Katelyn Price wiped the sweat off her brow as she finished capping her last algae sample. Like many teenagers, she was spending part of her summer vacation in Hawaii. Unlike most teenagers, Kate only got to be there because of her parents’ work. They were ecologists. Over the school year, through numerous hours of research, they had become very interested in Hawaii’s microscopic organisms. So, Kate got to take samples of algae. Joy.

         Her blue eyes scanned the landscape, searching for a familiar head of messy dark brown hair. Ocean blue met chocolate brown and Nick looked at her expectantly. She waved.

         “Hey! I’m all done here, can I go take some pictures?” The dirty blonde shouted. Kate’s older brother stared at her for a few seconds, contemplating.

         “Fine. Just don’t go too far!” He eventually shouted in reply, “Mom and dad would kill me if you got dragged out to sea or something,” Nick muttered to himself the moment Kate was out of earshot. Not that he meant it. Nick cared, but often forgot to show it, acting out wholeheartedly the sullen teenager most people expected him to be.

         “Yes!” Kate exclaimed, pumping a fist in the air before running off to a more scenic section of beach.

         She made her way to a rocky area where tide pools had formed, somehow still in existence halfway through the day. Kate hopped from rock to rock, peering into the temporary homes of various sea creatures. Kate ogled at small crabs and other invertebra scuttling around the shallow puddles of water. She snapped a few pictures of what she deemed as the most interesting life forms and moved on.

         Kate milled around for a bit, taking note of various locations that would make good postcards. As she walked, one particular location’s scenery kept popping into her mind. It was nagging at her, those perfectly sculpted stone arches, the beautiful blue hues of the sea… It was too much. She had to capture it in film.

         The aspiring photographer immediately turned on her heel and marched her way back to the rocky arch she had spied earlier. She gazed up at the jagged, uneven edges of the archway, and began to experiment with different positions. Kate huffed in frustration. There was almost nowhere she could stand on the beach that would allow her to capture everything she wanted in the frame. Kate surveyed the area once more, bright blue eyes raking in every detail.  She nodded to herself. Yes. It wasn’t perfect, but it would have to do.

         She repositioned herself, back pressed against the hard, uneven rocks of the cliff. Kate raised the camera, squinting through the lense. These would have to be good. They would be her first consignment with the local novelty shops. Almost… she just needed to take one small step back and…

         Kate yelped as the ground gave way beneath her feet, and she tumbled down a forgotten tunnel, covered by sand and time. It seemed like at least ten minutes before she finally stopped rolling, but that could have been because she had hit several sharp rocks on the way down. Kate slowly stood, assessing the damage. No limbs seemed to be broken. That was good. She was bleeding in several places. The rocks had left cuts in her cheeks and on her arms, and there was a large gash in her thigh, but other than that, Kate was fine. Minor injuries.

         Minor injuries hurt.

         Kate slowly knelt back down to the ground, and felt around for her camera. It wasn’t much, but the screen might provide some light. Her fingers finally landed on something smooth and square-ish. Kate’s victorious grin faded when she felt the spiderweb of cracks on the screen. Darn. That had been her favorite. And relatively new, too. Worse, it was now useless, even for light.

         Kate sighed in frustration, and hot tears pricked at the corner of her eyes. No! She wouldn’t cry! Dan and Sean from Unnatural, -Kate’s favorite television show-, wouldn’t cry. They would stand up and search for a source of light. That would show her the way out. Kate sniffed and wiped her eyes on her shirt sleeve; not because she was crying, mind you, she wasn’t. She had just gotten some dirt in her eyes during the fall, and that had made her eyes water a bit. It could happen to anyone, really. Totally. Yeah.

         Kate stood back up, and felt her way to the place she had landed. Dull light filtered in through the hole she had fallen through. It wasn’t much, but she could tell that it was too steep to climb back up. Despite having this knowledge, she tried anyway. Kate found a foothold, and attempted to pull herself up. She didn’t get too far. Kate took exactly one step before the rock gave way and she tumbled back into the earth. Darn. Kate silently cursed herself for leaving her cell phone back at the hotel. That could have been useful.

         She stood once again, and dusted herself off, wincing as her hands struck the gash in her leg. A short hiss of pain escaped her lips. Kate searched for an exit in the other direction, using her hand and the earthy walls as a guide. She walked for awhile, every step slow, cautious. She wasn’t too keen on falling down another rabbit hole. And her leg hurt. It felt like ages before she finally saw it.

         A new source of light.

         A way out? Kate couldn’t be sure. It could be coming from the top of another impossibly steep hill. Or it could be bioluminescent. A beautiful sight, but altogether unhelpful. The girl moved closer, now noticing the color of the light.

         It was blue.

