“Are you sure about that?” he asks sceptically.
“Yep, I’m feeling great, sir,” Kelly answers for me.
“Fine, Curwood, your turn,” he says curtly, shooting me a disbelieving look, but it’s not like he can just call me a liar in front of the whole class. I’d look up how to do it later.
Kelly places a hand over my forehead and closes her eyes. I feel the light, probing feeling roll through me. Trust Kelly to get it right first time. She drops her hand and her eyes fly open.
“You’re hurt,” she accuses.
“It’s nothing much,” I mutter back. Just an aching all over my body that won’t go away since bitchface Stella zapped me. She frowns and puts her hands either side of my head and closes her eyes again.
“Wait, Miss Curwood, you really should not be doing that,” the teacher begins to say, when suddenly, a glow takes over Kelly, much like when she had the vision. Shit. A hush falls over the room.
I’m about to move back from her hold on my head, when a feeling of lightness fills me. I feel like every inch of my body is sparking for a moment, and then nothing. I feel fine, the aching is gone. A rush of energy hits me.
“Shit, Kells. I feel like new,” I mumble, feeling like I could climb a mountain or run a marathon right now. She moves her hand.
“S-sorry,” she stutters to the teacher. “I just knew I could do it,” she says simply. He stares at her for a moment like she’s this peculiar creature, and he just doesn’t know what to do with her.
“Take your seats, both of you,” he says. We quickly scarper back into some seats, she slips into what was Enzo’s seat to stay with me. After a tense moment or so, the teacher calls the attention back to the front of the class, and calls up another two students.
“What the hell was that, Kells?” I ask her, feeling a little concerned.
“I have no idea, Kenz. Not a fucking clue.”
Chapter 16
Kenzie
As I walk into my next class, I inwardly groan when I spot the person who will be my extra help in this class. Stella is sitting at the back of the classroom, a satisfied smile on her face. Of course, Stella would be the one to volunteer to be in my pain class. Just freaking typical.
As I’ve managed to arrive late, again, there are no spare seats apart from right next to her. The universe hates me, I am sure of it. I glumly walk across the classroom and take my seat next to her without saying so much as a word. I look up to try and spot the teacher, seeing that they haven’t arrived yet. Huh, a teacher that shows up late, finally some luck.
Everyone is chatting, or on their phones. I reach into my bag for my own phone, glad I stopped by my dorm at lunch for it. I notice a couple texts from my brother. I frown and then open them, surprised by getting a message at all when we only talked on the phone last night.
Ryan: I heard something happened with Kelly in her classes? Something about glowing. Can you let me know what is up?
Ryan: Kennie, stop being so shit at replying and answer your phone.
Ryan: I swear there is no point in you owning a phone sometimes.
I can’t help but smile a little at his frustration, knowing that my rejection of technology is a constant source of annoyance to my family. I go to reply, then I hear the door to the classroom loudly slam shut. I drop my phone, it hits the floor with a crack. Shit. I quickly pick it up and assess the damage. Fuck’s sake. A large crack runs right down the centre of the screen, several little cracks running off it. I can’t help but think that the shattered phone screen resembles the cracks on the arrow-struck circle of the twelfth mark. I tuck it back into my bag sorrowfully, I’ve had that phone for six years. I guess I’ll finally need to upgrade.
I jump again at the sound of something loud crashing down onto a table. I look up and see the teacher has loudly slammed a pile of books onto their desk. I gulp. There goes thinking I was maybe in luck with this teacher.
The teacher has long, black hair tied back in a low ponytail, pale-white, almost translucent looking skin, sharp features, and dark eyes that look like deep pools of nothingness. He’s tall and slim, but still somehow appears intimidating despite not having a broad frame. The look on his face is pure annoyance. Who the heck saw this guy and thought, ‘yep that’s the one, let’s hire him and give all the students nightmares?’ I shudder at the thought of this guy slipping into my nightmares, already feeling like he’ll be scary enough to handle in these lessons.
He looks around the room, pausing when he looks in my direction. Crap, what now?
“Stella, what are you doing in this class? You passed all three years of pain already,” he says, his voice is low and unpleasant. I turn to Stella, relieved it wasn’t actually me he was looking at.
“I know, it’s ridiculous, Uncle,” she responds, rolling her eyes. She jabs a finger to point at me. “I’m here to babysit this one, someone thinks she might have a little too much juice to play nicely with the other first years, but I’ve seen no evidence of that.” She huffs, and leans back in her chair, a look of annoyance that mirrors the teacher’s painted across her face, but her eyes hold a scheming edge. I flush, feeling every student in the room’s eyes on me.
“You are?” he asks me.
“Mackenzie Crowe,” I tell him, and he narrows his eyes at me and walks to the front of the class.
“I’m Mr. Tower, and welcome to pain class,” he says in a bored tone as he leans against his desk. “Pain is one of our strongest marks and one many people overlook because you cannot see it. The pain mark is very difficult to block and difficult to have any control over. I’m here to teach you control and how to use pain, without accidentally killing someone,” he explains, his tone sounding like he has repeated the same sentence a million times.
“Did you like the pain mark, Mackenzie?” Stella asks with a chuckle, and I glare at her.
“Fuck off,” I reply and turn back to look at Mr. Tower as he looks around the class.
“To use your pain mark is simple, you just imagine the mark and then the amount of pain you wish to cause that person. If you wish to kill them, you can. If you wish to paralyze them, you can,” he says and carries on listing as Stella whispers.
“I could have killed you, you know that, right?” I don’t reply or even bother looking at her as she speaks. “Stay the fuck away from Enzo and East, or I will kill you little Mac-ken-zie. The twelfth mark will be useless to protect you,” she says in a sweet tone, the tone is creepy as hell considering it’s laced with threat at the same time. I go to reply then I hear Mr. Tower speak louder.
“What’s your name?” he asks a blond guy in the front row.