Gemini of Emreiana (4 page)

"I'm sorry. It was just a rough night." I wasn't really lying.

"Something wrong?" His eyebrows pushed together in confusion.

I wish I could tell him. Since I was five, I could tell him anything that bothered me. We never had secrets from each other, and now I had a huge secret weighing in on me.

"Everything's fine. I was just working on the graduation speech last night. I was up all night, so I'm a bit tired," I lied.

"Okay, here, let me take your books." He gestured when we heard the first bell ring from the school building.

"No, you go on. I'll see you at lunch," I told him. I just wanted some time to think about what my new secret would mean to our relationship. Could he accept me as an alien?

"Okay, I love you. Don't forget about Karlie's party Friday." He kissed my forehead then ran to class. However, something felt odd around him, and it felt an awful lot like suspicion.

I sighed in frustration and grabbed my books from the seat. I had to get to Mr. Marshal's class. Not that history was my main priority.

"Today, we have a pop quiz," he said with his big fat glasses hanging off the tip of his nose.  Everyone's emotions of irritation grasped and clenched me. I felt a twinge of pain on my left temple. This power was going to give me a head ache. I took in a slight breath.

Mr. Marshal grabbed a stack of papers that sat on his desk and started to pass them out.

"You have fifteen minutes," he said, looking at his watch.

The whole time, I kept fidgeting my pen. Not once did I look at the quiz. My life was slowly starting to change, whether I wanted it to happen or not. Nothing was ever going to be the same again; why did they have to tell me? Why couldn't they have just let me live a normal life?

Suddenly, I felt a tap on my back shoulders. Stacy pushed a pile of papers in my face. I realized that Mr. Marshal had called time and was taking up the quizzes.

"Sorry." I took the papers from her. I added my empty quiz to the pile and passed it up along with the others. I had a 4.0 GPA anyways; it wasn't like it would hurt me to fail one quiz.

Then, the door opened. I didn't bother to look up. I concentrated on writing down the assignment. Everyone started to whisper. I hadn't looked up yet, when I started to feel their interest in whoever walked through the door. My surprise started to overcome everyone else's emotions when I saw Aaronmon standing in the doorway. Aaronmon handed Mr. Marshal a pink paper, a paper I knew was only given to new kids. I groaned, but Aaronmon glanced at me and gave a toothy smile.  My cheeks warmed.
Jerk! Could he at least let me have school time to myself?

"Everyone, this is our new exchange student Aaron," Mr. Marshal said to the class. I raised my eyebrow at the sound of his name. The girls started whispering to each other and giggling. I supposed Aaronmon did look good. Okay, so he looked real good. His long, shaggy dark hair brought out his hazel eyes. Eyes that were looking at me. Eyes that were heading my way.

Aaronmon took the seat to the left of me.

Leaning towards me, he whispered, "I told you I have to watch out for you."

"Don't talk to me." I hushed him.

Class was beyond awkward. Aaron seemed to be able to answer most of the history questions that Mr. Marshal was asking. Of course, that wasn't as bad as the girls ogling  him. It didn't help that I could
feel
their lust.
Ew! I wonder if they would feel the same way if they knew he was an alien? HA!
Finally, the bell rang and I started out the door.

"I bet your head is about to explode." Aaronmon followed me out the door.

"Why did you have to come here? It's bad enough to find out that my life was a lie, but now you have to come to the only place I feel normal? Can't I just go back to taking that herb that suppressed my… whatever this is?"

"No, you need to learn to control your powers without it," he whispered. "Besides, she never gave enough to fully suppress your abilities. If you think about it, you probably have always had some type of empathy towards people."

He did have a point there. I was always very empathetic towards people and animals. That actually raised a question.

"What about animals?"

"I don't know. You tell me. We have never had an Emréian with a power like this before."

"Why is that?"

"Can we talk about this at your aunt’s house?" Aaronmon lowered his voice and looked around.

I supposed people would be weirded out to hear this conversation. Embarrassed slightly, I nodded.

“What’s with the name anyways? All you did was drop the
mon
.” I giggled.

I felt a slight hint of irritation coming from Aaronmon.
I guess he doesn’t care too much for my humor
, I thought.

