Chapter 21:
Billy leaned back against her locker and sighed resting her eyes. "Hey." She opened her eyes and saw Warren there. His arm was propped back against the locker above her head and he was leaning in to her.
"Hi." Billy said softly. "Now get lost."
"Excuse me." He said.
Billy smirked as she used her powers to twist his arm behind his back and slam him against the lockers. "You don't think I'm that stupid do you?" Billy asked.
The guy before her shifted back into a curly haired student wearing a ball cap. "Ok, ok sorry would you let up?"
Billy released him and leaned back against her locker again. "Beat it." She said.
He walked off faster than anyone had ever seen. "What was that about?" Warren asked as he came up and started to open his locker.
Billy looked at him and smiled. "I dunno. Just trying to trick me I guess."
"How'd you know it wasn't me?" Warren asked smiling at her.
"You saw the whole thing?"
"Yeah."
"First of all you put off a certain vibe, I'm probably the only one that would ever know it though having known you my whole life. Secondly he lacked a certain green streak on the left side of his head." Billy said smirking at him. "I worked damn hard to put that streak there." She added teasingly.
Warren chuckled softly and switched out his books and than slammed his locker closed. "Yes you did." He said huskily leaning down to her ear so only she heard. Billy grabbed his gloved hand in hers and they headed to history of a villain third period.
Mr. B was their teacher for that class and they sat in the back at a double seat table across from Will and Layla. "Now comes the final for your trimester." Mr. B said. "You will all turn in a ten page double spaced typed report on a memorable villain. You can use any source to get your information but limited to the library, Internet and even family members. I will put you in groups of two and assign you a villain."
"…Layla and Will you'll do your report on Banshee (AN: I haven't got a clue, but if they are real from other stories sorry, if not they are just made up.) And last but not least Warren and Billy you'll do…oh this can't be right I…I'm sure I had that assigned to another group."
Billy could feel Warren's heat pulsating around him and she looked over instantly getting what he was thinking by the look on his face. "Uh no need to say it Mr. B we'll do it." Billy insisted.
"What? Oh no that wouldn't be…"
"No it's fine really." Billy said.
Mr. B nodded reluctantly. "My apologies. Class wait for the bell and you can talk amongst yourselves."
"What are you doing?" Warren asked Billy angrily.
Billy put her hand in Warren's making him grasp hers. "It's fine. Really I mean think about it…"
"I don't want to." Warren snarled.
"Would you rather someone write all the bad things about him, or would you rather show them that he wasn't everything they say but a good man as well who did bad things?" Billy sighed looking into his brown eyes. He was angrily and his eyes were fierce, but soon the heat that had built around him started to dissipate and he looked at her almost sullenly.
"Fine." He said softly.
Billy brought her free hand up and tucked the hair that had fallen into his face behind his ears. "Ok." She said softly. "And I'll do it if you want."
"No I need to get use to this kind of stuff I guess." Warren said. "I can't get mad every time someone mentions him."
"Then we agree on that." Billy giggled softly.
"So I made my decision." Warren said softly. Billy scooted her stool closer resting their clasped hands on her lap.
"Yeah?" She asked.
Warren nodded. "I'm…I'm gonna go. And I want to take you with me." He told her. Billy nodded in acknowledgement and gave a small smile.
"I think you made the right choice."
"We'll talk about it more at home." Warren said after the bell rung. They headed off to fourth to get yet another essay assignment for their final in three weeks and than headed to lunch.
Lunch:
"Warren are you ok doing a report on…" Layla trailed off.
Warren shrugged. "I'll deal." He said.
"He'll be fine." Billy said reassuringly patting his thigh.
"So I'm curious what's with the matching streaks?" Magenta asked after so long.
Warren looked at Billy who smirked and shrugged. "There a package deal with our powers. Elena said that our new ones are from a power emergence or something."
"Emergence eh?" Magenta grinned. "Yeah I'm sure it was an emergency."
"Shut up." Warren said.
Lunch soon ended and they went back to their classes building rays and researching different hero powers in the past. Billy actually found out that one of her great grandfathers had been a pyrokenetic on her mother's side and his wife had been empathic and telekinetic.
"That's weird." Billy muttered reading on.
Warren looked up from his book. They sat in the back of the library researching like the rest of their class. "What?" He asked.
"My great grandfather on my mother's side was a pyrokenetic. But according to this it only runs in the family with boys."
"So?" Warren asked.
"He had a girl with my great grandmother and than she had my mom and my mom had me. The next boy in the line is…" Billy's head shot up. "Oh crap!" She exclaimed.
