Cold Snap (Warriors: S1B3)

Chapter 8

Earth date: 10/25/11, 07:20

Kristi and I had walked to school for as long as I had been going to school. Around 3rd grade, when our parents had decided we could walk to school without one of them or Peter, Kristi's older brother, as a chaperone, my mom had started letting Kristi in when she showed up on our doorstep.

Kristi was there sitting at the dinner table when I came down for breakfast the next morning. So was Daphne, who had joined us not too long after the Vlolmeeth. 

"Hi guys," I said. "I'll be with you in a minute." I went into the kitchen. Mom was there. She glanced at me before going back to her bagel. I poured myself a bowl of cereal and chased it with milk. I came back and started eating. 

"How are you feeling, Margaret?" Daphne asked.

I paused from my Apple Jacks. "Better."

"Good."

"Yeah, you disappeared after we got back," Kristi said.

"I wanted out of there," I said simply and went back to my cereal.

The two of them didn't say anything while I finished. Once my bowl was empty, I dropped it in the sink and walked with Kristi and Daphne to the front door. I opened it and was surprised to see Max standing on my front porch.

"Hey, Max!" Kristi said.

Max looked straight at me. "We need to talk." He looked at Kristi and Daphne. "Give us a minute." Daphne motioned for Kristi to follow her, and she closed the front door behind the two of them. As soon as the door was closed, Max said, "You're an idiot."

"You really know how to make a girl feel special, don't you?" 

"Frazz messes with you because he knows you'll react. Stop reacting."

I sighed. "What do you want, Max?"

"To not see you two acting like dipshits every time you're around one another."

"So you come here and you call me an idiot?"

"Not an insult if it's true."

I shook my head. "Buzz off, Max."

He shrugged. "If you want to be predictable, go for it." He slung his legs over the bannister and dropped onto the lawn. "Later."

The door opened, and Kristi and Daphne came out, followed by my mom with her car keys in her hand. "Straight home after school," she ordered.

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, whatever."

She looked at Kristi and Daphne. "You two heard me. Margaret is to come straight home."

"Mom, don't you have work?" I said through gritted teeth. 

She glared at me one last time before she got in her car.

"Are you OK, Margaret?" Daphne asked.

I imagined spinning the Faukan on a spit over a bonfire I had lit. "Yeah."

Earth date: 10/25/11, 16:05

I did go straight home after school, like Mom said. I tossed my backpack in a corner and went into the bathroom. I turned on the hot water in the bathtub and in the sink. I sat on the rim of the tub with my eyes closed. I extended my sixth sense, feeling the heat coursing through the hot water, floating through the air, wafting off of the lightbulbs. I held both hands over the water parallel to one another, like I was trying to catch an invisible basketball. I mentally grasped the heat around me and yanked it into the space between my hands. 

The bathwater crackled as it froze solid. I watched a sheen of ice advance across the bathroom tiles as heat wafted off of them. I heard the plink-plink-plink of water droplets in the sink freezing solid and rolling down the sink bowl. The freshly-frozen bathwater started to steam as heat gathered over it. I heard something sizzle. I looked at my arm and watched as the hairs on my arms vaporized in a flash. The air over the bathtub grew warmer and warmer. I pulled the heat ball closer to me. I flowered my hands out, holding my arms parallel to one another and letting the heels of my hand touch, and blasted heat across the bathroom. I spun in a circle, blasting heat like a human hair dryer.

The iced-over bathwater exploded in a mushroom cloud of steam. The frost on the floor and the walls melted away. The moisture in the sink melted back into moisture. Finally, the heat dissipated, and the bathroom returned to its normal temperature.

I looked down at my hands. Then, I ran a hand over my smooth arms. I walked out of the bathroom and found my device. Guys?

Yeah? Joey said back.

I want to go Faukan hunting.