Fearless

Chapter 1 Are we Ready? Andrew "Could you squeeze in some of my stuff in your bag?" I asked. In reply, she just scoffed at me. Our mothers were doing their best not to cry. Our dads were trying to console our moms. Meanwhile Uncle Alex was helping us pack and lecturing us about the do's and don'ts. And by that I mean mostly the don't s. And by us I mean mostly Red. "I get it." She looked up from her bags at something Uncle Alex had said. "You would if you were listening." He sighed in exasperation. She smiled slightly. "Oh, you know me so well." Things had moved so fast in the past couple of days that I barely had the time to comprehend them. Red seemed to be dealing with it just fine though. Red....ugh. I was glad she'd bloomed. I didn't mind that I didn't yet. At least we were finally going thanks to that. But she didn't have to be so obnoxious about it. I even spent my birthday watching her flex her gifts 'subtly'. When I think back to five days ago, things had started out as usual but.... "It's amazing how we're still alive." I had said. "Hmm?" Came her amazingly eloquent response, as she eased the car into the parking space. "Oh come on." I looked up in exasperation. She turned off the ignition, and looked at me. "What?" Her tone suggested confusion instead of the usual boredom or annoyance. "Red, I asked you something thrice. And each time, you just nodded at me. Just. Freaking. Nodded. It wasn't even a 'yes or no' question. I'm amazed at how you managed to get us to school in one piece, given your mental absence." "What did you want to ask?" She inquired rather half-heartedly. "Never mind that. You've got to stop getting worked up about this. It'll happen when it happens." I said. "I'm not getting worked UP." She said, getting worked up whilst speaking. "Red...." I shook my head. If she spoke any louder, our secret predicament would no longer be secret. She ran her hand through her chocolate brown hair and exhaled audibly, and I could practically hear the tense muscles of her body relaxing. She was so rigid all morning I was beginning to think she'd frozen over. "I'm not getting worked up." She repeated, this time a lot calmer. "It's just what if, you know, it never happens." "Then our mothers will celebrate for the rest of their lives." I smiled. She punched my arm. "Andy, I'm serious." She definitely looked like she was. "Are you even listening to yourself? You think it wouldn't happen to at least one of us?" "I'm almost eighteen. And you will be sixteen in two days." " So what? It happened to one of Uncle Alex's friend when he was twenty, remember?" "I'm starting to wonder if he made that friend up, just to make us feel better." Red said. “Yeah, I doubt it.” I said. “Andy, the new semester starts in a month's time. If neither of us blooms by then, we'll have to wait another year. And if I have to go one year with this home-schooling and balancing Earth studies with that, I will lose my mind. I mean, I graduate in a year's time. I can't waste that here.” “It's not so bad here.” I said “Yeah, sure.” Red gave me a knowing smile. “I’m sure you’re not just saying that because you don’t want to bid adieu to Alaise.” Before I could reply, a knock drew our attention to the window on Red's side. Our friend Will Clayton gestured us to step out of the car, then pointed at his wristwatch. "Five minutes for the bell. We gotta run." I said. Red exhaled softly, and plastered a smile on her face as we stepped out. "Morning, Will." "Did you guys forget we have class?" Will grinned. "We've got five...four minutes to spare. C'mon." I said as we walked in. She had managed to maintain composure for sometime, but around lunch break she started slipping. Will was helping Shen Zu make his way to our table. Shen had had a rather embarrassing skateboarding accident, and was using crutches for the past few weeks. Alaise was raising her eyebrows at something Red was saying. Alaise.....Where do I start? I'd had this little, subtle crush on her ever since middle school. Her blond curls starred in most of my daytime dreams. But then I found out she had a not so little, not so subtle crush on Will. Once I realised Will might have a thing for her too, I decided to back off. Still, it was hard not to stare at her eyebrows as they got higher and higher and her lips slowly turned upwards into a knowing smile with every bizzarre questionable thing Red casually uttered. Yes. I'm weird like that. I snapped out of my Alaise flavoured daydream when Shen bumped into Simon, and lost his balance, his hands losing their grip on the crutches as he fell to the ground. Red walked up and picked the crutches while Will helped Shen stand. Red handed Shen the clutches and glared at Simon. "What the hell, Springs?" And she’d snapped. Great. "Hey, relax Carson. It was by accident." Simon put his hands up . "Sure it was. Like me kneeing you where it hurts most. That's a pretty plausible accident if you think about it." She wasn't yelling, but her expression was almost sinister. "Back off, Carson. I told you I didn't mean it." As tough as Simon normally tried to act, he had paled right then. "Red, what are you doing? C'mon." Shen said and Alaise steered Red to our table. Red threw a glare in Simon's direction before letting herself be led away. "What the hell were you doing? He just bumped into you guys. Why are you acting like he took your lunch money?" I said. "He does take lunch money from kids though." Shen decided to point out. "Yeah, but right now the guy was just minding his own business." Alaise said, to which Will and I nodded at the same time. Good God why? "Yeah well, I don't like bullies." Red huffed. "You are a bully." I said. “I don't like competition." Red slumped back on her chair. "Sheesh, someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed today." Shen said. "Oh, is that your way of saying thank you?" Red sat up straight. "I didn't want you jumping in there. Besides, you targeted Simon because you wanted someone to pick on. Not in my defence." Shen folded his arms and leaned back as if to say 'I rest my case' . Red chuckled darkly. Uh....oh. Before things could get ugly, well, uglier, I had dragged Red out to the basketball court for some fresh air. That's when things got serious. “Calm down, would you?” “Andy, tell me something. When, in the history of the world has anyone calmed down when asked to-" she couldn’t complete that sentence. "Red, move!"I remember shouting as I watched the basketball pole start to fall. Reflexively she put her hands up to stop the pole, hoop and everything, from falling on her. And......it did. There it was, levitating just a few inches above her head. She looked up in surprise, then brought her hands down. The pole landed a few feet in front of her with a thud. She sank to her knees. She was shivering, and the colour had drained from her face. I helped her to her feet. She stumbled and almost fell again, but I was holding her firmly and didn't let her hit the ground. "Finally." She managed to say, before passing out. After that I had to go through a lot trouble hauling her indoors, making up a story about the situation and calling home to have us picked up (I didn't have my licence yet). I had made sure to drop a complaint about the basketball court maintainence, which I'm not sure why I did. It's not like we'd be going back there again. Our goodbyes to our friends were hasty phone calls and texts. We'd already told them we'd applied to some big shot school in California (Cathlegona, but close enough), and were waiting for acceptance emails. So we didn't need to do a lot of explaining. Although we did have some trouble explaining why it was in the middle of the school year. And here we were, with our packed bags. Red kept arranging stuff using her telekhenesis( really, just stop). "I hope you kids are ready. We'll be leaving in a bit." Uncle Alex said. He was excited about dropping us off. He hadn't been to Cathlegona in a while. Red looked at me with a raised eyebrow as if to say, 'are we ready?' . Honestly, I wasn't sure.