Later, after the foam dart war (Carlos and Kendall won, just so ya know.) The four boys found themselves dressing into their pajamas to settle in for the night. "Did you bring anything to sleep in, Kendall?" James asked, walking from his personal bathroom. The boys all looked to him as he strutted across the room, but they didn't notice the model walk. James had a huge fluffy lime green bath robe on, with a matching towel twisted on his head. "You look like my mom." Carlos deadpanned. Logan hid his laugh behind a book and the corners of Kendalls mouth twitched up.

"Shut up." James said, snickers escaped lips, James frowned. "It was a gift set from my Aunt, besides, I look good." He did his infamous Diamond fingers, then turned to a large mirror above the dresser. "Kendall, night clothes, do you have any?" James looked away from his face and peered at Kendall's reflection, his new friend was in the same pair of Levi blue jeans he'd had on for the past three days…and his shirt was off white and tore a little at the bottom. Kendall sensed his eyes and caught his stare in the mirror, James looked away quickly, pulling the towel from his head. "No." was all Kendall said.

"Oh,' James walked away from combing his hair, kicking a bowl of cheese balls up and out of Carlos' lap, "Hey!" Carlos yelped, glaring at James' back as the cheeseballs rained down on his head. "Hey!" he protested again when the video game on the massive television screen went blank, James stood next to it with the three input cords hanging in one hand. "Shut up, Carlos…Kendall, there's spare night clothes in my bathroom, help yourself. Towels are under the sink if you want a shower." He moved to plug in the VHS player, when he popped back up he said. "We'll wait for you before we start the movie."

Carlos gasped dramatically, and then bent sideways. "Carlos, no!" James grabbed his nose as Carlos let a big one rip. Hortense, whom was sitting directly next to Carlos, gagged so hard he nearly vomited. "ugh!"

"Im gone!" Kendall jumped up and ran for the bathroom before the smell could wafer toward him.

James had a nice bathroom, black marble covered every surface. A large glass shower with five huge turbo shower heads on one end, at the other was a deep tub with the jets. Kendall had to stop and do a double take when he seen the many head shots that squared the vanity mirror, one small closet at the right of the room is where he found night clothes. The material felt expensive under Kendall's fingers, silky. He walked over to the mirror, feeling a bit unnerved as he stripped to his underpants infront of at least twenty five floating James' heads, smiling brightly at him.

He looked into the mirror and stopped breathing when the door opened as he pulled the night pants around his waist, he froze. "Hey Kendall, which one do you wanna…" James stopped talking as he looked up from a stack of five action movies, his face turned to one of confusion, then doubt, confusion again, he settled with looking upset. "Wh- What…happened?"

James was staring at the scars and bruises on his side, he was covered in them. Some faded, some new editions, some were very faint, others were angry and still kinda swollen. Kendall twirled around quickly, James audibly gasped, staring in horror at his friend. He looked like he had survived a slasher movie.

"I fell."

"How many times?" James looked at him unbelievingly, he sat the tapes down on a side table and pulled the door shut. He crossed the room in five long strides and looked deep into Kendall's eyes, "You're lying to me, why are you lying to me?"

"Im no-"

James got frustrated. "There you go again, stop!"

Kendall flinched back at the harshness in his tone, a natural reflex to him, he looked down at the floor in silence. James looked uncomfortable, "Hey man, im sorry, i just hate people lying..."

"S'okay, dude." Kendall slowly lifted his head and looked at James. "Who did this to you?" concern marred his face, he reached out a finger and gently poked a purple bruise on his rib,Kendall stayed silent but jerked away, he turned from James and slid the silky long sleeve over himself. He grabbed up his clothes and wadded them into a ball. "Can we just go back and watch a movie?" he tried walking past James, tried avoiding the whole subject. James stopped him with a gentle hand pressing against his shoulder, "Not until you give me the scoop." He crossed his arms infront of him, looking at Kendall, waiting.

With a big huff, and about five minutes of a stare down, James finally gave in. "Fine, don't tell me…lets go watch these, I guess…" He very much tried not to act angry as he picked up the tapes and turned toward the door, Kendall began to follow him out, but stopped as James pulled the door open. "James?"

"Yeah?"

Kendall hesitated. "Don't…don't let the other guys know about…ya know…this." He pinched the silk and gave it a wiggle, James nod, looking sad.

"Only if you promise to tell me,' he caught the look on Kendall's face, ' not right now, I know, but Kendall…if you don't tell, I will find out on my own. Just saying."

The boys entered the room and they sat down, watching a few movies till one by one, they all fell asleep. The next morning Kendall woke up before any of them. He went to the bathroom before his bladder exploded and then decided he might as well take a shower, making sure the door was locked shut before he made the same mistake again. As he stood in the hot water, his muscles screaming with joy, he thought of excuses to give James.

Did I say I fell? I meant off of a horse.

No.

You see, James…I fell into the gorilla cage once at the zoo, that ape nearly killed me.

That sounded so phoney, even in his head.

I've always been clumsy.

.

.

Angel stepped off the bus as it reached its last stop, Minnesota. The Monday morning air felt refreshing, she walked slowly through the snow, through Minnesota. Three miles from the greyhound stop to a department store, where she picked up a backpacks worth of new school supplies. Ten miles down a busy highway, from there it was sixteen miles through town, where she stayed at a motel for three days. Thursday she walked another nine to Rochester K-12. No one paid her any mind as she filed through the halls, she entered classrooms, no introduction to her peers from the teachers, they didn't call on her when she raised her hand to answer a question. She took her notes and learned, feeling at peace in her tenth grade English class. She stood outside of Mrs. Knights second grade classroom door for over an hour, the younger classmen got out much later than the high school. She saw him through the door glass, sitting near the back with three other boys. Every few minutes a note would be passed around the four of them, she would see them smile and quietly laugh, they cracked up even harder once Mrs. Knight started making them pull cards.

