The Reckoning By 331

Okay, I admit I was so excited about doing so well I got a little ahead of myself with the last chapter, so things went along to chlerek really fast. But I promise from now on I'll go slower and revert to my previous ideas (but didn't the last chapter make things interesting?!?!). Oh, and keep sending me your ideas, they'd really be helpful for what you guys want to happen (of course I'll still add my touch to them, but your opinions will really help shape the underlying base idea that I'll head towards). Keep reading and keep reviewing, and I'll keep writing!!!!

This is what happens after the Awakening by Kelley Armstrong

I do not own anything and it all belongs to Kelley Armstrong. I am just using her characters and adding a few of my own.

Chloe's POV

I knelt down next to Simon. He turned away so I couldn't see his face. So I turned around to and leaned against his back. I felt him stiffen.

"I'm sorry," He pft-ed (that sound you make as if to say 'yeah right').

"Yeah, I'm sure you are."

"I mean it. I didn't know it would hurt you that much, and I didn't plan it either. It's not like I'd go out of my way to hurt you, and I knew you liked me, I just didn't think you were all the way to this point yet." I paused, waiting for his response. He gave none, except for the occasional sniffle. I turned around and hugged him. He just sat unmoving for a minute, but then hugged me back.

"I'm sorry I hurt you. Are you mad?"

"Not really, I guess. It just upset me that you chose Derek over me, considering how these last two weeks have gone, and I thought that you wanted me. The fact that Derek hasn't ever actually gotten close enough to someone to have a girlfriend, let alone a really, really cute one like you, and that she, well, you, picked him over me, kinda freaked me out, especially since you know that I like you. And every shred of evidence pointed to you liking me, I guess I just, didn't know what losing felt like, and cracked."

I nodded, and hugged him again. The I withdrew and looked up.

"So are you okay now?" I smiled at him, and he shrugged and smiled back.

"I guess. Just one thing. Why did you pick him?" I stopped. Why did I pick Derek? Did I love him? Did he feel right? When I looked in his eyes everything else went away, and I no longer knew how to breath. So I guess I did really like him.

"He just felt.........right," I said. He looked into my eyes, and it seemed he was searching for something. He started moving in closer, then stopped and stood up. I guess I didn't have what he was looking for.

"So we're good?"

"Well... yeah." I smiled and opened the bathroom door so he could walk out. He smiled back and waved, then went down the hall to his and Derek's room. I brushed my teeth and got ready for bed. First day,and I had already kissed two guys and got my first boyfriend. Life here will be fun.

I actually slept through the whole night for once, without waking up with a dead guy on me or being chased by deranged scientists. Or just falling off the bed. I sat up and stretched.

"Hey," I jumped and fell off the bed.

So much for waking up without problems. I looked up and saw Derek, sitting on a chair across the room from my bed.

"What the hell are you doing in here?"

"I was just waiting for you to wake up," I looked over at the clock. It said 9:30.

"You talk in your sleep you know," What?!? I felt my face turn red.

"Um, what exactly did I say?" I cringed, thinking of the possibilities.

"Do you really want to know?" I scowled.

"Alright then. You said I was hot and the love of your life. And you wanted to communicate with aliens by talking to them through nachos.

"What? I did not! That doesn't even make sense."

"Your the one who said it, I'm just repeating what I heard." Aliens and nachos? Really?

"Okay, even when I'm sleeping, I don't come up with something that stupid." He frowned with fake hurtness.

"You don't think I'm hot?"

"Ugh!!! I know your lying. Even I lie better than that. And when your going to lie, at least come up with something better than aliens and nachos, cuz' that really sucked." He chuckled and came over to help up off the floor.

"Fine, I was lying, but you seriously don't think I'm hot?" I threw a pillow at him.

"I kissed you didn't I?"

"Fair enough," I smiled and kissed him quick and gentle. Then I remembered Tori and looked over at the other bed, which was thankfully empty.

"Oh, that? She moved all her stuff into another room when she found out there were extra ones. That was about and hour ago." I nodded, happy about the new found privacy, in more ways than one.

"What's for breakfast?"

"Food,"

"That's great. But what type of food?"

