Chapter 3 Normal

Aurelia's pov

"You came back."

I stopped walking.

Ezra was leaning against the wall right outside the main entrance, his hands in his pockets looking at me like he'd been waiting. Like he knew I was going to show up even before I did.

"Yeah," I said. "I came back."

"Why?"

Honestly? I didn't have a good answer for that. I'd spent half the bus ride trying to figure it out myself. "Because I wanted to."

He looked at me for a second. Then he turned and walked away without another word.

Okay then

The school looked the same.

That was the weird part. The same noisy hallways, slamming lockers, and the same group of guys near the water fountain being loud about nothing. Sun was coming through the windows. Someone was laughing really hard about something.

Everything looked normal, completely and annoyingly normal.

I stood just inside the entrance and watched everyone move around me and thought, one of these people sent me those texts last night. One of them put that note in my locker. One of them wrote that thing on the bathroom mirror.

And none of them were acting like anything was wrong.

So either everyone here was a really good actor.

Or I was losing my mind.

I went to my locker. and I held my breath before I opened it but there was nothing. Just my textbooks and the granola bar I'd forgotten yesterday.

I let out a long slow breath.

"You look like you just dodged a bullet."

It was Iris appearing out of nowhere with a coffee cup she definitely wasn't supposed to have inside school.

"Morning," I said.

"We've got Art first. Rivera switched it." She fell into step beside me. "You okay? You've got that face again."

"What face?"

"The one where you're pretending as if you're okay.

I looked at her. She was watching me over the rim of her cup, casual, like she hadn't just said something that hit a little too close.

"I'm fine," I said. "Let's go."

Art class was on the second floor with big windows and yellow paper stars stuck to the ceiling tiles. The stars had gone a little grey at the edges. It was as if they'd been up there for years and nobody had thought to take them down.

I sat next to Iris and pulled out my notebook.

I didn't mean to open it to that page. It just happened.

The drawing was right there. Three overlapping circles with lines running through them. I'd filled the whole page without even thinking about it.

I stared at it.

Where have I seen this?

Ms. Rivera came in and wrote something on the board.

Observation: What do we see vs. what we think we see.

"Draw something you've already drawn before," she said. "Whatever comes naturally. Don't think too hard."

I almost laughed.

I tried to draw something else. A chair, the window even Iris's side profile but my hand kept stopping and starting like it was arguing with me.

After a few minutes I just gave up and let it do what it wanted.

The circles came first then the lines.

Same thing. Again.

"Interesting."

I looked up. Ms. Rivera was standing right next to my desk. I hadn't heard or seen her come over at all.

She was looking at my notebook with an unreadable. Not excited neither normal. Just a Careful one

"Thanks," I said.

Have you ever study sacred geometry?"

"Sacred what?"

"Old symbolic systems. A lot of ancient cultures used overlapping circles." She said it like she was just making conversation. Light and easy. "Interesting choice for a new student."

She walked back to the front of the room.

I watched her the rest of the class.

She didn't look at me once.

I was just coming from History class when I turned a corner and almost bumped into someone.”

I stepped back.

Dante Ashford didn't.

He just stood there, looking down at me. And I don't know how to explain it but it didn't feel like an accident. It felt like he'd been standing exactly there, waiting for me to come around that corner.

"Sorry," I said, even though I was pretty sure it wasn't my fault.

He didn't say anything. Just looked at me with this calm expression that made me feel like I was the one at fault

"You were staring at me yesterday," I said. My brain told me to stop but my mouth kept going. "In English class. You were full on staring."

Something moved behind his eyes. Not guilt. More like he was deciding something.

"Was I ?" he asked

"Yeah. You were."

Down the hallway someone called his name. He broke eye contact and turned to go.

And that's when I saw it.

His sleeve had slipped up a little, just enough to see it

On the inside of his wrist, small and faded like it had been there for years, was a mark.

Three overlapping circles.

"Wait," I said.

He was already gone.

I stood in the middle of the hallway with people walking around me like I was a rock in a river and my heart was going so fast I could feel it in my ears.

He had the symbol on his skin.

That wasn't a prank. You don't tattoo a prank on your body.

Lunch was loud and bright and I couldn't eat.

Iris was telling some story. Jade was laughing. Marcus was leaning back in his chair the way people do when they're totally comfortable somewhere.

I watched him.

"How long have you guys been here?" I asked, cutting into whatever they were talking about.

"Since freshman year," Jade said. "Why?"

"Just wondering. Was it weird at first? Like, anything strange happen when you started?"

Marcus reached for his drink. "Strange how?"

"I don't know. Just anything that didn't make sense."

There was a small pause

"Not really," he said. "Pretty normal school once you get used to it."

I nodded and Let it go.

Eight minutes later I tried again.

"Did any teachers ever get in trouble or anything? Any drama?"

"What kind of drama?" Marcus said.

"Just, like, anything."

"Not that I can think of." He smiled at me. "You ask weird questions, you know that?"

He said it nicely, even friendly

But by the time I looked up he'd already moved the conversation somewhere else.

Just like that. Smooth and easy, like he'd done it a hundred times.

I looked down at my tray.

How many times had he done that?

"Hey," I said to Iris quietly. "Where's Ezra?"

She glanced around. "He disappears sometimes. Don't worry about it."

Don't worry about it.

I thought about the other day.The guy who'd warned me in that hallway, the first person to tell me to be careful, had said the exact same thing.

Don't worry about it. Keep your head down. You'll be fine.

Same words.

I got lost again after lunch. Different hallway this time, near the back of the building where it gets quiet and the lights are a little dimmer.

I was just trying to find the bathroom.

I passed a classroom with the door half open.

I almost kept walking. But something made me slow down and look.

Inside there was a group of students sitting in a circle. No teacher. Nobody talking.

They were just sitting there with their eyes closed.

Not asleep. Not meditating, at least not in any way I recognized. Just completely still, facing each other, like they were waiting for something.

I recognized one of them. The loud girl from my English class, the one who had an opinion about everything and laughed at her own jokes. Right now she was sitting with her hands on her knees and her face totally blank.

I stood in that doorway longer than I should have.

Then one of them turned their head toward the door.

Eyes still closed.

I walked away fast but not running. I did

n't want to make noise.

My hands were shaking by the time I got to the bathroom.

It was the end of the day

I was at my locker pulling my jacket out when I heard footsteps stop right behind me.

I turned around.

Ezra.