Chapter 2

After dinner, Cloe went up to her room to do her homework. For their freshman year of high school, Cloe's school gave them quite a bit of homework.

Cloe shut the door of her bedroom behind her and flipped herself on her bed, with an exhausted sigh. Noel walked across the bed, purring and rubbed his fluffy body against her arm.

"Aww, there's my little Noel," she said, petting the little kitty. "How've you been, my little fur ball? Like your new home?"

Noel purred in response and curled himself up into a little ball on the bed next to Cloe.

Cloe loved Noel a lot. He was the only present she had ever gotten that she actually wanted. It was on her twelfth birthday. It was early in the morning, and she woke up when something warm and heavy settled down on her chest. When she opened her eyes, she saw the fat black fur ball sitting in front of her with its big, glossy baby blue eyes staring down into hers. She was so happy that day that she would give anything for it to never end. Ever since then, Noel and Cloe had always been together, always and forever. She would never leave her cat, ever, and she hoped nothing would ever happen to him.

Cloe leaned down over the little black ball of fur and gave it a great big kiss on its soft little head. Noel purred again.

"I love you Noel," she said with a smile, staring into the big blue kitty eyes. Noel gave a long, soft meow, he always did this when she told him she loved him, it was almost as if he understood her.

Cloe picked up her backpack from the floor and brought it over to the bed. She opened up her books and smashed through all of the homework her teachers had given her for the day. When she was done, she took her notebook out and made an entry.

Monday, October 31, 2005 ; 8:24pm ; At home, just after dinner:

Well, Noel is being his usual, cute, cuddly self. I wonder if he's only like that because I feed and take care of him or if it's because he really loves me. Dinner was okay, although it was kind of weird. I'm so not used to moving. I hate it. I mean, yeah I know I've done it like tons of times before, but it still bothers me. And plus we're in a totally different state now. Wow, for an 'A' grade school, it's pretty easy! My new school I mean. They give us quite a bit of homework, but it's still pretty easy. Claire's being her usual 'bimbo' self again. God, is it just the blonde thing? Is it that? Or is it just she hung with the wrong people in preschool? LOL! Maybe it isn't the blonde thing…I mean, I was born a blonde and I'm nowhere like her! Maybe it's because I'm sort of a brunette now. I'm a bit depressed at the moment…I have no idea why…I just am. I don't know about this, but I think I'm jealous. I mean, maybe it's that Emily girl Kyle was talking about at lunch today. I know I don't know her but…oh god! What if I'm jealous because I like Kyle? I mean, I think he may like her…or maybe she's just a good friend like he said? This is weird. Very weird. Anyway, I feel a bit tired, don't know why, but I think I'm going to put everything away and just lay down for a bit. Maybe listen to some music.

Cloe turned on her cell phone radio and put her head set on. Noel settled himself close to her. She picked him up and cuddled him.

"Life sucks," she thought to herself. "I have no idea why I'm thinking about that…weird. Everything has been so weird since we moved here. What's wrong with this place? It doesn't feel right, living here. I mean, I've stayed in different states before, like when we went to visit Uncle Frank in Washington, I didn't feel like this. I don't like this feeling. Makes me feel like I'm in some sort of 'Alien City'."

A few days passed, and it was now Thursday, with one more day to go till Cloe's first week ended. So far, school had been fine, all the kids were okay; they were the usual teenagers, acted just like the kids at Cloe's old school. Their neighbors were nice too, they helped them whenever they needed it and often invited them over for dinner.

Cloe had met Emily, Kyle's friend. She was nice, very nice in fact. Emily, like Kyle, was very much like Cloe. They both had that 'I don't like sensitivity and ignorance' thing and they also had the 'punk girl' thing going. All three of them had grown quite close over the week. They had gotten to know each other pretty well, and were now able to call each other best friends. Even though it had only been a week, and they hadn't known each other for very long.

This was the first time Cloe had ever let any of her friends in on her powers, she wasn't planning on doing so, but it seemed that they had let themselves in. She didn't quite mind anymore though. She knew they were like her and she knew she could trust them on it.

Cloe had slowly gotten to know her powers, and had learned to control them with the help of her friends. Everyday, after school, they would go down to the old lab building just a few blocks down from their houses, and practiced using their powers.

Emily had sharp eyes and speed but focused mainly on her martial arts and less on her powers. Cloe had speed and agility; she could control the energy her body released better than any of them, she had to work on her moves though. Kyle had the ability to analyze and predict; his power was his mind.

They had no idea why they would even bother to practice with their powers or even get better at using them. They just enjoyed it.

It was the last class, and Cloe was getting pretty impatient, she just wanted the boredom to end. It was their science class, and Mrs. Greene just wouldn't give up and sit down. She kept going on about the biology of a plant, and nobody really seemed to be interested; they were all sitting around staring in front of them with expressions that clearly showed they didn't give a crap whether plants have veins or not. And at the moment neither did Cloe.

Cloe lifted her head of, of her hand and glanced at her wrist watch; "2:17, just thirteen minutes left to go," she thought to herself.

Emily tapped on Cloe's shoulder from behind with her pencil; Cloe turned and took the note Emily handed her.

God, what is wrong with her? Mrs. Greene I mean. Doesn't she know when to give up? I am so bored! Can't wait till class is over, so we can go back to the clearing. Hey, can I borrow your notes for English? I can't find mine, and we have that stupid quiz on Monday. Please? – Emily

Cloe turned the little piece of paper over and wrote on it.

