"Whoa, I'm feeling a little dizzy can I sit down?"
"Sure" said Relda and led Lauren to the table. Then sat her down in one of the chairs, and went over to get her a glass of water. Sabrina stood there staring at her twin, who looked exactly like her right down to the length of her hair. Puck stood there with childlike ammusement on his face, and Daphne looked from one to the other like she was watching a game of tennis.
"Okay" she said after a while "I'm all good now and I'm guessing you want to hear my story. "
"Duh" Puck said.
"Any way I was in the orphanage for seven years because for some reason no one wanted to adopt me." Lauren said while she drank deeply from the glass of water that Relda had brought her.
"What!" asked Sabrina her voice shrill "you were in that awful place for seven years!"
"Yes" sighed Lauren "I just said that."
"Oh yeah right." "But how did you survive?" asked Sabrina concerned.
Everyone had been watching this with rather amused expressions. It seemed that Lauren had the power to access her twins' heart easily.
"Ms Smirt had a soft spot for me though, I have no idea why" said Lauren shrugging.
"Maybe it was that she liked babies" said Daphne speaking for the first time since she had found out about Lauren.
"Hmm that's probably right, thanks Daph, you just solved one of my greatest mysteries, you're a great detective."
Daphne seemed to glow a bit at the praise.
"Anyway when I did get adopted I got adopted by a retired criminal, but he wasn't really retired and he wanted me to help him rob a bank, and when I refused he beat me. So I ran away." explained Lauren while she waved her arms around to illustrate her point.
"Ouch" winced Sabrina "we got a criminal too, remember Daphne."
"Oh yeah, Mr Greeley."
"I think the people at the orphanage like torturing kids" said Lauren "When I get older I'm going to go back there and adopt some of the kids so they don't have to go through that."
"Yeah" murmured Sabrina and Daphne, lost in thought.
"Back to what happened" Puck said snapping his fingers underneath their noses, and startling them out of their thoughts.
"Oh yeah I ran for a year until the orphanage found me again."
"Wait, wait, wait when you were seven you lived for a year fending for yourself" said Veronica in awe.
"Yeah"
Everyone looked at Lauren with respect, but Lauren looked uncomfortable with the attention.
"Anyway, Smirt tried to place me with 5 more foster parents, but I escaped each time because they were all only in it for the money. Then when I was 11 I found out who my parents were and who I was then I spent the next year trying to get here." She finished simply.
"But wait" interrupted Sabrina "we found you because you fell out of the sky how did you get up there?"
"Well, when I was 10 I discovered that I could speak to animals and that they would do anything for me. So before you found me I had a really bright idea to summon a bird so it could carry me the rest of the way to the house." answered Lauren who looked annoyed at her own stupidity.
"Whoa back up a bit you can speak to animals" inquired Sabrina.
"Yeah"
"But how?"
"Well I haven't told you the whole truth, you see I'm an everafter" explained Lauren, then unfurled a pair of feathered wings.
"But you can't be" said Sabrina ignoring the guilty looks on her parents and Granny's faces.
"Actually she is" said Henry stepping in "you both are."
"What!" Sabrina practically yelled.
"Well Brina you aren't one yet. When you two were born we received a message saying that the first born of the Grimm twins would become an everafter when her age became double digits, and if she came into contact with the younger one they would both become everafters, it wasn't signed so we didn't know who it was from."
"But I couldn't let that happen. I had sworn not to get you girls involved in the family business, so we only told Relda about the prophecy and I gave Lauren away. Even though your mother protested I knew it was or the best." But I never thought this day would come unlike Veronica who said that you can't stop fate thought Henry.
"So if I touch her I turn into an everafter" clarified Sabrina pointing towards Lauren.
"Pretty much" said Lauren jumping into the conversation, and standing up agaiin.
"But I don't understand, how did it happen in the first place? I mean how did Lauren become an everafter, how would I become an everafter? We have human parents."
"Yeah I always wondered about that" said Lauren.
"A curse" said Henry and the temperature in the room dropped significantly.
"Well I think it's a pretty awesome curse" said Lauren brightly warming the room up "It's really cool being able to fly and talk to animals and stuff like that." Lauren said brightly and to illustrate her point she sung a low note and a sparrow fluttered in throught the open window and perched on her outstreched hand.
"Hey if I became an everafter too would I be able to talk to animals?" asked Sabrina eagerly.
"Wait you can't become an everafter I forbid it."
"I didn't say I would become an everafter I just asked if I would be able to talk to animals."
"Well would I be able to?" Sabrina said turning back to Lauren.
"Hmm, I don't think so" replied Lauren.
"Oh okay" said Sabrina crest fallen.
"You would get an ability to do with a thing that you have a special connection with or that your especially good at. For example I always felt animals were the one thing I could act naturally around. But you would still get wings."
"Cool" Sabrina said her eyes widening. Standing up looking at Lauren with fresh eyes.
"What do you think my talent would be? If I became one." she added hastily looking at her father's angry face.
"I'm not sure, we'll have to try and find out."
"Okay"
"So Sabrina after all this, the big question is, think you want to become an everafter?" Lauren asked holding out a hand with commotion as a result.
"What!" Henry roared "I said I forbade it."
"Hey that's no fair" Daphne yelled "Sabrina gets all the good opportunities and she doesn't even want to be an everafter."
"What?" Yelled Jake "this can't be happening" and more voices melded into a giant ball of noise.
But throughout it all Sabrina stood shocked and stared at the girl who could change her life. Then a smile slowly slid across her face.
"Let's do this" she said and grasped Laurens hand.
