Disclaimer: I do not own beyblade. Kirby Nicole Preston-Lee, Alyssa Helen Preston Lee, and Julia Anne Preston-Lee all belong to me. Amber Marie Benson and the Benson family belong to Zadien. Shahero Kaeto and Hiroshi Kaeto belong to Coors. Miyami Kinomiya belongs to Unlucky-Star.
Summary: My life's always gone pretty well. I'm the youngest in a family of all girls so I've never gone through anything first in my life. Someone has always been there to offer advice because they've done everything before me. But now my boyfriends half brother has shown up. He's corrupted my cousin Amber with this whole wicca thing, and he makes me feel edgy. Something's coming to Bakuten and for the first time in my life, I'm scared. No one can give me advice on what's going to happen, I'm in this on my own.
A.N. By all means, ignore my other fics. I wrote them hastily without a proper plot and Kirby wasn't herself but another version of Amber. That's not going to get me brownie points on this site. I want people to like Kirby for who she is. Yes she will be like Amber, she's looked up to her cousin for most of her life, but Kirby is a different person with different beliefs. This fic looks promising, Zadien's been working on it with me for which I'm really grateful. Hopefully it won't be too much like any other fics on this site, it will be like Zadien's I suppose because I've been really influenced by her writing, and also it'll also have some similarities to the amazing series called Wicca or Sweep by Cate Tiernan, a great group of books, but I'll hopefully put my stamp on it and keep it from being too much like the stories by those two fantastic writers.
So here we go:
Chapter One: Family
September 1987
She comes. I sense it on the wind. I have tried so many times to hide from her but always she finds me. Scrying tells me nothing about my daughter or how she will survive. I know she will be safe, safe without any knowledge of her heritage, of what flows through her blood. Sometimes I dream that she will find out about her life, I hope that will never happen, yet I yearn for it. I want her to know the joys and the woes of magick. But she won't. Wicca is dying, no one believes any more, but I have a feeling that in time they will all feel the power of what they spent so much time denying. I hope for their sake that they are able to save themselves. The darkness is rising. I have sent my daughter to a family who will raise her right, there is such power in their love for each other, I have witnessed it. She will not be alone and she will be loved. I cannot ask for anything more. I must go now, for she is here. I will meet my fate, but I will not go without a fight.
September 2004
Family is an extremely important thing. Society pounds that into our heads from a very early age. It's a social norm. You see them on the TV, read about them in books and see examples of them around you. The family nucleus is formed by your parents and your siblings, should you have any, and the outer ring is your immediate family, those who share your blood. There are so many forms of family's, the norm is a mother, father and 2.4 children. What does the .4 stand for anyway? But there are other types, you have single parent families, step-families, adopted families. They say blood is thicker than water, but it's not true though. It's love. Love is what will always pull you through.
My family is the perfect example. They're the perfect family, I suppose. Very Walton-ish. We're not all blood related but we love each other.
I was thinking this as I sat in the den of my Uncle Seth's home in Bakuten. My cousin Daichi was sprawled over the sofa, my sister Alyssa was lying on the floor, filling in some paper on something or other, while periodically glancing up at the screen. Daichi's half brother Ozuma was talking on the phone to his girlfriend while shovelling popcorn into his mouth and making random gestures at the TV. My Uncle Seth, Daichi's biological father and Ozuma's step-father was exchanging heated opinions with his youngest son and when he didn't win he settled for kicking him lightly with his foot. My Uncle James, Seth's brother was looking over some of his legal papers, but he stopped to sip his beer or curse the referee which would make Seth laugh. In the distance, in other words the kitchen, my mother, and her sister-in-law Aubrey (Seth's wife) were talking over coffee after having served us our Sunday meal. My aunt Treasa (James ex-wife) had left earlier to go to the hospital. She's a nurse and is doing the night shift tonight.
