A/N: My full author's note is at the end of the chapter!
Summer Recap
Paige's POV
So much had happened this summer. I learned to control my orbing power. Also my glamouring power came. That took some time to master. It got me into trouble and it got me out of trouble. I had come out to Glen; that I was a witch. How did he take it, you ask? We aren't friends anymore. Finished, done for, we're over with; possibly forever. Only Phoebe knows this; Prue and Piper don't know. At least I don't think they do. For them to know this they'd have to know about the car wreck and our powers.
The beginning of the summer was awkwardly quiet. Piper, back before Grams died would be busy in the kitchen when she wasn't working. This summer she was hardly home; and when she was she was in her room most of the time. Prue was always working; avoiding Roger; her ex-fiancé. Phoebe was in New York; all summer. She called maybe once or twice total.
What was I doing? I was practicing orbing. Since hardly anyone was home I had plenty of time to practice. I orbed around the house when they weren't home. Then I orbed by miles and then by state. Eventually I tested orbing far enough to a different country. Paris seemed nice; but I only made it halfway and landed in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. I did make it to England; this was after I dried off of course.
A downside of orbing? It burned a lot of calories. You may be questioning the bad side? I lost weight and my sisters noticed. Prue talked to me, she even wrapped her arm around me to see how thin I was; she took off my make-up that I was using to cover up the dark circles around my eyes. After that Piper gave me an extra helping at dinner every night for a week. My weight was the same as it was at the beginning of summer. I felt like I was stuffing myself. They let me be eventually.
I studied the Book of Shadows also; even made a few blasting potions. I had time to test them too. They worked; too well and that was a difficult conversation to have with Prue.
"Paige, are you home?" Prue asked entering the Manor. She was home early and I had blown up a cheap flower vase in the conservatory. The flower vase was no more and the potion had been too strong; a chair had blown up in the process. I was sweeping up what I could.
"Oh my God! What happened?" Prue asked seeing what happened.
"Uh," I said, "Uh, there was um uh."
"Paige!" she said, I cringed.
"It was an accident. I was lighting a candle and the match slipped. I don't know what was on the floor. I heard the noise and I covered my face," I lied. Luckily Prue hadn't looked at my arms. I imagined a burn and a bandage on my arm.
"Are you hurt?" she asked forgetting that I caused the accident.
"Just a small burn; I'll be fine," I said showing her my arm. She gasped and carefully unwrapped the bandage.
"Paige, this isn't just a small burn," she said; I looked at it. Whoops, I guess I visualized too well.
"It doesn't hurt anymore, I cleaned it up," I said, it wasn't a total lie; the 'burn' didn't hurt.
"Paige we need to get this checked," she said dragging me into the entryway.
"Prue, I'm fine! We don't have to get this checked," I said. Using my power for personal gain wasn't a good thing but what was I supposed to say? That I used a potion? That one of them will have the power to eventually blow things up?
"Paige, we are getting this checked," she said looking down at me. I wasn't going to back down.
"I'm fine Prue! If I wasn't I would have called," I said. She didn't look convinced.
"Ground me okay? But don't take me to a doctor, please," I begged, they'd realize it was fake.
"Clean this mess up; you're grounded for two weeks. You'll also pay for a new chair," she said.
"Fine," I said grabbing the broom. The two weeks were the longest weeks of my life; this was my consequence for personal gain and that I had to keep the 'burn' on my arm. Of course Glen questioned this.
"What happened?" he asked; I was going to tell him today. Tell him that I was a witch/ whitelighter. The first mistake was getting into the car.
"Glen I need to tell you something," I said sitting in the passenger seat.
"You sound serious, what's up?" he asked not paying attention to the speed rising.
"It's about my sisters and me, my whole family actually. At the moment though it's just me sort of," I said.
"I'm confused," he said keeping his eyes off the road to look at me. That was his mistake; the mistake that changed everything.
"Watch out!" I screeched. I grabbed his arm and orbed us out right before the car hit a telephone pole. We landed on the pavement; my legs and arms were scraped up. I heard the pole break in two and crash onto the car. The car burst into flames.
"Paige?" he asked as I stood up. There were hardly any people around. I grabbed his hand and ran toward an alley. Somewhere quiet to talk.
"My car, what's going on Paige?" he asked.
"Glen, I'm a witch," I said.
"What?" he asked.
"I'm a witch. I can cast spells, make potions, I have powers," I spilled, "I know this is a lot but I had to tell you."
"Prove it," he said. I took the bandage off.
"This isn't real; remember the accident earlier a few weeks ago? I caused that with a potion. There were no flames," I said. I glamoured the burn away. He was speechless.
"Glen?" I asked.
"It's a lot. How long have you been a witch?" he asked.
"All my life but these powers I have are whitelighter powers. I'm half witch- half whitelighter. Whitelighters are like protectors of witches," I said, "My witch powers don't come until all of my sisters are together again. Grams didn't finish the binding potion so they'll eventually return."
"How long have you known this?" he asked again.
