Forbidden Half: The Split World {Book One}

0.Maria Kelsey Grant

~Maria~

~Past~

Running... Running... Running...Breathe...Heavy...Lungs...Hurt...Running...Running...Running...

It was all I could do in a situation like this.

No way through and almost no way out.

I wish I could stand and fight, but I had no powers that would work to my advantage.

I need my team to win.

Where are they now? I wish I had someway to reach out and communicate with them.

How did I get stuck in this slump?

Actually...

I can't quite remember...

I turn a corner and...

BAM 

Knife struck right through my stomach. 

I fell to the ground, bleeding with no way out.

In minutes, I bled out.

~~~~~

I shot up, in my... bed? Looking around, I noticed I was now in my room. Thank the gods, It was just a dream. I thought. A horrible, horrible dream. Like usual, same thing always happens. I don't quite understand these dreams,however, but they do scare me quite badly. Slowly, I get out of my bed and head to the bathroom. Once I'm done with my normal morning routine, I head downstairs where my mom is making breakfast in the kitchen.

Setting myself down at the table, "Good morning, sweetie." My mother greets.

"Morning mom." I greet her back.

"How are you this morning?" She asks. She can always tell when I have my dreams early in the morning.

"Not bad, but could be better. I had another nightmare last night." I responded without hesitation. If there was ever anyone I could talk to about anything, it would be my mom.

"Oh, that's horrible sweetie." She walked over and kissed me on the forehead. "Same one?" I nodded. "Well, hopefully when you come to control your abilities, you won't have them as often. The dream catchers doing any good?" I nodded again. They did keep the dreams from being as constant, but as it's my natural ability as a seer, it's not a huge improvement. She set a plateful of pancakes in front of me and we both started eating breakfast together.

"You excited to start school in a year?"

Nodding my head in a swift motion, "Excited and nervous." I replied back.

"Oh, I'm sure you'll do just fine, sweetheart." My mom gave me her signature smile and we both finished our breakfast. I helped her wash and dry the dishes, but she put them all away.

"You know, I heard some new people moved in across the street. They have 3 kids around your age. Why don't you go over and say hi? I'll be out soon with something to give them." I gave my mom a small smile while I got ready to head outside.

~~~~~

I looked both ways before crossing the street like I've always been taught. And sure enough, there were 3 kids playing outside of the house across the street. I walked over to what looked like the eldest of the group. He didn't seem to notice me, so I decided to get their attention. "Hello there, I'm Maria. What's your name?" He turned to face me pretty quickly, I'm pretty sure I startled him. I waved politely, a small smile on my lips.

"Oh, hi. I'm Andie." He gave a light smile and his hand for me to shake. I gripped his hand, but not tightly, and we shook hands. He had white hair, pale almost white skin and eyes that held no tint to them. "Uh, those are my sisters. Anna and Annie. They're twins and 2 years younger than me. I just turned 10." They both had long, elegant red hair, were tanned, and blue eyes. Anna had her hair in a bun and Annie had hers in braids.

"Oh, cool. I'm 10 as well." I turned to look at his sisters. "Hi" I waved at them and they waved back before going back to their game of soccer. I turned back to Andie. "Not much talkers are they?" I asked.

"No, not really. They pretty much stick to themselves and each other." He responded. "I'm sorry, I never caught your name. You probably said, but ya know."

"It's Maria." I said in response as he started doing whatever he was doing before, looks kind of like he's weeding a garden or something.

"You have any siblings, Maria?" He asked.

"Nope. Only child." I responded honestly.

"Cool. Not sure whether I would rather have or not have siblings. It's hard to tell much of the time." He stated.

I nodded even though he couldn't see me. "I see. Well, anyways, I live right across the street with my mom and um dad. Who do you live with?" I asked, trying to continue our conversation.

"Just my dad. Well, besides obviously my sisters." He answered.

"You don't live with your mom?" I asked.

"Nope. Haven't for a long time now." He responded.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Do you visit her?"

"Don't be sorry, you had nothing to do with what happened and it's not that big of a deal anyways. And, no we don't visit her. We don't even know where she is. All we know is that she's gone from our lives..."

"Well, did you know her well?" I asked, hoping I wasn't pushing it.

"We thought we did. Her name was Fiona and she was a beautiful woman." He sighed. "Let's stop talking about my family and talk about yours. Do you get along with your mom?"