As I said, my family's the perfect example of how blood don't mean dick. I'm not blood related to anyone in this room. I'm adopted, as is Alyssa. But it doesn't matter because we got adopted into this real odd but amazingly great family. The Benson's are unlike any other family I've ever encountered. Some people find them unbelievable. But they're not. Because they're sitting right in front of me, complaining about the call the referee just made. I can't resent being adopted, I actually think my birth mother gave me the greatest gift ever by losing me. Not everyone can say that, but these people made me who I am today. I can't resent that.
"Bullshit!"
"Daichi!" Seth winced, scratching his jaw and casting a glance towards the kitchen in case his wife heard. Aubrey frowns on cursing, as does Treasa and they'll cuff you if you do it in their presence. I don't know how Amber gets through each day, she single handedly curses more times than anyone else I know. Her mother's hand must get sore.
"What? It was complete bullshit, he wasn't off-side."
"Fair point." Ozuma agreed. "What did she say to that?"
"Who?" Daichi demanded squinting at the screen. "Is that a 3 or 2?"
"What?"
I giggled at the two boys. Ozuma was talking to Sonia his girlfriend so he wasn't paying much attention to Daichi and Daichi didn't even realise Ozuma was on the phone. It was amusing. "It's a 3, Henderson got that goal before the buzzer, they couldn't discount it."
"Good man, Henderson!"
"Ah Jeez!" Seth cursed throwing his hands into the air. "What? Is that ref. blind?"
"He's must be colour blind!" James shouted. "Stupid fucker!"
"James!"
"Sorry Anne."
Yeah this is my family on a typical Sunday afternoon. After church everyone heads round to Aubrey's and we get our Sunday dinner then we collapse in the den and throw obscenities at whoever's on the T.V. It's great. Though recently, Amber, my older cousin, hasn't been coming to church preferring to hang out somewhere else with her friends. I think she goes to the Friars Rest, the local diner, to do her homework with her friends, the alluringly captivating Miyami Kinomiya and the Scottish rebel with the musical brogue Johnny McGregor who are dating. But she comes for the dinner after wards though. At the moment she was outside with her boyfriend Kai Hiwatari. He's been away for the past two weeks on holiday so she wanted some time with him. No doubt she'll come in looking dazed and satisfied after a good bout of groping in a little while. Which will be nice to see. Kai's good for her, but it took her ages to realise that. He's an extended member of our family, the Hiwatari's were adopted into the Benson's when Nicolai and James became conjoined twins, or so Nana Benson tells it. Kai is James' and Treasas' god son and Amber is Nicolais' and Jeans' god daughter.
I told you my family's odd.
"Kirbaby what's the score now?"
I winced at the childish nickname. Amber was the baby brat, then I came along being younger still and they changed my name from Kirby to Kirbaby and now they can't actually call me by my given name anymore. Sometimes I wonder what my birth mother would have called me, and then again, other times I don't care. I'm Kirby Nicole Preston-Lee, daughter of Mary-Anne Preston-Lee (née Benson) and Crane Preston-Lee of the New York Prestons' and the Yorkshire Lee's. Which means he's big money, though I get a piss poor allowance.
"I don't know Zum-Zum. Oh say hello to Sons for me."
Ozuma cast me a look of disdain for the childish nickname I came up with when I couldn't pronounce his name properly. Ozuma isn't incredibly gorgeous as some of the guys I know are, but it's his eyes that catch you. That and his hair. His hair is a charcoal black with a vibrant streak of red which relieves the dull shade and catches peoples' eyes. His eyes are a jade green which can pierce you when he knows you're up to something. Ozuma's very responsible and takes things very seriously at times, sometimes he takes himself too seriously. It's to do with his Dad I guess and to keep a reign on his chaotic baby brother. But I've looked up to Ozuma as an older brother figure, since I was very young when Daichi and I played, Ozuma would take care of us being a year older, so much more mature.
"Sons says hi."
"Ozuma, you'll see the girl tomorrow." Seth said with a roll of his green eyes flecked with amber.
"That's hours away, Seth, what are you thinking? Besides I remember you phoning your girlfriends all the time, even an hour after seeing them."
"At least I was phoning my girlfriends, you were always on the phone to Nicky, Nana was beginning to worry about you."
