The small raven-haired toddler looked at her new surroundings. Knowing well that this wasn't the place where she and her brother were. In fact, she couldn't seem to find her brother anywhere.
The toddler walked around, grabbing onto the furniture and looked around for her brother.
"Bren? Bren!" The little toddler called, her voice getting louder each time. She saw a woman and a man. They were talking and looked over at the toddler.
"Alexa!" The woman smiled and picked her up.
"It's nice to see you up and around," the man smiled, he pinched her cheeks.
Who the heck are these people?
Urana looked at them, confused. "Bren?" She questioned, hoping they would know where her brother is.
"Oh. You don't have a brother," their voices ringed in her head.
There's no way Bren would leave her alone...
The couple let her walk around and she continued to look for her brother.
And the longer she couldn't find him,
The harder she cried.
----
Both Brenton and Urana walk into school with a depressed face. Alex, Ava, and Owen notice immediately.
"It's crazy!" Alex exclaims.
"Absolutely impossible!" Ava cries.
"What's so weird about it? What's weird is that we're in the janitor's closet," Owen raised an eyebrow, gesturing around them.
"Those two...can't be depressed. I mean, I get Brenton, but Urana? She's usually so collective and calm," Ava points out.
"I wonder what's going on," Alex adds.
"Let's find out," Owen suggests.
"Dude you don't just ask," Ava looks scared.
"Gosh, what's the point? Life is just you being forced to do things anyway," Owen sighs, turning dark for a minute. Metaphorically speaking.
Alex and Ava gulp.
"Where'd that come from?" Alex asks, in a low voice.
"Never mind that," Owen mumbles.
"Either way, we've gotta cheer them up!" Ava stays positive.
"Yeah!" Alex agrees. If he was still troubled, he hid it well.
"I swear all of your positivity is gonna give me a cavity," Owen rolls his eyes.
"Okay grumpy pants," Alex laughs and starts to head out the door. He looks lighter, his shoulders less slumped.
"What the heck were you guys doing in there?!" Urana questions, crossing her arms.
"Who cares?" Brenton shakes his head.
"It's against the rules," Urana reminds them.
The bell rings, saving the three of them from a lecture.
A teenage girl with curly black hair waves at them from the other side of the hallway, and they all wave back with a smile.
"I bet she just finished doing a dangerous stunt," Brenton rolls his eyes.
"Like you don't," Urana scoffs in a joking manner.
They all laugh as Brenton pouts, crossing his arms.
"Making fun of Brenton again?" The girl calls out from the other side.
"It's so easy to," Alex giggles, Ava joining in as Brenton's pout turns bigger.
"Sasha would know," Urana finds herself laughing. "She hangs out with him the most."
--
Training was the same as usual.
The teens are now gathering up their stuff, putting them in their book bags and preparing to leave. A few papers fall out of Urana's bag and Ava grabs them.
"Hey Urana, you dro-" Ava reads the contents of the paper.
"Urana...you're adopted?" Ava whispers.
"Yes. Is there a problem?" Urana takes the papers back, not whispering.
"No, no...I just...why didn't you tell anyone? You and Brenton both," Ava goes back to her normal talking voice. "And why do you have the papers in your bag?"
"I never saw the need to bring it up," Urana shrugs. "And I have them because I can."
In Urana's opinion, there really was no way to bring up the fact that you're adopted unless you wanted some sort of attention. So she never bothered to say anything. She's happy with her family, so why bother anyway?
In Ava's opinion, she felt a bit hurt. Seeing as the way their world was going, it is inevitable that they'll be stuck with each other for a while. So...shouldn't they know about one and another and try to trust each other?
"But...with the way our world is going...we'll be stuck with each other for a while...shouldn't we be able to trust each other a bit more?" Ava questions in a small voice.
"You're not wrong, but who brings up 'I"m adopted' in a normal conversation? I didn't see the point in sharing it either," Urana replies.
"Still...why do people feel the need to hide things?" Ava swings her backpack over her shoulders.
