Meeting Maia

Maia

My history project was falling part in my hands. I gave up, shoved it in my bag and decided to make up some crappy excuse for my gay old history teacher to eat. He had to be at least 80 and would stare at each individual guys 'bulges' to put it lightly. Creep.

"Raphie, you ready yet?" my moms voice echoed up the stairs, I sighed. she was coming up to the attic, to my room. My parents were stinking rich, we had a huge house with eight bedrooms six bathroom and four on suites as well as two huge living rooms and dining hall and a race track in our garden for my dad to race his Lamborghini with his work buddies. Out of all the rooms in this house I wanted the attic.

I kicked some underwear under my bed and threw a sheet over my bed so that she couldn't see where I'd clawed out the bed sheets from beneath me in my sleep last night.

"I'm ready, no need to come up, mom!" I ran down the steps closing the hatch behind me so that she didn't need to come up. She was slightly startled but I kissed her cheek and ran down the stairs so Charles could drive us to school. The car was a sleek black thing that looked about as fancy as our house. On our first day of school, mom had insisted we take the limo, frankly, I've never been so embarrassed and neither had Jonas or Cleo. Jonas was my twin brother and Cleo was our younger sister. We were seventeen tomorrow and she was fifteen. She got in the car and began applying make up and hitching up her skirt to mid thigh. Mom believed that she was innocent because she got good grades and she'd plait her hair in two plaits when she went to school, until she got in the car. It was only us and Charles that knew the real Cleo.

"Hey, bro, I'm bringing Maia home today!" exclaimed Jonas, hitting my leg lightly.

"Maia?"

"Oh, new girlfriend,"

"Is she prettier than me?" asked Cleo jokingly.

"Nah, you're perfect!" he replied leaning over to kiss her head. She smiled and he turned back to me. 'Way better' he mouthed. I laughed.

"Mr and Mrs Summers, you have a beautiful house," was Maia's first words as she entered our front door.

"Well, we don't pay our four gardeners for nothing, do we?" she laughed, Maia smiled back and nodded.

"It's lovely to meet you, dear," said Dad, "Right, well, I've got to work. See you at dinner."

I looked at Maia and I knew my mouth had dropped. She had soft brown hair in ringlets down to her hips and almost neon green eyes. She had soft, red lips and a carved nose. She was slim but not unnaturally. She was absolutely perfect and when she smiled, I seemed to realise how dark the room had been previously. She turned to me and she looked me in the eye and smiled. I clasped a hand over my mouth and she turned round quickly, just as surprised as myself. Jonas put an arm round her waist.

"Umm, I have... So... I've got to... Homework!" I sprinted up the stairs promptly without looking back.

I looked down at my clothes they were slightly charred and her sleeves were wet. I changed quickly. When I looked at her, I felt like I was suddenly 100 degrees and she looked for a second like shed just had a bucket of water thrown on her but not like a drowned rat but like an unimaginably beautiful mermaid or something. It only lasted a second though and then I'd fled. What had just happened? I breathed roughly, locking the hatch to my room and then I lay on the floor. Why did Jonas get her? Fair enough, she was way out of my league and despite our identical twinness he flaunted his looks in a way that made him look way better than I did. I looked in my mirror. I brushed my hair through with my fingers like he did and took off my glasses and did that goofy half smile that he does. I looked just like him but I'd never pass it off. I ruffled my hair and put my glasses back on. I wondered if Maia would like me instead if I was more like Jonas.

"Raph, oi, dinner!" Jonas' voice shouted. there was a harsh bang as his fist thwacked the hatch. I uncoupled it and climbed down.

"So, what do you think of Maia?" he asked, excitedly.

"Umm, she's alright I guess." I'm a horrible brother. "Where is she?"

"Talking to Cleo, turns out that they have a lot in common. She's brilliant isn't she? I might just stay with her." Cruel.

We arrived at the perilous dinner table where my meal was placed directly opposite Maia. Shit.

"So, Maia," my mom asked, " Have you always lived in the area?"

"No, actually, I was born in Cairo, in Egypt, but when I was three, we moved to California and lived there for a while. Then, my parents decided that they didn't want to bring me up in places with good weather so we moved to Germany when I was five. At eight, we moved to Vancouver in Canada for two years but then we moved back to Cairo. My mom got hit by a car after a year and died and my dad killed himself for grief of losing her so I got shipped to Sydney in Australia to live with my Uncle for six months. He didn't really like me too much so he gave me up to his sister, my aunt Clara, who lives in Rio de Janeiro, which was amazing but then she got remarried after two years and we went to live in Turkey for about a year and a half but I was struggling to learn the language and they couldn't get a specialist in English to help me so we moved to England and I've been here since the age of fifteen." She replied.

"Good God, dear, you must tell us, where did you prefer? What had the best culture? How many languages do you know? Is England boring compared to all these other places? If you could live in one place where would it be-" my father perked up almost immediately.

"Let the girl breathe!" my mother stated still looking slightly shocked but Maia turned to my father.

"Rio de Janeiro, Cairo, just three, no it's so new and different and probably England since that is where I've been the happiest since my parents died but if I could bring them back then definitely Cairo."

"Well, aren't you something." He stated.

"It was a beautiful dinner, Mrs Summers, you have hired some fine cooks."

"I..thank you?" Our whole dinner table was speechless. Jonas was grinning and I was in awe of her wit. She was amazing. She almost glanced at me.

"I'm finished, I'll be in the attic." I got up and pushed my plate away from me. I finished off my drink and left quickly.

Just as I got to the hatch, I heard a voice.

"Raphael, right?" Maia asked. I jumped and nearly feel off the ladder to the hatch in the ceiling. "What happened, earlier?"

"I... I don't know," I replied, honestly.

"You burst into flames, I don't understand what happened."

"Neither do I." I turned to go into the attic but she reached out and touched my arm. There was a spark and she was blown back and I fell backwards off the ladder. Water droplets and ash fell around us. I looked at her and she gasped. There, in my arm, was a small dent where her finger had been.

"Shit."