Psychic

The next morning at school I was determined to find a way to get Magnus to be nice to me. I mean – sure, he’s a hypocritical jerk who needs a reality check, but I was certain he and I would get along if he just gave me a chance. I thought it would be interesting to have a friend that I couldn’t read.

But those plans changed as soon as Bella found me.

“Guess what?!” She practically screamed in my face.

“What?”

She was practically bursting with so much excitement that her only though was, guess what on repeat.

“I got asked out by Bryce Hope!”

Bryce Hope was a very popular football player. Bella had had a crush on him ever since before I moved to Chesnutt Falls. He was cute enough with his sandy blond hair and devilish smile, but he also wasn’t the nicest human being on the planet.

“Really? When?” I asked.

Bella took a deep breath and a memory of hers popped in my head. She was sitting on the benches outside the school doing a last minute assignment with someone else from the dance team when Bryce approached. He looked uncharacteristically shy as he asked her out, to which Bella internally screamed. She said yes and little hearts started forming all around Bryce. The hearts were an addition by her imagination.

Bella grinned. She had probably been explaining the encounter that I had just seen her walk through.

“Wow, amazing!”

Bella nodded and took my arm as we headed on our way to History. “I know, can you believe it? He said that he liked me for a while now and he was just building up the courage to ask me out. Can you believe it? He was nervous to ask me out?”

I listened to the conversation vaguely while I thought of Bella’s new boyfriend. Bryce always rubbed me off the wrong way, but maybe it was because he reminded me a little of Luke from the Percy Jackson books, deceitful, facetious, and two-faced, at least as of late. He didn’t used to be so stereotypically like a jock. But if he was now dating Bella, I’d probably see much more of him. Because of this, I would need to think more positively about him.

You know, maybe he isn’t so bad, I tried thinking. Maybe he just seems that way before you get to know him.

“. . . and we’ll probably grow old together and have children! Oh, won’t that be perfect, Liv?”

I coughed awkwardly. “Yeah, totally.”

After school I decided to decline Bella’s offer of a ride home. I had a test I had to retake and I didn’t want to force her to go out of her way to drive me home, especially since I only lived a twenty minute walk from the school.

I was also starting to regret that decision. Ten minutes into my walk and I could already feel my backpack weighing down on my shoulders. My feet were already killing me.

And then I spotted an interesting sight. It was Magnus. Magnus wearing a red hoodie and walking alone and quite suspiciously into the woods behind the local ice cream stop. Now, if I was any normal fifteen year old, I might’ve respected his privacy and not followed him into the woods, but, let’s be honest, I’m definitely not a normal teenager by any standards.

I hiked my backpack higher on my shoulders and crossed the street. I quickly looked behind me to make sure no one was behind me before ducking after Magnus into the woods.

The woods that surround Chesnutt Falls are basically Horror movie level creepy. Apparently there was even a serial killer who lived here in the 1800’s who would kill passerbys in the woods and hang them up on the branches. Definitely not your average fairy tale forest.

I caught sight of Magnus’s red hoodie a few feet in and followed him. I was being as stealthy as I could be, but if he decided to turn around, my neon pink jacket would provide no cover. Today was a bad day to borrow Bella’s pink jacket, even if it was cold outside.

We walked about ten minutes before I lost sight of him. It was at this point where I negotiated with myself to keep going and possibly get lost, or to head home before the Andrews start worrying. But a sudden arm around my throat made that decision for me. I wasn’t going anywhere before this serial killer murdered me.

“Who sent you?” Magnus’s rough voice came into my ear.

I was a bit relieved that he wasn’t a serial killer from the 1800s, but he still had me in a choke hold.

I attempted to elbow him, but he dodged my attack easily. “No one! Let go of me!”

Magnus’s limbs loosened and I spun around to face him, face burning in anger. I wanted to speak, but he beat me to the punch, “Why were you following me?”

“Why did you just almost choke me to death?”

“Touché,” he said in a casual tone, but his posture was still offensive.

I raised my eyebrows at him, “Do you make a habit out of almost killing your classmates, or is it just because you hate me so much?”

He seemed to consider it for a moment. “I think it’s because of your snarky attitude.”

I scoffed, “Me? I’m not the one being snarky here, Mister Mysterious. Why are you being so weird?”

“Well, maybe it’s because I found out I was being followed by my most annoying classmate who can’t learn to take a hint.” He sneered.

“I was not following you.” I defended.

“Sure,” He said in a tone that suggested, you’re lying, “then what were you doing?”

“I was . . . umm . . . taking a stroll in the woods . . .”

“Mhmm.”

“. . . Because that’s what I do in my free time.”

I wasn’t even convinced by my poor explanation.

“Sure. Let’s pretend that I believe you, just for a second. Why were you walking in the woods with the same clothes you wore to school and with your backpack? A stroll through the woods would require lighter clothes and no homework.”

