Sins 8
Caleb hugged her for almost a minute before releasing her. "Max do you mind I need to talk to my friends" he said. "Ok, sure no problem" said Max. She stood up slowly and walked towards the stairs. "Gorman, would you mind?" said Caleb "no of course not" said Gorman. He followed Max up the stairs.
Max breathed a sigh of relief when she reached the kitchen. She was trembling so she leaned on the counter. Until Gorman had explained she thought they were going to kill her. "Are you all right?" asked Gorman. He had noticed she was trembling slightly. She was also rubbing her arm where Pogue had gripped it. "Yeah, I guess, just a little scared I guess" Gorman nodded he understood. "Would you like me to get you something?" asked Gorman. "No that's ok, I have to be going anyway, tell the boys I'll see them at school" said Max
"You could always wait and one of them could give you a ride" said Gorman "no thanks I've dropped enough bombs in their laps for one evening" said Max "then let me walk you out" said Gorman. Max walked ahead of the old man; she was lost in her thoughts. She opened the door and Gorman touched her arm "give them time hon, they have a lot to deal with" said Gorman "I know Gorman so do I" said Max. Gorman patted her arm "goodnight Gorman, sorry I had to wake you" said Max "its ok I'm used to it" said the old man with a sigh. Then he shut the door because Max was already walking away. He watched her go for a few minutes. She was so much like her father it was scary.
"You all right man?" asked Pogue. Caleb had just flopped down in his seat. "I don't know" Caleb answered honestly. His emotions were all over the place. "Are we going to talk about it?" asked Reid. "I think it would be a good idea," said Caleb. He had his hand on his chin. He brought his hand down his face in a classic Caleb frustration gesture. "So what part are we discussing?" said Tyler. "Lets stick to the prophecy part for right now" said Pogue. Caleb nodded usually he ran the meetings but right now he wasn't up to it.
"So what exactly did it say she was supposed to do?" said Reid. "Something about balancing the power" said Tyler. "Here let me read it again," said Caleb. The book came closer to him and he read it out loud. Then he waited while his brothers processed the information. "So basically she is the power?" said Tyler. "Essentially yeah" said Caleb. "Why does it need to be balanced it working fine isn't it?' said Pogue "not if you count looking like your grandparents way too early." said Reid. "According to the rest of the passage the rapid ageing only appeared in groups with one member missing" said Caleb.
"So basically kicking out the Putnam line screwed us," said Pogue. "The Putnam line would have screwed us either way" said Caleb "so essentially its her or another Chase," said Reid. They glared at him but he continued "well I don't know about you but my votes for her" said Reid. "Well she is cuter than Chase," said Tyler. Reid chuckled and high fived Tyler.
"There is one other thing that concerns me," said Caleb "what bro?" said Pogue "the book says she supposed to be stronger than all of us, and she's had no training" said Caleb. He paused and looked at each of them in turn making sure his words had sunken in.
"Oh shit" said Pogue "yeah that could definitely be a problem," said Tyler "not if we train her" said Reid. "Dude do you even remember how long we took to learn all that stuff?" said Tyler. "Yeah but we only had one teacher who couldn't use remember, she has four" said Reid
Caleb sighed this was too much to deal with. "You gonna be ok with this man?" asked Pogue. "I guess I have to be" said Caleb "if it makes you feel any better we can train her and you don't have to help unless you want to" said Pogue "thanks Pogue I just need time to deal with all this, sorry guys" said Caleb "don't be we understand, and were here for you, you know that" said Pogue "yeah I know thanks I appreciate it" said Caleb
"Well now that that's decided we should probably call it a night," said Caleb. He sent the book back to its shelf. Then started walking up the stairs. The others followed a little farther behind him. They were obviously worried about him. It showed very plainly on their faces. Caleb was the first one to exit the basement door. Gorman was sitting at the kitchen counter drinking some tea.
"Where is Max?" asked Caleb "she went back to her dorm," said Gorman then he took a sip of his drink. "Back how and why didn't she wait?" said Caleb. He actually sounded somewhat disappointed.
"Probably the way she got here and she said you all had enough on your plates for one night" said Gorman "still we could have given her a ride" said Tyler. "She needs time to deal with all this as do you," said Gorman. Caleb sighed Gorman was right but that didn't mean he hadn't wanted to see her one last time. "Well then I guess what I wanted to tell her will have to wait," said Caleb
Gorman shrugged "don't worry so much lad, besides she comes here a lot" said Gorman. 'You shouldn't be encouraging that someone might notice" said Pogue. "She's trying to learn I guess, if you intend on teaching her you might wish to hurry, she is as stubborn as her father, if you get my meaning," said Gorman. Caleb stiffened and frowned yeah he understood "meaning she might just try and train herself" said Gorman
"Well that ain't good," said Reid "don't worry Gorman we've already decided to teach her" said Pogue. Pogue looked at Caleb when he said it. "We have to go, goodnight Gorman," said Caleb and he headed for the door. "Don't worry we'll keep her from doing anything stupid" said Pogue
Max flopped down on her bed exhausted from the bus ride and all the emotional turmoil. She wasn't surprised Caleb was having difficulty dealing with having a sister. She was still dealing with having a brother
Mercifully Jenny was already sleeping when she got there. So Max decided to try and get some shut eye herself. She was so hyped though all she could do was stare at the wall all night.
Then Jenny's alarm rudely woke her up. Max mumbled and rolled over burying her head in the pillow she was still tired damn it. "Have fun last night?" said Jenny. "What huh?" said Max. "Never mind, get up your going to be late" said Jenny. Max grumbled she hated Mondays with a passion. She reluctantly slid her foot out of bed and groaned. It felt as if she had just lain down before that alarm went off. She walked over to her dresser and got dressed in a sleepy daze.
She slid her shoes on absently and ran a brush over her hair. Knocking out most of the knots without bothering to style it at all. She looked like something the cat had played with then spit up. She grabbed her bag and walked out the door. She basically sleep walked to the cafeteria and got a cup of coffee and a cinnamon roll.
She sat down at an empty table with a plop and started dumping cream and sugar packets into her coffee. She stirred it and took a sip. Then set it down and ate a bite of the cinnamon roll before drinking another drink of coffee. "Tired?" said Tyler he plopped down next to her "yeah didn't get much sleep last night" said Max "I don't think any of us did" said Tyler. Max nodded she understood how nerve racking this whole thing was.
"Hey I wanted to apologize for what we did last night, it was wrong and were sorry," said Tyler. She smiled Tyler was a sweet kid. "Thanks but I didn't do so bad" said Max. Tyler chuckled "no you didn't I'm impressed actually" said Tyler "thanks" said Max. She was about to say more when Jenny sat down.
"Hey Jenny, where were you last night?" asked Tyler. They wee supposed to pick jenny up last night and take her to Nicky's with them. Jenny had canceled on them at the last minute."Oh I went to church," said Jenny. She said it quickly a little too quickly. Almost as though she had rehearsed it. Tyler frowned he wasn't stupid he knew no church had service on a Sunday night. Jenny was also not the religious type. Max guessed she had been out with someone else and didn't want to say anything to Tyler about it.
Max decided to just leave before she shot down jenny's excuses. She didn't really want any more drama today anyways. Max headed for class. She sat through all the lectures barely keeping her eyes open. The guys were polite to her but kind of awkward. Max just let it go they obviously all need time to deal. So when class let out for the day Max gave in to her tiredness and headed to her room to sleep.