Chapter Four - Leah

I feel my chest tighten and I start scratching at the leather chair under me. I can’t bring my eyes up from the floor.

“Hey Leah you’re okay,” Lukas says softly putting him hand on mine, “he’s just in the car behind us.”

I stop scratching and look through the back window to see our family car, being driven by someone else, with Aaron in the front seat.

“I can’t see him Lukas,” I say in a panicked shrill, “I know he’s there but I can’t see him!”

Lukas wraps him arms around me and I can hear one of the guards across us ask, “what’s wrong with her?”

The female guard elbows the other in the gut angrily, “sorry about my companion, if you tell us what the problem is we might be able to help.”

“Her twin Morgan is in the other car,” Lukas says cautiously, “she isn’t used to him not being in her line of sight unless they are both at home.”

The female guard smiles brightly, her eyes of liquid gold swirling in delight, “that’s an easy fix!”

She turns and taps the driver’s shoulder, “Could you please pull over sir?”

The driver says nothing but turns onto a gravel patch beside the road. We wait until the crunch of gravel from the car behind us stops and the female guard looks at the male one.

“Get out of the car and bring Morgan over here,” she said sternly, “you can switch places with him.”

The guard makes a move to protest then decides against it and climbs out of the car.

Lukas unwraps his arms from around me once I’ve calmed down.

I look the female guard up and down. Her brunette hair was tied back into a ponytail with a braid going down one side of her head. Her hair looked darker against her golden tan skin. The black lightweight combat vest hugged her body showing every curve. Her black high waisted cargo pants hugged her waist, accentuating her hips.

I hear the door swing open and Morgan hops into the car. We play musical chairs and I’m sitting beside Morgan hand in his, across from the guard.

“I should introduce myself,” she says smiling, “I’m fifteen, and orphan like you guys, I moved here from Champions High in Queentoya, and my name is Lyla!”

I smiled at her. She was a genuinely warm and kind person. I feel like we might get along.

“Leah?” Lyla looks over to me, “Can we be friends? I just moved here and I don’t have very many.”

I feel something flutter in my chest and I can’t help but smile. Friends? I have never had one.

“Yeah I would like that,” I say still clutching my twin’s hand.

I look over to see Lukas beaming with pride. Before I can say anything to him the car comes to a stop.

“Looks like we’re here!” Lyla exclaims, “Home sweet home.”

She gets out of the car and Morgan follows her. Lukas moves around to my side of the car and picks my up in a bridal carry. I wrap my arms around his neck and look up at the towering dorm building. I look over to our family car and see Aaron, Morgan and the male guard carrying suitcases and boxes out of the van.

“Follow me guys!” Lyla calls from a couple metres down the driveway.

Lukas and I follow close behind leaving the others to carry the luggage.

“What do you think it’s like?” I ask Lukas a hint of excitement in my voice.

I look over Lukas’s shoulder and look at Morgan. Making sure he was still there.

“I bet it’s going to be super prestigious,” he says laughing, “and, dare I say, fancy!”

I let out a mocking gasp and we both laugh. Lyla opens the doors into the entry way and I let out a real gasp this time.

We wait for the others to join us and follow Lyla through a room called the West Room and down a hallway up to a door with the number 108 engraved on it.

Lyla passed me and each of my brothers a silver key.

“This is your dorm key!” She states excitedly.

Morgan walks up and uses his key to unlock the door.

Morgan walks in, Lukas and I following close behind.

Dorm? More like apartment suite!

I look around and see a massive living room with a dining table separating the open kitchen and the sitting room. Along the wall opposite the entrance are four doors, of which, I would assume are the bedrooms. I also notice a weird door in the kitchen beside the fridge; not certain of where that could lead, my best guess being a bathroom.

“This is where you four will be living,” Lyla exclaims, “there are four bedrooms and three full bathrooms.”

My brothers look at me then eachother, I have never been good at sharing bathrooms. The boys can share just fine, but if I use it there would be a chorus of groans coming from wherever they were.

“The second door closest to the living room shares a bathroom with the two bedrooms on either side,” Lyla says gesturing to the three doors closest to the living room, “and the bedroom closest to the kitchen has a private bathroom.”

Lyla laughs as all the boys let out a sigh of relief and I smack Lukas on the arm.

“I’m not that bad,” I exclaim.

Before Lukas could counter, Lyla interrupts.

“So you guys can go put your luggage in your rooms,” she says, “if you need any assistance I’m here to help!”

I look at her and take a deep breath.

“Lyla could you help me out actually,” I ask, “I am going to need someone to unpack my brace charger.”

Lyla looks over the moon excited and jumps up grabbing a random suitcase from Aaron.

I giggle and point at a black duffel bag. Lyla’s face goes red for a second and Lukas leads her to the bedroom with the private bathroom.

He sets me down on the bed and ruffles my hair, “Play nice Leah, you don’t want to scare off your first friend!” He teases me.

I throw a pillow at him from the stack on my bed. He catches it and tosses in back on the bed, laughing and walking out the door.

“It’s okay I don’t have many friends right now either!” Lyla exclaims unzipping the duffel bag, “so what am I doing?”

I smile and explain the charging device.

“Okay so the platform there,” I say pointing at a sleek black metal platform, “that magnetically connects to the battery pack.”

Lyla pulls out the metal platform about the size of a tablet and places it on top of a battery pack the size of a brick.

“Okay now what?” She asks smiling brightly.

“Now you need to take that dark blue cord and plug it into the battery and tablet,” I say leaning over my leg to take off the brace.

“Now take the black cord, and plug it into the battery and the wall here,” I say gesturing to the outlet beside the bedside table, “then set it down on the table and hold that power button for about five seconds.

She holds the button and looks at my leg brace. I tap the thin flexible screen and under the battery icon says release in small black letters. I press the release and the brace loosens and slides down my leg before automatically folding up so that the screen is on the top.

“What? Did you build that?!” She exclaims.

“Yeah it took me a long time though,” I say grinning, “I had to hack onto different military sites and fake orders of those materials, then I had to get them shipped to my house and construct the brace, don’t even get me started on how hard it was to find replacements.”

We both laugh and I grab the folded brace and set it screen down on the charging platform. There is a small charging noise, and the device goes silent.

I sit back on the bed, and Lyla sits beside me.

“How long does it normally take to charge?” She asks looking at the device, as if trying to figure out a puzzle.

“About an hour,” I answer, “it depends on how much charge comes out of the wall.”

“One more question if you don’t mind me asking,” she looks nervous, “you don’t have to answer this, but what happened?

I am silent for a moment, “it is a long story, but I can tell it,” I look at her smiling, “as long as you tell me a story from your past.”

“A story for a story,” she ponders it for a second, “that seems fair.”

I take a deep breath and tell her the about the day that changed me life.

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