Kyle walked with his eyes fixated on Aaronmon.

"Kyle, this is Aaronm.. Aaron. He’s new here." I smiled at him, trying to ease the tension I felt burning from him.

"Nice to meet you, Kyle. Carson has told me so much about you." Aaronmon smiled. My eyebrow rose. I never really mentioned Kyle to Aaronmon.

"New from where? You have quite the accent." Kyle tightened his jaw.

"He's from Canada," I blurted out. My face burned red. Canada? He didn't have anything close to a Canadian accent.
Could someone just slap me?

They both looked at me awkwardly, not even stirring the silence that surrounded us.

"Yes, well we actually move around a lot. That was just the most recent move. Carson is actually a family friend." Aaronmon smiled. Why did he have to go and say that? 

"So, what classes do you have?" Kyle asked looking at Aaronmon. Aaronmon proceeded down his schedule. I couldn't help but notice it was the same schedule as mine, minus girls P.E.

"I guess you two will be spending a lot of time together," Kyle scoffed. I guessed he noticed, too. What was his problem anyway? Never had Kyle ever been jealous. He really shouldn't have been jealous of Aaronmon.

"Aaron, I'll talk to you later," I said eagerly. Kyle was getting way too worked up for no reason.

"See you in chemistry." Aaronmon waved and walked away. He seemed pretty satisfied with himself. I wanted to slap him.

"What is your problem?" Not that I cared too much about what Kyle thought of Aaronmon. Aaronmon was not doing anything to cause Kyle to be jealous.

"Sorry. I heard talk about a new student that all the girls were swooning over. When I saw him talking to you, I thought he was trying to hit on you."
More like trying to take me to another planet.

"As Aaron said, he is a family friend. Actually, I never even met him until last night, but Aunt Trish knows him."  Kyle's jaw tightened. He knew that is why I wasn't at the coffee house last night. However, he didn't say anything to me about it. Instead, he took a deep breath and put his arm around me.

"I shouldn't have acted like a jerk. Forgive me?" He whimpered slightly, causing my lips to curve into a smile.

"Of course, but only because I love you." I pushed on his shoulder.

"I love you, too." He grabbed my waist and pulled me into a kiss.

"Ms.Emral and Mr.Whitten," I heard Mrs. Peirce scolding us. We quickly tore apart from each other, both pink in the face.

"Sorry," I muffled through my lips while trying not to laugh.

My day was distracted by fear of my new life. What if Earth wanted to run tests on me? What if everyone found out and they hated me- tried to kill me. What would Meagan and Karlie think of me? What would Kyle think of me? Then I thought of Emréiana full of vibrant plants, beautiful waterfalls, and all the buildings made of shiny stone. I thought about having to leave Earth and move to the new exotic planet. When I wasn't thinking about my future, I was trying to block everyone's emotions, which was causing a major migraine. Not to mention, I was ignoring Aaronmon. Him being here just didn’t make me feel normal anymore.

By the time lunch came, everyone thought I had been hit in the head this morning, or that someone in my family died. I really needed to get a grip on myself.

"Carson?" Miss Wilpay stopped me before exiting her classroom for lunch.

"Yes ma’am?"

"Is there something troubling you?"

"What do you mean?" I tried to play stupid, but of course I knew what she meant.

"Mr. Marshal and I were talking in the teacher's lounge, and he mentioned that you didn't even finish your quiz today. Then, in my class today, all you did was stare out the window.”

"I'm sorry I won't let it happen again." I tried to end the conversation.

"I know you have a lot going for you; you are valedictorian and going off to college, but don't let boyfriend blues get you down a month before graduation."

Boyfriend blues? Did she just say boyfriend blues?

"Miss Wilpay," I started to correct her.

"I know you will have to leave him behind if you have to move. You shouldn’t let boyfriend blues keep you from going to a good college. I hear you haven’t even applied to a college outside of Alice Community College. Even if you don’t go to a University, you should still work hard your last month here." She tried to lecture me. Instead, it was just making me angry. I knew that Trish and Aaronmon had something to do with my university enrollments

"Thanks," I said with a half-smile to make her think she had done her job as a teacher, then I left for lunch, leaving her feelings of fulfillment behind.