         Blue, but no specific variation. It wasn’t just a basic blue, but she couldn’t pinpoint it as cyan or sky blue either. The closer she got, Kate could see more and more. It seemed to be… shifting. Constantly changing. It had been so subtle, she almost hadn’t noticed. That was why she couldn’t place a name to the color, Kate realized, the light didn’t have a specific color. It was just blue. Turning the corner, Kate finally found the source of the light.

         It was a glowing orb, a little smaller than her head. It hovered in the air, a few inches above a small pool of water that had formed underground. Unconsciously, Kate moved forward, only noticing the motion when her feet became submerged in the water.

         Normally, Kate would have followed the standard ‘don’t touch the magic glowing object’ rule, but something about the orb drew her in. Like it was meant for her. She continued forward, barely aware of the fact that the pool was a lot deeper than she had originally thought. The saltwater had reached her waist, and she had reached the orb.

    A small gasp escaped her lips. It was the strangest thing she had ever seen… the orb was pure light. It hummed with a foreign energy that Kate couldn’t quite place. She reached out, and as her fingers passed through the orb, it dissipated. Awash in total darkness, Kate blinked, bewildered. A second passed. Then… an odd tingling sensation spread throughout her body.

    For a second, it seemed as though she could see it. The waves of energy traveling up her arms and legs and centering themselves in the middle of her chest. Kate thought she could see a small glowing circle appear where the waves had centered, but it was gone in an instant, and she was left wondering whether it had all been a strange dream. She stood stock still for a few seconds, waiting for her eyes to adjust to the now impenetrable darkness.

    A low rumble sounded overhead, and the water began to lap at her legs. Kate’s breath caught in her throat. The cavern was collapsing.

    And she was trapped inside.

    A violent splash from what was presumably a large rock somewhere to her left jolted Kate into action. She turned on her heel and slogged as quickly as she could through the hip-deep water. Quickly realizing the futility of her methods, Kate took a deep breath and dived. Kaploosh! Another rock fell from the ceiling, inches from her right leg.

    Her cuts stung, and then faded to a dull pain. Blindly, she swam forward, searching for shore. A dull bwoosh sounded behind her, and Kate gasped in pain when the rock struck her lower back. Precious bubbles of air escaped her lungs, floating up and out of her reach. Kate was swimming frantically now, desperately reaching for shore. To her despair, it didn’t seem to be getting any closer.

    In a last ditch effort to get out alive, Kate kicked and…. Oh. She stood up. Apparently the shore wasn’t as far away as she’d thought. The rumbling noise overhead grew louder. The walls shook. Kate ran, gasping for breath with every step.

    Kate bumped into the walls several times, but refused to stop running. If she stopped she was dead. Her heart pounded in her throat and her lungs burned. Her footsteps thundered through the cavern, stumbling as they tried to avoid projectiles she couldn’t see. Her foot caught on something, and Kate screamed as her body was pitched forward into a wall of earth.

    Dazed, the girl slowly got up and groped around for the object that had tripped her. It was smooth, and one side was cracked… camera! But that would mean… Kate trained her blue orbs on the top of the steep hill she had fallen down. Yes, she could see the light. It was incredibly bright after the pitch black of the cavern. Kate wondered briefly how she had missed it. Then the cavern roared and groaned, reminding Kate that it was all coming down.

    “Help!” She shrieked desperately, screaming barely above the dull booms and thuds that echoed across the cavern.

Kate could barely hear her own voice, and doubted anyone else would be able to. Surely they had heard the sounds of mountains of rock collapsing, though? She shook the thought from her head. No one was going to run towards danger. If she didn’t get herself out, no one would.

A wave of determination overcame her, and Kate began to climb.

It was difficult at first. The wall of earth was unbearably slick, and fistfulls of sand would rain down if she placed her hand in the wrong spot. Eventually, though, Kate found enough hand and foot-holds to clamber up the underground slide. Finally, her hand poked out of the hole, and grasped the sand above.

Kate pulled herself up, and she was about halfway through when the cavern shook violently. She gasped in pain as she was pulled back by the shifting mass of rock. ‘This is it’, she thought, ‘I’m going to die here’. Kate closed her eyes and braced herself, ready to accept her fate. ‘Let go in one… two…’ A hand tightened around her own.

Blue eyes opened wide, training on the determined face of an older boy. Nick!

“Hang on! I’ve got you!” Nick shouted over the roar of the collapsing cavern. With a quick tug on her arms, Nick pulled his sister up. Kate used the momentum to scramble out of the hole. As soon as her feet touched the sand, Kate felt like she could collapse. Rocks rained down on them from above, and Nick grabbed her hand again.

“We gotta go!” He yelled urgently, tugging her along.

