Lucas slapped the sold sticker onto the for sale sign with a serious look on his face. "Home sweet home," he said aloud.
Zay scoffed and hopped out of the truck. "For a few months." Zay went into the back of the truck and pulled out his duffle bag. He banged on the doors and shouted, "Come on! We're here!"
Both Maya and Riley looked through the windows of the truck as they got up from their sleep. Maya hopped out the truck and helped Riley out. They both looked up at the new place they were gonna call home- for a few months anyways.
It was a one story house. Looked pretty normal from the outside, tan bricks, brown windows, didn't seem like a place Lucas would usually choose for them. "Are you sure about this place Lucas?" Riley asked. "I understand that we have to look more normal, but this place looks pretty small for all the stuff we have."
Riley pointed towards the duffle bag Zay held in his hand. "It may not look like a lot-"
"But it's a lot," Lucas finished. "Trust me Riles, I know what I'm doing. Look around you. Do you see anyone here for miles? What business would they have coming onto our property anyways?"
"I see that Lucas. I'm just saying is this place big enough?" Riley pressed.
Lucas nodded towards the house. "Why don't you guys come and see?"
Zay, Maya, and Riley looked at each other and followed Lucas inside.
The house looked normal. Kitchen, bedrooms, bathrooms, and a living room. Nothing out of the ordinary. Yet still small. "It still looks small cowboy," Maya said as she looked around.
"Will you guys be patient?" Lucas said irritably. He walked into one of the two bedrooms and opened up one of the closets.
The closet lacked depth and had nothing but walls. "Still don't see anything buddy," Zay said as he patted his back.
"Again. Wait," Lucas hissed. He banged against the back wall with his fist and not a moment later did a panel behind the door open. "That's why I chose this place."
Lucas laughed at all of their faces and climbed through the open panel. The rest followed as Lucas flipped a switch and the whole area lit up in a domino effect. Starting from one end of the room to the other. "Whoa," Maya breathed. "This place is huge. How did you find this?"
A smirk fell on Lucas' face as he shrugged, still leaving a bit of mystery to the blonde. "I have my ways."
The quartet walked around the large space, hypnotized by its simplicity. It seemed comforting in a way, if it made any sense at least. Looking down at the ground, Riley fiddled with a lose thread on her sweater. "Number?" she asked aloud.
"Twelve," Zay mumbled.
"With our parents?" Riley asked.
"Thirty-six," Maya answered.
Lucas looked at his three friends and smiled softly. Thinking of the time they spent with their parents. Realizing, that they had to go on alone was a scary thing. Something they could have never imagined. Shaking his head before the sadness set in, Lucas called his friends over. "Come on guys. We can't think like this. We do what we have to, remember? We have to survive. There's no other choice."
Silence fell upon the rest, too wrapped up in their own thoughts. Riley, being the first to get out of her own head walked back towards the open panel and walked through. "You're right Lucas. Come on guys we have to at least pretend like we're normal. Make it seem somewhat believable when we go to school tomorrow.
Lucas followed Riley out of the room, leaving Maya and Zay alone in the secret panel. Maya sighed and crossed her arms over her chest. "Forty-eight," she whispered.
Zay turned towards Maya. "What did you say?" he asked. His shoes making noise as he walked towards Maya. "Forty-eight?"
Maya looked at Zay and scowled. "We've relocated forty-eight times Zay. Aren't you tired? I am."
Zay shoved his hands in his pocket and nodded. "Of course I am. We all are, but I think we all do it because we know its our only option. Nothing else seems to be sensible according Lucas, but its what works." Zay shrugged. "So I guess that's what we stick with. Besides its the only thing we know."
The roaring engine of the group's pick up truck disturbed the quietness of the small town of Holden, Pennsylvania. Lucas pulled the key out of the ignition turned towards his friends. "You guys ready?"
"We've done this thousands of times Luke. What could be different?" Zay replied.
Lucas nodded. "Alright. Rules," he ordered.
"Don't interact," Riley groaned.
"Don't get comfortable," Zay added.
"And the most important one of all," Lucas led.
Maya sighed. "Don't show anyone your powers." Maya opened up the door and hopped out the truck. "I know. We've done this before, remember?"
