War of the Hidden
Disclaimer: Nothing that you can google belongs to me.
Ch. 1
The final bell had just rung, signaling the start of summer vacation. The students were buzzing with excitement as they hurriedly went to their lockers to get their near-empty backpacks. Maxi was no exception. She stuffed her textbook into her locker and grabbed her backpack.
"Come on Maxi, let's go!" her friends rushed her.
"All right, all right, jeez! I'm coming!" she replied. Slamming the locker door, she walked out of the school with the others. Outside was pouring rain. Maxi rolled her eyes and sighed. Only in Washington can it be raining on the first day of summer. Having lived in California all her life, she was used to the sun and heat. Her dad, the infamous (at least to the female half of the student body) Dr. Tommy Oliver, wanted a quiet life after years of saving the world as a Power Ranger, finally decided to escape the state, hoping the "Ranger Curse", as he puts it, will wear off once he was outside the Golden State's borders. He even went as far as moving to its opposite. Almost two years ago, after his recent term serving as the Dino Thunder team's Black Ranger and mentor, he packed up and moved himself and his then nine-year-old adoptive daughter to Forks, Washington a small town in the Olympic Peninsula, one of the rainiest places on Earth.
"What's the matter Maxi?" asked her friend, Austin Alexander, "afraid of the rain?"
"No," Maxi retorted. I wasn't afraid of Mesogog and his goons, and I definitely won't be afraid of a little water, she thought, but she wasn't going to say that out loud.
"Come on then." Pulling up the hood of her too-big sweatshirt, Maxi followed him and the rest of her friends outside.
"So what are you planning on doing this summer?" Austin asked Maxi. Austin himself was a sophomore in high school. He not only had a summer job, but he was also gonna be working on his football in hopes for a scholarship to college. That's what he does every year (his parents own a diner, he's been working there ever since he was strong enough to carry the plates). Austin's summers were all planned out, but Max was quite the opposite. Her dad was a teacher, so he got the summer off with her. Last summer, they had gone to the wedding of his old high school buddies, Adam Park and Tanya Sloan, yes, the famous singer Tanya Sloan. Maxi's female friends, Lily Lewis and Sophia Simpson, were extremely jealous and pestered her all week about meeting the celebrity (until her male friends, Austin and Jared Jenkins were able to distract them).
"Grow, grow, grow, and did I mention grow?" Maxi replied. Her friends laughed. Maxi was small for her age…or for any age. She was ten-years-old, 11 in less than a fortnight, yet she stood at a mere four-feet-two, a solid 50 inches to match her 50 pounds.
"So where are we going anyways?" asked freshman, Jared.
"Maybe we can go over to Maxi's and just hang out," said Lily suggestively.
"Give it up Lil, he's not going to like you, no matter how much time you spend at his house," Austin told her.
Maxi sighed, shaking her head. She had skipped a grade and was now in seventh, the lower school of Forks High, which meant she had to deal with her dad's many admirers. Most of them don't come up to Maxi like Lily did; but then again, most of them chose to stalk him instead. Who were they kidding? It wasn't like he didn't know they were following him. If a Ranger like him didn't notice a flock of teenage girls following him around, then he should be rotting under a tombstone by now. Lily's straightforwardness had actually allowed her and Maxi to become friends.
"He's right, Lil," Maxi said to the ninth grade cheerleader. "My dad hasn't been on a date since…well, it's been a good decade, the last time he had a girlfriend."
"You're kidding, right?" asked Austin's 16-year-old girlfriend, Sophia.
"No," Maxi answered honestly, shaking her head. "His last girlfriend was Katherine Hillard, 1997. She was the Valedictorian of their class back in Angel Grove."
"Did you know her?" Jared asked.
"I met her during the reunions. She lives in England now, ballerina."
"Was she good looking?" Lily asked. Maxi shrugged. "Better than me?"
"No offense Lil…" Maxi said and the girl got the message. She sighed. Maxi tried to make her feel better. "But hey, Dad gives more attention to you than those other girls, right?" Lily brightened up immediately. Everybody else laughed.
"Yo, Oliver!" boomed a voice so loud, the ten-year-old cringed.
"Hey Emmett," she replied, before even turning to greet him. The guy was huge, like a grizzly. He had blonde hair and was pale with permanent purple circles under his eyes. Those few who had ever come in physical contact with him would say his skin was cold, smooth, and hard like marble. And the fewer who had seen him in the sunlight would say he sparkles like a crystal. A wide grin was plastered on his face, making him look like a child in a candy shop.