"I don't know..." Urana's voice trails off, as she puts on her book bag.
"You two okay?" Brenton asks, after a moment of silence. Both girls silently nod.
"O....kay," Alex zips up his bag.
"Now is the time for a little cheering up," Owen nudges Alex.
"I can't think of any jokes," Alex sighs.
No one really moves. Just standing in place, and messing with things in their bags. Brenton glances at a picture that he dropped and stares at it, a longing look in his eyes.
"Who's that?" Alex asks, pointing to the two babies.
"That's me and my younger twin sister," Brenton answers.
"You have a sister?" Urana turns around.
"Yeah...but she was adopted when we were four. I haven't seen or heard anything from her since. It's not like I'm supposed to...everything about her was gone once she left. Like someone deleted all of her files or something," Brenton answers, looking sad.
"His red hair, amber eyes, no one in our family has that."
Urana shakes her head. It's nothing. Don't overreact, Urana thinks to herself.
"I was separated from my older twin brother when I was adopted too. I just don't know when I was adopted," Urana says.
Owen raises an eyebrow. Surely it's obvious, he thinks. Alex and Ava look at the two, trying to see anything similar.
The freckles were the only thing, but that doesn't really count...does it? A faint half-heart could be seen on their opposite cheeks, but that's probably just them trying to come up with a connection.
"She looks nothing like you though," Alex points out in the picture.
"Well, we aren't identical twins," Brenton confirms.
"You two may be similar in other ways." Everyone turns to see Sensei standing near the doorway with Coach at the doorway.
"How long were you guys there?!" Alex jumps.
"The entire time. You guys didn't even notice," Amy chuckles, her arms crossed as she leans on the wall.
Amy had freckles too, and all three of them aren't related. Alex also has freckles.
So it can't be that, there must be something else.
"I wanna be able to do that! It would be so cool to be able to sneak up on people!" Brenton exclaims.
"First you should try and learn how to tell when people are sneaking up on you," Sensei says.
"Then there would be no point!" Brenton whines.
"That is the whole point," Ku smiles.
"You're no fun," Brenton mummers.
Ava's phone rings.
"Well, I gotta go, see ya guys later!" Ava waves as she leaves, making Amy enter the room fully. Amy knits her eyebrows in confusion.
"Why does she always leave early?" Amy mumbles.
---
The next day...
Brenton's head falls onto his pile of homework. "Ughhhhhhhhhhhh, I'm so done with high school!" Brenton yells into the papers.
"It's nothing but work all day! The teachers don't even give you any sort of free time!" Alex whines, resting his head on his notebooks.
"There's nothing fun about high school! And on top of that, the teachers assign so much homework!" Ava sighs, slumping into her bean bag.
"Heh. If you're smart. You do it all during study hall," Urana smirks, finishing up the last of her homework.
"And we have advisory too," Owen reminds them, clicking his pen, signaling that he's finishing up.
"You two are the class brainiacs! Of course, you guys would finish all your work in no time at all," Brenton grumbles.
"Yeah. That's true. But you'll never get on my level," Urana sticks out her tongue. Brenton sticks his out too.
"You okay Urana?" Owen questions.
"Fine. Why?" Urana asks, her tongue going back in.
"It's just...you never stick out your tongue," Owen says. "Weird thing."
"Huh..." Urana looks back at her homework.
Brenton looks at another photo he keeps in his pocket. This one was with him and his sister. Their cheeks almost touching, showing the two very faint half hearts on both of them made by their freckles. Brenton smiles, remembering how hard it was for Carol and Tyler to get them to pose like that...well, Brenton anyway. He only heard stories of it.
"And what are you smiling about?" Owen questions. Brenton shows him the picture. "Ah, that is pretty cute," Owen replies, a small smile appears on his face.
"Hehe, that makes this picture even more worthwhile knowing that it makes Owen smiles...even just a tiiiiiiiiiiny bit," Brenton smiles.
"Oh screw you," Owen waves his hand. Alex and Ava laugh, along with Urana.
