Full summary: A few months have passed since Seth and Sara were adopted by Jack Bruno and Alex Friedman and they're as happy as could be. Things have changed for them, perhaps to the better. But they soon find it's too good to be true for soon various problems begin developing one after another, leaving the family wondering if there will ever be a happily ever after for them. Sequel to Starchild.
Please note that this story will not be as emotionally strong or intense as the first story. There will be some emotion, though nothing like in the first story, and the emotions are primarily because Seth and Sara still have some things to work out emotionally from what they've been through. But this story will be more upbeat and I'm planning on putting hopefully more humor into it.
I don't own Race to Witch Mountain, The Forbidden Kingdom, The Nine lives of Chloe King, the Jacuzzi brand, or Samsung.
Please note this is not a true crossover. I'm using none of the characters from the other things, only made up characters of their species.
Chapter one: Home Sweet Home
(Seth Point of View)
Seth was delighted. His sixteenth birthday was coming up, and from the excited glances his adoptive parents Jack and Alex were casting him, they were planning something big. But he wasn't sure how big.
But Seth was no ordinary person. For one he was from outer space, and that was a known fact. Because that was so well known, he was a celebrity and had to dodge cameras practically every day as the reporters being a nuisance asked him all sorts of questions, including about his personal life that he didn't want to talk about. And paparazzi were getting worse since the news had leaked out somehow that his birthday was coming up. He figured it was someone at school that had overheard him talking with Alana about it.
And he wasn't happy about it. Before, he was going to have a private birthday party with his friends, mother, father, and sister (who was his full-blooded sister, and thus an alien and celebrity like him), but now the media was badgering him, and badgering Jack and Alex to hold at least another party that was more public were he could invite certain people, and certain fans to attend. Jack and Alex weren't happy about it at first, and neither was Seth. In fact, they told the reporters to practically shut their mouths, and that it wasn't their decision what they did and didn't do.
Well, you know how that goes, when you tell a reporter off who is bugging you about something in an upsetting way; they blow it way out of proportion. The following day the news stations all over the globe were reporting that Jack Bruno, Seth's father, was aggressive and mad, having anger issues. Seth shivered when he thought about it. Well, they had provoked Jack, and they were stalking them. Weren't they ever going to publish that part of the story? How about the part where they trespassed (which is highly illegal) on their property and land practically every day and took pictures of them (which made the pictures illegal)? Were they ever going to mention that? Well of course not! One thing about reporters Seth learned was that they never wanted to make themselves look bad. If anything, they wanted to seem like the victim. They always acted so innocent, and they always edited things to make it look like they were innocent and the other person was guilty. This was why Seth had come to hate the paparazzi. Well, no, not hate. Hate was too strong a word. It was more like dislike, or a mild detest, though he never showed it in public. How could he? If he did he was sure that the next day they'd paint him as hostile, and that was the last thing he needed people to think he was - a hostile alien.
But that didn't deter Jack from getting even. If there was anything Jack was cleverly good about, it was getting even. You see, Jack had more than enough evidence to get the reporters and paparazzi arrested for trespassing if he wanted to, but he had been lenient before. So the next day he published the videos (since he had HD hidden secret security cameras that always gave clear footage on his property for a number of reasons) and then he published the video that showed him telling the reporters to shut it which had luckily taken place on their property. Then he brought a lawsuit against all the reporters and paparazzi that had done this, and their companies, and he won! So nowadays, they stayed further away. Though that didn't stop every single person in the news business from all being disgraced in the eyes of the citizens of all the countries. In fact, new news stations had popped up that didn't stalk celebrities, and new rules and laws were made and enforced. After all, if you couldn't take photographs or videos of an ordinary person without their permission, why should you do it to a celebrity? Now that's double standards!
And so there went out a law about double standards, effectively shutting down the businesses of the reporters and paparazzi, (since no one wanted to watch them anymore, such was their disgrace) and new news stations stations popped up that heeded these laws. They never took a photograph or picture without someone's permission, even a celebrity, for they knew they would be heavily fined and their station would be shut down for it. And the reporters and paparazzi who had done such a thing previously ironically never found jobs in the industry again. After all, no one would hire them. And so they had a hard time finding jobs, and they had to go back to school for different careers. That was the end of it.
