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Chapter 1 Pigheadedness
I woke up to the alarm clock buzzing for the third time. I hit the snooze button and rolled over to look at the time. It was six fifteen. With a sigh, I got out of bed and walked into the bathroom. As part of my normal routine, I looked into the mirror at my smooth skin and perfectly rolled blonde hair. I checked for flaws, and when I was satisfied that there were none, I unrolled my hair and began my work.
I was never completely pleased with the way I looked, though I was told often that I was gorgeous. A natural blonde with fierce blue eyes, that’s what I put on all of my brief “about me’s” when signing up for a new chat room or something like a Facebook or Myspace on the internet. I had smooth, soft skin that wasn’t really tan, but it wasn’t pasty white. Somewhere in the middle, comfortably. I kept my hair long and my teeth white—I was a nut for teeth hygiene. My freckles always stood out even with the thickest makeup, so I learned to play them up. I applied everything to make it a natural look for the day, and smiled.
After getting ready for school—including hair, makeup, outfit, and shoes—I walked into my little sister’s room to get her up and ready for school. She woke with a start and immediately got up, something I’d never be able to do. I commented on her ridiculous drive to go to school and headed down to the kitchen where my mother was drinking coffee and reading yesterday’s paper.
“Good morning, Ava,” she said without looking up from her paper.
“’Morning, Mom.” I went to the refrigerator and grabbed a Coke.
Mom looked up at my choice for breakfast. “You don’t need that this early in the morning, sweetie.” Mom always commented on my poor eating habits. I ignored her, like always.
“You remember that Shawn’s coming over for dinner tonight, right?” I asked as I sat down across from her.
Mom put her paper down. “Ava, this is going to be his last chance with your father. I understand you two have been together a long time, but, honey, there’s just something about him that we’re not fond of.” Mom and Dad both hated my boyfriend Shawn, and for possibly good reasons. Shawn wasn’t exactly the world’s greatest gift to mankind, but I had fallen in love with him my freshman year of high school, and ever since then we’ve been together. We fought often daily, but at the end of the day, I still loved him, and I wanted my family to like him as well.
“I know, Mom. Just give him some space, though. He’s about to graduate, so it’s pretty crazy for him.”
“Just be careful with him, Ava.” Mom’s tender voice started emerging, and I felt a mother-daughter moment coming on. I quickly grabbed my purse and cell phone and ran out the door as I said bye to her. She sighed and went back to her paper. I smiled, feeling accomplished that I’d eluded another tear jerking gossip fest with my mother.
At school I met up with my best friend, Olivia Thunberg. Yes, her family is German. She was an average height, average weight redheaded beauty, with pretty green eyes and a perfect skin. She had a lot of freckles on her shoulder and back, but that just added to her beauty. She was never tan, but it didn’t matter with her. She was beautiful anyways. I envied her for that.
The day went smoothly, like any normal day at Rockwell High School. Not really much to comment on. I heard talk about a party happening tonight, but didn’t pay much attention to it. I wasn’t one for going out and getting drunk and acting stupid. I had better things to do with my time. My boyfriend, on the other hand, was a party boy. He already thought he was a college drinkaholic, and that was starting to hurt our relationship, amongst many other things. At the end of school, I planned on going with Shawn to his house to help him get ready for dinner at my house that night.
I finally saw him just a few feet ahead of me in the crowded halls. Everyone was excited to get outside and to their million dollar cars and drive to their billion dollar homes and the noise was too much.
“Shawn! Wait up!” I yelled through the halls. He was walking with a group of his friends, and apparently he hadn’t heard me yelling for him. “Baby, wait a minute!” I yelled again. This time, he turned around and waited for me.
“I’m sorry, babe. I didn’t know you were behind us. Come here,” he said, putting his arms around me and kissing my head. He was always forgiven for his crimes after doing this. The boy could commit murder, and all he’d have to do his hug the judge and kiss her head, and she’d let him go. He was talented that way.
“Are you still coming over to eat with my parents tonight?” I asked as we started walking out towards our cars, his arm around my shoulders. I looked up at him, and his face was scrunched up. I frowned. Apparently not.
“See, babe...” I knew it was something stupid when he said it like that. “Greg’s having a party tonight because his parents are going out of town,” he said without looking at me. “I know you don’t like parties, baby. That’s why I didn’t ask you if you wanted to come with me. You’re not mad, are you?” This time he looked down at me. I faked a smile.
“Of course not, Shawn. It’s fine. Go drink beer with your friends. My parents will understand.” I broke away from his arm and power walked towards my car. I got my keys out before I felt him snatch me back around. I planted my feet and looked at him with piercing eyes. I was pissed.
“Your parents don’t even like me, so why should I try to please them?” He let my arm go, but stayed in my face. He was yelling at me, and I felt eyes watching us as people walked to their cars.
