"Hurry up, Emma!"

I roll my eyes at the door and look back at the reflection in the bathroom mirror. My skin was still a little pale, not quite as much as this morning though. I turned on the sink again, letting the cold water run over my hands. Putting my now cold, damp hand against my forehead, I try to relieve some of the pain I still feel there.

Trying to get my mind to wander, I begin to study my eyes. From a distance they look completely gray or sometimes a pale blue, but if you looked closer, you could see the flecks of gold around the rim of my pupils. Weird, I think. I wonder if that has anything to do with me being a-

"Emma! Come on we have to go!" Again Zane yells from behind the door, this time knocking. I don't answer him again, I don't trust myself to speak without showing my distress. Instead, I blink several times to wake up from my trance, turn on the hot water, and splash it onto my face.

Taking a towel, I slightly dab my skin, and look again at my complexion. No longer looking quite as pale, I quickly put my unruly, sandy hair into a ponytail and try to put a smile on my face. Try being the key word. It looked like more of a grimace then a smile.

"Emma, are you okay?" His tone is much softer this time.

I open my mouth to reply but only a croak came out. Clearing my throat, I reply, "Yeah, yeah. I'm fine. Just, you know, doing my hair." Really? Doing my hair? That's the best you came up with. He definitely will know something's up now.

I rarely ever stressed about my hair and he knows it. That's the thing about Zane, he knew me way too well. Sometimes even more so then my best friend Valerie. Not to say she wouldn't see right through the hair excuse, because she would. Which then leads me to wonder what Zane was to me. To say he was my friend seemed not to cover how important he was to me. Although, that is all he was, a really good, friend. Nothing more. Not that I would mind, if per say he wanted to be more than that. He certain played the whole boyfriend part a little too well, when it came to me.

Not wanting him to have enough time to think something is truly up, I open the door just as he raises his arm up to knock again. He looks at my hair that is undoubtedly in a very messy ponytail and raises an eyebrow, pointing at it. Before he can say a word, I step around him and start for the stairs.

I don't even get a foot on the first step, when Zane grabs my arm and turns my around. His eyes search my face looking for any signs of what I may be thinking. He worriedly looks into my eyes, making me almost drop my mask of calm and collectiveness to the upset, sickly one I really feel. Almost.

"Are you sure, you're just fine?" I give him — I hope — a look of confusion and nod, but I can tell he's unconvinced. "Is it the visions?" Just hearing the word "visions" brought up the images of last night: the pain, the sadness, the anger. My dreams tended to get a little too personal for my liking. All the those memories of past, present, and future people was just sometimes a little overwhelming.

I close my eyes to keep in the tears I won't let myself shed and drop my head. Shaking it, I look up at him and put on a forced smile, hoping it looked anything but. "Nothing I can't handle." He gives me his you-need-to-talk-about-it look and opens his mouth to say so, but I cut him off. "So, what's on the training schedule for today?"

Knowing what I'm doing, he gives me a serious look, silently telling me that we will speak about my dreams later. "Well, first we'll warm up and then, if you're feeling up to it, we'll do the real training."

"Great!" I immediately say with fake enthusiasm. Knowing he could probably see right through me, I grab his arm and pull him down the stairs in record timing. Just as I put my hand on the front door handle, I feel Zane grab my hand and transport me in the yard beside the cabin right in the middle of Valerie's and Gabriella's training session.

For a while now, Gabriella has been helping Valerie with her spell work. I know what you're thinking, Valerie's spell work? Well, spells happens to be one of the six minor abilities Val has and, don't tell her I said this, she really needs help with using it. So, since Gabriella just happens to be a witch and an expert with spells, she volunteered to teach her. So basically they have been training a lot since Gabriella joined us. Not that I mind. Val and I both liked her enough that we both called her a friend now, but I didn't know her quite as well as Val did.

When Gabriella first arrived, the look on the guys' faces were priceless. Then when we started to explain how we met her, their faces continued to be priceless. We explained how Val and I went to the mall and then the witches (don't ask), and well, let's just say the boys were pretty upset about not being there. Thank goodness Gabriella was there, though or else Val and I might still be stuck behind that door (again, don't ask).

Anyways, they must have been working on a levitation spell because when Zane transported us, we reappeared right under a large rock. Val, or maybe it was Gabriella, lost concentration on the spell, so the rock started to quickly lose altitude. Acting instinctively, I quickly held up my hand and pulled water out of the air and ground around us and pushed it against the rock, stopping it in midair.

