2

After class, Kaity walked with Jenna. They were talking excitedly about the lesson when Jordan walked, he had his hand extended, like he wanted to shake, Kaity took a step back, and Jenna glared at it. Kaity saw her glare, and expected Jordan to start screaming like Austin did, she hoped he would anyway. This would be a great day for her if it did happen. Jordan looked strangely at Jenna, and took a step back.

“Look,” he said, “despite what this nut job tells you, I really am very nice.”

Jenna replied, “Oh, I’m sure you are, but you know what? This nut job is my friend, and I don’t just walk away from my friends, so, unless you have anything important to say, good bye.”

Jordan’s eyebrows went up, “Well, actually, I was hoping we could be friends if that was ok with you.”


“That would be fine, so long as you don’t mind Kaity hanging around, because she is my friend also.”

“Oh, come on, can we just forget about Kaity?”

“No, we cannot just forget about Kaity!”

“Why not?”

“Listen, don’t you have a girlfriend or someone else to harass?”

Jordan looked surprised, “I wasn’t aware I was harassing you, look, I was just wondering if we could-”

“You know what I’m wondering, Jordan?” Kaity asked, spitting out Jordan’s name like a swearword “is why you are still talking to Jenna.”

Jenna nodded, “I was wondering the exact same thing!” She said grinning sadistically at Jordan.

Jordan shook his head, “What ever, but hanging out with Kaity isn’t going to do you any good at this school, everybody hates her.”

Jill chose that moment to walk up, “Not everybody you jerk, get outta here!”

Jordan walked away with the little dignity he had left after the encounter with Jenna. Jill introduced herself, “Hello, my name is Jill.”

Jenna smiled her dazzling smile at her, “I’m Jenna.”

They gave each other high fives, and started walking together. “What’s your next class?” asked Kaity.

“Science, Mrs. James.” Jenna said, making a face at the word ‘science’.

Jill nodded, “Hey, that’s my next class too, Kaity has advanced math next.”

Kaity nodded, she was disappointed she and Jenna didn’t have another class together. Jill continued talking.

“Mrs. James is soooo weird, her hair is like, all over the place, it’s crazy. But her class is fun...if you know how to text under the desks without getting caught, but you have to pay attention a little, or you fail.”

Jenna nodded, “I don’t have my cell phone with me, it’s packed up in a cardboard box, we still haven’t totally unpacked yet from moving.”

Kaity nodded, “It takes forever, I moved here in fifth grade, and I swear, we are still finding cardboard boxes.”

Jenna laughed, and waved, “Hey, if I’m going to make it on time I’m going to have to go now, see you later, where do you sit at lunch?”

Jill replied before Kaity could answer, “Lunch is after third hour, which would be after science, you can just follow me, I’ll show you.”

Kaity nodded, “Ok, you do that; I’ll see you at lunch!”

Jenna and Jill waved goodbye, and Kaity walked towards her math class, she heard somebody come up behind her. She thought she knew who it would be, she turned around expecting to see the angry face of Jordan, instead she saw a boy, a tall boy. He had hair of about the same dark shade of Kaity’s, if not darker. He had muscular arms, thick muscular legs, and the chest of a body builder, his body had the shape of a football player, or a weightlifter, he was a boy so tall and handsome it made Kaity’s head spin, the type that you only see in your best dreams, the kind that are almost to handsome and charming to be real. He had the same shockingly bright smile of Jenna. His eyes were a happy, deep, sapphire blue, identical to Jenna’s. They had a humorous look in them, just looking into them made Kaity feel like giggling, she refrained with maximum self control. He spoke in a deep voice, musical in a way, but it frightened Kaity.

“I’m sorry, but do you know where room 306 is, I can’t find it, and I have been looking for it for forever!”

Kaity stuttered, “Um, it, it’s right next to my next class, um...”

The boy grinned, “Great, I’ll just follow you, I’m Logan by the way.” He held his hand up. Kaity had to jump to give him a high five, Logan laughed. “Sorry, I’m new here, just moved in with my little sister three days ago.”

Kaity gasped, “Is your sister Jenna?”

Logan nodded, “You know her?” He asked excitedly.

“Yes, she is soooo nice!”

Logan shook his head, “She has an attitude, you should see her at home, she gets grounded all the time.”

Kaity nodded, “She does have an attitude, I noticed, but still!”

Logan nodded again, “Yea, you’d have to be stupid not to notice! Has she gotten in trouble yet?”

“Well, she just pissed off the most popular kid in the eighth grade, on her first day here, that can’t be good for her reputation if you know what I mean, but he had it comin’. His friend whistled at her, and somebody else tried to touch her, if you get my meaning...”

Logan had stopped walking, “Oh wow, she hates the whistling, but someone like to touch her, you mean like, harassment type?”

Kaity nodded, “but he couldn’t, Jenna glared at him, and he started screaming, it was weird.”

Logan paled, “She did what?” he said, practically yelling, and then stopped him. “Oh, um, I need to get to 306 now...” Kaity pointed towards the room he was looking for, and he dashed to it quickly.

“Peculiar.” Kaity said, to no one in particular, “I need to find out more about Jenna and her family.”

The bell began to ring, and Kaity rushed to her classroom, making it to her seat by the time the bell was done ringing. The lesson began, it was a review of Algebra, Kaity was bored, she has gotten 100% on the test, and knew that they would be going over this for quite some time. She began to think, wondering what it was about Jenna and Logan that made her suspicious, she failed to notice when the teacher called on her, she was close to it, something about them both that wasn’t natural.

“Kaity!” It was the math teacher, Kaity jumped.

“Sorry, sorry, I zoned out!” She squinted at the overhead, it looked weird, she copied down the problem and answered quickly. “X equals 7!”

The teacher smiled, “Correct Kaity, pay attention next time ok?”

Kaity nodded, but she could help feeling annoyed, she had been close! It was something about the two newcomers, she had almost had it!

The bell rang twenty minutes later, and Kaity stood up, putting her notebook away, the teacher came up to her, speaking quietly.

“Are you ok Kaity? You seemed unusually distracted during class today.”

Kaity nodded, slinging her backpack over her shoulder, she winced as a small thread locked onto her hair, pulling it, she loosed her hair and replied, “Yea, I’m fine, I just was thinking about something, it’s been bugging me, and I’m so close!”

The math teacher patted her shoulder, “You figure it out sweetie, you always do.”

Katie felt a surge of gratitude towards the teacher, “Thanks,” she said. Then she walked out the door of the classroom, she walked slowly for a little while, and then began to jog, she was excited to get to lunch. She reached the table where she usually sat, but to her Dismay, Jordan was sitting there, his little group of people surrounding him, Jenna sat on the far end of the table, Jill sat there too, they both looked rather unhappy about the crowd at the table, Kaity heard a whistle, and someone shouted to Jenna.

“Hey baby! Forget those freaks, come sit over here!” Kaity didn’t look over to see who did it, until the kid yelled, he clutched his head. Jordan looked at him with his eyebrows arched, the kid moaned, “Major headache,” he muttered, “my head is killing me.”

Jordan replied, “Well suck it up!”

Kaity laughed, and Jordan growled at her, “Shut up,” he said, and then cussed at her, Kaity glared and walked over to where Jenna and Jill were. Jenna looks at Kaity.

“Took you long enough, these idiots have been flirting with Jenna for the past four or five minutes, it’s sickening.”

Kaity replied, “Five minutes, it couldn’t have taken that long!”

“Ok, it’s more like two minutes, where were you?”

“Had to stay behind to talk to the math teacher.”

“Oh, what’d she want?”

“I don’t really know, she thought I looked distracted today.”

“Were you?”

“No!” Kaity lied.

“Oh, ok then,” Jill said. “So what’d you do in math today?”

“Ugh, an algebra review, it was booorring!”

Jenna giggled, “Funny, algebra is fun to me...or as fun as you can get with math.”

“Yes, it usually is, but after a week of working and testing it gets old.”

Jenna nodded in agreement, “Yea that would get a little annoying after a while.”

Jill nodded in agreement, and Kaity sat down, pulling a slightly squished bag-lunch from her backpack, she dumped its contents, an orange, some grapes, a slightly flattened sandwich, and a chocolate muffin. Jenna looked at the muffin.

“What kind of muffin is that?”

“Chocolate, why?”

“Banana-nut is better.” Jenna said.

“Oh, no way, you did not just say that banana-nut muffins are better than chocolate ones!”

Jenna nodded, “It’s a fact of life, banana-nut muffins are always better than chocolate, it’s against the laws of nature for them not to be.”

Jill shook her head, “You’re both wrong, blueberry muffins are the best.”

Jenna thought for a second then said, “No, still banana-nut, but blueberry comes close.

“Where’s chocolate then?” Kaity asked

Jenna replied easily, “Oh, way down next to orange-nut muffins!”

“Is there even such thing as orange-nut muffins?” Kaity asked curiously.

“Oh, the nastiest things I have ever eaten, next to that cockroach I ate on a dare, are orange-nut muffins.”

“You ate a cockroach?” Kaity said, aghast.

“It was for truth-or-dare, it was gross, it turned out it had all these little eggs in it, I took a bite, and all the eggs spilled out, it was soooo gross! I threw up like, five times, and was sick for like two days afterwards!”

“I’ll bet!” Kaity said, “That is disgusting.”

Jill grimaced, “Hey Jenna, Jordan wants you to go sit with him.”

Jenna turned her head slowly in Jordan’s direction, glared at him, and said, “You know what Jordan, I think I’m going to report you to a counselor!” She turned back to Jenna, “This school does have counselors right?”

Kaity nodded, “Yea.”

Jenna turned back; Jordan was red in the face with embarrassment and anger. One of Jordan’s friends stood up from the table and strutted over to Kaity’s end of the table.

“Yall best had done what Jordan says,” He said stupidly, “You don’t want’a make Jordan mad.”

Jenna glared at him; he yelped and took a step back, holding his arm and rubbing it.

Cursing madly for a few moments, he walked back muttering, “I must’ve gotten stung by something.”

Kaity looked at Jenna for a few second, before asking, “Why is it that whenever you glare at people they start hurting?”

“Huh?”

“Social Studies today, Austin started screaming when you glared at him, why was that?”

“I don’t know, odd coincidence I suppose.”

“Yea must be.” Kaity said, but she still wasn’t quite sure. Then, for the sake of conversation more than anything else, said, “Your brother is very nice.”

Jenna, at that time, was chewing a bite of pizza, she heard the comment and choke, swallowing the pizza down, and spewing crumbs and flecks of pizza sauce across the table as she coughed. “You, you talked to him?” She said incredulously, “Whoa.”

“What?”

“I dunno, its just seemed weird to me I guess. Why do you think he is nice?”

“Oh, he was very polite, he couldn’t find his third hour.”

Jenna shook her head, “That little flirt knows exactly where his classes are! He found them at the beginning of school today, oh wow, guess he just can’t wait to start making friends with the girls...”

Kaity laughed, “I didn’t mind...and probably still wouldn’t mind! He was hot!”

Jenna coughed again, and burst into hysterics. “Oh, hahahaha! That’s good, I bet he’d love to hear that, his girlfriend back home looks almost exactly like you, except for taller and blonde.”

Kaity replied back in a pleading tone, “Don’t tell him I said that!”

Jenna shook her head, still grinning, “Don’t worry, I can keep a secret.”

Jill shook her head, “I can’t, so don’t tell me!”

Kaity nodded, “Ok then, I won’t!”

Jill nodded, “Thanks.”

Jenna was still giggling as the lunch bell rung, “I’m sorry, I just think that’s funny! If you had a brother or a sister you’d understand.”

Kaity nodded, “Ok, so what’s your next class?”

“Um, an elective, I took choir at my old school and liked it, so I figured, what the heck!”

“Alright! That’s my next hour, choir is fun, but the teacher is kind of crazy, like, honestly, it’s hilarious in class!”

A mocking tone from behind her made Kaity turn around. She growled, “Jordan, can’t you just leave us alone?”

Jordan shook his head, “I’m afraid I can’t, I still haven’t made friends with the beautiful newcomer.”

Jenna growled a reply, “And you aren’t going to, jerk, get away from me!”

Jordan assumed a hurt look on his face, “Oh, your upset, do you need a hug?”

Jenna stopped walking, raised her hand, and slapped Jordan...hard! Kaity could see a handprint from where the slap had hit him, Jordan yelled in pain and jumped backward, swearing at Jenna, “You’ll pay for that!”

Jenna ignored him, “Come on Kaity, we have to go talk to a counselor.”

Jordan shut up, and then called to her, “I’m sorry.”

Jenna didn’t look back as she replied, “I’m not!”

Jenna marched right up to the counselors office, and Kaity followed her, hesitating slightly as she pulled open the door, and walked in, then, knowing it was for the best, she walked in after Jenna. For the first time ever at school, she felt in control.

3

Jenna walked in, the feeling of control Kaity had had as she followed Jenna had dissipated and been replaced by fear. She began to think of the massive friends, friends who looked like Jenna’s brother, only much more hostile. What a way to start off a friendship Kaity thought ruefully, I’ve known her for an hour and I already have a crush on her brother, had the number of people I made friends with doubled, and am now reporting Jordan Kay, the bane of my existence. She thought she heard Jenna giggle a little when she thought about Logan, but put it off as an odd coincidence.

Jenna walked up to the desk where the school counselor’s secretary sat. The secretary looked up, and seeing the look of anger on Jenna’s face, knew there was a problem.

“How can I help you dear?” She asked.

Jenna replied quickly and snappily, “This is my first day at school and I have to report someone,” she muttered to herself, then answered the secretary’s question, “I would like to report continuous sexual harassment.”

The secretary’s eyebrows shot up at that, “Who is your counselor dear?”

Kaity stepped in, “We both have Mrs. Verla,” she said, giving the name of her counselor.

“Oh, you have perfect timing girls, she just got back from lunch break, if you had come a minute earlier you would have missed her!” Said the secretary.

Jenna nodded, “Excellent.” She replied.

The secretary looked at Kaity, “You’ll have to wait outside until she is done dear, if you have anything to report.”

Jenna shook her head, “No, were reporting the same person, just for different reasons.”

The secretary nodded a little slowly, “Ok, I just have to warn you, if you are just lying to get a student in trouble, you get detention for a week.”

Jenna nodded, “Acknowledged, thank you.”

“And are you still going to report this person?”

“Yes, we both are.”

“Ok, Mrs. Verla is in that room over there.” The secretary said, pointing to a room with a large number ‘1’ in brass on the front of the door. Jenna strode toward it, Kaity followed her nervously, she was still thinking about Jordan’s massive friends. Jenna got to the door and spun around on her heel. Kaity looked at her questioningly; Jenna placed a hand on her shoulder and whispered,

“It’s going to be ok, nobody is going to hurt you.”

Kaity was baffled; it was as though Jenna knew exactly what she was thinking, but she hid the surprise, and nodded, following Jenna as she opened the door. The counselor looked surprised to see them, not expecting trouble that soon after she got back from lunch.

“How can I help you two today?” She asked.

“We would like to report Jordan Kay for sexual harassment.”

“Well, sit down, this could take a while, often this sort of thing is misinterpreted for flirting, you know.”

Jenna sat, and Kaity took a second smaller seat.

“Now, what exactly has he done dear?”

“Well, it’s not just him, it’s his friends too, they keep whistling at me, flirting, shouting crude things, the basics.”

“Well, the whistling could just be flirting.”

“It makes me uncomfortable, and it’s embarrassing.”

“Ok, have you asked them to stop?”

“I slapped one of them,” Jenna said, “She has told them to stop,” She said motioning to Kaity.

The counselor shook her head, “Violence is no way to solve problems!”

“Well, madam, I had made it clear I didn’t want to be friends with him, but he keeps on trying to flirt with me, he has a girlfriend, so it’s pointless and irritating!”

“I see, is it just Jordan who whistles?”

“No, Jordan is the worst, he keeps making me uncomfortable, trying to get me to sit next to him, insulting my friends, it’s his little group of friends who whistle and say crude stuff.”

“What kind of crude stuff?”

“Does it matter?”

“Yes.”

“Ok then, for an example” Jenna said “one of them whistled at me and said, ‘hey girl, come over to my house, lets see you get down!’ it’s sickening, but the worst part is that nobody cares, they laugh, slap high fives, and act like that’s totally normal, it is totally embarrassing!”

“The counselor shook her head, “Your right,” she said, “that is totally inappropriate, did you know his name?”

“I heard some of them say, ‘nice one Tim!’ that might be it...”

The counselor clicked on something on the laptop on her desk, pulling up two pictures, she asked, “Is it either of them?”

Jenna answered, “The last one, white skin, scar on his head, red hair, goofy smile.”

“Ok, I’ll talk to him, and Jordan as well.”

“Thank you!”

“Is that all?”

Kaity answered this time, “Actually, I’d like to report Jordan for something else.”

The secretary shook her head scornfully, “The kid just can’t stay out of trouble today, can he?”

“It’s not just today, but I met Jenna today...and she kind of convinced me to tell on him, it’s for his own good.”

“What did he do then sweetie?”

“Everything he shouldn’t, he graffiti’s the naked people on the wall last year, wrote the swearwords on the library door, he smoke cigarettes, he drinks, I’ve seen him do drug’s, he gets in fights, it’s just a long list!”

“How do you know all this, he obviously couldn’t have told you.”

“He brags about it to his friends whenever the teacher leaves the classroom.”

“What class is this?”

“Science.”

“Ok, we’ll have him take a drug test, thank you very much for helping the school!”

Kaity nodded, she felt like a huge weight had been tooken off of her chest, it felt good to tell on Jordan. The bell rung and the secretary wrote them a late pass, so they didn’t get in trouble.

They walked to class, Jenna was silent, and Kaity was trembling, Jenna finally commented, “Why are you shaking?” She asked, “You told on him right? It’s over!”

“No, Jordan’ll find out, and then he’ll beat the crap out of us, I just know it!”

“Logan wouldn’t let those jerks beat up his sister!”

“What about me, I don’t have an older brother!
“He won’t let a girl get hurt at all; he hates it when people try to hurt a girl, that’s what happened to that one guy at the supermarket.”

“Huh?”

“This guy at the Supermarket was picking on my mom, he was drunk and being a Jerk, Logan was two years younger then, the drunken guy tried to hit my mom, Logan nailed him in the face. It broke the guys jaw, knocked out some teeth, he was really mad at the guy. The guy fell over, and lost consciousness, and my mom called 911, it was scary, I hadn’t seen Logan hit anything that hard, I thought he killed the drunk! It was scary!”

Kaity shuddered, “Broken jaw...ouch! I almost feel bad for anyone who tries to pick on us.”

Jenna laughed, “Almost.” She said.

They reached choir, Jenna walked up and said something to the teacher, the teacher nodded and handed her the music for their concert. Jenna walked back and stood next to Kaity. Now there is something you should know about this choir classroom, they didn’t have chairs, there was what looked like a miniature half of a football stadium, made of metal and covered with carpeting. When they weren’t singing they sat on that, when they began to sing they stood on the steps. The teacher, Mr. Curpeture, led them in the warm up, then started on Carol of the Bells Jenna had a wonderful singing voice, and Mr. Curpeture was blown away by the quality of it. As the song started and Jenna began to sing, Mr. Curpeture stopped directing, mouth hanging open, Jenna’s voice was like listening to the very heart of music itself. The rest of the choir class turned around, mouth’s forming ‘O’s. Jenna blushed a little. The teacher noticed, and got the class back on track,

“Alright children, we need to continue, Jenna you have a wonderful singing voice by the way.”

Jenna nodded, “Thank you sir.”

“Quite alright, now, let’s start from the beginning again! Ready?” He waved his conductors baton in the air, and the class began to sing, but Kaity couldn’t help herself from casting sidelong glances at Jenna as she sang.

Class ended and somebody Kaity recognized, but did not know the name of, walked up to Jenna, followed by another person Kaity did not know the name of.

“That’s was amazing singing today!” The first girl said, “Oh, by the way, I’m Miranda, and this is Emily.”

Jenna nodded, “Thank you.”

“Would you like to sit at our table at lunch?” The second girl, Emily, asked.

“I’d love to!” Jenna said, then added, “So long as you wouldn’t mind my friend here, Kaity, joining me.”

Miranda wrinkled her nose, “Why would you want to hang out with a nerd?”

Kaity answered angrily, “Just because I’m smart doesn’t mean I’m socially retarded or something, jeeze!”

Miranda seemed tooken aback by Kaity’s annoyed tone, “Ok, calm down.” She turned back to Jenna, “Alright, fine, Kaity can sit with us too.”

Kaity kept a straight face, but mentally cheered. Miranda and Emily walked away, and Kaity started laughing happily, “Dang Jenna! You are awesome!”

“Like I said this morning, I don’t walk out on my friends.” Jenna replied.

“I know, I know, but still, you rock!”
Jenna grinned, “Thanks!”

“You don’t need to thank people for telling the truth,” Katie said.

Jenna laughed again, and they walked towards a random destination.

“What’s your fifth hour?” Kaity asked.

