Romance: Teen Romance: Follow Your Dreams (A Nerd and a Bad Boy Romance) (New Adult High School Sports Romance) (88 page)

Chapter Two

“Hello?”

When Quint answered his phone, Amber looked around for her backpack. She realized they had left it in the
car,
and her cell phone was in there. She jumped up from the couch, listening to Quint speaking into his phone.

“Yes, she’s with me.” He stood up and mouthed to her that he was coming
with
her, gesturing to himself and then her and then the front door. She nodded. He followed her out the door quickly. “Yes, she’s all right. She wanted to go home instead of the nurse’s so I…yes, we saw what happened. I brought her
to my house
to calm…yes, I thought it was best to…okay. Yeah, all right.”

He pressed the button on the screen of his phone to hang up. “They want us to go back to your house right away. The police want to talk to you. Mr. Kinney told them I was going to help you go to the
nurse,
and they assumed we both left the building instead.”

“They’re going to think I started the fire.”

Quint shook his head, taking Amber’s hand and looking directly
in
her eyes. “No, they won’t, Amber. You left in a panicked state, not one of anger or determination. And the fire started over an hour ago. We were both sitting in class at that time. You have nothing to worry about when it comes to being accused.”

“They’re going to think I asked someone to start it. They are going to put the suspicion and the blame on me. I just know it.”

“Is that one of your empathic feelings or are you letting your guilt talk for you?”

She gave him a soft look. “You’re too wise for your age, Quint.”

He pressed his lips together. “I don’t want you to get too worked up, Amber. You have enough pain to deal with from losing your parents. I can’t believe you’ve even stopped crying.”

Just his words made her eyes fill up with tears. “I won’t stop
crying
for years, maybe the rest of my life.” She whispered. “It’s just nobody will be able to see them.”

He stood with her just outside the door to his car and cupped her face with his hands. “I’m going to help you, Amber. My parents and I will help you.”

She thought for a moment that he was going to kiss her. She wouldn’t have minded. But he didn’t. He pulled her into a hug and held her for a moment. Then he released her and reached down to pull the door open.

As they drove back to Amber’s house, they were both quiet. She had covered her mouth with both hands and was looking down at her lap, running the morning scene through her mind. Her parents were alive, vibrant, happy. They had been a loving couple all their lives, still hugging, kissing and telling each other “I love you” every day.

She tried not to
cry,
but tears were streaming down her face, over her hands. She could feel Quint’s sorrow for her and knew that he was not blocking himself from her. She wondered if his
sorrow
was so
strong
that it was making its way through his
normal
block.

The closer they got to her house, the more emotions she felt, not from him
but from
the crowd of people at the scene. Most of her neighbors who were home at the time were standing on the sidewalk, watching what was happening. By the time they got there, the fire had been put
out,
and an empty shell remained. The upper half of the house was completely gone.
The inside had been gutted by the fire
. Half the
stair case
was still standing, jutting up higher than what
was left
of the exterior walls. Everything was black.

Firefighters wandered around the scene. She could see two bodies in body bags
being lifted
into the back of one of the ambulances. The sight made her burst into tears again. Quint reached over and ran his hand over the back of her lowered head.

“Be strong.” He whispered. “Be strong.”

He pulled up two houses away and parked the car on the side of the road. Once again, he got out and rounded the car to pull her door open. He held out one hand to her.

She took it and lifted herself out, wrapping her arms around his waist as support so they could walk the rest of the way to where the police and other people were waiting. She heard the sounds of sorrow and mournful calls coming from the neighbors who saw her walking to the scene. She felt Quint look over at
them,
but she didn’t and couldn’t call out to them. She pressed her face into Quint’s chest and let his concern wash over her.

He squeezed her against him. “Be strong.” He whispered again. She was so glad he didn’t say “it’s going to be okay
.”
It was never going to be okay.

“Miss Amber Price?” One of the
policemen
approached them. She nodded without taking her face away from Quint’s chest. The
policeman
reached out to touch her arm. She felt a jolt of energy when he made
contact,
and she tried desperately not to pull away. He was unhappy, a sad man who probably felt the pain she was feeling sometime in his past. He had
definitely
lost someone important to him at some point. She didn’t want to know the details.

“I’m so sorry about this, Miss Price. I understand how you feel.”

Amber felt Quint’s disapproval of the police officer’s words but
she herself
nodded. She knew he
did
understand.

“You’ve been at school all morning?”

“Yes, sir.” She
said softly
, pulling away from Quint slightly and looking directly at the officer. He was taller than her, with cropped red hair and a long, sharp face. His eyes betrayed how kind he was inside.

