oooOOOOOooo
"We're all going out?" Sunny asked?
"You've been training very hard, and it's been suggested to me that you need a break. Dr. Martinez and I are going to take you to dinner and a movie," Jeb told her.
"All of us?" asked Angel.
"Whoever wants to go. Do you want to go?" he asked her.
"Yes!"
"Me too!" yelled Gazzy and John.
Valencia put her hands up to calm them. "Okay, let's see who's going."
Only Sunny, John, the Gasman and Angel wanted to go. The others were all too happy to have both the grown-ups and the little ones out of the house.
"Nudge? Are you sure you don't want to come with us? Jump?"
Jump shook his head. "I don't really like to be in crowds."
"No thanks, I just got some new magazines. I'll hang out here. I can be the chaperone," Nudge suggested.
"Excellent idea, Nudge," Dr. Martinez said. Then she lowered her voice, "All the doors stay open."
Nudge giggled, "Aye, aye." She saluted.
Calling to the others, Jeb said, "We have to get going if we're going to make the movie on time!"
Gazzy complained, "Do we have to drive? It takes so long."
"Well, until Jeb and I learn to fly, that's the way we'll be traveling together," Dr. Martinez explained. "Can we bring back some food for you guys?" she called to the older kids.
"No thanks, Dr. M. We're going to cook for ourselves. And we're maybe going to play some board games and watch a movie," Iggy said in his most well mannered voice. He wasn't fooling her, though. She knew they were anything but well mannered. But she could trust Nudge to keep an eye on them.
"Okay," she answered. She reminded Nudge, "All doors stay open."
Angel wanted Italian. The rest of them wanted burgers. Curiously, they ended up eating tortellini and ravioli. They sat in the back of an outdated movie house and watched an incredibly annoying animated movie about talking animals. Jeb kept his eyes on the exits the whole time, nervous about taking the kids out after all. When nothing suspicious happened half way through the film, he finally started to relax.
"Are you having second thoughts about this?" Valencia whispered.
"Yes. No. I'm trying to relax," Jeb said.
She rested her hand on his arm. "Which is bothering you more, taking these kids out or leaving the other ones at home? Alone." She smiled, "Don't worry, I put Nudge in charge."
Jeb and Valencia sat two rows behind Angel, Sunny, John and Gazzy. For an hour and forty-seven minutes, they were just kids having a great time at the movies with their friends.
oooOOOOOooo
"That was awesome chili, guys!" Jump said cheerfully.
"Uh, thanks," Iggy said.
The other six of us just stared at him for a second. We hadn't seen him in such a good mood in a long time. He usually stayed off by himself or in a small group, come to think of it. But tonight, he was positively chipper. It was nice, the eight of us having dinner together, playing grown-up.
We cleaned up-for a change, and put in a scary movie. Well, I'm sure it must have been scary to someone. After some of the stuff we'd seen, vampires and werewolves were nothing. Still, it was entertaining enough. Nudge was lying on her belly on the floor in front of the t.v. propped up on her elbows. Dani was piled up on top of a bunch of pillows next to the lazy boy Iggy was sitting in. Fang and I sat on the couch next to Jump. I noticed that Miranda and Dylan stayed at the breakfast bar talking. At least they weren't fighting. I still wasn't sure exactly what that was all about.
So, Fang thought he was so slick, yawning and putting his arm around me fifteen minutes into the movie. He leaned over and kissed my cheek. I saw him glance up toward the kitchen, then raise his eyebrows in surprise. I turned to see what he saw. I'm sure my eyebrows went up too. Dylan and Miranda had their heads together, close enough to touch. They were reading something, but seemed more interested in each other. What a turnaround.
I turned back to Fang, who was grinning at me. "That's a good sign," he said. He kissed my neck. Then my lips. We kissed until I felt someone was watching us. We broke apart and I leaned forward to look around Fang. Jump was staring at us awkwardly.
"Can you do that somewhere else?" he asked. He looked uncomfortable.
"Sorry," I said. I looked in the kitchen but Dylan and Miranda were gone. They'd gone outside on the deck.
Fang whispered, "Let's go to your room." And we quietly got up.
"Your mom said the doors have to stay open," Nudge said. Fang glared at her.
"Why'd we let her stay?" he asked.
"Sshhh," Nudge said. "I'm trying to watch this."
Iggy stood up. "Okay. I've heard enough of this movie. Dani, wanna go to my room and . . ." he cleared his throat, "um, read?" Dani got up and took his hand. "I'd rather make out, but if you want to read, that's cool."
"Close your mouth, Max," he said.
WTH? Have I been that unobservant? Since when were they together? Were they together, together?
Again, Nudge felt the need to say, "Keep the doors open. Dr. Martinez said so."
"What about them?" I pointed to the deck.
"It's glass. I can see them. And be quiet, I'm trying to watch the movie!"
Fang and I walked to my room, leaving the door wide open, of course. It was just like one of those scary teen flicks where the ones paired off in dark corners get killed.
oooOOOOOooo
I quietly padded out to the kitchen for food. My plan was to grab something quick and take it back to my room. Before I even reached the fridge, Dylan came into the kitchen with the same idea.
"Things seem better between you two," I said, nodding in Miranda's direction.
"Yeah, we've been talking a lot."
"Right. Talking."
"It's complicated," he chuckled. "Do you think the pudding's ready?"
