Vicky

After school, the next day me and, Nick was walking to the mansion, hand in hand. Once again I found myself walking through the woods; I hated it. When we entered I moved closer to Nick. Finally after what seemed like an hour but was probably no more than half an hour, we reached the mansion. Nick ran the buzzer and we waited for an answer.

A minute later a voice came through the speaker attached to the gate.

"Hello welcome to Goldengate mansion. How may I help you?" The voice didn't belong to Emma. She had mentioned hiring a few extra hands, to help here with the all the work it took to look after and clean all the rooms.

"Hello, it's Vicky and Nick. We are the son and daughter to two of Emma's friends, "I replied.

"Alright one minute, I will let you in." A small beeping sound followed after she finished talking and the silver gates opened. We walked in.

Inside the mansion hallway, we found Emma walking with a glass of water in her hand. She saw us so she stopped and turned to greet us.

"Good evening, Vicky and Nick. I won't be helping to make dinner today because I am busy, but I just asked Kirsty, I've recently just hired her to help around the mansion, and she reassures that it will be ready for six. If you get a little hungry before then, you can get a snack from the kitchen but just a small one. Don't be ruining your appetites," she said.

"What are you busy with?" I asked out curiosity.

"Reading some spell books to find more useful spells we could use," she replied.

"Okay, see you at dinner," I said and she smiled before walking off down the corridor. I and Nick set off in the other direction, towards the kitchen. There was a young woman around the age of 25 busy chopping vegetables up. Her ash-blonde hair was falling out of her bun. Despite being older than me she was smaller and she wore blue straight cut jeans with a basic black, long-sleeved T-shirt, and flat black shoes. Her outfit was complimented by a blue apron.

Nick closed the door behind us and the sound of it fitting back into the frame made her place down the knife and turn around. I could now see her face. Her skin had a natural pinkish tint to it caused by the sun and her eyes were light brown with a slight green colour around the pupil.

"Oh, hi. You two must be Nick and Vicky. I'm Kirsty, I've just started working for Emma. I started yesterday," she told us, smiling.

"Yeah, it's nice to meet you Kirsty," I said a little awkwardly. I still wasn't good with talking to strangers.

"It's a pleasure to meet you and I'm sure you'll enjoy working here. Emma is really nice," Nick said.

"Yes, she sees it. She's a lot better than my old boss," she agreed.

"Erm... would you- maybe like some help?" I asked trying to be helpful.

"No that's okay. I really love cooking and Emma told me you have some work to do, so I don't want to keep you from that. But thank you anyway," she replied.

"Is there any snacks I can have before tea is ready, please?"

"You'll spoil your tea if you have something to eat now. You won't eat it all," she answered.

"I will and Emma said that we could have something," Nick said.

"I don't know I don't think that is a good idea,"

"Trust me, I will eat all the meal you cooked. A little snack won't keep me full for long. I have a really big appetite too," Nick told her. He and Diego had the biggest appetites of anyone I had ever met. They weren't fat. In fact, they were skinny but they ate such a lot. One little snack wouldn't stop him from eating his dinner.

"Alright, you can have some fruit," she said.

"Thank you," Nick said and she turned back around putting the pan on the hob. Nick walked over to the fruit bowl which sat on the breakfast bar. He picked up an apple and we left. We exited out of the mansion by the back door.

After Nick had finished eating, he threw the apple core away in the rubbish bin outside, and we made our way further into the huge garden so we weren't too close to the perimeter of the mansion its self.

"Here should be fine," Nick said after a while and we stopped.

"Let's try learning to control the powers we already know we have and try to figure out what our others are later. We could try and aim it at that tree over there," Nick said.

"Good idea. Who wants to go first?" I agreed.

"You can go first." I nodded and lifted my hand up, aiming it at the giant tree with dead leaves. Focusing on the tree, I tried imagining water coming from my hand. Drenching the tree in a blast of cool water but it didn't happen. Putting my hand down by my side, I shook it and lifted it back up. Still no luck.

