“So your first day will be next Monday, okay?” The receptionist told me when I left the office.

I nodded. “Okay.”

The door opened. I turned to see Tao, a backpack on his shoulders. “Come on,” he said, gesturing with his head.

I stepped out in the hallway and waited. He closed the door and started walking.

As I followed, some people turned to stare at us, even when we passed by. Their eyes were a display different emotions-curiosity, longing, confusion, jealousy.

Okay, I know Tao is nice and pretty good-looking, but do all these people seriously want to be in my position??

Sheesh.

“Tao! TAO!” A girl ran up to him, her swinging ponytail almost smacking me in the face. “Can I have an autograph NOW?”

I scrutinized her. She was wearing a black t-shirt, a pink hexagon in the front with some lines crossing in it. Everything else about her was either black or pink, especially her zebra print miniskirt. And, I realized when she flipped her hair, pink lowlights. Her eyes were covered in glitter and her lips were a light pink color.

In other words, almost a pink picture with barely some black. I have to give her credit on the black part.

“I gave you one yesterday,” Tao replied, his voice screaming annoyance.

“No, that was a week ago!” she protested. “Besides, I need Kris’s autograph now!”

“Well, you’ll have to ask Kris then, not me.”

“Why can’t you ask him yourself?” She whined.

“Because I don’t want his autograph.  Now excuse me,” Tao replied, pushing the girl aside and running out of the door.

I raced after him. “Who… was she?” I asked once I caught up, panting.

“Hua Shang.” He looked disgusted.

“Why…was she…asking for…Kris’s autograph?”

“It’s a long story. Forget about it.”

I looked at him, and decided not to push it. He looked pained. “Okay.”

He managed to smile. “Now, what was that chore we had to do?”

“Eggs!”

We came back to the apartment with bags of groceries. Lay met us at the door. “Thank god you guys are here! Everyone’s hungry, but the refrigerator looks like it was just bought from the appliance store,” he said, taking the bags from our hands.

Tao chuckled and after putting on slippers, walked out of the kitchen. “I need to ask Kris something,” he called over his shoulder as he opened a door.

“I can help,” I offered, taking off my shoes too.

“Thanks, but first-“ Lay turned around. “Let’s do the healing before I forget.”

“Um, okay..”

He took my hand, his palm warming my fingers. “Close your eyes, and try to feel the essence of yourself, your personal image, the way you’re familiar with your inner core and your body,” he said softly, almost as if it was a chant.

Underneath the darkness of my eyelids, I tried to see me. The person I’ve been all my life. Someone I looked at every time I tried to make sure I was alright, someone I recognized when I looked at the mirror.  The things that reassured me that I wasn’t dreaming, that I was awake.

All of the sudden I felt a surge of energy inside of me. I could feel it spread to all of my limbs, every centimeter of my existence. Comfortable warmth engulfed my body, then a refreshing coolness took its place.

“You can open your eyes now,” Lay said.

When I opened my eyes, Lay was checking my arms. All the bruises had disappeared. I blinked. Not only were my arms untainted, but was I seeing a white aura around myself?

“May I?” Lay had moved behind me, his hands poised above my right calf.

I nodded and he peeled off the bandage. There was no sign of the wound-not even a scar.

Lay stood up, a satisfied look on his face, although sweat had beaded on his face and he leaned on a chair to get up. “No marks on you. Very good.”

“Except for this weird glow,” I said as I waved my hands. The glow followed my movements, sticking to my skin.

“Ah, don’t worry, it’ll go away in a min-wait,” Lay started to say absent-mindedly as he unpacked the groceries. He froze and looked up at me. “You can see the glow?”

“How could anyone not see it? It’s almost blinding.” I looked at my feet to see they were surrounded too. “Not to mention it’s a bit disconcerting.” The glow started to fade by now.

Lay slowly nodded, resuming his unpacking. “Now wonder Tao wanted to talk to Kris,” he mused.

I looked at him, startled. Why did I feel like I was walking around a minefield, where Kris was the boss who didn’t want it disturbed?

Lay started getting out pots and pans. “Why don’t you see if Tao and Kris are done talking so we can eat?” He asked. “Having lunch any later is a bad idea in this household.”

I was suddenly aware of the hollow feeling in my stomach. “Sure.” I walked to the door that Tao had entered. My hand was reaching for the doorknob when Kris’s angry voice made me freeze.

“Are you crazy? We can’t tell her the whole truth. We are already risking our lives with the marketing. If people actually see that our powers are real and not just a concept, we’re done for!”

“But the point is that no one can see our powers and she can,” Tao stated calmly. “If we never explain, she’s going to question her sanity. After that, anything is unpredictable.”

“No. It’s too dangerous.”

“She’s your cousin! You said you trust her, enough for her to stay with us.”

“I don’t trust anyone with the knowledge of our powers. Only people with similar powers are able to detect ours.”

“Well, she couldn’t have been able to see our powers if she didn’t have one,” Tao pointed out.

There was a pause. “Wait, how was she able to see our powers?” Kris asked, suspicion lacing his question.

“By accident. I froze time so that I would be able to copy the English homework, which I had forgotten to do, but she was unaffected. She could see everyone frozen too.”

So that’s why the English class looked like they turned to stone? I shook my head. If I had tried to imagine time freezing before this, my guess would have been nothing close to the truth.

The two guys had fallen silent for quite some time now, so I opened the door. “Lay wants to know if you guys want to have lunch now.”

Tao had been sitting on a bed, Kris in an office chair. Kris stood up. “Sure, let’s have lunch.”

Tao stood up too. “I need to go to my schedule.”

“Okay. We’ll discuss this further this evening,” Kris said, his voice almost a monotone. Yet there was a tint of dislike, like he was forced to take out the garbage. Trust me, no one likes taking out the garbage, let alone Kris.

Tao nodded and walked out. A little bit later, the door to the apartment slammed shut.

“What was that about?” I ask Kris as we walked to the kitchen. “Was it about me?”

He looked at me, his eyes blazing. Then he sighed, brushing back his hair so less of it was in his face. “Yes, Kalyn. It was about you.”

“And?”

He looked at me sadly. “It was about…your life here.” He shook his head. “I promised your parents that I would protect you, keep you safe, let you thrive. Right now, I don’t know if I can keep that promise.”

With that, he walked to kitchen, his walk slower than normal.

I looked on, something making my feet frozen.

My cousin has always been strong. At that moment, he looked like he could have been tipped over by a feather.

*

Ahh the swinging ponytail. I used to be able to smack people with my braid, ponytail not so much. XD

But I’m not a fan of pink. It’s okay…when used in moderation. Like how you should use gold to spice up your whole appearance, but don’t let it take over. And how you should NEVER pair a strong eye with a strong lip. During my 8^th grade dance, there was a girl there with a solid blue eyeshadow and red lipstick. She looked like a clown. –shudders-

Wow does Kris have a lot of piercings! I wonder where he got them, cuz my parents would probably KILL me if I didn’t get their permission first. XD

Thanks so much for staying with me <3 I promise I'll get more chapters out once I looked them over again ^_^

FIGHTING!