Young Writers Society

Dimi

There was so much cold shoulder going about that Dimi was starting to wonder if he was going to have to save someone's life to make up for endangering the chick. Maybe he could put someone else in danger and then swoop in and save them then technically he'd be scoring points for doing just what he'd done yesterday and thereby be validating his actions and his general existence. Yeah. Maybe.

"Hey, c'mon dude, just stay and have lunch with me. Eat an apple - whatever. We've all gotta eat, right?" Dimi pushed his tray hopefully onto the table but the other boy shuffled down a seat. There was definitely a conspiracy going on. Someone had told all the people in the whole school - or the whole world even - that they had to be rude to him and Dimi thought he knew why that was. It was clearly because he'd seen something going on between the Chris dude and the Christie chick and they didn't want anyone knowing about it.

Dimi flopped into his chair and pushed the food around on his plate. Then he ate some because hey, he was a growing lad and he had a big appetite, normally, but this whole sitting alone thing really blew.

"I don't care if you sit with me," a female voice said, seeming to read his mind. Dimi's head bolted up and he flashed her a wide grin and quickly bustled his tray over to the seat opposite her.

"Hey, yeah, I've seen you around. Are you some kind of mind reader or something, uh- Jess... Jet... Josie?"

"You nailed it - the or something part," the girl replied, her voice dripping with sarcasm but Dimi hardly noticed.

"Right, well thanks for not giving me the stink eye. The rest of these goons won't even stick around long enough for me to tell them that the chick's okay with it. Totally fine, so fine in fact that she was practically thanking me for pushing her in so she got to spend time with Mr. Tall dark and pervy and that was after the new kid gave her mouth to mouth."

The dark haired girl blinked once slowly and then her expression wet back to infinite apathy. Man, Dimi was going to have to learn how to do that look!

"You've talked to her then, since last night?" Josie - that was definitely her name - leaned in closer and her lips twitched in a knowing smirk which Dimi,of course, had to defy.

"Yeah, this morning. She said she was cool about it and I said I'd give her swimming lessons, or something. I know some pretty sweet karate moves and maybe if she's been any good at the martial arts, she could have fought me off instead of getting a dunking."

Jay

Monday I went to class exhausted. I was still so tired from using my powers to get kids safely to the dorms over the weekend. Overall, the party had been a success and the whole school was abuzz.

I slept through first and second period, thank goodness the teachers didn't notice. Bu when third period came, I splashed cold water on my face. That was fitness and I couldn't risk an injury.

When I walked into the guy's locker room, everybody was gathered around a flyer on the wall. I pushed my way through the crowds, trying to reach it. I grinned, it was a flyer for surf team tryouts. Beginners or experts. And there would be a women's team as well. Lilah would definitely be trying out for that, therefore, I would also be trying out for it. Oh yeah. Good day.

I left the locker room and she intercepted me.

"So you had a rough weekend," she said grinning.

"Huh?" I asked, finally realizing, "oh." she had flashes of the future. We were good friends, she was probably pretty in tune to mine.

"Yeah," I said, heading to the gym.

Turns out, that wasn't the only important announcement of the day. In band, Ebert spoke as soon as class began.

"Hey guys, I wanted to make an announcement. Tryouts for the West Side Story band will be in two weeks. Sign ups will be posted outside the band room tomorrow along with an arrangement of the famed I feel pretty, one of the most famous songs of the sound track." he grimaced, and the class laughed. "I feel like I just lost any masculinity I had left," he said, mockingly pinching his brow before looking up and laughing.

"I expect to see most, if not all of you at auditions, you are all skilled enough to play in the musical, but we can't have 10 trombones and only 2 flutes. So, as long as we have balance, most of you should make it. Good luck, and please practice. If you don't know a b flat from your rear then you won't be selected."

The rest of band was spent learning the new music and I winced every time I hit a wrong note. Which was basically all the time. Seconds before each one, Lilah would glance over and she would grin a little bit around the mouthpiece of her trombone. I rolled my eyes playfully at her after the 10th grin/wrong note.

"You're going to damage my male pride, right along with Mr. Ebert, come on Lilah.Have a little mercy." I playfully got down on my knees and clasped my hands together, pretending to beg her for salvation. She laughed, her green eyes sparkling and looking especially vibrant against her tan skin.

"I'm afraid I cannot relent," she said, "Besides, you're gonna have to suck it up anyway for the West Side Story auditions."

"You're psychic. You know I'm not going to audition."

"I'm psychic, not a mind reader, I don't always get the visions before every time you do something. Get over yourself," she said, smacking my arm and grinning as she pulled me to my feet and we left the band room.

"Well, like Ebert said, I don't know a b flat from my derriere. I'm not going to try out. What about you?"

"Hm," she said, as we rounded the corner. Theater kids were no doubt scrambling to sign up for tech, stage crew and, of course, roles, in the musical. "I don't know, it sounds fun but I definitely want to try out for the surf team."

"You could use some of your circus acrobatics, right?" I asked.

"How'd you know about that?" she replied.

"I just heard about it. I'm sorry, is that to personal?" I looked at her with concern, the smile absent from my face.

"No, not at all," she said, "I just need to focus more on school now. I left school and spent so much traveling before that I got held back. I do want to graduate at some point in my life." the laughed at the last thing she said, lightening the mood.

"Lilah, you know you're really smart, right?" I said, turning her towards me by her shoulders. she tugged on her braid. We didn't have many serious moments like this, I could tell it made her somewhat nervous. Lilah was bubbly and happy, she didn't like to get too personal.

"Smarter than you, dumbass," she said, squirming out of the uncomfortable seriousnous, "oh, haha, look at the bird."

I exhaled, she always seemed to find a way to change the subject or get distracted.

Lilah

I slip out the door the moment the bell rings, but Jay runs to catch up with me after getting his tuba put up. "Hey, I forgot to ask- any word on Oren?"

"Hmm? Oh- he should be ok," I smirk to myself. "Though apparently my uncle is pretty tight with Vin Diesel."

"What?"

"Nevermind- sorry! You know, I'm actually gonna go check in on him before I'd be too late for class. I'll catch up with you later!"

