"You had to hide away all through Christmas?" Taranee's older brother Peter shook his sadly. "That just ain't right!"
I shrugged. "Well there's always next Christmas. And then I get to give presents as well!" Mom had even dispensed pocket money at the start of the week and I was looking for something special to give to Will on her birthday, which was only a couple of weeks away.
"Yeah, but you should be with family."
"I was." Okay, maybe with just Will, but right then she was my only declared family.
Peter rolled his eyes. "Sis, we gotta make sure this girl gets a proper Christmas next year so that she knows what she's missing out on."
Taranee nodded her head silently and her brother frowned. "Something wrong, sis?"
To my horror, the girl actually started to sniffle. "Mom's gonna kill me."
Hay Lin, Peter and I all the same reaction and within two seconds she was being hugged from all directions. "Whatever it is, it can't be that bad," her brother assured her with complete confidence. "I mean... I think she's warming up to Nigel." He paused. "A little."
That at least got her out of the funk. "You're just trying to make me feel better."
"Is it working?"
Taranee shook her head in reply to my question and then with an appalled look on her face started giggling.
"Tickling always works," Hay Lin declared sagely, fingers still probing at Taranee's sides.
I then made one of the classic errors of strategy. Right up there with going up against a Scilian when death is on the line. "Tickling?"
Hay Lin grinned but it was Peter that started tickling my ribs. "Whaahahaahaa!" I shrieked, and moved my hands to cover that vulnerable area.
"Somebody's ticklish." He sounded terribly entertained by that notion.
"Hands to yourself, buster!" I grabbed a cushion from the couch at let him have it to the face.
"Ow!" He was laughing through. "Sorry."
"No, you're not."
"No, I'm not," Peter admitted cheerfully. He made to throw the cushion back into my face but when I tried to catch it he twisted his wrist and it thumped against my belly. "So, who wants a drink?"
We all agreed that that sounded like an idea and Hay Lin moved smoothly onto interrogating Taranee about her last date with Nigel, which seemed suitably distracting for her but didn't particularly interest me so I trailed after Peter to help him bring back the drinks.
"So do you know why she thinks Mom's going to flip her lid?" he asked quietly.
I nodded. "Well, I've never met your Mom but would you say she's a little bit protective of Taranee?"
Peter held his arms wide, palms towards each other. "Just a bit."
"Weeeeellll...." I hesitated. "We're... and I mean mostly the others - I'm helping as much as I can... we're..."
"In a band?"
"What? Uh. No."
"So what is it you're doing that Mom's going to be upset about?"
Now what was I supposed to tell him? I mean, we were going to tell him tonight, but the plan was to do that with the rest of the family.
"You girls aren't dating each other, are you?"
Blink. "Uh... I would think that us all being girls would make it obvious that we're not."
Peter flushed. "That was a joke," he said hastily. "So what's the big secret?"
"I suppose you could say that we're doing something -" I considered saying 'a little bit' and concluded it would be a lie. "- dangerous."
He paused very fractionally in pouring soda into a glass. "You mean like, roller-blading?"
I shook my head.
"Surfing?"
"No, although I'd like to try that some time." After I get some swimming lessons. One near-drowning experience was quite enough.
"It's a lot of fun," he assured me. "Uh... dressing up as Batman and Robin and fighting crime?"
"Well... you're getting closer." Whoever Batman and Robin were.
Peter laughed. "Okay, okay, I'll wait." He picked up two glasses and nodded towards the other two. "So sis," he called as he led the way back into the lounge. "What's your super-hero costume look like, Tara'?"
There was an embarrassed squeak from Taranee. "Hope!"
"He guessed."
Peter looked from her to me and then put the glasses down on the table. "Again, I was joking." He paused. "You weren't joking?"
Taranee groaned. "Thanks Hope." She closed her eyes and focused for a moment. Swirls of orange magic burst into existence around her. It wasn't quite as dramatic as Will using the Heart of Kandrakar, and I suspected it wasn't quite as potent a transformation either... but it was quite enough.
The boy - young man really, he was about the age that the transformed Taranee appeared to be - sat down heavily. "Whoa. Is that you, little sister?"
