"Mmm," I mumbled as I crept my way to consciousness after an incredibly long nap. I could tell based on how much energy I felt inside me right now. It was great to be feeling someone myself again after all the chaos occurring in my life currently.
I opened my eyes to a soft, carmel colored pillow and above it I saw a smooth, polished bed frame of deep brown. It made me feel like I was in a princess chamber until my stretched out hand bumped a card, which I picked up to read "Hamilton Suites". What was I doing in a suite?
Supposing it was time to investigate again, I sat up and swung my legs over the side of the bed, trying to find the floor with my feet. They dangled off and the cool air of the room swooshed against my skin, leaving my body chilled. Someone must have turned the air conditioner on, seen as how it was like ninety degrees outside in the summertime. Brrrr.
"Dad?" I called out, hoping he was here somewhere. Normally I would be fine, but waking up in a room by myself after falling asleep in the car was one of the most uncomforable things imaginable. Who knows who had gotten me this time.
"Dad?!" I hollered loudly, my thoughts wandering a bit too far below my comfort level. "Dad, are you here?"
"We're in the kitchen, honey!" his deep soothing voice called back, sending a warm, relaxing feeling through my spine. Thank heavens.
"Coming!" I sang, scooting off my bed and practically jogging into the kitchen where Barry, Phil and my father were all concentrating on their laptops. What in the world?
"Guys, what are you doing?"
"Researching," Phil replied, not moving a centimeter except for talking.
"What are you researching?"
"Stuff."
"Like what?" I asked.
"We're looking for answers, Hun," Barry spoke from directly in front of me.
"Oh okay," I nodded pretending to understand them but really, I just didn't want to be a bother.
"We want to know why you and Andrew have powers, sweetheart," my dad answered, which ended up surprising me.
"Any luck?"
"Alleah, there's dinner on the table over there," Phil said. "Why don't you go eat it?"
"Um, sure, I uh....okay," I agreed, noticing how much my stomach was seeking attention after all. I could tell that he was trying to distract me though.
"We're on to something," my father responded. "We'll update you when we figure everything out, okay?"
"Sure thing, Dad," I replied, walking over to the place where lunch meats and sandwich fillings were spread out in a disorderly fashion. You could tell boys had dug in as everything was in a huge pile. The only thing that wasn't a mess was the bag of hoagie buns sitting on the other side of the sink, which had two remaining from the pack of 12. Jeez, I lived with pigs.
"You guys are gut filling hogs," I grumbled, pulling out a bun from the package and placing it on a glass plate from the cupboard.
"Hey, be grateful we saved you that much," Phil said. "Your dad stopped Barry and I from consuming the last two."
"Dad, you're the best," I grinned, sticking my tongue out at Phil. My dad sent me a warm smile and winked at me, making me laugh.
"But we managed to eat all the salt and vinegar chips," he cackled evilly.
That did it.
"You wouldn't," I snarled, freezing in the middle of loading turkey on my sandwich. Salt and vinegar chips were my most favorite chips ever. He was so dead.
"Umm, I think I did, actually," he snorted, typing more on the computer that he was staring at intently.
"Phil!" I cried. "You know those are my favorite! What the heck is wrong with you? I'm going to seriously hurt you!"
"Alleah," he hooted with laughter. "It's a bag of chips! I thought athletes ate healthy."
"This athlete eats healthy, but my body also burns practically everything I eat," I protested. "And those chips are precious!"
"You're such a drama queen," he said, rolling his eyes and still laughing. "There's another bag in the counter for tomorrow."
"You're such a butthead," I muttered, sending him my glare of death.
"Chill, Leelee," he huffed for air. "Tomorrow you can have all of it."
"How long are we staying here anyway?" I wondered, loading a chunk of juicy red tomatoes on top of the pickles.
"Until your father finds the answer to his question."
"Ah," I nodded, pulling the top over my sandwich. I attempted to pick it up and hold it together, just about to take a bite when Barry let out a loud holler.
"WAHOO HERE IT IS!" he shouted. Great, there went the perfect sandwich all over my white track t-shirt.
"No way!" my father's face lit up like a light bulb and he pushed his chair over to look at Barry's laptop. Phil also crowded around as they read whatever Barry had on his computer.
"Barry, you freak!" I whined, shaking some mustard off of my arms. The sandwich was now all over the grey marble floor and all over my front too.
"That's it!" my father cheered with a fist pump. They all talked excitely among them and I just stared at my ruined clothes. They hadn't heard a word I had just said.
"Barry, this is fabulous," my father sighed happily. "I've been looking for answers like this for years."
They were just about to kill me with this whole "answers" crap, especially Barry. I bent down and began to pick up my mess as the guys kept talking amongst themselves about who knows what. It took a rag and some serious scrubbing to get all of the mustard and juices off the floor and once that was done, I took off my t-shirt so that I was only wearing my tank top and went to scrub the stains from my shirt.
"Alleah, we found the answer to our......Alleah?" my father sounded confused. "Where did you go?"
"It's okay, Dad, I'm in the bathroom," I called, scrubbing the crap out of my shirt.
"What are you doing in there?"
"I, uh...dropped my sandwich. Barry startled me," I hollered back, hurrying as fast as I could. I needed to hear what he had to say.
I ran into the dining room once my shirt was drying out and sat on my father's left knee, leaning toward the laptop. He wrapped his arm around me to steady himself.
"Alright, what do you have?" I asked, resting my chin in the palm of my hand.
"Good news," Phil smiled.
"Very good news," Barry added in.