Jay mutters a quick goodbye as I dart away. However, once I'm outside I turn back to the girl's dorm. Oren wasn't going to be okay, he was already fine. The nurse had patched him up real quick. What I really needed was some space, and maybe to do a load of laundry.

I don't go through the front door when I make it over. After having to spend the night sleeping in the bushes, hiding from janitors and campus security, and then being woken up by the sprinkler system, I decided it was time for me to try and learn parkour. Well, at least enough to scale a building and let myself in through the window. I would undoubtedly be spending a few more nights out past curfew, and knowing my luck, wind up stuck outside again.

I pop my neck and give my fingers a good crack when I finally find my window. I then pace out eight large steps from the wall before turning back around to face it. “Right, this should work.” Maybe. I back up four more steps- things always seem to work better when you can start on count five- take a deep breath, and then run for the wall. I leap on the last count, dig my fingers into the small groove of the brick wall, and quickly scramble up. Faster, Lilah- the key is speed. I’d lose momentum too soon on my previous attempts. Thankfully if there was one thing I learned at the circus, it was how to fall with grace.

My hands finally reach the windowsill. I pull myself halfway through and then pause for a second, torso only halfway through the window. A laugh bubbles out of me. I actually scaled a wall! I pull myself all the way through and then flop on the floor, panting and laughing to myself.

“Oh Shit!” I shout. I bolt upright, just as a bluebird begins twittering angrily and pulling at my hair. I let out a string of swears as I throw up my hands to cover my eyes. Wrong window, dumbass. “Alright, I’m going, I’m going!” I yell as the thing screeches. Going nuts. Because when does talking to an angry animal actually work?

I swat at the thing as I scoot across the floor and fumble around for the doorknob. With a little luck, my free hand finds it, and I’m able to haul myself out and into the hallway. For all its crazy attacks, the bird promptly stops its screeching the moment I shut the door behind me. Now if only I knew if it was smart or lazy to keep up the ruckus when the door was closed.

I groan as I look one door over. “And there’s your room!” I crawled in through Trixie’s window instead of mine. Well, at least I have the general area right. Without any more fanfare, I pick myself up off of the floor and walk into my room. It takes a second to gather up all of my dirty clothes from the week, but once I have everything thrown into my bag I make my way upstairs to the laundry room. With the exception of a few white shirts, I dump everything into the wash all at once before starting the machine.

As the washer comes to life and begins its rhythmic tumble, I sink to the ground and rest my head against the back wall, pondering my conversation with Jay. First off, I have no idea why I would freak out about him figuring out I was with the circus. Hardly a day goes by that I don’t show off some little trick I learned- he probably could have guessed it on his own. But more importantly, why would I lie to him?

I hate school. I was ok with the idea of never graduating high school and actually living with the circus, or finding some sort of odd job to pay for the basics while I worked some odd jobs. Wasn’t I?

No, I didn’t necessarily care about school. But I didn’t want to leave this place either. For the first time, I found a somewhere where I was considered the normal one. I mean I fit in with the carnie crowd, but that’s like being adopted into a crazy family. This school is full of peers, crazy, somewhat dangerous people, but peers all the same. And while my outbursts still exist and I can’t make through any of my classes without pacing or becoming a fidgeting mess, at least talking-wise, I even sound more normal. Don’t cut off every single sentence spoken to me by responding to it. On a bad day, it’s at most a one-in-five occurrence.

So since I didn’t want to leave, I couldn’t afford to flunk. And unlike what Jay thinks, I’m not that smart, and flunking out of school is a serious possibility. Why he would even think otherwise is beyond me. I literally ask him all of my science questions that Nyx can’t answer for me.

And yet for some reason, instead of articulating any of that, I tell him that I want to focus on school some more.

I let that thought go. Well, if this is where you want to be, then maybe you should avoid cutting class, I chide myself. But I can’t muster the energy to haul myself back to class. Plus, there’s like thirty minutes left before can turn over my load. Maybe I’ll just rest here for a few minutes...


I awake to the feel of someone lightly tapping my shoulder. “Lilah?”

“Mmm?”

“I, hope you don’t mind, but I turned it over for you…”

I finally get my eyes open. “Oh, hey Bela!” I say as I stretch. “What are you doing up here?”

“I needed to start some laundry for me and my roommate. I’m sorry if I over-stepped, but I didn’t want them soaking too long or getting wrinkly,” she said. That’s the most I’ve ever heard her string together at once!

“Um, thanks? I actually have no idea what you were saying you did before.” I stare at her, confused, as her eyes dart away. “Shouldn’t you be in class? No offense, but I mean you the last person I’d expect to find cutting as well. Heck, I was pretty surprised to even see you come to the pool party. Happily surprised, of course…” I really need to learn when to shut up.

“No, um…” Bela fiddles with her hair as she looks for what to say. “Class ended an hour ago, I came up here to do some laundry for me and my roommate. I didn’t want to wake you, but your laundry needed to be turned over, and now it’s dry so…”

“Oh.” I look at the bag with my still-dirty whites. I suppose I could get by without wearing them for a bit. I hop to my feet and open up the dryer. “Well, uh, thanks,” I say.

Quietly I begin folding my clothes as Bela turns over her loads. After a couple minutes, Bela is surprisingly the one to break the silence. “It was actually you that made me think it’d be okay to go. My roommate said that you didn’t see us getting caught.

I goran a bit; I have no idea how that rumor even got started. “You know my power, or ability- whatever you call it- doesn’t work like that?” I go on when she doesn’t reply. “It’s more like I’d give people a bit of a head start if we were about to get caught. Not that I would know, know. I react; well pre-act. I don’t actually process what I ‘see’ so everything I say or do is just an impulse, and doesn’t make sense right away. And it all happens within like three minutes most, so… Sorry to disappoint?” Bela doesn’t even so much as turn away from her laundry. I sigh. “So… who exactly is your roommate again?”

Chris

There was a flicker in the air in front of me, kind of like a blur or a shifting of the world or something and at the same time, I felt a pressure against my pants pocket. "I- I wanted to say hi and introduce Oren to... a few people."

Jo tipped her head slightly, while Trixie couldn't have looked more bored and I slid my hand slowly into my pocket and felt a piece of paper. What the-

"It's nice to meet you Oren," Jo said.

"Yeah, it's nice to meet you Oren."