Jenna thought for a moment then said, “P.E. I think.”

Kaity shook her head, “No way that is my fifth hour too! That’s so weird!”

Jenna nodded, “I know, oh, by the way, I got in late today, what’s your first and second hour?”

“English, with Mrs. Perigord, and Science, with Mrs. Plach.”
Jenna nodded, “I have your English class too! Weird! What’s your sixth hour?”
“Science, but we don’t have that together.”
Jenna shook her head, “No, we don’t.”
“Dang.”
Jenna giggled.
“What?” Kaity asked.
“Nothing, it’s just, I’ve known you for barely four hours, and it’s like were best friends.”
“Need I remind you that you make up half of my friends here at school?”
Jenna nodded, “Acknowledged, but don’t worry, I make friends fast, which means you make friends fast!”
Kaity nodded, “Thank you for that.”
“No problem, do you have a cell phone?”
“Yes, who doesn’t?”
“Just asking, can I have your number?”

Kaity gave it to her, and Jenna smiled, “Thanks, here,” she wrote something down on a piece of paper and handed it to Kaity, “it’s my number, just don’t call ‘till I tell you it’s ok, ‘cause my parents still haven’t found my cell phone and if kept going off it’d drive them crazy!”

Kaity nodded, “Ok, I can wait until then,” then said, “C’mon, I always take too long to get to class while I’m talking to you, We have to run the mile today, this is the last one though, then we do dancing!”

Jenna nodded, “Sounds like fun!”

“It is, I loved dancing last year!”

Jenna nodded, “You have the body shape for a dancer, tall and skinny.”

Kaity shook her head, “Jordan and his friends always tell me I’m fat.”

“This is Jordan were talking about, the kid who I reported to a counselor on my first fricking day!”

“Whoa, you reported someone?” Even the voice sounded attractive, Kaity thought sighing mentally, deep, booming, and had a kind of laughing sound to it, but a deadly steel hard edge that made Kaity’s hair stand up.

“Hey Lo,” Jenna said to her older brother, “what’s up?”

“Nothing much,” Logan said, then just randomly started laughing, at least, it was random to Kaity. He raised an eyebrow at Jenna who nodded, and Logan laughed again. Kaity sighed again, his laughing was like listening to an instrument.

“Interesting sis,” Logan said, then he turned his attention onto Kaity, “hey, your that person who helped me find my classroom today!”

Jenna giggled when Kaity nodded shyly, she turned to Logan. “You big flirt, you knew where all your classes are!”

Kaity shook her head, “I didn’t care!”

Logan laughed again, and Jenna turned around and made eye contact with Logan, Logan sat there for a moment, and then grinned widely.

“Acknowledged sister, you have a point.”

Kaity sensed that there was something she was missing, as if they were communicating without her knowing. It was a strange feeling.

“So, um, where are you going next?” Kaity asked quietly. It had been ages since she had felt anything but annoyance towards a boy; she couldn’t even remember ever liking one, it was annoying to her to see how hard it was to communicate.

“P.E. you?”

Jenna nodded, “I knew we had a class together, welcome brother!”

Kaity was screaming with joy inside, but she contained it to just inside.

Jenna giggled again, and Logan raised an eyebrow at her. Jenna shook her head, “Not telling.” Logan shrugged, and Jenna gasped, “You wouldn’t!” She said out loud, then covered her mouth.

Kaity looked at her with interest, “Wouldn’t what?”

“Nothing,” They both said.

Kaity shrugged, but she was annoyed, there was something she was missing and she was dying to know what it was that she was missing out on. They reached the P.E. locker room, and Logan waved a muscular arm at them, and then jogged off towards the boy’s locker room. Jenna followed Kaity in, but left to go to the coach’s office. Kaity walked over to her locker, but before she could make it, somebody stepped in her way, stopping her.

“Hey, Dyke!” The figure said, using Kaity’s last name.

Kaity sighed in annoyance, “What do you want Teresa?” Teresa was Jordan’s girlfriend; she had dyed black hair, which was always in a ponytail. She had three piercings in her left ear, and had dark purple lipstick, her fingernails were black and she had a rose tattoo on her bicep. She was thick in build and had more skull than brain, in Kaity’s opinion.


“What do I want?” Teresa asked, “Are you stupid Kaity? My Boyfriend just got caught with a pack of cigarettes and some weed in his pocket! How did they know to look for him?”

“You see Teresa, unlike you, these people have a brain big enough to realize when someone is doing something stupid or wrong.”

Teresa growled, and Kaity glared at her, “Move!” she said icily, Teresa laughed mockingly, then shoved Kaity hard, Kaity stumbled back, banging her head against a cement wall , a teacher shouted at Teresa,

“Teresa that is enough! Detention!”

“But I didn’t do anything!” Teresa wailed.

“I’m not blind Teresa, you just shoved her because she asked you to move not to kill your mother or something, and it’s as easy as stepping sideways! So you get a detention! Kaity, are you ok dear?”

Kaity nodded, “Yea, I’m fine, thanks coach Peters!”

“No problem, tell me if anyone else bullies you at school, ok? It happens all the time without teachers even knowing, but the students do, and I want it to stop.”

“Sure thing, thanks.”

Teresa swore and stomped away. Kaity giggled a little as she saw Teresa stomp away, Jenna walked up to her,

“What was that all about?”

“Jordan got caught with drugs and some cigarettes, and she blames me.”

Jenna laughed, “Nice, she was close though, hey, my mom is going to be gone today, she has a job interview, do you mind if I come over to your house, I’m sorry to ask on such short notice, it must be terribly rude.”

“I don’t mind at all, and my mom won’t mind either, she was always skeptical on the number of friends I have.”

Jenna nodded, “Ok, thanks!”

Kaity nodded, “No problem.”

P.E. started, and Kaity quickly changed into her gym clothes, Jenna sat down, she was excused from dressing out until her gym cloths got unpacked. Kaity was excited, this was the last mile and the only thing that would spoil that usually was that the last mile was always run with the boys P.E., but today, that would mean running with Logan.

The class finished dressing out, and about three minutes after that, they left for the track. Kaity and Jenna stood together, talking about the weather and how much they hated it when it was hot. Logan walked up to their group, ignoring the admiring glances from the girls, and the jealous glances from the boys.

“Hey sis, hey Kaity, how’s it going?”

Kaity nodded, still nervous, “Um, good...”

Logan laughed, one of those sporadic things he seemed to do around Jenna, Kaity speculated, she wondered if they found a way to communicate without her knowing, like telepaths. She dismissed the thought, but it still bugged her. The coach was explaining the path you run for the mile, as if anybody had forgotten since last week. The coach made everybody line up in a semi-orderly fashion, and then shouted for them to start running. Kaity started off at an easy jog, she was getting faster she noticed, it seemed like she was sprinting, she made it past the quarter mile marker without breaking a sweat, and didn’t start breathing hard until the half mile marker, and even then it was just barely breathing hard. She had made it to the three-quarter mile marker in five minutes, Logan was ahead of her by at least a minute, and Jenna was ahead by about thirty seconds. She finished the mile without ever stopping to walk, and she had practically sprinted the first half. She stopped, Jenna was leaning against a wall, talking to Logan. They were both breathing easy, despite the fact that they both just ran five minute miles. Kaity shook her head,

“How do you run like that?”

Logan looked up, “Very carefully.”

Kaity giggled, “Nice,” She said.

Logan smiled and Jenna looked up at him, making eye contact again.

“Whoa, stop.”

Jenna broke contact, “What?”

Every time you do that Logan starts laughing and you start nodding, it’s like your communicating without talking!”

Jenna laughed, “Yea, sorry, Logan can’t make eye contact for long periods of time without laughing, so I do it to bug him.”

Logan nodded, “It sort of works.”

Kaity nodded, feeling stupid. “Oh...sorry.”


Logan laughed, Kaity sighed inwardly, his laugh was amazing.

Jenna giggled as she thought that, and Kaity had a strange sense that Jenna could read her thoughts, but she didn’t pursue it because she didn’t want to make a fool of herself in front of Logan again. They headed back, Kaity humming to herself, today had gone perfectly, and she had one class left! She walked into the locker room, trying to dwell on the happy thought, and not on the mystery of Jenna. She dressed back into her normal cloths, and talked happily, periodically Jenna would laugh, it was always a random thing, often when nobody had said something, and when the class let out, Kaity was left wondering what Jenna knew that she didn’t and a new mystery about the already mysterious group of Logan and Jenna.

4

Kaity was walking home with Jenna that day, Logan, to Kaity’s intense pleasure, had called home and had been told he had to come with Jenna. Jenna kept giving him strange looks, which Logan ignored. Kaity and Jenna talked happily; Logan made an infrequent reply, but for the most part was content to let the girls chatter. Jenna told Logan about the scuffle in P.E. between Kaity and Teresa, and Kaity blushed. Logan didn’t notice at least, which was good. It took almost twice as long to get home, Kaity walked in the door.

“Hey mom!”


“Oh, hello sweetie! How was your day?”

“Fantastic, greatest day of my life!”

Kaity’s mom walked up to the front door, she looked suspicious, “Did Jordan Kay get in trouble?”

Kaity nodded, “As far as I know, he got sent to Juvie, he got caught with some drugs and stuff in his pocket.”

Kaity’s mom gasped, but she didn’t say anything, she saw Jenna and grinned, “Who is this? A new friend?”

“Mom, jeeze, I’m in eighth grade, not kindergarten!”

“In kindergarten you had more friends!”

“In kindergarten, you and dad weren’t divorced, and Jordan Kay wasn’t in my life.”

Kaity’s mom nodded, “Yes,” she sighed, “That’s true.”

Jenna spoke, breaking the awkward silence that followed Kaity’s mom’s sad statement. “Um, hey, you don’t mind if we come over do you? We just moved here, and my mom’s at a job interview.”

Kaity’s mom shook her head, “No, I’d love for you to stay!”

“Excellent!”

Kaity’s mom paused a moment, then said, “Wait, what do you mean ‘we’?”

Logan, who had been leaning against the door, in a shadow, stepped into the light, Kaity’s mom gaped, then caught herself, “Whoa, Kaity, you never said anything about a boy...he’s tall!”

Logan laughed, “Yea, I get that a lot!”

Kaity’s mom nodded, “I can see why...come in, come in, what are you doing outside, come in, both of, I still haven’t learned your names!”

Jenna stepped inside, Logan followed. “I’m Jenna.” Jenna said.

“And I’m Logan.”

“Well I’m very glad to meet you both!”

Kaity rolled her eyes, “Come upstairs, we can hang out in my room.”

“Alright, you guys have fun! Kaity do you have any homework?”

“Yea, math and science, I’ll get it done mom, don’t worry!”

“Ok! Just checkin’ oh, the phone guy came today and cut the power for the phones, he’s on break right now, but your phone won’t work!”

“Thanks’ mom!”

They walked up the stairs to Kaity’s room. Kaity’s room was a classic teenage room. Posters, music and CD’s, a computer, and cloths and other objects strewn over the floor. Logan nodded, laughing, “Nice place you got there! It looks girly enough.”

“Is that good?”

Logan laughed and nodded, “No need to be self-conscious.”

Kaity nodded, “Sorry, I’m not used to having friends.”

“We figured, the way your mom treated us like the best things ever.”

Kaity nodded, embarrassed, “Ugh, that was sooo embarrassing! I swear, mom’s are so weird!”

Logan shook his head, “It was cool, I like it when parents are good to their kids!”

Kaity nodded, “So do I, but it was still embarrassing.”

Jenna laughed, “C’mon Logan, you’re not getting anywhere with this.”

Logan laughed and shook his head, “Nope, let’s go do something!”

They played around and chatted inside for a while, then got bored of this, and left to Kaity’s backyard. After Kaity’s parents’ divorce, her dad had begun making astounding amounts of money, and her mom had been forced to start working, child care came monthly, her dad had never forgotten, and around Valentine’s day and Christmas more money came in the mail. Logan played her on a foosball table she had gotten as a birthday gift, Logan won. Kaity had never seen anyone move their hands that fast. Kaity played him in a one-on-one round of soccer, while Jenna watched and laughed. Kaity played Jenna in foosball next, and lost again. Jenna was fast, not as fast as Logan, but fast. She also had a cunning streak that Kaity began to notice as soon as she began playing. Kaity lost by a greater margin than she did with Logan. She suspected Logan had gone easy on her. Kaity didn’t mind that she had lost, she wasn’t a sore loser, what she hated were those people who rubbed it in, but Jenna and Logan didn’t do that. The day ended leaving Kaity grinning widely, Logan said he had to go, and Jenna went with him reluctantly. Kaity did her homework quickly, and rushed down the stairs to dinner. Somebody, to her great surprise, was already down there. It was a tall figure, and at first she suspected her mom had gotten a boy friend, but remembered her mom’s boss was coming over for dinner. She shook hands and introduced herself.

“Hello, I’m Kaity Dyke!”

The man nodded, “And I am Gregory Kay, perhaps you know my son, Jordan?”

And Kaity gasped, because standing behind his father, was an angry looking Jordan.

5

Jordan was glowering, and his father patted his shoulder, “Remember, the policemen will be by soon to pick you up.”

Kaity’s mom looked up, “Policeman?”

“He has some issues there going to work with, it’s all ok though. They allowed him to come to this.”

“Oh, isn’t that nice?” Kaity’s mom exclaimed.

“Yes, yes, I agree, although what he has been doing has gotten him grounded until ninth grade.”

Jordan grumbled, “Shut the,” he said a rather nasty swearword, “up.”

His dad hit him on the back of the head. Kaity winced as she heard the whack. Jordan growled, and rubbed his head, “Dad, I need to take a piss, where the heck is the bathroom in the dump?”

“This is not a dump Jordan, remember that, this woman is very intelligent.”

A concept Jordan is pretty foreign to. Kaity thought.

Jordan growled, “Dad, that’s not helping, where is the bathroom?”

“Up stairs,” Kaity said, jabbing her thumb towards it, take a right, on the left of my room.”

“Fantastic, let’s see if I can do that without ruining my dad’s life.” Jordan grumbled, marching up to the room. Kaity helped set the table, it had been a while since she had set for more than just her mom and her, and usually she wouldn’t mind setting for more people, as eating with just her mom got very boring, but that was under normal circumstances. Now, she was eating dinner with Jordan Kay and his father, and she hated the idea of that. They began eating, Jordan still wasn’t out of the bathroom, his dad didn’t notice and dug in. The dinner was delicious, beef roasts, baked potatoes, fresh salad, carrots, celery, and brand-name root beer. Jordan’s dad complimented it quite often.

“How did you get the meat so soft?” He asked for the fourth time.

Kaity’s mom laughed, she didn’t mind at all. “I boiled it in a crock pot for an hour, and then cooked it in the oven.”

“Brilliant!”

Kaity’s mom laughed again, and Kaity groaned under her breath, it was disgusting. She thought she heard a small noise from upstairs, but that would have been from her room, as there was nothing to make noise within the bathroom.

Jordan’s father put another cut of meat on his plate. It wasn’t long before that piece of succulent food was gone. Salad was next on his plate.

“Delicious, did you grow the lettuce yourself?”

“No,” Kaity’s mother said, “But I did do the cucumbers.”

“It’s delicious!”

“Thank you!”

Kaity’s cell phone went off, and she jumped, she forgot it was in her pocket. She answered it quickly, Jenna’s excited voice came over the phone.

“My cell phone just got unpacked!”

Kaity laughed “I noticed.”

“Just calling to say hi then!”

“Ok, tell Logan I said hi too!”

“Oh, you’re just as bad as he is!”

“What’d I do?”

“You big flirt!”

“I am not a flirt!” Kaity exclaimed.

“Oh, now you’re a flirt and a liar.”

Kaity laughed, her laugh sounded different, more musical in a way, that it usually did. Kaity was taken aback, Jenna laughed a little.

“What?” Kaity asked.

“Your laugh, it just sounds different, sorry.”

“I was thinking the exact same thing!”

She heard Jenna laugh again. “Ok, just calling to tell you my phone was unpacked! Now I can text you during class so I don’t die of boredom!”

Kaity laughed again, it was still the different, musical laugh. “Ok, listen, Jordan Kay’s dad is over for dinner, so I have to go.”

Jenna gasped and nodded, “Yea, ok, you do that!”

“Bye.”

“Bye.”

Kaity hung us just as Kaity’s mom was pulling an apple crisp from the oven. Jordan’s dad licked his lips.

“Shame Jordan’s-” Jordan’s dad swore vehemently, rocketing out of his chair.

“Jordan, he hasn’t come down yet!”

Kaity’s mom gasped, “Oh no!”

Kaity rocketed up the stairs as soon as she had heard that, and turned to her room. It was trashed, paper everywhere, her desk was on its side, and her computers screen was smashed in. The window was smashed completely, and a drop of blood was on a shard of glass. Kaity’s cloths were all over the floor, and some CD’s were cracked into points and propped up on the floor. Kaity wove her way through, and saw that in the backyard Jordan had slashed the hose and turned it on to full blast. There was mud everywhere, and the grass was trampled. Kaity was aghast, Jordan had destroyed her room. Her phone rang again, she answered shakily, and Jenna’s voice shouted at her, “Get out of the room, now, quick!”

Not knowing why she did, or how Jenna knew she should get out of her room, she bolted out. A loud crack was heard, and Kaity screamed. Kaity’s mom ducked, and Jordan’s dad yelled.

“Get down, the little retard has a gun!”

The voice from the phone spoke again, Kaity pressed the phone to her ear, “Logan’s coming, it’ll be ok.”

Kaity whimpered, “Jenna, thank you so much! How did you know?”

“I know anything I want too, it’ll be ok Kaity, just calm down. Logan should be there by the time I finish this sentence.”

A loud knock came at the door and Kaity nodded to herself, “He’s here, thank you so much!”

“Don’t bother, it’s fine.”

“No really, you saved my life.”

“I know, it’s fine.”

Kaity whimpered, “I’m scared.”

“I know, now answer the door, or Logan’ll bust it down.”

Kaity walked towards the door. Logan was standing there, his massive, muscled, and to be honest, extremely attractive frame was extremely comforting to Kaity.

“Logan, you’re here! How did you get here so fast?”

“Have you ever seen me sprint?”

Despite being on the verge of a nervous breakdown, Kaity laughed, “No.”

Logan laughed; the deadly musical sound cheered Kaity up. Kaity’s mom was sobbing with fear, and Jordan’s dad was whispering to her, comforting her. Logan grinned at Kaity, “Come on,” He said, “I take it he trashed your room?”

“How did you know?”

“Jenna knows everything she needs to.”

Kaity nodded, “What is up with her? It’s freaky!”

“Me and her are freaks like that, but don’t let it worry you, it’s nothing supernatural.”

Kaity nodded, “That’s good.”

Logan placed his hand on her’s, in an effort to calm her down It was warm, no, not just warm, hot, practically burning hot. Logan spoke calmly,

“Kaity, you need to calm down, do you have a television?”

Kaity liked Logan holding her hand, “Yea, TV that sounds good, but, wait! It’s in front of a window, Jordan could shoot...”

“Kaity, two things, I won’t let anything hurt anybody in here, and Jordan didn’t have an actual gun, it was a pellet gun.”

“It was?”

“Yes, now, how about that TV?”

Kaity nodded, “Yea, thanks Logan.”

Logan let go of her hand, “It’s fine, I’m going to go check on your mom, she looks traumatized. Kaity nodded, she was afraid, Jordan was out there, he was angry, and he hated her, Kaity, it was her he would come after, Kaity didn’t know how she knew this, but she did. She walked to the family room, the TV was new, it was a present to Kaity’s mom from her dad, that marked their anniversary, even though they were divorced, the 54 inch plasma screen was possibly the best most expensive part of Kaity’s simple family room. She turned it on and started watching TV, she clicked the channel to a cartoon, a few minutes later her mom plopped down next to her. Jordan’s dad was calling the police and Logan had shut off the hose in the backyard and sat back down next to Kaity. Small drops of water evaporated off his skin. Kaity noticed, and Logan shrugged.

“I’m hot, what can I say?”

Kaity giggled.

Jordan’s dad came into the room. “The police are looking out for him, I don’t know how he got a hold of a gun...”

“It’s a pellet gun sir.”

“How do you know?”

“I looked, the bullet was a pellet.”

“Where did the bullet hit?”

“Right below the window, conveniently cutting phone lines, I’m guessing one of his friends was tracking your call.”

“What is this, a murder mystery?”

“Close sir.”

“What is it then?”

“A runaway criminal, he is now technically able to be arrested and sentenced to prison.”

Jordan’s dad paled, Logan chuckled quietly and whispered, “Jenna was right.”

“What?” Jordan’s dad yelled, “Who is Jenna?”

“My sister.”

“What was she right about? What is your sister?”

“She’s what I am, just different.”

Jordan’s dad paled, “There is more of you freaks?”

Logan growled it was a deadly, frightening sound. “Not freaks, get that in your head!”

Kaity interrupted. “What?”

Logan was about to reply, then he clutched his head, he looked cross, “I have to go, Kaity stay out of trouble!”