I could see why he might have doubts: the normally demure girl's appearance was now - save for the glasses - far more warlike, with six stiff dreadlocks rishing from her head and snug shorts and tank top that did nothing to hide her more mature figure. She looked hot even before she conjured up a small ball of fire to hang in mid-air. "It's still me, big brother," she said firmly.
"You look... older. How in the world...?"
She folded her arms. "May as well call it magic, for all the explanation I got."
"And you're..." he gestured towards the fireball. "Taranee, you're scared of fire."
"I was afraid of how much it drew me in." Taranee reached out and placed her hand fearlessly in the fireball, drawing an alarmed cry from Peter. When pulled her hand back it showed no mark at all. "I don't have to be afraid any more."
"Maybe not of fire." He rubbed at his hair (which was bound into hundreds of dreadlocks and then lashed back in a ponytail) and then moved up to give her a hug. "I don't suppose that your new outfit is bulletproof is it?"
Hay Lin laughed. "Metamoor doesn't have any guns!"
"Who is Metamoor?"
Hay Lin and Taranee looked at me questioningly. "Hey, I didn't have time to tell him everything."
"Metamoor is another world," Taranee explained. "It's kind of medieval but they've got magic and there's a Veil that prevents travel between there and Earth. We're the Guardians of the Veil - our mission is to close portals that form in the Veil. So magic's more of a problem then guns."
Peter rolled his eyes. "Well that's much better... not. I suppose that you have magical costumes too?" he added, pointing at the two of us.
Hay Lin nodded happily, pony-tails bobbing. "Air!" she exclaimed and silvery magic replaced her blouse, sweater and skirt with her own W.I.T.C.H. outfit.
"Wow," he said appreciatively. "So I guess that means that if Taranee's Fire and you're Air that there's some sort of element thing going on? So what does that make you, Hope? Water?"
"I, uh, don't do that," I admitted.
"Too bad, I bet you'd have a cute costume as well."
I went red and Taranee picked up the cushion, throwing it at her brother's face. She pegged him squarely, sending him staggering. "Wow, nice throwing arm!"
"Were you flirting with Hope?" she accused. "She's too young for you!"
I'm not too young! Wait, what am I thinking!
Peter laughed and pulled lightly on one of Taranee's dreadlocks. "She's about your age isn't she? Does that mean that you're too young to be seeing Nigel? 'Cause that'd make Mom real happy."
"She's not even two months old, Peter!"
"Um, what?"
This fascinating conversation was curtailed when a car pulled into the drive. Taranee turned and looked out the window. "Dad's back early," she squeaked and reverted to her usual self. "And Mom's with him!" The ball of fire vanished.
"Why change back?" asked Peter. "I thought you were gonna explain all this?"
"Yeah, I just want to break it to them easily." She waved at Hay Lin frantically and the other girl shifted back before the front door opened.
"Peter? Taranee?"
"In here, Dad!" Peter called and a moment later the Cooks joined us in the front room.
"Hi kids," Mr Cook greeted them. He hugged Taranee and then Peter. "Nice to see you, Hay Lin. And... hmm, Will or Hope?"
"Hope," his wife told him, giving Taranee a hug of her own. "Are your family here already?"
"No... Will's seeing Miss Randolph after school and Mom's still at work."
Taranee peered up at her mother, adjusting her glasses and then touched Mrs Cook's face. "Mom, are you okay? You look kinda pale."
She kissed Taranee's forehead. "I'm a little nervous dear. Your father and I have been talking."
Hay Lin looked at me and I spread my hands slightly. "Do you want us to step outside a moment? If this is a family thing?"
The two adults exchanged looks and then Mrs. Cook shook her head. "No, actually it might be best... Particularly for you to be here Hope."
I pointed at myself. Me? Particularly? I'd only even met her once, this morning!
Mr Cook waved to the couch. "You might want to sit down," he said mildly. "This may come as a little bit of a shock."
"I sort of doubt it," Peter said, perching on the arm of the sofa and draping one arm over Taranee's shoulders supportively. "At least compared to what else I've been hearing today." Hay Lin sat next to the girl and I perched myself next to her, clasping my hands nervously.
"I... I don't know where to begin," Mrs Cook admitted after a moment's thought.
