Newcomers

Something's off

Cody hopped into his bed somewhere around 10:30 at night. He sighed and began to relax, until his mind flashed to the events from earlier that day. He covered his eyes with his palms and cringed.

Stupid Seojun! What’d he have to be so cute for?

He shook his head rapidly at that thought and tried to stop thinking about this so that he could sleep, but instead his head filled with questions and other thoughts.

Why’d he pause for so long when I asked him about his home? Was he just getting his thoughts together or was there something else to it? Why’d he start calling me blondie right after that daydream I had? And why did that only happen after I hugged him? Wait a minute, those little things have happened twice now and both times, he’s done something from it. Does that mean something? Can he read my mind?

He uncovered his eyes and shook his head with a chuckle after that last thought. “Okay that’s ridiculous!” He thought. There was no way that could happen, that was just silly! Or was it? Weird things happen on this crazy island all the time.

“No way, that’s still so stupid! It wouldn’t make any sense! And-” Suddenly his thoughts were interrupted. His body froze up and his brain became foggy until he saw an image in his head.

Two people stood in a field of tall pink flowers that blew in the wind under a marigold sky with swirling peach colored clouds. Their backs were turned to Cody’s view, and they weren’t as clear as the landscape was, but he could make out some things about them. One was absurdly tall with curly hair and wore an open white long sleeve robe that reached just above his ankles. He had his hands in the pockets of his white pants and wore gold sandals. The shorter of the two had a black parasol and he held onto it above his head as his long hair floated gently in the wind. He wore an open white robe as well that hung off of his shoulders with the back at his elbows with a spaghetti strap tank top underneath.

The taller of the two sighed deeply. “You know, despite seeing it so many years ago, I never thought I’d get to bring you here.” He said. The shorter one turned his head towards him. “Why?” He asked. “It hasn’t been this peaceful here in a long time, I hadn’t expected it to be safe by now. Visions can don’t always come true, especially unclear ones that are so far away like this one was.” He explained. His companion nodded. “Well, at least we’re here now.” He said. He chuckled. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.” He replied, patting the shorter one on the back.

Slowly, the vision started to become more blurry and muffled. Black holes formed in the image and slowly spread until Cody shot up into a sitting position, panting in a cold sweat. He swallowed hard and pressed his hand over his heart. “What the hell was that?” He thought. Before he had time to process that, he heard a knock on his door.

“Yeah?” He said shakily.

“Dad wants us to come down to the bunker.” Dani said.

Cody nodded automatically as if she could see him through the door. “Okay, tell him I’ll be down in a minute.” He said.

“Okay.” Dani replied. He waited until he heard her footsteps fade completely. He flopped back onto his bed and groaned. “Why do I have to go now? I wanna go to sleep!” He thought. Eventually he rolled out of bed and trudged downstairs to the bunker.

“They’ve been here for over a month now, it’s weird only pretending around them!” Blades said.

“I know, but we have to be careful. We can’t risk them finding out before we think they’re ready.” Dani said.

“I still don’t like it though.” Heatwave said.

“Tch! You’ll be fine! You hid being aliens from the whole island for like three years! You can definitely hold on for a little bit longer.” Kade insisted. Heatwave groaned and rolled his eyes.

“What’s going on guys?” Cody asked as he walked down the stairs. The others stayed silent and waited for Charlie to bring him up to speed.

“Over the next month we’ll be getting to know the Min family on a more personal level over dinner. The bots are going to listen in if they can’t fit in the room. After that we are going to reveal to them that the bots are aliens sometime in mid November.” He explained briefly.

“That’s soon. What are we going to do if they don’t take it well?” Cody asked.

“We’re not completely sure yet, but we’ll figure it out.” Graham said quickly. Cody nodded, but he could tell by the thick tension in the room that they were lying. “Okay, cool.” He said softly. “Is that it?” He asked. “Yep, that’s all for now. Good night Cody.” Charlie said. “Yeah, goodnight guys.” He muttered.

As soon as Cody left, Dani elbowed Graham in his arm. “Ow!” He yelped. “Why did you say it like that? Now he’s gonna think something is up!” She scolded him. “It’s not like he’d be wrong.” Blades said. “Yeah, but he doesn’t need to know that.” Dani said. “Cody’s very perceptive though, remember how quickly he found out about us? It's likely he’d find out soon anyway.” Boulder pointed out. Kade folded his arms and gritted his teeth. “I don’t want to be the one that has to tell him what could happen to his friend. They’re...close.” He said.

He thought back to earlier that day. He had decided to come in through the back door because it was closer than the front. When he walked into the living room he was expecting to maybe see Cody eating on the couch. Instead he saw Cody and Seojun hugging on the chair. He felt so awkward about seeing that that he just left the house and decided to drive around until he saw Charlie’s car in the driveway. Sure friends hug and stuff, but that was way too close to be just a friendly hug in his opinion. Were they together? It’d make sense, he’d never seen Cody work that hard on his appearance just to go to school and sometimes he’d hear him up late laughing at something in his room. But that could be that he's just growing up or watching something on his phone. He wanted to ask Cody about it, but he didn’t want to pry or embarrass his little brother. He shook himself out of his thoughts and went back to listening to the conversation.

“This sucks. It’s not like it's their fault, Mayor Luskey was the one that let them in without any thought. They’re their own people with their own lives. Anyone would probably freak about living so close to something unfamiliar. I know we sure did.” Dani said solemnly. Charlie pressed his hand on his forehead. “I know I know, but we have to protect ourselves and the island. That’s our first priority right now.” Charlie said. Chase sighed. “But still, I would prefer to use ethical methods. I wouldn't want to hurt any humans.” He said. “I know I don’t want to either Chase, but if push comes to shove we might have to.” Charlie replied.

Cody jumped onto his bed and snuggled under the covers. He could tell something was going on. He wasn’t sure what his family was planning, but he knew if things didn't turn out "right", it wouldn't be good. He felt conflicted. On one hand, he wanted to protect the bots and his family but he also didn’t want anything bad to happen to Seojun or his family. No matter how much he rolled around, he just couldn’t get to sleep. He picked up his phone and sighed tiredly, it was 11:23 now and he was sure he was going to get in trouble for this, but at the moment he really didn’t care.

(Hey Seojun. Are you up?

/I am now. :)

/What do you want?