Chris’ dad had some business with Simon and a few wyers down at the construction site. So he figured they’d meet up there then go back home for the barbecue. Fine by Chris.

  The Talverts pull into the construction site in their SUV. A tall chain link fence surrounded the expansive property which was covered in blue boards. Obviously there to keep onlookers at bay. Dad drives them through a rge opening by the road. The nd was brown from being dug up and leveled. All manner of construction equipment was sitting ready for use. Several rge blue trash bins sit within the site. A few cars and trucks sit off to one side of the entrance, next to a long trailer.

  Chris’ dad parks the SUV next to the trailer. As he turns off the vehicle a man exit’s the trailer, followed by a woman and…Elle, Jerry and Jackson.The Talvert’s get out of the SUV.

  “Welcome!” The man announces. Chris assumed it to be Mr. Prowman. “I was hoping we could be at a more suitable location though.”Chris waves at Elle. She waves back smiling wide. He couldn’t get enough of that smile.“It’s all right.” Dad says. “Actually, it’s kind of fitting in a way. Both of our families meeting here, the project that brought us together.”

  “That’s true. Let me introduce myself. I’m Simon Prowman and this is my wife Melissa.” He says to Chris’ mom and to himselfSimon shakes hands with Chris’ mother, then turns his attention again to Chris.“And you must be Chris.” Mr. Prowman says holding his hand out.Chris shakes it while he continues.

  “I heard what happened to my daughter and how you and your friend Paul helped out. Thank you.”Chris smiles, kind of embarrassed. “I was gd to help out.”Mr. Prowman pats him on the shoulder. “Larry if you wanna step inside we can take care of this business then be off.”“Sounds great. Be right back everyone. Then it’s barbecue time.”

  Chris loved the sound of that, and from the cheers from Elle’s group, so did they.“Chris come here.” Elle waves him over to their parents vehicle, an SUV simir to his parents. He leaves his mom to talk with Mrs. Prowman and trots over. “You’re an elemental, aren’t you?” She whispers.Chris was stopped dead in his tracks. He didn’t know how to respond.

  “It’s all right, so are we. Sorry I couldn’t ask you before, but we had no time alone or anything.” Jackson tells him.“So what power you have?” Jerry asks.“I know, I know…it’s air, isn’t it?” Elle perks up, leaning in closer to Chris.“Y-Yeah. How did you know?”

  “It was the day Rex bullied me to the floor. You used your power to bounce right back up to your feet.” She then squeals in obvious happiness.Her statement hits Chris hard. So that was the reason she was making that face then.“Dude, you know what that means?” Jerry asks his siblings.

  “Yep! We got a full set.” Elle cheers quietly.A full set? “You mean all of you are of the other elements?” Chris asks.“You got it.” Jackson says. “I’m fire. Jerry is earth and…”Jerry interrupts. “And this is the water bug.” He starts backing up.Elle’s face turns sinister. “You just wait, boulder brain.”

  Chris ughs, these guys just became ten times more awesome. Not only were they fun to hang out with, he didn’t have to hide his power.“Kids! Come on! Want some ribs? Or shish kabobs?” Chris’ dad yells over to them.“Yeah!” Was the general consensus.

  “Dad? Can Chris ride back with us?” Elle asks her father.“Sure, if one of you don’t mind riding in the back of the SUV?”“Jerry will! He’s dead weight anyway.” Elle comments.Jerry gives her the evil eye, which she returns.

  Mr. Prowman ughs but tells her to be nice to her brother. Jackson nominates himself, but Melissa says she can ride back with Chris’ parents. With that Mr. Prowman nominates Chris to ride shotgun. They get in and head out for some good food and fun.At home, Elle makes an observation. “Hey, your house is just up the road from us.”“Yeah, we’re six houses down, around the corner to the left.” Mr. Prowman tells them.

  “Cool.” Chris says, happy. That was too cool, all his friends within walking distance.Chris’ mom says it’ll be a bit until the grill is ready and the food is done. She has the adults have a seat at the dinner table for a few drinks, while Chris gets to show Elle and the boys around. Which meant his room, the restrooms, living room and out back.Elle perks up and says she wants to see the pool.

  To the pool then. Chris leads them through the living room and out the gss patio doors to the rge cement tiled patio. And there in all its glory was the pool. He hears Elle gasp and giggle, but she runs back the doors and sticks her head in.“Can we go swimming now?”“Not until after dinner and it’s dark out.” Chris hears Mrs. Prowman call to her.

  “Kay mom!” Elle responds happily.“So what happened to Rex?” Jackson asks.“He got suspended…and stuff.” He says.“And stuff?” Jerry asks, snickering a bit. “What kinda stuff.”

