Raina and the Forgotten (Updated Version)

Bloody Knuckles and Stupid Faces

Going home wasn't as relaxing as I had hoped. I tripped on three sidewalk bumps and had hit my hip on the door handle going into the house. We had moved to a nice house a few blocks from the high school.

I slammed the door behind me while mumbling about stupid door handles and how they should get buried alive. Ryan was in the spacious kitchen eating ice cream. He smiled at me and said, "How was school?"

Why did people have to be all sunshine and roses when your in a horrible mood. I said, "Not well, just leave me alone."

He raised his eyebrows and grabbed something from a closet. He handed me some boxing gloves. He was right. All I needed was to punch something. I furiously swiped them out of his hands and stormed down into the basement. In the basement, we had set up a large mat that we practiced on. There was a cloth punching bag in the corner and some weights on the opposite wall. I threw my gloves down and ran back upstairs to change. I quickly put on a good sport bra and some nice shorts. Put up my hair and went back down to the basement. I usually wore my battle suit, but not in our house. Recently I had actually bought some clothes and compressed my battle suit to two bracelets, two anklets, and a choker.

I picked up my gloves and put them on. This was my way of getting all the anger out. I did a quick warm-up before slamming into the punching bag. It felt amazing to really full out punch something. I did a combination of jabs, punches and kicks. Once in a while I would knee it in its invisible stomach.

I quickly worked up a sweat. By thirty minutes in, sweat was running off my body. It was gross, but I didn't care at that moment. I heard someone coming down the stairs. I threw a few more punches, then stopped the swinging bag. I looked over and saw Tanner standing at the bottom of the stairs. Seriously? I really didn't want to deal with him. I knew he had more questions that I really didn't want to answer. He had a really stupid expression on his face. I wanted to punch him in the nose and kill that expression. Instead I leaned against the punching bag with one arm and said, "What?"

Tanner's already dumb expression got even worse. "Wow," he squeaked.

Leaning in I said, "What was that?"

"Nothing," he said in a strained voice. He shook his head and continued in a normal voice, "I wanted to talk to you about what happened at the mall."

"What about it?" Was my curt response.

He said, "How did you know?"

I internally rolled my eyes. I said with a small smirk, "Know what?"

He crossed his well defined arms and leaned against the wall, "About me." He said.

I sighed and said, "Well you were dragging a giant vending machine towards you. It was kind of obvious something was going wrong."

  He shrugged, "Yeah, but you stopped to help."

I snorted, "So?"

"So, most people would have just stood there and watched as the freak brought vending machines to himself."

"Lets just say that us magicians have to look out for each other."

And with that, I continued to beat up my punching bag. I was hoping that that would be the end of the conversation. After a minute of silence, I thought that he had left and that it would be safe to stop punching. I looked over and saw him still there, and staring at me. Really? I made a what-are-you-doing face at him. He raised his eyebrows and shrugged. "Your a magician?" He said.

I replied sarcastically, "No, I'm a muggle."

He rolled his eyes and said, "Haha, very funny. . . So, what do you do."

I automatically responded with, "Thats classified."

Crap. That's not something a regular girl would say. He snorted and said, "By who, the NSA?"

I frowned, he had and overly active sarcasm gland. I replied, "No. I will have to talk to my dad."

I resumed my battle with the punching bag and roundhouse kicked it. He sighed and adjusted his position on the door frame. He said, "Fine, can we talk about it after you talk to your superiors?"

He added sarcasm to the word superiors. I raised my eyebrows and said, "Sure, I'll get a hold of you."

He smirked and said, "When?"

So insistent, sheesh. I said casually, "Tomorrow."

"I'll hold you to that." He said, winking.

I was confused. Why did he wink at me? I said, "Hmm, well then. See you tomorrow."

He said, "See ya,"

and walked out. As he left, I heard a soft whistle through the door. I raised an eyebrow. Strangely, my mood had gotten better. I took my mitts off and started to stretch out. Might as well talk to Ryan about it now.

As I went back into the kitchen Ryan asked, "What was that all about?"

I was distracted for a second by the smell of coffee. I shrugged and said, "Tanner's powers went haywire in public and I saved his sorry butt. He just wanted to know how I knew about his powers. What can I tell him?"

Ryan raised one eyebrow and said, "That's not usually like him to lose control."

I nodded and walked over to the coffee pot. I sucked in a full breath of the wonderful smell. Then I grabbed a mug from a nearby cabinet. Ryan said behind me, "Shouldn't you drink some water first?"

I sighed and put the cup back. I had to drink a lot of water right after a work out. I went to the fridge to look for some yummy food. I saw some fresh strawberries in there and quickly pulled them out. I smiled and dug in. The juice filled my whole mouth with a sweet and clean taste. Fresh fruit was one of my favorite things to eat. Followed closely by chocolate. As I ate I asked, "So? What do you think I should tell him?"

Ryan tilted his head and said, "Probably not your mission here."

I vigorously shook my head. I didn't like that idea. I grabbed my fifth strawberry from the container. Ryan continued, "But you have to tell him something. " He looked at the strawberries, "Hey, save me some."

I frowned at him and set them on the counter. I replied, "Yeah, I do. I'll probably tell him about my powers and just skip the touchy subject."

I walked over to a cabinet and grabbed a chocolate bar out of it. I opened it as Ryan said, "He might not go for that. He is a really smart kid... Are you even listening?"

I looked up from my chocolate bar. I had gone off into my own little world of deliciousness as soon as I had taken the first bite. I said, "mmhmm" in a reassuring tone and took another bite. My mouth filled with the taste of rich chocolate. I sadly swallowed the bite and said, "He doesn't need to go for it, just to accept that that's all I'm gonna tell him."

Ryan looked thoughtful, but agreed. I continued, "So where should we meet?"

He looked quizzically and said, "Why not just here?"

I rolled my eyes and replied, "I don't want him here, he might find something that will be harder to explain than the gifted."

He shrugged, "At the school?"

I said, "Not where someone can overhear us, but somewhere public."

His eyes sparked and he replied, "Then I have just the place."

After he gave me the address, I grabbed a few more strawberries and went up to my room to enjoy my snack by myself.