The Last Alignment: Cry of the Scorpions (17 page)

Kate was interrupted by a hard knock on her
window. Hudson didn’t bother to look to see who it was and opted
for laying his head back against his headrest and closing his eyes
while Kate opened her door. “Excuse me, but I’m trying to have a
conversation with my grandson.”

“
And so you expect all of
us to just sit out here and wait while you two shoot the shit? Keys
to the house. Now.”

There was a long pause.

“
Please
.”

“
Well, you did say
please…for once. Here you are, Charles.”

“
Thank you,
Kate.”

“
You’re very welcome,
Charles. We’ll be in there in a second,” she said before shutting
her door and scoffing. “That man is unbelievable. Sometimes, I just
want to jab him in the eye wearing a pair of brass
knuckles.”

“
Yeah? Well, Awbrey has
been getting on my nerves lately too,” Hudson said taking off his
seatbelt. “That’s the main reason why I asked if it could be just
the two of us. I needed a break from her.”

“
Oh, I see,” said Kate.
“So, what has Ms. Cates been doing to annoy you so badly?” Hudson
went to speak, but then he hesitated; he hated talking bad about
Awbrey. “Sweetheart, everyone needs to vent from time to time even
if it is about the people that they love. Hell, I vent about you to
some of my friends.”

“
About what,” he
asked.

“
Don’t worry about it.
We’re talking about Awbrey. Now, what is it?”

Hudson sighed. “She’s…she’s too much
sometimes.”

“
How about you try telling
me something that I don’t know,” his grandmother chuckled. “That’s
actually one of the things that I love about her.”

“
Grandma, she stuck to me
like freakin’ superglue from the moment that we found out we would
be staying at Oren’s. The first few days of us being together with
Andrew were fine, but then I got annoyed at her because all she
ever talked about was what she didn’t like about Natalye, Androse,
and Zander. Then I got…I don’t know…bored, I guess. So, I thought
that maybe it would be a good idea to try and convince her that we
needed to hang out with them and get to know them better and
everything, but she shot me down. Awbrey doesn’t really want
anything to do with any of them.”

“
Did she say that,” asked
Kate.

“
Zander
’
s an ass-hat
,
Natalye thinks
she
’
s cooler than
what she is
,
and
I
’
m sorry because
I know you like him
,
but Androse is weak
,” Hudson said
doing a spot-on impression. “She practically hates Zander, she
doesn’t like Natalye simply because she disagreed with her about
something, and on top of that, Natalye’s a female and you know how
Awbrey despises her own sex.” Kate smiled. “I actually thought that
Awbrey liked Androse, but she changed her mind. The three of us got
along fine before Zander and Natalye got here, but Awbrey didn’t
like the way that Androse…uh…chose to handle a certain situation,”
Hudson said not wishing to spill any beans, “so she just completely
wrote him off. She’s so damn stubborn and judgmental
sometimes.”

“
All
of the time,” Kate corrected him. “If you’re going to vent
then be honest while you do it.”

“
Okay, all of the time,”
Hudson confessed. “It’s like once she decides that she doesn’t care
for someone, that’s it. Whether she knows them well enough or not
doesn’t matter. What pisses me off is that we pretty much wasted
that whole time that could’ve been spent actually connecting with
each other instead of being stand-offish and immature. I mean, I
even saw Zander and Natalye speak once last week,” he complained.
Hudson would’ve given anything to have been able to talk to and get
something going Natalye, but how could he with Awbrey keeping so
close to him and expecting him to not like them because she
didn’t?

“
Hudson, as always, I’m
going to be honest with you. Are you ready,” Kate asked.

Shit
, he thought as he braced himself. “Yeah, Grandma. Go
ahead.”

“
And all of the usual
agreements apply? You can’t get mad, or upset, or walk off,
or-”

“
Yes, Grandma,” he said
hanging his head.