I spun around at the sound of Nyx's voice and tried not to cringe as I left the note in my pocket alone and at the same time wondered if she'd had anything to do with it. Except that she was still closing the gap between us and her power, while awesome, wasn't exactly a subtle one. The thought of Nyx trying to blow a piece of paper into my pocket made me grin all of a sudden and I felt this ache in my heart and had the deepest yearning to just reach out and pull her into a hug.

But Chris didn't get to do that kind of thing. It was the sort of behaviour Christie would have totally got away with and probably one of the things I'd miss the most about being her.

"Oren, this is Nixie, the wind Goddess, but she lets her friends call her Nyx." I winked at Nyx as I introduced her and then waved in the direction of the three at the other bench. "Over there is Lilah, Aaron and Jay. Aaron's the blonde one - the boy, not the girl because that's obviously Lilah..."

I was staring to wish the ground would just open up and swallow me whole but a great idea suddenly struck me. "Anyway, I'd love to hang around chatting but Oren and I need to get to the team signups so we'll catch you later. See you soon!" I took a few steps toward the lecture buildings and breathed a soft sigh of relief when Oren said a few words in greeting and farewell to Nyx and then followed.

But I couldn't stop thinking about the piece of paper. I told Oren I had to use the bathroom real quick and as soon as the door closed behind me, I pulled the note from my pocket and stared at the scribbled words in horror:

I know you're Christie

Was that a threat? It sounded like a threat and even after splashing cold water over my face three times, I still looked shell shocked in the mirror. What the hell. Who even wrote that? Was it Trixie? Jo? From what I knew of Trixie, her powers were elemental based too and that was why she was in Nyx's power set. I had no clue what Jo could do so she seemed the most likely culprit but why? What was she hoping to get out of this?

I exited the toilet and tried to pay attention to Oren and the sign-ups and I even mustered up some enthusiasm for joining the surf team but it wasn't easy to hide how distracted I was.

"You're not listening to much, are you? What happened, bro?" Oren asked.

I forced a smile and tried to shake him off my trail: "Nothing. I'm fine. Perfectly fine, nothing wrong."

"You're a terrible liar."

I was and I didn't know what else to say to that but then Lilah turned up and saved me with some small talk. I hovered in the background and thought about the note some more as they talked about their powers and showed off their powers and- seriously? Cue interesting second day for Oren: getting spiked by a living plant boy.

He tried to claim it didn't hurt but even if Plant Boy hadn't told us it cused paralysis, I still would have wanted to take him to the nurse's office, right after I kicked Plant Boy's butt. I took a step after him but Lilah's voice called me back:

"You're Chris, right? Help me carry him. We have to get him to the infirmary."

Part of me was left astounded and a little bit hurt that she was still uncertain about who I was. We'd had classes together and she was Nyx's roommate and there weren't exactly a whole bunch of black kids in this school. But we had enough problems to deal with so I swallowed my pride and nodded at her.

"Right, sure. Give me a second..." I turned my head away and pulled my t-shirt off, which probably looked really weird but I tried not to think about that. I breathed deeply and slowly and focused and felt the weird ache in my muscles that told me it was working and then I felt my muscles grow and my whole torso rippled as I turned into Vin Diesel with his super muscular torso.

Vin's a couple of inches taller than me and better built so my clothes felt instantly tight but when I bent down to lift Oren by the shoulders, I felt like I was barely even working out.

Lilah raised an eyebrow as she grabbed Oren's feet and we walked easily with him toward the nurse's office.

"Nyx told me you could turn into girls and stuff but that is definitely not a girl."

I grinned at her and I liked to think that Oren's mouth was hanging open because of how cool my power was and not because that's the way it got paralyzed.

"I'm not really supposed to do it. My power teacher said I could use this one form I turned up to the group in but the rest of the time I'm meant to just be Chris."

I felt stupid the moment I'd told her there were any exceptions because I'd told Nyx that there weren't. She'd ranted and raved about how unfair it was for the school to tell me not to use my powers and I'd pacified her by saying I didn't think they meant all the time. They just didn't want me walking around as a thousand other people and causing confusion. It was true that I'd rarely used my powers recently, except to be Christie, and it felt good being Vin and not just because I could have tossed Oren over my shoulder like a sack of potatoes. But this was all getting to be too messy.

So when you're someone else, everything works like their body would?" Lilah asked curiously. I wasn't sure whether to blush or grin as my mind went to places it really shouldn't but in the end I grinned and Lilah blushed, probably catching on. "I mean, you could copy some famous runner and be super fast - is that how it works?"

I nodded as we took Oren around the corner and got some odd looks from a couple of girls we passed. "Yeah, that's kind of how it works. I have to look at a person quite a lot to copy them but once I do, I've got all their muscles and it's just a case of working out ho to use them. Like, I couldn't copy a gymnast and then start flipping because I have no idea how that's done, but I know how to run so if I copied someone with long legs and a good build, that shouldn't be too hard. I mean, if I had to race the original, I'd lose for sure, but I'd be faster than I am now once I finished tripping over my own feet."

I stopped talking as I thought for a moment about what had happened when I tried to swim as Christie. I'd been impersonating her for days and I still didn't know her body well enough to be able to do something which should be as ordinary as swimming. Maybe I should just stick to moving and lifting things.

I knocked on the door to the infirmary and Lilah started pushing Oren's feet toward me, knocking me off balance and into the closed door as a voice called out: "Come in."

"Whoops," Lilah apologised as I caught my balance and pushed the door open. "Sorry, guess I pushed too soon."

"No problem," I replied in Vin's deep voice and we entered the room and the nurse looked up and started staring at me and opening and closing her eyes.

"You're- are you... Vin Diesel?" Her voice got screechy at the end and I shook my head as we moved Oren to one of the beds.

"Actually, I'm just-"

"I'm your biggest fan and it's so good of you to bring this poor, injured lamb into my infirmary," the nurse gushed as she grabbed my arm and shook it very firmly. "What on earth are you doing here?"

"He's visiting me," Lilah said suddenly. "He's friends with my uncle and he's checking in on me."

"Well. Let's take a look at the young man."

The nurse moved over to Oren and laid her hands on him and a weird blue light emanated from them and started to ripple over his skin. Oh, healing powers. Neat.

