The Last Alignment: Cry of the Scorpions (8 page)

“
That’s cool,” Zander said
before taking a swig of orange juice.

“
That is really cool,”
Hudson agreed as he refilled his lemonade. “How long have you been
climbing?”

“
For about three years
now. A friend of mine from back home got me into it. Do you all
play any sports?” Natalye really wanted the focus off of
her.

“
Well, I ran track my
freshman and sophomore years of high school, but I quit at the end
of the last school year. Got tired of a lot of the guys,” Hudson
said glancing at Zander who was unconcerned.

“
What about you,” Natalye
asked Androse.

“
Team sports aren’t really
my thing.” She could’ve sworn that she heard Zander say “big
surprise,” but she didn’t call any attention to it. “I just work
out from time to time,” Androse continued. “I love running,
though.”

“
So do I,” Natalye beamed.
“I love trail running. It’s so much fun.”

“
Seems like it. I’ve
wanted to try that for a little while now,” Hudson said leaning
back in his chair. Natalye couldn’t help her eyes wandering; she
could see the outline of his abs through his shirt. “Maybe the
three of us can go for a run together?”

“
I think that I would like
that very much,” Natalye said returning to her food, sure that she
was blushing.

“
Sounds good to me,”
Androse chimed in.

“
I play basketball,”
Zander announced a little too loudly. Natalye had a mouth full of
waffle, so for the sake of being mannerly she shook her head like
she was impressed. “I used to play football, but my mom pulled me
off of the team after an incident at a game,” Zander
added.

“
What happened,” asked
Natalye.

“
Well, this guy from the
other school was running his mouth, so I got angry. After the hike,
I tackled him and ended up cracking his ribs.
All
of them.”

“
Wow,” she said pouring
herself some milk. Natalye wasn’t sure if she believed him; Zander
was a small guy and looked as if he could barely crack a window,
let alone someone’s ribs.

“
Where are they all
going,” Androse asked quietly. Natalye turned around to see all of
the adults leaving the kitchen.

“
I don’t know,” Hudson
said trying to see where they were headed.

“
Oh, yeah! That reminds
me…what’s going on here,” Natalye asked after drinking some of her
milk. “My dad and grandma gave me no info whatsoever.”

“
Then you’re basically in
the same boat as us,” Androse said before sliding his plate away.
“All we really know is that all this has something to do with our
powers.”

Natalye unexpectedly
coughed, pushing away from the table so that she didn’t spit all
over the food or on any of the guys. “
What
?!” She grabbed a napkin and
wiped her mouth.

“
Our powers,” Androse
repeated. “You’re here, so we figured that you must have them
too.”

“
Wait,” said Zander, “you
guys have powers?”

“
Yes,” Hudson said not
hiding any dislike. “We know you have them too.”

“
Hold on a second,”
Natalye said scooting back up to the table. Androse and Hudson were
completely calm as they looked at her, so they couldn’t have been
playing a joke. Zander seemed to be having the same reaction that
she was and all that was running through her mind was,
Oh
,
shit
.
They
know
. Natalye bit her bottom lip,
wondering if she should deny or admit. She wasn’t one for lying,
but this was something that she kept very close to her.

“
It’s okay,” Hudson
smiled. “You need a demo.”

“
I,” she started, but her
view of Hudson was suddenly obstructed by her plate which was now
floating in midair, unsupported. Natalye felt
hypnotized.

“
Oh, shit,” Zander
breathed.

Snapping out of it, Natalye lowered the
plate back down to the table with her hands. She needed to be
careful and honest. She didn’t want to start off with these guys on
the wrong foot by attempting to lie or hide, so she spoke before
she psyched herself out. “Y-yes. I…I do have powers, but-”

“
So do I,” interrupted
Zander, but no one was paying him any attention. This was the first
time that Natalye had ever spoken to anyone outside of her
immediate family about it and she thought her heart was going to
explode from it beating so hard.