“
Alright,” Kate said
rubbing her hands together. “So, I’m just going to be frank. If you
felt the way that you felt, then why in the hell didn’t you just go
ahead and do what you wanted to do and let Awbrey’s ass act however
she wanted to?”

“
Because,” Hudson said
wiping his eyes. “‘Best friend-code,’ I guess. Plus, Awbrey has a
mouth on her.”

“
Well, so do you,” Kate
said turning a little in her seat. “I of all people would know! If
you used it more, then maybe Awbrey wouldn’t be able to push you
around and make you do whatever she wants you to do so much.”
Hudson looked at Kate dead in the eyes. He was sure that his
grandmother hadn’t meant to sound so abrasive, but it still hurt.
“I’m just telling you what I see,” Kate said holding her hands up
as if he were pointing a gun at her. “Awbrey is a great girl, but
even when you two were little she was always able to get her way
with you and tell you what to do.” Hudson hung his head because he
knew that she was right and that there was no arguing against it.
Awbrey was always the one in control. She was always the ring
leader and the initiator and all Hudson ever did was go along with
her. He never realized it before, but now that he looked at their
friendship, it was safe to say that of the two, he was the
follower. “Hey now, don’t do that mopey stuff,” Kate said gently
grabbing his chin. “Look at me.” Hudson kept his eyes low and
stared at her wrist instead. “Sweetheart,
look
at me.”

After a moment, Hudson slowly met his
grandmother’s gaze.

“
I’m going to tell it to
you like this,” Kate said leaning forward, boring her hazel eyes
into his blue ones. “You will be the Wielder of Water. It’s fitting
because you yourself are just like water. You can be so easily
swayed, directed, and moved because you’re sensitive.”
Great
.
Now I
’
m a sensitive
follower
, Hudson thought. “But, when
you’re pushed to move on your own you are strong, you’re forceful,
and you can do almost anything that you desire. Water is versatile
just like you are. It can play many roles both big and small.
However, one thing that cannot be denied is the fact that water
is
essential
, and
believe me when I say that you are as essential to Awbrey as she is
to you.” Oddly, Hudson couldn’t help but smile at her words. “If
you are feeling the way that you feel, I can only imagine how the
other kids are feeling about her, and this will be part of your
role in your group,” Kate said letting go of his chin. “You are
Awbrey’s best friend. Out of everyone in your Alignment, you are
always going to be the one that she trusts the most because you two
have such a deep bond. It doesn’t matter if she becomes close with
the others or not. It’s going to be up to you to keep a handle on
her when she gets out of hand.”

Hudson took her words to heart. Now that he
thought about it, hadn’t he always been the one to reel Awbrey back
in whenever she went overboard? Hadn’t he always been there to be
honest with her and tell her when she needed to step up and do
something?

“
Awbrey is a natural born
leader,” his grandmother continued. “You and I both know that, but
Androse, Zander, and Natalye do not. They don’t get that she isn’t
being pushy, or arrogant, or mean. She’s just being herself. I had
the same problem in my Alignment with Charles when we were
Wielders. Excuse me, we
still
have that problem in our Alignment with Charles,”
Kate laughed. “It was always up to Oren to simmer him down. It
still is. But, even though I know that he can’t help but be a
haughty, self-important, irksome, bigheaded bastard, that doesn’t
mean that I can’t get angry at him for it. At the end of the day, I
still love that man to pieces and I know that he loves me back.
Granted, that love is probably somewhere deep,
deep
down in the most inner chambers
of his heart, but I know that it’s there.”

“
Grandma, sometimes I have
trouble getting through to Awbrey,” said Hudson. “Especially times
like now when she expects me to have her back with everything that
she does.”

“
Hudson, sometimes having
someone’s back means giving them a reality check. Another function
of water is to put out fire,” Kate said opening her door. “I’m not
saying put Awbrey’s out, but figure out how to contain it or set
parameters when need be so that the girl doesn’t end up putting
herself in a position where everyone, including you, hates her
guts.”

