Hunters of Chaos (20 page)

Jason stood on the running track in his sweats—and he was staring right at me. I felt my heart jump into my throat.
He must be out for an early jog. . . .

Had he seen? The lights were low across the campus, but the stars were so bright. . . .

“Hi, Jason,” I tested. “What are you doing h—”

Jason's eyes rounded in horror and he backed away, holding his hands out in front of him. “Don't . . . don't come any closer,” he said.

My heart sank. He'd seen, all right. I took another step toward him. “Jason, calm down. It's okay. I can explain,” I pleaded—even though I had no idea how I could possibly explain.

“I mean it—
get back
!” He was terrified, I realized. Of me. With my jaguar senses, I could smell his fear. But even without that, it was written all over his face.

“Don't freak out,” I said. “It's just me.”

“Don't freak out?” He shook his head. “
You're not even human
!” he shouted. “I don't know
what
you are, but I want you to stay away from me.”

He turned and ran, disappearing down the pathway. The exhilaration I'd felt earlier in the night crumbled, and I felt my heart shatter like glass.

E
XHAUSTED AS
I
WAS,
I
spent the whole school day pumped up on adrenaline, panicked that Principal Ferris was going to call me into her office any minute. And what would I say?
Sorry, Principal Ferris, it's just that me and my Ancient Civilization Superpowers figured out that we can transform into Wildcats. No biggie! Sorry I freaked out your son. . . .

I dragged my way through biology lab, then world history, then English. I kept expecting an office aide to come in and call me out of class, but the worst thing that happened all day was when Mr. Harper chided me for not participating in our class discussion of
Oliver Twist.
I'd actually read the chapters he'd assigned the night before. . . . I was just too jittery to form a coherent thought.

“You don't have
anything
to add about the story, Ms. Cetzal?” Mr. Harper asked, crossing his arms and looking down at me in disapproval.

Gulp.
I tried to force my brain to produce something. “I think it's . . . really depressing,” I managed after a few seconds. I heard a wave of titters go through the class, and when I looked up at Mr. Harper's scowl, I could tell I'd said the wrong thing.

He sniffed and pinched my shoulder before walking away. “Do try to have something more significant to add tomorrow,” he muttered. I felt a wave of relief as he called on Nicole, who was smirking and waving her hand in the air.
Got a reprieve!

After class, Lin and Shani came running up to me as I trudged along the path back to the dorm.

“Ana!” Lin cried, grabbing my arm. “Seriously, if we're going to practice our
special skills
at night, you have
got
to get better at hiding how tired you are the next day.”

I turned to look at my friends. They both looked bright and alert, though when I looked closer, I could see the bags under their eyes. I hadn't told them about Jason spotting me in my jaguar guise last night. I wasn't trying to hide it from them, exactly—I just felt like it was my problem. And until I knew it involved them, I didn't want to freak them out.

“How are you two looking so perky?” I asked, avoiding the subject.

Shani chuckled. “Caffeine, and lots of it!” she said.

Lin nodded vigorously. “It's days like today when I really appreciate the espresso bar in the cafeteria.”

Noting the slightly manic expression in her eyes, I couldn't help chuckling too. But then I spotted the person I'd been secretly searching for all day: Jason. He was striding toward us, a few yards away, walking with his head down. In a few seconds he'd cross our path. My heart leaped into my throat, and I stared at him, waiting for him to notice me.

Lin seemed to notice my sudden silence and followed my gaze to Jason. “Ooh,” she murmured, and pasted on an even more manic smile as he came closer.

But her effort was wasted. Jason glanced up at us only briefly as he passed us. As soon as he saw me, he quickly focused his gaze back on the pathway and picked up his pace, practically jogging away.

Lin's head swiveled to watch him run off. “Wow,” she breathed, turning back to me with a satisfied expression. “Guess the honeymoon's over, huh?”

I sighed. “Drop it, Lin,” I huffed, and ran ahead to go back to the dorm alone.

