Yaaaaaay another chapter update! I'm going to try to start updating faster instead of like...a month gap between updates. Sorry about that!
I hope you like this chapter! :D
Oh, and this chapter is dedicated to MindBender10 because she makes me motivated to write my chapters, and she's cool :D
-Jess
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The hotel was bustling about with a mass of our students, as it was announced only a few moments ago that we were leaving and heading back to the boarding school tomorrow morning.
So, since this would be out last night here, it was only natural for everyone to try and do everything humanely possible to make this memorable. Many were on their way for some fun on the beach, and others were out hanging with friends that were met over the days.
I on the other hand was sitting in the middle of my bed next to Cam, trying to figure out what to do for our last day in Florida. So far, we had nothing.
"Well, maybe we could walk around the city?" Cam suggested, but even she knew it was a wasted effort. Either we would get lost, or we would - with my luck- fall off a cliff. But if we didn't do something today, we would leave tomorrow wondering what could have been.
Yeah, a little over-dramatized, but still.
Right now it was just me and Cam in our room; Nate was hanging with some of his "bros" and Ty was God knows where.
Thinking of his name, I involuntarily blushed a deep red.
Ever since we kissed the other day, I hadn't seen him or been able to talk to him. In a way I was glad because I needed time to sort my feelings about him and everything else in my crazy life.
Like Elijah.
Ugh.
I didn't think I really liked him more than a friend, but we kissed too. Plus, I wasn't even sure if I was going to see him before we left, so it obviously wouldn't have worked out anyway.
"Aubrey? Hello, earth to Aubrey!" Cam waved her hand in front of my face and started snickering when I flinched.
"Sorry, what?" I asked.
"Well if you were listening, I was saying how we should totally go get the guys and Monica and have a campfire down on the beach!"
"Is that even legal?"
"Please, is anything fun legal anymore?" She started giggling again, and I had to join in this time. After a few minutes deliberating, we both agreed that this would probably be the best thing to do on our last night here.
We decided that we should probably change before we left or tried to find everyone else. Cam quickly changed into a pair of jean shorts and a black tee while I went with my usual sweats and tank top. I threw my hair up into a messy bun and I was all set to go.
"I"ll go find Monica and bring her down to the lobby to wait for you while you find Nate and Ty," Cam said with a sweet smile.
"Wait, I don't even know where they are!"
"Calm down! Nate went down to hang in the cafe with some guys, and Ty was with him last time I saw," she explained, and I stuck my tongue out at her.
We departed and I quickly made my way down the hall, stopping shortly for the maid that was pushing her little cart off of the elevator.
I stepped into the elevator and pressed the button to go down to the first floor to find the guys. My foot was tapping quickly as I waited for the elevator to start making its descent to the lower floor.
Before I even knew it hit me, my head felt like it exploded, and I was quickly consumed by an uncomfortable darkness.
I was viewing from the outside this time, not in the point of view of a certain person.
I was looking in on some sort of meeting; there were probably about twenty people sitting around a table including the woman Anne I'd seen before, who didn't look very pleased at the moment.
The "Boss", who they called Marcus, was standing before them, addressing them about the problem that was currently their top priority.
"We have come to the understanding that she is beginning to be a bit unpredictable," he started, and I automatically knew they were talking about me. "I don't think that the missing students are catching her attention enough as it should be".
There were low murmurs travelling around the room before the woman, Anne, raised her hand to speak,
"But sir, you heard how. . . 'unhinged' she was after Jonathan killed that girl Becca". She sounded bitter, and I remembered that she was the one who had felt monstrous about killing teenagers.
"Yes our spy is proving to be very useful in replaying the information back to us, but he has lately informed me that she is almost back to her old self. Therefore, we may have to resort to new tactics to get what we wish."
A few people whispered, and then eagerly nodded their heads in unison. It seemed that they have been itching to use these new tactics for a while now.
"Perhaps once we have her here, we can reveal the identities of those who have been keeping an eye on her," one of the men said with a giddy smile lighting up his face.
"Well then we will have to act as soon as possible! Make the preparations then, and we will initiate our new plan when the time is right," Marcus said, and then the room started to fade away bit by bit.
No! I have to see what they're up to, I thought to myself, but it was too late.
The vision dissolved, and I was left struggling in the dark world of my own mind.
Gasping for breath, I woke up on the floor of the elevator as it finally stopped and the doors slowly slid open.
My head was pounding as it usually did after a vision, and I scrunched my eyes involuntarily to try and make the pain go away. It subsided bit by bit, and then I figured Cam would probably be wondering where I was if I didn't show up with the boys soon.
As I walked down to the cafe, I couldn't help but wonder what these "new tactics" were that they wanted to resort to.
And frankly, I was a little scared.
Yes, they'd only kidnapped a few of the kids from school, but if they were capable of taking them out in public without anyone noticing, then what else could they be able to do to me?
I found Ty and Nate sitting at a table at the far end or the cafe. They noticed me walking up to their table, and immediately a smile lit up Nate's face.
