Ch. 3
The car ride home was nearly silent. The only sounds were the soft hum from the radio and the crackle of electricity coming from the back seat, making the head lights of the car flicker off and on.
"Stop it, Rylee," Paige demanded. Glancing in the rearview mirror, she saw that iris's of Rylee's eyes now glowed yellow-gold. "What if someone sees you? How would you explain that one? 'Oh, I'm sorry officer but when I was thirteen I got struck by lightening in this bizarre storm and now I can create and control electricity'."
She turned her gaze back to the road, missing the eye rolls from Rylee and Blake. A soft chuckle drifted to her from the back making Paige turn around to glare.
"Don't encourage her!" She scolded Blake, who continued to laugh. "She's almost been caught TWO times now!"
"Oh can it, Paige," Blake snapped. "Do you not remember that little stunt you pulled this morning? Teleporting into the kitchen?"
River sat quietly in the passenger seat, singing softly along with the radio. She was used to the bickering that broke out occasionally, so anytime a fight would start, she would ignore it unless it got too heated.
"That's different and you know it, we weren't in public then," Paige defended herself, biting her lip in attempt to calm her irritation.
"Remember when we first got our powers?" River asked randomly with a small smile. The other girls stopped fighting to look at her as if she were mad but then smiled at the memory.
Flashback
"Who's ready for some camping?" Paige asked excitedly. Her three new friends climbed into the tent that was pitched in her backyard, giggling.
Only minutes went by before a large gust of wind hit the tent causing it to collapse on the girls. Four shrill screams echoed through night as they panicked. Soon, Rylee found her way out and looked at the sky, her mouth fell open in astonishment.
Paige, Blake and River crawled out behind her, all in stunned shock as they followed Rylee's gaze. The sky, that only moments ago was the color of clear blue, was now a dark shade of red and gray, as if the sun were blazing fire. They stared, eyes shone in disbelief, as they winds picked up and it the skies opened, pouring rain. The girls screamed and raced inside just in time as thunder rolled loudly.
"I've never seen the sky like that!" Blake said, pressing her face against the glass door. "It's kind of cool."
Paige nodded in agreement, and reached up to her throat and gasped.
"What's wrong?" River asked, turning to face the blonde.
"My necklace! Its gone!" Paige panicked, her hands ran madly over her neck while she searched again.
"It's okay, we can get it when the storm clears up-," Rylee said, glancing back out the door where the storm still raved wildly.
"No!" Paige shouted, tears forming in her blue eyes. "I have to find it now! My father gave it to me before he died! I don't know what I would do if I lost it..."
Tears flowed freely down her cheeks, and she stood hugging her herself.
Blake caught River's eye and nodded. "Okay let's go find it but let's be quick," she said before rushing out of the house and back into the storm.
Once outside Rylee, Paige, River, and Blake went back to the tent, their feet sinking into the mud as they retraced their steps searching for the lost necklace. Thunder rumbled and lightening light the sky.
"What does it look like again?" Rylee yelled over the deafening wind, sobbing wet hair flying as she spun on the spot.
"It's a silver chain with angels wings," Paige shouted back as she crawled on her hands and knees around the fallen tent. Blake and River were to her left while Rylee bumped into from the right. Then all together, the girls spotted the silver necklace lying inches from them.
"Found it!" They shouted in unison, grabbing the necklace at the same time.
At that moment, the thunder rumbled and an earsplitting crack echoed across the sky as a single bolt of white lightening shot down and struck their adjoining hands. Screams were heard over the roar of the storm as they were thrown back several feet, knocked unconscious.
The girls had woken up after the storm nearly unharmed, except for a shallow cut on the palm of each of their hands. Everyone had been perplexed at the survival of the four girls, all whom had been struck by lightening.
"It's a miracle that you all survived," the doctor had told them. "It's very rare to live after something like that and only come out with only a cut…"
After many medical tests to make sure everything was internally okay, the doctor had told them that, as strange as it was, they would be fine. Though as the girls had left the office, and even though they were told they would be fine, to them, something felt different, almost unnatural.
When the weekend finally arrived, leaving behind it a gruesome week of school. That Friday, the girls had girls had planned on taking a real camping trip.
Hours before they had to leave with Blake's dad, Rylee plugged in her hair dryer, and as she did, it sparked and shocked her, making her stumble away.
"Ow!" She glanced down at her throbbing fingers to find a small orb of electricity floating just centimeters from her palm. In alarm, she shook her hand to rid it of her, causing the tiny silver ball to crash into the mirror, shattering it. With a yell of surprise, Rylee ran to the mirror and attempted to clean up the mess. She caught her reflection in a piece of broken glass, and gasped. In the shard of glass she saw that the iris of her eyes were no longer blue but were now a glowing golden-yellow.
"Guys!" she yelled into the other room where River, Blake and Paige were. "Something weird is happening!"
