Double Confusion

Dahlia's point of view

It felt great to be home after such long school days. Just that a lot had happened that got my mind unsettled. If I said I had recovered from what happened to me in school, then I would be lying. But somehow I could still smile. And I felt a kind of relief coming home. I would finally breathe and get answers to my questions.

"Lia. You've slept long enough for someone who just came back from school. Did you even attend classes in school? Or have you been sleeping the whole session?" Rita's voice distracted me from my dreams for the umpteenth time. I was about to slap the hell out of a senior who had tried to bully me in the dream, and here she was stopping that from happening.

"Don't you have chores to do in the house? Why distract such an important part of my dream? I was about to slap a bully, and you just stopped that from happening, so you should take the slap instead." I rose from bed, tossed the sheet aside, ready to play-slap Rita, but she was too fast.

"Breakfast is ready. Come out when you feel like eating, sleepyhead." She screamed mid-run. I knew she missed me. We used to play a lot before I got admission into Northmont High, but a lot had happened that she was unaware of. She definitely thought I was still the same Dahlia, but little did she know that Dahlia was long gone, and now replaced with one I couldn't place.

"Rita!" I called her back, intending to lure her into punishing her for disturbing my sleep, but then I remembered I wanted to ask her a question. My expression turned

"Unfortunately, you can't trick me, dear; you're just gonna slap me." I was sure she rolled her eyes while saying that.

"I promise I won't. Pleaseeee," I assured, intending to ask her about my father's whereabouts. I hadn't seen him since I arrived. I could have asked stepmom, but she gave me a reason not to lately, even though she had never shown me any bad side of herself before Northmont High.

"Where's Dad?" I asked as soon as Rita came back. I watched her maintain social distance between us, in case I had deceived her and was ready to take my revenge on her.

"Oh, he's on a business trip." She replied, her earlier guarded look replaced with a relaxed one.

"And when is he coming back?"

"That I don't know. Why don't you ask your mom?" She suggested.

"And what were you going to ask me, dear daughter?" Seraphine stepped into my room and sat calmly on my bed. And next, her hands went to my back, massaging it just the way she does it before I left for school. This was the side of her I knew since she took me in-calm, loving, and caring.

Yet I find it difficult to understand her reasons for admitting me into such a school. Well, she was free to keep up that act until I saw my father and asked him questions. I needed to know Seraphine's real place in my life. "Your father has gone on a business trip. He might not be back until after you return to school. But please don't hesitate to tell me if you need anything."

She informed me, while still massaging my back, and I felt very relieved. I didn't know how much I missed her doing that until now. "Oh ok. I'll just place a call through to him then."

"Rita, can you set the table for Lia, please?" Stepmom called, in a bid to excuse Rita from the room.

"Yes, ma'am, I'll do that now, ma'am." Rita left right away. I could clearly see questions in her eyes. She probably wanted to know how things went at school. Each time she called to ask, I'd told her that I was fine because I didn't trust her to share my predicament with her again. But after what happened at the Trial by Howl test, I knew they were to be questioned-Dad and Seraphine.

"Did you receive any calls from the school lately?" I tried to verify if my secret was still safe. At least the part that the school knew about.

"Did you give them any reason to?" Seraphine questioned back, her amber eyes searching mine for any hint of whatever her mind could fathom at that moment. She knew something. I could sense it. I didn't know what she knew. Maybe Dad wasn't the right person to speak to all along. I had been hinting at the wrong person. Seraphine might have all the answers I needed.

I remember Dad told me when I just got the admission, while I was celebrating, not aware of the den I was walking into, that "Whatever happens in school, Lia, let it be always in you that we love you. And your stepmom here wants the best for you." Those were his exact words, and they only hint at one thing. Stepmom had the answers.

"Can I ask a question, Mom?" I didn't waste any more time.

"Go ahead, sweetheart," she replied softly.

"Who am I?"

"Hhmmm, Dahlia," she said, stood up, went straight to the door, and shut it. "I was about to ask you the same question, Lia." Really? Why would she ask such a question?

"I'm confused right now, Mom," I sighed. "Ok, I think I asked the wrong question." Why did you enrol me in Northmont High?" I refrained.

"You know something already. The wise one mentioned that when you return after your first term, you would display either of the two. One, ask us who you truly are, which means you might have seen or noticed something about yourself in school, and two, behave normally, like you never left home. Now you have asked the question we expected you to ask." What? My thoughts raised. Were they waiting all along? For what?

"I can see confusion written all over you, Lia. I think you're ready to know what we know. Shortly after you moved in with us, I was going to your room one day; you had slept, and I wanted to make sure you had covered up well, but as I was about to open your room door, I saw black smoke. It lingered at the door as if it were looking for someone. I became scared and left." She adjusted in her seat and then continued.

"I didn't speak to your dad right away about it. Instead, I watched it for days, and each night the smoke would linger at your door. It was easy for me to detect because your room door was white." She answered the question that popped up in my mind.

"I convinced myself for days that I was seeing things. It couldn't be anything serious, but then every night it kept coming; it never stopped. I decided to show your dad too, because he might not believe me if I had told him. He also saw it and remembered your grandma mentioned something about it on her deathbed.

He told me she suggested we should see a man whom she referred to as "the wise one" as regards the issue, but he didn't. Because he thought his mother was in so much pain that she was just speaking nonsense. I decided to go find the wise one and got the description from your dad. When I spoke to him about it, he recommended we enrol you in the school for the supernatural, that you might be one. He knew the headmistress, who made it easy to get you into the school."

I blinked several times in a second, totally dumbfounded. I lacked words after hearing my stepmom's story. They had suspected I was something all along, but they didn't know what, either. They were as confused as I was, and here I was thinking all answers resided in their hearts.

"Now that you know, Dahlia, that you are something, I need you to find that out. That's your purpose in Northmont High." Seraphine said the words that made me shiver in my seat. She massaged my shoulders again, in that same gentle way she always does.

"You can do it!" She whispered in my ear and left the room.