I snickered; I couldn't help it. Watching Seth and James rib each other was funny to me, but still it was weird to think of them being young like Daichi and Ozuma. You just believe that grown ups were born grown up. Nana laughed when I said that to her. Nana Molly, she's an amazing woman. A matriarch. She raised her five children single handed when her husband William-James Benson died. She still runs the farm back in Ireland, even though most of her family fled to Bakuten. Rory still lives there and Ciara moved back to Ireland after her marriage broke up leaving her son Bryan with Treasa.
There's always been a Benson in Bakuten, well apart from William-James, he grew up here, but then he left on a trip to his homeland and met Molly, fell in love and raised a family there on the farm, but his children all came back to Bakuten. Supposedly some of our ancestors were the first Irish settlers on this little town tucked into the coast of America. That's kind of cool. Amber once said that it was a haven for different cultures and races, she's right. No where else would you find such an eclectic mix of different races. You have loads of Russian, Japanese, Chinese, some Scottish, French, German, Italian, Spanish and so on and so on. There are Americans' of course, other wise it would just be very weird.
"Dammit!" Daichi yelled and got swatted by Seth. "Aw come off it, that was a dive!"
"Ah for crying out loud!" James snarled as we watched our enforcer being frog marched into the penalty box, two minutes for hooking when it was an obvious dive.
"Kai, honey, do you want tea?"
I glanced up as Aubrey's voice floated through the arch way opening. Kai refused it and entered the den, casting a glance of greeting to everyone in the room, before taking a seat and his eyes were glued to the screen. How to describe Kai? Well he's gorgeous, and very intense at times, I feel. He keeps a tight reign on Amber, but he can enjoy her childish nature too. His eyes are a dark pools of mahogany and since Amber has a thing for brown eyes, that's a good thing. His has two toned blue hair, powder blue and a shade lighter then navy but darker than royal blue. His skin is beige, Japanese skin lightened by his father's Russian blood. He's tall around 6ft maybe an inch or so shorter, which is handy for Amber's 5ft 3" height. He has a nice build too, not too well built that he could steam roll you easily, but he's got good shoulders and most of his height is made up of leg.
"Who's in the penalty box?"
"Beauford, got done for hooking. Cheap dive, the ref's biased." Daichi answered Kai without looking away from the TV.
"Daichi in every game you watch the ref. is biased."
"Alyssa, you're never there for every game I watch."
"Ah, but I am and Lyss speaks the truth." I answered with a mocking grin.
"Hey-"
"Ssh!" Seth snapped irritated as Amber walked in blowing on her mug of tea before sipping delicately on it. She shot Seth a glare before taking a seat on the sofa with me. She held her mug letting it warm her hands. There's something about tea that is very comforting. There seems to be a reason why everyone keeps offering you tea when you have a shock or anything else. I think there's a possibility that we get addicted. I once heard Seth complaining about the electricity being off and that he wouldn't be able to get himself a nice cup of tea and when the power comes back on, the first thing everyone does is make a nice cup of tea. It's amusing, but I'm the same.
"Guess who I just saw." Amber suddenly spoke in a stage whisper.
Ozuma leaned over towards her, now finished with his phone call. "Who?"
"Guess."
"Mikel Davidoff." Kai answered in a monotone earning a searing look from his girlfriend.
"Oh yeah." I looked over to where Daichi rolled lazily on to his back to look at us. "He emailed me to say he was back in the country."
I looked up surprised. Last I heard Mikel had still been in London I didn't even know he and Daichi still kept in touch, but obviously they did. The Davidoff's had always lived next-door to Daichi and since Mikel was only a year older, he and Daichi had formed a tight friendship. I only knew Mikel through his association to my cousin. But still I wondered why Foxy hadn't told me.
James Fox, my boyfriend, is Mikel's half brother. They share the same father and the same colouring, though Foxy's more vivid and striking. They've never got along, in fact they despise each other and don't hide it. I can understand Foxy's hatred for Mikel after all, his father left him and his mother and had Mikel. He has every right to be resentful. But Mikel just envies Foxy.
