by Sarah Carter
“No, really?”
“We are an alien race from a dying planet.”
Blinking her eyes, Kayla says, “Hmmm…dying planet. I see. So we came to take over Earth? We’re kind of doing a crappy job.”
“No, we came here to live. We actually use our knowledge to help the human race.”
“Oh, good for us then. So, like, everyone can shape-shift?”
Her father nods. “Yes, honey.”
“How many of us are there?”
Damien answers, “Roughly, a few hundred thousand.”
“What can I shift into?” Kayla asks.
Everyone exchanges looks before Jackson’s dad finally says, “Most of our race is limited on what they can shift into. It really varies, but some people can only shift into ten things, others twenty. Some can only shift into mammals. Some can shift into sea animals but no land animals. It depends on the bloodline.”
“Okay,” Kayla exhales. “How do I know what I can do?”
“Well,” her mom says gently, “you are a little different.”
Slumping down, Kayla says, “I’m even weirder? What else is wrong with me?”
“There is nothing wrong with you. It’s the exact opposite. With your bloodline, you can shift into anything,” her dad declares.
Kayla raises an eyebrow. “Why can I shift into anything?”
“Because you are the first girl born to the bloodline in a while, and the great thing is you will pass the trait onto your children,” her dad declares happily.
“That’s if I marry one of our kind,” Kayla retorts. “Right?”
The whole room gets eerily quiet. “Why would you marry a human?” Damien stutters in disgust.
“What if I fell in love with a human?”
“You couldn’t have children with them,” her mom replies. “And if you marry a human, they could never find out. It could be disastrous.”
“What happens if they find out? They could probably keep a secret, especially if they love me.”
Damien clears his throat. “If you marry a human and he finds out, the council steps in. They would erase his memory entirely from the moment he met you. It would be a permanent case of amnesia. He wouldn’t remember you at all.”
Her jaw drops. “That is awful! What is the council? They sound horrible.”
“The council is the governing body of our people.” Jackson sighs. “I would give you the titles in our language, but they would be hard for you to pronounce. Let’s say, there is kind of a…king, so to speak. Underneath him, there are four overseeing families. The overseers help the king decide things. The five families, including the king and his immediate family, all get a vote, but in the end, the king has final say.”
“So…this council rules our people,” Kayla inquires, a little perplexed.
Jackson nods. “Yes.”
“And who is the king?”
Everyone turns and looks at Damien. Damien takes a deep breath and states, “My father.”
Kayla’s eyebrows go up. “Your father is the king!”
“Yes,” Damien replies.
“So you’re a prince?”
With a smirk, Damien says, “Technically, yes, I am. We don’t use those terms, but in essence that is my title. I am a representative of the council.”
“So the council sent you here to see me because my parents were hiding this from me?”
“Yes.”
Giggling, Kayla exhales. “I was going to go on a date with a prince of an alien species. Holy…yeah…my life is messed up.”
“I promise next time we go on a date, it won’t end in total chaos.”
Nodding, Kayla sighs. “That would be nice.”
Jackson’s mom reappears in the room. “Here, I brought you some comfortable clothes. Why don’t you change?”
“Thanks,” Kayla grumbles as she stands up. “My clothes are ruined.”
“Yes, well, I didn’t want to ask, but my curiosity is peaked. Why are your clothes all ripped?” Damien asks. “When we shift, our clothes shift with us.”
Kayla looks down. “Jackson did it.”
Everyone is quiet, and Damien turns his gaze to his cousin. “You did what?”
“Not like that!” Jackson exclaims. “She lost her shoes and I had to carry her. She couldn’t jump on my back with her skirt on, so I ripped it.”
“Is that all that happened?” Damien inquires slowly.
A blush sweeps over Kayla’s face. Jackson looks at her and says, “Yes, that was it, nothing else happened.”
“Im going to get changed.” Kayla groans as she stands up. “Excuse me.” She brushes past everyone and goes to the bathroom. She shuts the door and exhales loudly. “I’m dreaming. I have to be dreaming. This is insane.” Kayla shakes her head and undresses. She throws everything in the garbage because there is no hope to save it.
