Unaltered #2_A Diamond in my Heart (13 page)

Later that evening, after layer upon
layer of makeup had been applied and I’d tried on several pairs of
high heels eventually settling on a pair that would match the
skimpy emerald green dress I wasn’t even sure I owned, the three of
us left for the party.

Pamela and Stacy were very comfortable
in their barely-there dresses and heels and it amazed me how
different I was compared to them. Still, like Maetha had suggested,
I was determined to learn how to blend in. Once we zigzagged our
way through the crowd, we found a good vantage point on the
staircase where they were able to locate Stacy’s guy across the
room.

Pamela pointed in a less than stealthy
manner and yelled over the blaring music, “Over there, by the large
fern in the corner, he has blonde hair and is wearing a dark blue
polo shirt.”

I found him and entered his mind.
Yuck! This guy didn’t have a good cell in his body. His mind was
not just in the gutter, it was down the drain and in the sewer. I
looked for any recognition of Stacy and didn’t find anything right
away. I detected within him a strong athletic ability; his mother
must have been close to a cosmic energy event but not quite close
enough for him to become a Runner.

“So… what do you think?” Stacy was
excited to hear my opinion of the guy.

“Why don’t you walk over that way and
mingle with people around him. I’ll watch his body language from
here.”

Stacy and Pamela pushed through the
crowd until they were in his line of sight. The boy, named Jake
Jones, spotted Stacy and gave her body a once over. Pervert! Then
he turned to his friend and dismissed Stacy without a second
thought. I was pleased with our little covert mission and to find
that the disgustingly-minded Mr. Jones wasn’t interested in Stacy,
but I knew Stacy would be let down when I told her Jake was a ‘no
go’ so I watched different guys as the two girls made their way
back to me. A couple of guys were attracted to Stacy, but more were
drawn to Pamela.

“So, what do you think?” Stacy asked
me nervously when they returned.

“He wasn’t interested, sorry. But
there were other guys who were. Do you want me to point them out to
you?”

“Really? Are you sure? Because I
thought I picked up on a vibe.”

“You’re welcome to go after him, but
beware, he’s nothing but a Conquistador if you ask me.”

“A what?”

“A Conquistador; a con-man who will
knock you on your keester then kick you out the door when he’s done
with you. Look, an interested guy is coming over for you, Stacy,
gray jacket, black hair.”

She turned and gave him the once over
and turned back to me. “What do you think about him?”

I’ve learned that individuals with
good hearts have a certain feel to them when I look into their
minds; recognizing that feeling makes it easier to figure someone
out and this guy was a decent guy. I looked Stacy in the eye and
winked and nodded my approval because he was now standing right
behind her.

Pamela and I watched as he introduced
himself as Allan Kingston and led her out to dance. They were a
cute couple and upon closer inspection I saw in Stacy’s future she
would be married to Allan. He would be a successful lawyer due to
his extraordinary memory ability and Stacy would teach music
lessons from her high-end suburban home. I pulled out of their
future and realized that Stacy was a gifted musician. Why hadn’t I
paid attention to that aspect of her before? What about Pamela?
What cosmic ability did she possess? I felt into her body and found
she had a weakened version of a Seer. She would often receive
premonitions of events to come and was always shocked when they
happened. However, her power wasn’t strong enough to attract Shadow
Demons.

I looked around the room
trying to detect and categorize the many different minor abilities
in the room. I cannot even begin to describe the feeling flooding
through my body as I connected with each individual on a deep
level. I found that everyone excelled in some area or another which
also solidified in my mind that to be accepted into a major
university one must have some extra ability. Each grouping of
individuals such as the athletic had varying ranges of intelligence
which I found fascinating. Not all jocks are idiots!
Oh dear, that kind of thinking will get me beat
up.

A boy by the punch bowl caught my eye.
I don’t know why it was called a ‘punch bowl’ it certainly didn’t
contain much punch. My Hunter senses determined the alcohol content
to be about 40%. He held up two glasses of red colored liquid and
nodded to me. Even an ordinary girl would be able to read his body
language; he was asking me if I wanted a drink. I shook my head in
refusal and smiled. He didn’t persist and set the extra glass down.
I was a bit shocked he gave up so easily but when I felt inside his
body for his cosmic ability, I realized he didn’t have
one.

An unaltered human.

I put my two fingers in my mouth and
whistled loudly to catch his attention. It worked and I nodded and
pointed at the drink. I followed him with my eyes as he weaved
through the crowd, came up the stairs, and handed me a
glass.

“Hi, I’m Travis.” He had to holler
over the music. He had a pleasant smile, too-tanned skin, short
medium blonde hair, a trim body and manicured nails. I don’t know
why I noticed his nails, but they were beautiful; well, for a guy.
He wore a basic Rock Band tee-shirt and faded blue
jeans.

“Calli.” I reached my hand forward to
shake his. Was this normal? Did I come across as being too formal?
I wasn’t sure, but he shook my hand.

“Are you here with
someone?”

“My friends; girl-friends that is.” I
was nervous for some reason. Travis was a good looking guy, no
doubt about it, but my attraction to him was strictly due to the
fact he was unchanged by cosmic energy. “Where are you
from?”

“Central Ohio. You?”

“Northwest area. What’s your major,
Travis?”

“I haven’t decided. I’m doing my
generals. You want to step outside so we don’t have to yell at each
other?”

I nodded and we pushed our way through
the crowd. Once outside in the warm night air we continued our
conversation. I was enthralled with his expanded vocabulary and
deep insights into normally boring topics and how he was able to
paint a visual picture in my mind with his words.

