Chapter 2

Hello everyone (if anyone's reading). I hope that you guys liked my first chapter. I have never written for others to read before so I am incredibly nervous about it but I hope you all enjoy it and that you are grasped by the story. Also I have seen loads of fanfictions do disclaimers so…

Disclaimer

I do not own any of the characters from Joss Stirling's books, as Joss is way cooler than I can ever dream to be. ENJOY and SMILE!

When I walked through the front door I was hit with the smell of delicious chilli con carne and the sound of laughter. However it seemed as though there were more voices than expected of a family of 5 and a friend. I followed the sound into the kitchen to be met by four extra pairs of eyes, one pair belonging to Seth, and the sight of Faheema balancing as many spoons on her face as possible, obviously the one to make everyone laugh. I smiled and chuckled at her fondly. I sometimes wondered if she ever came down from her caffeine high, she has to be the biggest coffee addict in the whole of Colorado, and unsurprisingly I spotted a coffee mug sitting faithfully behind her on the counter.

I had been so relaxed that my brain had only just managed to compute that there were four strangers including Seth staring at me. I immediately felt my face burn up and I new that I looked as red as a tomato. I saw Faheema frantically trying to rescue me from their stares by adding another spoon to her face but she had lost their attention and the joke was missed. Luckily my mum sensed my distress and immediately came my rescue.

"Fern, sweetie, I hope you had a great ride today, was Spirit flying again?" she asked. My mum and dad new about my rides with Spirit and how we galloped across flat plains and how it felt like flying. Whenever I was nervous and there were new people around, they would bring it up to help comfort me.

"Yeah, he was awesome and we saw the eagle again. He flew above us for half the ride." I spoke quietly as to not draw too much attention but it seemed that ship had sailed and no one was going to give me the luxury of going unnoticed.

"That's excellent sweetie, I'm so pleased. I would like to introduce you to the Benedict family. I understand that you have already met Seth but as they have just arrived and it's getting late we decided to invite them to dinner." Mum explained. By this point the burning in my cheeks had died down a little so our guests spoke up.

The tall Hispanic man of the family was the first to speak. "Hello Fern, it's lovely to meet you, my name is Zed and this is my wife Sky, our eldest son Seth who you have already met and our youngest son Luka." As he introduced each person they smiled at me, albeit Seth smiled awkwardly due to how our earlier conversation had ended. Sky Benedict was pixie like, with blonde hair and blue eyes; a solid contrast to her dark looking Hispanic husband with dark brown hair and brown eyes. I suddenly understood where Seth's hazel hair came from with their two contrasting hair colours. What? Of all things I am seeing that's what I pick up on? Get your act together Fern. Finally Luka had cute little dimples and a carefree face that most children wore at that age with is floppy blonde hair and shiny brown eyes.

Whilst I was appraising this beautiful family my dad coughed under his breath alerting me that they were awaiting my reply.

"Uh um. Yes… hello… I I'm Fern…uh… it's nice to meet you all." I stuttered. My mum smiled at me encouragingly understanding that she had thrown me in at the deep end. Meeting and speaking to four new people all at the same time was a lot harder than just one at a time. However despite my stuttering I was still proud of forming a coherent sentence. At least I was until I heard the amused chuckle of Seth as he found my efforts entertaining. I felt like slapping him for not being more sensitive but I had no need to as his dad sent him a scary glare.

"It's lovely to meet you too Fern" he replied as he returned his attention to me with a kind smile. His wife Sky then got up ad gave me hug, seeming to radiate a form of understanding towards my shyness.

"It's okay to be nervous, I know how you feel, but you don't need to be nervous around us." She whispered softly in my ear. I found this gesture surprisingly comforting and also touching that she went out of her way to make me feel better. I immediately relaxed and whispered a quick "Thank you" in reply. When Sky let go and walked back to her seat I saw Zed give a fond and loving smile and immediately understood that he adored her and was her soulfinder.

You see each savant has a counterpart who is conceived at the same time as him or her. They make each other whole and together they have a gift that they share. This person is known as their soulfinder. However it is incredibly unlikely to meet to your soulfinder, as they could live anywhere in the world and speak completely different languages. Many will either learn to accept it or they will turn to anger and use their powers for the bad. I believe that almost all savants will go through a stage where they feel themselves 'slipping'. So far I've been alright but I've noticed my brothers becoming more tense lately and I have no doubt that seeing Sky and Zed together will knock them back a bit. They sometimes have trouble with mum and dad.