I didn't feel like talking to anyone. I just wanted to crawl back into bed and hope things would feel more normal when I woke up.

I entered the dorm feeling like a deflated balloon. Despite all my worrying, it didn't look like Jason had any plans to tell anyone what he'd seen—who would believe him, anyway? But the way he had looked at me in that brief moment when he passed us, like I was a monster, broke my heart.

On my way to Doli and Shani's room, I ran right into Mrs. O'Grady, the dorm mother. She was holding a cup of tea and when she saw me, she took on a pinched expression. “Ana,” she said in a reedy voice, “just the person I've been looking for. We need to talk.”

For a second I thought she knew that I'd sneaked out the night before. I tried to figure out what I would say.

“Is it true that you've been sleeping in Doli and Shani's room?” she asked, surprising me.

I lowered my eyes. How had she found out? “Yes, it's true.”

“I'm sure you know that's against dorm rules. If you want to switch rooms, that's fine. But you have to do it through the proper channels. Otherwise, you'll have to remain in your assigned room. Do you understand?”

I nodded. “What are the proper channels?”

“There are change-of-room request forms in the main building,” she answered. “You can only put in for one room change per semester, though, so you'd better be sure it's what you want before you fill out the paperwork.”

“Oh, I'm sure. I'll do it first thing tomorrow, okay, Mrs. O'Grady? Sorry for the delay.” I started heading up the stairs to Doli's room, but Mrs. O'Grady grabbed my hand.

“I'm sorry, but until your request is granted, you need to sleep in your own room,” she said. “Starting tonight.”

I sighed miserably.
Just what I need to make this day even harder: face time with Nicole.
“Fine. I need to get my blanket and pillow from their room, though.”

Mrs. O'Grady nodded. “We'll go together.”

Upstairs I opened the door to find the room empty. Shani must have stopped in the common room or to chat more with Lin; Doli was probably taking her time walking back from Spanish class. Quickly I gathered my things, wrote a quick note, and rejoined Mrs. O'Grady in the hallway, sticking the note to the door behind me. Mrs. O'Grady nodded and walked me back downstairs to my old room.

After she left, I hesitated outside the door. I could hear music playing and smelled something like ammonia. I heard a giggle behind me, and turned around just in time to see the door across the hall slam shut.
Great.
Someone had already gotten wind of the Disgraced Roommate returning to the site of her shame. I might as well go in before the hallway filled with spies.

I turned the knob. At least the door was unlocked. I found Nicole inside, sitting on her bed and painting her nails. Bruno Mars blared from her iPod dock. Between the nail-polish fumes, the throbbing music, and the very sight of Nicole, I suddenly had a pounding headache.

She looked up at me, her face registering surprise and then contorting into a frown. “What are
you
doing here? I thought I told you to find somewhere else to sleep.”

I sighed. “I did. But someone told Mrs. O'Grady, and she says I can't move out without filing a room-change request. I'll do that first chance I get, but for now, you're just going to have to deal.”

“I don't
have
to do anything,” Nicole snapped, slamming her magazine shut and tossing it to the floor. “And I don't want you in here if you're going to be growling at me and acting all insane.”

The veins in my forehead pulsed and I felt the same tingling in my spine that I'd felt the first time I'd transformed.
Uh-oh.
“Be careful, Nicole,” I warned. “I don't think you should make me angry right now. Back off, or . . . or . . .”

Her voice went up another octave. “Or what? You'll do something to me like you did to Ms. Benitez?”

This time I took a step back. Thanks to my new superhuman cat senses, I could hear the other girls on our floor gathering on the other side of the door to eavesdrop. They were whispering and jostling for space.

“What are you
talking
about?” I exclaimed.

“Don't play innocent. I know you were there the night Ms. Benitez was taken away in an ambulance. She tried to be nice to you and now she's in a coma.”

I felt off balance, my legs shaky. “That wasn't my fault!” I insisted. “She—”

But I couldn't say,
She was protecting me.
If I did, I'd have to tell Nicole what Ms. Benitez had been protecting me from. “S-she got hurt when a piece of the museum ceiling fell on her,” I tried. “I helped drag her out of the building.”