But even though they couldn't take pictures or videos of Seth, Sara, Jack, and Alex without their permission, that didn't stop them from acting on what they had learned from the previous disgraced reporters, and demanding that Seth and Sara have a public party where news reporters and paparazzi and photographers could hold a photo shoot, and thus get some good pictures and videos of them. This annoyed Seth more than ever. After all that he's been through, couldn't they respect him and his sister and leave them alone? But of course not! They wanted to know everything about him, everything he was doing at every part of the day! They truly were stalkers!
And what was even worse was that after all the demands of a public birthday party Seth thought he saw Jack and Alex beginning to cave.
Seth was currently in his room, a splendidly big room inside a mansion, with three closets. The closets were sliding closets made of a dark wood. The door was also made of wood but they had allowed Seth and Sara to have them painted to make them look how they wanted. And so Seth did his best to paint green and blue grass-like things on there, plants from his home world.
He had nine huge bookshelves in a separate massive room, filled with earth books that he had come to love, for he had gotten into reading. In fact, it looked like a separate room for you had to use a door to get to it, but in the end it was part of his room for one could only get to it from his room. The only other bookshelf in there was practically bare as the only things on it were his alien technologies that he had with him, that Henry Burke and Mary Burke, his aunt and uncle, had sent back to him after taking it away from him when they had abducted him. He kept it safely in that room where there were no windows and the door that led to that room was kept locked.
Very few had keys to it. Not even Sara had a key to it, or the people that cleaned his room, so he had to clean it every week by himself, for if he didn't keep it clean then Jack and Alex would be somewhat upset and he didn't want to upset them. They had done too much for him. But he liked the room. Only he, Jack Bruno, and Jack's wife Alex Friedman had keys to it. It was his personal library. Similarly, Seth didn't have a key to Sara's personal library in her room, but she, Jack, and Alex did. She also had to keep it clean by herself. And Seth and Sara didn't have keys to the two personal libraries of Jack and Alex. Jack was the only one with a key to his library, and Alex was the only one with the key to her library. But there might have been a spare key somewhere for the two of them since another key was needed in case they lost their keys. But Seth didn't know where they were. It was probably hidden.
There was also a closet that held his many clothes, top brands, that Jack and Alex had bought him. Jack and Alex always made sure to keep him and Sara in style so that they wouldn't be teased. Seth had now over a hundred outfits, as for a while Jack and Alex each had bought each of them an outfit every week, sometimes two outfits, two from Jack, and two from Alex. And so their clothing had accumulated. The only outfit that they had stashed away that they never looked at was their white scrubs, the ones they had worn while they were abducted by their aunt and uncle and practically experimented on, or used, as Henry had called them 'procedures'. But Seth didn't honestly see the difference between the two. He preferred not to think about it.
Seth also had a computer desk with a top brand laptop on it that he never used, as he liked using his more advanced technologies better. Then there was a larger closet that he changed in, that looked more like a vast hallway. Then there was his bathroom, that was large with a huge luxurious tub that could be used as a Jacuzzi or a jet tub (which he utilized as such in times of extreme stress, as he was always stressed out) and which had holes in the roof which acted as his shower. The floor was tiled with white marble tiles, and the elaborate two toilets and two sinks in his bathroom were high tech, well, high tech for humans. After all for him it was simple.
The bathroom looked spacious, though it was also separated. In one "section" it held his elaborate jet bath tub and in another section, closest to the door, it held his high tech toilet with a green like cloth on the lid, and his marble counter top with the shining bright silver sink in it, a shining metal facet above it. He didn't need to turn the knobs as it came on the moment he put his hands underneath it. Only the other sink had handles that turned for the water, which he could use if the power went out as this facet would then be useless, thus why he had two facets.
On the wall beside the facet hung a green plush towel for drying his hands as the other towels for bathing were near his jacuzzi. Above the marble counter top there was a large mirror. On the opposite end there was a barrier, basically a wall, that had a mirror the whole way through, and behind the barrier was another elaborate space with the exact same sink and toilet minus the high tech stuff, so it would operate if the power went out, with a mirror there also above the sink and one on the whole length of the wall that acted as the barrier. But in this section there was an elaborately carved door, that had carvings of strange plants on it (as Seth had designed it, he and Sara turned out to be pretty good artists) that led to one of his closets with clothes in it, which then led to the main part of his room.
