IceShine

XIII

Still, shocked from my thought, I look at Greghory with eyes wide open. Oh, I’m so going to talk to him, before they leave.

“And… And your parents? Greghory said, only our parents are alive from the previous descendants… I understand if you don’t want to talk about it.”

John asks, kind of careful so as not to push her. Bina turns her attention to him, with a void look on her eyes.

“I’ve been in an orphanage as long as I can remember myself. What they told me, was that my mother was a single mother, who died in childbirth. So, yeah, I guess, she made his job easier.”

She turns her gaze to the floor. She takes a deep breath then her gaze comes and meets mine.

“From which age, have you started training?”

“From 3. Both me and Greghory, were trained by my father. Greghory’s and my father, met each other coincidentally, and so they decided it was best to train us together.”

She nods. Miranda as if coming out of a trance, gives out an incoherent sound from her mouth and turns to Bina.

“How old are you?”

“I’m 17”

“Oooh, you’re in our age but you seem so much younger.”

Miranda starts going around Bina, in circles. After John, has had enough he takes her head and stops her.

“You’re going to make her dizzy… She already is from the whole thing she doesn’t need you to make it worse.”

“Oh, you stupid little-”

She doesn’t have time to finish as the sound of a clap coming from Greghory’s arms, stop her. Greghory gives them a mocking smile, that from childhood till now, still makes my skin crawl.

“Enough you two.”

And judging by the looks of terror on Miranda’s and John’s faces, I’m not the only one.

Great!

“Now. Let’s see…”

He goes closer to Bina and takes her hands in his.

“Try to visualize what happened these two times your power activated… Not the events that led them to activate… the power itself…”

She closes her eyes and seems to be thinking hard. She starts taking deep breaths.

“You’re doing great… now I want you to try and put this thought into practice. Try to visualize your light coming out of your hand.”

She continues taking deep breaths, and a dim lights starts coming out of her hands. Greghory lets her hands go and the light, gradually, becomes brighter and brighter.

“Very good, Bina. Now I want you to hold it there, don’t make it any brighter.”

Bina opens her eyes to see the light and seems to be making a big effort to stop it from getting brighter. But it doesn’t work, and soon everyone except her, can barely keep their eyes open from how bright it is.

“I’m trying to stop it now, but it doesn’t seem to be working!”

She screams panicked. Then Greghory, grabs hold of her hands and pushes a shadow to dim the light until it disappears completely. I open my eyes fully, to see her trembling, the light still going strong, but Greghory controlling the brightness with his shadow.

“Bina, your emotional state is part of the equation. The more emotional you are, the more it will get out of your control. Now, I want you to relax for me…”

He begins inhaling and exhaling deep, and makes a gesture with his hand for her to do the same. She does it and slowly, the light inside the shadow stops existing. Then Greghory, removes his shadow from around her arms.

“That was it. Very well on your first try!”

Bina looks at him shocked.

“That was me doing it well?”

I give out a small laugh.

“He says that, because the first time he activated willingly his powers, he almost killed me and my father… So, yeah… if you put everything down, you just almost blinded us, not killed us.”

Miranda snickers, and Greghory glares at me warningly.

“Shut up…”

I laugh and turn my attention again to Bina.

“When I first activated my ice, I also almost killed my father and myself. It’s kind of different, because I knew how to control water and air, but it was completely different for ice. It’s sharp like a knife… You can’t play with it.”

I go closer to her and put my hand on her shoulder.

“Don’t worry… You did great.”

She looks at me wide-eyed, and after a little while she nods and smiles at me.

What was it earlier? Yeah, she is really like a doll.

“Oh, we’re gonna make great friends the three of us!”

Miranda came like a bomb and hugged both of our shoulders. Ouch!

“Miranda, that hurt! Be careful!”

“Oops, sorry, not sorry!”

She gives me a smile, and before I could snap at her, Jason’s voice sounds through the room.

“Oh, I see you’re fine! I got worried after I heard a scream.”

Miranda lets us go and goes towards her dad to hug him.

“Hey, daddy! When did you return?”

