Annette and family finally leave Texas and head Up to New Hampshire.

A Whateley Fanfic

Fadeaway 4

by

Paula Dillon

Morning found them up about 10 am and started a flurry of activity in the Swenson household. After a good breakfast the kids were given their tasks. Inga helped everyone select appropriate attire for the weather up north and then made quite a few calls on her cell phone. She informed them that they had to fly tonight; she had gotten four seats on Continental leaving IAH at 10:45 pm arriving in Providence just after 4 am. She then left to find some boxes, taking Julia’s minivan. Inga decided to go to Providence first as she wanted to change the clothes she had with her and to pick up a vehicle.

Julia made sure she had all their important documents packed in her bags and made a list of what she wanted to have shipped to her back east. She would have to come back to the old house after the kids were in school to finish what she needed to do.

The kids began packing their bags; they were told that they could take three bags each. They were allowed two full size suit cases and their carry on in which they were to have a full change of clothes in case their bags got lost. Anymore and the airline would have charged them an exorbitant excess baggage fee. Since Mom told them they would buy cold weather and school clothes up north, the girls didn’t object too much. The rest of their belongings would be packed up and sent by moving van.

Annette had a hard time packing, the three bags would only a small portion of her new clothes. She thought it unfair, what with having been a girl such a short time. Tammy *knows* what suits her best, I’m all new at this. But she realized that was being selfish and Tammy was in the same boat, so to speak plus she had to choose among a lot more clothes. That would not be easy for her sister. The thought made Annette giggle. She chose some of her best clothes considering the weather and added some of her jeans and knock around clothes. She did include most of her lingerie. There was very little of Jimmy had that she wanted to keep, but she kept her most valuable baseball cards and her Nolan Ryan autographed Astro and Ranger ball caps.

After Tammy packed her clothes, she packed her prized collection of porcelain dolls. She wouldn’t take them on the airplane; she had heard horror stories of how suitcases were treated. She would hand carry some of them to be safe.

Inga bought fifteen new boxes and packing material from a storage locker place. She gave Tammy and Annette two each. The rest of their clothes were packed into them. Tammy packed a suitcase with her dolls and padded out the case with her clothes.

After they packed and marked their own boxes with their names and contents, they helped their Mom and Inga pack their family things. At four that afternoon they all came to the conclusion that anything else would have to wait till later.

They had several pizzas and drinks delivered. As they ate they talked.

“Julia, I found a boarding school for Tammy as well. An old friend of mine is headmistress at a girl’s school, Elizabeth Caldwell’s Preparatory School for Girls just north of Concord, New Hampshire. They have girls from twelve to eighteen. She said that they could board Tammy there.”

“Great, I was wondering what I was going to do about Tammy, with the move and all. This will give me time to get our stuff settled here after school starts,” Julia said with a tear in her eyes. “I will hate not having my kids around me all the time though.”

“I don’t think we look forward to being on our own either Mom,” Tammy added. “But we know you will have a lot to do after school starts.”

“I have checked Concord out on the internet. It is only an hour and a half away from Whateley and from what you have said Inga, close to where Tammy will go to school. I think I want to get a home for us there.”

“That is pretty country up there girls, I think you will all like living up there once you get use to the winters.”

All of them shivered at the thought of how cold it was there.

“I get cold just thinking about the weather up there,” Tammy said. “What about you Aunt Inga?”

“Oh I have seen my share of cold weather; I remember having to go out to get wood when it is thirty below, or getting dressed for the weather to use the outhouse.” Inga shivered so much as sh said that, that it sent chills up everybody’s back. “I can survive in the cold, but I don’t have to love it.”

“Outhouse you had to use one of those things?” Annette asked.

“Honey we are talking about the nineteen thirties and out in the boondocks. Everyone had outhouses back then.”

**************

Inga made sure the home was secure and Julia informed a neighbor of where they were going and why (a highly edited story that is). The neighbor was sad to see them go, but she understood. She told Julia that she and her husband would look after the house.

Piling into an airport limousine they headed to the airport at seven thirty. It was a good thing they left so early, Bush Intercontinental Airport was swamped. It took them nearly two hours and a half hours to get through security there. They arrived at their gate with fifteen minutes to spare.

The four of them were scattered all over the aircraft. Julia and Tammy were in separate seats in first class and Inga and Annette were assigned separate seats back in coach.

**************

It was a chilly windy ten degrees in Providence when they landed in Providence when they landed. A quick taxi ride brought them to Inga’s home. Their first stop was the garage where they loaded their gear into a Yukon Denali.

“What no Lincoln,” Annette joked.

Inga replied, “Of course I have a Lincoln here Annette, it’s in a secure storage facility in town. I use the Yukon in the winter when there may be snow on the roads. Julia this is your car while you work for me.”