"Geez, Val! I didn't really mean what I said last night! There's no need to drop a rock on us because of a joke!" Zane joking tells Val.

"It wasn't me, you idiot. It was Gabriella. She was showing me how to - Wait! What did you say last night?" Val put her hands on her hips, glaring at him.

"Well then, I'm not at all that surprised that it was Red. I know you're trying to get rid of me, but next time don't do it with Emma right next to me, okay?" He fixes his now cold, midnight eyes on the red-headed witch. Gabriella match Zane's glare, making her own golden eyes go to slits. "And as for your question about last night, Valerie. Nothing you can prove." He points right at Val, smirks and then starts pulling me out from under the still hovering rock.

As we reach the edge of the floating piece of earth, I lower it soundless to the ground. "So Gabriella," I quickly say, as I see her death glare aimed at Zane. "how-how's Val doing on her training?"

"She still has a lot to work on," Is all she says. She is still currently having a glaring contest with Zane.

"Oh! Well... Zane and I won't bother you two any more. We will be training over here." I point on the far side of the yard while dragging Zane with me. After walking a few yards, I spit out at him, "Would it kill you to be at least civil with her? She isn't a bad person you know!"

He doesn't reply at first; he just looks back and glares at her. "I don't trust her."

I roll my eyes. "How many times do I have to tell you? Her memories and future show no signs of wanting me dead and gone."

"The future can change."

I take a deep breath as we stop at the spot where he wants to start training. "Listen. I-Look at me for a second." He finally turns his head toward me. "She. Is. On. Our. Side." I stare him down, or up might be the better word. Curse him for being so tall. "If you can't trust her, then trust me and my judgment. And for goodness sakes, don't be so bitter toward her! She has been through a lot."

He sighs and nods his head. "Okay. I'll try, but I won't make any promises I can't keep." I shake my head, but I figured that's the best it was going to get. "Come on. Sit down so we can start."

I sit cross-legged on the ground and close my eyes getting ready. I feel him sit down right behind me, his back touching mine. "Now, focus on only the space around us and pass it back and forth between the two of us. And then..." I tune him out as I start warming up.

The power flows into me, calming me down and making me feel more content. The sizzling sensation runs under my skin, lighting a flame within me, making me powerful. I sigh, relaxing against Zane's back and tilting my head back.

"You stopped listening to me didn't you?" He asks quietly, relaxing against me, too.

"I heard the first sentence, but the rest is lost." His only reply is a relaxed sigh.

I pull up the earth and make a wall in front of me as I see Gabriella throw another spell at me. I'm not supposed to be using the earth right now, but I'm too busy staring at Emma and Zane to care.

"You're supposed to use a blocking spell, not your element, Val," Gabriella says. I glance at her for a split second then go back to my staring. "Why are you looking at them anyways? They're just meditating."

I snort. "Meditating? Please." I say with a toss of my hand, still not looking at her. "They're not meditating. They're training like we are."

"It looks like they're meditating." She says. I glance at her, and see her frowning with confusion. "What power is to be trained like that?"

I study Em and Zane more before answering her question. I could definitely see her confusion. I mean its true. What power would they be using while siting as they were? It really seemed like they were just meditating, but I knew better.

"Zane is training Emma to use her "secret weapon". It takes a lot of concentration, so they warm-up by doing that," I gesture to them.

She looks at the two of them for a moment, then says, "What is her "secret weapon", as you put it?"

We had all agreed to not tell Gabriella about Em's power. That is, until she proves to us she can be trusted and after two weeks with her, we're all still not quite convinced. So I give her a guilty look, silently apologizing for not being able to tell her what it is.

She sighs and nods. "It's okay. I get it. You don't have to tell me yet. But please tell me this. Why do you call it that? Why not what it is?"

It's a good question. Why not call it what it is? Deciding I want to explain a few things to her but not wanting the others to know, I ask her if she wants to get something to drink inside. Looking taken a back, not excepting the random question, she nods. We quickly walk cross the yard to the cabin and into the kitchen.

After listening to make sure that no one else is in the house, I look back at her and tell her to start asking any questions she wants answers to. She repeats the question from outside.

"Well, Zane wanted to call it that. He, mmm, well..." I trail off. This was a little hard to explain without explaining everything. I rub my neck. "Well, it makes him uncomfortable, I guess is the best way to put it."

"Uncomfortable? He seems fine when he trains her."

