Arianna Andover's Story

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Aria gave a sigh as she watched the young man and woman peer in through the window. Her gaze flicked from the couple to the door and then to the clock. Five minutes. That was all that stood between Aria had temporary freedom, unless that couple chose to come in the store. Aria glanced behind her, she could see her elderly boss through the office door bent over paperwork. Her eyes went back to the door and window, groaning inwardly as she realised the couple were now gazing at the engagement rings. Why did customers have to come in just before closing time? She could already see this couple taking their time looking over the jewelery inside while Aria was forced to help them. An hour ago she would have happily assisted them, but now with three minutes until closing time Aria had little patience.
Aria's eyes snapped to the clock, the hands ticking down the seconds until freedom. The couple seemed to be glancing through the window and into the store. Aria's retail sixth sense was telling her that they were deciding whether or not to come in. Aria cast another glance behind her at her boss and then, convinced the boss wasn't paying attention, Aria muttered a few key words underneath her breath. The couple, about to enter the store, seemed to pause and hesitate. The female's hand was frozen halfway towards the doorknob and seemed to be twitching slightly as her brain tried to process Aria's spell. Wrinkling her nose Aria tried again. This time the couple seemed to jerk backwards and then, finally, they turned and left.

Two minutes later Aria locked the front door behind her, her boss would exit through the back. She set off down the street, her bag bumping against her thigh in time with her steps. She passed the young couple from before, both looking rather confused and disorientated. Aria hid a smirk and concentrated on not laughing. They would snap out of it in a moment, the spell wasn't a powerful one. Anyway Aria has much more important things to worry about, like what she was going to wear to the lake party tonight. Her wardrobe, while expansive, always seemed to Aria to have nothing in it. Towards new clothes was where most of her pay went.

Once at home Aria dumped her bag on her bed, cast off her work shoes and padded her way into the kitchen. She opened the fridge and gazed into its depths, mentally sorting through the food. She didn't have time to cook and luckily there was a left over vege burger from the night before, Aria pulled it out of the fridge, heated it quickly and then sat to eat. As soon as her meal was finished Arianna took a quick shower. Making her way through the lounge, towel wrapped firmly around her, Aria hooked her iPod up to the stereo and turned the volume dial up. With music pumping throughout the house (Aria's mother was out of the house) Aria wondered into her bedroom, dropped her towel and flung her wardrobe open. Her light blue eyes flitted across the clothes she had hung up. She put on a bikini, followed shortly after by an outfit she thought would do for the party. A car horn sounded outside, somehow making itself heard over the noise of Aria's music. Aria did a quick double check of her outfit in the mirror before turning off the music, grabbing a small bag of supplies and leaving the house.

Aria hopped into the backseat of the waiting four wheel drive, shoving her bag onto the spare seat. She leaned forward as Will started the car and drove off. Liam, seated in the passenger seat, gave an excited woop as the three headed towards the lake.
"Where are Molly and Firth?" Aria asked, referring to Liam's girlfriend Molly and Firth, the fifth member of their friendship group.
"Meeting us there." Will answered. Aria sat back, nodding along as her two friends chatted excitedly about the night ahead. Neither young man was a witch or had any connection to Wicca at all. They weren't even aware that Aria was a witch, although no doubt they had heard the rumours that surrounded her family.

They pulled up beside the collection of cars, collected their things and began to leg it into the forest. Aria was thankful to have come with her two guy friends, they had valiantly offered to carry her drinks for her and considering that the three had to walk to the party she was happy to let them. The three joked as they went and the trek to the party didn't seem to take nearly as much time as it would have if Aria had been by herself. As they drew closer the sounds of music and voices drifted through the trees. When they broke through the final few trees they were greeted with a round of loud cheers. Aria caught sight of Summer and gave her a wave before following Will and Liam to where they were placing their drinks. She pulled out one of hers and took a seat, falling into quick conversation with the girls beside her.

Jaxon had heard his alarm going off, and reached for it only to realize that there were no alarm clocks in his room. The alarm he was hearing was going off in his mind, a little trick he picked up from his mother to make deadlines and wake up early without fault. Jax groaned slightly to himself as his slowly moved his arm to block the light coming in from the windows. As his body to look the other way, flesh made contact with his own as he turned back to the random lady laying in his bed. If memory served Jaxon right, last night he left his poker game with the winnings and partied at some random club, and she was the product of last night. Jaxon had to smile at what he had gained, but then again, how natural was this for him anyway?

Still thinking of last night, Jaxon quickly did a mental check for a clock, grabbing his watch off of the dresser to see the time: 2:27 pm. A smirk came to his face as he rolled over to the stranger in his bed and then proceeded to wander with his hands to wake her up. A flutter of the eye lids, and a smile greeted him before he spoke to her. "Well, we can refuse to say goodbye to last night, or we can greet the morning. What do ya say, darling?" She looked so willing to go at it again - it was Saturday after all - before buzzing went off from her pants, which were near the washroom. Getting up, the lady - which Jax finally sorted through the list of names to get Veronica - sleepily read a text naked, and then looked at him. "Gotta run hun." Jax raised his eyebrows, not out of annoyance but out of mere thoughtlessness. He cared not if she had left or if she had stayed, in the end she would leave to continue her own life, leaving only a bit of her with Jax.

