"I'm not telling," she laughed, "and you also aren't saying you do trust me! I'm not stupid." She just couldn't stop grinning. The idea of keeping a fun secret from him made her feel like they were good friends already. "I promise you'll know as soon as we get to my house. I need your help with the heavy stuff anyway. Once you see it all, if you don't approve of my plan then you can tell me. And you don't have to feel bad, I understand it's a lot of time to commit."

Alice gave directions to her house, though she was terrible at remembering to point out a turn between talking to him about her week and asking about his. "You know all the girls are disappointed you won't be playing this year. I think you're one of their fa- oh, turn now, left! Sorry," she groaned as the wheels screeched from him having to turn so quickly, as he'd almost passed it. "Anyway, you're definitely a favorite. Do you think you'd enjoy trying out for any other sport to fill your time?" she asked, playing with her phone as she spoke. Probably another reason she kept forgetting to give him directions. "If I played anything, I think it would be volleyball, I really like it in gym and on the sand court out at the park. Only thing is people get so angry, it's ridiculous! Why do people care so much about sports? Silly, I think. Oh, you were supposed to turn there," she giggled, grinning shyly.

Eventually they made it to her house, the mistakes she'd made along the way only putting her in a better mood. It seemed she'd made a game out of accidentally annoying him, and didn't mind one bit that it'd taken longer than normal to get there. "Dad isn't home. He's working late...again, so I'm supposed to fend for myself for dinner. Which is fine, I usually fix it anyway," she said, walking up the cobblestone path to her two story house. It was a beautiful brick home with lovely landscaping they probably hired someone to take care of since her father was away so much. Whatever he did for a living, they weren't hurting for money. "Come on in," she said, unlocking the door and letting him into the foyer. Immediately Alice went down the hallway and waved for him to follow, eventually leading him to what looked like a room meant completely for storage.

"I thought...if you want," she said, getting on her toes to reach for big, bright yellow bag on the top shelf. It was a tent, all packed away "We might stay out there. Go camping. I told Dad a bunch of people are going so he won't miss the supplies, but...we could go by ourselves. Get some hot dogs, you could use my dad's sleeping bag..." Alessia bit her lip, giving him a small shrug. "Is it a good surprise? I swear, don't feel bad if you don't want to. I know we're technically not allowed to camp out there expect in specified areas."

The car ride on the way to Alice’s house was a rather frustrating experience for Lucas, since both of them were too distracted by their conversation—Alice forgot to give directions, and Lucas forgot to make turns. Despite their occasional breaks in chatter to give directions or to let out swear words, their conversation was much more lively than their last one. When Alice asked about joining another sports team to fill in the time, Lucas shook his head.

“Nah,” he said, making the turn she instructed him to do. “I was gonna join some rec football team, but I’m kinda enjoying all this free time. I am gonna try out for basketball in the winter though.”

“Volleyball players are super hot,” Lucas added when Alice had brought that topic up. He pulled a quick illegal U-turn in order to return to the intersection. “And I don’t really know why people get so worked up with sports…” he said, keeping his eyes on the road. “I mean, I get worked up, yeah, but I’m not sure why… I guess it’s a pride thing?” In reality, Lucas wasn’t sure, but he could understand why the negativity would affect Alice.

When they finally got to Alice’s rather fancy house, he hopped out of the driver’s seat and followed inside. The foyer smelled like some kind of pine, giving it a relaxing, outdoorsy vibe.
Immediately, Alice beckoned for him to follow her into a storage room whose walls were lined with shelves. Lucas was still very curious about what Alice had planned, and he watched her reach up for a yellow bag on the top shelf.

“I thought...if you want, we might stay out there. Go camping. I told Dad a bunch of people are going so he won't miss the supplies, but...we could go by ourselves. Get some hot dogs, you could use my dad's sleeping bag…” The brunette bit her lip and shrugged. ”Is it a good surprise? I swear, don't feel bad if you don't want to. I know we're technically not allowed to camp out there expect in specified areas.”

Lucas raised an eyebrow at her, intrigued. That was certainly a surprise. He was expecting her to take him to a party or something, but Lucas realized that probably wasn’t like her at all. The thought of camping in the woods while it was warm out did seem pretty cool… Plus, he’d be alone with her. The thought sent a small burst of epinephrine “butterflies” into his stomach. That night would prove to be very interesting.

