Chapter Four
Clues
Soon, Yuuki's and my birthday were happening soon.
How soon? Oh, for me? Ten days, and for Yuuki? Three days.
Yeah, yeah. Yuuki's older than me, and she always uses it against me. But, haha! I am taller than her. So I say "respect your tallers", while she retorts: "respect your elders". Then it gets on to a different subject every time. Like for one thing we're talking about gasoline prices, then we're talking about spatulas. (This is actually an interesting topic to talk about.) Okay, anyway…
Yuuki and I went home before we actually went to the library. (And we didn't know where that was.) Of course, Alicia was home. She goes to the hospital at 7, and she works the 7 to 7 shift. PM to AM. Which is twelve hours, but it helps the house and the family a lot. So…I guess it's cool.
There's something I have always been curious about, but never asked about it. Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back…anyways, we're not cats. It's about my family. My mom left so I never got to catch up on my history, and my father, well…he was no help at all.
I decided to gather up my courage and ask my mom everything about me.
"…Mom?" I started to ask. "Can I ask you a question?"
"You just asked me a question right there, but what is your other one?" Alicia asked, smiling to herself.
"Can I ask you about the family? Like to learn how I became me?" I asked her, a little uncomfortable about asking. It might be too painful for her to talk about my dad's side.
"Okay… Let's start for where you got your looks." Alicia started, not hesitating at all. "You actually got it from your great-grandfather. Actually, I have some information in a book about him."
Alicia went off to her room, and I took a seat next to Yuuki on the couch. It seemed that Yuuki was as interested into this as I was.
"I can't believe you got your looks from your mom's side!" Yuuki grinned. "I unfortunately got my looks from my dad." She scowled.
"What are you talking about? Of course you got your looks from your mom! Where else did all that beauty come from?" I told her. I wasn't joking; she had her mom's dirty blonde hair and blue eyes.
"Che…! Beauty?! Yeah right!" Yuuki rolled her eyes at me. "I'll be beautiful once I'm not related to my dad, and when is that? Oh, right… NEVER!"
"Shut up. That is not true!" I mean if you had seen Yuuki you would've known that she wasn't ugly like she said she is. And trust me; she is nothing close to ugly. "Come on! Sheesh, you are pretty! Stop ignoring me!"
Yuuki was starting to have a great interest into the table, probably trying to not listen to me.
"Okay,
anyways," I started to say, slightly exasperated. "My mom's
already down the hallway. I'll talk to you about this
later."
"Here it is!" My mom said, carrying a fairly large
book in her arms. She lay the book down and opened to a page that was
already marked with: Hunter
Phoenix.
It also had a letters from him to several people. "You could look
through it; I need to go run some errands. You should probably look
at the letters, I never got the chance! After all these years, never
had the time. So, look through the letters and tell me about
them!"
Alicia went through the doors, and I heard the car
backing out of the drive way, and accelerating to its destination. I
started to look at the letter that was addressed to the future
Phoenixes…which included me.
Yuuki was peering over my shoulder
to look at the letter with me. The handwriting on the letter being
absolutely perfect, or at least close to it.
Dear Future Phoenixes,
If you may look at the bottom of this letter, you may be able to tell that my name is Hunter Phoenix. I am writing this letter, for I think that the end of my life is drawing near… It had been my choice to write this letter to my future family members, so that people in the future may not forget me.
My full name is Hunter Jude Phoenix. I am the age of seventeen right now, and a young age to be at the brink of death. My father and mother have already died before me. Father dying ten years ago, and my mother dying just a few minutes ago. I had received the news from Dr. Cullen. The Spanish Influenza had hit here, and the war was still raging on as hard as it had started.
I am alone again. Dr. Cullen left the room, saying that I still have a few hours before my life ends. For my future family, who may not have a photo of me…
I have blue eyes that my mother describes as: "shocking." For none of my relatives ever had the same color of eyes. I have jet black hair, you may say. A boyish figure, though I am actually quite strong compared to others of my age. Pale white skin, as my mother says: "you look like you've seen a ghost."
