Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from Charmed. But I do own Aurora, Haley, Charisma, and any other characters you don't recognize.
"You're staying at Chris's place?" Kelsey questioned Aurora at her locker.
"Yup."
"Isn't that awkward?"
"A little." Aurora sighed. "I'm going to be around him and his family basically 24/7 this week. Not that I mind, he is my boyfriend after all."
"Well you're going to have to tell me what it's like spending a week with the Halliwells. I've always been curious about what it's like there."
"I'm not really there for a whole week, my family comes home Saturday." Aurora mused. "I was wondering when your birthday was."
"It's Wednesday." Kelsey simply stated with a shrug.
"Wednesday? This Wednesday?" Kelsey nodded. "Why didn't you tell me sooner Kelsey?"
"It's just a birthday. It's going to be like any other day of the week."
"This coming from you? The one who got all excited about a dance? The one who gave me a hard time about not having a lunch when we first hung out? How can you look at your birthday as another day of the week Kelsey?"
Kelsey sighed, "My birthday has never been the lucky day for me. It's kind of a cursed day with my family."
"What do you mean by that? How can a birthday be a cursed day?" Aurora questioned.
"Can we talk about this later Aurora?" Kelsey questioned.
"I think we need to talk about it now." Aurora stated looking at Kelsey. "You look like you need to talk. So we're going to talk."
"But we've got class in five minutes."
"If we're late, we're late. I know many excuses."
"Kay then lets sit down in the library and talk." Kelsey said with a sigh.
"Lead the way." Aurora replied. As they walked down the hall towards the library Aurora could sense all the pain Kelsey felt. Kelsey hurt a lot, and it was tearing her up inside keeping it to herself.
As soon as they sat down at a table Kelsey looked around and said, "I was born premature, my mom went into labor after her, my father, and sister got into a car accident. When I was born my dad lost his life. On my third birthday my mom lost her job. It took her a year to get it back. On my fifth birthday our house was robbed. On my seventh birthday I broke my leg. On my eighth birthday I got the chicken pox. On my tenth birthday my grandma died. On my fifteenth birthday my big sister, the biggest influence on my life went to my mom and told her she had an eating disorder. Then she was shipped off to get better, and I haven't heard from her since."
Aurora looked at Kelsey and saw the tears in her eyes. "Aw, hun I'm so sorry." she whispered getting up and hugging Kelsey. "I'm guessing you think everything's your fault."
"In a way I do." Kelsey whispered. "It is my birthday that everything seems to happen."
"I know how you feel in a way. I've lost so many people I love. There's times I feel it's all my fault." Aurora said pulling back from the hug. "And then I think of what my mom use to tell me. The universe is right on schedule. Everything happens when it's suppose to. You can't stop it no matter how hard you try. And it's no ones fault."
As Aurora said that she let the words sink in herself. Her mom was right, everything happens the way it's suppose to, you can't stop it. But then a part of Aurora was screaming out saying she could of prevented her mother's death. Shaking her head Aurora looked up at Kelsey. What her mother had told her before was right for Kelsey. There was no way Kelsey could of prevented any of it from happening. It wasn't like she had the gift of knowing the future, or any other type of gift for that matter.
Kelsey wiped at the tears in her eyes, "Thank you Aurora. Thank you for prying and getting me to talk to you. I needed it. I just didn't know how much I did. And your mom sounds like she was a very smart women."
"No problem Kelsey. I hate seeing friends struggling with things. My mom was smart, one of the smartest people I've ever known. She always knew the right thing to say."
"Kind of like you. Guess you inherited that gene." Kelsey smiled.
"I guess I did. And remember, I'm always here if you need to talk Kelsey."
"I'll remember that. I'm glad we became friends, it means a lot to me."
"It means a lot to me too Kelsey, I've never really had a friend like you other then my sisters."
Tears now forgotten Kelsey asked, "So... you got an excuse for me to use?"
"Female problems." Aurora grinned. "It works all the time. Just say you didn't have anything with you for your 'female problems' and had to go home. Or if you don't feel comfortable saying that, just say you lived closer to the school then a friend, and ran to your place to get something for their 'female problems'."
Kelsey laughed. "You're quite the clever one when it comes to excuses."
"I try." Aurora grinned. "Oh, and about your birthday. This one's going to one of the best. After all it will be your sixteenth birthday."
Kelsey looked at Aurora wearily, "Why do I have a bad feeling about this?"
"Because of your past birthday's maybe? Don't worry it'll be perfectly fine. I'll make sure to keep all sharp objects, and other dangerous things away from you." Aurora said trying to lighten the conversation up a bit.
"Funny Aurora. Very funny."
"You're not laughing though." Aurora tilted her head to the right.
Kelsey smiled. "That's 'cause you're not that funny Aurora."
"Aw that hurts. But you gotta give me some credit at least I tried."
"Maybe you tried a bit to hard." Kelsey laughed.