Fast forward a bit, and the stranger was gone and Jaxon was alone once again, silently figuring out his plans for the day as he went through the motions: get shower, brush teeth, grab beer and breakfast. He was reminded that later on he would be meeting up with the rest of his 'family' for a party tonight, and a smile came to him as he speed read the paper. While Jax was the oldest of his pure witch family, he had always stayed connected with them, regardless that the age gap was quite a bit larger than before. The guys were his bros, doing random shit together was their thing. Jax also always looked out for them as well, since that was just how he worked. Witches and Warlocks were of a special breed, so they might as well stick together.

Jax finished off his breakfast and beer before grabbing much more casual attire than normal: after all, he would be bringing in the big guns of booze tonight, and he really didn't need to ruin his good blazer. A few minutes later, Jax found himself in a black muscle shirt and jeans, an older blazer of his nestled on his shoulders. There were still some errands he had to run in town before tonight and he certainly didn't want to be late.

Flash forward, and Jaxon was sort of lateish. He had finally gotten the rest of his beer and other essentials onto his own ATV before heading out with roughly 5 other guys - most of them were younger than him, but he knew them all and was decent friends with most of them. His driving wasn't as 'edgy' as normal, cautiously making sure nothing fell. As he finally heard the sounds of the party life - oh how he loved to hear it - he sent out a message telepathically to Summer as he neared the cabins. You'd better be ready, cuz I'm bringing in the fucking cavalry! Not a few minutes later, his gang busted through the tree line to the party, to which a cheer went out from the masses as he stopped and got off, smiling like the devil's advocate.

"Your refills have arrived!" He announced not too loudly to ruin all of the fun, but loud enough for people to hear him and have more cheers go out. The smile never left his face as he gave out booze, laughing and joking with everybody as he did. Some were questioning how he could afford it, but Jaxon never gave a straight answer: how would you tell the masses that the booze was funded by gambling with drug dealers?

Leonidas Davian Andover - or just Leo, if you didn't like 300 quotes - leaned back on a branch near the top of a tree just a few paces out from the lakeshore party, eyes closed and listening to the music as the bass pounded through the ground and the tree roots, into his bones. Okay, said like that it sounded majorly creepy, but it felt awesome. He fully intended to return to the party of course (how could he not?) but he may have had just a tiny bit too much to drink and was now waiting on a lot of water he'd washed it down with to finish sobering him up. Not his idea, but hell, he was in too good a mood to argue. Besides, there was something soothing about the night sky above and the vibrating wood below.

And then the soothing atmosphere was shattered by the arrival of a car and the annoucement of refills. Yes! Beer run accomplished! Okay, enough napping, time to get wasted again! With that happy thought in mind Leo slid down from branch to branch, dropped out of the tree and landed on the soft earth below. And he didn't even need a cushion of air to soften the fall, which was good because it might have been noticed. He was occasionally accused of being reckless with the secret, but he never pulled anything he thought would get caught while there were people around. Almost never. Certainly not around sober people.

Leo popped his headout from the forest where it met the lakeshore, grinning broadly. "Did someone say refills?" He asked, certain that at least some of them would insist he'd had too much already. Pff, yeah right, he could hold his liquour. He just maybe shouldn't have gotten in the drinking contest with that guy twice his size. He'd be more careful this time. Honest. At least that was his planned speech for the argument. As for the question of whether sixteen was too young to be drinking himself stupid, well, so was nineteen, legally. But who cared about those details?

Probably the decision would be with Jaxon. If he decided to be the fun, relaxed older brother, then tonight was definitely gonna be a good night. If he decided to be the responsible, reasonable older brother, then he was gonna have to take the rest of the evening on only a mild buzz. Unless, of course, Leo waited to really ask until Jax was drunk too? Dishonest, but on the other hand, there was beer and a party... He'd figure it out if and when he had to.

Summer found herself giggling madly as she was hoisted up onto the shoulders of one the linebackers, being carted on to the deck. She caught sight of her friends Ari and Robert, giving the cousins a wave and a bright smile as she struggled to keep herself from squirming too much in the arms of the drunken and strapping young man. As soon as she hit the water her thoughts were invaded by a familiar voice that made her shake her head as she returned the thought to the intruder. “Hey! Amanda, Rowan, and I are staying at the Trinity Cabin for the weekend. Witches only — Interested?” Her thoughts ended abruptly as she kicked her legs, her head breaking the surface quickly only for her to see a number of others following her into the lake with loud and drunken cries of euphoria. She swam away from them, submerging herself once again to dive deeper. Her eyes opened in the murky waters, bubbles escaping from her nose as she attempt to hold back a giggle, spotting a boy struggling to keep the others from pantsing him. She resurfaced and swam further away from the others, enjoying some time alone to listen to the music, floating on her back and watching as fireworks exploded in the sky. Out of the corner of her eye she caught sight of a woman she hadn't seen before but who still looked familiar. The blonde woman was quite gorgeous, leading two young men out of the lake and into the forest with an impish smile on her lips. Summer watched them for a while, not noticing that her name had been called.