“Because I want them to trust you and I want you to like them. Damn it, Shawn. Why can’t you just do this for me?” I moved away from him and went to my car. I heard him walking towards me. “Don’t, Shawn! Just go to your stupid party and have fun. I’ll make sure they don’t still hate you after you blow them off for some booze.” I got into my car and drove off, Shawn in the rear view mirror watching me.
I flipped the mirror around so that I couldn’t see him. I tightened my grip on the steering wheel as I pulled out of the parking lot and sped off. I didn’t feel like going home and breaking the news to anyone face to face, so I drove over to Olivia’s house. She was just getting out of the car when I pulled up.
“What happened?” She said, not really enthused or concerned. She wasn’t watching me, but was gathering her things from the trunk of her car.
“Shawn and I had a fight.” I walked over to her, and she put her arms around me to comfort me. I can’t count the times Olivia has helped me through a Shawn dilemma.
“Come inside. We’ll talk.” She took my hand and led me into her house.
After fixing us both glasses of sweet tea, Olivia sat down on the couch beside me and looked at me. “What am I going to do with you?”
“I just can’t pick a guy, sorry,” I said as I took a sip of my sweet tea. It needed lemon, but I wasn’t going to complain. If anyone should be complaining, it should be Olivia. She should be sick of my boy trouble by now. Well, scratch that. Shawn trouble was more like it.
“The only one you’ve picked is Shawn, and baby girl he’s not good for you.” She took my hand to comfort me, like she always did.
“But I feel like I love him, you know? I know I love him, I just don’t know what kind of love and how much. But I mean, three years, Liv. That’s saying something.”
“Yeah, but how many times have you guys broken up? How many times has Shawn cheated on you?”
“He’s never actually cheated on me,” I defended. “He’s just taken interest in a few of the slutty girls at school, and possibly went to bed with them… but there is no DNA evidence to prove it.” I knew she was right. I just didn’t want to give up on what I thought Shawn and I had. Next to Olivia, he was all I had.
“I’m sure he does love you, Ava. But the guy doesn’t have enough love for anyone. Especially not for you.” She was headed for the “you deserve better” line. She’d already used that one before.
“I know, I know. He’s not good enough for me. I deserve better. I’ve heard it a lot, Liv.”
“Then why don’t you listen?”
I set my tea down and got my phone out of my purse. I had seven text messages and twelve missed calls. I showed Olivia the phone and said, “Shawn.”
All of the text messages said basically the same thing, “I’m sorry,” “Call me,” “I love you,” but none of them said he’d come eat with my parents. He was still going to the party, and still wasn’t going to invite me.
“He was supposed to come eat with my family tonight, to try and ease up the tension between everybody,” I said and looked at Olivia. She was nodding. “But he wants to go to Greg’s party tonight instead. Do you really think that’s going to make things better with my parents? No! It won’t!” I started yelling, so I stopped talking to calm myself down. Olivia didn’t say anything. After a few seconds I looked up at her. “What?”
“I got invited to Greg’s party, too. But it’s weird though, you know? Who throws a party on a Tuesday night?” She was trying to laugh it off a little, but I knew that she wanted to go.
“Yeah, it is kind of weird, I guess. You can go though. I’ll deal with my parents’ wrath alone.” I wasn’t trying to play the guilt card, but I did anyways. I felt her sit up a little, apparently with an idea.
“Do you want to come with me, Ava?” My first response was to say no, but then I thought about how I could show up and show Shawn a different side of his precious angelic Ava. Show him what kind of party girl he was really dating. I wanted to see his face when I walked right by him.
“Yes! Oh, that’d be great. Ill play Shawn at his own game.”
“We’re not doing this just to get even with Shawn, though, okay? We’re doing this for us both to have a good time.” She smiled. She was excited that she could still go to the party and now had a friend to show up with. “Now, call your parents, tell them the happening with Shawn, and tell them you’re going to sleep over here.” Olivia was a pro at this stuff. I, on the other hand, was not a good liar.
I gave her a look to tell her I was nervous, so she took my phone from me and dialed in my mom’s cell phone number. She hit the green button and handed the phone back to me. I took it slowly and took a deep breath.
Mom answered after the second ring.
“Hey, Mom. Listen… uh,” I paused, not wanting to tell her the situation. “Shawn isn’t coming tonight,” I finally said. I started off shaky, but then thought about seeing Shawn at the party and sobered up.
“What? Ava, this is not going to go over well with your dad. You know how he feels about Shawn, and now look.” She was angry, both at Shawn and at me for still wanting to be with him after all he does.
“Yeah, well we had a big fight today and I really don’t feel like coming home to hear Daddy yell about it. So can I just sleep over with Olivia? Her mom will be home.” I added in the last line to reassure her. She was a bit over protective, so I’d learned how to get around it.
