September, 2011

  A week went by as Collin sat in the cafeteria with his best friends Lucan and Grace. His private highschool was named Topher Gibbs Academy and everybody had to wear uniforms. Today he had on bck pid pants, a white church shirt with their school crest, Pac-Man socks, a purple tie, wristbands, a Kingdom Hearts neckchain, and timbernd boots.

  It felt weird being back in Washington D.C. and the warm welcome was rough as Collin ate his food. He found out his team actually lost their first football game, Ezra and Inaya will be discharged from the hospital in a month if things go well, he had to do a bunch of quests, during football practice their coach was not going easy on them, his boyfriend broke his arm skateboarding, and for some reason Helena stopped replying to his texts.

  "Did you guys watch the new episode of Teen Wolf st night?" asked Grace.

  "Yeah!" someone answered. "Stiles is my favorite."

  Another person said. "Guys, I'm really psyched about the Sleeping With Sirens concert!"

  "I'm gonna go to BlockBuster after school and get the new Infamous 2 videogame," Lucan grinned and gave him a fist-bump. His friend had one prosthetic arm and one prosthetic leg.

  30 minutes ter, Collin sat in English css with his notebook and textbook infront of him. Their teacher wasn't in the room at the moment as students talked. He thought about that game Lucan was talking about and smiled. By accident the main character gets superpowers and this makes Collin pull up his stats.

  [ Name: Collin Saint Rex

  Race: Human

  Sex: Male

  Blood type: AB +

  Title: Maverick

  Css: Knight

  Level: D

  Training Points: 109 ]

  After skimming through everything he eventually makes up his mind and whispered. "4 points for Healing, 50 points for Agility & Speed, 5 points for TrueSight, and 50 points for Intelligence."

  There was a ding. [ "Are you sure?" ]

  "Yes," Collin confirmed. A surge of energy coursed through his body as he took a deep breath and id his head on his desk. When the strange sensation faded Collin sat up and ran a hand through his curly brown hair.

  [ Stats:

  Stamina: 1,000/1,000

  Endurance: 101/150

  Strength: 104/150

  Intelligence: 150/150

  Agility & Speed: 150/150

  Special Abilities:

  Telekinesis: 21/100

  Healing: 14/100

  TrueSight: 10/100 ]

  Maybe he should go see Helena ter? After finding out his friend was a succubus he bought a mythology book from the local bookstore. Collin found out a few things like their strengths and weaknesses. It sounded like a good idea at the time, but now he wasn't sure. The only fact that might be true is about sunlight. Suddenly, he was hugged from behind.

  "Hey," Collin smiled.

  Rafhael kissed him on the lips and sat down. "I missed you. Are you excited about spirit week and homecoming next month?"

  "Yea and I missed you too," Collin admitted. "How's your arm?"

  His boyfriend rolled his eyes. "It sucks."

  "To make you feel better we should go on a date," Collin held his hand.

  Rafhael smirked. "Good idea."

  "Alright, settle down!" demanded a stern voice. Their English teacher Ms. Wrangler walked into the cssroom with a mug of coffee and her ptop. When Collin gnced at his teacher he was caught off guard. The woman sitting at the desk had tattoos, pointy ears, fangs, and bright orange eyes. As soon as he blinked Ms. Wrangler looked normal again. "I'll begin roll call."

  School ended 4 hours ter as Collin and his teammates did exercise drills on the field. The sun was shining and his football uniform had grass stains. All of a sudden a pop-up screen appeared.

  [ Objective: Catch five footballs to earn 10 training points ]

  "Man, I'm totally geeked!" Collin cheered and jumped in the air. He ran in pce and dropped to the ground, after that they did box jumps, tackles, sprints, football passes, and formations.

  There was a ding. [ Reward: 10 training points ]

  When Coach Graham blew the whistle everybody took a breather. Collin spat out his mouth piece and grabbed his water bottle to take a drink. This time he didn't colpse and he noticed everybody staring at him. After taking off his helmet two of his teammates stumbled over to him, it was Hero & Wyatt.

  "Dude, that was sick!" Hero grinned as he slung an arm over his shoulder.

  Wyatt spat on the ground. "That juke almost took me out."

  "Hi," said a voice. A girl walked over with a photography camera and smiled at them. "Mind if I take a picture for the yearbook?"

  Hero shrugged. "Sure."

  "Attention!" Coach Graham yelled and pointed at Collin who just entered the huddle. "Before ya hit the showers I got something to say. Our next football game is in 10 days and with our QB back home we won't lose. This is a year for legends."

  Collin nodded and shouted at his team. "Ayo, who's gonna win!"

  "We're gonna win!"

  "Who's gonna win!" he repeated.

  "We're gonna win, go dragons!"

  When football practice was over Collin changed his clothes and drove to the hospital on his motorcycle. He had on checkered shorts, a checkered tank top, and a backpack. The drive took 15 minutes as Collin pulled into the parking lot. After strolling inside the building and talking with the receptionist he took the elevator up to the 5th floor.

  Collin gnced at his cellphone as he exited the elevator and walked down the hall, it was 5:32 in the afternoon. When he got to his sister's room everybody is there. His brother Ezra was leaning against the wall in a hospital gown while his sister Inaya was lying in bed, they were twins. Collin and his older siblings were 5 years apart. Their mom sat in a comfy chair with her purse and cellphone.

