Blue Moon| Book 1 | An Avengers fan fiction series| *under editing*

31- Caught (*)

I really need to study precalculus, but this is much more fun, wouldn't you agree?

Thanks for reading!

Love you!

Chapter Thirty One

~Thea's POV~

The following two days are easily the best I've had in an extremely long time. We wake up early and make breakfast, which, on my third day here, I help make, with Kyle's eagle-eye supervision. It turns out pretty well.

After breakfast, we usually head outside and take care of the horses. Aster and I form what I guess you could call a friendship, and I grow fond of the horse.

Yesterday, as promised, Kyle picked a fight with me. What I had originally thought would be easy ended with Kyle pinning my wrists to the ground and grinning down at me with malevolent victory. It took a while for Max to establish acceptable peace between the two of us.

Once, yesterday after dinner, I talked to Jack. It had been short and brief, but aside from him recovering relatively well, the most troubling thing was that he was clearly hiding something. When I asked him about his duplicity, he merely laughed it off. Several people had laughed in the background. He was on speakerphone.

That weight on my shoulders is slightly lifted when Max and Kyle show me how to shoot a gun. Originally, I was way too scared of them, and had run back into the house with my hands on my ears, crying. The last time I really remember a sort of gun-shot is that horrible night the Imeldi took two lives and destroyed those of two others.

It had taken a while for the boys to convince me to come back outside. Eventually, to the surprise of us all, it was Kyle who did it.

"Facing your fears is the best way to conquer them." he had said, ruffling my hair.

Like the arrows, I'm not a horribly good aim. But I have a steady hand, and although the kick-back of the barrel shocks me at first (I think I bruised my face), I get used to it. Besides, there's something satisfying about facing my fear one bang at a time.

On the fourth day, a thunderstorm rolls across. Max lets me sleep in, taking care of Aster himself, which I appreciate, because the rumbling of the thunder and soft lure of the lightning had led me into a beautiful sleep.

So that's why I moan and groan when someone shakes my shoulders awake. "No..." I mutter, swiping out blindly with my hands. "Go away..."

"Wake up, little miss sunshine." I open my eyes to see Kyle smirking at me. "It's almost noon."

"Who cares?" I sigh, rolling over and putting the pillow over my head.

He grabs the pillow and smashes it on my head.

"Why do I have to get up?"

"Because it's noon, and Max just made sandwiches." He grins at me when I look up at him blearily.

"What if I don't want a sandwich?"

"UP, before I carry your lazy self down the stairs."

"I dare you." I pronounce.

He has one arm around my waist before I surrender, "Fine, fine, I'm up!"

"Good." He says, throwing me back onto the bed.

So I'm slightly annoyed when I walk downstairs after throwing my wrinkled blue plaid shirt and some jeans on. There's an aura of perpetual grayness about the house as the thunderstorm surrounds it. Outside, the gray intensifies by the rumbling clouds that frame the sky. Thunder resonates occasionally, sending tremors across the wooden floor and over my sock-covered feet.