Manipulators: Chapter one

"Annah! Annah wake up!" Opal's words rang in my head. I slowly opened my eyes to the bright afternoon sunlight streaming in through the car window. My arm was prickling from my head laying on it. I looked over to Maybell in the next seat. Her brunette hair fell in loose curls just past her shoulders. Her brown eyes sparkling with excitement as she looked out the window.

"You know, I could have used some more sleep." I smiled.

"But we are here! This is it!" Her voice rose in more excitement. I looked out the window. Rain was falling as our family car sped down the highway. Huge skyscrapers sat on every inch of the sidewalks below. I sat back.

"So this is it, huh?" I said more to myself than to my family. My mother felt the need to turn and answer me anyway.

"This is it. Our new home." Her blue eyes sparkled with as much excitement as Opal's. She smiled at me. I smiled back and continued watching as we passed building after building. "Look Opal," my mother said pointing out the window to one building in particular, "It's your new school." I glanced in the direction my mother was pointing.

"Really?!" Opal gasped as she tried to crawl across my lap to see. The seat belt stopped her from going too far. "It's so big!" Despite the rain, I saw kids playing on the school's playground.

"So, does that mean it's our school too?" Corbin, my younger brother, spoke up from the back. Before, he had been playing with the rain outside the window, removing it from the window and then letting the droplets hit it again. Since he was only 13, he was still learning how to use his powers. Before school let out last year, he learned to hold water and not let it touch an object. He has been practicing since.

"No. Here, they have separate schools for ages 5 to 10, 10 to 15, and 15 to 18. Sort of an elementary, middle, and high school." As she explained, Corbin went back to trapping water.

"Oh give it a rest would you?" Clay, Corbin's twin, nudged him. The nudge broke Corbin's concentration and the water he was holding alongside the window fell down in streams.

"Clay!" Corbin yelled as he shoved him. Clay just laughed and shoved him back. That started the all out shoving contest. Didn't take too long for the shoving to turn into hitting.

"Now boys, that's enough." My father chimed in. I watched his gray eyes flick a glare in the rearview mirror. "We don't want to show up with our children having bruises now do we? Probably wouldn't look good to the neighbors."

I saw mom flash him one of her famous glares. I laughed quietly to myself as dad just smiled a toothy grin at her.

Not too long after we got off the highway, we were parking in front of our new house. The rain had stopped and Opal, Corbin, and Clay rushed to undo their seatbelts and get out. I just stared at the white painting with soft blue trim. It wasn't too bad. Quite big actually. My eyes trailed up to the windows that lined the top floor and then the big bay window that showed the soon to be living room. My parents got out and started to head up the short walkway. Opal ran ahead onto the porch and around the house. I undid my seat belt and stepped out onto the wet ground as she came back around to the front.

"Wow! Our old house didn't have a porch that went all the way around!" She yelled as she started to run around it again. This time Corbin and Clay joined her. My dad put his arm around mom's waist and pulled her closer to him. I walked up looking down our cul-de-sac. Our house was halfway down the strip. Two more houses were aligned with ours, and then the houses started to curve around.

The grass in our yard was full and green. Flowers were sprouted up in front of the porch. Beautiful daisies of purple, yellow and pink. It was peaceful looking.

"Dad, you said they did some renovations before you signed, but you didn't say they made it look so beautiful." I exclaimed. He turned and smiled at me.

"Well I want the best for my family." He replied. I nodded in agreement. I knew my dad worked really hard to support us. Even with Leon grown and out of the house, we still had a pretty big family. My mom worked from home to keep an eye on us kids.

"Shall we see the inside?" He asked.

"Yes! Please! I get to pick my room first!" Opal gasped through breaths as she and the boys once again joined us in front. Mom and dad made their way onto the porch and unlocked the front door.

"Now remember, we all decided that Annah will get the biggest room aside from our own." My mom explained. I smiled, feeling a little important.

"Yeah yeah, we know. She gets the room because she is a normal." Clay belted out flashing a mischievous look my way from his grey eyes.

"You little son of a-" My insult was cut off by my mother's voice.

"Now Clay you know better than to say things like that." Her glare made Clay's face dropped to a frown.

"I'm sorry. I know that Annah doesn't get any more privileges than she deserves just because she doesn't have powers." His response was nothing more of a repetitive saying my mother started making the younger kids say when they mentioned my "lack of powers".

"Accepted." I responded knowing that if I didn't, my mother would turn her glare to me.