When she finally makes it back into the living room, Kayla finds everyone staring at Damien. He is on the phone. “Father, that isn’t necessary. She's fine.”
Looking at her mom, Kayla sees that she is wringing her hands with a worried look on her face. Kayla asks, “What’s going on?”
Damien groans. “Really, I’m representing the council. I can take care of this. Those actions aren’t necessary.” He pauses and then rubs his forehead. “All right, I will send them in the morning. I am not happy about this. Well, you should care. You should care about what Kayla thinks. Whatever, Father, I’ll talk to you later. Bye.” Damien hangs up the phone and stares down at the carpet. “You’re being called before the council,” he mumbles. Kayla’s mom gasps. Damien looks at her. “I tried to convince him otherwise, but I only have so much pull.”
“What?” Kayla yells. “They can’t do anything to my parents! No!”
Her dad steps over to her. “No, honey, we won’t be punished.”
“They will have to explain their actions and the council will vote on what will happen from there. You’re underage.” Damien sighs.
“What do you mean? Something will happen to me?” Kayla squeaks. “I don’t get what you’re saying!”
Kayla’s mom exhales. “We don’t need to worry about all that right now. It's going to be fine.”
“Let me ask a question. Why did you hide it from me?”
“We wanted you to have a normal life,” her dad says. “You were so happy and fit in well with the humans. We also don’t have much contact with others of our kind. We didn’t want you to feel pressured to meet other members of our race or feel isolated from humans.”
Glaring, Kayla says, “This is completely ridiculous. Did you not think I was intelligent enough to know who I am and make my own decisions about who I get involved with? You should have trusted me, Mom.”
“That’s the council’s attitude toward everything,” Damien interjects. “I will be watching over you while your parents are gone.”
“Really, Damien?” Kayla snaps. “You’re only seventeen; we’re both seventeen.”
Jackson’s dad says, “We will be here also. Your parents shouldn’t be gone that long.”
“You know what,” Kayla finally growls. “I want to go home and go to bed. I want to crawl under my sheets and pretend this didn’t happen.”
“But it did happen,” Jackson says. “You can’t ignore it.”
“For one night I can.”
Her dad rubs his hand on her back. “Okay, we’ll take you home.”
“I don’t want you to talk to me!” Kayla snaps, pointing her finger at him. “No talking, not one word. I want to go home and go to bed. Take a long hot shower and ignore the world for a while.”
“Okay,” her dad replies, nodding. “Understandable.”
Jackson walks over and sticks his hand out. “Here’s your cell phone.” Kayla grabs it, but as she does their fingers brush each other. It sends shivers down her spine. “I’ll call you in the morning,” he states.
Kayla nods. “Oh, joy.”
“Then I won’t,” Jackson mumbles, l
ooking down.
“No, it’s fine. You and Damien are probably the only two people I can turn to right now.”
Damien nods. “We’ll help you through this. Why don’t you go home and get some sleep.”
Exhaling, Kayla says, “See you guys later. Jackson, I’m really sorry I hurled all over your pretty car.”
He points to Kayla’s dad. “He’s paying for it to be professionally cleaned tomorrow. It's fine.”
“Okay, bye.” Kayla sighs, waving at everyone. She and her parents walk out of the house. Her parents respect her space and don’t say a word to her the entire ride home. When they get back to their house, Kayla trudges up to her room. She grabs her stuff and heads to the shower. As soon as the hot water hits her, she starts to cry. She loses track of time as she stands beneath the stream of water, letting the tears fall.
Chapter 8
Kayla wakes up the next morning and senses someone sitting on her bed next to her. She opens her eyes and scrambles to sit up. “What in the world are you doing in here?” she yells.
Jackson smiles. “Keeping an eye on you. Your parents left two hours ago, and we wanted to make sure you didn’t accidently shift. Don’t want you to hurt yourself.”
