Static

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

TWO MONTHS LATER

"Corey, what is this?!" Charlie hollered  from the kitchen.  The sound of her angry was never a good sign, and at 7:00 in the morning, that was much worse.  I tossed a little in my bed, smothering my head with a pillow to try and block out the conversation but it did no good.
     "My breakfast."  Corey retorted.  I heard his muffled footsteps bound down the stairs.
      "No it is not.  You can't have pasta for breakfast."
      "I can and I will."
      "Not if I say otherwise."
      "So picky."  Corey and Charlie's voices had gotten quieter once they had both gotten into the same room downstairs.  There was no talking now, though, just giggles and shrieks which I assumed ment Corey was chasing down my sister or tickling her to death.  Sometimes it seemed like I was the older sibling.  However, it occurs to me then that I haven't heard Charlie's voice in nearly a month.  She must be back.
       After that affair, I was too awake to go back to sleep despite my best efforts. That and I was ready to go greet my sister. So, I flung my blanket off and slowly got up to stretch my legs.
       "Blake, wake up."  I groaned, nudging his head with my foot.  I heard him roll over in the mess of blankets at the foot of my bed as I started walking to the bathroom.
       "What time is it?"  He questioned, moving to sit on the floor, one hand ruffling his dishevled black hair.
       "Seven.  But we have work to do."  I informed him, picking up a pillow I had knocked on the floor in the night and tossing it at him.  He batted at it feebly but ultimently let it strike him right in the face before groaning in complaint.
      "Aw, quit whining, you big baby."  I said, shutting myself in the bathroom, a fresh pair of clothes in hand.
When I finished brushing my teeth, tieing up my hair, and changing into a pair of jean shorts and a white teeshirt, I left the bathroom, grabbing my sunglass on the way out.
      "Corey said they arrive today, right?"  Blake had asked, I had caught him right as he was tugging a fresh shirt over his head.
       "Yep.  Everything starts today."  I said with a heavy sigh, tucking the front of my shirt into my pants infront of the mirror.  Blake came up behind me and put an arm around my shoulders.
       "Go get 'em, love."  He said, planting a soft kiss on the top of my head.  I smiled at him in the mirror and slipped my sunglasses on.
      I leave my room with Blake right behind me.  We'd spent the past weeks getting everything in Charlie and I's house prepared for this day.  We'd been ready for this since the end of Febuary, now with the middle of March finally here, our new trainees are ariving.
     Will suddenly burst forth from the guest room where he had been staying with Taylor for the past two months and ran right into Blake.  He was flung back against the hallway wall by some invisible force and held there, face squished against the drywall.
      "Out of my way, Heron!"  Taylor yelled, hand outstretched in using her variation to keep Blake still.
       "Get back here, you jerk!"  Taylor screams at Will who is bounding down the stairs, waving what looks like a piece of black cloth over his head. 
Taylor releases her hold on Blake and he falls a few inches until his feet land on the ground.  He sags against the wall and rubs his throat.
"Take it easy on the kid, we can't have any disasters yet."  Blake says to her.  Taylor aknowledges him with only a lazy eye roll with her eyes landing on me.
"I would love to stay and chat but unfortunatly the pest has thought it funny to steal my bra and that issue must be dealt with immediatly."  I give her a wink and she brushes past me, hands swatting at the air and throwing gusts of wind in Will's direction.
Blake and I join Charlie and Corey in the kitchen, my eyes searching for my sister and my legs running to her as soon as I can.
"I missed you!"  I say, buring my face in her neck. 
"Morning to you too, Mo!"  She says with a laugh and lets me go.  She smells clean, like washed bed sheets and wildflowers and her hair is curled and clipped back away from her face.  She's wearing short cargo pants and a green tank top with the necklace that harbors our house key dangling around her neck.  I wondered if she kept it on the entire time she was away.
"So how was New York?"  I asked as Blake sat down at the table and I circled behind my him to grab the milk from the fridge.  Charlie is leaning back against the counter by the sink while Corey moves over to Blake and sits across from him.  The two of them didn't exactly click at first but now they seemed like the best of friends.
"Well enough, I suppose."  Charlie responds, spooning a bite of cereal into her mouth from the bowl that she holds. 
I pour myself a glass and then replace the milk, leaning back against the fridge while I talk.
"Is Mark gonna stay with us?"  I ask her.  Charlie had volunteered to take Mark to Florida earlier so he could go back home to his parents but he hadn't wanted to.  He said it was his parents who sold him out to the government and got him sent to the zone in the first place.  I didn't understand how a parent could do that to their own child but Mark had seemed awfully hurt when he tried to explain there really was nothing at his old home that he missed, nothing he wanted back.  So after a few failed attempts at convincing him otherwise, Charlie had given up talking about it.  Mark would live with us, in our house, if he had no where else to go.
Charlie had wanted to make sure there was absolutley nothing she could do for him so she had asked if he had anything he needed, and as it turns out, the boy did need something.  He had learned from the time he'd spent with his old friend Ben back at the zone, the one who had died saving Blake's life, so I was told, lived in Brooklyn New York.  Mark felt it was his obligation to tell Ben's family what had happened to their son and perhaps stay with them if they needed anything to help cope with the loss.
None of us here at the house knew when the two of them would be getting back, they did have to track down Ben's family which I imagine wasn't easy and we had no idea if Mark was even going to come back.
Charlie let out a small half smile as she stirred her cearal.
"He decided to join us.  Ben's father and sister seemed to have handled the news pretty well.  I guess they new more about the zone than Mark had thought or they were somehow wrapped up in it too.  Ben's dad had been the one to convince us to leave, when Mark told him all about what we were planning, he said he didn't want to stop Mark from being a part of it."  Charlie finished her statement the same time she took her last bite of cearal and set the bowl in the sink.
"Is he in his room?"  I asked and Charlie nodded.
"He said he'd be down before the trainees get here.  Which looks like we made it back just in time, then."  She says.  I agree with her outloud but my eyes are focused on the two boys sitting at the table.  Blake is moving his hands like how a fortune teller rubs their crystal ball except theres a wire napkin holder beneath his hands instead.  Corey watches him intently but I can barely see the metal under Blake's hands.  Then, after a few moments, he lifts them, revealing his work.
but before I can make anything out, Charlie steps to the side and blocks my vision.
"Here, I'll take that."  She says, reaching out a hand.  It takes me a little to long to realize she's reaching out for my empty milk cup, I give it to her and when she moves again, I see Blake and Corey but whatever Blake had done, the evidence of his work, is gone.  The two of them exchange a look and Blake's eyes find mine.  He offers a slight smile and I return it but I'm still slightly skeptical.