Maverick (Maverick Academy Series) (2 page)

Martin Bradley High School was small compared to the one she
’d attended in California. At Whit’s old school, there had been more sophomores than the entire student body here. Although, Whit had to admit that she really did like the smaller campus and fewer people. It made it more comfortable, somehow. As she opened her locker, she flashed back to another dream, from two nights earlier. It had involved Sarah, a girl in her homeroom. She was the typical cheerleader type – happy and shiny. In the dream, Sarah had been crying uncontrollably and running down the hall. Whit glimpsed Sarah going into homeroom in front of her, and wondered again whether she was a bad person for keeping this information to herself. She didn’t know why Sarah had been crying in the dream; she just knew that it was going to happen.
Really, what is there to tell?
she asked herself. It wasn’t like she actually
knew
anything.

Following Sarah, she had just walked i
nto homeroom when someone bumped her from behind. She turned around just as the person was apologizing for running into her. Whit immediately recognized the voice. Seth was one of the only people Whit really enjoyed talking to at school. They had become friends when she joined the cross country team a couple of weeks earlier. He was also one of the few people at Martin Bradley High who knew why Whit had transferred.

“So Whit, you ready to run against Bentley today?” Seth absolutely loved running and was very competitive.
He was also very good, and would probably go to college on a scholarship if he continued winning every race. Whit, on the other hand, was just happy to complete the race. She set goals for herself every race, but winning wasn’t anywhere in the equation.

“As ready as
I’m going to be, I guess,” she laughed. “How about you?”

Seth nodded then turned his attention to Mrs. Craig, who was taking attendance.
Whit watched him, but didn’t push for an answer. Though Seth was friendly and easy to talk to, he didn’t really count as a friend. Yet. Whit hadn’t really gotten close to anyone since transferring here. Her friends from her old school had said they’d keep in touch, but after the first two months, they had quickly lost interest or motivation. They had their own lives, and Whit knew she needed to move on. She had tried to call and write, but those people were part of the before life and thinking about that was simply too hard.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the
principal making announcements on the intercom. She heard the principal reading out the details for the upcoming dance and stating that some visitors would be at the school this week. Whit propped her head on her hand and closed her eyes. She stopped listening though as she drifted into a doze. Suddenly she saw Seth running down a trail in his cross country uniform. His legs and shoes were all muddy. It was raining, but not hard – just drizzling. There was another runner near Seth. He was in a red jersey, while Seth was wearing Martin Bradley’s blue. They started going up a steep hill, and both runners started pumping their arms and breathing hard. All of a sudden, the runner in red pushed Seth. Hard. Seth tumbled off the trail and down an embankment. The runner in red continued on as if nothing happened.

Whit woke up with a start and felt someone shaking her shoulders.

“Whit, you need to wake up. It’s almost time for us to move to first period. Whit, you awake?”

“Yeah, I’m awake.
I just dozed off for a sec there,” Whit said as she looked into Seth’s concerned eyes.

“Man you fell asleep fast.
I mean, I talked to you like five minutes ago,” Seth’s grin became a frown as he continued to look at Whit. “You sure you’re okay? You look a little pale.”

Whit shook her head to cle
ar the vision. “I’m fine. Thanks for waking me up.”As she glanced at Seth, Whit knew she had to tell him about her dream. But if she did, he would think she was crazy? She darted a look in his direction and once again pictured him going over the embankment. No, she had to tell him. If she didn’t and he ended up hurt, the guilt would eat her alive. It would be worse than the other visions, because she knew him. He wasn’t a stranger. This was a vision she could do something about. She just needed to find the right time tell him.

Chapter 2

By the end of school, Whit was in panic mode.
She had to corner Seth and talk to him or she was going to drive herself crazy. She’d already had three opportunities today, and had wasted every one of them trying to figure out how to do it. The first was during Chemistry, when they’d been doing a lab as partners. Whit had brought up the cross country meet, but then Seth had been summoned to the office for some reason.

The second chance came at lunch.
Whit usually sat with Seth and his friends, who were always friendly to her and allowed her to be part of their group. Of course she rarely spoke, but that didn’t seem to bother them. She knew that Seth was the main reason they even paid any attention to her. He was just that sort of person – always befriending those who needed it. Today, he and Whit had been the first ones to get to their usual lunch table, but right as she was telling him about her dream, his best friend plopped down and interrupted with her news flash. Kristen had a date with Paul, the guy she’d been crushing on for about a month. Every day the lunch table got to hear all about Paul and how wonderful he was, and it looked like there was more news today. So that chance to tell Seth about the dream had fled.

Then finally
, during English, the class went to the library to work on research papers. Whit saw Seth sit at a table and quickly made her way over to him. When she sat down her stuff and started to tell him about her dream again, though, Debbie, Seth’s girlfriend, skipped over and scooted a chair right next to his. They whispered to each other for a moment before turning their eyes back to her.

“So tell me about this dream of yours,” he said curiously.
“It must have been freaky since you mentioned it to me twice today,” he said with a laugh. Debbie looked at Whit oddly and waited for her to respond. But Whit knew that if she said anything now, it’d be a disaster. They’d think she was crazy. It was going to be hard enough to tell Seth, and telling him in front of someone else made her feel sick. The only way she could tell Seth was if he was alone. That was the only way she would risk it.

She shrugged.
“Oh, never mind. I’ll let you and Debbie talk. I can tell you about it later. See you guys around.” She went to a computer terminal to research her paper, hating the situation. It seemed that fate had been working against her all day, almost like she wasn’t meant to tell Seth. That made her wonder if her dreams were something good or evil. Whit didn’t like to think of demons or evil spirits, but she recognized that all her visions had been sad or horrible events. Not one of her dreams had been a happy vision. Maybe she was possessed or an evil spirit was speaking to her through her dreams. Maybe that was why she hadn’t had a chance to talk to Seth about the dream.