“That sounds really cool,” Lucas replied rather enthusiastically. “I’ve never gone camping with people other than my extended family before,” he laughed. Before saying another word, he pulled his phone out of his pocket and quickly dialed in his mom’s number.

He held it up to his ear as it rang, looked to Alice, and gave her a smirk with a wink.

“Mom?” he said, returning his eyes to a neutral position. “It’s Lucas… Oh, you know, it was boring as usual… What?… No, it’s fine really. We’re probably gonna suck this season anyway. Yeah. Yeah, I think I’m gonna try out for basketball. Yeah, in the winter… What? Oh, yeah, can I go spend that night at Ryder’s house? Ryder Capello. Yes you know him, he’s been to our house before! Blond hair? Tall? Yeah, his dad’s the surgeon. Yeah, yeah. I’m going to his house tonight… Oh, just with some friends. We might see a movie or something… Yeah, I know, I know, I’ll call you tomorrow, okay? All right, thanks Mom. Tell Dad I say hi. All right. Peace.”

He pulled his phone away from his ear and tapped ‘End call.’

“We’re all good to go,” he told Alice with a smile. “I guess I don’t really need to bring anything, do I?”

Alice was grinning ear to ear during the entire phone conversation. "Uh, if you want to run by your house and grab something to sleep in that's fine by me, but I've got everything else. I get pretty cold at night so I have plenty of blankets you can borrow up in my room." She handed him the tent, turning to grab two rolled up sleeping bags off a lower shelf, one dark green and another purple, the latter obviously being hers. "You promise you don't mind doing this?" she asked again, afraid she was putting him out. "I know your friends probably have plans, it's Friday night afterall. I forget how popular people like you have such busy schedules," she joked, making playful gestures of being fancy and conceded. In all honesty, she herself probably had a higher reputation at school than she knew, or at least would like to admit. Only difference was she didn't act on it after the bell rang. Unfortunately she still had her own mental walls up, else she would have felt herself how much he liked the idea of spending the night with her.

After they'd loaded all the camping supplies into the SUV Alice took him up to her bedroom, grabbing the blankets and a cordless charger for her phone. "Thing dies on me all the time," she muttered, shoving it into her duffel bag. "So you and your parents...they seem to keep a pretty close watch on you, wanting to know who your staying with. Is that normal for them?" she asked, folding a large tshirt and shorts into her bag to sleep in out of a white dresser that matched her bed frame. The room was typical for a teenager. The walls were a pale green that matched the sewing on her white bedspread. There were plenty of pictures craftily placed on the wall in various ways, from hanging on ribbon with clothes pins to collages along the floor length mirror. She even had her own bathroom that had a standing glass shower and a tub. The room itself was fairly clean except for a few pieces of clothing here and there on her tan carpet, including a a bra and a couple thongs. Alice seemed either oblivious to it or didn't care much what Lucas saw.

"Okay, do you need a blanket? Grab two if you do, if not just get mine please. I'll get the food and I'll meet you outside, okay?" With one last excited smile his way she bounded down the stairs to put hot dogs, water, and supplies to make s'mores in a kooler. "Hey," she said not two minutes later, carrying the bag on her shoulder and a pair of silver handcuffs in her hand, "look what I found. I went into storage to make sure we grabbed everything and found these on the floor. I bet they hold some pretty wild stories, huh?" she smirked, putting the last of their things into the back of his car. "Dad used to be a police officer before I came along, maybe that's what they're from. How about I look into their past when we're around the fire for a good story?" she asked, shoving them into her bag and getting back in the passenger seat. "We stopping by your house or heading straight there?"

Lucas shook his head. “I don’t really need anything, I think,” he said. The only thing he really thought he would need was a fresh change of clothes, but he actually already had that: a white T-shirt, black basketball shorts, and a pair of boxers. He had brought them into school to use as a change of clothes after his gym class, but he had forgotten to put them in his locker room locker. He supposed it was a good thing he forgot, then. Although, he wondered if he would even change during their leave.

