by Emmy Oakes
*
“Tell me everything.” Ronda ordered.
“I don’t really want to talk about it.” Alexia picked a blade of grass and threw it into the wind.
“Don’t hold out on me!” Ronda sounded desperate. This was the juiciest piece of gossip all year and Alexia had all of the details.
“I’ve been talking to the police for two hours,” Alexia yawned.
“Aw come on, Alexia! One more time for your best friends,” Ava pleaded. Alexia sighed and stared off into the distance. The sun was covered with dark clouds that were promising to rain on them. Alexia didn’t care. After seeing somebody catch on fire getting wet didn’t sound too bad.
“I was reading in the library.” Alexia leaned against a large tree still feeling uneasy. “Price walked over to me looking like I had just slapped him or something. He started to threaten me and he pushed me against a bookshelf.”
“No way!” Ronda gasped.
“Yes, then he tried to strangle me. Then I thought about his lighter,” Alexia stopped talking. “I mean his lighter must have exploded or something because he caught on fire.” Alexia added quickly.
“Hold on, you said you thought about his lighter?” Ava sounded suspicious.
“No I meant to say that it must have exploded,” Alexia said defensively.
“She’s been through a lot, Ava. She isn’t thinking clearly,” Ronda chimed in.
“I think I see my Mom.” Alexia pointed to the large crowd that had circled around the library. There was still a police car parked outside. Alexia picked up her backpack and walked toward her Mom. Suddenly she froze. Ronda placed a hand on her shoulder.
“What’s wrong?”
“I didn’t hand in my art project. That’s the reason I came to school.”
“I think old crook will understand,” Ava said.
“I doubt it,” Ronda replied. “She didn’t give me an extension when I was in hospital getting my tonsils out.”
“Oh man.” Alexia lowered her eyes to the ground. “She’ll have to understand. Can you guys go and tell my Mom I’ll be over soon?”
“Sure,” Ava and Ronda said at the same time as Alexia ran off towards the art block.
Inside the classroom was empty. Chairs were stacked uniformly on top of desks like sleeping soldiers. The cleaners hadn’t been through yet as there were scraps of paper and pencil shavings on the floor.
Alexia spotted a pile of drawings on Mrs. Crock’s desk and decided they must be the self portraits. “Maybe old Crook wouldn’t notice if I slipped mine in the middle of the pile…” Alexia thought out loud. She dismissed this idea thinking she would just make Mrs. Crock angrier. Alexia rifled around on the teacher’s huge desk for a piece of paper and a pen. After locating both she carefully wrote a note describing her ordeal in the library and why her assignment is late. She signed her name and hoped that the strict teacher would understand. Feeling very tied, Alexia rushed out of the school building and hurried to where her mother was waiting.
Five minutes later Alexia was sitting in the front seat of her mother’s car. Cynthia Martin hadn’t said much to Alexia but hugged her for what seemed like forever when she met her outside the school. When Alexia finally got her to let go she explained what had happened as well as she could. Seeing her mother so emotional had made her cry though and her memory of the incident had temporarily gone a little hazy.
“Do you feel like talking, honey?” Cynthia asked.
“I’ve been talking to the police for nearly two hours,” Alexia said closing her eyes. “I don’t even feel like thinking right now.”
“Sure. You just relax. I was thinking I might go hire some movies for you tonight. You can blob on the couch and relax. Of course I’m not sending you to school tomorrow either.” Cynthia said making Alexia smile. That was Cynthia’s number one way to chill out, watch movies on the couch and blob out for a whole night. Even though services that streamed TV and moves online, had all but made video stores obsolete, Cynthia still enjoyed walking around the aisles of their local store and selecting popcorn and other treats to go with her choices.
“Sounds good, Mom,” Alexia agreed. “Make sure you get comedies though.”
“Hon, I thought you were going to stay home today?”
“I was, but I woke up and felt a little better. Plus I had an assignment to hand in.”
Satisfied, Cynthia nodded in reply and drove to the local video store.
At four o’clock in the afternoon Cynthia and Alexia arrived at the video store. Alexia didn’t feel like going in so she decided to wait in the car while her mother went into the store. “I’ll wait here, Mom.”
“Are you sure?” Cynthia looked disappointed.
“Yeah, I’m sure,” Alexia reassured her.
“Okay, keep the doors locked.” Cynthia hopped out of the car and set the alarm making a sharp blip sound that hurt Alexia’s ears. Alexia knocked on the window to get Cynthia’s attention. She looked back toward the car and turned off the alarm. “Sorry! Force of habit!” Cynthia yelled. Alexia nodded to her and leaned back into the car seat and closed her eyes.
A sharp knock on the passenger window startled Alexia. Her eyes opened and focused on a very tall woman who was standing at her door. She had stringy black hair and fuming brown eyes that were narrowed in on Alexia. Alexia groaned. This was the last person she wanted to see right now. Warily she wound the window down a crack just enough to talk. “Get out of the car! I want to talk to you!”
“What do you want, Mrs. Delany?” Alexia said bitterly.
“I want to know what you did to my son!”
“Well your son actually tried to kill me.”