Maybe I was too tense. I took a deep breath out and relaxed my shoulders. Now that I was relaxed a small amount of water shot out of my hand hitting the tree trunk.

"You did it," I heard Nick say excitedly and he sounded a little too close. It made me jump as I turned around. Water splashed on Nick's face who was standing only a few feet away. I dropped my hand in shock and guilt and the water stopped coming from my hand.

"I am so sorry," I blurted out.

"It's fine," he said wiping his face with his hand, to try and take away the water that remained.

"It's your turn," I said, stepping aside to let him try.

He walked forward and lifted his hand, pointing it to the tree. After a while, he put his hand down because nothing happened. He tried once more and sighed in defeat.

"You need to relax. That's what I had to do," I said.

"I am relaxed," he told me.

"Maybe not enough."

"Vicky, I can't be more relaxed than I already am," he said turning around to face me.

"Maybe it doesn't work that way with you. Last time your powers worked when you were angry, so maybe you need to be angry," I said. Trying to think of a reason why they wouldn't be working.

"But if I am angry how would I be able to control it. Would it not make it a lot harder?" He asked.

"I don't know," I said. I didn't know if that would work. Truthfully I didn't even know how mine worked so I was just trying to come up with reasons, that probably didn't even make sense.

"Let's try again after dinner because it doesn't look like, I'm going to get it any time soon."

"Dinner isn't till about another half hour," I pointed out. We still had to figure out what other powers we had and learn more about our telepathy powers. We had to get in as much practice as we can, so I didn't really feel like taking a break yet.

"But we can take a little break," he said.

"We can't. We still need to learn a lot and you can't even control your powers yet. At dinner time, we'll be resting so we can practice a while longer."

"Having a break won't hurt, will it? After dinner, we can get straight back to practising."

"They can come back at any time so we need to be ready. We can't afford to sit around not doing anything," I said.

You're so stubborn, I heard Nick say but he wasn't saying it directly to me. Instead, he was saying it to himself but I overheard the thought. It made me annoyed. I wasn't being stubborn, I was being worried. I wanted to be ready.

"I'm not being stubborn," I told him.

"Yes, you are. You won't let me have a break," he said.

"I didn't say you couldn't have a break. We are having one at dinner."

"But why can't we have a break now? I'm hungry. I can't concentrate properly."

"You've had something to eat. I'm sure you can wait a while longer," I said. It's not like he was starving to death so he was capable of practising until dinner. He was just trying to be awkward and wasn't think about the consequences of sitting around. The evil ones could come back whenever. Sooner or later and if we weren't ready we wouldn't be able to protect ourselves or our loved ones.

"I just want to take a break. I'm sure I will figure it out later. I think you are worrying too much," he said.

"I have every right to be worrying too much. The evil ones are more powerful than us because they know how to control their powers but you want to sit around letting time tick by while you think about food instead of more important stuff."

"Well, I am sorry if my hunger annoys you."

"I didn't say that it did but we have to concentrate on important things. I'm hungry too but you don't see me moaning and wanting to give up," I said getting very annoyed now.

"I'm not giving up. I'm merely just taking a little break," he said. I could hear the annoyance in his voice too. "And you said that you aren't being stubborn," he added.

"You're being stubborn too," I said. I didn't feel like training with him any more. He was holding me back from learning my powers. I would be better off practising by myself.

"Fine practice by yourself then. I don't need to practice with you. I will figure out my powers on my own," he said. His voice was now raised slightly and sounded a bit upset.

"I didn't mean that and stay out of my head." It came out a different way than I intended. I didn't mind him hearing my thoughts when I wanted him too but when I didn't direct my thoughts at him, it was annoying. It's not like he could help it. I couldn't help it when I overheard his thoughts either so I wished I didn't say it.

"Why don't you stay out of my head then?" He said. I didn't want to argue over something so stupid. Instead of saying anything I turned around and walked away, setting off inside.

"Where are you going?" Nick called.

"Inside. I think we really do need to have that break before we both say something we regret," I answered.

"You're right," he said and I think he started following me.