"Since before Grams died, at first it was suspicion, then I found the truth. I've known for two or three months," I said.
"And you didn't tell me?" he asked hurt.
"I wanted to. I was scared that if I did that," I said before he interjected me.
"That I'd tell someone? Paige we've known each other for years. We tell each other everything! How could you keep this from me? How could you not trust me?"
"Glen, the only other person who knows is Phoebe! I didn't know how you would react," I said defending myself.
"I won't tell anyone, don't worry, I won't tell your precious secret! Maybe it's time we take a break," he said.
"What?" I whispered.
"Maybe we shouldn't be friends anymore," he said.
"No, Glen, please. I'm sorry. Please don't leave," I cried.
"Goodbye Paige," he said leaving the alley.
"No! Glen! Wait!" I said going after him. I didn't see him; he had disappeared. I wanted to disappear. I'd go to Phoebe. I went home and wrote a note to my sisters'.
Don't worry. Don't call the cops. I'll return. I'll come back like I always do. Love, Paige
I packed my bag of clothing unsure of what the weather would be like in New York. Before I left I called Phoebe.
"Hello?" she asked.
"It's Paige, I need to talk to you," I said.
"I have some time before I leave for work," she said. I looked at the address of the postcard she sent us.
"Good, just let me find somewhere quiet," I said as I put the phone on the table and I orbed to her apartment building. I left the bathroom in the lobby and went to the desk.
"Hi, which apartment is Phoebe Halliwell in?" I asked.
"Why do you need to know?" he asked.
"I'm her sister, I'll sign something if you want," I said. I signed a piece of paper and went to her apartment. Phoebe was still on the phone.
"Paige? Paige!" she asked. I knocked on the door.
"I'm busy!" she said slamming the door in my face only to reopen it again.
"Paige?" she asked in a whisper.
"Hi," I said as tears spilled down my cheeks. I hugged her. She pulled me inside closing the door and sitting next to me on the couch. She handed me some water as she wiped my tears away.
"Shhh, it's okay Paige," she said to me, "What happened? How'd you get here?"
"Orbed," I said sniffling.
"You orbed here?" she asked.
"It was easy," I said, "I tried orbing to Paris; all that happened was I got wet. I made it to London though."
"You've been orbing?" she asked.
"Yeah, but that's um that's," I was trying to say.
"It's okay," she said rubbing my back.
"Glen, he um he and me we aren't friends anymore," I said.
"What?" she asked astonished.
"We were in the car and I was about to tell him and it crashed. I orbed us out in time. He's disgusted with me," I said.
"Oh sweetie," she said hugging me.
"I'm glad I came," I said, "I've missed you."
"I've missed you too," she said, "Come on, you're in New York City! Let's go shopping; I don't have a lot of extra cash but we can get something small."
"Okay, um you should know I didn't tell Prue I was coming," I said.
"Oh, that's not good," she said picking up the phone dialing the home number.
"Prue, calm down its Phoebe," she said bringing the phone away from her as Prue yelled on the other line.
"I know where Paige is, stop screaming in my ear!" Phoebe said.
"She's safe, she's here in New York. She flew out here, with some money she earned, she'll be here for a week," Phoebe said.
"Don't Prue, she needs some time. Something happened and she flipped," she said.
"Phoebe!" I said.
"Yeah, that was Paige," she said she handed me the phone.
"Paige?" Prue asked me, when I didn't say anything.
"Yeah," I said.
"What happened?" she asked.
"Nothing, I'll see you in a week," I said hanging up, "So we were going to shop?"
"Um, yeah. You know you're going to talk to Prue eventually right?" she asked.
"Yeah, and I was just ungrounded by the way a week ago," I said.
"What did you do? And you took off a week after you just got ungrounded? Have I taught you nothing?" she asked.
"I sort used a potion to blow up a vase and instead blew up a chair. Prue caught the mess and I had to glamour, change appearance, of my arm to look like I burned myself. Prue nearly took me to a doctor but I convinced her not to," I said.
"Why are you using your powers? I thought we talked about this," Phoebe said, "The last time we were on the phone."
"You talked about it. I lied about agreeing. I thought you'd be excited about being a witch," I said.
"Paige, think about what happened when you told me," Phoebe said, "You ended in the hospital!"
"I got around it," I said.
"Paige that's not the point!" she said.
"You sound like Prue! What the hell happened to you?" I asked almost crying, "I came to you! You can't do this to me! Not now!"
"Paige, calm down I didn't mean it," she said holding me still.
"You sure?" I asked.
"Yeah, sorry. Just be careful practicing magic," she said.
"I always am," I said.
"Let's go have some fun," she said leaving the apartment.
"Okay," I said. We went shopping and we went to a million restaurants. Every day was amazing. I had so much fun with Phoebe, I hardly thought about Glen at all; then I had to go home.
"So we have three hours until your plane is to land; you'll be okay orbing by yourself?" she asked.
"I'll be fine," I said, "We don't have a lot of time left. There is one more place I want to go."
"Where's that?" she asked.
