it apparently took six phone calls to get the next flight home secured.
everyone but louis, kris, and niall were sluggish. niall and louis were always full of energy, so that was no surprise, and kris was full of a different kind of energy.
"okay, we need to be on the road to the airport in twenty minutes." harry announced before pausing to take a long drink of coffee. "everyone should be ready in fifteen."
courtney heated up breakfast herself- quite literally- while niall began talking to the four new boys. they seemed to hit it off almost instantly.
"so you can mimic people? flawlessly?" niall asked luke.
luke nodded. "yeah, so long as i've heard their voice before."
michael glanced over. "he wants you to do it, twat."
"will you shut the fuck up?" luke responded, perfectly imitating michael's voice.
niall barely managed to contain his laughter. "that's brilliant."
"dick." michael mumbled, leaning back and closing his eyes. "i hate to be that guy, but we should probably be doing something more productive than making fun of me."
"oh, we totally should, but this is way more fun."
"just pray you don't think about anything particularly life-ruining today."
niall took the conversation off that track. "so, anyway, what about you two?" he looked at calum and ashton.
ash answered first. "telepathy, kind of. it takes a while of getting in sync with a person, but i can put my thoughts in other people's heads."
"and i can see the future." calum deadpanned.
that caught harry's attention on the other end of the room. "pardon?"
"i can see big events before they happen." he said, "i sleep, and it's like a movie. and then it happens, down to the finest details."
michael went on to explain further. "and he has to be asleep if he's seeing anything; it isn't just like random premonitions in the middle of a mcdonalds."
"that has to be hell." ashlyn said, coming into the room, adjusting one strap on her tank-top. "i mean, you have to see things that are going to happen without any idea if you can change it or not."
calum tried to shrug it off.
harry began to slowly walk over. "you were in that place too, so what can you do?"
"it's what i have." she corrected, adjusting the same strap again.
then ashlyn exhaled and rolled her shoulders. and she extended out wings.
wings.
harry's mouth dropped open for a fraction of a second before he closed it and swallowed.
ashlyn had a wingspan of about twelve feet. the feathers ranged from white, a dark violet, and black. the way the light bounced off of them was mesmerizing.
"okay, gentlemen, it's not nice to stare." she began retracting her wings back.
louis and kris came into room and were nearly shocked out of their skin. but it wasn't quite as strange as what they'd come across- read; kris- so it took little time to get used to the idea.
"okay, we've got that out of the way. let's move everything to the car and get moving." harry said before going into the other room to get the other four.
michael began to tune in on everyone's thoughts. most days he had some form of control over his ability. all he had to do was focus on a particular person for long enough and their thoughts would come through to him. but in a crowded place or on a bad day, everything flooded at him whether he liked it or not.
around him were thoughts about the flight, a person named jacob, and kissing.
he was going to have to keep those last two in mind.
the group crowded into the two vans, leaving no traces behind. zayn, kris, and the five new people in one, the other six in the next.
"there's going to be people looking for you guys." zayn said, looking at them through the mirrors. "i mean, the government'll do anything to keep us hidden. so when we touch down, first thing we're doing is getting some appearance changes done."
ashlyn rolled her eyes. "yeah, because this," she gestured to the scar on her face. "is going to be hidden so easily.
"he means more along the lines of simpler changes." ashton suggested. "like color contacts, hair dye, those sort of things."
zayn nodded. "exactly. as long we don't look like you do right now, you should be in the clear."
they were never in the clear. kris had known her friends for less than a month and she already knew that much for certain. but with a mind reader in the car, it probably wasn't smart to think like that.
she watched the scenery pass by in flashes. everything had felt so easy and quick, and now they were already being hauled back home. kris, oddly, wanted to do it all over again, feel the same excitement over again.
pulling up at the airport got an instant reaction from michael. he winced and shifted uncomfortably. it felt like an entire city was screaming in his ears, and he couldn't shut any of it out.
inside was worse. hundreds of people walked around, all of their minds racing. michael almost couldn't hear himself think. calum noticed the expression on his face and patted him reassuringly on the back.
