Chapter 7 #2
Kade scoffed. “Nah, man, he was definitely taller,” at Jaxson’s affronted look he hurriedly added. “How can you be so indignant by the fact, when you’re taller than him now. He’s my younger brother and as far as I know he’s always been taller than me!”
The ribbing continued and I was thankful for the slight reprieve while I silently dreaded my future.
η
In an effort to resume life as normal Ben, Gavin, Rick, Taylor, and I decided to have practice.
We had another gig this Friday at Asby’s and rescheduled our studio time for Sunday.
Yes, once again I was on the hamster wheel, but I wouldn’t have it any way.
I needed to stay busy and live my life to the fullest. I couldn’t continue looking at the time clock, worried about when or if it would expire.
Neville took a seat on one of the stools, linked his hands behind his head, and frowned. “I found Jemmy, but I don’t know where she is.”
From my seat behind the keyboard, I gave him a look of confusion, but before I could say anything Drake asked. “What’s that supposed to mean? It makes no sense.”
Neville had been working on finding Jemmy since this morning and just texted to ask where we were.
We told him to meet in the music room. My guys, Gavin, Sierra, Ben, Kade, and Victoria were waiting for the others to join us.
We were a little early and I had hoped to play a song that had been running on a loop in my head since this morning.
I froze, knowing this wasn’t going to be the news we expected.
I knew Drake and Gavin had been anticipating his findings.
I don’t think any of us were expecting Neville’s announcement.
It made my heart sink. Admittedly, I was worried about her, but more concerned about Drake’s mental health.
He was taking it really hard with every day that passed without hearing from her.
Neville seemed to gather his thoughts for a moment.
“Imagine every gifted person has like a GPS tracker on them, like a cell phone. I’m the person that can feel that GPS and my gift is like the cell phone towers to hone in on a gifted person’s location.
The GPS on Jemmy is similar to a burner phone.
Her signal seems to be pinging off a few cell phone towers.
“I can tell you she’s down South and somewhere on the border of Alabama, Georgia, and Florida, but that’s about it,” he scratched his head, seemingly disturbed.
“Since I’ve never encountered this issue before I’m not sure how or what I can do to rectify it.
I’m going to try to continue trying to find her location, but continual use of my gift will drain me and—” he cleared his throat uncomfortably.
I could see Jaxson and Troy trying to bite back smiles despite the troubling information we just received. We all knew what could happen if we used our gifts too much. Neville rolled his eyes at their evident amusement.
I had to admit I liked Neville. He was a laid-back guy and didn’t seem to hold it against us that not only had we put him in a dangerous situation yesterday, but we also had his best friend locked up.
I think it helped when he got to talk to Annika though.
Her confidence and determination to assist helped him trust us even further.
“We can introduce you to a few women that might be receptive to the whole beach bum vibe you got going on,” Jaxson smirked.
Neville snorted and rolled his eyes. “I don’t need any help. Actually, I met a nice girl today, goes by the name of Tiff.”
Sierra paused her crocheting. The wickedly talented female decided to YouTube how to crochet and less than a week later she had made three gorgeous beanies and matching booties for the babies. “Is she pregnant?”
A smile transformed Nevilles face from average to very attractive. “Yeah,” he almost said dreamily before frowning. “Sucks what Horatio did to her though, but I have to say I admire her for how she’s handled her situation.”
Sierra, Troy, Noah, and I exchanged looks before all simultaneously shouting. “Don’t!”
Neville jumped startled by our outburst while some of the others snickered knowing how much of a leech Tiffany was.
The girl had completely wrecked Darren and we had discovered she had three other men falling for her poor injured bird act.
The moment she discovered a man had money she found their weaknesses and exploited them.
If she wasn’t such an amazing art teacher and wasn’t in the situation, she was in she probably would have already been transferred to one of the settlements that were helping Horatio’s victims reintegrate into society.
As it was, she already burned bridges with the leaders of two of the three communities that were helping us rehabilitate, care, and assist the victims.
I realized the detour on our conversation distressed Drake, so I tried to reign us back in. “She’s not a nice person. We can fill you in later, but what can we do to help you find Jemmy. She’s been out of touch with us for far too long.”
