Then, she knew why. < It’s the way he looks at me when he thinks no one is looking. The way he looks at me is full of reverence and I’ve never felt so special. Plus, he’s a kick-ass kisser. > Maria jumped as the phone rang and she rushed to answer it. “Hello?”

“Hey, it’s Liz.”

“Oh, hey Liz. What’s up?”

“I was just wondering if you were ok. You left in kind of a hurry. Is something up?” “Yeah, I forgot I was supposed to meet someone at my mom’s house. One of my mom’s friends that I told her I’d keep company until she came home. I just freaked out.”

Maria hated lying to her best friend, but she had to.

“Oh, just as long as everything’s ok.” “Everything’s fine, Liz. I’ll see you tomorrow in school, ok?”

“Ok, bye Maria.”

“Bye Liz.” Maria heard the click on the other end of the phone and set hers down as well. After the phone was back on the hook, she went back to the 4th book of spells and finally found a spell to get her to fall asleep. Reading it quickly, making sure that she had memorized the spell, she put the book back in the trunk and crawled under the covers. Saying the words to the spell, she closed her eyes and fell asleep.

***

About 6 weeks had passed since Maria first found out about her powers and every moment that she wasn’t at school, doing her homework, or working at the Crashdown, she was in the desert at the training site, practicing spells for her next lesson with Ander. She often looked forward to her lessons with Ander and when she had them, she insisted that they speak her native language. When Ander asked why, Maria said it was because it sounded so much more beautiful than English did. So, during their lessons, that’s what they spoke. In fact, she liked speaking in her native language so much, that she began to speak less and less English, which worried all of her friends.

Maria assured them that she was just tired, but she was far from tired. Since she received her powers, she had been awake and alive most every day. She found that she was more attentive in school and concentrated on working harder. But, she missed talking to Liz. She wished that she could tell Liz about her powers and give her the ability to speak her language. When she asked Ander about it, he said, “You can teach her, but not now. She has to find out about your powers first and you can’t tell her, she has to find out on her own. When she knows, then you can teach her your language.”

“How do I teach her?”

“Easy, the same way I did it for you. Except you have to give her the knowledge, not awaken it inside of her. It’s a little harder that what I did for you, but with your power reserves, you should have no problem.”

“Oh,” Maria said. After a long pause in their conversation while they took a break, Maria said, “What’s home like?”

“Come again?” Ander asked.

“What’s Zoran like?”

“Why don’t you find out for yourself?”

“How do I do that?”

“You know how. Anyway, it’s time for me to go. Goodbye for now, Maria.” “Bye Ander,” Maria said distantly, trying to figure out how get to Zoran. For two days, she wracked her brain over it when the answer suddenly hit her as she was out practicing. All she had to do was transport herself! Closing her eyes, she said in her language, “Take me home.” When she opened her eyes, she found herself in her bedroom. “Hmm, wrong question. This is my home. Zoran is not my home. Time to rephrase the question.” Closing her eyes again, she said, “Take me to my father’s home.” Maria suddenly felt like she was floating in space.

When she opened her eyes, she found herself in a tunnel. A slight breeze was blowing through her hair, although she was standing still. She looked over to her right and found that there were little dots flying past her. < Those aren’t dots! Those are stars! I’m traveling through space! > Maria realized. With a large smile on her face, she sat, or rather stood, back and enjoyed the ride.

The trip through space took longer than it did to get from the desert to her bedroom, but she figured that had to do with distance. After about 5 minutes in the tunnel, she found herself in a countryside. Surrounding her were many people, Ander standing in the middle of them all.