My name is Adams. Lara Adams. Great, now I sound like a James Bond fan, which I am but that’s not the point. I go to Philips School for Gifted Youngsters. I have no idea why. I’m certainly not gifted. I guess my father thinks I am and wants me to become a “young lady with a good education, which will help me break into the world of business”. Yeah, right. At the moment, I’m trying to write a report about me. It was one of those stupid essays that new teachers make you write when they are getting to know you. When I was younger I would write the basics. I have blue eyes, brown hair with natural blond highlights. The usual stuff. But now that I’m in Year 10 we have to write about our personality and whom we are inside. In my mind it was just a bunch of cr*p. It’s just supposed to make us feel uncomfortable. It’s just supposed to make us feel uncomfortable. I guess you were supposed to write about what made us tick, so I started writing.

I texted my friend Mikky. Her full name is Mikeela but I am incredibly lazy so I tend to give people nicknames.
I texted: U done dat HW yet?
She replied: No. On date. Tell l8tor. :)

I laughed. Mikky can always cheer me up. She tends to put friends, clothes and guys before schoolwork. Well just fit guys. I turned on my iPod and listened to Bon Jovi for a while, during which time, I tried to think about the essay. No such luck.

“Lara! Time for dinner!” my dad yelled. My mum died when I was small so my dad looks after my little brother Louis and I. I trudged down the stairs knowing what he was going to ask.

“So… have you done your homework yet?” he asked.

“Not exactly” I said, stalling the inevitable.

“Well… after dinner you should do it” he said trying to sound official. Didn’t always happen, but everyone sure appreciated the effort.

“Sure, sure” I replied. “Ouch!”

I had stabbed myself on a knife. Blood oozing from my hand I washed it in a sink. I wrapped it in a towel while my dad got a plaster. I looked at my hand and was frozen to the ground. There was no cut. Or scar. And absolutely no blood running from the wound.

‘What the h*ll is going on?’ my dad said, when he saw me staring at my hand.

“Nothing” I said quickly hiding my hand behind my back.

“Wasn’t your hand bleeding?” he asked.

“No, I just hit it off the cupboard.” I answered.

“Sure?”

“Yeah.”

We ate dinner in silence. I hardly ate anything. I was thinking too hard about what had happened to my hand. I was absolutely sure I had stabbed my hand but no blood came out.

After dinner I ran upstairs to my bedroom and wrote a bunch of random stuff for my essay then logged on to my computer. I sat for a while thinking about what I should do. Then I thought ‘Oh what the h*ll, it can’t hurt anybody.’ I searched up ‘Special powers - healing’ on Google. I got a lot of websites about the X-Men and the main character Logan. I found a good-looking site called ‘Crystal Children’, on the tenth search page. It was about children with special powers, advanced members of the human race, so to speak.

I thought about it long and hard. Could I really be a Crystal Child? If so what should I do? At first I thought that it was all complete rubbish. Then I realized that maybe I should clarify it first. I looked around my room until my eyes crossed my pencil case. I open it and got out the scissors. Was I seriously going to stab myself in the wrist? But I needed answers. ‘Here goes’ I thought. I stabbed them through my wrist. Pain shot up my arm followed by a numb feeling. I pushed the scissors in harder. I then realized that this was probably the stupidest thing I could have done. What if I didn’t have powers? It would take a lot of explaining to my dad about how and why I stabbed myself with scissors. I looked long and hard at my arm. At first it looked like any normal cut but then the skin closed around the wound sealing off the flow of blood. Creepy.


••••••••••••••••••••••

“So I was thinking we could go to Topshop, they have got this incredibly hot new worker named … Lara what’s up?” she said. I was staring out the window at this black van with the initials ‘C.C’ that had suddenly stopped.

A boy suddenly jumped out the van. He looked around and dashed off at an impossible speed. He had blond hair and green eyes. He should have just got out from school but he wasn’t wearing a uniform. Just a black T-shirt and black trousers. He looked about fourteen, my age. A girl with black hair and a Chinese look to her followed him. She looked younger maybe twelve or thirteen. She too was wearing the black clothes. Finally, a boy with black hair. I didn’t get a good look at him just that he had a serious look to his face.

That was all I could see before they ran off. Little did I know that I would get to see a lot more of them in the future.

“Oh nothing” I said.


••••••••••••••••••••••

Over the next weeks, I kept seeing the three kids. I kept seeing them running around everywhere. Sometimes they just happened to be where a car accident could have occurred. Then it turns out that it didn’t happen. Weird right? Also men in dark suits kept following them, but they would disappear before they were caught. They looked like they where from the government or some Hollywood movie about MI6. The were wearing black suits, black ties, white shirts and dark black sunglasses The idea stuck with me until I would get dreams at night about spies and death.

The men, who I called Black Jackets, were hanging around my school sometimes. They seemed to be waiting for me. I thought this because I recognized one of them. I had seen him in the news a lot. Any accident involving the government he was watching. Always watching. There I go again with the dramatics. My friends always call me a drama queen. I’m just a good actor. Well, there goes all attempts at modesty. Also, I do like my movie moments.

Once or twice I would see the children doing weird things. Like the first time I saw him, the blond boy always seemed to be moving a bit faster than the average pace. Both boys seemed to look to the girl for confirmation before running off. The black haired boy seemed to do even weirder things. He would pick up things that he shouldn’t be able to pick up. Like heavy pieces of metal. Or bins and such. My phone ringing interrupted my train of thought.

“Hello?” I said.

“Who is this?” said the voice.

“Who are you?” I answered.

