Jonas woke up the following morning to a rumble of thunder. He sat up, bringing a hand across his face. He felt sweat dripping from his brow like never before. He exhaled as another rumble of thunder came. He looked outside and saw that the rain was starting to get heavier. He shrugged it off, as he got dressed, “Well, at least I’ll cool down a little bit.”
The truth was that he had somewhat of a nightmare the past night leaving him a little rattled. Whatever he saw and the things he felt stayed with him, but he tried not to think on them too much. Although he was used to the supernatural, something about the dream spoke to him and unnerved him. Either way, he wanted to keep it to himself for now; Nina was already worried enough about his nightmares of that fateful night.
When he stepped foot downstairs, Peter was already having his coffee. He looked up from his paper briefly and then did a double take. “Jonas, is everything all right?”
He brushed it off, “Yeah, Peter, it’s nothing. Nothing more than a dream…”
“A dream… or another nightmare?”
He looked off into space. “I really don’t want to talk about it right now, okay?” He checked his watch; being the timely person he was, it was also a nervous habit.
“Relax, you’ve still plenty of time to get to school. You know I’m here if you ever…”
“I’ve heard it before… but I really don’t want to talk about it. I just need to sort it out, okay? It’s nothing I can’t handle.” He put a bagel in the toaster and got everything ready just as it popped up. He buttered it with cream cheese and stuck it in his mouth, ready to bolt for the door.
“Jonas, please relax. Sit down and take time to have a proper breakfast.” Getting a little annoyed, he sighed, “Peter, please… I gotta go meet Nina. I really have to go. I’ll see you after school.” He rushed out of the house before he could be deterred for another moment.
Trying to respect Jonas’s choice, Peter went back to what he was doing. Since June 2nd, the two of them have been pretty open with each other about everything, so this made him a little nervous. This was especially because Jonas wasn’t the nervous type. He thought, ‘If Jonas is nervous, then something’s wrong.’
As Jonas ran through the woods in the heavy rain, he felt a little better since the sweat was gone and he had something in his stomach. He and Nina were as open with each other as they could be, but for some reason, he didn’t want to bring this to her attention. Therefore, he knew that he had to push the facts of his dream into his subconscious; otherwise, Nina would know instantly that something was wrong.
He got to her door as the rain somewhat subsided. Before he could knock, Nina stepped outside. “Jonas.” She hugged him. “It’s so good to see you. How long has it been since I’ve seen you?”
He smiled, “Um, I think about two weeks, something like that.”
“I know, I just got back from our trip to Florida two days ago, but I needed to take a time-out and rest.” She stretched her arms, “Somehow, only having about six hours of sleep doesn’t bother me. I knew that I’d be seeing you.” She smiled at him and Jonas felt his heart soaring. The look in her eyes was something he had missed so much. It gave him so much confidence, almost taking him back to when they first met. He had never been one to socialize, period, but when it came to Nina, he willingly brought that barrier down. Something about her made him want to talk to her, get to know her; somehow, he just knew that she was the one. Not only his first real friend, but also his soul mate.
The sun pretty much came out once they got to school. Jonas looked up and blinked, “That’s weird…” He shrugged, “maybe it’s a sign.”
“Yeah, a good sign.” Nina leaned her head on his shoulder and he smiled from the inside outside; he hadn’t felt like this in quite some time.
The moment he walked into the school, he heard the rustle and bustle start to increase. He took a deep breath and let all of his social anxieties leave through his pores; a little exercise that Nina taught him at the start of sophomore year. Jonas was never a big fan of big, noisy crowds. Between that and his psychic abilities, Jonas used to be known as ‘Mr. Mysterious’ at school. He never spoke to anyone, so nobody knew what he was really like. Once he met Nina, most of that changed, but he still didn’t like crowd noise.
