***

“…well, tell Payton that no one needs her pessimistic attitude right now,” I say to Kyla on my cell phone, smiling.
“Sure thing,” she says.
“But really, I’m sorry I couldn’t hang out with you guys today,” I say, “I have some things to do. Just think, though, about how we have the whole summer to hang out.”
School today was…
“Yeah, we’ll never be bored,” Kyla answers.
“Ok, I’ll see you tomorrow,” I say, “Bye.”
“Bye!”
“I like Payton,” Tia says, “She’s funny.”
“You like her because she’s bitter like you,” I say.
“Which makes her funny,” Tia says. I roll my eyes, but chuckle to myself.
Tia isn’t necessarily bitter (all the time…) she’s just…sassy, kinda. She’s got a mouth on her and she’s witty. She kinda speaks her mind, but she claims to think before she speaks. Maybe she has bad judgment of how people will react to what she says. Either way, people love her regardless, and she’s a leader to her friends.
I’ve always thought of Tia as an exotic beauty. She has small, are chubby-her face is wide, no her head is just wide, huge even-so Asian-like eyes and a Cabbage Patch nose (ha-ha, it still cracks me up). She’s got really full lips and high cheek bones, but her cheeks you wouldn’t automatically notice that. Her hair is brown-but it seems to be getting lighter-and comes just past her shoulders. She usually wets it in the morning, puts product in it, and wears it natural. Her body style is “more to love”, but I’ve always envied her curves. Actually, I envy the fact that she looks so different. I mean, I know I can’t really be mistaken for anybody else-and vice versa-but man! So many boys at school come up to me asking for her number. I simply tell them that if they don’t have the guts to go up to her themselves then it’s an automatic rejection. If only she’d freakin’ realize how much potential she has.
We’re sitting at home in the living room, drinking soda and doing homework. Even though I’m trying to let go of everything, I decided to start by relaxing at home. My friends could’ve kept me occupied enough to not think, but I just wanted to be here today, so I went for it. I’m putting me first, but not in a selfish way.
Today was…interesting. The visions, the mind reading, the invisibility, me figuring out my problems…it was all crazy. I can’t believe I got my first vision, though, I’m ecstatic.
“You know, this summer we have to spend our time wisely,” I say, “and make sure we get to everywhere we want to go. Like-”
I suddenly drop my pencil and freeze. My eyes go wide and I’m taken away from reality, into glimpses of the future.
First I see Tia, riding through forest on a horse, her cloak behind her flying through the air. She’s hiding her face with the cloak’s hood and it’s really dark out. She’s got a bow and arrows strapped onto her back, too. The wind’s howling hard, and Tia’s all alone, seeming to be in pursuit. She pulls the reigns back on the horse and it comes to a stop. She jumps down, pats the horse’s nose, and stares deep into the forest.
“Here we go,” she says to herself.

“Anna, will you go then?” a voice says, yet I don’t see anyone. I can hear everything, but all I see is blackness.
“Yeah,” a girl says, “Nick and I will go and get them.”
“Please, before anyone else does.”

I finally blink back into reality, sucking in a huge amount of air. I let it out slowly and look up at Tia.
“What happened?” Tia asks urgently, “Did you have a vision?”
“Yeah…” I trail off.
“Ohmigod! I can’t believe it!” Tia exclaims, “Twice in a day! How did you do that?”
“I don’t even know…it just came to me again,” I say, breathless. Those visions weren’t as calm as the other ones.
“What was it like?”
“They were just glimpses,” I say, “flashes of the future. I don’t think they’ll all be like that, it was my first time.”
“Do you feel alright?”
“Yeah, I’m fine,” I answer, “A little lightheaded and shocked, but I’m fine.”
“Then do you mind?”
“No.”
“Ok, what’d you see?” she asks, smiling.
“Just one,” I lie, “but I couldn’t see it. I just heard it.”
“Oh, that kinda sucks,” she says, “What’d you hear?”
“Well, I heard a boy tell some girl named Anna to go get someone before someone else does,” I say. I stand up and start heading towards my room. “I’m gonna try to get some homework done,” I call out.
“Wait, that’s it?” Tia calls to me, “That’s all you have to say?”
“What else am I going to say?”
“I don’t know. Something…”
“Besides, it took a lot of energy,” I say, “I wanna rest.”
Tia doesn’t say anything so I just go to my room. I flop on my bed once I walk and close the door with my telekinesis. I hate Mondays, they’re so slow and stupid. Dance just took all the energy out of me today and how about that vision? Well, kinda. I mean, what the heck will Tia be thinking when she goes off like that-oops! I don’t want her to hear my thoughts…
I grab my iPod out of my book bag and start listening to some music. I put on a soft love ballad and close my eyes, listening intently to the piano. I slowly start to feel at ease as I clear my mind. My gentle thoughts become into gentle dreams, and then a vision…:

An image of the most beautiful eyes I’ve ever seen appears in my vision. They dart from left to right, and then look straight ahead. I’m guessing it’s a boy and his eyelashes are extremely long. His brown eyes sparkle…
“I’m done running away from what’s obviously here,” I say in the vision, “Of what I obviously need.”