"We understand why you and Andrew have your powers. At least it's what we believe," my father explained, pointing to the screen of the computer. "Look at this legend."
I did as he said and read a little bit of it. But really, a legend? Legends were made up tales. At least thats what my fourth grade teacher had told me.
"Dad, this is an old love legend. What does this have to do with Andrew's and my powers?"
"It's closer to the bottom, sweetheart," he told me, pointing to further down in the article.
"Will you summarize it for me please?" I begged. "I don't really know if I want to read all that and you already understand it."
"Well, okay, I can for you," he agreed, looking at my face. He sat up more in his chair and fidgeted to a comfortable position before beginning. "Alleah, your mother and I were a very odd couple. We weren't like most and we both knew it."
"How, Dad?"
"Have you heard of love at first sight? Because for your mother and I, it was exactly that. It was almost fate that we would be together when we first met. We only dated for maybe a week before we both agreed to get married."
"A week?" I gasped, giving Barry and Phil a "holy crap, are you thinking what I'm thinking" look. They just kept staring at Barry's laptop and I pouted, turning back to my father.
"Yes, a week. We were so in love. I had never been happier and neither had she. We married two months later and began our life together. We were married two years before we got the news that Brenda was pregnant with twins."
"That is the weirdest but also the coolest love story ever," I grinned, imagining how my parents had grown to love eachother. "But why do Andrew and I have powers?"
"Oh, yes. That's where this legend comes in," he told me. "A legend was told many years ago about a couple identical to your mother and I, a couple that loved eachother so much that the love they felt turned into power. The power was then transferred to the first child of the womb when they started having children. But the fact that she and I had twins just makes the legend that much more powerful and the love was twice as powerful as well."
"So is this how Zemlicka found out?" I wondered. My eyebrows furrowed in confusion about that topic. How in the world did that creeper figure it out?
"Yes. Zemlicka has been around for....a while," my father muttered. "And he just happened to be working with me when he figured out how much your mother and I were truly in love. He'd trained himself to be sensitive to the power so he could easily identify it. He'd been searching for that power for too many years previous and I'm pretty sure he has a bad intent of using them."
"But why does he need both of us if he already has Andrew?" I inquired. That question had been bothering me for who knows how long. It just didn't make sense.
"See that's just the thing about Brenda and I having twins. With one person, the power is grand but with twins the power is double. He wants it all. He wants everything and that's why he's so determined to get you. He's been trying for over sixteen years now. He's probably going nuts."
"So that would explain the aggressiveness," I sighed. Not to mention that he had corrupted my brother's mind. If Andrew only knew the truth, he'd be bewildered. "Is there any way to get rid of these powers?"
He paused for a second. "Well, that's where I'm stuck. We need to look into this more, but I am just too excited that we found it and I had to tell you. We will when you sleep."
"But you need sleep too, Dad," I reminded him and made a sad face at him. The guy had been staying up for hours on end. He had to be completely pooped.
"I will not sleep until I know that my family is safe," he said stubbornly, causing me to slump.
"Dad, come on. We have to think realistically here. Sleep is one of the most important energy sources our body has. We need it and that includes you. Let's just spend tomorrow researching, okay? I can help you that way."
"Well....I suppose we could afford another day's stay without being bothered," my father finally agreed, but there was still a bunch of hesitation vibrating in his vocal chords. "I just can't bear the thought of him finding us."
"I'll just use my ninja skills on him again," I teased, making playful ninja kicks and sounds from where I was sitting. My father laughed and grabbed my wrists.
"Gotcha," he chuckled, holding my hands to his cheeks. "Jeez, child, your hands are frozen."
I watched from my side vision as Barry perked up. "It's her cold heart," he sang out and Phil nodded his head really quickly in agreement.
"Oh, please," I groaned, rolling my eyes. "Don't get me started with yours. Mine may be cold, but at least it's somewhat close to the equator."
"You guys are such bullies to eachother," my father laughed, shaking his head in shame at his daughter and best buds. I couldn't help but smile at his expression. I was glad he got a kick out of our lame jokes. It definitely made insulting them that much better.
"Are you kidding me? I mean just look at this sexy body!" Phil piped up, standing up and flexing. "This is not a body manufactured at the north pole, my young one."
"Did you just say sexy?" I snickered, doubling over to laugh just to irritate him. "I'm going to cry!"
"Brent, you need to learn to control your daughter," Phil said as I calmed down. "She's one insane chick."
"I'm not the one who actually raised her though," my father reminded him sadly.
"Good point," Phil looked a little embarrassed and closed his mouth. I felt bad for him, but that was definitely one sore spot my father was always going to have and he couldn't be blamed.
"Don't worry about it, Phil," my father patted his shoulder to comfort him. "Shall we all go sleep? Tomorrow is going to be a busy day."
"Yeah, that sounds like a great idea," Barry agreed, standing up from his mini desk. "Phil and I can sleep on the couches. Brent and Alleah can sleep on the giant bed."
"Are you sure?" my father asked.
"Absolutely," Barry nodded, pushing in his chair.
As everyone started getting ready, I curled up in the chair and read the actual legend. It was a deep legend and I couldn't believe I possessed those powers described in it. Something had to break the powers. I didn't know what, but I felt like we could over come this whole mess somehow. Having powers was cool and all but I'd definitely choose family over powers.
I spent a lot of time reading it before my father finally convinced me to sleep. After studying it out, I definitely had ideas for tomorrow and frankly, I could not even wait. Tomorrow began our fight for our family in a whole new level and we were not going to lose. That was certain.