Sparks by RS McCoy Page B

can get down to the real work.” I was sure my mouth fell open. It was the first time he mentioned that my Tracker rate was a façade.
    “You didn’t really think I didn’t know, did you?” I wasn’t sure what I thought, but Avis had been my mentor for well over a year, and that was the first I’d even thought about it.
    “Why do you think Lheda assigned you to me? There aren’t many Readers, and even fewer who are fit to mentor the younger students.”
    It hit me like a blow to the guts. Avis was a Reader ? He had been privy to my every thought and whim since the first day I met him? Every silent jab and heated insult, every bit of humiliation when I lost to him in a fight. He had known and felt it all in the moment it happened. My paranoia subsided when I realized that I didn’t really spend much time with him. He was prone to long disappearances and sudden re-emergences, so maybe it wasn’t as bad as it seemed. “So what do you want me to do?”
    “Eat.” I rolled my eyes, already frustrated that Avis had shown up again. Why couldn’t he leave me alone? I remembered to check my thoughts around him, and sure enough his face held a hint of a smirk. Great.
    He must have planned it intentionally; the dining hall was completely stuffed with students chilled from the recent snow. We were served a thick venison stew with potatoes and carrots made specifically to thaw a person to their bones, and it did the trick.
    I ate mechanically, vaguely aware that Avis spoke to me, but I didn’t hear a word of it; the mental volume was far too high. There were too many students packed in one room, and it would be a lie if I said I hadn’t been spoiled from the near perfect quiet of the Creekmont.
    “Lark, will you listen?” Avis shouted at me.
    “Huh? What?”
    “Try to concentrate. Block them out.” Oh really Avis? Why didn’t I think of that? Just make all the voices stop. Just get the thoughts of nearly a hundred students to just go quiet. Sure, why not?
    “It’s not impossible, you just have to try.” Thankfully, I was almost out of stew anyway and made a quick decision to sacrifice the last few bites in exchange for the sanctuary of my room. Avis followed behind me. “Well that was pathetic.”
    “Just leave me alone.”
    “Are you going to cry like a child? Go on, then, cry,” he chided, clearly intent on angering me. Well, it worked.
    I lunged at him and, just like the hundreds of times before, Avis caught my wrist well before I could reach him and spun me onto the ground. Dammit!
    “Don’t you get it?” he said as he left and closed the door behind him. Get what? That I can’t beat you?
    I lay in bed that night but didn’t sleep. I was angry for a lot of reasons, but I could feel it boiling closer to the surface. I was angry that I couldn’t be out tracking with the one person who might actually be a real friend, that I was trapped in this school yet again, that I couldn’t beat Avis no matter how hard I tried, and that he had been listening to my thoughts all that time.
    On some level I knew it was unfair to despise him for it; he only did to me what I had done to everyone else for years. And why was I so angry with Khea? At one point, I had felt an insanely strong need to protect her. Maybe that was still inside me somewhere, just buried in a tomb of frustration. She didn’t ask me to attack Shaz, and she didn’t even know the real reason; she never knew what he planned for her.
    My recognition of the illogical nature of my anger did little to soothe it. Once again, I was isolated with Avis and there was nothing I could do to protect my innermost secrets. In fact, he probably already knows each and every one of them.
     
    ~~~~~~~~~~
     
    In the morning, I knew I would have to address the situation with Rhada. I couldn’t let her be punished because of my suggestion that she leave the Tracking group early, and it was an excuse to avoid Avis. When I reached the Headmistress’s chambers, I