September (Adelaide) 30

Tyler had been watching her for weeks. Well, months. They were entering the second 9-weeks of the school year. Sara was everything, but he couldn't approach her despite being table mates in one of their classes. They were cordial and worked well together. The most reaction he got from her was the first week of school. The second class of the year, when she walked to their desk and looked up to see his face with bruises.

He remembered her initial concern about what had happened and if he was ok. He spun a quick story, not wanting to admit that he had gotten into a fight in the school cafeteria because some guy made comments about the cute girl in his class. He overheard him make inappropriate comments about her and just felt an overwhelming amount of rage. He had never experienced anything like it before, but he was ashamed that he lashed out and jumped on the guy. He was lucky. He was a good student and never got in trouble, so the Head Mistress let him off with a warning and detention. It wasn't great. He missed the first Newspaper Club meeting, and his goal was to get an Editor position this year.

He was more embarrassed about his overwhelming need for her. It wasn't to a self-destructive point, but it was getting worse. Heavier. When she sat next to him in class, his skin tingled. He felt a deep peace when she accidentally touched him one day when passing him a paper. He dreamed about her. He dreamed. He thought about her almost every waking minute. He didn't understand what was happening. Tyler had crushes before, but whatever was going on with Sara was very different.

Tyler had avoided his feelings for her, especially because she didn't really try to interact with him outside of class. They were on different tracks. She was a dancer, a good one. Friends always surrounded her or that brother of hers was near. She didn't seem bothered by it, but his impression was that he was incredibly overbearing and protective. Now, he felt that if he didn't say something soon, he would explode.

It was time to take the leap. The class was being assigned a table project in Political History so he would have plenty of time to talk to her. At this point, he was just curious if there was any real attraction between them at all or if he was just a horny teenager. Noticing that the bell was going to ring soon, he sat with anticipation, staring at the notebook in front of him, hands clasped tightly on his lap.

"Fuck." he whispered under his breath.

"Hey, Tyler." He heard her angelic voice. "You seem to be having a tough day. Is everything good?"

Taking a deep breath, he looked up into her golden brown eyes.

'Yes,' he thought to himself, 'I'm totally fucked.'

"Yeah." He croaked out as his voice caught.

She smiled back at him as she took his seat.

"Ok, that's good. I was worried for a second you were sick." She hesitated, biting her lip.

The bell rang and their teacher moved straight into introducing the project.

"-The key is to remember that you have limited class time to work on this project." Their teacher droned. "You have to make time during free periods and probably outside of school to complete this project. Rubrics and examples have been uploaded into our online classroom for you to use. Honestly, I expect 'A's. Most of you are juniors. At this point, you are preparing for real life. You are going to college or trying to find a job. Impress me. You can use the rest of today to trade contacts and start planning."

Tyler felt a jolt of electricity go through him as he realized he would get her number. Better yet, he might get to hang out with her. He looked over as he heard her low giggle.

" Well, Ty, I am sorry to say that you may have gotten the short stick. My schedule is super hectic because of school and other activities. I don't know if you know that I am on the Fine Arts track. So yeah." She drawled. "I'll make it work, but we will have to plan, like, really well. I'm sorry." Miza apologized.

He stayed silent for a moment, stunned. Sara gave him a nickname. He smiled brightly at her, causing her brows to draw together in confusion.

"Ty, what's up?"

"Don't worry, Sara, I will be wherever you need me."

He watched as a gentle smile plastered itself across her face as she flushed before she composed herself again. He bit his lip as he watched her pull herself together. She brought her fist to her mouth and coughed into it before pulling her phone out as he watched her.

"Ok then, let's trade numbers, and then maybe we can meet Saturday afternoon."

~

Miza sat in their backyard, trying to focus all of her energies. They decided that it was time for her to start training again seriously. Well, training her powers as the Goddess Incarnate. She hadn't really touched them since before they left since she was so busy prepping for her birthday and Akierda's confirmation, then they were running and hiding. She focused on relaxing her body, trying not to think about how stressed she was.

Their Goddess was a mother goddess and creator. As her incarenated self, Miza had a fraction of that power if she trained herself to harness it. Working with the earth came naturally to her. She had always been drawn to the gardens and the forest, so she decided that this was where she started. She took her time trying to hear, feel, and experience the trees, the grass, and the organisms living in and nourishing the soil. When she felt a moment of clarity, she paused and lifted her hand, focusing her energies. Miza gave a few moments to focus, but she failed today. The exercise was intended to help her create or draw life to her. And she didn't. Again.

Every Saturday morning, she spent a few hours trying to create after meditating throughout the week. She sighed with frustration. It wasn't enough. How was she supposed to devote enough time to learning to control and use her powers, go to school, and prepare for an unveiling? She didn't have the time she needed to focus on this.

Miza reached over to grab her phone and realized that noon was quickly approaching. She told Tyler that she would come to his house at 1:30 to work on their project. She had enough time to shower and go. She was a sweaty, gross mess. Trying to control the divine energies she had access to was difficult, and she truly wished she had access to the Temple to assist her. She was purely going off of the little information she read from the past Goddess Incarnates and her instinct.

