Return To Pandora: Book 1 in The Pandora Series (2 page)

“We understand your concerns and I will do my best to equip him with the best we have to offer. He will be training with you, working both of your powers and physical strength’s together. You will also be training with the four other families that came with us. Leah, Shanieza, Joshua and Elizabeth will start training with you in two weeks. They all haven’t reached their sixteenth year yet, but their physical strength will come in handy. Also you will not be returning to school. That will take up to much of your precious time to ready yourselves. Every Saturday you will go through the whole day being home schooled with the rest of the kids that will be out of school as well.”

Speaking for the first time I almost forgot he was here, John, Zackary’s father looked tough with his big arms and huge hands. He almost looked a little too big to be a part of this world, but I never paid any mind to it, until now.

He spoke to both Zack and me, “I will be your teacher in combat training and in training you to use your powers. Isabel will be your school teacher. She taught school back home and she has been waiting patiently to start teaching again.”

I looked at him stunned for a minute and then said, “I thought I was training with Zack?”

He smiled at me and said, “If we let six teenagers spend the day alone, how much do you think they would accomplish? Besides I still have much I need to teach Zack, if you don’t want him to die,” he said sounding a little proud.

But proud of who?

Me?

Because I stood up for his son?

“That is a very good point,” I said thinking to myself that I should have thought of that first. “But I highly doubt your son would let any of us slack off,” I said in a playful voice and it let some of the tension in the room ease. It had been like that for so long I hadn’t realized everyone was so tense.

We finished the rest of the evening discussing the time we were to start tomorrow and since I was going to have to wake up early every day for the next six months, I decided I didn’t want to start before ten A.M. Zack seemed to agree with that, my guess is he wasn’t ready for it either.

My mother and I walked them to the door, which I had been trained to do my whole life. My mother always told me it was rude not to see your guests out. Now it was second nature to me. I didn’t even think about it I just did it. My mother smiled warmly at them and I knew she considered them her close family. They are all we had in our lives.

Looking at her I realized that she didn’t fit the fairy tale description of a Queen. She is lean, but not extremely lean. She weighs about a hundred and forty pounds and is about five feet five inches tall. She isn’t obese but she isn’t your typical super skinny Queen you read about or watch in movies. She has light brown hair and bright green eyes and she has these natural blonde streaks that flow throughout her hair evenly all the way down. Granted her hair is short, shoulder length, but it still adds to her appearance and she still looks beautiful. 

Now me, I’ve been told by my mother that I look like my father, but everyone that met my mother tells me I am her clone. The only difference is my three freckles on each of my cheeks below my eyes. My mother told me that the freckles came from my father and that was a big indication that I was his daughter. You don’t see those freckles in the same place on anyone else in our world and I would be sure to pass that gene down to my children.

I had always been active. I loved running and I actually got the courage to join the schools track team last year. I outranked everyone on my team and placed our team in second. That was the closest we had come to first place in fifteen years. My coach was so happy and she was looking forward for my return next year so I can help the team get first. I will actually miss that the most out of everything in school.

I went to take a shower and put on my pajamas and then I brush out my ratted long hair. I loved my hair long and I only thought of cutting it because it got knotted so easily. I actually thought of doing that more and more the longer it grew. How will my long hair, which goes down past my butt, affect me while I train? Even more, how will it affect me while I fight?

Although I do always keep it up in a bun, it is so thick that it comes out by the end of the school day. As I brushed my hair I decide that I needed to chop it off. I went into the bathroom and grabbed the scissors on the counter and walked down the hall to my mother’s room. Her door is closed which struck me as odd, since she never leaves her door closed. I tentatively knocked on her door and I heard her faint, “Come in.”

I opened her door to find her at her vanity, she held something in her hands and I immediately thought I was intruding on her. She looked so sad with a hint of determination in her eyes. I saw a lone tear gliding down her cheek and I asked, “What’s wrong momma?”

She looked up from what she was holding and looked at me. She looked as if she was trying to stay strong for me, but I didn’t need strong I needed her to be truthful with me.

“Nothing. I’m fine,” she said and then when I give her a stern look that said, I know you’re full of it, she added, “Really.”

“Mom let me help you. We need to do this together,” I said as I walked towards her.

She completely ignored me and looked skeptically at the scissors in my hands. “What exactly did you plan on doing with those? Stab me in my sleep?” She asked sarcastically.  