“It’s five minutes, but I thought it was best to only stop you when the food was ready. And I did it. So, everyone come on, Fiona has already readied the table.”

“Okay!”

Jason smiles at us and starts going up, with Miranda hot on his heels.

“And that, Bina, was hurricane Miranda… Yeah, I’m living here almost three weeks but I just can’t understand her.”

“And you will never achieve that.”

Says John with a shrug, pushes his hands inside his pockets and starts going towards the stairs.

“Come on, now both of you… Fiona will not be happy if we’re late…”

We exchange smiles and follow John upstairs.

By the time, we’ve arrived on the dining table, everyone is sitting. John goes and sits next to his dad and opposite of Miranda. Beside Miranda, sits Fiona, so I go and sit beside John, with Greghory and Bina sitting by my side. After introducing Bina to Fiona and Jason, I start thinking about what is to come. The training, the Shadow Monsters, the guy in my dream… everything is just so f****d up.

Sensing John’s eyes on me, I turn to look at him. The loud chatter of Miranda echoing in the table, he forms with his mouth the words.

“Are you okay?”

I nod to him, and do a back hand gesture of my hand to tell him, I’ll tell him later. He nods his head slightly and continues eating.

“By the way, mom, dad. To celebrate our new found friendship, we decided to do a sleepover all five of us today. Is there a problem with that?”

My food gets stuck on my throat and I start coughing loudly.

“Oh, God, Lila!”

That was John, who was already bringing a glass of water in my mouth. I take it, gladly, and slowly the coughing stops.

“So, mommy, daddy… Is there a problem with that?”

“Absolutely not! We be happy to have you kids, sleep here. But! You have school tomorrow, so you’ll go early for bed… That’s the only condition!”

Fiona says smiling, and Miranda gets up and hugs her.

“You’re the best!”

…

And now here we are, in the attic, which I must say is beautiful. Apparently it’s a big room with wooden floor and ceiling and huge windows. Actually, the windows take up the whole space, between the ceiling and the floor. They have a big couch that, easily, can fit us all sitting. The table in front of the couch is wooden too, and up there, Fiona has put everything she made for us. From pizza to mocktails.

Okay, I knew this family was crazy, but my imaginations could not anticipate this!

Miranda and Josh also brought big mattresses for all of us to sleep in.

“Okay! So let the party begin!”

Miranda shouts beside me after she brought everything, and I close my ears because of the too high pitched sound.

“Just so you know… If I was a dolphin right now, you could have made me deaf!”

“Oh, you’re such a drama queen… Enjoy it!”

I exhale and bring my mattress close to the window, so I can look at the stars. The others start talking, but I am too engrossed in the stars to listen. Actually, I am so much into my dreamworld, that I don’t notice him sit next to me, before he starts speaking.

"So, princess... How was your day?"

I turn to look into his green eyes, startled. After the initial shock, I glare at him, before turning around to the stars again.

"Don't call me that, Greghory!"

He just laughs and puts his head on my shoulder. We stay like this for a while, and then I remember my earlier discovery. I turn to look at him.

"You and I have a hell of a lot talking to do!"

He turns to look at me with wide eyes at the seriousness of my voice.

"What do you mean?"

This guy is absolutely STUPID! I look at him dead in the eye, and then turn my gaze to Bina, who is sitting comfortable between the twins and seems to be laughing at something Miranda said. He follows my gaze, and sees Bina. I turn my attention back to him and watch as understanding dawns on his face. He turns to look at me startled, and... A little embarrassed, with a red tinge on his cheeks! I widen my eyes!

"Are you seriously going to tell me you just blushed!?"

I try to say as lowly as possibly, so as not to be heard by the others. He huffs and turns his head against my shoulder.

"Shut up."

"I'm going to shut up now, but only because I know you'd literally kill me, if I continue this conversation here... But don't think its over!"

He huffs again and stops talking for a while.

"You didn't answer me... How was your day?"

"Meh... The same old story... But you know, since they came to school its more bearable I would say..."

He puts his hand on me knee and squeezes it.

"Aside from that, today was... I guess the word I would use, is weird."

