Authors: M C Moore
“Yes. Thank you.”
Kellan’s voice seemed to be returning to normal. Taggart had a calming effect and it was probably working on Kellan right now.
As Meckenzie grabbed Kellan’s stuff and headed back to the equipment closet, the bell rang to signal the end of the day. Meckenzie slipped in and handed Kellan her clothes. Then she pushed Taggart out the door so that Kellan could change.
“How do you feel?” Meckenzie was concerned that Kellan was going to try to go back out there and work out, so she added, “I told your coach that you had something that didn’t sit well for lunch.”
“Thanks, I don’t want Sarah thinking that the hit she put on me affected me in any way.” Kellan said, trying to keep up her tough woman persona.
“But it did affect you?” Meckenzie questioned.
“Yes, but Sarah doesn’t need to know that. She thinks that I’m interested in Jake. I could really care less about Jake and Sarah for that matter. We have enough stuff going on in our lives.
Frankly, I
don’t need some boy in my life that I’m just going to have to leave. I’m not sure I’d be interested in him if we weren’t going away, anyway.” Kellan chuckled at her last sentence.
“Well, let’s get you home. I’m sure Isabel will be interested in what happened today.”
Kellan looked at Meckenzie with disgust and said, “I really don’t care what Isabel thinks. She knew where mom was this whole time and never told us.” Kellan looked as if she were going to cry again. Meckenzie could feel her heart breaking for Kellan. She knew Kellan would never fully forgive their
mother
or Isabel for that matter, for the deception.
“You know she couldn’t tell us. It would have put our lives in danger for us to know before now. I mean our lives are in danger now, so it doesn’t really matter. I wish that mom had been able to tell us where she was going before she left too, but that is not what happened, so we have to find a way to deal with it.” Meckenzie walked over to Kellan and put her arms around her. “I love you and promise to never go away without telling you where and why, that is all I can promise.”
Kellan smiled, “I love you too, even if you are a sappy sister. I appreciate all you are doing for me. I know I can be moody and not easy to deal with. I really hope you always have this patience, or that I grow out of these moods.”
Meckenzie laughed, “I wouldn’t hope for growing. You never know what that will get you.”
Kellan grabbed Meckenzie in a wrestling hold, “Don’t tell me you are trying to take Taggart’s place as the comedian. I don’t think you are strong enough, or fast enough, to make those jokes.” Kellan laughed as she lifted Meckenzie off the ground in a bear hug.
This was the Kellan that Meckenzie remembered from childhood.
Always using her strength and agility to get the better of Meckenzie.
Meckenzie had always just let her; it was easier to let her win than to fight. Plus, Kellan had a temper and if Meckenzie had ever won, there would be hell to pay.
“Let’s get you home.” Meckenzie said to wave the white flag of surrender. Kellan let go and picked up her stuff. They headed out of the equipment room together. Taggart was waiting patiently beside the door.
“I need to get my stuff. I’ll meet you by the front doors.” Taggart said as he led them out of the gym. He was trying to ignore the fact that all eyes were on them as they exited, all three of them were trying to ignore that fact.
“I have to get my stuff from study hall and swing by my locker, you want to come with me Kellan, or meet us at the front door?” Meckenzie knew that giving her a choice would make her feel like she had some free will back. Kellan was very much all about her free will.
“I’ll go with you. It will just be easier.” There was still a look of desperation in Kellan’s eyes from knowing that she had very little control over her body. It was going to be a long hard road to get Kellan to fell like she had control. Meckenzie knew that more than likely, Kellan would never have full control of her emotions. Kellan’s emotions fluctuated like the weather. She could be hot one minute and completely cold the next. There were few temperate days in Kellan’s life. Meckenzie hoped that Isabel had some idea of how to teach Kellan how to control either this power, or her emotions better.
They parted ways with Taggart and headed back to the room where Meckenzie had study hall. As they were walking down the hall towards the room, Meckenzie felt like she was being watched. Her senses were going off like a car alarm on the New York streets. She stopped short of her destination and did a slow 360 degree turn in the hall hoping to catch sight of whoever was causing this alarm to go off inside her head. Meckenzie didn’t see anyone, or anything, unusual. Kellan stared at
Meckenzie;
waiting for her to share whatever it was that was going on.
“It felt like someone was watching me. It was like an alarm was going off in my head, danger, danger.”