Warren seemed to catch on. "B it's unlikely that he'll get it. I mean there's enough generations between that he'll probably get your power or even something that resembles your mother's."
"Kinetic's run in the family along with empaths. My mom's a telepath, which is sort of a sprout off of empathy I guess." Billy said mainly to herself as she kept reading on. "I wonder how far back the family history books go?"
"Last I checked only to great, great relatives." Layla said sitting down with them and a new stack of books. "Why?"
Billy shrugged. "I dunno. I'd kind of like to see how far back pyrokenetics run in the family."
"You have Pyro's in your family line?" Will asked.
Billy nodded. "Yeah and if I had an uncle or a great uncle they'd probably have the abilities too, but I don't and the next boy in line is…"
"Cooper." Warren said softly.
Billy looked at Warren. "Not that it would be horrible or anything but I'd kind of like to know if it's a possibility." She said.
Ethan came over and sat on Billy's other side. "So what's the topic?" He asked.
"Pyro's through generations, but only boys." Billy said.
"Pyro abilities are strong. Mostly in boys just cause of their core strength. Not saying that a girl Pyro doesn't occur or anything, but even if a Pyro had a daughter and she had a son someday he'd mostly likely inherits the Pyro abilities."
"What if it skipped two or more generations?" Billy asked.
"Still a high probability depending on the other power sources in the family." Ethan said.
"So in a family line of kinetic's, empaths, and telepath's…"
"Kinetic's run in the family?" Ethan asked Billy. She nodded. "A good chance that even skipping a few generations any boy in the bloodline could inherit a form of pyrokinesis."
"Goody." Billy muttered to herself.
"Hey what's wrong with Pyro's?" Warren asked playfully indignant.
Billy smirked at him. "Absolutely nothing." She said. "So curiosity is getting the better of me here, when I was yeah know with cooper I got a blue streak, what do you think that means?"
Warren shrugged. "Beats me? Ask my mom or yours."
"What does she mean when she was 'yeah know'?" Will asked.
Billy rolled her eyes and reached over the table smacking him upside the head. "If you don't understand what I'm talking about ignore the conversation." She said teasingly.
Layla giggled as Will rubbed the back of his head and the other's laughed. Soon Magenta and Zach joined the table and they got back to studying for the rest of the period and all through sixth when they had just gone right back.
After the Bus:
Warren and Billy got off at the old stop to Elena's house and headed in that direction after Billy used her knew smart phone email her mom and ask her to send a copy of the family power tree to her email. They reached the door and Warren used his key to let them in. "MOM!" He called once they were inside.
"Warren?" Elena came out of the kitchen door smiling at them. "Well hey you two."
Billy smiled. "Hey Elle."
"What brings you two by?"
"A question." Billy said. Elena nodded and they all went into the living room. "If Pyro's run in my bloodline and it's skipped generations where no boys occur, and goes to Cooper why was the streak in my hair during the pregnancy blue?"
Elena smiled. "Mine was blue too."
"You got a streak?" Warren asked stunned.
"Yeah." Elena nodded. "I did. It represents tranquility and peace. Blue helps to produce calming chemicals. That's all it was doing, sometimes woman carrying children can over think things and take things to literal, for us it's different our bodies work to produce the calming chemicals so we don't over exert power. That's probably why it appeared."
Billy nodded. "I'd like to know where you got all that cause I could sure use that book."
"My mother explained it to me a long time ago before she passed when you and Warren were two." Elena said smiling softly.
Billy smiled at her. "Thanks."
"So you think Cooper will be a Pyro?"
"I dunno. Apparently in runs in male blood in our family, but there were three generations of females so I really don't know." Billy said.
Elena smiled. "Don't worry it's not as horrible raising a pyrokenetic as you might think."
Billy laughed softly and looked over at Warren who was rolling his eyes and than back to Elena. "Well see that's the thing I know what you went through raising flame boy."
Elena laughed too and nodded. "Yeah I guess so. Why don't you two stay for dinner?"
"Can't, I have to go pick Iz up from Tru's and take her for a driving lesson after dropping Warren at work. Her appointment with the psychologist is two weeks from now." Billy said.
Elena nodded. "Alright but be careful."
Driving Lesson:
"No Iz you need to shift into…"
"Yeah I know." Iz sighed and shifted into the right gear and backed out of the parking spot.
Please, please, please don't hit anything. Billy thought silently trying her hardest not to looking back and observe every little move that Iz made. She felt a small jerk and realized Iz had changed gears and was pulling forward now. "Good now go up to the stop sign and take a right."
"Ok." Iz said. She did so. Letting car after car go before her.
