Chapter 10
The ball was on a Thursday, and classes weren't set to start until the following Monday, so there were three days in between to enjoy the remainder of our freedom. Because I wasn't used to having so many possible things to do, I was pretty excited, and I didn't waste a moment. I swam, walked, played tennis outside with Heather and basketball inside with Rhea, and I spent many hours poring over books in the library, which I decided was my new favourite place. I spent a lot of time with Jack and with my roommates, though usually not at the same time.
We got our schedules on Sunday. Out of my seven classes I only had one with Jack and shared three in common with my roommates, since they were mandatory for our class. My schedule was as follows:
7:00 - 8:30 Breakfast
8:30 - 9:30 World History
9:30 - 10:30 Skills Development
10:30 - 11:30 Physical Defence
11:30 - 1:00 Lunch
1:00 - 2:00 Biology 1
2:00 - 3:00 English 1
3:00 - 4:00 Psychology
4:00 - 5:00 Calculus
5:00 - 7:00 Supper
The first three courses on the list were the ones that were required. World history, my first class, was the one I shared with Jack, though I also shared it with my roommates. My friends had some other classes in common with me, but not at the same time. I hoped I would meet some new people.
Monday morning came swiftly enough. I almost fell out of bed when the alarm went off, but instead I ended up sleeping ten extra minutes so I had to hurry to get to breakfast. I found Jack in the cafeteria and sat with him, though I didn't talk much because I was trying to eat quickly. We went to class together and found seats. The room was almost full by the time we got there, so we didn't get to sit near my roommates. They waved to me from across the room.
The history teacher's name was Ms. Jane Coleman, and she told us to call her Jane, which was something that would take some getting used to. Indeed, it seemed like everyone called her Ms. Coleman anyway. She looked young, no older than 30, and she appeared to be very neat and organized, yet open in manner. She began class by getting us all to introduce ourselves, and then she promptly started into the class content.
"I know it says on your schedules that this class is called World History, but that is a very loose term. History is incredibly expansive, and there is no way that we could cover everything in one course. Instead, we are going to focus on the perspectives of two very important people, though one more than the other. That one happens to be the founder of this school. Can anyone tell me who that is?"
"Amun!" someone shouted from the back.
"That is correct. You may have seen his portrait in the front entrance." I sat up in interest at that statement, eager to learn more about the familiar-looking man in the painting. "The other person we will be focusing on is Isadora. Some of you may be wondering why we would be basing an entire history class on the perspectives of only two people, though I'm sure many of you already know why that is. These people have had an incredible impact on our world, and yet most people don't even know they exist, and that they've been on this earth for over five thousand years. They are gods. I don't say that because they created the world or anything. That type of god does not exist. They are called gods because they have endless power, and they cannot die, even if they want to. They are doomed to walk this earth for the rest of time, always helping us in ways we don't even realize.
"Instead of getting into such details today, I would like to start at the beginning, before these gods were even born. In fact, I will go back a thousand years further.
"There's a separate plane from this one on which the spirits of the dead live. They don't wander the earth like many people think. They can watch what happens here, yet they can do nothing to change it aside from being born again, but by then they remember nothing.
"Eventually the spirits came up with a better plan. What if, instead of sending a spirit back into the physical world on its own, they joined spirits together to make a more powerful person? Would that person not help humanity more? This plan had flaws, but many liked it. One of the important problems was that spirits liked to be themselves, and they knew that if they merged they would become a new person, which was a terrifying idea, much like dying permanently. Still, they managed to find almost two thousand spirits who would be willing to do it. Then someone came up with the idea of adding a few animal spirits, with the hope that the person would receive the good qualities of those animals.
"Finally, the new spirit was completed, and the other spirits could tell that it was a great and powerful one. They sent it into the body of a newborn baby boy the next morning. As they watched the boy grow, they realized that they had made a mistake. He was an amazing child, and he learned quickly and was very intelligent and powerful, but the spirits of the animals within him caused something unexpected and horrible to happen. The boy needed to drink blood to survive. He was, of course, the first vampire, Kalinor.
"Though the spirits on the other plane realized their mistake, there was nothing they could do about it, and they watched with horror when Kalinor created other vampires, and some of them turned out to be evil. Luckily, most were not, and they quickly dealt with those who used their powers to harm. This gave the spirits some promise that they could create a being that was better than this one if they used only human spirits, since they believed it was the animal spirits that caused the problem.
"It took the next thousand years to amass enough spirits to make two new ones, each created from a million individuals, all human. It was a massive sacrifice, but it turned out to be worth it in the end. The two new souls became the gods we know of today. They were born at the same time on the same day; one in what is now Kenya, and the other on the island of Crete in Greece. The spirits had made two so that they would never be lonely, because they would always have each other. It would certainly have been lonely for them to have to live forever without anyone to share eternity with."
"Do you think that more gods will ever be born?" a student asked.
"It is certainly a possibility, but one that cannot be predicted. There is also the possibility of gods having children, but they can only reproduce with each other, and our current gods have never had that kind of a relationship. They have always only been friends."
"What do they look like?" Melissa asked.
Ms. Coleman laughed. "They certainly don't look like you and I. They are said to be incredibly beautiful, though I've never met either of them, so I couldn't promise you that."
"Hey, maybe you're a goddess!" Jack whispered to me. "You're definitely the most beautiful person I've ever seen."
I rolled my eyes at him. "I'm sure that if I was a goddess I would know it."
People asked a few more questions, and then it was time to go. I said goodbye to Jack and hurried off with Heather to our next class, which was Skills Development. I thought that name was actually quite telling as to what we would be learning, and I can't say I was looking forward to the class. I felt like I knew everything there was to know about my ability.
My hypothesis turned out to be right. The class was centered on helping us develop and control our individual abilities. Mr. Ramirez, our teacher, explained to us that we would be doing a lot of individual work and also working in partners. We didn't get to do anything on that day because Mr. Ramirez liked to talk, and didn't stop until the class was over. During most of this time I was wondering what I would be doing during the class, since I already knew how to use my ability well enough.
When I was on my way out of the room at the end of class, Mr. Ramirez held me back a moment to tell me that Omeye, the ability reader, had agreed to meet with me, and he was coming later in the day. He said I should be able to talk to him before supper time. I still didn't think that there was anything he could discover, but I agreed to give it a try.