“I try Logan.”

“I know, but I have only known you for a few hours, and your already getting shot at.”

Kaity laughed weakly. Logan walked to the open door, and sprinted outside. He was extremely fast, and just as he disappeared from Kaity’s sight, a blinding flash of molten light was gone. Kaity ran over to the door, the asphalt of the road had little flames flickering on it.

Jordan’s dad swore angrily, he shoved past Kaity and jogged to his car, and sped off. Kaity glared at the car, and Kaity’s mom put a hand on her shoulder.

“What the heck just happened?”

“I don’t know.”

“Ok, let’s just leave it at that, c’mon, let’s go watch some TV, your shaking.”

Kaity nodded, “Yea, TV sounds good.”

Kaity watched TV until about ten o’clock, and then finished her homework and went to bed. But she didn’t fall asleep, for the rest of the night she sat in bed, thinking, thinking, she needed to know what it was about Logan and Jenna, she knew they weren’t normal, and she had a basic idea about what was not normal, but she needed to know more, the sun began to rise and Kaity still was thinking. She had to know...she had to know.

6

School that day was slow, Jenna didn’t come to class for the first hour of school, and Kaity was dying to talk to her. Second hour came, and she practically sprinted to her next class. Jenna was there already, sitting calmly in her chair. The second Kaity came into the room Jenna stood up.

“We need to talk, Jordan on the loose isn’t good.”

“I know that, he’s out for me, I need to know something.”

“Logan said not to tell you anything.”

“What?” Kaity yelled.

“Listen, can we talk outside?”

“Yes.”

Jenna walked out, Kaity followed.

“I can’t tell you anything.”

“Why not?”

“One second.” Jenna said, she closed her eyes.

“Logan says I can’t show you anything either, or I would.”

“What would you show me?”

“That would be telling you about it, listen Kaity, I will be able to explain everything relatively soon, at least...if my guess is right.”

“What’s your guess?”

“Can’t tell.” Jenna said, after pausing a few seconds.

“Can I ask, and if I get it right you can answer yes or no?”

Jenna thought for a second. “Sure.”

“Can you read minds?”

Jenna swore.

“Is that a yes?” Kaity asked.

“Yes.”

“How?”

“This conversation has gotten too dangerous for you Kaity, I recommend you stop these questions for a little while.”

Kaity shook her head, “One more question, it’s been killing me.”

“Fine, but only a yes or no question.”

“Are you and Logan mortal?”

Jenna took a second to reply. “In a sense, we can die of old age, we can be killed, but we cannot get sick or die of any of that stuff.”

“Immortals.....crazy.”

Jenna winced, “Logan’s pissed, come on, we need to get inside before the bell rings.”

“Why is Logan pissed?”

“Because I told you so much, come on, we need to get inside.”

Kaity sighed, “Jeeze Jenna...”

“What did I do?” Jenna said, sounding slightly offended.

“Nothing, but I’ve only known you for a day...this is crazy.”

“Then why did you ask?”

“I wanted to know.”

Jenna shook her head, “If I’m right, and I am right ninety-nine percent of the time, you would have found out sooner or later.”

“What do you mean?”

“I can’t answer that, Logan’s pissed enough as it is.”

They sat down. Austin, Jenna’s partner, was back that day. He kept looking at Jenna, who ignored it, although once, she glared at him. He quailed under the glare, and clutched his head protectively. Jenna put on a show of listening to the teacher, but Kaity could tell she wasn’t paying attention. Jenna would smile at random intervals, once she gave a quiet giggle, Kaity wondered what she was doing, but she didn’t dare ask.

Mr. Rapier was doing a lesson on the economy, and a great thing about Mr. Rapier’s class was it had games, fun visual aids, and movies all the time. You couldn’t be bored in his class. Kaity laughed at one of the movie clips he was showing to help his students learn about the economy. The movie clip ended and the class packed up. Mr. Rapier spoke now.

“Homework is on page 706 of your workbook, only do one through ten.”

The class groaned and Mr. Rapier chuckled.

As Kaity packed up, Mr. Rapier spoke out loud. “Kaity and Jenna, can I talk to you?”

Kaity and Jenna both nodded, “Of course.” Mr. Rapier nodded, and walked into the back office, beckoning them to follow. They did and he spoke, softly.

“The counselors were talking about this today, when I went in to get some paper for the printer, they said the reason Jordan got in trouble was because two girls came in, they mentioned your names,” He nodded to the two of them, “Jordan is on the loose, there was a police report on it, he’s dangerous, and if he finds out, he could hurt you, I want you to report anything out of the ordinary about Jordan’s friends to me or a counselor, ok?”

Kaity nodded, “Don’t worry Mr. Rapier, we will.”

“Ok, that’s all I needed, thank you.”

They nodded and waved goodbye as they left the classroom. Jill was waiting outside for them and they began to walk together, gossiping happily for a while, Kaity waved goodbye to Jenna and Jill, and walked towards her math class. She walked inside, the math teacher waved at her. Kaity sat down, and waved back. The class went by slowly, Kaity made sure she paid attention and managed pretty well. Class ended and Kaity packed up quickly, bolting out the door. She heard the math teacher laugh a little. She reached her table, only to find it empty.

“Kaity!”

Kaity whirled around, to see Jenna waving at her from a different table; she remembered that Jenna had gotten invited to eat with the two people from choir class. She walked over to the table Jenna currently sat at. Jenna scooted over, someone at the table groaned.

“Why is the nerd sitting here?”

“Because she can.” Jenna said calmly.

“Did you invite her here?”

“Surprised nerds like me actually have friends?” Kaity snapped back.

“Well...no, but-”

“But what? Case closed.” Jenna said.

Miranda, the one who had invited Jenna to sit at the table in the first place just nodded, “Guys, the nerd can’t be all that bad.”

“Yes she can!”

“Is she?”

“Um...I don’t know...”

“Then don’t say anything bad about her.” Miranda finished. She turned apologetically to Kaity, “Sorry about her, she can get annoying sometimes.”

Kaity nodded, giggling, “It’s fine, I get used to it.”

“Yea, sorry about that, but Jordan has this school in a death grip, so I couldn’t really get to know you.”

“Jordan’s arrested now, so I should be good!”

Miranda laughed. “Well, not arrested yet.”

“But soon.”

“Hopefully.”

Jenna gave one of her random bursts of laughter, or at least Kaity thought it was random. Then she saw the gawking look of half the girls on the table. She followed there gaze and saw they were gawking at Logan. Logan walked up to Jenna’s table. Some of the girls giggled happily.

“You forgot your lunch at home Jenna.” Logan said.

“Thanks bro.” Jenna replied, I’m starving.”

Logan nodded, “Yea, I wonder why.”

The table giggled.

Logan ignored the giggling and admiring glances made at him. “Kaity, can I talk to you?”

“Um, sure.”

“Ok, let’s walk.”

Kaity got up, “Um, what do you want to talk about?”

Logan sped up, walking as far away from the table as possible before answering. “What did Jenna tell you?”

“I thought you knew.”

“I need to hear it from you, I’m hoping she kept her mouth shut.”

Kaity shook her head. “She told me she could read minds, and that you were immortal..well, not immortal, but dang close.”

Logan growled.

“Listen, why is it such a big deal?”

“Because it just puts you in more danger, the more you know, the worse off you are when Jenna and I are involved.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about Jordan; did Jenna say how we could die?’

Kaity thought for a moment. “Yea, she said you could die of old age or be killed...”

“Do you have any idea how impossibly difficult it is to kill us?”

“No, why, does Jordan know?” Kaity said, sounding panicked.

“No, don’t worry, but don’t ask any more questions.”

Kaity groaned, “I have so many questions though, this is going to kill me.”

“Let’s hope not.” Logan said grinning.

Kaity nodded, “Ok, thanks for the heads up.”

“No problem.” Logan said, they high-fived each other, Logan winced.

“Sorry, did I high-five too hard?” Kaity asked.

“No, not that, I haven’t felt actually pain in years, it’s something else...I’ll figure it out.”

Kaity walked back, Jenna looked at her. “I’ll tell you about it later.”

Jenna nodded. Miranda, along with most of the other table were staring at Kaity now.

“Was your boyfriend?”

Kaity laughed, “I wish.”

“Oh, seriously, are you friends?”

“Yes.”

“Lucky you!”

Kaity just nodded. The bell rung, and Kaity walked away from lunch, with more on her mind than ever before.

7

Choir started and Jenna took her usual place standing next to Kaity. Class went by quickly with Jenna, who was a very entertaining person to stand next too. When the teacher said it was time to pack up, Kaity was alarmed; she looked at the clock, and saw that there was only a minute left in class. Hurriedly she stuffed her music in her backpack and sat down. She talked excitedly to Jenna about PE class, then she realized with a feeling of dread that next week was dancing. She usually looked forward to dancing, but Logan was in her PE class. She shuddered, Jenna laughed.

“Next week is dancing? My old school didn’t do that.”

“How did you know?”

“Your thoughts are interesting.”

Kaity clutched her head protectively, “Don’t do that!”

Jenna giggled, “Relax, I don’t do anything but read your thoughts.”

“You mean you can do more?”

Jenna swore, “Can’t answer.”

Kaity remembered what Logan had said, “Ok, sorry.”

Jenna nodded, “What did Logan tell you today?”

“Not to ask questions is the summary of it.”

“Oh.”

Kaity laughed, “Yea.”

“So, what do you want to talk about?”

“What is your mom like?”

Jenna pause a second, and stuttered, “Um..well...”

“You do have a mom right?”

“I haven’t seen her in years.”

“Do you live alone?”

“No.”

Kaity sighed, “Are your parents divorced?”

“Yes.”

“I feel your pain.”

Jenna nodded, Logan met up with them. They walked to class, talking about theur parents, PE started and they did their own separate sports. The class ended, and Jenna and Kaity walked to their next classes, which passed a little more slowly. They parted and left for home, Kaity jogged home, excited, annoyed, and confused from her day at school all at the same time.

“Hey mom!”

“Hey Kaity, how was your day?”

“Good-ish, but confusing.”

“Oh, what was confusing?”

“Some stuff learned in social studies,” Kaity lied.

“Oh, ok, ask if you need help!”

“Ok mom!” Kaity said. She sat down and started her homework, and finished after about thirty minutes, when you were as smart as Kaity, homework didn’t take long. Now bored, she busied herself with cleaning up after Jordan’s destruction. She finished hanging up the strewn cloths, and began to clean up the cracked CD’s, the room was finally looking clean when her phone rang. She answered.

“I’m going to kill you Kaity.” Kaity shrieked and hung up. It had been Jordan who called.

“Mom!” Kaity yelled.

“What?” Came the reply.

“Help, Jordan just called.” Kaity said, panicking. She was scared out of her wits, tears were running down her face.

Kaity’s mom came bounding up the stairs, “Jordan just what?” She yelled, “Call the police quick, trace the call!”

“I hung up.” Kaity said, her mom skidding into her room.

“Oh, Kaity sweetie, your crying, what did he tell you?” Kaity’s mom asked.

“He said he was going to kill me!”

“That’s ridiculous Kaity, the police are looking everywhere for him!”

“I know mom,” Kaity said wiping her eyes, “sorry, it just freaked me out.”

“I know it did Kaity, here, do you want to go on a walk with me?”

Kaity nodded, “Yes please.”

“Ok, let’s go.”

The walk was nice, cool weather, the leaves had already fallen off of tree’s and there were Christmas lights up, it had grown slightly darker and everything was quiet, silent actually. Arizona winters didn’t have snow, which explained why there was no fluffy white carpet on the streets, and people’s yards. Kaity walked and talked, her mom asked about school, asked about Jenna, and Logan, asked how Jill was doing. Kaity liked talking to her mom, and by the end of the walk, felt better, still scared, but she felt better. She went to bed, ignoring the slight mess left from Jordan’s wrath, and awoke feeling much better. It was a Saturday, and her mom didn’t have to work, which meant she was sleeping in. Kaity crept down to the kitchen to make breakfast. She hummed to herself as she pulled a box of cereal from the cupboard and poured it into a bowl. She took some milk out from the refrigerator and poured it in.

She was crunching away at the cereal when her phone rang, she answered unconsciously.

“Hello?”

“Hi Kaity, are you doing anything today?”

“Jenna?”

“Yea, it’s me, listen, Logan and I were planning on going to a movie or something like that. Would you like to come?”

“Wait, a movie or something......I’d love to come! But my mom is asleep.”

“I know, she has hilarious dreams, reading her mind is almost as fun as reading yours.”

“What does she dream about?”

“Today she was dreaming that a congressman was chasing her with an executioners axe made out of chicken feathers, when suddenly her hand turned into a laser gun, so she turned around and shot him, then stole his wallet and went on a shopping spree on a mall on the moon.”

Kaity started laughing hysterically, “That is soooooooo weird!” She said, “Holy cow! My mom is weird.”

Jenna laughed, “I know, I haven’t seen such interesting dreams since I read the mind of that one three-year-old who lived next to me about four years ago.”

“Nice, one second, I’ll check.”

“No, don’t wake your mom up; she works hard, how about we come over there instead?”

“That’d be fine!”

“Excellent! We are on our way!”

Kaity laughed, “Ok, I’ll see you-”

Before she could finish her sentence, the doorbell rang, Kaity jumped, Jenna’s voice came over the speaker on the phone.

“We run faster than you think.”

Kaity nodded, “Forgot, you are immortals.”

“Not immortals, but fast fricking runners.” Jenna said.

Kaity walked over to the door, Logan and Jenna were there. Jenna grinned, Logan looked as though he had been listening to the conversation, because he had a large grin on his face. Kaity also noticed he was dripping wet.

“Did you run through a sprinkler?”

Logan looked down at his shirt, “Oh, yea, hope you don’t mind...”

The water was turning into steam right on his shirt, it was already going away, Kaity stared in awe as she watched. Logan shook his head, grinning.

“It’s kind of handy, the water evaporating and everything.”

“Yea....come on in.” Kaity said.

Logan and Jenna stepped in. Jenna was closing her eyes. She stood still for a moment, and then laughed.

“Your mom is dreaming again.”

Kaity frowned, and Jenna nodded.

“Ok, no parental mind reading.”

“Thanks,” Kaity replied.

Jenna laughed and nodded. Kaity walked into her living room, Logan’s shirt was now completely dry now, Kaity was careful not to think anything that Jenna could transfer to Logan at a later time. Jenna and Logan sat down on her couch. Logan sat up after a second, muttering.

“Might burn a hole in the couch.”

“What’s your power?”

Logan turned his head sharply in her direction, “What?”

“Sorry, I know I shouldn’t ask, but um, what’s your power?”

Logan frowned, “If I tell you...”

“I’ll be in more danger, I know, but in my lifetime, everything I knew was able to help me.”

Logan sighed, then, quickly opening both palms of his hands, so they were flat, and faced them up. Kaity gasped as a second later, his hands exploded into flames. Flames covered his hands. Logan flicked his wrist, and concentrated, the flames centered into concentrated balls of fire in his hands. He flicked his wrist again, and the flames were sucked back into his hands. For a moment, nothing happened, then, Logan’s eyes flashed deadly, fire red, it was only for a second, and as soon as Kaity noticed, his eyes were back to normal. Kaity’s heart was beating at incredible speeds in her chest. She took deep breaths to calm herself. Logan shook his head sadly.

“I control fire.”

Kaity nodded, “I noticed.”

“Kaity, me and Jenna don’t want you to get hurt, we can’t show you anymore, so just don’t ask, ok?”

“How can knowledge hurt me?”

“You can know to much, what if Jordan comes to get you?”

“I know what to expect, knowing this won’t be the reason he’ll kill me.”

“How can you talk about getting killed so easily?”

“Because I won’t let him kill me!”

“It’s not your choice, it’s his.”

“Listen, you and Jenna keep hinting at something, that I would have found out sooner or later, I’m not normal. Something’s happening to me, and it’s going to happen soon, so I need to know as much as possible, right?”

“Jenna suspects you have talent.”

“What? What kind of talent?”

“Well, were not quite sure.”

“Are there more of you?”

“You’re asking questions.” Logan said.

Jenna answered Kaity’s question, “No, just us.”

Logan growled at her.

“Logan, she has a right to know.”

Logan growled again, then replied, “She will know, just not right now, Jenna, no more.”

Jenna shook her head annoyed, “Whatever Lo, you’re in charge.”

Kaity was a little excited. Kaity’s mom woke up about an hour later. Jenna asked if Kaity could go play around with them for the day, Kaity’s mom nodded.

“Be back by seven tonight Kate, ok?”

Kaity nodded, “Sure!”

That day was the best day Kaity had ever had! They went to a movie first, it was a very funny movie, and Kaity hadn’t been to the movies in a long time. She loved it. Next they went and played at a park. They came out from the park laughing, and covered in dust. Kaity had never gone shopping with other girls before; it was almost too good to be true. She went to several stores, and must have spent about eighty-five dollars. She had lots of money, and she almost never spent it. Logan bought them all lunch, then they went out and played some more. While Kaity and Jenna waited for Logan to come out of a store, they chatted happily. When Logan came back, he had an armload of fireworks, he was grinning mischievously. Kaity laughed, the fireworks were the best of all. Logan tossed them into the air, them, with a snap of his fingers, lit the fuse and sent them rocketing into the air. They exploded, then, Logan would close his eyes, and the sparks in the air would change colors, spell words, move in intricate patterns. Occasionally they would have to move from place to place because of complaints. By the end of the day, Kaity was dirty, sweaty, exhausted, and grinning like a maniac with excitement. She flopped into bed that night, stomach full of her mom’s excellent meatloaf, and head buzzing with thoughts. As she went to sleep she thought she heard Jenna’s voice come into her head.

“Sleep good Kaity,” the voice said, “you’ll need all the rest you can get for the next week.”

“Ok,” Kaity mumbled, and fell asleep.

8

Kaity woke up, her breath coming in gasps. She had the remnants of a nightmare in her head, and she knew she didn’t like it. Her throat was dry, and she realized tears were streaming down her face, she wiped the away, and walked downstairs to get some water. She saw a bright red light as she did, a voice came into her head.

We’re sorry Kaity.

Kaity mumbled something, then her heart jumped in her chest, the voice in her head was Jenna’s!

Jenna! What are you doing? What are you sorry about?

Didn’t mean to wake you up.

How are you talking into my thoughts?

Magic. The voice said sarcastically.

Kaity growled.

Chill, Kaity. The voice said.

Sorry. Kaity thought, feeling stupid.

She felt a funny tingling inside her head; it was gone in a moment. The voice answered her question before it came, the tingling in your head? Sorry, I laughed.


Why’d you laugh?

I am unable to explain under current circumstances.

Oh.

Yea, I know, weird, but whatever, it’s cool with me. Listen, get the drink and get to bed.

One question.

I can’t answer questions Kaity. Jenna’s voice said into her thoughts again.

It’s not that kind of a question.

Oh, ok, shoot then.

Did you say you woke me up?

Yea, sorry, I was thinking about what’d happen to you if Jordan got a hold of you.

Oh. Kaity was surprised, why were you thinking about that?

It’s always possible Kaity.

Yea, I guess.

Listen, you need rest, emphasis on the need in that sentence. Get some sleep.

Kaity nodded to herself, and thought back her reply, Ok Jenna. She filled a glass with water, and took it to bed with her. The thirst she had was occupying most of her mind now. Her throat ached for some water, it burned actually, like she had swallowed gasoline and a match to go with it. She glugged the water greedily and plopped down into her bed. Falling asleep instantly, she awoke the next day, to see light streaming through her window. It was Sunday she knew, Kaity had never been very religious, but always did what she considered ‘Sunday appropriate’, which consisted of watching TV and listening to music all day. She remembered last night.

Jenna? She thought cautiously.

Yea?

Just checking to see if you’re still in my head. Kaity said. The funny tingling that signified that Jenna was laughing made her giggle a little. A moment later, Kaity almost felt Jenna withdraw from her mind. She sighed relieved, she didn’t like Jenna watching her thoughts. She went down stairs and poured some cereal, then turned on the TV. Her Sunday went as it usually did, un-eventful. Occasionally she and Jenna had what she called ‘brain chats’ which was a highly amusing name to Jenna. The next day came sooner than Kaity expected, which was the way weekends are, and she realized that her weekend had ended a little too soon for her liking. She met Jenna and they talked happily until fifth hour. They started dancing, Kaity looked around the room full of people nervously. There was a solid rule for dancing. Your partner had to be of the opposite gender.

The PE teacher for seventh grade boys PE began explaining rules for dancing. Then the classes lined up, the guys selected partners for the first day. Kaity sighed, she was going to get picked last like she usually did. She closed her eyes and leaned against the wall she was standing next to.

“Do you want to be my partner?” The voice was deep and very attractive. Kaity opened her eyes. Standing in front of her was Logan, she sucked in her breath sharply.

“Um, duh.” Kaity said, Logan grinned widely at her.