Mr. Cook put one hand on her shoulder. "Perhaps at the beginning. About... thirteen years ago, a little little before Peter's fifth birthday there was a terrible fire on the outskirts of Heatherfield. No one knows how it started and fortunately, no one was killed. One of the houses destroyed belonged to a young couple and their three-month old baby. She was upstairs in the house when the fire started and it consumed the stairs, so they couldn't get in and find her."
"The firemen arrived barely in time. Fortunately the little girl's crib was right above a support beam and the floor held together just long enough for one of them to get in and rescue her." Mr. Cook smiled slightly. "I used to volunteer to help the Fire Brigade back then and I knew him well. He told me afterwards that she was fast asleep the whole time. It was quite the miracle."
"The thing was," Mrs. Cook added, "There was something wrong with their insurance. The fire had destroyed everything the family had, there were just the three of them and the clothes that they were standing in. They'd even lost their jobs to the fire because the shop they worked at had been in the same fire." She closed her eyes. "They made what must have been the hardest decision of their lives: they couldn't support their daughter, so they gave her up for adoption."
"Whoa, wait on!" Peter exclaimed. He looked down at Taranee and I saw his arm tighten around her. "You're kidding me. You can't possibly mean what I think you do."
Taranee stared. "Peter?"
"Three months before my fifth birthday, that means the baby would have been born in March '89. The same as you, sis..."
Mrs. Cook dropped to her knees in front of Taranee and took her hands. "Taranee, the baby was you."
My friend shook her head in denial and her jaw worked for a moment as she searched for words. What emerged was a shocked tiny: "no."
"But - but there are baby photos!" Peter exclaimed. "I've seen them."
His father shook his head. "We knew that one day Taranee would be old enough to know, but until then we didn't want her to feel there was any part of her life she'd missed out on. The earliest pictures are of another little girl, Audrey, one of her friends back in Sesamo."
"You lied to me!"
"We always knew we'd tell you some day," Mr. Cook explained. "It just... needed the right moment. With Susan making arrangements to adopt Hope, this seemed... as good a time as there was ever going to be."
Taranee burst to her feet. "I... I can't..." she blurted and brushed her mother aside, rushing for the door. A second later we heard her feet on the stairs.
"Taranee!" Hay Lin ran after her while the Cooks looked torn.
"I guess I was wrong about you shocking me," Peter said after a moment. He rose to his feet. "I'm going upstairs too..."
Mrs. Cook took refuge in her husband's arms. "She hates us..."
"I don't think so..."
Their heads snapped around and I realised they'd basically forgotten I was even there. And that I was intruding on what was a private moment. Still, what could I do but continue?
"She's angry with you... that's not the same thing."
He gave me a rueful look. "I hope you're right."
"If you don't mind my saying so, Taranee seems a lot like you, Mrs Cook."
"Call me Theresa, please."
I nodded. "Theresa. I'm guessing you've been fretting all day about how Taranee would react to this."
She ducked her head. "Good guess."
"Taranee's been in about the same state since Friday. There's... a little something she's going to tell you... well, maybe not today. And she's been worrying about how you'll take it so I know what it looks like. Oddly enough there's a fire in this story too."
Theresa blinked. "Really? Don't tell me this is about the gym at Sheffield Institute burning down!"
"Well..." I checked my recollection of the others telling me about that. "No, well... I suppose that fire's part of the story but I don't think she was anywhere near it." Before she could ask more I held up my hand. "We're getting away from my point. What I'm trying to say is: can you imagine anything she could tell you that would stop you from loving her?"
"Of course not! She's my daughter!"
I spread my hands. "Exactly. Upset with you, certainly. Angry... well, understandably. Hate?" I shook my head. "I think I'll wait outside."
Before I could stand we heard footsteps on the stairs. After a moment, Hay Lin stuck her head around the door. "She let Peter in to her room. I'm..." She shrugged. "I'm sorry, I don't know what to do."
"I think we'll need to give them some time to get used to the idea," Mr. Cook said quietly. "Peter didn't know either so she has no reason to be angry with him. If anyone can help her now..."
I stated what I was beginning to recognise as one of the great truths: "Being helpless sucks."
"Succinctly put," he concurred and sighed. "I guess we still have to get ready for dinner. I guess this wasn't exactly what your mother had in mind when we set things up."
"Well not in detail..."
"Pardon?" he asked.
"Never mind, just thinking out loud." I corrected myself. "Let me give you a hand with that."
