Blue Violet

chapter 9



Ellie headed to school, which she hoped would be an improvement over her first day. So much had occurred in such a short time, Ellie almost couldn’t believe it was only the second day at her new school. The night before, she’d spent the remainder of the evening working on her assignments. Since Svatura only needed a few hours of sleep each night, the extra time came in handy for keeping on top of homework. At least that’s what Ellie often thought. She often wondered how the normal kids managed to do everything with fewer hours available.

More often than not, however, the extra hours could become tedious. Lonesome. And these days Griffin was so grumpy, it wasn’t like he was great company.

Ellie pulled into a space in the school parking lot. Just as she was reaching for the door handle to get out, she caught a flash of movement in the distance.

“Griffin,” Ellie called her brother mentally.

“What?” he immediately responded.

Ellie remained silent for a minute. “Elle?” Griffin prompted.

“Nothing. It’s nothing”, she finally answered. “I thought maybe I saw something. I think you’ve got me spooked with all the talk about the Vyusher.”

“Good. You need to be spooked. You take too many chances.”

Ellie shot her brother a mental image of sticking out her tongue.

“You sure you didn’t see anything?” he asked. Even in her mind Ellie could hear his worry.

“I’m sure.”

“Better to be absolutely sure. I’ll go check it out just in case.”

“I’m absolutely sure. But you do what you think is necessary. I’m going in to school now.”

“Alright. I’ll let you know if I find anything.”

The morning was a cold one, so she grabbed her backpack, huddled down into her parka, and made a dash for the building. As soon as she walked in the main doors, she saw Lila.

“Hey, Ellie!” Lila waved her over. “Delia, Nate, and I hang out in the cafeteria before school. Wanna come sit with us?”

Ellie smiled, hitching her bag into a more comfortable position on her shoulder. “Sure!”

When they got to the cafeteria, Ellie slumped into one of the chairs at the table. “Hi, guys,” she greeted Adelaide and Nate. They both gave her a generic but friendly greeting in return. The three of them concentrated on their homework.

Talk stayed fairly minimal until the starting bell. This high school revolved through a block schedule, five classes each day, but a different five classes every other day. Today, Ellie’s first class was P.E. Ellie liked most sports, so she usually enjoyed it, except for having to dress out in the mandatory ridiculous gym uniform.

Jill, the girl she’d sat behind in English the previous day, was getting dressed in the locker room. She’d seemed very nice, so Ellie decided to approach her.

“Hi,” Ellie said as she sat down and started pulling off her shoes. “Jill, right?”

The other girl gave her a big grin. “Yeah!”

Ellie didn’t need Griffin’s mind reading to know that Jill was pleased that she’d noticed her.

“You’re from Texas, right?” Jill asked, as she pulled her gym shirt on over her head.

Ellie’s eyebrows shot up. “How’d you know?”

“Small school. We don’t get new kids often.” Jill grinned. “Why’d you move to Estes?”

Ellie shrugged nonchalantly. “The usual reasons… family commitments,” she answered. “Have you lived here all your life?”

“Yeah. Born and raised. It’s too bad you moved here in the winter.”

“Why? It’s gorgeous!”

“But in the summer the tourists fill the place up.”

Ellie was confused. “And that’s a good thing because…?”

“Uh, hello! Boys!” Jill laughed.

Ellie laughed along with her as they finished dressing and headed to the gym, Jill chattering all the way. Today was basketball, so they didn’t have much time to talk any more while they practiced passing, dribbling, and shooting. After P.E. finished and they’d showered and dressed, Jill walked with Ellie to economics still talking a mile a minute. By the time they reached the classroom, Ellie had the low-down on practically the entire school.

At the door Jill paused and waved. “Hey, Brian!”

A good looking, red-headed boy returned her wave with a nod. “Hey, Jill.” He casually strolled over to the girls. “Who’s your new friend?”

“I’m Ellie.” Ellie held out her hand with a friendly smile.

Shaking her hand, Brian said, “The new girl in school, huh?”

“Yeah.” Ellie returned the smile as she surreptitiously sized him up. Cute, definitely cute…In that captain-of-the-football-team kinda way.

“How’s it going so far? You liking Estes Park High?” he asked.

“Can’t complain. Everyone I’ve met has been really nice,” she answered.

“Well, you let me know if anyone gives you trouble and I’ll set ‘em straight.” Brian winked and Ellie hid her amusement. Definitely the captain of the football team type. Probably popular.

Although Brian was in Ellie’s class, he didn’t sit near her. So Ellie was surprised when he waited while she gathered her books and then started walking with her to the lunch room.

“Would you like to sit with us?” he asked in a friendly, yet casual tone as he pointed to a group seated in the far corner.

As she approached the table, Ellie tapped into Griffin’s mind reading and quickly picked through the minds of those already seated. She grimaced inwardly. She’d somehow been befriended by some of the most popular people at the school, and while this wasn’t a bad thing by itself, it could be tricky given her situation. It would put her in a more public spotlight, which made it harder for her to just blend in. Most normal people—people without abilities—never suspected her or Griffin of being anything other than ordinary. But she’d learned through experience that they were less likely to suspect anything if she just remained in the background, unnoticed.

As she listened, a very subtle strain caught her attention.

“…Lila better be right, that this girl is nice,” from one girl.

“…Man, Nate was right. She’s hot,” a boy was thinking.

