To Be Gifted

“Your necklace…it’s really beautiful.”

I smiled up at Trent, knowing that the compliment was for the necklace but feeling like he was sort of talking about tonight as well. We’d talked the whole time walking back from Jenson Vanderbilt’s party. Though his room was far away, he insisted on making sure I got back to the Blue wing safely. Considering that the Vengeance killer (so christened by our school newspaper) was still out and about, it was suffice to say that I was grateful for not being alone. “Rose gave it to me. It’s her going-away present.”

“Where’s she going?” His eyes lingered on the necklace and I felt a sudden flush developing. That was weird, because I never felt awkward around Trent.

“She’s Gifted. She left tonight.”

I’d like to say that Trent remained unruffled by this news but he wasn’t. His gaze flicked to my face and his tone was harsh when he said, “What Gift?”

“Predictions, I think. They weren’t very clear on the whole thing. Don’t tell Rose, okay? She doesn’t know yet.” Feeling even more nervous, I toyed with the necklace. Why was Trent reacting this way?

“Well, that’s useful.” Trent’s surprise seemed to be wearing off. He even managed to smile. “Drew didn’t tell you how they grouped us, did he?”

I shook my head. Trent seemed to mind whatever Drew did and Drew never talked about Trent even when pressed. It did seem like their rivalry was fierce.

Without noticing, we had walked as far as the powers that be allowed boys, even Gifted boys, to go when it came to the Elite girls’ wing for Blue.

“That’s a story for another time.” Trent grinned cheekily, the same way he had before declaring a snowball fight. I usually lost those. “See you soon, I hope.”

Surprising myself, I reached up and gave him a quick hug. “Definitely.”



When I woke up the next morning, Saturday to be exact, I felt free like I could fly.

Trent and I were friends again. My loneliness didn’t feel so suffocating. It still stung a little that Rose wasn’t here, but I was glad too because Rose would certainly have asked why I was so happy. And Rose did not like Trent. She’d often said that his arrogance and attitude pissed her off. I wondered if it was something else about him that rubbed her the wrong way. Whenever I asked about this, Rose would just give me a tight-lipped smile.

It was one of the things I loved about my best friend—when she didn’t like someone, she didn’t go out of her to badmouth that person. Though it was my other best friend she didn’t like.

Sighing, I dressed for breakfast. I was lucky that breakfast on Saturdays lasted all the way until lunch because it was already 10.30. I’d overslept.

It was pretty outside. The skies were blue, clear and cloudless. A picture perfect summer day-

“Morning, Haley. I was wondering what time you were going to sleep till.”

Gaping at the brown-eyed boy in front of me, I wondered if I was still asleep. There was no way Drew Sutherland would be sitting on a bench outside, apparently waiting for me. “Is there something wrong? With Rose, I mean?”

“Nothing’s wrong.” Drew smiled brightly, making me more worried. I associated that smile with cruelty, with impending embarrassment. “I thought you wanted to hear about Rose. She’s fine, all settled in. How are you holding up, by the way?”

“I’m fine.” I hope I didn’t sound as confused as I felt.

“I heard about Jenson Vanderbilt’s party last night. Trent turned up, didn’t he?”

“I didn’t know boys gossiped too.”

Drew let the comment roll off his back. “I also heard that he’s jealous, because he thinks that we have something going on.”

Oh my God. Was Drew saying what I thought he was saying?

He winked, much like the same way he had two years ago. Again, I felt a physical urge to maim him. But he would see that coming, his reflexes were legendary.

Aware that I was standing there, glaring at him like a fool, I started walking away from him as quickly as I could. Unfortunately, Drew was way taller than I was—I nearly had to stand on tip toes to dance with him that night—and his strides were larger. He caught up with me easily, not even out of breath.

“Okay, so you’re pretending you can’t hear me. That’s kind of immature, not what I expect from a van Bridget.”

I could feel myself turning hot from humiliation. It was drilled into me, what a van Bridget was and was not supposed to do. It felt like second nature to rise up to his bait, to say something to defend my family. But I knew that Drew was expecting that. So I said nothing, clamping my lips together.

We were reaching the cafeteria anyway. At least there I would be safe because Drew wouldn’t dare to sit near me. The line between the Elite and the Gifted was clearly drawn there. Those who didn’t follow were regarded suspiciously and not even a ‘nice’, popular guy like Drew could be protected.