When I walked into the lunchroom, Kyle was sitting at a table with our group of friends waving me down. I didn't make it far before everyone's emotions smashed into me like a rock in the face. Anger towards Danny Gilham, my heart torn for Jenny Logan, all the emotions pounded into me. Sadness hit me like a wave from the ocean; anger pierced through my heart like fire. Happiness and love whipped through me like a relieving breeze, and just as quickly guilt and shame carried me like a rat.

I couldn't control it. Every second, my feelings ran wilder and crazier. My body temp felt like I was sitting on the sun, and my stomach felt like someone threw it into a washing machine.

"Carson, are you okay?" Meagan and Kyle both ran to my side after I collapsed to me knees.

I was feeling sick of the emotional boat ride.

"Carson?" Kyle took my arm and tried to steady me after I gave no reply. I felt his worry and Meagan's fear. It was too much for me to handle.

"Let me through!" I heard Aaronmon push through the crowd of people.

"Carson, it's okay just breath. Focus on one person. Focus on me," Aaronmon was whispering to me so no one else could hear.

I tried so hard, but all I did was include his into the millions of other emotions that were starting to churn my stomach. Nausea lightened my head and dried my mouth. I looked up at Aaronmon who was now cradling me in his arms.

"Focus on me now," he said again, but the nausea was too much for me, and I relieved myself all over his shirt. Then, everything blacked out.

I slowly started to open my eyes. The light above my head was painfully bright. I sat myself up, taking in the familiar nurse’s office. Pictures were all over the room about hygiene and washing your hands. The room was frigid, like always, and smelled of cough syrup. My empathy quickly sensed worry and fear about what had happened to me. It only took me a moment to recognize the voices that the fear and worry belonged to.

"Look she's coming around!" Meagan pointed through the glass window. As she swung the door open, relief emerged from her and invaded me. Kyle was not far to follow behind.

"Hey babe! You gave us quite the scare." He slowly kissed my forehead. Then he reached for my hand. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine." I tried to think of a legitimate excuse, but nothing popped into my mind, so the simple words
I'm fine
would have to do.

"Move out of the way! I need to check her out before you guys start hounding her." Nurse Peggy shuffled through the small crowd of two people. Of course, her heavy exterior didn't make it hard for her to shove them out of the way. She shooed them out the door. Kyle stopped, right before he stepped out, to blow me a kiss.

"Seems to me like you wanted to take a good sleep." Her voice came out raspy as she pulled a chair up. "Well, let's take a look at ya," she ordered.

I gave her no fight when she checked my blood pressure, temperature, and even listened to my heart. When she realized everything was okay she raised her brow.

"Well, everything looks fine. Did you eat breakfast this morning?" she questioned me. Realizing it was probably a good excuse, I shook my head. "Well, your blood sugar probably dropped even though that didn't look like the problem. Make sure you eat breakfast every morning. I called your Aunt while you were passed out. She is already on her way to get you."

Nurse Peggy made everyone else go to class while I waited on Trish to pick me up. Thoughts
ran through my mind about my life. Had it really been that well hidden from me? Perhaps, I was just too blind to notice. I remembered how angry Trish would get if I would forget my vitamins. It was funny to think that in some way she was drugging me. Anytime I stayed the night over at a friend's house, she would call to make sure I took those pills. My friends always thought she was a tad bit over protective, but I argued that I was the only family she had left. What was her plan when I went to college? Did she think she was going to go with me for the ride and make sure I took it every day? Oh yeah, that was right. They weren’t planning on me going to college. I was going to have to stay here in Alice.

She was going to keep up this charade until she wis
ked me away in a spaceship! I couldn’t believe they’d let me go this long. Eighteen years that at some point she could have told me the truth, and instead she waits till an alien decides to visit me. Years I could have tried to handle these powers, and now they were just making me sick to my stomach. Why couldn't I have been born normal?

Aunt Trish came through the door putting on an act of worry.