I wonder if Foxy knows his brother's back from London. Mikel went to England about 5 years ago and idly I wondered how much he changed before I immediately dismissed it. I was with Foxy and me and Mikel had never really been friends. He'd always made me uneasy.
"So how does he look?" Alyssa wondered.
Amber thought for a moment before answering. "Good. Really gorgeous but not in the obvious way Foxy or Tala are but you can see they're related, that's how I could tell it was him. And he has the cultured, cool accent as well. Not the cockney one, but the one the boys from Eton have."
I rolled my eyes. "He didn't go to Eton." At least I was pretty sure he didn't.
Amber glowered. "I didn't say he did. I was using that as an example, I could have also said, like the guys from Oxford or Cambridge have."
Alyssa sighed "God that accent's incredibly sexy."
"Mmm-Hmm."
"Benson, do I have to remind you whose girlfriend you are?"
Amber rolled her beautiful ochre eyes. "I was just saying. You should go to England and get the accent."
Kai snorted and I had to agree with him.
"The accent would make him sound pompous."
Amber looked at me coolly and I fought the urge to fidget. When she looks at Kai in that way, how does he not confess all his secrets? Instead I looked away.
"Well it would." I grumbled.
"It doesn't. It suits him. Look Kirby, I know you-"
"Whoo! Oh yeah! He slap shot that sucker!" Daichi leapt to his feet and initiated a little boogie in front of the TV as Seth yelled at him to sit his fat ass down.
"What happened? Huh?" Amber looked from Kai to Ozuma who shrugged and with an exaggerated sigh he got to his feet and left the room.
"We scored and we got a 2 minute power play before it ends."
"It's all ready over." Daichi sang, then jerked digging his phone out. "Oh, I'm vibrating."
"Why does everyone feel they have to announce that?" Amber demanded.
Kai shrugged. "Your family tells each other everything."
I caught the way Amber fell silent. It made me wonder what that was about. Silently I studied my cousin. Amber doesn't see herself the way others do. Her skin is that gold of Spain, still smooth and fresh from youth with a faint flush from her meeting with Kai. Her mouth is small but full and often gets her in trouble. There's an old Irish saying that 'It is often a man's mouth broke his nose.' That's a good saying for Amber. Her eyes are long, heavily lashed and are a beautiful ochre colour that seems to have a light of their own. Her gypsy looks are hardened by the sharp Celtic angular features.
Next to Amber's exotic fairy looks, I feel like a freak, not frumpy and plain like I do next to my best friend Miriam, or Amber's best friend Miyami Kinomiya. My hair is jaggedly cut just lower than my jaw. It's black with an equal amount of deep dark teal green streaks with electric blue glints when the light catches it. Most of the time it just looks black thankfully. My eyes on the other hand are garnet, a deep cherry red colour that changes shades with my moods. My skin tone is peaches and cream, more peaches due to the amount of time I spent out in the sun, though I'm pale compared to Foxy's Californian tan. My features aren't as sharp as Amber's and I still have some of my baby fat in my face so it's roundish. Apart from my eyes, there isn't much else noticeable about me. I'm not tall which bugs me, I'm roughly 5ft 2", maybe a little less. I'm not skinny, just not curvy either. I have no hips but I do have breasts. I realised that when my male friends couldn't look at my face for a couple of days after the start of eighth grade.
"Hey Kirbaby, do you want me to walk you to school tomorrow?"
I snapped my gaze away from Amber, to Daichi. "Yup sure."
"Me, Ty and Hero'll meet y'all in the park."
At this, Kai looked at Amber. "You'll never be up on time, I'll drive you."
Amber smiled. "Aww, isn't he sweet? Letting me sleep in."
I chuckled. Depends where she'll be sleeping. Oh Dammit. "Um, Foxy might be driving me to school."
Daichi scowled, his fascinating forest green eyes flared. "You always walk with us."
His milky white skin flushed under his light sprinkling of freckles giving him a boyish charm. His short red hair stood up in restless spike. Recently he's begun to grow into his body so his arms and legs don't look long and gangly anymore. He looks good, and a good amount of the female student body agrees with me.
"Well I wasn't always dating Foxy." I pointed out with what I believed was admirable patience.