"And now you laugh. But it's not with me it's at me." Aurora sighed.
"I can't help it."
"Sure you can't." Aurora laughed. "But I guess we should get heading to class, before we miss the whole period."
"Um... Piper..." Aurora trailed off.
"Yea Aurora?" Piper questioned turning around.
"Are those cookies suppose to look like that?" Aurora questioned.
"Like what?" Piper asked in response.
Aurora was silent for a few minutes. She had gotten home from school a few hours ago, and Piper had offered to teach her how to make cookies. Aurora had been all for it, and now she was having some regrets. "Well...they look kinda green."
Piper looked into the oven, "You put everything I told you to put in it right?"
"Yup."
"And nothing else?
"Nothing else." Aurora confirmed.
"Are you sure you didn't put anything else in them?"
"I'm positive Piper."
"Then how did they turn green. I don't see how it's possible."
"Anything is possible when you put me in a kitchen." Aurora sighed, opening the oven and taking out the green cookies.
"Wow, what happened to those?" Chris questioned as he walked into the kitchen.
"Me." Aurora sighed. "I can't cook."
"I can see that." Chris laughed. Aurora glared at Chris and punched him in the arm. "Ow. What did you do that for?"
"You were laughing at my cooking abilities." Aurora stated.
"Sorry?" Chris replied.
"Sure you are." Aurora said sticking out her tongue.
"I am." Chris replied with a laugh.
Shaking her head Aurora looked at Piper, "Sorry about ruining those cookies."
"That's ok Aurora." Piper smiled. "I'm just curious as to how you managed to turn them green."
"I must just have a green thumb when it comes to baking cookies." Aurora joked. When neither Chris or Piper laughed, Aurora said. "Green thumb, green cookies... get it?"
"Not that funny." Piper sighed.
Aurora shook her head, "You guys are impossible."
"No you're just not funny." Chris smiled.
"And you're just not nice." Aurora replied, a small smile on her face. "You know Kelsey told me today that I wasn't that funny either."
"Yea humor is definitely not your thing." Chris stated.
"But you love me anyway." Aurora grinned.
"No denying that." Chris replied.
"Well, see that just means you have to laugh at my jokes, no matter how crummy they are."
"No it doesn't."
"Yes it does."
"No it doesn't."
"Yes it does. It's only the right thing to do. I laugh at your crummy jokes, you laugh at mine."
"My jokes are never crummy."
"I wouldn't say that Chris."
"Well at least people laugh at my jokes."
"That's 'cause they know and love you, and don't want to make you feel bad."
Piper stood with a small smile on her face, Aurora and Chris were perfect for each other. What one was lacking the other made up for.
Aurora lay on her stomach on the bed, flipping through pages of homework. She glanced up to see Melinda looking at her, "What? Do I have something on my face?"
"No." Melinda sighed.
"Then why are you looking at me like that?"
Melinda was silent for a couple minutes before saying, "You know that talk we had a while ago?"
"Yea..." Aurora trailed off.
"Well you were right, he does like me." Melinda stated.
Aurora grinned, "Oh, how it feels to be right. And how exactly did you find out that he did?"
"A friend of a friend." Melinda replied.
"Uh huh. And what are you going to do about the news you got?"
"I don't know. I think I'll wait and see what happens."
"Well why don't you make the first move and ask him out?"
"I don't know if I can."
"Oh come on, you can do it Melinda. Like I said before it's mind over matter."
Melinda nodded, "I'll try."
"If you need me to ask him for you I will. I have no problems with doing that for you."
"I don't doubt that at all."
Silence filled the room, and the two went about their own things. Melinda reading a book, and Aurora doing her homework, as well as making plans for Kelsey's sixteenth birthday. But their heads shot up, and their eyes connected at the sound of something hitting the ground above them. Melinda bit her lip before disappearing into a swirl of blue and white lights.
Aurora sighed she wanted to know what was going on. Why hadn't Melinda offered taking her up there with her? "There was no time to ask that question." Aurora said to herself. She got up from the bed and hurried to the attic, where she was sure the noises had been coming from.
Opening the attic door she saw five demons surrounding Piper, Chris, Wyatt, and Melinda. All demons stood about six feet tall, and had a weird symbol on their left shoulders. "Aww, now this isn't fair. Five against four? That's wrong, just plain wrong."
All heads turned towards Aurora, who smiled weakly. "Why don't we make this a little more fair?" She questioned, extending her arms to either side of her and bringing them together, which caused two demons to crash into each other. Aurora grinned, "That's better." One of the demons stood up and glared at her, raising his hand a ball of fire formed and suddenly went hurling towards her.
With a mere blink Aurora sent the fire ball right back at the demon, who burst into flames. At that moment the Halliwell's burst into action themselves, but as soon as they thought they had the situation under control when a demon shimmered in behind Aurora.
"Aurora demon behind you!" Chris shouted.