"Good food," I hit him, and then grabbed some borrowed clothes headed for the bathroom. I told him to go down without me because I had decided to take my shower while he was being a smart ass. He laughed and said there won't be any food left if he goes down first, and then I said if there isn't I'd go kiss Joey instead of him, which shut him up. He grumbled "There'll be food," and then I closed the door and got in the shower. It definitely helped me relax, and I immediately felt better. Today I wanted to just sit back and have some regular old fun, and not run for my life and live off junk food. I put on some fuzzy socks, a pair of jeans,and plaid shirt with a cami, and went down to breakfast. It was omelets, courtesy of Anna (we went to the big kitchen), and I grabbed a random one and sat down with it. Derek grabbed three and started shoveling. I struck up a conversation with Anna. Apparently, she works as stock broker, and she has three kids. Lucky for them, none of 'em had supernatural abilities, so they got off scott free. One was married, one in college, and one was in a private high school while staying with his dad (they weren't divorced). I told her about art school, and how my life had only gone off the crazy meter a couple weeks ago. She was interested in how the Edison Group had been shooting at us, and I wondered why Andrew hadn't shared that piece of information yet, because she looked worried. When I had finished (and Derek had devoured his fourth helping of three omelets at a time), we went over to watch TV in the nook. Soon after we had finished and episode of Ace of Cakes (love all those cool cakes. I've always wondered what they tasted like), Andrew came in and ushered us back to the dining area. When everyone else was gathered, Arabelle announced we were gonna have a dance dance revolution tournament to lighten the spirits and get to know each other better. And just to goof off. If we wanted to, we could go change into something stretchier and less heat accumulating clothing. I went up and pulled on some shorts and a t shirt over my cami, and met Derek in the hall way.

"What th------"

I burst out laughing. Derek was wearing a t shirt. And SPANDEX SHORTS. SPANDEX!!!! I was rolling on the floor. He scowled at me.

"Shut up!"

"I would.......if I…....could breath!!!!!!!...............Spandex!!!!!!!!" I couldn't stop laughing. His face turned red. Almost as funny as the fact that he wasn't just wearing spandex. It was snot green spandex with pink and orange polka dots.

"Where'd you...........get those.......a 70's.........garage sale!?!?!?!?! He just stood there scowling. Once I calmed down, I tried to stand up without looking at them. No such luck.

"Are you actually..tch...gonna wear those? (tch = kinda like a tired chuckle, the part when the laughter's starting to fade, but your panting from laughing so hard)"

"Unfortunately, this is all Andrew could find that could fit me that wasn't already being used. Why they had these at all I am at loss, but I don't feel like sweating in jeans."

"But you feel like sweating in those?" I had to admit, even though the shorts looked ghastly, his legs didn't look to bad. Muscular, good size compared with his torso. Besides the colors, he essentially looked good.

"Make fun, but that doesn't change the fact that my legs look great."

"Since when do you gloat about your body? Last time I checked, you'd rather be short and cute like Simon, rather than tall and attacked by puberty."

"Since I got a girlfriend," He leaned down to kiss me, then stopped.

"Wait, you think Simon is cute?"

"For a 15 year old boy, yes. But remember, my unconscious thinks your hot."

"That does make things better," and he leaned back in for a nice long kiss.

"Could you move? You mushy freaks are blocking the stairs. That's a fire hazard." Tori was frowning at us.

"Fire hazard my ass. There's another staircase on the other side," Shane said as he ca

me out of his room, wearing normal shorts. Tori had apparently not noticed the Spandex yet. But then she shot us a glare and followed Shane down the stairs. Just then Andrew stuck his head out of one of the doors.

"Hey Derek! I think I found some regular shorts that might fit!"

"Thank God," he said before practically running down the hall. I chuckled, and then made my way down the stairs. When I found the door to the basement, I could already hear the video game music. When I got down there, Arabelle and Damien were playing what I assumed was a practice run. They were both on the advanced level, and from what I could see, it was really hard. They were hitting multiple arrows at once while holding down another and stomping really hard. They had the kind of pads that were soft and made out of that stuff used in rain ponchos, so they moved when the person pushed too hard, and in the end Damien fell on top of the console and turned it off, so they don't know who won. Basically, everyone was laughing and goofing off. I sat down next to Angie.

"Hey Chloe!" I waved and smiled.

"Crazy day yesterday, right? It's so sweet that you're going out with Derek, though. You are right? That's cool. Like my spandex?"

I burst out laughing. She looked really confused. I still saw Derek in those gross shorts.