Um…ok.
I can’t help but think that if I say that in the future, it’ll be part of my turning point. I know one’s coming up for me. I also can’t help but think that vision is tied to the flying and the beautiful, sparkling, brown eyes. How, though?
I get out of my bed, shaking the thoughts away, and look out the window. I see the moon, looking a little bigger than usual, and I gasp in astonishment. It looks so pretty, I think to myself. I’ve got to go get a better look.
“Tia, Tia!” I say excitedly, running down the stairs.
“What? Where’s the fire?” she asks, looking up at me, a little worried.
“C’mon let’s go to the beach,” I say, “You’ve got to see the moon.”
“What? Why?” she says.
“Oh, don’t ask questions,” I say hurriedly. Tia’s more into the sun so she won’t be all that interested in the moon, but I just really wanna go. Besides, if I stay here, I’ll be stuck to think and I need a break from that. I drag Tia out of the house and flit her down the beach before she can say anything.
When we get down to the beach, I immediately walk down onto the dock. This beach is only about five minutes away from our house walking so we aren’t doing anything crazy. I go to the end of the dock and sit down, my feet dangling off the side.
“You know, I’m not very happy with you right now,” Tia says. She sits down next to me.
“Get over it, you’re already here,” I say. I bump her playfully.
“You know, what calms me is laying in the grass with the sun beating down on you with the perfect temperature, falling asleep,” Tia says.
“And what calms me is watching the sun go down, anticipating the moon and stars,” I say.
“I don’t see why,” Tia says, “It’s not warm.”
“But it looks so beautiful,” I say.
“And the sun isn’t?” she asks.
“I didn’t say that,” I say, “but we’re both entitled to our own opinions so let’s drop this because-”
The sky starts to darken, suddenly, and the temperature drops rapidly. Tia and I look around, confused.
“That was weird…,” Tia says. I shiver.
A huge howl of the wind fills our ears and the sky becomes pitch black as the sun disappears. Somehow the moon appears in the sky out of no where, but it’s red. The waves start to crash around us and the dock disappears from underneath us. The only thing we’re standing on is the surface of the water.
In the distance I can see a black and gray vortex appear. The hooded thing comes out of it, hovering over the water. Its sleeve extends in front of it and then it pulls it back in a quick motion. Suddenly Tia and I are flying towards it and we end up face to cloak with it in a matter of seconds. My strength starts to drain quickly and I fall to my knees, getting wet from the exposure to the surface of the water. Tia does the same.
The hooded figure starts to screech and Tia and I cover our ears. I feel liquid covering my hands and I pull them from over my ears to see blood. The sight of it freaks me out, and I put them back.
“Your mysterious powers are evil,” the creature whispers, somehow screeching at the same time. Its voice is creepy and raspy. Every ‘s’ sounds like a lisp. “Give them to me!”
The creature extends its sleeve again, and in a slow motion, it pulls back. Everything starts to become slow motion and every sound goes away. I fee like I’m being suffocated as a golden ball of light starts to be sucked out of me and Tia.
“Yes, yes,” the creature says. I somehow get the strength to look behind the creature to see the moon changing from orange, back to white. It shines brighter than ever and I start to feel my strength regain. I slowly start to stand up, Tia joining me, and the gold ball of light slowly makes it way back to me.
“What?!” the creature hisses loudly. I feel the light reenter me as the moon returns to its original color. One it’s fully white a loud clap sounds. Light stretches throughout the area, but soon disappears. The creature raises a dagger in the air, that’s filled with red liquid, and makes a move to strike. Tia puts her hands up in defense and transparent, yet multi-colored, force field shields us. The creature tries to strike before it realizes the force field and the impact flings it back.
“Run!” I yell. We both turn around and start to run on water back to shore. We both cover our ears, knowing a screech was coming, and of course a loud one comes. I grab Tia’s hand, and flit us home, hopefully away from the creature. Neither of us look back, once again…
When we get back home, we see that Mom and Dad still aren’t home. We run inside the house and lock everything. We sit on the living room couch, huddled together with our knees pressed against our chest.
“It’s over, it’s over,” I quietly mumble repeatedly to myself. Tia just keeps her eyes closed. My heart rate fails to start going down.
“Leah, what’s happening?” I ask slowly in a worried voice. The windows of our house all break at once, making a loud shattering noise. Leah and I immediately duck and put my hands up in defense, Leah stopping the ones coming straight for us with her telekinesis.
“Mom, Dad!” Leah yells.
Leah grabs my arm and runs us into the living room. Suddenly dark clouds start to seep through our house and suffocate us. Leah let’s go of me and I start to feel drained. Then out of no where a boy and a girl fly into our house.
“What the hell is going on here?!” the boy yells. The darkness starts to overcome them also.
“Nick!” the girl yells as she, too, starts to get suffocated. The boy looks at her with a frantic look.
“Anna, teleport us now!” Nick yells.
A bright, white light flashes and suddenly I’m looking up at the sun.