“Did you know your parents would be here today?”

“My parents are always here. They don’t do work anywhere else. They have a business here.”

“What do they do?”

“They’re writers. They write stuff for Veterinarian magazines and
stuff
like that.”

“How interesting.” The officer nodded. “Well, I am Officer
Barnaby,
and I’ll be investigating what happened here today. Our analysts have already discovered that this was
definitely
arson. Can you think of anyone who would want to harm your parents or you?”

Amber struggled to keep the feelings around her from overwhelming her. She wished she had mentioned to Quint that she would need his help blocking out those
foreign
feelings
.
She
wanted to answer the officer’s questions and leave as soon as possible. She looked up at Quint, wondering if he would be able to read her mind.

“I don’t. I
really
don’t know anyone who would want to harm them. Quint. Help me, Quint.” She begged him with her mind, hoping he would catch on. She started crying again and squeezed him around the waist.

He leaned over and pressed his lips against her ear. “I’m helping you now, Amber. I understand.”

She suddenly felt awash with peace. She could no longer feel the sorrow, the anger and the suspicion that was coming at her from all sides. Officer Barnaby was staring at them, aware that something was going on he did not understand. He waited for her to look at him again and then gave her a look of understanding, his eyebrows raised.

“No one?” He said, softly. “Did they get along all right? Did you fight with them or they fight with each other?”

She shook her head, feeling stronger with only her
own
emotions to deal with for once. “I
really
don’t
…can’t
think
of anyone. We did not fight. We never fought. My parents loved each other. You can ask anyone. They didn’t have fights about anything. It was very peaceful in my home.”

Officer Barnaby nodded. “All right. Is there somewhere you can go while we do our investigation? Do you have relatives you can stay with?”

“She can stay with my family.” Quint volunteered. Amber looked up at him, wondering what his parents would say to that.

“As long as it’s all right with your folks.” Officer Barnaby voiced her thoughts. “And we can get in touch with her through you?”

“I have my
cell,
” Amber said. “I’ll keep it with me.”

The officer nodded. “You do that. If you’d like, there’s the chaplain over there. He might make you feel better.”

There was a young police chaplain staring
up at the burnt building, his face reflecting immense pain and sorrow. He kept shaking his head. He was only slightly taller than her, with glasses and closely cropped dark brown hair. She tapped on Quint’s
chest,
and he looked at the chaplain too.

Amber felt him pull his block from around
her,
and emotions came
flooding in
. She concentrated on the chaplain and got a sense of trust from him.

“I think I would like to talk to him for a moment.” She said, looking up at Quint.

“We’ll be in touch. In the meantime, take care of yourself.” The officer once again squeezed her arm. She was grateful for the compassion he sent through her. It was heartfelt.

Quint took her to where the chaplain was standing. As they walked, she whispered to him quickly.

“There’s a lab in the basement, hidden from the outside world. No one else will be able to find the entrance. We need to get in there and see what my parents were working on. I’ll explain when we’re in there.”

Quint didn’t respond or even look at her. He just nodded that he had heard her. He didn’t want anyone else to know she had even said anything to him.

The chaplain turned to them when they got close. He held out his hand to her. “You must be Amber. I’m Darren. It’s good to meet you. I’m sorry it had to be under these traumatic circumstances.”

She nodded. “It’s good to meet you too, sir. Please, will you say a prayer for
me and my parents
? I know they are already singing up there.” She pointed to the sky. “But I will need help adjusting down here.”

Darren’s face fell into a look of deep sorrow. “I will do that, Amber. I will certainly do that.”

“Thank you.” Amber still had her arms around Quint’s
waist,
and she pressed one hand into his back while she reached out with the other to give the chaplain a left-handed shake. He looked confused only for a brief second before shaking her left hand. She instantly trusted him and gave him a smile.

“If there’s anything I can do, you can find my number. Just
google
Community of Faith Brethren on Franklin
Road
. Darren is my name. I’m the pastor there.”

“I may call on you, Darren. I just may.”

He nodded. “Good.”

Amber and Quint turned to walk away from him and go back his car.

“Was that okay?
Are you okay
from that?” Quint was very specific with his questions. He knew she wasn’t okay and that things weren’t all right. But he also knew that was an experience she had never wanted to go through and would take years to get over, if ever.

“I’m okay. Thank you for your help.”

“Anytime. That’s what I’m here for.”

She looked up at him. “We need to come back to look in the lab. Let’s come back tonight when all of these people have left.”

He nodded. “We’ll do that. And my parents can come. They will undoubtedly spot things the police missed. They have very keen vision and observation skills. Since it’s already determined to be fire, perhaps they can pinpoint the killers more
easily
than the police.”

