• CHAPTER 8

    “Hey, Ian, do you think you could pass me my jeans over there?” I was going to go change in the bathroom. It had been a two months since we had come here, and I was getting comfortable. I called my mom every other day, and so far, no one had come after us intending to capture us. Today we were planning on going shopping, so I was going to throw on a tight fitted blue t-shirt and my favorite pair of jeans, with my silver wedges.
    “Ummm… these ones?” he asked, holding up a pair of ice blue faded jeans, and I nodded, so he threw them at me. I was about to say thanks, when Ian’s cell phone started to ring. We both froze and stared at it. No one ever called Ian’s phone. There was only two people who even had his number… and his brother had called yesterday.
    Ian ran for the phone glanced at the caller ID, and answered the phone wide eyed. The person on the other line said something first, and it was loud enough that I could hear it. We had the government after us, and they had done everything that they could. Then it was Ian’s turn to talk.
    “Molly is right here, Jason” he said and motioned for me to come over.
    “Really?’ I could hear Jason saying, sounding surprised through the phone. “How did you find her? How did you even know-“
    “I didn’t know about her” Ian said. “I transferred to another school a few months ago, and, well, ran into Molly”.
    “Let me talk to her” Jason said. Ian handed out the phone to me, and I took it shakely.
    “Hello?” I asked quietly. He laughed.
    “You sound scared, and I guess that is to be expected” he said.
    “Yah” I whispered.
    “How much has Ian told you?”
    “Everything” I said, my voice getting stronger.
    “Alright then. Molly, you and Ian are in very big danger, and you need to go undercover fast” he said urgently, and then seemed to think of something. “How long have you and Ian been together?” he asked in a strange voice.
    “Together?” I said uncertinely. What was he thinking? He sounded… I don’t know…
    “Like, known each other” he said uncertainly.
    “Uh… can I talk to Ian for a moment?” he asked in the same strange voice. I handed the phone out to a confused looking Ian, and he took it. I doubt that Jason knew that I could hear every word he was saying.
    “Ian!” he said in a strained voice.
    “Yah?” Ian answered.
    “Have you two…Kissed?” he said the last word quieter. Ian glanced at me, and then to the floor, looking even more confused.
    “Uhhh…. Why does that matter” Ian asked, avoiding the question.
    “Ian, this is very important! Answer me, have you two kissed”.
    “No” Ian lied.
    “Oh good” he sighed.
    “What’s wrong?” Ian sounded irritated.
    “She’s the element water, and your the element fire… the hypothesis… is that you two will distroy each other, one way or another” his voice got lower and lower until I could barely hear it. I slumped to the ground. So they’d know that we would find each other. That’s just fantastic.
    “Your HYPOTHESIS?! What, did the scientists expect us to find each other?” he nearly shouted into the phone.
    “Yes they did, it’s the whole ‘oppisites attract’ thing, and, you two are so different, that you just might kill each other if you go too far” he whispered. Then abruptly, “There coming, I’ll keep in touch” and then I heard a dial tone.
    Ian dropped the phone. “No” he whispered. He looked at me, and then at everything else in the room, and then whispered it again. “No, it wouldn’t happen” he whispered. Then he came to a dicision, and said it out loud, “But we aren’t going to take the chance”.
    I stared at him. No. No, no, no, no. Did he mean no more kissing? But that’s what helped me through the tough times, when I was begginging to break down from the pressure of what we were running from.
    He then left the room. I couldn’t comprehend anything, so this didn’t even process, even after we were done packing in case we had to leave on short notice.
    I knew that he was just trying to protect us, and that was why. But… again with the stupid teanage emotions! My brain told me that he was protecting me… but my stupid, stupid teanage part of me told me that he just didn’t want to. I was hurt, but I tried not to show it. But, as it was, I didn’t have much time to dwell on petty things like that, we had to run.
    We would stay here for another 2 weeks, and then we would go to Italy. I know this was supposed to be scary and all, but, well, I loved pasta. And pizza. When I voiced this, Ian just laughed and shook his head, mumbling something about me being in shock.
    “I’m just trying to look on the bright side” I told him. He came over and kissed me a long time, so long that, again, we both were gasping.
    “That’s why I love you” he murmered into my throat. My stomach filled up to the brim with butterfly’s, and the words flew out of my mouth.
    “I love you to, always have” and I said it feverlently. I did love him, and had for a while now. He was my safe harbor, my rock. He kept me from panicking, and calmed me down if I started to. I loved him.
    “Really?” he pulled away and looked into my eyes. Whatever he had been surching for, he found, because he sighed, and kissed me very lightly on my forehead.
    “I-“ I didn’t know what he was going to say, but then we both heard rappid nocking on the door, unmistakeably urgent. I froze, but Ian ran to the door. The next thing I heard was Ian throwing the door open and hurrying in someone. I wonder who?