"Ask Iggy," I said.
"You ask," he said. "I'm not going in his room."
"Chicken," I laughed.
Right on cue, a shirtless Iggy came into the kitchen, "It should be ready by now. What's that noise?" He scratched at his disheveled hair.
I grabbed his arm and pulled him close. "How long has this been going on?"
"What do you mean? I made the pudding two hours ago," he said with a straight face. He turned his head slightly. "Do you hear that?"
Fang came up behind me and tugged on my arm. "Max."
"Iggy," I said, annoyed. "You know what I'm taking about."
He grinned, "I don't 'read' and tell."
"Max," Fang tugged again.
"What!" I yelled impatiently.
"Should that be happening?" he motioned over to the couch.
I stood there with my mouth hanging open in surprise. I'd been doing that a lot lately. More than a few eyebrows went up at the sight of Nudge and Jump getting cozy on the couch.
"Nudge!" I yelled.
"I thought I heard kissy noises," Iggy said, unfazed.
Jump and Nudge stopped and looked up. More confused than guilty. She pushed Jump off her.
"What're you doing? Get off me!" she yelled.
"What are you doing?" I asked her.
Nudge pointed at Jump from the opposite end of the couch. "I don't know. Ask him. He did something to me."
"I'll kill him," Fang growled and grabbed Jump's shirt.
"No, not like that. He hypnotized me or something."
"Said the chaperone who got caught sucking face on the couch," Iggy laughed.
"I was not sucking face!" Nudge yelled.
"Yeah, you kind of were, Nudge," I said quietly.
Jump was in a panic. Everyone was eyeing him angrily. "Miranda? I'm sorry. I couldn't help it. It was just too much. I'm sorry."
"It's okay, Jump. It'll be all right," she said. She took Fang's hand away. Then to the rest of us, "He's an empath."
"And?" Fang asked. As if what she said explained it all.
"He senses other people's emotions. And if they're strong enough, he feels them as his own. There must have been too much, um, lovin', going on around here for his little system. It just had to come out."
"I'll bet," Fang said, sarcastically.
"Remember when we had that epic fight before we came here, Fang? And Jump got up and shoved John off his chair for no reason," Miranda said.
Fang laughed, "Yeah, that was pretty funny. I mean, it wasn't funny at the time. But it's funny now."
"It wasn't for no reason. That was because he got caught up in our fight. He was angry, too. He just didn't know why. It had to come out. It really isn't his fault. Did you touch her?" she asked Jump. "If he touches someone, he can pass on the emotions," she explained to us.
"She touched me. She thought I was sick."
"I felt his forehead. He looked like he had a fever," Nudge said.
No good deed . . .
Jump still looked scared that everyone was mad at him. I really thought he was going to cry. Miranda gently swept Jump's hair out of his eyes. "I should have left the house. I usually leave the house or go to a different room."
Dani added her two cents, "You're right, you should have. I thought you didn't even like each other."
"We don't," Nudge said emphatically.
Miranda said, "It's possible it may have happened no matter who Jump was with. Don't take it personally, Nudge."
"Good thing we didn't keep the Gasman home," I giggled.
No one could keep a straight face. Okay, that was kind of cruel. Jump was fuming.
"Now that I think of it, I'm pretty sure you called me Fang at one point," Nudge joked. We all giggled again. Except Fang.
"Shut up!" Jump practically growled. "Besides, I am sure you called me Iggy." His turn to laugh.
Nudge scowled at him. It almost covered up her blush as I saw her glance Iggy's way. "Did not!" she yelled.
Unfortunately, Jump didn't back down. "Oh yes you did. Over and over," he teased. "Oh, Iggy." He looked smug. He'd had the last laugh. Except no one else was laughing.
So it was no real surprise when I saw Nudge's fingers curl into a fist and give him sock on the jaw. He deserved that. He took it a little too far. He blinked furiously trying to keep the tears away. Nudge got up, stormed off to her room and slammed the door.
"Well, that was fun and exciting," I said. "Why didn't you tell us Jump could do that?" I asked Miranda. "We really shouldn't be keeping things like that a secret. Are there other things he can do that you're not telling us?"
"No."
I wasn't sure I believed her.
"I'll be more careful from now on. I've been careful so far. No one even knew. And I don't tell what I feel. I promise," Jump pleaded.
I wasn't sure how to deal with this. "Okay. Try not to worry about it." I tried to sound reassuring, but it was a little creepy knowing there could be another one of them in my head. "Next time, tell someone or leave the room or something. And you might want to apologize to Nudge."
Dylan sat with Jump on the couch while Dani fluffed up her pillows on the floor and lay down. Fang and Iggy decided to call it a night before Jeb and the others came home. Miranda went in to talk to Nudge. And I decide to eat some of the leftover chili.
Laughter from outside floated up in through the window.
"We're back," Gazzy sang as he walked in.
"How was it?" Dylan asked enthusiastically.
"It was great! It was so nice to eat in a real restaurant. We haven't done that in so long," Angel said.
"Did you bring home a doggy bag?" Total asked.
Sunny opened a bag and put a container on the counter, then another. "We've got pasta primavera and shrimp scampi."
"I'll take the primavera," Total said. "I don't want garlic breath."
"Can I have some scampi?" Jump asked. "No one's gonna care about my breath," he said and gave a half-hearted laughed.
"You're not sleeping next to me then," John said.