“Excellent!” He held out a hand to her, she took it smiling. She felt the heated skin touch hers and she winced, but continued holding his hand, she was sure she must have been blushing. Logan, she noticed, winced too, although she couldn’t think of why he would do that. After a while she got used to his hands, and Logan looked like he had recovered as well. Logan was an excellent dancer, and Kaity loved dancing with him as much as she loved talking with him, or hanging out with him. The week passed, every day she would dance with Logan, which caused much jealousy among all the girls in PE. At the end of that week, Christmas break started.

Christmas break was wonderful, most of the time during school holidays Kaity would be bored, but with new friends she had the time of her life.

Jenna was skilled in not only singing, but an excellent pianist, and taught Kaity how to play, Kaity was pretty good, but she was better at a stringed instrument, which she learned how to play from Logan. There are several types of string instruments, Kaity found she was best at the Viola, which like the Violin, the difference being a string. While the Violin strings went from E, A, D, G; the Viola strings went A,D, G, C. The viola part was rather boring at times, but it sounded beautiful. Kaity increased in her singing skill as well. She learned how to kick field goals from Logan, how to do front flips from Jenna. She learned how to control her breathing while running so she could run faster for longer, she learned dancing, she learned how to burn CD’s to replace the ones Jordan Kay had broken while escaping her house. When Christmas came near, she went and bought them both presents, spending the hundreds of dollars she had saved from over two years of not spending a cent. Christmas day was wonderful, Kaity’s mom cooked a delicious feast of cooked duck, and turkey. She cooked potatoes, mashed them, made baked potatoes, boiled asparagus, created mouth-watering rolls, and blue-berry muffins. She picked oranges and limes, made appetizing food from both, cooked two wonderful pies, cherry pie, and black-berry pie. Drinks were made. Limeade slush was the main drink, sodas were also available. Family came down to visit, and to Kaity’s immense pleasure Kaity’s father came down as well. Kaity’s mom was happy to see him as well, but a little wary. Logan came over on Christmas day, along with Jenna, they both thanked Kaity profusely for the gifts they had received. Logan had gotten a new Violin from Kaity, and Jenna had gotten almost an entire new wardrobe of name-brand clothes, Kaity explained that after months of not spending money she had almost had two-thousand dollars of spending money. Logan laughed, he shook everyone in the family’s hand. Jenna and Kaity talked happily. She had gotten a present from both Logan and Jenna, Logan had bought her an ornate bow, the little stick the she needed to have to play her instrument. Jenna had gotten her shoes created specifically made for dancing. After a few minutes they said they had to leave or their dad would get mad. But Kaity talked to Jenna with her thoughts until they had reached home, where Jenna withdrew to enjoy Christmas with her family. Kaity opened presents played around and talked to her dad and extended family. Her mom was making pancakes, and Kaity helped. She felt, there was a glow in her chest, she giggled more freely, talked louder, laughed more happily than she had done ever before in her life. Even three days after Christmas, when she was talking to Jenna and Logan she noticed the glow in her chest. She played around a lot, Logan had gotten several boxes of fireworks for Christmas, and on New Year’s Eve, he blew a box of red and gold ones, Kaity enjoyed that. Logan and Jenna were her best friends, which is why when she found the note on the table the last day of winter break, she opened it quickly and eagerly. It read,
Dear Kaity,

We are so sorry we left, but we had to go immediately, we found whereabouts of Jordan Kay, and took off in pursuit. We will be back, and await that day eagerly! You are so close to becoming one of us it frightens me, and only because Jordan has found out. His cause threatens your life Kaity, what he will do to you is to horrible to imagine, and Logan said we need to stomp him out right now. I will leave my cell phone number enclosed at the bottom of the letter, but we need you to listen. Jordan Kay is in downtown, he will come for you soon, but how soon I don’t know. I will be watching Jordan’s mind at all times, which means my cell phone is our only hope of communication as of now. Once again Kaity, we apologize for the inconvenience.
Sincerely,
Jenna Menaltis
(555-669-1111 only call after eight days have passed, or something happens.)
Kaity read the note over and over to herself, Jenna was...gone? She had left her for who knew how long, and Logan too. Tears fell onto the letter, and Kaity sighed, life without Jenna could be hard, Jordan’s friends could hurt her now as well. But she could do this. She folded the letter and put it into her pocket. A knock came to the door, she wiped the tears away from her eyes and opened the door. It was Jordan.

9

Jordan was angry, no doubt about it. He was scowling, his head was covered in dirt, mud, and blood and his cloths were torn and ripped. It was obvious he had been running earlier. He growled at her, a deadly click seemed to reverberate across the kitchen, Kaity looked to see the source of the clicking noise, it was a knife. Kaity assessed the situation. Her family members, all of them, were at the airport. She couldn’t call for help, he was three feet away, he’d have a knife in her before she could dial a number, and the same logic applied for running. She knew the house better than Jordan did, she could get a knife from the kitchen...but it was too late, Jordan was moving closer. Behind him, for the first time, Kaity noticed three other people. All Jordan’s closest friends. Kaity swore, she didn’t have a chance against four people. She took a step back, Jordan and his cronies followed. She swore again, she couldn’t make it away and outrun four people, she would die here. She didn’t have a chance, she knew Jenna was tracking Jordan, but she was beyond help now, Jordan was here, Jenna wasn’t, and it was Kaity who would have to face him now, or die trying. She went over her chances again, there were few and her survival rate with a murderous looking Jordan and his friends would be low. She had to try though, if she could make it long enough for help to come, she would be ok. She looked up towards the stairs, only a few feet away. Jordan took another step towards her, one more step and she was within the knife’s reach. Kaity ran for it. She bolted up the stairs, Jordan swore heinously and charged after her, roaring death threats, Kaity bolted to her room. The window was closed, frantically she tried to open it. A steel grip halted her efforts. Jordan’s hand clamped around her shoulder, she spun around to face him. Jordan removed his hand from her shoulder, shifting it to her neck and lifting her off her feet, he slammed her into a wall, Kaity gasped violently for air. Jordan laughed sadistically, glaring hate at her all the while. His knife tickled her chin, she began to cry. Tears of fear streamed down her face. Jordan laughed cruelly.

“Your gonna die slow Kaity, yes! Yes you are, but first, I need some information.” Jordan cackled as more tears streamed down Kaity’s face.

“Your not getting any information from me you coward, get out of my sight you despicable animal.” Kaity choked out from Jordan’s death-grip on her neck.

“You slimy tart, I’m going to gut you for that.” Jordan growled. Kaity’s vision was dimming, she was losing consciousness from Jordan’s killer grip on her throat. “Where’s that hot friend of yours? Hmm, did she leave you? I wonder why?” Jordan said cruelly. “Everybody hates you Kaity, you’re a freak!”

Kaity felt a pressure building up behind her eyes, she hoped it wasn’t more tears, she didn’t want to die sobbing pathetically, it seemed such a stupid way to go. Jordan smiled, but Kaity didn’t notice. The pressure behind her eyes was killing her. Now she felt a pressure in her hands, like something was sucking all the skin off from the inside, the pain of it was horrible, she yelled in agony. The effort was taking a lot of energy, Kaity was fighting for consciousness. Jordan growled and removed her from the wall. She sucked in oxygen gratefully. Jordan threw her down onto the floor. Kaity whimpered as she hit the ground. Jordan’s friends were watching with amusement. Jordan kicked her hard in the ribs. Kaity screamed in pain, and then coughed. She saw red, and realized that she had coughed up blood. She was sobbing in total agony now, she was positive that ribs were broken. The pressure in her eyes was making her wish her eyes would just pop out and get it over with. Her hand felt like the skin was getting peeled off them by a dull razor. Her chest now had an aching pain in it, that pulsed through her body like a heartbeat, adding to the pain caused by her ribs. Jordan laughed maniacally, brutally, totally uncaring. Perhaps that was why it happened, why she snapped, to this day Kaity couldn’t tell you why, but after hearing Jordan’s sadistic cruel laugh, she snapped. The pressure let out after long being pent up, and it felt as if another consciousness filled Kaity. She felt her ribs reform, a small scar on her foot heal over, and any other injuries shoot back to whole as if they were never there. She screamed in total mind-numbing pain as she grew, this wasn’t an ordinary growing pain. She felt the agony of growing inches in seconds. Somewhere in her subconscious she knew she was the exact height of Jenna. Her hair grew longer, going from her shoulders to about her waist in an instant. Her eye’s changed from warm brown, to ocean blue. She screamed as racking pains filled her body. She heard Jordan yell to her to shut up, but she couldn’t. Jordan grabbed her in a vise-grip, and Kaity saw his arm draw back through the tears of total pain. She knew what Jordan was going to do, and she didn’t care now, anything to get away from the pain. Jordan gave an angered yell, and Kaity felt the cold steel of a knife touch her flesh. She felt nothing else. At last the dam of power broke, and an overwhelming darkness came, and then...she could see! Everything was in picture-perfect clarity. Every detail exact. Kaity tried to move her arm, but her own will was nothing compared to what had tooken over her mind and body, she heard a voice ringing in her perfect ears, but the voice was not her own. It was beautiful, hearing it made Kaity think of water, rivers, swimming pools, boating at the lake.

“Tidal pull.” The melody said. Jordan Kay shot forward, pulled by an invisible force right to Kaity’s open palm. The voice turned deadly now, but still musical and lovely, like the ringing of a church bell marking a funeral. “Drift.” Jordan Kay was sent flying backwards; he crashed into a wall, his leg made a wet crunching noise, Kaity’s small portion of consciousness had a violent urge to vomit. Instead the being turned on Jordan’s friends. Outstretching her hand, Kaity’s deadly wonderful voice sang out.

“Erode.”

Kaity watched in horror as a jet of boiling hot, extremely fast moving steam flooded the man. When the mist cleared nothing was left but the smell of cooked meat. Kaity was abhorred, but the greater part of her conscience didn’t care. One of Jordan’s friends pulled out a large handgun. Kaity longed to scream, the beautiful, deadly Kaity didn’t. The gun went off explosively. Kaity saw a shower of water, but felt nothing.

“Flash flood!” The bell voice sounded like a gun, tolling another victim of her deadly element. A swirl of water surrounded Kaity, like a miniature hurricane that she controlled. Her finger pointed, the water shot off, crushing into the man. He fell to the floor after all the water was done hitting him. Water had flooded him. It trickled out his nose and ears, and he vomited the liquid several times before collapsing. The wall had an imprint of his body in it. Kaity inwardly screamed, outwardly, no emotion showed. Finally something caught Kaity’s eye. An iron sheath knife had just been removed from its casing.

“Bubble!” The musical voice thought. A protective watery shield flooded over her, she felt herself levitate off the floor, and the bubble went over. The knifeman had lunged, but was flung off. The bubble began to spin at hurricane force speeds. The man was undaunted, he leaped again, and was thrown as fifty miles per hour out the window, and he slammed into the wooden fence and shot through it. Finally Kaity turned, slowly and deliberately. Jordan was clutching his distorted leg and sobbing hysterically. Kaity dismissed the water bubble.

“Healing mist,” The bell said, Jordan’s leg healed in miraculous timing. He stood shakily. Then withdrew a gun from his pocket, shakily he pointed it at Kaity.

Kaity’s small portion of her mind was seething with anger, and the voice, once bell-like and beautiful, now was angry, and deadly as a raging river.

“Tidal trickle.” The voice screamed. A single drop of water shot of her outstretched hand and flew, at almost the speed of sound, Jordan stumbled back as he heard the hissing voice, and that saved his life. The single drop slid through flesh and slid through like a knife, it cut his cheek and went up his cheek. He yelled and charged out of Kaity’s room. Kaity wanted to follow him, but something happened to her. A pain in her chest, spreading, it seemed, with each beat of her heart. She winced as it soon overwhelmed her body, slowly feeling returned to her limbs. She could move herself, albeit very slowly, she was aching everywhere, and the pain was mind numbing, but it seemed to recede, for every two beats of pain, a wave of relief flooded through her. She was huddled by her bed, tears streamed down her face, it seemed to take forever, she wondered where her mom had gotten to, where she was, what was taking her so long. Slowly, very slowly, the pain receded until there was nothing left but a horrible memory. Kaity sat shivering. She saw her cell phone, but it was far away, on the other side of her room. She didn’t want to move. She wondered if she could use her powers still. She decided it was worth a try. Shakily her hand rose.

“Tidal pull.” She thought. Her heart jumped in her chest, her voice! It wasn’t hers at all, it was clearer and more beautiful, she was in major trouble if her mom found out. She had no idea what she would say. She felt her cell phone smack into her palm, she tiredly opened the phone and dialed Jenna’s number.

“Kaity?” Jenna’s voice was confused.

“Yea Jen, it’s me, listen, you need to come back, something happened...I’m not the same.”

“I could tell by your voice, were on the way Kate.” Jenna said comfortingly.

“Thanks.” Kaity said, and hung up, wondering what on earth she was going to do.

10

Jenna arrived with Logan in minutes. Logan was panting but Jenna looked quite ok. Logan walked over to Kaity,

“Came from Phoenix and still beat Jenna here.” Logan said grinning. Kaity was too tired to smile. She had fallen asleep while Jenna and Logan came. Jenna nodded sympathetically.

“Logan she needs a recharge, Kate do you have any idea what your element is?”

Kaity shook her head slowly. Jenna shook her head again.

“Can’t even talk. One second.”

Kaity waited, her throat burned for water, but she couldn’t talk. Jenna’s voice came into her head.

Describe what happened, what did you do, there’s a guy sitting here on the floor soaking wet and half-dead, you did something.

The guy is Jordan’s friend, he tried to shoot me I think, Kaity thought back, yea he tried to shoot me, I...ugh, what was it called.....Flash Flood, that’s what it was, I thought the words ‘Flash Flood’ and got surrounded by a miniature hurricane thingy of water and I launched it at him, it was going fast to, that water was going really fast.

Element...water, yea, there we go! You’re tired...hmm, anything your particularly hungry for? Logan felt like he hadn’t seen sunlight in ages, that’s how he recharges. I sleep to recharge, I slept for a week after I activated...sorry, activated is what we call it, that’s what happened to you...anyway, off topic, anything you are dying for right now?

Water. Kaity thought to Jenna, Jenna nodded.

“Logan, she’s water elemental, get her a glass of water will you, that’s what she needs.”

Logan nodded, “Got it water...welcome to the club Kaity.”

Kaity mumbled.

“Nice Logan, I don’t think she can talk, get her the water quick please.”

“Got it, I’ll be back in a minute.”

Logan was back in seconds, he handed the water to Kaity, who thanked him by mumbling. She sipped the water, it tasted delicious, the best thing she had ever tasted to her parched throat. She drank it quickly. Jenna laughed, “Snap your fingers, I want to see what your crack is.”

Kaity shook her head, and croaked, “My what?”

“Oh, right, you don’t get the lingo yet, it’ll take a while.”

“Oh, ok,” Kaity said.

“Come on, I want to see what happens when you snap.”

“Can I see what happens when you or Logan snap first?”

Logan snapped, and instantly a candle, which Kaity had gotten as a Christmas present from an aunt with no idea what Kaity liked erupted into bright blue flame. Logan laughed,

“Ok Kate, your turn. Snap your fingers.”

Kaity snapped, and the fire went out in a cloud of steam, when the steam cleared, the fire was in a small bubble that surrounded it. Kaity lifted her finger experimentally, the bubble lifted. She motioned it to come forward, the bubble obliged, the fire still burning bright blue. Logan laughed. Kaity snapped again, the bubble went away, the fire fell onto the carpet, Logan snapped his fingers and the flame disappeared. Logan grinned again. Kaity tried to stand, but her legs felt like they had been cemented to the floor. Logan picked her up, or tried too. He yelled and jumped back, steam erupting off his skin, he shook his head.

“I can’t touch her this soon after an Angelic, she’s still got conflict.”

“Huh? Angelic, conflict, what the heck are you talking about?”

Jenna explained, “Angelic is when you are at an overload of energy, or when you get pissed off, it’s like activation except for less painful. Conflict, he can’t touch water, it’s called conflict, it hurts him.”

“What is activation?”

“What just happened to you, didn’t I already tell you that?”

“Oh...yea, you did, sorry.”

Jenna laughed, “It’s all right, what were you getting up for?”

“Still thirsty,” Kaity croaked. Logan picked up the cup again, and walked downstairs, returning about a minute later with the cup full of water and two pitchers of ice cold water. Kaity took the cup from him, and drank greedily. The pitchers emptied themselves as well, she soon had enough strength to stand and get herself water, Kaity walked down to the kitchen, Logan picked up Jordan’s unconscious friend, revived him from his unconscious state, and told him he had fifteen seconds to get his sorry butt off this street for good before they called the police to get him. The kid bolted off at a breakneck pace. Logan waited until he was out of earshot then said he hadn’t planned on calling the police. Instead he counted to fifteen, then ran to the center of the street, he saw the kid already off the street, he laughed as the kid tripped and fell, but pushed himself up. Logan snapped his fingers and walked back inside.

“His pants are on fire.” Logan said, Jenna laughed, and Kaity grinned.

“Well, once again Kate, welcome to the club, any questions or anything off the top of your head?”

Kaity nodded, “Yea, is my mom allowed to know? Do your parents know about your powers?”

Logan looked at Jenna, then sighed, “Ok Kaity, we have something to tell you...it’s kind of awkward, um, me and Jenna haven’t seen our parents in years...so, I don’t know...”

Kaity was baffled, “No parents? Where do you live?”

“Um, you should see our house actually, it’s nice-ish, considering when we found it, it was abandoned and still has to look abandoned.”

“Oh....well, you could move in I guess....but that’d require me telling my mom.”

Kaity’s mom entered the house quietly, she wanted to see what her daughter did while she was gone. Jenna’s senses were fine tuned, she heard the door click shut quietly as Kaity’s mom entered.

“Shut it, Kaity’s mom is home!” Jenna whispered quietly.

Logan nodded, “ Ok Jen, does she have a reason for coming in quietly?”

“She wants’ to see what her daughter does when she’s not home. Kaity, can you look scared?”

Kaity nodded. “Yea, should I?”

“She doesn’t look like Kaity Jen, come on, I’ll get her out of the house, you write a note and get out after us, we’ll go back home and see if the hair is still in brick.”

“Brick?”

“No time to explain, come on.” Logan whispered, he grabbed his hand, wincing visibly and picked her up, holding her in his arms, the sprinted, silent as death, to the back door. The doorknob turned, Logan pushed the door opened. He sprinted out of the house, jumping the backyard fence. Kaity was enjoying herself in Logan’s arms. Logan went fast, she felt some of the energy she had recently gained leave as he moved fast enough to create superheated air friction. Kaity loved it, Logan set her down. The area was familiar but she hadn’t ever been to this exact street before. Logan set her down, and she stood. The house they were in was old, part of the roof had caved in and the only paint on it was old white dusty paint. Spider webs were in every nook and corner of the roof. Logan twisted the doorknob; it opened softly, proving that Jenna or Logan had recently oiled the hideous hinges that were covered in the orange of rust and the black of layers of dirt that was years old. Logan pulled her inside. Kaity looked around the house. It was rather nice on the inside of the aged building. A vase of flowers sat on a recently purchased table. All the clothes Kaity had gotten Jenna were set out on a table, and Logan had several pieces of sheet music on the old cracked couch. Logan had a Viola case on the floor. No food was anywhere to be seen, Kaity remarked on the last observation.

“Eating is for humans,” Logan said jokingly, “we don’t need food.”

“Do I?”

“Nope, your system will actually probably spit it out or won’t let you eat it, I wouldn’t recommend it.”


“How is that going to get past my mom, she’ll notice!”

“Yea, there’ll be problems, trust me, that’s a hard part, learning to control your power. I set fire to a desk at school answering a questions about fires.”

“Oh...that has got to suck.”

“Yea, except for it wasn’t mine, it was an empty one, so nobody got in trouble.”

“That’s good.” Kaity said.

“Yea, you alright? You sound shell-shocked...”

“Is that another slang term?”

“No.”

“Oh, ok, just checking. Yea, I’m a little freaked out.”

“Yea, Jenna will be here soon, then we can see if we can shorten your hair, your about three inches taller...” Logan winced, “That growing bit must have hurt like crazy.” He said.

“It did.”

“Yea...ok, your eyes are blue now, and your skinnier, your face is totally different, its hotter than it was, which surprised me, I didn’t know you could get hotter.”

“Are you serious?”

“Deadly serious, you were beautiful before, but your stunning now, here, look in a mirror.”

Kaity did, she was tooken aback, she didn’t recognize herself at all. Her skin was flawless, a slight tan tone to it that came from inhabiting the valley of the sun. Her nose, once slightly crooked, crooked noses being a genetic thing from her father’s side, was now straight and smaller. Her hair was smooth and lovely brown, straight and silky. Her arms were thin and long, but she could tell they were stronger than ever before. Her body had the hourglass shape that all the super-models had. Her legs were perfect, shaped like a dancer’s. She was the exact height of Jenna. Her eyes were aquatic blue, which matched her element. Logan nodded at her.

“The looks match the element, water is graceful, soothing, calm, but deadly if improperly used, you are going to be much stronger Kaity, but beautiful.”

