Maria couldn’t believe she was actually applying for a job. Better yet she
couldn’t she was applying for one in which she would have to wear that, and
say that. It was comical to everyone, except her. She glared at Kyle who was
still laughing at the thought of his little sister being that happy and
cheerful to actual people.
“Shut up!” She growled grabbing and opening her notebook. She looked down
expecting to see her poem from earlier, but to her astonishment there laid a
perfect drawing of her. It was unbelievable. Who would take so much time to
draw me? She started to seek out a signature. She closed it quickly once she
found what she sought. She swallowed hard. If she had his then he had…
*
Michael couldn’t believe what he was reading. She was so surprising. The way
she used words actually took his breath away. He was struck out of his
marvel when a sudden thought accrued to him. If I’m reading her stuff then
she’s seeing my stuff. He instantly jumped up and ran down the stairs. He
kept running till he got to the front, looking for one of his sisters.
Tess and Liz were standing at the bar and Max and Kyle had just walked over
to them. Isabel and Alex were at a separate booth talking, and laughing.
He walked over to the bar and found them laughing slightly. “Max, is your
sister here?”
Tess looked over at Liz and then Liz to Isabel. Could this be that girl?
“Yeah she’s over there. Filling out a job application.” Max said pointing to
where his sister was.
Michael walked quickly towards her seat, and found that she wasn’t filling
out her application. She wasn’t even looking at it. Her eyes were cemented
to the picture of herself. She looked at it as though it was the most
beautiful thing she had ever saw.
“Can I have that back?” He asked as soon as he reached her table.
“What?” She asked, his voice ripping her out of her daze.
“Can I have my notebook back?” He asked again with no emotion in his voice.
“Depends, can I have mine?” She asked nodding to the notebook he carried in
his hand.
He tossed on the table and grabbed for his. Maria instantly pulled back.
“What do you say?” She asked teasingly.
“Now.” Michael suggested.
“Let’s try that one again class.” She said sarcastically.
“I’m serious. Give it to me.” He said a bit more persistently.
“So am I. Say please.” She said in the same tone he was.
“I gave you yours. Now fork it over.” He said getting a little upset. All he
wanted was his drawings back.
“And what if I want to keep it?” She asked playfully.
What was that supposed to mean. All he could do was stare at her, and she
finally gave in and handed him is belonging.
He didn’t even say thanks he just began to walk off.
“Michael.” Maria called him back.
He stopped dead in his tracks. The way she said his name was invigorating to
say the least. He could picture it running off her velvet tongue and out of
her soft mouth.
“Michael.” She said a little more insistently.
He realized that he has not yet turned to face her. He quickly turned and
took the few, short steps back to her booth.
He didn’t have to address her because she started speaking as soon as he
reached her.
“They’re really good. You’re talented.” She said honestly.
Michael started to talk but was cut off by yelling.
“What do you mean, you don’t have it?” A man yelled standing up.
“I don’t have it on me right now. Give me a week.” Said his adversary, he
too rising form his seated position.
“How about I give you five second?” The other man growled bring out a gun
and cocking it.
“Everyone get down!” Michael yelled instantly.
Michael instinctively pushed Maria down so she was lying on the seat, and
laid down protecting her body with his own.
Maria was severely aware of every part of his body that was touching hers.
Even in the time of crisis he occupied her thoughts. She could feel his
breath on her lips. She opened her eyes to find Michael staring at her
deeply entranced.
Suddenly there was a loud bang and followed by several screams and sobs.
Michael felt pure terror rip through himself, and Maria. As soon as the gun
went off both guys split in a hurry.
Michael propelled himself off of Maria and began searching for anyone who
was hurt. His eyes feel on Alex and Isabel’s booth. Isabel was sobbing
uncontrollably and Tess and Liz were running towards them.
He too began to run. He was meet with his worst fear. Alex had been shot
right below his rib cage, or so he thought. He couldn’t really tell there
was so much blood.
He reached for Isabel who was violently crying and pulled her out of the
booth quickly. He looked from Tess to Liz and they quieted Isabel and
covered anyone’s view of Michael.
He placed his hand right over where he thought the wound to be.
“Open your eyes Alex. You have to open your eyes.” He called out
desperately.
