Twinepathy (Part 13): Just A Stray Kid

Hullo, everyone! Before you get confused… no, it’s not Monday. But as I forgot to post on the week of Thanksgiving, I thought it would be nice to give an extra post. And I couldn’t resist, anyways. Enjoy, dear friends! New? Check out Part One.

Brooklyn and I stand side-by-side by the door from the garage, waiting for Mom and Dad to come in. Brooklyn’s nervous thoughts keep leaking into my head – one of the negatives of our telepathic connection. When we get overly emotional, sometimes we’ll accidentally transmit thoughts. I push her thoughts back to her, and she blushes. “Sorry,” she apologizes.

I shrug. “Don’t worry about it.” She’ll probably get my double meaning… “It’ll all turn out fine.”

She sighs. “I hope so.”

The door from the garage opens, and Mom and Dad come in. “Did you kiddoes have fun?” Dad asks, grinning. He gives us side hugs as he drops his keys on the table.

Mom grabs a water bottle from the fridge, then turns and looks at us. Her face morphs into a worried expression. “Is everything all right?”

She’s always the perceptive one. And I’ll let Brooklyn handle this… because I am terrible at diplomatic type things. “Yes, everything’s fine. We just… need to ask you about something,” Brooklyn says.

Dad leans against the counter. “We’re listening.”

Brooklyn glances over her shoulder into the living room, then turns back to our parents. “Well, we have someone we want you to meet.”

Mom’s brow furrows. “What?”

Brooklyn grabs Mom’s hand. “Come on.” She leads her to the living room, with Dad following. I bring up the rear. Maddie’s sitting on the couch, but she looks much more cheerful than when we left. Weird. I thought she’d be worried and nervous. “Mom, Dad, this is Maddie. We were hoping she could stay with us for a while.”

“What?!” Mom and Dad exclaim in unison. I could have predicted that.

Brooklyn goes into the fake story about how we found her, doing a pretty good job. I add in a few necessary points that she misses. Maddie looks like she’s trying to tell me something with her eyes, but I don’t understand it. I glance back and forth between her and our parents. At a good time in the story, I move over next to Maddie and squeeze her hand. But I’m really just using that to read her mind. She’s thinking so hard, trying to make sure I get the message, that her thoughts explode into my head like a sudden scream. I pull out instantly, trying to recover so I can focus on what she was thinking.

“…so we were thinking she could stay with us,” Brooklyn finishes, looking back and forth between Mom and Dad.

Mom’s already shaking her head, but Dad looks like he’s still trying to decide. I see a faint orange-ish glow behind his head, but it disappears almost immediately. Mom opens her mouth to speak, but Dad jumps in first, turning to her. “I think they’re right. I don’t think she’ll be much trouble, and she already seems to like the girls.”

I give Brooklyn a surprised look, and she’s giving me one, too. She’s clearly not manipulating his emotions, and I’m not doing anything. I focus on Maddie’s thoughts as they come into focus in my head.

“What?” Mom says. “No way. We should turn her in to the police. I’m sure if she’s run away or if she’s lost, they’re looking for her.” She pauses. “But… well… I don’t know. Maybe you’re right.”

I grip the arm of the chair as I finally sort our Maddie’s thoughts, and I send a message to Brooklyn.

Blaze is here.

Oh, that interfering Blaze! What is he up to this time? We’ll have to wait and see, I guess. Strange… Comment below with your thoughts!

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