"You've blown me, Ty and Joe off loads of times this summer for Fox, and Miriam says you've also blown off her."
I winced. He was right, I had. Him pointing it out made me feel small. "I'm sorry."
"Look." Alyssa began calmly while the other continued watching the game tuning our regular argument out. "This is Kirby's first serious boyfriend. You're all important to her. It's just going to take a while for her to adjust her life to fit you all in."
I looked at Lyss and smiled in gratitude. Lyss looks completely different from me and she reminds me of a rabbit, though I don't know why. She has pale pink almost white hair which falls below her waist. Her longish thick bangs fall into her Siberian blue eyes. Her skin is very pale cream, flawless and clear. She is all and has a model figure. Everything about her exudes quiet, tranquil strength and intelligence. She's beautiful because she's kind, generous and wants to help everyone. I love her very much even though she'd not my blood sister.
My sister Julia on the other hand is bold opinionated and strong willed. She's the eldest and has always looked after us. Though me and her fought a regularly about everything, I still love her dearly. She's maybe an inch shorter than Lyss, though her figures about the same. Her brown hair is long and her bangs stop just above her bi-colour eyes, one green, and one blue. I always wanted her eyes and hair as a child. I even once tried to die my hair because she told me to do it. We got in so much trouble for that.
I miss her every day.
Last month she found out she was pregnant and due to pressure from the father and Dad, she ran away. I'm pretty sure she's with Nana Molly in Ireland; she just hasn't got in contact yet.
"You should be more supportive, DC. You've blown Kirby off plenty of times when you have a girlfriend."
Daichi just pouted knowing Amber was right. I doubt the fact that I had a boyfriend bothered Daichi; it's just that he doesn't like Foxy. I guess if your Mikel's friend then you can't like Foxy and vice versa.
"Sorry Kirbaby."
I smiled wryly at him. Technically I am in the wrong, I shouldn't blow off an age old tradition just because I have a boyfriend. Family's more important, right? "It's ok D.C. If you come over around eight, I should be up and ready. Besides I'm sure Foxy won't mind." But even as I said that, I wondered if he would.
I turned back to the game and noticed that the opposition was on a breakaway; racing towards our nets as our defence lay on the ice.
"Oh shit! Get up! Get up!"
Seth was gripping the seat so tight his knuckles were white. James had lost interest in his work. Amber was on the edge of her seat gripping Kai's outstretched hand while Lyss was on her knees beside Daichi clutching his hand.
"Where's our defence?" Ozuma yelled from out in the hall.
"Asleep on the job!" Amber shouted back.
"Come on, come on, dammit!"
"Seth!"
"Not now Aubrey!"
"Oh please don't let them score!" Amber pleaded.
I wanted to cover my eyes as the stick whipped back then surged forward, it struck the puck and sent it sailing through the air so fast it was just a black blur. Oh God, Oh god, oh please. The goalie dived, then there was an eerie silence as though time had stopped.
"Did he get it?" Amber whispered.
"I don't know." Kai replied absently stroking her hand. "I think so."
"I don't hear any siren." Seth murmured slowly beginning to perk up.
"No me neither." Ozuma added appearing in the door way.
Suddenly the buzzer sounded ending the game.
"Yes!"
I listened to the roars and cheers and laughed with my family. I jolted as my phone rang. Punching the green button, I didn't look at ID screen.
"Hello?"
"Losers! Losers! Oh yeah, we rocked! Were you watching?"
"'Lo, Dunga! It was awesome. Did you see that save? Totally bitching! They have such a great chance this year, I can't wait for the next match. Maybe this year they'll reach the play-offs. If they do, I'm totally going to it."
"Cool!" In the background I could here Joseph Magee, one of my other close friends jeering the losing team. "I can't wait to get our team together again. I'm so psyched!"