    “Jason told me where you were” an unfamiliar voice said to Ian, coming toward the kitchen. He sounded about 14, and very frightened. I fell into a chair and watched the door way, waiting for them to come through.
    “What’s your name?” Ian asked him, and he sounded startled.
    “Max” he said, a little breathless. Poor thing, he sounded scared to death. Well then, that made three of us. That’s when I saw them walk through the door, and I froze. His… his eyes… they…
    Max yelped when he saw me. “Who’s that?” he asked Ian. Ian finally looked away from the boy, caught sight of my expression, and came over to put his arm around my waist to pull me up. I leaned into him, needing the support.
    “This is Molly…” Ian trailed off, then spoke again. “This is Molly, your older sister”. I crumpled, and if Ian hadn’t been holding me up, I would have hit the floor. This little boy named Max, with eyes the exact as mine, was most likely my little brother. His eyes were swimming, moving, just…like…mine. “You okay?” he asked me. I shook my head to clear it. Then I pulled away and walked toward the boy. When I was about two feet away, Max leaped forward and hugged me. I gasped.
    “Oh my god! I have a sister! I thought I was all alone…” and he started to cry, though he tried to hide it. I hugged him harder, and then set him in a chair. Ian came back and held me again, probably because I was swaying on my feet. So I wasn’t an only child.
    “What…” Max looked at us, at the way Ian had his hands looped around my waste, how he had his head resting on my head, and then he blushed. “Wait, aren’t you guys brother and sister, too?” he asked, and his eyes were flickering everywhere; around the room, at Ian’s eyes, my eyes, Ian’s hands. I giggled, because I was not in the best mental shape, and tried to explain.
    “No” I said, still laughing quietly. Ian tightened his arms around me, like a squeeze. “Our eyes are very different, and we know that we are not related” I said with confidence. I was a little surprised that, with him probably in shock from finding two others of his kind, that he’d noticed Ian and I.
    “Oh…” Max muttered. I really looked at him while he was checking out the kitchen. He had black hair like me, but it was spikey, and sticking up all over his head. It was the kind of hair that made you just want to ruffle it. He was maybe my hight, and I could tell that he was going to be taller. He was wearing a black loose fitting t-shirt, with some faded jeans, and had a backpack on his shoulders. He turned back to me and caught me looking at his tear stained face.
    “What” he said. I guess I was looking a bit to intently, and concentrating to hard because the glass of water on the table froze solid. It startled me, I hadn’t used my… oh I guess you could call it powers… no abilitys since when I had frozen the lake. And now, without trying, I had frozen a glass of water.
    Max’s eyes shifted to the glass of water, because the ice was popping as the room tempature was slowly melting it. His eyes widened as he picked it up and turned it upside down. He put it back down, and then turned back to us. “Huh, it doesn’t seem cold enough in here to freeze water” he said. He had no idea, I realized. Ian had frozen behind me, and I wondered why.
    “Ummm… Max, have you ever seen a glass freeze that fast?” I asked. I guess it made sense, I hadn’t been able to freeze stuff until a couple of months ago, though I had never tried before. “That was me Max, I froze the water” I told him quietly. He whipped his around toward me with huge, startled eyes. Ian walked over to touch it, and instantly it unfroze, turning back into a cup of water. Ian’s eyes were just as big as Max’s, but I didn’t know why, it confused me.
    “You… but… how…” he couldn’t form a sentence.
    “We can do stuff like that, Max. You will be able to, also” Ian answered for me. But then he turned toward me. “Freeze the glass again Molly” he demanded. I was confused, but I glanced at the glass, concentrated a little, and the glass iced over immidietly. I wondered why he had asked that, and more weirdly, he had walked over to de-ice-afy the glass.
    I looked outside, and the small bird bath that had come with the house, and it froze over. Hmmm…. I had just came up with an idea. If I could freeze water… maybe I could… I looked at the glass of water, and imagained it rising out of the cup and into the air. I had my eyes closed, trying to imagine it, I was concentrating very hard, and I imagained the water into a moving into the air. Then I heard a gasp, and I slowly opened my eyes.
    “Holy s**t” Ian muttered. He was staring at the water, then he reached his hand out to touch it. Before I could make a comment about his swearing, the water spurted in his face, but I didn’t do it. Ian looked at me, but I looked at Max. He was smiling hugely, pointing his finger at the water.
    “Hey! This is fun!” he said, and then pointed the water toward me. I saw what he was going to do, and so I froze the stream of water just before it hit my face, and then I cought it. I giggled, because I was beginning to like having a little brother. I looked over and Ian was running his hand across his face and where his hand left, his face was dry.
    Then I saw anticipation cross his face, and then I felt heat emminating from him. I wasn’t looking at him, but I saw the fire ball before it was half way toward me. I spun faster then I should have been able to, and doused it with water, leaving a puddle of water on the ground. Ian cursed and smiled at me affectionately.