Once lunch was over, I said goodbye to my friends and headed down the hall to the staff hallway. I wondered what my aunt wanted to talk about. I stood at the door for a moment, gathering my bearings. Then I knocked on the door. 

“It’s open,” I heard my aunt say. Slowly I opened the door and walked inside. My aunt was sitting at her desk, writing on something. She looked up momentarily, and said, “please sit.” Nodding, I sat down and waited.

“So, now, you know the truth. Before you ask what I mean, I know you saw your mom. She came to see me yesterday. She wanted to make sure you were alright. I told her that if she wanted to know, then she could see for herself.”

“But if that is true, how did she know that I would go to the graveyard?” I asked, a little confused. I didn’t tell anyone where I was going. 

“She was watching you, and when she saw where you were headed, she made sure to be there before you. I can’t explain to you how she was able to do it right now.” She said, putting her pen down on her desk. I looked at her, confused. 

“I know that this has been a lot to take in. I wish that there was a way to go back and tell you all of this, but it was for your protection, as I said before. I hope you understand and can forgive me.” Aunt Brenda said as she leaned down and hugged me. Despite the feeling of being lied to all my life, I couldn’t blame her. I knew why it had to be done. It didn’t mean I had to be happy about it. 

“Now, I would love to chat with you more, but you are missing class, and I have more paperwork to get done,” aunt Brenda said as she offered her hand. I took it and got up, following her to the door. She gave me another hug, then opened the door. Sighing, I walked out the door and started heading for my next class. 

After the fifth period, I was utterly exhausted. We had gym class, and everyone decided to play dodgeball. I lost count of how many times I was hit in the head or back. Walking was difficult, as my muscles screamed in defiance. 

The last two classes were easy. Art and social studies. I always seemed te Excell at these classes my mom is would always joke that I was a little Einstein. I would laugh and tell her she was crazily. The thought of my parents still being alive still made me upset. I mean why didn't they tell me? It wasn’t like I was going to go telling the world that they were alive if I had known that they were being hunted. 

When I got to the courtyard everyone was already waiting for me. Even my cousins decided to join us, they were acting weird. It was like they didn’t know how to talk to me. I did my best to act like I didn’t notice. 

 By the time I got back to the dorm, everyone was busy talking amongst themselves. I found Keaira and Ariel sitting at the table in the kitchenette. I walked over and grabbed a glass of orange juice before sitting with them. The both smiled at me .

“Today was exausting,” Ariel said as she worked on one of her assignments. She had been doing homework since we had been in the courtyard. I swore that that was all she knew how to do. 

“I have to agree. And the amount of homework Professor Harding gave us was a bit excessive. I hope he doesn’t expect me to do it all tonight,” Keaira said as she sat her thermos down after taking a drink. “It’s like he expects us to slave over papers.”

I couldn’t help but laugh as I listened to them complain about how much homework sucked. Looking over at the couches, even Leanna seemed to be focused on her homework, although every now and then, she would look over at me with a scowl. I really didn’t know what I did to make her hate me so much, but it was getting to be rediculous. 

After some time, we all said our goodbyes and headed towards our rooms. Once we were inside our room, Ariel and I both laid on our beds. I needed someone to talk to besides my aunt about what had happened today, and I was sure that I could trust Ariel, after all, she was in our pack.  

“So, something happened yesterday,” I said as I sat up and moved to the edge of the bed. She looked up and me and shifted so she was facing me, while staying laid down. 

“What was that?” she asked curiously. I hesitated for a moment wondering if I really did trust her. Taking a leap of faith I started telling her everything that happened. It was a little more than I wanted. As I told her, I watched face, only seeing pure shock.

“Wow, I am sorry that you had to go through that Angel. I can’t believe that your parents didn’t have the decency to tell you what happened. We were all made to believe that they were dead. But I guess there was good reason,” she sad when I finished telling her what happened. It was nice to finally get it off my chest. 

We talked for a little while longer, but soon we were both feeling the fatigue of the first day of classes. We said our goodnights and turned out the lights. As I laid there, a thought kept coming to me. I decided that I would talk to my aunt tomorrow about them and see what she had to say. Without anything else bothering me, I closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep.