The Touch

Are you nervous?

I always am.

You should not be. You are smart, have attractive features for a female, and you are strong willed, Ana. There is no reason for nerves. 

I am glad I have you, Red.

As you always will.

Anastasia Collinsworth sighed as she brushed her hair, her blue eyes eyeing her appearing in the mirror. She agreed with Red, she had attractive features. She had pretty, pale blue eyes that were wide and framed by thick lashes. Her skin was smooth and pale. Her lips were pink and her smile wide. Her hair long and black. But... well, she was bigger than most girls and often times girls at her last school had made fun of her for it. 

I see other teenage humans leaving their homes. Are you not going to be late?

Ana jumped and glanced at her clock then cursed and slipped on her pleather jacket before rushing down the stairs, yanking her bag over her shoulder. 

Thanks, Red.

She ran into the kitchen to see her aunt putting a lid on a travel mug before holding it out to Ana. 

"Here you go, dear." Aunt Melinda said with a smile, her brown eyes twinkling. "Running a little late?"

"Thank you so much!" Ana said and kissed the woman's cheek. "I'll see you after school!" 

"Have fun and make some fun friends!" Her aunt called and Ana rolled her eyes. That was one big worry her aunt had about making the move; that Ana wouldn't make any friends. But Ana needed to get out of that town, get away from where her parents had died the year before. She swallowed back the clump in her throat. She couldn't cry then. 

A small body bumping into her leg had her looking down to see Red looking up at her and she smiled before bending down to run a hand down his spine. 

"Good morning, Red." Ana said to the fox.

Are you well, alpha? 

"I'm fine, thank you. I just need to get to school. When I get back, you can come in the house. You know how Auntie is." Ana sighed and the fox nodded it's head. 

It was amazing how much the fox had picked up in the year they had been bonded. 

"I gotta go, or else I'll be late." She said and stood up, taking a sip of her coffee. "Wish me luck!" She called over her shoulder. 

Good luck.

"So literal." Ana whispered to herself before getting into her car. 

The drive to the school was a bit long and had her reflecting on what made her move. 

"Mom, I'm not lying! I can make the plants grow!" Ana said in the back seat. And it was true, since she was about thirteen years old she had started feeling the plant life around her and whenever she would touch a plant and focus on it, she could make it grow, or die. But when she took it's energy it always made her cry, she could feel it's death as if she were dying. 

Her father sighed from the driver's seat and his ice blue eyes, a copy of hers, met hers and she could see the disbelief, the disappointment. 

"Ann, you're sixteen, you shouldn't be believing in stuff like this. You need help and that's what we're doing for you." He said in his no nonsense tone. 

"I can show you!" Ana said leaned between her parents. "Please just let me prove to you guys I'm not crazy!" 

"We're not entertaining this game of yours." Her mother snapped. Her mother was always the hard parent. The one who told her to go back to bed when she had nightmares. The one who told her to get her own band aids when she fell.