Claire
When I awoke, rays of sunlight were already peeking through the curtains. I sheepishly yawned and stretched on the bed, absentmindedly reaching for Antonio. He wasn't there.
"I might as well get up." I turned to the bedside clock, it was already past 7 am.
I went to the bathroom to wash my face or maybe shower, but I didn't want to wear my old clothes on a clean body. Luckily for me, there were clean clothes on the bathroom sink with a sticky note on it. It wrote: 'It's a good thing we're the same size. You won't mind me lending you this, right? Tyler'. How sweet of him! I held up the tee-shirt and skinny jeans; definitely guy fashion but they would do. With little touch ups here and there, no one would guess they belonged to a guy.
I took a quick bath and dressed up; I knotted the tee shirt at the side to fit me more and pulled up my hair in a loose ponytail. For all it's worth, I looked ready for a jog at the park.
It was after I was done and looked myself up in the mirror that my senses returned to me. I put up my hands and looked at them. My palms were supposed to be sore with burns and my left arm was supposed to be broken; but my palms were free of burns and looked like a baby's, even my arm had no pain and no numbness.
How it that possible?!
Why didn't I remember?
When did the burns heal? When did I use my hands for the first time after that?
Come to think of it, Emma didn't feed or bathe me yesterday. No one even mentioned anything about my hands. I didn't even apply medication!
What the heck was happening?
Normal people don't heal that fast, right? Am I normal?
"Definitely not." I jolted out of my thoughts immediately I heard Antonio's voice right beside me. He was dressed in clean clothes; could be Tyler lent him those too. When did he come in? Was I so lost in thought that I didn't notice or did he just appear out of nowhere?
"I'm not a magician, I can't appear or disappear. You were clearly thinking too hard and Tyler didn't give me these clothes, SM did. Hurry down, your Dad's waiting." He said nearly in one breathe and walked away before I had time to react.
There's no way I was going crazy, Antonio actually replied to my thoughts! Thoughts I didn't say out loud! Could he read minds? Jacey also, she could read my mind! Could they heal too?
If I could remember correctly, when I told Emma I would definitely use my hands even if it killed me, Jacey had that smug smile on her face as she agreed with me; could that mean she healed me? And what about my arm? Antonio was the only one with me, he must have healed me too.
What am I thinking? That's not possible, right? I mean, right? One thing is for sure, I'm definitely getting answers today, no matter what.
"Claire...?" I collected myself and turned to answer Uncle Mark. We talked briefly; he just wanted to know if I'm okay after my near death experience the day before and if I'm ready to say goodbye to my Mom finally. Well, I was ready; so ready that I agreed to have the funeral by the next weekend. Of course my Mom died tragically, but it wasn't fair to her to have her funeral delayed more, so I had to agree. Maybe it'd give me a little bit of relief when she's laid to rest.
He gave me his sad reassuring smile before leaving, saying he had somewhere else to be; then he left.
I waited for a few seconds before leaving the room too. I would have headed downstairs first, but had a serious urge to speak to Jason. I went over to his door and knocked, no response the first, second and FIFTH!time before he finally said a reluctant "Come in". Oh, I did go in and I had already worked up a rage.
He took one look at me and turned away to his phone, deciding to ignore me.
"W..."
"I know what you want to ask and I have nothing to tell you." He cut me off.
"No way! That won't do. You almost killed someone yesterday and you say you have nothing to tell me? How do you know Frank? Who is Taylor?"
"Just go away." I was mad and sad and irritated. What's his problem? I wasn't going to let him ignore me.
"You have to tell me. How are you connected to Fra...?"
"I'm not connected to him, okay? I just know him and that's it." I decided that being hard on him won't get me anywhere, so I had to let go of my anger and speak calmly to him.
"Okay, I'm sorry." I went over and sat on his bed, facing the chair he sat on.
"Please, you need to tell me how you know Frank." He studied me for a moment, then dragged a hand through his hair, exhaling.