  “I don’t know. I heard he was chasing some kids down and when they got cornered in a alley, this freak wind pick him and his two buddies up, spun them around in the air then deposited them all in a nearby dumpster. Nature can sure be weird sometimes.”The trio are shocked, but ugh.

  “Dude! I would have loved to have seen that.” Jerry tells him.“No body saw you right?” Elle asks him.He shakes his head. “Nope. Plus who’s gonna believe Rex. Everyone knows him as a liar and cheating bully.”The scent of propane catches their attention. Chris’ dad was setting up the grill.

  “Why don’t you guys go in and help with getting things ready with your mothers.” Chris’ dad suggests.The group head quickly inside to help out. Chris thinks about Rex, no one would believe him…right?”

  * * * * *

  Chris and his new friends sit around the huge oak dinner table. Which had just enough spots around it to accommodate everyone. Chris’ dad took one end of the table while Mr. Prowman takes the opposite end. Only fitting being the heads of each household. Chris sits by his dad, to his right, while Elle and her siblings line up the other side of the table. Thankfully Elle sat across from Chris.

  Their moms finish bringing out the st of the ptes and bowls of food for everyone then sit down. They had decided on ribs and shish kabobs, instead of one or the other. And it all smelled wonderful. Not to mention some mashed potatoes and veggies.“Phew. Okay everyone. That is it. I hope everyone is hungry. Larry?” Chris’ mom announces.

  Larry stands and grabs his gss of wine and makes a toast. “To new partners in business and new friends in life.”Simon and Melissa raise their gsses in salute. Simon adds his own. “May both prosper greatly.”The kids raise their gsses of sparkling grape juice snickering. It was cheesy, Chris thinks. The looks on the others said the same thing, but it was a good kind of cheesy.

  But they waste no time in starting the ptes of food around. “So where are you guys from?” Simon asks Chris’ dad.“Aska.”A total lie of course, one they had came up with shortly after arriving here over a year ago. They didn’t like it but until they could trust someone completely, they had to do it.

  “Well, at least it’s warmer down here.” Mrs. Prowman says.Chris‘ dad ughs. “That and it was a better location for the business. With the goals I have being down here just makes so much more sence.”

  Simon doesn’t argue with that point. “What did you do before you came down here?” He continues.“I owned a small electronics firm up there. Mainly dealing with components for federal use.”“High end stuff.”“Yeah, the ‘hush, hush’ kind.” Dad says with a small ugh.

  Good fake dad, Chris thinks. Though he felt a little sad for having to go through with the ruse, but it was necessary for the time being. He hated it more when he knew he had to keep it secret from his new friends. He would probably end up telling them though, in time.

  They continue eating and chatting. Chris finds out that Elle did a little surfing a few years ago, but never got good enough. Funny since she’s a water elemental. She jokes that if they didn’t use the boards she would have rocked it. Bringing a ugh to everyone. They also talk about their adoption.

  “It is quite peculiar that all of them are elementals, and all of a different type. But a friend of mine out in Cali informed us of their powers and thought it would be beneficial to adopted them.” Simon expins. “Seeing as how a few people ’disappeared’ out there.”

  “That’s not good.” Chris’ mom says.“No. Just a year ago, the kids had a full set. Jason Davis was his name. He was friends with the kids for a few months, then…nothing. We never found any trace of him after that.”

  Chris doesn’t like the sound of that. He notices the Prowman kids looking a little sad. He must have been a good friend.“That’s so sad.” Chris’ mom says.“Yeah, so that is why we wait until night time to py with our powers.”

  Elle and her brothers snicker. Chris can only imagine what they were snickering at.“We have the gym which you saw earlier.” Chris’ dad mentions. “So we don’t have to worry about being spotted when we practice.”

  “I saw that, good idea.” Simon says.Chris notices his gss of water. The water in it was swirling around slowly. He smirks and looks at Elle, who was happily chewing on a rib. He couldn’t help but smile and shake his head a little. Someone was getting antsy for some pool time, he could tell. The water swells upward a bit and forms a smiley-face, which then sticks its tongue. Chris busts out ughing before putting his hand to his mouth.

  “Chris, you okay?” His mom says, patting him on the back.“Yeah, I’m fine.” He says giving Elle an evil look. She simply keeps eating the meat off the rib, starting at the ceiling. Like she was innocent or something. Yeah right.

  “Elle’s being a brat again isn't she.” Jerry says. “Did she mess with your water, Chris.”Chris ughs. “It made a face at me.”Elle continues chewing on her rib, now clearly bare of any meat. Like nothing is wrong.With everyone ughing she eventually gives in and tosses her spent rib on the pte with the rest of the eaten ones, ughing.“I’ll go get dessert.” Ariel says getting up.