And now, it's been a few hours. I have taken a break to writing this letter, and now I wish I shouldn't have. I could feel death creeping in me, and Dr. Cullen staring down at me.
Dr. Cullen is telling me of how my mother begged him to somehow keep me alive, as her death wish…He is telling me what he's going to do…He said he's going to turn me into a —
The
letter was cut off at that part! It hadn't shown anything, not even
the signature of Hunter!
Yuuki shuddered behind me. "What do
you think happened?"
I tried to think of the best explanation.
"I bet it's just his way of humor! I'm sure he died of old age,
but made the letter so that people in the future could get a fright,
and boy, did it work!"
It seems that Hunter isn't the only
one in the family that has blue eyes, and jet black hair. So does
that mean that Hunter and I are the only ones with blue eyes? Totally
cool.
"Yeah, it did work. It scared me." Yuuki stated, not
really paying attention to what I was saying, but staring at the
letter intently.
I followed to where her eyes were gazing, and my
eyes opened in shock. Finally noticing the crazy part.
"Dr.
Cullen?" Both Yuuki and I whispered simultaneously.
I didn't
believe it. "Alright, so what? Dr. Cullen… how many Cullens are
there in the world?"
"You're right!" Yuuki said, shaking
the thought out of her head. "Of course, how could we be thinking
that? Oh look, it's time to go to the library!" She gathered her
stuff, and went off to the room to get both of us some jackets.
I
needed to find more information about this, so I had decided to bring
the book with me. Of course, being absolutely careful with
it…stuffing it in my backpack.
"Smooth." Yuuki
complimented, laughing a bit.
"I know, huh?" I grinned at
her.
I decided instead of riding with Yuuki, I had wanted to try
out my Ducati. So, I had gotten on my bike and rode off to the
library… (Not without knowing how to get there.) I had made it
there just before Yuuki, about 3 minutes. The library wasn't as far
as I thought it would've been.
I decided to wait for Yuuki, and
of course, it only took her about 3 milliseconds to get ready and
through the doors of the library. I walked behind her, and I was
practically at her heel. There were several people there; though not
enough to block the two Cullen females we were supposed to meet here
today. Yuuki and I walked up to the two of them and exchanged
smiles.
"Hey." I said calmly. "So, what exactly
are we going to do?"
"Something that we haven't decided
yet." Alice commented toward me. I had never expected her to
actually talk to me about something. She usually stood there quietly
next to Emmaline, but now I can see the kindness and excitement in
her liquid topaz eyes.
"We actually wanted to get to know you
guys better." Emmaline added, looking at Yuuki and me straight in
the eye. "The library was just a meeting place; would you like to
go to the diner right across the road?"
"Yeah, why not?"
Yuuki started, and then at the exact moment… her stomach made a
growling noise. "Perfect timing too." She muttered under her
breath, smiling sheepishly.
So we walked across the street, in
total silence. Though, it might've been comfortable if it was kept
at that. I guess silences were better around us, not barging into
anyone's business or problems…
"Okay, so you guys should
order right now." Alice said, her voice sounding absolutely
hypnotizing. "My sister and I already ate when we came home."
Answering the question that Yuuki and I were about to ask.
"One
salad and one cheeseburger. One green apple slushie and one raspberry
ice tea." Yuuki said to the waitress that came by. Then she turned
to the sisters in front of us.
"We already ate." Emmaline
said to her. The waitress left, leaving the four of us in complete
and total silence.
"Alright, so let's get started. Who's
going to talk first?" I asked the people around me.
"Actually,
you guys will learn about us sooner or later, now is just not the
right time to talk about our past." Emmaline said to us, her face
in a pained expression.
I was almost completely sure that it was
about her being adopted, and a sob story about her real family…
Keyword: almost.