Everyone was glad to hit a bed in Inga’s house; it had been a long, tiring night. They didn’t even care to explore. Tammy and Annette didn’t bother getting undressed; they just found a bed and collapsed.

Tammy woke before Annette, at about ten and found Inga dressed sitting at her kitchen table. She had the financial section of the WSJ she had picked up at the airport. She was staring blankly at the paper. Her right hand was making notes in a notebook. Inga didn’t acknowledge Tammy’s presence. Tammy looked at her Aunt and thought about how it was so like the way Annette looked and acted when she sleepwalked, so she just sat and observed her.

Inga had worked up pages and pages of notes that she had written. Inga finally made a squiggle at the bottom of one page and laid her head down. After about two minutes she sat up and saw Tammy.

Smiling she said, “Morning Tammy, you caught me doing my thing, didn’t you?”

“Yes Ma’am. What is it like, when you are doing what you did?”

“I don’t know. I just see the results when I wake up. I have no recollection of what I was doing or thinking. I don’t think I even dream when I do it. As to what I feel, I just can’t say. Want to help me enter this data.”

“Sure.”

Inga got her secure computer out and booted up after scanning her thumb and typing a password. She decrypted her Excel file and with Tammy’s help started entering the data. Inga let Tammy enter some data when she felt she knew what she was doing. Tammy saw in some of the hand written notes the reason for whatever caused the changes Inga noted in the Excel spread sheet. This company released a new product that became a hot seller, or a company had quality control problems, another announced better or worse than expected results over the last quarter, while another had conflict in the boardroom.

Tammy didn’t know too much about why people picked one stock over another in the stock market. But looking at Inga’s notes she began to gleen out little tidbits.

Inga then booted up her internet computer and downloaded the last stock market closing data. She transferred that to a smart drive. After checking it for nasties she showed Tammy how she merged data.

“Now this is how I work my magic Tammy. I take the information I have gleened from my sessions and merge it with the last closing of the market. I look for stocks that are well below the new data I collected. I shoot for companies that show between twenty and thirty percent growth over that period.”

Inga saw that she had three new listings for companies she had yet to foresee any data on. One was a company that just recently announced their IPO (Initial Public Offering) for this Wednesday. Ten million shares were to be offered at two dollars a share, eighteen months in the future the stock would be up at thirty-eight fifty a share. Inga would put in a buy order for two million shares. She set up a spider to gather all the information it could about the corporation it could on her internet computer.

“When I see an IPO that looks really good, like this one, I often buy in. It is harder to make cases of insider trading in IPO’s.”

The other two showed well above average growth over the next eighteen months. She flagged those stocks for action. She would invest heavily into the new company, and buy big into the other two also. She made notes on the stocks she owned, which to buy and which to sell. She intended to operate more in the green.

Julia and Annette showed up at about eleven thirty to see Inga and Tammy busy. Inga got Julia up to speed on what they were doing.

Annette checked the kitchen for food, but alas the cupboards were bare. She thought that was strange then realized with Aunt Inga traveling so much food might spoil. Well this was no good. She was hungry.

“Mom I am hungry can I have the car keys so I can get something to eat?”

Annette was surprised when her Mom actually handed the keys to her. She took the keys, went to her room to get her purse and coat before going into the garage. She used the key fob to unlock the Yukon’s doors and turn off the alarm system and then she hit a button on the wall to open the garage door. She got in the passenger seat started the car and counted to five.

Inga and Julia looked up at each other when they heard the car start.

“Annette doesn’t drive yet does she?” Inga asked.

“No she is still too young to get her license,” Julia said.

Julia and Inga rushed into the garage to see Annette smiling with a got cha smile on her face.

“There is no food in the house. I am hungry and I bet you are too.”

Inga laughed and said, “Julia, stay here with Tammy, Annette and I will get something for all of us to eat.”

It was cold and the wind was brisk and out of the northwest, but the streets were dry. Inga drove to the nearest golden arches about a mile and a half away. Inside she and Annette ordered enough food to feed a girls basketball team.

At home they ate the food that Inga bought. Inga and Julia talked about stocks, Julia told her the she and Tammy had already started to research the three companies that Inga had listed. On paper the companies looked good, not great but good. Inga then took Julia over to her internet computer to show her how to make the trades she wanted and to check what information the spiders had gleaned. She put Julia on the account as a trader and they executed the appropriate trades.

Tammy and Annette talked about the house. They were impressed at what they saw. The home wasn’t overly large but it was very nicely appointed. It had four bedrooms and three and a half baths. The kitchen wasn’t any bigger than the one they had, but everything in it was top shelf.

“Kids, your mother and I want to get closer to Dunwich so we won’t have to drive so far to Whateley. So look around and have fun for about an hour and then we hit the road.”