"Good. She gets the largest room because she is older and needs more space for herself." My mothers look turned from her glare to a smile again. Clay turned and ran into the house and up the big staircase leading to the bedrooms above. My parents followed.

I lingered outside and around to the back, I was in no rush to see the inside. As I came around to the back I stared out over what seemed like a pasture. The fence ran along the sides all the way back to the forest. I looked to the left to see that it followed the houses up and around.

I smiled to myself as I started to jog across our backyard, over the back fence and into the trees and bushes. I pushed my way between branches and thickets of thorns. After a little while, they parted into a small clearing in a shape of a circle. A stream ran through the middle. I kicked around the wet leaves on the ground and then looked up and saw the sun shining bright through the opening.

This is amazing, I thought to myself. I closed my eyes and listened to the sounds of the forest. I felt myself smiling as I inhaled deeply, taking in the scents of the evergreens and flowers all around. Now this I can get use to, I thought.

"Annah!" I heard my mother call out, I turned to head back to the house.

Back in my yard, I yelled back to let her know I heard. I stepped in front of the double doors, wide open into the dining room. I took off my muddy shoes and stepped in.

I glanced left through the first archway and peered into the kitchen. It was pretty big with a small island in the middle. I noticed two doors on the opposite side. I opened each one to see one led to the basement and the other was a pantry. I shut the creaky doors and headed right into the hallway heading toward the foyer. I looked up to see Opal's face looking down.

"Hi, sissy!" She smiled and waved over the railing of the hallway upstairs. I smiled back and gave a small wave. She giggled and then disappeared. I continued my self tour, with the hallway passed the stairs, to the left, which led to the laundry room, bathroom and another small room. To the right was an archway leading to the living room. It was quite the spacious house.

"Come on sissy! I want you to see my room!" I heard Opal yell from upstairs. I turned to walk up the big stairwell to see my siblings flying from room to room. Opal ran to my side and took my hand, leading me to her new room.

It was right across from the top of the stairs and was a small, square room with a closet to the left. The walls were a lilac purple.

"Isn't it amazing?!" She yelled with excitement, holding out her arms and doing a few twirls in the middle.

"Yeah," I said, giving her a small smile, "it's very you."

Back in the hallway, I took a peek into the boys room next door. It was a little bit bigger than Opal's, and it was a nice blue color. The boys were in there, fighting as always.

"Why can't I have the top bunk, you got the top bunk in the last house!" Corbin yelled

"Yeah, so that means it's the same rules." Clay yelled back.

"No! That's not fair!" Corbin gave a yell and pounced on Clay. They started to roll around the floor hitting and kicking each other.

"Hey, guys, come on, cut it out." I said a little too softly. I personally thought it was entertaining when they fought. Just then, the window blew open the the room swelled with blowing air, and it was becoming stronger. The boys seemed immune to it.

"Hey! Stop! Seriously guys!" I yelled above the tornado like air, trying to pull them apart. Just then, dad came in, his voice bellowing through the room.

"Enough!" With that one command, the boys instantly stopped and so did the wind. Clay seemed to have just realized what had happened.

"Was I making the wind do that?" He asked, his eyes got wide with excitement. Dad's firm line of a mouth grew to a small grin.

"Sure did buddy. You are getting stronger and you need to keep your emotions under control. Remember, your emotions are one of the strong starting points in your manipulating power."

"Awesome!" Corbin and Clay exclaimed together, giving eachother a high five.

"I think you're missing the point here boys," Dad started. I felt mom's hand on my shoulder.

"Come see your room, dear." She turned and headed down the hallway. I followed, leaving the lecture behind.

"So, what do you think?" My mother asked as she turned around taking a few steps back further into my new room. "I was thinking you could have this one and your father and I will take the room on the opposite side. That way it could give you more privacy." Her eyes burned with anticipation as she waited for my answer. I looked around. It was definitely bigger than my siblings room and had a walk in closet.

"I'm sold." I smiled as my mother's face swelled with happiness.

"I'm so glad you like it." Mother said as she looked around the room once more. Glancing out my window I watched as she flicked away the water droplets with a quick move of her hand. She winked at me as she turned to leave. Taking one last look around the room, I followed her.

Not long after finding our rooms, the moving truck showed up. It was a long evening of moving in our furniture and somewhat placing them into the correct rooms. We were too tired to even think about making dinner, so my parents decided to order pizza.

The sun was setting behind the forest that laid beyond my backyard. We all sat around the living room just talking. I let their voices fade as I went into my thoughts. After a few minutes I felt my dad nudge me.

