This is chapter is kind of long... Well, for me, anyway X) Enjoy!

This time, the sensation of falling lasted for mere seconds, rather than minutes. As soon as the fall ceased, a familiar house began to materialize. Louise's house. Shijie glanced down at the fortune, but it immediately disintegrated into ash (however, Shijie didn't feel any heat oddly enough) and was swept away by a slight breeze.

"I think The Teleporter brought us to wherever we went last," Louise said after she got a grasp of her surroundings. Shijie nodded, severely shaken by the previous occurrence that had transpired but a moment ago. How did the police get there so quick? Shijie wondered. And who was this French man? What part did he have in this? Suddenly a thought popped into his mind. What about this man in the cream-colored trench coat? Could they be-

"Do you have any leads on this French dude yet?" Louise asked, waking Shijie out of his reverie. Why everyone had to do that, he had no idea.

"No. I know speaks French and uses minds," Shijie replied with as much composure as he could muster. Louise looked down at her watch.

"You know, we traveled to an English school, inquired a couple of people if they knew two people that attended there, got caught, and got back here in only fifteen minutes." Her face suddenly paled. "Crud. My parents are gonna get a phone call... Well, they won't unless I erase it," she added with a sly glint within her gray eyes. If it wasn't for the current situation, Shijie would've provided her with a long lecture upon how disobeying your parents does not end with a positive result, for he knew from experience. But considering that they couldn't really explain to anyone that they just teleported from New Jersey to England in a matter of seconds (or minutes, it was hard to tell if time was the same in the portal), especially with all the evidence having been completely disintegrated into micro-sized pieces, they really didn't have much on their side. Shijie's stomach turned. The thought of lying not only to his parent but to another's parent within only two days time did not please him. After all, the honorable Chinese who believed in Confucius' teachings, knew that disobeying an adult was like withholding food from a malnourished peer or family member while you were already overweight - it was a selfish and an inexcusable act. Shijie sighed inwardly. It was either having the police show up and take Shijie away in handcuffs or deal with the circumstances that he had provided for himself, which, on the whole, weren't looking too negative at the moment. Louise grinned, as if excited to betray her parents, and went up the stairs on her porch two at a time, whereas Shijie went up them with high reluctance, feeling as if a hundred-pound rock was weighing down upon him. Louise produced the same key she had earlier and jiggled it into the lock until it swung open. Louise stuffed the key in the pocket of her jeans. Without asking if Shijie would like to enter, she sprinted inside, letting the door remain wide open, implying for Shijie to come in. Shijie entered inside the house warily. Louise ran up to a land phone that was hanging in the kitchen.

"You no have phone cell?" Shijie asked out of sheer curiosity. Louise glanced at him as if noticing him for the first time. She shrugged.

"My parents think that I should only need it for emergencies. I did have a cell phone at one point," she affirmed beaming. Her face fell. "But I kind of used it once or twice for non-emergencies...," she admitted, staring out into space for a moment before recalling the task at hand. She focused her attention back to the phone and began pressing an arbitrary button.

"Breachwood High School would like to notify you about a child of yours, Louise Melón, who has been absented from our premises for-" Louise pressed another button, holding onto it, and said in a somewhat eerily perfect imitation of an older woman, "Yes, I am aware of her absence. I had picked her up earlier today, but it must've slipped my mind because I completely forgot to sign her out. She is back at home safe and sound." Concluding her message, she let go of the button and faced Shijie with a grin that stretched from ear to ear.

"I've always wanted to do that." I would have had my parents disown me if I had ever did that, Shijie thought.But Shijie kept the thought to himself. "Now, we'll have to provide an explanation as to why you're here to my parents," she explained, appearing thoughtful. "Got any ideas?" Was she asking him to think of ways to deceive her parents? No, this was her idea. I'll let Louise think on this. Shijie nodded, seeming to agree with Louise's devious plan. Louise stood there, staring at the ceiling. Louise was meticulous, he gave her that. Knowing the people she might hurt with her plans? Not even close. And in this case, she wasn't only hurting herself, but most importantly, her parents. She was threatening her parents' reputation if she was caught. Did she seem to care? Not in the slightest. However, against his profound wishes, his mind wandered. Perhaps he was an exchange student in need of a place to stay? He would've already had a place to stay. Perhaps he got lost and needed a place to stay? Though that sounds like a brilliant idea, there is no guarantee that her parents are going to let him stay. Perhaps... Shijie winced. Perhaps he could be a partner for a project and he could sneak into a closet and sleep in there for the night... Shijie couldn't come up with any other realistic ideas, so he relented.

