“Chris. You gonna wake up today or not.” Chris’ mother calls out.

  He wakes up and rolls over to see his mom leaning into the room at the door. He gnces at the clock, nearly eleven. Whoa.

  “Come on, there’s still time for some breakfast.” His mother says then turns and walks out of the room.

  He slept longer than he thought he would. Maybe till nine but not until eleven. Wondering if the others slept as long, he gets out of bed and walks downstairs.

  “I’ve heard of sleeping in, but…” Chris’ dad says from the living room. Some news program was on.

  Chris just smiles and scratches his head. The gang were at the table finishing the st of their bowls of cereal.

  “You guys must have really pyed hard yesterday if you’re all this tired today.” Mom says as she reaches into the fridge.

  The gang just gnce at each other.

  “Yeah, practice makes perfect. Perfectly tired too.” Elle says.

  Mom ughs as she brings back a carton of milk for Chris. “Well, I guess so. You guys still wanna go to the park this afternoon?”

  “Yeah!” The gang responds in unison.

  “Great in the meantime you guys can py outside, but no swimming, no point in changing multiple times.” Mom says making a point.

  After breakfast the gang gather in the gym for a little elemental practice. Before they get started Chris’ dad pops his head in.

  “Chris, phone call. Sounds like Paul.” He holds the remote out.

  “Thanks dad.” Chris says as the trots over and takes the handset.

  Dad smiles and leaves.

  “Hey, Paul.” Chris then lowers his voice as he walks over the others so they can hear. “Is the car still there?”

  “No, it’s not. It hasn’t been there since you guys drew it away st night.” Paul was talking in a low voice as well. “Is it outside your pce now.” Chris hears him snicker.

  As funny as he thought it was, he had to check. “Jackson, go check outside for the car.”

  He makes a confused face which immediately switches to shock as he jogs out of the gym. “Jackson’s checking now. So how is Ivy, she better now that the car is gone?”

  “Yeah, she was extremely relieved to know that car was gone. What did you guys do anyway, besides what commotion you guys caused behind the house?”

  Chris runs over the details of the night. From sneaking out, using his powers to draw off the car, and the commotion in the alley behind the Thomas’ house.

  “That commotion was Jerry’s failed attempt at road spikes by the way.” Chris snickers, looking at Jerry.

  “Hey, I never done that before.” He says holding up his hands.

  Chris just smiles and shakes his head. He continues on with running into another car while running away from the first one then using Elle’s waterpower to surf all the way home.

  “Thanks guys. I better go, see ya tomorrow.” Paul thanks him.

  “See ya.” Chris hit’s the ‘End’ button on the phone.

  “So, no car?” Jackson asks.

  “Yeah, it hasn’t come back.” Chris tells him.

  “Yeah, they’re too busy looking for us now.” Jerry ughs.

  “Which means we should be extra careful from now on, stay in groups and all.”

  Which was a good idea, Chris thinks. At school, at home and everywhere in between. But what about during the week? The gang couldn’t hang out at all hours of the day and night. They’d have to think of something soon.

  * * * * *

  The bus picks the kids up as normal but at the Thomas’ house, Mrs. Thomas waves on the bus. Were Paul and Ivy not going to school, or were they coming ter. At least one thing was for sure, no bck car was out front. Hopefully for good and those guys weren’t simply taking a long coffee break.

  The day starts off the same, but no Paul or Ivy yet. And Paul didn’t sound like anything was wrong yesterday. He'll have to call them after school to see what was up.

  Chris meets with Elle, Jackson and Jerry at lunch. He asks if they’ve seen Paul or Ivy.

  “No, not a sign of them anywhere.” Elle says, a touch of worry in her voice.

  “I hope nothing happened? Like them getting kidnapped and held for ransom and stuff.” Jerry says.

  It sounded farfetched but Chris didn’t think it wouldn’t be a possibility. But wouldn’t they have contacted them if they did?

  “Maybe they had an appointment somewhere? Like a doctor’s appointment or something.” Elle asks.

  “That could be all it is. We should worry more about ourselves for now. We are the ones that actually did something, not Paul and Ivy.” Jackson offers. “We should just rex for now, but keep an eye out.”

  Chris and the others agree and finish their lunch in retive silence. Chris could sense that even though they agreed that the twins might just have a doctor’s appointment or whatever, in the back of their mind is the nagging doubt. What if they caused them to be absent today? If so… Chris shoves the thought from his mind.

  Elle moves close to Chris. “I hope we didn’t cause anything to happen to them?”

  “I was thinking the same thing actually.” Chris then remembers Mrs. Thomas waving the bus on. “Maybe you were right. Mrs. Thomas did wave the bus on, and she didn’t do it in a panic or nothing.”

  “You’re right, she did.” Elle smiles and seems to perk up a bit.

  As gym css gets underway, Chris spots Mr. Granger talking with the principal's aide. He then calls Chris and Elle over. The aide tells them to change, their parents have asked for you to meet with them. There’s a limo waiting outside.

  “What about Jackson and Jerry?” Elle asks.

  “While you two change I’ll go to their csses and informing them.”