Honestly, she was convinced her instincts sucked.

She pulled the back door open to head to 'her' room, which was really the new nest where the four of them currently slept together.

"How did it go, Darling," Valon asked from his seat in their library area.

"Not great. I mean, I can feel it; I just can't use it. I am missing something, and I haven't quite grasped what it is. I have to make time to commune. I need to be closer to a veil for that, though, bec ause I don't know how to channel Leana properly." She sighed.

"That isn't sa-." Valon started to say but was cut off.

"I know that Val. I know. I just don't know what to do at the moment." Miza huffed

"Are you still meeting with Tyler?" Setting his book on the table beside him while peering at her.

"Yes, but for school stuff." She curtly responded.

"Jus says he is one of us." She could hear the seriousness in his tone.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"Jus needs to shut up." She said extra loudly in a sing-song-y voice, hoping her boyfriend would hear her from wherever he was. " Yes, I felt the pull of a tether, but I can't. I can't start a new relationship. I can't bring someone else in." She responded wearily.

"I don't think you will have a choice. The kid has to know by now that something is up." Valon warned her.

"I don't know, but I just need to make it through this class. Let's just hope that the pull doesn't affect Tyler because he is human. J is dropping me off. Ty and I were texting, and he requested, and I quote, 'Can we ditch the overprotective brother for a little while?'" Miza shook her head. "Maybe we should do something about that. Everyone at school knows that I have an 'overprotective older brother.'"

"Well, they are just gonna have to get over it." Justin mumbled as he walked into the sitting room.

"Jus, You gotta do something." She said. "Join a club, make a friend. Do something." she attempted to encourage him.

"How about I do something when you do something? Besides, that's not my job." Justin countered.

"Ty has nothing to do with people thinking you are a weirdo and overprotective. And we aren't here to only work." Miza refuted.

"Maybe if 'Ty' was on our side, I wouldn't be the one who is everywhere, and people wouldn't be suspicious." Justin teased. "Honestly, the whole gay dads and adopted siblings thing was great at the time, but it's not working." He concluded, face twisting in disgust.

"I am not bringing someone into our life just because we can't figure out how to blend in properly. Accepting him puts him at risk. I am not prepared for the consequences of that." Miza reiterated. She had said all of this before.

"Yeah, well, I hate the consequences that pretending that my lover is my younger sister means that people assume she is available and flirt with her all the time. I also am not prepared to deal with the consequences of not being there if you need me." Justin attempted to reason with Miza, but she just made a face and rolled her eyes at him.

"Jealous Jus is a strange experience," Valon said quietly.

"Well, none of us have had to deal with the idea of people who don't belong to her coveting her. In our kingdom, you were always present. She wasn't available at any point. This is just part of the "her being a normal girl." Donnie pointed out as he joined them upon hearing their back in forth from the study.

"At no point did we ever discuss her being available," Justin grumbled angrily.

"Ok, I don't understand the problem. I am not available. These people are just my peers." Miza reminded Justin, whose mood had soured.

"Who don't know to keep their grumbly hands off of you." He replied to her as if she were being unreasonable. He sucked his teeth when Valon chuckled.

"Ok, well, I know that I don't want their 'grumbly hands' on me, so I feel like everything should be ok. I don't think even Ty can help if you are not trusting me." Miza informed them both.

"Of course, I trust you. I don't trust them." Justin concluded, causing both Valon and Miza to give him exasperated looks.

"I feel like if this is not a security question, we have bigger problems than 'grumbly hands,' J. Do we have a problem?" Miza asked him softly. Justin groaned loudly, turning to walk away.

"I'll be in the car." He informed them.

They quietly watched him walk away hunched over.

"Is this being a normal teenager, Val?" She asked

"I suppose hiding and lying does become stressful after a while. It doesn't affect me as much because I'm not around it. I can imagine that I would feel angry if I had to hear people talk about you the way he says the boys do, and I couldn't really say anything. I think this is just one of those adjustments we have to make because we are living beyond the veil. There isn't much you can do because we never had to hide. We all feel strain because we are lying. Its just not in my face that people always want you like it is for Justin. I never really thought about it, but knowing that its happening does make me uncomfortable." He paused for a moment while Miza gathered her belongings.

"Compared to how we were before we left, our relationships have been increasingly platonic." Miza looked back to Valon and saw Donnie nodding to him. Miza stiffened as she thought it over. "Perhaps we should do something over your break. Maybe it will help him." Valon mused.

"I guess you are right. Yeah. I love you both. See you in the evening." She waved, smiling sadly at them. Donte walked up to Valon, resting his hands on his shoulders as they watched the door closed behind her.

"I didn't account for this, Don. I don't know why I just thought we could be us." Valon said, standing up from the chair. "When we were planning, we were not supposed to be on the run and hiding. The den wasn't supposed to be broken up. We weren't supposed to be fighting for our lives." Donte turned Valon so that he was facing him, taking his head in his hands and forcing him to look him in the eyes.