The twins did explore the place, starting in the bedrooms. They found Inga’s and poked their head into the closet. It was positively huge and lined everywhere with dresses, skirts, blouses, slacks and racks of shoes. There were even more fur coats to lust over, but none as extravagant as the sable.

The outside was like the rest of the homes in the area. It was like someone took a cookie cutter and built three dozen homes. There was little variation in color and trim. They would find out later that the homeowners association had to approve of any landscaping, exterior renovations and painting. The back side of the house had a deck, stairs leading down a grassy backyard to the beach and a pier on the Providence River. Also out back was a swimming pool, not as big as their school’s pool but larger than they had ever seen in a backyard.

The kid’s exploration of the grounds was cut short by the cold. They were glad to get in the car that had already been warmed up for the trip.

Julia drove tentatively at first, till she got out of town and then with more confidence. Driving a small tank takes some getting use too. They left Providence, skirted around Boston and into New Hampshire. The drive to Concord had taken about two and a half hours, due to traffic on the loop around Boston.

As they neared Concord Annette said, “Stop here Mom, please,” with a worried sound to her voice.

“Why dear.”

“Just stop here Mom please; I need to use the rest room,” again a little more emphatically than the request suggested.

“I hate these tourist trap gas stations, but I guess we can stop. I need to put some gas into this monster.”

Tammy and Annette went inside and briefly visited the ladies’ room. They then went about browsing, while Julia and Inga tended to gas and food. Almost as soon as Annette started browsing, she felt her senses resonate. She made a bee line to a display that had all sort of quartz, hematite, malachite, agate, pyrite, obsidian, cat’s eye, coral, onyx, beads and crystals.

Annette took a bag and started picking through the display. Tammy watched open mouthed as Annette picked through the stones. She had about a pound of stones when a display of necklaces and earrings along with some individual stones and geodes caught her attention.

“Tammy, get Aunt Inga please,” Annette said almost frantically. She had enough money to pay for what was in the bags, but not for what was resonating with her right now. She was buzzing so much she appeared hyper.

“Ok, but you’re acting strange.”

Inga and Julia came in following Tammy.

“What do you need Annette?” Inga asked.

“I know I shouldn’t ask this, but I have too. You can take my iPod, my laptop and whatever else. I need to buy some of this stuff,” she said pointing to the displays. “It’s hard to explain Aunt Inga, It relates to things *we* know about.”

Inga didn’t know what Annette was feeling but she could sense it was important to Annette, “Point out what you need dear,” she said.

Annette went to the display and pointed the things she wanted out. A clerk pulled down six geodes, four rose quartz necklace/earring sets, some Amethyst jewelry, a large obsidian obelisk and two smaller ones along with some assorted objects.

“That is just too much Annette, put some of that stuff back,” Julia said.

Annette looked absolutely heartbroken when she heard that.

Inga whispered into Julia’s ear, “I think it is important enough to her to get them, Julia. It’s strong enough that I can feel her need.”

“Ok, but we have to pay you back for this.”

Inga smiled knowingly. They had already paid her back.

The final tab for all the stuff that Annette picked out was over three thousand dollars. She felt bad about it, but Inga just smiled at her.

Back in the car Annette was putting on all four rose quartz necklaces underneath her sweater and blouse touching her skin. She then tucked the earrings into her bra.

“Ok, what is going on Annette?” Julia asked.

“All these stones were resonating with me. I can’t explain it. I feel bigger in a manner of speaking since I put the stones on. I think it is another ability of mine. I didn’t buy all the stones there just the ones that seemed to feel right.”

“Why did you put all those necklaces on and those earrings in your bra?” Tammy asked.

“I don’t know, I think it’s like I am charging a battery and attuning the crystals to me. I got one set for each of you. I don’t know why at this point but it feels right. I think that tomorrow I will give each of you one set and we will trade them everyday till I have to go to school. I don’t know what that will do but I need to do it.”

Julia was confused about what Annette was saying, but she felt the sincerity with which she was speaking.

“Once they are attuned, I think that we will like feel strong emotions one of us is giving off or something. I just don’t know at this point.”

Julia didn’t know if she believed what Annette said or not, but Inga and Tammy, believed everything she said.

“Okay, say I believe that, what about those geodes and obelisks? They were very expensive.”

“I am not sure right now, but I feel safer having them. It doesn’t make much sense right now, but I feel I will know more about it. I see myself placing the geodes about my room, making necklaces of some of the stones and making jewelry with some of the stones, Mom. I don’t know why right now, but I feel I will know.”

“Is that precognitive?” Inga asked.

“Yes Ma’am, I think so. I know I will need them at some point. I will feel better that you guy’s have some of them. I just can’t say why right now.”

