Lost Boy

Andre Harris is in for the surprise of his life when he learns that maybe his grandma isn't so crazy after all, and maybe, just maybe, he is something extraordinary. He's about to enter a world on the verge of a war, the world his best friends live in, and a world he will have to save or risk losing everyone.

Rated T

Chapter Two

Andre pulled the beanie off of his head and smoothed out his braids as he stepped up to the doors of the school, holding the door open for a few people before he followed them in, headphones pressed into his ears, his hands drumming the beat against his legs. He stepped up to his locker and played the jingle, it popped open and he traded out his math book for his Theater book.

"Headphones off, Harris!" Helen barked, Andre pulled the head phones off and unplugged them, hanging them on the hook in his locker. He'd given up complaining about this being a creative arts school and claiming the Helen was blocking his creative talents, she was dead set in her ways, and there would be no headphones in her hallways, "thank you, Harris."

"Sure thing." He mumbled, closing his locker and swinging his bag over his shoulder, heading for Sikowitz's improv class. He stopped when he nearly tripped over his best friend's bag on the floor, "Tori?"

She blinked her eyes, pushed her fingers through her hair, her face lit up, "hey Andre, how are you?" she pushed her book into her locker and shut the door, picking her bag up from the floor, "sorry about that…"

"It's chill." Andre shrugged his shoulder, falling in step beside her on the way to class, "so I was thinking maybe we could all head out to grab sushi after school at Nozu."

"Yeah sure." Tori agreed hastily, Andre pulled the door open for her and she rushed in, heading straight to Beck, sitting down and whispering with him and Cat. He glanced at Jade who shrugged and glanced toward the chair in a silent 'sit' look. Andre slumped into the chair next to her and set his bag on the ground.

"So you up for Nozu tonight?" Andre asked.

"Yeah, Cat's not going to come though. She's got some family shit." Jade shrugged, "it'll just be me, you and the sexual twins." She tipped her head to indicate Beck and Tori, who were well known for having open beds, and sometimes together.

"Yeah well they can be amusing sometimes." Andre smiled, Jade smirked and her eyes turned toward the in floor stage their teacher was on. He was currently balancing on his head and humming loudly. The class fell silent, all eyes on their strange teacher. He stayed like that until his face turned beet red and he slowly brought his feet to the ground and sprung up like the energizer bunny.

"Sometimes in acting, you have to stay in uncomfortable positions for long amounts of time. West, Vega, on the stage!" Jade groaned loudly, stomping up onto the stage while Tori bounced out of her chair and jumped onto the stage, "read this scene and when you think you've got it, start acting."

Andre watched bemused as they started a fight scene that wound up with Tori straddling Jade, leaning over her and pinning her hands above her head, her face inches from Jade's, he was sure there had been more the scene, but as soon as Tori had her pinned, Sikowitz bellowed "Cut! Stay there ladies! Andre, get me a coconut!"

Andre stood and grabbed a coconut from the back of the room, tossing it to Sikowitz who caught it and sat down on the stage and crossed his legs. He started explaining how if you were filming a scene you shouldn't move because you're going to screw up the shot if they were just cutting to add an effect, like blood, to the scene. He spent twenty minutes doing this, and during that time Andre watched Tori and Jade.

Jade's cheeks were burning red beneath her makeup, her brows pulled together in anger. Tori watched her with hungry eyes, a coy smirk on her face and her lower lip caught between her teeth to keep from laughing. Jade kept shifting awkwardly beneath the tiny girl, and he could swear Tori was grinding against her. Andre had never thought of it before, but he wondered if there was something going on between the pair, although he'd assumed Tori was with Beck, Jade's ex, but maybe he was wrong. He was really only good friends with Jade.

He finally looked away from the pair when Sikowitz screamed, "don't ruin the scene!" and Beck ran at them. Straight at them, blindfolded. Tori looked at Jade and Jade glanced at Beck and back at Tori fearfully and started to kick her legs in protest, terrified that Beck would just run over her. But then her face relaxed and she just smiled at Tori dopily as Beck ran by them, just past her head.

"Beck stop!" Sikowitz yelled, he slowed and took off the blindfold, just before he would have toppled over a chair, "you girls can get up now." Tori hopped up and offered Jade her hand, but Jade scowled at her angrily and flipped her feet of the edge of the inset stage and stood, stomping over to her chair. She picked up her bag and made for the door as the bell rang, Tori was on her heels in seconds.

"I can't believe you did that to me!" Jade shrieked as she stormed out the door, Tori right behind her. Andre fell in step with Beck behind them and listened to the argument that made no sense to Andre. Jade kept accusing Tori of doing something to her, but Tori hadn't done a thing, at least Andre hadn't seen her do anything, unless she was talking about the grinding.

