Caged In

Chapter 1

"Mom! Please make her stop," Cullen begged, his sister staring at him as if she were reading into each thought he had.

"Can't you two just get along?" his mother sighed. The dark circles under her eyes were more prominent than usual.

"Not when she pretends to read my mind every minute," snapped Cullen. His sister constantly was testing herself to see if she gained a special ability. And for some reason, she enjoyed using him as the test subject.

"Hey," his father said, walking over to his mother. He brushed her blond hair out of her face, kissing her on the check.

"Gross," his sister commented, making fake gagging sounds.

Cullen rolled his eyes. Orphelin always had poor behaviour, and that day was not exception.

He checked his neck for his home crystal and left for the Leapmaster 500. With his mother part of the nobility, he could access all the important places, though most of the time, going there just got the usual "bad match" stuff whispered around. It wasn't his fault the matchmakers were idiots.

"Hey, Cullen," his dad said, getting his attention. "I love you."

"You too, Dad," he responded, trying to hide his annoyance. His father always made a point of saying that to him each morning and his need for an "I love you" back was frusterating.

When he got to the Leapmaster, he found his eleven-year-old sister standing there, leaning against doorframe. He didn't know how she got there before him, but it didn't matter.

"What are you doing here?" he demanded to know.

"I'm a first year, remember? I go to Foxfire, too." Orphelin crossed her arms. "Besides, we're siblings. You don't have to act so frustrated when I'm around."

"I wouldn't be feeling that way if you didn't give me a reason to," he argued. He knew how she was; she would do one thing, then it would turn out completely wrong and he would be the one getting in trouble or embarassed.

"I admit I wasn't the best in the past," Orphelin agreed, "But I've changed. Can't you just accept that?"

"Sure, just move," he dismissed her. "Foxfire!" The Leapmaster 500 lowered a crystal, the light hitting it at the right angle to cast a beam in front of him.

"Cullen," she tried.

"Bye."

He stepped into the light, reappearing at Foxfire.

The school was massive; it had a five-story glass pyramid and seven towers.

Cullen weaved through the halls to his locker, jogging slightly in an attempt avoid his sister finding him and coming over to talk to him.

"What's wrong with his eyes?" he heard someone say.

He moved quickly out of the area, dropping his head so that no one else would get to talk about his weird eyes. His left eye was a brown color, while his right eye an icy blue. And he hated it. Some say it is because his mother is a freak, others that it is a result of the bad match. Of course his sister got the ice blue with golden specks.

She was two years younger than him and had all the guys fawning over her. He had one girl: his mom. And even then, she was barely around due to the tight schedule the Council had her keeping. It seemed that more and more she was disappearing, missing dinner and all school events. His father, Keefe, tried to make up for her missing presence by doing a lot of father-son, father-daughter activities, but they were getting old. He would rather draw something for a school assignment than play another round of Base Quest.