Turns out all my friends were worried too. So we decided to have another pizza night at the house again. Which means I get another large pepperoni pineapple all to myself! Joey, Douglas, Nick and I are all sitting around our coffee table in the living room enjoying the latest action movies such as John Wick and the Equalizer when we heard a loud back up alarm going, 'beep beep beep beep.' We all exchange looks, and get up to take a look. It was a Penske truck backing up into the driveway next door. "Hey Mom!" I shout. "I didn't know the Sullivans sold their house already!" I hear her footsteps on the hardwood working their way over to me and immediately feel her presence hovering over me while five people try to look out the same window all at once. "I had no idea that they did either. I hope they got what they were asking for. The market isn't what it used to be." I then remember my little visit with the Knights at the round table and realized this might be the undercover family to keep an eye on things.
We all go back to our grub and action after getting bored with watching paid movers unloading trucks. "I hope this guy has a cute sister like you do Alex." Joey manages to say around a mouth full of pizza just as I see sis from the corner of my eye reaching for a slice of meat lovers. She turned her head sharply in our direction with her arm outstretched, pizza at hand hearing what was said no doubt. I elbow Joey and say, "oh ow". As the pizza goes flying in our direction. I just have enough time to move to hear a loud squishy slapping noise. "Thanks sis, I needed another slice," I peel off the slice from the side of Joey's face as we all start belly laughing our butts off. "Bro, your mouthpiece always gets you into trouble." Nick says. "You gotta learn to look around before opening it." He adds. "Why, and lose our entertainment!" Douglas says in between laughs. Sis rolls her eyes, shakes her head while quickly reloading and we all sigh in relief when she heads back to her room. Joey can't help but stare after her. "Now I remember why we're such good friends Alex." I elbow him again and hear Douglas and Nick crack up again at Joey's remark.
We all grab a glove and head out to my front yard. We were all curious about who was moving into the spacious five bedroom three bathroom house with a finished basement and in-ground pool in the backyard. We make our usual throwing diamond, one person for each base. The person throwing the ball has their choice of what to throw between a grounder, a low throw for a tag out, a line drive, a side arm or target the glove throw. Whoever doesn't make the catch has to do either ten of the following: push ups, sit ups, squats or mountain climbers. Whatever the person throwing the ball chooses for your punishment. This game can get very competitive if you can imagine. Nick starts to ask, "Wonder when they're gonna pull up so we can see who's moving in?" Right on que a crew cab extended bed Ford Raptor with a lift kit parks on the curb. All four doors of the truck open. A family of five, of Asian descent. We were all still trying to focus on our game but at the same time we were watching them without seemingly doing so. Family consisted of parents, maybe they're late 30s early 40s still attractive and a deadly grace sort of way. I mean by the way they walk, the dad especially, I can tell just by watching him that he was always in perfect balance. As if he was ready for an attack at any moment. The mother seems to be studying for possible threats as well. After their initial surveys they seem to relax a little bit. The kids look a little bit more carefree under the watchful eye of the parents. They had a son around my sister's age and two twin daughters around my age. Two daughters might be twins but they dress nothing like, one was in bright radiant colors while the other wore white, gray and black colors. I kind of felt bad for the kids because it being spring break already, they really didn't have enough time to make new friends before summer break was here. Three quarters of the school year was already over. The son immediately noticed us and waved, we all returned his wave in mutual kindness. The two daughters seem to care less and more interested in the house. Their new house is a whopping five bedroom three bath with a finished basement. The basement has two storage rooms. The Sullivan's were an older couple with their kids grown and moved out of the house so it seems silly to continue to stay there. I used to go next door to help them do chores around the house which is why I know so much about the layout.
We stopped playing because everybody was more interested in what was going on next door than in the game. We still had plenty of pizza and one more movie to watch. "Well Joey looks like you got what you wished for and then some." Nick says around a mouth full of pizza. At that moment sis comes into the living room from upstairs. "There better be Pizza left. "Yeah, toss me another slice sis." Joey blushes but everybody else laughs. Sis shakes her head smiling at my remark back to her. "I don't think Emily knows exactly what she's in for but you better treat her right or you'll have me to deal with little bro." she says while flopping down on the seat next to me with a slice of meat lovers. "By the way, she's one of my friends I invited over tonight. You should get a job so you can buy your own phone so you can text her." "Why when I have you." "You're such a dork, how are you so witty at such a young age." "I did grow up with you after all." "Good point." We both share a laugh. "Did you notice your new neighbors have a boy your age?" Douglas says "So I already have a boyfriend." "You should at least be nice, you know he has no friends yet." "I guess you're right Alexander." It was my turn to shake my head and smile back at her. She knows that I prefer to be called Alex by family or close acquaintances. "Do you think his two sisters are into cheerleading?" Joey earns a thoughtful expression from sis' face. "At least one of them. I chime in with them." Maybe the one who was wearing bright colors did not so much as the one in goth clothes." Sis sends a questionable arched eyebrow my way. "How do you know so much about them already?" "I don't know, I'm just good at reading people." "Is this why the secret squirrel squad was trying to recruit you?" "Sis, the first rule of fight club is?" This earns a laugh from everybody including sis. "Why did I have to have such a goofball of a little brother."
