To Be Gifted

Though it was Sunday, we weren’t allowed to go out of the school. None of us actually wanted to anymore.

They found Frederick Charles’ body this morning when he didn’t go down for breakfast. There was a knife stuck in his chest with the word Vengeance. We weren’t supposed to find out about it until later but someone disgruntled with the sudden cancelation poked around and found out. After that, we didn’t think about going out. Instead, we wanted to know more.

They said it was the same killer, but the way he operated was slightly different. Fred was a member of the Gifted and it looked like he had put up a better fight, because Fred had managed to injure the other guy. So there might be some of the other person’s blood left behind and his neighbours said they heard some shouting last night, which pointed to the fight. Clearly, security had more to work with this time.

I’d seen Rose go pale when she heard the details. Her dream fitted with Fred’s murder. She’d turned to me, the look of horror on her face made my stomach clench because Rose never looked like that. I tried to talk to her, to comfort her somehow but it hadn’t worked.

Instead, Rose opted to spend the day with Tyler. I knew that she wanted to speak to someone who didn’t know about her predictions so I let her go, even though it sort of felt like she was running away from her problems.

That Sunday crawled by, the Elite and Gifted united in fear.



When I woke up the next morning, Rose was sitting on her bed, her face stricken.

“What’s wrong?” I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. The alarm hadn’t sounded yet and usually, Rose was like me—unwilling to wake up until we had to.

Her hand trembled slightly but she passed the letter she was clutching to me.

I skimmed through it and the more I read, the more mystified I became. The Gifted Committee, the people in charge of giving out scholarships to the Gifted, wanted to arrange a meeting with her. They were interested in her ‘in the light of recent events’.

“What happened?”

“I told Tyler about the weird…stuff that’s been happening to me. He didn’t believe me and told me to relax, that I must be only imagining these things. We were fighting and a teacher overheard and split us up. She made us tell her everything, including how I think I’m going nuts.” Rose laughed hollowly, her eyes never meeting mine. “Then I get this letter late last night. I don’t know what’s going on. I really don’t.”

She blinked and suddenly, she was crying.

I wrapped my arms around her, enveloping her in a hug. I didn’t know what to say to her, only that whatever I said wouldn’t be enough to make her feel better because words were empty. She was confused and scared, nothing could change that.

Nothing but concrete answers. And I knew who to get them from.



That was why I was currently heading to Drew’s room. I had enough of not knowing things. Not knowing why Rose’s predictions and dreams seemed to be coming true, not knowing what the Gifted are. The two were now connected. They only wanted to meet Rose after finding out her predictions were coming true. So it was more important than ever that I found out what the Gifted are.

I stopped outside the Gifted’s wing for Yellow, wondering if I could march in without causing a stir when I saw Drew heading out.

He stopped, noticing me too. For a second, I thought I saw a flicker of uneasiness on his face but whatever it had been, it disappeared quickly.

Drew walked towards me, hands in his pockets and looking as carefree as possible. “What’s up, Haley?”

“I need to talk to you.”

“Ah. I see.” He smiled disarmingly. “How can I help you?”

I blinked at him, for a second almost forgetting what I’d come for. “What are the Gifted?”

“I already told you. I’m not lying to you.” Drew looked slightly annoyed, like he’d expected something else from me. “If there’s nothing else, I actually have somewhere to go.”

He’d moved a few steps away when I said, “The daughters and sons of Angels, shall be Gifted beyond-”

Drew whorled around and strode towards me. Grabbing my hand, which caused me to blush even though I knew I shouldn’t, he dragged me to a quiet spot of the Yellow wing. It wasn’t easy because most students were heading for breakfast. Then he dropped my hand and stared at me, his brown eyes fierce and angry. “How do you know that?”

“I’ve got my sources.” I folded my arms, hoping that he wouldn’t notice my flushed cheeks. “And you basically just admitted that they’re right.”

There was a second when his face went blank and I wondered if I had gone too far. But then Drew laughed. “You know, I think I like you. If you aren’t so freaking persistent, we might even be friends.”

It didn’t surprise me that he didn’t like me before. But it still hurt a little. “You’re still not answering my question.”

“Do you really want to know, Haley? Once you know, everything will be different.”

