To Be Gifted

The alarm sounded and I groaned, hiding further down my sheets.

Rose stopped the alarm and then asked me, “You danced with Drew Sutherland and Trent Vincent-Blair?”

I peeked at her through sleep-deprived eyes, not registering what she had asked. “What did you say?”

“You danced with two boys from the Gifted? Two boys who are, incidentally, enemies who would love to see each other go down?”

She was starting to look pissed off. Burying myself under the sheets, I tried not to cringe. After what Trent had said about the Gifted, that strange rhyme, I really didn’t know what to think of them. I didn’t regret asking but I hadn’t expected something so bizarre as the answer…unless Trent was playing me. But I doubted it.

My comforter was yanked away from me and Rose leaned in close, giving me a very good view of how close she was to losing her temper. I gulped. “Hale, don’t ignore me, ESPECIALLY WHEN IT COMES TO SOMETHING SO IMPORTANT.”

Rose took a deep breath-the way I’d told her to so that she could feel calmer-and attempted to smile; only succeeding in baring her teeth. “It’s all over the school. I would’ve asked you about it if you weren’t already asleep when I got back. You danced with both of Drew and Trent, right?”

I nodded, reaching for the comforter.

The glare she shot me sent me shrinking back, afraid that she would start yelling again. Resigned to answering her questions, especially since it was a Saturday so I couldn’t use classes as an excuse, I sat up and waited.

“Do you like either one of them?”

Rose seemed completely serious which made me snort. Would I like Drew who’d taken every opportunity to torment me and make me blush? Would I like Trent who’d treated our years of friendship like dirt only to turn around and give me an incredibly cryptic answer to what the Gifted really were? “No.”

She looked unconvinced but nonetheless handed me the comforter.

I slid back under it but I couldn’t fall back asleep again. Instead, I wondered how Rose had found out about the dances even while wrapped up in Tyler’s plans for the night.

Not for the first time, I wondered why Drew had asked me. At first I had suspected him of having a diabolical plan to try and mortify me but he hadn’t done that. It was as if he was trying to be nice to me for once. At least, he was kind of pleasant until I asked about the Gifted. Then he became a jerk.

He was a jerk when we first met as well.

I had been waiting outside the Gifted’s wing for Red, waiting for Trent when a group of Gifted boys walked past me. I could tell they were Gifted because they were wearing ties, marking the difference between us and them.

Anyway, the boys had passed me when they stopped and one of them doubled back. He stood in front of me and looked expectantly at me, as though waiting for a greeting.

At this point I was still pretty new to the school and didn’t know who he was. Later on I would find out that he was Drew Sutherland, supposedly a nice and attractive guy. Maybe I would’ve thought that he was good-looking if not for his strange behaviour. (Now, however, I didn't consider him to be be good-looking at all. His personality cancelled it out.)

“Who are you waiting for? Your boyfriend?” He had managed to sound polite when his questions were clearly intrusive. He knew it too, because he smiled wickedly.

“Uh…no.” I felt hotter now, like a blush was coming on.

“What’s your name?”

My gaze had darted to the group of Gifted guys, clearly waiting for their friend. They were guffawing, near enough for them to hear every word Drew said. I had wondered if they put him up to it but then one of them said, “Hurry up dude! We’re going to be late for class, chat up your girl later.”

He had smiled slightly, his only acknowledgement of having heard the other boy at all. He made no move to leave, keeping his gaze on mine instead.

Flustered, it had taken me a second to remember what he asked. Not wanting him to get into trouble, though I still didn’t know why he wanted to talk to me since I already knew that the Gifted and Elite didn’t mix, I had replied, “Haley van Bridget.”

“You’re friends with Trent, right?” There had been a slight downturn of his lips when he mentioned Trent. “Is that who you’re waiting for?”

Extremely uncomfortable with where he was going, I nodded once.

Drew had sighed. “Pity.”

I had reddened at what he was implying; that he didn’t believe that I was only friends with Trent.

Seeing my flush, Drew had grinned. Then he told me to ask Trent to do something anatomically impossible. My jaw had dropped in shock and I had stared at him. Drew had winked back at me.

His friends had hooted loudly and he ran to catch up with them. He had turned around once to shoot me another smile.

I had felt my fish clenching, wondering why I hadn’t at least slapped the boy. I still wondered now why I haven’t attacked Drew for all the embarrassment that he had caused me over the years. I guess it wasn’t in my nature to do something violent no matter how humiliated I was.

Maybe I could ask Drew about what Trent had said.