"You didn't fuck up, love. This is just the hand we were given. We will work through it." Donte asserted.

He bent to give him a tender kiss, trying to soothe the stress away as Valon sighed against him. He pulled the younger man's body close to him, pushing all of his love and support into the embrace.

"You are not alone in this. Our family will make it through this." Donte reminded him.

~

Sara had been at Tyler's house for a couple of hours already. They were doing well and were coming up on their agreed break time as they were finalizing their notes on what their project would entail.

"Ok," Sara began, smiling at him. " We have agreed to do a Comparative Analysis of 10 major political events over the last 200 years. We will create a visual timeline for the classroom presentation summarizing the event, its local and global significance, how it was covered in the 'news,' and the ethical considerations of that coverage. For our report, we will discuss the importance of ethics in journalism, provide a synopsis of each event in case study form, discuss the common ethical issues that occurred, and present how journalists as individuals can keep integrity in their area of expertise. Is that the basics?"

"Yeah. If this isn't 'A' material, I have no idea what he wants. Let's take a break, and then we can do preliminary research on potential major events and type up the proposal. Do you want anything to eat? Drink refill?" Tyler checked-in.

"Another water would be great. Thanks, Ty." She smiled up at him again, causing his heart to beat painfully against his chest. He stood quickly and went to the kitchen. His family's house was pretty small. A simple two-bedroom is a quiet neighborhood.

"Tyler, control yourself." He whispered as he grabbed a glass to fill it from the water pitcher on the counter.

He wanted to kiss her. He really wanted to kiss her. But that was weird, right? They barely knew each other. He should change that. Yeah, that is totally what he should do. Was that weird? She came here to work on schoolwork, not get hit on, but he wanted her so much.

The more he was around her, the more he wondered if she knew how amazing people thought she was. From little conversations, he picked up that she knew she was pretty. She was beautiful. She was aware that she was talented enough that 'this amazing school let her in.' It was becoming very obvious to him, though, that she didn't know exactly how people talked about her. Guys and girls.

Could he get through the rest of the school year like this? He knew the answer. He knew he couldn't. He was afraid of insulting her or scaring her off, but he was also afraid of losing her. He shook his head to get himself together and head back to the living room. He was going to bite the bullet before she left.

"Here you go, Sara." He said sitting the glass in front of her. "Are you sure you don't want anything? I can order in."

"No, it's ok." She said, looking up from her phone. "I have a pretty strict diet and exercise routine for dance."

"That takes a lot of discipline." He noted.

"It does, but it doesn't have to ruin my fun. I have times I eat whatever, but I prefer 'healthier' options. I grew up a whole foods vegetarian. Since we moved here, I have been enjoying fast foods and convenience items, but too much makes me feel icky." She informed him.

She made a face, and he thought it was the cutest thing he had seen in his entire life.

"They didn't have fast food where you are from, or are your parents that strict?"

"We didn't really have it. We have more like street vendors who make quick snacks out of what was produced on the island."

"Oh, which island are you from? I thought you had an accent, but I couldn't place it." Tyler inquired, loving the opportunity to learn more about her.

"Um. You wouldn't know it. It's not a tourist island. It's closed to visitors. Um, so it's getting late should we finish up." Frowning, he nodded and allowed the noticeable change of topic. They worked for another hour and a half sorting through major events until they agreed on 5; that was enough for a proposal. They filled out the form in the online classroom and submitted it.

"I think we work pretty well together, Ty. I am happy you are my partner." She told him.

'Well, hopefully, I am not about to ruin that.' He thought pensively.

"I'm glad you think so, Sara. Um, I hope this isn't too awkward." He paused causing her to look back up from her phone that she had been typing into. " Sara, I have really enjoyed the little bit of time that we've spent together so far this year, and if you don't think it's too awkward, I would like to spend more time with you. Outside of school, you know." Tyler confessed.

She was silent for a long moment. Tyler swore he saw tears gathering in her eyes before that collected face of hers came back.

"I'm sorry, Ty. I think I mentioned before that I am really busy with dance, and I have to decide on my final project. You are a nice guy, but I don't think it's really possible for me to pursue relationships right now." He deflated. "I'm so sorry, Ty." She said, watching his face fall.

Miza scrambled to gather her stuff together.

"It's fine, Sara. I'm sorry, you don't have to run out. I apologize for making it awkward." Tyler said.

"I'll see you next week." She sniffled as she dashed out the door before he could stand or say goodnight.

She was relieved that Justin was right outside. She quickly got into the car.

"Miza, baby, what happened?" He asked, looking her over.

"Just drive, Jus." She sobbed as the tears started to fall. "Shit!" She yelled in frustration as the car began to move, and she curled into herself.

"Baby?" Justin asked with worry, glancing back and forth between his lover and the road.

"I'm fine." She whispered. "I'll be fine."