  “So if Chris is an air elemental, are his parents as well?” Melissa asks.“As a matter of fact we are.” Chris’ dad says. “Both of us. Though Chris himself is a miracle himself.”Oh, no. Time to embarrass the ‘kid’ time.

  “He hates it when I tell this. When Ariel became pregnant with Chris the doctors said she shouldn’t be pregnant. Something was wrong with Ariel’s system and it shouldn’t have let her have a child. But nine months…after prom,” Larry pauses a moment to nudge Ariel who passes by handing out apple pie and ice cream…and embarrass Chris some more, “she gave birth to Chris.”“And you never figured out what went…right?” Melissa asks.

  “No. The doctor could never figure it out. But Chris was the only child we could have. We’ve tried countless times afterward to have another child but…no luck.” Chris’ dad grips his shoulder and rubs it. “That’s all right. We’re more than happy with Chris.”“You could always adopt like we did.” Simon says.“We’ve discussed it, but we’re happy as is.”

  “Sounds like your destined for something great there, Chris.” Simon says.Great. They both were conspiring to embarrass him. He sinks down in his chair with a wary smile. While spooning his dessert.Larry saves him. “Okay. I think we’ve embarrassed him enough tonight. You guys can eat you dessert in the living room if you want.”

  Didn’t have to ask the kids twice. They were all up and in the living room faster then their parents could warn them about the carpet.“Phew. Now we don’t have to listen to them embarrass us next.” Elle mentions as she sits on the couch.“No kidding.”

  Jerry suddenly gasps as he looks over the movies on the shelf next to the television. Chris looks at the one he’s pointing too.“No! We are not watching that.” Elle blurts out. “No Terminator 2 for you tonight.”Jerry’s face suddenly turns sad.“He loves T2, if you hadn’t guessed.” Jackson tells Chris.

  “He even cried in the theater at the end.” Elle snickers.“Hey, it was an emotional scene.” Jerry says defending the movies ending.Chris admits he was sad to see the Terminator melt himself in the steel, but still.

  “Oh…all right.” Jerry relents, then points to the Nintendo. “We can py this can’t we?”Chris nods and grabs the remote. He turns on the television and switches to the channel for the game. They py a couple different games for a while, switching off who pys who, while the adults remain at the table and chat.

  After an hour and a half goes by and the sun is long gone, Elle goes in and asks if they can go swimming yet. He hears her dad say they can, and Elle is off to the bathroom in a fsh, grabbing her backpack along the way.“When it’s time to go, Elle is the fastest to get goin’.” Jackson says ughing.

  The boys all head upstairs to change, Chris in his room and the two brothers taking turns in the bathroom. Once done they head downstairs and see Elle already outside.“Slow pokes!” She says hopping up and down…on the surface of the water. Then she lets her power go and she drops into the water with a happy ‘squee’. Smiling wide the whole time. And more amazingly…no spsh. It was like the water melded around her.

  “Whoa! Walking on water…to cool.” Chris says amazed. He knew it could be done, from his time back on his old world, but never seen it.“She’s full of tricks.” Jackson tells him.

  The boys charge and dive in. Chris stays underwater for a moment, to enjoy the feel of the water. But as he lets his eyes get used to the water he notices Jerry sitting on the bottom, rubbing his butt. He then senses a pocket of air around him, he looks up at Elle then resurfaces. She was ughing with Jackson.

  “Oh, he’s an earth elemental. They’re built tough.” Elle saysChris looks down at Jerry gring up and saying something then the water rushes in on his, the bubble of air escaping around the edges of the pool on a rush of air.He resurfaces quickly and sputters. “Elle! Not fair.”

  “Py nice guys!” Mr. Prowman calls over, smiling. Him and Chris’ dad were taking a seat at the patio table with their drinks.They continue horsing around, pying with their powers and enjoying the freedom to use them as they will. Well, to the extent as not to alert the neighbors. Luckily, between them and the neighbors houses were big thick trees and hedges to drown out most of the noise. No chance of being seen or heard. But still, you didn’t want go making a small tornado or anything.

  A couple hours ter the first of them yawns. Elle.“Guess that’s the cue to head home.” Melissa says.“Mom? Dad? Can Chris come over and stay the rest of the weekend?” Elle asks.

  “I’m, fine with it.” Mr. Prowman says. “If it would be all right with him and his parents?”“Sure, I don’t see a problem with it. Besides we’re just up the road anyway. And seeing as how much fun these guys had tonight, I think we’ll be seeing a lot more entertaining weekends.” Chris’ dad smiles. “Go get some things packed, Chris.”

  Wow, Chris didn’t even mention anything and here he was, getting some clothes together and heading over to spend the night with the Prowman’s. These st few days have been amazing. As he runs upstairs he can’t help but feel a bit of dread. Where ever that was coming from?