Gifted Connections 2

I was generally done with all my school work by noon every day. With zero distractions like changing classes or interacting with my peers, a lot of unnecessary chatter died down, so my work was completed sooner. All my professors were working well with me. I was already ahead in my History of Performance Arts class and English Literature class. I didn’t have to wait for other students to understand the material, so I was able to zip right along to my comfort level.

I was even able to focus on the children more. Alex and Micah were thriving. However, Ella and Chip were becoming a concern of ours.

Alex was a miniature version of Jaxson, in a way. He was a class clown and liked making people laugh and happy. He loved the attention and told us he already had girlfriends. His grades were improving, and he was grasping more of his learning material. He had clung onto Jaxson and began emulating him as much as possible.

Micah was making leaps and bounds with his work. Tanya had no doubt he would be ready to attend school in the fall. He had begun filling out, but he still ate like he had a tapeworm residing in him. The haunted look in his eyes had faded, and he was becoming more outgoing and open. The person he seemed to like to imitate was Remy. He requested permission to join us in our training program and lifted weights with Remy every day. Remy had created a reasonable plan for him to follow. We also agreed that we found no harm in Micah training with us.

Chip was becoming more and more surly, since we were still unable to locate his mother. He was acting up in school, and almost every other day one of us had to go to the school and pick him up. He was picking on other children and getting into physical altercations. It was getting bad enough that we were considering pulling him and home schooling him as well. The only thing we had going for us was he hadn’t been using his gifts in school…yet.

Ella spent her days drawing in a sketch book Noah had given her. Occasionally, she would play video games or go swimming with the other children, but she preferred staying in her room and drawing. We thought she was just trying to perfect her abilities to draw. Patrick had given a few pointers to her, and that’s all she needed. When we looked at her drawings it was just a picture of a boy—or teen, more like it. We all thought she might have her first crush, but we didn’t know who it was.

The pictures of the boy became more and more detailed. Jace had purchased her a set of premium colored pencils. The teen looked to be around fourteen or fifteen years old. He had dark hair and dark eyes and appeared to be mixed with white and Hispanic. In most of her drawings, he looked desolate and sad.

When we asked her who it was, she was unsure. She had no clue who it was. When we asked too many questions, she became more withdrawn.

This morning we were making breakfast burritos, homemade potato pancakes, and tortillas. Drake tasked me with making the filling. I sautéed some onions and red peppers while I browned some ground sausage. When the onions and peppers were cooked sufficiently, I added my whisked eggs. When they were done, I added shredded pepper jack and cheddar cheese.

“Do you have any tortillas ready?” I asked Drake.

“Sure do,” he said as he slid me a plate full of them in front of me, briefly squeezing my waist.

He would embrace me or touch me, but that’s as far as we would go right now. Especially with Rose still hovering in the background. He had told her clearly that he wasn’t interested in a relationship with her any longer, even if the baby ended up being his. Will had a lawyer working on the details, thankfully.

Drake and Jemmy had accompanied Rose to her first doctor’s appointment. She was 14 weeks pregnant, which hadn’t worked in her favor. Drake had been gone for 3 of those weeks during the estimated time of conception. With the death of Collin, she had lost her option B.

She was becoming increasingly irrational and unstable. She was upset that he had left school. She had no way of seeing him other than her appointments. He refused to see her otherwise. She sent him baby names daily. She was asking for funds for the nursery. She tried to guilt him. In the past, he might have fell for it. He didn’t any longer. She had been toxic, and his rose-colored glasses had been removed.

“What smells so amazing?” Terrance asked as he came into the room. Our family had grown over night. The Knights assigned to us seemed to be here as often as the family. I secretly thought they liked the homemade meals. They had even started contributing to the grocery bill.

Will didn’t seem to mind, since he was rarely home. He had gotten back into the labs with Cora. They were busy trying to analyze our blood. Dr. Neil had been transferred to the mountain facility and still wasn’t talking. His computer was full of research, but it was written in code, and no one seemed able to crack it.

“Breakfast burritos,” I informed him as I put one on the plate for him.

Drake slid a potato pancake on the plate beside it. “There’s mild, medium, and hot salsa in the fridge, and sour cream,” he explained.

“Thank you kindly.” He smiled wide and took his plate into the dining room.

“Yum, I’m starved,” Troy said, strolling into the room, dropping a kiss on my cheek.

“Good, because we have food.” I smiled.

I continued to roll the burritos and placing them on a serving dish. As everyone came in, they grabbed a plate and loaded their plates up, thanking us, and took a seat in the dining room or at the bar.

Jaxson was the last to arrive, with Alex following. Alex’s eyes seemed bright and his skin flushed. “I don’t think my little buddy is feeling good,” Jaxson stated as he picked Alex up and set him on the counter beside me.

I put the back of my hand on his forehead. “Aww, little man, are you getting sick? You do feel a little warm.”

He shrugged. “I’m fine. I want to go to school. Kimmy is bringing me a cookie. She promised.”

I laughed. “I don’t think it’s a clever idea for you to go. I don’t want you to get the other children sick.”

“Here, buddy, open up,” Jace came to stand in front of Alex with a thermometer. “Put it under your tongue…and close.”

Alex obliged and swung his legs back and forth. His stockinged feet hitting the cabinets beneath him. The thermometer beeped after a few seconds.

> “100.9,” Jace explained. “He’s running a low-grade fever, but maybe’s it’s best if he stays home.”

“Can I stay home?” Chip asked hopefully.