"Oh, yeah. Definitely. We're like best friends." I said proudly and with a smile.

"That's nice, what about your dad? Get along with him?" He asked. I rolled my eyes and thought for a second. I'm not sure we do.

"Not really. What about you, do you get along with your dad?" I asked, avoiding the subject of my dad further.

"Yeah, for the most part I suppose. We don't really talk, so yeah." It seemed he was done with his task because he got up, took the bag of weeds, and threw them into some recycling thing by the side of the house. He went over to a cooler and grabbed a few drinks out of it. He walked back over to be and handed me a juice box.

"Thank you." I said with a smile as I opened the juice box and took a sip.

"It's no problem." He stated as he did the same with his own juice box. Andie is really nice. I looked over towards my house to see my mom coming over with something in her hands. Probably something for the new neighbors. "That your mom?" Andie asked, noticing where I was looking.

"Yeah, she's great. I think she has something for your dad too." I answered. Andie nodded.

"Andie, did you finish your chores?" A man asked. I turned to look at him. He has a mean looking face if you ask me. Andie's dad had short dark brown hair, green eyes, was muscular, and was even more tanned than both of the twins.

"Yeah dad, they're all done." Andie responded as my mom walked over to us.

"Good morning everyone." My mom greeted.

"Good morning." Andie and his dad greeted. Anna and Annie just waved before going back to their game.

"She your daughter?" His father asked, gesturing to me.

"Yes, she is. This is Maria. I hope she hasn't caused trouble." I looked up to him with a light smile.

"No, not at all. I'm Andrew, their father, but you can just call me Drew. That's Andie, Anna, and Annie." He finished, pointing to his respective children as he said their names. "And your name is?" He asked.

"I'm Savannah, it's nice to meet you." My mom put out her hand for Andie's father, Drew, to shake. He took her hand and shook it lightly. My mom picked up the container she had brought over off of where she set it on the steps to their house and handed it to Drew. "I made this for you. Think of it as a "welcome to the neighbourhood" gift. It's coleslaw. I hope you guys like it. And there's a list of ingredients since I don't know what you are all allergic to, if you are allergic to anything." My mother said with a smile.

"It looks good, thank you very much." Drew responded to my mom.

"Hey, you wanna play Frisbee with me?" Andie asked me while our parents continued talking with each other.

"Yeah, sure!" We went off to play, throwing the Frisbee back and forth to each other.

~No one~

"You know, maybe we could have Andie over for dinner sometime." Maria's mother, Savannah suggested to Andie's father, Drew.

"I'm sure that would be nice. Andie's never really had a close friend before, so it should be good for him." Drew responded to Savannah.

"Sounds good to me. Tomorrow night sound good?" Savannah asked.

"Works for me." They smiled, awkwardly, at each other for a minute.

"Well, I best get home to finish everything up that I need to do and get lunch. See you around." Savannah stated before waving goodbye and walking back to her house.

Having played for most the day, only stopping to eat, it was just about dark out once Maria headed back to her house. The next night, Andie was allowed over to Maria's for dinner. Maria's mother, Savannah, made them her best ziti; they both enjoyed it very much. Maria and Andie said their goodbyes to each other as the sun set, they had become very good friends.

~Maria~

~The First Day Of School~

Taking a deep breath, I entered through the entrance doors of The Ability School of Santiago Falls. The place that's going to teach me how to control my abilities and use them properly. Since Andie and I have different homerooms due to our differing abilities, we decided not to meet up right away on the first day. Taking a look at my schedule, the room I make my journey to is B148, which means it's on the second floor of the 4 story tall school building.

Upon entering the classroom, most of the kids seem a year or more older, however one person in the back stands out. He has deep red eyes and swept-back black hair that goes to just above his shoulders, a look that's mysterious in my opinion, but what do I know; I have one friend. Taking a seat next to him, he doesn't even seem to notice me until I turn to him. "Hi, I'm Maria." Giving a small smile, he turns towards me.

"Adrian Braylan. Nice to meet you." He seems nice, but I supposed you never really know until you know the person.

"Nice to meet you too. So, are you just a seer or?" I didn't wanna assume anything, but I needed something to talk to him about.

"Also a warlock, but it's not that big of a deal." Shrugging his shoulders, he continues, "You seem like you'd also be a strengthling. Sorry if I'm way off base, just the vibes I get."