I was busted. “Well, you see, there was a study that was out recently . . .”

Magnus sighed and put his hand up to cut me off. “Look, I know you were following me. And obviously no one sent you, so just let me go my way and you can go back to whatever suburban home you live in. Your parents might think you’ve been kidnapped since you’ve been out of their sights for too long.”

Was he serious?

“Oh, so that’s what this is all about.”

“What?” He said, exasperated.

“You think I’m some spoiled rich valley girl, don’t you? That’s why you don’t want to be my friend, is that it? Well, let me tell you something. I’m no spoiled brat Mister I’m-better-than-you-just-cause. No. I’m a foster kid, which means that I’ve been moved around more than I could remember to families and foster homes that were far from suburban material. Plus, as an added bonus, no couple wanted to adopt a traumatized seven year old who couldn’t remember her past and heard voices in her head. So don’t tell me that I’ve had an easy life because I’ve had the exact opposite.”

I seemed to have succeeded in silencing Magnus for once. His expression was one of pure shock at my outburst. It didn’t even occur to me that I just told him a personal and embarrassing part of my childhood.

“Fine,” I choked out, realizing for the first time that tears were creeping their way down my face, “don’t say anything, you hypocritical jerk. At least I’m not the one who is so paranoid that they think someone sent someone after you. I mean – how unrealistic is that? What does Magnus have to hide?”

Magnus tensed up again as soon as I mentioned him thinking someone sent me to follow him. He seemed tense on a lot of subjects now that I thought about it.

“You would be surprised. Just – Can you please go back home. I would rather not have you tagging along to where I’m going.” He didn’t seem as harsh towards me, in fact, he seemed to have softened after my outburst.

“And where is it that you are going? People don’t just waltz through the woods without an intention to go somewhere very secret.” I turn the conversation back on him, discretely wiping away a tear from my face.

He sighed, tired from our talk already. “Nowhere, okay?”

We both stood our ground. He couldn’t go where he needed to with me in his way and I was too stubborn to go away without answers. (Plus, I had absolutely no idea where the way back to the main road was.)

“Look,” I said, “I know you heard my whole little outburst. I don’t want you to think I’m crazy, okay? I’m not crazy. When I was seven there was some sort of accident, I don’t know what. I can’t remember any of my life before I was put into the system, the shrinks all think it has something to do with me being traumatized by the event. I accidently told one of the shrinks that I heard a voice in my head, when it was actually the TV in the other room. They thought it was more to do with what happened in the accident and gave me meds and even more shrink appointments. Nobody wanted to adopt a traumatized little girl with all these problems under her belt. I became just another kid swallowed up by the system, okay? I’m not crazy. I didn’t actually hear voices in my head.”

I only explained half of the truth. I realized that if Magnus thought that I actually heard voices in my head as a child, he would think I was extra crazy. And I would prefer for him to think I wasn’t crazy at all.

Magnus nodded and looked down. “I kind of know how you feel. I wasn’t brought up by the best family – You could say that they were the kind who pressured their own beliefs onto you. Anyone who wasn’t like them, who didn’t believe what they did, was bad. It was really a broken family. I guess you just hide your past in a better veil.”

I looked up at him and offered a small smile. “It’s not much of a veil. I just choose to focus on the present, that way I’m not distracted by the past. In a couple of years I’ll be out of the system anyways, I’ll get to build a better life.”

Magnus seemed to agree. “Look, I know I let us get off on the wrong foot, but what do you say we start over?”

I grinned and out my hand out, “Hi, my name is Liv Chase.”

He smiled back at me and shook my hand, “My name is Magnus Moore.”

“So, does this mean that you’ll tell me where you were going?”

He laughed and smirked my way, “Not a chance, Chase.”

I shrugged. “Hey, at least I tried.”

He seemed to consider something for a moment before speaking again, “Why don’t we meet up here tomorrow? Maybe I can explain some of what’s happened lately.”

I nodded, grinning wildly now. “Sure. Now, if you can just point me back in the direction of the road, I’ll be more than grateful.”

He chuckled and pointed to his left. I was happy to see that this was a path that had slightly less thorns and low hanging branches than most of the rest of the forest.

I headed off on my way, forgetting for a moment why I had even followed him in the woods into the first place.

You know, maybe I had thought too quickly about his character. Maybe he is a nice guy.

I scratched that thought. Magnus was still a mystery. He was mean and now he suddenly wants to be friends? No. No normal person hates me one second and likes me the next. Hate doesn’t just go away.

But at the same time, maybe it was because I told him the truth about my past, or at least as much as I could’ve told him without him thinking I was crazy. When someone tells you something personal like that, you feel like you know them better, like you understand them more. Maybe he realized that I wasn’t the kind of girl he thought I was.

Maybe the two of us being friends can help me find an answer to why he’s unreadable to me. Maybe I’ll find the answer that I’ve been looking for from him.