The Rise of the Earth by Jeanette and Myrna (good books to read for teens txt) 📖

powers don’t understand our kind.’
‘But that is our kind? All we can do is things that others can’t.’ Caliga complained.
‘Look! A shooting star!’ Lux pointed and both made a wish.
‘What did you wish for?’ Caliga turned to Lux,
‘I wished to be able to master my powers.’ Lux replied
‘How boring, I’ve already mastered mine.’ A smile spread over Caliga’s face, ‘I wished to be able to go out of the villa and have an adventure.’
It was just then when they were about to go back inside when they heard someone behind them. Both girls jumped up and turned to see a young looking girl stumbling towards them.
‘You two...’ she said, ‘Can you help me please. I’m looking for a girl, that should be around your age called Caliga. I need her urgently, please help me.’ The girl pleaded. She was very unusual looking. Her hair was green and her clothes looked like it was the colour of mud. She had flowers and vines tangled into her hair as she reached out for the twins to help her.
‘Should I help her?’ Caliga whispered to her sister,
‘No, just leave her alone. We don’t know who she is and Aunt said not to talk to anyone who we don’t know so can we please just go?’ Lux begged
‘No, I think might help her. Look, if anything goes wrong I do have my powers to rely on, don’t worry I have this covered.’ Caliga walked straight up to the girl and said, ‘I’m Caliga, what do you want?’
The girl let out a relieved smile and bent down to look at Caliga straight in the face.
‘It is you Caliga, oh you don’t know how many eras in time I’ve searched to find you.’ Suddenly a wicked smile appeared on her face as she took her hand and placed one finger on the star in the middle of Caliga’s for head. Lux screamed as the mark started to glow and the young girl seemed to melt into Caliga’s body.
‘This girl has much more power than my other hosts.’ An unfamiliar voice came out of Caliga’s mouth as she turned to look at Lux.
‘Caliga!’ Lux screamed.
‘Your sister isn’t here anymore. Go and run away, tell your Aunt that Gaia has paid her nieces a nice visit.’
Lux ran as fast as she could,
‘I need to get help, I need to get help, I need to get help.’ She just kept on repeating.
Gaia turned around a few times and walked in a circle so she could get used to her new body.
‘A little small but it will do.’ She complained. ‘Now I can finally get rid of that troublesome woman for good.’ And with that, Caliga’s body disappeared.
She didn’t show up again in Rome though, not even in the same era. Where she arrived was in the present, well, the 5 years ago present. She was standing in the middle of a road, but there weren’t any cars, it was perfectly quiet. She just stood there, as if she was waiting for someone to come. It was a good ten minutes before the faint sound of a car arrived. Inside Caliga could see a mum and her son, who didn’t seem too much older than her. They looked like a very happy family of two, and she just stared as the car drove past her. But then Gaia took over her body again and she created a large sheet of ice underneath the car. The car did a very sharp swerve to the right, but there was just more ice waiting for them there as well. The car flipped over and rammed into a tree. Gaia then left Caliga’s body and let the young girl run up to the car to see what had just happened. Inside wasn’t a pretty sight. The mother was dead, and the kid had a huge cut across his cheek. The boy was unconscious and Caliga had to use a lot of her energy trying to get him out of the car. It was just as she got him out that she suddenly disappeared and arrived back in her own time. When she arrived her aunt and Lux were both franticly searching for her. When her aunt saw her, she walked straight up to her and slapped her.
‘How dare you scare us like that?!’ Her aunt screamed, ‘ Now she’s found you, the both of you have to go into hiding again.’
Caliga didn’t say anything as Lux ran up to her and gave her a big hug. She didn’t actually say anything for a long while after that. The only person who knew what had really happened that day way Lux, because she as the only one Caliga trusted. After that day, they were sent away to another villa; Caliga was disguised as Acario and became Lux’s protector.

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Ryan and Thalia both were extremely shocked to hear this news.
‘So let me get this straight? It was Acario, Ii mean Caliga who killed our mum?’ Thalia almost seemed afraid to say it out loud, for fear of the answer.
‘Yes. She was the cause of the car crash, your mother’s death and Ryan’s scar.’ Lux sighed and warned them not to say anything to Caliga, otherwise...
‘Shall we go check on the others Lux? I think Ryan needs to be alone after what he’s just heard.’ Thalia led Lux out of the room.