I laughed rolling my eyes at his enthusiasm. Dunga Rong is always psyched. He's our teams best enforcer. He's tall and bulky with longish straw blond hair always shoved under his black beanie making his hair paler. He has always been taller and wider than me, so I adopted him as my body guard. I don't know why people think just because he's blond and likes to talk like a surfer, that he's not smart. There's a lot of intelligence in those jade green eyes and that tough weather beaten face. His nose is crooked from when he and Spencer Kaminov got in a fight at a hockey match when they were 10 and 11, respectively. Dunga got a broken nose and Spencer had to get stitches, I don't know how worse it would have been if my cousin Bryan and Steve Martini, Sonia's brother hadn't intervened.
"Just try not get into too much trouble, ok?"
"Trouble? I don't know the meaning of the word."
In the background I heard Joseph saying he didn't doubt that. I laughed and felt a flutter of excitement of being with my friends again after a relatively boring summer.
"Put Kirbs on Sp."
After a click I found myself on speaker phone talking to Joe and Dunga. Joe and I have been friends a very long time. We once dated for a short time when we were 14 but it was a mistake. We'd just hit puberty and hormones were flying everywhere. We'd just got confused. We're still close though, it didn't affect our friendship luckily. At one stage Joe and I were around the same height and then he got this real sudden growth spurt which left him looking awkward. But he's really grown into himself now and he keeps his figure by boxing and playing hockey. His forest green hair is thick and stuck up every where as though he constantly has bed hair. His eyes are the same shade of green as his twin sister Miriam.
"You got everything ready for tomorrow Kirbs?"
"Yeah I'm looking forward to practice but I'll be damned if I'm ready for classes."
"What classes are you taking?"
"Uh..." I trailed off trying to remember what classes I wanted to take. "Science and History, Ams said European history is really interesting."
Amber looked over hearing her name and nodded. "It is if you have Mr. Shallow."
"Hope I get him then." I murmured then turned my attention back to my friends. "Probably Drama and CW."
"What about Law?" Joe asked probably because that was what he would take along with computers, mechanical engineering and a language.
"Nope, not with Doherty taking it, he really had it in for me. I'm not going near him again."
"Bastard." Joe growled.
"What Science Kir?"
"Biology, I've been banned form the Chem. lab after squirting a corrosive liquid which I had believed was water at Kevin by accident and I almost took out Jim's eye."
"Yeah it would be better to keep you away from the Chem. lab." Joe joked.
I didn't think it was funny. Had it been Queen then yeah, I would have locked my socks off, but it liked Kevin and admired Jim's mind; not his personality at times. I wouldn't feel good hurting them.
"Hey you meeting us at you usual place?"
"By the fountain? Yeah sure. I'll see you guys later; Mom's motioning for me to hurry up. She wants to go home." I watched as Mum rolled her blue eyes and mouthed at me to hurry up. Alyssa was pulling her tail of pale hair out of the collar of her deep blue coat. Daichi was up in the kitchen whining for Aubrey to get him something.
"Ok Kirbaby, I'll talk to you later."
"Ok bye guys."
"Bye."
I hung up and shoved my cell into my pocket. I got to my feet, kissed Uncle Seth and James good bye, hugged Ozuma before heading out into the hall.
"Daichi I'm going!" I called out.
"Oh ok." he came out into the hall and gave me a hug. I hugged him back then let him loose on Alyssa.
"Amber do you want a lift to yours?" Mom offered.
"Nah, Kai brought his car." My cousin explained, running a hand through her hair and frowning at her two year old worn sneakers. (A.N. The real ones are four years old, I think we should wish them a happy birthday or give Gems some money to buy new ones. Lol)
She leaned back and pulled her lover's arms around her. Watching them made me ache for Foxy. With Kai living next door to her, she was practically living with him. But I had to wait to see Foxy. Thank god school starts tomorrow.
"You behave yourself then, sweetheart." Mom mock scolded hugging Amber, then kissing Kai's cheek.
"But of course."
Ar ndoigh. I thought, then shook my head. Where the hell did that come from? And what did it mean. Ar ndoigh. Sounded foreign, odd. I looked up and realised that Amber was looking at me. Shaking my head strangely embarrassed, I opened the front door. "Thanks Aubby. That meal was so good, I don't think I'll be able to eat the slop mom feed us."