"Oh…well,
I'll give you a general idea of myself." Yuuki started. "Then
you guys can ask questions about me if you need to."
"Alright,
so my full name is Miyuuki Serenity Somoto. My first name is
Japanese, and so is my last name… though my family has no Japanese
ethnicity in it. I'm sixteen years old, going to be seventeen in
three days. My mother's name is Valerie Lynne Smith, until she
married my father." Yuuki scowled at the subject of him. "He's
Robert John Somoto. I call him Bob… Yeah, that's the end." She
said lamely, not really thinking of a better way to finish it.
It
seemed that the Cullen sisters were listening quite well. "So, your
birthday is in three days?" Alice asked her.
"Yeah, it is.
Turning seventeen, the one-seven." Yuuki said smiling.
Emmaline
looked at Alice with a cautious look on her face, and Alice returned
the glance with an unsure smile.
"Alright, so Emberlynne, it's
your turn." Emmaline encouraged me. "Don't worry, it's not
like we're going to tell anyone."
They both had a sincere and
honest look on their face.
…and I didn't trust them.
But
how would that look to Yuuki?
I sighed and began to talk. "My
full name is Emberlynne Séraphin Phoenix. I go by Ember, thank you
very much. I am sixteen right now, and my birthday is in this month
like Yuuki, but I'm turning seventeen in ten days. Sometimes I'm
called Phoenix, which is my surname. My mother is Alicia Marylle
Johnson, 'til she met my dad whose Lucas Kyle Phoenix…and I do
not
want to talk about him right now." I missed him too much to say
anything. "I'm just learning about myself right now, and I have a
book about my past relatives in my bag right now."
I knew I
shouldn't have added the last part to the story, but I just had
to say it…
"Really?" Alice said, her amusement looking
genuine. "Can we see it? I would love to help you on this."
I
guess the thought of Alice and Emmaline to have the same last name as
the Doctor in the letter, overwhelmed me… because right after
Alice's sentence, I pulled out the book.
"I found out that I
got my looks from my great-grandfather. His name was Hunter Phoenix."
I told them, and then I suddenly remembered them telling me about
their siblings in Spanish class… "And wow, he has the same name
as your brother, but then again… Hunter is a common name, I
suppose."
"Yeah, of course it is. I mean you said that he was
your great-grandfather right? So that must've been at least one
hundred years ago, and our brother is only seventeen years old…"
Emmaline informed both Yuuki and I.
I nodded, and what struck me
was that…
Her brother is seventeen years old… the dying age
that Hunter said in the letter that he had written.
I saw that
Emmaline was looking over the letter with shocked eyes, but only for
a second. She began to have the poker face again, no emotions on
it.
Instead of looking towards the Cullen sisters, I turned my
attention to the T.V. near us.
"Tomorrow's weather is 98% of
sunny." The weatherman said. I frowned at this statement, I was
hoping for all-year cloudiness/rain. The screen turned to a woman at
a desk. "It's going to be a great day for Forks! Our Halloween
festival is being set up, and we're all looking for volunteers! So
come on down and help us make this year the best one
yet!"
Halloween, I forgot that it's only eighteen days
away…
I love Halloween, not because of the religion, no. I love
it because of all the frights and scares you get, and the candy
afterwards. Last year, I got a five pound Hershey Bar! It was
diabetes in a wrapper! Yuuki and I finished it in one night, without
any regrets at all.
"Hey, do you want to help out?" Yuuki
asked me, interrupting my flashback.
"Yeah, of course!" I
said enthusiastically. "How are we going to get there? Maybe Alicia
can give us a ride. We don't know where it is."
I had almost
forgotten about the Cullen sisters until Emmaline cleared her
throat.
"Your food's here." She said, as she pushed the
burgers to either Yuuki or me.
"Thank goodness!" Yuuki
exclaimed happily, smothering the salad with dressing.
