Chapter Two: Day 1, Part Two

It wasn't that Saoirse had anything in particular against either her second cousin Autumn or Cassie, but in her opinion they had no right at all to do this.

For one thing, they were both wearing what looked like supermarket jeans, a crime in itself. Autumn's brown hair was plaited down the side, too, which had gone out of fashion at least three months ago. Not that Autumn would know, living as she did in the back of beyond.

And that Cassie girl? Those blue streaks in her hair were just plain tacky.

Even if they'd been dressed, like Saoirse herself, in the height of fashion, she still wouldn't have wanted them on stage. The spotlight belonged to Saoirse, not a couple of thirteen-year-old Trenton natives.

"Excuse me?" she called out.

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On stage, Autumn rolled her eyes "Yes, Saoirse?"

"I'm not sure why you're on stage," replied the fake-sweet tones.

"I suppose you think you should be?"

Cassie muttered "Aut, who is this bitch?"

"She's my second cousin. Saoirse Mercer. Think Regina George if Regina George was fourteen and lived in London. She's only here visiting Aunt Adelaide with her player twin."

"Not a big fan of yours?"

Autumn snorted "Last time we met, at my uncle's wedding, she spilled wine all over me and later justified it by saying my dress was an eyesore. I'd say no."

"Ah. And the twin?"

"Calum. In the corner."

Cassie gave him a look. "Looks like a player."

"He hit on me once. It was ridiculous."

"Gross."

Their conversation was interrupted by a saccharine reply of "Surely, cousin dear, I'm a more appropriate choice? After all, we don't want a repeat of the wedding incident, do we?"

Autumn sighed "Not that it's at all relevant, but that was at least ninety percent your fault."

"Mm. Look, sweetie, we all know you're better at following. You're not a leader."

"She gets all this from a wedding two years ago, in which she decided I was the anti-Saoirse, which is basically the antichrist to her and proceeded to sabotage me the whole day. She's not really very reliable. You people have known me for years," Autumn explained to the audience.

"She's got a point, Seersh," called out Saoirse's twin brother Calum from the other side of the room.

"Oh, shut up."

Autumn started again "Okay, enough about my bitchy second cousin, everyone. I'm Autumn Chase, this is my friend Cassie Bayes, and I see that most people are here who are going to come. Awesome. So, you've all noticed that everyone over fifteen has disappeared. I'm sure you all remember what happened in California a while ago. The logical conclusion is that this is some kind of encore, but at least this time we have some idea of what not to do. Cassie and I have already got a hold of all the under-threes, so they're reasonably safe."

She gave a confident smile. Autumn wasn't good at talking to people directly, but a faceless audience like this was okay. She could manage.

"If anyone has baby formula in their house, we're going to need that. Remember, we're all pretty independent-I mean, this is Trenton-but these kids can't look after themselves. If anyone would like to volunteer to help look after them, that would be amazing. Preferably people with some experience of babysitting, but I'm not going to be picky."

No hands went up. Autumn tried a different tactic. "All right, then anyone who volunteers gets a recompense of some kind. I'll think of something."

This time a couple hands went up. "All right, that's great. You guys, stay behind-"

She was cut off by a yell of "Who put you in charge?"

Cassie answered that one "You lot did, indirectly, when you freaked and didn't do anything useful. That's like complaining about the government when you didn't vote. Moving on."

"Damn, Cassie, you're good."

"I know."

Autumn turned back to the kids of Trenton "Ladies and gentlemen, we're not kids anymore, okay? We are the adults of Trenton. I'd say nine is the new twenty-five. That means we have to act like grown-ups, which means we have to take responsibility, and think about the future. I think food needs to be rationed. Remember all those California kids talking about how they starved because everyone ate junk food and let the fresh stuff rot? We can't let that happen."

Cassie suddenly flinched. "Oh, my God, Autumn, what if people here have powers? Like in the Anomaly in America."

Autumn blanched. "Uh… I don't really think that's important right now."

"No way," Cassie sounded amazed. "What can you do?"

The other girl's eyes looked cornered, but she sighed. "Later. Okay, everyone, you can go now. Autumn and I will be coming round for the food later. Could the people who volunteered for baby duty please stay behind?"

The people who stayed behind were Quava Darcore, Twilight's sister, and some eleven-year-old boy neither Cassie nor Autumn knew but who introduced himself as Thomas Goldsmith. "Okay, guys, we left the kids in a classroom. Hopefully they haven't killed themselves yet."

The children were all okay, just mostly screaming, and Autumn and Cassie left Quava and Thomas with a promise of formula.

"So what can you do?" Cassie asked.

Autumn sighed and touched her hands to her chest. Slowly, she faded away into the background. If you knew she was there, you could just see her, a vague outline against the wall. "It's like you're transparent or something. Like a chameleon. How did you figure that out?"

As Autumn explained about a game of hide-and-seek with her cousins, her second cousin, Saoirse, turned herself into a breeze, and drifted past them.

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Well, that was definitely interesting. Little Autumn could go invisible. Of course, it wasn't nearly as dangerous as Saoirse's own power, that to turn into anything or anyone she wanted, but she'd have to watch out.

She found her twin, Calum, leaning against a tree outside. "Sister dear. What brings you here?"

"Autumn has a power. She can, like, fade into the background."

"So, her own personality?"

"No, I mean literally. I saw it. She went all transparent. You could see the wall behind her."

"Well, that is interesting."

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In his private school ten miles outside of Trenton, Kingston Mars surveyed his little kingdom. He'd always been something of a bully, but no adults had made him king, especially when he demonstrated his ability to conduct electricity through his fingers. That had pretty much cinched the deal.

He turned towards Trenton. A small town, it was true, but probably worth at least an attempt at a takeover. They would all be running around like headless chickens round about now, he figured. Everyone needed a leader. Why not him?

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So, uh, yeah. This chapter is actually up earlier than I thought it would be, so that's a good thing. Sorry to OhParadise that Kingston only comes in at the end, but I wanted to make this chapter mostly about Autumn and Cassie's big speech, so yeah.

To the anonymous Guest who asked: Sure you can still apply. Until I say so, you can apply all you want. Send in your characters, everyone.

To just-add-a-dash-of-savvy: I'm not sure I thanked you enough for Saoirse and Calum. They're perfect.

-threelittleclouds