At the same time Aurora felt hands grip onto her arms, leaning over she used as much of her strength as she could to send the demon over her, and free her arms. As soon as she did so Piper blew the demon up.
"Well that was entertaining." Aurora stated, standing up.
"You're just a thrill seeker." Chris mused.
"I can't help it. It's a genetic thing." Aurora smiled. "So do we know what those demons were exactly? Or who they were working for? Want they wanted?"
"That's what I'm trying to find out." Wyatt stated as he flipped through the Book of Shadows.
"I'm gonna go see if there's anything on them in the books at Magic School." Melinda said before disappearing once again in a swirl of blue and white lights.
"Magic School?" Aurora questioned with a raised eyebrow.
"To make a long story short, it's a school for witches to practice magic, and what not. Also a safe haven in a way." Chris replied.
"Oh..." Aurora trailed off. "I guess it does make sense to have one."
"Found something!" Wyatt exclaimed.
"So tell us what you found." Aurora said walking over to him.
"They're called Inpental demons. Lower level. They like to work independently." Wyatt said skimming over the page.
"Well that doesn't seem right, considering there were at least five maybe six, if you count the one that shimmered in late for the party, here at once." Aurora mused.
"Sometimes Upper level demons can convince those that like to work independently to work together." Wyatt explained. "Now we just have to figure out who they're working for."
"Levers demon." Melinda said as she orbed into the room.
"Sis, we already figured out the demon, and that wasn't it." Chris stated.
"I figured that much." Melinda replied. "The Levers demon is who they're working for."
"And you know this how?" Chris questioned.
"One of the books up at Magic School mentioned both demons." Melinda stated. "The Levers demon is kind of an advanced form of the Inpental demon. They come from the same line of demons, to put it simply. They can do the exact same things, conjure fire balls and shimmer. But the Levers demon can mimic others powers, which is what the difference is between the two demons. And only the Levers demon can make Inpental demons work together."
Wyatt glanced over at Aurora, she looked pale and lost in thought. "You ok Aurora?"
"I'm fine." Aurora whispered.
"Are you sure hun? You look kind of pale." Piper stated.
Aurora looked at Melinda, ignoring Piper's comment she asked, "How many Levers demons are out there? Do they look anything like the Inpental demons?"
"From what I understand there's only one, when he or she dies, an Inpental demon takes their place. Levers demons do look like Inpental demons, but they also have a human form. Why?"
"Oh, its just... god this going to sound stupid." Aurora sighed. "One of my ex-boyfriend's last name was Levers, and he had a tattoo on his left shoulder, kind of like the Inpental demons had."
"Evil boyfriends, well ex-boyfriends isn't an uncommon thing around here." Piper sighed.
Aurora shook her head, "Great. So not only is he obsessed with me, but he's a demon."
"Took you awhile to figure that out." A voice said from the attic door. All heads turned to see a guy standing there with jet black hair, and grey crystal like eyes, a grin plastered on his face. "I thought you were smarter Aurora. You proved me wrong."
Aurora couldn't find her voice, it seemed it wanted to fail her for now. She looked at the guy standing in the attic doorway in shock. Why did her life have to be so complicated?
"What cat got your tongue Aurora?" he questioned.
"No." Aurora said, her voice finally coming back to her. "An asshole is just really pissing me off at the moment."
"Ah, I'm glad to see you haven't lost your temper." The guy watched Aurora closely, he knew what she was planning and couldn't help but smile. "I wouldn't do anything if I was you Aurora." Looking up he said, "I wouldn't do anything if I was any of you."
"What are you talking about?" Chris questioned.
"You already forget? I can mimic your guys's powers."
"We'll see about that, after I blow you up." Chris stated.
"You don't want to do that Chris, that could get you in a lot of trouble. Considering as soon as I die, someone will take my place. That and anything happens to me, and Aurora won't be seeing the ones she loves for awhile." The grin on his face made Aurora pale again. That grin had always meant trouble in the past, and it was worse now that Aurora knew he was a demon.
Aurora glared and said through gritted teeth, "What the hell are you talking about Reagan?"
AN: Dun, dun, dun... cliffhanger...hehe. Don't kill me! lol. Sorry about the wait. I've been kind of busy with work, and what not. Hope you liked the chapter.
ilovedrew88: I think a lot of people are that way in the morning. I know I am...lol. So how did you like the first cooking lesson?
Hippie Jade: That's for sure. There's always action around the charmed ones.
Angelnanoo: Glad you liked it. lol
DrewFullerFanLife: Yes, staying at your boyfriends house for a week would be rather awkward, but entertaining at the same time. lol
Paige fan: Glad you thought so. Here's the update.
CharmedClover: I'm the same way in the morning...worst I've ever gotten was an ice cube down the shirt. It tends to be very cold and effective. lol. Yes I'm going to definitely try to update as much as I can in the next few weeks before school starts.