The two took off, sprinting towards safety. If either one of them had looked back, they would have seen the cliff face crumbling into the water.

 

“What were you thinking!?”

“You could have been killed!”

“Do you have any idea what could’ve happened!?”

After the initial shock back at the beach, there had been a lot of crying and hugs. Apparently that was over with.

“It was an accident!” Kate protested, “I didn’t know the ground was going to collapse!”

Her mother took a deep breath, as if to calm herself before continuing.

“Katelyn,” She began, “I do understand that, but you need to understand that you can’t just run off on your own. If it wasn’t an earthquake, it could have been a kidnapper, or a murderer, or… or… who knows what?!” Marilyn Price was quickly dissolving into hysterics. Tears pooled in her brown eyes, threatening to spill over.

“It’s been a long day,” Her father Jonathan stepped in, placing a comforting arm around her mother. “We should all get some rest. We’ll pack up and leave in the morning. In the meantime, how does pizza sound?”

Pizza sounded good. The Price family almost never ordered out. They made healthy, organic meals. In Kate’s mind, that was just another way of saying ‘boring and tasteless’. But pizza? Pizza was good.

 

All throughout that evening, something bugged Kate. It was right on the tip of her tongue, but she just couldn’t reach it. She tapped her fingers absentmindedly against her leg. Her leg. It didn’t hurt anymore. The pain had long since faded, even though the gash had been new. Perplexed, Kate ran her fingers over the spot where the injury had been. Nothing. It was gone. ‘What the-’

“Katelyn,” She looked up, stray strands of wavy blond hair falling into her face.

Jonathan Price seated himself at the edge of his daughter’s hotel bed. His grey

blue eyes were serious, and Kate felt a lecture coming on.

“It was very reckless of you to run off on your own like that. Something very bad

could have happened to you. You were lucky you got out without so much as a scratch,” He sighed tiredly, then placed an arm around Kate’s shoulder in a sort of awkward half-hug.

    “You don’t have to worry so much,” It irked Kate that she wasn’t yet seen as a capable person. Fourteen was a very mature age, thank you very much. “I can take care of myself,”

    “We’re your parents,” Her father replied, “It’s our job to worry,” There was a moment of silence. Jonathan sighed,, “I don’t know what we would do if anything happened to you or Nick. Promise me that from now on, you’ll be more careful?” Kate frowned. “Katelyn…”

    “Fine! I promise,” She shrugged his hand off. Her father ruffled her hair.

    “That’s my girl. Come on, let’s go get some pizza,”

 

    Dinner was relatively quiet. No one seemed to have enough energy to start or continue a conversation. Kate’s mother alternated between picking at her food and studying some data sheets before retiring to bed hours earlier than normal. Their father, for the first time in years, neglected to start up even the politest of conversations with the delivery woman. Even Nick, who always seemed to have something to complain about, stayed silent.

Kate noticed all of this, and realized she should probably be exhausted herself. She wasn’t. At all. In fact, Kate felt like she had enough energy to run a marathon. Maybe two. It kind of worried her, but she shook it off. It was probably just left over adrenaline. It would be gone by morning.

 

It was not gone by morning. Her whole family moved at their usual sluggish pace, shuffling around, zombie-like while they packed their belongings into suitcases. Kate was like a human rocket compared to them. She rushed through the morning on an energy high, all her belongings packed before anyone else had even cracked open an eyelid.

Nick was the first one awake, as always. He had set his clock to 6:00 AM like the paranoia-riddled teen that he was. He shuffled tiredly to the hotel fridge, yawning while he tugged halfheartedly on the door handle.

“Good morning!”

Nick almost had a heart attack. He spun to confront the strangely chipper speaker, fists raised in defense. The 16 year old almost couldn’t comprehend the sight in front of him. Kate was wide awake. Before him. She sat there, perched on the edge of a hotel bed, a perfect picture of innocence. That annoying little sister of his was already dressed, and looked like she had been up for hours.

“W-what are you-” He sputtered.

“Couldn’t sleep,” She shrugged, her shoulder-length wavy blonde hair bouncing along with the movement. “Need help packing? I’m already done!” She blurted, impossibly cheerful for the time of day that it was. Nick stared.

“Okay, how many cups of coffee did you steal from mom?”

“None, I swear! I just have a lot of energy today,”

“Whatever, weirdo,” Kate, being the very mature person she was, immediately stuck her tongue out at him.

“You know, I was gonna help you... but now I don’t think you deserve it, jerk,”

Nick rolled his eyes at her, reaching into the hotel’s mini-fridge to grab a piece of cold pizza.

“What, like I can’t pack my stuff by myself?” He mumbled thickly through his breakfast. Kate made a face.

