It's FRIDAY!!! A very short conclusion -- Who is ready for stars-3?
s*t*a*r*s
Forty-eight hours later, the sun is going down and Rylee, Sydney, Tegan, Abby and Spencer are enjoying a fire on the beach.
In the house, Mike, Amy, Emma, Mario and Darci are playing poker and drinking. They have agreed that it is time to give the girls some time alone, for the last two days the parents have been hovering over their every move.
Sydney’s guitar is propped up next to her, Tegan is drumming an unheard beat on Sydney’s leg. Abby is roasting marshmallows while Rylee and Spencer are sitting next to each other, almost touching.
“You can touch her, you know?” says Tegan in a scoffing tone.
Rylee rolls her eyes.
“No, really it wouldn’t bother us,” says Sydney.
Spencer meets Rylee’s nervous gaze, opening her hand, palm up so that Rylee can take her hand. As Rylee moves her hand to hover over Spencer’s, the arc of electric blue light connects them.
“Son…,” says Tegan.
“…of a potato picker,” says Abby.
They all laugh. “We can’t touch that way,” says Spencer.
“But we’ve seen you touching,” says Tegan. “You helped Rylee up when we were at graduation day.”
“It isn’t – intimate,” says Rylee. “If it is, we get this.”
Sydney sits up. “Not like I can be intimate either, I’ll give whoever HIV.”
“You can use a rubber, Syd,” says Tegan gruffly.
“Think we could use a psychic rubber?” asks Rylee laughing at the situation.
“For some reason, that doesn’t appeal to me,” says Spencer.
They are silent for a while, until Sydney takes her guitar and begins to strum a fast melodic tune. She doesn’t sing, simply playing.
As she plays, Spencer moves her head, music always amps up her power for some reason. Extending her right hand towards the ocean, Spencer lets the extra energy bleed off into the water harmlessly.
“Wow, Spencer, why are you all charged up?” asks Tegan sitting up from her spot.
“Music does it,” says Spencer. “It always has.”
Sydney stops playing. “You can sing, can’t you?”
Spencer shrugs. “I never tried, scared the crap out of me because if I heard some really good song, my power would go haywire. Hell, I’m getting used to being able to use a cell phone. I’m not sure how this c-leg will work, it’s a computer.”
“You know, I like metal better than that whole acoustic thing,” says Sydney. “I bet – I bet you could sing it, I bet you could sing anything.”
“Why do you say that?” asks Abby.
“Singing is energy, it makes people feel, a talented singer can make you cry one minute and make you want to jump off a building the next,” smiles Sydney.
Sydney opens her guitar case, finding a piece of paper she’d written lyrics on. “There isn’t a chorus, but, do you want to try?” asks Sydney hopefully.
Spencer shrugs as Rylee takes the piece of paper from Sydney.
Abby pops another marshmallow into her mouth. “I think it might help you control it, your power I mean. Of all of us, you have the biggest muscle, but the least control.”
Spencer’s brow creases and then laughs at the odd analogy. “Fine, whatever you say, Abby.”
“Don’t tweak on the Abster, she’s right, you can blow a hole in the moon, but you can’t fling a rock and hit a target to save your life,” says Tegan reaching for a marshmallow but Abby snatches the bag away.
“Wait,” says Sydney grabbing the paper back and taking the stub of a pencil from the case and beginnings to scribble something on the paper.
“Am I going to be able to read that?” asks Spencer not really into this idea at all.
“Calm down,” chides Rylee.
Spencer sticks her tongue out at Rylee.
“Tease!” says Rylee and they all laugh.
“Here ya go,” says Sydney almost nervously.
Spencer takes the paper and reads the words. Reading it again, she nods, pushing a strand of hair from her eyes. “Okay.”
Sydney starts to play, the music faster than what she’d been playing before. Spencer can almost hear what the drums would sound like.
“The feeling sinks and pulls me down - The mood you convey is killing me - I think you should go,” sings Spencer softly. “I can’t wait it out - Hope for the best - I won’t wait around for the test - The world spins and waits - For me to live my life,” sings Spencer her voice now gains confidence.
Tegan’s green eyes flick up, feeling the electricity in the world around them start to prickle their skin.
“I keep getting up - But slipping and losing ground - Am I trying to hard - To get away that I get pulled back,” Spencer no longer reading the paper, knowing the way the music driving her, already having memorized the words.
“I can’t wait it out - Hope for the best - I won’t wait around for the test - The world spins and waits - For me to live my life. I keep changing - Yet stay the same - I keep talking and explaining - But you don’t seem to hear or understand - I could draw you a picture - Still you’d never see the light,” sings Spencer her voice edgier than any of them have ever heard. Rylee feels the soft hairs on the back of her neck standing up.