Kaity nodded, “Yea...thanks.”

“No problem, what are you thanking me for?”

“For the support.”

“Sure thing, it wasn’t any trouble...”

“No, it means a lot,” Kaity said. Logan shrugged.

“Sure thing...”

Kaity had no idea at all what drove her to do it, just an impulse to do it, and she gladly complied, needing no further invitation, she kissed Logan. Kaity loved every second of it. His body was naturally warmer than a normal humans, and his lips were a welcome heat. Logan was caught off guard for a second, then, driven by the same impulse Kaity had been driven by. He kissed her back, Kaity would have laughed with joy but that would require stopping the kiss, which was something she did not wish to do at that moment. Now, if you have ever kissed an immortal, it is quite an exhilarating experience, Kaity loved it greatly, and Logan too found the experience satisfying, Kaity thought she heard the door open and close but she was to focused on Logan’s lips. Finally, Logan ended the kiss, Kaity hugged him.

“I’m sorry, I don’t know why I did that...” she said finally.

“I’m ok with it.” Logan whispered to her.

A voice broke into the happy silence that had fallen when the kiss broke. “Wow that was fun to watch.”

Kaity spun around, it was Jenna, she blushed. Logan released her from the hug to look at Jenna, he was laughing.

“You should try being the kisser, it’s much more satisfying.”

“I disagree.” Kaity said.

“Well I guess I’m not finding out, please, if you could save the yuck fest for when I’m not here that’d be wonderful.”

Kaity looked up at Logan, who reluctantly nodded, “I guess we can spare Jenna, Kate.”

Kaity nodded, grinning. “Let’s hope so.”

Logan nodded, then spoke to Kaity, “Oh, just to make it official, do you want to go out with me?”

Kaity nodded, “Duh!”

Logan gave her a one armed hug, and then said to Jenna, “Ok, just so doesn’t freak her mom out too much, we should cut the hair, curl it at the bottoms too.”

Jenna nodded, “Is it possible to cut it?”

Logan took a knife from his pocket, “The knife is iron Jen, it should be.”

“What does iron do with it?”

“We are only able to be killed by an iron weapon.”

“How long is our life span?”

“I am not totally sure, we don’t have any information on what we are besides what we already found out, there is nobody on earth like what we are, were out own separate species.”

“You’re sure of this?” Kaity said, alarmed.

“Positive, Jenna an me have searched everywhere in the united states, everywhere in Canada, everywhere but the rainforests of Mexico, and three countries in Europe, which is where I believe the first of our kind was born, Charles Dickens if I am correct, read minds like Jenna did.”

“Why are we here? What do we do?”

“I don’t know exactly, we tracked the existence of one of our kind to Phoenix, where we learned she died in Mesa...so we came here.”

“Who was it?”

“Rosalie Marsh.”

“That lady died like...four years ago, I went to her funeral, we have an old box of her stuff in my attic...”

Logan’s eyes opened wide at that, “Well, we’ll check into that later, but you need a makeover...no, wait, let me rephrase that, you will want a makeover, you look perfect.”

Jenna shook her head, “Yuck fest guys, remember our agreement.”

“Just stating facts Jen, she’s beautiful.”

“Thank you!” Kaity said, halting the argument between Jenna and Logan. She smiled at Logan, “Come on, let’s go make me look mortal.”

Logan and Jenna laughed, “Yea, come on then,” Logan said.
…

Kaity entered the house, unaware of another set of eyes across the street. Jordan growled, his cheek ached where Kaity’s moch3 water drop slid through it. It would definitely scar. He walked away, he had to report to his father. Kaity meanwhile was having a day she would not soon forget, almost getting killed, getting powers over an element, and getting the guy of your dreams, Kaity thought to herself, humming as Logan’s iron knife cut through her hair. Today had been perfect.

11

Kaity listened to the rules carefully that evening. Jenna was explaining different things, such as rules, which mainly consisted of not getting caught. Tips for not getting caught if you are ever if a situation where you need to use an ability. She was now explaining slang terms.

“Ok, slang term number one: I think I have used this one before,” Jenna added, “angelic is a form you take, you went angelic when you activated, it is a quick recharge every time except for when you activate, which drains you.”

“Recharge?”

“We have to get the power somewhere, we don’t need to eat, we recharge, like you drink water to recharge, I sleep to recharge, Logan get’s recharged from warmth, he sucks it out of objects.”

“Oh, fun!” Kaity exclaimed. Logan laughed, he had been sitting next to her for the entire run-through of rules tips and vocabulary. Kaity smiled and laid her head against his shoulder, he put his arm around her, Jenna shook her head.

“you two are un-curably romantic, it’s funny to watch.”

“Thank you.” Kaity said.

“Sure, whatever Kate, ok, next term is brick.” Jenna said.

“I was wondering what that meant.”

“Well, when you go angelic you have sharper reflexes, but when you leave the angelic state of mind, you become impenetrable by anything, including iron which is the only thing able to penetrate us or harm us at all that humans can use.”

“So we can hurt each other?”

“Yes.”

“Ok, that makes sense.”

“Next term, crack, no, it is not a drug, our crack is what happens when you snap your fingers.” Jenna snapped her fingers, Logan’s head drooped. “When I snap, people fall asleep.” Jenna explained. She snapped again and Logan’s head popped up.

“Don’t do that, it feels weird.” Logan said, Jenna laughed.

“Alright, next term, extreme’s, the abilities you used when you activated....you were, Erode, tidal trickle, tidal pull, bubble and flash flood, your extreme’s are usually more powerful than just average stuff, you find out more of your usually stuff as you get more experience.”

Kaity nodded, then a thought struck her, “Jen, I am sorry this is an off topic question, but you wrote a note to my mom correct?”

“Yea.”

“What did it say?”

“It said you were over at our house, no address was left, it said you’d be back at around ten tonight, you should call and see if you can have a ‘sleep over’”

“Can our kind sleep?”

“Oh, you only feel the need about once a year, I need to sleep to recharge, but that is only about once every other day.”

“Oh, that’s cool!”

“I agree. Well, those are all the terms I can think of, anything I missed Lo?”

Logan shook his head, “Nothing that I can think of either, that should be it Kaity, you want to call your mom?”

“Sure,” Kaity said, she pulled her cell phone from her pocket and dialed her mom’s phone number.

The phone answered, “Hello?”

“Hey mom, it’s Kaity.”

“Oh thank goodness your ok Kaity, I got home and saw blood on the carpet and thought you were hurt!”

“I’m fine mom, I have no idea where the blood came from though, that is a little weird...maybe I had a bloody nose or something.”

I thought you coughed up blood after Jordan kicked you in the ribs, Jenna thought to her.

Kaity turned to meet Jenna’s eyes, Your right, sorry, I forgot about that.

“Yea, mom, I had a bloody nose, I just remembered, sorry.”

“Oh, Kaity, I was worried, are you coming home now?”

“I was calling to see if I could have a sleep over at Jenna’s, if that was ok with you.”

“What would you do there?” Kaity’s mom asked suspiciously.

“We’d practice some stuff, go over stuff that I forgot over the break, that stuff.”

“Why would you do that at a sleep over?” Kaity’s mom asked.

“I want to get good grades mom.”

“Oh...ok, that sounds great.”

“Thanks mom, I’ll be back tomorrow!”

“Ok Kaity, I love you honey.”

“I love you too mom!”

She hung up, “Alright, Jenna, Logan, what are we going to do tonight?”

“You, are going to drink some water before you do anything.” Logan said, and Jenna nodded.

“We don’t want you to get dehydrated young lady,” Jenna said in a mocking tone.

“Ok, whatever you two say!” Kaity said. Logan pointed outside.

“We don’t have a cup at all, sorry, we to have a water spicket though.”

Kaity laughed, her laugh was very different now, like tinkling bells or a creek bubbling downhill. She walked outside and found the hose, she wanted to try something, and she turned the water. The water shot out of the spicket and sprayed in total disarray, Kaity pointed her hand at the water, and moved it up, the water did nothing. Logan laughed.

“Concentrate Kaity, you need to feel the power in you, close your eyes if it helps.”

Kaity closed her eyes, and concentrated on the water, every scrap of attention was focused on the water, she felt a tingle in her chest that spread to her entire body, she opened her eyes, moving her hand upwards, the water followed, she clenched her hand into a fist, seeing what would happen. The water concentrated itself, and shot upwards at an amazing speed, Kaity quickly slackened her fist so a circle was made, and with the other hand, moved the water up.

“Tell it what to do, it’s easier.” Jenna said.

Kaity obeyed, “Up,” she said, the water went up, “slow,” Kaity said hurriedly as the water rocketed upwards, the water had gone past where she wanted it. “Down slowly,” Kaity said, the water went down, when it was at mouth level, she told it to stop. The water was now like a drinking fountain, she sipped, the water was disgusting. She spat it out quickly.

“Tell it to clean itself then,” Logan suggested, “it’ll it.”

“How do I tell it to clean itself?” Kaity asked.

“Just focus on it and flick your wrist and it’ll do the job.” Jenna replied. Kaity nodded.

“Purify,” she ordered the water, immediately the water began purifying, dirt and paint flecks, as well as dead insects, small bits of solid waste, and a torn rag bit fell out of the water, Kaity was disgusted, but she took an experimental sip of the newly purified water. It was good, she decided. She shut off the water, but ordered the purified water to stay where it was, it floated in the air obediently, Kaity laughed at the sight, it was so out of the ordinary she couldn’t help it. She was about to cup her hands and drink handful’s when she had another idea. She snapped her fingers, a bubble encased the water, which was enough to fill a pitcher. She sifted her hand through the bubble, so the top was removed, then lifted her hand, making the bubble go higher and tilt. It did so almost like a dog, Kaity thought. The bubble rose, Kaity made the water go into her mouth slowly. Once she was done drinking the water, she laughed, it was a funny experience for her, new and unusual. Logan and Jenna nodded, both grinning like maniacs.

Kaity shook her head, “That was soooo cool!” She exclaimed, Logan grinned and Jenna shook with laughter.

“What?”

“Nothing, it was just fun to watch.” Jenna said, “It was an interesting way to recharge.”

“Bad, interesting?” Kaity asked.

“Kind of, it took a while, but you’ll get used to it.” Logan said.

“Oh, ok then.” Kaity said smiling.

“Ok, now, we need to train you, it’s hard getting used to this, it really is.” Jenna said.

“What is hard about it?”

“Well, you don’t know what could set something off, you could say anything water related and something would happen.”

“Like what?”

“Think something that has to do with water.”

“Um, stream,” Kaity thought. Immediately a band of water, floating at stomach height, encircled her, spinning rapidly.

“See, what did I tell you, alright, dismiss it.”

“How do I dismiss it?”

“Just try something, it changes for each person.” Logan answered her question.

Kaity held her hand out, palm flat, and stuck it into the circle of water, it flooded back into her. She felt energy come back into her body, within a half-of-a-second the entire band of water was gone. Kaity felt a rush of power as the energy ran back into her. She saw everything with a blue tint, and then the blue was gone, and she was back to normal. Logan nodded.

“Power high, it happens every time you draw something back into you.” He explained.

“Ok, ok, that’s cool.” Kaity said.

“Yea, it is, kind of.”

“Kind of?”

“Well, it’s not something you should do frequently.” Logan replied.

“Oh, ok.” Kaity said, not pushing for any more information.

Jenna nodded, “So you see how hard this could be? You could say something simple like, ‘hey look, it’s raining!’ and flood your classroom, or you could get to mad and go angelic in front of everyone, this is dangerous stuff you’re messing with Kaity.”

“I figured that out when I activated,” Kaity said, “you realize there were four people at the beginning, three ran away...”

“What happened to the last one?” Logan asked with interest.

“He got cooked, I eroded him.” Kaity said.

“You did what?”

“One of my extreme’s is called...um...” Kaity stuttered, “well, I can’t say it because I’d cook one of you, but I shot molten water drops at him, it...boiled him, there was nothing left...” Kaity shuddered. Logan picked up one of her hands, sending a soothing heat into hers.

“It’s ok now Kaity, you did what was right.”

“But did he deserve to die?”

“Yes,” Logan said. “He was about to participate in the murder of an innocent girl, when you activated.”

“Do you have any idea how hard it is to kill somebody?” Kaity asked.

“I as good as killed my dad,” Logan whispered. Kaity felt embarrassed.

“Oh...I didn’t know...I’m sorry Logan.” Kaity muttered.

Logan shook his head, “It’s ok Kate, it was a long time ago, ten years have passed since then.”

“Is that how long it’s been since you’ve seen your family?”

“That’s how long it’s been since I returned to that town Kate, I never will go back there again.”

“Why though?”

“I got seen, I activated on my dad...I’ll tell you tonight, it’s a long story. Jenna’s activation was equally interesting.”

Kaity nodded, “Ok, thanks guys, I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

Logan squeezed her tighter in to him, Jenna just nodded.

“Listen, you have a lot to catch up with, you inconveniently activated the day before school starts,” Jenna said jokingly.

“Oh, right.” Kaity said, reluctantly leaving Logan’s warm arms. Jenna laughed,

“Come on Kate, let’s go inside, I don’t have a warm boyfriend like you, I’m getting cold.”

Kaity grinned, “Ok.”

And they did. Meanwhile, Jordan was approaching the front door to his father’s house, not knowing what was yet to come.

12 (Jordan)

Jordan knocked on the door to his father’s mansion. It also served as a base of operations for the activity that stole any free time he might have had. The door was opened by one of Jordan’s friends.

“Hey Austin, is my dad in?” Jordan asked.

“No, he’s going to be back soon though, is that ok?

“No, Kaity just joined the freaks,” Jordan muttered. “My dad has to know as soon as possible.”

Austin nodded, “Well, the paranoid,” swearword, “didn’t take his cell phone, so you’re screwed ‘till he comes back.”

Jordan swore softly, his day hadn’t been going all too well. He had taken a bus from Phoenix, which was quite possibly the dirtiest, nastiest, ugliest city Jordan had ever seen. He wanted to know what the population of legal citizens was, it was probably very small. The rest of his day consisted of getting his butt kicked by that dang Kaity Dyke. He rubbed his check, which had stopped bleeding. The scab was long and itchy, he moaned and rubbed it. Austin noticed the four inch long scab for the first time.

“Holy,” swearword, “What happened to your face dude?”

“Kaity happened you son of a,” swearword, “I need a band-aid.”

“A really big fricking band-aid dude, one second, I know where the first-aid kit is.”

Jordan nodded and groaned. He stepped inside, and sat down on a couch. Jordan’s dad’s mansion was quite a sight in Arizona. It was three stories tall, which was a stupid thing to do, because they higher up you go; the hotter it gets in the desert. The house’s first floor had expensive furniture and three refrigerators. The second floor had computers and televisions galore. It was the technical station for his father’s base. The third floor had maps, books encyclopedias, and projectors, along with the fastest danged computer Jordan had ever seen. The third floor also stored Iron. Lots of it. Scrap iron, expensive iron, and iron found lying around. Iron bullets, iron knives, iron shotgun shells. Iron spikes, iron anything, if it could kill you, it was up there, and made of iron. Jordan did not know what the iron obsession was about until last year, when his dad informed him of his ancestry, and revealed the existence of elementals. Logan and his cursed sister moved in almost three months later. Jordan and his dad didn’t get along at all, in fact, they hated each other. They hardly spoke at home, and when they did speak, they were yelling swearwords and threats. Austin brought Jordan a large bandage and a beer. Jordan put the bandage on gratefully and took a sip of the beer. He was sixteen which was older than all of his friends. Austin sat next to him.

“What element is she?”

Jordan didn’t have to ask, he knew Austin was asking about Kaity. “Water as far as I know.”

“Where are the others?”

“Erick is definitely dead, nothing left of him but this horrible smell. James might be dead, being flung out a window through a wooden fence at inhuman speeds can’t be to good for your health in any case. Jackson got flooded; he was unconscious when I left.”

Austin shook his head sadly, Jordan thought he saw tears in his eyes.

“Dude, chill.” Jordan ordered.

Austin growled, “That,” swearword, “killed Erick? I’ll kill her, I swear I will!”

“Austin, he knew the risk, besides, we planned on killing them anyway.”

“What went wrong?”

“She turned into one of them at the worst possible time, she was pissed, which resulted in a rampage. We’ll get Erick back for you man, don’t worry.”

Austin nodded, tears still ran down his cheeks. Jordan handed him the beer.

“Here, take a sip.”

Austin shook his head, “Dude, I don’t drink.”

Jordan shook his head, “What are you, a Mormon?”

“No, I just don’t drink, so shut up.” Austin said, wiping his eyes. A door slammed and he stood. “That’s your dad dude, you might want to get off the couch.”

“Why? If I piss him off, it won’t be new to me, that” swearword, “is too possessive, I don’t give a,” swearword, “about what that mother,” swearword, “thinks.”

“Yea, I noticed,” Austin said shaking his head, “it’s not healthy.”

“He wouldn’t do anything to me dude, he doesn’t like going to prison.”

“Whereas you...”

“Haven’t gotten caught,” Jordan said, grinning wickedly. Mr. Kay chose that moment to enter.

“Jordan, Austin! Help me unload the truck, I got another load of iron.

Jordan rolled his eyes to heaven, and hurried to obey his father. Mr. Kay stuck his hand out, stopping Jordan.

“On second thought Jordan, I’d like to talk to you upstairs.”

Jordan nodded and waved goodbye to Austin, then obeying his father, marched upstairs. The third floor was warm; Jordan looked expectantly at his father.

“Jordan, I’d like to apologize to you for how I’ve treated you most of your life. But I blamed you for the divorce, and was angry at how bad you did at school. You survived an elemental though son! I am so proud of you right now.”

“Thanks dad...” Jordan muttered.

“No, no, don’t thank me, I’d like you to help me with something. You see, Kaity is new to the group...she’ll need training, right?”

“Makes sense,” Jordan said.

“Of course it does boy! Of course it does! That is why I want you to follow them, wherever they go, they can’t train in the city right? Too many people! They will go to the desert to train the newest of the freaks, I know it! You will follow them, and kill the whole lot of them! Are we clear?”

Jordan nodded, and his dad patted him on his back. “Good, now, go to the weaponry closet, and pick a gun of some sort, and it’s ammunition, but son, make sure the ammo is iron.”

“Yes sir.” Jordan said, marching towards the weaponry closet, he felt a wicked urge to laugh. He got to kill Kaity and he freaky little friends? Was it murder? Jordan didn’t care. He laughed as he picked a gun, and loaded it. Kaity was going down.

13

Kaity took a huge gulp of water from the water bottle. She had been training in Jenna’s back yard for an hour. She walked over to the spicket, refilled and purified the water, and drained that as well. She was shaking from ‘dehydration’, which came from using her abilities. Logan walked up to her, and placed a hand on her back.

“I never like that feeling, drink some more Kaity.” He said sympathetically.

Kaity refilled and drained the bottle three more times before she felt better, and even then drunk three more bottles just to be safe. When she was done, she wiped her mouth. Instead of feeling full or sick, which usually happened after drinking that much water, she felt energized and hyper, like she had just eaten lots of sugar. She grinned wildly at her new boyfriend.

“Jeeze, I feel hyper.” She said, bouncing on the balls of her feet.

“Yea, overload, that’s good though, you’re going to need the extra energy for training.”

Kaity nodded resolutely, “Alright, training!” She said, grinning.

“It isn’t that fun is it?” Logan asked, and Kaity shook her head.

“It’s exhausting, but it’s soooo cool! This is my first time doing this, you got to take that into account.”

Jenna laughed, “That’s a good point Lo, I went crazy with my abilities. It was hilarious, mind control is fun.”

“I must have missed out then...” Logan said, laughing. Kaity laughed. Logan smiled faintly.

“Guy’s practice time,” Jenna said, sighing.

“Right,” Kaity started, “come on, I like this, let’s see if I can take one of you guys.”

Logan laughed, “I don’t think you could take either of us, but, ok, if you want, which one?”

“You,” Kaity said.

Jenna laughed, Logan shrugged, “Ok, if you’re sure...”

“I’m positive.”

Logan walked to one side of the yard. “Alright, let’s do this quickly.”

Kaity walked to the opposite of the rectangular yard. Logan squared up, Kaity didn’t move at all.

“Incinerating wave.” Logan said.

Kaity jumped as a wall of fire shot towards her, “Bubble,” she said mentally. (She had learned that you can verbally say things, or you could think them, and the effect was the same.) The protective encasement surrounded her, and the fire wall deflected off it. Kaity dismissed the bubble and fired back.

“Drift!” She thought, Logan shot backward and collided into the cement wall the bordered on section of Jenna’s yard. As he collided, Kaity noticed a sizeable chunk of cement fall off the wall.

“Blaze.” Logan mouthed, immediately a fireball shot towards Kaity, she held up her hand, and let the power inside her flow through that one arm, water coated the hand, and Kaity caught the fireball, it turned into steam. Logan was laughing now, Jenna’s jaw had dropped. Kaity held the hand up now, and let the water shoot out, sending a short burst of spray, Logan got the shield up long before it hit, and the shield erupted into steam. Logan was standing erect when the cloud of steam faded. Kaity gave another command.

