Creak! "Stupid door!" I woke up to someone hissing at a door as they closed it quickly. I sat up and looked around myself. The room was pretty ordinary, a door with a jacket hanging on the back, a bed with light blue sheets and pillows, a desk with a lamp, a clock, that read 11:00, and a computer, a closet, a dresser with a CD player sitting on top, a window with blue curtains to match the bedding, a book case filled with various genres and titles of books, and a blank calendar hanging on the wall. The door creaked open and closed just as quickly again. There was absolutely no clue as to who lived in this room, no posters, no pictures, the calendar didn't even have any pictures on it. I could probably search the closet or the dresser to see if I could find anything, but that felt very wrong.
Instead, I opened the window, letting the curtains billow out in the wind. Then I went and sat against the wall were, if the door was just cracked open, I would not be spotted.
I could sense someone on the other side of the door, but they didn't enter immediately. About fifteen minutes passed by before the door opened again. It opened a crack, as usual, and, just as I had expected, the door paused, not closing immediately, then it opened a bit more and someone entered. I bit my lip to keep myself from gasping at the tall, brown haired boy standing before me. He was staring in the opposite direction from me, just like he always seemed to be doing, never seeing me. Of course, only my sibling had ever seen me, should I allow my dream to come true, to show this boy who I really am?
"Figures, I finally build up the courage to come and talk to her and she has vanished." Caleb muttered quietly to himself. I stared down at my hands sitting in my lap. He had to build up courage to talk to me? It always took me so much courage to talk to him! That's when I heard a surprised gasp.
"It takes courage to talk to me?" I said, keeping my voice monotone. "Am I scary or something?"
"Uh, no, not really, I don't particularly know how to explain why it wasn't easy to talk to you."
"Wasn't? So it's not a problem now, right?" I looked up and nearly jumped he was a lot closer now, his right hand extended out towards me.
"Not really, would you like to go eat something, It's a little past dinner time."
"Uh, sorry, I don't eat dinner with strangers." Where did that come from? He wasn't a stranger! Why wasn't I flipping out that Caleb Callans was asking me to have dinner, or something similar to dinner, with him? Idiot!
"Oh, sorry, I'm Caleb. May I ask who you are?" Oh, that's right, I have a secret identity of being a powerful princess and I had been kidnapped last night and wound up at Caleb's house, I think it would be a good idea if I left now.
Of course my powers still refused to work. "Yeah, you can ask." There was a pause as he waited for me to give my name. "But you're not going to get it."
He looked at me in a curious way with his head tilted slightly to the side. "Do I know you?"
No way had he recognized me from that! "Not that I know of. I said you were a stranger, didn't I?"
"Okay." He said uncertainly. He then thrust his hand toward me again. "But I must insist that you eat something."
"I'm not really that hungry, thanks though." I took his hand, out of politeness, and let him pull me into a standing position.
"A drink then?"
"I think it would probably just be better if I head home."
"Please, I want to talk to you a bit."
I glanced at the window, debating whether I could make a dash for it, but he was blocking my path. "Uh, huh. You just want to try and figure out who I am. You still think you know me, don't you?"
"No, can't I offer someone who's been knocked-out for a few hours something to eat and then maybe find out a little about them?"
I stared at him for a moment before replying, "Do you hear what you're saying? Why was I knocked-out? I should be finding out more about you! Not the other way around!" I forced myself to calm down after he flinched away from my tone. "Sorry, it's been…an interesting day."
"Indeed." He replied mildly. "Perhaps we can go sit down and chat for a little while, if you'd just follow me."
I nodded my agreement, figuring I really didn't have a choice. I followed him down a hallway that led from his room. The first door, right outside of his room, looked like another bedroom, Caleb's mother glanced up from her book as we passed. The next one was closed and the third door led to a TV room where his father glanced at us too.
"Uh, aren't your parents curious as to why I'm here at this hour?" I asked suspiciously.
"Not really. Are you sure you don't want anything to eat?" He glanced over his shoulder at me.
"Just water please."
He seemed satisfied with that. After being a gentleman and pulling out a chair for me to sit at a medium sized dinner table, he vanished through another doorway. Returning before I could figure a way out, he carried a glass of water. I still eyed it carefully, you never know. I sipped a couple of tiny sips, I had a very good metabolism that could get rid of small amounts of even the most deadly poison.
"Thank you." I said as I realized he was staring at me.
"No problem. So what do you want to know about me?"
My eyes widened, "You are going to tell me about you?"
"Yeah, you were right, you have more right to answers than I do right now. So, I'll answer any questions you ask if I can. And maybe you'll answer a couple of mine in return."
"I know what your question is, you only have one and because I know that after that there will be no other questions I'm not going to give you the upper hand!"
"So I do know you!" It wasn't really a question, but it is now.
"Yes, you do. I answered one of your questions, now you have to answer one of mine." His eyes narrowed, "How did you recognize me?"
He tensed a little, "There was, uh, just, um, something about you that I recognized." His answer was very clearly just pieced together.
"Uh, huh, now tell me the truth."
"That is the truth!"
"No it's not. That was an improvised answer, you're a bad liar." If I hadn't been so sure of my first conclusion I would have believed his second statement, so he was just sometimes a bad liar. I waited for him to say something, but when he didn't, I got up and headed toward the nearest door, only half paying attention to what I was saying. "I think it would have been a good idea for me to leave now. I'll be able to find my way home from here, see you in English." Oops.
We both froze in place. "Vi?" I allowed my powers to shift, changing me into my everyday appearance on Earth.
"Hey." I said casually, "I've answered your question, how did you recognize me? The truth this time please."
"Your scent was familiar."
"My scent?"
"I have strengths that most of the others don't, apparently not as rare as I thought."
"You have no idea."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"There are several students at our school that are, well, like me."
"They change appearances?"
"Well, yes, that is one thing. But our senses are amplified an –"
"Which senses?"
"Um, all of them, why?"
"Oh, nothing."
"It will take me a while to tell you everything about my abilities, let's start with you."
"Fine, I don't mutate or any –"
"I disguise myself, not mutate!"
"Whatever, I don't change how I look or anything fancy like that. As far as I know, I can just hear a pen drop from three miles away, IO can pick up any scent, I can see in the dark as well as I can in the light, I'm unusually strong, I can hear the thoughts of the others like me, and –"
"Other's like you?"
"There are a few other students at our school that…" He stopped mid-sentence, his eyes unfocused, "are on their way."
"What?" Did I really want to know yet? No, my friends needed to know about Caleb, I couldn't run the risk of being trapped with telling them anything. "I'm going home now." He didn't know where I lived and I hoped none of his friends did either.
"Wait! I think…" But his voice was lost as the back door closed behind my retreating back.
He followed me outside just in time to see me open a portal to Cantella, my home planet.