"I want to go to Central Park, just go and walk. Then I'll orb home," I said.
"Sounds good," she said. We talked a lot. About what's going on; she hasn't found her dad yet, how Prue broke up with Roger, and then Phoebe brought up Glen. She said that maybe we'd be friends again, that it'd blow over.
"Nice hoping," I said, "It's almost time."
"Yeah, I'm gonna miss you," she said hugging me.
"I know," I said, "I'll call you when I get home."
"See you soon okay?" she asked.
"When I'm not grounded," I said smiling.
"A few months ago it would have been hard to imagine you being grounded," she said.
"Yeah, it would have been the other way around," I said, "Goody-bye Phoebe."
"Bye Paige," she hugged me in her apartment and I orbed into an empty stall in the bathroom at the airport in San Francisco. I left the bathroom my suitcase rolling behind me. I looked for Prue and Piper.
"Prue!" I called once I spotted her; she turned around and ran to me. She scooped me up into a hug.
"Can't breathe," I choked out.
"Sorry," she said letting go; then Piper hugged me.
"Are you insane?" Prue asked me.
"Excuse me?" I asked.
"You ran off to New York!" she said, "We're did you even get the money for that? Weren't you supposed to pay for that chair?"
"Prue, you're causing a scene let's continue this at home," Piper said. The ride home was quiet; I could tell Prue was furious with me.
"All right Paige, spill it!" she said as we entered the Manor.
"I wanted to surprise her," I lied.
"Phoebe told me something happened," she said.
"She lied," I said, Phoebe would kill me but I couldn't tell her what happened.
"Yeah, well why, should I believe you?" she asked.
"Why shouldn't you?" I asked.
"You took off to New York, without telling us," Prue said.
"So, I took off for a week to another sister's!" I said, "I left you a note!"
"You scratched out 'like I always do,'" she said, "That means you've taken off before."
"How do you prove that?" I asked.
"I have it in writing," she said.
"When have I sneaked out this summer? I haven't even been late for dinner!" I said.
"Why did you go to New York!" she asked.
"I can't tell you! I can't! It's not my choice to tell," I said going upstairs.
"Paige! Wait," Piper said following me. I whipped around.
"I don't want to talk! That's why I went to Phoebe. I'm done talking," I said then I looked at Prue, "You can ground me, hell if I care." I slammed my door shut.
After my grounding was finished and done when I told them I was going to hang with Glen I orbed to a different state, each time. It was fun too; I got snow globes of every state. My shelf was cluttered with them; I'm surprised my sisters didn't ask. I only tried talking to Glen once; it failed miserably.
That was my big side of the summer. I practiced magic, lost my best and only friend, traveled the world, and I was grounded about a third of the summer.
Piper's POV
So how was my summer? Let's see Grams is dead. I didn't leave my room for weeks. Paige finally got me out of it. Oh Paige; always hiding something or another. This summer those secrets seemed to pile up. I was with Jeremy most of the time or at work.
I don't keep secrets; at least I try not to. I tell Prue almost everything; almost. She didn't know that Jeremy proposed for a while. At the time Paige had taken an unexpected trip to New York. So we had to deal with that bowl of drama.
I came home early and I saw the note Paige left.
Don't worry. Don't call the cops. I'll return. I'll come back like I always do. Love, Paige
She took off! I fumbled the number on the phone.
"This better be important," Prue said.
"Paige is missing," I said.
"What?" she asked.
"She's gone, she left a note; wrote she was coming back. She also wrote 'like I always do' which she crossed out," I said.
"I'll be home, did you call the police?" she asked.
"We should wait; maybe she'll contact us. I'll explain more when you get home," I told her. Jeremy proposed that day and I had said yes. I twisted the diamond ring on my finger. We'll need this news when Paige is home and safe. I slipped the ring off and put it in my jewelry box. I heard Prue come in through the front door.
"Piper!" she called. I came downstairs; she was looking at the note.
"What do you think?" I asked her.
"If she doesn't contact us in twelve hours I think we should call the police," she said.
"So do we just wait?" I asked her, "What else can we do."
"I have to agree; we wait for her to call," she said. So that's what we did we waited. Someone did call and we were both surprised who it turned out to be.
"Paige?" Prue said picking up the phone.
"Phoebe? Do you have any idea where Paige is? Is she safe? Is she hurt?" she asked her voice rising.
"I'll pay for a ticket for her to get home," Prue said.
"Was that Paige?" she asked.
"Could you hand the phone to her?" she asked.
"Paige?" she asked.
"What happened?" she asked concern in her voice. The next second later she hanged up the phone.
"Prue, what happened? Where is Paige?" I asked her.
"New York, with Phoebe, she's safe but she sounded oh what's the word," Prue said.
"Sad, upset?" I asked.
"No, it starts with an H it's on the tip of my tongue," she said.
"Heartbroken," I said.
"Yeah, she sounded heartbroken. She'll be home at the end of the week," Prue said.
"Why didn't you demand she come home? Phoebe will keep her safe but she needs to be here!" I said.