Kellan slowly turned in very much the same way that Meckenzie had just done. She stopped when she was facing a classroom on the left hand side of the hall.
“Did you see someone?” Meckenzie asked.
“No, but I have a feeling.” As Kellan said this, she started walking towards the classroom. She slowly pulled back the door. Meckenzie couldn’t see around Kellan into the classroom. She hoped there was no danger waiting for them in that room. Kellan stepped into the room with one hand out in front of her in a defensive stance. As she did this, Meckenzie slid in beside her. Kellan dropped her hand to her side and sighed. Standing there in the center of the room, like a deer caught in headlights, was Jake Cummings, the source of this afternoons illegal basketball screen. Kellan turned around abruptly and marched out of the room. Meckenzie followed, knowing that Kellan was not in the mood for chit chat.
Meckenzie retrieved her books from study hall and her locker. They met Taggart at the front door along with the handsome bodyguard that was waiting patiently for the three of them. Jones greeted them, Meckenzie giggled again, as he smiled at her. The trips started the walk home, and Jones followed at a polite pace behind them. He must have worked with high school kids before because he seemed to have the disappearing into the crowd down bit to a fine art. Jones was there and aware, but in no way was he in their way. Maybe their dad was right about having him around, he could definitely come in handy if anyone tried approach the triplets, and Meckenzie thought he was very easy on the eyes. Bodyguards were a common enough occurrence at their school. For a short time there had been a couple of children of foreign diplomats at the school. Some of them from countries that had been fighting wars for most of their lives. I guess that though no one knew it that was the triplet’s situation as well. The land that their mom was from, and now protecting, had been at war for hundreds maybe even thousands of years. Life was changing fast and Meckenzie knew that not evolving with it usually meant becoming obsolete. Needless to s
ay, she hoped she could evolve.
When the three siblings arrived home it was clear that Isabel had been at work. A large yoga looking mat was rolled up against one wall and there were several boxes scattered throughout the entryway. Meckenzie could only assume that these were the tools that Isabel intended to use to train them in combat and defensive skills. Kellan actually started to get excited as she inspected the boxes.
“This is all martial arts gear.” She said as she looked inside one of the boxes and pulled out what looked like a red breast plate made of foam. “I wonder when we get to start learning.”
Kellan’s excitement was not contagious, in fact Meckenzie felt slightly sick at her stomach. She had never been much of a fighter. She preferred to talk herself out of most fights. Or Meckenzie would just let the other person win and wait till the fight subsided. It was her opinion that there was nothing so important that violence would solve the problem. Meckenzie knew she would have to learn to defend herself, because she was now headed into a scenario where the person coming after her would want her dead, and not just humiliated.
As Kellan dug into the third box, Isabel came into the entry and smiled really big.
“Good your home, I could use some young folks to carry boxes downstairs.”
“I need to change clothes, but I think we should actually tell you about our day first.” Meckenzie said as Isabel eyed her curiously. “We had some excitement and I got asked out on a date.”
“What?” Both of her siblings and Isabel responded simultaneously.
“Oh yeah, with Kellan’s ‘the incredibly growing woman’ routine, I forgot to tell you that Ty found me in the library and asked me out. I told him that he would have to meet my father and that I couldn’t go out with him until he did.”
“Do you think that is a good idea? I mean this guy makes your head buzz like Kim
Kardashin’s
phone on vibrate. He may have plans if he is from the enemy.” Taggart was being his naturally protective self and trying to keep Meckenzie out of harm’s way.
“I thought it would be a good way to get some information. I was hoping that by bringing him by the house, Isabel might be able to scope him out and tell us what she thought. I didn’t know if there was a better way to have Isabel get a look at him. I know it could be dangerous if we actually went out, but I thought we would deal with that scenario when the time came.” Meckenzie felt a little defensive, she knew it wasn’t a well thought out plan, but it was a plan none the less.
“Well, it would be good to bring him by the house. I am not sure if I should actually meet him; he may recognize me or have some information that I am supposed to be here, protection you three. Maybe we can find a way for me to see him, without him seeing me.” Isabel said.
“I could set up some web cams around the house and we could run them to a computer that you could watch.” Taggart was actually getting excited at the prospect of getting to do some spy work. “I’m sure that we could get the stuff this evening and get it all set up before he came by tomorrow. I’ll go find a store nearby that I can get all the stuff. Maybe the security guy knows of a place, I think he is outside somewhere.”