"What are you doing?"
"Waiting so it's clear for me to go." Iz said.
Billy giggled. "Unbelievable." She muttered to herself. "Ok at a four way stop you pull up wait for the cars that arrived before you to go, and or the car to the right and than you take your turn."
Iz nodded and she waited for the next round of cars and than went. "Like that."
"Yeah like that, but before you create a mile long line behind us."
"Sorry."
"It's fine that's why I'm teaching you. Are your mirrors adjusted properly?"
"Just like you said." Iz nodded. She continued down the street. "Ok it went from twenty-five to thirty-five do I shift into third?"
"Yeah. But I want you to keep it at thirty-three. Just cause my speedometers a little tricky right now I need to have it looked at." Billy said.
Iz did as told. The first day of Billy's driving school had been all about shifting using a clutch and what was the gas and break. Iz had caught on quick. Now Billy had to help her learn the rules of the road.
"Ok at the light I want you to make a left. But at this light you can only make a left on green if there is no oncoming traffic coming cool? Does that make sense?"
"No turning until all the cars oncoming are gone. Got it." Iz nodded.
After about a half an hour of steady driving Billy decided it was time to head back to the house and wait for Warren to get home around nine and they'd make something frozen for dinner. "Do you feel comfortable driving home?"
"Yeah." Iz answered. Billy had to admit she was impressed. Driving a manual for her had been easy work too, but she had also been forced to read the driver's guide ten times before her father let her out on the actual roads and even then she started out in parking lots. Think that was useless she started Iz out in neighborhoods the first few days and today was her first day driving in town.
They pulled up in the driveway to find that there was a package on the front steps. "Huh. That wasn't there when I left this afternoon." Billy said softly.
Iz shrugged and they climbed out of the car after Iz took the necessary parking precautions with Billy's prized car.
Billy jogged up the steps picking the small package up and read the return address and name. 'Mike Caine.' It was addressed to Billy and Iz so they took it inside and went in to the living room. Billy cut it open with her pocketknife and pulled the sides open to show what was in it.
Iz pulled out an enevelope marked 'Billy' and handed it to her. Iz on the other hand pulled out a small box and card and opened it up. 'Happy birthday! You wont return my emails and you don't answer your phone so I sent this to the address mom and dad gave me.' A sheet of paper fell out and Iz opened it up and read.
Izzy-Bella,
I know I haven't done a lot of great things in the last few years, but I hope I'm doing the right thing now and letting you have space. Billy was right when she said I thought of myself more than you. I should never have done that and I'm sorry. I'm sorry I left you with mom and dad and I'm sorry you couldn't trust me enough to share the things in your life with me. In general I'm just sorry.
That day when I left the hospital I realized just how close I was to losing you. Tell Billy she had every right to yell at me like she did. I might not have done right by her or our child but I hope someday she'll forgive me for that. And you, I hope you can forgive me for being a horrible brother and for the things I've done. I do love you Izzy and nothing'll change that I just got caught up in myself and didn't see the pain that was so obvious inside of you.
I hope Billy is helping you make things better with yourself and I hope I can see you sometime soon. Let me know that you got your birthday gift, you can call or write or email I don't care I just want to know you got it and what you think.
Love,
Mike
Iz set the letter down and open the small square velvet box. Inside was a beautiful white gold crescent moon locket. She rotated the locket over and saw 'Izzy-Bella' inscribed on the back. Mike had called her that since she was a young girl.
"Wow." Iz whispered to herself.
Billy looked over and smiled. "I might not be part of Mike's fan club but maybe you should go call him."
"Yeah." Iz nodded. "What'd he say to you?"
"I dunno haven't gotten up the guts to read it yet." Billy said softly.
Iz hugged Billy quickly and than took her gift, card and letter upstairs to talk to Mike.
Billy stared at the envelope for a long while before hesitantly opening the seal and pulling the folded paper out and opening it. This is what it read:
Billy,
This is probably a little too late, but I'm sorry. For everything. For how I treated you at the end of our relationship, for making it all about the sex and not about the actual caring. I'm sorry about cheating on you all though I don't think you or anyone else will ever forgive me for that, but I just wanted to say I'm sorry anyway.
I'm mostly sorry because I will probably never know my own flesh and blood. I don't even know his name, but he haunts my dreams, just like your face that day you told me about you being pregnant. The pained look on your face when I numbly chose normalcy instead of fatherhood to a child I helped create doesn't ever leave me.
I can't apologize enough for my actions, and I can't believe I left you to raise a child alone. I was so selfish in that moment. The only thing that was going through my head was 'I'm not ready to be a father' I never once thought that maybe you weren't ready to be a mother either.