"Piper she has Phoebe, she doesn't need us to help her with whatever problem she has," she said, "I'm going back to work, I have to keep busy."
"Whatever, bye Prue," I said going into the kitchen.? I made some coffee and sat in the conservatory. This didn't make sense. Why did Paige go all the way to New York? She could have called her; or she could have come to Prue or me. What was wrong Prue; she just basically dismissed it. What was it that was bothering Paige? Whatever it was I was going to find out.
Now where to start first? Where was that other chair again? Oh yeah Paige had that fire incident. There was no smoke mark though, that was strange. I touched the ground there wasn't anything. Normally there'd be some mark, it was a light tile after all. I did some research online. She needed a buffer to completely clean it.
So Paige had lied about the accident. What had caused the chair to blow up and what happened to her arm? I wasn't going to disturb her when she was on a little break from San Francisco. I should tell Prue, but she was already frustrated about everything else.
I went back to my room and put my ring back on. Prue and I didn't eat much that night; the next day went by slowly and I planned to cook a small dinner tonight. I fed Paige twice the amount because she recently lost a lot of weight. She weighed her normal amount now. I had no clue what she was doing to lose that weight. Prue didn't say anything to Paige; she said as long as she was at the weight she was supposed to be, that we didn't need to talk to her.
I remember her reaction to the first time I gave her extra helpings.
"What's this for? I don't eat this much," she asked.
"Paige you've lost weight. I care about your health, we all do. You won't be leaving this table until you finish," I had said. She looked at me like I was crazy then she looked at Prue.
"Do what she says Paige," Prue said. Paige didn't argue. She wasn't happy but she was healthy.
Prue was convinced that Paige wasn't sick. I tried to tell her that Paige could be anorexic; but she dismissed it.
"Piper, Paige is just exercising a lot; if you think she's lost weight giver her extra helpings at dinner," she said, "I have BMI charts, that'll explain if she's healthy or not. If she refuses to eat the extra helping then we'll get her some help. Piper I have enough to worry about at work; do you know how much research I have to do?" So when Paige ate the dinner, twice her normal every night. She didn't go under her normal BMI rate or above it.
I remembered Paige left to see Glen the day she left. I dialed his number.
"What?" he asked sounding disgusted.
"Glen, it's Piper," I said.
"Oh, sorry I thought you were someone else," he said.
"Who?" I asked did he and Paige have a fight. Is that why she went to New York?
"No-one, is something wrong?" he asked.
"Paige ran off to New York. She was you yesterday; when she left. Or she was supposed to be," I said.
"Oh," he said.
"What happened, Glen?" I asked.
"Nothing happened; why would you think that?" he asked in a rush.
"She wasn't exactly happy when talking to Prue on the phone," I said.
"Look Piper, Paige and I are fine," he lied.
"You're lying, what happened yesterday Glen? Spill it now," I said.
"We just had a disagreement; I told her it wasn't the best idea to go to New York. We fought the whole way, that's it," he said. I wasn't convinced though.
"When Paige left she didn't take a suitcase with her. Also she didn't leave a note until after I left," I said.
"We had a fight that's all," he said.
"What was it about?" I asked.
"That's for Paige to tell you," he said hanging up. What was she hiding? I talked to Prue when she got home.
"Prue, I have something to tell you," I said the minute she walked through the door.
"Hello to you to," she said, "What is it?"
"I talked to Glen today. He and Paige had a fight yesterday," I said.
"What? What was it about?" she asked.
"I don't know," I said.
"You don't think he did something do you?" she asked.
"He's Glen, he wouldn't do that to her. But he wouldn't let her run off to New York either," I said. Prue picked up the phone and dialed Glen's number.
"Prue, he wouldn't tell me anything," I told her.
"Yeah well wait till he has a piece of me!" Prue said as the phone rang.
"Glen, it's Prue," she said, "Call me back when you get this message."
"If he hurt her," I said as my voice got quieter.
"He'll be in so much trouble if he hurt her," she said then she looked at my hand.
"What's that?" she asked grabbing my hand.
"Oh! It's an engagement ring," I said casually.
"Jeremy proposed? When?" Prue asked.
"Yesterday," I said.
"And you didn't say anything?" she asked.
"Well when I came home Paige was gone and we were busy with that. I decided to wait until Paige came home. We would need some good news," I said, "I'm sorry I didn't tell you. I was going to."
"That's okay; it's good though to think of waiting to tell us. Paige will need something good in her life considering she's going to be grounded till she's eighteen," Prue said.
"You won't ground her that long will you?" I asked.
"We'll be having a serious talk once she gets home," she said.
"Well, of course we will," I said, "Look Paige lied about that accident. Look at the floor there are no marks."
"Then how did she get that mark?" Prue asked.
"Make-up possibly or something else could have happened," I said.
"Like what?" she asked.
"I have no clue; Paige has more and more secrets piling up. We don't want to ask her everything all at once," I said. Prue didn't say anything.
"Oh come on, don't Prue," I said.
"I didn't say anything," she said.
