A Secret Visit

Chapter One
A Secret Visit

Jordyn’s “all-you-got” run was quickly turning into a
“speed-up-or-you’re-failing-P.

E.” run.  Coach Blalock had been beside
her the past lap alternating between blowing his whistle in her ear
and yelling, sorry, “encouraging” her to speed up. She had never had
trouble running the track before, and it wasn’t that she was tired, no
not at all. The problem was that her mind was elsewhere. In a place
that had nothing to do with school, or sports, or even Eros. Jordyn
was thinking about her friend’s confession.
        It had been almost two and a half months since Tejana had told her
brother, Josh, and herself about who her father was: the evil tyrant
whom they were trying to defeat. No matter how hard Jordyn tried, she
just couldn’t wrap her mind around it. It was just so, so wrong.
Tejana was so unlike Temani. True, Jordyn had only known her for a
couple months, but Tejana had been willing to risk her life to defeat
him last fall.
        Tejana had promised that she and Gavin would be back soon, but
apparently they had two different opinions of soon. Jordyn couldn’t
hold it against her, after all Tejana was a rebel on the run who had
an even harder time not reporting for duty when called (thanks to the
whole daughter-of-powerful-magic-guy thing that Jordyn didn’t
understand), but she was getting worried. On a multitude of occasions
she and her brother, Josh, had discussed this issue.
        That was another plus for Jordyn thanks to this new Fli’er society �"
she not only got along with, but actually hung out happily with her
brother! Who’d a thunk? Right? Well, aside from the fact that she also
had to endure his ignoramus friends and his own personal ignorance, it
was the best benefit of the whole ordeal.
        Jordyn had gotten in shape, her hair had darkened, she suddenly had
muscles she’d never known existed, there seemed an endless stream to
changes this strange new world brought into existence for her. Tejana
had left a strict routine for Josh and Jordyn to follow every day.
Once a month they had an off day, but they had to be careful when they
used that. She could see the changes in her brother, too. His were
more in his head and behavior than physical, but they were ever more
evident with each passing day. He lost his anger problems almost
overnight. Josh was organized, not as forgetful, actual cared about
his studies, and yet, somehow, managed to have time to go swing with
Jordyn. At least that’s how their mother put it. Jordyn knew why he
wasn’t angry; that was Fliar - the magical birds that this whole new
world revolved around - magic in its purest form. As for being
responsible and studious, he knew that if he didn’t take
responsibility for keeping his grades up they would fall with the time
he was spending on Fli’er business, and Trisha - their mother - would
put him on restriction.
        “Landerson! Stop lolling off! You’re gonna fail this course and make
me use my summer up on your pathetic little tushy!” Coach Blalock
yelled while alternating between words and his whistle.
        Ugh, Jordyn thought, coaching in its finest, as the school would tell
newcomers. If she knew what I could do, I’d be dead right now…
        Jordyn sped up just enough to put herself right behind the pack of
basketball guys.  That should be enough, right?
        One more lap and she would be released to go to Algebra II, Josh, and
Mitchy. One more lap…
        In a mad dash she darted for the end. She had to tell Josh the theory
she’d just come up with. It was too good, too perfect, too
not-her-normal-mind-process for it to be just an empty thought. It was
perfect! It fit every little thing they needed it to fit. There were
complications, of course, it couldn’t be completely easy, but the pros
so outweighed the cons.
        She passed breathlessly by Coach who was staring at her, wide-eyed,
as she told Jordyn to go to next class. Oh no, I’m screwed tomorrow
she thought as she ran to Mrs. O’Conner’s classroom on the second
floor of EMHS. As she entered the door, she realized how early she was
for class. Had she forgotten something? No. There couldn’t have been
anything, could there?
Oh, well, now I’m stupid. My books, my notebooks, I didn’t even get
changed… My heads getting like Josh’s. Ugh! Jordyn realized after a
self evaluation. Well, there’s no time to change right now so I’ll
just have to do that at the break, but I’ve got to get my books.
Jordyn sprinted again to get her things. She mentally checked off her
things as she brought them out of her locker. Her book was in her
hand, her purple notebook in her backpack, her pencil pouch with all
of her pens, pencils, colored pencils, key to the �" no, it wasn’t
there. Jordyn frantically searched her locker, her backpack, the purse
she had stashed in the locker below hers, the journal was nowhere, let
alone the key. Oh, they’re gonna kill me, they’re gonna kill me, who
would have the ability even to get into my locker?! They’d have to
pick a lock! The only two people I know that are skilled enough to
pick any ordinary lock are Wes and Tejana, and out of those the only
one who can pick a Fli’er lock is �" oh, I know now �" Tejana’s back!
With a giddy smile on her face, Jordyn skipped all the way up to room
B202. The bell rang almost as soon as her second foot had crossed into
the room. She almost danced to the seat the brother had saved for her