“And I don’t mind,” he added with a chuckle when she brought the subject up. “There wasn’t anything planned for tonight anyway.”

He went outside to help her pack some supplies into the back of his SUV. Afterwards, she lead him up to her room where she grabbed some blankets and a cordless phone charger. He took a gander around the room, and wasn’t too surprised to see that many of its elements were matching with one another, with minimal clutter. He caught sight of a bra and some pairs of thongs, but he didn’t really mind. He was sure just about every teenager leaves their underwear on their bedroom floor. When Alice mentioned that her phone died all the time, Lucas opened his mouth to remind her that he could charge her phone himself, but she then began to talk about his parents.

Lucas shrugged at her question. “I mean, I guess,” he answered with a raised eyebrow. “Like, they don’t want me to get into any trouble. I may have been involved in some problems in the past, but I’ve mostly mellowed out now, I guess.”

When Alice went to grab some food, Lucas followed what she had said and pulled the blanket from her bed, figuring he’d only need one as it was still pretty warm out this time of year. When he came outside to meet her, he noticed a shiny pair of handcuffs dangling from her grip. Lucas let out a nervous laugh when she said they’d probably have some wild stories to tell, but then she explained that her dad used to be a cop. Oh. That’s not what he had originally thought.

“Sure,” Lucas replied somewhat tentatively to her suggestion. “I’m sure we’ll see something interesting.” He grinned to himself and got into the car after placing the blanket into the backseat. As he climbed into the driver’s seat, Alice inquired if he needed to stop by his house on the way.

“No,” he answered. “Though, we’re gonna have to drive by it anyway. I don’t need anything though.”

With that, he pulled out of her driveway and started off toward his neighborhood, trying to remember the route himself. The two of them talked their usual enthusiastic conversations on the way there, and within about ten minutes, Lucas pulled the car over to the side of the road. To their right was a rather dense forest for a suburban area, filled with all kinds of deciduous trees, a few just barely beginning to change from bright green to more paler shades, yellow, and a few red; between these trees, tall, dark green coniferous trees stood strong and proud.

“Normally, I’d worry about leaving my car here unattended,” Lucas said, looking out Alice’s window at the forest. “But hardly anyone drives by here, let alone walk. I think we’ll be okay. Let’s just move quick because I don’t think it’s legal to be having out own campout in here.”

He hopped out and grabbed as much equipment as he could without having to strain himself and lead the way, trudging forward into the familiar forest he had been into so many times before. After walking for about ten or fifteen minutes and avoiding logs, sticks, and the occasional patch of poison ivy, the two of them were surrounded completely by trees on all sides. There was no sign of a road—or civilization for that matter.

“It’s easy to get disoriented in here,” Lucas said, setting some of his equipment down, but I know the forest pretty well. He straightened back up and pointed behind him toward a grand pine tree with a large trunk. About five feet from the ground, its bark was black and cindered.

“That’s the tree I first tested my powers on,” he explained. “It’ll act as our compass needle. It’s directed toward the road. That’s how I find my way back.”

“Whoa! You did that all by yourself?!” she exclaimed, “Lucas that’s crazy. You have to do it for me later.” Alice dropped the sleeping bag and supplies she’d been carrying, giving an exaggerated sigh as her bag dropped to the ground. “I’m glad you know the way back though. I have enough trouble finding my car in a parking lot, much less my way out of a forest.” The girl laughed, taking a moment to appreciate the beauty around her. “It’s so peaceful out here. Do you come often?” she asked, coming to stand at his side.

“How about I get the tent started while you get wood for a fire? I’ve done it by myself before, I’ll be fine.” Alice pulled on the bottom of her pleaded skirt, thinking she should have changed, before kneeling down and starting to unpack. By the time he came back she would have the tent up and was just rolling out the sleeping bags. Alice sat in front of the tent, staring at the two bags a foot away. She bit her lip, considering the distance. It was seeming too far the longer she stared at it. Hearing him drop the fire wood she quickly moved hers a little more toward the middle and crawled out, a slight blush on her cheeks from her mini dilemma. Maybe this wasn’t such a great idea…she wasn’t exactly smooth when it came to these types of situations. Play it cool, Alice, this was just two friends camping out. He probably didn’t think any more than that anyway. Heck, she hadn’t even asked if he was dating anyone…crap. Surely he wouldn’t have come if he was.

