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  She smirked at him. “The last thing you want to do is give me more ideas to add on to your sentence. I think I'll leave it at the lawn. And to prevent you from going completely insane, you can have people come over here, but you still can't go out,” she paused. “That is, if you have any friends to invite over.”

  “Ouch. That was a little below the belt,” he mumbled.

  “Well, maybe if you had some friends, people wouldn't pick on you so much at school,” Lyssa said.

  “Introduce me to someone who's not annoying or stupid, and I'll be friends with them,” he replied. She gave him a glare, and he shrugged while waving a dismissive hand. “Why waste my time with people who are only going to frustrate me?”

  “Because having a social life is a good thing.”

  “I never disagreed with you there. I'm just picky. Jesse and all of his jock friends who made up my old crew are nothing but a bunch of idiots. The rest of the school worships the ground he walks on. It's not my idea of a good time.”

  “I have dinner ready if you're hungry,” Lyssa said, and then she left him for the kitchen.

  “Let me guess,” he said taking in a whiff as he followed her through the hallways. “You made hamburger lasagna tonight.”

  “Your nose is correct.”

  “Made with love, right?”

  “By yours truly.”

  “Seeing as how we don't have a personal chef or butler, I would certainly hope so. Unless there's something I don't know about?” he said.

  She briefly glanced back at him from over her shoulder, rolled her eyes, and then continued onward. “You know Lania won't do anything beyond cleaning the bathrooms and washing your clothes. Which I still think is bogus by the way. You're a big boy now, Orly. You should be able to do that on your own.”

  “I'd rather not dye the whites lavender again.” He scrunched up his nose as he recalled his one attempt at doing the laundry. After that, he wouldn't so much as touch either machine.

  “Like you have anything white to wash anymore.”

  “Boxers, undershirts, socks? Those are all white,” he pointed out. She didn't say anything as she entered the kitchen to dish up their plates.

  He dragged his backpack to the kitchen table with him and set it on the floor next to 'his' spot. He had a lot of homework to do this weekend. Though, was there a point in doing it anymore? He might never be setting foot in Morningtide High again.

  As much as his sister tried to guilt him into feeling ashamed over what he had done, all he could do was beam with pride. Those jerks had deserved every second of what they got. How was he supposed to make her understand that he had to defend her honor? This wasn't the first time Jesse and his crew had teased him. Orlando made sure it was the last.

  “I got an email from Mom and Dad,” Lyssa said casually. She said it like this kind of thing happened all the time. Truth was, their parents hardly ever contacted their own children. They had far more important things to do apparently.

  “Okay, that's nice,” he said and took his plate from her. He waited for her to join him before starting to eat.

  “You don't even want to know what it said?”

  “No, the same old stuff as usual right?”

  “Actually, no. They're coming home for a little while. Sometime—”

  “Soonish, right. Which will mean they'll have something else come up before they even get this far and send us some other new thing or toy to make up for it or whatever.” He nodded again and took a large bite from his heaping serving of the cheese and beef lasagna she had made.

  “I think they mean it this time. It sounded urgent. I mean, with how much you can tell from an email,” she said quietly.

  “I’ll be more surprised if they follow through on what they claim,” he said. Orlando stabbed at his plate. He did not enjoy the mind games his parents played on them, nor the great amounts of secrecy and run around to keep the two of them in the dark. “Anyway...”

  He had a great topic in mind, but it became lost when he saw the saltshaker slide across the table and into his right hand without anything touching it. “I'll mow the lawn tomorrow.” He continued to fill the awkward silence, but that wasn't what he originally wanted to say.

  How did that happen? He hadn't even been thinking about grabbing the salt. Wanted it, sure, but this had been a completely subconscious thing. He also wanted a glass of water.

  Slowly raising his blue eyes, he took a nervous glance at the refrigerator’s filtered water dispenser. Sure enough, there was a glass floating its way across the kitchen to be filled. He stared with wide eyes. Lyssa, thankfully, sat with her back to the kitchen. Her eyes were focused on her plate as she ate, and she was oblivious to it all. That is, until she looked up at him and noticed the shock on his face.