Maya slammed the door shut and waited for the others to climb out the truck. If this were a movie, this would be the part where they would be the people who walk in slow motion. From left to right it was Zay, Riley, Maya, and finally Lucas. Each rocking their own style to make it seem as if they weren't close. Especially if an outsider were to just take a quick glance. Zay, with his usual plaid, and white tee underneath finished off with a pair of jeans and his sneakers of choice. Riley, in a floral dress with boots to finish. Maya, her black t-shirt perfectly conveying her emotions with jeans and pair of sneakers, topped with a gray beanie she found. Finally, Lucas. The native Texan wearing a green v-neck and black jeans with some shoes to match.
The students in the hallways barely gave them a second glance after they walked through the double doors. The quartet separating when it came time to get ready for the school day. Maya walked to her newly assigned locker and opened it quietly, trying not to draw attention to herself. She placed her books in her ugly gray locker and closed it shut before she made her way to homeroom.
Maya walked inside the classroom with the boring white walls and rows of the same desk duplicated about thirty times and sighed. She handed the teacher her transcript and waited patiently as she flipped through it. "Okay everyone," she announced. "We have a new student. Maya Hart." She looked to Maya and said, "Please tell us about yourself."
Maya shook her head. "There's nothing to tell," she answered in a low tone.
The teacher looked at her and nodded stiffly. "Alright then. Maya please have a seat."
The teacher began to drone on about something completely uninteresting, and Maya slowly started to drown the sound of her voice out. Her mind wandered and wandered, not even caring about what was going on around her. She thought about school and how nice it must be to actually have the need to know something. It made no sense for to even try in school. They were going to just up and move again before she could even blink.
Maya hated this. The moving, constantly having to hide. Why did she have to be born this way? It's because you're one of those special kids in the world. Her mother's voice was constantly reminding her of why she was this way, not knowing the real scientific reason. Though it was just enough to stop Maya's thoughts before she wandered to far.
Abruptly, a school bell ring brought Maya out of her thoughts. Quickly grabbing her things, she walked out of the classroom, not noticing the piercing blue eyes that followed her. Out in the bland hallway, Maya passed Riley and felt her give her a comforting squeeze on the shoulder as she passed by. Smiling softly to herself, she continued on to her next class, geometry.
Zay plopped down onto the bench outside at lunch and waited for his friends. "Hey guys," he greeted as they each walked up and sat down. Zay watched all the people pass by with food on their trays and instantly became hungry. He licked his lips and asked aloud, "Remind me again why we can't eat food served in public places?"
"Because," Riley pressed. "The food would make us sick, and you know what I mean when I say sick. Right Zay?"
Zay shuddered at the memory. "We couldn't use our powers." He quickly quieted and looked at the ground. "You know we all ate fast food that day right? We couldn't help them."
Maya shook her head and looked at Zay pointedly. "Can we please not talk about that day? The point being we only eat stuff from that special recipe book my mom left us."
Zay nodded, dropping the subject. He looked over at Riley's stack of books and scoffed."So how did the first couple of hours of school go for you Riley?"
Riley released a tired sigh and pointed towards her stack of books. "Have they ever heard of gradual progression? I swear they laid it all on me today." She pushed a loose strand of hair behind her ear and looked over at Maya. "What about you Maya?"
Maya didn't answer. She was too busy staring at this guy across the yard taking pictures of her. He had brown hair, blue eyes, and a camera plastered to his face. "Check out camera dude. Twelve o'clock." She nodded towards him subtly and looked back at her friends.
Riley looked at him and quickly grew worried. "Do you think he's one of them?" She asked, putting emphasis on them.
Lucas shook his head. "No way. They couldn't have found us that quick. We covered our tracks in Lakeshore, remember?"
Zay nodded. "Luke's right. He's definitely not one of them. He looks too human," he sneered.
Maya laughed. "You say that like its a bad thing."
Zay shrugged and leaned forward. "Maybe it is. We can't have them being able to sit next to us and not know."
"Zay has a point," Riley added. They all stopped talking for a moment, just keeping to themselves for a while. Riley's eyes widened and she stood abruptly. Turning around for a moment she noticed camera guy wasn't there. "Where did the guy with the camera go?" she asked frantically. "He took pictures!" she exclaimed. She kept on turning back and forth, drawing attention to herself.
Lucas stood and grabbed her wrist, forcing her stop moving. "Riley chill. You're drawing attention to yourself. The last thing we need is a video of you freaking out online."
Zay's eyes widened as he realized what Riley was talking about. "Lucas he was snapping pictures. Documentation that we were here."
Zay and Maya stood and looked to Lucas. "If he has pictures of us, then the next time we leave," Maya began.
Lucas sighed and looked around the lunch yard. "We're screwed."