Discovering Rose

Chapter 14

At school, unlike the first few weeks when I had barely seen Zed at all, he seemed to be everywhere I went. History room, down the corridor, Physics lab, cafeteria... there seemed to be no escape. I could always somehow feel his brooding gaze on me, the days were a slow torture. Saturday morning, the doorbell rang. Since Nick and Josie were still in bed, I answered it, expecting it to be post. But it was Zed, holding a massive bunch of flowers. He thrust them into me before I could slam the door on him.
"OK, let's start again," he said. "Hello, I'm Zed Benedict. And you are?" He held out a palm for me to shake. I held the flowers in both of my hands. They were my favourite colors, blue and purple, with a little pink.
"Come on, this part is easy. Now you say, why hello Mr Benedict, I am Rose Carrigon, and I'm from England." I fought the urge to laugh at the ridiculous accent he put on, and my reluctant defiance seemed to wither a little.
"I do not speak like that!"
"Sure you do. Go on."
"I am Rose Carrigon from London."
"And now you say, my, what lovely flowers! How about coming in for a friendly cup of tea?"
"That accent has to go."
"I thought I was doing quite well, myself," he grinned.
"Tea or coffee?" I said, deciding to busy myself by finding a vase for the flowers.
"Um, I'll have coffee," he said, taking the decision to slowly step into the house as I switched the kettle on.
"So, why are you here?" I asked, reaching down to get a mug from the cupboard.
"Isn't it obvious? I messed up big time. I came to say sorry."
"Well the flowers were a nice start."
He sat down on a chair, gesturing me to sit down next to him. "So, tell me about yourself. I play guitar and drums. What about you?"
OK, I could do this. We were having a normal conversation about normal things.
"Piano, guitar and sax."
"Nice. See, we can talk with me freaking you out."
"Yeah." I glanced at him. "So, er, you like all music, or just jazz?"
"All really, but I like to improvise. It gives me a kind of free feeling, you know? Like, I have all this freedom to create music."
"Yeah, I feel the same," I agreed.
"So, um, you really didn't know you were a savant?"
Oh no, he was bringing this up again.
"No."
"So you had no idea what I was talking about?"
"Not a clue."
"I'm sorry I was rude to you."
"I just thought you had some crazy allergic reaction to economy sized English girls."
He chuckled, and got up.
"Are you going?"
"Yeah. This is important and I'm not going to mess it up again. Not pushing my luck," he smiled. "See you around, Rose."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I didn't exactly trust Zed right now, considering his abrupt change of character. But he didn't seem to want to let this go. On Tuesday on the way home, he was waiting by Thea's mini.
"Hey Thea."
"Hi Zed...how are you?" Thea asked uncertainly, shooting a concerned look at me.
"Great thanks. Ready to ride home, Rose?" he held up a motorbike helmet.
"It's fine thanks Zed, Thea's taking me home."
"I'm sure she won't mind."
"I said I'd take Rose home," Thea said coldly.
Zed held out the helmet to me. "Please?"
Zed Benedict was saying please. Icicles were forming in hell.
Thea looked at me worriedly.
"It's fine thanks Thea, Zed can take me."
"OK," she said, glancing one more time at me before stepping into her car.
I stared at the motorcycle. I was about to fulfill one of my private fantasies, riding out of school on the back on a  hot motorcycle.
"Ready?" Zed asked, as I pulled on the helmet.
"I've never ridden on one of these before."
"The trick is to hold on tight and don't let go," Zed winked, and we were off.
"Doing OK back there?" he called, as we sped up.
"Great."
"Cool. Want to go up the mountains a bit? There's some time before it gets dark."
"Sure."
He went past the road that led to my house, and carried on, there was little up there - a few cabins and some deserted chalets. Finally, he slowed down to a halt, and helped me off the bike, letting me admire the view for a few minutes. The tree leaves edged with white snow, the ground soft and crunchy. He set me up on a fallen log so we were at eye level.
"So, how was your day?"
Such a regular question. "It was good, thanks. I did a little composing at lunch break."
"I saw you at the piano."
"You didn't come in?"
"I thought you would get annoyed that I disrupted you. And I want to take it easy, not totally freak you out like the other night. You're a scary girl."
"Me?"
"Think about it. You save my best penalty, totally ripped me out in front of the school, kick me out of your tree and slam your front door on me. You're terrifying."
"I like that a lot more than the Bambi comparisons," I smiled.
"The thing is, there's so much I need to explain to you-"
I huffed. "Fine Zed, go on. Tell me all about it and I promise I'll listen."
"OK. So I'm guessing you don't know what a savant is?"