"Oh honey! Come on now, let's get you home so you can rest!" She babied me. In many ways, she actually
was
worried. I could feel that. However, she knew the truth about what happened. I could feel her amusement that I had not listened to her in the first place about my powers. "You must be Nurse Peggy. Thank you, for taking care of her. She is the only family I have left, you know."

Yeah right! I gave her a quick glare. How could she let everyone believe our family was dead! Trish shook Peggy's hand. Peggy placed her hand over her chest bemused by the compliment.

"It's my job to help." Peggy's face was red with flattery.

"Can we just go?" I slid off the table. I had enough of the lies for one day.

"She's right. We must get her home to rest." Trish put her arm around my shoulder.

"Make sure she eats her breakfast." Peggy guided us out the door.

When we made it out to the car, I had to concentrate in order to be angry at Trish because her emotions were high, happy as a kite.

"So how was school?" She mused.

"I know what you're gloating about, so you can knock it off." I glared out the window.

"What-ever are you talking about dear?" When she glanced over my way, I raised my brow.

It was after I ate my lunch that I found myself with Aaron going over what I had missed my entire life. I was still unsure of how he got out of school early, but I didn’t bother to ask.

"Before we start on your powers, I want you to know about your home planet." Aaronmon pulled out a small square tablet from his pocket. It was silver and shiny like a mirror. He swiped his hand over it and a hologram appeared.

"What is that!" I grabbed the technology from him in fascination. I had only seen stuff like this on t.v!

"It's an abula. Like the computers you use, except holographic." He snatched it away.

"Stingy," I grumbled.

"What?"

"So, what are you going to teach me?" I asked.

"History and Geography." He smiled. It sounded boring to me. I didn’t even care too much for those subjects in school here on Earth.

Within a few hours, I had learned that Emréiana was a very old planet.
Earth’s age multiplied by three, old. I learned that it did not have seasons like we did here on earth because its axis did not wobble like Earth's did. So for the main part, the planet kept the same temperature. There were not any strong storms, but they did get their share of rain. Actually, Emréiana got a lot of rain. Since there was no tilt, most of the planet was tropical; further north or south from Emréiana’s equator got a bit cooler. The poles got extremely frigid and dry. The poles also never received any sunlight.

I learned that the planet had three moons: Raegon, Solonomon, and Hurmon. Raegon was the closest. The blue color made it look like it was covered in oceans, but really it was the color of its sand. They used Raegon to identify their weeks which were about five days. The next moon was Solonomon, used to identify half months which were six Raegon moons. The orange swirls on this moon reminded me of dream sickles. The last moon, Hurmon, was the most beautiful. It was made of a pure crystal like rock. Hurmon identified the months, which were twelve Raegon moons. The time it took Emréiana and its moons to travel around their star, Vova, was six Hurmon moons. They called a year an amona, or a full circle. I averaged it out, and it was only 5 days less than Earth.

The beautiful thing was, no matter what time of day it was you always saw one of the moons or maybe even two. The sky and sun didn't wash it out during the day like Earth's did.

Then we got into history. Emréians, had not always lived in the society they did now. There were a lot of civil wars before they came together with the government they had now. Even then, it wasn't perfect, but Aaronmon said, "What government is perfect?"

Of course he was right. There was no perfect government. The government Emréiana had today consisted of 3 parts: The Elaeye(royals), the Dianie(coven), and the Arays(voice). There were no voted presidents; the Elaeye were in charge of the entire planet. Then, there was the Dianie. They were mini royals birthed to be in charge of the city they were born in. Together, they all had a choice of voting to sign or not sign a law the royals put out. Then, there was the Arays, people voted in to be the voice of the people in a certain area. Any laws that came out, they had a vote in as well. Together, they all worked to keep the planet at bay. Ever since they became more aware of the other planets around them that share life, the war on the plant itself was very little, because now they had to work together. It was funny to think that countries had been replaced by the whole planet. I also got to learn about the four signs: Aríenom, which was what my aunt was, Captrittus, Vérigolé, and Ominus. Each one had its own symbol, and each one bared its own powers. I was also told that each sign had several powers, but most Emréians excelled in a particular one.