R
egardless of what was causing them, she needed to talk to Mona about getting some help. She couldn’t continue seeing these visions and living with the consequences of holding them in. It was tearing her apart inside. This was why she had to warn Seth.

After
all her attempts to talk to him, she finally got to tell him the whole story on the bus ride going to the cross country meet. She knew it was dangerous to tell anyone about her dreams, but she couldn’t live with herself if anything happened to Seth when she could have stopped it.

At least he’d made it easy to tell him.
“Okay, are you finally going to tell me about this amazing dream of yours?” he asked with a smirk, sinking into the seat next to her.

“Yeah
, but you have to promise to listen without interrupting.” When Seth nodded, Whit continued. “Okay, during homeroom this morning when I dozed off, I had a dream about you. You were running in a meet and there was this other guy. He was wearing a red uniform, so I’m assuming he was from Bentley High. You were both running up a hill when the guy from Bentley pushed you off the trail over an embankment.” She knew he would just say it was a dream and tell her not to worry, but she had to find a way to get him to take her seriously. How could she get him to believe her? If someone had said something like this to her a few months ago, she would’ve laughed it off. She looked at Seth and waited for him to react.

He just stared at her for a second before shaking his head and rolling his
eyes. “Whit, it was just a dream. You’ve got to calm down. Nothing’s going to happen to me today,” he said pointedly.

“S
eth, you don’t understand. I’ve been having these dreams for a couple of weeks now and they always come true. You’re the first person I’ve mentioned them to. I just want you to be really careful today, especially on the up hills. Will you just tell me you’ll remember my dream when you’re running today and be careful? Please!” Whit begged. She knew it was a risk to tell him about the visions, but if it would get him to listen it would be worth it.

He shook his head.
“Fine, if it’s that important to you. Although I think you’re completely overreacting. It was just a dream, but I’ll be extra careful on the inclines and around runners in red uniforms.” He winked, making fun of her, and she narrowed her eyes. What was the point of telling him if he wasn’t going to take her seriously?

“Seth, please take me seriously.
I know it sounds crazy, but you have to believe that I know something’s going to happen today,” she pleaded.

Instead of answering, though, he started asking questions of his own.
“So you’ve had these dreams a couple of weeks? And things you dream about are always coming true?” he asked with a doubting look. Whit knew Seth was thinking that she was nuts, but she felt better now that she had at least put the dream in his head. Maybe now he would be safe.

“It’s okay if you don’t believe me, just keep the dream in mind
,” Whit replied nervously as the bus pulled into the parking lot at Bentley High.

Seth stared at her for a few seconds longer before grabbing his stuff and getting up.
Before moving toward the door of the bus, he nodded. “I’ll be careful today, Whit.” He grinned at her before moving out of the bus. Whit still felt nervous and couldn’t wait until this meet was over and Seth was safely back on the bus.

She began to stretch and warm up, keeping her eye on Seth the whole time.
Whit knew he thought she was acting crazy, but she needed to take some action. With the other dreams, she hadn’t been able to help those people. But with Seth, she could.

The team had walked the course before the race and Whit
immediately recognized the hill from her dream. Once she knew where it was, she told Seth, who rolled his eyes before continuing his warm up. She knew he didn’t believe her, but at least this way he’d know about possible trouble. Whit was always nervous before a race but today was a hundred times more nerve-wrecking.

She paced anxiously until the boys’ race started and continued to walk around until the girls were called to the starting line.
Since both the boys and girls were on the course at the same time, Whit had to wait until after she finished running to see if Seth was okay. While she ran, she worried and fretted about Seth and the possibility of an accident. Once she was through the finish line, Whit glanced around, looking for Seth. She saw him standing by the cooler eating an apple and drinking from a water bottle. When he saw her, he darted over and grabbed her arm.

“Whit, I couldn’t believe it, but on that hi
ll a guy tried to push me. I was ready for it because of you. I didn’t believe you when you told me, but it was in the back of my mind the whole time I was running. Then he came at me, and my body was ready for it. I just reacted. I’m still in shock that you had a dream about me and it came true,” he said, stunned.

She snorted.
“You think you’re shocked? Just think about how it makes
me
feel. It’s been happening to me for weeks. You don’t think I’m crazy, do you?”

Seth skipped the question, too caught up in his own story.
“I told coach about the Bentley runner and he said he would report the incident. No one should get away with doing that during a meet. I mean, who does that? I’m not going to lie, it freaked me out a little at first. I mean, your dreams come true! That is so cool,” he beamed.

“
It might sound cool, but it’s not. It’s scary. You’re not going to tell anyone, are you?”

“
No, I won’t tell anyone. I don’t even know what I’d say anyway. I still feel a little crazy myself, just knowing that it really happened.”

Whit hoped he would keep her secret.
She worried and replayed his reaction in her head throughout the meet’s award ceremony and the ride home. Although the whole time, she kept an eye on Seth, waiting for him to announce to everyone what a freak she was. Surprisingly, he’d actually thought it was cool that her dreams came true. He didn’t realize that it meant nightmares too. Mostly nightmares, actually. He didn’t realize that she saw bad things, and that they were actually happening to people. He didn’t understand the guilt that came with not being able to help.

As the bus got closer to her school, Whit
decided again that she needed help. She couldn’t keep living with these horrible visions. She tried to practice how she was going to tell Mona about the dreams without sounding batty. She went over the upcoming conversation in her head and tried to think of responses to the questions she knew her aunt would ask.