"Weird?"

"Yes, weird..."

"Weird, as in...?"

"I don't know..."

I turn to look at John and Miranda.

"I think they re fighting."

"John and Miranda?"

I nod my head blankly. He turns his attention back to them.

"Are you sure?"

"Well, I can't say I'm sure. But all day, Miranda was giving him some weird looks, then John would get mad and go away, and then the circle would continue. I counted 5 times. Also, just as we came home, they went into John's room and did not come out until you came. And then it stopped... I think..."

Looking at them, John seems angry. And Miranda is laughing her a*s off. Bina, on the other side, seems embarrassed. I am not the only one who noticed Bina was NOT okay, Greghory did too... Of course. He immediately got straight but before he could go, I took him by the arm and gave him a smirk. He glares at me playfully.

"I thought this discussion was not due..."

"It is until we are alone, but that doesn't mean I don't have eyes..."

He huffs, unhooks gently my fingers and went to the others. He sits beside John.

"What is wrong with you all?"

Miranda laughs a thousand times more loudly than before, if that was possible. Greghory looks concerned.

"What is wrong with her?"

"Nothing. She's just a big fat moronic idiot."

Greghory looks at John, laughs and turns his attention to Bina.

"Are you okay?"

Bina nods to him with a smile. Greghory smiles back, and I can't suppress my smirk at his way... Which he notices and glares at me. Ah... Its nice to be the one teasing! After a little while, Miranda is back to normal and turns to me, with a serious look on her face, that actually scares me.

"You're sitting too far away! Come here!"

I sigh and deduce that if I were to refuse, Miranda would throw a fit. I get up and go straight to complete the circle they had created, sitting between Miranda and Greghory. Before I was seated, Miranda turns her attention to Greghory.

"So, how did you meet with Lila?"

He giggles.

"Well, the basics she already told you. Our fathers were the ones who first got acquainted. Then they introduced us to one another."

I smile an ironic smile and lift my glass of orange juice to drink a gulp. But...

"And you never thought of each other romantically?"

The juice in my mouth got stuck in my throat, and i started coughing like crazy! Miranda wears a smirk on her face, that infuriates me. Greghory brings my glass up again, to take another gulp and stop the coughing. While I am drinking, he answers Miranda with a smirk.

"I was rejected actually."

"WHAT?!"

Miranda is now standing and looking at me in disbelief. By that time my coughing has stopped, so I clarify.

"He thought it was a good idea for a 5 year old boy to ask a 3 year old girl, if she wanted to marry him, have his kids and stay all day in the house. Of course, i would reject him!"

Miranda sits down again, seeming relieved (what the f**k!?), and starts laughing.

"Yes, but you traumatized my little boyish heart!"

I turn to look at him and smirk.

"Yes. And the next day you were soo hurt, that you went and asked Clair from school to marry you."

"It was my rebound!"

"So that was why, there was a time in junior high, that you went home, almost every day, with a different girl under your arm."

"Oh, shut up, princess."

Miranda is in full blown laughter again, John is laughing more discreetly, and Bina... Has a smile on her face but looks hurt. Okay, if those two don't get together, I will let Miranda take me for shopping, that she's asking from the second day that I came to live here. When Miranda's laughter stops again, she turns to look at us again.

"So, you never thought about each other like that?"

"Nah, she and I only know how to be friends. I really think, that even if I had the urge to do something with her, and went along and do it, I would be so disgusted... I mean, think about it this way. Imagine you wanting to have s*x with John."

Miranda's face instantly scrunches up in disgust and makes a face like she's vomiting.

"That's exactly how I feel when someone says something like that to the two of us."

"We've grown up together. We are like siblings... And actually I prefer that."

Greghory smiled and put a protective arm around my shoulders. After that we discuss some more, eat and play a few games to get to know each other better. After that everyone goes to sleep. But i can’t sleep, so I stare at the stars. Today was a very calming day. But for how long will this calm feeling exist? The last time I felt so calm and serene was with my parents... Right before they... Anyway, I hope that even if it's just wishful thinking, this peace will continue for longer than I expect.