I looked at her and then down at my hand forgetting that I had them. “What? No!” I replied. “I was going to have you cut my hair. Not as short as your hair but a lot shorter than it is now.”

She looked at me and smiled so brightly, I don’t think I’d seen that smile since I was six and lost my first tooth.

“Yes Jackie, I will cut your hair, but why?”

“Well, have you seen this mess?” I say holding my knotted hair in my hands for her to see. “Don’t even brush it. Cut it up to here.” I said, showing her a line halfway down my upper arm.

She nodded her head and started cutting.

I wanted to ask her what she was looking at that got her so upset, but I didn’t. I don’t want to get her upset again or mad at me for being too nosey.

She cut it quickly and I almost cried as I saw my hair falling on the floor. It was very long, but I could already feel a weight being lifted from my head that I never realized was there. When she was done I looked in the mirror and I already look like a new Jacquelyn. My hair that used to look like stretched out curls was now bouncy and firm. What an amazing difference a haircut could do. Granted she had cut like two feet off of my hair, but wow I looked good! And holy hell, I looked like my mother!

She had already picked up my hair from the floor by the time I was done looking at myself in the mirror, so I hugged her and told her thank you and good night.

I left her room feeling rejuvenated and anxious for tomorrow. I couldn’t wait to see what Zack had to say about my new look. I went to my room and turned on my radio on a low enough volume that it wasn’t disturbing my mom and loud enough for me to hear it. I turned it on to hear Rascal Flatts, “My Wish” playing. I absolutely loved that song actually I love all of their songs. I needed to be sure to get all the music I loved together before we left for Pandora because I couldn’t imagine not listening to my favorite music ever again.

I took out my journal and started writing about what happened today. It felt like such a long time that I had so much to tell my journal. I know this will be an exciting one and the many to follow will too, once my training starts tomorrow.

When I finished I laid on my bed and listened to an old Nsync song called “Tearin’ up My Heart.” I know I’m young, but I really love their music. I came across it by listening to Britney Spears radio on my iHeart Radio App. I loved listening to all this “old stuff” as the kids in school called it, since they had never heard of Nsync or Backstreet Boys, or anything I like. But I’m unique and like to be my own person as opposed to what everyone wants me to be; but their music was good and I didn’t care what other people thought, I like it so I listen to it.

****

I don’t know when I finally fell asleep but I had a very rude awakening from Zackary and I swear I could have punched him in his smug face. I felt like I had just fallen asleep. I had no energy and I definitely didn’t want to start my training today. I look at the clock and I gasp as I saw it say only seven? Yes Seven!

“What the heck man?” I yell as I throw my pillow at him.

He caught the pillow and threw it back at me. Then he just shrugged his shoulders and left my room. Appalled I got up and got dressed.

I have no idea what to wear, but I grab a pair of black shorts and a hot pink spaghetti strap tank top, with
Wild Thing
written across my chest and head into my bathroom. I change, and quickly brush my hair and run some gel through it to keep the curls from going wild in this heat. When I’m satisfied with it, I brush my teeth and grab an elastic hair tie from the counter and put it on my wrist. I turned off the light and closed the door. I cleaned up what little mess I had created in my room last night and turned off my radio. I found my journal lying open on my desk so I closed it and slid it into the top drawer. Satisfied I have cleaned up everything, I leave my room and closed the door behind me.

Training Day

I find just Zackary in the kitchen and to my surprise he has cooked me a very filling breakfast. There are chocolate chip pancakes, scrambled eggs, bacon and orange juice. I fill my plate but pass on the orange juice. He knows as well as I do that I only drink coffee in the morning. Yes I am not even sixteen yet and I drink one cup of coffee a day, only at breakfast, for now. I’m surprised I don’t see any sausage, but I really shouldn’t be since he knows that I don’t like sausage. I love bacon though and if you let me, I would eat the whole pack by myself.

In between bites I manage to get out, “So what is with the early wakeup call and what’s with all of this? Should I expect it every day?”

He studies me briefly before responding. “You need to get used to being up before you want so you can eat properly before you start training. Unless you want me to sleep at your house every night, no, I will not be doing this every day.”

He continues to eat, but watches me from the corner of his eye as I eat my food. It’s like he wants to make sure I eat my fill completely.

We don’t talk the rest of the time we’re at the table and I wonder what he is keeping from me. He just stared and it was kind of creeping me out, Zack doesn’t stare.

“What’s the deal?” I asked as we were cleaning up our mess. We did the dishes and kept a plate of food for mom in the microwave, so she had something to eat when she woke up.