"Huh? Oh sorry, I wasn't quite listening. What was the question?" I shook my head coming back into reality. My family chuckled.

"It wasn't a question dear, I was telling you that tomorrow we have to go and sign you all up for school and get your school uniforms." My mom said.

"Uniforms?!" All of the our voices formed together in disbelief.

"No. Only Annah's school requires a uniform." My mother's small laughs came through as she reassured my siblings. I groaned as my siblings sighed with relief. "Oh, it's not that bad, sweetie. You will be fine. Now finish up your dinner and then it's off to bed all of you."

We nibbled away stretching out the time. Since school will be starting soon. My parents thought it was a good idea to get our sleeping schedules back on track by making us go to bed early. I only had to do it so the younger ones wouldn't complain.

After dinner, we went up and settled in our new rooms. Boxes were everywhere and I was going to start unpacking behind my closed door, but my yawning was out of control and I felt my head nodding.

Guess it can wait until tomorrow, I thought to myself. I climbed into my canopy bed and turned off my bedside table lamp. I fell asleep, almost at once.

The next morning came a little too quickly. Still laying in bed, I looked around my dark room. Outside I could hear more rain falling softly against my window. My clock read 5 am.

I sat up and turned on my lamp. Looking around, I saw all the boxes that contained my things. I checked in a few of them looking for clothes to wear. The third box was the jackpot. I pulled out a pair of jeans and my favorite T-shirt and headed out my room and down the hall to the bathroom. I closed the door behind me and looked into the mirror. My hair fell around my slender arms in matted strands.

"Did I sweat in my sleep last night or what?" I mumbled to myself as I tried to hand brush my hair. I eventually gave up and decided to take a shower. After locating a towel in another box in the hall, I started back to the bathroom but a noise downstairs made me stop. I listened for more but nothing came. "Okay, so this place likes to settle a lot, great." I rolled my eyes and continued back.

After my shower, I headed back to my room to unload some boxes. Another noise, more of a bang, came again from downstairs. Louder this time. I looked over to my parents shut door. I didn't detect any movement so I figured they didn't hear. Taking a deep breath, I started down the stairs.

At the bottom, I flipped on the foyer light. I heard another bang coming from the dining room. I slowly made my way around to see one of the doors opening and closing in the warm breeze. I walked over to see the latch was broken.

"What?" I thought outloud. I looked out across the yard. The sun started to rise making the small raindrops shine as they fell.

"Sissy?" Opal's sleepy voice made me jump. "What are you doing?"

"Nothing, the door just seems to be broken a little," I explained as I turned toward her. The oversized shirt she slept in was hanging off one shoulder. Her hair flew in all directions. I smiled as I walked over and picked her up. "Come on, let's go get ready for the day shall we?" I carried her back upstairs but my mind wandered to the broken door.

I reached Opal's room and set her down.

"Are you ready to be starting 1st grade this year?" I asked.

"I can't wait to meet people." She said.

"And your birthday is coming up. When is it again? Tomorrow?" I asked jokingly.

"You know my birthday isn't until, about maybe, 5 months from now." She said laughing.

"Yes," I smiled, "I know."

Two hours passed and everyone seemed to wake up at once.

After breakfast, dad kissed mom goodbye and promised to call someone about our back door as he headed off to work. Corbin and Clay were still eating as I did Opal's hair into two, long, wavy pigtails. Her hair was full with beautiful waves that wove around each other.

"Well, are you all excited to go sign up for school?" Mom asked as she started clearing the table of empty plates and cups.

"Oh yes! I can't wait to meet some new friends." Opal replied.

"What about you, Annah?"

"Oh you know me, I'm pretty sure I can find someone to tolerate my bitchyness." I said. Opal gasped at my word choice. Mom just shook her head and told me to watch my mouth. I finished up with Opal's hair and had one hair tie left. I decided to just braid my hair off to the side.

"Your hair is so long, Annahi." My sister looked at me as she petted her pigtails. "I can't wait until mine is that long."

"My hair isn't too much longer than yours, so you're almost there." I smiled as I stood up to help mom with the rest of the dishes.

"Thanks sweetheart." She said. I set the plates down on the counter next to the sink and watched as she flipped her hands back and forth making streams of water go dish to dish rinsing them off. Opal watched too.

"Mommy, are you sure that I will get my powers when I turn seven?" she asked. I glanced down to her brown eyes that matched mine. I then looked to my mother's kind, blue eyes.

