CHAPTER ONE

It's cold up here. I sit with my hands in the pockets of my hoodie as the air runs its icy fingers though my hair and seeps through the holes in my jackets threading. No matter how many layers I put on, there is no escaping the winter weather.

From my place on the roof of my real mother's house, I can see a good portion of eastern Sydney. The suburbs unfold before me, street after street of suburban houses aligned in neat little rows, all of it covered in the thinnest layer of snow and ice, glinting in the afternoon sun.

For the past two weeks, I've watched the world freeze in reverse. Snow thinning, dripping, rivulets turning to rivers, then gushing currents all headed down the gutter. My white world has turned to a wet one, where the footpaths are in a constant state of dampness and the trees are their own personal rain clouds, water dripping from barren branches and landing on passers-by.

It's strange, watching my home thaw. I've seen the Earth freeze again and again and again because of a disease I had no control over, but I've never been able to witness what happens after my departure. Never seen the light in people's eyes as they realise I'm gone or the joy of news reporters announcing that we're finally headed for warmer weather.

Interestingly enough, while the temperature has been rising, the clouds have never strayed. Every now and then, the sun slips out from underneath the thick coverage, but it's never long before the clouds return, hungrily swallowing the sunlight like starved ghosts. I can only assume that the cloud cover is hanging around because we're going into winter. Maybe that's just what it's like here in winter – cloudy, cold, wet. If I hadn't swapped back, I'd have no way of knowing. I've never lived somewhere where my disease hasn't had an effect on the weather. Maybe some places are always cloudy, maybe sunlight is over-abundant in others – I've probably even lived in those places, but I wouldn't know.

There's a scuffling behind me then and I look over my shoulder just as Caden pulls himself up the last of the way onto the roof. He's been wearing the same pair of jeans for the past three days, and while it should be gross, I can't help but find an attractiveness in his i-couldn't-care-less attitude. He looks as though he's dressed thoughtlessly, wearing only jeans with a plain shirt and a mismatched jacket, but it suits him. His dark brown hair, still wet and dripping from being washed, catches the setting sun, and it only makes him look more handsome. Looking back, it's funny that it took me so long to realise he was gorgeous. Any other girl would have picked that up in an instant

"Man, couldn't you have left a ladder so others could get up?" he asks.

"I could have, but you managed without one, didn't you?"

"Barely," he says, sitting down beside me, dangling his legs over the edge. "Your telekinesis must be getting better if you can get up here."

I shrug. "It's unpredictable. Most of the time its uncontrollable and sometimes I can't use it at all. It's rare that I can use it easily. I just got lucky today."

He nods and looks out over the city, his head elsewhere.

"Did you have something you wanted to tell me?" I ask.

"Huh?" he asks, still elsewhere, his eyes glazed over as they are so often these days. Ever since we lost Rand, he's been more distant and harder to reach. So often I find I have to dig through layers of defences just to speak to him – the real him. Secretly, I worry that he won't ever be the same as he was Before.

Before.

There's before and then there's Before. In my mind – and probably Sarah's as well – it means before we swapped back. In Caden's, it means before Rand – Caden's temporary guardian and life-long friend – died. To my mother, Katherine, it probably means before I ran off and got captured and before her brother, Patrick, revealed he was a traitor and before she copped a bullet to the side and nearly died. Yeah.

Before and After. That's what we use instead of "after Rand died" and "before the day everything changed" and other equally awful variations. There's also That Day, which we've been using less and less since we stopped talking about the event that changed our lives for good. But somehow, whether we're using Before or After or That Day, we can always understand what each of us means.

Not before, Before. Not after, After.

That's just the way it has to be.

"Was there a reason why you came up here?" I ask Caden, pushing through the wall he has up around his mind, blocking me out. "Did you have something to tell me?"

"Oh, yeah," he says, shaking his head. Just like that, the real Caden is back. I wonder how long he'll stay. "Katherine wanted to know what you'd prefer for dinner. Sandwiches or wraps?"

"Wow, she's being really generous with the options," I reply sarcastically.

He shrugs. "You know how it is. Preparing meals for four people, three of which are teenagers with unpredictable appetites. You do what you can, the best you can."

I nod. After That Day, Katherine generously offered to let Caden and I stay with her and Sarah, and so now I share a bedroom with Sarah and Caden has the spare. But I can only imagine how hard it's been for Katherine, being the only adult in house full of moody teenagers. All I can say is, it's a good thing she has a well-paying job and an understanding boss.

"I'd prefer a sandwich," I say.

"Really?" Caden asks and his deep brown eyes glint with amusement. "I totally had you pinned as a wrap kind of girl."

I laugh. "A wrap kind of girl? That's a thing?"

"In my mind it is," he says, leaning forward to give me a quick kiss on the lips. He gets up to go, but I grab his hand before he can walk off.

"I..." I begin, on the verge of saying something I know I probably shouldn't. Luckily, I stop myself just in time. "Uh, tell Katherine thanks. She needs to hear that at least one of us is grateful for all she's done."

"I'm sure she already knows," he replies, "but I'll tell her."

I smile my thanks.

He's just started to climb back down when he stops once more. "Why do you call her that?"

"Call who what?"

"Katherine. Sometimes you call her Katherine, sometimes you call her mother. It's like you can't make up your mind. Do you consider her your mum or don't you?"

"Of course I consider her my mum, I just... Look, it's difficult, okay? I don't want to go around openly calling her mum because that might hurt Sarah, and I've only really known her for around a month anyway. But then I also don't want to just call her Katherine because that might hurt her, and it puts an unnecessary distance between us. So I call her both. I don't know. It's just easier this way, I guess. Why do you ask?"