"Why is it important to you?"
"Urh, you almost stabbed him and he killed my Mom. I mean, I'm the one who he stole from, I wasn't rushing to murder him, yet you were. I need no magician to tell me you have a kind of history with him, I just need to know what."
"I can't."
"Ja..."
"Not right now." He reached for my hand and held it. "I really don't want to talk about my past in this house. I'll tell you everything about how I know that guy but not here and not now. You just have to be patient for a bit; can you do that?" With the soft pleading look in his beautiful, beautiful eyes, how could I refuse? Urh, wait! What was that stray thought? Eww! Adopted or not, he's still my cousin. It was gross to think of him that way.
I quickly snatched my hand away and stood up.
"Sure, okay. I gotta go." I took my foolish, nearly blushing self out of his room and headed down to find my Dad.
I didn't even have to try, he was coming up the stairs looking for me also.
"Hey..." He drew me into a bear hug, lingering for a few seconds too much.
"Are you okay? After what..."
"I'm fine. I need to go back to James before he worries." I sidestepped him and rushed down the remaining steps.
After I apologized to Aunt Miriam for the worry I caused her and after thanking Tyler for the clothes, Antonio, Dad and I got into Dad's car and we headed home.
Dad kept glancing at me throughout the ride. I could tell he wanted to say a lot of things, mostly about why I should listen to him in future since he was right about the house not being safe. I also had questions for him, like why he had his PI follow me even when I rejected the idea!
But I didn't want to think about that at the moment, so I focused more on what the fuck my cousins were! Superheroes? Aliens?
Antonio suddenly burst out laughing, very hard.
"Aliens? You've got to be kidding me." He said amid laughs, wiping off a stray tear. I kept my mouth shut because I wasn't sure my Dad knew about them yet and I needed to be sure before I said anything. Not that I wasn't totally, absolutely sure my cousins read minds.
I was so thankful when we pulled into my Dad's house. Dad stopped the car at the entrance and turned to me. "James believes you spent the night at your Uncle's because you missed Tyler. Nick dropped by with the stuff you got from..." He didn't finish that statement and turned to Antonio instead. "Lucy's here, she knows about yesterday. What did you see?" Antonio quickly put up a hand to his cheek, looking down. "She's in a bad mood, I'll definitely get slapped." "Then I guess I'll try to slow her down while you make a run for it." Dad said with a grin. I was like, totally confused. What were they talking about? "Too late, she's coming." I looked up at the entrance and Aunt Luciana was really coming towards us; James was behind her. That wasn't important; what I wanted to understand was, how could Antonio know that when he's been looking down?! "Seriously, Claire, not now." He snapped at me. Uhm, excuse me? "I didn't even say anything."
I decided to mind my business and finish my meal. Antonio did the same, although he had a huge frown on his face."What happened?" Aunt Luciana was by the door, looking disappointed."We had an argument about Dad." Antonio's reply was nonchalant."I've told you, don't indulge her. Jacey is fragile and this whole situation is not easy for her." Antonio threw away the egg he was about to eat and got up so fast, his stool fell over."You know, I feel like you care about everyone else more than you care about me. I'm a boy, I need to protect Claire, but you didn't think that I could have gotten hurt there as well. Rather than scolding Jacey for hiding important stuff from us, you want me to be less normal and do more. Now, Jacey is fragile and this whole situation is not easy for her, what about me? I'm an outsider, right? You don't think it affects me?" No one needs to be told how hurt Antonio felt; his voice was really pained. Aunt Luciana couldn't even say