Then, also in Seth's room, there was a room that held all his shoes. Seth winced when he thought of how many shoes Jack, Alex, and even Alana had bought him and Sara. Combined they probably had more than years' worth. And so he wore a different pair of shoes every day, never reusing them.
One part of his room held file cabinets, which Seth didn't understand why Jack and gotten it for him. He never used it. Then another part of the room was filled with paintings that Jack had let Seth pick out from a local gallery. He chose a local artist, and because he had bought her paintings she soared to celebrity status overnight. Now her paintings and other artwork sold for even more, and she wasn't able to paint enough as they were bought up practically instantly.
Such was the effect Jack, Alex, Sara, and Seth had on people. If they bought certain things then other people wanted to buy what they bought. It annoyed the whole family though. Once Jack had complained when they were having dinner as to why people couldn't develop their own styles. But none of them complained that they had ever bought Artemis Kenya's paintings, for which she had soared to celebrity status, for she was having a hard time making enough money to survive on, as she was poverty stricken and couldn't go to college for it. For she never could get any scholarships and no one wanted to hire her, and they knew that their endorsing of her paintings had given her a new life that she needed and had never dreamed of. Now she wouldn't have to worry about starving anymore, as they had found out recently that she had done so many times because she didn't have enough money to put food on the table.
And so she became a family friend, and was often invited over for food. And she would do paintings and artwork and home designing for them. But with her new life came stress as demands on her work became overwhelming. Finally she put her foot down, and only put her work in the galleries, and said that she would accept very few to do personal requests of artwork for them. The rest would have to buy her work from the gallery. Seth's family was one of the rare exceptions.
Such was her tale and now she had enough money to go to college. She also now had a job as a waiter (which she didn't need because she was a $360 millionaire, but she did it for experience and because she liked the feeling of being employed rather than self-employed) and because of that, the restaurant had become famous and was now rated a five star. And then when Seth and his family started frequenting there the restaurant's status had soared to impossible levels. Now there was a long waiting list, but there were of course, exceptions. Celebrities were the exception, though because Seth and his family didn't like double standards they chose to be on the waiting list, thus they put they made several reservations long in advance. This was one of the places Seth was sure they were taking him for his birthday, as he thought he'd heard Artemis mention that their names were on the list that day.
The only other part of Seth's bedroom was his gorgeous poster bed, which was king sized, and was all for him. It was rather roomy, which Seth liked. They had gotten this bed to replace his other one as a way to spoil him and comfort him after all that he'd been through. It was an expensive top of the brand bed, with flat and puffy pillows, and red covers with green leaves on them (custom made) and other sheets that were necessary for the bed.
And thus, if you knew Seth's room, you knew Sara's room, for it was practically the same thing with a little variations that showed Sara's personal style. It was the same thing for Jack and Alex's room, except it was the size of Seth and Sara's room combined as it was the master bedroom. Each room was on a different level, and Jack and Alex's room took up the whole level, whereas Seth and Sara's only took up a half a level. Jack and Alex's were the same as Seth and Sara's room except that it was twice as big and had twice as many "rooms" or more appropriately called sections, with a little variations to show each of their styles. If you put Seth and Sara's room side by side, which were identical practically, and made a door between them, that was what Jack and Alex's room looked like.
Because his room and the whole mansion for that matter was so big it surely would have been hard to keep maintaining it and keeping it clean, thus Seth was glad that Jack had hired personal maids and other cleaning crew and such to help with the work, though he and Alex assigned them chores as well so that they wouldn't get lazy and would learn responsibility, and so that they wouldn't turn spoiled which Seth suspected was one of the reasons though they had never actually said so much. And so, the boy cleaned his own toilets every week, and the bathtubs and sinks, leaving the rest to the maids. Then he and the rest of the family rotated on doing the dishes and such.
They also now had a personal cook who got paid really well, but on his days off Alex would cook. And on those days she's insist that Seth and Sara help them so that they could learn how for when they were on their own someday. Seth enjoyed this time with his mother. It was comforting.