It was a good hour before Ryan came out of the room. He had been too shocked to do anything but just sit there. When he left the room he just wandered around the ship, just thinking about everything. He turned a corner and by accident walked into someone, and just to prove his luck, it was Caliga.
‘Oh sorry.’ She just kept her head down and walked past him. But Ryan didn’t say anything, he just stood there until she had walked away and you couldn’t hear her dragging her feet. In the background you could hear Lux scolding her sister for being out of bed. But Ryan just kept on walking.


‘I told you to stay in bed. You’re not rested enough yet.’ Lux complained to her sister,
‘I’m fine, there’s no need to worry.’ Caliga tried to give her sister her best reassuring smile but guess it didn’t go very well because Lux was still worried.
‘If you’re so fine then why do you have to walk holding on to something, and even then you don’t have enough energy to barely lift your feet of the ground. Now go back to bed.’ Lux stared sternly at her sister. ‘You are not allowed out of that room for at least a week. I’ll find a place for Thalia to sleep, since your powers go haywire when you’re week.’
‘Don’t bother them, I’ve done enough to ruin their lives.’
Lux helped Caliga walk back to the room, and Thalia walked in just then and helped the girls, Caliga was much too heavy for Lux who had never had to do any real work her whole life.
When they had Caliga lying down and the two girls went to go talk outside.
‘Is she going to be okay? I’ve never seen her like this before. You’d never guess that Acario, oh I mean, Caliga could be this weak.’ Thalia seemed really concerned for her friend who seemed to even have enough strength to breath.
‘This has happened before, but it’s never been this bad, but I guess our time is almost up. If we don’t get her healed and have Gaia thrown out of her body, she won’t be able to resist the next attack. Oh, I need to ask you if you have somewhere else to sleep because her powers start to go a bit out of control when she’s weak. And I don’t feel like waking up to find you either frozen or burned to a crisp.’ Lux sighed
‘Ya sure, I can just bunk with Annabeth, Piper and all of them. For how long?’
‘At least one week I should think she would be better after then. As long as she doesn’t get out of bed.’
The two girls walked off whispering to each other about what they could do to help Caliga when she recovered.


A few weeks later Ryan and Caliga still weren’t talking. The closed they had gotten to talking was bumping into each other in the hallways, or changing over to watch the ship at night. Lux was still had to help her sister when she walked around for more than a few hours, she was still very weak. She didn’t eat much, and if she did, it was by herself in her room. In fact, Caliga didn’t talk to barely anyone anymore. Only really to Lux and Thalia, who were both extremely worried about her health. She had lost so much weight, it was scary.
‘You’re going to get so skinny you’ll disappear!’ Thalia would always say, but Caliga would just shrug it off and only take a few bites of her food.
Ryan wouldn’t even take a second glance at Caliga; he just ignored everything and made sure not to have any necessary contact with Caliga.
‘This has got to stop Ryan! You have to talk to her, even if you hate her, at least make the effort to talk to her. Just think how much pain you’re in now, she’s feeling it ten times worse.’ Thalia pleaded after it had been 3 weeks already.
‘I can talk to who I want to.’ Ryan said defiantly.
‘Please, she already knows that we know, and what you think. She’s probably read your mind. So this shouldn’t be too hard. Just at least say hi, it will make BOTH of you feel much better.’
‘Fine, but just because you asked nicely without firing anything at me.’ Ryan grumbled and headed over to Caliga’s room, dragging his feet of course.
When he got there he felt suddenly embarrassed and didn’t know what he was going to say, but he went into the room anyway.
‘Acar...I mean, Caliga, or whatever, you here?’ Ryan called.
There was no answer, and not being too pleased about having to be there he was just about to leave the room when Caliga walked past him and into the room. She didn’t say anything, but just got a jacket and hurried out of the room as fast as she could. Ryan decided he might as well try and talk to her so just as she walked past him out of the room he caught her wrist.
‘Damn, was she always this skinny?’ He thought to himself.
‘You don’t need to try and be nice; I’ve read your thoughts already. You can tell your sister than its pointless trying to get us to talk if you don’t want to. Now please, just leave me alone.’ Caliga shrugged him off and walked as fast as she could in the other direction from him.
‘So how did it go then?’ Thalia walked up behind him.
‘Why is she so skinny? She wasn’t always like that was she?’ Ryan asked, his hand was still in the tiny shape of Caliga’s wrist.
‘This is all your fault you know. She thinks you hate her.’

That night it was Caliga’s time to be the first watcher. Everyone had already gone to bed when Ryan got up and went to go and try to talk.
He found Caliga sitting with her feet dangling off the side of the ship, her head leaning on the ropes that were dangling around her. She was softly singing to herself to keep awake. Ryan walked straight up behind her and sat next to her. She just