“Shut up,” Kayla mutters. “So you just watched me sleep?”
“No, of course not. I actually just came in to wake you up. You have to eat something.”
She rubs her eyes. “Chocolate cake. I want chocolate cake. It’s that kind of a morning.”
“I’ll go buy you a cake,” they hear from the doorway. “Be back in a bit.”
She watches Damien turn and walk out the door. “Geez, not even a good morning from either of you. At least he’s getting me cake.”
“Here, eat this,” Jackson instructs, holding out a few leaves.
“No, I’m not eating that stuff anymore, freaky crap!”
Chuckling, Jackson says, “It helps you control your shifting. We never needed to worry about it when we were on our own planet, but now, now we have to worry about randomly shifting, especially you. So eat it.” Kayla snatches the leaves away from him and starts to chew them. “Good girl.”
“I’m not a dog,” Kayla snaps. She stops chewing and stares at Jackson. They both burst into laughter. “Well, I’m not one right now!”
“No, though I have to ask, why did you pick a golden retriever?”
Kayla smiles. “Tracy had this dog named Spud and he loved me, just absolutely loved me.”
“Animals tend to like us.”
Falling back on her pillow, Kayla tugs the blanket up to her head. “I’m tired. Wake me up when Damien gets back with cake.”
“No, no, no, it’s one in the afternoon, you need to get up,” Jackson says, pulling her blanket away.
She yanks it back. “I don’t care. It’s Saturday, leave me alone.”
“I’ll make you get up,” Jackson teases.
“Bull,” Kayla grumbles, putting the blanket over her head. She lies there for a second before her bed starts to bounce. Throwing the blanket back, she glares at Jackson. “Stop jumping on my bed!”
He grins. “Nope. Get up, get up, get up.”
“NO!”
Jackson reaches down and completely yanks the blanket off of her bed.
“Hey!” she yells.
“Now, you have to get up,” Jackson declares, standing over her.
“No.”
He falls down to his knees and starts to tickle her. Kayla screams.
“Are you getting up?” he asks.
“Get off of me,” Kayla squeals through her giggles. “Or I will hurt you!”
“You think so, huh?” Jackson says, sitting up. “I’d like to see you try.”
Narrowing her eyes, Kayla growls. “I will have Damien punch you.”
“Oh puleeze, he has nothing on me.”
“He knocked Jude on his ass.”
With a scoff, Jackson replies, “Whatever, he’s capable of much more, but he still has nothing on me.”
Kayla shoves Jackson off of her. When he falls, she jumps on top of him. “See? You’re not so big and bad.”
Laughing, Jackson says, “Really? Like Im going to stop a girl from throwing me down on a bed.”
Kayla’s face reddens. “Shut up.” She falls down next to him. “Get out of my bed.”
“Aww, actually getting kicked out of a girl’s bed, that’s a first,” Jackson states, looking at her.
“You are so full of yourself. Get out.”
Jackson hops up and looks down at her. “Now, that you’re up, there’s coffee made downstairs. I may not be Johnny Depp, but I have coffee.”
“Yes, but Damien is the one with chocolate cake, which one is more tempting?” She inhales a short breath and her eyes widen. “I have an idea, why don’t you guys take your shirts off and serve me breakfast in bed. I can better answer my question then.”
With a wicked grin, Jackson says, “Now who’s the one with the naughty mind?”
“I didn’t say naked,” Kayla says, getting up. “Who says I ever want to see that?”
“Oh really?” Jackson laughs. He pulls his shirt off. The smile slips away from Kayla’s face. Jackson’s hands move to his belt and start to undo it.
Kayla covers her eyes. “What are you doing?”
“Making your dreams come true.”
“No! Stop it! Put your clothes back on!”
Silence. When she moves her hand away from her eyes, Jackson is standing right in front of her. “Boo!”
She jumps and screams. “You ass!”
“What?” Jackson asks, grabbing her. “What did you call me?” He starts to tickle her.
Trying to pull away from him, Kayla yells, “Let go of me!”
“No.”