“That’s gross,”

“You’re gross,”

“Didn’t our parents ever teach you not to talk with food in your mouth? Oh, that’s right… you weren’t here for that part. I forgot you were raised by wolverines,” Kate flashed him a positively shark-like grin. Nick moved to toss his pizza at her. Kate flinched back, and Nick laughed.

“The wolverines taught me well,” He remarked sagely. Then he shoved the rest of the pizza slice in his mouth.

Before Kate could shoot back with another insult, a groan sounded from across the room accompanied by the unmistakable creaking of bedsprings. The parents were awake.

“G’morning,” Their father yawned. Their mother awoke soon after, and it was not long before the family was rushed into a packing daze.

 

2: Chapter 2

 

 

    Kate looked up at the foreboding building that was Brunswick high school. All the movies and tv shows she had seen, -not to mention Nick’s own testament-, told her that this was the first day of the worst years of her life.

    Students bustled about noisily, their chatter filling the halls. The unmistakable musk of perfume and cheap cologne wafted to her nose. Kate did her best to bat it away, and when that didn’t work, she attempted to deter the scent with a piece of minty gum. The taste immediately masked the stench. As she walked, Kate picked up random snippets of conversation.

    “-do this summer?”

    “-Then I was all like-”

    “-But the Orc was so powerful!”

    “-and he totally kissed Jen! Can you believe-”

    Kate did her best to ignore them, looking instead towards the bold orange and black banners hung up everywhere. They were cheery, made to welcome the new ‘dragons’.

She made her way to her first class of the day. Math. Why did it have to be math? It wasn’t that Kate was bad at it or anything, math was just so incredibly dull. With an overly dramatic sigh, Kate dragged herself into the classroom. The doorway had also been decorated with a ‘Brunswick Dragon’ banner. This one encouraged students to join the football team.

    It wasn’t as bad as she had expected. The teacher seemed nice at least. Ms. Fleming, was it? That seemed right. Kate seated herself near the back next to the window, preferring to give her attention to the scenery. She busied herself by fiddling with her necklace. Kate wasn’t entirely sure where she had gotten it. It looked like a sand dollar, but it had a depiction of some sea creature on it in blue ink. A dolphin, or a shark maybe? Kate didn’t know. It was cool, though, so she kept it.

    She’d probably bought it at some novelty shop in Hawaii, and later forgotten all about it. That was what happened with most of her homework assignments. Kate was so lost in thought, she almost didn’t notice when the chair next to her seat became occupied.

    “Hey. Have a good summer?” Came the soothingly calm voice to her right.

Kate looked up. Sunglasses perched on her neighbor’s nose, and a pair of headphones hung idly around the person’s neck. Dark frizzy hair framed the permanently unamused face. The person was seated casually, the very picture of ‘cool’. Kate grinned.

“Hey Carmen,” Kate’s best friend allowed a small smirk to grace their face for the slightest of moments.

“Hey Kate. So, your summer? How was it? I heard you went to Hawaii,”

“Eh. It was okay. Mostly it was just me and Nick taking algae samples,”

Carmen raised an eyebrow.

“What about the rest of the time?” Kate shrugged.

“We got to look in a couple shops. That was cool. And the beaches were beautiful! I took some awesome photos!” Kate gushed.

“Sounds great. Can’t wait to see ‘em; even though it’ll probably be more than a month before you’re done ‘editing them to perfection,’” Carmen teased. Kate frowned.

“Actually… I broke my camera,”

“Oh. Sorry to hear that,”

Kate shrugged, not really sure what to say. They sat in silence for a few minutes.

“Did you manage to save the SD card?”

“No. A cave collapsed on top of it. Nothing survived,” Both eyebrows rose this time.

“Like… literally? Or figuratively?”

“Literally,” Kate groaned, burying her head in her hands. Carmen trained their slightly unnerving gaze to Kate.

“I ask you about your summer, and you leave out the most exciting part. I am disappointed in you, Kate,” They remarked evenly.

“Whatever,” Kate mumbled, the sound of her voice slightly muffled. A sharp rapping sound caught the attention of the two freshman. Ms. Fleming stood at the front of the class, a ruler in hand.

“Welcome class, to Geometry,”

    Most of the day was relatively uneventful. All of Kate’s teachers wanted the class to learn each other’s names and ‘bond’. Gross. All of her teachers, that is, except one.

    “Alright, ya lazy bums! Wake up, we’re playing dodgeball!” Were the first words out of Mr. Hendrikson’s mouth when the bell rang. “I assume you all know how to play?”

    A few kids nodded halfheartedly. Mr. Hendrikson glared around the room.

    “Let’s get something straight here,” He growled menacingly, “When I ask you a question, I expect you to respond with a ‘yes sir!’ or a ‘no sir!’ are we clear?” Blank stares.