Yeah sure you can borrow them. This class really does suck, I can't believe she can go on knowing nobody cares; I'd just say "Fine, do it yourselves you little brats. Don't come running to me when you fail your finals!" and sit down and read a book or something. Hey, on Sunday, you wanna meet up at the lab and study for that quiz thing together? I just asked Kyle, he said he has nothing better to do. LOL… so, do u? – Cloe

She passed it to Emily over her shoulder, while staring straight in front of her hoping the science nut didn't notice.

Yeah, sure thing, it'll be fun! Ah! Finally its 2:28! 2 minutes left! Whoopee! LOL – Emily

A few minutes later the bell rang and everyone ran for the door, as usual. Cloe put her books in her backpack ,got up and went to the door with Emily and Kyle. They made their way out of the school and down the street through the dump yard and down to the lab.

The old lab building was quite cool, unlike the open, where it was hot and rather sunny.

Kyle's cousin, Simon, was visiting for a week and hung about with them. Simon was fun to hang out with, even though he seemed quite weird and unusual at times. Simon was special like them too, unlike Cloe's family, Kyle's and Emily's families had the bloodline thing, which meant almost all of them were special. Cloe wondered why her family wasn't like that. All of the others like her had families like that, unless they were adopted or something like that. Maybe it was from her father's side of the family? Cloe had never met anyone from her father's family, so she never really knew if this was true. She wondered if it was. It would be fun to have a cousin who was like her. Then she wouldn't feel like the odd one out. She would know that she wasn't the only one in her family that was like that.

Cloe hated her life. Like most other kids, her life simply sucked. Ever since her dad died, they had financial issues, BIG ones! She fell behind in her studies and went through a rough time when she was little. Some times she would think back to when she was younger. When she came to it, she realized that all their troubles had started when she was born.

Her father was having trouble at work. He was often getting sent to different places for different reasons and then the crash happened.

Her mother hadn't taken it too well and they spent four months at her grandmother's house in Florida. Ever since then her mother had worked extra hard on her job and had been promoted twice over the years. When the company she worked for changed states, they had to move. Cloe knew that they had moved for a good reason, her mother's job, but she still wished they hadn't. She had a weird feeling about it. She knew that the feeling was there only because she didn't want to leave all her friends behind, but she had new, better friends now, and she still had that feeling.

When they reached the threshold of the building, Simon was already there. He was sitting under a huge tree drawing in the sand with a stick.

"So, you're here already, eh?" said Emily with a huge grin on her face.

"Yeah," said Simon, looking up. "I got bored, so I figured I'd come early and wait for you guys,"

Emily skipped over to Simon and sat down beside him. "Watch'a doin'?" she asked.

"Nothing…" he said still poking at whatever it was he had drawn.

Cloe and Kyle came up to them and sat down too.

There was an odd silence.

"So, what do we do today?" said Cloe breaking the silence.

"I'm tired, I think I'll just sit here for a bit," said Emily.

"Me too," said Cloe looking down, feeling a bit sad inside.

"What's wrong? You look sad," said Kyle. He must have noticed.

"I do? I'm not," Cloe said trying to avoid the subject.

"Alright then," said Kyle.

There was another long pause.

"Well, since they don't wanna do anything, how bout you Kyle? Got any ideas on what we can do?" said Simon looking up at Kyle.

"Nope, no idea," answered Kyle shaking his head as he stared down at the weird drawing.
Just then, Cloe's cell phone rang. She got up and answered it.

"Yeah?"

"Cloe, I'm going to need you to come home now, Noel hasn't been eating and we're going to have to take him to the vet," her mum's voice came.

"What? Uh, ok, I'll be home in a few minutes," said Cloe. She said bye to her mum and hung up.

"I've got to go. Noel's not eating and we have to take him to the vet," she said picking up her stuff.

"Yeah, since we're not going to be doing anything, I'll be going to. Coming Simon?" said Kyle getting up.

"Nah, I think I'll stay for a bit," said Simon.

"Yeah, me too," said Emily.

"Alright then, suit yourselves," Kyle said.

"Bye guys, see ya later!" Cloe called back as they walked away.

When she got home, Cloe raced up to her room dumped her bag on the rug in the middle of her room and ran down into the living room where her mum was waiting for her with Noel.

"What's wrong with him?" said Cloe as she picked Noel up of the couch and gave him a hug that she hoped would make him feel better.

"I don't know. That's why we're taking him to the vet. Now, can you go get his carrier from the store room in the back and we'll take him there," said her mum.

"Ok," said Cloe making her way to the back.

They took Noel to the vet only to find he was growing up and his food had changed accordingly. The vet said Noel was perfectly healthy, but since he was growing up, his food was different. He didn't eat kitty food anymore. Cloe was glad to hear that. Not because he was getting older but because her little Noel was alright.

When they got home, Claire was home too.

"Where have you guys been?" she asked, walking into the kitchen and getting a coke out of the refrigerator.

"We went to the vet because Noel hadn't been eating and we just wanted to make sure he was okay," said her mum.

"Oh," Claire said as she popped open the can and walked back out again.

"And where were YOU, young missy?" asked her mum, raising her voice a bit so Claire would hear her.

"Oh, I was at a friend's house," Claire called from the stairs.

"And which friend is this?"

"Celia, she's in my class,"

Her mum didn't answer back; she just shook her head and sat down at the table.

Cloe knew her sister hadn't been to Celia's house. Her sister didn't even KNOW a Celia. She had probably been out with a guy, like she always was after school.