I shift from one foot to the other. Then, when I can't fine a comfortable position, I lean on the counter and look across at her. "Saying what it is makes him think of his fa-family." I quickly say the word family instead of father. That would have given it away.

"Oh," she says, her expression a calculating one. "Oh." I immediately see the realization flicker across her face. "Wait a second. He's not - You have - Y-you -" she gasps. Oh no! "And you trust him?! He could be your down fall! You know what he and his family have done! Why would you even think -" she cuts off and takes a deep breath. "And he gives me a hard time!"

I wait a fews seconds, seeing if she has more to say. "Well? What's your guys' excuse for keeping him around?" She demands.

"You don't know what he has done for us. He's proven his loyalty in more ways than one. Many times, in fact." I look at her in the eyes, begging her to understand, because I really consider her a friend after two weeks of knowing her. I really, really wanted her to understand.

"B-but, he's done more bad then good. I mean, didn't he try to kill you? I'm sure he did once Emma and the rest of you were awakened. How does that change what he has done?"

"That may be true, but he has saved my life," more times then I cared to admit, "then he has tried to end it."

She shakes her head. "Then he must have saved you hundreds, if not thousands of times, to make up for that."

"Think about it. Has he shown any signs of betraying us since you have been here?"

She sighs and puts her head in her hands. She stays in this position for a few painstakingly slow seconds. After sighing again and rubbing her eyes, she says reluctantly, "No, I don't suppose he has. But just because you, all of you, trust him doesn't mean I will. At least not for awhile."

"Of course." I say, letting go of a breath I didn't realize I was holding.

"I probably would have realized it eventually. The way he acts sometimes and even how he looks should have been a huge clue.you know, with the black hair and all."

"I told you they were talking about me. Girls can't help talking about attractive guys, such as, moi." Both Gabriella and I jumped a little at the sound of Zane's voice.

I glance over to see him smirking at us in the doorway, with Emma right next to him, rolling her eyes. "That's not conceited at all." Emma sarcastically says, lightly hitting him in the stomach.

"What? I told you they were talking about my good looks." He protests, looking down at her.

Sighing deeply, Emma looks over at us and asks, "Why were you two talking about Zane?" Was it just my imagination or did I trace some defensiveness in her stance and tone?

"I was just, you know, answering a few of Gabriella's questions." I shrug my shoulders, making it seem as if it's not a big deal, but I could tell Zane surely thought it was.

"What exactly did you ask, Red?" He folds his arms and then proceeds to glare at Gabriella. She glares straight back with just as much vigor — or even more so than him.

Em hits the back of his head, I assume because he called Gabriella, Red, and glares at him, too. He rubs his head and looks down at her, dropping his glare. "Sorry, Red. It's just your name is just too long to waste my-" Em hits him over the head again, only harder this time. "I mean, we should think of a nickname for you. Your name is much too long to say all the time."

It's my turn to roll my eyes. "Says the guy who only uses first names. You don't even call my brother Matt, Matt and everyone calls him that, even our parents."

"I call him that because it annoys him and when he is annoyed, I'm happy. Besides, I call Jacob, Jake all the time."

"Well..." He had a point. About Jake, not Matt, although I don't doubt he spoke the truth. "What about the rest of us, mmm?"

He merely shrugs, "It's something I was taught growing up. We always called people by their full, first name."

"I bet you grew up being taught a lot of things," says a passive Gabriella.

My jaw dropped. To say I was shocked, would be an understatement. I looked over at her, but she wasn't looking me. She was looking at the recipient of the comment. If that comment was made to any one else, it wouldn't matter, but since it was Zane, it was like a slap to the face.

Since I didn't hear a peep from Zane, I decided to glance at him to see his reaction. He stood just there, stiff as a board, staring at Gabriella with the most anger charged stare I have ever seen. It wasn't a glare, his eyes were wide open, and there wasn't hatred either, which surprised me the most. There was only burning anger.

I did a quick glance at Emma and saw the same look of shock come over her face, too, but I quickly looked back at Zane waiting for a reaction to come out of him. Waiting to hear that could-freeze-a-desert, cold voice that he always uses when he gets really angry. Instead his fisted hands burst into white flames that soon quickly start curling up his arms.

"So, you know who my family is, big deal," he says in a, surprisingly, calm, quiet voice, not at all reflecting how he looked.

"It wasn't really that hard to figure out," Gabriella replies, coolly.

"Took you two weeks," is all he says.