He wouldn’t dare to risk his reputation.

“Now I’m surprised you didn’t say anything. I’d thought all the Elite treated their family names like gold.” Drew said this sarcastically.

I bristled. After what I had learnt about the Gifted, I’d assumed that the Gifted didn’t socialise with us because of their rules, but Drew was making it seem like he did it because he didn’t like us. Ignoring the voice telling me that the Elite didn’t like the Gifted either and wasn’t it hypocritical to feel offended, I said, starchy, “Not all of us are like that. It’s not fair lumping all of us together because we’re rich.”

“You guys do it all the time, don’t you? You group all the Gifted together, calling us scholarship kids.”

I couldn’t deny this. I’d done it too.

We entered the cafeteria. Thankfully, nobody had noticed that Drew and I had arrived together…yet. “Drew, what do you want?”

“A date.”

His voice seemed too loud; loud enough for those near us to hear. And they did, because their conversation halted. They turned to watch us.

“No way,” I whispered, trying to compensate for how loudly Drew had spoken. “Why would I want to do that?”

“Great. So Sunday morning, say about 10 then?”

I shook my head empathetically, though I knew he wouldn’t listen to me. Drew had already ignored me before. He only smiled brilliantly in response, like I’d agreed, and sauntered off.

Apparently he’d already eaten breakfast. And apparently, he was feeding me to the wolves, which in this case were bored teenagers eager to devour the new gossip. Drew had only fed their appetite, letting them believe that there was really a love triangle happening here—two Gifted boys and me.

Smiling weakly at them, I decided that I wasn’t hungry after all. Then I bolted from the cafeteria.



Saturday passed far too quickly, even though I spent most of my time doing homework and thinking about how annoying Drew was. Why did he always go out of his way to create new embarrassing moments for me?

Sunday morning rolled around and I groaned when I woke up, remembering the date. Normally, I would be looking forward to Sunday because Rose and I could go out shopping. At night, Rose and Tyler would do some couple thing while I went out with Gayle Patterson and other people from our clique.

Today, however, things were going to be different. I was going to have to spend it with Drew.
I would’ve tried to find some way out of it too, if not for the fact that this was Drew I was talking about. He could be incredibly stubborn and persistent when he needed to and if I tried to hide or run from him, he would find me even if it took him all day.

I skipped breakfast, knowing that I would puke if I had eaten. Instead, I stood in front of my closet, wondering what the hell I was supposed to wear for my pretend-date. It sure wasn’t a real date, because I’d figured out what Drew wanted.

He was enemies with Trent, obviously. So he wanted to make Trent angry by asking me out, knowing that word would spread quickly enough to Trent. There was probably some kind of move Drew was expecting from Trent. Guys could be so incredibly childish and pigheaded.

I pursed my lips, wondering how it was that I would have absolutely nothing to wear.Everything in my closet was completely appropriate if I was going out with my friends or if there was some kind of dance happening. But all my clothes were either outrageously expensive or too fancy for a pretend-date with Drew.

He was expecting something like from me. I could tell from his disdain for the Elite yesterday morning.

The annoucment bells sounded. Will all students please return to their rooms immediately. All students please return to their rooms immediately. Please stay in your rooms until further instruction. Thank you.

The announcement sounded a lot like the one Rose had told me about, the one where Emily McKinley had been killed.

My legs gave way and I found myself on the floor. Did something happen? Was someone else…killed?

There was a loud knock on my door, startling me. Wondering who it was and ignoring the sudden spike in heartbeat because of adrenaline, I was being ridiculous I knew, I went to the door and pressed my ear against it. Our doors had no peephole or I might have used it.

“Open up, Haley!”

Recognising the voice as Drew’s, I opened the door and let him in. Then I shut it quickly.

“What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be back in your room?”

“I was on my way here. Figured that I might as well come in and check on you.” His voice was normal but he looked worried.

I should probably be asking him how he’d managed to get through Mrs. Ingrid, my housemother, but I didn’t. Instead, I looked at him, trying to figure out what I found different about him. Then it struck me—I’d never seen Drew worried before. It was like how I’d never heard him angry before until that day in the washroom.

“Looks like our date’s off then,” he continued, his tone a forced cheerfulness. Drew still wasn’t looking at me. Instead, he was staring at the door like he should be outside, doing something important. “We can always reschedule.”

“What’s wrong, Drew? Did you hear what’s going on?”