When dinner was ready we made our way into the dining room and took a seat. We sat at the end of the table next to each other and then Emma entered. She sat down on the opposite side of us smiling. There were food platters in the middle of the table but the larger ones were covered by a lid to keep them warm.

"So how is the training going?" She asked us.

"Fine, I guess," I replied, sighing.

"What happened?" She wondered, with concern.

"I believe the pressure of all this is getting to us slightly. We also had disagreements about some things so we took a break," Nick answered.

"Well now that you've had a break and you've both calmed down a bit, it will probably go a little better," she said.

"I hope so," I said, quietly just as Kirsty entered the room from the kitchen. She had plates in her hands which she carried towards the table and placed them down one by one in front of us all. Then with one plate left she day down at the table herself.


Emma got up from her seat and removed the lids and I looked at all the food; it looked so tasty. There was some white fish, gravy boats filled with butter sauce and perfectly cooked vegetables. There was also a giant bowl that held soft, fluffy mash. Just looking at it made my mouth water. It had been so long since I had fish.

"Can we eat now?" Nick asked.

"Yes," Emma replied. His face lit up as he smiled and reached for the food. Emma returned to her seat.

I picked up a piece of broccoli and placed it in my mouth. It had a little bit of the sauce on, and it tasted so good. I went to pick up another bite.

Hopefully, after full stomachs, we'll be able to concentrate more and not fall out. I thought and chomped down on the food on my fork.

"Do you know I never celebrated my birthday, with everything that happened and with Vicky ending up in the hospital?" Nick pointed out. It was his birthday was and we never celebrated it. The next day it was Halloween and they were holding a little party in the village hall. It could be perfect time to celebrate his birthday as well as Halloween. There would be food, dancing and dressing up; it would be fun.

"Why don't we go to the Halloween party tomorrow? It'll be fun, and we can celebrate your birthday too," I said.

"It sounds good, but will it just be us going?"

"We could ask Bella and the others to come too. Do you want to go?" I replied.

"Yeah," he replied and returned to eating. I did the same.

I hope that this break and eating has helped. I don't want to fall out.

When we trained later that night we managed to do so without any disagreements.

"So you said that I needed to relax more for it to work, how do I do that?" Nick asked me.

"Just think of nothing but controlling your powers," I replied and he nodded. Nick faced the tree as held out his hand, aiming it and closed his eyes. Once he opened them again a controlled line of fire shot out of his hand towards the tree setting it up in flames. He quickly dropped his hand in shock and happiness, which stopped his fire powers. Before the fire could spread I put it out with my own control over the elements.

"I actually did it." His voice was full of bewilderment.

"I knew you could," I said and he turned to face me.

"If you have water powers and I have a fire, do you think it's possible that we have powers over other elements too?" He wondered.

"Probably," I replied.

"Then we need to figure out who has air and earth if we do have other powers but I think we should do so later," he said.

"You're right. We should practice the powers we already know we have," I agreed.

He nodded and we returned to practice for a while. Until it was too dark to really see what we were doing. Well, Nick could probably see clearly put I, on the other hand, didn't have vampiric eyesight so we returned back to the mansion, to say goodbye to Emma. Then we walked home.

Nick walked me to my house as we talked. "What you wearing tomorrow at the party? Are you dressing up?" Nick asked.

"Well I have this really cool witches costume, I got last year but never wore," I replied. The reason why I never wore it was that there weren't any parties I could wear it too. The school never organized one and the students who had their own parties never invited me, so I and Emilee just stayed in to watch horror movies. It wasn't all bad though, I kind of loved scary movies and we always had a lot of laughs. It didn't bother us that we could never go to any parties.

"Well if you dress up I will too," he said.

"Okay, deal," I agreed.

Finally, we reached my house and stopped outside the door. Nick turned to me with a smile on his face. He bent down and kissed my cheek.

"See you tomorrow my angel," he said.

"See you tomorrow," I replied and he began to walk away. "Call me when you get home," I called after him.

"You can count on it," he said and I opened my door, to enter my house.