Right now Seth was lying on his bed in deep thought, thinking about his past and what had changed. He thought about his home planet and then turned his thoughts away from it, as he didn't want to think on anything that might cause him to get too emotional.
Suddenly, there was a soft knock on his bedroom door. "We'd like you to come downstairs now, Seth," Alex called to him and Seth slowly sat up, blinking the sleepy state that he'd been feeling out of his eyes. Seth was wearing jeans with gold-decorated pockets (and yes, it was real gold for it was given to him by a famous fashion designer who wanted him to endorse her clothing) with a green and blue checkered flannel shirt that buttoned up on the front.
He sighed. "Coming Alex!" he called out to her. The nice thing about Jack and Alex was that because they were friends first before they ever became their parents they allowed them to continue to call them by their first names. They didn't have to call them mom and dad, though Seth and Sara would do that sometimes as a sign of appreciation. But above everything, they weren't parents first. They were best friends first, and then parents last and later.
Seth walked to the door and opened the lightweight carved doorway, stepping out onto a carpet that was different from his room. While his was flat and a dark bluish color, this carpet was fluffy and red, and the plush feeling was delightful to Seth. The hallways had white walls, as Jack wouldn't let Alex have them painted any other color, much to the rest of the family's disappointment, and it stretched out right and left in front of Seth. Wired frames with photographs in them were everywhere on the walls, and to the left in the distance there was a large bullet-proof glass window that had metal sections in it.
Seth headed right, down the straight but vast hallway. It was so wide that he could spread his arms out wide standing next to someone doing the same thing and their hands and fingertips wouldn't touch, neither would either of them be able to touch the walls on either side. The ceiling was made of a smooth material, but every five feet there was an electricity and cost efficient chandelier made of tiny glass bulbs. They generally never used these except during family parties, even though it lit up the place a whole lot and didn't cost that much to operate. Instead, they used the regular bulb lights that were built into the ceiling and cast just as much light and was just as cost efficient. Seth knew that at each end of the hallway there were two switches, one for the chandeliers and one for the regular lights. But because of the light seeping in through the window behind him, he didn't need to use them.
Seth's room was so big that it was the whole length of the hallway to his right. There was one door to his true room, and one door to his, well, closet, which was part of his room. On the opposite side of the hallway were large (but certainly not as large as his) guest quarters so that if Seth had company over they would be able to have their own rooms on his level. There were four large rooms total, larger than any room in the average high middle class home.
This level belonged to Seth, as each member of the family had their own level. There were several other levels to, built in much the same manner, with one giant room, and four large rooms, and these were considered guest quarters. And that was only on this wing of the house. Seth reached a winding staircase was to the left of Seth in the hallway he was in, and was large and led to the different levels. This interrupted the continuous line of rooms on that side of the hallway. But if he continued down to the end of the massive hallway there would be a winding ramp going the whole way up and down, designed for someone who was in a wheelchair. Seth was still amazed that the thought and detail Jack and Alex had put into this house when they had bought the property and had the mansion built for them.
Seth traveled all the way down the winding staircase, framed pictures seen along the walls the whole way through, most of them of Seth and Sara, to the boy's embarrassment, and when he reached downstairs he was in a large living room. It could have the the size of a small house combined! Six large green leather couches were on the other end with footrests for each cushion spaced some way away from the couch. Six matching green leather chairs and three green leather love seats were on either side of the couches, facing the side Seth was on.
The boy knew that the couches faced a large fireplace that could keep the whole mansion warm, and above the humongous marble and wood mantelpiece that had a lot of clay pottery animals in different positions on it (made by none other than Artemis) was a massively large flat-screen TV, that the family spent some time watching TV and movies together. The TV was a custom made Samsung with a green and blue marble look to it. There was a small coffee table that stood between the chairs and the fireplace, but that was about it. The carpet was the same as the staircase, which was the same as that of all the hallways that housed their private rooms and guest quarters, a fluffy, plushy deep red colored carpet. The walls were white (of course, Seth was thinking about asking Jack that as a birthday gift they change that, for Alex's sake, but he didn't get the courage and he didn't want to spend some time in a hotel like last time they renovated for the paparazzi would be able to see him more then) and Seth rolled his eyes at this.