“Tidal pull.”

Logan shot forward. Kaity cut the power short and muttered one last command.

“Drift.” She whispered. Logan shot back, propelled by and invisible force. He slammed into the cement wall once again, sending cement bits flying in all directions. He sat still for a second, then stood up and laughed.

“Holy cow Kaity, that was awesome!”

“You were going easy on me.” Kaity said, not a statement, she knew if Logan wanted to, he could beat her.

“Yea, but that was still amazing!”

“Thanks Logan.” She said.

“Sure thing Kate, you’ve got to give credit where it’s due though. Come on, let’s go inside, that’s enough training for now.”

Jenna nodded, “Yea, we need to share activation stories.”

Logan looked a little uncomfortable at that thought, but nodded, “Yea, she deserves to know.”

Kaity shrugged, whatever they said worked for her. “Ok, let’s go inside then.” Jenna laughed, and Logan patted her on the back as they walked inside.

“Good job out there.”

“But you went easy on me...”

“That’s beside the point. I’ve been doing this for many years, my easy should still be difficult.”

“Well, my element is dominant...”

“What?”

“Water put’s out fire.”

“Now you’re just being modest.” Logan said.

“No, I’m serious.”

“Kaity...” he said, laughing, “You amaze me.”

Kaity smiled, “That’s the idea.”

Logan nodded, “I can get that, who wouldn’t want to amaze me?”

Kaity laughed, and nudged him in the ribs, “You are so humble Logan.”

“I know!” He said, Kaity giggled.

Jenna rolled her eyes to heaven. “Come on guys, stop flirting and get inside, it looks like it’s going to rain.”

Kaity looked up, “It actually does look like rain.” She said. Water droplets flooded around her, spinning fast. Logan jumped back, and Kaity cursed. She absorbed the water back in, and shook her head.

“All I said was-”

“Don’t say it again!” Jenna exclaimed.

“Oh, right, sorry!” Kaity apologized.

“It’s fine, really, but you see, you have to be careful!” Jenna said, and Kaity nodded.

“yea, got it, let’s go inside now.” Kaity said, she stepped inside. Logan stepped in after her, closing the door.

“All right, before we start having fun, you need to hear our activation stories.”

“Isn’t that fun?” Kaity asked.

“Nope,” Jenna said.

“Oh.”

“Hey Jen, you want to go first?” Logan asked.

“Save the worst for last, eh Logan?”

“Yea, I guess so.” Logan said.

“Ok, well here it goes.” Jenna said, she took a large breath and started her story.

“I was twelve,” she started. “I lived in an orphanage, you have to take into account two things, one, I activated seventy years ago.” She took another breath. “My mom had died in childbirth, my dad got killed in a bar fight. I had bad parenting, my mom was an alcoholic and my dad was a poor drunk, but he loved me. He tried his best, and when he died, it felt like the only right part of my world had died. I was sent to an orphanage. I didn’t eat or sleep for a long time, I was depressed beyond all reason. I had thought of killing myself, hoping that there would be a Heaven to meet my dad in. But I never did, then one day a boy from the orphanage, he was always a jerk, well one day he got angry at something. The orphanage mistress was a wonderful woman, but there was barely enough money, so meals were small. He got angry on an empty stomach. He was punching me, it hurt like heck, it really did, and I was crying. It was late at night, the mistress was asleep, and he was beating me senseless, when I activated he didn’t have a chance. He got blown back by the force of the energy flooding out. He cracked a door, and got up even angrier. He tried to punch me when I nerve shot him.”

“What is nerve shot?”

“I can control minds, you know that Kaity, right?”

“Yea, so?”

“Your nervous system is part of your brain, it’s how I hurt people, I nerve shot him and his screams woke up the orphanage. The mistress tried to see what the problem was, by then he was trying to beat himself unconscious on the floor in an attempt to stop the pain. He had permanent brain damage, as for me, I was scared. I ran, despite how tired I was, I made it about two blocks, before I fell asleep. I woke up two weeks later, next to a homeless man. He patted me and said hello, and I told him I had to go, and he told me to be careful, so I was, I was extra careful, and made it out of state, and into Canada, where I stayed for a month, before coming back to the U.S. and going to New York City.”

Kaity was shocked, “That’s sad! How did you cope with that?”

“Well, in New York, I met Logan.”

“I thought you were related...” Kaity interrupted.

“Nope, that’s just something we say, it’s easier to hang out that way.”

“Oh, ok...sorry, did I interrupt?”

“Yea, but nothing important, I was just saying I met Logan and he told me his activation story and I felt better.”

“Is it that bad?”

“Oh, yes it is.” Logan said sadly.

Kaity shook her head, “Well, Logan, if you don’t want to talk about it...”

“No, it’ll be good motivation not to be caught using your abilities.”

“Are you sure.”

“Positive.”

“Ok...” Kaity said. She felt uncomfortable. Logan started by taking a big breath, and letting it out again, he repeated this twice more, and then started.

“I always had bad parenting. My original parents were abusive, and my foster family’s weren’t much better. It took a while, but finally, I got adopted into one family. The parents were great, and I thought I would be ok, but then something happened.” Logan shuddered sadly, “The family I was in had seven children, two of them died in one year, it was sad. One got pregnant in her teen years and died in childbirth. The child was a stillborn, which meant he died while getting born. Her father was devastated, but that wasn’t the worst. He and his son got into an argument week later, his son got angry and drove off. He got hit in a car crash and died in a coma three days later. He felt horrible, and started drinking. It was a bad time to find out you were a mean drunk. He’d come home every night drunk, and hit my adopted mom, it was sickening. She’d be covered in bruises, and sobbing, and we just had to watch. The day I activated, I was in the parking lot of a supermarket when he came lumbering towards my mom. He was drunk, you could tell by how he was walking. He said he wanted to talk to me. I was scared, and my mom got in front of me. She told him he’d have to wait until he calmed down, and he hit her. She yelled, and I thought, I can’t let this happen again, so I pushed passed my mom and kicked him in the leg. He yelled, annoyed, and started cussing at me. Then he punched me. That’s when I activated…well, exploded, really. Fire shot out my mouth and fingertips. He roared as his shoe caught fire, and kicked it off, it hit me. It didn’t do anything, but you remember what it’s like? You get mad so easy! I punched him, hard. When you activate your strength doubles, and stays that way too. I broke his jaw, and he fell backwards...” Logan took a shaky breath, Kaity had tears running down her face. “He fell into the path of a sixteen wheeler dropping off food at the supermarket. It didn’t stop, it didn’t know it hit something. By the time the truck was over him, all sixteen wheels had gone over his head and body,” Logan gasped for air and inhaled another shaky breath. “I ran, as an elemental I ran much faster, I lived in New York for three years. I activated three years before Jenna did, I met Jenna, and we just fit together. I was homeless, and she was an orphan, we found out we both had powers and joined together. After that we explored a little, trying to see if there were more like us. We traced old information back here, the info was at least ninety years old though, so we didn’t know what to expect, we didn’t find the person we were tracking, but we found you and Jenna was sure you would soon be one of us the second she met you.”

Kaity had tears running down her cheeks now, her shirt was damp with tears. She wiped the remaining streaks of wet away and hugged Logan tightly and caringly.

“Logan, I had no idea...that’s terrible!”

Logan, although unable to cry, do to his element, was shaking uncontrollably. Kaity hugged him tighter and kissed his cheek. Logan leaned his head on her shoulder, and she played around with his hair. Jenna was shaking her head sadly, and Kaity patted her shoulder.

“I’m sorry, Jenna, that must have been traumatizing for you.” Kaity said.

Jenna nodded, “It is, believe me.”

Logan sat up. “Ok, Kaity, those are our stories, please, if we could get off the topic...”

Kaity nodded, “Let’s do some sleep over stuff!” She said, trying to dispel the black cloud of sorrow that had surrounded them. “Who wants’ to play truth or dare?”

Logan kissed her, a short kiss, but on the lips. Kaity giggled, and hugged him.

“What was the kiss for?” She asked.

“Because you’re such a big help, Kate. Come on, let’s play truth or dare!” Logan bellowed, trying to help Kaity cheer up the mood. Jenna caught on and laughed a beautiful laugh.

“Alright, let’s play! Who’s first?”

“Kaity is, go on Kaity.”

“Jenna, truth or dare.”

“Truth.”

“In Human years how old are you?”

“eighty seven!” Jenna said.

Kaity’s jaw dropped, “Whoa...you look thirteen.”


“Thank you!” Jenna joked.

Kaity laughed, “Alright, your turn Jenna!”

“Logan, truth or dare?”

“Dare!” Logan said, feeling courageous.

“Dare ya to stand out in the rain.”

“How long?”

“Until your turn ends.”

Logan walked out, into the downpour that had started while Logan and Jenna had told their stories. As soon as he walked out into the rain, steam began to rise up. Soon Logan was lost in an enormous steam cloud.

“Kaity, truth or dare?” He shouted from outside.

“Truth!”

“Have you ever had a crush on Jordan?”

“Heck no!” Kaity cried out. Logan stepped back inside, he looked tired, and walked over to an old fireplace, he snapped his fingers and the fire lit. He sat next to it and groaned happily.

“Nice and warm.”

“Nice,” Kaity said laughing, “Logan, truth or dare?”

“It was just my turn?”

“There are only three people here; I don’t have any other option.”

Logan laughed, “Truth.”

“On a scale of one to ten, how much do you like school?”

“Can’t go into the negatives?”

“It’s not that boring is it?”

“Well, no, but learning the same stuff over and over again gets sooo boring.”


“Well how old are you in human years?”

“Ninety!”

“Whoa, talk about dating older men!” Kaity muttered. Logan laughed. The last of the dark mood left as they played games, talked about old experiences, and old friends, and eventually Jenna fell asleep. Logan and Kaity sat down next to each other, talking softly. Eventually, the sun rose. Logan kissed Kaity on the lips for what must have been the fourth time that night.

“First day of being an elemental Kate, welcome to it!”

Kaity kissed him back and nodded, “First day back to school to Lo, this should be fun.”

Logan groaned, “For you, your learning all this stuff for the first time.”

“Have you ever forgotten anything as an elemental?”


“No, kind of like how we get our strength boosted up a notch, we also get sharper reflexes, we run faster, and we get photographic memories.”

“Really? I’ve always wanted a photographic memory!” Kaity said.

“Yea, it’s a great thing to have, until you move states, and go through a grade all over again, without forgetting a single freaking thing.”

Kaity giggled. “Well come on smarty, we got to get ready for school!”

“Yea, I guess so.” Logan sighed, then he turned to Jenna. “Jen, wake up, time to get educated!”

Jenna’s eyelids fluttered open, “Yea, I guess so, did you tell your girlfriend about our memories?”

“Yea, I did, now come on.”

Jenna sat up. “Alright, time to ‘learn’ things I guess,” She sighed.

It amazed Kaity at how fast you got ready for school when you were an elemental. You didn’t sweat at all, so you didn’t have to worry about deodorant. Dirt didn’t stick to your skin, so you were constantly operation-room clean. You didn’t eat, so you didn’t have to brush your teeth. Kaity stopped by her house to grab her backpack and a glass of water. She entered the school not twenty minutes later. Holding hands with Logan and Talking to both Logan and Jenna. She noticed the jealous looks from the girls she passed, Jenna laughed when Kaity mentioned this.

“yea, if you think it’s weird to watch, try reading their thoughts!”


Kaity and Logan laughed. The bell rang ten minutes later, and Kaity let go of Logan’s hand to go to class. Today, Kaity could tell by the feeling in the pit of her stomach it was going to be a good day.

14 (Austin)

Austin sat down next to Jenna in second hour. She was really cute, he thought sadly. It was a pity she didn’t like him. He didn’t really know why he had tried to touch her, Jordan said girls liked it. He mentally slapped himself for listening to Jordan. Listening to that creep always got him in trouble; he had no idea why he hung out with him. He figured it was because if he didn’t he’d be a social outcast. He sighed; Jordan and his death grip on the school couldn’t be too good for him. He was glad that Jordan was gone; maybe he’d have a chance to make up with Jenna. Class started and instantly he was bored. Economics was so incredibly uninteresting. Jenna nudged his arm.

“Dude, if you don’t pay attention to this you’ll grow up to be a homeless person.”

Austin yawned, “This is sooo boring though.”

“Yea, I know, but it’s important.”


“Like math, but that is boring as heck as well.”

Jenna nodded. “Tell me about it.”

Austin sighed, “Jordan is going to kill you, he’s stalking you.”

Jenna nodded gravely, “I know he’s following us. His dad hired him for the job because he didn’t care if Jordan got killed by us.”

“That’s not what his dad said,” Austin muttered.

“Well, that’s Jordan’s problem.” Jenna growled.

“Yea, I guess so...just giving you fair warning.”

Jenna shrugged, “Whatever, but we’ll still kill him, and then we’ll come after this operation. You murderer’s make me sick.”

Austin knew the conversation was over, and sighed. Ruined my last chance to make things right with Jenna by trying to help her, he thought ironically.

“Austin, could you answer question number thirteen on the overhead?”

Austin squinted at the tiny writing, a person who took a risk to make a business...Austin thought for a few seconds.

“Is it, entrepanuer?”

“That is correct.” Mr. Rapier said, he tossed him a piece of candy, tossing candy to students is something he did. Austin caught it and set it down on his desk. Mr. Rapier moved on to a new student.

“Kaity,” he started, Austin sighed, she was going to get this answer right, she always did.
“Could you please answer us question fourteen on the overhead?”

“Sure,” Kaity said. Austin’s mouth nearly dropped, he caught himself, and spun around to make sure that no new student with the name ‘Kaity’ had come into the class. The voice was different, more smooth and calm. But it was the same Kaity. He remembered what she had turned into, and remembered his friend, Erick, had been killed by her. He glared at her, and turned back around.

“Number fourteen: Why are natural resources important to an economy? Well, natural resources like iron and coal are important for manufacturing, things like land and water-” Kaity stopped, and Austin saw her clench her fist. Water dripped out, “Things like that are important for the country to be able to expand and create.”

“Exactly, Kaity.” Mr. Rapier said, tossing a piece of candy. Kaity’s hand moved up, catching the candy. The movement of her arm was fluid. Austin hated it.

The murdering little freak. Austin thought bitterly. Pain shot through his head, and he clutched it. The pain was gone as soon as his hands clutched his head. He muttered, annoyed. These head pains were really irritating. Class continued, it seemed to take forever for Mr. Rapier to stop blathering on about economics and let them pack up. Austin was packed and out the door the second the bell rang.

He was walking towards his next class, which was PE, when Jordan’s girlfriend came over to him. She was hideous, Austin had no idea why Jordan went out with her. It wasn’t her good looks for sure, he said to himself as he caught sight of a huge pimple on her cheek.

“Hey Austin?”

“What do you want?”

“Do you know where Jordan is? He should be here.”

“No, I don’t sorry.” Austin said, hoping she would just go away.

“Well, ok, I was wondering. Did you know he didn’t stop by my house at all during the break? Not even once! We used to make out in my room all the time. I wonder if he’s cheating on me?”

Austin heard the last two sentences and gagged quietly. If he had any brain’s he’d break up with you. Austin thought, fighting back a gag at her next statement.

“Jordan is such a good kisser.” Teresa said.

“That’s...” Austin nearly gagged out loud, and these weren’t fake gag’s either. Teresa was truly hideous, and she was mean and stupid enough to make Jordan look average. Austin walked quickly, and walked into the nearest classroom. Looking through the peephole, he waited until Teresa left, then walked out and hurried to PE, now thoroughly annoyed.

15

Kaity swore quietly. That had been the second slip of the day. She was happy it was sixth hour so she could go home after this. Water dripped in between her fingers from when she had accidentally said the word, ‘water’, to answer a question. Jenna, who had been talking to Kaity mentally, noticed the irritation.

What happened?

Slipped up again, said water to answer a question. Kaity thought back.

Oh, Kaity, did you get seen?

No.

Thank goodness.

Yea, I know, sorry, I should try harder.

Your doing about as good as I did once I figured out I wasn’t supposed to get caught.

Really?

Yes, it’s hard. But Kaity, please try your hardest not to get caught...

I do Jen, but it’s hard, you’re right. The funny tingling in her head indicated that Jenna was laughing. Kaity was confused.

Why are you laughing?

It was the way you said it, it just sounded funny. Jenna thought back.

One sec Jen, the teacher called on me again. Kaity said annoyed. Her last class was full of all the stupid people, and Kaity got called on about ten times each class period.

“Kaity, could you please define Newton’s third law of motion?”

Kaity sighed inwardly and nodded, “Newton’s third law: Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.”

“Exactly Kaity, thank you,” the science teacher said.

Kaity nodded to the teacher, but paid no attention, she was talking to Jenna again.

Class got out ten minutes later, and Kaity began walking out of the classroom. Jenna was waiting outside.

“How did you get here?” Kaity asked.

“Well, one, I made sure the teacher wasn’t calling on me. Two, I messed with his eye nerves, so he thinks I’m still in class.”

“You can do that?” Kaity asked, amused.

“Oh, yea, easy, I do it all the time in choir, I actually suck at singing, but one tweak of all your ear nerves and it sounds like I created broadway.” Jenna said, grinning mischievously.

“That’s a dirty trick,” Kaity said, but she was grinning too. She waved goodbye to Jenna, and told her to tell Logan hi for her, then walked home.
≈*≈*≈

Logan and Kaity were going over pieces of paper Kaity had gotten from Mrs. Marsh, the former owner of this house, and a former water elemental too, as they had discovered. It read.

Recharging your energy: All the different elements have a different way to recharge.

Fire: Suck’s the heat from an object, this is always the way it is.

Water: Drinks water, or get’s his/her self wet and absorbs water through his/her skin.

Mind: Sleep

Kaity read these pieces of paper. There were more, she was sure, but the only other piece had pictures on it, all these pictures were in three-inch across circles. A teardrop shape on a criss-cross background. A triangle with a circle in the middle. A Circle with an arrow from the middle of it pointing outward. A dark jagged line with horizontal lines in the background. A music note with five lines in the background. The rest of the paper was torn, Kaity wished the paper wasn’t so old. She thought maybe the circles represented different things that each element could do, but that didn’t totally make sense, they didn’t seem to make recognizable shapes. She shrugged and pulled out the next piece of paper from the box. It had a family tree type thing. It had water written at the top, and a list of names. Kaity didn’t recognize most of them, but three stuck out to her.

“Hey, Logan, get this!” Kaity said, laughing. “Babe Ruth, Eisenhower, and Rosa Parks were all like me!”

Logan’s head turned sharply. “Hot dang! Where did you find that?”

“This piece of paper.” Kaity said, smiling. Logan took the paper and read it, he grinned as he finished reading it.

“Nice, it’s a family tree.” Logan chuckled.

“Yea, seriously, there isn’t very many people on here, and look at how long these guys lived for!” Kaity exclaimed, pointing to the life span written under the names.

“This person right here, Jalis Emman of the English fenlands lived for...” Kaity did math in her head, things like math and reading were much easier now. “She was alive for one-thousand and fifty-seven years!”

Logan’s eye’s opened wide at that news. “Oh my...are you serious?”

Kaity nodded, “Yea, she was born in 200 B.C. and lived until 857 A.D.!”

Logan was shaking his head in wonder, he began to rifle through the other sheets of paper, he finally reached the last one.

“Kaity, look at this! It’s an entire list of water abilities, look!”

Kaity took the paper from Logan and read it. “There must be another element on here, look, it has ice stuff too.” Kaity said.

“Oh, I didn’t notice,” Logan said.

“Oh, yea, look at this,” Kaity said, taking a sip from the water bottle that she constantly had with her. She finished drinking and read off the list.

“Umm, here’s one...deep freeze.” Kaity mumbled, thinking the words as she read them. A crackle came from her water bottle. Kaity turned around in surprise. She opened the bottle quickly, looked inside. The contents were frozen solid. Logan walked over and peeked inside over Kaity’s shoulder.

“Well, isn’t that just crazy?” Logan muttered.

Kaity nodded her head in agreement, “Insane.” She replied quietly.

Jenna walked into the room, “Sorry, got held up, Jordan has a really big gun by the way.” She saw Kaity and Logan’s facial expressions. She walked over next to Kaity and Logan, and looked inside the water bottle.

“Whoa, Kate, did you do that?” Jenna asked.

Kaity nodded. “Yea, I did...”

Jenna grinned, “Way cool!” She exclaimed.

Kaity snapped out of the daze she had gone into when she first saw the frozen water. She focused on the energy in her chest, and tapped the side of the bottle. It unfroze, Kaity shook her head.

“Just another thing to worry about.” She muttered.

“Better you find out now, then in public.” Jenna said, and Kaity realized she was right.

“This elemental stuff is hard...” Kaity said, and Jenna patted her back.

“We know it is Kaity,” she said.

16


Kaity drained another bottle of water. She had been training in the desert for a few weeks now, and it was hard. The heat drained her of water faster than she usually lost it. Logan came up and sat down on a rock next to her.