    “I said, ‘ARE. WE. CLEAR?’”

    “Yes sir!” The class responded as one.

    “Good! Are you all familiar with the rules of dodgeball?”

    “Yes sir!”

    “Jeez,” Kate muttered.

    “I know, right?” Replied a voice from her left.

Kate turned to face the speaker, an older boy, about Nick’s age. Junior, maybe? His hair sprung up in reddish-brown curls, and a pair of glasses framed his golden-brown eyes.

“I’ve taken this class before. Hendrikson always treats his students like we’re in the military or something,”

“Why?”

“Eh. It’s something about teaching discipline? Personally, I think he just likes the sense of control it gives him,”

“Huh,” Kate fiddled with her necklace.

“Alright, maggots! I want half of ya on either side! Don’t make me choose teams for you, ‘cause you won’t like what I pick,” Kate’s nose twitched. The man’s Australian accent mixed with his American form of military speak was indescribably strange.

The class separated into two teams. Mr. Hendrikson blew his whistle. The gym erupted into chaos. Red rubber flew every which way, and Kate was forced to dance around the flying projectiles.

Once she got the rhythm down, it was only a matter of whether she could get her hands on a ball. Soon, Kate was launching projectiles back and forth. Nearly every one hit. It wasn’t long before teenage aggression narrowed down the competition. Pretty soon there were only five people on the field, three on Kate’s side, two on the opposing team.

One of the taller boys on the opposite side threw his dodgeball. It hit a small pasty kid with a ‘thwack!’ Make that two on Kate’s side. The other person on her team was the curly-haired boy from earlier. He caught her attention with a small wave, and tossed her a red ball.

“You attack, I’ll defend?” Kate grinned.

“Sounds like a plan,”

They were back-to-back, moving like they had been made to work as a team. A ball flew towards them, they shifted, it landed safely in her teammate’s hands. They shifted again, and Kate lobbed her dodgeball across the divide. It hit with a satisfying ‘poom’. It was all over in a matter of minutes. They hadn’t stood a chance.

One of the kids on the other side hadn’t taken defeat so well. He growled angrily, and propelled one last ball towards Kate and her new friend. She turned, and time seemed to slow. Her heartbeat quickened, and she felt something that could only be described as panic. Rocks. Rocks falling everywhere. Low rumbling… collapse! Have to get out! Get out Get out GET OUT! Kate threw her arms up in defense just as the ball hit, almost missing the strange blue light that seemed to dissipate as soon as it appeared.

There was a sudden pressure on her forearms, and then a loud ‘pop!’ and the ‘fwoosh’ of air being released. Kate stumbled back, and the light returned for a split second before vanishing again.

‘Phweeet!’ Kate cringed, and snapped back to reality. Hendrikson’s whistle was about as pleasing to the ear as his voice. She was breathing hard.

“That’s a wrap! Good game, everyone! I’m surprised you teenage hooligans were able to keep to the rules,” He surveyed the class for a moment, stopping on the last member of the other team, “Most of you, anyways. Seems we need to have a little chat on good sportsmanship. Class dismissed!”

‘What was that pop?’ Kate wondered, eyes roving over the gym floor. They paused on what looked like shredded red rubber. Huh. Must’ve been on it’s last leg. Kate shrugged it off. Most of these dodgeballs had to be several years old. A little wear and tear could easily thin the rubber, making it easier to pop, right? That made sense, Kate assured herself. Of course it did.

“Hey! Good game,” Kate turned to see her dodgeball partner making his way over.

“Yeah, you too,” He stuck out a hand.

“I’m Max,” Kate returned the handshake.

“Kate,”

“Nice to meet you, Kate,”

“Likewise,” Their hands dropped.

“Well… uh, see you around,” Max said awkwardly. Kate nodded, and went to retrieve her backpack.

Max stared at her while she retreated to the hallway. He thought he had seen something earlier. A bright blue light. And that necklace she wore. It could be a coincidence, but… he turned to the mound of shredded rubber on the gym floor. No, Max thought to himself. There was nothing coincidental about that.

 

Lunch was hectic. Kate had to force her way through hundreds of pushing bodies, all making their own sort of noise that added to the endless droning of teenage voices echoing around the room. She hated it.

People were everywhere, pressing in on all sides, and she couldn’t breathe… Kate forced the panic down and took a deep breath. She dashed into a nearby empty classroom and placed a hand over her heart, waiting for the panicky feeling to subside. Several deep breaths later, and Kate was left in a state of slight confusion. That had never happened before.

 

Lunchtime was the only thing that could make her both love and despise her parent’s environmentally friendly lunches.