"Here's
your slushie." I said to her, handing over her cup of heaven. I
took a sip out of my raspberry ice tea… not bad at all.
I soon
found out how hungry I actually was… I finished my food in oh-eight
minutes.
"Man, you eat slowly." I told Yuuki, she had barely
started on her salad.
"I'm savoring it!" Yuuki retorted.
"It's good compared to the food at school."
"Alright. So
we should meet up someplace next week." Emmaline told us. "Maybe
somewhere like the park. I like parks. They're so calm and
serene."
"Yeah…hold on… Next week? What's bad about
tomorrow?" I asked, not controlling myself of my manners.
"Since
it's going to be sunny for the rest of the week, our family is
usually busy during these rare times." Alice explained. "We
usually like to go someplace, and sometimes for a whole week."
I
had heard from Angela that the Cullen family liked to take hikes in
the forest and the mountains. Dr. Cullen liked to be fit, I'm sure.
So my mother will be the main(if
that's the best way to describe it) doctor at the
hospital.
"Alright. It's fine. I hope you have a nice time
for wherever you're going." Yuuki said. "Are you guys busy now,
do you need us to leave right now?"
"No, it's okay. You
haven't finished your food yet, and Emmaline needs to get home, she
hasn't finished her homework yet. The little procrastinator."
Alice said, grinning toward her sister. "So I guess we'll see you
next week."
The two Cullens walked over to a green truck that
stood out among the silver and black cars. It looked like that it was
Emmaline's car because she was the one who went to the driver's
seat.
After fifteen minutes, Yuuki was finally finished with her
food. We walked out of the diner.
"You know what? Let's go
down to the library. Also, I would like to learn more about
my…history." I paused at the last sentence…
…the book!
I
left it at the restaurant! No, wait… I had let the Cullens see it,
and I don't remember seeing anything at the table after we
left.
…they took it, but they wouldn't do that! Would
they?
Of course not Emberlynne, that would be completely
stupid!
…Fighting with yourself is a sign of craziness.
"Hey,
where's the book?" Yuuki asked, not expecting the bad news that I
was going to tell her.
"I think the Cullens took it, but it's
alright. I'll get it from them next week." I said, hopefully they
would bring it back.
"Yeah, of course." Yuuki said, walking
into the library once again. "Let's go make our own library
cards."
We walked over to where we sign up. I stared at the
instructions, and found out that there is a two dollar fee to get a
library card. I checked my wallet and found no money left because I
had paid for our meal.
"Don't worry, I have some money. About
ten dollars left… Man. We need to get some jobs soon." Yuuki told
me.
"…I don't think that high schoolers could get some good
jobs. Compared to our jobs at the skating rink, I mean they took
teens who were fourteen and up, who needed a job." I explained. "Is
there really a nice place to work after school?"
"Maybe we
can work at the library." Yuuki suggested. "This is a nice place,
really quiet."
"Nah, I think I would first think of studies
before working." I told her.
Yuuki sighed in defeat. "Fine,
be that way. We'll carry on with our schooling, and then we'll
find the most amazing job in the world together!"
I grinned at
her plan. "Of course we will. Because together, we are the
invincible and unstoppable duo! No one can put anything between
us."
"Unless it's a bulldozer. I would kindly move out of
the way for that." Yuuki said. "I don't want to be crushed."
I
laughed at her comment until I found out that she was serious. "Like
that'll ever happen." I rolled my eyes.
"Fine, whatever."
She replied back to me, smiling. "Let's go make our library
cards."
Yuuki grabbed her information and mine and went up to
the front desk. She had a small conversation with the lady, and then
in two minutes, our library cards were ready to use!
"I would
like you each to choose a four to five digit number for your card. A
birthday or anything like that?" The librarian informed us.
Yuuki
and I both grinned at each other. "Is it alright if we use the same
code?" Yuuki asked, curiously. I knew where she was going with
this.
The librarian blinked in confusion. "It's alright, but
it's advised you don't."
