Next morning, I woke to the lovely smell of eggs and bacon. I grabbed Nala and followed the smell to the firehouse kitchen, where a whole flock of firemen were laughing and chowing down on breakfast. I put Nala on my head – she liked to rest on my head wither or not I was walking – and sat down at an open chair. The laughing quieted. One of the firemen – I think his name is George – spoke.
"Hey, Sara. Um why are you here this lovely morning?"
So, apparently Tom hadn't told them about their new member and picked this time to do so. After explaining the situation, the other firemen seemed to understand, and that's when Garrett made his entrance.
"Hey, how do you guys want the eggs? Scrambled or…" He broke off when he saw me. "Oh, you're awake. When I woke up and saw you sleeping, I went straight to Tom. I know the story, so I guess that means you're and honorary firewoman. Hey, Tom, give her a badge already. She deserves it after what she did yesterday."
All the firemen granted approval – and I should mention that I am the only girl here – and looked at Tom for his confirmation.
"Already ahead of you boys. I got this one already engraved with her name yesterday. Here ya go, girly. Welcome to the family."
He handed me the badge, and more words came whispering into my head as soon as I touched the metal.
"Stay." I whispered.
Without even thinking about it, I knew that those words meant. No matter where I went, or what I did, that badge would stay with me, even if I lost it or transformed. This was great! All of these people, when I didn't know most of them, were obviously very nice and seemed to accept me as part of the family. I started to tear up a little bit, and I ran and gave the group one big hug. They all seemed to know what it was for, and just like that I had a new family again.
Garrett broke in, "So is everyone hungry? Foods almost done."
We all nodded, and with that, Tom handed out plates of bacon and eggs, and we dug in. Garrett grabbed his own and sat next to me, and we both at a furiously as the other firemen. He, probably because he was a guy and me, because I hadn't eaten since yesterday's lunch. Nala sat on the table next to my plate and ate off it with me, while one of the other guys commented that they'd have to pick up cat food on the next run. Nala finished before me, and curled on my lap until I was done. I ended up setting her on my pillow before hanging with the guys. Apparently, when firemen aren't rushing to fires, they're playing poker, or video games. If not, they're washing the trucks. But usually, they work out in the exclusive gym upstairs. That's where Garrett and I went in order to – as he put it, bulk up the girl. Usually, I would probably hate this, but with Garrett, it was the bet thing ever! We worked with dumbbells, leg weights, and the pull-up bar. Of course, there was also the floor stuff, like sit-ups, and the running. I swear, we must have run five miles by the time we were done. No wonder why all these guys were so strong. At the end of this torture, every muscle in my body was screaming and I was sweating rivers. Luckily Garrett let me take a shower afterwards and I was content with myself afterwards, nice and cozy in a pair of worn jeans and a t-shirt. I spent the rest of the day curled with Garrett on the sofa, just talking.
We talked about anything and everything. In fact, now that I think about it, we covered almost everything about each other. The only thing missing was the big question. Why exactly did I have my powers, and how did I get them? Anyway, this was pretty the norm around here, as Garrett said. Then I remembered something important.
"NO! I forgot my homework!"
Garrett just chuckled and shook his head at me in exasperation. I gave him an evil look and shot upstairs. There was a huge English essay I had due tomorrow, and it didn't even have one word yet. It was supposed to be about what we did this weekend, and I knew that was covered, but there was still the matter of writing it. I found my notebook in my book bag, grabbed a pen, and flipped to a clean page. More words escaped my mouth.
"Write."
The pen jerked out of my hand by some unseen force, and then I started to write. The handwriting was, strangely enough, mine, and those words could've been mine. The pend moved like lightening across the paper, giving time to write one letter. Pretty much, each letter the pen wrote took about a millisecond, and I swear that once sentence took a second. I sat there for about five minutes as the pen wrote, watched it pause for a second when the notebook had to flip to the next page. As soon as the essay was done, the notebook flipped to the first page and the pen wrote my signature at the top. Wow. A whole essay that would've taken me hours and given me arthritis was done, pain free, in five minutes. Garrett chose then to walk in that moment, saw me with the notebook, and spoke.
"I guess you did your homework, but forgot. See, there's nothing to worry about."
I just shook my head. Garrett looked at me, a question in his eyes, but I bet him to it.
"It wasn't done, not one word. Some words slipped out of my mouth, and the pen started moving on its own."
Garrett was the one who frowned this time.
"So, let me get this straight. You can't control your powers?"
I nodded and Garrett's frown deepened. Then, some light clicked on in his head. He smiled and grabbed my hand, and dragged me through the firehouse, calling for everyone to meet in the social room. Once everyone was gathered, Garrett explained the situation.
"Okay, so this here fairy girl that's gonna be staying with us has some issues. Pretty much, she's got some uncontrollable powers and she faints if she uses them too much. We have to help her with her control, and get her stronger. What do we you all think? You up for it?"
Garrett explained all of it in a pumped tone of voice, which the guys replied with fists in the air and loud hoots. Lucky for me, it was only about three in the afternoon, and we had lots of time.