James.

Carlos.

Logan.

Angel knew them, they would someday build a friendship foundation so strong, nothing would make it crumble. The end of day bell rang, she found herself crowded like a giant with abunch of little Jack's around her. Kendall's mop of blonde bobbed right past her, he was having an in-depth conversation with Carlos about super powers. "Flying is way cooler!" Kendall shook his head, "Nuh –uh, invisibility!" they departed with Logan and walked out of the building, Angel followed behind unnoticed. She followed them all the way to Kendall's house, hanging behind and peering around a big white van as Kendall shouted his goodbyes and entered the house. She tiptoed across the front lawn and checked the premises, trying to find Kendall's room. No dice with the first level or basement, she looked up the side of the big house.

No trees.

No post.

Not even a friggin' ladder in the shed.

Checking around her to make sure nobody was around, she slipped in through the basement.

.

.

His heart nearly stopped in his chest when he seen her sitting at the foot of his bed when he entered the room. He stood there slack jawed and gawking, not believing his eyes, and then she smiled.

"Angel!"

He raced to her, tightly gripping her in a bear hug, he pulled back to get a look at her face. "What? How? I never thought I'd see you again!" he hugged her again before sitting down on the bed next to her.

"I caught a bus here not twenty four hours after you left, I couldn't be away from you, we need eachother." She said, ruffling his hair up. "But I can't stay for too long, bub, sooner or later I will have to return…" she sighed sadly, but her smile held. "So put your listening ears on, will you do something, for me?" she turned to Kendall for a response, his brows were furrowed deeply as he thought. Finally he nod his head, then wiggled his finger in his ear. "Im listening…"

Angel stood and slowly began pacing back and forth infront of the bed, Kendall sat cross legged in the center of his full sized mattress, a new upgrade that came with all the other good things that had taken a surprising course into his life at the moment.

"I've been watching you for a while, and your parents…kind of like an undercover spy. Im not a spy, Kendall." Angel laughed when she seen the facial expression he had been making, "But I have known you for quite a while now, seven years and three months-"

"But that means you've been watching me since you were my age, since I was a baby!" Kendall cut in, confusion marring his face, he looked up and frowned. Angel chuckled, tucking hair behind her ear. "Im much older than I look, stopped growing when I was about sixteen," she laughed a little, but he could tell it was phoney. The room was silent for a while, Kendall sat there processing what Angel had said, his child Einstein brain didn't take long to tie the pieces together.

"You mean, all this time…this whole time…you knew my mom and dad have been…and you haven't tried to stop it?" His voice broke at the end of his sentence, he jumped from the bed, his eyes filled and then a pool of tears rolled down his thinning cheeks, he tried as hard as he could to make them stop, rubbing his eyes viciously.

Stop crying, are you a little girl? His father's voice snarled inside his head.

Angel tried to hug him, "Oh! Kenda-" but he shoved her away as hard as he could, she stumbled backward, feet catching eachother, she fell to the floor in an ungraceful heap. "Get out." Kendall's face was set in fury, brows bunched together. He turned around, not facing her.

"Kenda-"

"OUT!" he sobbed the tiniest sob, then with a deep breath, " I don't ever want to see you again, you're even worse than my parents. Goodb-" suddenly Angel's soft hand covered his mouth, she pulled his head back and whispered in his ear, "Don't ever say goodbye.." there was hurt in her tone.

She touched her palm to his face, he fell into her arms, in a deep sleep. She picked him up and put him to bed, sitting at the foot of his bed for a little while just watching him sleep. He stirred, rubbing his eyes, one green eye peeped open.

"Angul?" he slurred.

A bright ball of light danced around the room with high speed, causing the ceiling fan to sway and the lights to flicker. Kendall starred at the white star thing with wide and fascinated eyes. In the blink of an eye it shot right past his nose, making the hair on his head brush back, and out the window it went. Kendall leaped to his open window, sticking his head out of it to see where the orb went, but he couldn't find it.

.

.

(about three weeks later)

Mrs. Knight watched Kendall closely from her desk, she graded his multiplication, perfect one-hundred percent score. The boy was starting to give Hortense Mitchell a run for his money with the brainiac department. Today he was being unusually quiet in class again, usually he and his newfound friends would spend the whole school day cracking up, being goofy together. It would usually take threat of after school detention to make him calm down enough to get serious, but today he just sat and stared at his desk.

Jennifer Knight knew fish when she smelled it, something was up with this new student of hers. She tossed aside the ungraded papers and pulled a spare sheet of notebook paper from a tablet. With her Number One Teacher! pen, she wrote a list.

Flinches

Advanced mind

Withdrawn episodes

She looked up and looked to the back of the classroom, Kendall had his head resting in his arms. She flipped the page over on her desk, "Kendall, come here." His head snapped up at the sound of his name, as he walked toward her desk Jennifer tried to picture the little boy in the hall a month or so ago. "Yes?" he asked, playing with his fingers. Jennifer held out his multiplication worksheet, with a big red A, twenty-five out of twenty-five, a sucker was taped on with a smiley sticker. "Great job, keep it up." She smiled, he looked down at his grade and smiled. "I will." He grinned, walking back to his seat.

Jennifer flipped her paper back over, quickly scribbling…

Significant weight loss

The fish suddenly stunk much worse, she began getting a hunch. Not pregnancy pain this time, something was going on. She folded the paper and stuffed it into her purse, for later investigation. Maybe it was just her silly mind getting ahead of itself, but being married to a police chief for over seven years, some instincts you can't help but pick up. So, she was going to be keeping a very particular close eye on young Mr. Kendall Smith from now on.