  “Is something wrong?” she asked. His concentration broke, and the glass shattered on the kitchen floor with a loud crash. Lyssa jumped in the chair. “What was that?”

  “The cat,” Orlando said with a swallow. “One of the cats batted it off of the counter. Probably just wanted some attention and then ran off. I'll clean it up.” He'd be sure to make it up to their two large, long-haired tiger cats later with extra treats and affection.

  He had his dinner wolfed down soon after, and then went to get the dustpan and broom. It didn't take him long before he had the mess cleaned up and the floor spotless. “All clean. I'm going to my room to think about what a naughty boy I've been today.”

  “Right you are,” Lyssa said with a roll of her eyes.

  “Okay, you caught me. I'm going to read.” He waved, then ran up the stairs to his room grabbing one of the cats on his way and shutting himself in. After a bit of debate, he decided to lock his door. They never locked the doors within the house. Neither he nor his sister believed in it. More often than not, she was good about knocking before entering, but there was the off-chance she wouldn't.

  “All right Timmy,” he said to the tiger cat in his arms. “Where did I put my yearbook from last year?”

  He had to look up Cadence or JD's number and tell them what happened. Hopefully their alien encounter at the Plaza hadn't been some kind of hallucination. The problem he had was remembering their last names. Once he found what he was looking for, Orlando nervously dialed Cadence's home phone. She's going to think I'm crazy.

  Knowing the kind of luck he had, he probably imagined the whole encounter, and had been hit harder than he originally thought by Jesse's gang of thugs. Forcing Timmy to stay and cuddle with him, he hugged the large cat tightly and waited for her to pick up.

  “Hello?” Cadence said.

  “Cadence? It's Orlando. You know, from school? I don't think we have many classes together, but...”

  “I know who you are. What can I do for you?”

  “You remember what happened earlier today after school?” That was a good way to ask. He didn't have to flat out say: 'Do you remember earlier today at the Plaza when the alien crashed through the roof and said that something interesting would be happening later?' He waited, every second adding more and more internal angst.

  “Yes.”

  “At the Plaza.”

  “Yes, I was there. What about it?”

  “Well,” he said and shifted awkwardly on his bed where he sat. “The strangest thing happened...”

  How he was going to elaborate on this, he wasn't sure. He was completely paranoid that their phones were tapped, or their rooms bugged, and some secret government agency was waiting for them to verbally confirm that they were freaks before they came to take them all away.

  “I might just be crazy and all, but I think I did something not normal,” he finally said after an uncomfortable silence.

  “You show me yours, and I'll show you mine.” He could imagine the smile on her face while she said this. “Hang on, I'll get JD on three-way.”

  Orlando sighed with relief. He wasn't crazy after all.

  “Yo. 'Sup?” JD's voice came in.

  “I guess something
interesting has happened. To both me and Orlando, so I was wondering if you had a strange encounter as well with the unknown,” Cadence said.

  JD was quiet for a long time. “No, nothing interesting has happened to me yet.”

  “Oh.” The disappointment in her voice was obvious.

  Orlando felt the same way.

  “It's okay,” Cadence quickly added. “Maybe it'll happen later today or tomorrow or something. You always were kind of a late bloomer. I think we need to meet up and talk about all of this.”

  “That’s probably a good idea. Where at, though? Can't do it here. There's no privacy,” JD said.

  “I'd rather not have people over at my place. Maybe at a park or—” she said.

  “I'm grounded,” Orlando stated, finally chiming in and joining the conversation. “But you can come over here. I just can't go out. We shouldn't have any privacy issues. Let me know when works best for you so I can plan my schedule around it.” The mansion felt more dead than a morgue.

  “I've got all weekend,” Cadence said.