"You will unless you stay normal, like Annah." Clay said as he walked into the room, his own grey eyes flashed with the familiar mischievous look he always had. Opal looked to me. It was plain to see my cheeks growing red as I became embarrassed. I remembered when I was her age, excited for my birthday to see what color my brown eyes would change to. Grey like my father's or blue like my mother's. They taught in school, that each color represented what natural element you could manipulate. Grey was wind, blue was water, green was Earth, and orange was fire. Coming from two parents who was wind and water, one of those had to be my fate as well. When my birthday rolled around we all sat waiting to see what color my eyes would become. Our old grandfather clock struck 12 am, and I closed my eyes. A surge of power flooded my body. When I couldn't feel it anymore, I opened my eyes. My parent's tried to hide their disappointment behind smiles but my older brother Leon wasn't as successful. My eyes had stayed brown. I was destined to stay normal forever. When Corbin and Clay's birthday came, one of them got my fathers grey eyes and the other my mothers. Now it was all up to Opal to decided whether or not I'll be the only human stuck in a family of manipulators.

"Don't worry sissy," Opal said as her small tugs on my arm drew me back from my memories, "If my eyes stay brown like yours, it won't be so bad because I can be like you." I blinked back tears as I bent down to hug her.

"Thank you, but I doubt that's gonna happen. You are going to be the most powerful wind or water manipulator there is." I stood back up and smiled down at her. She beamed a smile back and ran off to the living room. Clay just scoffed as he turned to head out to the back yard with Corbin.

"That was nice of you dear." Mom said as she turned to hug me.

"Well I'm not going to tell her I'm secretly wishing she stays normal with me." I smirked to let my mom know I was joking. But I wasn't. Deep down, I really wished she would stay brown eyed with me.

After an hour or so it was time to go get signed up for school. We all headed out down the drive to our van. My mother made a quick turn and walked up to our next door neighbor's house. After a few back and forth talking, she made her way back to the van and climbed in.

"What was that about?" I asked

"I just asked them to watch the back door since there was no way of shutting it." My mother thought of everything.

As we drove down to the turn around at the back I saw a girl about my age walking out of her house. Our eyes locked on each others and she gave a small wave. I waved back as we passed.

"Well there you go," mom said, "looks like you made a new friend already." I just rolled my eyes.

"Yeah and maybe we can be just the best of friends!" My sarcastic comment was overlooked as we continued to Opal's school.

"Opal, come say hello to your new homeroom teacher." My mother's voice seemed to carry over the loud mass of people walking in all sorts of directions. I let go of her hand as she headed a couple of feet down to her new classroom. Corbin, Clay and I just stayed with our backs to the wall. I couldn't believe how many little kids there were. All accompanied by their parents which made the already narrow hallways seem even smaller. I looked down the hall to see an open door that led outside.

"Hey Clay, it's getting kind of stuffy in here, don't you think?" I smiled a little in his direction as I bobbed my head toward the door. He smiled back in understanding. Raising his hand he quickly moved it from the right to the left, repeatedly. At first I felt nothing and then a small but constant stream of summer air rolled in from the door. I breathed in as I laughed a little. I saw a few parents sigh in relief. A few looked down at my brother and nodded thanks. "Guess I wasn't the only one who thought so."

"Well that takes care of Opal." My mother said joining us with Opal in hand. "Annah, we should get you to your school before they finish with their sign-ups. I want to get yours at least done today and we can go tomorrow to Corbin and Clay's."

"Sounds good, boss," I said as I pushed myself up from the wall.

We made our way through the crowd and out to the parking lot. There were so many cars and it took my mother a few minutes to remember where we parked.

"Dang, I wish I had the remote that set off the car to tell me where it was." I heard my mom say as we looked around. "I think we parked down this way," she said starting to walk in between cars with the kids and I in tow. Still walking I saw her jump as a car alarm started to go off not too far ahead of us.

"Isn't that our car?" I asked pointing toward the sound. We quickened our pace. As we reached it, my mother unlocked the driver's door to shut off the alarm. I noticed that the passenger side door was wide open.

"I thought I told you to lock the doors, Annah." My mother's voice was sounding a little panicked as she searched the car for anything that might be missing.

"I did, your door was still locked, wasn't it?" I snarled back offended that she even considered me not locking the doors. "The back doors are all locked too, maybe the person just unlocked my door."

"You're right, I'm sorry." Her voice was calmer. "It doesn't look like anything is missing. What kind of burglary was this?"