“Tired?”

Kaity nodded, “Incredibly, and thirty, but this is fun.”

Logan nodded, “Glad you think so, come on, let’s see you hit the prickly pear over there.”

Kaity stood, planting her feet firmly, and aimed at the cactus. In the weeks she had been practicing it had gotten easier to grasp the energy inside her, now she didn’t even need to try. She focused and muttered,

“Permafrost.”

The cactus was instantly covered in a thin layer of arctic-like ice and withered under the subzero temperatures. Kaity snapped her fingers and the ice drew back. Logan and Jenna nodded approvingly.

“The ice has gotten much better Kaity, well done,” Jenna stated.

A voice unfamiliar to them came from behind.

“Yes, very well done.”

They both whirled around. Jordan stood, smirking. An ion rod was in his hands, he held it threateningly. Behind him, about twelve more people stood with iron fence-posts, iron baseball bats, and other iron tools. People began stepping out from the bushes around them as well. Kaity wondered how they had avoided being noticed long enough to get placed. Someone came towards Jenna with an iron hammer. She kicked him in the leg, and the inhuman strength proved too much for his bone, which cracked sickeningly. He screamed and clutched his leg. A friend stepped forward, but Kaity stopped him.

“Cascade!”

A violent blast of water smashed into him, the boy sprawled back, a cactus stopped him from rolling further and the boy screamed as the thorns bit deep into his skin. Kaity drew back what water she could. She heard Logan shout something and another man fell, flames raking his body. He screamed and fell, but nothing stopped the flames. His body seemed to disintegrate as he hit the ground, black dust was all that remained.

Jordan swore and ran at Logan. Logan swung his fist, fire trailed behind making a deadly tail. The fist connected solidly and Jordan flew back several feet. He lay still for a moment, then got up, coughing blood. He swore at Logan, then fell to his knees, and then finally falling flat on his face onto the rocky Arizona desert, after a moment he took a shaky breath, showing that he was only unconscious.

Somebody else took a step towards Jenna, but Logan was in a rage now, and as the man, who looked to be about thirty, raised his iron fence-spike into the air.

“Pyre!” Logan shouted a fire jet shot from his outstretched palm and hit the assaulting man into the arm. Kaity had never heard anyone scream like that in her life. His arm was charred at the elbow, and as he pulled it in close to him it seemingly disappeared into dust, the lower half of the charred arm fell into a pile of broken beer bottles and the man’s face whitened, and he fell onto his face in shock.

That seemed to demoralize the rest of the ambushers, who backed off slowly, then broke into a run. Logan shot fireballs at a few before they disappeared. A second later they heard a vehicle start up. Logan shot a string of fire at the noise and then at the surrounding area. The sound of a vehicle slamming into a rock, and a second later an explosion ripped through the desert landscape. Jenna ducked, and a second later the crack of a huge rifle echoed through the desert landscape. Jenna looked at Logan and Kaity and shouted at them.

“Run! They have guns!”

Logan heard this and without waiting, slung Kaity over his back and ran like he never had before. He bounded over a twelve-foot cactus, and around a large iron bed frame somebody had decided to drop in the middle of nowhere. Jenna sprinted behind. Somebody tried to block her, but a visible force shot out of her forehead, like a wall, and slammed the intruder backwards like a tennis-ball shot out of a cannon. He smashed into a saguaro and split it in half, its trunk made a roadblock for a pursuer on a dirt-bike. He failed to stop in time and did a flip as he hit. Jenna kept on running, bounding over the falling cactus by fifteen feet and landing several yards away. Logan ran faster and faster, harder and harder until at last, out of nowhere a paved road appeared. Logan turned, his velocity carrying him off the paved road. He slowly veered back until he was right next to it. Jenna was about twenty feet behind them running in a zigzag on the road. A quad burst through the desert shrub and cacti ahead of them. But Logan jumped over it. Kaity was having the ride of her life on his back, bumping and sifting but never falling. Jenna jumped up over the quad, making it over by two feet, which gave her room to swing her foot into the drivers face at two-hundred miles per hour. He went flying and landed limply in the road. Jenna continued running. Kaity saw a sign for a highway; it was only a mile away. Logan slowed to about ten miles an hour Jenna came up behind them, panting. Logan came to a complete stop and let Kaity off. Kaity looked down at Jenna shoe. It was covered in blood.

“What happened to your shoe, that is revolting.” Kaity said.

“Quad rider, I kicked his head, it felt gross, skulls aren’t supposed to crack like that, it was everywhere. Come on, we gotta keep running or they catch us.”

Logan nodded and started running again wordlessly. Kaity picked it up again. It shocked her that Jenna and Logan could talk about things like kicking through a guy’s head so easily, and then it occurred to her that they had probably done that to people before. She shuddered; this elemental stuff was getting harder every day. They reached the highway with no further problems and slowed to a walk. The blood on Jenna’s show trailed and left tracks, and Jenna took them off, throwing them into a bush. The highway was almost empty and Kaity realized it was dark. Her heart was racing in her chest. Logan slowed to a stop, waiting for her to catch up. He held her hand.

“Rough day, huh Kaity?”

Kaity nodded, “yea,” she said, “this job seems to get harder every day.”

Logan laughed and nodded, then pulled her in tight. She felt safe in his arms. He walked with her slowly as cars began to pass. It seemed to make up for the rest of the horrid events of the day. She sighed happily and walked on, it was going to be alright.

17(Jordan)

By the time he made it home it was well past dark. His entire body hurt from the blow Logan had given him. He hadn’t woken up for a good three hours. When he awoke his back was so sunburned it cracked and started to bleed whenever he moved it. His face felt like it was burning still, and the skin was burnt horribly. His entire frame shook. He was absolutely positive if he hadn’t been found he would have died, but Austin found him and drove him back into town on his dirt bike. His dad was furious, but trying not to show it. He wanted the freaks dead as much as Jordan did. They were strange, inhuman, and deserved to die.

Jordan was ill for several days. His head pounded and his body shook uncontrollably. He bled from his back and moaned until his throat was raw. Austin was usually sitting next to him, giving him food or water. Jordan felt helpless for the first time in his life. When he snapped out of his delirium he was in a rage. Never before had he been so angry at anything. He spent one whole week in his backyard, hitting a thick wooden pole set up for training with an iron bat. He stopped because he finally broke the 2 feet of wood. He then started training on people, but had to stop after the third broken arm. Austin shook his head; this had been going on for two weeks now. He decided to talk to Jordan.

“Hey, Jordan!”

Jordan turned his attention away from a tree he had been beating on.

“What?”

“Dude, your dad’s getting angry, you broke 3 arms and a one-hundred and twenty dollar redwood pole. What’s up, are you still mad at the freak for beating the crap out of you?”

Jordan glared angrily at him.

“Shut yer mouth.”

“I’m not making fun of you or insulting you or anything Jordan, I’m just saying, you’re making me nervous. Are you ok?”

Jordan nodded, he liked Austin, Austin actually cared about him, he wasn’t used to it.

“Yea...I’m just pissed. I’m never going to let those freaks do that to me again.”

“Have you considered leaving them alone?”

Jordan whirled around, dropping the bat.

“Why would we do that?”

“They didn’t hurt us before...and we left them alone before, why do you even want to kill them?”

“They...they aren’t right, they are dangerous they-“

Austin cut him short. “I have talked to them before, they aren’t dangerous if they like you. Logan and Jenna hand out with normal humans like us all the time, they don’t hurt them. It’s because in return they don’t get hurt, I don’t like doing this Jordan, it feels wrong...they don’t deserve this.”

Jordan shook his head. “You’re wrong. They deserve to die, and that is exactly what I will do...kill them.”

Austin shook his head sadly, “I’m not going to abandon you, I just was giving you an idea.”

Jordan nodded. “Thanks Austin...for trying to help.”

Austin nodded at him. “I do my best Jordan, I gotta go it’s the last day of school...don’t tire yourself out.”

Jordan nodded and watched his friend go away. It made him angry to see him go after offering to give up a lifetime of work. He growled to himself. It wasn’t befitting a bounty-hunter to feel bad about something as small as a friend. But the small part of his mind not tainted by hate felt guilty. He pushed it out of his head without a second thought. There was indeed, nothing to feel bad about. The elementals were just smart animals that would kill him if he didn’t beat them to it. Besides...they were so different, not human, and not animal...not right for them to be alive. He shook himself out of his brief moment of normal teenager and snapped back into his homicidal mantra, then launched a series of attacks against the tree in front of him.
Ch17. Part 2(Jenna)

Jenna walked to school alone that morning. It was the last day of school. After final exams, Kaity had gone to California for a week, and would be back tomorrow. Logan was recharging. She sighed...she was bored. Somebody came up behind her. Footsteps drawing closer. They sounded as though somebody was trying to walk quietly. She ignored them and continued on her way. The footsteps drew nearer. Somebody whispered something and then a cell-phone clicked shut. She decided to see what the person behind her was thinking. She reached back with her mind. The subconscious flooded information to her. Arms rising...cold hands...iron cold...swing soon, prepare. Jenna knew it was too late, in a panic she thought to Logan.

Help, being kidnapped, get me back!

A loud clang was the last she heard, before she faded out of this world, and into an unconscious sleep. Behind her Austin threw the one-foot iron bar into some bushes and picked her up.

“I’m sorry Jenna.” He said. A truck rounded the corner, it was Jordan grinning wickedly. Austin threw her in the back and hopped in.

“Good job Austin!” Jordan exclaimed, “Hit the play music button and turn the music up, I’m on a good mood.”

Austin did, but he felt bad doing it. He took one last look at Jenna lying in the back of the car, then turned back. It would be a long ride before they reached their destination.

18(Kaity)

Kaity heard the knock on the door of the condo. She wondered who it could be, since she wasn’t a resident of California, and only vacationing. She decided to open the door. Logan stood in the doorway. He wasn’t panting. He was angry, Kaity could tell. His eyes were bright red and his whole frame shook. Kaity thought that if he wasn’t calmed soon he would go angelic twenty feet from the beach. That would result in disaster.

“Logan...what’s the matter?” She asked, slightly nervous for the answer. Logan replied in a hiss through gritted teeth.

“They got Jenna, she was walking to school and I was recharging. She got one last message before she blacked. I screamed in my head, but she didn’t answer. She’s been kidnapped! Kaity, this means war!”

“War sounds a little.....serious, do we know where she is?’


“No I ran straight here.”

“How’d you know I was here?”

“Well....before you had left you had said the beach you were going too, and this house was closest to the water, so I decided to try it first.”

Kaity nodded, “Smart, come on in...”

“No, your mom will want to know why I am here....and how I got here. Where my mom is...so on.”

“You’re worried about getting found? What happened to war?”

Logan stopped for a moment. “No...You were right, war is not what to do yet.”

Kaity nodded, “Ok, that’s good. What do I do?”

“I need you back in Arizona Kaity...”

Kaity looked back, then turned back to Logan. “I have less than an hour till I leave. I’ll meet you there. Recharge and then we’ll bust down Jordan’s house. Burn it, whatever.”

Logan nodded, “Thanks Kaity...for helping.”

“Logan, Jenna’s like your sister, she’s my best friend, and I’m going to make sure that anybody who hurts you or her gets their own.”

Logan nodded, then hugged her in tight and kissed her goodbye. In another second he was gone, leaving a trail of fire on the sandy beach. Kaity walked back inside and started packing. Kaity’s mom stopped by the room Kaity had been in.

“Kaity, I told you to pack up earlier.” She said laughing. Kaity put some speed into it. Her hands were blurs. In another three seconds she was done. Her mom blinked.

“Wow...that was fast.”

Kaity laughed, “Yea, I know, aint it though?”

Her mom nodded, “Superhuman...Kaity I need to talk to you.”

“Yes?”

“You see....Jordan’s lawsuit has been dropped. Bail was paid. I want you to be careful, people say he is pretty mad at you.”

Kaity nodded, “I’ll take care mom, thanks.”

“Kaity...he could kill you. I stopped by his house to drop something off for work and it’s like his dad is supporting an entire military in there. Please, be careful.”

Kaity did her best to act serious, she nodded, “Don’t worry mom, I will be as careful as I can.’

“And don’t insult Jordan, if something seems up tell me and I’ll tell the police...with that many deadly things in his house it’ll definitely raise some suspicion.”

“Thanks mom, I love you.” She said.

Kaity’s mom came into her room and hugged her. “Oh, I love you too sweetie, now come on, we need to get going”

Ten minutes later Kaity was tossing her suitcase in the car and getting in. She was tense, but tried not to show it.

The car hit the freeway, and the nine-hour drive seemed to last forever. When they got out of the car, Kaity knew she still had to act like everything was ok, or her mom would get suspicious. She ran inside and threw her suitcase into her room. She helped her mom unpack and then asked her mom if she could go over to Jenna’s house as casually as possible.

“Well...ok, just be back in an hour.”

“Deal mom, thanks I had such a great time in California, I have been dying to tell Jenna and Logan about it!”

Kaity’s mom smiled at that. “Well, I’m glad you had fun sweetie, go along, I’ll have dinner made by the time you get back.”

Kaity nodded and walked out the door. As soon as she was outside she ran full speed, making to Jenna’s house in record speed. She opened the door. Logan was inside. One wall was charred, and so were lots of paper plates and newspapers.

Logan whirled around, his eyes were nearly fully red from anger, he nodded and said,

“let’s go to Jordan’s house.”

Kaity nodded and Logan was out the door. A red fiery streak showed where he had been. Kaity ran after him. She moved fluidly and gracefully most of the time, but she moved surprisingly fast. She was soon streaking behind Logan. Jordan’s house neared. On the outskirts of the desert in a rich looking neighborhood, it neared.

Inside Jordan’s house somebody looked out the window and saw the red streak of Logan. His heart flipped and he reached for his rifle, he was supposed to be on guard duty. He grabbed and shot, but he didn’t aim and was shaking so much it was a useless idea anyway. The shot made Logan angry though, his head pounded and his superhuman heard raced wildly, and as the dirt exploded in front of him he exploded.

Kaity saw it all. He ceased to move. His eyes were deep, molten red and his teeth were bared. Slowly his teeth curved until they were all individual daggers. His body caught fire next, and his hair changed from friendly brown to sunset red. His skin turned charcoal black, slowly, like a plague crawling across him. He opened his mouth and he let loose a scream that would have woken the dead and given a banshee heart failure. The scream echoed all the way to Jordan’s house. It was about then the guard realized he had made a big mistake. Logan floated two feet off the ground, glowing like an angel from the underworld. People started running from the house. Logan roared and threw a ball of fire. It exploded in the dirt and sent five men flying into a wall. Shots flew past them. Neighbor’s started looking out their windows. Logan held his hand up.

“Erupt!” he hissed. Kaity stared in amazement at his hand. It glowed like molten steel and a second later a torrent of lava rocketed out like a fire hose. It hit the house and the ground around it, setting fire to anything it touched. Gurgled cries could be heard as three men dropped dead. Logan cut the lava flow short and screamed at rage. He hurled another fireball at the house. It struck and the whole house trembled. A second later the roof caught fire. Logan roared in pleasure and sent another attack.

“Wildfire!” He bellowed. A wall of fire rose from the ground in front of him, expanding until it was impossible to miss the house and anybody in front of it. It slammed destructively through the line of men who had organized a firing line. A strangled cry escaped from the flame, then died. Logan hurled another attack.

“Heat wave!” He yelled. The air immediately turned molten hot and shimmered. Bushes shriveled and a tree caught fire. Any survivors fell down screaming in pain from the blistering heat. A shot came from the house. Logan turned towards the shooter and screamed,

“Burst!” Flame spots jumped all over the house like fireworks. The shooter took one to the shoulder and fell. The house stood still, smoldering and building. Then, without warning, the roof collapsed and the second story followed. Logan charged the house. His angelic form leaving a trail of flames six feet high on the road behind him. Kaity followed. A shot sent a shower of dirt at her. She ran faster, changing direction quickly.

“Flash-flood!” She muttered, halting her running. Water started spinning around her. She could feel the power of the water as it hurled around her, faster and faster. She held up her index finger and pointed at one of Jordan’s cronies who had escaped the burning house with a gun. A string of water shot free of the hurricane and hit him, ‘eroding’ a hole in his head. Kaity sent the rest of her hurricane at the super-heated front bricks of the house. They split, cracked, and shattered as the cool water struck the 500 degree bricks, sending stony shards of death into the doomed crowd. People fell down, some never to raise again, others screaming in agony. Logan snarled and hurled one last fireball into an open window, Kaity saw a character fall.

Then he came out. He was six feet tall. He seemed to be all muscle. The monster would stop anyone else, but not an Elemental. He had a knife on his side and a machete on his back. In his hand he clutched a baseball bat. He was just as angry as Logan. Kaity could feel her heart pound hard in her chest. Logan saw him and charged. The man readied the bat for a swing. Kaity raised her hand to stop him. Too late, he swung. Logan’s hand grabbed the bat and it was ripped from his grasp. It went flying, stopped by a tree burning to the ground. The bat slammed into the trunk and lodged firmly.

He slipped the knife out of its sheath, but Logan had already swung his fist. A second later it slammed into and through the killer man’s chest. The knife dropped. Logan removed his fist, screamed in rage one last time. The scream echoed off the street. People were now outside of their houses with cameras. Somebody came up from a channel-5 news crew ran up to her with a microphone. Kaity screamed at her and shot her mike with tidal trickle. The lady fell back screaming in terror.

Logan was changing back to normal rapidly. He glared at the house, a piece of paper, saved from the fire, fluttered down. Logan read it and came to his senses. He turned around, panic in his voice.

“Kaity run!”

Kaity needed no further encouragement, and she ran harder and faster than she has ever before. Logan in front of her about foot. This had completely shattered the secrecy that had tooken Logan’s Elemental life to establish and maintain, on the other hand, no more burden, or at least, not such a big one. Kaity ran hard as she could, following Logan to an unknown destination. The war had begun.

19(Jenna)

When she woke up, Jenna noticed two things. One, her head was killing her, and two, she was chained up. Iron chains. Somebody got smart.

Then it came back to her. Somebody had hit her over the head. She had yelled to Logan mentally. She hoped he had gotten her message.

Jenna sat still for another ten minutes, before she was consumed with rage. She was angry at Jordan and his group for hurting her and her friends, what had they done? They just wanted to be left alone. She screamed loudly. Somebody knocked on the door to the small prison-cell-like room.

“Ay, shut’cer mouth!”

Jenna yelled back at him.

“Shut your own mouth you obese cretin!”

The man waited a moment, the opened the door. He held an iron bat and held it threateningly. Jenna focused on his nerve center of the brain and sent power to it. The man’s knees buckled underneath him. Another nerve jolt sent him face first onto the cement floor repeatedly. Another once sent his knee into the cement, and then it broke. Jenna amplified the pain receptors in his brain, and the man’s face whitened. Before he could yell Jenna hit the nerves in his brain hard and the man passed out. She bent over to him and removed the keys, then unlocked herself. The iron chains slipped off her leg and clattered very loudly onto the floor. She winced, and waited for people to come inside with knives or guns or whatever they had here. Instead, a calm looking Austin walked inside her cell.

“well hello there,” He stated calmly, “what is he doing on the floor of your jail cell?” He looked at the chain and Jenna’s leg, and then shrugged, “And your chain is off your leg too. Oh well, it looks better off than on, did he hit you?”

Jenna was surprised that he wasn’t yelling and screaming or getting guards. Then again, he was Jordan’s right hand man, maybe he would tell Jordan and he would have her tortured or beaten. She decided it best to answer his question.

“No, but he was going to.”

“So you hit him first?”

“Yea, no point in arguing and saying he was just faking it or not going to hit me, I could read his thoughts,” she shuddered, “that man has too much computer access and not enough restrictions...if you get the idea...”

“Porn?”

“Jenna shuddered, “Yes, it was horrible getting that into your head. Then he got mad at me for yelling at him and he had been having a bad time last night because his internet went out and so he was bored...”

“Meaning he could look at bad images?”

“Correct, and he was mad about that then I yelled at him when he told me to shut up and so he came in to hit me and I shocked his nervous system really bad.”

“You shocked his nervous system?”

“Well, yea, it’s in his brain, it’s what I did to you too...”

Austin turned red with embarrassment, “I am so sorry about that, Jordan told me girls liked it...”

Jenna shrugged, “It doesn’t matter, and you listened to him.”

Austin nodded again, “Yea, when it comes to girls with standards, Jordan doesn’t know bull-squat about it.”

Jenna almost laughed at that. Austin was nicer than she had expected Jordan’s friends to be. Still, she couldn’t get too comfortable.

Austin continued talking, “Ok, Jenna, I’ll cut you a deal.”

Jenna listened, “Ok, let’s hear it.”

Austin paused for a moment then said, “I won’t tell Jordan about the guard if you put the chain back on. There is a place where you can hide the keys and walk around if it is too horrible, but you are technically a prisoner, and I do have a gun.”

Jenna nodded, “Sounds good to me,” she said.