My mum broke me from my reverie by announcing dinner was ready and I suddenly realised I had been standing awkwardly in the middle of the room since I had arrived. Never mind, time to move on anyway. We all took our places at the dinner table and I found myself, like in the barn, directly opposite Seth. He smiled at me when we sat down seeming to have forgotten about his earlier insensitivity towards me. However I've always prided myself to be able to hold a grudge so promptly ignored him and started talking to Faheema who unfortunately, had noticed my rudeness.

"What was that about?" She whispered.

"What was what about?" I retorted deciding to play it dumb.

We both then found ourselves in stare off. Her stare saying 'don't play dumb with me young lady' and mine saying 'we're the same age young lady'. Either way no one won as we both looked away at the same time causing us both to curse at the same time under our breath. Unfortunately my mum heard and gave us a death glare. Just because there are guests here does not mean your bad language will go ignored. We'll discuss it later She sent to me telepathically. Making my mum mad was like making a death wish. She was stubborn and had a temper and if I wasn't careful I would end up cleaning up cow muck for a week.

"So, Seth, your mother and father mentioned that you were joining Fern's school next week and that you'll be in Fern's year. What classes will you be taking?" mum asked. I could already tell where she was going with this and I did not like it.

"Oh really. Well, I'm taking English, Biology, Art and History. I hadn't realised that Fern went to roaring fork high school. I also didn't know that she was the same age as me. " He said whilst giving me a confused look. I couldn't help but roll my eyes everybody assumed I was incredibly young due to my baby face.

"Oh yes, believe it or not she is one of the eldest in her year. I know that she doesn't look it, she has such a cute face." She said putting on a patronising voice.

"MUM! Uncalled for." I groaned, this happens every time somebody questioned my age and it was ten times worse the fact that it was in front of Seth. Faheema guffawed beside me, trying to hide her laughter with a cough. I kicked her in the leg, which made her grunt and almost fall off her chair, all the while maintaining a sweet smile on my face. At which point she turned around and stuck her tongue out. I hadn't realised that everyone had been watching us until laughter started. You know you have a true friend when they can break tension in a room by sticking their tongue out. At first I blushed but then remembered what Sky had said and quietly laughed along with everyone.

After everyone had eaten we all moved back to the living room. Due to it being so dark outside my mum had offered the Benedict's to stay the night as they were new to the area and could get lost in the dark. Our house was really big due to it being in the family since mum was a kid and she grew up in a big family of 9 so there were plenty of rooms. Once everyone had settled into the living room I made a stealthy escape to go and see Spirit before bed. When I went through the barn door I found myself looking into Seth's eyes who had gone the other way round and was staring at me from the door at the other end of the barn.

"Surprised to see you here." I said slightly guarded. I was still kind of pissed at his insensitivity but I found that my annoyance was pretty quickly seeping away. For some reason I couldn't hold a grudge against him.

"Why?" he asked curious at my guardedness. I just shrug my shoulders; I couldn't even explain that. "Look I realise that I've been kind of a Jerk to you. I ignored you and left you in the barn and then I laughed at you when I shouldn't have." I wanted to doubt him and stay annoyed but he seemed so genuinely sorry I gave up on holding it against him.

"It's alright. We all have our reasons. However I can't seem to hold in my curiosity so can I ask you a question." He seemed a little taken aback by this due to my quietness over dinner but I couldn't help it. I just felt comfortable around him.

"Sure ask away."

"Why were you so guarded when I complimented the work your family did?" I began to regret my question feeling he much shut me out again but this time he seemed to be contemplating an answer. We had made our way to Spirits stable and were leaning on his door.

"Well… I guess you could say it's not as amazing as you think. I mean yes we do a lot of good work but I'm like my dad in the sense that I can see the crimes that happen like a movie in front of me and if we're solving a murder I see the whole thing. Sometimes it just feels like I can't take it anymore and I just want to punch someone. I'm really struggling never mind the added pressure of finding my soulfinder on top of that." He had started speaking slowly and gradually picked up pace and I realised that he had been holding this in a while. He looked incredibly surprised that he had blurted all of that out to me. "I'm sorry I didn't mean to load all of that on you." He apologised.

"It's alright. I'm not very good at talking to people… but if there's one thing I do know, it's how to listen." We stood there for a while in comfortable silence and Spirit came over for some attention. "Hey, I'm going to head back now. You coming?"

"No I think I'm going to check up on Athena for a bit." He looked lost in thought and I felt it would be best to leave him to those thoughts.

"Okay well I'll see you in the morning I guess. Athena's a beautiful horse by the way."

"Thanks. Oh and thanks for listening to me. Goodnight."

"Goodnight."

I turned and made my way back to the house suddenly feeling free as though if I could talk to him I could talk to anyone. This was when I came to the realisation that Seth Benedict was decent guy.