Emma was right, Things weren't the same. But that was definitely not a bad thing. Over the next few weeks, Emma and Adrian grew closer and closer, "as friends" Emma would emphasize to anyone that asked. And it was true, though Adrian was amazing, Emma didn't have any attraction for him. Emma and Adrian hung out with each other frequently and practiced enhancing their powers.

But not all was good. In the last few weeks, Emma started losing control of her powers. A Strong burst of fire would come out of her hands when she fought with her father. she set fire to Carson's shirt when he tried to punch her, she set her dinner on fire whenever she tried to cook, and the worst thing was the nightmares…

Her long dark hair blew into her face, but she didn't wipe it back. Everything was hot and dry. Crackling of flames rang in her ears like sirens. The smell of thick and heavy smoke felt crushing and toxic in her brain. All she could see were huge walls of orange flame surrounding her. Other than the flames there was darkness and extreme heat. Figures were screaming from behind the fire, burning alive, but Emma couldn't reach them. Their pained screams tore through Emma's heart, cutting deep into her mind and searing their voices into her conscious. Then her mother fell through the wall of fire. Skylar Waylon was burning alive and screaming bloody murder. Red flames covered her face and arms, her skin turned black and melted off. The smell of burning flesh and fabric made Emma gag. Emma couldn't move. She could only stare, helpless, as Skylar Waylon Howled in burning agony. Emma reached out her hand to help but flames came out, adding to the fire eating Skylar. Hot tears leaked from Emma's eyes and trickled down until they dripped off her chin. "Mom! M-mom just g-grab my ha-and! I-i can save you!" she sobbed and she held out her hand. Her mother continued her wails, oblivious to Emma's offer. Emma screamed as her mother turned into nothing but dark gray ashes, blowing in the windy black abyss. Someone came up from behind her. Emma could sense their daunting presence somehow. When she spun around she expected to see a burning body or a screaming child. Instead, she saw her friend, Adrian, with a murderous look plastered onto his face.

"This is your fault!" Adrian screamed. His voice was deep and thick with emotion. "You're going to kill me too, aren't you?"

"No!" Emma yelled above the roaring flames. "Adrian-"

Adrian's eyes grew red and his skin darkened. Flames erupted from inside him and proceeded to envelop him. He screamed bloody murder just like Skylar did. "IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT, EMMA!" he took a step forward and tried to lunge at Emma. Emma held her hands over her head to protect herself, but by doing so she set more fire on Adrian. Within seconds the teenage boy melted away into ashes. Emma Screamed. She yelled and kicked and threw flames every which way. But there was nothing she could do. With one final decision, she leaped into the wall of fire and attempted to burn alive.

Emma shrieked. She shot upright in her bed and screamed again. Her bed sheets were on fire and smoke was filling the room fast. The fire alarms were ringing in her ears and she could hear cash and Skylar's screams from outside her room. Emma screamed again when she realized her arms were covered in flames! She rolled off the bed and ran to the door, flinging it open and running outside before Cash could yell at her. Sprinting down the hall she caught glimpses of cash and Skylar nearly flying down the stairs to where she was headed. She heard the sirens of fire trucks coming down the street. Bright lights shone on her apartment and firemen raced to put out the flames. Like the trained professionals they were, they quickly began hosing down the building. Neighbors were gathered outside, crying on each other's shoulders and holding their kids protectively.

For Emma, everything was a smokey haze. She couldn't make out what the firemen were saying to her mother or father. And she didn't know what they were doing when they rushed around her, trying to put her flames out. But as someone doused her with cold water to put out the flames on her arms, everything went black.

"Emma? Are you awake?" A soft female voice rang out in the dim room. Emma slowly sat up in her bed and rubbed a hand over her face. As the girl looked around she realized she was in her own bed again. Laying on top of a brand new comforter. This one was a pure black with white pillows and black polka dot sheets. Hre old one was black and white lace. She must have burnt it too badly to repair...