Neville seemed torn for a moment and slightly disappointed before running his fingers through his longer tresses. “I’m going to keep trying and see if I can ping her location more definitively.” He shot Drake and Gavin a sympathetic look. “If it makes you feel any better, she’s okay-ish”
Jace frowned. “And how would you know that?”
Neville made a raspberry sound with his lips.
“I haven’t really given it much thought.
When I came into my gift it wasn’t like I knew what it was or why I felt anxious or a sudden desire to go someplace I’ve never been or in some cases never even heard of.
It wasn’t like I had a tutor and even with the far reaches my parents had I kind of had to learn as I go.
Luckily, my parents were very supportive and after the second or third time finding these distressed gifted adolescences, we discovered my gift could sense their emotional well-being.
At first, I only could find the most volatile gifted, but eventually I learned with enough focus I could find any gifted I wanted. I could also ‘feel’ them.
“I can tell Jemmy isn’t happy, but I wouldn’t say she was in danger.”
Gavin seemed to gird himself and reluctantly stated. “So, there’s a possibility wherever she’s at it’s of her own volition and she’s intentionally not reaching out to us.”
Neville cocked his head to the side. “It’s hard to say. From what Mr. Bell told me and if I was looking at this objectively, I don’t believe she wants to be where she’s at. I can feel discontentment and reluctance coming from her but not fear if that makes sense.”
“Can someone be shielding her, kind of like what Miranda does?” Kade inquired before handing Victoria some pink and yellow Starburst.
Their whole dynamic seemed to have changed in less than twenty-four hours. Victoria wasn’t as hostile toward Kade and Kade seemed to be making an effort to befriend her. I really hoped they could continue to progress in a positive manner.
Neville’s eyes widened and he smiled. “That can be it! I didn’t even think about that.
It may take a while, but I’ll try to shift through all the gifted in that area.
It would have to be someone equal to or higher than her level eight.
I can easily disregard level sevens and lower.
There may be a decent amount of eights and above, but I could narrow it down further by the different subcategories. ”
“So, you would have to find a level eight mental manipulator,” Victoria slowly stated as if she was attempting to wrap her head around it. “Like if you find a level seven mental gifted you know they can’t be the one shielding her.”
“Exactly,” Neville jumped up. “I’m going to get something to eat and rest a bit so I can get back to it. It’s too bad we don’t know who she may be hanging out with and your mo—Tracey wasn’t gifted.”
He shot Drake with an apologetic smile. When we informed Neville what we needed his help with we kind of had to give him enough information to go by. Even if he believed our intentions were pure, he never located anyone without knowing the reasoning behind it.
“I never understood that,” Victoria popped another starburst into her mouth.
“How can you and Jem be so strongly gifted, yet your parents weren’t gifted at all.
I mean,” she chewed thoughtfully. “One child being gifted would be probable, but two,” she shrugged.
“We’re learning genetics in science. If two brown eyed parents have a twenty five percent chance of having a blue-eyed child, what would the probability of two non-gifted parents having two strongly gifted children. ”
Drake handed me my water bottle and said.
“I think if Dad was gifted, he would have said something to us. He always tried to prepare us for everything in life. He was the type of parent to leave notes on the fridge if he was running late so we wouldn’t worry.
When we had dental or medical appointments, he would go into great detail what we should expect so we weren’t surprised or stressed over it.
I can’t remember my grandparents on either side, so maybe we got a recessive gene from one of them.
“If Tracey was gifted then I’m pretty sure she would have shouted it from the rooftops to anyone she could.
When she got employee of the month, she posted that on the refrigerator for months.
When she went back to school, she would take down our artwork, report cards, or top papers and put hers up, even if she got a B. ”
Neville looked horrified while Noah snorted. “Not all of us have supportive or great parents.”
Neville grimaced. “I realize that. I’ve helped several adolescents coming into their gifts and a majority of them had less than idea home lives. I know I was fortunate in the family department. It doesn’t mean I have to become desensitized to it all.”
“He has a point,” Jace nodded in agreement.
“Anyways. Off I go.” Neville clapped his hands. “I’ll let you know as soon as I locate her.”
The conversation about Jemmy was temporarily put on pause when Taylor and Rick came into the room for practice. I was looking forward to getting lost in the music because real life kind of sucked right now.