CHAPTER 6

Thea slams the front door and stomps around the living room, letting off steam as best as she can. West and I follow, with shopping bags in both hands. Joey emerges from the kitchen with a towel in his hand.

“Hey guys.” Joey’s smile slowly fades as he senses something is off.

“What happened?” He asks cautiously.

Thea turns to him, still fuming, “I’ll tell you what happened. It’s those disrespectful brats, those little punks who believe that they’re better than us but they don’t know I could snap them in half without breaking a sweat if I wanted to.”

I stand awkwardly by the door with the bags still in my hand while West drops on the couch like he’s completely used to the situation. I don’t know what to do. Do I just leave the room?

“Derek and his friends?” Joey asks.

“Derek and his friends.” West nods.

“They want to threaten me! Me? Bad choice.” Thea finally storms off.

“Let’s get you unpacked.” Joey helps me with some of the bags and we head to Thea and I’s room. West turns on the TV, indifferent as usual.

Joey and I reach the room and Joey starts making space in Thea’s wardrobe.

“Oh you don’t really have to help, I can do it.” He’s being way too nice.

“No it’s okay, I’ll help. Besides, I’d like to actually know what happened today and I know those two aren’t telling me anytime soon.”

I dump everything we bought – except the underwear of course – on the bad and we start folding and hanging one by one as I give Joey a detailed description of the encounter. From when we arrived at the mall to when we left, I recount everything.

“And that’s when she told West to call you to tell you to come home instead of meeting us at the mall because we were already leaving.” The story-time ends.

“Yikes. Now I get why she’s all riled up.” Joey folds the last shirt and joins me on the table.

“So what’s she going to do?”

“Besides ruin another perfectly good punching bag, she’s probably not going to do anything. It’s more like she can’t do anything really.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well what can she do? It’s not like she can fight back, we all can’t, because then our powers are at risk of being exposed and that is the one thing about ourselves we wouldn’t want to get out. It just defeats the whole purpose of ‘fitting in’. That’s why she’s like that, because she can’t really do anything.”

Onda slowly nods, finally understanding the situation.

Joey suddenly moves in to whisper, “You know Thea’s been here longer than us right? I really shouldn’t be telling you this but you’re one of us now so you should know this much at least. When Thea first got here, she got into some really bad stuff just so she could survive. After something big happened, she snapped out of it and swore to never use her powers on people except it was absolutely necessary.”

“What did she do? And what was the ‘something big’ that happened?” I ask, also whispering.

“Now that’s not my story to tell. You should ask her yourself, she’ll tell you if she’s ready.” Joey stands up to leave. Well now he has me all curious.

“Thanks for the help Joe, it means a lot.” I say with a genuine smile and Joey smiles at the nickname.

“You don’t need to thank me, we’re family now.” Joey leaves, closing the door behind him.

I take a few minutes to think of what to do to pass the time. After a few minutes I decide on finishing the book I started yesterday, I have nothing else to do anyways.

Joey is in his room, putting final touches on a drawing. West is still in the living room and Thea is in the training room, doing exactly what Joey said she would be doing.

A FEW HOURS LATER

“Dinner’s ready.” Thea yells from the bottom of the stairs.

I instantly drop the book and head to the kitchen. The table is set with four small plates surrounding a large platter holding a steaming pizza. Thea cuts the pizza into slices as everyone gets seated.

“Shoot. I totally forgot that you were here, I could’ve called you to help.” Thea says to me with a smile.

“Yeah I forgot that we were supposed to make dinner too. Sorry.” We all grab a slice and start eating.

Everyone glances at Thea and the small smile on her face. A few minutes into the meal I finally ask what I think is on everyone’s mind.

“Are you okay Thea?”

“Me? I’m fine don’t worry. I just needed to let off some steam, I’m okay.” We glance at each other sceptically but let it go altogether. If she says she’s okay then she should be. Right?

Dinner ends and I insist on doing the dishes; Thea keeps me company.

“So have you ever been to school?” Thea asks.

“Well, no. But my mom home-schooled me.”

“And since she left?”

“Nothing, I’ve never really had the opportunity. I was supposed to be hiding, remember? But I did read a lot.”

Thea nods and we both head to the living room as I take off the gloves and wipe my hands, done with the dishes. The girls are on the couch while the boys are on bean bags.

“I almost forgot. Joey, the stuff you did today?” Thea suddenly says.

“Oh right.” Joey races to his room and comes back with a brown envelope in hand.

He hands the envelope to Thea and she empties it on the coffee table in the middle of the room. Papers slide out and fall onto the table. I sit up, wondering what was going on. Thea suddenly turns to me, startling me a little.

“So I don’t know if I told you before but you’re going to have to start school with us.” Thea says, earning wide eyes from me.

“School? I don’t know about this.” I say, very unsure.

“It’ll be fine, don’t worry. We promised to protect you but we can’t do that if we’re at school all day and you’re by yourself at home.” Joey tries to reassure me.

“What are the papers?” I ask, still undecided about the ‘school’ situation.

“This” Thea stacks the papers together and hand them to me, “is your identity. You can’t just appear out of nowhere.”

I stare at the papers, barely understanding half of what I’m reading.

“Wow you guys are impressive.”

“And here is your phone.” Joey drops a phone on the table and I stare between the phone and Joey, not sure what to do.

“And before you decline, it’s not new, we didn’t buy it. West gave it to you, he had it as a spare. See, he can be nice.” I glance at West, surprised. He shrugs and goes back to watching TV.

“Thanks West. And thank you guys so much. You guys are being so nice to me and you barely even know me, I really don’t know what to say.”

“Like I said, you don’t have to thank us. We’re family now and this is the least family should do for each other.” Joey says, earning a smile.

“We should get ready for bed, we’re having an early start tomorrow.” Thea collects the papers and stand up, I follow behind her.

Thea showers while I explore my first phone. We both get dressed and Thea turns off the lights before joining me on the bed.

“Goodnight Thea. And thanks again.”