She waited a little, then said, “Okay. But get to sleep early, okay? You still have school tomorrow.”
“We will. Love you, bye.” I said and hung up quickly. I was not good at hiding excitement or emotion, and if I’d stayed on the phone any longer, Mom would have guessed my entire plan, if she hadn’t already.
I smiled at Olivia, and we ran to her room to get dressed. I was finally going to conquer Shawn’s pigheadedness.

Chapter 2 Party Boy
I stepped out of my red Infiniti with Olivia and together we walked up to the house. I could smell the beer already, and it was barely dark. I looked at Olivia in mock terror, and she smiled and patted my arm.
The house that was playing host was large and dark, one like you’d see in the Old English horror films. The pathways were scabbed over from foot traffic, but the grass was perfect and untouched. The house had what appeared to be three stories, black paned windows with colored and distorted glass, and large wooden doors. I pictured walking in and the doors creaking and slamming behind us on their own.
But as we walked in, and the doors didn’t slam or creak, I felt much better about the place. There was carpet and brightly painted walls and modern furniture, all like an ordinary house. I let out a sigh and walked with Olivia over to a group of our friends who were standing in the kitchen, admiring the beauty inside the house as I walked.
“’Livia! Ava! Look at you!” Calvin shouted before we ever made it to the kitchen. He was the typical gay black friend, but he was a best friend to Olivia and me. We’d grown up together beginning in kindergarten, and in those eleven years we’d grown into a sort of family.
“Is Shawn here yet?” I asked as I grabbed a drink from the bar. Non-alcoholic, of course; I hated beer and anything that would change my mental state into pudding. I was the DD for the night anyways.
“I think I saw him outside, but I can’t be too certain, boo. Here, stay with us for once,” Calvin said and put his arm around me. He smelled like a Hollister store.
I was excited to go and find Shawn and show him that I could party, too. I wanted to spit in his face and cause a huge scene so that I’d embarrass him the way he’d embarrassed me for so long. But I didn’t. Let’s face it, I didn’t have the guts to confront him the way I’d always dreamed I would. I was pretty much all talk and no go.
I focused my attention back on my friends. They were making jokes and laughing a lot. They didn’t really act so drunk, so I eased up and started talking with them. Things were going well, I thought, until I heard a loud banging from above us. I jumped and dropped my virgin Coke on the floor. Olivia and Calvin had apparently not heard what I’d heard.
“What’s wrong with you, Ava?” Olivia said as she grabbed a rag from the sink and threw it at me.
I bent down to mop up the Coke. “I heard something and it scared me,” I said and handed her the soaking wet rag.
The noise came again, this time more clear that it was coming from upstairs. It sounded as though someone was being tossed onto the floor. Calvin and Olivia looked up and laughed.
“It’s probably two drunks having a good time up there, Ava,” Calvin said still laughing a bit. “Are you going to go and investigate?” I felt a little embarrassed, but I wasn’t satisfied that that was what I was hearing. I shook my head, though I wasn’t sure that it was my answer.
The homeowner and reason for the big party Greg Wilkin came in hooting and hollering and laughing. He was well past drunk, and I was thankful that this was his house and I didn’t have to take him to his house tonight. He and some of the football team went upstairs and came back down holding in the air… a teenager?
That’s the moment I knew that life for me was changing.
I saw the fear in him first. The person Greg and the football players were carrying like a rag doll was frightened and looked almost possessed. His black hair was stringy and long, down to his shoulders, and looked like it hadn’t been washed in a few days. His eyes were cloudy and glazed over, like he was in a trance. He had black nails and bracelets and necklaces galore. I was sure that this was a little punk guy from school that the jocks had invited to torture for the guests. I almost blew up with rage on what they were doing. I wasn’t sure where it came from, but something inside my insisted that I go and help this little creepy looking guy.
I stormed over to Greg, not really understanding why I was so upset, and snatched him back to where he almost fell over. I almost lost my dinner from the smell of the beer they leaked.
“What, Ava?” he gargled out.
I pointed to the guy they were holding in the air like a trophy.
“This ain’t anybody you know. We found him—” He hiccupped. “—walking past the mall today.”
“Does that give you some right to hurt him?” I yelled in his ugly face, then had to back away so I wouldn’t hurl. My stomach was already starting to get upset with me. I looked down at the guy with black hair. He was watching me, not smiling or making any expression, just watching me, like he was planning something. I heard someone tell me to stay still, but couldn’t find out who had held such a soft and yet demanding tone.
In half a second, every jock holding the guy was on the ground, and the guy was standing beside me, breathing hard and shaking slightly. My jaw dropped because I hadn’t even noticed they were on the ground until I heard the whole room gasp. I turned towards the black haired guy beside me.