“
Are you sure? All of this
is about…” She suddenly found it hard to speak.

“
Yeah. Awbrey’s mother
admitted it to her,” said Androse.

“
Awbrey?” Natalye felt
like her brain couldn’t hold any information. “Who’s
that?”

“
I’m Awbrey.”

Chapter
7

Awbrey

Awbrey didn’t know who the
girl was. She had curly dark brown hair that was tied in a bun at
the base of her neck, light hazel eyes, and her skin reminded
Awbrey of smooth caramel. She was clearly a bit of a tomboy; she
had on a plain t-shirt and pair of shorts, and she wore no
makeup.
At least she
’
s not some prissy
idiot
, Awbrey thought, though she still
wasn’t at all happy about the presence of another
female.

The girl seemed startled, but she collected
herself as she turned around and stood up. “Sorry about that,” she
said wiping her hands on her shorts. “I’m Natalye.” She held out
her hand and Awbrey leisurely shook it. “You have powers too,
then?”

“
Yeah,” Awbrey said sizing
her up. Anyone who knew Awbrey knew that she much preferred the
company of boys instead of girls, so much so that all of her
friends at school were guys apart from one girl who was very much
an exception.

“
This is crazy,” Natalye
said picking up her drink. “Are there any more people like us
here?”

“
Aside from our
grandparents? I don’t think so,” Androse said standing up and
taking his plate to the sink.

“
My mother has powers
along with me and my grandma,” Zander said as if he had just wanted
to speak against Androse who went about washing his dishes as if no
one had spoken. Awbrey tried to talk to him earlier after Zander
arrived and was rude to him. Awbrey and Hudson had both tried to
tell Androse that he needed to stop Zander before he got too
comfortable messing with him, but she guessed that the message
didn’t get through.

“
Is your grandmother
here,” Natalye asked.

“
No. She’s out of the
country,” said Zander. “What about you guys’ parents? Do they have
powers?” They all looked at each other, but didn’t answer Zander.
Awbrey wasn’t sure about Natalye and Androse, but for her and
Hudson, she knew perfectly well why they were keeping
quiet.

When Awbrey was five years old, her parents
separated. Andrew had just turned two and Hallie and O’Ryann had
been subsequently having problems for a while. One of the issues
that drove them apart was Hallie’s suspicion that her husband
wasn’t being faithful. She had no physical evidence to prove it,
but after O’Ryann brought one of his female co-workers to Andrew’s
birthday celebration, Awbrey was the one who ended up finding the
proof for her mother.

The woman’s name was Dawn; Awbrey never knew
her last name. They decided to have Andrew’s party in their
backyard and just as they were about to sing to him, Dawn asked
O’Ryann if he could show her to the bathroom. While they were
waiting, Hallie asked Awbrey to run to the kitchen and grab another
box of disposable forks. On her way there she saw Dawn groping her
father in a very inappropriate place in the middle of the hallway.
Hallie had always encouraged honesty, so when Awbrey got back
outside she told her mother what she saw and soon wished that she
hadn’t. Hallie confronted O’Ryann in the middle of the festivity
starting an awful fight that ended with Dawn being thrown out by a
family friend, O’Ryann confessing just how unfaithful he’d been,
and then Hallie punching O’Ryann square in the mouth. All of their
guests wasted no time in scooping up their children, wishing Andrew
a final “happy birthday,” and heading straight to their vehicles
having probably already heard more expletives in ten minutes than
they had their whole lives. A few hours later, Oren managed to calm
Hallie down, but there was no changing her mind. Before the end of
the night, Awbrey’s mother told her father that she was done and
wanted a divorce.

O’Ryann had been a very successful real
estate agent and still was. He was unquestionably the bread-winner
of their household and there was no way that Hallie could afford to
hire the type of lawyer that he employed. Awbrey didn’t remember
much of what happened during that time because she was young, but
she did remember a few occasions where she overheard her mother
talk about how O’Ryann only wanted custody of Andrew and that she
wouldn’t allow it. Her father’s lawyer was ruthless, but in the end
lawyers didn’t matter because Hallie proposed a settlement.