“Tell me who you are, you contrary little whatsit or I’ll…” He didn’t finish his sentence because I cut him off my hands shaking.

“What’s up Lara?” Mikky asked.

“Nothing.” I answered.


••••••••••••••••••••••

It was the end of school. Finally. I made my way to the bus. When I got there, I pulled out my IPod and put on my current album and sighed in relief when it turned out to be Bon Jovi. Bon Jovi plays their songs kind of loud so I could drown out the noise of the kids. I started thinking about my friends and homework.

Suddenly everyone started yelling, even the driver, so I looked up just in time to see a red petrol tank going straight for the bus. Funny, the color red of the petrol tank had always stuck in my mind. Then the excruciating pain started and I thought ‘ Oh god, this is gonna hurt. A lot. And I am probably gonna die… Ouch, that sounds like it might hurt.' Look at me. Being sarcastic at my own death. Excellent, I have officially lost it.

So there I am, staring death in the face, but somehow I survive. Yeah, I know, weird. All I remember is a petrol tank coming at the bus. Then I was flung out of the bus as it exploded. I flew into a tree and dropped to what should have been certain death because the bus was on fire and the tree was 30 feet high. Then I realized I should have disintegrated upon impact. But I didn’t die. But I do have cuts. And they hurt. A lot. I look down and see my ribs sticking out of my shirt. I gasped. ‘Not what you see every day’ I thought. I didn’t know what to do. ‘Surely I should be dying’ I thought. Then why the h*ll am I not in pain? Deep, serious pain or even death? Then I remember my strange healing power. Still the ribs were not healing, so I started panicking about what to do.

Then I realized that because my ribs were not where they should be, that they needed to be back in my body. That I needed to push them back into my body. Stupidly, I tried it and heard some cracking as it healed. I am just really stupid that way. Instead of calling for help, I try to push my ribs back in. Perfect.

‘Great’ I thought ‘this proves it, I am some type of freak who doesn’t die. Well, that does have its positives.” Yeah, I know, I am a freak. Then a piece of the burning bus fell on my legs.

It didn’t hurt but I was kind of trapped. Which was a bad idea? Though at the time I couldn’t think why. Again with the sarcasm. I tired to push it off but couldn’t quite manage it. Then suddenly a boy, about my age, lifted it off me with one hand. He was the black haired boy whom I had seen before. I thought. He then picked me up and ran to a black car and placed me in it. Someone inside the car injected me with something and I blacked out.

When I woke up, I was in a big, airy room with glass windows. There were two people were standing above me. One was the boy who saved me and the one whom I’d seen before, outside my school. I got a good look at him for the first time. He had black hair which was cropped short. He had a slim build but I knew from experience that, that wasn’t the case. He had thoughtful brown eyes which looked as if he knew everything there was to know, seen everything there was to see. Beside him stood a tall man who had brown hair and looked a lot like the boy. I think he was the one who injected me. I suppose he was the father of the black haired boy.

I thought that, you know they were going to kill me, so I made a run for it. The boy got me in a steely grip, while I struggled for freedom. But, god, he was strong! So I stopped struggling when I realized that it hurt more. Then I started struggling again when I remember my magical healing power. Did I mention how cool that was? Well it’s cool. God, I am really going mental.

The taller man said “I am terribly sorry for us kidnapping you like that.”

“Yeah right! Like you care about the other twenty people on the bus” I said. “ They died didn’t they. So why didn’t you save them? Or are you that cold-hearted?”

“Yeah, They did” said the boy. “But they were all dead when we found you”.

“Uh huh. And you just said with no emotion at all. So you don’t care” I said, poison dripping from every word.

“We tried to save them!” the boy protested. “Yeah, and see how well that worked out.” I mentioned with sarcasm almost oozing from my voice.

Then they both went on to explain why they kidnaped me, to fill the silence.

“You are a Crystal Child.” said the man. “So is my son, Nick. Crystal Children are children who are advanced members of the human race. They have certain powers which differ according to the person. My son is super strong. See, the crystal children can help the human race solve many problems under my guidance. By the way my name is Edward. There are four crystal children in London alone. One is you. One is my son, Nick. And the other two are of on an errand. One girl and a boy. The boy’s name is Daniel and the girl’s name is Elizabeth. She prefers Beth.Daniel has super speed and Beth can teleport and can see the future. But it’s very vague. Together, if its all right by you we can help save the human race from many problems that they may find”. So cliche. It sounded just like a movie. ‘Save the human race…’ please, who did he think he was, James Bond?

“Wow. My dad think I’ am dead right?” I asked.

“Yes, they do. Everyone on that bus died and they couldn’t find your body. So they assumed you had died in the explosion.” said Nick. Wow, I hadn’t realized how cute he was. I suddenly felt sad now. My dad, brother and I were all we had left and now they thought I was dead. I started blinking realizing that I was crying. I quickly changed the subject.

“So did, Beth was it? Did she find me?”I asked.

“Yeah, she saw the bus explosion so I went to stop it. I didn’t get there in time, so I tired to help some people who might of survived but no-one did. Then I saw you healing and I thought ‘Either she’s an alien in disguise or a crystal child. And since it is quite unlikely that an alien would go to school, I assumed that you were a crystal child.”

“So, what do you say? Will you join us?” asked Edward.
“Hold on let me think it through.” I explained. It took me one hour to shift through every thing but I managed it and made my decision.

“I think that I will help you but if my family find out that I am alive, I am going back.”

“Thats totally understandable. Well, Lara. We have lots of work to do. You need to train your powers. Did you know that, healers if shot, can expel the bullets from their body?” said Edward.

“Cool!” I exclaimed.