“Lies,” Mrs. Delany seethed. “He looks like he was doused and set alight!”
“Look that lighter of his always let out a horrible gassy smell, I’m surprised it didn’t hurt him sooner.”
“You did this to him. I won’t let anybody forget that,” Mrs. Delany threatened. “You better watch your back, Alexia.” At this moment Cynthia appeared from inside the video store. She rushed over to the car carrying a pile of movies.
“What’s going on here?”
“Do you know that your daughter set my son on fire?”
“Your horrible son strangled her,” Cynthia said hotly. “And she didn’t set anybody on fire. He shouldn’t have been allowed to carry that dangerous thing around school anyway.”
“You better keep a keen eye on that girl.” Mrs. Delany stormed away wildly. Cynthia shook her head and turned to Alexia who had a distant look in her eyes.
“Don‘t listen to anything that nut job has to say,” Cynthia looked worried. “Let’s go home.”
Later that night after watching two movies that hadn’t made her laugh Alexia decided to call Ronda who always seemed to cheer her up. She punched her number into the phone and waited for an answer. Nobody was home. Alexia sighed and hung up the phone. There was an unexpected knock at the front door. “I’ll get it,” Cynthia yelled out. “I don’t want you answering the door unless you know who it is.”
Alexia rolled her eyes. Her Mom was going to have the house on lock down after hearing Mrs. Delany threaten Alexia. “Alexia, there’s a boy here to see you,” she said sounding surprised. Alexia’s ears pricked up. Alexia wasn’t expecting anybody, especially not a guy. She walked toward the door briefly checking her hair in a large mirror in the hallway. Joey Myers was standing in the doorway. Alexia was so surprised she had to force herself to shut her gaping mouth.
“Hey, Alexia. Ronda told me what happened today,” he said sympathetically.
“Oh, uh she did?” Alexia gave Cynthia a stern look. Cynthia took the hint and quickly walked into the kitchen giving them privacy.
“Yeah, I can’t believe what a creep Price has turned into. He used to be a good friend of mine.”
“I know. I mean I thought so. You guys used to hang out a lot.”
“Yeah. We grew up together. Everything
changed a couple years back. Even Karla thinks he has changed too.”
“Have you spoken to Karla?” Alexia asked.
“No,” Joey said, shaking his head. “Maybe you should call her. She doesn’t have many friends since being with Price. She probably needs to talk to someone.” Alexia couldn’t help but be mesmerized by Joey’s intense blue eyes. He was so much kinder and soft spoken than she imagined. Finally she responded.
“Oh that’s a good idea. I think I lost her number. I’ll go and see her though if I can get away from my Mom. She’s kinda gone really protective since today.”
“I can understand that.”
“Yeah well it’s not everyday somebody tries to kill you and then their crazy mother threatens you…” Alexia trailed off and looked at the floor.
“His Mom did what?”
“Well she told me to watch my back.”
“That is crazy. Maybe I should go and talk to her. She knows me.”
“Nah don’t bother. She’s pretty sure that I attacked him.”
“Well everybody at school knows you didn’t. We know what he’s like.” Joey thought for a minute. “What he’s like now anyway. Well I better go. I wanted to make sure you were okay.”
“Thanks. That’s really nice of you.” Alexia desperately wanted to say more but couldn’t think of anything.
“Ronda gave me your cell phone number. Is it okay if I send you a text sometime?”
“Definitely. It was really nice seeing you.” Alexia smiled sweetly. Joey smiled back revealing rows of perfect white teeth.
“Tell your Mom I said bye,” Joey said as he backed away from the doorstep. Alexia sighed as she watched Joey leave. For those few minutes he was there, it felt as though the terrible event today had never happened.
“Ahem,” Cynthia cleared her throat loudly. She was standing in the doorway behind Alexia.
“How long have you been standing there?” Alexia looked embarrassed.
“Long enough to see you have a crush.”
“Ew, Mom, please don’t say crush,” Alexia pleaded.
“Okay, okay. So who is he?” Cynthia asked.
“His name's Joey. He’s just a guy at my school,” Alexia shut the front door and locked it. “He heard about what happened today and was concerned.”
“That’s a good sign.” Cynthia commented.
“What is?”
“He must like you, if he came over here to see if you were okay.”
“Oh I think he’s just a nice guy,” Alexia dismissed Cynthia’s comments.
“Well okay. Do you feel like dinner yet?” Cynthia decided to change the subject.
“Actually yeah, I’m feeling kinda hungry now.” Alexia’s stomach had started to grumble during the second movie.
“Great. You go wash up, have a nice bath and try forget about today,” Cynthia said, running a calming hand up and down Alexia’s back making her feel like a five year old again.
“Thanks, Mom,” Alexia hugged Cynthia.
“I’m here for you, darling. You don’t have to thank me.”
The water flowed into the porcelain bathtub filling it up quickly. Alexia slipped out of her clothes and happily hopped into the bath. The water had an immediate calming effect. Suddenly the itchy feeling she experienced once before had struck her ears again. “Not again,” Alexia complained. Sharp jabs of pain coincided with the itchiness which was getting worse.