Instead of having to endure more fighting,
heartache, and the seemingly inevitable separation of her children,
Hallie stated that she wanted nothing but child support and full
custody of both Awbrey and Andrew. The judge asked Hallie if she
was sure of her proposal and urged her to reconsider, but she
wouldn’t. After the divorce was finalized, O’Ryann ended up walking
away with almost everything and wasted no time in kicking Hallie
out of “his” house. Because she had custody of Awbrey and Andrew,
Hallie took them with her and not having anywhere else to turn,
they went to stay with Oren. Awbrey still remembered the many days
and nights where she heard her mother crying whether it was to her
grandmother, on the phone, or by herself; it seemed as if that was
all Hallie had the strength to do. So during that time, Oren
stepped in and really took care of her and her brother. Eventually
Hallie stopped crying, and with Oren’s help she finally started
picking herself back up.

Hallie was an extremely talented artist. At
the beginning of their marriage, O’Ryann bought Hallie her own
space which she turned into an art gallery not only to display and
sell her own work, but to help out a lot of local artists who
needed help and somewhere to present and sell their own efforts. As
they neared the end of the divorce, Hallie tried her best to keep
the gallery but O’Ryann wouldn’t budge claiming that if he granted
her request it would violate their settlement. O’Ryann was also
careful to point out that since he in fact bought the building, it
actually belonged to him regardless of whether the place served a
purpose for him or not. However, using the money that she was able
to save up, Hallie purchased a whole new building and started over
with a fresh determination.

A lot of the local artists whom her mother
had helped found out about what she was doing and they all pitched
in and aided in the repairing and fixing up of her new place while
some of her previous art buyers donated money for the cause. In
time, Hallie got her gallery up and running and before she knew it,
she was the owner of one of the top urban art galleries in Arizona.
The best part about it to Hallie was the fact that she did it on
her own with the help of people who cared about and loved her and
without O’Ryann. All of the money that she had received over the
years for child support was put into an account and remained
untouched; she decided that saving it for Awbrey and Andrew was a
better option than having her ex-husband contribute in any way to
their new lives. They were soon able to move out of Oren’s house
after Hallie purchased a home of her very own, and after getting on
her feet and gaining the ability to sufficiently support herself
and her family, Hallie finally cut all ties with O’Ryann for the
most part and even gave up his last name. He was still allowed
visitation, but that was a privilege that he seldom used; he missed
countless birthdays, Christmases, Thanksgivings, and essentially
every major event that happened in his children’s lives. Ever since
they moved from Oren’s and became completely independent of
O’Ryann, Awbrey never really saw Hallie cry unless she was
exceptionally happy, so she was heartbroken that her strong,
persistent, and courageous mother had been shedding so many tears
recently and she couldn’t wait to find out why.

“
Is no one going to answer
me,” Zander asked, bringing Awbrey out of her train of
thought.

“
I don’t know if,” started
Natalye, but she was interrupted.

“
We would like for you all
to come to the living room. Please,” Kate said standing in the
entrance to the kitchen with her hands folded in front of her.
Awbrey felt her heart sink.

“
We’ll be right there,
Grandma,” said Hudson, quickly getting up from the table and
walking over to Awbrey. As soon as Kate left he whispered, “Do you
think this is it?”

“
Must be,” Awbrey
responded, still staring at the place where Kate was just
standing.

“
Dude, that was
your
grandmother
,” Zander said in amazement. “Wow.”

Awbrey grabbed Hudson’s hand and proceeded
to leave the kitchen. As nervous as she was to find out what was
going on and why there were so many people in her grandmother’s
house, her present feeling of wanting to choke and drown Zander at
the same time overtook everything else.