To Be Gifted

In my dream, it was Parents’ Day. It was an annual thing, a day where all parents were invited to visit their kids in the school. Usually, my parents didn’t bother to come. But in this dream, they were both here.

My father, Richard van Bridget, is a very distinguished man. He has won numerous business awards, appeared on the cover on Time magazine no fewer than five times and according to Forbes, his personal fortune is somewhere in the billions. That’s not counting the offshore accounts they don’t know about. My mother, Lucille van Bridget, is my father’s right-hand woman. All the smaller decisions, such as whether to take over Kraft corporations, are hers to make. She changes her wardrobe every year and started her own fashion line this year, opening 15 stores around America. The projected profit for the line is about US$20 million. Apparently, woman everywhere want to dress like her.

Needless to say, I’ve been competing for their time since I was five years old. The fact that they had both given up time to come to Parents’ Day was pretty mind-blowing.

I was bringing them on a tour around the school, trying to behave as normally as possible even though I was excited that they were here. There was also a sense that something was wrong, because why would they come to this school? They’d never shown any interest before.

Trying to ignore that sense of foreboding, I blabbed on and on about the school and how great it was. Finally, my mother raised her hand and looked up from her Blackberry. Then she asked, shocking the hell out of me, “Where’s your boyfriend, Haley? Isn’t that why we’re here? To meet him?”

My jaw dropped.

“Close your mouth, Haley. A van Bridget never opens their mouth so widely.” My father said this quietly, with a jovial smile pasted on his face. His gaze was directed at someone behind me. “Ah. There he is. I’ll have a few words with him later.”

Feeling like I was going to hurl, I turned around quickly and saw Trent. Relieved, it seemed like my parents had misunderstood our relationship, I waved at him.

He returned the wave. But as he walked closer to us, Trent disappeared and became Drew.
My father walked up to him and clapped him on the back, projecting the image of a happy, successful man like his PR manager had told him. My mother smiled at me and said, “Well, he looks like a nice boy. You’ve done well.”

Drew sauntered to me, smiling his infuriating grin the whole way. Then he bent down to kiss me.

I jolted awake, breathing ragged and heart racing. They said that dreams were a reflection of one’s subconscious which meant that mine was pretty screwed up right now. Freud would have a field day analysing what it meant. As for me, I was just feeling completely out of it.



The following day, Monday, was Frederick Charles’ funeral. It was optional this time, probably because our Headmaster was worried that there would a repeat of some passionate speech from Fred’s relatives, urging us not to stay in this school anymore. That kind of news would be damaging and a PR nightmare. And it would also encourage students to leave.

I wasn’t going because I didn’t know him well. It would’ve been awkward sitting among the Gifted, who were clearly upset that he was gone. I think some of them were a little shaken too, because they were the Gifted. They had abilities people like me could only dream of. Yet, they could be easily murdered by the Vengeance killer.

I was heading to Drew’s dorm instead. I wanted to find out what he’d learnt from the Headmaster, if the Tiara had really been taken and what it meant for the rest of us. If the school was going into lockdown mode, which didn’t seem likely from how the staff treated yesterday’s situation as a mere inconvenience, I wanted to know. This school was a home for me after all.

If I went back to the van Bridget mansion, I would be completely alone. I’d known that feeling and I didn’t want to go back to it.

Walking straight into Drew’s dorms, I asked the housemother seated at the desk outside if I could see Drew. With her eyebrows raised, she studied every inch of me before saying that Drew had left for Fred’s funeral. He would not be back until later.

Face pinking at her obvious disdain that I was asking for Drew, I walked out of his dorms and right into Rose.

“Watch where you’re going, Haley! Dammit.”

Her lips were pursed and her eyes were narrowed. Rose stood ramrod straight, like she was preparing to go into battle. “What is wrong with you?”

“Sorry about bumping into you.”

“That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about how you found out what the Gifted were before I did. How you never told me anything about it, how you let me believe that I was going crazy like my aunt. What kind of a friend does that?”

“What kind of a friend abandons her friend to go out with her boyfriend for the Spring Formal!”

My words shocked the both of us. I hadn’t realised that I was so pissed off with Rose and she just looked outraged that I’d shouted back at her.

“Is that what this is about? I thought you were okay with that!”