"I, project partner. Stay in closet night," Shijie finally voiced. Louise whipped her head back to him.

"Perfect! Let's go prepare your sleeping arrangements, PIC!"

"PIC?"

"Oh, it's an acronym I made up - Partner In Crime." Great. Now he was a criminal. Louise hurried up the stairs, not glancing back to make sure Shijie was following. Shijie apprehensively jogged up the stairs, taking a second or so to acknowledge some photos hanging on the wall of Louise and her parents. Earlier, Shijie hadn't provided much though to just how different Louise was in appearance from her family, but now that Shijie was able to compare them side by side, the differences were so drastic, he wasn't even sure how they were remotely related. The Melóns (surprisingly both of them) had pronounced cheekbones, while Louise had much more softer cheekbones, creating a very innocent look. While Louise seemed to have big, round, curious eyes, her parents had smaller eyes but a much wider mouth. Shijie glanced back towards Louise, who was already at the top of the wooden stairs, waiting intently for him.

'Er, Louise? Do you think you might be...' he let the thought trail for a second before Louise retorted, "Shijie, we're at my house. No one's gonna hear, and if this is regarding me, then it doesn't make much of a difference. You could say it out loud." Shijie took a steady breath.

"Adopted?" Shijie finished. Louise sighed inwardly.

"I know the differences between my parents and I are evident, but no, I'm my parents' child. They even have a photo of me in my mom's arms in the hospital. Gosh, I was so bald," she replied, saying the last line more to herself than Shijie. Louise beckoned Shijie to her room and disappeared into it. Shijie finally reached the top step and trudged through the doorway, entering into a room with mint-colored walls. A twin-sized bed sat at the far corner of the room and beside it was a large night stand that took up most of the far wall. On the left side of the room was a cream-colored, leather couch and stuck to the wall above it was a board of various art pieces from paintings to random doodles. And near the opposite wall was a large, wooden desk with a Samsung desktop computer atop it with a yellow lava lamp beside it, the bubbles of wax floating inside. Attached to a nearby wall were two closets - one walk in and the other not. And in the center of it all was a huge rug that virtually took up the entire room with a design of vines intertwining with itself rounding the border of it. In the middle of the rug was an ornate design of a vase containing a lone daffodil laying against the rim. Shijie stood there for a moment, taking in everything. All his room contained was a lone bed with a profoundly mundane design, gray walls, a night stand, and a maroon-colored rug in the center.

"Unfortunately, Mom sometimes goes into the walk in closet to put some stuff she doesn't wear anymore. Besides, it's kind of dusty in there, so that's not what I would consider a good spot to sleep, but the other closet is open!" she exclaimed, sliding open the other closet. Clothes of all designs and colors lined the closet and underneath them stood a various array of shoes, ranging from boots to sandals to sneakers.

"Er - where do I sleep?" Shijie asked, gazing warily inside of the closet.

"I have some extra pillows, so you can use one of them, and I have an extra blanket you could use. There's actually some space behind the shoes even though you can't see them," she assured. Shijie nodded, transfixed. If he was going to be sleeping in there, he would first need to tell his parents how sorry he was and tell everyone how much he loved them. Before Shijie could ask exactly how much room there was, she darted out her room and into the next one, which, on the whole, was fairly big. After a minute or so, Louise arrived with a lengthy blanket folded over her arm and a pillow clutched in another, struggling to keep them in her grasp.

