A/N: thank you again to all who reviewed! It's really nice knowing I have faithful fans reading this. Again I'm sorry for not updating in a while, but this year I have more homework for school and I have less time to write. I hope to update at least two more times after this labor-day weekend since I have Monday and Tuesday off, but on Monday I'm going to be helping at my church's flee market, something I look forward to all summer long. I will still make sure to update for you all! I hope you like it! ! !
"Why is she here?" Charles asked Joe acidly the day after Bryn's shocking revelation.
After both Joe and Bryn had spoken for a while, they felt a kind of family like connection between each other. Joe had asked her to accompany him to Charles house the next day so she could get to know his friends better and she readily agreed, saying it would be better for to stay by him until he could control the way his pupils slitted when he was angry.
"I invited her. She's my friend and I don't see why she'll be a problem." Joe explained calmly. His fists clenched by his side in an attempt not to lash out at his judgmental friend. He didn't like the way he spoke about Bryn.
"I think it's a great idea to have her here! Hey Bryn, could you please convince my fat friend that having a firework show in his movie at the end will totally make it awesome?" Cary asked enthusiastically, pointing to Charles. Bryn flinched at whatever it was Charles was thinking (only Joe knew what the flinch meant, the others just looked confused) and shook her head slowly.
"I don't think I'll be able to convince Charles anything. Sorry Cary." She replied apologetically. Cary shot Charles a glare.
"Can we please get back to the movie people?" Alice asked looking annoyed. Joe didn't understand why she was acting so strange, she didn't seem to like Bryn any more then Charles did.
"We can as soon as Charles cools down a little." Preston mumbled under his breath.
"I am cool!" Charles protested, banging his fist on the table, proving himself wrong.
"Hey kids," Mrs. Kaznyk, Charles' mom, yelled from the master bedroom. At the moment all of Charles' family except himself and his mother were out at the park with their dad, leaving the house shockingly quiet. "Is everything ok? I heard yelling! You'd better not be fighting."
"We're fine mom! Gosh!" Charles shouted hotly back.
"That does not sound fine to me." Mrs. Kaznyk said coming out of her room and into the dinning room where everyone was sitting. She looked at each one of them with narrowed eyes, trying to figure out what the problem was without having to ask her son. When her eyes landed on Bryn her face lit with a warm smile. "Well hi there. I don't believe we've met before. I'm Catherine Kaznyk, Charles's mother. What's your name darling?" she asked kindly.
"I'm Bryn Ronadlie. It's very nice to meet you Mrs. Kaznyk." Bryn replied standing up and politely holding out her hand to shake.
"Well Bryn, I hope you enjoy living Lillian. I certainly hope my son isn't causing any trouble with you." Mrs. Kaznyk said accusingly with her hands on her hips.
"No Mrs. Kaznyk. He's been… welcoming enough." Bryn said lying through her teeth.
"Well good. Have I met your mother yet? I haven't seen any new faces around town, what with the destruction and all."
"Um, no ma'am. I live with my aunt and she's not coping to well with the move so she hasn't been out much. If you'd like I can tell her that you want to meet her. I'm sure she'd like to know someone from here." Bryn said eagerly. Mrs. Kaznyk smiled once again and exited back to her bedroom, leaving all the kids feeling relieved.
"Ok, so now that she's gone, I think we should go down to that warehouse we've been using for Galloway's office. That's the last scene and then I'll polish it up and send it to the film fest. But, I refuse to work with her. She's caused enough trouble." He glared at Bryn and crossed his arms determinedly. Joe felt his face heat up in anger.
"She hasn't caused us any trouble! You're the one acting like a jerk. If she doesn't come then neither do I! Bryn's my friend and I'm not going to leave her out of anything just because you don't like her." He scowled as he saw his vision grow sharper and felt like he was looking at Charles like he was prey instead of as his friend and fellow human. Bryn stopped hard on his foot and gave him a warning glance. Joe cringed at the pain in his foot and his anger faded away.
"Watch the eyes Joe!" she whispered so low that only he could hear.
"Fine, if you want to side with the freak then be that way! She can come, but she'd better not mess anything up." Charles gave in, not noticing the changing in Joe's eyes.
"Hey man, that's going a little far. You don't have call her names." Preston exclaimed, defending Bryn bravely.
"Whatever." Charles scooted his chair out from under the table and stormed out of the house.
"Come on, let's go." Alice hissed harshly, following Charles out.
"What's going on with them?" Cary asked, his face screwed up in confusion.
"I have no idea." Joe said tiredly. "Let's just go, I don't want to make them any madder."
Joe, Bryn, Preston, and Cary ran after their fast paced friends and kept quiet while they stewed thoughtfully in their anger.
"Are you ok Alice? Did I do something to make you mad?" Joe questioned quietly. Alice turned her glare to him, her nose bunched up, showing how mad she really was.
"Why don't you go ask your new 'best friend'? You both seem to be pretty close." She sneered and quickened her pace, leaving him in the dust.
Joe sighed and kept his head down as he walked, trying to figure out what he'd done to make Alice so angry. As he walked he didn't pay much attention to where he was walking. When he walked right into a person almost twice his size he yelped in surprise. He looked up to see a man in a military uniform looking at him coldly.
"Hello young man. You wouldn't happen to be Joe lamb would you?" he asked in a cruel voice that made Joe's skin crawl.
"That depends on who's asking." He replied defensively.
"My name is Colonel Frazier, and you'd do best to answer my question boy." Frazier threatened, seeming to grow even taller as he straightened up.
"I don't think-"
"Joe! What are you… oh? And who are you?" Bryn asked running up from behind him, cutting off his sentence. She glared up at the man, unflinching before his terrifying gaze.
"I was just asking this boy the same question. So, are you Joe Lamb?" he demanded turning from Bryn back to Joe.
"He doesn't have to answer you! You're a stranger. We don't talk to strangers." Bryn said matter of factly. Her golden eyes seemed to catch fire as they turned almost like liquid. A sure fire warning that her anger was reaching dangerous limits. Joe hit her upside the head to distract her before she gave away part of their secret before the last person that should ever know of it. Bryn turned to him shocked at his actions. Joe just smiled sweetly.
"Pay back for earlier." He said pointing to his still sore foot.
Bryn looked like she didn't know if she should be pissed off, or grateful. After a second of very comical facial expressions she seemed to decide on grateful and smiled slightly at him.
The colonel cleared his throat and they both looked up at him.
"I have the authority to ask such a question. Now tell me, are you Joe Lamb!" his voice rose at the end of his sentence to such levels that he was almost yelling. Joe took a step back and Bryn continues to glare, but at a more subdued level.
"You could be the queen of England for all I care! We're leaving!" Bryn grabbed Joe's arm and pulled him away as quickly as she could, running towards the others until the menacing man was far behind the. Once he was out of sight she seemed to sag with relief.
"Are you ok Bryn?" Joe asked worriedly. Bryn looked to him and her eyes showed pure horror.
"We need to be carful around that man, Joe. What he's done, it's absolutely horrible. We can't ever let him find out about us or else I fear for our lives." She told him, her voice shaking in fear.
A/N: I hope this wasn't too cheesy, but I wanted to add in Charles' mother (she'll be befriending Carolyn Stoat (Bryn's aunt) later on in the story) and the whole thing with Colonel Frazier will be important later. Please REVIEW, REVIEW, And REVIEW! ! ! It keeps me active with this story.