"I know what you're thinking. Don't call Paige in New York. She left for a reason and bringing up that pain will make it worse," I said, "She needs this time to think, we'll question her when she get's home."
"Yeah, okay, what'd you make for dinner?" she asked changing the subject. Glen never responded to our calls. When we did bring Paige home I tried talking to her a million times. Every-time she dodged me. I did eventually force her to sit down to talk.
"Paige, please just talk to me," I said sitting on the couch.
"What about?" she asked innocently.
"What happened before you went to New York," I told her.
"Piper, I already went through that with Phoebe," she said.
"Well, I want to know what happened," I said.
"Glen and I had a fight. We took a week or so of a break and we made up," she lied. She kept her voice as natural as possible but she didn't fool me.
"What was the fight about?" I asked her.
"Just something about last May," she said then she snapped her mouth shut.
"What about last May? What happened last May? Besides you know," I asked.
"He was just upset about something I didn't tell him; that's all," she said.
"Paige you can't keep secrets from friends or family," I said.
"Why not? It isn't illegal," she said.
"Paige what are you hiding?" I asked.
"That's my secret," she said.
"Paige secrets can get people killed," I said. (Reference to Pretty Little Liars; which Holly Marie Combs (Piper) stars as a mother in)
"Pipe, this isn't like that," Paige said, "Besides why does it matter? Glen and I made up. I apologized and he forgave me."
"Paige, when you run off to New York after a fight, an apology isn't going to make up for something like that," I told her.
"You just don't know the relationship Glen and I have," she said.
"Paige did he ask you for sex?" I asked her. A pure look of disgust crossed her face.
"No!" she said standing up, "I'm not that type of girl number one. Number two I'm still a virgin the last time I checked."
"Paige it was just a question," I said.
"No it wasn't! It's an accusation!" she said, "We've never had sex." She headed upstairs.
She was grounded for the rest of the summer. She would make small talk every now and then and she was happy for me about my engagement but that was the only joy she showed.
The beginning of my summer was off to a rocky start with Grams dying and then Paige kept quiet most of the time. Jeremy proposed; which was amazing. He took me to a gourmet restaurant uptown. He proposed to me in front of the entire crowd and I of course said yes.
We were at a small Italian restaurant downtown. We were eating dessert.
"Excuse me, if I could have everyone's attention," he said standing up. The whole place became quiet.
"About a year ago I met the most wonderful woman. She makes me smile, laugh, always brings me up when I'm down. Piper Halliwell will you marry me?" he asked getting down on his knee. I was crying after I kissed him and said yes everyone is the restaurant was clapping.
We, well I, planned the wedding for April. I was able to plan almost everything except the food. Summer was almost over and I still didn't have much luck finding a job as a chef. Maybe the term of a new school year would bring more hopes.
Phoebe's POV
So my plan to going to New York didn't go as planned. Finding a job was next to impossible; finding a reasonable apartment was a living hell. I found a job nonetheless. All I did was bus tables at a small restaurant an hour from my apartment. I took the bus everyday and biked on the weekends.
I enrolled into a community college for the fall. In July I had a steady boyfriend. Grams or Prue wouldn't approve of him but what did I care. I almost found my dad and was about to call him when a little surprise stopped me.
"Hello?" I asked into the phone.
"It's Paige, I need to talk to you," she said sounding upset.
"I have some time before I leave for work," I lied.
"Good, just let me find somewhere quiet," she said. I didn't hear her.
"Paige? Paige! Are you okay?" I asked no one answered.
"Paige, answer me," I said.
"Paige? Paige!" I yelled again when there was a knock on my door. I opened it.
"I'm busy," I said slamming the door in Paige's face. In Paige's face, Oh my God! I reopened the door.
"Paige?" I asked in a whisper.
"Hi," she said as tears spilled down my cheeks. She hugged me. I pulled her inside closing the door and sitting next to her on the couch. I handed her some water as I wiped her tears away.
"Shhh, it's okay Paige," I said, "What happened? How'd you get here?"
"Orbed," she said sniffling.
"You orbed here?" I asked. How had she orbed?
"It was easy," I said, "I tried orbing to Paris; all that happened was I got wet. I made it to London though." She's orbed out of the country?
"You've been orbing?" I asked.
"Yeah, but that's um that's not," she was trying to say.
"It's okay," I said rubbing her back to calm her down.
"Glen, he um he and me we aren't friends anymore," she said. What? What happened? What'd he do to her?
"What?" I asked.
"We were in the car and I was about to tell him and it crashed. I orbed us out in time. He's disgusted with me," she said.
"Oh sweetie," I said pulling her into a hug, inspecting for any scratches. She had a few but they were bandaged up.
"I'm glad I came," she said, "I've missed you."
"I've missed you too," I said, "Come on, you're in New York City! Let's go shopping; I don't have a lot of extra cash but we can get something small."
"Okay, um you should know I didn't tell Prue I was coming," she said.
"Oh, that's not good," I said picking up the phone dialing the home number. Prue must be worried sick! Then when she found out that she was here she'd be pissed. Paige would be going home.
