Heather couldn't help herself. She knew they would be discussing her trip once they went to bed, and she just had to know. She slipped out of her room silently, and listened through their door. She was easily able to hear through the door of her parent's bedroom, and listened closely to their conversation. She was right. They were talking about her. Too bad the words were so familiar.
"It's not that I don't trust her," she heard her mother say, "but what if she gets into real trouble?"
"I know," her father replied. "I don't like the idea of her being so far away when we can't be there."
"There's another option, but that one's going to be up to you," Alicia said.
He sighed. "I know. I don't like that either, but…"
"But, it's either that or one of us go."
Please let them ask Daniel to go, Heather prayed silently. That had to be the other option. She loved her parents to death, but on a trip like this, she'd rather have her big brother there than one of them. Weren't they ever young and wanted to be out of parental supervision? Never mind, like Dad was ever supervised, and Mom, well, God only knew what she did as a teenager because she wouldn't talk about it. She knew they wouldn't like two of their kids taking off during the holidays, but she really wanted to go, and he would be so much cooler. She was pretty popular among the sophomores, but all of the older girls would be sucking up to her to look good in front of her very cute brother.
"She really wants to go," she heard her mother say. "It almost seems not right to let her have some fun. I don't want her to always be hiding in the shadows." Was that her mother? Mom was the ultimate in caution and not getting caught. Too weird.
"Been there, done that," she heard Dad say. "Daniel wasn't as hard. He knew if someone had unhappy thoughts around him." That phrase had come out after Daniel read Peter Pan as a young boy. It was the only thing he could use to articulate the "bad head talk" he kept hearing from other people.
There was a long pause, and she listened harder, wondering why they had gotten quiet all of a sudden. They should be making a decision. Then she heard something else, and booked out of there. She knew full well they really loved each other, and all that but the last thing you want to think of is your parents doing it. Yuck! She went back to bed and lay there for a while. She really wanted to go.
The twins were already at the table when Heather came down for breakfast the next morning. They were grinning at her. Little freaks. They knew it messed with her when they just stared like that. They would start to do everything in perfect synchronization and keep grinning like a couple of rabid weasels. Most people thought it was cute. She thought it was whacked.
Both her parents were there. They were looking at her. It didn't look good. Well, whatever happened, she was going to take it maturely, then go into her room and have one hell of a temper tantrum. Breath holding was probably going to be involved. Also throwing around everything. Hopefully a twin would walk in. It was hard to really hurt one of them, so eventually he or she would be okay. They bounced.
"Heather," Zack finally said. Not a good tone. "You know why it's dangerous for you to be on your own."
"Even without Manticore, there's a lot of people that would love to get their hands on any one of you," Alicia continued. This was really not good. "We don't want you to have to live in hiding, but we don't want to deliberately put you into harm's way either."
"You both managed to keep out of danger even when you were being actively hunted," Heather said, making herself stay calm.
"No we didn't," Zack stepped in. "We were just trained in how to get out of dangerous situations. Situations that I prefer you never have to even think about. There are things you never want to have to do."
She wondered again about her parents. Neither of them talked much about what they had done. Mom refused to ever speak about what she'd done for Manticore. Heather knew they were trained to be soldiers. They were supposed to be able to kill without question according to Max. Max said she had done some bad things before, but Mom and Dad had shrugged it off like maybe they had done a lot worse when Heather told them that. She wanted to know what they were really like back then. Maybe not.
"How is anyone even going to know?" she said, trying not to sound pleading. "If they knew where I was now, they'd come after me."
"They also know who is around you," Alicia said coolly. "The reason there was only one attempt to grab you is because the people that would want to are in mortal terror of the real Manticore soldiers showing up. They're scared of us, not you."
Heather couldn't remember much about that. She'd been three at the time, but Daniel could remember it real clearly. He said he could remember Mom going off on the guys trying to kidnap them, and that was why he never was disrespectful to her. Daniel said it was the only time he'd ever really seen what a fully trained Manticore could do. Mom could be cool sometimes. This was not one of those times.
She wanted to scream and pitch a fit. It wasn't her fault she had weird genetics. They were the ones who intentionally made her. She stood up with a great deal of dignity and composure. Her chin lifted defiantly. "So I can't go because I can't take care of myself," she said coldly. "I disagree. Excuse me, I have to get ready for school." She turned to leave.
Zack was having a hard time not laughing. That look and attitude was Alicia all over again. Maybe it wasn't training that gave her that coolness. Maybe it was just the way she'd been born. "Heather, wait," he called.
She turned around. Why were they both smiling at her?
"You act like an adult, you'll get treated like an adult," Alicia said firmly. Normally that meant to stop acting like a baby. But, she wasn't this time. She was doing pretty well actually. Her mom was holding something. Heather went to her, and looked at it. It was the permission slip for the trip. Both of them had signed it.
She looked at her parents, her face breaking into a radiant grin. "I can go?" she asked, not really believing it.
"It goes against both of our better judgments," Alicia said, "but since you took this like an adult, we can expect you to behave like one on your trip." Heather squealed and hugged both of them.
"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" she said excitedly. She looked at the paper again. "I promise you I'll be good and everything will be great!"
She didn't notice the look her parents exchanged. She needed some freedom to spread her wings a little. What she didn't know wouldn't hurt her.