in the back of the room.
“Thank you for joining, Ms. Landerson. Let us strive to be in our
seats when the bell rings, shall we?” Mrs. O’Connor chided, but not
even that could bring Jordyn’s mood down right now.
Jordyn just smiled and said, “Yes ma’am.”
Mrs. O’Connor began class with matrices. “Now students, despite what
you may hear, the matrix is a useful bit of information. You will use
them in calculus, you will you them if you happen to go into the
business industry, and you will you them …”
Josh leaned over and whispered to Jordyn, “What are you so happy about?”
Jordyn turned and smiled a smile a mile wide, “Tejana’s back!”
He shook his head. “Are you sure?”
“Ugh, yes! Who else could pick my lock, my Fli’er lock mind you, know
which journal is the ‘special’,” she made quotation marks with her
fingers, “one, and know where the key was?” she exasperated.
“Um, a stalker who’s been following you around the past month.”
Jordyn gaped at the thought. “Mitchy is not a stalker! And she
wouldn’t be able to pick that lock if she tried!”
“Unless she’s a highly trained assassin for Temani like Montana used to be.”
She shook her head, “I’m not having this conversation.” Jordyn turned
her head just in time to see Mitchy take a seat a couple rows over.
Somehow she had managed to escape the attention of Mrs. O’Connor along
with every pupil.
Jordyn leaned forward and whispered to Liza, “Did you see Mitchy come
in just now?”
Liza turned around, giving Jordyn a quizzical look and pointing to
Mitchy, “I may not be a straight A student, but I’m pretty sure,
Jordyn, that she’s been here since before the bell rang.”
I would ask the one person who completely, utterly loathes me, Jordyn thought.
She was about to reply when a couple wads of paper hit her square in
the face.  Jordyn scanned the room looking for who the owner(s) were
with no such luck. She unfolded one expecting to find it blank.
Instead, she was met with note scrawled messily on the paper.
Ello!!!! Stop looking around! Look up! You know?
She hastily unfolded the second wad to find it written in elegant
script of one person. The one person she’d been thinking for past
month. Tejana.
I believe you’ll know where to come find us. We have a lot of catching
up to do! I have Davin, but Montana took a trip to Brazil in hopes to
talk a couple of her friends there who are border line rebellion into
joining us. After all, we need all the help we can get, right? See you
soon!
Jordyn passed the notes to Josh who seemed to be completely engulfed
in his own little la la land until she cleared her throat a few times.
As he read through the notes, a million thoughts passed through his
head. The one that dominated the rest, however, was why didn’t she
come get us out of class like she did last time? Josh knew he should
be happy, and he was, but unlike Jordyn, it had only been a couple of
weeks since he had last seen Tejana, and those had not been good
terms.
It was a sunny Wednesday afternoon, and Josh had been planning on
riding Dixie for a couple hours until Jordyn got back from the library
(why she went there, he couldn’t tell; she had about a million books
all over the house). Josh was almost out the back door before he heard
the TV on in the living room. The sound of two people laughing was
coming from the couch, and Josh was wondering if Jordyn had changed
her mind about the library. As he walked into the room, someone on the
couch said, “Hey Josh! Come sit!” He knew who it was, of course, but
wasn’t sure why she, well they since Davin must be there, too, had
decided to come straight to his house instead of meeting him in the
meadow where Dixie was.
Josh hopped onto the couch beside Tejana and Montana instead of the
assumed Tejana and Davin. “So, where’s Davin?” he asked.
Montana shot daggers at him through her eyes as if saying Why on earth
would you bring that up right now?, and Josh immediately realized that
his friend wasn’t just off on a trip somewhere.
Tejana’s face fell. “Oh, um, well I don’t really know,” she cleared
her throat, “Temani made a new prison camp somewhere. This one is more
of a slave field than a training facility like the other one. Where
ever that is, I think Davin’s there. “
Josh figured Tejana was just doing a really, really good job at hiding
the fear and anxiety she was probably going through right now, because
if Josh hadn’t known otherwise, he’d say Davin was just her mail
delivery guy or something, definitely not her
very-best-friend-who-had-been-through-everything-with-her-since-she-was-three.
No, she was definitely hiding it from him.
He figured it was time to change the subject. Josh said, “Okay then,
on the wonderfully happy note, how long are you going to be around?
You know, just so I can tell Trish �" er �" Mom.” It had been on
Tejana’s special request the Josh had begun using “mom” to refer to
his mother �" Trisha �" when talking about her and it was still taking
time to get used to.
Tejana let it slide like she hadn’t even noticed his mistake and said,
“Actually, no one is going to know we’re here. I came to talk to you
about Davin and then we’ll be leaving. You can tell Jordyn if you
like, but not until we’re gone, because only you can know we’re here
until we’re gone.”
“Gah!” Josh pressed his hands to the sides of his head, “Learned a new
trick did you?” He wasn’t sure what it was, but something about the
