Fire Summoner

Chapter Three: Eighteen Years

A/N- Happy New Year! This chapter is a little longer than I would have liked it to be, but I tried to get in a majority of Alice's life details so that after this I could focus more on the main storyline. Hope it's not too long! The action and world building will start pretty soon after this :D

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On their first weekend together, the Bets came with their son Nicolas to have a little party to celebrate the reunion of Alice and her foster parents. The Bets were secretly hoping that Alice would get along with Nick so that he might have someone else to run his energy out on apart from them.

From the minute that Nick showed Alice the sling shot that he had snuck over, both sets of parents knew that the two youngsters would be fast friends. Alice and Nick spent that day together, inseparable from one another. When night came and it was time for Nick and his parents to go home, Nick had insisted that he come back the next day and spend more time with Alice.

"Now that's not up to us bud," his mom said patiently. "You need to ask Mr. and Mrs. Barlowe if you can come over tomorrow. Politely! Please!" She called after him as he spun on his heel and walked back to the front door to hammer on it with his little fist. Upon hearing his mother's words he controlled himself a little and gave three sharp knocks at the door, much more softly than he was going to before his mothers request.

Harold answered the door, with little Alice peeking out from behind his legs. When she saw her new friend she grinned and tried to push past the legs that blocked the doorway. Harold nudged her back saying, "No Alice, go with Lottie and get your bath, it's bedtime sweetie."

Alice hadn't liked being told "no". She wanted to see the funny boy and his toy! Trying to push past Harold's legs again, this time with a frown deepening on her little face. Harold blocked her again, and gently pushed her back towards the stairs behind them.

"Alice go please, you can see Nick sometime later, it's late now and-."

"Move!" Alice shouted, and stomped her foot into the wooden flooring in frustration.

Harold's face went pale. There, underneath Alice was a burnt imprint in the shape of her foot. The edges of the shallow hole still sparking and smoking slightly, Harold shouted up the steps, "Lottie! Come help me!" He grabbed Alice and marched up the stairs quickly with the now screaming little girl. Charlotte passed them on the way up and rushed to the front door.

"Hey Nick, sweetie, why don't you run on to your parents now dear," she said, waving at the end of her driveway where the Bets stood waiting for their son. "You can come by and try to see if Alice wants to play later tomorrow before dinner, how does that sound?" She was desperate to get them away from the house. With Tim Bets being the town's fire marshal, she didn't need any investigative eyes prying in on their little... pyrotechnics situation.

Nick nodded excitedly and ran down the porch steps to rejoin his parents. With a look from his mother, he turned over his shoulder and shouted up the driveway, "Thank you, have a good night Mrs. Barlowe!"

Charlotte waved goodbye and closed the door. She bent down to inspect the dented wood just by the front door. She would have to buy a new rug, their old one had singed it's little frilly bits when some of the sparks had jumped from Alice's foot to the rug. Maybe she'd get a bigger rug this time, to help conceal the foot print.

Shaking her head she walked up the stairs to their bedroom. There sat Harold and Alice, wrapped in her strange blanket. They were taking some deep breaths together to try to calm down. Charlotte's heart melted at this. Her husband had always been so great with kids.

They gave Alice a bath, taking extra care to examine her foot to make sure there were no burn marks. But, sure enough her skin was untouched. There weren't even any heat blisters. Bewildered, but somewhat used to this by now (just the day before Alice had reached her fingers into the gas stove when Harold and Charlotte had their backs turned and had screamed with happiness at the new, blue colored flames that danced around her fingers) Charlotte scooped Alice out of the tub and carried her to the little study that they had converted into a small bedroom for her. Charlotte sung her to sleep, all wrapped up in her blanket.