“Okay. Now that everything is set up and we’re free to do what we want the rest of the evening, can you show me a few things? I’ve been excited all day. I want to see you do stuff around here, and- oh, and you can charge my phone!” she grinned, looking again at the tree he’d already damaged. It was just them, two psychics. Knowing that she finally let her guard down, his presence and emotions becoming a reassuring sensation. Usually she would warn let him know, but he seemed all right with it before. “Is there something I need to know? Will I get shocked if I stand too close or something?”

“I mean maybe three or four times a month,” Lucas answered, not being able to come up with a definitive frequency of his coming to the forest. “Since I was thirteen… So doing that math… That’s quite a lot.” He laughed.

When Alice suggested he go collect some fire wood, he nodded and went off into the forest in search of suitable lumber. Back when his parents forced him to do Boy Scouts in sixth grade, one of the first things he learned was collecting the right amounts of different classes of wood: kindling, tinder, and fuelwood. The kindling was the most essential part, and you needed a lot of it: very small and brittle twigs, even some dehydrated leaves, if you could find them. After a few minutes, he had managed to collect a good amount of it into his arms. It was easier to find the kindling probably because not many people ventured into these woods often. Then, once Lucas decided that his amount of kindling was efficient, he began to pick up about half of the kindling’s amount in tinder: medium sized and preferably dry branches without any leaves. The fuelwood—or very large logs—would be a concern for later, after they started an initial blaze.

When he looked up after picked up his last piece of satisfactory tinder, he straightened up to find himself lost. Damn, it was so easy to get disoriented when you move around with your head down for a while. Keeping calm, Lucas shut his eyes and listened carefully, and eventually heard the sounds of faint rustling off to his right, which, he hoped, was coming from Alice.

He went off in that direction, and in about a minute or so, he was relieved to find her kneeling in front of the tent she had set up herself. Lucas approached their makeshift campsite and dropped his firewood down on a patch of leafless dirt. At that sound, Alice, made a quick movement inside the tent and crawled out hastily to face him, her cheeks burning red. He decided not to comment on it.

Lucas chuckled at what she said.

“Yes, I can charge your phone,” he replied. “But we can save that for when you’re low on battery.” He then took a few seconds to ponder what she had asked about her possibly getting shocked if she stood too close to him. That was one is his biggest fears—his powers unintentionally hurting someone he cared about.

“I’ve never really gone all out in front of someone before,” Lucas admitted, though he assumed she already knew that. “I guess keeping your distance couldn’t hurt. Lightning is dangerous and unpredictable.”

He turned around and scanned his surrounding for something that he could shock with his powers. His eyes fell upon the small stack of wood he had collected earlier and a bulb went off in his head.

“I have the perfect idea,” he told her, walking forward and arranging the small twigs and boughs into a neat pile. He walked around the campsite and gathered a handful of small rocks and placed them in the ground in a circle of about one and a half feet around the pile.

“This is so we don’t start a forest fire…” he grumbled, half-smirking at the prospect of them setting the forest ablaze. He hadn’t managed to do that before, but he wasn’t going to push his luck. He picked out any stray leaves or still leaving branches and tossed them out of the fire circle so that there was only dirt and the wood pile inside.

“All right,” he said. “We’re all ready here… Let’s see what we can do here.”

Lucas moved about seven or ten feet away from the fire circle; his and Alice’s positions from it formed a right angle. He assumed this was better then being directly in front of her or facing her head on.

Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes and concentrated on calling upon the electric power deep inside him. A familiar sensation tugged at his stomach, and Lucas knew the energy was ready to be channeled. In one fell swoop, Lucas opened his eyes, and, with a grunt of effort, thrust his balled right fist forward in the wood’s direction.

Zap!

In a flash, four branches of bright blue bolt of lightning were discharged from his knuckles, and they all converged directly on the wood. Lucas knew that a quick bolt wouldn’t be enough to start a fire, so he held the lightning for just a moment longer than usual and finally let go. With a loud crack, the wood pile burst into a bright flame.