She had a bad feeling about it...

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MONDAY - JULY 9, 2012
9:42am

The weekend had been an excellent one and now it was time to begin the week anew. Summer rose before the sun did, glancing to see most of the friends that had been invited to stay in the big cabin all sprawled out with junk food and beer in their hands and around their bodies. Gross. She snapped her fingers and focused her will, watching as the potted plants in the room began to grow, extending their stems and leaves to curl around the trash and dropping them into the trash bin before retracting back to normal. Giving a side of satisfaction, Summer began to get dressed for her morning exercise routine. She didn't take long and was soon out the door, sprinting towards a large pine tree. Agile and flexible, the young woman jumped at the tree, gripping the trunk tightly with her nails and feet before scaling it quickly to the center where she found a sturdy branch and crawled across it before leaping onto the next branch in the tree nearby. Summer was excellent when it came to traveling through woodlands whether by tree, land, or water. Her instincts and senses were heightened to almost animalistic in nature when she put herself in the mindset, letting herself become primal. She was like Catwoman, replacing the skyscrapers and rooftops with trees and terra firma.

She didn't seem to notice the various scratches she got from the branches and thorns, her thoughts centered only on stretching her limbs and basking in the nature around her. She dropped from the trees, landing in a crouched position on the ground with a feral growl. Her clothes fell away from her body and the air around her gave a light shimmer as she shrank down and was replaced by a black fox. She ran around for another hour before pausing to sit atop a hill, greeting the sun with yoga and her naked form. As the sun came to a high point in the sky just before noon, she shifted back into a fox to seek out her clothes, redressing herself and jogging back to the cabin. By the time she returned to the cabin everyone was gone. Either for work or just to get back home. Even her animal companions seemed to have returned home. She shook her head with a smile as she made her way out to the stable and pulled out one of the horses. She would just put stallion up in the stables at home. Saddling up Nigel, she was soon on her way home, riding on the side of the road to make sure that he stayed in the grass whenever they could. He didn't like the concrete on this hooves. She got a few strange looks as people saw her talking to him as though carrying out conversation with a human being. Though maybe the looks were because he would whinny and nicker back at her.

Almost home, a car slowed down beside her and a woman rolled down the window, leaning over to talk to her. “Summer, dear. You haven't seen Matthew and Jensen have you? I can't find them. I haven't heard from them since yesterday.” She pulled over and put her hazard lights on, concern riddling her face and voice. “No, I haven't. I saw them Saturday at the lake party but I didn't get the chance to speak with them. I'll ask everyone else to keep an eye out and you'll know as soon as we find them.” She offered a comforting smile as she thought back to the two brothers walking into the forest with the blonde stranger. She made a mental note to seek the woman out later and see what she could find out from her. Gloria Hanover gave Summer a faint smile before turning off her hazard lights and going on about her way. Summer continued on her way where she sought out her father, knowing her mother was already at work. “Papa, I don't suppose you've seen anyone new around town have you?” She picked up an apple and tossed it up before catching it and taking a bite from the juicy and rather delicious Granny Smith, its sour tang delighting her. Her father turned around, wiping his hands on his apron, his face taking on a thoughtful expression. “I do recall a new shop opening up. Hot Buns. Great pies.”

“Blonde hair, probably blue eyes and really fit? Really modelesque?” She raised a brow before polishing off her apple. Her father nodded and leaned in towards her over the marble island. “Yeah...Something on your mind, n'nitschaan?” Her father's deeply accented voice was filled with concern and curiosity as he looked her in the eyes and she quickly shook her head. “Nothing, really. I just saw her at the party on Saturday and was wondering who she was....And the Hanover boys are missing since yesterday.” She quickly averted her gaze from his. Her parents were of the few people she found it difficult to lie too. They did that thing that parents do, staring at you with that look that pierces your soul until you cough up what you're hiding. It freaked her out. She quickly excused herself and disappeared upstairs, leaving her father puzzled. Chief Salem rubbed his chin before deciding to don his uniform and pay the Hanover home a visit. Summer, however, was busy pulling out her books. Three in particular. She opened up the three books, one to a map of Easton, another to a map of Massachusetts, and another to a world map just in case. Setting them down on her desk, she pulled out an uncut emerald on a string from one of her drawers and closed her eyes. Focusing her will and thoughts on Matthew Hanover, she held it inches above the books and slowly let it rotate. This went on for five minutes before it simply fell to the desk. She tried again, this time with Jensen on her mind. Again, she got nothing and began to worry. Fearing the worst, she pulled out her phone and texted everyone in her contact list and even threw up a post on Facebook. Anyone seen the Hanover boys today? She then sent a more exclusive text to the more...witchy of her friends. Huge problem guys. We need to find Mat and Jensen right now.