“Are you okay?” I whispered, and my instincts were telling me to hold him and cradle him so he wouldn’t fall to pieces crying from fear. He didn’t move. “What did you do?” I asked even quieter, which wasn’t hard to do considering the whole house was buzzing with screams and yelling from what had just happened. The jocks lying on the floor began to stir, and the black haired guy stepped back slightly.
“They passed out from the booze,” he said without missing a beat. “Come with me,” he ordered. I instinctively followed him.
We ran down the street and turned onto my road, an angry mob of drunken friends following us. We ducked down behind some shrubs at the corner of my neighbor’s house and watched the crazy mob grow silent and begin walking aimlessly in search of the weird kid and the blonde who’d helped him. They turned around and silently walked back to the party, apparently satisfied that we were out of sight.
Once the mob was gone, he looked at me. “What the hell are you doing?” He was angry I’d saved him from humiliation.
“Well, I kind of just spared you some embarrassment,” I said. “And I probably just made myself the laughing stock of school.” I started to stand up.
“No! Stay down!” He ordered, so I sat back down. The anger in his voice was quite demanding. “Why did you do that?”
“I didn’t want to see what they were going to do to you,” I said and stared at his eyes. His eyes made my heart stop beating, for they were now a dark brown, with a gold ring surrounding the iris. Beautiful and breathtaking. I actually noticed that he was very attractive. His hair wasn’t messy, but fixed and looked soft and very touchable. He had a hard look to his face, but lips that looked like they could feel like heaven and taste like forever. I was entranced by his overwhelmingly good charm, and, for a moment, I forgot the rest of the world.
He rolled his eyes. “Don’t do that,” he said and turned his attention back through the shrubbery.
I snapped out of my trance and found myself kneeled down behind thorn bushes and hiding out with someone I didn’t even know. “What?”
“Fall for me because you think you saved me. It’s not attractive. It’s sort of conceited.” He never took his eyes from the shrubbery. He was looking for something cautiously. Or, rather, looking out for something.
“I’m not going to—”
He silenced my protest. “Hush.”
I fidgeted, wondering what he was thinking about and what he was trying to do. Had I rescued a serial killer? or a rapist? or just a plain weirdo? Was this guy going to hurt me now that I’d saved him from being tortured?
He shot his eyes back over to me in more anger than the last time. “I’m not going to kill you or rape you, Ava.”
I fell backwards onto my butt from his comment. “How do you know my name? And why did you just say that?” I thought about him reading my mind, but wiped it away quickly.
He never answered me. He stood up and looked at me as if asking me to do the same. As I rose off the ground, I heard him tell me his name was Alex. But his mouth hadn’t moved. I watched him for a moment, waiting for him to say it again. When he didn’t even look at me, I ignored it. Maybe was I just imagining that he’d be named Alex, because he looked like an Alex.
No, you heard me correctly. My name is Alex.
I clearly heard him speak, but he hadn’t spoken a word. I fell back to the ground. Had I heard his thoughts? Could I hear this strange guy’s mind?
He looked down at me, sighed, and got down on the ground and bent over me.
“You’ve got to stop acting like a child, Ava. You have no idea what you’ve just gotten yourself into.” He face was inches from mine, and I once again saw his beautiful eyes in the street light glow. I wondered why he didn’t just help me back up like a normal person would.
“Because I can’t touch you. Not until I get my power back.” He answered my thoughts. He could hear my thoughts, too.
“Power?” I began getting back up and he quickly got to his feet. I brushed my skirt and arms off, and saw that my arm was bleeding from a rock I’d found on my way to the ground. Well, there goes my flawless skin.
Alex looked at me like he wanted to slap me, then disregarded. He’d heard what I said to myself. I wondered if he thought I was a high maintenance Barbie doll.
“I don’t think that’s what you are,” he said and turned to me.
“I wish you’d stop doing that. It’s an invasion of privacy.” I wiped the blood from my arm on my black skirt, well, Olivia’s black skirt, and looked back at Alex. “What did you mean by all that?”
“All what?”
“This talk about power, and not touching me, and me getting myself into stuff.” I picked dirt from my shirt and looked up at him.
“I’m not exactly normal, as you can obviously already assume. By you interfering with the witch’s demands, you’ve become a part of this whole thing.” I was waiting for him to crack a smile and tell me he was just kidding. But he didn’t. He began walking towards my house.
“Wait a minute!” I shouted and ran to catch up with him. My high heels made a quick tap! tap! tap! sound as I ran. I reached to grab his arm, but he pulled away and jumped back. I remembered that he said I couldn’t touch him. I looked from my hand to his face, then back down at my hand. “Why can’t I touch you?”