"Why did you tell her I'm really him?" I mumbled to Lilah as I wondered how much trouble I'd now be in if I turned back into myself.

-Cora-

Internal monologues suck.

I roll my eyes at myself before resting my chin on the palm of my hand and blinking at Aaron. This class- power development- is really the only one I've started to dread. He seems to be trying to tell himself something, but nothing seemed to be happening.

"Hello? Anyone home?" I wave a palm in front of his face, secure in the knowledge that my presence didn't hurt him.

He blinks, then looks up suddenly, surprised. "I- what?" He frowns, his hand going to his pocket as he pulls out his cigarettes, but he puts them back in without lighting one. "Sorry. Did you say something?"

"I said that I had an idea. Or... a question. But an idea." I stumble over my words, still not quite used to talking to people this much. Aaron's supposed to use his power on me to keep me calm while we have a conversation, and I'm supposed to try to control my hallucinations, and possibly get rid of them. What I haven't told Adam or O'Malley is that I don't think I can get rid of them. Instead, I've just gotten exponentially better at not reacting to them.

But hey, what they don't know won't hurt them.

Aaron stares at me questioningly, and I realise that he's probably just asked me something. "Sorry, I- wasn't listening. What was that?"

He grins easily. "Now look who's not paying attention. What's your idea?"

I shrug. "This- only if you're up for it, but- do you think I could actually use my power on you, even if I tried?"

He thinks about it for a minute, then shrugs. "No idea. Why- uh- do you- want to?" An uneasy expression passes over his face.

I shrug guiltily. "I don't mind the hallucinations, but I want to be able to be around other people without hurting them." Silently, in my mind, I add, And I haven't slept for days, and I really want to.

He nods slowly. "I guess I could just calm you down if you start showing me something... terrifying."

I sit forward eagerly. "I've never done this before. How... how do you make someone feel a certain way?"

Aaron shrugs. "I just... I think of the feeling, and then I sort of... push it towards the person."

I nod slowly, not sure whether I'm supposed to have a stereotypical, close-my-eyes-and-breathe kind of moment. Deciding against that, I nod to myself. "Can you... talk to me? I think I'm overthinking this."

"Sure. Where ya from?" He leans back in his chair, locking his fingers together and cradling his head in them.

"Brooklyn, New York." I play with my hair, tugging on it as I envision an apple. Almost instantly, I see baskets and baskets of apples nearby.

"You're from the city?" He seems surprised.

I nod absently, taking deep breaths and trying to make just one single apple appear. Slowly, it appears, but it feels like I'm wading through mud to keep it there. With a gasp, I let it disappear.

Aaron frowns. "What happened? I didn't see anything new."

I sigh. "I couldn't... keep it there."

He frowns. "No- I can feel it. You're not... letting your power away. You're trying not to use it while using it." He snorts at his nonsensical sentence before meeting my eyes.

"So... you're saying I have to stop trying to control it to control it?" I raise my eyebrows, a bit incredulous.

"I don't know. Are we done trying?" He yawns hugely, staring at the clock.

"Have somewhere you'd rather be?" I grin, crossing over to the open window and dangling my legs out of it.

He rolls his eyes. "Many places. And you're going to fall."

"I won't fall. Stop worrying." I smile up at the sun as its golden rays warm my legs, ignoring the various hallucinations around me.

"I'm not worrying. If you fall, I'll have to answer stupid questions about how you fell." He lights a cigarette and blows a puff of smoke to the ceiling, tipping his head back.

"Aren't you not supposed to be smoking?" I wriggle the rest of my body out the window to avoid the smell of the smoke.

"What I'm supposed to do and what I do are usually very different things." He blows another puff of smoke towards the ceiling and sighs.

Rolling my eyes at his stupid one-liners, I tuck my feet back in and roll out from underneath the windowsill. "See you tomorrow, then." I disappear through the door without waiting for the bell to ring, letting it fall shut behind me.

Just as I turn the corner into the main classroom, something falls to the ground and shatters, startling me. Thing 2 oozes to me and wraps itself around my foot, shaking from what I think is fear, and Thing 1 leaps into my arms, its soft fur comforting. I stumble forward, surprised by their appearance, and end up crashing into a boy- Oren, I think.

He reaches out an arm to steady me, and I dance back, avoiding him but bumping into someone else in the process. I bite my lip as Oren's eyes go wide at the mass of snakes falling out of a bag that has suddenly appeared.

Whoever I bumped into behind me coughs, and backs away. "It's not real!" I back away from Oren slowly, praying that he'll listen to me and just ignore the snakes.

He looks up, eyes wide and slightly terrified. "What's not real?" One of the snakes slithers up to him and he starts to shake. I have the feeling that the room is staring at us, but I don't dare turn my head to look.

Still backing away slowly, I yell, "Just ignore them! They can't hurt you!"

I take another step back, but my foot only meets air. I fall backwards, tumbling down the stairs and hitting my head what feels like a hundred times. The room spins around me deliriously, and my left arm is numb. The world fades in and out, and I bite my lip, knowing that if I pass out, the entire room will start hallucinating if someone doesn't intervene .

Where are all the teachers? I see a figure rush down the stairs as the world fades to black, and I feel my head thud back.

I Aaron

The only class I ever bothered to show up for was power developement. I wished it weren't that way, but it was. I couldn't be around all those people and their icky... feelings.

Too overwhelming. God, didn't these people have better things to do than over analyze and... feel?.

"Cora," I greeted her as I walked to our isolated space and closed the door behind me.. Adam wasn't there yet, he was in the main room, talking with O'Malley.

"Hi, Aaron," she whispered, her glassy eyes turning towards the floor.

I took out a cigarette as she sat in the window, her legs dangling. We were on the third floor. We just made casual conversation, I wasn't paying much attention.

She was out the door before the bell rang and I lazily snuffed out my cigarette. Adam hadn't ever shown up.

Suddenly I felt... panic. Fear. I had no reason to be panicked or afraid. I had just had my first cigarette in four hours. I was feeling pretty good.

The panic spiked up inside of me, rearing it's ugly head as it made my bones shake. One word popped into my head.

Cora.

The feeling of fear disappeared, at least, Cora's did. Then I felt something else, another person I could feel but, because I spent so much time with Cora, I wasn't really attuned to this new person.