"What'd I say? Don't you like them? They're bluey-purple and sparkly!" Her eyes said I was crazy, and then I told her about the other shorts upstairs, and she laughed too. Tori and Sarah looked at us weird from across the room on the other couch, but then resumed what I assumed was some form of gossiping, though besides yesterday, what gossip was there? When Derek and Andrew had joined us, we made a chart of the starting matches. My first time was against......Joey. Of course. He smiled evilly and took the left pad, while I reluctantly went to stand on the right.

"Hey, you wanna make this more interesting?" I mentally cringed.

"What exactly are you thinking of?"

"How about a bet? If I win, you k---"

"If you finish that sentence I promise you in 10 minutes you'd wish you kept your mouth shut and had been lucky enough to keep all your limbs." He shut up. I smiled. I chose to start out on light, because beginner looked too easy, but advanced looked scary. Joey chose the same. Actually he was pretty good at it, until he tried to slide tackle me and get me to trip, which I avoided by jumping up and stomping on his ankle. He cried like a little girl and lost the match, and everyone laughed. Mike and Sarah were next. He was wearing some sort of 70's work out outfit (now I knew where the spandex had come from), and she was just wearing some of those cheer leading Capri's and a Hollister t shirt. She was also wearing sunglasses (inside!!) and texting with her bejeweled phone. While dancing. On expert. And didn't miss a step. Meanwhile, Mike was on light, messing up horribly, and being a sore loser by saying he was unfairly challenged and that he sucked at dancing anyway. And we told him he should have done beginner. Next was Shane and Derek. The both chose beginner (ha ha), and they both sucked. The Derek eventually gave up and sat down to try with his hands, and Shane just decided to hit one arrow consecutively for the rest of the match. They both failed miserably, so we were forced to disqualify them both. After them was Tori and Simon. No surprise there. They started out great, both on advanced, but then when Tori got excited, and while flailing her arms one "happened" to slap Simon in the face. That's when the shoving match started. They ended up back to back trying to hit the other one's face over their head , while still dancing. Then Simon hit Tori in the eye and she shrieked, and somehow she wrapped her arm backwards around his neck and pulled up ward, making him choke. He then responded by punching her in the breast, causing another shriek, and then she threw a fireball at him (just a small one), which singed off his eyebrows. Then they were then apprehended by Derek and Shane, because if that had gone on it would have ended up in caged grudge match to the death. Their match was pronounced undecided, and we moved on. After they had been tied to chairs ten feet apart, it was the twins turn. They both did advanced, and the ended up shoving too. The creepy thing was, even with the shoving, they made exactly the same mistakes at exactly the same time. They tied, but we put it down as the both won to make up for Derek and Shane's miserable failure. Then Anna and Andrew faced off. They both did beginner, and they were okay at it. Andrew ended up winning the first fair and not creepy match so far, which was a nice change, but not as funny. Then Arabelle and Damien had a rematch to settle their practice battle issues. The both danced eccentrically, arms flailing in a graceful yet not sort of way, adding in twirls and weird little tricks. But when Arabelle's flying hand pulled out Damien's contact lens, they gave the fight to Damien even though he lost, because he kept on dancing (he found his contact lens under Arabelle's foot. How weird is that?). We broke for lunch, promising to meet back downstairs for the second round. We ate together in the dining area for the first time, and Anna and Arabelle made us the sandwich of our preference. I took a plain old Pb and j, and sat down next to the twins and Mike. They wanted to know what art school was like, and seemed disappointed when I told them I was into film making, not the artsy stuff they liked. But I told them what I had seen of that section of the school. Mike was surprisingly funny. He told me all about his job as a columnist for a local newspaper, and shared some of his recent articles with me. Then when both twins finished and went off to find something to do while waiting for everyone else, Derek and Angie sat down.

"Hey Chloe, guess what?" Angie's curls were making me dizzy.

"Um, what?"