"Paige?" Prue said picking up the phone.
"Prue, calm down its Phoebe," I said, she started yelling and I had to take the phone away from my ear.
"Phoebe? Do you have any idea where Paige is? Is she safe? Is she hurt?" she asked her voice rising.
"I know where Paige is, stop screaming in my ear!" I said.
"She's safe, she's here in New York. She flew out here, with some money she earned, she'll be here for a week," I lied trying to calm Prue down.
"I'll pay for a ticket for her to get home," Prue said.
"Don't Prue, she needs some time. Something happened and she flipped," I said.
"Phoebe!" Paige said.
"Was that Paige?" Prue asked.
"Yeah, that was Paige," she said.
"Could you hand the phone to her?" she asked. I handed the phone to Paige.
"Yeah," she said pausing.
"Nothing, I'll see you in a week," she said hanging up, "So we were going to shop?"
"Um, yeah. You know you're going to have to talk to Prue eventually right?" I asked her.
"Yeah, and I was just ungrounded by the way a week ago," she said.
"What did you do? And you took off a week after you just got ungrounded? Have I taught you nothing?" I asked; Prue was going to kill her once she got back in California.
"I sort used a potion to blow up a vase and instead blew up a chair. Prue caught the mess and I had to glamour, change appearance, of my arm to look like I burned myself. Prue nearly took me to a doctor but I convinced her not to," she explained. Those potions could kill her? Or kill someone else! She was going to get herself hurt; she was going to get herself killed.
"Why are you using your powers? I thought we talked about this," I said, "The last time we were on the phone." We talked about this in mid-June.
"Phoebe guess what?" she asked.
"What Paige?" I asked.
"I found some potion recipes," she said and I heard her rustling some pages.
"Paige where are you?" I asked.
"Attic, Prue and Piper aren't home," she said, "There's a potion about vanquishing a ghost."
"Paige, you won't be vanquishing any ghosts or demons or anything! Don't make any potions either! You could get hurt," I said my voice rising.
"Calm down Phoebe, I'm perfectly safe, now where is that spell?" she asked.
"Paige, you won't be making any potions or casting any spells," I said. She was going to blow her and the house up.
"Why? I'm having fun with magic," she asked.
"It's dangerous just please stop. No more potions or spells," I said.
"Whatever, so how's New York?" she asked changing the subject. That was the end of it.
"You talked about it. I lied about agreeing. I thought you'd be excited about being a witch," she said.
"Paige, think about what happened when you told me," I said, "You ended in the hospital!"
"I got around it," I said.
"Paige, that's not the point!" I said my voice rising.
"You sound like Prue! What the hell happened to you?" she asked almost crying, "I came to you! You can't do this to me! Not now!"
"Paige, calm down I didn't mean it," I said grabbing her arms as she shook.
"You sure?" she asked. Her hormones were through the roof. What was going on?
"Yeah, sorry. Just be careful practicing magic," I told her.
"I always am," I said.
"Let's go have some fun," I said changing the subject.
"Okay," she said. I took her to all the sites including; Lady Liberty, the Empire State Building, and the World Trade Center a.k.a the Twin Towers.
We also hit some clothing stores. The workers weren't exactly happy when all we usually left with was a scarf or socks. I did get Paige a really cute sundress though. She liked all the restaurants though and she hung out at my work when I was working. Paige eventually had to go home; it was a bitter-sweet goodbye.
I lounged around for another week then I tried again to contact my dad. It was unsuccessful though. Every time I tried over and over and I kept getting the same results. I never found him.
I talked to my sisters' one more time that summer, Paige was still grounded and Piper was engaged. Prue asked me what was bothering Paige, but I told her that it was Paige's choice to tell her. That was the last thing I told her. I asked Paige about magic and she said she was still working on potions.
"Paige, please stop making potions, besides where are you doing it?"
"Attic, Grams had an entire store of herbs and stuff, she made notes to be careful in the B.O.S," she said, "They're for protection."
"B.O.S? What's that? Paige you shouldn't need protection," I said.
"Book of Shadows, it's not like I have Glen around anymore. I tell them that I'm hanging out with him, when they let me out of the house; I'm on curfew now, when I'm orbing and stuff. These potions will help protect me if demons ever come," she said.
"Demons!" I asked shocked. Demons were after her? We shouldn't have gotten involved with all this magic stuff.
"Just joking," she said I couldn't tell if she was telling the truth or not.
"Just limit it okay?" I asked her.
"Yeah, I gotta go," she said hanging up. Clay and I didn't talk about my sisters, ever. We just had a good time during the day and night.
"Clay," I mumbled into his neck one morning.
"Hmm?" he asked.
"What time is it?" I asked.
"Nine-thirty," he said. I sat myself up.
"I have to get to work, or I'll be late," I said turning the shower water on.
"Ah come on Phoebe," he said.
"Classes start in a few weeks; I can't sleep in like this," I said.
"You mean we can't sleep together," he said.
"No, I'm just saying we can't 'do it' on weekdays, I need energy in the morning for classes," I said.