Lucas dropped his fist and leaned over with his hands on his knees, out of breath, like he had just been running.

“It normally doesn’t take this much out of me,” he explained to her. “But I did keep the lightning visible longer than usual.”

"Whoa!" Alessia cried out with excitement, a wide grin on her face until Lucas bent over like he couldn't breathe. "Oh, wow...well that's what you get for showing off," she teased with a giggle, walking over to put a hand on his shoulder, making sure he was going to be all right. "That really was impressive, though. It's good to push yourself, see what you can do. But no more for a while, I don't want you getting hurt."

It wasn't quite time for dinner despite how much time she'd spent gathering things at her house. Alice laid out her blanket a yard or so away from the fire since it was plenty warm without the heat coming from it. It was amazing how far away the stress of school and what others might think of her abilities when there was distance between her and the town. "This all makes me wonder if I wouldn't be happier living out in the country. Not a hermit or anything, but with some land, some place to get away." She laid out on her back, hands behind her head. Her legs were tan from spending a good amount of time outside during the summer, and it showed her current outfit. It was rare to see her not in old jeans at school. The way she had her hair pulled back became a bother when she tried to get comfortable, so Alice let her brunette hair fall to the blanket as she put the hair tie around her wrist as usual. "Only problem with that is I've heard it's hard to find jobs outside the city."

Alice looked up at Lucas. "What do you want to do when you get outta here? I suppose I'll go to school. I'd love to do art, but let's be honest- there's no way I could support myself off that. I'm thinking psychology. Don't you think that'd be good with what I can do? Maybe I could work with kids. Psychic kids who need somebody to talk to! I just want to make a difference, wherever I go," she said, giving him an embarrassed shrug. "I sound stupid, don't I? It's also about getting out of this place. I know my dad took me back and all, but...I still don't know if he really wants me here. He seems so distant." After a moment Alice sat up, scooting to sit right beside him with her legs tucked beneath her. She pulled out her cellphone, going through her pictures until she found the one she was looking for. It was of a beautiful woman who was clearly related to Alice. They both had a very "natural" look to them, with the woman's laugh in the picture giving her more youth than she could have actually had considering the age of her daughter. "That's my mom! It's a picture of a picture, so I know it's not great. Anyway, I think he wants to just...forget. And I'm not helping. That's why I think I'll find an out of state college. No idea where though...I need to get on that, huh?" she smirked, putting the phone away.

"I didn't mean to get all serious on you. Any idea on your plans?" Oh, perfect time to slip in that little question she had for him...it wasn't that important, but if they were camping together she wanted to make sure she wasn't going to get her hair pulled or something come Monday morning by a jealous classmate. A couple of her friends had commented on how weird it was that he wasn't dating, but better safe than sorry. "You ah, got a girl you're following to a certain college or something? I know it's social suicide to not know who the football players are dating, but I can't keep up with it all," she joked, looking at the fire.

Lucas nodded at Alice’s concern and joined her in grabbing a blanket to sit on and watch the crackling fire. Lucas merely shrugged when she pondered moving out into the country. He could see why she would want to do that, but he, on the other hand, probably couldn’t stand all that alone time. Sure, all this time he was having now, not being on the football team, was nice and all, but he was sure he’d get sick of it very soon. He was just too extroverted, despite the risk his psychic abilities were. But who knew? Maybe someday in the future, all psychics would be accepted, and hiding his powers wouldn’t even be an issue anymore.

He quietly listened to her talk about her plans for after their high school graduation, watching the fire flicker back and forth. He agreed with her that she’d make an excellent psychologist with her powers. He looked back over to Alice when he heard her get up and sit next to him and showed him a picture on her phone. It was of a woman who looked strikingly similar to Alice. Lucas understood why seeing Alice on a daily basis could be painful to endure.

“You two look a lot alike,” he murmured. In the back of his mind, he wondered if her mother was a psychic too, but he decided this wouldn’t be an appropriate time to ask.

Lucas couldn’t help but laugh when Alice wondered if he was following a girl to college.