Ty suddenly found the floor a little more interesting than he had a few moments ago.
"What's up Aubrey?" Nate asked.
"Campfire on the beach. You guys in?"
"Hell yeah, it's about time something interesting happened. I mean, come on! It's our last day here!" Nate perked up and jumped from his seat. Ty smirked and got up, and all three of us started walking to the lobby to meet Cam and Monica.
"Hey it took you long enough to find them!" Cam yelled in my face, making me wince because my head still ached.
"Sorry, but we're here now," I laughed awkwardly, and we all began to walk down to the beach.
Nate and Monica were with Cam a few yards ahead of me, all bubbling with excitement as we started looking for small logs and sticks on the way. Ty was a little bit ahead of me, but closer than the others were. He kept trying to sneak glances at me, but only for a second before he would look away again.
My mind was preoccupied with thoughts of that man Marcus, ans what he was planning to do to get to me. Also, the fact that someone here has been spying on me for a while now and has been giving them updates often.
It made me really freaking uncomfortable knowing that I was being watched and didn't know who it was.
In the distance the sun was going down, setting a pink and orange fire to the horizon. I never got to see the sunset back home, and now I was really taking time to appreciate the things that I used to miss before I moved to the new school.
On the bright side, since I moved to the boarding school, I've opened up a bit more, made a few good friends, and they didn't think I was completely insane.
Well, they didn't yet.
On the down side, I have this little organization of people I don't know trying to capture me and possibly kill me.
At least I was away from my mother.
Instinctively I looked down at my arms and shivered lightly. Faintly there, I saw the long line that was a shade paler than the rest of my skin. I never talked about it, but that was from when my mom pushed me and I fell on some broken glass from the vase she broke.
No matter how hard it got here, I would never go back with her.
Soon enough we were on the beach and had an amazing fire blazing in front of us. We made sure to stay out of plain view, just in case there were some cops roaming around tonight.
We all sat in a circle around the fire, and were mostly just talking about different things and enjoying our last hours in the lovely, sunny state of Florida.
Cam was talking about a boy she met earlier this morning while visiting the outlets with Monica.
"He was literally the perfect height for me! Plus, we talked for a bit and we liked the same music. I say we should just get married now and save some time". She chuckled again, and looked up at the sky.
"Well maybe you should wait until you meet his parents first, because we all know that the last thing anyone wants are crabby in-laws," Nate joked, and poked Cam in the stomach. I myself even cracked a smile at this.
Monica leaned over to me and started whispering into my ear, "He was actually a creep. Wouldn't stop staring at her chest the whole time". I started laughing out loud, but then quickly covered my mouth.
"What?" Cam asked suspiciously.
"Nothing. Nothing at all."
"Hey guys, I have a good idea of what to talk about," Nate started, and I automatically started thinking what he could possibly be wanting to do.
"What?"
"I think we should go around, and then say something that nobody knows about us, and then just keep going around the circle," he explained.
My stomach started getting butterflies at this stupid idea, but everyone else readily agreed, mostly because they probably wanted to know every detail about one another's life.
I groaned, knowing that this could go nowhere but down for me.
"Okay, I'll start," Nate said, and looked thoughtful for a moment. "Let's see. . . I've never had a girlfriend before."
We were all silent for those first few moments, but thankfully Ty broke that silence with his roaring laughter. Soon we all joined him, tears streaming down Monica's face from laughing so hard.
"HEY! It's not that funny!" Nate yelled, but he was chuckling a bit to himself too.
"Okay, it's my turn!" Monica announced.
We all sat quiet while she took a few moments to deliberate what she wanted to tell us. The way I saw it, this game could either be completely serious or stupid.
"Well, uh. . .ugh. Fine. I'm not a virgin," she admitted, and a fierce red blush overtook her face as she tried to look anywhere but at us.
"Hmph. Seems like our little Monica isn't as innocent as we thought she was," Nate commented, and she smacked him on the back of the head.
"Alright it's me now," Cam pointed out. "I once dated a boy who was two years younger than me."
"Woah, I didn't know you were such a cougar," I laughed and threw some sand on her legs. She looked shocked and dumped two handfuls of sand into my lap before she sat back down with her arms crossed and a grin on her face.
It was Ty's turn to go next, and he seemed absorbed in whatever he was thinking about revealing to us. He was staring into the fire as he contemplated.
The flames were reflected in his eyes, and it made him look more serious than I'd ever seen him before. He looked up and caught me staring, and I quickly looked away before he could see the blush creeping up my face.
He took a deep breath.
"I never had any real parents," he said. "I was in the foster system until I was sixteen, then one of the teachers from our boarding school found me when I accidentally started a fire in my foster home. I didn't know what had happened, only that I got really pissed at my foster mom, and then my hands started spewing fire everywhere. Mrs. Lenna found me and brought me here".
We all stayed silent, and I saw the look of shock that passed through everyone's face, not daring to meet Ty's gaze. None of us could have guess that he had been in a situation like that, not with the way he was usually joking around.
