Animi Motus

8: Mirandum

"Vanessa, honey are you even listening to me?" my mom's voice snaps me back into reality.

"Huh? Oh, yeah...could you just run that by me one more time?" I mumble.

My mother sighs.

"Peter and I are going to be gone this weekend on a trip to Marquette University, and we're leaving today. Are you going to be okay here by yourself until Monday evening?" She asks.

"College visits?" I ask. I have to say I'm impressed that Peter is interested in taking a campus tour.

"Yes! Marquette is very interested in having your brother play baseball for them next year!" She beams. "Isn't that fantastic?"

"Yeah, that's really great for him," I reply. "Where is he, anyway?"

"If I know anything about your brother, I would say he's probably still asleep. PETER!" she yells up the stairs. "Hurry up or you'll be late for school."

"I have a ride!" comes Peter's faint response. He and the other members of the baseball team take turns chauffeuring each other around, so he hardly ever has to ride the bus. I on the other hand, need to get going. I grab a banana from the fruit bowl and head out the front door.

The bus is already waiting when I get to the bus stop at the end of my street, and I jog to get on before it departs. I walk past the front rows of the bus to the very back. When I sit down, I notice that the bus seems unusually quiet today. There could only be one reason for that. Skylar wasn't riding. I remember her saying something about her family going up to their cabin in Canada for the weekend. They must've already left. I listen to music until we pull up to school, then hop off and head to English class. Asher and Riley are in the back, messing around and punching each other in the arms like little kids. I can't help but notice that Riley's hair looks especially good today, and Asher's green eyes are refreshingly bright. I guess I've been spending so much time with them discovering powers and summoning secundum, that I haven't had time to gush over them. But some others definately have. I can see some of the girls in the room visibly swooning over them. I feel their eyes bore into my back as I stride over to sit next to Asher and Riley.

"Well, you guys are sure in a good mood," I remark, and the two stop what they're doing and turn to face me.

"Hi, Nessa, did you get any new gifts?" Asher asks.

"Since you last saw me, like 10 hours ago? Nope. Why, did you?!" I wonder. I would be pretty surprised if he had. Then again, I would be pretty surprised about most things.

"No, he didn't," Riley supplies. "But we started doing some training this morning."

"Training? Training for what?" I ask them.

"Our abilities." He says. The confusion I feel must be plain to see because he continues. "Like for example, to make Asher's force fields stronger, I was chucking tires at him as hard as I could, and he was blocking them."

"And I set up these metal targets in the ground for Riley to hit with his fireballs!" Asher explains. He looks pretty fired up about the whole thing. No pun intended. "After school, you can come with us! We can have you like, light up light bulbs or something." The thought makes me chuckle.

"Settle down class!" Mrs. Dawson commands. She's holding her red vocabulary binder. "Today we will be continuing our Latin unit." It looks like we're in for an easy class. We start with a vocab competition. Riley and I are all on the same team, with Asher on the other. I'm up first. Mrs. Dawson flashes the first vocab word. Solis.

"Sun!" I blurt out immediately. My opponent didn't have a chance.

"Very good, Vanessa," Mrs. Dawson praises. I don't think she's ever seen me get a question right in class. I can see Asher and Riley smiling. Mrs. Dawson prepares the next card. In this game, your turn continues until you miss a question. The next word is flumine.