Kate appreciated it, because she didn’t have to struggle with lunch lines, or pushing past other disgruntled teens, made vicious by their empty stomachs. On the other hand…

“A burnt muffin, an orange, baby carrots and some water,” Mickie verbalized each item she pulled from Kate’s lunchbox. “That is sad. What else you got?” Her gum popped.

“That’s it, I’m afraid,” Kate sighed forlornly, looking enviously at Carmen’s hot vegetarian lasagna. And no, that is not a euphemism.

“Hmm,” Mickie pursed her lips for a moment, thinking. Suddenly, her face brightened. “I know how to fix this!” She exclaimed, reaching into her backpack. “You can share my emergency can of beans!” Kate cringed. Carmen attempted to mask their snicker with a cough.

“Thanks for the offer, but I’ll take my chances with the muffin,”

Mickie shrugged.

“Suit yourself,”

Mickie was an odd one, but that was one of the reasons Kate liked her. She always carried a can of beans on her ‘for emergencies’. Her favorite article of clothing was a fluffy hat made in the shape of a seal, and she wore rain boots everywhere, no matter the weather. On weekends, Mickie would come over and challenge Nick to a winner-take-all match of their favorite video-games. ‘All’ being whatever Mickie wanted most from the Price’s refrigerator.

“Nick better bring his A-game this weekend. I am so done with beating him in the first few minutes of Ultra Punch Siblings,” She tucked a strand of long blonde hair behind her ear.

“He’s been practicing,” Kate assured her. Mickie nodded in approval.

“He’d better be,” She grumbled, reaching not-so-subtly for Kate’s burnt muffin. Kate swatted her hand away.

Mickie pouted at her. Kate shrugged as if to say ‘not my problem’, and bit into the muffin. She nearly cried when the near rock hard material hit her teeth.

“Ow!”

“Ha!” Mickie cried victoriously, “Karma!”

Kate stuck her tongue out at her. The group was silent for a few minutes while Mickie sulked and Kate nursed her aching teeth. Carmen was calmly scrolling through their phone, eating at a leisurely pace. They tended to ignore their friends antics, only intervening when it was clear someone was going to get seriously hurt.

Kate wondered how they always managed to stay so calm.

 

3: Chapter 3

 

 

    “You okay? You seem tired,” Kate grit her teeth.

    “I’m fine,” She hit the tennis ball way too far over the net.

    “Now you’re agitated,” Max observed, eyes on the ball as it soared across the gym.

    “Ugh. And you’re agitating,”

    ‘Phweet!’

    “That will be all for today! For those of you who have been neglecting to participate in my class, you all have F’s. I would advise you turn your habits around immediately, or face my wrath. That will be all!”

    Max trailed after Kate, waiting for her to grab her backpack. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him fiddling with something. A necklace maybe? Funny. She had never noticed him wearing one before.

    “Whatcha got there?” He jumped, and the mysterious item disappeared inside his shirt.

    “Nothing,” He answered a little too quickly.

    Suspicious. Or maybe it was just some memoir, or some other personal trinket. Kate shrugged. It wasn’t any of her business, anyway. While the two walked to their next class, Kate found herself fiddling with her own necklace.

    Its mysterious origins were really starting to bug her. Weeks had passed, and no memories had surfaced about the strung up sandollar.

    “Do you want to be partners for Crutchfield’s photography project?” Max’s voice penetrated the silence. As it turned out, Max was taking photography for one of his fine arts credits. They just so happened to have the same class period.

    Kate and Max had ended up talking a lot. They had learned quite a bit about each other over the past week. Max had learned that Kate hated chocolate and had a talent for photo editing. Kate had learned that Max had only been living in Brunswick for about a year and that he went rock climbing in his spare time.

    “Oh… yeah, sure,”

    “Great! Can I come over after school then?” The question was a little out of the blue, and Kate faltered for a moment. Then she decided, why not? It wasn’t like she had plans or anything.

“Okay. You’re gonna have to ride my bus home, though,” Max nodded.

“No problem. I just need to let my dad know,”

“Cool. What were you thinking for the project?”

“Maybe something with water? Water drop photos are always super cool,” Max suggested.

“Yeah, but they’re way over used, though,” Kate pointed out, “I want to do something more original,”

“Okay. I just thought it would be easy,”

“It is,” She grinned impishly, “That’s what makes it boring,”

Max stood in the middle of the Price’s living room looking as out of place as a jelly bean in a bowl of spinach. Nick ignored his presence for the most part, barring the first conversation they had in which Nick told him very firmly to keep his filthy hands off the little sister. Kate had rolled her eyes and gagged before dragging Max up to her room.

“You can put your bag anywhere, we’re not going to be working in here,” Kate told him while she riffled through her closet, searching for her old camera.