Skylar sighed. She sat on the end of her bed while cash leaned against the far wall. "The doctor said you're perfectly healthy. Of course, no one understands how. All they know is you were on fire and went into shock." she ran a hand down her face, smearing her makeup even more. "Emma, what's with the fire?"

Emma sat upright in bed and wiped a few stray tears off her face. "W-what? How do you-"

"I've lived with you for 15 years, Emma. I know you have some weird fire thing going on." Skylar said tiredly.

"Isn't it 16 years?" Emma smirked. Skylar paled a bit. "Yeah. 16. Right." Emma narrowed her eyes a bit but wisely kept her mouth shut.

"What is wrong with you, girlie?" Cash growled.

"What?" Emma spun around to look at him.

"You. set. My. house. On. fire!" cash yelled. "The damn fire department had to come!"

Skylar hit his shoulder with her bag. "Language!"

"I'll watch my language when that- that THING apologizes!" Cash shouted.

Emma glared at Cash. if looks could kill, Cash would be six feet underground by now. "I had a nightmare. And somehow I caught the bed on fire."

"You forced me to call the fire department!"

"I never forced you to do anything, old man!"

"I want you out of my house! forever!"

"Good! I'll help you pack! When are you moving?" Emma shouted. "You're never there! I don't know why you're still here!"

"I want to help this family!" Cash didn't yell that time. Instead, he looked rather sad.

"Oh? And why the sudden change? You've never wanted to help before! Are you just realizing now that you could have had a better life? IT'S TOO LATE!"

"EMMA!" Skylar jumped up from her chair. Sparks were flying through the dim room and small bursts of flames were coming from Emma's hands. The bed sheets around her were turning crispy brown. Emma quickly snapped out of it and started blinking back tears.

"WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!?" cash jumped up again. "Can you not leave out the fire for one damn second?" he roared. Emma shrunk back.

With a small sniffle, she said miserably, "I can't control my powers anymore."

-time lapse-

The bell finally rang for the third period to end. Emma thanked whatever god was up there as she packed up her stuff. She stuffed her school papers into her bag haphazardly. Adrian met up with her as she slung her backpack over her shoulder. The two friends met up with Hazel and silently walked down the noisy hallway. Neither one of them spoke to each other. Students pushed past, paper airplanes soared above their heads, the sounds of slamming locker doors and noisy chatting filled Emma's ears.

"Hey Shrink!" all three friends sighed and turned around slowly. Hazel, Adrian, and Emma recognized that voice. Sure enough, Carson and his Cronies blocked the hallway behind them. "I heard there was a fire at your place!"

Emma sighed. "Correct Carson. I'd give you a gold star, but I'm all out."

Carson scowled. "Finally commit suicide? I wouldn't blame you."

Adrian stepped in front of Emma. "she's had a hard weekend. Leave her alone."

"Oh look, shrink! You boyfriends gonna protect you!" Carson's cronies guffawed like rabid baboons. "Come at me, Campbell!"

Adrian just stood in place. His hands started to shake and his eyes became a numbing bright blue. "Go away, Carson."

"Or what? Your glare at me?" he laughed once. "You disgust me. Hanging around an attention whore like Emma Waylon. Can't you tell she's lying about the fire?"

Emma clenched her hands into fists. She wanted to yell back a witty remark but was much too worried about Adrian.

"Your an idiot, Adrian Campbell! You hang around with shams like Emma Waylon and Hazel Stewart! The only sane one around you is Amie!"

"Leave Amie out of this!" Hazel yelled. "You're sick, Carson! We've all been having a rough few days so if you could kindly leave-"

"-No!" Carson laughed. "That slut broke my nose! And set my shirt on fire!" he pointed at Emma. Adrian stepped completely in front of Emma to block her from Carson. "I wish you had died in that fire! Why don't you go home and finish the job? Go kill yourself, Waylon!"