Few minutes later, I had barely just finished brushing my hair and smearing lip gloss on my lips when Emma came in."Ooh! Someone looks pretty." She teased. I suddenly felt stupid. Why did I take Antonio's advice and dress up for Jason? He's definitely crazy if he thinks I can date my cousin and I'm more crazy to actually patronize him."Going somewhere? Because you have a visitor downstairs and he's so cute! Are you two going out? Is he your...""Cousin!" I shrieked. What the fudge is going on around here anyway?!"He's my cousin.""Aww, too bad. You two would have made a nice couple." Emma said almost sadly."Emma?!""I'm just saying." She laughed. "He's waiting for you though.""Okay, I'm heading down now." I took one last look at myself in the mirror before leaving my room to go find Jason downstairs. I forgot to ask Emma where he was and goodness knows I still don't know my way around the house yet."Claire!" That was Jacey; running up to me with a bi
"Did you forget you told me you were going to bring SM to the green house?" I shuddered. I just heard Jacey's voice in my head! What the actual crap?"If he leaves without seeing me first, I'm going to scream in your head non-stop!" What the..."Urh, Ja...Jason!" I grabbed his hand as he stood up to leave. "Maybe you should stay a few more minutes, there's someone who'd like to meet you.""Who?""My cousin, Jacinta.""Urh, okay..." I looked around to find the green house. Jacey said the fountain was by the green house, that would mean that the glass building with lots of plants in it was the green house. And here I was thinking it was a house painted green."How dumb!" Jacey said in my head."Shut up!" I mumbled."What was that?""Heh, nothing." I smiled awkwardly at Jason and let him to the green house. It was mostly plants and flowers but Jacey made a space for herself in the rose section; she had a little table covered with a dark quil
Matt It's two days before Lucy's divorce. She's been acting all calm about it but I don't need to be a psychic to know just how she feels, especially now she's had a big fight with Antonio and he's leaving her after the divorce is final.I don't know what caused the fight but it's the first time in all of Antonio's fourteen years he's angry with his mother. If it was Jacey, then I'd understand because she was more of the hotheaded one like her jerk of a Dad. Antonio has always been mindful of his temper and his words too; if he'd ever get upset, he would just walk away and after some time, he's back to his usual self.Maybe the divorce was getting him stressed out or maybe he'd just want his parents to remain together. I mean, who would want their parents divorced if they could help it? But I vote for them getting divorced;Thomas doesn't deserve my sister at all. He just wanted her for as long as it brought good publicity for him. Now that Ingrid is
"I just want you to make friends and have a normal teenhood. I'm just trying to look out for you.""My Dad abandoned me when I was ten, my mom then married a psychopath who abused us, four years later she is murdered by her husband, now my Dad is back again and I'm hearing that I might be a psychic! Please tell me, how I can have a 'normal teenhood'?!" I chose to stay mute; I mean, what could I say to that? She's already angry, there's no need to provoke her further."Do you like art?" I asked as a thought came to my mind. She glanced at me , then shrugged."Probably, I haven't seen much. I love photography and I sometimes wonder what my pictures would look like if I paint them instead." She loves photography? That's great, it was a favorite hobby for me as a kid."Photography is awesome! Would you want to learn more about it? Travel and take pictures? What kind of pictures do you take? Landscapes? P
I sat on a high stool and sulked as my eyes trailed after them. Richie gave her a blank canvas and a pallette, then he stood aside to watch her paint. She took a brush and dipped it in a paint, but I couldn't see what color it was as I sat away from them; just as she was about to make a stroke? Someone shrieked and rushed to hold Claire. "Oh my gosh! Archie, yo
Now, she suddenly decided to renovate it and let our old tradition return. I guess we'd be spending our holidays there again. "Hello Darling!" Mom said brightly, squeezing Claire with so much love. "You look tense, are you okay?" She asked as she broke the hug to look at Claire. "Yes, I'm okay." Claire replied, looking around at the workers. "What's going on here?" "I'm renovating the house, it's been ages anyone spent time here." Mom said in a faraway voice, then held Claire's shoulders. "I lost my dear husband and two months later, I heard I'll be having a grandchild. I guess it was Philip's way of consoling me. It's too bad I wasn't there while you grew up." "Why weren't you? I always asked Dad if we could come visit yo