Aríenoms could manipulate plants and weather, and they could communicate with animals. My aunt excelled in manipulating plants. She could keep them alive and make them flourish. Plants thrived when she was around. They desired her just as
much she desired them. She felt alive being around them. Her knowledge of plant life was advanced as well. She knew about a lot of herbs to use as medicines. Her power with them was extraordinary. She was so advanced with manipulating plants, even trees would do as she desired.

"How can a tree do anything that she wants, Aaron?" I felt the need to call him by the human name he went by.

"Quit calling me that," he rolled his eyes. He didn’t like it, of course. "If she wants a tree to move its branches, it will move them. There are many possibilities."

"But it's a tree. The branches will break apart," I argued.

"You will be surprised to see what our powers can do."

I also found out that my mother was an Aríenom, except she could manipulate weather better.

"Unfortunately for everyone else, somehow her powers tie into her emotions if she tries to hide them. After your father died, the castle almost flooded. Her tears fell from the sky, yet there wasn't a single time anyone saw a tear stain her cheek."

It was weird listening to Aaronmon talk about my mother. I still had not grasped the concept that she was alive. For years, I had thought she and my father had died in a car accident. After learning the truth, she still felt dead to me.

"When you turn of age and it is certain what sign you are born into, there will be a ceremony that celebrates your birth and your sign. They will tattoo the sign on the back of your neck in silver ink."

“Yeah, you told me that this morning.” I pointed out. He brought Trish in to the room to show me her sign on the back of her neck. I had always believed it to be a
simple tattoo, but now I knew the truth behind it. So many secrets my Aunt had kept from me. Her tattoo was three lines in a wave on the back of her neck representing Aríenom.

“Speaking of age, how old are you?” I asked.

“Twenty-two,” he replied.

“Do we
age
differently? I mean, I am not going to start getting saggy wrinkles at thirty, am I?”

Aaronmon shot me a look.

“What it’s a legit question?”

“You will age just fine. You might live an extra ten years, but that is it.” He rolled his eyes.

I then asked about the Caprittus. Aaronmon’s powers had to do with image manipulation. He could push into people's dreams. He told me how it came in handy if he wanted to know more about a person. He would insert himself into their dreams and push to gather information. There were also some Caprittus who could purge images into people's minds while they were awake. I shuddered when I thought about the power they had. If the wrong people had a trait like that, it could be monstrous.  

We moved on to the next sign, Vérigolé. Their symbol was a sideways S that had an arrow through it. Full of lust, they could attract just about anyone. It was a pheromone that their body released. They too had an extra sense: attraction. If you were around someone you were attracted to, they knew it. Some Vérigolés worked as love prophets, so that Emréians around the planet would find their true love. Some of the Vérigolé women, though, worked as harlots. I found it sad that even on other planets some men still didn't want true love. They still preferred sex and lust over one thing that could actually make them happy.

"Véreigolé's also can overcome the bonding process, which allows them to love others without too much emotional attachment."

"What do you mean bonding?" I asked in confusion.

"You will learn about that later." Aaronmon stiffened. I knew he was keeping something from me, but I let it go.

I questioned myself. Could you be destined to be with someone outside of your own species?  Kyle was human. I was Emréian. What would a Vérigolé tell me about my true love? I had to break away from this thought. There were some things I was just not ready to know about, things that could hurt me emotionally.

"So what about Ominus?" I asked Aaron.

"Ominus are very special. Before you, they were the newest evolved of the Emréians. They can move objects with their mind and create force fields. A lot of them are really good with mechanics. Their biggest weakness is that their power uses up their strength. They can steal energy from other power sources to help regain their strength."

He drew out their symbol, which was a swirl with rays coming from it, some shorter than others.

I had to admit, at this point, I was feeling kind of weak. Everyone else had these active powers; however, all I could do was feel others feelings, which didn’t do me any good. I guessed I  didn't excel in the better end of the gifts. Of course, nobody knew what that was.

"Why am I new breed?" I asked.

"We don't know. There are some things that even the most advanced civilizations have not been able to figure out. When Ominus was discovered, we believed that it was an evolved Emréian breed, designed by nature to keep the species alive. Perhaps, it has something to do with you living on Earth. I don't know. But it happened," Aaronmon said.