Nicole shook her head. “You're such a liar. I know you know more than you're letting on. Something happened that night but you're covering it up. Miss Benitez was young and healthy. Why would a bump on the head send her into a coma?”

I wanted to tell her that Ms. Benitez was far from young. She was probably older than everyone in the dorm combined times a hundred. But I clamped my lips shut. That was one piece of gossip Nicole would not get her hands on.

“It's like you cast some evil spell on her or something,” Nicole hissed. “You must be some kind of witch and you're out to destroy this school!”

I was furious. Here I was trying to fight the forces of evil, and she was accusing me of being a witch!

“I'm no witch,” I cried, as much to all the girls I knew were listening from the hall as to Nicole. I balled my fists at my sides, aching to knock her to the floor. We'd be the talk of the campus for months, thanks to her. But after the first time I'd lashed out at Nicole, I'd checked the welcome packet again, and she was right about one thing: They weren't kidding about their zero-tolerance violence policy. It was mentioned at least three times. I knew that if I lost control with the jaguar so near my surface, there was no telling what would happen. But the tingling in my spine was getting stronger.

“Nicole, would you please just turn the music down?” I begged, dumping my blanket on the bed. “I'm exhausted. All I want is to take a nap.”

But instead of lowering the volume, she rose from the bed, crossed over to the iPod on her desk, and turned it up. She started dancing around the room. “Puh-lease. Because we're running on generator power, they're only letting us use electricity for a couple of hours. I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts,” she shouted over the music.

“Nicole, come on. . . .”

She cupped her hand behind her ear. “What? Sorry. Can't hear you.” She kept dancing.

That was it; I was done being polite. I went over to her desk and turned the iPod off altogether. She whirled to face me, her eyes bulging. She stomped over to me and turned the music on again. I turned it off and ripped the iPod out of the docking station, glaring at her defiantly. But she came at me, her lips pulled back in a sneer. “Give it back—”

Acting on instinct, I bared my teeth and let out the same sound that had sent Lin scurrying behind Doli the night before.

Nicole pulled back with a grimace. “OMG, did you just
growl
at me? You're a freak!”

Last night's practice had gone well, but I knew I didn't have much control over the big cat inside me. I could feel it tugging at my insides, as if it were itching to be let out of its cage. “I don't want to hurt you, Nicole,” I said in a low voice. “So please don't make me.”

“What did you just say?” Nicole asked.

“I said don't make me hurt you!” I couldn't help shouting, and I felt the cat within preparing to pounce, to rip, to . . .

I gasped in horror at my own thoughts. I took a few deep breaths and backed away from Nicole, holding up my hands in surrender.

But Nicole just flashed an evil smile. “Get away from me,” she said loudly, in a frightened voice that didn't match her expression at all. Then as I watched in disbelief, she raked at her face with her own freshly painted fingernails.

“What are you
doing
?” I breathed, barely able to form words. I knew she was evil, but surely she couldn't be evil enough to fake an attack on herself . . . could she?

“Ana, don't! No! HELP!” she screamed.

Nicole's scream was all it took to bring the girls from the hallway crashing into the room.

Jessica rushed to Nicole's side. “What's going on here?” she said.

They all looked from me, in my near-catatonic state, to Nicole, who was bleeding from her self-inflicted wounds.

Nicole pointed a shaky finger at me and cried, “She attacked me!”

That's when I spotted Shani, standing with Doli and peering through the doorway. Shani raised an eyebrow at me
. Did you?
When I shook my head, she shrugged as if to say,
Eh, too bad.

Most of the other girls seemed to buy Nicole's story hook, line, and sinker. They fawned over her, sending me accusatory glares. Only a few girls hung back, regarding Nicole with wary glances. Lin stood in the middle of the room in her 7 For All Mankind jeans, seeming unsure whose side to take.