Austin nodded, “Good, I don’t want Jordan to hurt you...I value your life to much to let him do that.”

For the first time in about twenty years Jenna blushed. “Thanks,” she said.

Austin nodded. “Just don’t get yourself killed. I’m assigned to guard you, but I don’t think there is anything wrong with your kind. You watch out for yourself though, Jordan...he hates you.”

Jenna nodded, “Thanks Austin.”

Austin blushed a little, and nodded. “Alright, I have to go. I’ll drag the guard out and tell him he dreamed it all, fell out of his chair, and I’m going to report him for it unless he does something for me...that way it works for me too.” He grinned, “Yea, I think forty dollars would cut it, ok, see ya’ Jenna!”

Jenna waved goodbye and redid the chain on her leg, she sat in a corner and pretended like she had been sleeping. She would just have to wait until it was all over. For now though, she had all the time in Jordan’s world. She laughed to herself, she, the prisoner could one day see Jordan die of age while she was still young. Smiling grimly she remembered that Jordan was here. Since he didn’t know how she recharged she could sleep all she wanted. An opportunity to escape would arise, and she would be ready for it, and nothing would stop her when the opportunity arose...she would makes sure of that.

20(Kaity)

Kaity sprinted behind Logan. The three days following the attack on Jordan’s home had been terrible. Logan had managed to find a piece of paper that said something about where Jenna was held, which was incredibly lucky but she was hidden in a mansion about eight miles north of Woods Canyon Lake, up by Payson. They had stopped at the lake while Kaity swam, to refresh herself and let her body take in any water it needed. She swam around for an hour playing with the large trout and bass before ending the swim and following Logan around the lake and on a wild search. The lake had been three days ago. If had been raining hard all the night before so Kaity was hydrated but Jenna was hidden very well. The only building that seemed to be with in the area Jenna was hidden in was an old shack. It had hole in the roof and was made of old soft wood, which now served the one purpose of housing termites. Nothing else could be found in the area remotely resembling a building except for hunter’s blinds. Kaity was getting angry. Not only was there nothing there that they could find, but if they were in the wrong area they couldn’t ask where it was. They were the new national thing. Fake sightings had been reported and there was now a $500 fine for anyone who reported a fake sighting. National Guards had found the entire weaponry stash in the house and Jordan’s entire crew there had been arrested. There was reward money for anyone who found the owner of the house. Kaity had seen posters on her way through Payson, phone numbers, the hotline to call if you spotted one of the elemental children. Posters and websites telling you what to do, how to best approach one. News casts on them, the whole deal. Nobody ever once considered the evidence on film to be special effects; everyone knew it wasn’t special effects. Special effects didn’t burn down houses or kill people; it was one-hundred percent real, which was the scary part. Some people were scared, others were excited. The result was a lot of guns being bought and a lot of peace rallies inviting the elementals in, the rallies on how dangerous the elementals were seemed to take up more space. Kaity thought it would have been funny to come in to one of the peace rallies, but she knew she couldn’t. Instead she spent hours searching. A week carried on with no luck. Kaity often found herself drawn to the old shack. One night, after two weeks of fruitless searching Kaity was once again walking around the old broken down cabin. Logan stood next to her. They didn’t talk, they just sat there feeling miserable and angry. A noise snapped them from the state of angriness they had been in and dispelled the gloom that hung around Kaity and Logan like an infectious fog. It was a truck, and it was getting closer. Kaity’s heart jumped. It wasn’t just getting closer, it was coming right at her. Headlights burned through the night and shone at the old cabin. She jumped over it and hid, Logan followed her. The cabin began to creak loudly as it unhinged itself from the ground, rumbling, and squealing. Next voices were heard and men walked out to meet the oncoming truck. Kaity was astonished. It was so obvious, any idiot would have at least thought of the possibility of this happening. She almost smacked her forehead, but Logan caught her arm.

“Don’t beat yourself up, I didn’t think of it either. We need to get in though, and we need to get in fast...and ideas?”

Kaity thought for a moment.

“Nobody is watching right now, we just slip in and walk through. Carefully of course. It shouldn’t be all that hard, and this could be our only shot at getting in.”

Logan nodded. Together they got up and snuck towards the entrance. The truck was coming closer and everybody but a single guard was left. Logan snuck behind him, grabbed him, and threw him into a tree. His head hit it and he fell limply. They dashed inside the hidden bunker. A hallway was to their left. Kaity ran to it, her feet ringing out loudly as she ran. She stopped, but it was too late. Somebody rounded the corner. It was Kaity’s luck that he was expecting the shipment of food the truck carried, not Kaity. He recognized the slender girl a bit too late.

“Tidal trickle,” Kaity said in a half-whisper. The drop hit the man, who crumpled on the floor in a puddle of blood. Logan swore as a group of four men came back toting food in their arms. The food was dropped the second they were seen, but Logan acted too quickly. A jet of flame brought three down and the fourth fell to an ice-shard propelled through the air by Kaity. By now the noise had attracted the attention of guards. The charged around the corner, guns pointed. Kaity shot at one but Logan torched the rest. A siren went off deep inside the building, a low moan adding to the drama outplaying inside the little hideout. Kaity grabbed a gun and shot a man as he rounded the corner. She fired a second shot then fled to an unlocked door locking it after Logan had entered. Footsteps rattled past the door. Kaity waited until they passed then opened the door and sprinted down a hallway. A bullet hissed past her head. Logan’s footsteps followed and he soon was right next to her. A man jumped out in front of them. A large knife in his hand. Logan pointed his shoulder at the man and leaped. The man went soaring into a metal door and lay still Logan slowed to a halt and turned. Kaity followed. A flight of stairs going downwards lay ahead of them. Logan charged at them but as he did a cluster of about fifty or so men came running up them. Logan yelled angrily and jumped, trailing fire from his feet. A man collapsed, his hair burning. Kaity dived straight forward, hands out and shouted,

“Icicle field!”

Immediately the path in front of the stairs was turned into a disaster sight as icicles shot up out of the ground by the dozens, man of the well past six feet tall. Kaity dove past the tops of a small cluster of lower icicles and rolled gracefully down the stairs. She skidded to a stop at the bottom. Logan was fighting three men with bats. Kaity swung her leg into one man’s head and his knees buckled. Logan sent another man into a wooden wall, leaving a dent in the shape of his body where he hit. The last bat swung, and Kaity winced as she heard the bat connect with Logan’s knee. He yelled in pain and blasted the man with an explosive spark of flames. He crumpled and fell. Logan clutched his knee and growled angrily. Kaity outstretched her hand

“Healing mist.” She whispered. A cool spray of fine mist puffed out of her hand and surrounded Logan’s knee. He winced as something popped, then sighed in relief.

“Thanks,” he said.

Kaity nodded, “No problem.”

Logan looked up at the top of the stairs. “Nice work Kate. You dehydrated yet?”

Kaity shook her head. “Not even thirsty. Come on, let’s go.”

Logan nodded. “This place is bigger than I thought...Jenna could be anywhere.”

Kaity nodded, “Yea...no kidding, how did we miss this before?”

Logan shrugged. “I’m clueless, I’m just glad we’re here now. Come on, we need to go, there’s a flight of stairs right over there...” Logan pointed behind them. Kaity took a step for them. It was just then that a familiar figure charged up the stairs. Mr. Kay stood blocking the stairway. He had a machine gun and had it aimed right at Logan’s chest.

“Stop right there freaks.” He said menacingly, “and I’ll make sure you don’t feel a thing.”

21(Jenna)

Jenna had been trapped for two weeks now. She was full of pent up energy and was unable to contain some of it she was so charged up. Every chance she got she used some powers. Telekinesis, the ability to move things with your mind, usually drained Jenna. She could now nock a two-foot cement block out of the wall and fling it so hard it could take the door off its hinges. She didn’t actually do this though; she took it out of the wall and played around with it when nobody was watching. When someone came close to the door she put it back. She was currently occupied with levitating the block while swinging it back and forth when she heard gunshots and yells. People were shouting curses too. Her heart pounded. Was she about to be set free? She didn’t want to sit around and find out. Taking the block she aimed carefully and launched it at the door. It went flying off its hinges, and slammed incredibly hard into the wall. Somebody outside the doorway was shouting, but as he walked into the doorway Jenna stopped his heart. The man dropped. Charging out the doorway, she heard no more gunfire, but sirens blaring from all over reassured her that she hadn’t just done something incredibly stupid. She rushed up a hallway and right into what seemed to her like a convention for evil henchmen.

“just my luck all the guards in the stinking building had to gather here,” Jenna muttered to herself. She swore at them and jumped at one of them, slamming her fist hard into his face. His knees buckled and she grabbed his gun, spraying bullets into the legs of three more. Only four more were still standing and they were too shocked to react. One opened his mouth to shout something but she clicked into his brain, sending any impulse she could. Jenna called this, ‘sparking’ and it was basically putting someone into an artificial seizure, the man’s arms flailed wildly, smacking one of his friends in the face and knocked him out. The other two men were now running away. Jenna broke into ones head and made him run into a wall, then overrode the second ones pain receptors sending him sprawling on the floor in less than a second. She turned her attention to the dazed man stumbling away from the wall he had just ran into, and, realizing she had had a horrible day, ran him into the wall a second time, giggling a bit as she did so. The man lost consciousness and sunk to the floor. Jenna picked up his gun and badge, then walked up. She heard more gunshots and then silence. She headed towards the noise, only to see Mr. Kay running in her direction. She ducked around the corner just as he ran past. He hadn’t even noticed her, but she noticed he had a gun. She followed him quietly as he rounded another corner and yet another. He trudged onward before finally stopping at a long stairway. Jenna heard the voices of Kaity and Logan at the top of the stairs and knew that Mr. Kay did too. She followed him up the stairs.

“Stop right there freaks, and I’ll make sure you don’t feel a thing.” The voice of Mr. Kay, hard, orderly, but something underneath it…Jenna worked it out in her head, and finally, she figured it out. Pain. Terrible sadness was hidden underneath the faked anger in his voice, in fact, he was almost crying. Jenna shook her head. What could make a man like this cry like that? She heard Logan swear several times and Kaity gasp. She walked up behind Mr. Kay and said in the softest voice she could manage,

“Mr. Kay, you’re not in the right state of mind for this, please, set down the gun and tell us what’s the matter, we aren’t as bad as you think, we can help, we promise!”

Mr. Kay jumped and spun around, he was about to pull the trigger, but his finger wouldn’t move. Finally he shouted at her,

“Help! You think you can help! You killers are the reason I’m doing this, you killed him!” he spun around, pointing a shaking finger at Logan, “You killed him!” tears streamed down the old man’s cheeks.

Logan shook his head, “Killed who?”

“Tyler! Tyler Lannison! Your father you imbecile your father you killed him! He was my best friend and now he’s dead!”

Logan shook his head, “Mr. Kay you didn’t understand the circumstances, you didn’t understand what it was like to see what he did…”

“Oh, but I did, I felt the pain as bad as you but I could have helped him! He was my only friend in high school, the only one who stood up for me, but his life was wasted. He became an alcoholic and left his job, all because his son died. I was crushed. That man had helped me all my life and now it was my turn, I was so determined to save my friend I stopped at nothing. I planned to come out the next week and talk to him. As a man and as a friend! I was so sure I could have helped him, but I was disappointed. You see, I knew what you went through Logan, I heard what happened. He was drunk and beating your mother and suddenly you exploded! You killed your own father when I could have saved his life! I was devastated as was your mother…I came for the funeral…we met, talked…she told me what happened and I swore I would get revenge! You crushed my dream, and killed the only person who has ever been remotely kind to me, and now I’m going to kill you! All of you!” And with that he raised his gun and aimed at Logan again. “Starting with you!” He shouted.
Jenna yelled in protest, “Mr. Kay this is not how you will solve your problem!” He shouted back not taking his aim off of Logan.

“Shut up smart girl, your next!”

The crack of a pistol interrupted Mr. Kay, he screamed in agony and fell down on his face. Jenna’s shaking hand lowered and she ran over to Mr. Kay.

“Mr. Kay, please, just let us help!”

“How could you help? How! All you do is destroy!”

“Because that is all you let us do! We would fight for our life the same as you would for yours Mr. Kay, and I’m saving my friend the same way you would have liked to save yours!”

Mr. Kay heard that and exploded, “You know nothing! Nothing! He’s dead because of you freaks and I won’t rest until you die! He grabbed his gun and fired three shots at Logan. He fell to the ground, not making a sound. The gun spun to Jenna but something snapped inside her. She felt blood pounding inside her head. Pressure behind her eyes and then all at once, she exploded in rage. The bullets stopped an inch front her chest. She had missed on Mr. Kay pulling the trigger, but stopped the bullets with her mind seemed simple. They fell to the floor like rocks. Her raised her hand until it was level with Mr. Kay and focused hard, then lifted her hand, Mr. Kay followed. He tried to shoot again, but Jenna tapped into his head and in a second his arms went limp. He, on the other hand, continued to rise. He yelled mindlessly, Jenna focused again, and with a burst of energy sent his hurtling towards the ceiling at twenty miles an hour. He hit hard and flopped on the metal floor a second later. Jenna took control of the gun, and, not caring what she shot, sent bullets spraying down a hallway. The power she felt now was fading and she felt herself gradually come back to normal. She fell to her knees panting, then looked at Kaity, she was kneeling over Logan, tears running down her face and muttering. Jenna swore loudly and dashed over to him, kneeling by his side. Mr. Kay turned out to be a pretty bad shot. One was in his leg, another in his shoulder, the only problem was that one hit his stomach. Jenna pressed her hand to his forehead and tapped into his brain. She found the part of it she was looking for pretty fast and sent an order to it.

“Fix Stomach Now.”

Immediately Logan shivered. Kaity looked at the stomach wound and muttered under her breath, “healing mist.” The soothing mist spread into the wound, closing the hole in his stomach. Meanwhile, due to Jenna order, Logan’s body was working overtime fixing the damage done to him. He grew paler and paler until finally the damage was fixed. Jenna and Kaity lifted Logan onto their shoulders. A hallway with a corner was in front of them. Footsteps were heard and seconds later Austin dashed around the corner, tripping and landing on his stomach. He got up and ran over to them.

“Jenna! Kaity! Oh my goodness, you guys are alive! It’s a miracle! The place is swarming, there are like…twenty patrols heading down here right now, come on, I know a way out, follow me.”

Kaity and Jenna paused for a moment, then cautiously followed Austin, both knowing he was the only chance they had at getting out with Logan. He led them to a locked door, swiped a card through it, and twisted the handle.

“Look, Jenna, I am so sorry about school. Here, in case you ever get bored…” he handed her a card with his number on it. Jenna blushed a little and took it.

“Thanks Austin,” She replied quietly, then gave him an awkward one armed hug. Austin smiled a little and turned red, then got control of himself again and said, “Ok, look turn right at the first corridor and then left. You’ll come out on a paved road, ok? And here, take this, I know you don’t need it but it’ll make me feel safer.”

He handed a pistol to Jenna, opened the door, then ran back they way they came, he shouted something to someone and kept running. Jenna and Kaity ran into the corridor and immediately bumped into someone in the Dark. Austin’s pistol went off and Jenna and Kaity began to sprint off, not knowing who they had just shot at. They followed Austin’s directions and popped up on the said road. No cars were in sight and Logan was coming to. They moved him up first, then pulled themselves out and closed the lid to the sewer pipe they had just come out of. Logan was shaking.

“Cold,” he muttered. Kaity squealing as he spoke and Jenna dragged him off the road. A horrible grating sound distracted them from Logan for a moment and Jordan pulled himself out of the pipe. He shrugged an automatic off his shoulder. A bullet hole was in his foot and he limped towards them. Jenna remembered that she and shot the gun in the tunnel. Now she knew who she shot. Jordan was smirking at them.

“That hole in my foot was worth it Jenna. That miserable punk Austin told me where you were, he does pretty much anything if you threaten to kill his family. He’s kind of pathetic that way.” Kaity snarled when she heard.

The gun was suddenly pointed at her, “I just hope you know, You killed one of Austin’s best friends when your powers activated. He was super angry ‘bout that, but since he helped you it means he got over it. He gets over almost everything, you’d think he was religious or something the way he stays calm. It’s almost aggravating.”

Kaity was about to stand up, but Jenna suddenly turned his attention to Jenna, the gun pointed right at her head.

“What are you doing you little-” he screamed and collapsed. But Jenna was so angry she didn’t care, Jordan kept screaming, rolling on the ground, clutching his head he grabbed his gun and started to shoot, that’s when Kaity took action. She stood up, and slammed the heel of her foot hand into Jordan’s wrist. Jenna stopped what she was doing when she did that. Jordan moaned and rolled over again, Logan muttered something again under his breath.

“Hope that hurt you little” swearword.

Kaity sobbed and Logan sat up, thought for a moment then muttered to Kaity, “Look, I don’t know if this is a bad time, but I’m freezing and I’m sure we all need to rest and-”

Kaity didn’t let him finish, she picked him up, kissed him hard on the lips, and wrapped her arms around him.

Jenna laughed when she saw that. Come on, let’s go build a fire.” Kaity nodded and Carried Logan with her. The fire lit easily and it seemed that all was well. As Kaity was falling asleep she caught Jenna looking at the card Austin had given her and put it back into her pocket, a wishful look on her face. Kaity smiled and rolled over, it was over for now. Kaity smiled in her sleep as she realized how far her life had progressed these last few months. She felt happier than she ever had in her life at that moment. She had friends, for one. She wasn’t totally hated now, and her friends were great, she had without a doubt the best boyfriend on the face of the planet. She could do things most people never dreamed of, too. Run as fast as a car, jump over houses, control water. But mostly she just felt good, like she had actually done something with her life, she had overcome even Jordan. She heard someone come walk up by her and Logan laid his sleeping down next to hers. He had headlined wonderfully, although he was still tired. He put his arm around her and looked up.

“You can see the stars from here.” He whispered.

Kaity nodded, they were beautiful, twinkling and everywhere. He leaned closer to her and kissed her on the cheek, “This has so far been the most fun I have ever had in my life.” Kaity smiled and whispered back to him.

“Logan…I think you and Jenna are the best thing that has ever happened to me…”

Logan put his face closer to hers and kissed her softly on the lips, “Life can only go uphill from here.” He said back, the turned up to look at the stars. Kaity did to. It had been amazing, and Logan was right, it would only go uphill. She smiled and curled up next to Logan, even being an elemental she was tired, and so was Logan. She fell asleep for the first time in months. For now, the world was ok.

Epilogue(Kaity)

Kaity had spent most of the day sitting in a dirty motel room waiting for Logan or Jenna to call on the lead they had just received for a new possible crew member. She had broken her leg about a week ago banging it on a cast iron fence, it healed amazingly fast and amazingly well and now all she had to do was rest it and wait. The door opened and Logan stepped inside, arms loaded with assorted objects. A box of rings, several passports, a wallet, two knives and a baseball. Kaity got up and walked towards him to help.

“What’s with the stuff?”

“Jenna and me found the new guy, apparently he’s got a background.”

Kaity laughed, “Oh, I see, I thought u were proposing.”

Logan looked at the box of rings and laughed, “Not yet, he stole these from a jewelry store. I think he should have to give ‘em back though, anything on the news about us?”

“Yea, but not much, they found Jordan and his hideout. Him and his dad are hospitalized. Apparently that doesn’t go over to well with citizens, and the military is freaking out on how we got in to such a secure location, so were currently wanted for murder and stuff by the police and the president has offered rewards for anyone who finds us.”

Logan nodded, “Good to know, what do we do about it though?”

“We could paint ourselves like mimes.”

Logan smiled, “Or we could leave the country, England is supposed to be nice this time of year…”

Just then Jenna opened the door, another boy followed her in. Electricity jumped from his fingers. Jenna had a dirty look on her face, “Well, we found him, and he’s agreed to come with us.”

Kaity looked at the boy, he was definitely an elemental. His spiked hair has static shooting from spike to spike, his eyes glowed electric blue and his fingers had electricity crawling over them like little worms. He had fake glasses on and a ripped skull shirt. His arms were almost as muscled as Logan’s, but he lacked Logan’s size. He was very skinny in fact.

Kaity smiled at him, “Welcome to the team,” she said, and Logan went up and shook his hand. Jenna gave him another dirty look and shook his hand too. Kaity looked at the new boy. He looked like he could do good, he just needed time.

Kaity looked back to Logan. “Soooo…Europe?”

Logan nodded, “Sounds good to me.”

The other boy grinned, “I got a passport, I’m set.”

Everyone looked at Jenna. “Well…ok, what the heck…Europe it is.”

They packed up that day and, with massive amounts of makeup for Kaity and Jenna, and a haircut and fresh cloths for Logan and the new kid, Matt, they managed to make it through the airport unnoticed, buy tickets and get on a plane. As they boarded Kaity looked at her cell phone, she had several new messages from her mom. She looked at a few, and deleted them all. She couldn’t get dragged back to her old life. Logan touched her shoulder and she followed him onto the plane. This was her life now, and she was happy with it.