“I believe everything she has said Julia. I don’t feel what she feels but, I do feel what she is saying is true. It won’t hurt to trust her.”

A few miles down the road the traffic came to a slow crawl. It took twenty minutes to get to the scene of a logging truck that had flipped over. Annette gave a sigh of relief.

Another hour and twenty minutes and they were near Dunwich. Julia nearly drove right by it. It was a small town by small town standards, but Inga’s sharp eyes caught a store front that said ‘School Uniforms’.

“Stop here Julia, we can get uniforms for both girls here I think.” Inga said.

They pulled up to Rogers’ Fabric shop. Inside they met Miss Rogers.

She said, “Welcome to my store. What can I do for you ladies?” with a warm smile on her face.

“I have two nieces going to private schools, they will need uniforms. Can you help them?” Inga asked.

“Certainly, which schools?”

“Annette here is going to Whateley, and Tammy is going to Elizabeth Caldwell’s,”

“I can handle both of them. Tammy, if you will please, just step inside this booth and take all of your clothes off. The booth is a machine that will calculate your sizes and produce your uniforms. You don’t have to come out. When the machine is through it will tell you when you can get dressed and come out. There are drawers you can put your clothes in.”

“All of my clothes?” she asked, a little embarrassed.

“Yes dear, all of them. You don’t have to come out as the machine will fit you.”

After about fifteen minutes Tammy came out and Annette went in. When Annette came out the lady was handing Tammy a uniform to try on.

“Annette I will have a uniform ready for you in about fifteen minutes.”

“You mean you remember me.”

“Of course I do, I never forget a client.”

All four of them thought at that moment that there was more to this lady, than they had thought.

Tammy found a complete uniform from skin out. The fit of the uniform amazed her. She was between sizes in bra and panties, but the ones the lady handed her fit like they were custom made. Not only the fit surprised her, the lingerie enhanced her own assets. The bra lifted and maximized her bust and the panties gave a shapelier tush. The skirt, was a pleated red plaid similar to the Royal Stewart tartan with a couple of differences, it came to just above the knee, longer than she usually wore her skirts. She liked to push the school districts three inch rule, when she chose to wear one. The jacket was a navy blue, three button jacket with gold buttons on the sleeves and the school patch on the breast pocket. It struck her just at the top of the hips. The shoes were navy Mary Janes. Everything worked together to make her look terrific. She came out to show her mother.

“What do you think Mom?”

Julia and Inga closely inspected the uniform. The fit was superb and was demure enough for their tastes. They felt of the fabrics, but could not identify the material, but the two women could tell it was a very high quality material.

“That looks better than the school uniforms, I wore. I am impressed with the material and construction. I like it; I may come here later to have some clothes made for myself. You look wonderful in it,” Julia said.

“Red plaid is not my favorite, but I like these clothes. The jacket fits better than any other jacket I have worn. The skirt is longer than I like.”

“They are very strict about skirt length at Elizabeth Caldwell’s, Tammy. If you show up and the skirt is too short… well you would never forget to triple check your skirt length the next day,” Miss Rogers said.

She left the room and came back after a few minutes. She handed Annette a uniform. Tammy and Annette went back into the dressing rooms. Tammy left her new underwear on except for the slip as she dressed in her jeans and blouse.

Annette dressed in her school uniform. Like Tammy had said everything fit so nicely. Annette did like skirts, but she wasn’t crazy about dressing in skirts all the time. Most girls at her old school rarely wore skirts. They preferred jeans when it was cold and shorts when it was warmer. She did absolutely dread wearing one in this cold weather.

When Annette was dressed she made her appearance. She looked very nice in her uniform too. Inga and Julia checked her over very thoroughly.

“Now I know I am definitely coming back.”

“Me too Julia,” Inga replied. “I have had designers who couldn’t make clothes half as well or quickly. Tell us Ms. Rogers who made these clothes and fabrics?”

“My machine makes the clothes, I have a trade secret that I will carry to my grave. Would you two like to step into the booth so I will already have your body size on file? Then you can call me when you want something.”

“Julia is my new personal assistant; I would like to get her several business suits.”

“Business ladies, what do you do now?”

“We handle investments for a limited group.”

“Ok, Julia, step into the booth if you will.”

“I want five uniforms each for the girls and three suits for Julia, Inga said.”

“I can one suit ready for Julia, the girls have one uniform each now and I can have the rest by Friday. Shall I have them delivered?”

“No we will pick them up by closing on Friday. We are here early to take Annette in for testing. She will be with us at night. I want to get us each a gown later; I need to find out where the GCCA had them made. Those halter top gowns were simply scrumptious.”