I went running, throwing open the door and down the hallway as I opened the door and ran through the main classroom. I finally got to the top of the stairs, to see Cora's crumpled figure below.

"Cora!" I yelled, running down the stairs and crouching by her side. As nonchalantly as I addressed her sometimes, I did feel like she was the only person I really knew in this place. My roommate thought I was a loser and I hadn't met anybody except for Jay because I never showed up for classes. Jay was okay, but I think he found me a little bit odd.

"She fell and hit her head." Students from the main classroom began trickling out and into the hallway, gathering around. A few students started crying for help, Mr. O'Malley came running next.

He immediately knew what had happened. There must have been a mind reader in the class. O'Malley could adapt to and use any power, as long as somebody with that skill was close by.

"We need to get her to the nurse, or the nurse here. Everybody needs to stay calm, and walk slowly around the injured student so they can leave class for the day as this is last period. Aaron," he gestured to me, and then to the other boy "Oren, we need to go."

Cora's limp body rose in the air as O'Malley used Keegan's teleportation powers to lift her. We all walked across the big courtyard to the administrative building, and then up to the nurse's office.

O'Malley was exhausted by then, and was forced to put Cora down. Oren and I kept her upright between the two of us as we rode up the elevator. All of the buildings had elevators to be more wheelchair friendly.

"Oh my goodness," the nurse exclaimed. She jumped up and rushed us over to one of the beds. I had forgotten how tiny she really was since last time I had seen her.

She pushed her mousy brown ponytail out of her face before running her hands over Cora's body, her hands weren't touching her but instead were a few inches away from Cora's body.

"She hit her head," Oren sais softly.

"Oh, then I'm wasting my time with diagnosis." The nurse pushed Cora's dark hair out of her pale face and put her hands on her forehead. We were silent as we watched her concentrate. It was all very cliche, the way she focused her power but we were worried about Cora.

"You may go. Not you, O'Malley, you're exhausted and I don't need you collapsing too."

The boy O'Malley had called Oren walked with me back to the elevator.

"I was in here yesterday," he said quietly, "paralyzed. The nurse's power is really..."

"Yeah," I said, "I know."

Oren Blackburn

I watched in shock as Chris turned into Vin Diesel. So that's his power. I thought to myself. My jaw would have dropped if I hadn't been paralyzed like that already. He lifted my upper body while Lilah took my feet and they steadily moved towards the nurse's office.

Chris and Lilah spoke about his power a bit, and eventually Lilah said, "o when you're someone else, everything works like their body would?"

Chris grinned humorously and Lilah blushed as she realized what she had just said sounded like. She's cute when she blushes. I noticed, but pushed that to the back of my head as she continued, "I mean, you could copy some famous runner and be super fast - is that how it works?"

I tried hard not to laugh as two girls passed by, giving Chris-well, Vin Diesel Chris-odd looks. Then I remembered that I didn't have to, being paralyzed, and stopped trying.

Chris then repl8ed to Lilah's question, saying, ""Yeah, that's kind of how it works. I have to look at a person quite a lot to copy them but once I do, I've got all their muscles and it's just a case of working out ho to use them. Like, I couldn't copy a gymnast and then start flipping because I have no idea how that's done, but I know how to run so if I copied someone with long legs and a good build, that shouldn't be too hard. I mean, if I had to race the original, I'd lose for sure, but I'd be faster than I am now once I finished tripping over my own feet."

Cool power, nevertheless. I thought, and immediately wished I could've said that.

Then, as we reached the infirmary and Chris called out to the nurse, Lilah pushed my feet a bit too soon and I ended up having my head pushed right into Vin Diesel's stomach.

Ow. I thought, and cursed for not being able to speak.

I watched as the nurse gushed over Vin-Chris and wished I could laugh when Lilah said that he was the friend of his uncle.

Finally, the nurse lay one hand on his forehead and another on his chest, and a blue light emanated from her palms and seemed to flow through me and warm me up, freeing my body.

After a few waves of light, I sat up, breathing heavily. Another wave caused me to calm down, and breath more slowly. I then thanked the nurse and got up.

"Well, Lilah and...Vin Diesel." I said with a knowing smile. "Thank you. May I speak to you outside?"

"Certainly." replied Chris, trying not to smile.

"Feel free to visit any time you're here." said the nurse with a grin, and Chris nodded, blushing before he, Lilah and I walked out of there.

"You can power down now, shirtless Vin Diesel-Chris." I said with a grin, and he blushed before shrinking to his usual self, and putting on his shirt.

"Well, that was quite an adventure." I said, clapping my hands together. "Who's ready for lunch?"

~~
The next day, I watched fearfully as Cora's limp body was lifted into the air using telkinesis borrowed by Mr. O'Malley. Well, it appears I'm not gonna get any peace here. I thought to myself. First day, saving a girl's life, second day paralyzed, third day subjected to terrifying illusions. Yeah, this school is great.

I took a deep breath and went to help, steadying her. Immediately, the illusions returned. They aren't real. I told myself, remembering what Cora had told me, as a large tiger leaped beside me, growling savagely.

Paling. but remembering my great-uncle the illusionist, and how he used to joke with me using his illusions, I managed to keep control of myself. The tiger was joined by several others, but I turned away and kept steering Cora so that she didn't bump into anything.

Finally, we got into the elevator, and the tigers disappeared. Mr. O'Malley, who had become exhausted keeping her afloat, let Cora gently down to the ground, and I and Aaron held her upright.

Suddenly, the elevator filled with cockroaches, and they started swarming over the place. Darn, I hate cockroaches. I never thought I'd miss those tigers...

I watched with horror as they engulfed O'Malley, who didn't seem to notice as he hummed a tune. Aaron too was covered by the creatures, but was oblivious.

And then, they began to crawl on to me. They're not real, they're not real... I told myself continuously, and it was all I could do to keep myself from screaming as they swarmed over my face, covering everything but my eyes, and I could have sworn that I had felt their legs pricking my skin.

Knowing that they weren't real, but still unwilling to open my mouth, I and Aaron carried Cora out of the elevator when the doors opened, and started moving slowly towards the nurse's office.

Then the cockroaches disappeared and I sighed with relief, only to hear hisses from above me. Looking up, I cursed in my mind as I saw winged snakes flying above. I prayed that I wouldn't be noticed, but of course that didn't happen.