D for Drakensis
You're only young once, but immaturity is forever.
I shrugged. "Well there's always next Christmas. And then I get to give presents as well!" Mom had even dispensed pocket money at the start of the week and I was looking for something special to give to Will on her birthday, which was only a couple of weeks away.
"Yeah, but you should be with family."
"I was." Okay, maybe with just Will, but right then she was my only declared family.
Peter rolled his eyes. "Sis, we gotta make sure this girl gets a proper Christmas next year so that she knows what she's missing out on."
Taranee nodded her head silently and her brother frowned. "Something wrong, sis?"
To my horror, the girl actually started to sniffle. "Mom's gonna kill me."
Hay Lin, Peter and I all the same reaction and within two seconds she was being hugged from all directions. "Whatever it is, it can't be that bad," her brother assured her with complete confidence. "I mean... I think she's warming up to Nigel." He paused. "A little."
That at least got her out of the funk. "You're just trying to make me feel better."
"Is it working?"
Taranee shook her head in reply to my question and then with an appalled look on her face started giggling.
"Tickling always works," Hay Lin declared sagely, fingers still probing at Taranee's sides.
I then made one of the classic errors of strategy. Right up there with going up against a Scilian when death is on the line. "Tickling?"
Hay Lin grinned but it was Peter that started tickling my ribs. "Whaahahaahaa!" I shrieked, and moved my hands to cover that vulnerable area.
"Somebody's ticklish." He sounded terribly entertained by that notion.
"Hands to yourself, buster!" I grabbed a cushion from the couch at let him have it to the face.
"Ow!" He was laughing through. "Sorry."
"No, you're not."
"No, I'm not," Peter admitted cheerfully. He made to throw the cushion back into my face but when I tried to catch it he twisted his wrist and it thumped against my belly. "So, who wants a drink?"
We all agreed that that sounded like an idea and Hay Lin moved smoothly onto interrogating Taranee about her last date with Nigel, which seemed suitably distracting for her but didn't particularly interest me so I trailed after Peter to help him bring back the drinks.
"So do you know why she thinks Mom's going to flip her lid?" he asked quietly.
I nodded. "Well, I've never met your Mom but would you say she's a little bit protective of Taranee?"
Peter held his arms wide, palms towards each other. "Just a bit."
"Weeeeellll...." I hesitated. "We're... and I mean mostly the others - I'm helping as much as I can... we're..."
"In a band?"
"What? Uh. No."
"So what is it you're doing that Mom's going to be upset about?"
Now what was I supposed to tell him? I mean, we were going to tell him tonight, but the plan was to do that with the rest of the family.
"You girls aren't dating each other, are you?"
Blink. "Uh... I would think that us all being girls would make it obvious that we're not."
Peter flushed. "That was a joke," he said hastily. "So what's the big secret?"
"I suppose you could say that we're doing something -" I considered saying 'a little bit' and concluded it would be a lie. "- dangerous."
He paused very fractionally in pouring soda into a glass. "You mean like, roller-blading?"
I shook my head.
"Surfing?"
"No, although I'd like to try that some time." After I get some swimming lessons. One near-drowning experience was quite enough.
"It's a lot of fun," he assured me. "Uh... dressing up as Batman and Robin and fighting crime?"
"Well... you're getting closer." Whoever Batman and Robin were.
Peter laughed. "Okay, okay, I'll wait." He picked up two glasses and nodded towards the other two. "So sis," he called as he led the way back into the lounge. "What's your super-hero costume look like, Tara'?"
There was an embarrassed squeak from Taranee. "Hope!"
"He guessed."
Peter looked from her to me and then put the glasses down on the table. "Again, I was joking." He paused. "You weren't joking?"
Taranee groaned. "Thanks Hope." She closed her eyes and focused for a moment. Swirls of orange magic burst into existence around her. It wasn't quite as dramatic as Will using the Heart of Kandrakar, and I suspected it wasn't quite as potent a transformation either... but it was quite enough.
The boy - young man really, he was about the age that the transformed Taranee appeared to be - sat down heavily. "Whoa. Is that you, little sister?"
I could see why he might have doubts: the normally demure girl's appearance was now - save for the glasses - far more warlike, with six stiff dreadlocks rishing from her head and snug shorts and tank top that did nothing to hide her more mature figure. She looked hot even before she conjured up a small ball of fire to hang in mid-air. "It's still me, big brother," she said firmly.
