The Moonlarks

34

We all sat at the dinner table eating quietly. I was the first one to break the silence. "Are we gonna invite Robin, Jonah, Hannah, Linh, Fitz, Tam, Keefe, Biana, and Dex to come?" I asked. "I can hail them," Sophie suggested. "Ok,"

At that point, we were all done with dinner, so we went upstairs. My bed was next to the window. I looked out and could see Callan and Ryan in their room. They sat on a bed and Ryan pulled out his imparter and rolled his eyes. I could see a Callan say something, then Ryan answered the call. What's happening? I asked Callan. Ryan got a call from Grady. He answered. Ryan said what do you want, then Grady started tearing up. He said about a week ago, Edaline went to stay at Dex's house and that she was mad at him. They haven't talked since. He wants us to come back. Ryans thinking right now. Now Grady is talking about how he is wrong for kicking Ryan out. He got scared. Ryan is saying I'll think about it. He just hung up.

Wow thanks for filling me in. I transmitted. No problem. Good night. He transmitted back. I tried to fall asleep, but sleep wouldn't come. I looked out the window and saw Callan looking out too. Quickly, I grabbed a piece of paper, scribbled, "I can't fall asleep, can you," on it, and held it up to the window.

He saw the message, and scrambled away. A minute later he came back with a piece of paper saying, "No. Meet me in the courtyard in 5,"

I wrote "Ok," and got my shoes on. I was about to leave when I heard, "where are you going?" Sophie was standing behind me. I slowly turned around. "Um, I was um..." I stuttered. "Let me come with you," She persisted. "Ok fine," I said. When I got down, Callan was there with Ryan. "So why'd you want me to meet you here?" I asked.

"We have a plan," said Callan. "Me and Ryan were brainstorming and we decided that you and Ryan should sneak out tonight and meet with Grady." Then Ryan butted in saying "Callan will stay here since 1, He thought that since Alden adopted him it would probably be awkward and 2, Mr Forkle wants to train him in being a Shade tonight."

"Mr Forkle said that I have lots of natural talent and that if I practiced the whole night I would only have to worry about Shadowflux!" Me and Sophie thought this over. Sophie was against it, but I managed to persuade her. "Ok," she finally agreed.

Before I knew it, me and Ryan were off. We were almost out the door when we heard a sound coming from the wall. We turned to find Blur. Ryan started to reach into his satchel, but Blur shook his head. And understanding came between us. I nodded to Blur and left the hideout.

We met Grady at Havenfield near Verdi's pen. This time his eyes were puffy and he looked like he regretted everything. "You come to your senses?" I asked him. He sighed. Ryan stood by my side, unmoving. "I-I made a mistake, I'm very sorry," Grady said. "Please come back. Edaline made me see that what I did was wrong. I was scared after what happened with Brant." We nodded.

Ryan looked at me and we nodded. "We'll come back after we go get out friends from the-" he stopped. "After we do stuff," I said, saving him from an answer. Grady looked very skeptical, but didn't say anything. "Also," I said. "If you're only doing this 'Cause you want Edaline back..." "I swear that's not the reason," said Grady as he held up his hands. We nodded again.

"We'll be back in the morning," I said. Blur was waiting for us at the entrance of Havenfield and he led us back to the Black Swan hideout. Along the way we decided to hail Callan and tell him how things went. Unfortunately, when we hailed him all we got was a queasy sounding "Oh hi guys," before we heard retching and splattering. "Are you ok?" I asked. He puked again. "Yeah I feel better now." "Um, what are you doing?" asked Ryan.

"Well right now I'm laying down and puking occasionally making Robin, being an Empath, sick also. Or do you want to know why I'm puking?" I rolled my eyes. "Why, duh," said Ryan. "I was Shade training and apparently it requires lots of spinning in this chair that's attached to some kind of machine." He stopped for a second, and I assumed he was trying not to barf again. He started again. "And I guess it has something to do about how shadows see things or something? I wasn't paying attention." "But Mr. Forkle says I should be able to spin around without puking by the end of the night."

"CAN I DO IT??? I PROBABLY WON'T PUKE!" I yelled, and Callan responded, "I'm not sure."

"Ok...," I said. "We're on our way back, the meeting went well," added Ryan. "Ok," Callan replied, looking a little better. I heard Mr. Forkle in the background. "Oh, I have to go. You'll probably hear me puking from like a mile away." "Yay," I said sarcastically. "Ok, I'm off to die now," Callan said. I shut off my imparter.

We kept making our way back to the hideout in silence. When we got to the entrance we did in fact here the far off sound of Callan suffering. "Ok, kids," Blur said. "Sneak into your beds your not supposed to be out of you rooms, much less the hideout!" We nodded and snuck back to our designated towers. When I got to the girls room Sophia and Luisa were playing chopsticks on the floor. "Oh hey guys," I said. "Can't sleep?" They nodded. Then Luisa struck a lethal move to Sophia's 3 fingers with her 2 fingers. Sophia threw her hand in the air. "I'm out!"

Robin was on the floor clutching her stomach. "I can feel the nausea from here," she managed to squeak out. She started crawLing towards the bathroom. "Anyway," said Sophia, totally ignoring her. "How'd the meeting go with Grady. Callan told us before Mr. Forkle went to tortu- I mean train him." "It went well, and Callan is definitely being tortured." I replied. They both nodded.

I saw Ryan through the window getting into bed. "We should probably try to get some sleep," I suggested. I started to climb into bed when I heard Callans voice in my head. Help me... he transmitted. I looked at the boys room and Callan was there leaning against one of the beds. He looked like he might die. Finished training? I asked. Nah, temporary break. Well, we're going to sleep over here, so bye! I could see him grumbLing something as he walked out of his room.

Then, I got in bed and closed my eyes.