~*~*~

“
Dude, your place
is
siiiiiiiccccckkkkkkck
,” Zander
howled as Hudson walked in and closed the front door behind him. He
had been out in the car for about ten minutes before he decided to
come in; he had gotten tired of Sylvia staring at him through one
of the living room windows. “Just you and your dad live
here?”

“
Yeah,” Hudson said
bypassing Zander and making his way to the stairs. He just wanted
to go to his room and lock his door.

“
Is Tyler still an
accountant,” asked Sylvia.

“
Yes, he is. Uh, Hudson,”
Kate called before he could get too far up the stairs, “show
everyone to a room, please.”

“
Wait, we all get a room
to ourselves,” asked Zander. “How big is this place?”

Calm down,
Zander
, Hudson thought. “It’s not that
big. There’s my dad’s room, my room, and then there are three guest
rooms.”

“
DIBS
,” Zander yelled unnecessarily.

“
I call a guest room too,”
Natalye said picking up her bag. “It would be nice to have a space
to myself.”

‘
Space to
yourself
?’
You
just don
’
t want
to have to share with Awbrey again
, Hudson
thought, however, he couldn’t really blame her. “I guess the other
bedroom is for you, Androse. If you want it,” said Hudson. Androse
didn’t answer him, but he nodded. He also seemed to purposefully
not look at Hudson.

“
Andrew is probably going
to want to sleep in the den,” Hallie said to Kate. “I’ll stay in
there with him.”

“
The rest of the adults
can stay here on the main level,” Kate said looking around at them
all. “We can sleep on the couches, and then there is another
bedroom in the basement. It’s all yours, Charles.”

“
Wait, where’s Awbrey,”
Hudson asked, though he felt like he knew the answer.

“
I’m pretty sure she’s
upstairs in your room,” Kate said scratching her head.
Fuck
, he thought. “I
think she’s upset because I told her that she was forbidden to
leave the house as are all of you.”

“
She asked you to leave,”
Hudson questioned.

“
She wanted to go by her
house to grab some things, but Hallie and I will do that for her
later,” said Kate. “She stormed off before I could tell her, but
whatever. She’ll get over it. I already am.”

“
Nothing has changed,”
Charles announced. “The same rules that we had at Oren’s house
apply here too. Understood?”

They all nodded.

“
Everyone go and get
settled in already,” Hallie said massaging her neck. “I’ll go and
see what I can whip up for dinner.”

“
I’ll help you, Hal,” said
Sylvia.

“
Me too,” said
Oren.

“
Alright, then. Come on
guys,” Hudson said resuming his walk up the stairs.

“
Dude, this house is
sweet,” Zander said excitedly running up behind him. “I still can’t
believe that only you and your dad live here. Where is he, by the
way?”

“
I don’t know. I never
know. If you haven’t seen him, then he isn’t here.”

“
What about your
mom?”

Hudson stopped walking when he reached the
top of the staircase. He felt his forehead get a little hot. “Don’t
worry about it.”

“
Oh, my bad. Is she
dead?”

Hudson wheeled around on Zander. He wanted
to tell him off, but knew that he couldn’t really be upset with him
for asking. “Just…don’t worry about it, okay?”

“
Alright. Fair enough,”
said Zander. “I’ll just do what I’ve been doing for the last two
weeks and keep my mouth shut. Seems to be the only way that people
can deal with me anyway.”

Hudson let his bag fall to
the floor.
I can
’
t do this
anymore
, he thought. “Look,” he said
speaking to the three of them, “the four of us need to
talk.”

“
About what,” asked
Natalye.

“
About
this
,” Hudson said motioning between
the four of them. “Here,” he said walking over to the nearest guest
room and pushing the door open. “Come in. Please.” The three of
them hesitated, but then they all walked over and entered. “Zander,
this is your room, by the way,” Hudson said as he closed the door
and locked it behind them.