Nothing I say will ever take away the guilt I carry or the pain I caused you deep down inside so I wont ever try to. But know that no matter what I've said to hurt you since than or the stupid things I did homecoming night you'll always go down in my heart as the first girl I really loved.
Thank you for being their for Iz you were right I got so caught up in myself I didn't know anything about her problems. Treat her good for me and don't give up on her like I did or let her down. She needs you now and I'm glad your there for her despite what I did to you.
All my heart and soul,
Mike
Billy read the letter and she really didn't know how to comprehend what she was reading. It sounded sincere and he sounded truly sorry for his actions, but he was right while she had stopped caring about all that being with Warren and all she would never be able to forgive him for leaving her alone to raise a child.
After a while she stopped staring at the paper folded it up and stuck it back in the envelope. Warren walked in the door early around eight thirty and saw Billy sitting at the counter a small package open on the floor and she was staring at an envelope in her hands.
Warren walked over and kissed her cheek softly. Billy jerked and looked over at him her confusion melting into a content smile. "Hi." She said sweetly.
He set a bag of food down on the counter from the paper lantern and turned the swivel barstool around so she was facing him and her hands fell to her lap. "What's bothering you?"
Billy didn't keep secrets from Warren at this point. It was useless cause he'd find out eventually. "Mike wrote me a sincere apology even though he knows I'll never forgive him." She handed it to Warren. "Burn it."
"You want me to burn it?" Warren asked warily.
Billy nodded. "You can read it first, if you like, but yes I want you to burn it for me."
"I trust it doesn't say something stupid like let's get back together or anything?" Warren asked sardonically.
Billy cracked a small smile and shook her head. "No but he did say that I was the first girl he ever loved. Some love we had."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Warren asked cautiously.
Billy shrugged. "He wanted me cause I was acting a part, I wasn't the Billy I started out as, I just wanted to fit with him and I guess I changed a bit. And I wanted him cause he reminded me somewhere deep down, of you."
Warren held the envelope of to her. "You sure?"
Nodding Billy levitated the letter out to the side of them and Warren through a well aimed fireball at it and it incinerated and turned to ash that dissipated before trickling down to the floor. "I'll sweep that up later." Billy laughed softly.
Warren turned her face towards him, his hand on her chin and gave her a soft kiss. "I love you."
Billy smiled sweetly. "I love you too Warren." They met in a soft kiss and stayed that way for a bit until they heard Iz clear her throat.
"Yeah so when's dinner?" She asked laughing softly.
"Help yourself." Billy pointed to the food bag and went back to kissing Warren. They heard softly rustling of the bag and the cupboards open and close.
"When you two come up for air, the foods cold you might want to heat it up." Iz laughed and headed upstairs. Billy giggled and broke her lip lock with her boyfriend.
"We should eat I'm starved." Warren said softly against her lips.
Billy smiled and agreed with a hum of her voice. They moved away from each other and started preparing plates for themselves. "So when are we going to see your father?" Billy asked casually.
"I was thinking maybe Saturday morning first thing and get it over with."
"It's Cooper weekend." Billy said softly.
Warren nodded. "I know and I hate to take away some of that time but…"
"It's fine. I'll just have my parents come Saturday evening and spend the night. Cause once I'm with him I wont want to leave."
"No maybe I should just go alone. I don't want to…"
"Warren it's fine. Really. No more discussion about it ok?" Warren grunted his agreement and popped his plate in the microwave and than proceeded to remove his jacket and gloves.
Billy smiled. "So I was thinking about that paper and I think I'm going to add the time he helped us build our tree house in it."
"What? Why?" Warren asked chuckling at just the thought.
"Cause I'm sick and tired of everything thinking he's a loon, and I am definitely sick of people whispering about him. At least humanizing him will show people that he isn't the crazy they think he is, but a decent man who did some not so good things." Billy said thoughtfully.
Warren walked over to her and put his arms around her waist bending his head down and kissing her lips softly. "Thanks."
"Welcome. While it might be hard to actually believe he did those things he did, he did and I guess we'll both eventually have to come to terms with it."
"Why would you?" Warren asked.
"While we had no relation you seem to forget that he was like an uncle to me and treated me wonderfully."
Warren gave her an honest smile. "We're in the same boat you and I."
"Stuck together like glue." Billy giggled.
"I love you."
"And I love you too Warren. So you in on this project with me or what?" She laughed softly.
Warren nodded. "Yeah. I'm in."
"Good." Billy smiled.