Chapter Five

Axel was excited, although I’m not sure why he hadn’t attempted this previously. The part I was not excited about was the first target. 

“Are you sure there isn’t someone else we can look into first?” I ask, sighing as I stand across the road from Cecilia’s family home. It looked like they had mowed the lawn specifically to fit the visiting family’s campervan on the grass instead of on the driveway, but it did end up covering most of the home itself. 

“Trust me, this is the best way. At least if you know, you know, you’ll know?” I looked at him with the weirdest expression I could think of, mostly because of his choice in wording. “Look, if she’s one of us, awesome, we can sit on her until the bad guys come for her. If not, you might want to consider girlfriend compatibility.” I roll my eyes, not really wanting to hear it. I can understand why Abnormals don’t bond with others much. How much trust can you put into someone not to blab about something that’s currently illegal? “Okay so, where is her room located?” Crossing my arms I see the fault in the plan,

“There’s no way for me to just guess where, we’ll have to walk around the house and peer through the windows first.”

“As long as we don’t get arrested for peeping.” He chuckles. We were lucky there weren’t a lot of street lights near her house, the darkness was definitely our friend. We didn’t look through any of the front windows but jumped over short hedge bushes to the left of the house first. The windows were cracked, making it easy to hear the television. We had the perfect side view of the family room and open planned dining and kitchen with a staircase. The furniture inside was just as luxurious as the outside. Prim, with the same white and grey colour scheme. On the couch sat a woman - I assumed based on the stories Cecilia told me this was her sister. Similar features to Cecilia and only a smidge older, the only difference was how she reminded me of Isabella, dressed, full makeup, high heels, and sat a little like a princess. Her red hair was similar in length to Cecilia but thick and straight. This was definitely a sister.

“Myah?” I hear Cecilia’s voice and she comes down the stairs. Her sister doesn’t respond, just keeps watching the television. Cecilia doesn’t seem pleased by this and picks up a pillow from the small sofa, smacking it right in her sisters face. I try not to laugh because she clearly didn’t expect it.

“What?!” She yells, clearly frustrated, and immediately starts fixing her hair.

“I’m going soon, when is Uncle and Auntie back?” 

“How should I know? They left with Dad ages ago. Probably soon.” She turns back towards the television once more. 

“I went by there today. I heard the shop owner was from out of town.” We couldn’t see the television due to the cabinets they had holding it up and our awkward angle, but they must have been showing a new bulletin about the shop owner that was murdered.

“Why would you go by there of all places? How dingy.” 

“Isabella was giving me a hard time, so I went a different way home.” Myah turns and looks up at her sister.

“Did you use that disappearing trick I taught you?”

“Yeah, worked like a charm.” Myah’s wrist watch then beeps. 

“Ugh. Okay, so go over the plan one more time with me.”

“Uncle and Auntie come home, you got to work, I take a ‘shower’,” When she says that word, she puts her hands in the air and does the two-fingered quotation marks, “, at and exactly 10.45pm I must be ready to open the doors.” Myah nods approvingly and goes back to watching the TV. 

 As Cecilia begins to leave Myah stops her with a question, “Where’d you get that pin?” Hesitant, Cecilia turns around.

“It was a gift, from a friend.” 

“Wouldn’t be that boy that walked you home the other day, was it?”

Cecilia crosses her arms, “And what, you were staring at me why?”

“Oh, I was at the window waiting for my relatives arrive and I see you give this boy a kiss on the cheek. Rather sweet actually I would have just gone for it.”

“I’m not comfortable with that.”

“Doesn’t matter, once he takes a look at your body - he will probably lose interest.” 

“I look like this because of you.” Cecilia sighs, disgruntled, picking up the pillow once more and throwing it at her sister. 

“You want to go again?” Cecilia turns around and begins to head up the stairs. I must have blinked, because I didn’t actually see Myah pick the pillow back up and throw it at Cecilia. 

“Girls!” I hear a voice which makes me jump, but so did the sisters.

In unison, as if rehearsed, the girls respond, “Sorry, Mom!” Mom? Cecelia told me she didn’t have a mother

“Don’t screw up.” Myah mutters as Cecilia runs up the stairs. 

Axel and I step back from the house and look towards a second story window where the lights just turned on. 

“That must be her room.” Axel deduced, and begins to move off. I grab his arm suddenly,

“We can’t just spy up in her room until she undresses. We have to come up with another solution.” But Axel just grins,

“No, you can’t spy on her.” 

Axel’s plan was by far the dumbest thing I’d ever heard. I leaned against the house nearby the window where he climbs and stands on my shoulders. The pain from his shoes alone made this an annoying plan. Barely able to see, I stand diligently, when suddenly he pulls back from the wall and falls over in front of me.

“I didn’t even move.” I say, restraining the desire to laugh.

“Yeah well, now you need to!” He exclaims, getting up and grabbing my arm till he pushes me behind the nearby garbage bins. He then points up just as Cecilia opens the window to pop her head out. Her Aunt, Uncle and Father could be heard at the front of the house entering. Unexpectedly, she throws what appears to be an empty backpack at the window. I felt like this was related to what she and her sister were talking about. I look at my watch - 10:23pm. Watching carefully, she holds onto the window as she steps one leg out at a time - then jumps.

