“Okay,” Cadence said, really not sure if it was. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about Brandon going on the hunt last night. I just knew you’d be upset, and I didn’t think I could explain our reasoning well enough for you to understand why we let him go.”
“I don’t understand,” Cassidy admitted. “But I guess I just have to be more patient. My time will come.”
“There you go!” Cadence agreed, smiling, and putting her arm around her sister’s shoulders. “That’s my sweet girl. Don’t worry. Your turn will be here before you know it, and then you’ll be wishing for a simpler time.”
“If you say so,” Cassidy mumbled.
“Now that’s a climbing wall!” Brandon exclaimed as they approached the far end of the gymnasium.
“It’s a pretty difficult climb,” Aaron agreed. “And that is called The Hill,” he continued, pointing out the other impressive obstacle.
“Whoa! I wish we’d had that at football practice. That thing is steep,” Brandon marveled. “You just run up it?”
“Care to demonstrate, Cadence?” Aaron asked.
Cadence looked at The Hill, an obstacle she usually enjoyed tackling, but she realized that her stomach was doing flip-flops, and she wasn’t sure why. “Uh, sure. Give me a second,” she said, placing her hand on her stomach in an attempt to calm herself down.
“Everything okay?” Aaron asked, a look of concern on his handsome face.
Cadence took a few deep breaths. “Yeah, I’m fine. I don’t know. My stomach just feels funny. Kind of like I feel whenever there’s a Vampire around.”
“That’s strange,” Aaron replied, crossing over to her and putting his hand on her shoulder. “I wonder what would be causing that.”
“Don’t you have Vampires here?” Cassidy questioned. “The ones that need tagged?”
“We do,” Cadence nodded, still rubbing her stomach, “but those don’t usually bother me. They’re facility is on the other side of campus.”
“Maybe you’re pregnant,” Brandon offered, his arms crossed against his chest.
Cadence shot him dagger eyes. “I’m not pregnant.”
“You never know,” Brandon continued, a smirk on his face.
“I do know! And stop talking about that in front of my little sister!”
“Oh, I’m sorry!” Brandon remarked, feigning an apology. “I didn’t realize high school sophomores didn’t know about s-e-x.”
Cassidy giggled, and Cadence looked at Aaron to see if he was going to say anything, but she could tell by his expression he had decided to stay out of this one, at least for now. “Look, Brandon, for your information, there’s no way I could be pregnant, okay?”
“I seriously doubt that is true….”
“Hey!” Aaron finally interjected, “Don’t be getting too personal now, kid.”
“I’m just saying things fail sometimes….”
“I am not pregnant, you moron,” Cadence stated emphatically. “Now, why don’t you race me up this hill and show Cass what a loser you are?”
“No way,” Brandon shot back. “I saw you throw yourself through a glass window and rip the head off of a monster. I ain’t racing you up no hill. I’ve got a reputation to protect.”
“Oh, you don’t have to worry about your reputation with me,” Cassidy spoke up. “I already think you’re a loser.”
She smiled at him politely and batted her eyelashes, causing everyone to laugh, though Brandon did it with an offended look on his face. “Hardy har har,” he said shoving her playfully.
“What did you say?” Cadence asked, shocked.
“Oh, it’s just an old saying I picked up off of The Three Stooges or something,” Brandon shrugged.
“Your dad used to say that,” Cadence explained. “How bizarre.”
“Are you feeling better?” Aaron asked, quickly changing the subject.
“Good enough to beat you up The Hill,” she teased.
“You may have broken my record once,” he replied, “but that was… before. I’m pretty sure I can beat you now.”
“Well, I won’t go down easily,” Cadence said as she got herself into position.
“If you lose, you can just blame the baby,” Brandon called after her.
Cadence’s only response was to glare at him for a moment. Aaron got into position beside her, and though neither of them were dressed to work out, he counted to three and they took off up The Hill.
Despite the fact that Cadence had shattered his record not that long ago, it wasn’t even close this time. She wasn’t even quite at the top by the time he was standing at the bottom waiting for her.
“How did you do that?” Cassidy exclaimed. Brandon echoed her sentiment with his own statement of disbelief.
“I told you I was faster now,” Aaron said shrugging as Cadence came to a stop next to him, breathing heavily.
“That’s crazy. I think you did that in four seconds without jumping. You’re just a blur now,” she managed to get out as she was catching her breath.
“Am I going to be that fast after I Transform?” Brandon asked, still in awe.
“No!” Cadence and Aaron answered simultaneously, drawing a wide-eyed look from both Cassidy and Brandon
“There’s a reason I’m so much faster than everyone else,” Aaron began, “but we’re not going to go into that right now. I’ll explain it to you in due time. That’s basically the entire facility. Do either of you have any questions?”
“Yeah, when do I get to meet Sam?” Brandon asked, his hands on his hips.
Aaron and Cadence exchanged a nervous glance. “Don’t you think you should wait until you Transform for that?” Cadence asked.
“I want to meet him, too,” Cassidy chimed in.
“No way,” Cadence replied, shaking her head. “That’s way too dangerous.”
“What?” Cassidy shrieked. “He was in an airplane crash. He’s basically a pile of mush. What could he possibly do to me?”
“You don’t know him, Cass. You don’t have any idea what kind of evil we’re talking about here.”
“It’s not fair that Brandon gets to meet him and I don’t. I knew his dad a lot better than he did--he never even met him!” Cassidy exclaimed.
One look at Brandon’s face made Cassidy stop talking. She had clearly said enough to upset him. After a moment of silence, she said, “I’m sorry. That was rude.”
“It’s okay,” he shrugged. “You’re right. I never got a chance to meet him. I’m glad you did though. You can tell me stories about him. All three of you can. I just wanted to see Sam before I Transform, to say that I faced him as a man, that’s all. He’s a big part of my motivation to be here, after all. It might make it a little easier if the Transformation gets painful, like you were saying, Cadence.”