At 8 Andre found himself sitting at the bar counter alone with sushi and a soda. There was no sign of Tori, Beck, or Jade. Although the latter always arrived late so he was still holding onto the hope of Jade showing. He ate his sushi silently and listened to the horrible, and some drunk, renditions of songs until 8:30 when Jade entered Nozu and made a beeline for the counter.

"Sorry, my car wouldn't start and my phones dead." Jade slumped onto a bar stool next to him and ordered herself a drink, "so any one decent sing yet?" she asked, giving him a nervous smile.

"Yeah, actually." Andre shrugged one shoulder and pointed to a woman across the bar. She had black kinked hair that fell down to her shoulders and bronzed skin that Jade thought almost glittered in the light. She was laughing with a few of her friends at something someone had said, and smacked the woman beside her playfully on the arm. Jade thought she looked familiar but she couldn't say why, "she sang Titanium."

Jade nodded and stared at her, trying to figure out why she knew the woman, but the only thing she got from her staring was that the woman was wearing body glitter, and she was getting really annoyed with Jade staring at her, "I'm going to go sing!" Jade announced and slid off the stool and made her way to the stage.

As soon as she was gone the woman was in her seat, leaning onto the bar and smiling at Andre, "sorry to bother you, but I looked over when your girlfriend was staring at me and you look familiar." She paused and batted her lashes, "are you related to a Charlotte Harris?"

"I'm her grandson, why?" he asked, taking a sip of his drink.

"No reason, I used to be a friend of the family is all. It was nice to meet you." She was walking away before he could stop her. He shook his head and took another sip of his drink, turning to listen to Jade's song, but she was already coming down from the stage and soon settled next to him again.

"What'd she want?" Jade asked as she picked up her glass and took a long sip.

"Just wanted to know if I was related to Charlotte Harris." He mumbled, Jade lifted her studded eyebrow in question but he didn't say anything else so she didn't ask again. They stayed until close and sang two more songs before Jade drove Andre home in her rental car.

He hopped up the steps of his apartment and flipped through his keys until he found the one for the door, he jammed it into the knob and twisted the handle, stepping inside, "grandma, I'm home!" he yelled.

"Hey Andre!" she screamed back. Andre shut the door, locked the deadbolt, secured the chain and shut the living room light off as he passed through. He paused in his grandmother's doorway to say goodnight and then went into his bedroom. He kicked off his shoes and tossed his jacket over a chair casually before he walked across the hall into the bathroom, shutting the door and pulling his shirt off, tossing it into the hamper along with his jeans and underwear.

He turned on the shower and checked that he had a towel, turned on his bathroom radio and slid the glass door open to the shower, stepping in and closing it again. He sang along to the radio and hummed the instrumentals. Everything seemed normal to him until a part in a song came up where he had to whistle, and when he did an ear shattering sound echoed through the small stall and the shower doors shattered.

He slapped one hand over his mouth and forcefully smacked the shower knob to shut off the showerhead. He managed to grab his towel before the door burst open and his grandmother stepped into the bathroom with a broom in hand. He expected a wild and crazy reaction to the broken glass but his grandma just stepped into the bathroom and started sweeping up the glass, "don't move." She ordered, "had to do this with your father too." She muttered to herself.

Once she was done she let him finish rinsing the soap from his skin and redress before he joined her in the kitchen with a cup of tea waiting for him on the counter, "now listen and listen good, Andre. You're a fae. To be more specific you're a siren." She told him and launched into an explanation about his parents and her role in taking him, "I've called an old contact and he'll be here Friday to take you to see the Birch, that's our leader, who can find someone to teach you the things I wasn't able to. You'll miss school Friday, but this is more important."

You're crazy, Andre thought, staring into his cup of tea. Charlotte smacked him with a nearby letter and he looked up at her wild eyed, what the fu-. She smacked him again.

"No grandson of mine will use such foul language around me. I'm a telepath, remember?" he quickly drank down his tea and excused himself. She cleaned the cup and returned to her room while Andre crawled into his bed and collapsed on the covers, his mind spinning with this new information.

He didn't go to school the next day and on Friday he was dressed and had eaten by 7 am when Charlottes contact arrived. His name was Hale and he was a distant cousin, who lived in Canada, and he claimed to be a siren, too. Andre was nervous about going anywhere with him, but he followed him none the less, his grandma sitting in back seat.

"I don't want to go, Hale." She told him. He'd shown up and told her the Birch had requested to see her as well, she'd eventually given in and agreed to go with him. Andre wished he had the telepathic ability she claimed to have so he could hear what was going on in her head. As soon as he thought it she kneed the back of his seat and he found himself buying into the telepathy more and more.

He reasoned that if he broke his shower with just a whistle something had to be up, right? Who just breaks the glass in their shower by whistling? He sighed and leaned back against the seat. When they finally reached the Birch's office he was relived to get out of the car.