“Not in a million years,” he answered after getting all his laughter out. “Even if I did have a girlfriend right now, following her to a college would be the dumbest thing I could possibly do. Relationships hardly survive from high school to college. They can’t. Anyway, I’ve gotta look out for own interests. Go to the college I want to go to.” He stopped for a moment to think a bit further.

“But then again,” he added, “I hardly have any idea what I want to do. My powers could help me with being some kind of electrical engineer or something, but that isn’t something that interests me. Being a professional sports player is completely out of the question. I don’t even think I want to play football in college. I’d just be too busy.” He sighed, as he always got nervous when he thought about his future.

“I guess I still have time to decide though,” he said.

His eyes had drifted back to the fire by that time, and he was quiet. After a few seconds, though, he made himself stop thinking about his future, and to focus on the present. After all, his present is what would shape his future.

He noticed Alice was still sitting next to him, but he didn’t mind. He really enjoyed her company.

“My friends think we have a thing,” he blurted out randomly. When he realized what he said, he laughed nervously and avoided eye contact with her.

The young woman frowned when he spoke of how all relationships that went from high school to college were doomed, but she didn’t disagree. She understood why he said so, most of them were. As for his school and future she just shrugged, leaning back to rest her weight on the palms on her hands, legs crossed. “You have plenty of time. Besides, people worry way too much about college. Doesn’t matter where you go or what decision you make, you seem like the type to excel wherever you’re put.”

“My friends think we have a thing,” he said after some time, surprising Alice. Not that he said it…but the way it came out. Hm. Perhaps it was humorous…

“Like…we’re dating?” she asked lightly, faking a laugh. “Ah, Lucas I’m sorry. I can’t imagine what they’d say if they knew about this weekend, I can’t believe you agreed to it. Look, if you want,” she continued, getting up and going to the kooler to get to food, “I’ll clear it all up however I can. Single and perfectly available.” Alessia brought the metal sticks used to cook over a fire and gave him one. It was time to eat and she was getting hungry. What the heck would he say if she knew her friends were pushing her to make a move? “We could stop hanging out, talking between classes and stuff. Or just ignore them. Once they see nothing serious is happening I’m sure they’ll lay off.”

Lucas accepted the metal stick from her but shook his head at what she was saying.

“No, no…” he said. “We don’t need to stop hanging out or anything.” He let in a nervous chuckle. “My friends do this every time I ever talk to a girl. They’ve just been pushing for it a little more. I guess because you’re…”

Lucas’s voice trailed off, and he realized he didn’t know how to finish that sentence exactly. He rolled the metal stick between his fingers as he quickly tried to think of something to say.

“You?” He finished somewhat lamely, but then he attempted to cover it up.

“I mean—It’s just—You’re really shy and stuff, and, you know… No one ever thought you would ever hang out with someone like me.” He looked down at his lap, feeling a little bad.

“Alice, are our powers the only reason we became friends?” he asked her innocently, finally looking up from his lap. He didn’t look hurt, just curious.

"They’ve just been pushing for it a little more. I guess because you’re...you?”

Alice smirked, sitting up on her knees as she busied herself with cooking her dinner above the weak flames. You? What did that even mean? Were they being funny in pushing him? He went on to say she saw shy, and would never hang out with someone like him...he was right about that, but she still said nothing. She had no idea what he meant, and had a feeling she didn't want to.

“Alice, are our powers the only reason we became friends?”

Alice took a moment to mull this over, finally looking over at him with a shrug. "The reason we became friends? Maybe, but is that so wrong? Everybody becomes friends because of something in common. But I can tell you it's not the reason I asked you to stay out here with me tonight," she told him, playfully shoving him with her shoulder, smiling. "Or why I was going to ask you to hang out at the next party that comes around. I figured I should branch out a little," she said, biting her lip. "I like you, not just your powers. What...what about you? Is that the only reason you're here?"

Lucas focused on the flickering flames as Alice responded to him. What she said was right. After all, people don’t just become friends for no reason at all. It just felt so… strange, that it was their powers, what set them apart from everyone else, that brought them closer together. It brought him some peace to know that their friendship wasn’t as superficial as some of his other ones.

Lucas laughed when Alice playfully shoved his shoulder, but frowned when she returned his question to him. He shook his head.