The heat of her glare was too much for me. I never did like confrontations and this was way too public for me. “No, it isn’t about that. It’s just that I wasn’t supposed to tell you anything. It’s part of their rules.”

“If you cared about the rules so much, Haley, Drew wouldn’t be in such trouble now. The Headmaster found out that he’s told you everything about the Gifted and he’s not happy. If you just left things alone and stop pushing the boundaries, none of this would be happening.”

I thought about the way his housemother had looked at me, as if she didn’t approve of me. Now I understood why. She'd probably known that I was the one that got Drew into trouble. “What’s happening to Drew?”

Here, Rose didn’t look so angry with me. But I knew that it would take more than this for her to calm down. “I don’t know. I overheard the Headmaster yelling at him, saying that the Seraphic Object might not have been taken if Drew didn’t break the rules by telling you everything. He said that Drew risked the Prophecy by telling you.”

I swallowed hard, thinking that it wasn’t fair for Drew to be taking all the blame when it was partly my fault. I’d forced him into telling me, pestering him until he broke.

“Look, whatever it is, I just hope that you wouldn’t keep things from me, okay? It’s hard enough adjusting to the Gifted when I find out that my bestie hasn’t been entirely truthful with me.”

Rose looked worn out, like she’d been fighting too many battles. I wondered how hard the Gifted were pushing her to perfect her Gift, especially since it was so new, and then I nodded. “I didn’t mean what I said earlier. It was out of line. It’s just that I was kind of upset that you started yelling at me.”

She eyed me tiredly. “It’s been hard for me too.”

Then Rose walked away from me. She wasn’t okay with everything I’d kept from her yet. But I hoped she would be, soon.



“Do you know what they’re going to do with Drew?”

Trent looked surprised that I was asking him this. I’d stumbled upon Trent in the library, where I’d originally gone to do some research for a History project. It wasn’t like I had friends who wanted to hang out with me anyway. But I saw Trent in the library and decided that homework could wait. Getting Drew in trouble was gnawing at my conscience.

“What did Sutherland do?”

I was trying to keep my voice low but it was difficult when encountered with Trent’s lazy drawl. It was also a little shocking how he hadn't known what had happened. Even Rose, who was new to the Gifted, knew. But that could be because Rose had overheard the Headmaster. “I made him tell me about the Seraphic Objects. Now the Headmaster’s angry with him. Are they going to punish him?”

“Wow. I never though Sutherland would go that far.” Trent looked thoughtful and stretched. “Well. If I were James Kingsley, I probably would. It’s only how far I’d go.”

I was quiet. I wasn’t sure I wanted to know about how the Gifted punished those who broke their rules. Drew had made it sound ominous.

“Well, everyone has their fatal flaw I suppose,” mused Trent. “I just never knew Sutherland had one.”

I frowned at his causal tone. Drew was in trouble right now, because of me, and Trent was still thinking of ways to undermine him.

Trent misunderstood my frown as a sign that I was confused by what he was saying, because he elaborated, “It seems like Sutherland hates doing nothing. He always needs to be saying something or doing something to improve the situation.”

He did look upset when he was stuck in my room, like he wanted to go outside and do something to help the school find the person who took the Tiara. Maybe Trent was right, maybe Drew couldn’t stand doing nothing. But there was still something that bugged me. “How does telling me about the Seraphic Objects help the situation?”

“Sutherland probably wasn’t thinking straight. Jocks can get confused sometimes.”

Again, Trent’s tone was casually critical. It occurred to me that Trent knew about Drew’s Gift, calling him a jock because of it. But Drew was more than just a jock. His Gift could help many people and yet, Trent looked down on it.

“Anyway, did he tell you about the other two Seraphic Objects?”

I shook my head. When Trent’s expression brightened, I had a feeling that he was going to tell me. So I quickly went, “I don’t think I want to know anymore actually. I don’t want to get you into trouble too.”

There was a flicker of disappointment on his face but he shrugged, like it was nothing important. I don’t know if he believed what I said because Trent was a lot more observant than I’d previously known. I hoped he hadn’t realised that I didn’t want him to tell me not solely because I didn’t want to land him in trouble, but also because I wasn’t sure Trent would be as honest with me as Drew had.

It seemed like Trent tended to put his own spin on situations, opinions I wasn’t sure were warranted.