Drew actually looked concerned. He actually made me question if I really needed to know. Then I remembered that I was here because of Rose. Whatever the Gifted were, they wanted her to be a part of it. So I replied, as confidently as I could, “Of course I want to know. I’m asking, aren’t I?”

“You know the Prophecy and that basically covers it. The Gifted are descended from Angels, Angels who fell in love with humans and gave up their wings. They had kids and those kids had a milder form of the Angels’ powers, each Angel had different abilities. Some kids are descended from Angels, like me, but some are children of Angels. Some can read minds, some can freeze objects-”

“Some are freakishly athletic.”

Drew smiled, wordlessly admitting that he knew I was talking about him. “Well yeah. But our Gifts are given to us for a reason. In the Prophecy, it mentions a war. We are preparing for a war.”

“A war? With who?” I was still trying to wrap my mind around how there was this group of people with superpowers running around, people who were from Angels.

“I don’t know.” Drew grimaced, like the admission cost him. “None of us do. But Alex Sanderson, the guy who set the school up, he figured that we’d better be prepared. So he made this school for us to train.”

“You mean he was one of you?”

“Yup. He was the first one who came up with the idea of hiding the Gifted too. It’s always better when your enemy doesn’t know the extent of your power.”

I knew that there were some other questions I should be asking him but I couldn’t think of any. Instead, I stared at him, studying him. Drew descended from an Angel. Could he be lying to me? But that would mean that he was playing along with Trent and he would never.

“What are you thinking of? Wondering if you could go back and never find out?”

Blushing, I shook my head. “It’s always better to know. Are you sure you can tell me this without getting into trouble?”

“Usually, I wouldn’t be able to. But I think Rose needs a friend right now.”

Drew knew. He knew that she was being invited to join the Gifted. Maybe that was why he looked slightly uncomfortable just now, because he knew why I was here. I narrowed my eyes at him. “Why do you say that?”

“Well, normally the Gifted’s families are in the know too. The whole family has the same Gift. But Rose’s family isn’t like that. Her parents aren’t Gifted.”

I didn’t realise it the missing gap in logic until he pointed it out. “So why is she?”

“She’s Gifted because of her parents.” He saw that I didn’t understand and continued, “Her parents used a sperm donor. The Gifted aren’t encouraged to do that. We’re not even supposed to donate blood, because we don’t know what’ll happen when normal humans’ blood mix with ours. But this guy, her biological father, didn’t follow our rules. He donated his sperms. Only Rose was successfully, uh, conceived that way. The other eggs didn’t survive. We only just found out.”

It was common knowledge that her parents used a sperm donor. But it didn’t mean that her parents loved her any less. Instead, they lavished attention to her. They were also very grateful to the sperm donor but it was a close identity sperm donation, which meant that his identity was kept confidential. “Who was he? And what happened to her father?”

“People who don’t follow the rules get punished.”

Drew was emanating edginess and I didn’t press him about their punishments. I knew enough about the Gifted and Rose wasn’t keen on finding her father anyway. “Rose is going to get the scholarship no matter what she says during the interview, isn’t she?”

Drew nodded. “She is Gifted after all. And her Gift is very useful.”

No matter how useful her Gift was, I knew that Rose was never going to appreciate it. She was going to become something she hated, a member of the Gifted. And after that, after she became Gifted, we might not see each other as often. I was going to lose my best friend.

But I couldn’t think about that right now. It would be selfish to do that when she needed me. The only thing I could do now would be to help make the transition easier.



I didn’t eat much during breakfast, certain that Rose would be able to tell the difference in me now that I knew something she did not. But she couldn’t. She didn’t mention her vulnerability earlier that morning either. Rose only hugged me and thanked me quietly for being there just now. Before I could ask her if she was doing better, Tyler came over and groveled for her forgiveness.

She forgave him instantly and the two of them were their usual selves again. Rose didn’t seem so down with Tyler around, with him constantly joking around and stealing kisses from her.

Again, I had the same pang of wanting something like that. I looked away from them, only to feel like I was being watched.

Looking up, I saw Drew quickly turning away from me. A few seats away from him, Trent smiled at me, not ashamed at being caught staring.

I bIushed, not knowing how to react, whether to return his smile or not. So I shifted my gaze away, pretending that I hadn’t seen him, the same way he’d ignored me before.