“The Gulf Coast Champions Association? I made those gowns for them; they keep them on hand for special guests. I can have those ready by the next Friday also,” she said.

“Ok white for me, scarlet red for Julia, royal blue for Tammy and kelly green for Annette. Will we need to come in for a fitting?”

“No the clothes I make fit right, first time, every time. Where are you going to be staying?”

“I think in Berlin, for now. Julia is moving from Texas to New Hampshire. She likes the area around Concord and will probably move there.”

“It is lovely country up here.”

Julia came out and Inga took her turn in the booth. The girls told their Mom that this is the lady who made the gowns they wore last week. She was excited to hear that and happy that she would be getting a gown too.

By the time that Inga came out of the booth, the lady handed Julia a hanger that had a ladies business suit, blouse, lingerie, hosiery and heels. Julia had to try it on. She couldn’t remember a suit that fit her better and the hosiery and lingerie were the best she had ever worn.

**************

They eventually made it to Berlin and found a decent motel. They took one room for five days and another for two weeks, explaining that they would be in and out over the next two weeks.

After showers and a change of clothes they went out to eat. When Inga got out of the car she found herself drooling over an Old Indian motorcycle that was parked outside the restaurant.

“I can’t believe how nice, that Indian motorcycle looks. It’s really old, but it looks almost in showroom condition,” Inga said.

“It might be a rebuild or a reproduction of an old motorcycle,” Annette said.

“I don’t think so Annette. I believe it is authentic and in original condition.”

“Do you ride?” Tammy asked.

“No, I don’t. You know what doctors call motorcycle riders? Organ donors.”

**************

Wednesday found everyone headed to Whateley Academy. Julia insisted that Annette wear her new uniform. Before they left to eat Annette passed out a set of jewelry to everyone and asked that they put it on. They then headed to the restaurant to eat. They had a good breakfast and then headed back to Dunwich.

At Dunwich they followed the signs to Whateley. They parked in the visitor’s parking lot. The Admin Building was easy to find, out front there were three flags, the US flag, the New Hampshire flag and the Whateley flag trimmed in red.

Inside Shuster Hall they found the offices. A very proper lady sat at the nearest desk. She had a lapel pin that was a stylized ‘A’ on her suit lapel. She was busily working at her computer.

Julia walked up to her desk and said, “Excuse me Ma’am; we have an appointment to see a Ms. Carson.”

The lady looked disgruntled at being disturbed, “All appointments to see Ms. Carson go through me. I am Ms. Hartford, what do you need,” she said, somewhat brusquely.

“We are here to register my daughter, here at Whateley. We were sent an acceptance letter that said for us to meet a Ms. Carson today.”

“May I see the letter please?”

Julia dug into her purse for the acceptance letter while Inga read the nameplate on the desk.

Inga knew the Hartfords in Providence; they lived just a short distance away from her. Ms Hartford’s Mom worked for some of the same charitable organizations that she did. If Amelia was anything like her Mom, oh brother, if they were the same Hartfords.

“Excuse me, you’re Amelia Hartford, is that right?” Inga said.

Ms. Hartford looked up at the Lady who spoke to her. She recognized the look she had seen so many times, “Yes, that is my name.”

“You’re not the Amelia Hartford, the computer genius I have read about are you.”

Ms. Hartford sat up a little straighter if that were possible. She always sat like she had a ramrod shove up her backside to her skull. She sounded a little friendlier, up to only slightly disturbed that these people dared bother her. “Yes, that is me Ms…”

“Inga Bruhn, it is my niece registering here today. It is such an honor to meet you. I have read so much about you in the trade magazines.”

Julia handed Ms. Harford the letter. She brusquely took it and read it before making a few keystrokes on her keyboard, “That is funny; I don’t see anything about Annette on my computer.”

“I will handle that, Ms Hartford,” a voice said from behind Ms. Hartford. “This way please, Mrs. Swenson, Ms. Bruhn and kids. I am Mrs. Carson.”

Inga noted the way Ms. Hartford and Mrs. Carson looked at each other; it was easy to see that they just tolerated each others presence. She had Amelia pegged in her mind, she knew the type of person she was.

“I want to welcome you to Whateley Academy. It is so good to see you’re already in your uniform Annette. You look so good in it. It looks like it was made for you.”

“Thank you. Yes Ma’am, it was, Ms. Rogers made it to fit...”

“I thought so it has her touch to it. Well have a seat. You must be Julia Swenson and these must be your daughters,” she said to Inga.

Julia smiled and said, “I am Julia, but then you already knew that. This is Inga Bruhn, Annette and Tammy’s Aunt, and of course this is Annette and this is Tammy.”

“Yes of course, but you don’t look old enough to have two such lovely young daughters. I did get a report from the GCCA that included pictures of all of you. I am so glad that you decided to send Annette here.”