Taggart headed out the front door to find the Jones. He was so excited that he completely forgot about helping get the sparring equipment downstairs.
“So what else happened at school today?” Isabel redirected the conversation back to the trip’s day.
Kellan looked a little worried about how Isabel would react to the next bit of news. She stepped away from the conversation to lean against the wall. Kellan seemed to be trying her best to blend in as a piece of furniture, but Isabel was all too aware of her trepidation.
“So what happened with Kellan?” Isabel astutely surmised.
“Well, she had a little growing spell in gym class.” Meckenzie tried to make this as easy as possible for Kellan to endure. “She got knocked around a bit by another girl on her basketball team. Her anger sparked a growing spurt, but she was able to make it to the equipment closet without anyone seeing what had happened. The coach had some students come find Taggart and myself. We were able after a couple of attempts to return her to normal size, though her workout clothes were not as lucky.”
Isabel was smiling, she seemed extremely pleased and not mad at all. She actually seemed to be laughing. Meckenzie thought maybe Isabel had not understood what she had just said. Either that or Isabel had finally lost it from having to deal with the three of them for all these years.
“I knew that there was always a possibility that Kellan’s little talent would erupt at an inopportune time. That is why I thought it important to work on Kellan’s patience. I would normally suggest a lot of meditation and yoga for you Kellan, but I know we really don’t have the time to get you in that state of mind. So I’m very pleased that the three of you were able to solve this problem without me. It also means that you guys picked up the spell pretty quickly.” Isabel was absolutely glowing with pride.
“Well,” Meckenzie began, “we actually didn’t remember the spell. We used ‘Be calm, be still.’ It didn’t work at first, so we hugged her and did it again. With the touching we were able to amplify the spell and make it work. At least that is what we assumed. We always had Taggart’s phone as a backup.”
“Backup?”
“Yeah, if we couldn’t get it to work we were going to call you to get help.”
“I’m glad you guys tried it on your own first. It shows great ingenuity and power that you were able to get Kellan changed back without the proper words to the spell.” Isabel seemed to be very pleased with the whole situation. “Kellan, I think you had real peace of mind to run for the equipment closet. It isn’t your fault that you changed. Your powers are very much tied into your emotions and until we can get you guys trained in how to focus your emotions, it is quite possible that you might have this problem from time to time.”
Kellan looked relieved and frustrated at the same time. Her
face seems
to be contorting every second into a new emotion. “I don’t know if I can handle this.” She said looking dejected. “I cannot live with this being an everyday occurrence. I can’t handle changing every time I stub my toe or get knocked down in gym class. I just want to be normal.” Kellan began crying. She crumbled against the wall, unable to hold the weight of the emotions that had been buried within her throughout this whole ordeal.
“Kellan,” Meckenzie reached out to her sister hoping to help her work through this emotion. “I am sorry you have to go through this. I know how you feel.”
“You don’t know how I feel. Your powers don’t turn you into a monster. Your powers are hidden. They aren’t out there for the whole world to see. It’s not like your head swells up when you are talking with us mentally. None of you understand. I am a freak.” Kellan pulled herself up and pushed through Isabel and Meckenzie. “Just leave me alone. You have no idea what it feels like to be the she-hulk, and don’t pretend you do. I just want to be normal.” Kellan ran up the stairs to her room. Meckenzie’s heart was breaking with the pain that Kellan was experiencing. She knew that she didn’t know what Kellan felt like. She would have given anything to be able to take away Kellan’s pain or to make her feel normal. Meckenzie also knew that there was no possibility of their lives being normal again.
Just then Taggart stepped in the door smiling from ear to ear.
“The security guy is going to take care of everything. Jones made a call to one of his pals who
does
surveillance
and he is going to bring a basic system over in an hour and set it up. I figure we can get dad on board since it is basically just extra security. He is going to bring over a DVR, some cameras and a viewing monitor. Jones can set the whole system up this evening. Then we can talk to Dad about upgrading the cameras or whatever.” Just then Taggart noticed the dejected look on Meckenzie’s face. He realized that Kellan was missing from the room and knew that something must be up. “What happened?”
Isabel quickly stepped in to avoid having Meckenzie have to relive the whole situation. “Meckenzie why don’t you go up and change, we should start some defense training before I have to prepare dinner.”
