I’d never really enjoyed winter weather. When I was young, rain always annoyed me, and the grey skies depressed me. When I was locked away in my room, the dark sky would only make my room darker and the rain would keep me awake. It usually reminded me of the gloomy days I had in that room. I hated those awful memories.
It also sucked that it was already early March and it was just starting to get cold. I was pretty sure that wasn’t how the weather was supposed to work, but it wasn’t like I was an expert. I’d been locked in a room for too long.
“I hate this place,” Aiden groaned as we walked into school one morning. “I hate everyone here and everyone hates me.”
“Everyone hates you for running Malicius over,” Anthony said with a roll of his eyes. “He’s everyone’s favorite teacher, though I can’t see why.”
I couldn’t help but agree, but both Malicius and Lynx were putting on an act to everyone else at the school. They had no idea what they were truly like or what their true intentions were.
This made me realize that even we didn’t know what their intentions were. We had no idea why they were even at the school. They were the reason why we were there, but we didn’t know why they were there in the first place…
“I wouldn’t be against setting this place on fire,” Aiden suggested, completely serious. “I can do it real easily, too.”
“We’re the good guys,” I reminded them flatly, as if this was something they’d forgotten. “I am, at least.”
Aiden rolled his eyes. “Barely.”
I couldn’t help but feel offended. “And what is that supposed to mean?” I snapped.
I shouldn’t have even asked him that, since Aiden always made negative comments, especially towards me. I didn’t know why he always had to put his two cents in about everything.
“How can you be a good guy when you can’t even control your powers?” he shrugged.
I shot him a flat look. “You literally just suggested we burn down the school.”
“At least I’d have control over what I’m doing,” he shrugged, as if it was no big deal. “Anyway, I was just joking.”
“No you weren’t,” Anthony interjected before I could say it.
I was still a little ticked off as I said, “I’m a good guy.”
Aiden shrugged in a way that told me he didn’t believe me but he wasn’t in the mood to argue about it any longer. “Okay,” was all he said.
There was no point in trying to argue with Aiden. You could never change his mind.
“How about you two stop bitching and pay attention to more important things?” Dex interjected as he rubbed his hands up and down his arms. “My jacket’s missing and it’s freezing.”
I shot him a flat look. “It’s not our fault you only have one jacket.”
“And it’s not our fault you’re such a little girl,” a new voice suddenly put in, and I turned to see Lena making her way up to us. Dex scowled at her. “It’s only supposed to get colder and colder. Go buy a couple of freaking jackets or else you’re going to get sick and die.”
Dex said nothing to this, because he knew that the rest of us agreed with Lena. At least he usually knew when to shut up, unlike Aiden.
When I saw Lynx making a beeline toward us down the hall, I felt my stomach drop. I always hated seeing her and Malicius. She had something clutched in her hand as she came right to Dex.
“You can have this back,” she said, handing him the jacket he had been missing.
Dex’s eyebrows furrowed. “What the hell?”
“I meant it when I said we’re over,” Lynx informed him simply.
“What?” Dex asked.
My jaw dropped. “What?”
I looked over at my friends to see they were just as confused as I was. None of us knew what Lynx was talking about. Hadn’t she always been the one that was interested in Dex?
“I didn’t think you were such a sissy,” Lynx sneered as she looked Dex up and down. “Learn how to man up and grow a pair.”
I’d never seen Dex so confused. “What are you even talking about?”
“Don’t try to deny it,” Lynx continued, which only confused Dex more. “Just because you cried when I broke it off with you yesterday doesn’t mean I’ll feel bad for you and take you back.”
A few of the kids around us laughed, and Dex’s right hand clenched into a fist. I gulped. I really hoped he wouldn’t punch something, or this wouldn’t end well. I wasn’t so sure how we’d be able to explain to anyone how he was able to punch a huge hole in the wall.
Lynx shrugged. “And you only lasted thirty seconds.”
Aiden’s jaw dropped. Kristie seemed to be just as confused as I was.
“What is she talking about?” I whispered to Anthony.
“Shh,” he shushed almost immediately, turning my head back toward Dex and Lynx and refusing to answer my question even though he knew.
“What the hell are you talking about, Lynx?” Dex demanded, and the cat girl rolled her eyes.
“Just accept it, Dex,” she continued, completely ignoring his questions. “You may not look like it, but you are a complete wuss. You may look like a hot guy, but you’re really just a little girl.”
Dex seemed so shocked that he didn’t even know what to say anymore. He just stood there, his mouth open as he tried to think of something to do. Nothing was coming to him.
Lynx turned to Anthony. “But I’ll see you around,” she smirked, winking at him before walking off down the hall.
