upset when I figured it all out. I mean, my whole family is really into
academics, and I’d never met anyone with gifts before.”

“Luckily, Marissa was in our orientation group,” Cece said, “and she’s a legacy. She already knew, and that made it easier on all of us.”

I glanced around at the group of girls surrounding me. “So, besides Marissa, do any of you have relatives with . . . you know, gifts?”

Cece nodded. “My grandma does. Remember that voodoo stuff I mentioned? We’ve never really talked about it, but it’s just kind of understood, you know?”

“Nothing in my family,” Kate said with a shake of her head. “Unless it came from my dad’s side.”

“My dad doesn’t even know about me and my mom,” Marissa put in. “We decided it was probably better that way. Anyway, it’s not like we have a gift you can actually
see.
”

I was still a little unclear as to what Marissa’s gift was. I wondered if the admission requirements were a little more lax for legacies, but I didn’t dare ask.

“What about her?” I asked, tipping my head toward a tall brunette at the table beside ours. “Why is she wearing gloves?”

“Clairsentience,” Sophie said. “Like me, but a different form. When she touches stuff, she absorbs all the energy from people who touched it before her. Totally distracting. The gloves protect her from that.”

“And the blonde sitting beside her?”

“That’s Stacy Dalton, the head cheerleader,” Cece answered. “Also some form of clairsentience—same types usually stick together. I’m not sure, but I think Stacy’s gifts are weak, though. Kind of vague.”

Marissa frowned at her from across the table. “Just because you can leave your body and travel around doesn’t make you all that special.”

“Give me a break, I don’t ‘leave my body.’ Only my astral self does,” she said with a grin.

I still didn’t know what it meant, this astral projection thing. I’d have to ask her later. There were so many things I didn’t understand. The Hitchhikers at least got a Guide to the Galaxy. I got nothing.

After Mrs. Girard had left, I’d sat there in stunned silence reading the COPA while the other girls got ready for dinner. I felt stupid, totally blindsided by things that I should have picked up on.

It was all just so surreal. I mean, I’d come to New York for one reason—to be normal. To hide my so-called gift from the world. That had been the plan, and I’d been totally committed to it. But the amazing thing was, by Winterhaven’s standards I
was
normal. I had nothing to hide.

“What about him?” I nodded toward a tall, blond guy
headed our way. He looked pretty normal, like any high school jock.

“That’s Jack Delafield,” Kate answered with a smile. “A tellie like me, and hands off, he’s mine.”

“Hey,” he called out, bending down to kiss her cheek. “Coach called a special practice, but I’ll be around later if you want to do something.”

“Sure. Hey, Jack, this is Violet. Violet, Jack.” Kate made the introduction. “She’s Cece’s new roommate. A precog.”

Precog? It was going to take me forever just to learn the lingo.

“Cool. Nice to meet you.” Jack smiled warmly, then turned his attention back to Kate. “I’ll call you when I’m done, okay?”

“’Kay,” she answered, then blew him a kiss as he walked away.

“He seems nice,” I said as soon as he was out of earshot. “How long have you two been going out?”

“Almost a year now. He’s the star running back on the football team,” she added, pride in her voice.

“You said he’s tele . . . telegenetic, like you?”

“Telekinetic,” she corrected. “Yeah, but we’re different types. I’m a macro, he’s a micro.”

“There’s more than one kind?”

“Show her, Kate,” Marissa said, gesturing toward the salt shaker on the table between us.

Kate shook her head. “Nah, I shouldn’t. We’re not really supposed—”

“Oh, just do it.” Marissa picked up the shaker and moved it directly in front of Kate.

“Geez, all right.” She took a deep breath and focused her gaze on the salt shaker.

My heart began to pound in anticipation, and I clasped my hands together beneath the table. Seconds later, the shaker slid silently down the length of the table, stopping right at the edge. I let out my breath in a rush, my skin tingling all over.

“There, are you happy?” Kate asked. “Anyway, Violet, that’s macro. I can move big stuff, stuff you can see. But Jack, he’s micro. He can move molecules, atoms, stuff like that. Stuff you need a microscope to see. Apparently it’s pretty handy in the chemistry lab.”

“But . . . but I thought you couldn’t use it in school,” I stuttered. “Isn’t that against the COPA?”

“He can’t use it in chemistry class. But he can do his own stuff in the lab, in his free time. He and Aidan are always working on projects together.”

“He and Aidan are friends?” I asked, somehow surprised.

“Well, I wouldn’t call them friends, not really. They don’t hang out together, except in the chem lab. Oh, look over there. That’s the shifters, that group there in the corner.”

I turned to watch as five perfectly normal-looking kids sat down and started to eat—three girls and two guys, nothing remarkable about them at all.

“Don’t stare,” Cece whispered, and I turned back toward the food that sat in front of me, getting cold. Beef stew, and not half-bad, really, though I had zero appetite.

“So, what kind of projects do they work on? Aidan and Jack,” I clarified, curious now.

“Research,” Kate answered. “Medical stuff. I don’t know what Aidan’s working on, but Jack . . . well, he’s got a little brother who has this really severe type of epilepsy, so that’s what he’s working on.”

“I still don’t get the whole brother thing,” Sophie said. “It’s weird, isn’t it?”

“What? That he has epilepsy?” I asked.

Sophie shook her head. “No, the fact that he has a brother at all.”

I was completely confused now. What was so weird about having a brother? “I don’t get it,” I finally said.

Beside me, Cece shrugged. “Most of us here at Winter-haven are only children—at least, everyone I know is.”

“Except for Jack,” Kate put in.

“But . . . but why?” I stammered, looking around at the other girls, hoping for an explanation. “I mean, why is everyone an only child? It’s got to be more than a coincidence, right?”