  Chris and Elle just look at each other a shrug, then leave to change. This was weird but if dad called, and something was up, he wasn’t gonna compin. Chris and Elle meet up and walk to the office. Jerry and Jackson are there signing a paper allowing them to go. Chris and Elle sign and are then free to go.

  Jerry cheers. “No more school today! And we get to ride in style.”

  That was a bit odd, a limo? He didn’t remember his parents or Mr. Prowman owning a limo. Unless they just were renting it or something.

  They exit the school, and as the aide said, there’s a limo waiting to pick them up. The driver even comes opens the door for them, welcoming them in.

  “Wow. Our dad’s sent us this?” Jackson asks the driver.

  “Yes. I’ll take you straight to them.” The chauffer closes the door as the st of them get in.

  The kids look at each other in confusion and wonder. What’s the occasion?

  The inside is dark, Chris always thought the insides of limos were lighted. He hears a click. Huh?

  “What no ice cream and drinks?” Jerry jokes.

  Elle takes hold of Chris’ hand. He could easily sense her nerves beginning to tense up.

  “How about some lights.” Jackson calls out as they hear the motor hum to life.

  “I’ll turn them on once we’re on the road.” The chauffer says over an intercom.

  Why would he wait so long?

  Chris extends his air powers and tries to get a sense of what or whoever was in the limo with them. It doesn’t take him long to sense two out of pce shapes up toward the front of the cabin. Two human shapes. The vehicle jerks forward as they turn onto the road running past the school. And as promised the lights come on to reveal the two men in suits from the other night.

  Elle lets out a squealing yelp, Chris and the brothers let out their own sound of shock.

  “Now just rex. We’re not gonna hurt you.” The taller looking one of the pair says leaning forward with both hands extended in a calming motion. “We merely want to ask you some questions.”

  The limo was taking turns a little too fast, the gang were being thrust from one side of the limo to the others. Chris throws an arm around Elle to help steady her. She was also beginning to weep.

  “From the way he’s driving I would say you wanna do more than ask us questions!” Chris excims.

  The same man thumps his fist on the gss separating them from the chauffer. “Take it easy!” He shouts, then turns his attention back to the kids. “Our boss is interested in your powers. He wants to help you develop them.”

  “That’s right.” The shorter one chimes in. “He does not want to hurt you.”

  “If he wanted us unhurt, he wouldn’t have sent you guys to kidnap us and have Evel Kinevel drive us around like a mad man.” Jackson yells.

  Chris remembered something he learned in science css. As the two suit guys try to expin themselves, he reaches over and pulls Jackson over so he could whisper to him behind Elle’s head.

  “Can you light the air in front of their faces when I say?”

  Jackson gives him a confused look. Chris knew Jackson couldn’t summon fire just yet, but he could cause a spark, like flint and steel.

  “And get ready to block the fire that may bst our way.”

  Jackson’s eyes go big.

  Chris smirks and he concentrates on a volleyball sized bubble of air about two feet in front of the men’s faces. Slowly but steadily, he removes all the non-oxygen molecules out of the air bubble as best he can.

  “Now kids, come on. You do not want to do anything drastic. We are traveling at a good velocity at the moment. If we wreck…”

  Chris figures it’s good enough to light them up. “Jackson!”

  A small bit of fire elemental power swirls inside the bubble. It starts glowing blue then turns to orange. The suit guys stare at it for a moment then slowly back up, but they couldn’t go anywhere as the swirl of fire power ignites and a fireball explodes.

  Screaming and the sound of broken gss fill their ears as the limo fishtails out of control. The fmes themselves quickly swamping the kids but are then sucked out of the shattered windows on either side of the suit guys.

  The kids yell and scream as the car swerves and sms against something and bounces to a stop. The windows on the passenger side shatter and pelt them with nuggets of gss.

  The smell of burnt hair and the sounds of moaning and crying permeate the cabin. Elle?

  Chris quickly attends to Elle who had her arms tight around him. She was bawling. He looks her over, he didn’t see any bleeding or anything, so at least she isn’t hurt. Though her nerves were a completely different subject.

  Chris holds her close, pulling on a bit of his power to help calm her down. He could feel how terrified she was. He had to admit that he was none the worse for wear.

  “Let’s get out of here.” Jackson whispers.

  He didn’t have to ask the rest of them twice. Jerry kicks open the door which was knocked open from the impact. A few gss pieces from the broken window scattering from the door.

  Chris helps Elle out of the limo, keeping his power going to help calm her nerves. She was beginning to feel better now that they had stopped and were getting out.

  “Are you kids all right?” A man hollers to them. Him and a woman were rushing toward them from a stopped car.

  The gang were a little banged up for sure.

  Chris could feel Elle’s intent, so he decides to speak for her. “These guys tried to kidnap us.” Blunt and to the point.

  “Oh my God!” The woman comes over and puts her arm out. “Come back to the truck kids.”

  The woman introduces herself, Cathy Gerald, drops the tail gate and has the gang sit down, while the sounds of sirens could be heard off in the distance. All Chris could think about was how much their parents were gonna scold them for taking a ride with strangers.

  Sigh!

  Wasn’t getting out of school early supposed to be fun?