Disclaimer: I still haven't kidnapped Brad Kern and held him for ransom so I could own the show...but I'm getting to it. It's on my to-do list.
"Mm-hm," said Paige nonchalantly. "Why? Interested?" She dropped the papers again to grin at the two of them.
"Um, no." Chris and Wyatt exchanged a glance. "Hey, I think I need to go get something upstairs," Chris lied. "Wyatt, why don't you...um, help me find it?"
"Sure."
The two of them raced back up the stairs. "The name," Chris panted as soon as they slammed the door shut. "That name. I've heard it before. In dreams!"
"Boys, don't slam doors," Leo called from down the stairs.
They froze. "Dad must have orbed into the kitchen," Wyatt guessed. "I've heard the name, too. I'm trying to remember what I was doing in the dream, though. It was really strange."
"I remember. I had a dream about a woman named Bianca last night, actually. I was older. A lot older. I could feel it. And I was in this burning building. She kept telling me to get out, and I said no because of the innocents that—that—were trapped inside. It was the other timeline, Wyatt. You did it." Chris gulped and Wyatt looked down.
"Anyways," Chris continued, before it was too awkward to talk some more, "I think we were in love. Or at least she was in love with me. I was very, very mad in the dream. I kept telling her that she was some kind of a traitor—assassin, that was the work. An assassin that worked for you." Chris looked over at his brother. "Past Wyatt tried to kill past Chris."
"And now the Bianca from this time is coming to Magic School," Wyatt finished. "I wonder..."
"If she remembers too."
"I doubt it," said Wyatt. "I mean, honestly, nobody else in the world but us have these creepy dreams. And that's because we were directly involved."
"Something tells me that Bianca WAS directly involved," Chris mused. "But I don't know. Today's Saturday, right?"
"Yeah. Magic School all day." Wyatt gagged in disgust.
"Then I guess we'll find out." Chris gulped and his stomach did a back flip, suddenly remembering the note that had summoned him to the classroom after the bell rang—WITHOUT Wyatt.
But he'd proved that he could defend himself, right? And if it was Herman, like he suspected, he couldn't really hurt him. The teachers would definitely find out. And he could heal himself, even if it took a little while to kick in.
He told himself not to worry. Everything would be fine.
"Let's go eat breakfast. The sooner the better."
Chris nodded and followed him down the stairs again.
Leo orbed into the kitchen. Paige was reading some papers and Piper was busy cooking pancakes at the stove. He heard footsteps bounding up the stairs and figured it was Chris and Wyatt. It was so sweet that they were already getting along.
"Mm, that smells good," Leo complimented, hovering over Piper's shoulder. He kissed her good morning and looked over to see Paige groan. "What's up?" he asked.
"Paperwork. AGAIN. Another new student! Can you believe it! Her name is—"
SLAM!
"What was that?" asked Piper and Paige at the same time.
Leo shrugged. "Boys, don't slam doors!" he called up.
"Anyways, her name's Bianca."
Piper coughed loudly. "BIANCA? THE PHOENIX GIRL?"
"How'd you know she was a phoenix?" asked Paige, amazed.
"How'd I know?! Paige, don't tell me you forgot. Leo, did you forget? Please tell me you didn't forget."
"Of course not. How could I?" Leo responded. He turned to Paige. "The assassin from the future, the one that was engaged to older Chris. THE ONE THAT TRIED TO KILL HIM."
"Oh yeah!" Paige exclaimed. "But don't worry, she's only eight years old. I highly doubt that she's capable of murder." Piper glared at Paige angrily. Paige held her hands up in defense. "Don't worry, I'll keep an eye on them! All three of them. And Herman." She leaned back on her chair. "You know, both Wyatt and Chris were a little surprised when they heard her name. Do you think...?"
"No. We never mentioned it to them," he reminded her. "We didn't want to complicate anything."
"Right. We'll just pretend like she had no connection to them whatsoever," Piper instructed, flipping pancakes onto a plate and handing it to Leo.