“And I’ll be able to tell if they are lying or not after they
are arrested
.”

Quint smiled at her and kissed the top of her head. “That’s the way to stay
positive
, girl.”

Chapter Three

It was dark before they were able to go back to Amber’s house. In the meantime, Quint introduced her to his parents,
Marge,
and Joe Preston, two of the nicest people the young girl had ever met. She was grateful that Quint kept their feelings from being exposed to her, though he gave her enough of an opening to know that she could trust them. They weren’t going to betray her or lie to her. They were genuine with her, just as he was.

Marge prepared a large cheese casserole for dinner. They all ate around the dinner
table like
a family from years
gone by
. In her
own
home, Amber and her parents had not had a dinner table. There was always too much going on for everyone to have dinner at the same time. They’d never been able to take the time to eat together. One of her parents was typically in the
lab or
out of the house doing field work. She enjoyed the family time a lot, even though it wasn’t her family.

“We would be glad to investigate the lab with you, Amber.” Joe said. He was a tall man, like Quint, but his gray hair stood up on his head as if he had recently been shocked and he had a gleam in his eye that couldn’t be hidden by the dark framed glasses he wore. Marge was much shorter than him, thin and
pretty
. Although they both carried smiles for her, she knew that they were burying the sorrow they felt for her at the loss of her parents. Quint quickly explained that she was an
empath,
and neither adult tried to hug her. Marge simply patted her on the arm and tilted her head to the side sympathetically.

They were experiencing their
own
loss, she knew. Her parents had been their friends. They briefly told her how they knew Mr. and Mrs. Price, which was what
they
called them, indicating they hadn’t been close enough to be on a first name basis.

“Our group consists of six couples, the parents of kids with special abilities in this
county,
” Joe explained as they ate dinner.

“In the county?” Amber asked.

“Yes.” Joe nodded, lifting his glass to take a sip of Coke. “Besides you and Quint, there are four other children in this area with abilities. We have two that read minds, a set of twins with their
own
abilities. Let’s see, one has telekinesis, is that right, Marge?” His wife nodded. “You know, he moves things without touching
them
and the other is a Mind mover. She can put thoughts into someone else’s head.”

“Yes, that gets her a lot of attention, doesn’t it?” Marge laughed. “Her parents have a lot of trouble getting her to control that.”

“Wow.” Amber was surprised. She had thought for years that she was the only one in the nation who had a psychic ability.
She
wondered why her parents had never told her that there were others like her that were close by, even one that went to her school. She felt like she could probably have used Quint’s help long ago. “How long did you know my parents?”

“They were recent additions to the group, to tell you the truth. I guess we’ve known them for…what six months now, Marge?”

Marge nodded.

“That’s not very long.” She said.

“No, it’s not.”

The four of them set out for Amber’s house after dinner when it was
dusk,
and the sun was about to dip behind the horizon. They used Quint’s car and parked a block away from the burned house. It was still smoldering in places as they approached and Amber felt a wrenching pain in her heart when she looked at it. All her clothes, her bedroom things, the pictures, the memories. All gone. She tried not to cry but couldn’t help letting her tears fall. Quint grabbed her hand and held on tight. She led them to the back yard. She pushed on a huge Oak tree that stood just behind the back of the house.
The tree was so large; it’s branches hung over the back porch.
Neighbors had been telling her father
for years
to cut it
down,
or it would someday fall right onto the porch, destroying it.

Quint’s eyes opened wide when the tree moved over by two feet just from Amber’s push. He put his hand on it and realized that it wasn’t even a real tree. The bark felt
real,
but there was a surreal quality to it that would have to be
closely
inspected to see that it wasn’t real.

“What happens if someone leans on the tree?” He asked her as they went down a set of hidden stairs below the tree. She looked back at him.

“They’d
fall down
the stairs. But you have to push it just right. It won’t just come open on a whim.”

“So
a strong
wind isn’t going to reveal the stairs or anything.”

She shook her head. “That could never happen.”

She flipped on a light once she was under the tree and he could see that the stairs led to a white tiled floor and brightly lit laboratory. There were tables and chairs lined up in the room, with computers lining the walls, monitors, keyboards, and lab equipment all around them. Charts and graphs
were hung
on the
walls,
and
a huge dry-erase board
stood in the middle of the room. It
was covered
with numbers and diagrams.

“Wow, this is amazing, Amber.”

“My parents did all this. They were working on a serum. Two
actually
.
One to make someone’s powers get stronger and the other to take them away.”

