[ 43 ] 2013

-

"The only person I care about getting a gram from is you."

-

Phoenix slept soundly for the rest of the night and didn't wake up until the next morning. Harley woke up first and let her friend sleep for a few hours. The girl with blonde hair walked down the hall and towards the stairs lazily. She had only slept about five hours and wanted to get back into her bed, but she wanted Phoenix gone even more. Being a normal teenager had proved to be harder than Harley thought, especially after the incident of the previous night.

And Harley missed Ashton. She wanted Phoenix to be gone so that they could get on with their plan to rid themselves of Claire.

The youngest of the Quinn family walked into the kitchen where her parents were already having breakfast. Billy was nowhere to be found either, which meant he was probably in his bedroom with a hangover, or he had spent the night at Cindy's. She never had parental supervision, meaning that Billy could have been living at Cindy's house and his parents would never find out. But Billy's parents actually concerned themselves about their son's whereabouts.

Harleen had her cellphone to her ear, pressed between her ear and shoulder, while she served her daughter's breakfast. "Where the hell is Billy?" Harleen hissed into her cellphone. Normally, he was good about letting his parents know where he was. Harley was the one always forgetting to call.

Harley sat at the table, in front of her plate of food. "He's probably with Cindy." She informed her mother.

Placing her cellphone down on the counter top after her hundreth attempt at reaching Billy, she smiled at the news, "Oh, Cindy and Billy are back together? That's great. I like that girl, she's very sweet. But," her expression changed to serious in a matter of seconds. "Your brother's going to get a talking to. What is wrong with him, not answering the phone? I could be in mortal danger for all he knows."

"So Harley," Her dad started, trying to sound casual. "Do you have a boyfriend? Or someone who fancies you?"

"Dad, don't ask me that." Harley blushed.

The only thing she found more embarrassing than not having a boyfriend was talking about her boyfriend with her parents.

"You know, sweetie," Harleen pointed out, grabbing her plate of food and joining them at the table. It seemed that for the time being, neither Phoenix nor Billy would be arriving. "By the time I was your age, I had already been dating Arthur for a while."

Aaron scoffed when his wife mentioned Arthur Vega. Even though it had been long ago, it was obvious there had been a rivalry with Arthur. "I remember Arthur, he was that adopted kid from Sydney. I went off to the University of Melbourne for four years, and when I came back, that guy had taken your mother from me."

Harleen laughed. "Aaron, you and I didn't even start dating until Arthur left Perth."

"But I liked you first." Aaron defended.

"Well, we're married now, so there's nothing for you to worry about." Harleen assured him. But Harley knew her mother was still in with Arthur, and she wasn't totally convinced that Aaron Quinn had nothing to worry about.

Phoenix woke up a while later, and didn't go downstairs until she was packed up and ready to return to her home. From the moment she had woken up, she had gotten a strange urge to return to Perth. She didn't remember that Harley had mind controlled her into wanting to leave.

The girl with dark hair walked down the stairs with her back pack and her suitcase with her clothes. She had only brought enough for one week, but had been using Harley's school uniforms as well as her regular clothes outside of school. Harley was in the living room, it was a calm Sunday, and she didn't have much to do. She figured she would watch some television until Phoenix left and then she would go visit everyone at Paúl and Dempsey's house. Over the last few days, the two hunters had been pretty good to her. They had been assigned to watch over her, but they gave her a lot of privacy, and she had become friends with them.

Harley rose from her seat when she saw her friend enter the living room. "Are you leaving, Phoebe?" Harley feigned not knowing what was happening.

Her friend nodded, "Sydney is a great town, but I miss Perth. Plus, I got this crazy dream where I broke my hand and then you had these weird powers. And so you told me I wanted to return to Perth. It must have been a sign."

"Must have." Harley agreed.

Soon after, Harley accompanied her mother Harleen to drop Phoenix off at the bus station.

When she saw the bus leave, Harley felt relieved. Now that her friend was gone, a lot of the problems would end, and she would also go back to being herself.

-

The two final weeks at St. Genevieve's for the fall semester had passed in a flash. In all that time, Harley had been spending it at Paúl and Dempsey's house with everyone. She had seen Ashton a few times, and felt upset that she wasn't able to enjoy his company as much as she wanted to. They had both agreed they would keep their distance to a minimum, in case Claire were lurking. And they tried not to let too many details slip about the plan.