“What are you talking about?” He asked feigning innocence. 

“Don’t you play stupid with me, Zackary Moore!” I said sounding more authoritative than I intended and he smiled at me. “You have been staring at me all morning. What the heck is your problem?” I asked him.

I look up at him and he keeps smiling down at me. His blue eyes capturing mine mesmerizing me like I’m in some sort of trance. I would never admit it to him, but I have felt these feelings for him which are stronger than this friendship we have for a few years now, but I just push them off and play like he isn’t the man of dreams.

He is five feet, eight inches tall. That puts him to be three inches taller than me and it is definitely a good thing. I like taller guys, not that I have any experience in this category, but I like that
he
is taller.

He has strong muscular arms and hands like his father, but he is not as big as his father. His dad has to be about two hundred and forty pounds while he is about a hundred and seventy pounds.

He picked up a lock of my curly hair and plays with it. “This. What did you do to your hair?” He asked and let the lock go.

I feel it bounce back into place with the rest of my hair. My cheeks get hot and I realize he noticed pretty quickly that I chopped it off. “I cut it, duh! What do you think I did with it?” I said playfully. “You like it?” I asked as I turned in a slow circle to show off my new hairdo.

“It does look really good and it will actually help you maneuver better without all that weight on your head weighing you down.”

“Right,” I said dryly holding out the “i” longer than necessary and realized that was the best compliment I would get from him. “So where are we training and since we are starting early I want to end early. Got it?” I said and look into his glowing blue eyes. I have never seen them glow like this before and I wondered if he was letting me see his powers come out.

“We are going to train where I train, in an abandoned warehouse over on the corner of West Street and Main Street.” He stared at me for a moment before he continued, “It will take us ten minutes to get there walking, so consider that the warm up to our routine.” Then he grabbed his bag, that I hadn’t notice he had and headed for the door.

I grabbed two bottles of water and followed behind him.

The walk there was quick, all downhill, which meant that the walk home wasn’t going to be so easy, especially after the work out. When we got there, it was exactly what he said, abandoned. There was a lot of old beat up equipment lying around and the brick building was extremely hot in this August heat.

I looked around it, trying to take in the entire building. It was one room with what looked like the bathroom in the far right corner and a shelf that held rolls of paper towels and soap right next to the bathroom door. I am assuming this was added recently because it looked clean and well kept. I also noticed a refrigerator in the back of the room.

“A refrigerator?” I asked him, hoping he would get the hint that I was asking if it worked or not.

“Yes and yes it works. We have a mini generator hooked up to that and at night we use the lights. The only thing we keep in there is water so at night when we leave we can turn it off.” He finishes as he starts for the refrigerator.

He opened it and it was empty. He grabbed his backpack and opened it, inside was filled with at least ten bottles of water. He emptied his bag and offered to take my waters to keep them cool. I handed them over and he closed the door. 

When he stood up he started to stretch and I follow suit.

I don’t know if he will give me any directions so I just do as he does.

After he is done he waves his right hand slightly in front of him and I see one of the machines move just a little.  He takes his left hand and moves it from his waist up to his neck. The machine starts to rise up off the floor slightly. Then he takes both hands and pushes them from his chest out towards the door. The machine slid across the floor and he took his left hand and pulled it slightly toward him to stop the machine from banging against the door. When he dropped his hands the machine stopped moving as well.

I couldn’t help but be amazed at what he just did. That was totally awesome. I can imagine I sounded like a star struck teenager, but I didn’t care, I haven’t seen anything like this before in my life except in movies, but this is real life!

“Wow Zack that was freaking awesome! How long did it take you to learn that? Can you do anything else? When can I learn how to do that?” I couldn’t stop myself from asking the questions, bombarding him until he held his hand up to silence me. “Sorry.” I said as my cheeks heat with embarrassment.

He chuckles and looks at me intensely for longer than I wanted him to. I felt like he was reading my mind and seeing my deepest darkest secrets, which all include him.

“I was just like you when I watched my dad do the same thing. Only he picked it up higher and moved it faster. I was awestruck at how much I had to learn. You will be able to move things without even moving your hands. Jackie, I’ve been told your powers are to exceed anyone they have ever come across in Pandora. That includes Christina.” He pauses and I wonder what he is thinking. “Anyway we need to get started and I do things like that every day to get my senses going. It’s a warm up for my powers. I don’t really need to do that, but it helps while your training to use them.”