"the other's must've gotten stuck in traffic. we'll have to meet up with them in the terminal." zayn double-checked his phone. "and they have all the bags, so we should be able to get through fairly quickly."
ashlyn was hesitant. she now had a jacket on, which hid her wings better. it was rather repetitive for her to be on a plane, but flying herself would require actually knowing where she was supposed to go. which she didn't.
kris was nervous as well. the plane they'd been on before was tiny compared to what she was seeing now. the fear of crashing came back to her. almost instinctively, she looked around for louis. still nowhere to be seen.
they waited in the terminal for another ten minutes before the others hurried in. michael's headache had steadily lessened in pain with time, although the thoughts were still swarming in his head. but once they were on the plane, there'd be few enough people for him to be able to block them out.
kris made sure louis would stick to his promise of standing up to jacob. he squeezed her hand and said he would, and kris realized how many nerves were on that one area of skin.
flight 971 now boarding.
inside the plane, everyone in the group was rather spread out. louis and kris were closer to ash and ashlyn. it wasn't as open-spaced as the previous plane, but she was six inches away from him, so that other stuff didn't even matter.
the takeoff nearly gave her a heart attack, but everything smoothed out as they flew.
kris and louis talked. and they learned more about each other.
louis had an obsession with pop punk music.
kris could read any book- no matter the length- in just a day.
louis used to create snow days on purpose.
kris was a light sleeper.
louis was a heavy sleeper.
behind them, ash and ash were talking. they were too quiet for their conversation to be focused in on.
kris fell asleep for two hours, until someone in the next row sneezed obnoxiously loud and woke her. her right arm was pressed up against the armrest, the other resting on top of it. and her head was on louis's shoulder. he was asleep.
quietly, kris sat up and blinked hard a few times. no two people were really focused on one particular thing. people were either sleeping, reading, watching a film, or talking. for a plane with giant engines and at least 80% full, it was surprisingly quiet.
louis had the window seat, so kris focused on her hands and thought. she'd need to thank mr. hill. he'd been the one to get her to the safety of her new friends. he was one of them.
and then kris began to wonder about other things. if she dreamed again, would she see the two boys in the storm again? where were things going with her and louis exactly? the odds of them wanting the same thing had been slim to none, and yet they both had. kris looked over at him, head resting on his other shoulder and chest moving up and down slowly with breath. he was something else.
something new moved in her peripheral vision. kris looked into the aisle and saw ashlyn was standing next to her, against the seat, arms lazily crossed over her chest. she looked tired.
"generally speaking, watching people sleep is creepy." she said.
"i wasn't-" kris stopped herself and exhaled. "do you want something?"
"just wondering what i'm supposed to expect when we land. what this place is going to be like."
kris sat up slightly. anything was better than the silence. "i'm not really the best person to ask, i've only been around for a few days myself."
"i don't care. besides, everyone else sleeps the second they get the chance, apparently, and harry is the only other one awake, and he'd burn me to a crisp if i even slightly piss him off."
"okay then. shoot."
"what's the kid to adult ratio?"
"only one guy over thirty that i know about. but as far as i know, he doesn't interact with us very much."
"how's the town?"
"kind of small-ish, but there's a lot of people."
"and how are the people?"
"everyone kind of keeps to themselves, except downtown, where it's sort of crazy, i guess. i'm not exactly someone who's been running around the town very much... but don't go near jacob. he's a kid with telekinesis and he's bad."
ashlyn smiled. "good to know."
the plane slightly trembled with turbulence. kris didn't know how much longer they had to go. ashlyn had wings, could fly. how could she stand being so high up willingly? although, admittedly, she was more pleasant when she wasn't having to be taken to the ground.
"might as well sleep a little." ashlyn said, standing up a little straighter. "you continue making the kawaii eyes at jack frost, and i'll see you when we touch down."
kris's face burned slightly as ashlyn sat down behind her.
with little else to do, she rested her head back against louis's shoulder and tried to go back to sleep.
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