“To be honest, I liked you right from the very beginning, before I even knew you had powers,” he admitted. He pulled his metal stick away from the fire as he decided the hotdog that would be his dinner was heated well enough.

“It’s weird,” he said in a softer voice. “How you start friendships people, I mean. I would’ve never thought I’d get close with you because of the fact that we’re both pretty much freaks…” He sighed somewhat dejectedly.

“But,” he said in a happier tone, “I guess we freaks gotta stick together right?” He offered her a small smile before it fell from his face again. It was evident that something was upsetting him, but it was hard to tell what exactly was on his mind. It seemed like he was sulking over his powers, but that isn’t what bothered him. What really bothered him was how his abilities affected his life and his relationships with others, although, obviously, it wasn’t quite as extreme as Alice’s case. Still, he was sure Alice would agree with him that their lives would be drastically different if they were simply normal, not just pretending to be normal.

Unfortunately, Lucas he would only get more agitated if he continued to think about a life he didn’t and would never have, but he couldn’t help it. Who could blame him, anyways? It wasn’t like he asked for his powers.

“You got any buns?” he asked after a small pause, nodding toward his hotdog.

"We're not freaks," she defended, "we have a talent. People with the same talents hang out. You're thinking about it all wrong," she said, hating how down he felt. Alice giggled at his question before getting up and grabbing them, tossing the bag into his lap before sitting down again. She ate her own without the bun or ketchup.

"You're still upset," she finally commented, looking over at him. "There's nothing to be upset about, if you're thinking about your abilities. So what, you can do something useful that nobody knows about? While it's something to be proud of, don't let it define you, Lucas. While I may not have known you until this year, I've seen you around for the past four years of high school. Wait- that makes me sound like a stalker. You know what I mean, we don't have a huge class," she laughed, tossing pieces of a stick into the fire to busy her hands as she spoke. "Anyway, you have a lot of friends and are not limited in any way by what you can do. I hate how the world wants to separate us in people's minds...the media in a bad way, and fellow psychics in a good way. Why can't we just...be. Besides, what is normal anyway?" she smirked, grabbing the bag of marshmallows and popping one into her mouth, swallowing before speaking again. "Seriously though. You're bigger than what you can do, not the other way around. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise," she advised, laying back and enjoying what little light they had left. It was fading fast.

"Tell you what. Why don't I get those handcuffs and see what past they've had, hm? Get your mind off things. Just because that's what we have in common doesn't mean it has to be the only stupid thing we talk about. And this doesn't count as talking about our powers...I'm just using them to create conversation," Alice said, retrieving the silver cuffs before settling down by the fire once more, this time with a small pillow in her lap for comfort.

Suddenly her eyes became wide and her cheeks turned a bright red. "Wait. Uh...these were used for...work purposes, right? Not...recreational, you don't think do you?" she asked, suddenly dropping them. "Not that I would know anything about that, I just- ah, now I'm freaked out and nervous!" she laughed aloud, putting her hands to her cheeks. "Surely not! Okay...okay, I'm way too curious. If I back out within a few seconds of seeing you know to not ask me what I saw, got it?" she teased, rolling her eyes to try and get rid of her embarrassment. "He really was a police officer, I swear that has to be what these were from!"

Lucas took a bun out from the bag and pulled the hotdog off the metal stick with it. He took small bites from his plain hotdog while listening to her explain that they weren’t freaks. She made some good points and he felt a little bit better. But he knew very well that she too got feelings like this occasionally. It was easy to talk someone into feeling better, but it’s only human nature to feel bad about being different from the majority. Still, he didn’t want to ruin the mood by sulking about something that was outside of his control.

By the time he had finished eating his hotdog, Alice had suggested looking into the past of the handcuffs she had discovered at her house. He nodded in agreement that it’d be a fun idea, but Alice’s cheeks suddenly blushed red and she wondered aloud if the handcuffs had been used for more recreational uses.

Lucas couldn’t help but laugh at her.

“Well, I guess there’s only one way to find out,” Lucas replied, well aware that there was a good chance it could be either. Or maybe both? Who knew. He was somewhat anxious to know.