The room was partially enclosed on both sides, with an opening to another room on the other end, but Seth chose to go left, through an opening that led to the huge dining room and through which in order to get to he had passed under an arched opening. Everyone was already seated.
The room was also huge, and it had a very large wooden dining table in the middle. There was a glass cabinet on the end of the room facing him that held white china painted with thin blue stripes. They were only shown on display for there were only certain occasions that they used the china on. One of them was birthdays. They would have cake on the china.
To the right of the glass cabinet was another arched opening which he knew led to the kitchen. One couldn't see the kitchen from the dining room for it was separated from the dining room by a wall, though the kitchen was huge.
To Seth's left there were again, framed photographs of him and Sara on the wall, but at least on the right, there were paintings by Artemis. She did a lot of landscapes and animals and weather and such, and her artwork was realistic, bright, and colorful, and overall, beautiful. In fact they looked more like HD photographs, that was how good she was. On the wall behind him he knew that there were also huge photographs but at least this time it was family portraits. That was better than just solely featuring him and Sara, so he tolerated it every time.
The chairs to the dining tables had huge thick cushions on the seat and the back, and Seth sat down one of them. Sara, Jack, and Alex were already there. All of them were wearing jeans, but Sara was wearing a light blue t-shirt with a purple vest on top. She had on a couple of gold necklaces and she had chosen to wear make up for the very first time. No doubt Alex had to help her with that. But she looked even more beautiful with it.
Speaking of Alex, the woman was wearing a yellow tank top with a neckline that on another might look as if it was choking them, being very near her neck and throat, but had a denim jacket over it to cover her shoulders which would otherwise be bare. There were many pockets and designed symbols on it. The zipper was painted to look gold and it also had a way to button it up. But she left it open. The jacket was short and if she was wearing only it, it would immodestly show her midriff. But the yellow tank top was long and went over her pants, but was too short to be considered a dress, thus it was a shirt. Alex was also wearing a couple of necklaces, and they were intricately weaved chains that hung from her neck.
Jack was wearing thick jeans designed by the same designer as the rest of them, but he had a on a dark blue shirt and had a thin leather jacket over it, wearing no necklaces or any other ornaments. But the jacket was bordered with a gold-colored thread. He and Seth may have been dressed the most plainly but they certainly looked classy.
Their styles were certainly different than before as Jack Bruno and his wife Alex Friedman, who had chosen to keep her name (not bothering Jack one bit, in fact he preferred this because he couldn't imagine her name being anything other than Alex Friedman, it had a certain charm to hit) now had a lot of money each and wanted their children to have the best of whatever they received.
There was food on the table. A plate held some toast and there were a few jars with jam in them. A skillet with a hot pad underneath it had a lot of bacon in it, not burnt thankfully, meaning Jack hadn't cooked it, as the man usually liked cooking the bacon whenever they had any, and another skillet on the same huge hot pad that had scrambled yellow fluffy eggs in it. In a basket covered with a cloth there was some biscuits with butter beside it. It was a perfect breakfast.
Immediately when Seth sat down Jack smiled warily. "Um, Seth," he began slowly, as if he didn't want to have this particular conversation. "You know your birthday coming up? And the party attached to it?"
Seth immediately froze when he heard this. 'Don't tell me,' he thought to himself.
"Well," Jack continued, after glancing at Alex who was suddenly focused on spreading jam onto her toast. "We've decided that it's not a bad idea at all to have a public party. After all, they'll keep pestering us if we don't."
Seth groaned upon hearing this and let his head fall onto his plate, though thankfully there was no food on it. "I don't want a public party!" Seth complained.
Alex sighed and put her toast down. "It's not technically going to be a public party," she reassured him. "You'll be the one inviting people, but it will be inviting people that you don't truly know. You need to invite a couple of reporters, some photographers, and maybe even a couple of other celebrities. The rest can be your friends, who will also be attending your private birthday party."
"They'll bring their camera's and such!" Seth continued to whine, not looking up, his head in his plate.
