Authors: Melanie Matthews
“You used a whole tank of gas to ‘find a spot?’” The headmaster furrowed his brow, not believing a word of Lucas’ story.
Lucas clenched his lips, trying to contain his grin. “Yep,” he finally said, nodding.
Eva turned to face the window, trying not to laugh.
Mr. Quinn sighed. “We’ll have to stop off and get gas.” He said it more to himself than his passengers.
As the headmaster pulled out of the airport lot and onto the road, Lucas turned to Eva and gave her a wink. Her heart was about to explode out her chest.
“So you’re from Miami?” he asked.
She nodded, unable to speak.
He smirked. “Exciting down there?” His eyes trailed slowly to her clasped hands, resting on her lap.
Eva felt excited and embarrassed at the same time, hoping he didn’t notice her blushing cheeks.
“Yes, it’s…exciting in Miami. Well, I guess it is. I was…away from it all…for some time.”
She didn’t know how much the students had been told about her, but she thought it was awful if Mr. Quinn had told them about the psychiatric hospital. The other girls, being Banshees, could’ve gone through the same experience, but still, she didn’t want them to know. It was an embarrassment to her.
Lucas didn’t prod. “Yeah, I’m from Long Beach, so always something going on there.”
She smiled.
He returned her smile. “What?”
She shrugged. “You look like you would come from California. Surfer.”
He took off his black cap and studied his face in the rearview mirror. Eva noticed that Mr. Quinn had removed his as well, placing it on the passenger seat.
Lucas ruffled his blond locks. “Guess I look like one, don’t I?”
“You’re a surfer, right?” she asked, trying not to be stereotypical.
He placed his black cap in the space between them. “Used to be.” His eyes fell, but then he cheered right up, and smiled. “But that was long ago. I have a new life now.” He tilted his head to the side, giving her a long stare, as if he were trying to look into her soul. “You’re from Miami, and don’t take offense, but your complexion, it’s—”
“Ghostly pale,” she said, smiling. “I know. My…well, a girl I knew, she’s Hispanic and has a natural tan. It was always odd to see us together at school with me so pale. I think I looked like a vampire next to her.” She turned to Mr. Quinn. “Are vampires real?”
It was a sensible question since she found out there were Banshees and Leprechauns in the world.
“No,” the headmaster answered. “Just a myth.” He turned on the blinker, waited for traffic to clear, and pulled into a gas station.
“It
could
be true,” Lucas countered, rubbing his chin with day old stubble on it that made him look even hotter.
Mr. Quinn parked alongside a pump. “It’s not.”
He didn’t sound casual, but more aggravated, as if he’d had this type of dead-ended conversation before.
“Can you get us something to drink?” Lucas asked, quickly changing the conversation. “A Coke?” He turned to Eva. “Want a Coke?”
She nodded. “Sure.”
“Anything else, Mr. Daly?” the headmaster asked in a mock tone, staring at Lucas from the rearview mirror.
“No, that’ll be all,” Lucas said, mimicking a stiff English accent.
Eva laughed. Mr. Quinn sighed, got out, and shut the door. Eva and Lucas were silent, avoiding eye contact, as the headmaster pumped gas into the tank. When he was done, he went into the store that also served as a hamburger joint with lottery tickets.
Lucas finally turned to her, smiling. “He’s all right. Better than any principal you would find at a regular school. He’s a Leprechaun, so he knows what it’s like to have…abilities.”
“Can you disappear?”
He nodded. “Before, like all Leprechauns, it happened when I became nervous or upset. Now I can control it, and I try not to get…upset.” He smiled. “I try to stay positive.”
“Can you also…enter someone’s mind?” she asked, nervous.
He furrowed his brow, as if he weren’t sure how to answer. Finally, he said, “I’ve been inside people’s minds before, but in the beginning it wasn’t something I did at will—always by accident. When I grew older, and if I felt like being…
bad
, I could enter a mind easier—if I was feeling devious.” He threw his hands up. “Well, I’m not like that anymore. I’m the good guy now,” he continued, smiling sweetly.
“So you don’t want to enter me?” she asked, touching her temple.
It was such a bold question, as if she had just asked him if he wanted to have sex.
He shook his head and her heart sunk. “We can’t see inside a Banshee’s mind.”
“Yeah…the headmaster told me.” She was so embarrassed. “Sorry, I know that sounded like—”
But she couldn’t finish her apology. Right there in front of Lucas, she clamped her hands against her head, falling forward against the seat in front of her.
She was having a vision.
It was daylight. She was standing on a railroad track, in front of a man, with unkempt gray hair, wearing a crinkled blue suit. Tears were falling down his cheeks, as a train, not far away, was speeding towards him. Soon, it would hit him, and he would die. She couldn’t stop it. She could only wait for it to pass.
She waited for the inevitable, but someone new appeared—Lucas. He stood between her and the man, and then he embraced her, resting her head in the crook of his neck.
“Shhh…Shhh…Eva. It’s all right. I’m here. I’m here now.”
She felt the ground shaking, as the thundering train came closer, but she wasn’t worried about the man’s death because Lucas had calmed her sorrow.
He raised her chin gently with his hand. “Eva?” Their eyes met. “What’s going on?”
Suddenly, she was back in the car. Lucas was holding her in his arms—their bodies teeming in hot tension and confusion. And they were still alone.
She felt her face, noticing it was dry. She hadn’t cried one bit.
“You-you entered my mind,” she said, astonished.
His eyes were wide, shocked. “I don’t know what happened. You were having a vision. I knew it from the other girls at school. I rushed over to you. That’s what it’s like at the school, but we, I mean, us guys, we don’t do that. The other girls help you get through your visions. But I couldn’t bear to see you in pain, so I kept talking to you, hoping I would make a breakthrough, hoping that your torment would be eased, and then I was
there
…with you.” He shook his head as if he couldn’t believe it.