“It’s probably nothing.”

“You’re lying to me again.” My stomach hurt, like there were a million stabs of glass poking through it. “Is someone killed?”

Drew’s gaze flicked towards me. Something in my face made him blurt out, “Someone found where the first Seraphic Object is. Someone not Gifted.”



No matter how I’d begged, Drew refused to tell me what a Seraphic Object was. He completely clammed up; lying on Rose’s bed and muttering things under his breath I couldn’t hear. I did catch a few swear words though.

There was a boy in my room. If anyone ever found out about this, I was dead. Completely and utterly finished. I flushed. Honestly, I thought, forget about Drew for once. There’s something important and strange going on right now.

So I thought about the Seraphic Objects instead. I knew that seraphs referred to Angels, which were what the Gifted were made up of. So Seraphic Objects must be Angelic things. And if someone who wasn’t Gifted found out where one was, there would be a whole lot of trouble. But I didn’t get why Drew was so nervous about the whole thing. The Giftd, as a group, seemed completely invincible. They didn’t need things to help them get even more power. Unless…were the Seraphic Objects more powerful than the Gifted?

The same cool voice announced, The situation has been contained. Students are allowed out of their rooms. However, please do not travel out of the school today. Thank you for your understanding.

I could hear groans of disappointment and murmurs of concern in the rooms around me but I focused on Drew’s face. He still looked tense but now sat up, raring to go.

“I’m coming along,” I said decisively.

“No, you’re not. Do you really think the Headmaster will tell me anything with you around?”

I noticed that he didn’t call him James this time. “If you don’t want me to go with you, you’re going to have to tell me more about the Seraphic Objects. Otherwise, I’m going to follow you. And you know I’ll do it.”

Drew sighed. But I noticed that he wasn’t putting up a fight.

“In the Prophecy, there’s a mention of the three Seraphic Objects. The one that was found today is the Tiara of the Pure.”

If this was any other guy that I was speaking to, I might have burst out laughing right now. But because this was Drew, I knew that he was being serious about this. There really was a Tiara of Something out there. And someone had found it. “What’s so special about this Tiara?”

“I knew you were going to ask that. You never know when to give up.” Drew looked at me to see if this was enough to put me off. It wasn’t, of course. “Fine, let me tell you the whole story about the Fallen then.”

“The Fallen?” I asked, feeling like my mind was going to implode. There were just so many terms after I’d learnt about the Gifted: the Prophecy, the Seraphic Objects and now—the Fallen.

“Yeah, the Fallen, the Rebel Angels, whatever. They were originally Angels on the side of good but then, well, they got tempted. Some who got discovered got kicked out while the others fled. Some of the Angels we descended from were actually meant to watch them. But then they fell in love with humans and gave up their wings, which actually worked out, because now there would be a never-ending supply of Gifted people who’ll look out for these Fallen.”

Drew paused, waiting for me to process all this. I nodded once I was sure I understood most of it.

“But the Fallen were smart, you see. They brought three Seraphic Objects down with them. They hid these Objects all over the world. Alex Sanderson was smarter. He found all of them and hid them somewhere around this school, so that the Gifted can protect them. The rationale was that, to get the Objects, they must go through us.”

“And the Prophecy mentions the Objects because…?”

“The Prophecy was made just before the Rebel Angels were kicked out. They assumed that the Rebels mentioned were them and that they needed those Objects so that our side wouldn’t win. But it seemed like the Angels beat them without the Objects anyway. There’re like, what, two Fallen left today. We’ll hunt them though down. We always do.”

“Back to the Tiara, what does it do?”

“The Fallen had a wicked sense of humour; they were the ones who named the objects. Tiara of the Pure is actually really cruel. It takes away the Gifts of anyone, Angels and humans. The Fallen believed that those who are flawed, in the sense that they didn’t follow their beliefs, shouldn’t have their Gifts. Of course the Tiara wasn’t originally used like that; it was supposed to be for Angels tracking the Fallen to take away their Gifts. But the Tiara was taken before they could use it.”

“It’s called the Tiara of the Pure because only the ‘pure’ will have their Gifts after the Fallen were through with them.” The realisation made me sick. It was unbelievably insane.

Drew nodded. “I really need to go now, Haley. I need to find out if it was taken.”

“Wait. One last question. If the Tiara was found and taken, does it mean that the war has started?”

His expression was grave when he nodded.