Alex frowned. "We'll have security guards and we'll make sure that it's on the invitation that no technology is allowed on the premises. If we catch them with it they need to know that they'll be kicked out. And anything they capture will be illegal photographs and video footage since we've specifically stated that those things aren't allowed on the premises. We could have them arrested if it happens."
"They'll ask questions about our therapy!" Seth whined more. The kids had been going to therapy because of the state of their emotions after the whole abduction ordeal. But no one liked talking about it. "And they'll be asking about our powers!" he complained more.
When Henry and Mary had kidnapped them, they had had a "procedure" done that essentially took away their abilities. It was an excruciatingly painful process, even though they were under heavy anesthetic, and the effect lasted for about a year. Seth and Sara were only beginning to gain their abilities back which had been cruelly taken away from them, which abilities they had inherited from their birth parents Emily and Jared Frontier. Jared was able to read minds like Sara and heal quickly like Seth while Emily had telekinesis like Sara and phasing or an ability to control her molecular density like Seth. However, Jared's mind reading powers were nowhere near as powerful as Sara's but they were more easily controlled. He could only read the minds of those he was blood-related to. And Mary, Seth and Sara's half aunt as the woman was Emily's half-sister, had the ability to teleport and telekinesis, as the kids had only found out a week ago. But she rarely used it for she wanted to hide the fact that she had that ability, and she didn't care for being related to aliens. To her, that ability only reminded her of what she was related to. Her children had inherited her teleporting ability, (Coraline also had this, thus the children thought they got it from her when they were held captive by her) and the telekinesis and molecular density powers.
As their minds were healing from the process they had endured, they were beginning to experience the beginning of their powers and were working hard to learn to control them, much like they had had to do when they had first started developing their powers. But this time it was easier since they had learned how to do so before. But this time they didn't have help either, if something went wrong and they needed help learning, though the kids were confident that they could learn to control their powers like before without help. Frankly, the children were excited to have their powers back. But they were also discovering that they had other powers now because of the procedures Henry and Mary had forced on them. They shuddered at these abilities. They didn't want them because it was forced on them. But they had no choice but to develop them so that they could control them, because a rogue ability that wasn't controlled could be very dangerous to the person, or even others. And what was worse was that they might need help to get control of these abilities, meaning that they would have to go to their Aunt Mary and Uncle Henry for help. Seth wasn't looking forward to that, even though he did love them and miss them. But it was too soon to go back.
"I don't like the personal questions they ask," Seth stated plainly, as if that could change the situation.
Alex started gently rubbing his back compassionately. "We know," she murmured. "None of us do."
"But we have no choice," Jack put in. "If we don't do this then they certainly won't leave us alone."
Seth let out a huff of breath. "Fine," he grumbled. Then he grabbed some toast and began eating.
(Sometime later in the day)
(Seth Point of View)
Kayas and Alana had come over to Seth and Sara's place for a little while. They were currently wandering around in the rather massive indoor greenhouse attached to the mansion that Jack and Alex had. The plants were set in lines and they were walking down the tomato isle. The family never had to buy food from the store as they always grew everything, fruit, vegetables, spices and all, even those from other countries, in their massive greenhouses and gardens. In fact, they always grew more than they needed. The rest was donated to charities or a soup kitchen for the homeless.
There other friend, Terence, who was a Mai from Alana's pride, had been unable to come because of specific obligations that he didn't want to talk about. But it sounded serious.
Kayas, who was over 1400 years old, frowned. The girl had dark brown hair, that could sometimes be mistaken for black, deep beautiful full red lips, a narrow frame that was curvy and green eyes. Her eyes were narrow, more like her Asian side, and yet they always seemed sharp and focused. She had a small nose, looking delicate, hiding the fact that she was deadly. But hey, it wasn't her fault that she was training with her adoptive aunt who was a frienemy to her parents, Ni Chang a former goddess, half enemy and arch nemesis, half friend to her parents. She couldn't remember all the times that they had helped each other, yet all the times that they had also tried to kill each other. She was wearing a kimono, as she had been back in time recently to Japan. It was white decorated with blue flowers and had a slight train on the end. "So, they're going to force you to have a public party?" she questioned again.
Seth sighed and nodded. They were now reaching the green pepper section. His sister walked alongside them.