"Er, I know more about soccer."
He let out a laugh. "OK, I'll start with some basic information. I'm in a family of seven boys all savants, me being the seventh. Since I'm youngest, I got a bigger dose of the savant gene, my mom being a seventh child too is also like me."
"So, does that make it worse?"
"Yeah, there's a multiplier effect. Savants have this gift, makes us go a little faster and further than ... normal people."
"OK, Yep."
"It means we have er...unusual gifts. We can communicate without needing a tablet, or the need to talk. Telepathically. People without the savant gene can't receive the telepathy in their head, it's more like an impulse, not a voice. That's why I was so shocked when you actually heard me on the soccer pitch."
"Because?"
"Because it meant you were a telepath too. And when a savant speaks telepathically to their soulfinder, it's like you've been knocked out of orbit."
He moved closer to me, resting his forehead against mine so that our noses were practically touching. "You lit me up like Vegas."
I made a move to pull away, but he curled his hand around my waist. "No, don't. There's more. When's your birthday?"
I was confused by this question at what possible relevance it could have, but answered anyway. "October 20th. Why?"
"That's not right," Zed frowned.
"It's the date of my adoption."
"Ah, that makes sense."
He gently jumped up beside me, and I let my head fall on his shoulder.
We stayed like that in silence for a while, staring out at the beautiful mountains, and the stunning sunset. Suddenly, I felt a shadow, another presence in my mind.
"Just me," Zed said reassuringly.
"I have to be imagining this."
"I was just checking up facts. I can't be wrong about something like a soulfinder."
I didn't like him rooting around inside my mind. It was mine, Private. The thought of him discovering all about my past - well, I just wasn't ready for it.
"So you never knew you had this gift?"
"I don't. I'm not a savant. I'm a totally normal, boring person. Nothing supernatural in here." I tapped my forehead.
"Not that you've discovered anyway. When a savant is born, their counterpart is born at the same time, either next door, or three thousand miles away. But against the odds, I've found you. On a soccer pitch of all the places. Rose Carrigon from London, England." He traced a  gentle finger down my cheek.
"What happens if you don't meet your soulfinder?"
"It can go many ways, anger, despair, acceptance, madness. It gets worse as time goes on. I was lucky, it hadn't began to concern me yet."
I still refused to believe this, and frowned. "Well can't they just run a savant soulfinding service on Facebook or something? Voila, problem gone."
"Like we haven't thought of that. But imagine how many people have the same birthdays, or around. We'd be searching through thousands. Savants are rare, there's around one savant in every thousand. And also our other half could live in a whole other country, speaking a whole other language, and may not even have a computer."
"I see." Kind of, if I was going to believe all this. Which I didn't. "What does this all mean."
"It means it's us. For life."
"Really?"
He nodded.
"But I'm only here for a year, or two."
"What, just a year?"
"Or two. It depends on Nick and Josie, and what they want to do."
"Then you go back to England?"
"Yeah, that's the plan. But it's going to be tricky, because I'll have done a year here, and all the coursework is totally different in the UK."
"Then we'll find a way for you to stay. Or I'll follow you to England."
"Really?"
"Hell yeah. This is serious."
I was getting aware that his fingers had slowly entwined with mine, I'd never held hands with a boy before. I felt comforting and nice, but a little nerve-wracking too.
"I'd like to do some things with you Rose, after all I was wrong to race in claiming you as my soulfinder. We have the rest of our lives to get this right."
This what Thea had warned me about. Boys rushing in, telling you that you were made for him, when all he's doing is using you for eye candy. But Zed was standing there looking so hopeful...
"What kind of things?"
"Go for a ride?"
"We've just done that."
"Great, so that's one box ticked. Next we could try the movies, or diner in Wickenridge where we'll be risking everyone staring at us all evening."
"Movies sound good."
"With me?"
"Maybe."
"This once?" he gave me a mocking enthusiastic hopeful look, and I had to laugh.
"Just this once. But I still don't like you that much."
He nodded solemnly, but his eyes were shining.
"And as for all this soulfinder stuff, it's a little hard to believe."
"OK, let's put the soulfinder stuff aside for the present. But for now, be my girlfriend?"
I had no idea what to say. I liked this Zed, the one who brought me flowers, sat with me by the sunset, kicked easy penalties to stop the newcomer being humiliated...but I still hadn't forgotten the other Zed - dark, angry and dangerous.
"OK," I smiled.
He jumped off the log and held his hand out. I placed my palm in his, and he raised my fingers to his mouth and kissed them playfully, then dropped them. "Then it's a date."