  “Me too. So how about we plan for tomorrow afternoon? I know some people, aka Cadence, have a hard time getting up before eleven in the morning. Question Orlando. How can you be grounded if you're having people over? Doesn't that defeat the purpose of being grounded?” JD said.

  Orlando rolled his eyes, tempted to just hang up the phone, but he couldn't help but stay on the line and make an attempt to be friends with them—no matter how irritating he thought they both were, or rather, no matter how irritating JD was. Cadence hadn't bothered him too much—yet. “My family believes it would be good for me to maintain some social interaction while I'm under house arrest. It'll be a nice break from chores.”

  “You mean you're actually having to do manual labor?” JD quipped.

  “I do manual labor on a regular basis actually. It helps me to relate to all of you little people in the world.” Orlando wasn't being serious, but when his buttons were pushed the wrong way, he let it fly, and there was little that could be done to hold him back.

  “Guys,” Cadence cut in before JD could think up a response. “We don't need to fight. How about we meet at about twelve-thirty tomorrow afternoon. It's not too early, but not too late. We'll have plenty of time to talk for awhile if we need to. Are you sure it's not going to be a problem if we're over there? No, you know, unwanted eyes and ears?”

  “I'm sure,” Orlando managed to say without grinding his teeth. “My parents are out of town for a while. The place is usually empty, and we've got a number of good, sound-proofed meeting areas in the house.” Not to mention hidden rooms. Some his sister didn't even know about. “I'm sure we can find a spot that will be more than enough to meet our needs. Who knows? Maybe we can even make it a headquarters or something.”

  “Like a bat cave. I've always wanted a bat cave,” JD said with obvious awe.

  Orlando was pretty sure he even heard the other boy giggle a little. What kind of a guy giggled? The sound grated on his nerves.

  “I'll get you one for Christmas. I'll be sure to have something ready for lunch and tell my sister you're coming so she's not caught off guard,” he said. Timmy finally wasn't able to take the forced cuddling anymore, and wiggled free from his grasp. With a pout, he began to chase the cat around the room. “Anyway, I should get going. I'll see you tomorrow.”

  He didn't wait for them to say goodbye and hung up as he watched Timmy jump onto his bookshelf and scale to the top. “You know I don't like it when you go up there and eat my books.” The cats had a bad habit of chewing on anything made of paper.

  Checking to see if the door was indeed locked, Orlando concentrated on Timmy and bringing him back down to the ground. It didn't take long for the cat to float into his arms and let out a quiet howl of surprise.

  “Don't go up there anymore. It's not safe. Go and chase your brother or something.” He put Timmy on the ground again before shooing him out of the room.

  Lyssa hadn't noticed or come to check on him, and she was still nowhere nearby. He closed the door again, only this time he left it unlocked and went to his bag to pull out his books. He couldn’t stay focused on his reading though. His mind kept wandering back to the events of the day. Super powers...

  Chapter Four

  JD got out of his car and looked at the Holmes Mansion. “Yowza! I’m pretty sure this thing is as big as the high school.” He couldn’t help but admire the stone walkway that lead up to the large, red-brick mansion that could easily pass for a modern castle. It was an amazing sight to behold, and he was convinced it had the length of an entire city block.

  “I don’t know about that,” Cadence said. She tried to hide it, but he could tell she was also impressed. It would have been stupid for either of them to not be, but he knew she had a personal issue with turning into a bumbling idiot over material-type things. There was something else different about her as well, but JD couldn’t quite put his finger on what, or if he liked it. She’d been unusually quiet the whole trip there.

  “Look, there he is.” She pointed towards a small section of garden near what they assumed was the front entrance. Orlando was kneeling over a pot and pulling at a patch of weeds when he noticed them. He acknowledged their presence with a nod before returning to his work.

  Seeing Orlando do physical labor gave JD a lot of joy for some reason. Then again, he’d always thought the guy had it made and would never know what real work was. “What? No gardener to do it for you?” Cadence shot him a dark look. Orlando did, too.

