Alex and her friends are about as popular as used chewing gum, so why is someone following them, watching from the shadows and sending threatening notes? Answer's are hard to come by, but questions start lining up when Alex develops electricity powe...
Tom covered his face with his hands and tried to breath normally- WHY NOW?
He placed his hands on his hips, trying to force himself to be calm, and looked again at the email on his lap top screen. An exploding envelope of glitter would have been more welcome then THAT email.
Hello Tom,
Happy Birthday!
I love you.
-Dad
Those few simple words had the power to destroy Tom.
'WHY NOW?' his mind raged as bitter tears threatened to spill, 'what's so special about my seventeenth? Was my sixteenth just not important enough to get an email? How about my fifteenth, fourteenth or thirteenth!?' the more Tom thought about it, he realized that the last time he had heard from his Dad... it had been his tenth birthday.
Six years of silence from your own father... and then 'I love you'!?!? How dare he!?
Tom huffed out a breath and chocked on a sob. His day had been fine up till then! It was a holiday Monday, Gabino and Lee had wished him happy birthday, then his Mom had taken him and Tory out for lunch... Tory had even given him a new sweater.
And then, the email.
Tom's heart was pounding against his chest now, sweat was forming on his forehead and he was over heating in his new sweater. His breath couldn't come fast enough, and his hands felt hot. He wanted to scream- kick something!
Six years! And before that, a whole lifetime of waiting for his father to pick him up for weekends. Tom could count on one hand how many times his father had kept his promise to do something with him. His visits had become fewer and fewer, until all Tom would get was a phone call explaining why his father couldn't make it- then even the phone calls stopped. The call he had gotten on his tenth birthday was a surprise one- and Tom had hoped that his father would come back... but six years of silence had followed.
And now this.
'How dare he!?' his mind raged, he pulled off his sweater and wiped his sweating forehead; it wasn't fair! He had almost forgotten the pain his father caused- he had almost done it!
Tom closed his eyes- he needed air! But the hurt inside him continued to build until it felt like fire. Without even meaning to, he let a broken scream escape him.
Then came the crackle of fire!
Tom opened his eyes to find several fires had popped out over his room, on his bed, in his closet, on his drapes- even on his new sweater on the floor! Smoke filled the room and Tom stumbled back in shock.
"Tom-!?" Tory opened his door and her eyes flew wide open, Tom never knew what she would have done next though, because at the sight of her, his shock snapped back into logical thinking; his room was on fire- he needed to stop it.
Like a switch had been flicked off; the fires disappeared. Tom found himself staring into his sisters unbelieving eyes as smoke floated between them.
"I can explain this." Tom said, as Tory's face began to show signs of a freak out.
Then the fire alarm went off.
* * *
March 27th, One day later, School
"This is all you got?" Colten asked with disgust as he watched the video Josh had gotten at the Quiz meet a few days ago.
Josh shifted, "Yeah." He said defensively- but his voice lacked confidence. Colten was a grade twelve student, and a full two years older then Josh; he was taller then Josh, more built, he even had a bit of black stubble coming out on his chin.
Colten handed him back his phone, "I can't put this on my channel." He said flatly, "My fans are expecting something big in my next video."
Josh took his phone and stuck his tongue in his check sulkily, and thought about Colten's last video; Limpy girl- that's what Josh called her. The dorky, foureye brunet who had been faking her limp- or so Colten had claimed in his most recent video.
"But this is big!" Josh argued, "That girl has electricity zapping between her fingers! And the guy totally predicted the future!"
Colten's face hardened for a moment, "All I see is a shaky recording of a guy watching his own shaky recording of a bunch of teens sitting in a dark room."
"They were sitting on stairs." Josh corrected- then snapped his mouth shut as Colten glared at him.
"If you want to co-host an episode on my cannel- you gotta give me something good!" with that Colten turned and walked away down the school hall.
Josh swore under his breath; it wasn't fair! He knew that there were teens in this school who had freaky super powers! And he'd prove it one way or another!
* * *
Tory Took a deep breath before sucking on her strawberry milkshake straw. She was still recovering from yesterday- and truth be told, she was still freaking out a little.
Her brother had super powers... and Lee too!? No wonder they had been acting strange for months!
"Hey." A cheerful voice said, Tory looked up with a frown as a woman with a sick afro sat down on the stool beside her. The mall food court wasn't busy- couldn't the woman sit someplace else!?
Tory grunted then went back to her milkshake.
"You run a quiz team right? I think I've seen your kids in action." The woman went on- ignoring Tory's 'don't bother me' signals.
Tory sighed and looked again at the woman; she was big- like tall and broad of shoulder. Her dark brown skin glowed, and she had startling blue eyes. Now that Tory thought about it- she had seen the woman around the quiz meets.
"Yeah, I'm Tory." She mumbled.
"Maddison." She smiled warmly, "Wow you must be so proud of your quizzers- have you known them all long?"
Tory sighed again, "Yeah most of them, one of them is my brother."
"Oh, yes- Tom right? I talked with him at the last quiz meet. Little brothers are the best- right?"
"Something like that." Tory muttered.
"So does he take after your mother, or father?"
Tory narrowed her eyes, it felt like Maddison was looking for something, "He's kinda a mix between our Mom and his Dad, actually." Weird that this should come up after Tom's email.
Maddison's eye brows raised slightly, "His Dad?"
"Yeah, his Dad." Tory refused to say anything more- this was all too weird!
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"Different fathers..." Maddison breathed, "That must be hard at times." Maddison said with the friendly smile- suddenly Tory didn't think it was so friendly.
"Well- I should get going! See you at the next Quiz meet- right? Bye." And just like that Tory was left alone with her milkshake again.