"When was the last time we
took advice?" I muttered under my breath.
"Alright," Yuuki
turned her attention to the library, paying none to me. "We'll
use the code–"
"71197." She and I said in unison. It was
the day that Yuuki and I had met, and I thought the numbering was
funny. Seven-Eleven-Ninety Seven. All numbers ending in "–even".
So that day was July 11, 1997.
"Alright." The library said,
putting in the code in the computer. "Everything is set, and there
is no limit to checking out books."
I stared at her in
amazement. "No limit? So I could check out the whole library if I
wanted to?"
"You would have to take the books home, and not
lose them." She pointed out to me. "But yes, you could."
Yuuki
was already dragging me by my arm when I tried to ask more questions
about the library.
"You are a nerd." Yuuki told me, smiling
like a complete idiot.
"You're a dork!" I said as a
come-back, which really wasn't a good one.
Yuuki just looked at
me, and walked off. I swear I could see her shoulder moving in a way
that showed that she was laughing. She turned to the section of
'Young Adults.'
Yuuki was probably looking for some
romance/horror or romance/action fiction book. Those are her favorite
genres. I love a good fiction book, any book that is non-fiction… I
would hate it the minute I find out that it was
non-fiction.
I followed after her, almost losing myself in the
shelves of books! This library had every book I've ever read in the
past 3 years! It's effing amazing!
I decided to check out a
book I haven't read in a while.
I found Yuuki after a while at
a small and quaint table reading a, well, book.
She looked up to
see me standing there. "Ember! I was just going to look for
you!"
"Why?" I questioned. The book in her hands was huge,
and I meant huge.
It looked like an a million page book!
"Well, I was just
looking for a book, and here is one." Yuuki explained, handing me
it..
The book had no title on the spine or cover. I flipped
through the book and started at the first chapter, it was explaining
how there was three different types of angels. Dark, light, and
twilight. Weird is what I thought, and there was rumored that angels
had even lived among the humans. For every one millionth person,
there is one angel. So that could be around three thousand,
right?
"Why did you choose the book? How did you know what it
was about?" I was confused, I mean the book had no title.
"Um,
well it was the biggest book on the shelf." Yuuki confessed
sheepishly. "And Ijust flipped through it."
"So you took
this book…because it was the biggest one?"
She nodded.
"Then, what does this have to do with me?" I asked her, slightly
confused.
"Read the list of surnames on page 368." Yuuki told
me, in a voice that slightly scared me.
"What?" I asked,
really freaked out right now. Yuuki? Remembering numbers? Freaky, the
world has gone psycho.
I turned to page 368 and saw a long,
long list
of names. I decided I was too lazy to look at all of them, and so, I
turned to page 369, and found the letter 'P.' I couldn't
believe what I saw, I mean, yeah, I should've expected it, but my
last name was there. In bold letters: Phoenix.
I
decided not to notice and turned my glance to the page of what the
letter 'S' was on. Now, this, I was entirely blown away
by…Somoto?!
It was either Yuuki was hiding that her last name was here, or she
missed it entirely.
"What kind of list is this?" I asked
calmly and sweetly, trying to hide the anxiety in my voice.
"It's
a list of the families that have been rumored to have angels in their
past. See, probably if you count… there's maybe around three
thousand names in here, more or less." Yuuki explained, more in
detail.
You have got
to be kidding me. "Well…there are other Phoenixes that live
around the world, and they aren't related to me." I said to her,
trying to think of a reason.
"Doubt it." Yuuki told
me.
"There's Somoto here." I said curtly. It seemed that
Yuuki didn't see that because shock flickered on her face for a
moment.
"Other Somotos in the world." She muttered, trying to
use what I said against me.
"Doubt it." I said in a mocking
tone. She glared at me for a moment.
