One Year Later
"Halliwell!" A whistle was blown, echoing around the gym. "Pick up the pace!"
Mya turned around as she jogged backwards. "I'm saving my energy for the real tryouts Coach!"
"This is tryouts!" Coach shook the clipboard in his hands.
Mya threw her head back in laughter as she turned around and continued to run around the gym with the other girls trying out for Volleyball.
They spent hours in the gym, running drills, practicing serving the balls, jumping down to the floor to save the ball.
Mya loved the sport, it was a trill as her eyes zoned it. Jumping up off the ground to hit the ball before it even crossed over to her side.
The feeling of her knees hitting the floor as she dove down. The only thing protecting her being a thick layer of cushion.
The way her arms burned with each hit. But it was a good burn, the type where she could feel exhilaration coursing through her with each save.
The soft speckles of sweat that came out of her body with each movement.
There was nothing like the feeling of being on the court.
Or maybe there was...
Maybe there was something better, maybe she had felt more before, but she could not return to that place anymore so she had to find joy in the place she was now.
The whistle blew again as Mya stopped her talking with another member of the team from last year as their couch signaled them over to them.
"Alright, you all did great today. I will have the list of the team up on by next Friday. So make sure you are checking your emails that day. And also remember, I am not going to respond to any of your emails because that makes me dislike you more," He clapped his hands once as all the girls whispered as they walked away. "Halliwell, a word."
Mya stopped her walk back to the locker room as she turned around, walking past everyone leaving to get back to their coach. "What's up?"
"Mya where was Lea today?" He asked as her face dropped a bit. "Now I don't know what's going on with her, but I'm worried. You two were my star players."
"Are you saying I didn't do good today?" Mya caught the past tense of his words. "Because my performance was better than everyone else."
"It's not your best, I've seen you play better," He gave her a look. "Your heads not in the game. I was hoping to make you team captain this year, but I wasn't seeing a captain out there. So be a leader for this team. I can't even ask you to get Lea back because her grades have slipped so much that she can't even be on the team this year."
"She's just..." Mya shook her head. "She's just going through a lot right now. I can talk to her though, try and help with her grades."
"Do something, because the school is going to get involved soon," He gave her a warning look.
Mya nodded her head before she walked back to the locker room. She smiled at people who called her name, but that was all that she could give them. These were not the faces she wanted to see, they no longer meant anything to her.
But as she shut her locker and brought her towel with her to the showers, she couldn't be the one who thought that though. She couldn't miss the world she had been taken from twice now. Because Lea was the one who needed to feel that way, it wasn't her turn yet.
The water cascaded down upon her face as she pushed her hair back.
***
"Blimey," Sirius pushed himself off of the ground, it was like looking at a ghost. "Shopia? It's really you. I-I mean Dumbledore said you were alive. But it's just... wow."
Sophia looked over at her daughter. "What did the two of you do?"
"I don't know, what did you neglect to tell us?" Mya's jaw clenched.
"I kept you safe," Sophia look matched her daughters. "I did what I had to do to-"
"You lied!" Mya raised her voice.
"Keep your voice down," Sophia snapped. "Your brother and father are sleeping."
"My father thought I was dead," Mya harshly said. "You made him think he was robbed of everything. All his friends, his family."
"Okay, let's not do this now," Sirius stepped between the two of them. "And can someone please tell me where the hell we are?"
"I-in the other world," Lea told him. "The veil, I don't understand. We should have died but were back here."
"You two should have never left," Sophia looked over the two girls' injuries as sadness flooded her eyes. "I know you don't understand this, but I was keeping you safe by not allowing you to go back. Dumbledore has tried for years, I could feel it. I let my guard down for one moment and now look what happened."
"This wouldn't have happened if you just told us," Mya whispered, feeling so hurt.
***
Mya pushed the door open as the hot Nevada sun hit her face. She shook her head with a smile at who was waiting to pick her up.
Everyone who was waiting outside were whispering and even pointing, Mya could easily tell. There was a very attractive older man, sitting onto of a motorcycle with a giant grin on his face.
She walked up to the motorbike, crossing her arms over her chest. "Now who let you have this?"
"Your step-dad let me borrow his," Sirius grinned at her. "I think he's finally starting to like me around."
"You are everything he does not like," Mya laughed. "Untamed, no discipline and you make fun of his uniform."
"It's a very weird uniform," Sirius gave her a look. "You can't even blame me, you think the same way."
"Where's my helmet?" Mya rolled her eyes choosing not to answer that.
Sirius reached behind it as he picked it off the back of the bike, handing it to her before she jumped on and strapped it over her head.
"Hold on tight," Sirius revved the engine before taking off out of her school parking lot.
They traveled through the little town on their way back home. Mya held on tight the whole ride.
This motorcycle was her father's, or stepfather, as Sirius liked to call him. Not to his face of course. He still did not know, neither did her brothers. They had decided the night that they came back that it wouldn't be fair to have their lives flipped around.