I laughed and darted out the door before Mom could clip my ear. I stopped down the path and breathed deeply. Something made the air thick and heavy, odd.
Sighing I glanced around me. The sky was blue, the clouds stained with a soft orange from the brilliant glowing rays of the setting sun. I love this neighbourhood. The avenue's gorgeous in Autumn, when the tree's lining the pavement are turning gold and rusty red. The trim green lawns are all perfectly manicured. It's like Pleasantville, everyone does everything around the same time every day and then Seth moves in and starts dismantling his car and engines on the drive. Then Ozuma and Daichi start water balloon fights or through snowballs at unsuspecting victims as they pass below. It's great. There are so many different sides to Bakuten, but for the most part it's a pretty cool place to live. I felt a chill run down my spin and shivered.
"Ooh."
"What?"
I jumped the height of myself and whirled to find Amber and Kai behind me. Kai being the one who had spoke since Amber was scanning the area, her brow furrowed.
"Oh nothing. Someone just walked over my grave."
Kai quirked a slate blue brow and the blue stud in his right lobe winked in the burning light.
"She means she got a shiver down her spine." Amber replied distractedly. She looked as though she was waiting for something, her eyes narrowed and staring off into space.
"You ok?" I wondered.
She snapped her gaze to me and blinked. It was like watching a puppet come to life in front of me, the life just sprang back into her eyes. "Um, yeah, I just feel weird."
"Something wrong?" Kai asked noting where her hand rested below her stomach. Without a word he placed his hand below hers and rubbed in a slow deliberate circles but Amber remained tense and frowning.
I felt a prickle on my neck and glancing over my shoulder I caught a movement of a curtain in one of the upstairs windows next door. Mikel? I thought the name, then frowned. Suddenly the air eased and Amber let out a long slow breath.
"Amber?"
"Nothing. Kirby you ok?"
"Oh yeah. Just caught someone peeping at us."
The door opened and my heart thudded, then I almost laughed as Alyssa came out tossing the car keys in the air and catching them again. "You ready Kirbs?"
"Yup where's mom?"
"She's coming. See you guys later."
"Yup, bye Kirbs, bye Lyss. And if I don't see you before you go to college, good luck." Amber smiled then squirmed as Kai kissed her neck and whispered something in her ear that made her colour rise. "Um, we gotta go."
I grinned. "Bye guys. Have fun."
"Oh it's cold. Come on Kirbs."
I shivered. She was right it was cold. But it was early autumn, the end of summer. It shouldn't be so cold yet, but the goose-bumps on my arms begged to differ. "Ok, ok. Hey Lyss?" I asked as I followed her to mom's silver saloon which she'd parked on the street.
"Yeah?" she bounced on the balls of her feet as she slotted the key in the lock. Mom doesn't believe in alarms. Students only set it off in car lot anyway.
"I'll miss you when you're gone."
She turned to me, her blue eyes large and soft. "Oh Kirby. I'm not leaving for good, I'll come back for the holidays and the odd weekend."
"It won't be the same." I grumbled as we got into the car.
"I know." she turned in the passenger seat to face me. "Especially with Jules gone but you can phone me if you ever need to and you can always go to Amber or your friends. I'm scared too and I envy your ability to make so many different friends."
"Most are only friends with me because I'm Amber's cousin." I pointed out. This is true, Amber makes friends easily; they're attracted to her like moths to a flame.
"Maybe, maybe not. Look Kirby, you'll be fine. I promise."
"Cross your heart and hope to die?"
"Yup." she crossed her fingers over her heart, then she held out her pinkie finger and I hooked mine through it. "We're family, nothing will ever change that."
I smiled then, feeling a lot better but something dark and hungry was at the edge of my happiness. My gaze flicked to the house next door and the curtain fluttered again, as Mom got in the car complaining about the weather, I was sure I saw a flash of platinum blond hair.
Well so far what do you think? I want some reviews telling me what they like or dislike, but flames are just going to piss me off, and more than likely piss Zadien off. She stands for people copying hers, but not for people flaming her friends. Any people who have flamed a friend of hers should know that.