Max opted instead to keep his bag on him and treated himself to a look around Kate’s bedroom. It wasn’t overly neat or impossibly cluttered. It was organized without being immaculate. The walls were a light teal under the heavy covering of photographs Kate had papered her room with.

Max examined the photographs. Most of them were vibrant color photos of some landscape she had visited with her family. A few depicted people or mannequins in various fashion styles. Some were in black and white, and in most of them the details were impossibly vivid. His favorite was a panorama of a geyser erupting in yellowstone.

“Aha!” Kate cried victoriously, waving the camera over her head.

“Did you… did you take all of these?” Max gestured to the wide range of wall to wall photography.

“Yup,” Kate popped the ‘p’. “Every year we go somewhere out of state to study the environment. It’s supposed to be a learning experience to make us more environmentally conscious, but I usually just learn some new trick to taking good pictures,”

“That’s pretty cool,” Max thought ‘good’ didn’t even begin to describe it.

“I guess so,” Kate shrugged, “So, you ready to start this thing?” The project was simple really; ‘take a picture of something interesting’.

The pair moved downstairs to the living room.

“There’s a nice bridge nearby. It’s not too far to walk,” Kate suggested. Max was about to agree.

“Nope, no, absolutely not,” A new voice cut in. Max jumped, having missed the fact that Nick was still in the room. His eyes were glued to the screen, unwilling to lose his score in Ultra Punch Siblings.

“What, why?”

“Because you’re not supposed to go places alone with strangers,”

“If you came, then I wouldn’t be alone. And Max isn’t a stranger,” She added as an afterthought.

“Not doing that either,” Nick dismissed, waving her off, “Mickie’s coming over this weekend, and I know she’s going to try to steal that last piece of cake. I need to practice,” Max shot Kate a confused look.

“I’ll explain later,” She muttered before turning back to Nick, “Look, we’re working on a project for school, and if we fail I’ll just have to tell dad that I have an ‘F’ in my best subject because you wouldn’t get up off your lazy butt and spend 30 minutes at the swinging bridge!”

“We both know that won’t work,” Nick huffed as his character flew offscreen.

“And,” Kate continued, “I may just let slip who really filled the bathtub with banana pudding,” Max turned to hide his snort. Nick stared.

“First off, it was vanilla, and secondly… you wouldn’t dare”

“Try me,”

“Fine, just gimme a second to shut this down,” Nick gestured to the TV halfheartedly.

“Yes!”

On the way to the bridge, Kate filled Max in about the weekly video game tournament that happened at her house while Nick sulked along behind them.

“So, about how long is this going to take?”

“Depends,”

“Depends on what?” Nick knew he wouldn’t like the answer.

“How long it takes to find a good angle, whether the lighting works, how cooperative my camera feels like being today…” Kate ticked off items on her fingers as she listed them. Nick groaned. Kate glared at him a bit.

“If you don’t want her to take the last piece of cake, why don’t you just eat it before she comes over?”

“You don’t understand, Kate. Winning makes it taste better,”

“Uh-huh. Sure,”

“Is that the bridge?”

Kate looked up and grinned. The swinging bridge stood tall before them, casting the three teens in its impressive shadow. The bridge stood on tall red supports that cast out iron cables which held the bridge’s planks. It swayed lightly in the breeze.

It took about 15 minutes to find the right lighting and another ten to get in a good position. By the time they were ready to take the ‘perfect photo’, Nick was bored out of his mind. He had plopped himself down on the circular patch of red brick directly in front of the bridge and sat watching, eyes glazed over.

He almost didn’t register when Kate called to him.

“Move, lazy butt! You’re in the shot!”

Apparently she had forgotten that Nick had saved her life this summer. He groaned dramatically, but moved anyway. Nick hoped it would end soon.

“Okay, got it!”

“Good! Let’s go home!” Nick leaped up, ready to leave.

“Wanna see the other side of the bridge?” Nick groaned.

“Yeah. Maybe we can get some cool shots from over the side,”

“Noooo…” Kate swore Nick had almost sobbed in anguish, and then in relief when a beeping noise came from Max’s back pocket.

Kate turned to see Max pull his phone out, looking concerned. His eyes dashed over the screen and Kate heard his breath hitch.

“I have to go. Like, right now. Emergency. Sorry Kate, I’ll see you tomorrow!” Max spouted as he hurriedly shoved his phone back in his pocket and took off, sprinting down the road they had come from.

Kate barely had time to sputter out a ‘goodbye’ before Max had disappeared.

    It happened after school on a Friday night.

    Mickie and Carmen had decided to have a sleepover at Kate’s house. The celebration was, of course, preceded by several hours spent at the park. The three friends plus Nick had barely rounded the corner that led onto the Price’s street when the sound of sirens invaded their ears.