"Here you are-" A doorbell sounded from below, interrupting Louise. "Ah, crud. She had to come now?" She glanced down at her watch. "Yep, she did," she amended. She shoved the blanket and pillow into Shijie's arms, startling him. "Okay, well, I thought we would have enough time, so, um, set the blanket and pillow in there. I'll stall my mom while you get yourself situated. Gosh, I feel like I sound every clichéd character in a book or movie that ever existed," she exasperated. Leaving Shijie, she dashed out of the room and descended the stairs to her mother. "Hi, Mom. How was your day?" Shijie heard faintly from below. He crept inside of the closet, knocking off one or two hangers of clothes. Apparently Louise wasn't lying because behind the shoes, there was pleasantly enough space for someone his size -or even perhaps- an adult to fit inside. He placed the pillow at his feet and threw open the blanket, folding in into two halves to have it fit. Well, it isn't home, but at least it isn't the sidewalk, he thought. He crept back out of the closet, and slid closed the sliding door. Verifying that there was no evidence of his presence, he descended the staircase, noticing a tall woman with blonde hair, which he immediately recognized as Louise's mom from having had looked at a few photos.

"Uh, Mom, this is Alex Zhou; he's here to help me with a history project," Louise introduced, gesturing to Shijie.

"Ah, hello, Alex. What project are you working on?" her mother replied. Right when Shijie was about to reply, Louise interjected, "Uh, he doesn't talk much." She leaned in, whispering, "He's kind of shy." Shijie fumed. He had never been and never will be shy. How dare he makes him appear as someone who lacks courage! He was always one for a challenge, but he restrained himself.

"Oh," her mother replied, frowning. "Well, Louise, you know the rules - don't keep Alex too long. Around nine, as usual, alright?" Louise nodded. "Okay," she said, grinning, kissing her cheek and left into the living room. She gestured for him to climb up the stairs, holding a finger to her mouth, which was effective because Shijie was about to Louise if they had anything he could snack on. Shijie followed Louise up the steps and into her room. Louise disappeared into her walk in closet and came back out with a white box.

"Have you ever played Sorry in China?" she asked with a sly grin.

***

After snacking on this delicious American food called Goldfish and having to enduring four full games of Sorry, he was ready to climb into bed - or for his case, a closet with a makeshift sleeping bag. But before he could, he knew he would have to "leave." With his heart beating a mile a minute, Shijie smiled halfheartedly at Louise's mother.

"Yeah, he has to go. He talked with his mom on the phone, and she said he would be here right about-" She glanced down at her watch from halfway down the staircase. "Now."

"Bye, Mrs. Melon," he said with a thick Chinese accent. She nodded, looking warily at him.

"Goodbye, Alex. I hope you get home safely." Shijie took a deep breath, staring at the white-painted door. With as much strength as he could muster, he turned the brass doorknob, hearing an ancient creak in reply, and swung open the door. The fresh cool night air hit his face, as he inhaled. There was no trace of people or smoke or any industrialized area - just a calm neighborhood with a few trees dotting the premises. He nodded to them both before walking out of the doorway and rushed down the steps. As he landed on the last step, he could hear the sound of the door closing behind him. Glancing behind him, he ran to the opposite side of the house, immediately spotting a rope thrown from the top window. He hadn't realized just how tall the house really was and now that he did, he had no intention of climbing up to the window. A familiar face appeared in the window, smiling. How she could be smiling in a life or death situation, he had no idea. Shijie trudged up towards the makeshift rope, made of tied bed sheets and pulled it slightly, testing its strength. Shijie clasped the rope and pulled himself upward, feeling the sudden tension from the other end. With a surge of energy, Shijie pulled himself by merely his arms halfway up until he realized he was panting and needed a moment of rest. Louise gazed down at him, beckoning him upward. She obviously never climbed ropes in her school, Shijie thought. As he was about to continue climbing upward, he misplaced his foot, making it collide into the side of the house."Louise, who was that?" asked a voice from the other room.