One of them flew down and landed on me, it's coils circling around my head. It lowered it's head in front of my face and hissed, it's tongue flicking out of it's mouth.

I waited as the nurse led us to one of the beds, focused completely on the serpent, and placed Cora down on the bed before leaping back, and sighing contentedly as it disappeared.

Probably noticing rapid breath and paleness, the nurse asked me, "Are you okay?" looking at me with concern.

"Yeah." I replied, calming myself down, then said, "She hit her head." pointing at Cora to divert attention away from myself.

"Oh, then I'm wasting my time with diagnosis." she said and put her hands on Cora's forehead and ripples of blue light flew from her fingertips and onto Cora's skin.

"You may go." the nurse said, and all three of us started turn away before the nurse said, "Not you, O'Malley, you're exhausted and I don't need you collapsing too."

So I and Aaron walked back to the elevator. As we rode down together, I decided to make conversation.

"I was in here yesterday," I said quietly, "paralyzed. The nurse's power is really..."

"Yeah." he said. "I know." as he seemed thoughtful about the wonder of her power.

If only he'd seen Chris turn into Vin Diesel. I thought, smiling as I did so.

But then my thoughts turned to Cora again. Having witnessed what she experienced as a daily routine, I felt rather sorry for her. I resolved to visit her later in the day, to see how she was doing.

~~

I strode out of Power development, whistling. Noticing Chris, I called out, "Hey, Vin Diesel!" and he blushed and turned around.

A few people gave me curious looks, no doubt wondering why i would call Chris Vin Diesel, when they had nothing in common.

"Could we forget that incident?" he asked as i came up next to him.

Grinning mischievously, I replied, "Well, that depends on whether that incident is forgettable. So, I wouldn't hold my breath."

He rolled his eyes and I chuckled, patting him on the back. "Chill! Vin Diesel isn't the worst nickname a guy can have."

As we walked through the halls to our lockers, someone said, "Hey, Oren!" and I turned to see Lilah.

Coming up to me, she said, "Hey, he's coming. Just thought I should warn you, I just saw him."

Frowning, I asked, "Who are you talking abou..." and trailing off as I saw someone walking down the hall towards me. To be more specific, the someone who had paralyzed me the day before.

"Hey, paralyzed boy!" he called out as he noticed me.

"Now that is the worst nickname you can have." Chris whispered to me.

"Clearly you weren't me in second grade." I whispered back before focusing on the boy as we walked up to us, giving us a hard stare.

Chris took an angry step towards him, but I put my arm in front of him and shook my head.

"I'll handle this." I said. "Without fighting."

Noticing the exchange, the boy growled, "What, scared to fight me, paralyzed boy? Scared to embarrass yourself in front of your girlfriend?"

Glancing at Lilah, and blushing a little, I said, "She's not my girlfriend."

The boy smiled and said, "Your crush, then."

Blushing even more, I said, "She's not my-"

"Oh, she is." replied the boy cruelly. "I've seen how you look at her. any idiot could tell."

I now felt that I was as red as a beetroot. I did have a crush on Lilah, though I doubted anything would come of it given my shyness when it comes to girls I like.

"Why are you saying this?" I asked.

"To embarrass you of course." he replied with an evil smile.

I immediately felt that I wanted to throttle him. But I kept my anger in check, and reminded myself that that would get me nowhere.

"Well, good job, you succeeded. By the way, wanted to apologize for what I did to you yesterday. I should have looked before I used my blast breath."

The boy now looked confused. "Wait, you're apologizing?"

"Yes." I replied with a friendly smile.

"But I paralyzed you." he said, perhaps thinking I had forgotten.

"And I covered you in dirt." I replied. "I got you, and you got me."

Then I extended a hand towards him and said, "Even?"

The boy looked at the hand for several seconds before shaking it. and saying "Even." confusedly, as if uncertain as to what was happening. I could tell that his paralyzed victims didn't usually act like this.

He then cleared his throat and said, "I'm sorry too, I guess. For paralyzing you and for embarrassing you."

"Water under the bridge." I replied good-naturedly and the boy nodded, his face clearly showing his disbelief before walking off.

"What was that?" asked Chris, looking confused.

Turning to him, I replied, "That's the only way to deal with guys like that. Just get angry and it'll lead to more fights, and you'll both end up looking like jerks. But be the bigger man, and act politely, and whatever he does, he'll end up looking-and maybe even feeling-like the jerk."

I then turned to watch his retreating form and said, "In fact, I think he felt like a jerk right then. So my work is done."

"How do you know this?" asked Chris with disbelief.

"Ah, well, I'm rather a target for those who try and assert their dominance. I mean, a shy bookworm is a pretty good target for people to bully. Or try to, anyway."

"Try to?" asked Chris, his eyebrows furrowing.

"I know karate." I said, opening my locker to put some books inside. "So often, the tables are turned on them."

Then Lilah spoke up tentatively, "Hey, Oren, by the way, about what he said about you having a crush on me-"

Slamming my locker shut, and blushing furiously, I cut her off, saying, "Gotta go, I have to see someone in the infirmary." and took off at a fast pace down the hall.

Well, it's a good time to visit Cora anyway. I thought as I made my way to the stairs.

Bela

"My roommate?" I asked, looking down at Lilah before sitting next to her. "Keigan Halter."

"Oh, Keigan. She's the girl who can make things levitate, yeah?" she asked.

I nodded.

"So do you guys get on okay?"

"Yeah. I mean, we're having problems since the party," I said, examining my nails.

"Problems?"

"Keigan is sort of... clingy," I said nervously, "I mean, she's great and all but it almost sounds like she has... a crush on me?"

"Oh. Wow, that could be an awkward situation. Has she said that point blank?"

"Well no," I responded.

"Then maybe it's nothing. Whatever it is, I'm sure it will work itself out."

"I hope s-" just then someone burst into the laundry room. Startled, I morphed into a bird, flapping and twittering around. The girl below me was staring up at me in bird form before walking away, shooting Lilah a weird glance.

"Nice, Bela," Lilah said, grinning up at me.

I slowly flapped down to the ground, my beak twittering. Lilah's shoe looked huge to me and for an odd moment, my bird brain was worried she might step on me.