    Loud and blaring, two police cars and a gaggle of firetrucks zoomed past, urgency apparent in their dismissal of traffic lights. A short look passed from Mickie, to Kate, to Nick, and then to Carmen. And just like that, they were off. Sneakers slapped the pavement as the four teens raced to the source of the excitement that rarely touched their tiny little town.

    They found themselves outside the Gelato Fiasco, a popular ice cream shop. The building was surrounded by firemen who were already scrambling to attach a powerful fire hose to the hydrant across the street.

Large red flames licked up the sides of a building Nick and Kate had often retreated to when summer’s heat got to be too much. The fire crackled and roared all around them, reaching out it’s long, smoky tendrils to touch the nearby Little Tokyo and choke it in smog as well. Sirens and red and blue lights exploded all around them.

Quiet exclamations of awe were whispered somewhere to Nick’s right. He didn’t need to look to know it was Kate’s friend group. The heat was intense, and, as a unit, the four teens took a step back.

Uniformed officers and men and women in fire suits surrounded the Gelato Fiasco. Many other spectators stood around the buildings, some watching in fear, some with rapt attention. A few were crying. Nick noticed a boy, maybe two years younger than Kate, who seemed to be fighting to get into the building.

His hair was a fiery red, and his eyes were wild like the flames that licked at the walls of the Gelato Fiasco. Several officials were almost struggling to hold him back as he kicked and shoved against them, desperate to grasp something just beyond his reach. Nick managed to catch a few snippets of conversation.

“Let me go!” The boy shouted, “My mom’s in there, I have to help her!”

Oh. Nick felt his throat go dry.

Kate stared wide-eyed at the burning brick building. Firefighters were gathered around, using powerful hoses to beat back the flames. Mickie had been shocked into a stupor. Carmen’s expression was unreadable beneath their ever present sunglasses.

The four teens traveled around to the back of the building at Carmen’s prompting. They didn’t hear the cry of alarm, or see the sparks that would precede an explosion.  Kate barely had time to raise her hands in defense when the wall of fire exploded, engulfing them all in burning flame. The group waited with bated breath.

After a few seconds had passed, and no one had screamed in pain, Kate dared to open her eyes. She struggled to comprehend the sight before her, wondering vaguely if she was dreaming. A solid dome of water at least a foot thick had surrounded them, hissing as it burst into steam upon contact with the jet of fire. Kate gaped in disbelief.

“Woah… no way, nuh-uh, I am dreaming, this is NOT happening!” Nick rambled, as he turned, searching for the source of the wall of water.

It was then that Kate realized her hands were still in a defensive position. Gingerly, she began to bring her hands down, immediately returning them to their previous position when the dome began to cave. The water bounced back into its spherical shape.

“Holy chicken nuggets…” Kate breathed, looking from the dome to her hands and back again.

“Where is it all coming from?” Carmen wondered aloud.

“It’s magic, obviously!”

“I-I think it’s me…” Kate muttered, slightly hoping no one had heard her.

The fire had receded far enough for Kate to feel safe lowering the water shield. Slowly, she brought her hands down. The whole group watched in amazement as the dome split in half down the middle, each half succumbing to gravity and crashing against the concrete like a wave on the beach. Kate noted that she had completely soaked her friends, herself, her brother, and several firefighters and innocent bystanders.

“Oops,” Kate panicked for a moment, thinking surely someone had noticed that.

Luckily, however, everyone seemed to be blaming a careless volunteer fireman and his inexperience with the workings of fire hydrants.

Everyone, that is, except the red-haired boy Nick had noticed earlier. The kid stared wide-eyed at Kate, eyes wide in disbelief mixed with a bit of envy and an almost imperceptible amount of sadness.

    The house descended into chaos the moment the front door closed.

    “What was that?”

    “How did you do that!?”

    “What. The actual. Cheese,”

    “Could you do it again?”

    Nick remained quiet, only stating that he was going to bed. Kate swore she could hear quiet mutterings of ‘just a dream, it was just a dream,’ as he walked up the stairs to his room. Kate silently agreed. This whole night had just been plain weird. The noise in the room seemed to double in intensity, pounding at her head.

    “I think I’m just gonna go sleep,” She mumbled, avoiding Mickie’s prying gaze. Carmen nodded.

    “Mickie and I will take the couch,”

    Mickie began to protest, but Carmen whipped off their sunglasses and fixed her with one of their famous glares. Mickie’s mouth clamped shut.

    Kate tiredly waved to her two friends before she dragged herself upstairs to her room, deciding to plop down onto the bed fully dressed. Sure the jeans and shoes sucked for sleeping, but at least the sweater was comfortable.

    At that moment in time, though, Kate couldn’t care less.