Found

Chapter 4

   My legs move with no problem and I can wiggle all my toes! Liam holds me in a standing potions for thirty minutes then sits down for Jen's turn. They both look distracted. Jen keeps biting her nails and Liam's eyes keep darting around the room.

  Finally I ask, "Whats wrong, you two." Liam looks up at me from where he sits on my bed. "Nothing, Clove." He says. Really nothing?  "Don't lie to me. Come on spit it out." Jen just sighs. "Look, Clove. Kitty is missing.  She's gone. But she wasn't only part of our little gang. She was like a sister. I loved her so much." Jen pinches the bridge of her nose between  her thumb and index finger. She closes her eyes.

    "Kitty and I weren't really related, of course. She just.. We just.... we needed family and so we made each other sisters. But it felt real.  Now, these no more real to feel. I'm just alone again." Jen starts crying. 

    It pained  me to see her like this and then it clicked. I needed to go over there to comfort her and so I did. I walked over and did.

  I walked about one step before falling, but Liam caught me. He's eyes wide in amazement."You did it." He says. I nearly cry, myself. Jen has stopped crying at looks at me, "Oh my god." She says in amazement. I walked. "Oh my god." I agree.

   I take two more steps between Jen's breakdown and dinner. Liam carries me down stairs and too our table while I tell the goo news to everyone. "Okay so today I've taken.... Three steps!" Liam smiles and Jen cheers. Sky, like always, just looks at me and tofu and Vince yell like maniacs.

   A young boy from two  tables down stares at us and almost everyone else in the dinning hall starts laughing. "What is it this time?" Asks a girl with light blue hair in a pixie cut. She has light blue lip stick and eye shadow on, so it matches her hair.

  "Callie, my dear," Says Vince. "Young and jubilant Clove, here. Took three steps today." He says, with a small smile.  This time the whole room goes up in cheer. I smile a little, but I really hate the attention.

   Once everything dies down I walk two steps in row to get to the Italian restaurant across the room. "You know what this place reminds me of?" I ask them. 'What?" Jen says. "Food courts that are in malls." I say with a smile. The bottom floor of The Found building is set up like a food curt. There are different restaurants and stands lining the walls.

  "Whats a mall?"

  "Whats a food court?"

  "What are you talking about, Clove?"

   "Oh, sorry." I say. Of course they don't know what a mall is, silly me. "It's just something I learned about elsewhere." Vince starts laughing. "What ever, weirdo."  Liam looks at me with big eyes, "Your still standing." He whispers. I am. "Wow."
                   *              *            *
"I can't believe I walked a full seven steps today!" I gush as Liam puts me to bed. Liam goes and gets the chair and sits down. "No, no, no," I tell Liam. "You are not a aloud to stay in that chair all night." I tell him. "Shucks for you, but I'm staying." He says with a smug look. "Fine," I sigh. Tomatoes I was going to learn how to knock him out and see if Vince could put him in his bed.
                   