"You don't mean that," Brenton laughs.
"Maybe I do, maybe I don't. You'll never know," Owen adds ghost sound effects and shakes his hands.
"You look ridiculous!" Alex points with one hand, and with the other, holding onto the table.
"You guys are natural born comedians!" Ava adds.
"Nah, that's just you two," Urana tilts her head in their direction.
Amy looks up from her laptop. "You guys are pretty loud for doing your homework," she raises an eyebrow, a big grin on her face.
"You're the last person to have the right to say that!" Urana looks over at Coach. Amy laughs, her joyful laughter filling the room.
"You guys are definitely right," she adds.
"Yeah we are! You always wing our PE classes!" Brenton mentions.
"And Health!" Alex adds.
"That is true too," Amy puts her finger on her chin.
Ku pops his head in the door.
"I hear more talking than you all doing work," Ku says.
"I'm done," Owen and Urana say at the same time.
"Good. How about the rest of you crazy lot?" Ku smiles, coming into the room.
"Going strong! Not!" Brenton cheers.
"So, totally, NOT close," Alex shakes his head.
"I wish I actually didn't goof off," Ava slumps back again.
Ku looks expectantly at Amy, who is busy looking at her laptop.
The teens all turn to look at her and she looks up, looks around, then points to herself.
"Oh...you want me to give you a status report?" Amy asks, with the blankest expression ever.
"Yes," Ku laughs, making the others laugh with him.
"Hey! I didn't know! And for the record, I'm done, unlike these kids!" Amy pouts, as she points to Alex, Ava, and Brenton.
"Hey!" The three of them whine.
Owen and Urana couldn't get enough of laughing, and neither could Ku.
"You kids sure are something," Ku shakes his head and sits down on the couch while taking a deep breath.
"Jut because you raised me, doesn't mean you can call me a kid and tie it to these kids," Amy tells Ku, she tries to look angry but couldn't do it.
That sends them laughing again.
--
"YOU ARE SO WRONG!" Both Owen and Urana yell at the same time.
Currently, both of them are almost touching foreheads and pointing their fingers at each other. The angriest look on their faces.
"So, uh, how long has this been going on for?" Amy scrolls through her phone, looking up for a moment.
"About....half an hour? They always go long since there's no teacher to prove either of them right," Brenton takes a guess, finishing up the last of his homework.
"I'm surprised they haven't punched each other already," Alex stares at the two, totally not paying attention to his homework.
"Sensei should walk in any second now..." Ava looks to the door.
Sure enough, Ku walks in from the door.
"I see nothing has changed since I left," Ku smiles for a second.
Brenton decides to go and break apart their fight. "Guys, guys, let's all be calm and settle this like civilized people," Brenton pushes them apart.
"LIKE YOU HAVE ANY ROOM TO TALK!" Owen and Urana reply, snapping their heads in his direction.
"Whaaaaat? I don't get into fights, people pick fights with me. What do you want me to do?" Brenton glares.
That got those guys into an argument.
"I swear," Amy shakes her head.
"Guys, c'mon now," Alex tries to calm them down.
"Get ahold of yourselves," Ava adds.
That got them dragged into the fight.
Random pieces of rocks fly out from the cloud of smoke. Water falls out. The wind picks up. The light goes dim. The fire burns then goes out.
"Amy," Ku signals.
"Ya, ya, I know," Amy waves her hand dismissively and summons different sports balls and bongs them on the teens' head.
"There we go," Amy smiles.
That earned her a glare.
Ava's phone rings and she quickly scrams to get it.
"Hello?" She speaks, gathering up all of her things. "Uh-huh. Okay, I'll be right there Tyler," Ava gets a duh-look on her face.
"Of course I'm hanging out with Alex, Brenton, Owen, and Urana. Yes...I do have friends, mister. I'll be right there," Ava then hangs up. "I'll see you guys later! My lil' bro needs some help and my mom apparently can't understand his homework, for whatever weird reason, but I'll see you guys later!" Ava waves and runs out.