*
Alex felt the bullet tear through his muscle and scrape against bone. He
tried to scream out but couldn’t. He could feel the blood pouring from him.
“Open your eyes Alex. You have to open your eyes.”
The voice sound so far away. He couldn’t tell whose it was. He lifted his
lids as far as he could, trying to see who was calling out to him.
Michael made the connection quickly effortlessly almost. He was able to
patch up all the damage and take away the pain that had flowed through
Alex’s body before. He quickly waved his hand over Alex’s shirt and his own
clothing that had touched the blood. He looked around and remove any signs
of the blood.
*
Maria, Max, and Kyle starred amazed at Michael. They had all arrived at the
booth at the same time. Maria was alarmed to say the least at the way Isabel
was reacting to a gunshot, but when she saw what the other girls were trying
to keep hidden she completely understood.
*
Michael helped Alex out of the booth quickly and was meet with several pairs
of confused and scared eyes. Michael looked over at Isabel and found that
his sisters had already taken care of her clothes and hands.
Isabel launched herself at Alex as did Tess and Liz. Michael encased them
all in the hug.
Maria, Max, and Kyle awkwardly stood to the side waiting for the other five
to realize they were there.
“What happened?” Alex asked after they finally untangled themselves from one
another.
“We need to talk.” Michael said firmly.
“Yes, we do.” Max said from beside Maria.
They all seemed to finally acknowledge the fact that they were not alone.
Liz and Tess instantly grabbed for one another. Their hands were shaking.
Liz grabbed for her brother. He stood behind them wrapping an arm on both of
their shoulders.
“What did you see?” Isabel asked frozen in time.
“Enough.” Kyle said from the other side of his sister.
*
Maria could feel the fear vibrating from all of them. She grabbed her
brothers’ hands and held tight. She had known there was something different
about them, but she would have never had guessed they were…
Her thoughts were cut of by the sound of sirens outside.
Her father quickly emerged through the café’s door.
“Is everyone OK?” He bellowed out to the diner.
No one screamed for assistance so he quietly made his way around the room.
He walked over to where the eight teens were standing.
“Are you OK?” He asked eyeing all the teens for any sign of injury.
They all shook their heads affirmatively.
“We’re going to need eye witness accounts from all of you, and I’m going to
have to speak with the owner.” He said.
“My dad’s up stairs.” Michael said pointing towards the back.
As if on cue Mr. Parker, accompanied by Mrs. Parker, ran through the door
searching for their children.
Nancy ran over and enveloped her girls in a hug. Mr. Parker grabbed Michael
instead. Mrs. Parker had tears in her eyes as she switched and put her death
grip on her son.
“No one seems hurt.” The sheriff said immediately after the embraces were
concluded.
“You youngsters need to go talk to Tammi. She’ll take down your statements.”
He said moving along to another group of people.
The DeLucas filed over to the deputy and did as their father had told them
quickly. The Parkers on the other hand were hesitant. Isabel grabbed Alex’s
had and walked with him.
Soon they all came to stand in front of the deputy. Her name tag read
Cochran.
“You kids all right?” She asked in a motherly tone.
They all shook their heads.
“I’m going to need some statements from you all. Did any of you get a good
look at what happened?” She asked taking out her notepad.
Max was the first one to speak; “There were two guys. It sounded like they
were fighting over money.”
“Yeah, something about the guy hadn’t paid him in time. The one who pulled
the gun had red hair. He was about 6’2 and looked to be about 210.” Michael
said trying to remember everything about him he could.
“His friend was shorter, about 5’11 I think. He had dark brown hair. He was
younger, late twenties at least.” Kyle offered.
“He weighed less than the other guy. The both had really short hair.” Maria
added before digging into her pockets to find her cedar oil.
“They weren’t from around here.” Alex said form beside Isabel who no longer
had any signs of tears on her face.
“Any distinguishable marks?” The she asked looking up from her notes.
“Yeah. The guy with the gun had a tattoo on his left had. I think it was of
a cobra.” Tess added.
The deputy looked pleased and thanked them before walking over to the
sheriff.
“You didn’t serve those guys.” Kyle said as soon as she was out of earshot.
“We all need to talk.” Maria cut I before Tess could make an excuse for
herself.