I felt my bones and my skin begin to shift and change, my beak began to soften as my head grew larger and a nose developed.

"That is a seriously cool power," Lilah said, as I grew and grew, my view of her getting more and more normal by the second.

"Thanks," I replied, giving her a small smile. The buzzer on the dryer went off.

"I better get these folded and back to my room."

Lilah went glassy eyed for a moment before returning back to normal, "Okay," she said, "Oh, and our rooms are along the same hallway."

"What? How do you know that?"

"Because we're about to walk down the hall together," she said, grinning.

"Oh, your power, the future thing..." I said

"Yup."

"That's really cool," I told her, giving her another tiny smile.

"Thanks! Oh, and Bela?"

"Yeah?"

She looked at me, putting her freshly folded clothes in her laundry basket.

"You should talk more, you're a really nice person."

"Thanks," I said, and then we walked down the hall with our laundry to our rooms.

Chris

Watching Oren tear off toward the infirmary, I turned to Lilah and gave her a slightly awkward grin.

"Guess he had to go." It felt stupid to state the obvious but I wasn't sure what else to say - Lilah was easy to talk to but it seemed like she'd come over to talk to Oren and not me.

"I guess so. Do you think he likes her?" Lilah mused.

"Who, the girl in the hospital? Nah, they've barely even met..."

"Oh."

Lilah looked thoughtful and I wondered if that was a good time for me to say I had plans, like I needed to do some homework or shoot some hoops or whatever excuse it was that guys gave when they weren't actually busy. I wondered if she'd laugh if I said I had to wash my hair...

"Well, if you're free now, why don't we go find Nyx?"

Nyx. I hadn't really hung with her since the whole Christie incident and just hearing her name kind of threw me. I realised I'd not said anything for a minute and Lilah was watching me and it was definitely too late to say I had to wash my hair.

"I- uh."

"You are avoiding her," Lilah accused. "She said she thought you might be and I told her you were probably just busy-"

"I am!" I interrupted. "Just busy, I mean."

"She thinks it's because you've got a roommate now but if you don't even want to see her when Oren's busy-"

"It's not that I don't want to see her!" My heart thudded in my chest and I realised I'd clenched my fists and advanced on Lilah a step. She backed off at almost the same time, probably preempting my movement but it didn't make me feel any better knowing I'd threatened her like that. I felt my stomach twisting at the sheer injustice of it all, that I couldn't hang out with Nyx because I might lose her friendship but not hanging out with her was already accelerating us down that path.

"I- I'm sorry. I'd better go... I've got to go."

If Lilah said anything in protest, I didn't hear it as I hurried down the hallway, not really thinking of any destination. Not really thinking at all, just listening to the blood pounding in my ears and trying to have a single, clear comprehensive thought.

What if Christie just- did I need to keep being someone else? Why wasn't Chris enough - Nyx liked Chris but didn't she like Christie better, didn't Christie have more friends? Why would I ever be content to be boring, sensible Chris when I could be bubbly, creative, soulful, unique Christie?

That wasn't the kind of comprehensive thought I wanted to have.That could never happen. The only time I got to be Christie, or anyone else except for flukes like Vin Diesel was during power development classes and those were mostly excruciatingly painful. I'd turn into so many different people that they'd leave me staring at my own black hand in confusion and I'd feel drained and mixed up. Power development was like sitting in a room with a huge chocolate cake and being told to eat the whole thing at once and not really getting to enjoy it but then having to leave the cake in the room and spend the whole of the next week wishing I could have just one more bite.

Of course, storming through hallways with your head down is never a good idea so I shouldn't have been surprised when I barreled around the corner and found myself face to face with the last person I wanted to see. Josephine.

Aaron

"Cora?" I walked into the infirmary the day after her fit. She was laying in the bed, fully awake, wearing black leggings and a dark red sweater. The bed was neatly made, she hadn't even gotten underneath the covers.

"Aaron," she said, staring up at the ceiling.

I tried to figure out what she was feeling. She was fairly numb at the moment. Occasionally there would be a spike of fear or embarrassment, but she quickly pushed it away.

"Your visions are under control," I said, sitting in the chair next to her bed. The bed was small with an end table next to it, a half empty glass of water resting in the middle of the tabletop. Or, half full. Depends on how you think of it.

"As under control as they ever are," she said thickly, trying to control her voice. Her glassy blue eyes never moved. She never looked at me.

"Yeah, well, you need to get over it. Shit happens."

"They're all terrified of me. Oren... I can't be here. I shouldn't be here. I should be locked up where I can't hurt anybody but myself."

"Get over yourself, Cor, nobody is even talking about it anymore. They're too excited for the weekend trip to Oceanside tomorrow. And then there's play tryouts."

"I'm not worried about what they think of me, I don't care if they hate me. I'm just tired of them being afraid of me." Mild hysteria began to bubble up, I knew it wasn't mine. I often couldn't discern between my feelings and the feelings of others. Especially in large groups. But I'd seen Cora nearly every day for the past month. I was used to her feelings.

I let out a deep breath and tried to summon feelings of calmness, letting it spread from my core and out to my fingertips, to my toes, before imagining those feelings and channeling them towards her.

"Stop that," she whispered.

"You need to get ahold of yourself, okay? You need to learn to controlt his."

"I can't," she said, the hysteria seeping back into her.

"Get over yourself. I'm not gonna say it again. I'm sick of people running away from you, and, let's face it. Being around the scary girl is gonna do some damage to my rep."

"Uh huh."

"It doesn't have to be rainbows and unicorns or anything. Just something small," I prodded.

Cora sat up, bringing her knees to her chest. I watched her try to focus, or at least appear that way. But her emotions were on haywire.

"You won't be able to see it anyway," she said.

"Well, I'll try to. Maybe I can."

She turned her face forward.

"You're not focusing, Cora. Come on. You can do this, it's not like I'm asking you to turn straw into gold. Just do something easy, a butterfly. Or a lollipop."

The water glass moved a little, there was color spreading through it, as if someone had put a drop of food coloring in it. It turned a bright gold. Not the yellowy color of piss, but gold. Like, cleopatra's jewelry box, gold.

"Really?" I looked at her amused. The right corner of her mouth lifted in the ghost of a smile.