"Nothing. I just - my lava lamp fell off the side of the desk and hit the wall," she called back. For a frightening moment, nothing but the wavering silence replied. Then Shijie heard, "Oh, okay. Well, I'm going to bed early. If you need anything, ask your father." Immediately he scrambled the rest of the way up and half-fell, half-jumped into Louise's room.

"You almost got me caught!" Louise whispered, throwing her hands in the air. Shijie fumed.

"It a accident!" Louise looked as if she were about to say something within the dimness of her room, but thought  better of it and instead started toward the rope, beginning to roll it up. "Do have teeth bristles?" Shijie asked.

"No. I can't risk you being caught in the bathroom, so you'll just have to live without it for today," she said in a voice as hard as steel. Shijie knew that she really just was frustrated, but he didn't press his luck. The next thing he knew, he might be looking for a cardboard box to sleep in for the night. He dawdled towards the closet and slid open the closet, spotting his makeshift sleeping bag instantly. "I'm sorry, Shijie. I didn't mean to be so harsh, and I usually don't act like this - well, I mean, I do hide stuff from my parents sometimes... But I don't know what to think anymore! When we were kids, we were told stuff falls because of gravity, the sun rises in the beginning of the day and falls at the end of it, the brain is the thing that controls us. Now, it seems like reality decided to take a vacation because fortunes from fortune cookies don't teleport people 3,000 miles from one part of the world to the other. They don't give Chinese kids the ability to hear and manipulate thoughts. And they don't... I mean, they're just fortunes - some silly, random words stuck into a fortune cookie," she said, exasperated. "And I guess I'm kind of putting all of my stress onto you. Please forgive me?" Shijie whirled around. He had never heard Louise talk of such things; she seemed like an overall, a lighthearted American teen. Seeing her distraught made his stomach turn. As much as he found Louise irritating sometimes, she didn't have the right to be dragged through this distorted version of Alice in the Wonderland.

"I forgive you. Good night, Louise," Shijie replied. Louise smiled.

"Good night, Shijie. And for someone who just landed in America, you aren't too bad with your English." Shijie turned, creeping into his closet, smiling.

***

Shijie didn't even know teenagers snored. But, sleeping a few meters away, Louise was snoring away, providing no regard for the temporary tenant of the closet. Though Louise would stop snoring every few minutes, sleep still wouldn't come for Shijie. Shijie didn't think of it much throughout this wild adventure or dismissed it when it had seeped into his mind, but he knew it would come sooner or later. And it came now. His parents were probably pacing, their eyes fixated on the phone, waiting for a call that would assure them that their little Shijie was safe. Yet it would never come, because halfway around the world, their little Shijie was staring up at the ceiling of a teenager's closet, trying to sleep. Even if they did contact the police, it wouldn't change anything. It wasn't like they were given the privilege to inquire neighboring countries if they had seen a sixteen year-old Chinese boy wandering around. In the end really, it was the factor as to how he was going to provide a decent explanation of his whereabouts for the past days without them disowning him. Louise was lucky. She didn't have to travel to a foreign country with only wits and knowledge and find a place to stay. Well, he thought. At least I found out not every American has the pleasure of living in a mansion. Still, he yearned to at least tell his parents that he was safe and that he would return. At least, he had expected he would. Why wouldn't he? It wasn't like murderers and sociopaths were involved - were there? No, perhaps an accident had occurred and he wasn't really supposed to receive those powers. It could've been for Huiyi for all he knew. For the first time in his life, thinking of that name didn't fill his mind with happiness. Instead, it filled his mind with nothing. A blank mind. He didn't mind it, though. Thinking of another person who might be worrying about him would not be beneficial for him.

'Shijie Zhou...,' a French-accented voice purred in his mind.

'Who are you? Show yourself, you coward!' he yelled back, sitting upright.

'Courageous, I'll give you that. But courage won't save you, because I already know where you are...' Sleep immediately gripped Shijie, dragging him down a dark void as Shijie fought to stay awake, listening to this voice. Though sleep wouldn't succumb to his desperate pleas, and he laid down, his eyes fluttering closed, feeling his own breathing begin to inhale and exhale periodically.