"I'm absolutely serious
about this! This is freaky! Check out the book and read it. I know
you can, you read too much." Yuuki told me. "You better read it,
and I'll read it with you, but I'm a slower reader then you, so
you finish it then pass it on to me."
"You seem more
interested into it than I am, so you read it first." I didn't
want to read about fictional-facts… that didn't make sense did
it?
"Too bad, you read it first! You're the non-believer!
Shun the non-believer." She said, quoting from Charlie and Candy
Mountain.
"I'm not a unicorn." I pointed out.
"No,
you're an angel." Yuuki grinned at the choice of words she
decided to use.
I glared daggers, and I mean sharp
daggers at her. I wasn't amused at this at all. "Where did you
get this book anyways?"
"The young adult section." She
pointed at the shelf she took the book from.
"Who wrote the
book?" I wasn't holding the book, she was. So I was just
wondering if the author was a maniac or psycho path.
"Doesn't
say. It was just there on the shelf. No author."
"How can you
trust this book then?"
Yuuki rolled her eyes. "What is the
probability of our last names being in there?"
"…" I had
no answer, but the probability was pretty low.
"Let's show
the book to the librarian and ask if we could check it out." She
walked to the front desk.
I can't believe she was taking this
in so easily! I'm freaking out here! The news came a little too
early. I would've probably waited a few…years, decades…
anything! Usually, I'm the calm one between the two of us, but I
guess that's different right now. I'm gonna go crazy soon, I'm
sure of it.
I met up with Yuuki at the front desk of the library.
I heard her talking with the librarian.
"What do you mean
this book isn't registered in this library?" Yuuki asked, her
tone having a hint of exasperation.
"I mean just that. It's
not registered; probably someone had left it here. We'll take it
just in case someone comes back for it." The librarian said,
holding out her hand.
Yuuki was freaking out. She wanted the
book, I could tell, but then she couldn't lie that that book was
hers. She was horrible at lying.
"Um, miss? I left the book
right on the table. I had forgotten to tell her that I bought it for
her… for her birthday!" I told her, I was totally winging it
right now. Hopefully that lie wasn't easily see-through.
"Oh.
Okay, well, happy birthday." The librarian said, giving back the
book.
"Thanks so much." Yuuki said, telling the librarian.
I'm sure she was trying to direct the thanks to me as
well.
"You're welcome." I said, as we left the
library.
"You're a life saver." She smiled.
"I
know."
We walked over to her car and my motorcycle and rode
home. I'm sure that tonight is going to be a busy night. We have
homework and Yuuki's gonna kill me if I don't start reading the
book.
I walked to the front door, and pulled out my new house
key. One that has a design of phoenix on it, because Phoenix is my
last name! Clever, eh?
"What time is it?" I asked her.
"It's
around two o' clock P.M."
"Alright, so shall I work on
homework?"
"No. Start reading. Now."
"Fine, fine."
I walked towards the book, and flipped to the table of contents. It
seemed like a boring information book.
"Blech, there's no
dialogue." I held the book out as if it was a pair of socks covered
with manure.
"It doesn't need dialogue for it to be
interesting." Yuuki told me. "Come on, just read it. I'll do
half of your homework for you."
Read a book, and not do half of
my homework. It seemed that Yuuki was seriously into this.
"Nah.
I'll read, and I'll do my homework." I told her.
Her eyes
were full of happiness. "Yes! I don't have to do extra work! And
you're reading too!" Suddenly her tone became suspicious. "What's
the catch?"
I spoke the truth. "None at all. Promise." I
did an 'x' over my heart to prove that I was serious.
Yuuki
looked like she was about to jump for joy. "Yay! I'm gonna go
work on my homework." She skipped right over to our room.
I
sighed and started to read the first chapter.