No. It was stupid to do so. Seeking him out, especially on a day where the school rumour mill was going overtime to try and link the three of us in some kind of romantic triangle, would be setting me up for embarrassment. No matter how curious I was about the Gifted, I would never be that dumb.

At least I wouldn’t be yet.



"Hale, you know I’m not judgmental.”

Frowning, I glanced at Rose before returning my gaze to my Trigonometry homework. We were both on our beds trying to finish up whatever homework we could because tomorrow was Sunday. Sunday was the only day we were allowed out of the school. “Um, yeah, I know. Why are you telling me this?”

“I’m just letting you know that if there’s something you want to tell me, you can. Because I will never judge you. You’re my best friend.”

Giving up on sine, cosine and their good friend tangent for the moment, I replied, “What are you trying to say, Rose? I really hope you’re not talking about Drew and Trent again.”

“Of course I am!” She grabbed my worksheet away from me. “Actually, when you think about it, the two of them are kind of…alike. I mean, they have that tall, dark and handsome thing going on. I really wouldn’t be surprised if you like them.”

I shivered, suddenly remembering the fake fortune telling thing Rose had tried a few days ago. She had said that the boy I was going to fall in love with had dark hair, was good-looking, his name would have an e and I would have already met him.

Drew had dark brown hair while Trent had hair so dark it was almost black. By most standards, they were cute. Was it pure coincidence that both of them met the criteria? Or had she been purposely vague?

The weird part was that she hadn’t seemed to remember much of what she had said whenever I had tried asking her about it. So I stopped bringing it up, figuring that it was better to leave it alone.

“So do you?”

“Do I what?”

She sighed, exasperated. “Do you like them? And I mean either one of them or both of them.”

“God, I don’t like them. Why is that so hard to believe?” Folding my arms, I shot her a glare.

I was getting tired of the staring and the whispers and it was only Saturday night. I knew it wasn’t everyone who was being gossipy and irritating about the Formal but it certainly felt like the school was on my case about the Gifted and the Elite mixing. And even though it was kind of nasty of me, I really wished that something gossipy happened soon so that everyone would have something new to talk about.

“Okay, fine.” Rose finally looked like she believed me. “You don’t like them. I get it. So maybe it’s them who like you.”

“What gave that away?” I asked, sarcastically.

I couldn’t help it. Whenever I got angry, I tend to be very sarcastic. Drew had said that it was a redhead thing which only served to make me angrier. It was actually kind of sad how I could never talk back to him whenever I’m angry. My mind just couldn’t conjure up any biting comments around him.

“I’m guessing you don’t really want me to answer that question. So, I’m going to change the topic now. I had a really weird dream last night.”

“How weird a dream?”

Rose’s gaze slid to the crystal ball from Aunt Daisy. She hadn’t bothered to keep it that day so it was left on her bedside table.

“You mean Aunt Daisy weird?” I continued.

“…yeah. It’s probably kind of stupid but I really don’t feel good about it. The dream’s kind of morbid. There’re two guys arguing, I’m not close enough to see their faces. One of them is dripping blood over the place. And there’s a dagger. There’s something carved on it. Then there’s a loud scream. I woke up after that.”

Her voice had changed back to that staccato, low one. The very same voice she used when we were fooling around with the crystal ball. But I couldn’t tell her that. I didn’t even know what it meant when that happened, only that it was disturbing.

“Do you think I’m going crazy like…?” She sounded teasing but her expression was still worried.

“No, you’re not going crazy like your Aunt Daisy. It’s just a dream, Rose. We’re safe here.”



Another masterpiece completed, I thought to myself.

Frederick Charles, a British student, a member of the Gifted. He lay dead on the floor of his bedroom, with an identical dagger through his chest. It was a bit of a pity that his death wasn’t as clean as Emily’s had been. I hadn’t planned on killing him. He had been useful.

I come away slightly injured to be honest. Fred had surprised me with an invitation to his room, claiming that there was some business he needed to talk to me about. Thankfully, I wasn’t as foolish as to leave my weapons behind even though Fred was a member of my collection.

Well, at least the Gifted would get my message loud and clear right now. They could be as easily killed as the Elite and I did not discriminate between the two. Whoever stood in my way would face the consequences. Emily had been scared enough to tell on me. Fred was frightened of the repercussions of what my collection was doing, frightened enough to try and injure me into submission, into giving up my plans.

Both had ended dead while I lived.

At the very least, the school would have something new to talk about. All that whispering about Haley van Bridget and the Formal was annoying.