“What the hell was that about?” Lena demanded.
Anthony shrugged, his face red. “I don’t know.”
My friends and I just stood there for a moment, trying to register what had just happened. Everyone around us was whispering to each other, but I tried my hardest to ignore it. Even if it wasn’t about me, I didn’t want to hear it.
“What just happened?” Kristie asked.
“I have no idea,” Anthony answered, and you knew it was bad when even he didn’t know the answer.
I knew Lynx had always had an attractive to Dex, but he’d never seemed very interested. He thought she was attractive, sure, but I never thought anything would come out of it, especially since she was a member of Redrum.
What I should have been concerned with, however, was the strange feeling that I suddenly felt between Anthony and Lynx. That was something that really confused me more than anything else that had just happened.
Sometimes I hated the fact that I could tell how people felt toward each other. It just made things even more complicated for me.
“You had sex with Lynx?” Lena snapped at Dex.
He still seemed too shocked to even speak. Finally, he forced out, “Of course I didn’t!”
“What was that about, then?” Aiden questioned, practically pushing Lena out of the way so he could get to Dex. The blonde looked like she could have punched him, but Anthony grabbed onto her wrist to stop her from moving any closer to our leader. “I’m not surprised that you only last thirty seconds.”
“What does that mean?” I asked again, a little more desperate this time.
Lena shook her head and covered my mouth with her free hand. “It’s best that you don’t know.”
I didn’t say anything to this. They weren’t going to tell me so I was going to take their word and stop asking. They were probably right; I most likely didn’t want to know.
“Well, seems like you’re not going to be that popular with the girls anymore,” Lena commented as she looked around to see all the girls pointing and giggling at Dex, whose hands were balled into fists at his sides.
“What the hell was that about?” he demanded, seeming to get angrier and angrier with every second that passed. “I’m going to beat the crap out of Lynx. I don’t care if she’s a girl.”
Lena rolled her eyes. “Would any of us complain?”
“Might as well go for Malicius, too,” Aiden added in.
Something wasn’t right. It didn’t make any sense that Lynx would make such a scene when nothing had even been going on between her and Dex. And how had she even gotten his jacket?
“Something’s going on,” I muttered, but none of my friends heard me, but it didn’t really matter because I wasn’t trying to talk to them. “They’re up to something…”
The bell rang then, and it was time for school to start. I couldn’t let whatever was going on bother me for the time being, so I pushed it from my mind.
Halfway through fourth period later that day, I had to pee. I asked to go to the bathroom and was dismissed, and I was very relieved that I got out of that boring class when I did.
As I walked down the hall, I suddenly could hear two voices laughing. I found myself hiding behind a row of lockers and peeking out to see who the source of the sound was.
It was two boys I had never seen before, one blonde and the other brunette. I then saw a third person with them, but they were silent. It was Freddie, and he looked absolutely terrified to be around the two larger boys that were clearly bullying him.
“How about you go join your daddy in the loony bin?” the blonde bully snickered as he pushed Freddie up against a locker. “You must be wondering how the crazy old man’s doing, right?”
“My dad isn’t crazy,” Freddie defended, though he seemed terrified of the boys standing before him. “He knows what he’s talking about. Everything he ever said was real.”
The blonde bully laughed. “Yeah, sure,” he grinned. “Because freaks with powers are totally walking around and none of us know it.”
I wanted to raise my hand but thought better of it.
Freddie nodded. “They are.”
“You’re gonna end up just like your old man,” the brunette bully sneered. “Alone, crazy, and ridiculed in a mental institution.”
I didn’t understand why they were being so cruel to him. What had he done, beside talk about superhumans? There was nothing wrong with that, at least for the two bullies. It wasn’t like they were actually superhumans like my friends and I that needed to worry about Freddie figuring out our secret.
Though it probably wouldn’t have been very difficult for him after he saw what I had done to all the lockers…
“You’re nothing but a crazy lunatic,” the blonde boy teased as he punched the locker beside Freddie’s head. “You think you’re so smart, but you’re just nuts.”
Freddie sneered. “At least I’m smarter than you.”
This pissed the blonde boy off so much that he reeled back and punched Freddie right in the stomach. The bullied boy doubled over in pain, the wind knocked right out of him. As soon as he could, Freddie wobbled down the hall as quickly as he could away from them.
The two bullies turned around the other way, done harassing Freddie for the time being. They laughed as they bumped fists and continued on their way.
Without even thinking twice about it, I flicked my fingers a tiny bit and they both went tripping forward onto the ground. It was nice having powers when you could actually control them.