His head bent down a little. He looked back up at me and said, “I’m not allowed to touch you. You have power oozing from you like honey from a hive. It’d be enough to kill both of us, I assume. That’s what the witch is betting on, anyways.”
“I—what?” I was puzzled by the whole thing. “There’s a witch? I have power?”
“There’s a witch trying to kill me. And, well, you can hear my thoughts, can’t you? You must have more.”
“That’s just because you’re weird. Not me. I’m not the idiot who had to be rescued by a girl.” He shot a look at me that was meant to be intimidating, but I smiled at it. He rolled his eyes and walked on. I resumed walking beside him. “Why is this witch after you?”
“My family, actually. She wants what my family has, well, had.” I didn’t respond. He looked back at me to see if I was still with him, and continued walking.
We got up the driveway before I realized that I was about to let a guy walk into my house at 10 p.m., after I told my parents was sleeping over at Olivia’s. I stopped walking.
“Alex!” I hissed, trying not to wake up my sleeping German shepherd in the garage. Alex turned to look at me. “We can’t go in the house. My parents are in there.” He looked almost shocked that he couldn’t go into my house. I thinned my lips into a straight line and lowered my eyebrows. “It’s not like it’s the first time a girl has told you no before,” I mumbled. He apparently hadn’t heard me. “Come this way, but be really quiet.”
Being quiet didn’t appear to be a problem for Alex. He walked quickly and silently through the yard to where I was leading him. I, on the other hand, had on very uncomfortable high heels and was stumbling and tripping often. He watched me out of the corner of his eye, and I swear I saw him grin a time or two.
We had a one room shack in the corner of our yard where my little sister used to play. It had electricity and a refrigerator, so I used it as a hang out sometimes. It was an isolated place where I felt I could sit and talk to Alex about what was going on. We walked inside and I sat down on the soft and worn out sofa. Alex sat in the floor a few feet in front of me.
“Tell me what’s going on, Alex. What have I gotten myself into? Why is your family a witch’s target?” I was running through questions in my mind, only orally asking a few of them.
“My family is very powerful and wealthy, and the witch is jealous. She took my parents hostage and took their powers from them, but I managed to stay hidden from her goons long enough to escape. She was still able to wipe my powers from me clean, only she couldn’t take away my inherited gift of reading minds. My mother had been the one to telecommunicate in the family, and I was fortunate to inherit that trait from her. The witch knows I’m out here trying to find a way to get my parents free and stop her, so she’s set up ways to prevent it from happening. The party was one of her tricks, only she hadn’t planned on a slender blonde girl stepping in and stopping the torture.” He looked at me with a mix of what I could say was gratitude and anger.
Even though I’m pissed that you’re involved in this now, I do thank you.
I don’t know what came over me. I saw that they were going to be mean to some innocent guy and I didn’t like it. I’m not usually the kind of girl who stops the bullies and frees all the helpless children, so don’t get used to that.
His eyes widened as my thoughts entered his mind. “Amazing,” he let out in a short breath. “You’re so fluent with your thoughts.”
“Fluent?” I wasn’t sure how to take that. My thoughts were my thoughts, and I wasn’t sure how someone could stutter in their minds.
“It means you can process your thoughts the way you want them to come out. Most people take years to gain control over their minds.” He looked impressed, so I flipped my hair and acted like a Golden Globe actress. I saw him smile, and it warmed everything inside me. I liked seeing him smile.
“Why do you think the witch didn’t see that I would help you?” I was really into the whole fantasy he was cooking up, and it was exciting me that I was free from my boring life finally.
Alex looked like he didn’t want to answer that question. I listened for his mind but heard nothing. He smiled for a minute, then frowned slightly. He looked up at me, fear somewhat in his eyes, and said, “You’re her kryptonite.”
“I’m her what?” I knew what he’d said, and I hushed him with my mind so that I could think about what he meant. I’m this witch’s kryptonite. I can defeat her at her game and help Alex. I’m his angel, then. I can save his family. I looked up at him to see him smiling again. I stretched out on my stomach and watched him. “I get to kill a witch?”
“It’s not that easy, Ava. It’s not about killing the witch. It’s about defeating her. And now she knows that I know who you are, but she can’t see you.” He stopped talking when I looked at him in a puzzled way.
She can’t see me? Like at all? What kind of witch is she if she can’t see an average sixteen year old girl who is supposed to destroy her?
“It’s sort of like a game in our world. There are rules and there are cheats, but there is only one of two outcomes. Either I win, or she wins. And you, Ava, are my cheat.”
“Since I’m the one that’s supposed to, uh, destroy her, is that why we can’t touch?” Things were beginning to fit.
Exactly, he said.
I knew what he meant, but I couldn’t grasp the concept of why I was it. Why was I supposed to help this amazing person and defeat a witch who is out to steal his power and kill his family and rule the world? Why me?
