Young Writers Society

Evaline pouting like this was kind of adorable, and Elias wanted to tease her, but then decided against it since it would probably provoke her. Plus, it was more fun to tease her when the others were around. What was the point without an audience?

"Ev-a-line," he said slowly, deciding to choppily sound out her full name instead. "I think you hit your head or something. Do your parents know? Should I take you to the hospital or something? You seem weird today."

Understanding dawned on Maahes.

He stared at Elias with big, wide eyes. He wasn't sure why Elias said he knew when he definitely didn't, but it all made sense! Elias thought he was Evaline. He didn't realize that he was himself!

He quickly glanced around, just to make sure they weren't being watched. He didn't want them to get caught.

He grabbed onto Elias's wrists, almost like the contact would somehow make him understand better. "I don't need to go to the hospital! I'm not Evaline - I'm Maahes!"

Suddenly everything pieced into place. Evaline's sudden personality change, her insistence, her pouting... It was Maahes the entire time!

"Ooooooh," he said slowly, his mouth forming a small 'o' as he said drew out the word. "Well, why didn't you say so? Man, you really freaked me out, buddy."

He stared at her—erm, him—up and down. "You look exactly like her. Very freaky."

Even though Maahes had spent the past five minutes growing more and more frustrated with how Elias was acting towards him, he couldn't help but give a big, proud grin when Elias said he looked exactly like Evaline.

"I copied her photo, just like you said to!" Maahes told him. As a thought suddenly hit him, his smile grew even larger. "If I confused you, then our pranks are going to be perfect!"

Elias was about to comment that Evaline didn't normally wear the fancy getup that Maahes was wearing now, but he became too distracted with the thought of pranks. His eyes lit up in excitement again.

"Oh, right! The pranks!" he said with a grin, already zipping down the path. "Follow me! I know just where to go! We'll surprise some of our other classmates in town."

"Okay!" Maahes chirped. He raced after Elias. Even though his guise looked like Evaline and that made it seem like he would be as fast as she was, he was even faster. He had the added advantage of being a spirit - and the advantage of making wind behind him to push him. It wasn't long before he caught up and got ahead of Elias.

He was so excited at the thought of pranks that the sudden vibrating of the device he had stuffed into his messenger bag earlier didn't even register.

It was weird seeing an Evaline-lookalike race past him. Normally he was faster than her, but Elias had to continually remind himself that this was Maahes, not Evaline.

He decided to just not look at her—erm, him—while they traveled to the center of the town.

"So I think our classmate Janina will be there. She's in another group, but Evaline is friends with her. I am too, but she's kind of ditsy, and she doesn't understand my jokes. Fits her, since her power is air pressure control or whatever. Anyways, she'd be perfect for this," he droned on. "Whatever happens, just keep pretending to be Evaline, okay? Basically, act all high and mighty. Maybe a little flustered and embarrassed. Shy around others, but angry at me. Stuff like that. Can you do it?"

"I can-" Maahes started to say.

But just as the words started to leave his lips, the device in his bag started humming so loudly that it was impossible to ignore it. Pausing, he pursed his lips and glanced down at it. The humming almost sounded like the noise it made before he first ran into-

The world suddenly shifted all around him.

Maahes looked wildly around for Elias, but he was nowhere to be found. He wasn't even outside anymore. He was inside a really plain looking room with a girl sitting nearby. She had her back to him; all that he could make out was sort-of-familiar hair.

Maahes crossed his arms and thought hard. Where could he be now? The device had to have teleported him. It was the only scholarly thing that made sense. But he didn't know why it had teleported him, and he didn't have any ideas on why the girl in front of him looked so familiar. He barely knew any girls! The only people he really knew were Odris, Elias, and the ones from the cabin!

Deciding that the best way to handle this situation was the scholarly kind of way, he took a step forward and poked her in the shoulder. He'd be able to see her face if she turned!

Evaline was brought to yet again another meeting outside the sectors. She should have expected this since it happened so often, but since everyone in the classes were given opportunities to follow their family outside the sector to visit extended family, shadow their jobs, or whatever reason came to mind, of course this just meant her parents brought her along to their next regional meeting.

And of course Evaline wasn't keen on going. She was tired and just wanted to be with her friends. Or maybe practice her power that she only recently awakened.

Not that she could really practice her power, anyways... She only really knew how to control the mutant variation, and that was only by accident.

She sighed, sketching away on her notebook. It was a drawing of Elias that she tried to redraw from memory, but it wasn't that great. At least, she was sure that was what her mom would say if she peered over her shoulder, and then she'd have to go through another art lesson.

Evaline was concentrating on drawing careful lines, when all of a sudden, she felt someone poke her shoulder. And, thing was, no one should have been in her room.

She jumped out of her seat and whirlled around, taking steps back and running against the wall as she saw... her? Herself?

What????

"Who -- who--" she squeaked out at first, but then narrowed her eyes as she stared at the image of herself.

"Oh," she said as she visibly relaxed, and then switched to irritation. "Meeeeel. Whhyyy? How did you get here?"

Maahes froze.

That was why he recognized her! She was the real Evaline. Maahes didn't know what Evaline was actually like, but Elias had made her seem kind of scary. He really didn't want to get reprimanded by her when she found out why he made his guise look like her.

Evaline shifted uncomfortably on her feet when Mel didn't seem to respond or react. She looked so... real. Evaline had also never seen Mel change herself before. That seemed really advanced, and she was only a beginner. It was really impressive... and creepy.

"You look so real," she murmured as she crossed her arms and leaned forward to squint at her a little. She was tempted to poke her, but it weirded her out too much to poke herself like that, even though she knew it was just an illusion. "Can you change back now? The mirror prank was funny, but this is just creepy."

Evaline thought he was someone else. Maahes would have just pretended to be her, but, if Elias had mentioned a Mel before, he definitely had been distracted. Maahes bit his lip and stared at Evaline. He didn't know how to pretend to be Mel!

"Please don't be mad at me," he begged. "I just wanted to help Elias!"

Evaline bit back a sigh. It was weird seeing herself and seeing Mel act like her, even mimicking biting her lip and all... Did she really look like that? Still, it was weird for her to beg... And sound so desperate to help Elias, although she suspected that this prank originated from him again, somehow.

"I'm not mad," she said, defending herself. "Can you change back though? This is weird."

How did she even get here? She decided to not ask right now. One problem at a time.

Maahes took a big, deep breath that a spirit like him didn't technically need.

"I'm not Mel," he admitted. He started to inch back towards the door, even though he wasn't even sure where the door led to. He could definitely outrun Evaline if he had to. But he really, really hoped that Elias was wrong about Evaline getting mad easily - he didn't want to be reprimanded! Getting reprimanded all the time by Odris was bad enough.

Evaline's eyes widened as the person's words started to sink in. Who she thought was Mel truly wasn't acting as Mel, and they seemed to be backing away like they were trying to get away from her.

And she welcomed that, because she started to back away from them too, fear starting to seep in.

"Who... who are you?" she asked, trying to keep her voice steady, but she was unable to hide the panic in her voice. "Wha... what do you want?"

Her parents had always told her that it wasn't always safe, especially for her. Was this... a kidnapping? Or something worse, maybe?!