One smacked his head down on the ground while the other landed on his arm. As they sat up after the initial shock of falling over wore off, the blonde had blood gushing from a gash on his head while the brunette was cradling his clearly broken arm.
I bit down on my lip. Oops.
I turned away and started off down the hallway the way Freddie had gone before either of the boys I had tripped could even notice me. They weren’t my problem anymore.
It wasn’t very difficult to catch up to Freddie since he was still out of breath and wobbling. I was behind him, yet he didn’t notice me. He continued to speed up with every step he took as he made his way toward the stairs.
He suddenly tripped forward, the books and papers he was holding flying into the air and down the stairs. Before Freddie could tumble down after them, however, I stuck out my hand and stopped him in midair.
I didn’t even think before I did it, but it was too late by the time I realized what I had done. Freddie had already looked over and seen me with my arm outstretched toward him as he floated in the air.
“You’re… You’re carrying me!” he cried out.
I gaped in terror. “No I’m not,” was all I could think of to say.
“Yes you are!” Freddie seemed to be both terrified and excited at the same time. “You have telekinesis! You can move things with you mind!”
“No I can’t,” I blurted, unable to think of any other argument since I was literally carrying him with my mind.
“My father was right! I knew it!” he gasped, flailing his arms and legs around as much as he could. “You’re superhuman! Superhumans exist! Everyone’s going to be sorry for ever making fun of me once I tell them!”
I was completely frozen. I had no idea what I was supposed to do. He was telling me that he was going to tell everyone my secret while I was holding him up in the air with the powers that he was freaking out over. What was I supposed to do?
I had no idea what class Anthony was in right then. I had no idea if he could come and help me. I didn’t know what I could do to save myself.
I’d saved him from falling down the stairs, which would have caused him some kind of injury. Now he was going to tell everyone my secret just so they would stop bullying him?
I remembered what Anthony and Lena had said when we first were told we were going to high school. They both had been bullied at the schools they’d used to go to, and it was obvious that it was an experience that upset them both a lot. I had never been bullied, so I didn’t know how it felt. It must have been awful.
But as awful as it might have been, my secret was more important. I didn’t know if anyone would actually believe him if he told anyone, but the last thing I wanted was to have any speculation on me at all. It was better to be safe than sorry, and I didn’t want anyone suspecting me or my friends.
“Does that mean your friends are superhuman, too?” Freddie now asked, as if he had read my mind. I felt my throat close up. It was getting harder to breathe. “They must be! You all live in a boarding house together, don’t you? My father told me about an institution for superhumans; I can’t remember the name but it makes some kind of acronym.”
DAU. He was talking about the DAU. His father was a human and yet had known about it. How was that even possible? He’d been put away for believing in this stuff, and now that Freddie suspecting all of my friends, there’s no doubt he’d tried to get the DAU checked out.
Anthony was friends with this guy, but I knew even he wasn’t going to be able to persuade him to keep his mouth shut. I had absolutely no idea what I was supposed to do.
Freddie seemed to only get more excited. “And that mark on your shoulder means you’re a—you’re a—”
I finally snapped out of whatever trance I had been in and I lost control, letting him go even though I didn’t want to. But when I realized that he was still over the top of the stairs, it was too late. He went tumbling down, joining his books and papers at the bottom.
“Freddie?” I called out, but he didn’t move. “Freddie, are you okay?”
I slowly made my way down the stairs, hoping he would move before I could get to him. When I finally reached him, he hadn’t budged in the slightest. I slowly reached my foot out and poked him in the leg. Nothing.
“Freddie?” I whispered, as if that would help as I poked him with my foot again. “Freddie, are you alright?”
But then I looked up at his face to see the distorted angle his neck was in, and I knew. I fell back into the railing, of the stairs, terrified by what I had done as I stared down at my hands, and screamed.
Teachers came rushing out of their classrooms, racing toward me. They saw Freddie sprawled out on the ground and tried to calm me down so I could give an explanation.
“He fell,” I sobbed, tears uncontrollably pouring from my eyes. “He fell down the stairs!”
They rushed me away from the scene immediately as they called for an ambulance. They could see how traumatized I was, so instead of sending me back to class, they sent me to the office and called Hank and Nay, informing them that I needed to be picked up.
I wasn’t traumatized because I’d seen a dead body. That was something I needed to be used to if I wanted an actual career in the DAU. I was traumatized because it had been my fault. I had freaked out and lost control, letting him fall down the stairs to his death.
I’d killed him. I’d killed Freddie. I suddenly didn’t feel like such a good guy anymore.
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You would think that after writing this book for two years, I'd be able to spell telekinesis. I can't.
Not a super late update this time. Yay?
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone who celebrates it!
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