The woman pul ed a cel phone from her jeans and made a cal . "Can you send Perry into the office classroom? Thanks."
She placed the cel back in her pocket. "Now, al of you are welcome to stay and see this. Or if you'd like to go on out, each of you have a mentor waiting out front. They are here to answer your questions."
Kylie watched them look among themselves and they al agreed to stay. It made her feel better knowing she wasn't the only one having doubts about any of this.
After a few minutes, long minutes during which silence penetrated the room like a fog, she heard the sound of footsteps in the front of the cabin. The door opened, and the blond boy from her bus, the one with weird eyes, walked into the room.
"Hi, Perry. It's good to see you again," Holiday said with sincerity.
"It's good to be back." His gaze met Kylie's and her breath caught when she found herself staring at eyes so dark that they didn't appear human. Right then, his creepiness level moved up in leaps and bounds.
"It would make me very happy if you'd do the honor of showing us your special gift."
Those non-human eyes didn't shift from Kylie. Perry grinned. "So you have some non-believers, do you?" Turning his head, he focused on Holiday. "What would you like to see?"
"Why don't we let Kylie decide?" Holiday looked at her. "Kylie, this is Perry Gomez, he's a very gifted shape-shifter, one of the most powerful ones there are. He can probably become anything you can imagine. So why don't you tel him what you'd like to see him become?"
Kylie kept moving her gaze between Holiday and Perry. Realizing they waited for her to say something, she forced herself speak. "A ... unicorn."
"Unicorns don't exist," Perry said, his expression seeming to say he felt insulted by her choice.
"They used to," Holiday added, as if coming to Kylie's defense.
"No shit?" Perry asked. "They real y existed?"
"No shit," Holiday repeated. "But we should work on our language." She smiled. "Just think of a horse with a horn. I know you can do it."
He nodded, then he pressed his palms together and Kylie saw his black eyes rol back into his head. The air in the room suddenly felt weak, as if something had sucked the oxygen out of it. Kylie stared at Perry even when everything inside her said not to. Right then her curiosity, her need to know evaporated into the not-so-breathable air. She'd never understood that saying, "Ignorance is bliss," until this moment. She wanted to remain ignorant. She didn't want to see, didn't want to believe.
But she did see.
She saw sparkles forming around his body-sparkles as if a bucket of floating glitter had been spil ed around him, as if a thousand lights came on and reflected each miniscule piece of glitter. The hundreds of diamond-shaped twinkles swirled around him. Slowly the sparkles fel to the floor and left standing where Perry had once stood was a huge honking white unicorn with a pink horn in the middle of its forehead.
Chapter Eight
The unicorn, aka Perry, swatted its tail back and forth, as if strutting its stuff, then swung around in Kylie's direction. The beast took two steps toward her, close enough she could have touched it if she'd been so inclined. But no inclination existed. It reared its head, made a neighing noise, then one of its deep dark black eyes winked at her.
"Shit!"
"Damn!"
"Oh my God!"
"Holy cow!"
"Mo fo!"
Kylie wasn't sure who said what, one may have even leaked out of her mouth, for al five responses had shot through her addled brain. Taking in another gasp of air, she looked at Holiday, who stared at her with soft green eyes.
"It's okay," Holiday said. "Perry, change back now."
Kylie dropped her forehead against the flat, cool surface of her desk top and concentrated on breathing and not thinking. If she let herself think, she'd cry and the last thing she wanted to do in front of these people was show any sign of weakness. Hel , these freaks probably fed on weak people.
"You guys should leave now," Holiday's voice, now with an authoritarian tone, seemed to echo in the room, bouncing inside Kylie's head. She counted to ten and then somehow managed to sit up. The desks around her stood empty. Perry, back to his human form, and the others shuffled out of the room. Perry gave her a quick glance over his shoulder. His brown eyes, normal-looking eyes this time, almost appeared apologetic.
Remembering Holiday's order about leaving, Kylie forced herself to stand. If she could just get out of here, she might be able to find a secluded place where she could freak out in private. Where she could cry, and attempt to come to terms with ... No. Don't think yet. Not yet. She swal owed the few tears crawling up her throat and her sinuses stung.
"Where are you going?" Holiday asked.
Kylie looked back her. It hurt to talk around the knot of emotion lodged between her tonsils. "You said we should leave."
"They should leave. You need to stay."
"Why?" A watery film coated her vision and hopelessly, Kylie realized she couldn't stop it. The tears had arrived. Why? The one-word question plowed through her confused mind and morphed into dozens of questions. Why was any of this happening? Why was she being singled out again?
Why did her mother not love her? Why did her dad turn his back on her? Why couldn't Trey give her a little more time? Why did al these freakish kids act as if she were the weirdo here?
She blinked back a few tears and dropped back into the seat. "Why?" she asked again. "Why am I here?"
Holiday sat in the desk beside her. "You're gifted, Kylie."
She shook her head. "I don't want to be special. I just want to be me-normal me. And ... and to be completely honest with you, I think there's been some huge mistake made here. You see, I'm not ... gifted. I ... I certainly can't turn myself into anything. I don't suck at anything, except maybe algebra. But I've never been great at things, either. Sports are so not my thing, and I'm not super talented or even the extra smart type. And believe it or not, I'm okay with that. I don't mind being just average ... or normal."
Holiday laughed. "There is no mistake, Kylie. However, I know exactly how you feel. I felt just like that when I was your age and especial y when I realized the truth."
Kylie swiped at her face to hide the evidence of her tears and then forced herself to ask the question she'd been trying not to think about since the whole thing started. "What am I?"
Chapter Nine
"Can you handle the truth?" Holiday asked softly, her eyes fil ed with empathy.