"You look... older. How in the world...?"
She folded her arms. "May as well call it magic, for all the explanation I got."
"And you're..." he gestured towards the fireball. "Taranee, you're scared of fire."
"I was afraid of how much it drew me in." Taranee reached out and placed her hand fearlessly in the fireball, drawing an alarmed cry from Peter. When pulled her hand back it showed no mark at all. "I don't have to be afraid any more."
"Maybe not of fire." He rubbed at his hair (which was bound into hundreds of dreadlocks and then lashed back in a ponytail) and then moved up to give her a hug. "I don't suppose that your new outfit is bulletproof is it?"
Hay Lin laughed. "Metamoor doesn't have any guns!"
"Who is Metamoor?"
Hay Lin and Taranee looked at me questioningly. "Hey, I didn't have time to tell him everything."
"Metamoor is another world," Taranee explained. "It's kind of medieval but they've got magic and there's a Veil that prevents travel between there and Earth. We're the Guardians of the Veil - our mission is to close portals that form in the Veil. So magic's more of a problem then guns."
Peter rolled his eyes. "Well that's much better... not. I suppose that you have magical costumes too?" he added, pointing at the two of us.
Hay Lin nodded happily, pony-tails bobbing. "Air!" she exclaimed and silvery magic replaced her blouse, sweater and skirt with her own W.I.T.C.H. outfit.
"Wow," he said appreciatively. "So I guess that means that if Taranee's Fire and you're Air that there's some sort of element thing going on? So what does that make you, Hope? Water?"
"I, uh, don't do that," I admitted.
"Too bad, I bet you'd have a cute costume as well."
I went red and Taranee picked up the cushion, throwing it at her brother's face. She pegged him squarely, sending him staggering. "Wow, nice throwing arm!"
"Were you flirting with Hope?" she accused. "She's too young for you!"
I'm not too young! Wait, what am I thinking!
Peter laughed and pulled lightly on one of Taranee's dreadlocks. "She's about your age isn't she? Does that mean that you're too young to be seeing Nigel? 'Cause that'd make Mom real happy."
"She's not even two months old, Peter!"
"Um, what?"
This fascinating conversation was curtailed when a car pulled into the drive. Taranee turned and looked out the window. "Dad's back early," she squeaked and reverted to her usual self. "And Mom's with him!" The ball of fire vanished.
"Why change back?" asked Peter. "I thought you were gonna explain all this?"
"Yeah, I just want to break it to them easily." She waved at Hay Lin frantically and the other girl shifted back before the front door opened.
"Peter? Taranee?"
"In here, Dad!" Peter called and a moment later the Cooks joined us in the front room.
"Hi kids," Mr Cook greeted them. He hugged Taranee and then Peter. "Nice to see you, Hay Lin. And... hmm, Will or Hope?"
"Hope," his wife told him, giving Taranee a hug of her own. "Are your family here already?"
"No... Will's seeing Miss Randolph after school and Mom's still at work."
Taranee peered up at her mother, adjusting her glasses and then touched Mrs Cook's face. "Mom, are you okay? You look kinda pale."
She kissed Taranee's forehead. "I'm a little nervous dear. Your father and I have been talking."
Hay Lin looked at me and I spread my hands slightly. "Do you want us to step outside a moment? If this is a family thing?"
The two adults exchanged looks and then Mrs. Cook shook her head. "No, actually it might be best... Particularly for you to be here Hope."
I pointed at myself. Me? Particularly? I'd only even met her once, this morning!
Mr Cook waved to the couch. "You might want to sit down," he said mildly. "This may come as a little bit of a shock."
"I sort of doubt it," Peter said, perching on the arm of the sofa and draping one arm over Taranee's shoulders supportively. "At least compared to what else I've been hearing today." Hay Lin sat next to the girl and I perched myself next to her, clasping my hands nervously.
"I... I don't know where to begin," Mrs Cook admitted after a moment's thought.
Mr. Cook put one hand on her shoulder. "Perhaps at the beginning. About... thirteen years ago, a little little before Peter's fifth birthday there was a terrible fire on the outskirts of Heatherfield. No one knows how it started and fortunately, no one was killed. One of the houses destroyed belonged to a young couple and their three-month old baby. She was upstairs in the house when the fire started and it consumed the stairs, so they couldn't get in and find her."