In the world, there are three kinds of angels. Light, dark, and twilight. Light and dark are the most common around us, and there is rumored that the twilight angels may not even exist. Though, according to a psychic that has been having premonitions about angels, twilight angels would be shown to the world every century. The numbers she has said were rumored to be the dates of the arrival of the 21st century (the only numbers she could've gotten), and that there will be only one twilight for every century in the whole world. Though, during the 21st century…two Twilights will show. The numbers the psychic repeated were: ten, sixteen, twenty-three, and nine.—.
I stopped reading, and
began to hyperventilate. ten…sixteen…twenty three…nine?
10-16
& 23- 09. October 16 & 23, 2009.
Both Yuuki's and my
birthday, but what are the odds of that?
I began to laugh without
even noticing it. It sounded hysterical, and I began to talk to the
book.
"What do you want from me? I know, you want to ruin my
life! That's what you want!" Talking to books is not what people
consider to be 'normal.'
"Don't look at me like that!
Staring at me, trying to get me cra-azy!" I continued and I began
to carry the book to Yuuki, in our room.
She looked over to me
when I opened the door, and I was sure I was hyperventilating still,
and that my hair was sticking out in stress.
"What the heck
happened?!" Yuuki asked, absolutely terrified by my actions.
I
was trying to find something that would burn the book, and I found
those lighter things in the kitchens, not the ones for smokers, it
was just a lighter.
"I am going to burn this thing. It's
going to ruin our lives!" I was on the verge of tears right now. I
flicked on the lighter and put the lighter against the spine of the
book.
Yuuki ran over to me, and made my hands dropped the book.
"You idiot!"
I was sure she was calling me that because I was
burning the book.
"You could've hurt yourself! You had me
worried! Don't do that!" She hit my head and began to examine my
hand, she didn't even notice the book.
I was staring at the
sight in front of me. The book…it wasn't burning.
"Book.
Not. Burning." I managed to choke out, before I
screamed.
"Em-Ember… calm down. It's okay. You've heard
of magic right?" I nodded. "Okay, so it's a magical book.
Magical books can't be hurt. Just like in the Spiderwick
Chronicles."
She told me. I sort of calmed down after a while.
"You're
gonna take me to a crazy house, aren't you? The ones for nutcases!
An asylum!" I complained, it seemed like she had a good reason
to.
"No, no. I won't. I promise." She took me and the book
into our room.
"The dark magic is going to scare me at night."
I told her.
"Why'd you decide fire?" Yuuki asked out of the
blue.
"I don't know." I told her, and I didn't really
want to answer.
"Didn't you go to the doctor once, and when
you saw a candle, you started playing with it…but you weren't
scared to get burned? You didn't even get burned. And the doctor
said that you were a pyromaniac." She laughed. "Your mom told me
that story once, and you still are one."
I frowned. "So what?
Is there something wrong with that?"
Yuuki didn't even answer
my question. "After your mom told me that story, I decided to play
with fire for a while. I didn't get burned either." Her voice
became thoughtful. "Also, remember when we first went to the
swimming pool?"
I nodded and smiled in remembrance.
"…we
stayed underwater for what seemed like a long time, and when your
father found us. We told him that we stayed underwater for like an
hour, but he didn't believe us. He said that we were just at the
snack bar and jumped into the pool when he got back." Yuuki
said.
"So what?!" I was getting sort of annoyed with the
things she was telling me, and that just reminded me that my dad
didn't trust me at the time.
"I was reading a chapter in the
book," She said. I was going to open my mouth when I noticed that
she was explaining now. "It said that angels sometimes, but rarely,
experience some of their powers when they are children. From 10-11
years old."
I was 10 when I tried to burn myself, and Yuuki was
11 when she tried to burn herself, and we were both 11 when we went
to the swimming pool.
"I hate this! Why do we have to be
abnormal? I mean really
abnormal, like 'not human' normal!" I whined.
"We may not
be human, but still." Yuuki said.
"Fine, fine. I'm going to
work on my homework, and try to finish 8 chapters in that book
tomorrow." I was really aggravated, I didn't want to stay and do
work.
I mean, if we are angels, then why are we doing some boring human
stuff?