On the last day of school, Harley went into her home class like any regular day. But since it was the last day before holiday--Christmas holiday--may people were giving out Christmas grams.

She sat at her seat, and on top of her desk were all sorts of cards and presents with her name on them. Harley Quinn thought that she couldn't have ever been this popular even if she had tried when she was back in Perth. But in Sydney, she was treated like a member of the popular crowd.

Calum sat next to her. On top of his desk was only one Christmas gram, and it was from Harley.

The raven haired boy grabbed the envelope from his desk and opened it. Inside was a gram she had bought from the student store, with a candy cane taped to it. She would have gotten one for Ashton as well, but somehow it just seemed strange to get a ghost boy a Christmas gram. For Ashton, she had something different.

Calum opened it and read the cheesy pre-made card with a grin. On the blank side, she had written a short message. "You know, no one has ever given me a gram before. You've only been here one school semester and look all the ones you've got." He said.

"If people really knew you, they would give you one." She said matter-of-factly, "You act rude towards people sometimes, but you're a really nice guy."

"The only person I care about getting a gram from is you." He shrugged.

"Come on," Harley's lips formed a smile. Reaching into her book bag, she got out two Santa Claus hats. Placing one on Calum's head, she told him, "Get into the Christmas spirit."

The students at St. Genevieve's weren't normally allowed to wear hats to school, or alter their uniforms, but on the last day of school, it was all allowed to promote the holiday spirit. Some girls had gone as far as to altering their uniforms to look like a full blown holiday costume. The furthest Harley was willing to go was wearing a Santa hat.

Besides the freedom to alter their uniforms, all sports and club meetings were cancelled until the new semester in January. And classes had ended early for the day to give time for the top students to enjoy a pizza party, as well as to give time for the students who were leaving on vacation. The top five students of every class were invited to a pizza party. Harley's brother Billy had been invited to nine, one for each subject he was taking and three for each sport. His biggest dilemma that day was choosing which party to attend. Harley, on the other hand, had been invited to a slumber party at Cindy's for the cheerleading squad.

Harley doubted she would be able to go to the slumber party.

She and the others needed to continue with their planning. According to Ashton, Claire's plan would be taking place the next day, and they needed to be ready to act fast.

"I hope nothing goes wrong." Hazel commented as she looked around the table at her friends. "Jack and I really want to travel back home to see our mom. We miss her." Jack nodded in agreement at her words

"What about you, Dempsey?" Harley looked at the brunette. "Will you go visit your family in America?"

Dempsey shook her head, and her eyes looked down to the ground as she offered her response, "My family is dead. It was just my parents and I. I was an only child. And one day a team of top secret officers broke into the house in the middle of the night. They were from area 51 and had found out that my parents had special abilities. They wanted to put them in a lab like animals, to test them. They probably thought we were aliens or something. My mom had a safe room hidden under the floorboards in my closet. I hid there until they left. And I never saw my parents again." The girl with dark brown hair and brown eyes explained.

From beside her Paúl slipped his hand into hers and gave it a small squeeze, their fingers interlocking with each other.

Harley had noticed then that most of the hunters, as well as other shifters she had met had no family. Having their abilities made it difficult to live a normal life. That's why, she guessed, they were all so loyal to each other.

They didn't have a family by blood, but they had a family in their heart.

-

a filler chap before all the action starts. as of now, there are about nine more chapters before this book ends. so stay tuned for the final updates of phantasm. thank you so much for reading and supporting me. and guys, it may look carley right now, but hashton is a thing, i swear. she has a present for him too. 

so question of the day: what song are you listening to right now? i am actually listening to a song in spanish, called wendolyne by la rondalla de saltillo. its basically about a chick named wendolyne, and she left this guy and so he's depressed saying things like "inspite of you being far, so far from me. inspite of other kisses, perhaps wendolyne, you'll remember that time we were in love. and you'll remember me." its such a beautiful and sad song. i wrote a football fic about it. i had to. it was too great of a song so as not to do it.

anyway, leave your comments below!

i love you.

-clary xx