Eva couldn’t believe it either. In one way, he was her savior, but in another way, an intruder. He wasn’t supposed to enter her mind—the mind of a Banshee. Mr. Quinn, the wizened headmaster, had been wrong. Or else he didn’t fully reveal the truth.
“You did help,” she finally said. “You saved me from seeing blood, from seeing death, from crying.”
He clutched her hand. She jumped at the contact, like static electricity and fire, but didn’t pull away.
“Please, don’t tell the headmaster. I-I don’t know what he’d do to me. I could get expelled. I’m sorry. I won’t do it again.”
She held his hand in hers, staring at his gray stormy eyes with the blue of the sky waiting to peek out. “It’s okay. It’s okay.” She smiled. “In fact, I would like it if you could do that all the time.”
He blushed. “If I can ever comfort you, I will, but I won’t take advantage. I won’t…enter…if you don’t want me to, but I don’t see how I could’ve in the first place. You’re a Banshee.”
Feeling bold, she gave him a quick kiss on his warm cheek. “Maybe there are some things that defy myth.”
Like a connection. Like love. Did she love him? They barely knew each other, yet…
Yes, she
could
love him. With Lucas, it was only too easy.
He leaned in and brought his lips to hers, but didn’t touch. She parted her lips, waiting…waiting…
Suddenly, the car door opened, and they scrambled away to opposite ends of the back seat. Lucas snatched up his black cap that he had inadvertently sat on when he rushed to Eva’s side. He held it on his lap and placed his arm along where the door met the bottom of the window, tapping his fingers, cool as a cucumber.
Mr. Quinn didn’t seem to notice, handing each of them a cold Coke. He got a Pepsi for himself.
“Thanks,” she said, taking the drink.
She guzzled a sizable portion, relaxing, as the cool liquid chilled her fiery insides. Lucas did the same.
The headmaster settled inside and strapped his seatbelt on. He smiled in the rearview mirror at Eva. “All right back there? Lucas not giving you any trouble is he?” He shot Lucas a look of disapproval, but then smiled, as if he accepted some of Lucas’ transgressions.
“Everything’s…good,” she managed to say.
“Great. Well, we’ll be at the school soon. Excited to see everyone?”
“Yeah, very.”
It was a partial lie. She wanted to see them, but with Lucas’ ability to enter her mind, and the kiss they had almost shared, everything seemed to be upside down. She just needed some time to figure it all out.
The headmaster didn’t seem to notice her distress, smiled, and turned the engine over. He pulled out of the gas station and onto the main road.
She glanced at Lucas, who mouthed,
Thank you
, and smiled. No, she didn’t tell on him and she never would. But as they traveled in silence, she wondered how many more surprises awaited her.
6
Breaking Shaky Rules
The road to Green Clover Academy was narrow with tall trees on either side, the branches hanging over, blocking out the sky. It was creepy and beautiful at the same time. They were traveling deep in the country, and Eva didn’t know what to expect.
But she wasn’t scared. Lucas was by her side. She felt like a giddy school girl, crushing on the most handsome boy at school and he liked her too.
Maybe this place wouldn’t be so bad.
The road came to an end, changing to gravel, and Mr. Quinn decelerated. He stopped before a large black iron gate, split in two. A high wall was on either side, composed of pale gray and green bricks, stretching all around. Eva leaned over in her seat, but couldn’t see the school, only a wide stretch of grass, and then what looked like a little wooden house in the distance.
Mr. Quinn got out, went to the gate, pushed one halve open, and then came back to the car, and drove on through.
“Is that it?” she asked, pointing to the little wooden house, wondering how everyone could possibly fit in there.
“Oh, no,” the headmaster said, waving his hand. “That’s an old schoolhouse from long ago. The academy is further up the way.”
She felt relieved and took another glance at the old school that had a bell at the top, hanging sideways.
“Wasn’t Colin supposed to bulldoze it down?” Lucas asked the headmaster. “It isn’t like he’s doing anything else,” he muttered.
Eva turned to Lucas. “Who’s Colin?”
“Colin Black, the groundskeeper and general maintenance man,” the headmaster explained. “And he’ll get around to it. He stays busy at the school.”
Lucas rolled his eyes. Eva wanted to know why he was acting that way but kept silent.
They traveled down a wide dirt road that coursed through a wall of summery trees, and then finally, the academy came in view.
“And there it is,” Lucas proclaimed, holding out his hand. “Green Clover Academy.”
It didn’t look like a regular school. In fact, it was an enormous house—a mansion—made out of pale green and gray bricks, alternating in pattern like the high wall around the property. It was wide with several floors and windows all over the front. Six gray columns stood in the front, supporting a pyramid roof with the rest of the house flat on top. She could see a balcony to the right, extending from a room at the top floor. Several black-bricked chimneys were positioned around the exterior.
“Doesn’t this place have heat?” she asked, wondering if she had stepped back in colonial times.
“Of course,” Mr. Quinn said. He slowed the car down and finally stopped in front of the house. “It’s quite modern with internet access and everything. It just looks old.”
“Well, it is old,” Lucas countered. “It was built by Irish immigrants a long time ago.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, it—”
“I’ll tell it,” the headmaster interrupted. Lucas acquiesced, throwing his hands up. Mr. Quinn turned around in his seat to Eva. “This house was a haven for Banshees and Leprechauns. My great-grandfather grew up here as a child, and my father, a Leprechaun—it skipped my grandfather—left our home in Chicago when I was just a young boy, and decided to turn it into a school—a place where children such as you could live
and
have an education.”