He looked around at all of us and cracked a smile. "Hey, come one guys it's not that bad!" He started laughing like an idiot, but we were all a little too stunned to react.
After a few more moments of silence, Cam reminded me that it was now my turn to say something about myself. I thought for a minute, thinking that in now way could follow Ty's confession. But then again, my family was pretty messed up too.
"Alright then," I sighed and lifted my head up. "My dad left when I was little, and my mom beats and hits me".
Once again, silence, but this time, everyone looked up and met my gaze.
"What? Did you ever tell anybody?" Cam asked me.
"No. Nobody would have believed me anyway".
Monica looked at my arms hesitantly. "Do you. . .uh have any scars or anything?"
I hesitated, and then sighed heavily. I unwrapped my arms from around my knees and turned my forearm up to reveal the long pale line that went from my wrist to the crease in my elbow.
Monica and Cam both moved closer to me to get a better look, and they both gasped when they saw it. Nate and Ty both kept their distance, but regarded me gravely.
"It's no big deal really. I just always put up with it, and then I got transferred here so I don't have to see my mom anymore," I explained. I wrapped me arms around my knees again and put my head down so the attention would be focused elsewhere.
Once again, we went around in a circle, and learned more strange things about each other. First of all, we found out that Cam used to play the tuba in her old school. That was something I never could have guessed in a million years.
It was back at Ty again, and he got an evil glint in his eye before he said his fact about himself. He glanced at me and gave me a smirk that told me he was up to no good.
"Aubrey and I kissed the other day".
My eyes widened in shock, and looked up at him to see that he was watching me now.
"What?!??" Everyone was yelling at me. Monica and Cam both stared at me with gaping mouths, while Nate looked a little hurt and betrayed.
"Why wasn't I informed of this??" Cam yelled, and came over to me and grabbed my arm. She started dragging me away from our circle before I could ask what she was doing.
"What are you doing? Ow, my arm," I yanked it back and we stopped just short of the lifeguard tower.
"Why didn't you tell me that you two kissed? I thought we were getting to be like close friends!"
"We are! We definitely are, I just didn't really want to tell everyone because I'm not even sure how I feel about it yet," I told her. She looked at me, and I could tell she felt a little hurt but she would have to deal with it.
"Fine. But next time you have to tell me the first chance you get!"
"Deal," I was smiling now, and we both wrapped our pinkies around each other.
I realized that ever since I met Cam and Monica, I was beginning to feel like I could finally have some best friends; ones to share secrets with and such. I'd never really felt like this before, and I welcomed the feeling with open arms.
We went back to sit with the others, and they all stared at me as I took my seat in the sand. A blush crept into my cheeks, and I flopped onto my back to look up at the stars.
"The sky looks amazing," I pointed out, and tried to see if I could make any cool shapes out of the stars.
"I used to sit out with my mom when I was a kid and look at the stars," Monica said, and came to lie down next to me. Cam soon joined us, and took the place on the other side of me as we all looked up at the sky. All three of us joined hands like three best friends in preschool.
Nate and Ty were kind of just sitting there, but they were looking at the stars, too. It was good that we could all have a time like this together, apart from the psychos that were trying to capture me.
In some ways, I wish that I never had these stupid powers so that I could be a normal person again, but then if I didn't, I would have never met any of these guys. So, in a way, I was glad that I was a freak.
After a while of sitting, we had to put out the fire because the cops were starting to make a few drive-by appearances. We made sure that it was definitely gone, and then we started walking back to the hotel to get some sleep.
"Well I'm glad we all got to learn more about each other," Monica sighed and smiled lazily as she started skipping ahead of us. Cam and Nate both caught up to her and Ty hung back with me.
Before he got a chance to say anything, I slapped his arm.
"What was that for?!" he yelled as he cradled his arm to his chest.
"For telling everyone that we kissed! I still can't believe you did that!"
"People were going to find out anyway, so I just shortened the wait," he cracked a half-smile, and I decided to just leave the whole subject alone. I smiled back at him, and we caught up with everyone else before we entered the lobby.
"Well I have to get up to my room, so I'll see you guys tomorrow morning!" Monica waved goodbye to us, and started jogging over to the elevator.
"So I guess we have to go up and start packing now?" Cam asked, and groaned to herself. None of us really wanted to leave, but with all the things that have happened, the people that were kidnapped and such, I was kind of impartial to whether we were in Florida or not.
"Well we have to start eventually," Nate sighed, and we all went over to the elevator so it could take us up to our floor.
Packing seemed like the last thing any of us wanted to do because we were all so tired, but I actually ended up getting most of my things all set and ready to go for tomorrow. The others were a little less successful, but we had a busy week.
"I'm gonna hit the sack," Nate told us, and flopped on his bed to try and get some sleep. Cam followed his example and when in her own bed to sleep, and I tried to go to sleep also.
Soon, I could feel myself drifting off into my dreamland, and I welcomed the darkness as my mind slipped into unconsciousness.
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