"Right."
There were footsteps coming down the stairs.
"Just in time, boys," Piper greeted them, tossing pancakes onto two plates and handing them to them. "Eat up. Long day at Magic School."
Paige laughed. "Don't scare the kid, it's only two hours," she assured him.
'Two hours before meeting the mysterious note writer. Two minutes before we meet Bianca,' Chris thought.
"I wonder what Bianca will look like," said Wyatt.
Chris looked up, astonished that Wyatt would say that in front of all of these adults. He gave him a glare, but fortunately it seemed that Paige and their parents were too infatuated in their food to notice his remark. But Wyatt didn't even look his way. He was staring at the wall.
"Oh yeah. If she's anything like the girl in those freaky dreams, then we already know what she looks like."
Now Chris was alarmed. How could Wyatt SAY that? Hadn't they agreed not to talk about it to the adults?
And then he gasped. Wyatt's lips hadn't moved. In fact, it was almost as if...
Almost as if he was reading his thoughts.
"Should I tell Paige how bad that lipstick looks on her?" asked Piper. Chris whipped around, but she didn't notice. She was staring at Paige, who was still reading. None of them heard it. None of them but him.
Now he was panicking. Was this...telepathy?
He choked down the pancakes, waiting eagerly for a moment to catch Wyatt alone. Pretty soon the thoughts were beginning to irritate him more than shock.
'I wonder if that shirt is back from the dry cleaner's yet.'
'I'd better make sure none of the elders know that we're hiding Chris.'
'Mmmm, Mom sure makes the best pancakes. I hope she doesn't realize that I stained my shirt with syrup. Uh-oh.'
'I have to ask Paige about Chris' powers. If they're progressing too rapidly...I don't even want to think about that.'
The last was Leo's thought. Chris was glad he'd finished his food, because suddenly he didn't have an appetite. It would be better to keep this power to himself, he decided. Besides, it wasn't like they'd find out...unless...
Phoebe was a telepath!
Oh, no. He'd have to stay away from her. This really sucked. What was it with these powers? Why did they just keep coming? He felt like banging his head on the table, and then he vaguely wondered if doing so would knock the supernatural abilities out of him. This really, really, really sucked. And something told him it wasn't meant to be.
"Oh, you guys are late," said Piper suddenly. "Here, Paige, orb them to Magic School."
"And Paige?" asked Leo, giving her a look. 'I hope she remembers she promised to talk to me about Chris' powers,' Chris heard his father think.
"I know, I know," she said, rolling her eyes. 'I almost don't want to tell him.'
"Why?" Chris asked her. He blushed. "I mean, what time is it? I thought we, errr, got up earlier today," he lied.
Paige frowned, looking at the oven clock. "Quarter to nine. We're on time, Mrs. Paranoid," she joked.
"Hey! That would make me—"
"Mr. Paranoid," said Paige to Leo, grinning. "See ya!"
Once again, they orbed right into the classroom. Today there was an extra chair in the semi-circle, and a girl with tanned skin, long black hair, and big brown eyes sat in it.
'Bianca,' Wyatt thought. Chris, annoyingly enough, picked that up, too. 'That must be Bianca! We have to talk to her before class starts—'
"No," Chris said suddenly. Oops. He did it again. Man, did telepathy cause complications. "I mean, I know you're probably thinking of talking to her, but maybe we should wait. It's her first day. If we go up to her now, she'll probably think we're beyond creepy."
"Yeah, you're right. After class, then? We've got some time."
Chris gulped. "No, I, er, have to do something after class."
Wyatt cocked an eyebrow. "And that would be...?"
"I think I—"
Chris was spared the difficulty of coming up with an excuse, because right at that very moment, the girl got up from her seat and approached them. Her eyes locked with Chris' and they both gasped, taking a step back.
"I'm sorry," she said, "but do I know you? You look familiar."