"See ya!" Alex waves back.
"Call me later! 'Cause you're leaving me here with these three," Urana points to the three guys.
"I will!" Ava giggles then disappears.
"Make sure you take care of yourself!" Ku calls out after her.
"Make sure you take care of yourself," Amy points at Ku.
"Honestly," Ku shakes his head.
"Well, feel free to leave. Although...you can leave whenever you want," Ku begins to ramble. He scratches his head and then walks out.
"Too much work...too much paperwork," Ku mumbles on his way out.
"Aaaaaaaand that's why I said he should take care of himself," Amy sighs.
"Paperwork? For Alex?" Owen guesses.
"Yeah. That and some other stuff he really needs to free himself from," Amy answers, falling back onto the couch. "Awwww, I miss everything," Amy mumbles.
"Like what?" Alex asks, sitting back down like everyone else.
"Well, it wouldn't be fair to tell you about myself when Ava isn't here. So, I'll tell you guys another time, maybe," Amy muses.
"Aw, no fair. You guys know so much about us yet we know next to nothing about you guys," Brenton whines.
"You guys know I love sports. I'm the Fairy of Sports, aaaaaand that I'm totally gonna beat your butts every time you try and verse me in anything," Amy grins.
"Everyone knows that!" Alex cries out.
"That hardly counts. I mean, it's something but it's only the kind of information you receive when there's a professional relationship," Urana argues.
"When Ava's here." Amy states.
--
Brenton makes his way towards the orphanage. Just as he's about to step in the parking lot, a voice catches his attention.
"Hey look! It's that orphan who'll never get adopted," a voice snickers. Brenton rolls his eyes and ignores them.
He always had to say something smart back but that always ended up with him getting beat up. But now I have to be careful. If I get too mad...flames will pop up and I might just hurt them and I have training too. I can use that to just slip away, Brenton thinks. Trying hard not to turn and punch the guy's face.
"Ignoring me now, huh? Well, what do ya say to this?!" A teenage boy comes at him, his fists about to hit Brenton when he moved out of the way.
Do. Not. Do. Anything. Or. Say. Anything.
"Why you little-" he comes back again. He fails, and even his friends join in. Some of them boys, and some of them girls.
Brenton dodged them all with ease, also trying not to make it look like he was doing something unnatural or anything that would hint to him having some sort of special anything.
Brenton stifles his laughter. Sensei and Coach were right. It is a lot easier to avoid getting punched now! There's also the fact that if they couldn't handle some normal, regular humans, then what would they do against mages?
"Brenton, you're messing with the wrong teens! We'll get you now," their 'leader', a female, who then has everyone surround Brenton.
Jeez...just leave me alone! These guys are seriously getting on my last nerves!
Stay calm Brenton, stay calm.
These guys are not the enemy.
Brenton takes a deep breath and then tries to walk past them and reach the orphanage when the leader grabs him, and throws him back.
"Where the hell do you think you're going? You're gonna sit here and let me punch you for ignoring me," the leader growls.
Brenton never could understand why they really felt the need to do this. He didn't bother caring after all the years, it's not like their parents hit them like Alex's or expected anything crazy from them like Owen and Urana's.
"C'mon guys...do you really have to do this?" Brenton looks up and tries to get up but they push him back down and close in on him.
Brenton gulps.
Fighting back isn't an option-
A punch to his back.
Don't eve-
A punch to his arms.
Stay cal-
A strong punch under his face.
Seriously...
Satisfied and laughing, the group walk away. Brenton immediately gets back up and walks towards the orphanage.
I sure hope that no one saw that-ow! That kinda hurts!
That's exactly what Alex had to go through every day...it must've hurt a million times worse than this...what right do I have to complain?
Brenton walks in as though nothing happened. Which is what he did every time this happened. No one knew. No one could tell.
In many ways...Alex and Brenton are the same.
Hiding everything behind something.
In fact...
Couldn't the same thing he said for the rest of them?