"Why do I have a bad feeling about this?" Maxi said, eyeing his smile suspiciously. Six other voices laughed as Emmett stood there, looking confused. Behind the big guy were two other guys and three girls. Three of them were now seniors at Forks High, while the other three had graduated last year. Emmett was one of the graduates. The others were his girl, Rosalie, a stunningly, indescribably beautiful blonde, and Jasper, the quiet charismatic blonde. He was six-feet-three and muscular, but lean. The three that were still students were small impish Alice, with short spikey black hair, Edward, six-feet-two, slender and slightly muscular, his hair was a bronze-reddish color, and Bella, who was much different than the others. The previous made up the Cullens, five teens that were adopted by Dr. Carlisle Cullen and his wife, Esme, both obviously way too young to have teenage children. The whole family shared the similar appearance of pale, marble-like skin that glistened in the sun and they all looked extremely attractive. Bella Swan however, was normal. It wasn't that she was ugly; she just didn't match up with the others. She was five-feet-four, short for her age, with long brown hair, a heart-shaped face, and big brown eyes. She was whiter than most people (despite originating in Phoenix, Arizona) but not pale like the Cullens. The difference between the Cullens and Bella (and every other human being on Earth) was only known to the eight of them and Maxi, who had stumbled upon the truth not long after she had moved to Forks.
As said before, Maxi's dad was a Power Ranger. Although he didn't adopt her until the year 2000, she had grown up in Angel Grove—during all those years when Rita Repulsa and Lord Zedd, then the Machine Empire, the space pirate Divatox, and Astronema, heir to the UAE (United Alliance of Evil) invaded Earth—and then spent a year in Reefside—which was targeted by Mesogog, a dinosaur-freak who wanted not to take over the world (surprisingly) but to revert Earth back to its prehistoric ages. Maxi knew all the weirdness and exactly what to look for. That was how she found out the Cullens' secret. Maxi's gift of observation proved to make her a great detective. Actually, it was more that she happened to witness them while they ate. See, the Cullen's weren't exactly…human. They were the undead; not zombies, but vampires. The "cold ones", as they were called by the Quileute tribe down in La Push. They possessed superhuman strength, speed, and sense, and could keep still like a statue. Besides Bella Swan, Edward's human girlfriend, and the Quileute werewolves, Maxi was the only person in Forks that know their secret. She never even told her dad.
"Relax, I just want to play," Emmett replied.
"Play what?" Maxi asked nervously.
"Something where you don't come in contact with her," Rosalie warned him.
"Fine," he huffed, "how about, uh…Frisbee?"
Maxi shrugged. "Sure, why not?"
Just then an all-too-familiar six-tone beep rang out. Immediately, Maxi clasped her hand over the silver watch on her left wrist, which if you look closely, isn't really a watch. She swallowed, hoping no one would notice. Too late, the others had already heard.
"What was that?" Sophia asked.
"Nothing," Maxi lied, but it rang again, muffled by her hand.
"It came from your watch," Lily pointed out. Maxi sighed inwardly. Why did her friends choose now to be so attentive?
"Oh, uh, well, it's…an alarm!" Maxi stuttered.
"An alarm for what?" Jared asked suspiciously.
"Oh duh!" Alice cried, smacking herself on the forehead with her palm as if she had just remembered something important. "Maxi has an orthodontist appointment today!"
"Yeah, that's right!" Maxi said, going along with it. "I forgot! It's a good thing I set the alarm, then." She turned to Emmett and added, "I guess I can't play with you today."
Emmett looked crestfallen. Even Maxi couldn't tell if he was acting or not.
"I better go," she said as her wrist device beeped again.
"All right," Austin said, though he looked (and sounded) unconvinced. "We'll see you later Maxi. Come on guys." And the four of them left.
"Thanks Alice," Maxi sighed in relief as soon as they were out of earshot, the rest of them hurrying over to a corner of the school.
"No problem," she replied cheerfully. "But why is it beeping?"
Since the Cullens had told her about their secret, Maxi too had told them hers. They knew about her dad's past as a Power Ranger, and the fact that the thing Maxi wore on her left wrist was not a watch, but a wrist communicator and teleportation system her dad's old friend and teammate, super genius Billy Cranston had invented back in 1993, when they had first become Rangers. When Tommy had gone on that mission to the moon in 2002 with nine other Red Rangers, he had left his communicator with her in case of an emergency. She's been wearing it ever since.
"I don't know," Maxi replied frantically, obviously freaking out. "I've had this thing for four years, it's never beeped before!"
"Well don't just stand there, answer it!" Bella urged.
"She's right, it could be an emergency," Jasper agreed.
Maxi nodded in agreement. Shakily, she brought her arm up to her mouth and pressed the receive button. "Go ahead, I read you."