Chapter 20
Prom Night
“Oh, my goodness!” Nadine gasped as we entered our hotel room. “This place is huge.”
“My dad will do just about anything to accumulate points,” Aaron said, taking his jacket off. “He’s also sending someone with some night clothes for us. Ladies, I assumed your sizes so please don’t kill me if I got them wrong.”
“Man, your dad must be loaded,” said Shawn, inspecting the living room.
“Actually, my uncle owns the place. My dad pays a percentage for the rooms but not full price, and the room service will be on the house. My father said it was my graduation gift from my uncle.” He laughed.
“Now that makes more sense,” I said, pulling my shoes off my feet, and groaning with relief at the feeling of my flat feet on the carpeting. “My God, I want a shower.”
“But you look so pretty,” Nadine protested as she followed my lead and took off her shoes.
“Fine, I’ll wait a little bit then,” I groaned, smacking her on the arm.
Kim was standing next to Shawn, just staring at us with an odd smile on her face. I could tell she wanted to say something, but she was too scared to say it.
“Kim, join us in the barefoot brigade,” I suggested.
She seemed to loosen up for a second and took her shoes off. “That feels so much better.”
I patted the couch next to me, inviting her over to sit.
“Guys, do you feel like you just grew five inches?” Shawn asked, sliding into the recliner.
Adam wasn’t speaking. He wasn’t even looking at me. He kept glancing at Nadine and giving her little hints of a smile, but I sensed something was on his mind. The only trouble was, I just couldn’t see what he was thinking. I looked at Shawn, and he shrugged.
Was he having the same problem?
“Kim, what kind of movies do you like?” I asked, eyeballing the enormous flat-screen TV mounted to the wall.
“I’m not really picky when it comes to movies. I like just about everything, I guess.”
The suspense was killing me. I really wanted to know what this girl’s secret was. I couldn’t get what I had heard out of my head. She had something that she wanted to tell me, but she was too scared to.
“I say that since we are in for the night and we have jammies and food on the way, we should just relax and watch a super scary movie.” I smiled when everyone looked at me like I had lost my mind.
“We could…,” said Nadine, reluctantly, “…or why not a romantic comedy?”
Shawn groaned. “Horror sounds great to me.”
“I agree horror will work,” Aaron said, winking at me.
If he thought I was one of those girls who got scared easy, he was sadly mistaken.
Adam looked at me finally and shrugged. “Yeah, I can dig a good scary movie.” He forced a smile, but his eyes said he wasn’t happy with me still.
Kim looped her arm with mine. “Dawn, can you come with me to the snack machine? I saw one downstairs. I’m dying for a bag of Lay’s.”
Shawn smiled at the two of us and nodded. I got up with Kim, kissed Aaron on the cheek and walked out the door. When we arrived at the elevator, she stopped me. I could see her becoming increasingly nervous as she looked at me.
“I know this is going to sound stupid,” she started. “I know the rumors about you. Those students in your class that you saved... they said you shot fire from your fingertips, white fire.” She shifted uneasily as I looked at her. “I need you to be honest with me.” She pulled me to a quiet spot by the ice machine.
“What is it, Kim?” I asked, warily. I neither denied nor confirmed the truth of the rumors.
She put her hands up in front of her face. “Tell me if this is normal.”
She lifted her hands in the air, contorted like those of a ballerina. The pipes running into the ice machine started to shake, then the ice itself began to tremble. Intrigued, I reached over and opened the door to the machine, upon which the ice flew out and started spinning around her hands.
“You’re Water?” I asked in astonishment.
“No, she’s a Water Carrier,” Shawn corrected, coming up behind us.
“That’s amazing!” I said, marveling at the spinning cubes.
“Melt the ice, Dawn,” Shawn instructed.
I reached my hands up and willed only for heat. As the ice melted, Kim was able to mobilize the water into a round ball.
“You’re brilliant!” I exclaimed, clapping my hands together and staring at her.
“Well done, Kim,” said Shawn.
Kim blushed.
“She’s a Carrier?” I quizzed Shawn. “What power?”
“White Water,” he said, kissing her on the cheek. “Second generation, so she’s rather strong.” I don’t know what Shawn did, but the water suddenly disappeared, leaving the three of us standing there in awe.
“You were scared to tell me this. Why?” I asked, taking Kim’s hands.
“They were just rumors. You can’t believe everything that you hear,” she said. I could see that my closeness was making her uncomfortable. “Shawn said that I needed to show you, but he didn’t say why. I thought he was mocking me when he asked me to go with him tonight.” She hung her head.
Shawn reached over and lifted her chin. “I would never do anything to mock you. In all my years on this Earth, the one thing I have learned is to pay attention to the beautiful things that nobody else seems to notice.” He kissed her briefly on the lips, and I thought she was going to faint. My brother the lady charmer, another one of our father’s gifts.
“So, it is normal?” she asked, her eyes pleading me to tell her