way Tejana was speaking gave him a massive headache.
She stared at him with a worried expression. She turned to Montana and
asked, “Am I doing it again? Because if I’m doing it, only a few can
know I’m doing it, because I’m doing it, am I?”
Montana’s unchanging countenance looked at Tejana and nodded slowly as
if concentrating on something completely different than the words
said. She placed a hand on Josh’s shoulder and said, “Josh, listen to
me. You have to concentrate on what she’s trying to say instead of the
words she’s actually speaking.”
Josh did as he was told and the pain that pounded inside his head and
behind his eyes like a red hot drum began to subside. “What was that,
Te?”
Tejana looked at the ground, her brow furrowed. “Temani made me learn
to use word magic. Unfortunately, I can’t control it. My words make
loops around themselves, and the hearer can’t concentrate on what is
being said because of inflicted pain. I’m sorry, Josh, really I am. I
�" I just don’t know how to stop it. I’m sorry.” She placed her head
between her hands.
Josh put his hand on her shoulder. “It’s alright, Tejana. Just maybe
you should warn Jordyn about that next time, alright?”
Laughing Tejana agreed. The three of them rose from the couch and made
their way to the kitchen. Once there Tejana opened the conversation.
“Now, Josh, what we’re about to discuss cannot be shared. Not even
with Jordyn. One day we can tell her but not until we have more
information. She’s strong; none would deny it. But I don’t know how
she’d react. Understand?”
Josh smiled to the side and shook his head, “Ya, Te I understand.”
Tejana took a deep, shaky breath. “Davin’s in trouble.”
“Uh, I hate to point it out, but I kind of already figured that.”
Montana rolled her eyes. “Will you just shut up and listen?”
“Fine, Fine,” said Josh, raising his hands in surrender.
Taking another breath, Tejana began again. “Temani’s opened up some
sort of prison encampment, yes, I know I’ve already told you this, but
there’s more.
“This camp serves as a high spot for interrogations. If Davin’s been
taken there, and I believe he has, then there’s no telling what
they’ll do to him! They won’t kill him, but they will do whatever it
takes to get the information they’re searching for. We’ll be tracked
down for sure. I know that no amount of pain will cause Davin to
spill, and I imagine they know that by now, too. Instead approaches
will be taken that haven’t been tried before.” Tejana put both hands
on Josh’s shoulders and pushed down �" hard. “Josh, we have to get him
out of there. It’s not just for his safety, but for all of us. If
Davin believes one of us is being hurt, he �" he �" he’ll cave. You
should have seen him when they made a projection of me about to be
hanged. He’d just seen me five minutes prior, but he was almost ready
to tell them anything they wanted if they’d let me go. Josh, this
can’t happen again.”
Josh was speechless. He didn’t know what to say to something like
this. He’d seen Tejana on the verge of going over the edge a lot, but
she clearly was having problems with this. She was the strongest girl
he knew, shoot, she was probably the strongest person he knew, but he
also knew that Davin was probably the one person who could get through
to her when she had her mind set on something. Could it also be that
he was the one person that could be used to get to her? They did have
an inseparable bond. Maybe Davin’s supposed capture wasn’t for Davin;
maybe Temani was making Tejana think it had happened to punish her or
get answers or something. If someone wanted them, this was the way to
do it. Josh was about to mentioned this, but bit his tongue. He
decided to talk to Montana about it first.
“Montana, may I talk with you about something?” he asked.
Montana looked between Tejana and Josh. “Well? Go on.”
“Alone.”
Rolling her eyes she said, “Fine. Whatever. Come on then.”
The two of them walked back to the living room. Josh began to tell her
his theory when Montana cut him off, “She can hear us, you know?”
“Huh?”
“Ugh, part of those techniques Temani had her do was a mind
reading/hearing thingy. I don’t really know what it is, but if she
interested in something �" even in the slightest �" she knows what
they’re saying. Tejana tries to control it, but the more she wants not
to hear, the more she does hear.”
“Oh. Well, actually that’s perfect for what I was going to tell you. I
have this theory about Davin’s disappearance.” Josh went on to tell
Montana about the possibilities of what this might really be.
Montana shook her head. “Josh, I told Tejana this, but she won’t
listen. All Temani has to do is call on her and she has to go.”
Josh couldn’t believe what he was hearing! They were going to walk
right into a trap just because Tejana wouldn’t listen! Wasn’t she the
one that pushed “all for safety of fall; nothing stands in the way,
not even possible death”? That was written in all her letters!
Montana walked back to the kitchen with her lips pursed. The three of
them stood around for awhile, each apparently in their own thoughts
about the situation. When they heard a car engine turn off outside,
Tejana said it was time to go, and the two had departed.
Apparently, Tejana had found Davin, whether he was at some encampment
or not, and he was here now. Whatever had happened, it wasn no excuse
for making him stay in class

Author's Note

i love criticism :) just not grammar stuff