"Man, I wish we get like… major super powers! Not like
not being able to be burnt and being able to hold our breath, I'm
sure some other people can do that. I want super,
majorly super
powers." Yuuki wished while sighing.
"Yeah, then we didn't
have to live the human life." I said, agreeing with her. Maybe I
could find some more clues later on… the letter seemed important,
but I don't know how.
"Stop saying that, I'm amused
by our lives, from the events, like life-changing ones. One of my
favorites, was finally meeting you."
I grinned. "I remember
how we actually met."
"You were a dork, and just so happened
to forget your eraser." Yuuki smiled. "And then I was the hero,
and handed you one."
"It was the one shaped like a panda
holding bamboo, right?" I asked.
"Yeah. It was one of my
favorites, but you needed one so I let you have it." She said,
smiling at her niceness.
"I still have it." I said, taking
out a pretty small chest that shone in the sunlight. "I kept it in
here." I inserted the small silver key and turned the
lock.
"Really?" Yuuki asked, surprised. "I still have the
box of crayons you gave me. The 64 crayons one, and it has a
sharpener on the box."
"Haha!" I laughed. "That's so
weird, I remember having to lie to my dad saying that the teacher was
taking it for other people, but then you were right behind me,
holding the box!"
"Sheesh, you're a pretty good liar, I
didn't see through that. I was like: 'Uh, I still have the
crayons.' You can lie without blinking." Yuuki replied.
"Yeah!
I learned from the best!" I flashed a grin in her direction.
"When
was the last time I lied?" Yuuki asked, grinning. This was a trick
question actually.
"Right now. You're lying about lying." I
told her, I was the one who came up with that.
"Yeah, and now
I want some cookies. Let's go raid the kitchen." Yuuki said,
getting up. "I love this place. It's carpet everywhere! Except
for the kitchen of course. And look what I got!" She showed me the
Fun Slides that she got.
"Aren't Fun Slides something that
you can use to skate on carpet?" I asked her, I only saw those on
T.V.
"Yeah, I was just talking about it with Mike, and he had
some that he doesn't use since they put wood paneling all over his
house."
"Oh…well, that was nice of him." I commented. We
tried the Fun Slides out, and it was really…um…fun. Then we were
finally in the kitchen.
"This place is huge."
Yuuki said, gazing around. "I never really paid attention, I just
wanted some food!"
I laughed. "Of course. I think the cookies
are in the pantry…er, I mean one
of the pantries."
"Oh. Well, let's take a guess at which
one it is." Yuuki said. She walked to the third one out of the six
pantries. She opened it and there were the cookies, without thinking,
she grabbed the M&M cookies and started to feast. "Want some?"
She asked, with her mouth full.
Well, her mouth wasn't full,
if it was, she wouldn't be able to speak.
"Uhm. I like white
chocolate and macadamia nut." I reminded her. She got the whole box
and handed it to me. "What's with the craving?"
"I just
wanted some cookies." She said in defense of herself. "You know
how I like cookies, I usually have them every day, but we hadn't
had the time ever since we got here." She frowned.
"Don't
worry, Alicia has enough cookies to last us a year." I reminded
her, as I looked toward the mountains of cookies in the
pantries.
"Yeah, and ravioli. I like ravioli." Yuuki said,
grabbing a can of microwavable ravioli out of the first pantry. "Do
you want some?"
"Do I like
ravioli?" I asked, trying to give her a hint. When I said it, it
sounded like an obvious question.
Yuuki nodded and grabbed two
raviolis and popped them right into the microwave.
Suddenly the
phone rang.
I picked it up. "Hello?"
"Emberlynne…"
The voice on the other line said, more of a sound of relief.
"Uhm,
may I ask who this is?" I asked politely.
"…Ember, you are
in so much trouble." The voice said, completely ignoring my
question.
"Who is this?" I asked impatiently.
"It's
your dad."