  “I told you, I had chores,” he said with a grunt as he gave the weeds another rough pull.

  “How about a break now that we’re here?” Cadence suggested.

  “Sounds good to me.” He stood up and dusted off the spilled dirt on his jeans and sighed. “I would have made myself more presentable for you guys, but my sister said I wasn’t allowed to look normal as part of my punishment. Sorry if I smell a lot. I’ve been out here all day. There’s lunch though. I’m not sure if you’ve eaten or not.”

  “I’m always ready to eat. Lead the way,” JD said.

  “Right,” Orlando mumbled and made a weak hand gesture for them to follow him inside. JD had a hard time keeping up with him because every so many feet he’d stop to gawk at something: the crystal light fixtures, the marble floors; it was all like something out of a fairytale for him.

  “I can give you a grand tour after we eat if you want. Then you can be amazed and stare as much as you want, but I’m kind of hungry,” Orlando said.

  “Sorry.” JD bit his lip and tried to contain his curiosity for later.

  There was grilled cheese waiting for them in the kitchen, and he was pretty sure there were cookies in the oven, too.

  “I didn’t realize you liked us enough to bake,” JD said as he grabbed a couple of sandwiches and poured himself a glass of lemonade.

  “Hate to disappoint you, but my sister made lunch.”

  JD and Cadence exchanged a glance and shrugged. Conversation was weak at the table while they ate, but they were only there for business anyway.

  “So where are we going to work on this? Do you have a place where we won’t be bothered by any unwanted visitors?” Cadence asked.

  “Of course.” Orlando flashed her a smile as he collected the used plates. “Lyssa is good about keeping her nose out of where it doesn’t belong, but there are a few nooks and corners she doesn’t know exist. My dad, when he designed the building, littered this place with secret passages going all over the place. I know a good one. It goes to a completely separate wing of the house. She doesn’t know how to get there.”

  Orlando led them through the hallways, down the stairs to the basement level, and into a bland, dirty, and spider-covered storage closet.

  “And you found this how?” JD asked with wide eyes, a tingle of excitement running down his spine. An entire secret wing to this mansion? He’d always wanted to live in a house with secret passages. Now his jealousy was doubled.

&n
bsp; Orlando rubbed at the back of his head, glancing back at the other two. “Random chance.”

  “This is gross,” Cadence said. “Like really gross and unsanitary.” She picked a spiderweb from her hair and checked to make sure no creepy eight-legged beasts were crawling on her.

  Orlando stared at her with a raised eyebrow. “And I was looking for spiders so I could continue to practice my black magic,” his voice rich with sarcasm once more. “Actually, I have a den not too far away from here that I’ll hang out in sometimes. I was playing around with a ball, and it rolled in here and to the back.” He motioned for them to come closer. “When I picked it up, I found this.” He pointed towards a barely visible crack in the wall.

  It would have looked natural, but when they followed the crack for long enough, they found it separated into the shape of a square exactly five inches by five inches, on a set of hinges. Orlando demonstrated how to open it, and inside was a small lever. After he pulled it, a section of the wall released for easy maneuvering.

  “I got curious.” He gestured for them to go through first.

  “This kind of makes me feel like I’m in a horror movie,” JD said as he walked through the wall and stepped into a tight hallway made of cement blocks.

  “Yeah, you caught me. I’m a serial killer who likes to collect shrunken heads. You better run away as fast as you can,” Orlando said as he closed the wall behind them. He gave JD a nudge forward. “There’s nowhere to go except to the other side.”

  The hallway itself was fairly long. It went the rest of the length of the house and then turned left. Almost immediately after the turn was a door with a keypad lock. Orlando entered the code and opened the door. On the other side was a completely empty room the size of Cadence’s one thousand square feet, two-bedroom apartment.

  “Welcome to the secret house in the house. I was thinking about this last night after I got off the phone. It seemed like it might meet our needs,” he said with a smirk.