Jonas walked through the hall to his locker as he started to see some familiar people smiling at him as he went past them. Once into the adjacent hallway, his close friend Mai greeted him. She was the editor-in-chief of the school newspaper that used rumors about him for article ideas. These days, she sticks more to the truth; she has ever since Nina got to her and stopped her from spreading her “Jonas theories.” That day, she was sporting her favorite color purple with her knee-length denim skirt and her vest, not to mention her eyeliner and lipstick.
“Mai?” He looked in awe, “You look great.”
“So do you, Jonas. It’s been quite a while since I’ve seen you and Nina too. I suppose you two spent the whole summer together, as usual.” She smiled, but sighed. “Corey and I haven’t exactly spent much time together. He’s been away on vacation in the Florida Keys while my family flew across the country to the O.C.”
“The O.C.? What does that stand for?” He shrugged as she gave him a look that said, ‘you’re kidding me, right?’
“Orange County, you know, Newport Beach, California, where all the movie stars live. But I didn’t exactly meet any.” She shrugged, “but the weather was so warm and I worked on my tan line.”
“I can’t really tell.” He shrugged, “besides, don’t you know what sunlight can do to you?”
“Of course, Jonas, that’s why I put on so much sunscreen. I only got a little tan where I needed it, on my arms and legs.” He looked at her, curiously. “You’ve been listening to my lectures in science, haven’t you?” She blushed, “Maybe a little bit. You brought up some interesting points.”
“Well, I’m extremely against tanning, mostly fake tanning. I’ve seen that all around the school. It’s extremely unhealthy, Mai, and you should spread that around.”
“Nah, I think you should. Why don’t you write an article about it for the school paper? Better yet, why don’t you join the school paper? You’re so opinionated, and that could also increase the school’s awareness on issues you feel strongly about.”
“I just need to make sure that I add a little disclaimer at the end of my articles, saying that I won’t ‘do harm to people that don’t follow my views.’ A couple of people are still a little freaked that I’m, you know, psychic.”
“Don’t you worry about that. It’s not like you can see into the future or anything.” She laughed, “We meet after school on Mondays from 2:30 to 4 or 5, depending on what the order of business is.”
“Ok, Mai, I’ll definitely consider it. Thanks.” He smiled back. They were about to move on when Corey unexpectedly came out of nowhere to see Mai. Of course, he ended up bumping into him as he came around a corner. Jonas took merely a second to blink and then WHAM! Someone ran right into him, knocking him over. After getting over the shock of the situation, a voice called out to him as a hand grabbed his. He opened his eyes again and saw Corey with an extremely apologetic look on his face. “Jonas, I’m so sorry, I didn’t see you there.” As he helped him back up, he shook his head a couple of times to get rid of his double vision.
“Thanks, but next time, Corey, don’t run in the halls. Do you know how dangerous that is? Just consider yourself lucky that you ran into me and not someone possibly bigger than you or the chemistry teacher with a cart of glass beakers and test tubes.”
“Sure, Jonas. It’s just that its been so long since I’ve seen Mai and I couldn’t miss seeing her now that I’m back from the Keys.” He looked behind him as Mai came up to him with a smile. “Corey, I’ve missed you so much.”
“Ditto, Mai. Since we became an item, I guess it’s been a long time since we’ve had this much time apart.” He glanced aside and raised his eyebrows for a second. “That’s really weird, but I guess I know what it’s all about now.” He looked back at Jonas and Nina and smiled, “I’ll catch up with you two later, me and Mai have some catching up to do.”
“Ok, see you later, Corey.” Jonas grinned.
Nina and Jonas spent all of their time together before homeroom. It seemed like the contents of his dream had disappeared into his subconscious and he was perfectly fine with that. He wanted to have total focus for the upcoming school day so he wouldn’t miss any instruction; Jonas was the kind of person who was very dedicated when it came to his studies.
They parted ways around 7:13 when it was time to head for homeroom. When he stepped inside, he saw that the seats were already assigned, so he shrugged and sat down. Jonas spent the next minute or so looking over the schedule laid out for him on his desk.
<< Back
Return to Index
Chapter 2
