Together or Not At All

Chapter 3

It was Sunday night, and Callie was stressed. Her history presentation with Luke was only half done. As in, Callie had done her half and Luke had done nothing. Usually, Luke would just make up some excuse and expect Callie to do it. But not this time. Callie was bored being the one to do all of the work, so she decided she was going to force Luke to do it – whether he liked it or not.

When he picked the phone up, he sounded groggy – as if he had been sleeping. "What do you want, Callie?"

"For you to do the homework." She went straight to the point, not waiting for anything.

"Oh, sorry. I would have done it yesterday, but I really didn't feel well. I'm not feeling very well today either, to be honest. Can you do it for me please?" Callie sighed again. Of course he didn't want to do it himself.

"No, Luke. I can't do it for you. I have other subjects that I need to work for. Not only that but I need to call Brett." She could hear Luke sigh at that. She knew he wouldn't be able to say no if it had something to do with their club.

"Fine. I'll do it now, but I want to know what you're talking to Brett about."

"I want him to change the weather. It's not normal – the heat, the rain, the wind. I've asked him before about it, and he said that he would look into it. The only problem is that the weather has got worse since our last conversation." Callie confided in Luke. She knew she shouldn't be sharing this over a phone call, but there wasn't much else that she could do.

"Okay. I'll do my half of the presentation now. Call me about Brett, too." With that he hung up.

Callie was surprised he let it go that easily, but she shook it off. What she was more shocked about was the fact that he had been civil. Luke never really wanted a proper conversation with her, always trying to rush things along so they could leave. However, over the phone he actually listened to her concern and actually asked her to call him after being on the phone with Brett. Weird, she thought.

She looked back at her phone and dialled Brett's number. It was ringing, ringing, ringing. It kept ringing until it eventually went to voicemail. Strange – every member of the club agreed to answer each other unless they were unable to. Callie hoped that he was just busy, and decided to call him again after having her dinner.

- - - - - - - - - -

It was official. Brett was unobtainable. No one in the club had been able to reach him when Callie asked, which was very worrying. Not only that, but all of the members had mentioned bad weather. Yeah, global warming was a thing – but not to this extent, surely? Callie sighed again, something she noticed herself doing a lot recently. She was going to have to have a proper meeting with Luke – in a room, with notes. They were going to have to work together properly to solve this issue. Callie didn't think she could stand talking to him for that long, honestly.

Despite her reservations about it, Callie found look the next day at school and forced him into an empty classroom, locking the door and closing the blinds.

"We need to talk." Callie started, ignoring the surprised look that Luke gave her. "Brett is answering to no one and we're all getting worried. We need to come up with a plan. Regardless of the weather, one of us isn't responding and we need to work out why."

Luke sat on a chair, taking out a notepad. Callie silently thought how useless it was – just remember the facts. He started writing some things down, ignoring Callie rolling her eyes.

"Okay, so to recap. The weather got worse, Brett said he would fix it, then didn't. Now he's not answering his phone and the weather got worse." Callie nodded at this. She didn't have time to repeat the facts constantly – she needed to act. In her mind, if someone was in danger, there was no time to wait.

"Yes, idiot. Keep up, honestly. What are we going to do? We can't just go to America to check on him – we have to stay undercover in England." Callie was just saying thoughts out loud at this point – she had no clue what to do.

"Why don't we just get someone else to check on him. Si-U would be a good bet – she can leave South Korea quickly without compromising us." Luke had a point with this, but Callie wasn't entirely convinced.

"Yeah, Si-U could get to America quickly, but what is she going to do once she gets there? Her power isn't the most... useful." Callie adored Si-U – the only member of the club from South Korea. The only problem was that Si-U's power was to stick to things. Not very helpful in tracking down Brett, unless he was stuck on a ceiling.

"Well what do you think we should do then, if my idea isn't good enough for you?" Luke complained, pulling Callie's last straw.

"Well I'm so sorry Luke that I haven't got the answer for everything! Would you even know that Brett is missing if I didn't tell you? And don't give me that bullshit about your ideas not being good enough – you know for a fact that Si-U's power wouldn't be helpful in this situation." Callie stopped for a second, trying to regain her composure, yet ultimately failing. "And – Luke – you're lucky I'm still asking for your help at all! You cower behind me in the face of danger, and you don't even bother to make sure I'm okay afterwards. You are a disgrace of a human being."

Luke seemed shocked at Callie's outburst; she was normally a calm and level-headed person. And, for once in his life, Luke was speechless. His mouth hung slightly agape as he stared at Callie, seeing the rage on her face.

A realisation came to Luke in that moment. He actually liked Callie, and didn't ever want to see her mad at him again. And for that reason, he vowed to do everything he could to become friends with her – instead of just co-workers.