After the movie was over the guys wanted to go befor the cheer squad started showing up. Joey wanted to stay but sis didn't want him gawking at all her friends and kindly asked him to leave. After Joey leaves, I shuffle upstairs to my room for some much-needed alone time. I fire up my Xbox One X that I got for my birthday and play a few rounds of solo zero build on fortnite. I get lost in the game while sis' squaders start showing up. Everything is muffled with my headphones on but I can still hear laughter downstairs from time to time. I get to a stopping point and decide, oh what the hell I haven't burned spirit in a while. I cross my legs, close my eyes and focus on my breathing while clearing everything in my head. Deep slow breaths in and out. I slowly start gathering spirit behind my eyes and carefully opening them. When I see things this way it's like putting your TV in blue tint mode, but all the auras are the only color. Right then I thought of Emily and that maybe I can spot her aura apart from everyone else's. The fact that she knows I'm up here might light her up in a different color. When I discovered this talent I did a bunch of research on mood rings. As funny as it sounds, I actually learned a lot and it was quite useful for determining people's intentions. It's relatively close but I never had anyone to teach me. Mostly everyone's color is red, which I associate with the color of excitement. I spot one that keeps switching back and forth between orange and yellow. That might be her, orange sometimes means to gather courage and yellow sometimes occurs when someone is unsure of what to do next. Then immediately turns into a very dark purple which signifies that she's made up her mind. All of this makes me smile because it's like I can almost read her mind or her thoughts. I see her walking up to someone in a light blue aura that associates with a more relaxed or carefree mood which totally describes sister. The longest I've done this is maybe 30 minutes. I was coming up on around the 20 minute mark when I saw someone coming up the stairs with a very dark red aura which I came to realize the darker the red the more excitement someone feels. "Come on in Emily." I say loud enough for her to hear me. She opens the door as I slowly release my spirit. "How do you do that?" "Something I haven't shared with you yet." "Do tell" With my hand I pat the empty space on my bed next to me and say, "Ok then, get comfy" she hurries over to sit next to me. "So I call it spirit, I don't know what anyone else says but that's what it feels like to me. If I burn the spirit behind my eyes I will become somewhat of an aura reader." she gasps. "Are you doing it right now?" "No, it takes concentration and focus. Which I can't do either near you." "And why is that?" she asks while she takes my hand and hers. "I think you know why." I say back as I quickly squeeze your hand tightly for a split second. I marvel at her golden brown eyes and her chestnut brown hair with her pretty freckles that decorate the tops of both her cheeks. For a second I'm glad she can't read my aura.
"Where was I?" "You were getting lost in my eyes and then you were probably feeling glad that I couldn't read your aura." I can feel my cheeks getting hotter. "I'm only teasing you" she quickly adds and after a short giggle. "Not far from the truth actually." I say as I give her a wink. I can see her cheeks turning pink now too. I smile and say, "Oh yes, I remember now. I was going to say I can even see the auras through walls as well which is funny because both times sis has had you guys over, I did this. Each time you coincidentally came up to my door, lucky for me." "That is funny." I can't help but smile. "So how long can you do this for?" "Well, I don't risk doing it for long. After long periods my eyes start to sting and turn bloodshot. Not too sure what would ever happen if I abuse using spirit. Don't think I ever want to find out. Im certain it would kill me though because it feels like I'm using my life force. It's hard to explain." "What can't you do Alex?" I can see the wonder in her eyes. Which makes my cheeks' temps to rise again. "Well, I'm limited to what's around me. One element that's constantly present is air and I always wondered I could absorb water from trees or other things." "What, like an animal or PEOPLE?!" "I don't know, not that I would ever try that though. The thought has crossed my mind lately after my meeting with the Knights. They were describing how this other faction uses blood magic but they didn't get into much detail. I hope they can't do that to people in the same way you imagined me being able to do but with water." "I know you would never do such a thing but that's just too much for me to imagine for me right now." "I'm sorry I got into so much detail about all this. You are the only person I've ever opened up to about all this. The sharing about all this is still new to me." We talk more about my powers and then about what our plans are for for the rest of our spring break without realizing how late it was getting when we hear a soft knock at the door. "Oh, come on in." Mom peaks her head in. "Everyone else is leaving and I just needed to know if you wanted me to get the guest room ready for you real quick or not." Em looks at me and I just shrug my shoulders. "Do you need to call your mom's real quick?" I ask. "Well, I informed her that I might actually sleep over before I left the house. I call her to let her know that I am doing just that." "Glad to have you Emily." She smiles and lightly closes the door.