A/N: This chapter may seem floofy and extraneous, but, trust me, it is important. It will become apparent later, though…
Chapter 5
"C'mon, Kayla!" shouted Tori. "We are gonna be late for tryouts!"
"I'm coming! I'm coming!" she yelled in reply. Kayla could hardly believe that she had already been at school for nearly two months. She could hardly remember a time when she wasn't using her powers or hanging out with her fellow musketeers, as even they had begun calling themselves. They even started using 'one for all and all for one!' as their motto.
Kayla left the locker room, carrying the broom she would be using for tryouts. She decided that she would like to be seeker or keeper, but if she even made the team, she would count herself lucky. She was nervous, but Jason and the others said she was a natural and was sure to get a place on the team.
The girls joined Jake, James and Jason in the stands, waiting for the coach. As they sat down Coach MacMahan walked up and started talking to the twenty some students who showed up for tryouts. "Hello, everyone. I would like to personally thank all of you for coming today and would like to explain to all of you exactly what we are doing today. There are 24 of you here, and I can only accept 14; one player and reserve for each position. Now, how we are going to do this is as follows. I will divide you into 2 teams of 12. You will all get a chance to play each position for 10 minutes. I will post the team list tomorrow before school starts outside of room 149."
The musketeers were all placed on a team together. Kayla was to play seeker first, then chase, then keeper, and finally beater. She mounted her broom and kicked off into the air at the sound of Coach MacMahan's whistle. She whizzed through the air like lightning feeling the familiar thump of her heart as she flew over the stadium, looking for the snitch.
Kayla was so focused she never noticed what her friends were doing. And, then, she saw it. Hovering a foot from the ground was the golden snitch. She leaned the handle of her broom down and zoomed towards the grass. She dodged bludgers and finally, she stretched out her arm, and firmly caught the snitch in her hand.
The stadium erupted wit cheers. Everyone had stopped what he or she was doing the moment Kayla had begun her dive in order to see what she did. "Okay, everyone, SWITCH!" the coach yelled even though it had only been 5 minutes. Kayla spent the next 30 minutes, or so playing the other positions. She thought she did pretty well and couldn't wait to see if she made the team.
* * * * * *
The next morning, the bus was really quiet, as the musketeers were all worried about making the team. After they went to their lockers, the six friends dropped their stuff off in their english/telepathy class and then all but ran to room 149 to see the team roster.
They weren't the only ones. There was a large crowd around the door, and many people were walking away upset.
The musketeers pushed to the front to see the list. It read as follows: (player, reserve)
Seeker: Kayla O., Josh B.
Keeper: Rachel M., Krystal L.
Beater: Tori R., Billy J.
Beater: Keri R., Kenny C.
Chaser: Jason C., Lisa M.
Chaser: James C., Sara G.
Chaser: Jacob R., Ali T.
The Musketeers stared at the postings in amazement, for all of 5 seconds, and then began to shout, "We made it! We made it!" to the annoyance of everyone else.
* * * * * *
The next couple of weeks were completely hectic for the six friends. Between their developing powers, schoolwork, and Quidditch practice, they had very little spare time. It turned out, that although she was seeker, Kayla was training, for the most part, with the keeper. This was supposed to help her improve her ability to catch small objects and to gain speed and endurance.
Every spare moment they had, the group of friends put into practicing. They became very good, and after seeing how devoted they were to the sport, the older students stopped griping that so many freshmen made the team.
On top of all of this excitement, Kayla had something else to worry about. Or, rather, someone. Lately she had been receiving warnings in the form of notes in her books. She told no one about these. Not Hope, not even Jason. She wasn't sure whom she could trust. She planned on keeping it a secret unless someone noticed something. No sense in involving anyone else in her problems.
However, although her intentions were good, they were not meant to be.
It was after a particularly strenuous practice when Kayla walked into the locker rooms. It was after she changed when she opened her locker to get her stuff. A piece of paper fell out. It was exactly like all of the others she had received: white paper with tiny, neat black wording.
"Beware, Girl," it read. "You will not defeat me. You cannot defeat me. You will lose. You will die." This was the 10th such note, and Kayla couldn't take it anymore. She started to tremble and then she collapsed on the bench and cried. Even though she was the only girl there, she tried to stifle her sobs because Jason was waiting for her and she didn't want him to hear her.
Unfortunately, for her, Jason's voice could be heard shouting through the door, "Kayla, can I come in?"
She quickly dried her tears and splashed cold water on her face in the hopes that Jason wouldn't notice. "Sure, come on it."
Jason walked through the door, took one look at Kayla, and knew something was up. Kayla looked entirely too cheerful. He knew she was under a lot of stress lately, and he wanted to find out why. He had known her since they were little, and so he knew all of her moods. He could tell she was upset, but he must tread carefully if she was going to tell him, or, for that matter, let him live.
"Kayla, are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. In fact, I've never been better."
"Its not nice to lie to your best friend," he said quietly and without any hint of a joke. "Kayla, you can lie to your parents, the girls, Jake and James, and even to yourself, but not to me. I can sense it a mile away, so, don't even try. So, care to tell me what is wrong?" He looked into her eyes and wished that she would drop the impenetrable shield around her thoughts.
As she looked into his gorgeous eyes, Kayla had to fight the urge to tell him everything. "I can't," she muttered. "Can we just go? I want to go home." She started to walk around him. But, before she could evade him, he reached out and caught her arm.
He moved his hands to her shoulders, putting himself between her and the door. "We are not leaving until you tell me, Kayla," he growled and shook her. "You know I am stronger than you physically, and this room is guarded against powers so no one can pull any pranks." She just stared defiantly into his eyes. "Dammit, Kayla! I want to help you, but I can't if you won't let me in! You have just got to trust me!" His voice had risen to a yell and his eyes glinted dangerously.
Kayla suddenly fell to the floor and started t sob. Jason knelt next to her and just held onto her until she stopped crying; all the while saying that he was sorry. "Its not you, Jason," Kayla finally managed to stutter. "I guess I should trust someone. And since I would trust you about everything else, I might as well tell you." She told him what Hope had told her. She even told him about the threat notes.
When she finally finished, she collapsed into Jason, sobbing, her face pressed up against his chest. She could feel every beat his heart took, and she suddenly got very hot. After a few minutes, Jason pushed her off of him and cupped her face in his hands.
"I won't let anything happen to you, Kayla," he whispered, "I promise." And, then, before he could stop himself, he leaned down, and kissed her lightly on the lips. When she didn't pull away, he grew slightly braver and kissed her again with slightly more passion. He then looked down at her and blushed. "You do not know how long I have wanted to do that for."
"If it is anywhere near as long as I've wanted to do that for, I think I know." Suddenly, Kayla started to laugh. Jason just gave her a look that clearly imparted his fear for her sanity. "Do you know how long Kyle and Sam have been trying to hook us up? I think they were betting on sometime in October. And here we are, end of November, and we only just now realized how we truly felt about each other."
Jason suddenly realized what was so funny. "Not to mention Aries, Jake, and the girls. It seemed that everyone knew how we felt except us."
"Hmmm. Yeah," Kayla said as she held him tighter to herself.
"C'mon, let's go. I'll get you home safely." They had recently learned how to teleport and were supposed to be practicing as much as they could, so they teleported to Kayla's house. Jason kissed Kayla again and then teleported to his house.
Kayla was so happy. She ran inside and up to her room and immediately called Sam, who she hadn't talked to in a few weeks.