Prologue: "You Give Me The Chills"

Dr. Sydney Jekyll watched as the moving van drove away down the road as she carried boxes back and forth across the living room. Using her fire abilities, she melted away the tape that held the box closed so she could unpack it.

Looking into the box, she found that it entirely contained her son's belongings, not pots and pans as she had thought it was. Sighing, Sydney closed the box back up and carried it upstairs.

Looking in through the open door to her son's room, she could see the teenager sitting on his bed, playing with his chameleon. The lizard crawled up the boy's arm, digging its toes into the long sleeve of its master's yellow shirt.

"Jackson," The grown fire-elemental said, getting her son's attention. "I found one of your boxes downstairs."

"Oh, I'm sorry, Mother!" The boy cried out as he jumped up to take his belongings from his mother's arms. "I can't imagine how it got there! I should have known it was mine!"

Sydney shook her head and tussled her son's jet black hair, earning a look of irritation from him as she smiled. "So? I'll bet you can't wait to go to school next week. Who knows? Maybe you'll actually make friends this year."

Jackson Jekyll looked at his mother for a moment, blinking in bewilderment. Ever since his father, Dr. Henry "Harry" Jekyll, had died six years ago, he and his mother had moved to a variety of different towns. He had gone to so many schools, but had never lasted very long at any of them. He was the perpetual 'new kid,' and he was also a very nerdy, geeky, antisocial boy. He had pretty much given up on the idea of having any friends, and took solace in further advancing his IQ by reading his father's old experiment notes.

"Mother, I doubt I'll make any friends this year. Just like last year. And I doubt I'll make any next year, either. I'm just not the popular type."

"Oh, honey," his mother sat on his bed, talking to him as he began sorting through some of his boxes. "You'll never have any friends if that's how you act. Besides, you'll be in a lot of the same classes as your cousin, Heath."

Jackson actually brightened at that thought. Heath was probably the only true friend he'd ever had growing up, and he would be a lot of fun to hang out with again...

Sydney smiled when she saw the quick look of excitement pass over her son's face. She knew the two cousins shared a special bond, one that made them as close as brothers, even through all the moves. She was happy to be settling down in New Salem, the town where the rest of her family lived. She would see more of her parents and her siblings, and Jackson and Heath could spend as much time together as they liked.

Just then, the doorbell rang, so she had to jump up to see who it was. Opening the front door, she found herself looking at a short, teenaged boy with yellow skin, pointy ears, and bright red hair, all trademarks of his fire-elemental heritage. "New Salem welcome wagon, wishing the Jekyll's a very warm welcome to our neighborhood! In fact, the welcome is so warm, it's on FIRE!"

"Heath Burns!" Laughing, Sydney wrapped her arms around her nephew, hugging him as tight as she could. "Look at you! It's been ages since I've seen you in person! You've gotten so tall and handsome!"

The young fire-elemental blushed a deep red as his aunt gushed over him. He considered himself to be handsome, and it was nice to hear that someone else thought he was... even though all the girls in school tended to ignore him completely.

"Did you bring Jackson with you, Aunt Sydney?" Heath asked the grown woman when she stopped hugging him. He didn't mean to make it sound like his aunt couldn't be trusted, but she had been known in the past to be scatterbrained; it was one of the reasons why she hadn't been able to keep a permanent job for so many years.

Sydney smiled good-humoredly. "He's upstairs in his new room, unpacking. It's the first door on the left."

Eagerly, Heath Burns raced upstairs, banging the bedroom door wide open and hugging his cousin. "Hey, Jackie-boy!"

"Heath?!" The human boy asked, gasping for air. "I think you just singed my hair or something."

His overheated cousin released him and backed off quickly. "Sorry, dude."

"It's okay." Jackson smiled, for the first time in many months. "How's life, flame-brain?"

"Well, it was going pretty lame this morning, 'cause all of my bloodies were all off with their ghoulfriends or something, but it got better because now I have my dorky, nerdy, normie cousin to hang with!"

Jackson blinked at the fire-elemental from behind his glasses for a moment before rolling his eyes in confusion. "Ummm... ooo-kay." He brightened quickly, though. "Do you wanna help me find and hook up all my video game equipment?"

"You know it, cuz!"

Hours later, Sydney poked her head into Jackson's room, finding both boys asleep on the floor. Open boxes were piled around them, and they were tangled up in cords and video game controllers. Jackson's pet chameleon, Crossfade, was curled up on top of a small television set.

Smiling, she whispered into the phone she held cradled to her ear, directing her words towards her brother. "Something tells me that Heath wants to spend the night here."