"Come on Phoebe! You can't be serious," he said.
"Sorry, Clay," I said stepping into the shower. When I got out of the shower he was gone. Clay and I have had disagreements before. We fought mostly about what he did. He worked with drugs and other things I wasn't supposed to know about. He questioned me a few times throughout the summer; but I won these fights. He was away visiting family when Paige came to visit in July; she was gone before he arrived home. Which I guess was a good thing.
Even before I told him about slowing down a bit we had recently had several fights. Everyone one of them ended with not talking for several days. This fight, the one about slowing down, was one of our last fights of the summer. I didn't know then that this was just the beginning of a spiral downward.
Prue's POV
So how did my summer go? It was horrible in my view. Grams died, I broke up with my fiancé, who I thought I loved, and I worked on my Bealls Exhibition almost the entire summer. Not mention the fact that Paige caused way too much trouble. First the chair then she went to New York! How did she even get the money? I remember when I broke it off with Roger; it was about a week after Phoebe left, we had been fighting constantly for two weeks after Grams died.
"Roger, I breaking off the engagement," I said. He was furious.
"Prue, it was your sister that came on to me," he said.
"Did you try to stop her?" I asked. He didn't answer me.
"That's what I thought," I said, "We should just break up."
"Come on Prue," he said.
"Good-bye Roger," I said.
"This won't cause any problems at work will it?" he asked.
"I'm a professional Roger," I said leaving the bistro. I vented to Piper that evening about it. She was still kind of out of it but she listened. Phoebe called once or twice that summer but only Paige and Piper talked to her. If you counted the time she called when Paige was in New York, which would make it three times. Paige didn't talk to me on the phone. I couldn't think of her or her problems. Piper was always worried about Paige. She told me how Paige was losing weight that was unhealthy rate.
"Piper, Paige is fine," I said, "You can weigh her if you want? Besides why would she have an eating disorder?"
"Prue, even before Grams died Paige didn't eat a lot. What if this pushed her over the edge?" Piper asked.
"Weigh her; make sure she doesn't have any extra weights on her. Or instead of weighing her give her an extra helping at dinner," I said, "If she denies eating it we'll follow up on it. Otherwise Piper we have our own lives we can't revolve around Paige."
"Prue, Paige is our sister. If she's sick we have to help her," Piper said.
"I'm not saying that. I care about Paige a lot. If you can show me evidence that something is wrong then I'll talk to her," I said.
"Prue have you looked at her recently? How skinny she is? She's sixteen; the weight she's at isn't healthy," Piper said.
"Piper I haven't had time, I've been busy with this exhibit," I said.
"Prue just go check on her, get a good look at her. Then come down and tell me she's healthy," Piper said. I looked up from my laptop. (Yes there were laptops were around in the late '90s)
"If that'll make you happy," I said going upstairs. I knocked on Paige's door.
"Paige, may I come in?" I asked. I saw a blue light from under the door.
"Uh, hold on," she said I heard her closing some drawers and she opened the door. She leaned against the door frame dressed in black floral dress. The flowers were large and red. I recently saw it in an ad for VOGUE for Britain. Where had she gotten this dress? How had she gotten the money for it?
"Prue?" she asked, I noticed her shoes were wet. It hardly rained in San Francisco and it hadn't rained recently.
"Prue?" she asked again waving her hand in front of my face. I looked at her. Most dresses fitted Paige, showing off her curves but this dress just hanged on her. She hid dark circles around her eyes with cover-up. Piper was on to something.
"May I come in?" I asked.
"Sure," she said opening the door wider. Her room was clean but her bed wasn't made. I sat down on it and patted next to me for her to sit next to me. I wrapped my arm around her waist and she looked at me funny. She was thinner than before.
"Paige, are you alright?" I asked her.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"How are you doing this summer?"
"I'm fine, I mean, I miss Grams and all but other than that I'm fine. This summer's been okay," she said.
"Come with me," I said grabbing hold of her hand and bringing her into the bathroom. I sat her on the toilet and grabbed a make-up remover sheet. I kneeled in front of her removing the cover-up. She pushed my hand away.
"What are you doing?" she asked.
"Removing your make-up," I said like it was a normal chore.
"I'm sixteen; I'm allowed to wear make-up. Besides I remove my make-up at night," she said.
"I just want to see something," I said.
"I don't have a black eye Prue," she said.
"Don't argue with me, now hold still," I said. She sighed as I removed the cover-up. She had dark circles around her eyes; her cheeks looked more sunken in.
"Paige, are you getting enough sleep?" I asked her.
"Yeah, I'm fine," she said I guided her to the mirror and let her look at her appearance, "its summer it's not like I have to get up at five or six in the morning."
"Will you step on that scale?" I asked her.
"Excuse me?" she asked.
"Step on the scale," I said.
"You're insane. I'm healthy look I'll get more sleep okay?" she said leaving the bathroom. She closed her bedroom door.
