CHAPTER 1:GUARDIAN

He seemed to appear next to her. It happened suddenly and almost silently, except for the loud thump as he dropped a thick book onto the table, earning him a well deserved glance from the librarian passing by.

She had seen him before. She saw him in the hallways, at the cafeteria and in the court yard but not in her classes. Her eyes always found him in the university as he was one of the better looking guys whom she was eager to at least glimpse on a morning. He had the classic blue eyes, black straight hair that stuck up in odd directions and in her opinion, the perfect smile. A flaw must have existed within him given the outer being. He was too gorgeous and now, he was sitting next to her in the library.

Each annoying flutter of the pages he turned bothered her. However, she did not waver from her book as she tried to finish the last Math topic for her upcoming exam.

'Milana or Mila, right?' he asked causing her to jump at the sound of her name coming out of his mouth. She turned to see him looking at her, anxiously awaiting her reply and she almost forgot to breathe. He was even better up close. Just about a foot from her and the thought of kissing him then and there was exhilarating. Mila shook her head mentally in hopes of throwing out such a ridiculous thought.

'Yes. Mila's fine,' she smiled weakly. 'You are?'

'Christian. Chris is fine,' he said with a little mischievous smile. Was he mocking her?

'Cool,' she sounded dumb.

'You're probably wondering why I'm bothering you. I know we don't share classes or anything but we share something else.'

Mila looked at him, absolutely puzzled and wondered where the hell this was coming from. 'What are you talking about?' She closed her Math book and zipped a pocket of her bag on the floor. Chris looked at her intently for a while then leaned towards her ear.

'I know you can teleport,' he whispered. Was it a strange coincidence or could she trust him? She took the chance.

'How do you know that?' Mila couldn't believe someone else besides herself and her family knew.

'I'm a teleporter as well.'

Mila gasped. 'Show me.' She felt she could not take his word for it.

Christian stood up and looked carefully around them. On noting that no one was in their sight, he disappeared and reappeared at the end of the isle in front of Mila. Then he vanished again and stood by Mila's side.

'I- I never thought I'd….'

'Meet another? Well here I am.' Chris held his arms out giving a full frontal view of himself.

'That still doesn't explain how you know I can, you know,' Mila glanced around her.

'I'm your guardian.' He did not hesitate.

'My what?'

'Your guardian. I'm going to train you.' She kept the quizzical look on her face. 'I'm assuming you have no idea why I'm here then?' Chris continued.

Mila shook her head.

'Well, what are we waiting for? Come on. Let's leave and I'll explain.' He waited for Mila to gather he belongings and as she stood, he took her hand in his.

'What are you doing?' Mila's heart jumped at the action.

'Teleporting of course.' Chris smiled broadly. That was not enough though to ease Mila's mind.

'Here? Now? Are you mad?' She tried to get her hand loose but Christian's grip was amazingly tight now.

'Yup!'

Before Mila could say anything else, she immediately felt her body leave the library, then go into limbo for a second and quickly reappeared in between shrubbery.

'Where the heck are we?' Mila lost hold of her Math book and it fell on the grass.

'Hale Park.' Chris returned her text.

'So? Let me hear everything.'

Chris took a deep breath and began. 'I'm your guardian. I have to train you to block your port-'

'My port?'

'Yes.'

Mila waited for more information. 'Well, what is it?'

'It's the door,' he made quotation marks in the air with his fingers, 'that is opened and is usually left open behind you for about two seconds as you move from one place to another. My job is to train you to close that door as soon as you are through it. Why? Because there are other people who have our ability and want to have so much strength in it, that they are willing to track or follow regulars like us to take our ability and add it to theirs. They'll strengthen and leave us to walking and buses and cars. No more "poof!"' Chris spread his fingers and hands to gesture the "poof" of disappearing very proudly.

Mila thought about what he had said for a while. 'So what your saying is that I have to close my port so that greedy people won't follow me, catch me and steal my um, power, away from me?'

'Hmmhm. You got it.' Christian was plucking flowers that he picked off a bush.

'Why wait until I'm nineteen years old? I could have been tracked so long ago.'

'I wonder what kind of plant is this.'

'Chris!'

'Sorry you said something?' He was smiling, again.

Mila rolled her eyes. She found his flaw. It started with turning pages in the library and progressed with a short attention span. Christian was annoying. She had to admit that it was a slight turn off. 'Of course, I said something. Gees. Why wait until I'm nineteen to train me?'

'Teleporting increases with age and so does the speed of it. It's stronger.' He threw away the grass he was playing with.

'How can you train me? How old are you anyway?'

'Twenty. Random select few can. I was born to teach.'

'Right.' Mila prepared herself to leave. 'I'm ready to go home. I think I've heard enough for today.'