"The firemen arrived barely in time. Fortunately the little girl's crib was right above a support beam and the floor held together just long enough for one of them to get in and rescue her." Mr. Cook smiled slightly. "I used to volunteer to help the Fire Brigade back then and I knew him well. He told me afterwards that she was fast asleep the whole time. It was quite the miracle."
"The thing was," Mrs. Cook added, "There was something wrong with their insurance. The fire had destroyed everything the family had, there were just the three of them and the clothes that they were standing in. They'd even lost their jobs to the fire because the shop they worked at had been in the same fire." She closed her eyes. "They made what must have been the hardest decision of their lives: they couldn't support their daughter, so they gave her up for adoption."
"Whoa, wait on!" Peter exclaimed. He looked down at Taranee and I saw his arm tighten around her. "You're kidding me. You can't possibly mean what I think you do."
Taranee stared. "Peter?"
"Three months before my fifth birthday, that means the baby would have been born in March '89. The same as you, sis..."
Mrs. Cook dropped to her knees in front of Taranee and took her hands. "Taranee, the baby was you."
My friend shook her head in denial and her jaw worked for a moment as she searched for words. What emerged was a shocked tiny: "no."
"But - but there are baby photos!" Peter exclaimed. "I've seen them."
His father shook his head. "We knew that one day Taranee would be old enough to know, but until then we didn't want her to feel there was any part of her life she'd missed out on. The earliest pictures are of another little girl, Audrey, one of her friends back in Sesamo."
"You lied to me!"
"We always knew we'd tell you some day," Mr. Cook explained. "It just... needed the right moment. With Susan making arrangements to adopt Hope, this seemed... as good a time as there was ever going to be."
Taranee burst to her feet. "I... I can't..." she blurted and brushed her mother aside, rushing for the door. A second later we heard her feet on the stairs.
"Taranee!" Hay Lin ran after her while the Cooks looked torn.
"I guess I was wrong about you shocking me," Peter said after a moment. He rose to his feet. "I'm going upstairs too..."
Mrs. Cook took refuge in her husband's arms. "She hates us..."
"I don't think so..."
Their heads snapped around and I realised they'd basically forgotten I was even there. And that I was intruding on what was a private moment. Still, what could I do but continue?
"She's angry with you... that's not the same thing."
He gave me a rueful look. "I hope you're right."
"If you don't mind my saying so, Taranee seems a lot like you, Mrs Cook."
"Call me Theresa, please."
I nodded. "Theresa. I'm guessing you've been fretting all day about how Taranee would react to this."
She ducked her head. "Good guess."
"Taranee's been in about the same state since Friday. There's... a little something she's going to tell you... well, maybe not today. And she's been worrying about how you'll take it so I know what it looks like. Oddly enough there's a fire in this story too."
Theresa blinked. "Really? Don't tell me this is about the gym at Sheffield Institute burning down!"
"Well..." I checked my recollection of the others telling me about that. "No, well... I suppose that fire's part of the story but I don't think she was anywhere near it." Before she could ask more I held up my hand. "We're getting away from my point. What I'm trying to say is: can you imagine anything she could tell you that would stop you from loving her?"
"Of course not! She's my daughter!"
I spread my hands. "Exactly. Upset with you, certainly. Angry... well, understandably. Hate?" I shook my head. "I think I'll wait outside."
Before I could stand we heard footsteps on the stairs. After a moment, Hay Lin stuck her head around the door. "She let Peter in to her room. I'm..." She shrugged. "I'm sorry, I don't know what to do."
"I think we'll need to give them some time to get used to the idea," Mr. Cook said quietly. "Peter didn't know either so she has no reason to be angry with him. If anyone can help her now..."
I stated what I was beginning to recognise as one of the great truths: "Being helpless sucks."
"Succinctly put," he concurred and sighed. "I guess we still have to get ready for dinner. I guess this wasn't exactly what your mother had in mind when we set things up."
"Well not in detail..."
"Pardon?" he asked.
"Never mind, just thinking out loud." I corrected myself. "Let me give you a hand with that."
D for Drakensis
You're only young once, but immaturity is forever.