End flashback
"Oh God!" Blake thought back at the memory and tried to catch her breath from laughing so hard. "Your face was priceless when we opened the bathroom door."
"Oh yeah it was hilarious," Rylee replied sarcastically, rolling her eyes. "Well, at least I didn't end up naked or almost blow up Paige like some people I know…"
Flashback
"So what? Do you have like magical powers or something?" Blake asked Rylee curiously as they set up the tent in the woods, only yards from where her dad had set up his tent.
"I guess so," she said slowly, "It's just…bizarre. I mean I've heard of powers and witchcraft and stuff but I never thought it was real, you know?" She sighed and flopped down next to the small fire that Blake's dad, Craig Thomas had built for them. "
And now look at me!" she continued. "I can make electricity and orb thingies come out of my hands!" Accidentally and as if it were on cue, a small golf ball-sized orb flew through the woods. She threw her hands to her side as if to glue them there. "Whoops."
"Yeah, you need to work on that," Paige said matter-of-factly, watching the orb disappear into the fading light of the Spring day. "Wait. Does that mean the rest of us will get powers, too?"
Before anyone could answer, they heard the rustling of leaves and a low feral growl. River spun around and gasped in fear as her gaze landed on a small, snarling wolf. She was too afraid to look away, and as the small wolf's eyes bore into her own, she felt a tingle in her body.
Suddenly, the wolf took off with it's tails between its legs as if something had frightened it. River looked over her shoulder at her friends and opened her mouth to speak, but when she did no words came out. Instead, soft barks and whimpers replaced her speech.
"River,…you're a," Blake stuttered, eyes wide with shock, "…a wolf!"
Confused and frightened, River looked down to see large gray paws. Seconds later, she somehow returned to her human form and she ran towards her friends. "What just happened?" she asked, voice shaking. But her Blake, Paige and Rylee wouldn't look at her. "What?"
"Um, you're naked," Paige said, laughing a little.
River glanced down, and she let out a little shriek. "Ah! What happened to my clothes?"
Rylee scrambled into the tent and grabbed River another set of clothes while Paige stepped forward with excitement.
"I think you can morph into animals!" Paige informed as River shimmied into the clothes that Rylee had brought her. "And Rylee obviously can somehow control electricity or something."
"Wait a second!" Blake shouted. "So Rylee and River now have some kind of special ability? This isn't fair! What about us?" She threw her hands up in anger and the small fire that sat next to her suddenly grow six feet taller.
Paige, who stood closer to the growing fire, screamed as she was engulfed behind the flames.
"Paige!" Rylee cried out, running to where she had last seen Paige after the large flames died down; Paige was no where in sight.
"Oh my God!" a panicked voice came from somewhere directly overhead. "How did I get up here?"
They looked up to see Paige sitting on a thick branch in a large tree right above them. "I was there a millisecond ago and now I'm here," she continued, pointing to the ground below her. "What is wrong with us?"
"I can teleport!" Paige explained excitedly. She gasped and pointed to Blake. "It was your fault the fire grew! We all have powers!"
Blake's mouth fell open as she stared at her hands. "How is this possible?"
"Well, that sure was an eventful night," Blake said while getting out of the car and heading up the front steps.
"It sure was," Rylee agreed looking over at Paige. "I thought you said Reid never really liked you?"
"He doesn't, I mean didn't," She huffed. "Hell I don't know anymore." Paige was confused about how Reid had acted, and he had left before she had a chance to say thank him, or say anything for that matter.
River could see the confusion on her face so she quickly changed the subject. "So …is Caleb seeing anyone?"
Paige stopped dead in her tracks causing Rylee collide with her back.
"Sounds to me like you're interested," Paige teased, glancing over at her friend as she starting to walk again. "No, he isn't seeing anyone. He was dating some girl named Sarah Wenham last semester but she transferred back to her old school for some reason." Paige quietly unlocked the front door and ushered the others inside. Continuing in a whisper, she added," Caleb said it was because of some big incident that happened on his birthday was why they broke up."
"That's not cool," River said sympathetically but smiled to herself inside. "Pogue was totally checking you out, Blake. He couldn't keep his eyes off you."
"Yes, he is single, too," Paige said before Blake had even opened her mouth.
"Good cause I call dibs on him!" Blake gave a quiet squeal of joy as the four walked up the stairs to the second floor and into Paige's bedroom.
"I call Caleb!" River whispered excitedly, pulling off her shoes.
"Well good cause I want Tyler," Rylee said with a grin.
"What no!" Paige yelled nearly slamming the door shut behind her. "That leaves me with Reid! You all know he has loathed me for, oh I don't know… since birth!"
"Calm down," River said, smirking. "And I didn't say anything about Reid."
Ignoring her, Paige changed out of her clothes, climbed into bed and closed her eyes. Tomorrow was their first day of school. It was the start of their new life in Ipswich.