“I am afraid that I and my daughters are new to all this mutant stuff. I was so happy to hear that there was a place where Annette could go and learn to survive and thrive.”

“That is our goal here at Whateley. As important as survival is to a mutant, they should also thrive and excel to the best of their abilities.”

“She really needs to get a hold of a problem she has.”

“I know of that problem. I have had several discussions with staff of how we can operate around it and how she can use it to her advantage.”

“Advantage, Ms. Carson?” Annette asked.

“Yes it can be an advantage. Just consider that there will be fewer people who will have a grudge against you. If you accidentally insult someone, while not good, you can start all over again. Anyway we want to start with some tests with Annette this afternoon and running through Saturday afternoon. This afternoon we will give you academic tests. Tomorrow through Saturday will be powers tests.”

Annette groaned and frowned at hearing this, “Why so many tests Ms. Carson, Did GCCA mess something up?”

“Of course not Annette, I am sure the GCCA did a fine job of testing. We at Whateley like to do our own tests and I am proud to say we are by far the best at testing the abilities of our mutant students.”

“From the information we glean we will come up with Annette’s courses and schedule. Students start coming back on Sunday and school here starts Tuesday. The campus is all but deserted right now, but there are a few students and staff here already. I have a student coming in a couple of minutes to give you, ‘the nickel tour’ Annette, while your mom and aunt hammer out the rest of the details.” Mrs Carson said winking at Inga.

“About the details, how are most of the teachers and staff going to know me?”

“A couple of your teachers should have no problems; they are a lot like Gina and immune to your autonomic selective memory blanking defense or ASMBD. We may need to change that definition to get you a better acronym.” Annette giggled at Ms Carson’s joke.” Good, you were too tense, child. Whateley can be intimidating at first, it need not be. You have a wonderful smile when you laugh, you need to do that more. For those that are susceptible to your power we have started a hard copy system we think should allow you to take classes and get credit. That will be explained to you later.”

“We are staying in Berlin till Monday. We want to take Annette home with us and we will drop her off on Sunday night,” Julia said.

“That is perfectly alright.”

“Can I go with my sister?” Tammy asked.

“I have no problem with that,” Mrs. Carson said.

A knock at the door announced an arrival. Mrs. Carson said, “Enter.”

A girl who looked to be ten or twelve entered and said, “Am I late, Mrs. Carson?”

“No, Jade, you are just in time. Jade Sinclair, this is Annette Swenson and her sister Tammy. Annette will be joining us this semester. After your tour, please take her to the Crystal Hall cafeteria, she needs to be ready to begin academic testing at one.”

“Yes Ma’am.”

Jade, Annette and Tammy left Mrs. Carson’s office. Jade chatted with the two girls as they toured the academic areas, showed them where security was and a place she called the “Hall of Heroes”. She showed them the tunnels that connected the facilities and walked them by the various dorms.

“Your dorm will be Poe, which just happens to be my dorm.” Jade said, as she pointed to a bust of Edgar Allen Poe. “People have tried to steal that bust, but they didn’t count on us resisting them.”

Just inside the dorm door they ran into Ms. Horton, “Annette, this is Ms. Horton, she is the dorm mother for Poe Cottage. Ms. Horton, this is our new student Annette Swenson and her sister Tammy.”

“Hello, Ms. Horton, it’s so nice to meet you.

“It’s so nice to meet you too,” Ms. Horton said, smiled and went over the dorm rules with her. She said, “Annette, the dorm is currently full, last semester we actually had to put someone in the third-floor linen closet, but they built a room up in the storage area of the attic for you. Don’t worry; you actually have more room than most of the freshman rooms here, though you will have to use the freshman bathroom on the second floor.”

She led the group of girls up to the room slated to be Annette’s, pointing out the restroom and showers on the second floor. Annette’s room was above the fourth floor. It was rather bare, and smaller than her room back in Texas, but Annette could see that it was serviceable. It was nice and toasty without being too hot.

“Are you staying tonight, Annette?”

“No Ma’am, I am going to be staying with my Mom, Aunt and sister in Berlin till Sunday. I will be bringing a lot of my stuff over during the week.”

“That is fine, we will do a bit more to make this room livable in the meantime. I can’t guarantee you won’t have a roommate. We are always getting new students at odd times, if you know what I mean.”

“I think I understand. This will be all new to me. It is the first time that I have been separated from my family, but I am going to try to make the most of it.”

Lunch time came around and Jade led them to Crystal Hall.

“The food is pretty good compared to some schools I have seen and there is plenty of it,” Jade said.

“That is good. Let me ask you a question, we been separated a couple of times and considering my powers, how have you been able to keep up with who I am?”

“Oh that was easy, it deals with my powers.”