She shrugs. His flames slowly change to its normal red and orange tongues before it dies.

"Wow! That was harsh, Brie. Really harsh." Jake's voice rings out of no where besides me.

I was so shocked after Gabriella's statement that I jumped about a five feet in the air when Jake's voice came out of nowhere. I might have even yelped a little too.

"Brie?" Val asks, giving Jake a slightly startled look.

"No, Val. It's me, Jake. Your boyfriend for about-"

"I know that! Why did you say Brie?"

"You were all talking about giving Gabriella a nickname, so I gave her one. Brie."

"Brie?" I ask my brother. "Really?"

"It's either that or Gabby," he replies.

"I like Brie. It's short and way better then Gabby," Gabriella replies, still clutching her chest from the scare by my brother, Jake.

"I like it to. It has a nice ring to it," Matt puts in, as he materializes next to Jake.

"How long were you two spying on us?" Val questions her boyfriend and brother, while putting her hands on her hips.

"Long enough," they both say.

We all stand there for a second without saying a word to each other. All of us waiting for another to break the ice that settled into the room.

Jake claps his hands together. "How about a movie? We could all afford to relax for a little while. What do you say?"

No one replies for a little while, and just when it seems as if no one will, Gabriella, or Brie, says "Sure. What movie?"

"Let's see! Shall we?" Jake, being way too enthusiastic then I think the situation requires, loops his arm around Val's and starts walking toward Zane and me. I grab Zane's arm and turn him around so that we are heading towards the living room. Once there, Zane walks over to the farthest part of the large couch and pulls me down next to him. As if I would sit anywhere else, I can't help but think.

"What should we watch?" Someone asks.

"I don't know. What do you think?" Someone else replies.

I tune them out. I'm too busy replaying the scene of Zane's reaction to Brie's comment. I saw the hurt and pain flicker across his face when she said that. He was ashamed of his family and didn't want to be compared to them at all, in any way. Instinctively, I reach out and took his hand. He immediately squeezed the life out of my hand. I flinched only slightly. I have, after all, felt worst from Jake every time I have held or shook his hand.

"What do you think, Em?"

I'm not sure who asked the question, but I replied saying, "Yeah. Sure."

I heard their voices from a distance as I zoned them out again, thinking not about Zane or Brie, but of the nightmares from last night. I was so lost in my head that the smell of popcorn and the lights shutting off, was what brought me back. Jake came back from the kitchen with three bowls of popcorn. He sits down next to Val who is sitting on my right and passes one of the bowls to Matt next to him. I then see Matt nudge Brie next to him holding the popcorn out to her. It seemed that Zane and Brie were both trying to have as much distance between them as possible. Not that I blamed them.

Val then nudged me with the other bowl of popcorn. Letting go of Zane's hand, which I then realized had switched to me squeezing his hand instead, to reach for the bowl. Without taking a piece, I give it to Zane. He takes it, sets it in his lap, and reaches for my hand again. Without thinking about it, I let him.

A few hours later, I was siting on the bed in Brie's cabin room, debating how I wanted to a approach my speech.

"Say it. I know you want to say something," she says looking at me.

"It's about what you said earlier. To Zane... about his family." I start.

"Continue."

I swallow. "Okay, listen. I know he can be a jerk sometimes and everything, but he's my friend." I look at her and see her open her mouth, but I hold up my hand to silence her. "I know he hasn't been very accepting to you, for example, the whole Red thing, but somehow I feel as of you kind of crossed the line with the comment about his family. I had told you that he gets uncomfortable when they come up. So just, you know, don't bring it up to him about it again and don't judge him on who his family is and what he has done in the past. Okay?"

She is silent for a seconds and then says, "I'm sorry."

"I'm not exactly the person you should be apologizing to."

"I know, it's just... Well, I wanted a reaction out of him and so I said it. I didn't really think he would get that angry about it. Do you think he will forgive me if I apologize?"

"Of course he will. No matter how angry you got him, he'll forgive you." She nods her head. "Do it tomorrow, though, not tonight. Emma is probably talking about it him as we speak, helping him cool down and everything. But, please, try to make an effort to be, at least, an acquaintance to him."

She sighs and says, "Yeah, I'll make an effort and I will apologize tomorrow. I promise."

"Good." Yawning, I say, "I'll see you in the morning. Goodnight, Brie."

"Goodnight, Val," she says as I walk out the door. Before my head even hit the pillow on my bed, I'm out like a light.