"We're going shopping tomorrow!!!!!!! Oh my God, you have to come with me and Lacie!!!! we go to all the best places, and usually end up somewhere near a candy store!!! And sometimes, Damien comes with us and he can find these amazing things we never would have thought to buy but really work. Like the last time, he found Lacie this midnight blue top with sequins that looked exactly like the night sky, and it even had this little gray wolf sewed onto the bottom that was howling at a shiny silver moon. It goes with every thing she owns and looks great on her. And he found these shiny brown boots for himself that looked like they came right off the runway, and then he sewed on this gold thread in the shape of the symbol for his favorite band. I have no idea what it is, or what band it symbolizes, but it looks great!!!! And after treasure hunting with Damien, we usually head over to the food court, order fries, and then drop them on people on the floor below. It so much fun!! Last time we had Joey with us, and he dropped his soda on a mall cop, and then he was chasing us on his Segway, and we ran into a Victoria's Secret, and we started throwing bras at him. Then, we went out through the employee exit, but he cornered us with his other mall cop buddies in the parking garage and we went to mall jail. Then Anna and Arabelle had to come bail us out. They were not happy, but we had fun making fun of the cops in mall jail. Joey even reenacted the part when we hit him in the face with the first bra. He'd filled it with what was left of his burger, and it hit him on the forehead and he crashed into the wall. And when he reenacted it, he stole the cop guy's hat by telling the cop he wanted to tell him a secret. He had me throw it at his face and then flung himself into the wall. It was really funny, until we got banned, so now we go to this really big mall about an hour away. And Joey has to be supervised at all times. But we still drop fries, just not sodas anymore." I sat there staring for a minute. And then I frowned.

"I don't think I can go," Angie gasped,

"Why not? It's not like your not allowed to go, cuz' we all go together. And you have to come!!!!it would be so much fun to have you there!!!! Oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please?!?!?!?!?"

"Stop that already! I want to come, but..." I was thinking about my dad. How the Edison Group had told him that I'd run away, and how he'd offered a half a million dollar reward to get me back. And the fact that me and Derek had already been sighted once while arguing in an alley, and I was now suspected to be a kidnap victim. It wasn't really all that that hurt me. It was thinking about how worried I'd made my dad, and how I couldn't even send him a letter, or call him, because coming in contact with him would put him in danger. I couldn't even let him know I was alright. He was out there worrying about his daughter who disappeared from a house for crazy kids and could possibly be a kidnap victim, while here I am, perfectly fine, sitting in a house full of luxuries, selfishly only thinking of myself and about going shopping, shallowly involving myself in relationships and digging my way in between brothers, and lazing my butt off without even bothering to tell my father that I wasn't being raped or sold as a prostitute or being abused by some guy or...or....

"Chloe, what's wrong?" I was curled in the fetal position on the floor sobbing, and Derek was leaning down next to me. Worrying. I made everyone worry. I was stupid and helpless and a liability if anything went wrong, and I always got captured, and had no way to protect myself. I made everyone worry about me constantly, and I was doing it again right now. I had to show them that I could take care of myself, and I was fine, and they didn't need to worry anymore. I pushed my self off the floor and wiped my eyes with my sleeve.

"I-I'm f-fine," I said. "Lets just go back downstairs and finish the tournament." I sniffled, then made my way over to the basement door. Because of my breakdown, the adults insisted that I should just watch, and I didn't object, I was feeling queasy any way. Eventually, it ended up being Sarah and Lacie (she skipped the first round cuz she said she was too good to play in the beginning, and the adults didn't mind because we had an uneven amount of people). They both played expert, but I wasn't really watching. The screen looked like just a bunch of flashing colors. Sarah ended up winning by three points, enough to get her the extra + mark she needed to claim victory. We all went back upstairs for dinner, and I sat on the couch with Derek not really watching TV for a couple of hours, before he pulled me upstairs.

"Okay what's going on? I'm almost dying with worry and you haven't said a thing since lunch. What the hell is wrong?!?" I mentally screamed when he said the word worry. I tried to suck up my feelings. If I didn't, I end up making some stupid mistake that cause all of my friends, and Derek, and my Dad, to be killed. I made myself look slightly more queasy.

"Nothing's wrong, I think I just ate something funny, cuz I've been feeling weird since lunch, and when I tried to watch the second round of matches, all I could see was flashing lights." Derek felt my forehead and started checking out my face to see if was sick. I pushed his hands away.

"Don't worry (mentally cringing!), I'll probably feel better in the morning." He looked at me for a minute, kissed my forehead, and went down the hall to his room. I put on a cami and shorts, brushed my teeth and got into bed. I looked out the window at the clear night with all the stars sparkling like Derek's eyes, and I cried myself to sleep.