• CHAPTER 4
    I laid in bed, thinking about the quick kiss, and it took awhile. It was like fire against ice, Hot and Cold. His lips had burned mine, but my cold lips had been enough to but out the fire. I just couldn’t understand the weirdest part.
    The moment our lips had touched, I’d instantly wanted more, wanted to kiss him longer, deeper. All I had wanted in that moment, was to keep his lips moving against mine, although id kept it to a peck. That’s why I had practically run away, I was scared of that feeling, the absolute NEED. That hadn’t been my first kiss, and he wasn’t my first boyfriend, but kissing Ian was different than any of the other guys that I had kissed.
    I decided that I shouldn’t worry for the time being. As soon as I decided that, I fell asleep quickly.
    In the morning I got up, threw on an outfit and stumbled down the stairs. My mom looked at me, and didn’t look happy. Hmmm… no that wasn’t it, she looked like she didn’t want to tell me something. That was just fine. Besides, I was keeping things from her.
    When I walked out of my door, Ian was there, and I sighed in relief. He took my hand and we walked to school in silence. He seemed a little different today, I wonder if it had anything to do with the kiss?
    We raced to school. He beat me, of course. We walked into school and to class.
    The day passed slowly, as I tried to figure out what was wrong with Ian. When we were walking home, Ian suddenly stopped.
    “I think it’s time we did a little experiment” he said, and walked toward the lake, expecting me to follow I guessed. So I caught up to him and walked with him until we got to the lake, and he paused.
    “Pick up some water in your hands” he instructed. I bent down, scooped up some water, and held out my hands to him. He stuck his finger in the water, it started to simmer, then It disappeared, evaporated I guess. I didn’t feel the heat though, and that was weird.
    “If we both have the same eyes, kind of, and I can do that…” he trailed off, still thinking deeply. He looked at me suddenly. “Then shouldn’t you be able to do something?” he asked me.
    I was shocked, rooted where I stood. I’d actually never thought of it. But as soon as the shock wore off, I was infuriated. Oh so I wasn’t good enough for him? I had to do something weird and abnormal like him to be COOL? At least, that’s what my teenager feelings told me. I had no idea whether to listen to them or not, but there wasn’t a choice.
    Then something happened. As the anger grew and flared, I got colder. Without a conscious command, my hand reached out, and I bent down. He bent down with me, watching my eyes, and then his eyes were locked on my hand, as it lowered and made contact with the water.
    As soon as my hand touched the moving, clear liquid, the lake froze in a matter of seconds. It started where my hand was lightly skimming the water, and went out from there, like a sonic boom of ice. The whole thing was iced over, and it was spring for crying out loud! I knocked my hand on the ice, nice and solid. Then straightened out of my squat.
    Out of the corner of my eye, I saw that a poor old man in a fishing boat was looking out at the ice, confused. Hmm…
    It took Ian a few seconds to recover, but soon he stood up to, he looked at me, and was shocked, as I was. Though I was not showing that emotion on my face. “You were saying,” I said emotionlessly. He moved his lips, and then there came sound.
    He cleared his throat, “Well, you didn’t tell me that you could do that” he stated. I smiled grimly as he bent down and melted the water again. “But…” he didn’t finish his sentence.
    Now the man out in the boat was looking around frantically, trying to figure out why the lake keeps freezing and unfreezing. If I hadn’t been so infuriated, I would have laughed.
    “Yes, Ian?” I asked rudely, “Am I cool enough for you now?” I said through my teeth. He whipped his head up to stare at me with enraged eyes.
    “Having these powers is not cool Molly!” he shouted, “Do you NOT know what we ARE?” he shouted into my face. I backed up; my face crumpling into that of a kid wears when he is being scolded for something that he didn’t do, or someone whose pet had just died.
    “No I don’t Ian” I murmured, “Do you?”. He looked at the ground, and kicked a rock into the water. Before it could reach the water, some 25 feet out, I froze the lake again. He laughed, but then was serious again. Then man in the boat fainted.
    “Yes, I do” and then he proceeded to tell me the story of what we were.
    First, he asked me if my mom ever told me that I was adopted, and I said no, she’s my mom. He said that I WAS, and that I wasn’t really even a girl. I stared at him after that one.
    “I don’t mean that literally” he stumbled over the words, and he blushed. “I just meant that you and me aren’t really… like our friends” then he continued.
    Apparently, the government had experiment on our real mothers and fathers. We were born much longer after the tests had ended, but we were transformed. When we were born, the government had taken us away from our biological families, and put us with trusted adults, that would hand us over when we turned 18. I had gasped for that one, because I thought he was talking about my mother now but he wasn’t. Both of our government parents had been friends with each other, and didn’t want us to have to go threw what they knew our parents had.
    So, they passed us off to parents that knew nothing of our parents past, or what we were, offspring’s on human guinea pigs. When he stopped to catch his breath, and begin the next part of the story, I asked him something.
    “How do you know all this?” I asked anxiously. If he was like me, then he shouldn’t know a thing.
    “There are others like us, others that escaped from their government parents, that found me and warned me” he explained. “They are all under 18, so they are good for a while, then the government will come looking for them, just like they will do to you and me” he murmured. I looked at him with shock.
    My mind was frozen solid, but my mouth wasn’t.
    “But I will be 18 next month” I shrieked. WHAT? I had one more month before I was most likely going to half to be on the run?
    “And I turn 18 three weeks later” he murmured. “We will have to be very careful, and lay low,” he said. “They will check on our assigned parents, and they can only cover for us for so long” he said to me. “We might have to leave this town, because there are some people that would do anything for money, and the government are just that low” he reached over to me, and took my hand.
    I thought this all through. I was in shock, but on the other hand I was completely calm. That was probably because I didn’t want to believe what was happening, what was going to happen, and soon.
    “Should I tell my mom all this?” I asked quietly. He thought about it for a moment. Then came to a decision.
    “Yes you should,” he finally said. “We may have to leave, and she is going to need advanced warning”. I nodded, and got up, “Where are you going?” he asked.
    “Where do you think?” I laughed, “The sooner I tell my mom, the better” and I walked toward my house.