“Are you a psychic?”

“That isn’t how I have kept up with you. I have the… ah… spirits of my sisters… so to speak and they don’t seem to be affected by you.”

“Spirits as in Ghosts?”

“Close enough for government work. Oh another thing I would like to explain about our dorm, before we get around other people. All the students at Poe are a little different. Some are gay, others are lesbian and some are ah… different.”

“You mean boys that are now girls and vice versa?”

“Exactly. That is our secret; please don’t let that slip out to the other students. Many of us have enough problems without being picked on for more things.”

“I know, I use to be a guy.”

“Me, too. Don’t be asking about it, though. The kids may tell you when they get to know you.”

“If they get to know me.”

“Oh yeah, right.”

“Well this is the chow hall, let’s eat.”

Annette and Tammy found their Mom and Aunt already there. They followed Jade through the short lines.

“Oh one other thing about the chow hall, be careful where you sit. The students are pretty territorial around here,” Jade said pointing to a couple of neutral areas.

Annette felt that there was a lot that Jade wasn’t saying because of Tammy. She figured that she would learn a lot more starting Monday.

“Avoid certain areas too,” she said pointing out where groups like the Alphas sat. “It is ok today nobody is here hardly. Oh, just a word of warning, don’t let appearances fool you. There are a whole lot of students that have the exemplar trait. They look good and can be quite charismatic. Just because they look good and feel good, it doesn’t mean they are good. And just because they might look like a monster or demon doesn’t mean they are *EVIL*.”
“The Bible says that Lucifer can appear as an angel of light, so I guess that makes sense,” Annette said.

At their table, Annette told her mom all about what they did and saw. She left out certain topics, because she didn’t want to worry her Mom and Aunt.

They finished eating and Annette was taking to where her testing was to take place. Despite the boost to her IQ, the tests that they gave her had been hard. She knew nothing about Theoretical Geometry, Quantum Mechanics and only a little about Relativity, but seeing a section on Alchemy really threw her. She had thought that all that was hogwash or was it Hogwarts.

Annette was mentally exhausted when she finally finished the last test. She was amazed at how fast it had gone. What she knew she was able to recall fast and zipped through the tests. The tests she took were on a computer. She could see the grading she received as she finished each module. Figuring out what the grading meant puzzled her. She blessed the powers that be; her speed reading and recall were really great. Annette thought, ‘If the tests are this hard, then maybe they are really smart enough here to help me.’

Annette was glad to see her family drive up to pick her up. They drove into Dunwich and stopped to get something to eat. Annette had to tell them about all how thorough all the tests were.

“Tammy has to go to her school after we drop you off tomorrow, Annette, for her to register and be tested. So if I am not here to pick you up, Aunt Inga will be. Also I am going to start house hunting in Concord tomorrow. Do you have any special requests for a house?”

“I would like to have an area that I could work in. I think I am going to start learning how to make jewelry.”

That raised a few eyebrows around the table.

“I think that would be a very good idea,” Inga interjected. “It is always fun to have a hobby that can become a well paid job.

“I guess we can work that one out,” Julia said.

**************

Over the next four days Annette registered her codename, Fadeaway, and was tested in every manner conceivable, Physical, Mental, Sensory, Extra sensory and Powers. The tests were more extensive than she had at the GCCA HQ. Everyday she was glad to be joining her family. The tests were mentally exhausting more than anything else, except when she was taken to Hawthorne to meet Lou. Lou was something else. He called himself Fubar. Annette felt something strange when she first saw the man.

“This isn’t you is it?”

“No it isn’t, I suffer from a GSD that leaves most people feeling disgusted. This body you see is just a mental construct.”

“Can I see you?”

“Maybe in the future, but we need to get to work on you.”

Fubar spent the better part of two hours getting Annette used to controlling her mental state. With his assistance she got where she could stop her broadcasting to where she could keep her mind under a virtual Master Lock. He then began to assess just what her mental powers were.

Annette met with Fubar everyday for an hour. She came out of her meetings feeling better about herself. On Saturday Fubar let her come through the door to see him. She steeled herself for the worst and was in control enough not to be disgusted or revolted. She couldn’t feel anything but gratitude for what he was doing for her.

Another of her memorable contacts here at Whateley came when she met Sensei Ito. He had brought another of his students with him. He introduced himself as Stark Raven Vlad. He looked to be a cross between Jackie Chan and Marilyn Manson. He wore a black karategi and a brown belt. He had white makeup and red lips like Annette had seen in a Kabuki theater play her school had gone to see. Sensei Ito asked Annette not to use any of her powers to avoid being hit, just what she could do physically.

