Chapter 9


The girls reappeared in a small clearing of a forest. In the middle of the clearing was an enormous tree. It was so large that if the girls had held hands, and hugged the tree, they would have only reached around about a fourth of it. This was the place where the girls always went when they wanted to escape someone. They had discovered that the tree protected them, so they called her Mother Tree.

Mother Tree had large branches and the girls quickly clambered up into the nooks and crannies that they liked to sit in. As soon as they sat down, the tree's bows closed in around them, successfully hiding them from view.

"Don't anyone say anything mind-to-mind. If we do, the guys will surely hear us and then they will find this place," Kayla warned.

"Um…do you think it is wise to leave Sam in the hands of the guys?" asked Keri.

"I think that Sam can take care of herself," Kayla replied.  When the twins just stared at her she continued, "They can't use any powers because it might make us known to the non-gifted world.  And she has taken self-defense classes.  If anyone needs to be saved, it is Kyle.  She was pretty angry with him.  We will go back.  Let's just give the guys a few minutes to wonder where we are."

They just sat in their hiding spots and relaxed.  It was the one place in their whole world that they could relax and not worry about anything.  It gave them the peace they needed in a hectic world.

After about 10 minutes, Tori asked, "You guys think we let the others worry about us for long enough?  I have the feeling that if we don't go back soon, Jason might worry that something has happened to Kayla and will get frantic and we don't want to know where that could lead…" she said suggestively towards her friend.

With a growl, Kayla launched herself at Tori.  But, before they could get into it too much, Mother Tree reached down 2 branches and grabbed each of them and pulled them apart.  They started to laugh.  When they got their laughs under control, Kayla said, "You do have a point though.  We should go back now.  But we need to be prepared.  As soon as we teleport back, they will sense where we are and find us instantaneously.  So we should have a plan."

"How about we just tell them that we can have or secrets?  We are girls after all," suggested Keri.

"I guess.  They might want more information though."

"Well, they don't need it."

"Alright," Kayla sighed.  "On the count of three.  One…two…THREE!"  They teleported to Jason's house and appeared before 3 startled boys.

As soon as the girls appeared in front of the boys, the basketball fell to the ground unnoticed.  "Did you miss us?" Kayla asked sarcastically.

"Where were you guys?" Jason responded.

"That is for us to know, and you to not find out," Kayla laughed.  "Um…guys…what is Sam doing to Kyle?"

"Oh…they are just talking now.  We just wanted to give them time to clear things up between them without us interfering."

"That was very mature of you."  When Jason and the guys blushed, the girls only laughed.  Linking her arm around Jason's and resting her head on his shoulder, Kayla said, "C'mon, guys.  Let's go see what they are up to."

They walked into the house to hear: "We managed to bring our two best friends together into a couple that is near inseparable."  Kayla and Jason could feel the heat rising to their cheeks.

"Oh, so you admit that you had something to do with it?" Jason asked.  Both Sam and Kyle jumped nearly a foot when they realized that the others had heard them.  But, then they looked at their friends' faces and started to laugh.  Soon everyone was laughing, their tension forgotten about.

The girls decided to stay at Jason's house for a short while.  Jason and Kayla sat on the couch.  Jason had his arm around Kayla's shoulders and her head was resting on his chest.  They looked so comfortable with each other and completely natural.  They didn't even think about what they were doing, they just did it and easy as breathing.  Their friends all looked at them and heaved an inaudible sigh.  They all wished that some day, they might have a relationship like the Kayla and Jason did.

When Kayla started to fall asleep, at around 4:30, the girls decided to leave.  They didn't want Kayla's parents to worry.  As they walked out the door, Kayla laughed as she turned around and said, "You might want to wash your faces."  The guys hadn't noticed what was written on their faces.  They would say it was too dark to see it, the girls said that they were imperceptive, but the truth was that Kayla had done something to the marker so that it wouldn't be visible to the other guys until she said something.

The girls closed the door behind them as 4 bewildered boys looked at each other and read what was written.  They started to laugh really hard as they tried, unsuccessfully, to wash it off.  When it didn't come off, they just gave up and figured that Kayla would tell them eventually how to remove it…