Melting the Ice

Alice and I didn't speak about her power again after that day. I never saw her use it. It was almost as if it never happened. But Alice continued to push me to learn more about my powers. I hesitated though. Eric's words were always in the back of my mind. Don't trust everyone here. Who did he mean? It seemed he had meant someone or someones in particular. It wasn't Alice, of course. I knew that much. But I couldn't shake the feeling of nervousness he had left me with.

And what had he meant when he said "this time"? I wondered about that more than anything. I wasn't afraid of being squeezed dry, as he had warned. I was afraid there was much more to him than I could understand. Whenever I could, I'd ask Luna about her day, hoping to get more mention of Eric in case there was some important hint hidden in his actions. I was careful not to ask about him too much though, so as not to catch Luna's attention.

And it wasn't like I never saw him. We had one GenEd (General Education, but everyone just called it GenEd) class together: Geometry. But that wasn't much. Sometimes, I saw him in the halls, at meals, on days off, but I never got the vital piece of information about Eric I wanted. . . . This time.


Of course, there was plenty else to keep me distracted from that curiosity. I was tired. PowTra (Power Training, pronounced like "POW-truh") days sapped away all strength, and GenEd was just as tiring, though less physically wearing. At first, I enjoyed being pushed, then I grew to resent it as it became too grueling, and just when I was ready to just up and leave, it became bearable, and I accepted it. That's how it had been for everyone. The initial high, the low of hate, and then the middle ground of acceptance. Later on, I would be thankful for the perseverance it taught me, perseverance which would pull me through hell and back many times in my future.


The biggest challenge though was learning to trust and depend on people who were not Luna, people I hadn't known all my life. Before, Luna and I had each other, and that was enough. It got us through everything. We just needed each other. But with no classes together and little time off, most of the time we spent around each other, we were sleeping or eating. And so I learned to get know other people.

Alice was a godsend. She was in most of my classes and managed to help introduce me to just about everyone in the school. Seamus was always more than eager to help me in my social endeavours as well, although I had to pay close attention to figure out what he was saying whenever he spoke. Allhiswordsrantogetherlikethisexceptalotworse. Of course, those who I shared GenEd class were the ones I was around the most and therefore the closest with. That, and we went through

Steve, the blond guy who could melt stuff, was one of the most nicest guys I had ever met. Alice joked that his power included melting hearts. Truthfully, he was more or less a giant teddy bear. The first time I was paired up with him, he looked very nervous.

"Er, Emma," he whispered, and then looked at the ground.

"Yeah?" I asked, becoming just as nervous as him.

"Well, uh, sometimes, I mess up with my power. So, uh, sorry if I mess up and melt your cool sneakers." He blushed, and I laughed with relief.

"Oh, that's okay. I have no idea how to control my power at all. Sorry if I do something wrong. I'm sure you'll do fine." He beamed at me. "And these shoes aren't all that great anyway. Psh." I beamed back.

After that, we began talking more. It turned out that he was just as helpful as Alice. I had never been friends with a guy before, so it was weird for me at first, but I quickly found myself consulting in him with any problem I had. He always had good advice, and never seemed to think anything I thought was particularly crazy. And so I finally gave in and asked him about Eric.

"What do you know about Eric?" I whispered one day during GenEd.

"Eric? Mind reader guy?" He gave me one of his usual curious looks.

"Yeah . . . Heads up!" I tossed a brick toward him which melted as he caught it.

"Well, he reads minds. What're you looking for, Emma?" I hesitated as tired to freeze the brick-goo.

"The other day he . . . made it sound like he had some kind of dark past or did something bad before. Like he's trying to fix it or something." Steve scowled a bit.

"I don't know. There's been rumours about fishy things between him and Notting, the mind abilities teacher, but I don't know most of them. Mind students would know better. Have you asked Luna?" I shook my head. At least not flat-out, I hadn't. "Well, you could try asking her--" He stopped. "Er, only if you want." He frowned. "Eric hasn't exactly been an angel ever. He is a bit of a jerk a lot of the time. I don't know about him. Be careful around him, Emma. You will, won't you?"

"Yeah, of course." I looked away from him as I tried to freeze some more of the stuff he had gotten around to melting. "I was just . . . wondering. Don't worry about it." He hadn't been all that helpful, but . . . it was a start. Notting. I had a name. I just needed to know more about her. Luna talked about her a lot, so that couldn't be too hard, could it?