***
"Just tell me what happened?" Mya sat at her counter as her mother poured tea into two mugs. "You owe me some sort of explanation to the lie you raised me in."
"I wanted this to be your life," Sophia sighed as she turned around, placing a mug down in front of her daughter. "I never wanted this to be a lie because I wanted it to be your life. High school, friends, dates, volleyball. Siblings you could grow up with. A father that could provide and be there for you."
"Remus could have done that," Mya gave her a harsh look.
"Remus was scared to be a father," Sophia informed her. "I could see it in his eyes when he held you. He was terrified of passing his werewolf side to you. Terrified that because of who he was, he was not going to be able to give you the life you deserved. He would have been an amazing father, he loved you dearly. That was never something I doubted."
"Then why live this life, how did you find dad then?" Mya asked. "How did you find Lea a family?"
"When I came through, I was terrified, holding two baby's in my arms," Sophia looked down at the steam coming out from her mug. "I-I needed to find somewhere safe, and I was lucky to be saved by Hank and he took us to the Military base we used to live at back in Atlanta. I still felt so lost, confused, this world was so much different than any muggle world I was used to. I-I couldn't even use magic. Hank had just lost his wife and was left the father of a toddler and an infant. Something just happened and we helped each other out, and fell in love. He took my child in and I took his.
But I knew that I could not be the one to raise Lea. I wanted to give her, her own life. A family of her own that could raise her. I would keep her close to us though, so that I could keep an eye on her. But never would I have been able to love her in a way a mother could. Because I knew her mother, she was a dear friend of mine, and I could not give her that same love because when I looked into her eyes for years I felt the pain of the loss of my friends. I knew other wives in your father's unit, and I chose from one of them who would be best. Who could only look at her as Lea, and not someone else."
"So..." Mya trailed off. "You know who her parents are?"
"I do," She nodded her head. "But I can not tell you about that."
***
"We're home!" Sirius threw the front door open, sniffing the air. "Dinners done, great I'm starving."
Mya's father came around the corner with his stern look, buzzed hair, khaki pants, and a tucked in button up shirt. "Shoes off at the door, Sirius. You know the rule."
"Oh yeah right," Sirius rolled his eyes reaching down and taking off his boots. "Good to see you too, Hank. Glad to see the st-"
"I did great at my practice," Mya cut off Sirius, already having her shoes off. "Coach said I would even be captain."
"I'm very proud of you," Her father cracked a small smile. "Keep this up and you will get a scholarship in no time. Now go wash up and help your mother."
"Yes dad," Mya shot Sirius a warning look over her shoulder before she walked into the kitchen to see her younger brother at the table doing homework while her mother was stirring something in a pot. "Hey."
"Hello dear," Sophia smiled at her. "How were tryouts today?"
"It was good," Mya walked over to wash her hands. "I definitely think I'm making it on the team again."
"Thats good," Sophia took the wooden spoon out of the pot as she tapped it on the side before placing it to the side. "Adam, can you put your homework away for now and help set the table."
"Yeah," He mumbled, shoving his notes into his textbook before putting it in his bag and placing it to the side.
The two siblings went and got the utensils and dishes to place around the table for them to eat.
"What are we eating tonight?" Sirius asked as he walked into the room. "Smells good. Which is confusing because you've always been a terrible cook."
Sophia rolled her eyes. "Mind your tone Sirius or I'll make a dog house for you."
Mya tried to stifle her giggles as Adam looked confused at the inside joke.
"Uncle Sirius," Adam looked over at the man. "What do you... do?"
"You mean a job?" Sirius tried to get a taste of the food, but Sophia hit his hand away.
"Yeah," Adam said.
"Don't need one," Sirius grinned.
"Everyone needs a job," Hank muttered as he walked into the kitchen, rolling up his sleeves.
"Let's eat," Sophia brightly smiled, passing around a bowl of peas to try and stop yet another lively debate between the two men.
***
Mya worked on her homework under the lamp at her desk. Her pencil tapping away at her notes, she was unable to focus on anything related to math right now.
Her eyes moved out the window and across the street to the bedroom that she had a clear view of. The curtains were drawn shut and the lights only glowed out of it. Were before, Lea's curtain would be been open, even the window cracked when there was a nice breeze. Headphones in her ears as she finished her homework a week in advance.
Now she was shut off, skipped multiple days of school, and people were so worried for her that the school wanted to get involved. She didn't know how much Lea's mother knew about it, because she was so shut off that only Mya could understand what she was going through.
Her eyes shifted over to her lamp, the golden bracelet dangling off of it. The beater's batt no longer moved around hitting the bludger. It just sat there now, a hard reminder of what she was missing out on.
He was probably happy though, running his shop and living out his dreams. There's a reason Mya could never fully love him as much as she wanted to. There was something inside of her that told her she would never get to have that much happiness, and it was right.
Mya looked out at the window again, and for a second, she thought she saw the tiniest bit of movement coming from Lea's window. She needed to talk to her tomorrow, because this had already gone past serious.