'I'll take you home. It's not far from here.'

'I know where it-' She looked at Chris, surprised. 'You know where I live? Have you been stalking me through my port or something?'

'Yeah. You're pretty easy to follow. No! I mean, I had to-'

'You actually have the audacity to admit that you stalked me? I'm going.' Mila willed herself away from Hale Park and was glad when she stood in her dining room at home. 'Hi mum, dad.' She kissed them each on the cheek.

'Hi Milana. How was your day?' her mum asked.

'Long. Damien home?'

'He's in his room.'

'Thanks dad.' Mila vanished into her room to drop her bag and startled her brother when she appeared in his. 'Sorry to barge in Damien but I need to talk to you.'

Damien was Mila's younger brother. He was seventeen. They were always there to help each other, depending on the situation.

'Hi sis. What's up?' Damien asked while moving his iPod across the room.

'You might want to stop telekinesis for a while before what I'm about to tell you makes you break that thing.'

'Got it!' Mila's brother caught his iPod in the air and redirected his attention to her. 'All ears.'

'I met my guardian today. I didn't know I had one or even needed one. You know anything about this?'

'I only know that teleporters have one each.'

'Why didn't you tell me? Hang on, you don't have a guardian?'

'No. Of course not. Only teleporters need training or whatever.'

'Because you're not being tracked. It makes sense,' Mila mumbled to herself.

'Huh?' Damien was confused.

'People want to steal the ability to teleport, not telekinesis.'

'So I'm not being tracked?'

'No. Get downstairs if you want to hear more.' Mila vanished into the dining room where her parents stood laughing at something they probably did.

'I met my guardian today.'

Her mum and dad were motionless for a couple of seconds and Damien reached to hear the rest.

'You did? That's great,' her dad replied.

'You know already don't you? Damien knows that guardians exist and I didn't know. Why didn't you tell me?

'Sweetie, it's a very strange law. It only states that teleporters cannot know until the day they meet. We don't know why,' Mila's mum informed her. 'We're sorry. We couldn't say anything.'

'Oh.' Mila thought for a while. Her mum was a teleporter also and her dad was a mental time traveler. In other words, he saw the past. 'You have a guardian then. Is that true mum?'

'Yes. I do have a guardian. You'll meet him one day.' She smiled gently. 'How is Christian then?

'Is that your guardian's name Mila? Damien asked.

'Yeah. He's….' She thought about his physical attraction. 'He's annoying! He kept doing these random things while I was talking to him. His attention span really sucks, mum.'

Damien laughed.

'Don't worry, Mila. He's probably nervous. I remember how nervous your mother's guardian was on meeting her,' said Mila's dad. Her parents looked at each other sweetly and laughed.

'He stalked me before we met. He should be nervous!' Mila pointed out.

'It's a measure they take to monitor your port so they'll know how to train you. Don't take it personally,' said her mum.

'OK. This should be interesting.' Mila sighed and teleported to her room.

It was almost seven in the night. She did not realize how long she was in the library studying. Then, she remembered when Christian took her to the park, the sun was setting. Deciding to have a bath, she stripped off her clothing and put on her plush robe. She tied up her long brown hair and opened her bathroom door.

'AH!' Mila and Christian screamed and jumped simultaneously.

'What are you doing in my bathroom? Get out!' Mila steered him out the small room.

'Sorry! Sorry. I'm really sorry.' Chris was happy to move.

'Why are you here though?' She really was not expecting him.

'I'm stuck with you from now on.'

'I don't quite follow. Sit in my room please, anywhere but on my bed. I'll be out in a while.' Mila closed the bathroom door on entering and took a rushed bath as she was eager to find out what Chris was talking about.

A few minutes later, she was in her room again, running Chris to the bathroom so she could get dressed, after finding him sitting on the floor. When she was finished, she pulled Chris out of the bathroom and he sat on her bean chair in the corner. He looked like he was sent to the "naughty corner."

'What did you mean when you said that you're stuck with me from now on?' Mila tried not to be mean to him. After all, she would have to get use to him.

'I have to stay with you until you can master closing your port. I have to live with you.'

'Oh man! You have got to be kidding me.' How could she possibly live with someone so hot? 'Well, we have to get this training started!'

'Patience. We'll start to tomorrow after class.'

'Fine. I'm assuming that my parents already know you're here and that you're staying with us?'

'Hmmhm.' Chris nodded.

'Great.' Mila was being sarcastic. 'I'm hungry. I'm going to get something to eat. Do you want anything?'

'Sure. I'll come with you.'

'Suit yourself.' Mila disappeared from her bed, leaving Chris who smiled to himself and teleported to the kitchen to help her.