Meckenzie turned to head up the stairs and heard Isabel begin to talk to Taggart about Kellan. Meckenzie really didn’t want to relive Kellan’s outburst, but she knew she would have to at some point. It was important that she mend Kellan’s feelings.
Though Meckenzie didn’t have the same problems as Kellan, she knew what Kellan was feeling. She knew that every moment was a possible time bomb of emotions that could explode Kellan’s body into a gigantic state. She knew that Kellan lived very much by her emotions. Kellan being the youngest had always been slightly more emotionally charged than her siblings. Meckenzie had always been the sympathetic one, Taggart the level headed one, and Kellan the emotional dynamo.
As Meckenzie came up the stairs to her floor, she could hear Kellan throwing stuff around in her room. Meckenzie was going to check on her, but it seemed that it might be best to leave her alone for now. So Meckenzie quickly changed and headed back down stairs.
When she got back to the entry way to help move the boxes, Taggart had already loaded most of them onto the elevator.
“So, what are we going to do about Kellan?” Taggart said without making eye contact with Meckenzie.
“I don’t know, I don’t think I can do anything. She seems to be maddest at me. It’s like Kellan blames me for everything that is going on.”
“I think it’s because you look the most like Mom. It’s easy to blame you, because she wants to blame Mom.” Taggart sat the last box into the elevator and hit the button to send it down stairs leaving Meckenzie standing alone on the ground floor.
Meckenzie wasn’t exactly sure what to make of Taggart’s statement that she looked the most like Mom and therefore Kellan was blaming her for everything. She wasn’t sure how she felt about him dropping that bomb on her and then heading off in the elevator without giving her the opportunity for rebuttal.
Meckenzie headed to the kitchen to grab some bottles of water. Maybe Taggart was trying to give her some time to think over what he had said. She had always been told that she looked like her mother. For the most part she considered it a compliment because her mother was very beautiful. The resemblance to her mother would become a problem though if other Fae spotted her in public. Meckenzie didn’t want to be the easiest target because of her looks. Taggart hadn’t meant it as an insult; he had simply been stating his theory to the Kellan dilemma.
It was sad for Meckenzie to think of her sister as a dilemma; that seemed so cold and heartless to her. Meckenzie loved Kellan and she only wanted the best for her. She wanted her to be happy. The only problem was there were extenuating circumstances that were going to make it difficult for Kellan to be happy. So now Meckenzie had to figure out how to get Kellan to deal with those circumstances and do what was best for everyone, not what was best for Kellan necessarily.
As she headed downstairs, Meckenzie still didn’t feel like she had any real idea how to make this better. She was sure that Taggart was probably right though. Kellan probably did blame Mom for all of this. And if it was true that Meckenzie reminded Kellan of their mother, then Meckenzie couldn’t make this better for Kellan. She would just have to stand back and let the others work it out. Maybe it was time for Meckenzie to stop trying to make Kellan’s life easy. Maybe it was time that Meckenzie focus on herself for a change. There were so many things going on in their lives that Meckenzie hadn’t been really focusing on how this would affect her. She had been worried too much about how it would affect everyone else instead.
If she were meant to rule Aquanis someday, she would have to always take into consideration what was best for everyone around her. So why not take some time to focus on her for a while. Meckenzie needed to start acting like the queen she would someday have to be. She would have to take control with confidence and leadership, Meckenzie would have to make decisions.
She reached the gym with a new attitude. She would focus on making herself the best she could be with her new powers. The best she could be with defending herself, the best queen she could be. Then maybe she would try to help Kellan with her problems.
Taggart was already unloading boxes. Isabel had cleared a corner of the gym where all of the self-defense equipment was being unloaded. Meckenzie grabbed a box out of the elevator and headed that direction. With her new attitude she was really looking forward to learning some self-defense moves. Meckenzie was never much for physical activity other than running. She enjoyed a good muscle burning, heart pounding run, but really never got into any other sport.
“So what kind of moves are you going to teach us Isabel?” Meckenzie asked.
“I thought we would start with some basic self-defense. It’s going to be beneficial to you to know how to fend off a physical attack, as a lot of the Fae don’t have powers still. It will only be your generation that has their powers back. With the three of you, there is less than a hundred Fae with powers that we know of.” Isabel began to unroll the mat as she dropped that last little tidbit of knowledge.
“Really, one hundred of us.
I thought the number would be much lower.” Taggart questioned.