  "Hey. I got your favorite snacks," Collin smiled and pulled a grocery bag outta his backpack.

  "Thanks jellybean," Inaya spoke. "How was practice?"

  "Good," Collin answered. "The coach was happy to have me back."

  Ezra groaned. "I'm grateful. Even junkfood is better than hospital food."

  Collin gave the snacks to his siblings and sat down in a chair.

  "Okay," their mom announced as she held up her cellphone. She had copper skin, brown pixie-cut hair, a nose ring, grey eyes, and wore a jersey outfit with Nike sneakers. "Your dad is on Skype."

  They all looked at the screen and saw their dad waving. "I'm sorry, it's taking longer than expected."

  "It's okay hubby," his mom reassured. "We understand how hard you work and we love you."

  "Love you!" they all said.

  "Guess we should start," their mom expined with anger and sorrow in her voice. "Collin, we know you have questions and you deserve to know the truth. Why this happened to our family and why you were taken to Connecticut. As you know I couldn't get pregnant for a long time and every doctor said my chances were extremely low. We were about to give up when a teenager approached us one day. That teenager was Casper Jaeger and he heard we were having fertility problems."

  His dad continued. "He helped by giving us an elixir and after a month your mother became pregnant. Things were going fine and all Casper wanted was a favor, we agreed to his deal. After Inaya and Ezra got older Casper finally told us what he wanted."

  "We had no idea what a Maverick was at first," his mom confessed. "But that's what you are Collin and the ceremony was a success. We know you have the sword and we understand Casper isn't an ordinary person. Your brother and sister were tested too, but they weren't compatible."

  Ezra suddenly spoke. "We broke the deal and left town when you were 8 years-old, Collin. We don't know why he waited this long and we don't know how he found us."

  "Somehow Casper made us magically ill, Inaya continued. "He needed a way to lure you back to Connecticut, but he said we couldn't tell you the truth yet."

  Their dad interrupted. "Listen son, the reason your childhood memories are a little scrambled is because we told Helena to use hypnosis on you. Probably not the best idea to ask a 7 year-old for help. But whatever Casper told you made you have really bad nightmares."

  "When Helena gave you amnesia she said something odd," their mom remarked. "It was like you'll remember everything when my hair changes? We understand now it was a trigger, a cue for you to remember your past."

  Collin frowned. "So, were voodoo babies. You knew what was going on this whole time and pretended to be clueless. And the reason Inaya and Ezra got sick is because of Helena's older brother?"

  "Yes," everyone admitted.

  "Did Helena know about this scheme?" he clenched his fists and spoke. "She told me Casper can be pretty overbearing."

  "I don't think so," his dad said. "She would've warned you."

  "Helena is a sweet girl from what I remember and she really cares about you," his mom added. "Casper said everything will go back to normal, but life will never be the same."

  Later that night, Collin sat in his bedroom doing homework. The walls were painted different shades of bck, he had a cloud bed with crown sheets and a cotton quilt, green carpet, a graffiti mural, movie posters, a boombox, his miniature vardo he made in woodshop, comic books, and a ft-screen Tv.

  He also had a walk-in closet, nightstand, a va mp, dresser, a kaleidoscope, his stuffed tiger, a steampunk digital clock, ceiling decorations, music posters, a cheval mirror, sports bobbleheads, a neon sign with his name and jersey number, CD's, a Brazil fg and a Romania fg hung over his bed, inspirational posters, and several family photos were on a shelf.

  Despite learning everything Collin was still upset as he smmed his textbook shut and threw it across the room. He didn't like being kept in the dark or maniputed. Casper was definitely a puppet master and that made Collin wonder what Helena had to go through. Anyway, they still could've told him. Even if it was a trap he would've pyed along if it meant saving his family. Suddenly, a pop-up window appeared.

  [ Objective: Read ten pages of a book about knights to earn 5 training points ]

  Collin cursed in a different nguage and hopped outta bed with his cellphone. It was 8:15 at night as he slipped on his sneakers and grabbed the crystal off the nightstand. He remembered what they told him and focused on Helena's house, it happened very quickly as he fell on something hard.

  The moon and stars were out as Collin y on the roof of Helena's car. It was dark, but the lights were on inside the mansion. He texted Helena as he rolled off the roof onto the driveway. Not wasting any time Collin jogged over to the front door and rang the doorbell twice.

  A few minutes ter, Helena ran out the house crying and tackled him. She had on a Victorian nightgown and was barefoot. The inside of the house looked completely trashed as Helena gazed up at him. All the anger he was feeling quickly vanished as he held her in his arms.

  "I'm sorry," Helena muttered as tears ran down her face. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry."

  Collin spoke softly. "It wasn't your fault. What happened there?"

  His friend expined. "I fought with my brother."

  "That's insane, are you hurt?" he looked at her.

  "No," Helena answered. She took a few steps back and blushed.

  Collin continued. "What about Casper?"

  His friend sighed and crossed her arms. "No, that dirty snake managed to escape through the portal."

  "Portal?" Collin asked. "What portal?"