I see the girl again. The one from my first nights dream.
This time the world is not ending but it's just me and her sitting in a room. A café I think. We both have a cup of coffee in our hands. She doesn't have a candle tattoo, but she dose have a tattoo. Where the candle was before she now has a tattoo of a bluebird. Her hair is in a long black broad down her back and she is wearing olive green cargo pants like me and, like me, is wearing a navy blue tank.
"See you later." She says to a blonde boy in cargo pants who is leaving the cafe.  It's clear to me that she has a crush on him.
    "I think you should just ask him, go for it." I tell her with a smile. "You think? Me and him... I mean," Her voice is now a whisper, "I mean.. Simon Lee?" She asks. I really don't know if she has a chance with a guy as hot as this Simon Lee,but how will she know if she doesn't try?
Liam comes over toward me. He looks different, older. "Hey," he says. "Old Maid game tonight are you in?"
I'm in my room. Liam snoring in his chair. Dream again. Just a dream. Nothing more.
It was different this time, though. The dream felt more real, less scary. But, less actual feelings. Different.
     The clock reads 10:30 A.M.  When Jen silently walks in with a silver bucket in hand.  She puts a finger to her lips.  Slowly, Jen moves around until  she's behind the snoring Liam. With a wicked grin she pours the contents of the bucket on Liam's head. Ice water.
     Liam yells and jumps up. "You little... Ugh!" He yells. He runs at Jen and Jen doges the punch.
    By the end of it they are both
cracking up.
And then all of the sudden, Jen stopped laughing and looked into the distance. "Kitty.." She whispers. "When one of us feels something the other does. "She sighs. "And I'm not feeling anything."
The day went on as the other days did. I took a few steps and then ate breakfast. Played Old Maid and then talked about Tofu's tattoos. "You see," says Vince as Tofu explains each tattoo to me. "Tofu here," Vince says. "Finds a historical and spiritual reason for everything. Stop listing to him I have a girl question for you."
I rise an eyebrow. "If I changed my name to something less scary then Vince, like I don't know Simon, do you think more girls will go after me?"
"Simon?" I ask. " Yeah, how about Simon Lee." He says. Simon Lee? "I'm.... Did you just say Simon Lee?" I ask. "Yeah, Simon Lee." He answers confused. "Ok...um, I think I'm gonna go talk Jen." I take a full five steps before Tofu sighs, and picks me up.
     "Jen," I say, she's sitting at a table on the first floor with her forehead pressed to a mug of coffee. "If you had say dream, let's say a scary dream. And the next night you had a dream again, but, this time it wasn't scary. This time it looked like it was almost in the future of real time but in the past compared to the other dream. And then when you wake up the events in your dream start to become real. Have you ever had a dream like that?"
   Jen looks up from her coffee. "Clove, darling, are you having nightmares?" She asks.  I look at her. "No," I lie, " I'm not." She squints at me. I just hope she can't smell my lie. "No," she sighs. "I have never had a strand of dreams like that, I'm sorry I can't help."
Her eyes have circles around them from not enough sleep. The happy and hyper girl I first met is now burned under the girl who is morning for her sister.
"Are you having nightmares?" I ask. She sighs. "Yes, I am. All of the time." I look at her. "Do you want to talk-"
"No," Jen interrupts. "I don't want to talk."
I leave the room.
* * *
"You need to give Jen a break." Says Liam as he deals me in for my fourth Old Maid game of the night.
Vince, Tofu, Liam and I are all playing. Jen and Sky went to get pedicures but, I decided to skip.
My Old Maid had consents of, "Old Salty!!!!!" I yell. "Oh no, I'm doomed." Mutters Vince to himself. I can't help but grin.
Jen and Sky join us later. And as me and Tofu battle out for who is going to lose the entrance to the building opens for the first time since I arrived.
A girl around my age with sandy hair and a dress on walks through the door. She has sun glasses covering her eyes and her hair is styled.
Behind her comes a tried looking Jafaris and a man in black slacks and a light blue button up.
The girl comes straight over to our table. "Liam," she says her accent vaguely British. "Go away." Mutters Tofu. "Looks like the Tofu just got Tofurkey." She says. "Oh," she laughs. "Jennifer!" Jen glares at her. " Don't call me that." Jen growls. "And where is your cat?" The girls asks. "Luce," says Vince "Just leave us all alone. You've ruined our life's enough already." Luce looks at him. "Vincent, we all know what happened isn't my fault." Liam laughs bitterly. "And my blue Sky." Luce laughs. She brings her hand down to pat Sky's shoulder but Sky slaps her away. "Don't touch me." Sky says. "Oh, and who are you?" Luce asks looking at me. "A bother one of Liam's girls he makes feel spacial and then leaves?" Liam makes a growling sound in the back of his thought. " No matter, she says looking at Liam now." She struts up the stairs and into Jafaris's office.
"Who is she?" I ask. Liam runs toward me picks me up and then fast as  
lightning runs me up the stairs.
     I'm very aware oh how everyone was watching us and Luce before and now everyone was watching Liam and I.
    Liam runs me into his room, sets me on his bed then locks the door. He runs over and puts his hands on my shoulder.
   "Look,"  He says his voice ca but harsh. "Luce is a descendent . But, not truly. She is truly Found." I just look at him. "Lucy Grace is bad news." He rubs his face. I don't push him to tell me more.
      "She used to be part of our group with, Jen who was called Jenny back then, we had Tofer Wells, Skylar, Joseph, Jafaris and me, Liam." I look at him. "So Sky is Skylar. Jen is Jenny and Tofu is Tofer Wells?" I ask. "Yes. Vince was Joseph back then." He says with a  glint in his eyes as if he's remembering the good old days.
    "Luce and Sky were great friends. Both of them are so pretty that all the boys would follow them around,it was crazy."
     "There was one boy, Clinton I think his name was who was slurpy out of it. Had gone crazy you could say.
        "Clinton took a very strong liking to Sky and as a joke Luce set them up together. Luce didn't know how crazy he really was until it was to late. Sky was... um, Kidnapped by him. We found her in the basement of the wanderers. Locked behind a one way glass box where Clinton would just admire her. She thought she was back in her cassle though
         "Well when Luce heard what happened she just laughed and laughed. I don't now why. She was acting like a decant."
"Luce went around telling Sky to go places and having Clinton meet her there to torture Sky. But those were just the beginning of  her problems..."