Vlad, as good as he seemed, and he was good, couldn’t lay a hand on Annette, but then neither was she able to make an offensive attack on him. She was able to dodge, avoid and move out of the students attack. The poor boy was showing clear signs of frustration, as his attacks became more furious and at the same time sloppy.

Sensei Ito sensibly called a halt and then took the students place. Annette knew she was in trouble when she couldn’t sense what she usually sensed. She didn’t know where to go to avoid him. The only things that kept her from getting hurt were her excellent reactions and that she felt Sensei Ito wasn’t going a hundred percent with her. She thought he wasn’t even going fifty percent. Annette found herself hit, thrown and restrained. At least she was able to quickly recover when she went down.

Inwardly Sensei Ito was impressed by her reactions and her spirit, she never gave up, she just worked harder.

“What was different from my student and myself?” Sensei Ito asked.

“Against Vlad, I could sense where not to be and I had the ability to avoid harm. Against you, I don’t know, you were like a black hole to me. I couldn’t sense from where the attack was coming from or where to go to get out of the way, Sensei.”

“Despite your miserable efforts, Fadeaway, you may be trainable. I am putting you in my baseline Basic Martial Arts class.”

The testers tried every way to get her to fade away; the only way she did it was under threat of harm, which the testers happily supplied at least until tazer darts passed through where she was into another tester. They determined that she had a minor warping ability. One tech told her, that according to their instruments she was 99 and 44/100ths (yes he was a geek who watched too many shows about old commercials) percent on another plain when she faded away, leaving only her mentality, a semi-transparent, permeable form of herself and a link to her physical self. It wasn’t astral projection with its silver thread and it wasn’t like shadow power. She couldn’t control how long she was faded either. She stayed faded from twenty seconds to ten minutes. In her faded form she couldn’t go through walls and wasn’t affected by wind. She could blend into shadows and become virtually invisible and gave off no IR (infra-red) signature in her faded form.

In the physical training room they found that Annette scored about ten percent higher than in her initial tests back at GCCA, still she was far from super. Though not blessed with exceptional speed or strength, she did have an exceptional resistance to fatigue. Blood tests taken before and after exertion showed abnormally low Lactose Acid levels from what was expected. She didn’t show the normal oxygen debt, but did show lower glycogen levels than expected.

Although Annette held back on some tests, so she wouldn’t score too highly, the testers’ instruments sometimes picked up synaptic response to some tests. They just scored her for what they could prove though.

The testers tried several tests for clairvoyance and psychometry, they suspected a strong tie to her finder ability, the results were ambiguous, but hopeful. She couldn’t quite profile a killer known by the testers when handed an object that was tied to a known victim. She got bits and pieces of the crime and the bad guy but nothing definitive, not quite enough to specifically identify the killer.

They also tried remote vision tests on her, her finder ability allowed her to know where the test subjects were, she could pin point them on a map or go to them on Google Earth, but as to what they were seeing the results were somewhat dismal. In other words if they were in a building she could point out the building, floor and room much like a GPS locator, but she couldn’t identify features, people or security inside the building that were visible to the subject.

Again the telepathic tests had some unusual negative results. The tests revealed a less than chance results. On a multiple choice test, a complete idiot is likely to achieve between twenty five to thirty five percent correct answers depending on the number of available choices. Her scores were well below normal probability. She showed no TK, mind control, or mental projection abilities. The testers didn’t know if she was playing with them and had telepathic abilities or that she had antitelephatic power, with the results being so spectacularly negegative. Of magic the tests showed that she couldn’t use it, but she seemed to have an ability to detect when it was used in her vicinity.

Annette was glad when Saturday was over. She couldn’t remember all the tests she was given. A lot of the time she knew that what was being tested wasn’t what she was told was being tested.

**************

Annette and Tammy were taken for some last minute shopping to make her dorm life more bearable. They bought their linens, towels, toiletries and a lot of other miscellanea students need. Julia and Inga made sure that that the kids had everything they needed and then some. Inga got everyone cell phones with the family locator capabilities, webcams for their computers so they could meet up on the net and see each online.

After the shopping trip they went to eat, before heading back to the motel. They got all their stuff that they would take to school sorted out and then it was bedtime.

Tammy was clinging on Annette as they lay there they talked.

“I am so going to miss being with you Sis. We have never been apart like we are going to be,” Tammy said.

“I know, I will miss you too, but I think this will be good for both of us. You are so independent you will do alright.”

“I just seemed like that, when you were my brother, I knew that if I got into something too deep that you would be there for me.”

“Well you are a strong girl, Tammy. I know that you will do all right. I just don’t know about what it is going to be like for me. This is all so strange still to me.”

“Well we can call each other on our cell phones, and we can get together, see each other and talk on the internet.”

“Yeah let’s do that.”

That night the two girls slept in each others arms.

(to be continued)