That was the last straw. Carson was blasted back by a jet of ice. His legs and hands were frozen together and he lay in a heap on the floor. Several students screamed. Emma's hands erupted in flames and before she knew what was happening Carson's cronies were screaming in agony. Their shirts were blazing with bright orange flames. The lights in the hallway were flickering on and off and students screamed and ran through the halls. Chaos ensued. Several random students were frozen to their lockers while others screamed in terror as their backpacks combusted in flames. The floors became a sheen of white ice, the walls were burnt and frozen at the same time, the lights flickered and sparks flew through the air. Hazel had ducked down and was hugging Adrian's legs. Emma's whole torso was covered in the fire while Adrian's skin was frosty and pale. His clothes froze and stuck to his body. Emma frantically looked around. Noises We're starting to sound muffled in her head. Her mind became fuzzy with panic. And everything went black.

A bright light flickered on from somewhere in the room. Must she have blacked out? That's weird… then as if a dam broke, the memories came flooding back. Losing control- once again- and nearly killing Carson's cronies with her fire. The people in the room were whispering about some sort of fire and frozen water explosion. Footsteps echoed through the halls. A gruff voice spoke close to her. Emma recognized that voice. Cash was here.

"You are the girl's father, are you not?" A woman spoke in a rather condescending tone.

"She's none of my concern." Cash's gruff voice. Definitely Cash's voice.

"I'm telling you, Mr. Waylon, that this most definitely IS of your concern!" the woman sounded rather angry. She took a calming breath. "This isn't the first time something like this has happened. There have been other incidents with fire and all of them have had something to do with miss Waylon!"

"Look, Lady. That freak didn't start ANY fires. She's just a below average student!"

Emma had to keep herself from smiling. She kept her eyes closed so they would think she was still blacked out. But even if cash was insulting her, he was also defending her.

"If she did cause the fire-"

"She Didn't start any fire! This school obviously has some issues with its heating system. Now I'm leaving! There's a football game on tv that I'm missing!" Cash trudged out of the school doors. Emma decided this was a good a time as any to pretend to wake up.

The office lady sighed irritatedly. "You're up, miss Waylon. That's good to see. We've evacuated the school and you are free to go home. We must have had some sort of problem with our heating and air conditioning." and with that, the well-groomed office woman walked off.

Emma and Adrian lay sprawled out on the grass. They were at the park behind his apartment once again. Emma fidgeted with the bottom of her shirt and Adrian's eyes were darting every which way. The tension was so thick you could cut it with a knife. Emma's hands started to sweat, Adrian's fingers fidgeted with the collar of his shirt, single blades of grass would find themselves coated in ice or burnt to a crisp.

"Ok!" Emma nearly yelled. Adrian sat up and Emma followed. "Ok," she repeated. "We need to talk about what happened today."

"What Carson said, about me being your boyfriend, you know that's not true right?"

Emma quirked an eyebrow. "I would hope it's not true. I'd like to be told that I'm getting a boyfriend WAY before Carson ever finds out."

Adrian bit back a laugh. "You know you and your love interest aren't communicating when the school bully has to tell you you're dating."

There was comfortable silence for a moment before Adrian spoke again, "I don't have a crush on you. I- I actually see you as. As a sister." Emma's eyes widened and she looked at Adrian. "I screwed this up, didn't I?" he closed his eyes tightly.

"I see you as a brother Adrian." Emma smiled. "But we have some bigger issues."

"I wouldn't call it an issue," Adrian said quietly and smirked. Emma rolled her eyes before getting serious.

"We can't control our powers. We're dangerous." after Emma's line there was a stunned silence. "I realized that late last night when I was struggling to stay awake. After the fire- I haven't been sleeping. I can't afford to sleep. What if- what if I set everything on fire again?"

"We can't tell anyone but Hazel and ourselves about our powers, ok?" Adrian said quietly. "If people find out-"

Emma shuddered at the thought of people finding out. "Alright. I should get home. It's 11:30 so Cash will be passed out on the sofa. I can get by easily. Skylar won't be home until 3:00 this morning."

"You don't call your parents 'mom' and 'dad'?"

"Rarely," Emma said as she stood up. "Night, Adrian."

"Night Emma."