“Take them away?” That sounded ominous to Quint. His parents were on his heels and gave Amber a quizzical look.

She nodded. “They wanted to make sure that if anyone wanted to be normal, they could be. They were doing it for me, I think. Being an empath has not been easy for me.”

The four of them spread out around the room, looking in folders and studying the graphs and diagrams.

Amber sat at one of the computers, Quint taking the chair next to hers and rolling it closer so he could watch what she was doing. “This is the
main
computer,
” Amber said. “I should be able to access my dad’s notes from here.”

“Do you know the password?”

She looked at him with sorrow in her eyes. “Yeah. It’s Amberis#1.”

He restrained himself before he could say, “Awww.”

He nodded instead.

She turned the monitor on and hit the power button. After a few moments, the computer showed the password screen and she keyed it in, hitting enter to bring up the main screen. She moved the mouse to hover over the Notes folder and double-clicked.

Amber felt Joe and Marge approaching behind her but didn’t turn to look at them. She stared at the most recent notes about the project they were working on and then scrolled down until she found something interesting.

“Look, look at that.” Quint stopped her from scrolling by pointing at something on the screen. She stopped and read it aloud.

“Haven’t told Amber about the group or Quint yet. We’re waiting for the right time. She’s aware that we’re working on something to help her. I’d rather not drag a schoolmate into this if we can help it. Closing in on the SubPre group. They are going to try to take us down. We’ve discovered their plans to infiltrate and kidnap the children. We have to stop them, no matter what it takes.”

She looked behind her at Quint’s parents through narrowed eyes. “Is that the name of your group?” She asked, hoping it wasn’t. She was relieved when they shook their heads.

“No, look. He mentions our group and Quint. We are the Parent Coalition. We wanted a generic name so that if anyone asked about it, we could just say
we
are parents of children we want to protect from government control. We use politics to explain the group, even though we don’t have the need to talk about it very much. We aren’t a large group. We don’t have a website or anything like that.”

Amber turned back to the screen, clicked on the “find” button and typed in “SubPre group”. It brought up several
references,
and she went to the first mention of it.

The first mention of the group was from a short two months previous. Her father had found the group online. Its goal was to discover children with special abilities that enabled them to perform tasks that few other humans could perform – such as
mind-bending
and telekinesis. The group was formed to study and destroy those humans with the
abilities
so that they would never be a threat to humankind. They purported they were doing “God’s work for the greater good” by exterminating humans found to have any
type of
psychic ability.

The words gave Amber chills. “Why would they want to kill us? We aren’t going to harm anyone.”

When Joe answered from behind her, she swiveled in her chair and stared at him. His words made Quint stare at him in the same way.

“I know you wouldn’t.” He said. He looked at Quint. “And neither would you. But there are a few people in this world that do take advantage of their powers to harm others. I understand the premise of why they are doing this but to put a blanket conviction over every psychic human being and set out to exterminate them all no questions asked is reprehensible.”

“Do you know someone like that?” Quint asked. “Are you thinking of someone right now that we should be worried about?”

Joe looked at the
floor,
and Marge answered instead, looking at her husband. “Well…as a matter of fact, there is a set of parents in our group that have a son who is not
…shall
we say, very moral? He would be
…
a textbook villain, I guess.”

Quint’s jaw dropped. “No way. What is his power?”

“He reads minds.”

“And that’s a threat to all humanity?”

Marge shrugged. “I suppose if he used it on the right people, it could be very dangerous.”

Amber turned back around and looked at the screen. “Well, let’s see what else we can find out. It’s obvious this SubPre group tried to burn my house down so that they could get rid of this evidence. But how did they know what my parents are
…
were
working on
? What could have led them to…”

She had a sudden thought and froze, her fingers hovering over the keys. She turned to Quint’s parents again. “This couple. The
parents
in your group. Do you
…do
you think they might have been
worried,
or maybe they were spied upon by this SubPre group?”

Joe and Marge looked at each other. “I think that’s a good possibility. They were always very nervous at the meetings. They knew that their son was not controllable. Perhaps they…sought help elsewhere? They may have told someone in the SubPre group, unwittingly. It could have led them back to your parents.”

Amber felt anger rising in her gut but suppressed it. It wasn’t Joe and Marge’s fault that this had happened. She turned back to the computer. “All right, I’m going to see if we can find any addresses or names or something. I guess you know the names of the parents you’re talking about?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, we’ll get their address and
go see
what they are
up to
. Hopefully, they haven’t been already taken down by these murderers. I’ve got a plan. I think we can stop any more deaths. And maybe we can
take care of this
kid who doesn’t want to control himself, too.”