Gifted

Chapter Ten Emily

I wake up when I hear, "Get up you lazy bums! It's time for breakfast!"
I recognize Ms Kimmel's voice, and especially the way she speaks and what she says. So, I get up, take a shower, brush my teeth, then put on my new clean inform. It's green, like yesterday. Then, I head to the mess hall to go get some breakfast. I catch a glance at Victoria, and I walk over to her. I put my things on a chair next to her and say,
"I'll be right back."
"Okay" she replies
Nobody calls up the tables, so I guess we can go whenever we want. I take some cereal with milk, and a glass of apple juice. As I walk over toward Victoria, and my table, Cecelia comes over to me and asks me if I want to eat with them. I hesitate, because I see Victoria sitting all alone at our table, playing with her food. I feel really bad for her, but I'm stuck in the middle of two groups. I don't know where to go, so I decide to eat with Victoria, because I ate with them last nigh. But I don't want to be rude, so I say that I will. I run back over to Victoria and tell her:
"Um, they invited me to eat with them over there...but I think I want to stay with you, because I was with them yesterday night."
"Okay, sounds good, but they already invited you over there...just tell them the truth."
"I'll try, come with me..."
We go toward their table and right when we get close to it, we go to the right. I know, that was really mean, but that was the only choice I had. Victoria and I walk back together to our table, she looks at me with disgust. I should've told them the truth. They are probably saying that I was very rude there, and I certainly was.
We go back to our own table. We sit in a long silence but we eat quickly. When we are done eating, we still have about ten minutes of free time. So, Victoria and I separate, we each go to our own dorms. I want to write another diary entry to kill time, but I know I won't have enough time, and certainly nothing to write about. So, I simply take the time to do my hair into a nice braid, then into a bun. It ends up being really pretty, I never knew that I could do that on myself, oh well...
Then, on my schedule, I see that we have creatures class. I wonder what we will learn in that class. I also really hope that the teacher is nice, just like her presentation yesterday morning. I walk to my classroom and sit down on a chair, I'm the first one here. Not even Victoria is here yet. After a while, I see Cecelia come in with her friends. They chitchat about makeup and magazines, ugh. I watch them desperately, trying to figure out if Cecelia still likes me after the incident this morning at breakfast. I thin I remember the teacher's name, maybe Ms Fayette. She seemed young and full of energy, kind of like Ms Reider, maybe even a little nicer. More students come in, then Ms Fayette enters. She starts by making a more detailed presentation about her class.
We will learn about fantasy creatures of all sort, from Phoenix to water horse. What they look like, how to tame them, what should you do if you are in a battle with and against them, and how to distinguish them. I can't wait!
She starts off by making us play a short game. It's really fun, but I'm not sure it'll teach us much because we are doing it all wrong. The point of the game is to get the most points at the end of the round. When it's your turn, you act out, or mime, a fantasy creature or animal you know. If another person guesses it right, they get a point. If the thing you chose wasn't even a fantasy animal, you loose a point. If your were not clear enough about your animal (in Ms Fayette's point of view), you lose a point. Here are the results of the people I know that were written on the chalkboard:

Hazel 3
Victoria -4
Taj 8
Racheal 2
Cecelia 7
Aaron 5
Julia 3
Emily 7
Zayne 6

I wonder why Victoria got a -4, she looks pretty smart. Maybe it simply won't be her best class here.....who knows?
We play the game for the whole class. Ms Fayette says in her sweet little melodious voice as the bell rings:
"Oh no! I'm so sorry students!... I thought we had more time than that, we'll continue more next class, bye!"
"Thank you, bye"
We all chant together as she leaves.
Next class is transformation class. I remember so well Ms Reider's presentation! It was soooo good that I can't wait for her to come in the class and show us some more transforming! She starts off just like Ms Fayette; telling us a brief summary of what we are going to learn this year, and the two years after that... Then, we get to serious things;
"I have a list here, with all you names written down. I'll call on all of you in a random order, and you'll tell me what animal you transformed into the night you were taken."
She gets out the paper and starts calling out names. Julia is first:
"Julia!" Ms Reider says.
"Yes! I was a parrot" she replies.
"Great! Thank you, next: Taj!"
"Hammerhead!"
"Hazel!?"she continues.
"Peacock." She says with a big smile on her face.
It keeps going on and on.....

Cecelia, an eagle
Aaron, a lion
Racheal, a flamingo
Zayne, a tiger (that's my favorite animal, awesome!)
Me, a wolf (yay!)
Victoria, a fox (But, we notice she hesitates.....)
Sherman, a goldfish! (Hahahahahaha, we can't stop laughing!)

There are more kids in our class, but I don't remember them all.

But Ms Reider continues:
"So, to be able to transform, you need total concentration, which is why you have a mental control class, with Mr Maniti."
We all start laughing, all remembering his presentation, we can't stop.
"As I was saying, you need full concentration. Everybody do as I say."
She closes her eyes and then says:
"Close your eyes and breath slowly"
We all do that, but some of us goof off. I notice Victoria being nervous, extremely nervous, why would she be? This is awesome! Oh wait, I know... The secret, how will she be able to hide it, will she!? Is she going to leave?!
Anyways, we keep going, it's been around four minutes, and all we've been doing is closing our eyes and breathing very slowly. I start getting dizzy, more and more. This feels like my dream the other night, when I transformed into a wolf. I notice that I'm the only one reacting, except for Cecelia.
My face grimaces as my arms tighten. I try and open my eyes, but I can't. I try and open my mouth, I can't. I can't hear either, but I see My Reider smile and say something inaudible to my ears. She claps her hands, but all I can see is a blur. Oh! I managed to open my eyes then, if I can see My Reider, or maybe this is just a hallucination..... All of a sudden, I fall to the floor, motionless. Am I dead? Dying? Has all this effort brought my just death!? No, certainly not, my ears twitch. Wait, I never knew I could move my ears, how did I do that. I try to get up and stand. But I fall on the floor. I try again, persevering. "Keep going", I tell myself, "keep going!" Finally, I'm up, but not on two legs, on four. They are grey. Yessssss! I did it! I can't believe it! I transformed into a wolf! And, I was the first one of the class to do it. I know this because I can see the others still closing their eyes and breathing deeply, trying to transform. That was actually easier than I though...
One by one, I watch the others transform, while I'm still a wolf, until only one person is left; Victoria. Uh oh, not good.
Next thing you know, I see Ms Reider escort her out of the classroom, she come back in tears. Now they know, they know her secret, they know her lies, everything she was trying to hide from everyone.
After all the questions Ms Reider receives from my class, she tells us the truth about Victoria:
"As you all probably have noticed, Victoria, on of our fellow comrades, cannot transform into an animal, nor can she control an element. Because of this, she will be permanently expelled from this school"
We all gasp.
"She will be sent back to her home. But, for this to not reveal our school, we will erase all the things she has seen, heard, or said during her past stay at this establishment."
She's not done, but Julia interrupts:
"So she'll be brainwashed?!"
"Well technically, yes. She will be basically brainwashed."
We can easily tell that Ms Reider is trying her best, and that it's hard for her to tell us this, but she tries to act serious and hide it. She continues, but I don't hear a thing; I'm too preoccupied by the thought of my best friend leaving and being brainwashed. I only hear ,"never see her again[...]mistake or lie"
I'm confused, Victoria knew about this all along, why couldn't she had told Ms Edna the truth about what was happening, what her parents did for her?