“I can’t wait it out - Hope for the best - I won’t wait around for the test - The world spins and waits - For me to live my life. I’ve made my share of mistakes - None of which you let me forget - The world keeps on spinning - Still waiting for me to escape - You keep on talking down to me - Sarcasm never did serve you well - My confidence has gone the way of quicksand - Sunk to an all time low - No rescue for me - The world keeps on spinning,” sings Spencer, holding the last note for what felt like an impossible amount of time.
“Jesus!” says Abby. “Spencer has got a set of lungs on her.”
No one has realized that Spencer’s eyes are closed, when she opens them, her eyes shine deep blue. “I think…,” says Spencer her voice deep and hard.
“Oh boy!” says Rylee moving away from her.
Spencer stands, extending her left hand and letting the extra energy rip into the atmosphere.
“No more singing,” says Tegan. “No, no more singing, jesus.”
Spencer sits down, the last of the extra energy gone. “That is fun,” says Spencer.
Abby laughs, throwing her a marshmallow. “You know, if music does that to you, you could power an energy leg all of the time.”
Spencer grimaces. “Hard to explain how I got a ‘new’ leg though, isn’t it?” asks Spencer.
“I hadn’t thought that far ahead,” says Abby.
“Are the ‘rents coming down here anytime soon?” asks Tegan.
“No,” says Rylee. “In fact, your mom is pretty shit faced right now and if they were playing strip poker, she’d be naked.”
They all laugh. “What is on your mind?” asks Sydney.
“Do we tell them? That, well, that Spencer and I are genetic sisters?” asks Tegan.
Spencer leans back on the driftwood that she and Rylee are sharing. Rylee reaches over, touching Spencer’s hair without thought. There is no blue arc of power.
Rylee pulls her hand away without mentioning it.
“I vote for keeping our mouths shut,” says Abby. “It’s only going to make things way more complicated.”
“I agree,” says Sydney.
“I don’t think we should have a say in this,” says Rylee. “This is between Tegan and Spencer.”
Spencer looks at Tegan from across the fire. Neither move or says anything for a long time. “I think that Amy, my, I can’t believe I’m saying this, my genetic other parent, would fly off the handle. She’s already dealing with the fact that I exist. Telling her this, new – information – will only add to her fragile state of mind,” says Spencer.
Tegan lets out a sexy bark of a laugh. “I think if we tell her, she’ll blow a gasket it’s a lot to wrap your mind around.”
“So, we keep it to ourselves,” says Abby.
“A secret,” says Rylee. “We know how well that worked for our mothers.”
“We can tell them later, if we need too,” says Tegan. “It’s fine by me that we’re related.”
Spencer hasn’t thought about it. “Not a big deal for me either.”
“Do you think that all this time jumping is what made my mom crazy?” asks Sydney.
“It’s a thought,” says Tegan. “I noticed that we all have a similar trend in our powers. Syd and I use time to our advantage, her portals rip into time and I slow it. Spencer and Abby use energy to their advantage by blasting stuff and changing things. Rylee I’m not sure about you though.”
“Oh great, the gay chick is different!” snorts Rylee with a smile.
“No, she uses energy, just energy of potential events. If she sees it she can change it, manipulate the energy, or the choices into what she wants the outcome to be,” says Sydney.
“And Spencer can power our talents,” says Abby. “You opened the portal up when we were back in time, doesn’t that make you want to sing? You know that song, from Back to the Future?”
“No,” says Tegan and Rylee in unison, both of them laughing at the other.
“When I was a kid, my mom would make me bleed my powers every night before bed. If she didn’t, when I had a bad dream, I could blow up the room,” says Spencer. “I just figured I could channel that into the portal, luckily it worked.”
“But if you power it, you can’t go through it, that is something we need to remember,” says Sydney.
“We go back to school in a few days, are we ready?” asks Abby. “We’re way different then when the semester ended, do you think anyone will know?”
After being thoughtful for a few minutes, Rylee answers, “It doesn’t matter as long as we are okay with who we are, we’re the daughters of J*A*D*E*S.”
Tegan chuckles and says, “We’re s*t*a*r*s, remember? Our names spell stars, I secretly think that somehow they planned that.”
“Yeah, they would be anal enough to do that,” snorts Abby. “At least my mom is.”
“So we go back to school, back to our routine, back to learning, back to Natalie,” scoffs Spencer.
“You really need to give her a chance, your mom trusted her,” says Sydney.
“I know,” sighs Spencer. Trust isn’t something she does lightly.
Rylee clears her throat. “Rents are coming.”
“I guess that ends this evenings discussion,” says Tegan in a reporter like tone.
Everyone laughs and when the adults join them, the laughter continues, at least until the next adventure reared its head.