"Maybe the burglar got scared off by the alarm." Clay chimed in standing just behind the driver's door.

"Guess we are just lucky then." My mother smiled as she unlocked the back doors to let the kids in. We piled in and started on our way to my school.

"It's funny how the alarm went off just after you said you needed a remote to do so." I said trying to break the tension in the atmosphere. My mom gave a small, uneasy chuckle.

"Guess the guy did you a favor, huh mommy?" Opal asked.

"Yepp, guess you're right." She replied half smiling. I could tell she was still a little shaken.

"It'll be alright," I half whispered just to her. She took my hand and gave a small squeeze.

After a short drive through the main part of the city, we pulled up to see that my school had a lot fewer people walking around. "We must of missed the big rush by going to Opal's school first" I said to myself, a little disappointed. I really just wanted to see some other students and how many were normal like me. The huge building sat in the middle of a green campus. I checked one of the many maps posted all around. From what I gathered, there were many buildings set around the main one. There was a science hall, multiple gyms, and even a building dedicated to recreation.

"Are you sure you didn't enroll me in college?" I exclaimed in disbelief. "This school is enormous." My mother just laughed.

"There's only three different schools in this city so I guess they seem a bit wealthier than your last ones." She said as she led the way up the concrete staircase to the double doors at the top.

I looked around as I walked through the front doors. No way, I thought. The inside was even bigger than the outside. My mother made a left into the main office to get the necessities I needed for school, my siblings stayed close behind her. I stayed back to admire the high ceilings with big, fancy staircases on both sides meeting at the top. There were more kids inside. A lot of them were alone, some with parents. I noticed two kids in particular just standing watching over the balcony to others below. They looked very similar so I figured they must have been related. The boy caught my eye. His orange eyes glinted as he nudged the girl next to him. Following his gaze, she saw me as well. I dropped my head, almost embarassed. I was never good with meeting new people and didn't feel like starting with them.

I stood there a minute thinking of what I should do. I turned around heading toward the office door, stealing a small glance back up to the balcony. The two were gone and I let out a small sigh. I then felt a hand on my shoulder. I spun around to see them both there.

"Hi there." The boy said his voice smooth but had a hint of power behind it. He wasn't much taller than me. I did a quick look over. His blonde hair sat jagged on top of his head. He was nicely tanned and had a handsome face matching his slender body that was toned just enough to fill out his blazer and slacks nicely. The girl was maybe an inch shorter than me with short blonde hair, cropped just below her ears. She was just as pretty and slim as he was. Both of their smiles showed perfect, straight, pearly white teeth. Their beauty made me feel a little self conscious. I saw their nice expensive clothes and took a quick note of my faded black shirt over a pair of fitted jeans with converse. I felt like a commoner among royalty. The boy outstretched his hand. "My name is Blaze and this is my sister Kindle." I cautiously took his hand and shook it. "We just wanted to be the first to welcome a fresh face."

"It's not all the time we get a new student that isn't a freshman," Kindle chimed in. How they knew I wasn't a freshman puzzled me. My face must of portrayed my puzzlement as Kindle was quick to explain. "Our father pretty much owns this school," she bragged, "and we pretty much know everything that happens here. There isn't a lot that goes on, without us knowing about it." Her words seemed to come out like daggers. I quickly concluded that this wasn't suppose to be a 'warm welcome' as they would have liked for me to think. This was a 'we are better than you and know everything so don't try to hide anything' sort of warning. Blaze did a quick bump to Kindle. I pretended not to notice.

"What my sister is trying to say is my father just funds the school and we simply help with the paperwork from time to time. We noticed your transfer papers and curiosity got the best of us." His words came out with a small laugh. I could tell he was a schmoozer. Too bad I was a little too smart to fall for his words. I looked past him to see a small group of girls staring at the back of his head, whispering and giggling. Yes, he was quite the charmer. I gave a smile, playing along with their game.

"Oh, well thanks for the welcome. You are too kind." My fake admiration seemed to work and appease them for the time being. He gave a small victorious smile.

"Well, it was nice to meet you, Nervannah Weston, I hope you don't become a stranger." He said as he turned and walked away, with his sister tailing behind them. It was just about the time my mother came up behind me.

"New friends?" She asked hopefully. Her hands were filled with paperwork and a few of my uniforms. She must have sent in my measurements before we moved. I quickly grabbed them to help her out.

"More like acquaintances." I replied as I watched them disappear into the crowd.