“I’m flattered, Ava, but I can’t answer that.” I jumped when he again answered my thoughts. I felt my cheeks turn pink.
“You’re not the type of guy I usually pay any attention to. I guess that’s why I’m so shocked.” I tried to cover my tracks, but with a guy that could read your mind, it was pretty hard to do. Alex seemed to have let it slide. “What happened at Greg’s? How was that part of the witch’s idea?”
“She conjured up the entire party. It was supposed to tell me that she could make other people hate me and abuse me, to wear me down and try to make me give up. She made up the guest list and everything, even planned for Greg’s parents to be gone away for the night. But she didn’t know that your friend would bring you, of course. So when you interfered, the party somewhat vanished. The party never happened to anyone else.” He leaned back on his elbows and stretched his legs out.
“So if the party never happened, that means that the fight with Shawn and me never happened? How much of yesterday never happened?” I was getting excited that Shawn and I hadn’t fought.
“It was just another normal day. There was nothing memorable about it to make people bring it up. Since the party affected the entire day and even plans, things resumed the way they would have without the party.”
“So I had dinner with my family and Shawn?” I was tripping over myself trying to figure things out. If I’d had dinner with Shawn and not remembered anything, how would I talk to him about it?
“Yes, but it wasn’t memorable. The witch must redirect things back to normal, but she can’t control things like that, I’m guessing. Things are going to be like they were Monday, not today.”
“So, my parents still hate Shawn and nothing was resolved. Great,” I said, throwing up my hands.
“I guess so. Why do you date someone that your parents hate so much?” His question startled me, but I didn’t respond. I moved back to the subject at hand.
“How did the jocks end up on the ground though?” I put my hand to my chin and started chewing on my nails.
Stop that, he ordered. I put my hand back down.
“The witch wasn’t sure why things had gotten so fuzzy, I guess. She couldn’t see you, so the people within your aura were gone to her.”
“Aura?”
“It’s kind of like a mood cloud. It surrounds you at all times and tells people like me what you’re feeling or whatever. Tonight, it was black with deep oranges and yellows and it was particularly large, so once you got nearer to us, we disappeared from her view and her spell was lost.”
“What does my mood cloud tell you now?” I was curious about what he was reading about me. I didn’t know you could tell so much about a person without actually knowing the person at all. It was intriguing, but at the same time, scary.
“You’re excited about this situation we’re in. And the pink streaks suggest…” he stopped talking and just smiled.
“What? Tell me.” I leaned closer to him, wanting to know more about my own mood cloud I never knew I had.
He sighed and shook his head. “You need to get some sleep, Ava.” I showed my disappointment by huffing and sitting up suddenly. “You’re safe from her, so you have no worries. Since she didn’t know you existed, I’m safest in your room with you. She can’t plot any annoying tricks while she can’t find me.”
Is this one big joke to try and get up to my room, Alex?
No. Get up there and go to sleep. I’ll be up in a few minutes after you’re dressed and in your bed.
I smiled as I walked out of the shack and to the house. I can read a guy’s mind, I thought. The one thing every woman in the world wants to do, I can do.
That may be true, but it’s not like you can read everyone’s mind, Ava. You still don’t know what your pathetic boyfriend is up to at all times.
I cursed him for invading my mind. He was right, I couldn’t read Shawn’s mind, but it was a start.

Chapter 3 A Shocking Discovery
I never heard Alex come into my room that night. I assumed he’d snuck in after I’d fallen asleep. I was really tired and was ready to find a safe place in my dreams. I dreamt of finding the witch Alex talked about, and Alex was in trouble. When I tried to move to save him, I found that I was chained to a wall, to watch as this beautiful person was murdered. So much for a safe place.
I woke up in a panic and saw Alex sitting on the corner of my bed. He was watching me, his hand outstretched to me, then jerked away quickly. He’d almost comforted me, but couldn’t do so because he might kill me.
“You were having a nightmare,” he said.
“Yeah, it was pretty scary,” I replied, the thought of the witch going after Alex still running through my mind.
Alex saw the image I had in my head. “You shouldn’t think about it so hard, Ava.”
I looked at my clock and saw that it was almost six a.m. I turned off my alarm before it started buzzing. “We need to get ready for school. Do you want to take a shower in my bathroom?” I said all of this before I realized that he didn’t have a change of clothes or anything. This boy has slept in my room through the night, and was going to be like my shadow until the witch was stopped and his parents were recovered.
“I don’t shower, Ava. All I need is a washing machine for my clothes. Mind if I borrow your robe?” He took my pink robe down from my closet before I could answer.
“You don’t shower? Isn’t that a little unsanitary?”