He followed Ash and his grandma up to the elevator where they rode up to the fifth floor and were met with a cheery receptionist who told them to sit in the chairs and wait for the Birch to be ready to see him. When they were finally allowed in her felt nervous and terrified, Hale gave him the final shove into the room.

"Charlotte, how lovely to see you again." The Birch came around her desk to give the woman a quick hug, "how are you doing?"

"I've seen better days." She said, her eyes caught the fan and she began to scream about it. Hale rushed to her side and helped her to a chair to calm her down. The Birch looked at her sadly for a moment before turning to Andre.

"Hello Andre, my name is Holly, it's nice to meet you." She extended her hand to him and he shook it back, dropping her hand a few seconds later feeling awkward and out of place, "please sit, we have a lot to talk about."

When Andre left an hour later his head was spinning trying to wrap around everything Holly had just told him. He was silent throughout the ride home and climbed the stairs to the apartment like a zombie, unlocking the door and leaving it standing open for Hale and his Grandma while he walked straight to his room, laying down on his bed.

He stayed in his room for an hour trying to wrap his mind around everything before he came out and sat on the couch across from Hale, who offered to teach him to control his abilities, "this is crazy." Andre stated.

"No, your grandma's crazy, this is life." Andre nodded slowly, and then he and Hale started practicing how to control his gift, by the time he crawled into bed for the night Andre no longer doubted how real this all was, he was simply hoping it was a dream.

On Saturday when Hale dragged him out to an old junk yard to practice without breaking more of the things in the apartment he knew it wasn't a dream and he wasn't sure how to feel about it. Sunday they did the same thing until Andre had a basic control over his abilities and Hale had to leave.

Andre was happy to go sit in his room and work on his homework, just to escape the insanity that was his life now. Finding the square root of 650 didn't seem so horrible, and reading two acts of Hamlet was relaxing. When he was done Andre showered and crawled into his bed, falling asleep in minutes.

Monday came to early, Andre had to drag his body from bed and felt like a zombie as he pulled on his clothes, gathered his books and headed out the door, stopping for coffee and a donut on his way to school. When he got there his friends were surrounding Tori's locker and only Cat noticed he'd shown up, he shrugged and headed for his locker, waving at Cat. He grabbed his books for class and headed there early to finish his meal and get some extra rest, happily stretched across three chairs in Sikowitz's class.

"Hey Andre!" Cat shouted upon entering the room. Andre groaned in response and buried his head in his arms to try and stay almost asleep, but the bell rang, signaling the start of class and he had to sit up. Tori stole the seat next his and smiled at him in greeting, asking about his weekend. Andre had no clue what to say about his weekend.

"I was sick so I just slept." Andre lied, "how was yours?"

"Sick, too." Tori replied, "I bed the whole weekend, my dad over reacts when I'm sick. If I ever see chicken noodle soup again I might actually puke." Andre laughs and so does Beck, who'd heard part of the conversation. Nobody else says anything as Sikowitz enters the room, tossing his bag aside forcefully.

"Good morning class!" Andre winces at the sound of his voice; he wondered when Sikowitz got so loud. He was happy to get out of there when class ended, looking forward to the nap he'd get in his next class. He took his seat in the back, grabbed his jacket from his bag and balled it up on the desk as a makeshift pillow as soon as the teacher turned off the light to go through the notes on the smart board.

Andre kept this up through his next three classes, and finally felt alive by the time lunch rolled around and he joined Cat in the line for the grub truck, behind Tori and Jade who were still arguing, he wasn't sure about what this time and had no chance to listen with Cat babbling in his ear. She didn't stop babbling until they reached the table and it was only because Tori and Jade's arguing interrupted her.

Jade got angry and threw soda into Tori's face, Tori growled in anger and stormed off, and Cat turned to Jade with a disapproving look that made Jade get up and follow Tori. Beck shook his head and Robbie started talking about some new pearpad app. Tori and Jade never showed back up, and from what Andre heard Tori went home and Jade was hiding in the Black Box Theater.

He wanted to go find Jade and ask her if she was okay, but by the time school was over her car was gone from the parking lot and he had to hurry home for some meeting with the Birch, according to a text from his grandma. He got into his car, started it and joined the slow traffic out of school, wishing he'd ran faster to get here so he didn't get stuck.

He turned on the radio, having to search for a station actually playing music for a few minutes before he found one, and he moved slowly along, happy once he finally got to the road. When he finally had an opening he turned and moved as fast as traffic would allow, when he finally made the turn onto a wider road with four lanes he sped up, happy to not be stuck behind a bunch of other cars. He'd never liked to go slow, and whenever possible he avoided it. He pulled up at his apartment fifteen minutes later and was walking in the door five minutes after that. His grandma was sitting on the couch watching something on TV, she waved in greeting with a huge smile on her face, Andre smiled back and sat down to watch the TV with her while they waited for the Birch.