Trying to make the strange feeling go away she lay down in the water and submersed her head. The pain subsided immediately. A wispy voice spoke to her.
“Alexia you must listen carefully,” the voice was perfectly clear even though Alexia’s ears were underwater. Immediately after hearing the voice, Alexia sat up. The pain attacked her ears again.
“What’s going on?” Alexia's voice trembled as she talked. She dunked her head back underwater to see if the pain disappear again. Sure enough it did and the voice spoke to again.
“You aren’t who you think you are. You are Alexia Sian. You were adopted by Cynthia Martin when you were very young,” the voice was very calm sounding even though Alexia was freaking out. “You must meet a messenger called Lacier at Glass Lake. Hurry.” And with that, the voice was gone. Alexia sat up and took a deep breath. She had never been good at holding her breath but tonight she hadn’t had a problem. Relief rushed over her when she realized the itchiness and pain had left her ears.
“What the hell is going on…” Alexia muttered to herself. She jumped out of the bath and dried off before dressing in warm clothes for she planned to go to Glass Lake tonight.
The smell of roast chicken wafted in the air. Cynthia was hard at work in the kitchen cooking another meal that was much too big for the two of them. The photos hanging on the wall caught Alexia’s attention. She looked at her three sisters Gina, Tina, and Sara. None of them looked anything like Alexia. They all had light blond hair, except for Gina who had vibrant red hair. Alexia’s father had red hair and Cynthia had blond. Alexia felt her thick brown hair and frowned. “I can’t be adopted…” Alexia sad sadly. “Can I?” Cynthia walked into the hallway.
“Dinner’s nearly ready,” Cynthia said as she wiped her hands on a pink and white apron she was wearing.
“Okay, um,” Alexia stared at Cynthia’s eyes, Blue. Alexia remembered she was the only one in her family with brown eyes. “I have to go out for a bit.”
“I don’t think that's a good idea.” Cynthia narrowed her eyebrows at Alexia.
“You wouldn’t keep any secrets from me would you, Mom?” Alexia asked suspiciously.
“What do you mean?” Cynthia was clearly puzzled.
“I don’t know. Look I’ll be back soon,” Alexia said as she left the house. Cynthia watched her leave hoping she hadn’t found out the truth just yet.
Moonlight shone down on Alexia as she jogged toward Glass Lake. It was usually a five minute bike ride to the lake but Alexia didn’t want to use her bike yet. After walking for about fifteen minutes she reached Glass Lake.
The grass was damp and squelched under her sneakers as she padded across the field to the lake. Shivering slightly she looked around and crossed her arms in an attempt to warm up.
Thoughts were swirling around in Alexia’s head; I shouldn’t be here. What am I doing? Am I really going crazy? Her thoughts were answered by a faint whistling. “Who’s there?” Alexia spun around to face a cloaked woman who glowed in the moonlight.
“Lacier Sian as promised,” her voice was confident and somehow familiar.
“Oh. I wasn’t really expecting you to be here. I thought I might be going crazy,” Alexia felt silly and decided to stop talking.
“I have plenty to teach you.”
“Teach me? Wait, who are you?” Alexia demanded.
“I told you. My name is Lacier Sian,” Lacier evaded the question. She had a determined look in her eyes and oozed confidence.
“No, I know that. I want to know who, what you are doing here.”
“By now you should have been told that you were adopted.” Lacier studied Alexia’s face.
“Yes I’ve been told that by a voice in my head. I don’t know if I believe it.”
“Well you must. The sooner you get over the shock of all of this, the easier my job will be.”
“What job?” Alexia said feeling very confused.
“Training you of course,” Lacier sounded slightly annoyed.
“Training me for what?”
“To be a guardian,” Lacier said.
“A guardian…” Alexia ran a hand through her hair.
“Wow they didn’t tell you anything did they? Were you not receiving messages prior to this meeting?”
“I got one message. It just said that I was adopted.”
“Hmm, this is strange. You were supposed to be told more than that,” Lacier took off her hood revealing white hair that shone wildly in the moonlight. She was a beautiful woman with stunning pale skin and dazzling eyes that looked
almost violet.
“I’ve been getting weird pains in my ears. I only heard the message I got when I was underwater in the bath,” Alexia informed her.
“Oh no. Temorvick has been interfering,” Lacier held a finger to her ear and whispered something Alexia couldn’t hear. Alexia watched as Lacier closed her eyes and seemed to be listening to something.
“What…”
“Quiet!” Lacier interrupted. Alexia felt her cheeks grow hot. After a minute Lacier opened her eyes. “Temorvick has been interfering with the transmissions. He isn’t very happy that you exist.”
“Who is Temorvick?”
“He is the reason people like you and I exist,” Lacier said proudly.
“People like us?”
“You aren’t normal, Alexia. You are a Sian. A sworn guardian of not just this planet but all planets.”
“I think I’m going to go home.” Alexia backed away from Lacier.
“I told you this will be much easier if you just listen,” Lacier said sharply. She was about to speak again when she placed a finger on her ear and nodded her head. “You can go. I’ll be seeing you again, soon.”