"You're Bianca!" Chris blurted. He felt his cheeks turn red again.
"How'd you know?" she asked, narrowing her eyes at him. "Oh. You're related to the teacher, right? And your name is—let me think. I know this. It's...hard to remember...Chris! That's your name, right? Chris and...Wyatt." Her voice dropped low at the last word.
"Yeah!" Chris said excitedly. "But we know you, too. It's complicated."
Bianca checked the clock. "We've got time."
"Okay..." Chris began. "Do you have weird dreams?" He braced himself for some sarcastic response like, "Yeah, right. Are you on medication?" but it didn't come.
'How does he know that I have weird dreams?' he heard he think in a panic. 'Maybe he has them, too. The ones where I'm an evil assassin. I see them both...but Wyatt's...EVIL. What's he doing here?'
"Wyatt isn't evil in this time," Chris insisted, much to Wyatt's and Bianca's surprise. He sighed. "There's one dream I have that we're both in the attic of the Halliwell manor, hovering over a book. I say a spell and go through a portal, but a demon attacks you. You tell me that you can fend him off and that I had to go and save the future."
"Yeah, I've had that dream..." she said skeptically.
"Well, the Chris in that time really did save the future. And in doing that, he assured that Wyatt wasn't evil." He couldn't help but think, 'But did it make ME evil? I hate all of these powers!'
"That's good. Sorry if I..." She looked over to Wyatt apologetically. "Heh. It's just, in these weird dreams, you kinda..." She winced. "Killed me."
Wyatt looked down at the floor. "I know."
"Okay class, everyone to your seats. Today's lesson includes writing aspects of magic, including spell-making and adding subjects to your Book of Shadows or Grimoire."
The lesson was long and everything seemed to slip through one ear and out the other. He was lost in thought. Last week had been so simple: wake up, do chores, play outside, eat three meals and go to sleep. In fact, back then, the worst thing that ever happened was getting a scrape on the knee or lost in the woods, or being bummed when it started to rain. And now there were bounty hunters and elders and bullies and strange dream girls and too many powers and...
It wasn't until Paige started handing out rhyming dictionaries that he finally snapped back into reality. He felt like he was being watched, so he looked up and met the eyes of the telepath.
He twitched. Why hadn't he thought to scramble his thoughts? Would Phil be weird enough to barge in on his personal business?
He sighed. In the magic world, you weren't even safe inside your mind. Then he quickly scrambled the thoughts in his brain so they were unreadable.
"Everybody have a dictionary? Good. Alright, now we're going to split into partners and come up with a spell."
"What kind of a spell?" asked a particularly obnoxious kid in the front of the room.
"A spell for anything you like. It won't work inside these walls, of course, because it's protected against it. And remember—you have to give me the spell before you leave the room. We can have you using them for personal gain, now, can we?" She laughed, expecting the children to join in, then gave up and rolled her eyes. "Such enthusiasm," she muttered.
Chris and Wyatt glanced at each other, signaling that they wanted to partner up. (Duh.)
Paige came up to them, Bianca in tow. "Hey boys, how about you partner up with Bianca?" she said pleasantly. 'Man, Piper will kill me if she ever finds out I partnered them all up. The villain, the hero, and the assassin. But that's over. Besides, I couldn't partner her with anyone else...' she thought.
Apparently Phil, who was staring intently at Paige, had been picking up the thoughts as well. He looked over at Chris and mouthed the word, 'Assassin?'
Chris looked away from him. "Okay," Chris replied to Paige, giving Bianca a smile that he hoped didn't falter because of his nervousness.
Today could only get weirder.
Okay, sorry for those of you that thought this chapter sucked. That's too bad! I was writing really fast and I have no time—I gotta go. But now that A Look into the Future is finished, I can update this more often. I have many evil plans to sort out in this story...mwahaha!
Oh, and Tigerdrake? If you don't like it, don't read it.
--Pink-Charmed-One--