Kayla brings her foot up and slams it down on his. Jackson buckles for a second, which makes it easy for Kayla to slip out of his grip. She tears out of her room and into the bathroom, slamming the door and locking it. After a few seconds, a knock sounds on the door. “Kayla, my dear, you’re going to get it.”
“Go away!”
Jackson starts to drum his fingers on the door. “Nope, we’re spending the day with you, so that means I can stand here forever.”
“Not fair.”
“Who said life was fair?”
“Well, you can just wait,” Kayla shouts through the door. She crosses her arms and leans against the counter. It seems like forever passes with no word from Jackson. “Are you still out there?” Kayla exclaims. No reply. She taps her chin. Turning around, she looks at the bathroom window. It leads to the porch off her parents' room. Quietly, she goes over and lifts the window. When there is no sound from Jackson, she slips out of it and sneaks to her parents' porch door.
Kayla is relieved to find it unlocked. She carefully opens it and enters the bedroom. She creeps over to the open door and peaks around the corner. Jackson is leaning against the bathroom door, fidgeting with his fingernail. His shirt is still off and his belt is gone too. Kayla smirks and then, taking a deep breath, she sprints down the hall and past him. She flies down the steps as fast as her legs can carry her and darts into the dining room.
Jackson is right behind her, but she puts the table between them. “You'll never catch me,” she says with a laugh.
“That’s what you think.” She watches him curiously as he takes his shoes off.
“What in the world are you doing?”
Wiggling his eyebrows, Jackson answers, “Embarrassing you.”
“No,” she whines. “Jackson, stop it. Keep your clothes on!”
He shakes his head. “Nah, there’s no fun in that.”
“Jackson,” Kayla snaps, trying and failing to be serious. “Keep your pants on!”
“N-O-P-E, ever seen a guy naked?”
“NO! Stop it!”
When he undoes the button on his pants, Kayla runs through the side doorway and into the kitchen. She hears Jackson quick on her heals. “Kayla.”
She screams
again and runs through the house. When they make it all the way around again, Damien is coming in the front door. Kayla runs over to him and jumps behind him. “Beat him up!”
Damien laughs and looks back at her. “Why am I beating him up?” He turns to his cousin and frowns. “Why in the world are you almost naked? What were you two doing?”
“He’s being a jerk,” Kayla shrieks. “He thinks I want to see him naked, but I don’t! Plus, he was trying to tickle me.”
“Jackson, leave her alone. No one wants to see you naked, especially not me.”
Kayla leans over from behind Damien and sticks her tongue out. “See, keep your clothes off!”
“Off?” both guys chirp.
“NO! NO! NO! ON, oh my gosh, ON!” Kayla yells. She presses her face against Damien. “No, I want you to keep your clothes on!”
“Weren’t you the one who wanted us to feed you with our shirts off?” Jackson asks.
Turning around, Damien looks at her. “What conversation did I miss? If you want me to take my clothes off, all you need to do is ask.”
“She doesn’t want to see you with your clothes off,” Jackson scoffs.
Looking at him, Kayla says, “Says who?”
“Really?” Jackson snorts. “Me or him? The answer is obvious.”
Kayla’s jaw drops. “How rude! You know what, I would much rather see Damien without his clothes on.”
“Sounds good to me,” Damien interjects. “I have chocolate cake. Why don’t you and I go into the kitchen? I’ll take my clothes off there.”
“No!” Kayla giggles. “I swear, what is with you two?”
Damien leans over and kisses her on the head. “Perversion runs in our blood.”
“I guess so. What would your parents say?”
Snorting, Damien says, “My mom would shake her head and my dad would say good job.”
“Doesn’t your dad have to be all noble and set an example for his people?”
“Yes, but when it’s just family, he lets loose a little more.” Damien holds the cake in front of him. “The best chocolate cake I could find.”
Kayla grabs it from him and walks into the kitchen. “Breakfast of champions. Come on.”
“I still think she would much rather see me naked.” Jackson sighs. “Just saying.”