She hits the ground with a small thud but she seemed completely unhurt. Picking up the backpack and putting her hair back in a tie, I notice the get-up. Long stretchy pants - black jumper, sneakers? She looked like she planned a robbery. Out of nowhere she breaks into a run. Neither Axel or I move, if we run after her we’d be spotted. 

The next morning, Axel and I enter the library, one way or another I wanted to find out what Cecilia was up to - even if it ruined all chances of us ever being a real couple. Axel and I had talked about it on the way home from her place last night. If she was hiding something, or a thief, burglar or otherwise, how could I possibly date someone who has those negative intentions? The other side of the story: another person was found dead this morning. My throat clenched when Axel suggested that perhaps she and her sister were a tag team that went out murdering people - but it wouldn’t make sense for the interstate murders. 

The main problem: Cecilia was not in her normal place in the library. Even after looking around the library and the courtyard where students gathered she was nowhere to be found. 

Throughout the day Axel came up with hundreds of suggestions, most of which were completely ridiculous conspiracy theories. But at lunch he eventually came up with a good idea:

“You have her number, just text her.” So I did.

However, as the end of the school day approached, there was no response.

Axel made the suggestion that he would walk by her place on the way to pick up some snack items for his hideaway, and told me to go home. I’m grateful to him for being there for me when I was in this position. I had no idea what to think. Taking that step inside my house felt hollow, like the feeling of complete defeat. That is, until I hear the sound of three female voices in the house. There was a lot of giggling coming from the kitchen, so I stepped forward to see Bee, Suzie and Cecilia sitting around the kitchen table.

“Oh hun!” Suzie exclaims,

“Hi, Mom.” I say, still in a bit of shock that Cecilia was sitting right in front of me. 

“Honey, why didn’t you bring this girl by sooner, she’s such a doll!” Cecilia blushes a bit but otherwise hides behind her hair. She stands up and walks up to me.

“Can we talk?” She voices barely a whisper and I nod, gesturing to follow to my room.

The last thing I expected was to have to show Cecilia to my room of all places. My stomach was airy and my head span, this couldn’t be real. But, this was my chance to ask her my questions without anyone knowing about it. As we enter my room, she looks around and closes the door behind her. I was willing to leave it open so that things weren’t assumed. She doesn’t sit, so neither did I.

“Is everything okay?” I ask, not really sure if my voice came out normal or not.

“I just needed to ask you something.” She says, pulling the backpack off her back and attempting to find an item from inside.

“You weren’t at school today, I thought you might have been trying to avoid Isabella.”

“No,” she replies, pulling out what looked like an archived document from her bag, “, I was avoiding you.” Ouch. There was a sharp pain in my heart from that sentence. Aside from what she doesn’t know about, I didn’t think anything was wrong. I couldn’t respond; I didn’t have the words. “You see, I was curious about something, so I did a little investigating and I think I’ve found something, but it’s impossible to be sure.” She still seems timid, but more confident in herself. “You asked me what I thought of the Abnormals, but you didn’t ask me what I’d think if you were one.” My eyes widened and I started to panic, in what way could she know this? “I mean, that’s why you and Axel hang out on your own right? If he’s one, you have to be, too.” She looks down and clenches the document to her chest. “I just want the truth.” In a moment of honesty I felt like she wasn’t angry, just confused, but also very hurt. 

“You’re right,” I say, taking a deep breath, “, I didn’t tell you the truth. I’m not sure what you have that proves Axel as one, but you’re right, I just found out the other week I was one too.” Somehow, the words left my lips easily. I know the penalty for revealing myself. If you use your powers in public or even admit to having them, you could be taken away from civilisation forever. This was trust I shouldn’t have in someone. For all I know, she’s recording me on a tape of some kind. She looks upset, disgruntled, and completely disappointed. She takes a step at a time and goes to the door, grabbing the handle for a moment and stopping, contemplating. I consider saying something, but that could only end badly. Looking away, I hear a click - the lock on my door. I’m really confused as to why she locked us in the room. 

Out of nowhere she drops the documents she was holding and embraces me completely. I’ve never kissed a girl before, or anyone really for that matter. It felt passionate, heated. She was warm and soft, something I was often told girls were like by Axel but I never imagined anything like this. I kissed her back, of course. Something about her was so alluring - and clearly she didn’t care about what I was. I feel her fingers beneath my shirt she she pulls it over my head. I hadn’t even noticed I’d already unzipped her jacket and just a checker-patterned button shirt remained. She pushes me onto the bed and is now sitting on top of me. I didn’t expect any of this and I’m pretty sure we were both new to it. As I begin to unbutton her shirt-

“Oh crap!” I sit up, startled, and so does she - at Axel standing in my room. “Oh, I mean, sorry guys, I didn’t even think you were-”

“Seriously, Axel?” I ask, annoyed beyond reasoning. Cecilia slides off me and sits at the end of the bed.

“I guess she’s one of us after all.” He says, pointing at her open shirt. The shape reminded me of a swirly heart - but she pulls her shirt closed too quick to see,

“And I guess that makes you a Phaser because the door is locked.” She scoffs.

“Yeah, but look, the urgency of my news is kind of outweighing the awkwardness of this situation - Cecilia, it’s your sister.” Her eyes widen in concern and before I know it - we all leave to run to her place.