“When you’re a son of a sorcerer, your personal hygiene is taken care of for you. Another inherited gift, this one from my father.” He gave a slight smirk at this.
“Must be nice to automatically look gorgeous in the mornings.” I hadn’t meant it the way I’d said it, but as soon as the words left my tongue I looked up and found Alex smiling at me. He’d taken it as a big compliment.
You don’t have to try too hard to look great, either, he said.
Hush, I didn’t mean it that way, I snapped back.
But I think you did. You’re not used to paying attention to guys like me, isn’t that what you said before? But now, you can’t stop paying me attention. I’m flattered, Ava, really. He smiled and began walking towards me.
Stop that. Cockiness is not charming, you know. I stood up, knowing that he couldn’t possibly get too close to me.
But he did. He got so close I could smell his skin, and I was amazed to find that it smelled clean and fresh, like he’d just come from the shower. It wasn’t a normal human scent, but more of… something words cannot describe. I’ll put it this way; Hollister, Bod, Axe, all of those breathtaking scents, have nothing on Alex. He was taller than me by a few inches, and my lips were level with his collar bone. His black button up shirt was undone just enough to expose the top of his dark chest. It wasn’t a tan, just his beautiful bronzed skin. Natural. He looked down at me with his brown and gold eyes, and smiled.
“You can’t touch me,” I shakily got out of my mouth.
“I know, but I can charm you,” he shot back in a smooth and silky voice.
That’s not fair, I protested. I have a boyfriend, anyways.
I slipped by him to get into the shower. As I shut the door, I heard him say, well, think, It’s not fair to me, either.
I tried to hurry with my shower and wrapped a towel around my hair and my body. I emerged from the bathroom, expecting to see Alex waiting for a show. But he wasn’t there. My pink robe was missing, so I assumed that he was washing his clothes downstairs. I was thankful that my parents went to work early on Wednesday mornings.
I heard the washing machine running downstairs, so my thoughts were proven true. I dressed quickly in a fabric skirt and laced tank top and went back to the bathroom to do my hair and makeup. I didn’t put as much makeup on as I usually did. I wasn’t sure if it was because I didn’t feel like glopping it on, or if it was because of Alex’s comment that morning. I went with the glopping. I curled my hair into bouncy curls and let them hang down.
I walked across the hall to wake up my little sister, Natalie. I prayed that she wouldn’t see Alex until later in the morning so I could tell her that he was riding with me to school.
After waking Natalie, I walked downstairs to see Alex in my pink robe. It was way too small for him, barely reaching his knees. I couldn’t help but laugh at him the moment I saw him.
He shot an evil glance at me. “Not every man is meant to wear pink.”
“Next time get a towel or something,” I suggested as I walked behind him. I subconsciously wished that it would somehow fall off.
As I entered the kitchen something hit the back of my head and wrapped around my face. It was soft and warm, and when I pulled it off I saw that it was bright pink. I jerked around and saw that Alex was fully dressed and fixing his belt. He walked towards me as he arranged his many necklaces.
“Didn’t miss anything, did you?” he joked.
I angrily threw the robe in the dirty clothes hamper and went to the refrigerator to find a soft drink. “Do you want anything? Or does being a son of a sorcerer make you never eat or drink, too?” I joked back, but part of it was serious. I wasn’t sure if sorcerers ever had to consume normal things like food or water.
He smiled at my humor. “That part of me is normal. I’ll just take one of those Cokes.”
I grabbed two Cokes and walked over to hand him one. When he grabbed the Coke from my hand, our fingertips touched. I saw his scared eyes, then nothing at all. All I could feel was the fiery shock racing through my arm and down my back. I was lifted off the ground and quickly came crashing into something hard. I heard glass shatter from my impact and hit the ground. When I fell, glass stuck to me like glue. I felt a few pieces run deep inside my bare legs. I was still buzzing from the electric shock I’d felt seconds before. I stayed on the ground for a while, trying to make sure that everything was still in its right place.
I recovered slowly, feeling the rips in my new shirt. I wanted to scream, but instead looked around to find Alex. He’d been sent flying, too. He’d shot towards the hallway, catching the wooden frame and wall. The frame he’d hit was severely damaged, and the wall behind the frame had cracks and chips in it. He was sitting up, brushing the dust from his black clothes. He didn’t appear hurt, just pissed off. When he saw me still lying on the ground amongst broken glass, he jumped up and ran to me, his facial expression now full of concern.
“Are you okay?” He wanted to help me up, but instead he began moving the glass away from me and pulled a chair closer for me to help myself up.
“I’m fine,” I answered, then felt glass in my legs. “Ow!” I reached down to pull the glass out, but winced and braced myself against the chair.
Alex looked down at my once beautiful and smooth legs, debating on something. I listened for his mind, and heard, I can pull that out, I think.