Then he took his hands straight out in front of him together and slowly pulled them apart. All of the equipment that was scattered across the floor was now pushed up against both walls.

“Run the whole room eight times. Then stop here and do ten pushups.”

Ok here goes nothing. I pulled my legs one at a time behind me to stretch them a little more like I was taught in track, then I started. The room was fairly large, eight times around was less than a mile, so I guess being a fast runner wasn’t in their best interest. I finished it in a little over a minute and started doing pushups.

Zack knew I could do more than this, but I didn’t push it. I liked the beginning levels of the workout. It warmed me up for the harder parts. Pull ups are my worst, I can only do ten at a time and that wasn’t good. When I was done with those which took me another few minutes I stood up to stare at him.

“Ok what next?” I asked after going to the fridge to grab my water. I took a big gulp. The heat from my workout and the heat from this building is dehydrating me.

He pointed to a bar I hadn’t noticed when I did my initial look at the place. “Twenty.”

I hate him. “Fine,” I say and start towards the bar to do my twenty pull ups.

I did about ten and stopped for a few seconds to catch my breath and get a drink of water. Then I finish the next set of ten. Tomorrow I will do more than ten at a time, I refuse to let him watch me struggle.

I’m not even down from the bar completely when he tells me, “Twenty crunches.”

I noticed that he does everything I do, only after I do them. Since we only have one bar, I guess he can’t do the pull ups at the same time I do, but I would like it if he did everything else with me. I did my crunches no problem and actually did more than I was told to as I waited for him to give me more orders.

The day progressed like that and while I did another eight laps around the place he practiced his powers some more. I saw that he had a piece of metal in the air above our heads pinned to the ceiling. He was concentrating so hard on that piece that he looked a little constipated. I had to hold back my giggle so I could continue to watch him.

While he had the metal secured to the ceiling with his left hand, he took his right hand and brought it all the way out. He swiped slightly at the side and I see another piece of metal move. He took that hand and raised it pushing his hand all the way up hard to bring that to the ceiling as well. The piece of metal flew to the ceiling with a thud.

I watched as he took a machine and flew it across the room and held it in position up on the wall. I couldn’t wait to try my powers. I was just following what he did moving my arms and hands and concentrating on the object I was trying to move. He let everything fall when I was directly under it. I quickly moved my hands to cover my head and nothing, I felt nothing. I moved my arms from my head and looked at the sheets of metal floating over my head. I looked to Zack and saw his stunned face which meant he wasn’t sure I was under there or this was my doing, or both.

“How did you do that?” He asked me as he moved the objects gently to the floor.

I shrugged my shoulders. “I really don’t know. I was mimicking you and then you just dropped them and I covered my head to protect it from the falling objects,” I said, sounding as astonished as he did. “I wasn’t trying to do anything except save myself.”

“It took me weeks before I could hold things in the air and I always needed my hands or at least one focused on the object I was restraining. We need to bring this up to our parents, maybe your powers are coming in early,” he said sounding excited.

“Ok, but can we stay here a little longer? I hate the amount of pressure they are putting on me without even realizing what they are doing.”

He agreed knowing exactly what I am talking about. We sit down and just talk.

He tells me about his training and how he was dying to tell me. He almost did on more than one occasion, but had to force himself to stop. He went on to explain that we live a very long life. That my mother who is forty five is actually well over a hundred. The same with his parent’s and all the other families that came along with us. We have powers, but we are not witches. They can do spells among other powerful things that we can’t. There is a small group of them in Pandora that tried to stand with us, but Christina got to them, saying she would kill off every last one of them, including their children if they didn’t side with her. So we lost our greatest ally, at least she thinks we did. A witch helped my mother and the other families escape with the explosion spells. All my mom had to do was set it off and the house and everything in it were blown up.

I couldn’t imagine blowing up my house to escape, but then again I haven’t known this world that well and that bitch Christina seems to not play games fairly. I envy them, leaving everything behind to try and have a fighting chance with the six of their kids.

“We will defeat her and take back our kingdom. Even if I have to die in the process. I will give my mother her life back,” I said getting up from the floor. “Let’s go now.”

I grab my last water and start for the door. Zack turns off the generator and follows me out.

“That’s very brave of you, but as long as I’m alive you will not die because I would rather die than watch you die,” he said coming up beside me.

I was stunned by the bluntness he used with me about saving my life over his. I won’t let that happen, but I don’t tell him that. I would never tell him, because that means he would just keep me locked up and never let me out.