I hadn’t ever encountered another
unaltered person except my mother and found it interesting that I
couldn’t fully view his future or read his mind with clarity. I
could however feel inside his entire body using my Healer senses. I
only have a piece of the diamond and maybe that’s why I wasn’t able
to fully read another unaltered.

We talked for a little while until
Stacy and Allan interrupted our conversation. Stacy said, “Thanks,
Calli, see you later.” The two of them held hands and walked away
with a bounce in their steps. Pamela followed soon
after.

“Calli, are you ready to go… or are
you—”

“I’m ready to go. Nice to meet you,
Travis,” I said shaking his hand once again before walking away. I
read his mind and found it perplexing that he knew my last name was
Courtnae.

I never told him my last
name.

*****

A couple months went by with the daily
rituals of college life playing out. It would seem that I’ve become
quite popular in some circles and am known for my ‘matchmaking’
abilities. After the successes of Pamela and Stacy, I’d been
searched out by many other girls who wanted a better shot at
finding love. Not every match was good because not every girl took
my advice. Some ended up with guys who only wanted ‘quickies’ or to
be ‘friends with benefits’. I find it hard to understand why a girl
who’s looking for a relationship settles for a guy who’s
not.

One girl wanted to know if Brand was
interested in her. I laughed out loud when she asked. I answered
with, “Brand is interested in all girls, but he doesn’t want to
stick with any. He’s a nice guy, but if you’re looking for love and
a relationship, he’s not the guy.” Ironically, Brand was the only
mind I couldn’t read, well, besides Travis’s.

I went home for Thanksgiving and was
surprised to be visited by Maetha and Beth. I updated Maetha about
my Demon devices and she said she knew a few people who might be
able to help if my current manufacturer fell through. Beth found it
interesting that I had been working on ways to deal with the Shadow
Demons and that even with my college studies I still found the time
to focus on other things. Beth went on to tell me a little bit
about Chris and the fact that he had returned to the Runners'
compound to be an instructor. She volunteered way too much
information such as the fact that Chris always had a somber look on
his face and never smiled, and that a lot of the girls had a crush
on him.

I wished he could be happy and it
saddened me to think that he walked around in a state of detachment
without hope. The worst part was I knew I couldn’t do anything
about it either. I couldn’t let him know everything would work out
in the end because if I did, it could alter the future in a way
that nullifies the vision I’d had. I rationalized that perhaps
Chris had to go through this dark dreary stage in order for the
future to pan out.

Following the Thanksgiving break, I
returned to my dorm on Sunday morning. I found that Brand had been
busy while I’d been gone and had successfully ticked-off a couple
of fraternity guys by stealing their sorority girls and they
planned to ‘take him down’ this afternoon at the river dunes. I’d
heard all the details several times over before I even reached my
room due to the fact that everyone knew me now as Matchmaker Calli;
being popular was still a new concept to me and I doubted I’d ever
get used to it.

Once I was in my room, I started to
unpack. Brand knocked on the door frame. “Mind if I come
in?”

“Brand, can’t you keep it in your
pants for two seconds? I leave you alone to your own devices for
five days and this is what I have to come back to?” I laid on the
sarcasm extra thick.

“It’s not a big deal, Calli. Can I
help it if these girls want a little more action than what they’re
getting from their boyfriends?” Brand walked casually to the chair
at my desk and sat down.

“Just because you
can
repeat doesn’t mean
you
should
.” I
continued to unpack my bag.

“That’s easy for you to say. I’m in
heaven here on campus. It would be a sin not to repeat.”

“Don’t make me take your Demon device
away, Brand. Your night life is probably what brought on the fight
planned for this afternoon.” I smiled at him.

“When will the new devices get
here?”

“They’re still about four weeks
out.”

“Your parents would be so proud of
you, if they had any idea what kind of work you’ve been working on;
but they never will. Still, it must make you happy to know they’d
approve.”

“Don’t you get much approval from your
parents, Brand?”

“I’ve always been a failure in my
Dad’s eyes.”

“I can’t believe that, what about all
those football games you won? Wasn’t he there to watch?”

“He was only there to see me
fail.”

This was a different side of Brand
that I wasn’t used to seeing. “Why do you feel that
way?”

“My parents divorced when I was young.
It was a few years after my Dad’s affair and after they tried to
make it work he moved out and we’d go see him on some weekends. He
always had a different girl at his place whenever we arrived and
his attentions were directed to her the entire time. It was as if
we didn’t exist. Some weekends he’d cancel our stay because of his
new girlfriend. Why couldn’t he see that there were more important
things in life, like his kids?”

“I’m sorry, Brand.”

“I thought playing football would make
him proud because he played back in his day and isn’t that what
fathers want is for their sons to follow in their footsteps? Well,
not my Dad. The last game in the State Championships, the one we
lost, my dad was there with a new girlfriend. After one particular
play, I looked over at him and saw a glimmer of pride in his eyes
so I made the next play ‘over the top’ spectacular. When I looked
at him, I finally saw what I’d been yearning for over the last
eighteen years of my life; my father’s approval. As soon as it was
there it was gone and the all too familiar look of disgust washed
over his face. You know what the sad thing is? I repeated the play
over fifty times to get him to look at me that way. I realized at
that point it certainly wasn’t worth the effort as it wasn’t what I
thought it would be. It was my proudest achievement but my largest
disappointment. I decided at that point I was going to live my life
for me not for him. I continued the game not repeating again and we
lost. The look on his face wasn’t any worse with my loss than it
was after my fantastic play. Now, do you understand why I went into
Performing Arts instead of football? I’ve moved on,
Calli.”

“I had no idea, Brand. I’m sorry. So,
you wanted to be an actor?”