“If you don’t move,” he began, turning to me, “I can pull that out without another freak accident slamming us into walls,” he said without humor.
I looked at him, trust in my eyes, and nodded. I’m trusting you, you son of a sorcerer.
He grinned a little, and then grew serious as he set to work trying to pull the glass out of my bare legs. I closed my eyes from the pain and gritted my teeth. I felt one piece slide out, followed by a rush of blood, but the relief from the pressure of the glass was enough to soothe me. He pulled two more good sized chunks from my legs, then looked up to check on me.
“I can’t get the smaller pieces without touching you.” He moved to where he was directly in front of my face. “If I could touch you without hurting you, this is where I’d stroke your face and move the hair from your eyes.” He grinned in a very seductive way. I almost collapsed again.
“‘Don’t fall for me just because you think you saved me,’” I quoted him from the night before, and sat up to look at my legs. They were oozing bright red blood, some parts raised and glistening where small pieces of glass were wedged in still. Then a thought came rushing in quicker than the shock has sent us flying. My family!
“Alex! My parents! Natalie! What do we tell them?” I began to panic and stood up quickly. I rushed over to the sink to get a rag and clean up the blood on my legs. I’d deal with the smaller pieces later with some tweezers. Now I had to clean up the mess we’d just made and figure out how to hide it.
Alex had already gotten up the glass and was working on the pieces of door frame he’d chipped off. “Any way they won’t notice?”
I shook my head quickly, then thought for a moment. I looked at the front door, not really thinking until I saw it. There was a curtain hanging over the window, dark enough to where the glass would not be visible. I smiled and ran to grab the curtain for the back door. It was attached to a magnetic curtain rod, easy to remove and put on the backdoor. When I finished the project, I stepped back and looked at Alex, who seemed pleased with my creative thinking.
“She’ll never notice it’s not on the same door.” I turned my attention to the damaged frame. It looked like a bear had taken a chunk out of it. A big, highly pissed off bear. With a thousand teeth. “Do you think they’d believe I ran into it?”
“Sure. If you were traveling a hundred and twenty-four miles per hour through the house and happened to only hit the door frame with your leg. That would also explain your scarred legs.” His joke was not needed nor desired at this time. I frowned at him and looked down at my legs. They were still bleeding. “That’s going to need stitching, Ava,” he said, walking closer to get a better look. As he bent down, I thought about my short skirt, and looked down to watch his eyes. They didn’t once look inappropriately positioned. I smiled and he looked up at me, smiling as well.
“You’re the wizard,” I said to break the awkward silence, “you think of something.” I moved away from him to reach the rag and wrapped it around my leg to stop the bleeding. It was starting to get on my nerves.
“You go change,” he said as he stood up. “You’ll need to wear jeans to cover that up. I’ll deal with this.” He walked over to the frame and put his hand on it, examining it like a scientist. I ginned at him and walked to my room.
Natalie was walking out of the bathroom, ready to go, when I came running up the stairs looking like I’d just been mauled by a dog.
“What happened to you?” she practically yelled. She’d seen the blood coming through the dish rag. Not to mention that my blouse was ruined.
“I fell. Don’t worry about it. There’s someone downstairs that is riding to school with me this morning, so don’t get freaked out. His name is Alex.” I resumed walking towards my room.
“His name? There’s a boy down there? Shawn is not going to like that one, Ava.” My little sister was fourteen years old, so she understood the ways of the boy kingdom. Jealousy makes up 96.46327% of the male DNA, I once advised to her.
I shrugged. “He’ll get over it.”
I changed into some dark denim jeans and put on some semi-casual black heels. I went to find a shirt. After I took off the new, now shredded, blouse, I wanted to cry. That was a hundred dollar blouse, I said loudly to myself. I grabbed a pink blouse and my dark denim jacket and headed back downstairs. Fortunately, my hairstyle for the day went with everything, so that was not an issue.
I came back downstairs and saw that the wall was repaired perfectly, and there was no evidence that Alex and I had collided into anything from the after shock of a Coke. I looked at him sitting at the kitchen table, sipping on some orange juice. Natalie was sitting across from him. The two were talking like little kids, smiling and giggling. Natalie thought Alex was cute, I thought. She was just an average looking girl who didn’t really play up her features. She wore normal jeans and t-shirts every day, and the most makeup she used was black eyeliner to surround her bright blue eyes. Alex looked just like the kind of guys Natalie would point out on TV. Like the guys in that band Fall Out Boy. Natalie drooled for them, so Alex was like a dream come true for her eyes.
I didn’t interrupt them during their chat. I sat on the stairs and watched as Alex played a big brother to Natalie. He’d lost his family to an evil witch, but he was still such a good hearted person. I rested my head on the banister, trying not to fall for the guy who’d saved my life.