"Wait Paige," I opened the door and she was gone. Paige was home by dinner and I told Piper to go ahead with the food idea. Paige hadn't refused. I didn't ask her where she had gone or anymore questions about her health; she was home safe.
Then about a month later she left to New York. If Paige didn't want to talk about it then fine. If she wanted to block everyone out, only hanging out with Glen, fine. He never did call back to respond to my message. Paige said he didn't do anything to her. When I gave her a curfew after she was grounded for a while she immediately wanted to go to Glen. I told her no.
"Prue, he's my best friend," she lied. Something happened and they weren't friends anymore.
"Sorry Paige, no," I said, "You left for New York after you fought. Paige, that only happens when something really hurts." She was trying not to cry; not to break down.
"We just had a small little fight. I left to New York to talk to Phoebe to talk about something else," she said closing her eyes and shaking her head.
"What?" I asked.
"I can't tell you," she said.
"Paige I'm your sister, you can tell me anything," I said sitting next to her on the couch.
"I can't tell you this, I'm going out Prue," she left. She said she made up with him; Piper and I didn't believe her but she seemed happier; and that's what mattered. Piper was happy; she was engaged to Jeremy.
I didn't care about Phoebe. She betrayed me. She hit on my Roger! Well at the time he was my Roger. Sister didn't do that to each other. Was Phoebe really my sister? She wasn't one to me anymore. No sister would do this. Phoebe disgusted me. She not only hit on Roger but she later lied about it! The nerve of her? Sisters lie, I know that. When Paige lied about her arm it was different; she was hiding a secret. Phoebe was denying the truth. What was Paige hiding come to think of it? I remember returning home that day in July.
"Oh my God! What happened?" I asked seeing the mess in the conservatory. There were several chair pieces in a pile that Paige was sweeping up.
"Uh," she said, "Uh, there was um uh."
"Paige!" I said putting my hands on my hips; she cringed.
"It was an accident. I was lighting a candle and the match slipped. I don't know what was on the floor. I heard the noise and I covered my face," she said.
"Are you hurt?" I asked forgetting about the mess; concerned for Paige's safety.
"Just a small burn; I'll be fine," she said showing me her arm. I gasped and carefully unwrapped the bandage. The burn was dark red; we had to get this checked.
"Paige, this isn't just a small burn," I said. She looked at it and her eyes were wide.
"It doesn't hurt anymore, I cleaned it up," she said.
"Paige we need to get this checked," I said dragging her into the entryway.
"Prue, I'm fine! We don't have to get this checked," she said her words spilling out fast.
"Paige, we are getting this checked," I said looking at her.
"I'm fine Prue! If I wasn't I would have called," she said. She wasn't okay, this burn was nasty. Her health was in my hands not hers.
"Ground me okay? But don't take me to a doctor, please," she begged close to tears.
"Clean this mess up; you're grounded for two weeks. You'll also pay for a new chair," I caved. If the burn got worse when I checked it later I'd take her to a doctor.
"Fine," she said grabbing the broom. The burn progressively got better and by the time she got back from New York it was almost healed. Piper and I talked about how she had lied about the accident and every time we tried to talk about she backed off and became mute. I did get an explanation from her eventually.
"Prue, if I told you what really happened, you'd think I was crazy. I know you don't like the secrets but you're gonna have to deal with it. I'll tell you something maybe if you let me see my dad. Since that won't happen I'm gonna stay quiet," she said. I let her talk to her dad on the phone, monitoring it. She was ticked but she told me something. It was a small piece of info almost useless. She said that all of us were special, unlike anything else. That when we found that out we'd understand. I dismissed it. Paige seemed to close up even more. The good thing was I didn't find any alcohol or drugs in her room. Piper seemed to be like a Nancy Drew (TV show joke Piper always made a comment here or there about being ND) and she was happy about being engaged. It took her a while to open up after Grams died. All of us faced a problem differently; Phoebe ran away, Piper hid, Paige closed up, and I dove into work.
The summer would be over soon, I continued to work on my exhibition, Piper continued to plan her wedding, and Paige was getting ready for school and was hardly home. I don't plan on lifting her nine o'clock curfew anytime soon. I'd give her a midnight curfew on weekends as a gift during holidays and vacations.
A/N: So what'd y'all think? Good enough recap? Do you want more details or scenes? If you do I'll write them! I know I left a scene here or there out in Prue and Phoebe's POV and if you want those scenes it won't be a problem to write them. If you have ideas for a scene during their summer tell me your idea! I'd love to explore it further! I worked really hard on this recap; I had to do a ton of research; not that I minded. I love going down a Charmed Memory Lane! Season 1 will officially begin in '3 months' when Phoebe returns. Don't worry it won't be that long in our time maybe a month or so depending on how busy school is. I uploaded this chapter right after OGT (Ohio Graduation Test) week. I'm so relieved all I have left is 1! Now I just have to worry about the ACT and SAT. What am I doing blabbering? LOL okay time to stop that; please review w/ what you thought! Don't forget to add scene ideas! BTW: My previous Author's note I deleted; that's why this is considered Chapter 21!