Alana shook her head. "That means that me, Kayas and Terence won't be able to come because we're not allowed to be in the public eye." The girl had blue eyes, a long nose, a slightly bigger frame than Kayas, and her muscles and strength were more obvious than Kayas' hidden and deadly strength, for Kayas looked delicate, yet she gave off an aura in which you could sense that she had authority and power. But Alana looked more of a fighter than she did even though it was the opposite, and her fighting nature was more seen. One would know that she is not one to mess with. Her lips were a brown-reddish color and she moved with such perfect balance all the time, as if she had never tripped in her life. And, indeed, she would always land on two feet. Her features though were more of Russian and Eastern European origin, like a mix. She was also incredibly beautiful in her own way like Kayas. Though Kayas's beauty made it so that her sometimes dangerous nature was deceptively hidden. She didn't have to do much to hide it. But Alana looked sleek and powerful in movement.
Seth could tell that Alana and Kayas were somewhat envious and hurt from Jack and Alex's decision. Actually, Seth didn't know who had caved in first. It could have been purely Alex's decision for all he knew, but in order to avoid being 'blamed' or have the responsibility for the decision put on her she'd said that Jack wanted to inform them. After all, this would not have been the first time she had done such a thing. The only reason they had found out was because of a few other times she had let it slip that a decision that had been made before, that supposedly Jack had orchestrated, was really of her doing and she had pushed him to be the one to inform them and thus 'take the blame' so to speak. That had happened a couple of times. It was always on hard decisions such as this. Therapy was one of them, but in the end Seth supposed it hadn't been a bad thing.
"They seem to think that the paparazzi won't leave us alone if we don't," Sara put in. "But we're still refusing the photo shooting part."
"At least for now," Seth grumbled. If they had caved in once, then they could do it again.
"You think that they'll cave in and have you do a photo shoot?" Alana questioned. When Seth didn't answer verbally, she sighed. The boy's silence was her answer. "I don't think they will," she told them gently. "They care about you deeply, and they'll put their foot down somewhere. After all, they've put their foot down before."
Seth relaxed somewhat at that. It was true. They did have a point.
Sara tucked some of her long blonde hair behind her ears. "What do you think we should do?" she asked them for advice, knowing that she was just as much affected by this, as was Seth. It may be Seth's birthday party and her brother may be the center of attention that night, but that wouldn't stop them from pulling her aside and asking questions to her either. After all, she was also a celebrity. But then again so were Jack and Alex, for they were famous authors, and they probably realized that they were in the same boat also. That made the girl feel better somewhat.
Unfortunately, their friends didn't answer. Now was the time that Sara wished most that she had her abilities fully developed. "Can't you give our abilities back to us completely, like you did our memories?" she begged Kayas.
But Kayas shook her head regretfully. "It doesn't work in the same way. Your memories were one thing. You're abilities are another."
"Isn't there anything that you can do?" Seth begged, joining in.
Kayas sighed. "No," she repeated, exasperated. But then her eyes softened when she saw them.
Though Alana and Kayas were good friends with Seth and his family, it wasn't something that Kayas or Alana's parents approved of, and it wasn't something that their kinds approved of. One time Kayas had wanted to take Seth, Sara, Jack, and Alex to meet Jason and Emily, her parents, but they had refused to let them come and see them. And because they outranked her since they were a king and queen and she was only a princess, she couldn't disobey their orders. Kayas and Alana didn't know what their problems were.
But thankfully, Seth and Sara had other friends from school whose parents approved of them and delighted to see them. Kayas and Alana were friends with them to, and them and their parents knew what they were, but they had agreed not to say anything. It was either that or they were too afraid of Kayas and Alana's parents to say anything, Seth couldn't tell which it was. But they delighted in Kayas and Alana. Natasha's mom was especially delighted. She looked a lot like her daughter except that she had died her hair blonde, a completely unnatural color.
Alana, who was now growing bored, tapped on their shoulders. "Come on!" she murmured. "Let's go back to the mansion!"
She ran off, looking so graceful, and Seth rolled his eyes briefly before following her.
All right, so it wasn't one week. This is the first chapter of the sequel.
Please read and review and tell me what you think of it! I won't update until I have a few reviews. I'd appreciate it if you could give me some critiquing to.