“Liz! Isabel! Tess!” Yelled a blonde girl who had just entered the café.
She was roughly 5’8 and had honey blonde hair down to her shoulders. She
looked like your all-American cheerleader. She had on straight legs and a
lavender top that set off her bright blue eyes.
As she made her way over to them another girl joined her. She had dark red
hair a little longer than her companion’s was. She was about 6 foot. Her
legs seemed a mile long and she had deep hazel eyes. She wore her hip
huggers and an orange halter-top.
“Come on we have to go to the field. Frances called a meeting, and if we
don’t hurry up she’s going to kill us.” Said the blonde as she came to stand
in front of them.
“Yeah, you know how she reacts to us being late.” Said the red head that
stood beside her friend.
The blonde looked Max over like he was dinner.
“Brittney this is Max. He’s new here.” Liz said staring her in eyes and
daring her to make a move.
“Hi.” She said.
“Hi.” He offered not to interested in the girl.
“This is Glenna.” Brittney said motioning to her friend.
“This is Max’s brother and sister, Kyle and Maria.” Tess said looking
towards the other DeLucas.
“Nice to meet you.” Glenna said smiling.
“So are we going or what? And bring your uniforms just in case.” Brittney
said.
“Yeah.” Isabel said making her way back to their table to get her things.
“Let’s go change.” Liz said as she made her way to the back room along with
Tess.
“I forgot something in the back.” Isabel said as she walked through the door
the others had just gone through.
Michael didn’t even offer an explanation he just walked off.
‘So… how long have you three been here?” Glenna asked hoping to spark a
conversation.
“Not very long.” Maria said keeping her eyes on the door to the back room.
“You like him?” Brittney asked. Subtlety had never been her strong suit.
“Who?” Maria asked snapping her head back towards the girls.
“Michael.” She rolled her eyes. It was so obvious.
“No. We just meet, today.” She said keeping her eyes focused right in front
of her.
*
“We have to go to practice. We don’t have a choice.” Liz said gathering her
things and placing them in a bag.
“Why don’t we all talk tomorrow? The rave’s tomorrow, we can invite them and
explain everything before the party.” Tess said putting her hair up in a
ponytail.
“We can’t just tell them everything. It’s too dangerous.” Isabel said
quickly reorganizing her pack.
“Yeah, well we have to tell them something.” Michael said in return.
“You coming?” Liz asked walking towards the door.
“Yeah. Sure.” He said running a hand through his unruly hair.
*
“We’ll follow you them.” Max said as the two girls departed from the café.
“Follow us where?” Isabel asked as she finally reached the group who had
moved to a near-by booth.
“To the field. They wanted us to come check out your routines.” Max said a
bit confused.
“Brittney just wants to get her claws on you.” Liz said distastefully.
“So am I going to get an explanation, or what?” He asked the seven teenagers
that now surrounded him.
“We’ll explain everything we can tomorrow. Before the rave we can all sit
down and talk about this.” Tess said making her way outside to Michael’s
car.
They all made their way outside suddenly Michael jogged back inside
searching out his dad.
“The girls have to go to a cheer leading thing. I’ll take them.” He said as
soon as he found his father.
“OK, I guess Karen and Agnes can handle things.” He said smiling.
*
“I say we tell them.” Maria said immediately.
“And I say we don’t. We don’t know what they’d o. We don’t know whether
they’re the same as us. We don’t know if they’d turn against us and kill us.
We don’t know anything.” Kyle said turning off the stereo.
“I know they’re the same. I can feel it. I don’t think they’d hurt us. You
can feel them. Do they feel like they’d hurt us?” Maria said leaning up in
her seat.
“I don’t know, but it’s too much of a risk.” Kyle said turning around to
face her.
“Max, what do you think?” Maria asked looking over at her brother.
“I think we should wait to see what they have to say then decide.” Max
answered his eyes staying on the vehicle in front of them.
*
“You can’t even give me the slightest clue to what happened?” Alex asked for
the millionth time since they had started their drive to the field.
He was meet with silence yet again.
“I was shot. Then I wasn’t. Please give me something.” Alex pleaded.
“We’re here.” Michael said pulling over to the side of the baseball field.
The girls got out of the car and raced over to where the rest of their
squad was.
