Destia Jayden: March 10th,20XX

“Aah!”

Kaja suddenly shrieked like she was dying and startled Aaron, who was driving. His hands tightened around the wheels and sightly jerked to the right, but the auto-correction function of the car locked the wheels and kept us in the right lane.

“What’s wrong!”

Aaron and Joyce’s voices overlapped as they looked back to make sure we were okay. Well, Joyce looked back. Aaron focused on getting rid of all the virtual warnings about driving intoxicated and tried his best to pass the sobriety test to put the steering back into manual.

“Ah, sorry. I’m fine, I’m just loosing a game to an eight-year-old.”

I felt embarrassed on her behalf, but as she proudly admitted to why she’d screamed so loudly, I realized she didn’t need my empathy. Sometimes I envied Kaja’s blind confidence, but I recognized that she would have had to go through a lot to get to be like that.

Joyce stifled an amused chuckle and tried her best to sound serious as she scolded the sixteen-year-old shapeshifter. Despite the scolding, I could tell that she wasn’t angry.

“Kaja, you shouldn’t distract the driver like that. What would have happened if he hadn’t had auto driver on? That could have been an accident in the making.”

“Sorry! I won’t do it again! But speaking of auto driver, can one of you teach me how to drive? I know Destia would, but she only has her learner’s permit.”

“Even if she had her full licence, there’s no way I would let Destia teach you how to drive on her own.”

Before I could get my feelings hurt, Joyce clarified what she meant.

“Ah, not to say you aren’t a remarkably mature young lady, Destia, but personalities aside, I wouldn’t let an eighteen-year-old and a sixteen-year-old on the road by themselves.”

Even just thinking about trying to control the ball of energy that was Kaja somewhat stressed me out. I thought she was really cool, but she looked more used to giving orders than receiving them.

“That’s fine.”

“Where are we going, anyway?”

Kaja’s loud voice once again startled Aaron, but this time he kept control of the car. I could see his knuckles tighten around the wheel, but I figured that was because he’d just finished that sobriety test.

He didn’t seem to enjoy driving, so I wondered why he’d insisted on taking the wheel for this long trip.

“Kaja, we’ve been in the car for two hours now. You mean you didn’t know where we were going?”

Joyce’s dry but amused voice filtered back to us and I got embarrassed on Kaja’s behalf, not that she looked at all embarrassed.

“Can’t you just tell me?”

“We’re going to see Joyce’s younger sister perform at her first show. Her group just debuted so we need to show support.”

I’d heard a lot about Joyce’s sister in the past, so I anticipated meeting the mystical figure. All I knew about her so far were the occasionally burdened expressions Joyce put on when she talked about her, and her extensive closet that had harassed the twins before we had moved into the official building.

I hadn’t been there to see it, but the way Kaja talked about it made me imagine a fluffy, glittery hell.

Wow, somehow, I had only heard less than great things about her.

I purposefully wiped my preformed opinion clear and tried my best to keep an open mind. It would be no good to judge someone before I even met them.

“Wow Joyce! Your sister is an idol?”

Joyce donned that same slightly burdened expression as she responded to Kaja’s relatively harmless question.

“Yeah, she’s been in training for quite a while, so she was so exited. I just hope nothing goes wrong.”

Aaron playfully hissed at Joyce’s ominous words.

“Don’t jinx it, Joyce, I’m sure she’ll be fine. And even if something happens, she’s already nineteen. She’ll be fine.”

“Even so.”

The conversation died out for a few seconds before Kaja jumped back in.

“What’s her group’s name? And do they have a music video out yet?”

“The group’s name is Nightmare. They have both a music video and a mini album out. They named the song and the title track ‘unawake’… Don’t look at me like that! I didn’t choose it!”

Despite how negative she sounded, I could tell that she was incredibly proud of her younger sister. Her eyes glittered as she spoke about her, and I could see her lips move as Kaja played the song from her phone.

I caught a glimpse of Archer from the front mirror and saw the young boy’s brows furrow at the rock-techno-pop song.

“So you can use it like this as well.”

The song was nice enough, but I couldn’t see myself ever listening to it on my own time. I took my phone out as well and searched up the choreography. It was such a high-tempo song in contrast to the heavy words and intense instrumentals. I couldn’t picture how they could dance to it without looking like octopi.

The drive passed by quickly, with Kaja grilling a willing Joyce about the group. Eva looked slightly upset at losing Kaja’s attention, so I shifted slightly closer to her and let Kaja take my seat behind Joyce.

“Hey, can I play with you?”

I still felt awkward around the eight-year-old, and it wasn’t just because we had spent little time together. I’d seen her powers first hand more than once, and each time it was scarier than the last.

I knew Eva wasn’t a bad kid, and she seemed to be obedient generally. There was also the fact that using her powers tired her out so much.

There were a lot of reasons to ease my fears and try to get closer to her, but I couldn’t help but withhold some caution. Who knew what would happen if I accidentally made her angry, or if she would decide I was the perfect tool to get her way as she had with Mr. Harvey.

She seemed to have some reservations of her own because she hesitated for a few seconds before nodding and patting the seat beside hers.

Or well, she tried. The car seat put her pretty up high, and her hand couldn’t reach the seat of the actual car.

I restrained a chuckle and pretended not to have noticed so she wouldn’t be embarrassed.