"Actually, you're completely correct. No one's ever guessed either of my powers right before, well, besides family." He seems quite interesting.

"Alright, settle down class." Called the teacher. Everyone, including Adrian and I, faced forward. "I, Mr. Boivin, will be your homeroom and seer teacher this year. I don't demand anyone respect anyone, but I do expect you will respect those who have earned it." Once he was done going over all the basics for school, he called roll call.

~~~~~

Heading to my first actual class of the day, history, I accidentally bump into someone. "Sorry." I say as I try to keep myself from dropping my stuff.

"It's alright, Maria." A familiar voice rang in my ears and tad larger hands than my own help to settle my stuff.

"Hey Andie." I greeted, giving him a smile.

"Hey. Look, I'd love to stay and chat, but I'm going to be late for Defense and I'm sure you're going to be late to wherever you're going. See ya!" Andie replied as he took off. Stepping into the classroom, most of the seats were already filled, I sat myself down next to a semi-chubby looking girl with short, curly brown hair to her shoulders. The fringe of her bangs covered her eyes so I never got a very good look.

Once done explaining the course and it's contents, our teacher, Mrs. Summerfield, gave us the task of 'getting to know our peers.' Moving my body to face the girl next to me, she seemed to look at me shyly through her bangs. "Hello, I'm Maria." Giving her a hand to shake, she took it lightly.

"It's nice to meet you, I'm Tibby." Her voice was low and shy-like but I felt it was cute. Giving her a reassuring smile, her lips moved up in a much smaller, yet still prominent, one. It was then when I caught a glimpse of an eye colour, a brown left eye and a green right eye.

"It's very nice to meet you too. I love your eye colour. It's super cool." By the end of my sentence, she shied away slightly and I thought I had something wrong.

"Thank you." He voice was barely above a whisper, and it all but disappeared when the bell rang. 

"Well, I'll see you later, then." I said with a cheery voice before skipping off to my next class.

~~~~~

Heading to hand-to-hand combat, someone thought it funny to trip me. What a low-life. While grabbing all of my things, "Here." Looking up towards the owner of the voice, a boy with blonde hair and baby blue eyes had his hand extended with a few of my things in it.

"Thank you." I say as I take my things.

"I'm Ash by the way." He said, a polite smile on his face. Extending a hand for me to shake, I take it.

"Maria Grant. Thanks again for helping me with my books."

"No problem. Those kids are d***s anyways."

"Yeah. Well, I best head to class."

"That would be best. See you around!" He says as he takes off in the opposite direction as me.

Unlike the other classes of the day, we actually started on our work in this class. Luckily, Andie's in it with me so we got to be partners. It wasn't so bad, I did much better than I thought I would.

~~~~~

Once at lunch, we quickly found two of the people I had met earlier in the day (Ash and Tibby) along with someone Andie managed to talk to, Gwayne. It seemed we were already establishing a nice friend group, or, as Gwayne liked to dramatically call us, a squad.

"We should come up a name for us!" Gwayne suggested moments later.

"Are you serious?" Ash replied, slightly annoyed.

"Of course I am!"

"Alright, how about the Tactical Task Team!" Andie blurted out.

"Nah, too adult-ish." Gwayne replied.

"The Classified Assault Squad?" Tibby piped up.

"No no, having squad in the name defeats the purpose! Besides, We aren't quite there when it comes to assault.."

"The Silver Lions?!" Ash joined in.

"Yeah-"

"I'm afraid of lions..." Tibby cut Gwayne off.

"The Angel Crew?" I asked.

"A bit too girly, besides who here are angels anyways?" Gwayne replied. I thought it was a dumb idea anyways.

"The Ferals?" Andie suggested another one.

"That just makes us sound like rabid pack animals..." I replied with concern.

"The White Skulls!" Gwayne shouted.

"That one makes us sound like we're trying too hard to be edgy..." Tibby replied with amusement. "How about the Riot Crew?"

"We don't start riots, it was a good idea though." Andie said. "The Omegas?" 

"We aren't werewolves, Andie." Gwayne responded.

"The Firebolts!" Ash was getting into it.

"That just sounds like something you'd call a broomstick or something." Ash pointed out.

Suddenly, it came to me, "The Red Dragons!"

"That actually sounds really good!" Gwayne shouted as everyone else nodded in agreement. From then on, that's what we were known as throughout school... We even gained a new member a year later, Aislinn.