Alice nodded, holding the cuffs in the palms of her hands and closing her eyes. A chill ran down her back as she let her power run through her fingertips. The noises of the fire, the forest around them ceased to exist as Alice was brought back in time in a whirl of memories, all playing backwards to lead her through what these handcuffs had really been used for.

The results were definitely what neither of them had expected. It happened so fast for her, though she had no idea how long she was sitting there beside Lucas. Her father was seen carrying the cuffs, keeping them in storage, putting them out for…not for criminals, at least they didn’t look to be. In fact the first was only a child, a boy probably a year younger than she. It was a dark basement looking room, concrete floors with the prisoner cuffed to a pole at his back. He was bloody and half dead, shirtless to make it easier to see every bruise and cut. Again and again her father punched or used a taser against the boy, yelling in his face. At one point the small black taser few out of her father’s hand and into the wall, breaking. James’ cold eyes, a look she’d never seen before, turned on the boy, as if…as if he’d made it move. What resulted was a worse punishment.

Another was a grown man cuffed and being led to a room, a needle being forced into his arm-

In reality Alice was trembling, her eyes closed as tightly as possible as she viewed the horrific scenes. A whimper escaped, and unable to take anymore she came back to Lucas with a choked cry, dropping the wretched item to the blanket. “Lucas- Lucas, my dad-“ She couldn’t even process what she’d seen. Alice ran a hand through her hair, tears filling those innocent green eyes. The young woman quickly got to her feet, a hand over her mouth as she tried to explain it away before speaking to Lucas. Should she even tell him? Would he judge her, tell her to go home? Did she even want to go home?

“Lucas,” she finally choked, looking as lost as could be as she started pacing, unable to stay still, “he hurt people. N-not police stuff…oh shit…there was so, so much blood...”

Lucas watched Alice closely as she shut her eyes and activated her powers. If he didn’t know any better, he’d just think she was meditating or something. There were no glowing lights or any sign of her using her powers at all. After a few seconds, Lucas opened his mouth to ask her what she was seeing, but stopped, afraid disrupting her would be a bad idea.

That’s when he noticed she was trembling. Was that normal? A small whimper escaped her lips, and Lucas tensed up. Was she okay? What was she seeing? What should he do?

Finally, out of nowhere, she let out a choked cry and dropped the handcuffs like they were red hot. She looked terrified. She ran her hands through her hair and tears began to form in her eyes. She mentioned something about her dad and stood up quickly. Lucas stood up too, still confused as to what she had seen exactly.

“What about your dad?” Lucas asked. “What did you see…?”

”Lucas,” she choked out as she began to pace. ”he hurt people. N-not police stuff…oh shit…there was so, so much blood…”

“What?” Lucas asked, stepping forward. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. What had she seen? Maybe… maybe it was just some kind of “bad cop”-style interrogation? Surely, that was it.

Lucas shook his head and stepped forward, placing his hand on Alice’s shoulder firmly.

“Alice, tell me, calmly, what you saw,” he told her, trying to instill some sanity in her.

Alice looked at him with fear in her eyes, his grasp help bringing her out of the memories. “He killed people. Or- he hurt one, killed the other…he may have killed the first guy I don’t know,” she rambled, but sighed when she realized that it wasn’t helping him understand. “He was beating the shit out of this guy. This kid, Lucas! He couldn’t have been older than us, probably younger. Then- then the boy used some psychic power to move the weapon…made my dad angry. And- and he was injecting another psychic with something…”

She shook her head, eyes brimming with tears. “Is this- is this what my father does? And was it just because they were psychics, is that why he hurt them or was there something else?” It seemed like she had a lot of questions to ask when she got home…vague ones, but even that seemed risky.

“Lucas…you have to believe me. What I saw was real. There- there has to be some explication, right? But even if there is…what he was doing was awful, my stomach hurts just seeing it. I wish I could get it out of my head,” she cried, hiding her face in her hands as she took another deep breath, trying to stay calm. “I…I can’t think.” She started pacing again, trying to decide her next move. After a moment Alice looked up at Lucas, arms hugging beneath her chest for comfort. “If he’s hurting psychics, Lucas, you shouldn’t be around me. You should go. But I’m not going home…I’m staying here. There’s no way in hell I’m going home right now…”

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Repeat sorry site was messing up