What’s The Next Step 6

Next Step 6

Chapter 6: Changes

Amalina
I could not put the book down. “In Finnish folklore, Aurora is known as Revontulet or fox fires. Revontulets are the sparks swept into the atmosphere by the tails of the foxes,” I told my friends after breakfast. “You told us that already,” Ling said. “What about this one? In Latvian folklore’s, they believe aurora are the fighting souls of the dead warriors. It is also an omen,” I added and saw the look on Teva’s face.

“Any plans today?” Carlisle asked. He was stomping his boots on the mat. He held out a package to Damien. “It’s the result of the blood test,” Damien announced when he opened the package. He took out a bunch of papers and together with Carlisle, they read the papers.

“Well?” Tyng asked. “What did it say?” Teva asked when they did not reply. “I don’t get it,” Carlisle said and took one paper from Damien’s hand. “They are planning to send your blood samples to another lab to double check,” he added when Edward repeated our questions.

“Is there a problem with us?” Trisha asked. All of us turned away from the television and looked at Carlisle and Damien. “They didn’t say. Let me call them,” Carlisle said and hurried upstairs. “I need to speak wit you. Privately,” Tyng said and tugged Caleb upstairs.

“So what do we do now?” Alice asked. All of us planted ourselves in front of the fireplace since Emmett was watching sports on the TV. He took the opportunity to switch channels when we were busy looking away. Tim lit the fireplace. It was winter time in Alaska. We had to wear thick clothing indoors too.

“Do you have a game called Twister?” Teva piped up suddenly. “Nope. Never heard of it,” Tim replied after poking the firewood. “How is it played? Sounds fun,” Alice cut in. She leaned forwards from the sofa. Teva and Trisha took turns to explain the game to Alice and Rosalie. Jasper ignored the television and seem interested too.

Pogue took out a big piece of mahjong paper even before we finished explaining. We drew circles on the paper and coloured each row with a different colour. The guys made the indicator with a cardboard. We took a few minutes to complete everything since the vampires move fast.

It didn’t take long for us to get all knotted up. Alice was very flexible. Rosalie frowned in concentration while trying to balance herself. Jasper couldn’t stop laughing. “Whoa,” Bella said when she wobbled. We were split into two teams since there were a lot of us. Emmett refused to join us so he spun the indicator and shouted instructions to us.

It turned into a girls versus guys game. Tyng and Caleb joined the guys team to even out the number. We took a few minutes break to rest. Although it was winter, we sweated a lot. “What did you the both of you talk about anyway?” Pogue asked. “We can’t tell you until we’re sure,” Caleb said and shot a glance at Edward and Alice. Edward nodded and Alice just pretended not to know. “You’re going to elope?” Trisha shrieked.

Tyng groaned. “No. It’s much more serious. We’ll tell you when the time comes,” Caleb replied in a serious tone. “She’s pregnant,” Amelia said. Tyng rolled her eyes. “No, I’m not,” Tyng said. “I wish I have Tyng’s gift. Then I can make them spill the beans,” Ling teased.

“I told you my friends will jump into conclusions that are way way out of topic,” Tyng said to Caleb. “I want Edward’s mind reading ability. Why don’t you read their mind and tell us?” Bella asked Edward. Edward shook his head.

“I’m going to respect their privacy unlike you guys,” he added. That’s when the argument started. They compared their abilities. Trisha kept quiet.

“I know that all of you have certain special abilities but some of us do not have abilities ok? It’s not nice,” Esme said when she came into the room with the adults. Our argument got louder and louder so the adults came in to check.

“Sorry. It was immature of us,” Edward said. “Quite so,” Esme said and looked at all of us. “I think all of them are bored,” Arwen spoke up and smiled at us. Her tone told me something different is about to happen. “It’s time they return to school,” Arwen said calmly. All of us groaned in unison.

“I think it’s a good idea,” Carlisle said from the first floor. He was looking down at us. “Dad!” Alice yelled in disbelief. “All of you are too relaxed. We’ll start homeschooling tomorrow. I’ll arrange everything,” Melissa added before any of us could argue. With that, the adults resumed to their own activities.

“I’ll go make brain food for all of you,” Mr. Baile said and smiled cheerily before waltzing into the kitchen. “He’s just like Niles the Butler from The Nanny,” Tyng commented.

Melissa actually meant it when she said she’ll arrange our study plan. Arwen teaches us languages, Melissa will teach us cooking, Carlisle agreed to teach us the Science subjects and Legolas will teach us Sports. Imagine that.

“You teach sports?” Teva asked. We looked at his gown. “Is there a problem?” he asked. “You can’t run in that. No offense though,” I commented. “Who says we’re running and all the other nonsense? I’m going to teach you guys archery,” Legolas said and shook his head. Sweat.

“What about Mr. Baile and Damien?” Edward asked, always the enquiring mind and right now finds everything ridiculous.

“They are going to give you guys driving lessons,” Melissa said. “What?” Pogue said incredulously. Jasper almost fell out from his chair when he heard Melissa. “We know how to drive already,” Emmett argued. Edward snorted. “Then there won’t be a problem. You learn again. Besides, if you behave, you guys can learn to drift,” Esme said calmly. The boys relaxed. Rosalie and Alice’s eyes shone. Bella looked worried. “On ice?” she squeaked.

I knew they planned this all along. All of us sulked and put on a long and sour face. “Your first class is with Arwen. It starts in 10 minutes,” Melissa reminded us. We dragged ourselves to a room upstairs. It was modified to look like a classroom. Arwen was reading a book behind a table.

Surprisingly, the classes weren’t horrendous. It was totally different somehow. We didn’t to copy down any notes. They are good and skillful teachers. We can actually relate to them. We laughed so much during our classes.

The best class would be archery and driving. Legolas was fun to aim at. We purposely aimed at him when we got better. We’ll pin Legolas to the board. We had a really good teacher. For driving, Mr. Baile took over the guys while Damien taught us girls. The guy’s used Edward’s Volvo while us girls used Melissa’s Suzuki Swift. Initially, Damien wanted to use Rosalie’s M3 but he decided the Suzuki was better. Trisha was super excited.

Rosalie and Alice were bored to death so Carlisle taught all of his children drifting with another car from the garage.

Finally, we went for dinner. Dinner was served late because Mr. Baile forgot to cook. We were all eating and chatting happily although we were all exhausted. Halfway through, the phone rang and Carlisle went out to answer the call.

When he came back, his smile got smaller.

“I just got the results and it’s a bit of a shock to me.”