"No reason, I was just wondering. See you at dinner." I watch as he climbs down and out of sight, finally letting go of the breath I've been holding. Over the span of the conversation, a new fear has taken up residence in my chest, swirling around alongside the others that have been eating away at me ever since That Day. Because I was about to tell him I loved him.

And a slip-up like that could cost me dearly.

-:-:-:-:-

The sun is long gone by the time I climb down from the roof, not willing to risk using powers that I still can't control. It's been this way ever since I swapped back. Before, I had trained to strengthen them because being in the wrong body made them dull and hard to use. But now, when I have full access to everything in my body and I don't have to punch through a mental wall every time I want to use my abilities, they come at me too strong. Unknowingly, I've strengthened my powers too much, and now I can't control them.

The first time I used telekinesis after being swapped, I sent a chair flying into the kitchen while trying to get it to move a fraction to the right. After we cleaned up all the mess – and after I apologised profusely for creating it – we had to get new shelves, as well as a couple dozen bottles of spices and sauces and spreads to replace the old ones I sent careening to the floor.

The second time – and almost all the times since – was entirely unexpected. I had been reaching to open the door when it ripped off its hinges, the door-knob, and the door, shooting into my hands. A couple broken cups and several bruises later, Katherine finally decided that I needed to be re-trained if I had any hope of controlling my abilities. And so began my day-in, day-out training in the garage. It's helped – but not by much.

So I take the hard route back down to the ground, because while it's harder and it takes longer and I sure-as-hell dislike it more, It's safer. And ever since That Day, being safe is something I've come to cherish, because it's something I very rarely am.

Inside, the heater is on full-throttle, leaving the house stuffy and hot. I had gone outside earlier for that very reason; while others can handle the heat, I'm still getting used to it. Every time hot air brushes my skin I automatically flinch, my body preparing for the surge of heat that comes with heat attacks. But I haven't had one of those since I swapped back and I'll never have one again. I can't say I'm sad.

In the dining room, Katherine and Sarah have already set the dinner table and my mother smiles up at me as she puts down the last plate. We're having sandwiches.

"You came down just in time," she says.

"What can I say? I'm psychic." I tap the side of my head with my finger.

Sarah laughs. "And it's true."

I sit down next to Sarah, eyeing the fat sandwich resting on my plate. Ever since I swapped back, meals have become something I look forward to, and I can see that for Sarah, it's the same. A side-effect of being swapped was that all my senses were dulled, and therefore, all my food tasted bland and boring. But now I have full-access to my tastebuds, and it's like a whole new world of flavours has been opened up to me. I never used to have an appetite for anything, but now I can't re-taste all the different kinds of food fast enough.

When I'm a quarter of the way through my sandwich, Caden appears from around the corner, his eyes glazed over once more. You can see he's not really here with us as he sits down across from Sarah without uttering a word. I watch him with a familiar ache in my chest, because it hurts to feel so apart from someone I never want to be distanced from – someone I vowed to stick close to following his stupidly selfless dash into a collapsed and burning building filled with dangerous enemies, and all to save someone he didn't even end up saving.

Katherine sits down next to him, and thankfully, before the silence can get any thicker, she says to all of us, "We need to talk about each of your plans for school."

"School?" I ask, and beside me, Sarah sinks lower into her chair.

"Yes, school," my mother replies firmly. "You've all managed to avoid the topic over the past two weeks, but we need to discuss if you'll be going back and when that will be. I know it's the last thing you kids want to think about right now, but your education is not something you should just throw away because your lives are complicated. Trust me, you'll be thankful later."

"Well, I don't know about anyone else, but I won't be going back to that school," I say. "Everyone hates me there - well, technically they hate Sarah now, but they'll know something's up. We still looktoo much like we did before."

"So you'll go to a different school, no big deal," Katherine replies.

"It'll have to be a fair way away, though."

"Don't worry, I understand. I can look up some schools a few suburbs over. It'll be fine." She looks around the table. "Anyone else?"

"I'll go where Melissa goes," Caden says, the glaze mercifully gone from his eyes, "but wherever that is, it needs to be soon. Everyone will be sitting their half-yearly exams soon and we've already missed two weeks of school, not to mention a bunch days before that. At this rate, we'll never catch up."

Katherine nods. "So, distant, and soon. Those are our two main concerns?"

I nod.

And then out of nowhere, Sarah, who has been silent and staring at the table ever since school was mentioned, speaks up.

"I want to be home-schooled," she says, her eyes never leaving the rim of her plate, which she repeatedly runs her finger across.

We all stare at her.

When it becomes clear she isn't saying anything more, Katherine breaks the silence. "Well, that shouldn't be a problem. I'll just have to buy all the necessary books online. And I know Ethel would be happy to teach you – she has, after all, been alive for centuries, and she's gained copious amounts of knowledge within that time. But are you sure this is what you want?"

Sarah just nods.

"Okay," my mother says. "So Caden and Melissa, you'll be going to a new school, and Sarah will be home-schooled. Is everyone happy with that?"

We all nod before silently returning to our meals, now with one more thing to worry about. But secretly, I feel guilty, because I have a feeling Sarah's reason for being home-schooled has a great deal to do with me.

And unlike the broken door, collapsed shelves and numerous smashed cups, I don't think this is something I can fix.

A/N

SURPRISE! I updated! I know I said September but I've had some spare time recently and so many of you guys have been asking for updates that I just thought, why not?  

However, please note that the next chapter is still a long way off. I have a massive term of school to get through with little time for writing, so it may not be a couple of months before I update again. Although, knowing me, I could update any time. So maybe it won't be that long. I don't know. I'm unpredictable.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the first chapter of Cold Tomorrow!

- Shaye xx