“…As long as she doesn’t hit on Brian, she’s cool,” another girl mentally decided. In fact several of the girls at the table had feelings along that line.

“…I wonder why Adelaide’s acting so weird. She’s too shy to approach someone she doesn’t know,” was a final train of thought Ellie picked up on.

Adelaide, Lila, and Nate clearly belonged in this high school clique. In fact, based on a few passing thoughts of the people at the table, it seemed as though Adelaide had orchestrated Ellie’s invitation to join them for lunch. Ellie silently gave Adelaide top marks for skills of subtle manipulation and decided to play along.

Ellie turned to Brian and grinned. “Sure, I’d love to join you. Thanks!”

After grabbing their food, she and Brian sat down at the table.

“Hey, guys, this is Ellie,” Brian introduced her.

Ellie sat down next to a beaming Adelaide, pulling out her homemade lunch. School lunches somehow still managed to be atrocious. “Hi, Ellie, welcome to the table.”

Ellie spent the lunch hour being good-naturedly grilled about anything and everything. She didn’t need Griffin’s mind reading skills to know that several of the girls in the group weren’t thrilled with her joining them. They already saw her as competition rather than as a potential friend. Ellie confined herself to a mental eye roll. This was nothing unusual for girls. The boys—other than Nate, who only had eyes for Adelaide—all vied for her attention. Some overtly, some more subtly. Ellie avoided talking about herself as much as she could, preferring to turn the conversation to other topics. She knew the cardinal rule when trying to get into any clique –Always make friends with the girls first. And the best way to do that was to not appear too interesting to the boys, or too interested in them.

“So what do you do around here for fun?” she asked as she popped the top on her Coke can.

“Oh, there’s a ton to do,” a boisterous girl named Kayla answered. “Especially in the summer.”

“If you can manage to avoid all the tourists,” a boy named Mark grumbled with a smirk.

“Hey, Mark, don’t knock ‘em.” Brian grinned. “Didn’t you date a tourist girl last summer?”

Mark gave him a dark look in return.

Lila continued. “In the summer there’s all the outdoorsy stuff. You know… hiking, biking, camping, white water rafting. There’s lots of shops downtown… if you can afford them.” Everyone groaned at this. The shops had great stuff, but weren’t exactly priced for the average teenager.

“What about in the winter?” Ellie glanced out the window. Snow covered everything outside. Today was particularly cold and windy, the air snapping crisply. Ellie actually enjoyed this weather after many years in the heat of Texas. Snow was a rare thing in Austin.

“There’s not too much skiing close by,” Nate explained around a large bite of his sandwich. “But there’s still other outdoor stuff, snowshoeing, that kind of thing. Mostly we hang out indoors during the winter.”

“Ellie, you should come with us to the movies this Friday,” Brian suggested. He named a recently released movie with one of Ellie’s favorite actors, and she decided that she actually liked the thoughtful boy. Using Griffin’s power, she could tell that the invitation was friendly and genuine.

“Sure!” she accepted happily. “Sounds like fun.”

After her last class of the day, Ellie suppressed a flash of disappointment when she saw that Alex wasn’t in the parking lot like he’d been the day before. It was ridiculous to feel this way…she’d barely spoken two words to him. But still, the tightening of her chest was hard to ignore.

She faked a smile and waved bye to Adelaide. Although the temptation to ask Adelaide about her brother poked at Ellie, she forced herself to remain quiet. She headed to her car, jumped in, and drove quickly down the road. She didn’t head straight home, taking some time first to get some errands done.

When Ellie got home and tromped up the stairs from the garage in the basement, she found Griffin in the kitchen making dinner. She dropped her backpack on the floor by the stools. “Hey, Griff, what’re we having?”

“Pork chops,” he replied.

“Mmmm… with your cherry sauce? My favorite! You trying to butter me up for something?”

Griffin gave her one of his rare grins. “Nope, just had all the ingredients on hand.”

Ellie went to stick her finger in the sauce for a taste, but got her hand playfully slapped as punishment.

“Were you listening in today?” she asked him, sneaking a taste anyway.

“A little,” he grunted. “Adelaide sure gets props for being able to get people to do exactly what she wants without their knowing.”

Ellie laughed. “Seriously… I am now officially part of her circle of friends without having to lift a finger or read a single mind.”

“I don’t think you have to worry that they suspect anything,” Griffin said. He turned back to the pork chops in the frying pan.

“Well, that’s something. Did you listen to any of the rest of their family today?”

Griffin shook his head. “No. I spent most of the day moving in and listening to you at school.”

Ellie hid her impatience. She wanted to know more about the others. Especially Alex. What was he like? What could he do? What had he thought about their encounter that morning? …Although she’d rather find that last bit out for herself.

Ellie started to set the table when her cell phone beeped, signaling a text message. With a small frown, she picked it up, and then almost dropped the phone. A text message from Alex blinked at her.

“Hi,” the message said.

“Hi, yourself. Chickening out on our run?” she messaged back.

“Lol. No. Still on for that.”

“Okay… what’s up?”

There was a pause long enough for Ellie to get nervous.

“Just wondering how your day was,” he eventually answered.

Ellie blinked. And a small ray of hope lit up inside her chest.

“Typical day in the life of a high school student. You? “

“Typical day in the life of a law office intern.” Another pause and then, “I’ll see you tomorrow at the crack of dawn.”

Ellie sent back a smiley face. “See you tomorrow.”