Michael looked at Alex then started to make his way up the bleachers that
over looked the field.
*
Max, Kyle, and Maria soon joined them.
Maria sat across from him. She couldn’t stop staring at him. She didn’t care
who noticed.
“What?” He asked gruffly.
“ It’s just… wow. That explains the energy.” She said instantly regretting
it.
“What energy?” Max asked from below her.
“Earlier when we… there was this… Never mind.” She said not knowing if she
even really wanted to tell him anything.
“You never keep things Maria.” Kyle said looking at her from right beside
Max.
She didn’t want to tell them. She had broken too major promises in less than
forty-eight hours, what a wonderful sister she was.
“When we were in the office we were fighting.” Maria said starting the
explanation.
“Which we wouldn’t have even been fighting I you could have kept your mouth
shut.” Michael said looking up at the sky.
“How about you keep your mouth shut?” Maria said glaring at him.
“What happened in the office?” Max asked prodding his sister.
“There was an energy volt.” Maria said not wanting to go into details.
“What do you mean an energy volt?” Alex asked a little confused.
“Have you ever felt pure emotion. Any kind of emotion?” Michael asked
looking at his best friend.
“Yeah.” Alex said still looking confused.
“It’s like that only it’s like pure energy instead. It’s like having live
fire run through your veins.” Maria said trying to explain it better.
“OK. How does that happen?” Alex asked even more confused.
“Yeah how did to two manage to conjure up so much power?” Kyle asked
accusingly.
“We… We kissed.” Maria said closing her eyes and swallowing hard.
“Well that’s new.” Max said calmly processing everything in his head before
speaking again, “What happened?”
Kyle was seething form the anger boili8ng in his veins, “What happened was
that she broke a promise. A promise we all agreed to, and on top of it she
didn’t tell us what happened!”
“Hey, don’t blame her for the kiss. I was the one who kissed her.” Michael
said looking Kyle in the eye.
“Great, thanks for clearing that one up.” Kyle said sarcastically.
“What’s your problem?” Michael asked sitting up completely.
“My problem is you around my sister.” Kyle said standing up.
“Really, well what are you going to do about it?” Michael asked standing up
and walking down to stand beside him.
“OK, that’s enough. Both of you stop it.” Max said standing between them.
Michael went back to his seat. Kyle just starred at his brother.
“We knew this was going to happen.” He said logically.
“Yeah, but Max we all made a promise and she broke it.” Kyle said looking at
his sister.
“Yeah, I did. Point? I’m sorry. If you want to discuss it then lets discuss
it till we can’t talk. It was the spur of the moment thing, and I wasn’t
even aware it was going to happen. Yes, I admit I should have told you about
it, but I didn’t. Can we please just talk about this later?” She asked her
voice rising in volume.
Kyle just turned to watch the girls practice their routine.
Suddenly Tess started to do cartwheels, and jumps.
“So would you like to discuss those urges?” Maria asked loudly.
“Bite me!” He said roughly.
“Hypocrite.” Maria mumbled under her breath.
She started to rummage through her messenger bag. She brought out her binder
and two blue notebooks.
“Here.” She said as she handed him his notebook. He had left it on the
counter so she had just tossed it in her bag.
“Thanks.” He said as he took it and started to flip through the pages.
The picture of her fell out of his notebook and landed next to Kyle.
‘Oh, great.’ Michael thought as he watched Kyle pick it up.
Kyle picked it up and his eyes grew wide. It was beautiful. His siter used
to draw before she got into poetry. Kyle turned to find Maria hunched over
her notebook.
*
Maria could feel her brother looking at her. She looked up and he handed her
the paper.
She just nodded and said “Thanks.”
*
She looked over at Michael he had another one of those unreadable
expressions plastered on his face.
She handed it to him, but he shook his head.
She looked confused for a minute before she just placed it in her binder and
started on a new poem.
*
Max couldn’t take his eyes off of her. She was saying something, yelling the
cheer probably, but he couldn’t hear it any more. His mind was to
preoccupied by everything else she was doing.
She was jumping throwing her arms up and kicking her long tan legs in the
air. She was beautiful in all sense of the word. He couldn’t believe she was
like him. That she was different she looked so normal, so… human.