"I didn't mean to, you mentioned gold and it just happened."

"Well, I saw it. So it looks like I can see illusions if I try to," I paused, "that's something."

She scrunched up her face, concentrating.

"Making Asian eyes isn't going to help," I nagged.

"Stop, Aaron. You are so annoying," she snapped. But she went back to focusing. And focusing.

Finally, I saw a flutter out of the corner of my eye. A bright orange butterfly, flittering about.

"Jeez, I thought we were gonna die in this room, waiting for a damn butterfly," I said. She rolled her eyes and I left, but I was smiling to myself. She could control it to a small degree after all.

Dimi

Dimi practically bounced out of bed in the morning and dug some clean underwear out of his drawer and scooped (mostly) clean clothes off the floor. He layered on a t-shirt, a thin jumper and a jacket with his jeans because the more clothes he wore, the less he had to pack, right?

And packing was lame and Dimi would have been in a sour mood, except it was time for some kind of awesome eipc cool weekend trip to somewhere... epic and cool? So Dimi wasn't much of a details guy but he could sense the vibe of excitement running through the student body and that was good enough for him. Plus, that freaky Cora chick had gone and sent a rampage of illusions around the school or something and bitten off a chunk of the gossip mill. Dimi was happy to be back to being plain old unbearable, rather than the guy who ran that Christie chick out of school.

"Y...you know we're umm, going to the beach, right?" Harris leaned against the door-frame to their dorm and would have totally got all of the coolness points if it wasn't for his stuttering because yeah... beach... maybe Dimi should have paid some attention...

"Yeah, I knew that, of course, I'm just wearing this for a bit, these are my morning clothes, see morning wear, because- 'cos-"

Just then there was a loud crash outside their dorm and Harris jumped half a mile in the air and Dimi did too and it was a good thing he did because when Harris jumped half a mile into the air, a whole load of very sharp and spiky ice bolts shot out of his body and went right through the space Dimi had been standing in before he decided to cower take shelter on the bed.

For a moment Dimi forgot about the scary thud - were they under attack from big foot? - and focused instead on how the spikes protruding from the wall beside him had almost been protruding from him!

"Woah, man! Now you see that is why I'm dressed up like it's the middle of winter. What else do you expect when I share a dorm with the killer snowman, we'll just call you Frosty from now on, yeah? I'm friggin' sleeping next to Frosty the Snowman. And Sasquatch is out in the hall-"

"Sorry, no Sasquatch here, ain't nobody here but us chickens. And a piano. I might have summoned a piano outside your door - by accident."

Dimi gave a mocking shake of his head and then switched to a t-shirt and shorts while Harris tried first to apologise and then just to get out the way - and of course while the kid with the piano made it vamoosh.

Of course, Dimi forgave Harris as they headed to meet everyone else to embark on their super amazing adventure because Dimi was just so nice like that and well, he could hardly claim he'd never screwed up himself.

"Hey, don't sweat it man, you'll get a grip on your power eventually and then you can be the official ice dispenser at parties, that's how much control you'll have! You know, that would be a pretty sweet way to pick up girls - hey miss? Ma'am? Can I get you some ice? - You can have that one, free of charge. But don't forget you owe me."

Lilah- Friday before surfing try-outs

I sprint from the locker room to the gym, only to realize that I left my note in my bag and have to go get it. When I finally dig it out and get back into fitness, I’m a solid twenty minutes late. I hand my note to Coach Helms. He glances at it casually before asking, “Strength or cardio?”

“I’m just gonna run today. I ran here, and kinda already been in that mentality since this morning anyway, so…” I say as I twist my hair into a bun. “Why mess up a good rhythm?”

“As long as you’ll be prepared for strength training on Monday.” Helms lets me be and begins to tear into poor Briony. That girl never seems to cut a break in this class. Thank goodness I’m fast and that Helms likes me because of it, or I would never be given so much slack.

I start making my laps, pushing myself to be just below what I would consider a sprint. Too much nervous energy I guess. That happens when your teacher holds you after class for a lecture.

“Hey, Lilah!” one of the guys calls out as I pass, “Would you slow down for a second?” It’s Oren, and I really don’t feel like talking to him right now, but when he starts catching I sigh and slow down to a more comfortable jog. “What happened? Why did Shultz want to see you?”

“Uh, well, we needed to have a chat about things. He wrote me a note so Coach wouldn’t freak out about the time I got here.”

“Is everything alright?”

“Peachy! I’m just, you know, failing science right now. And my habit of drumming my pencil on the desk is annoying; oh- and apparently I’m not allowed to go to the water fountain anymore in class since I didn’t come back after our test yesterday… Are you serious?!” I snap a millisecond before Jay pops into view beside Oren.

“Wait, you’re failing?” Jay says. “Why’d you cut class early if you weren’t doing well?”

“If you’re so good at spying, you tell me.” I say. Jay doesn’t have one of his usual witty comebacks ready.

“You know, we’re in the same class, Lilah.” Oren says. “You can always ask for help homework or when studying.”

“That’s sweet, but I wouldn’t you, I mean- you don’t have to...” Damn, shut up, Lilah! I can’t even talk normal to Oren now after what Poisonous Plant-boy said. “But, uh, for now, I think I just want to run!” I pick up the pace again, and Jay and Oren let me pull ahead until I’m situated roughly a half-a-track ahead of them. Today is just not a good day. I should’ve looked to see who was running today before choosing which one to focus on. Or skipped. I could’ve skipped- I do well enough in the class to afford it.

In a couple of minutes I find myself about to pass Aaron. He’s half-assing his run today, but I can’t tell if it’s because he’s on something or in withdrawal today. As I start to pull ahead of him I hear him snort.

“What?” I demand, whipping around into a slow, backwards jog. Despite being three of the same classes, this kid has never spoken to me before.

“Looks like you can’t keep up with all your boy-toys,” he says. “Fucking tease.”

“What?” Now I stop. Aaron doesn’t seem to mind halting either. “I’m not a tease!”

“Oh please!” he scoffs. “You’ve got Oren eating out of the palm of your hand, you’re practically always hanging off of Jay- and you even flirt with Dimitri.”

“I’m not-” I start to speak, but apparently Aaron has lost interest walks away. “I’m not flirty.” I say to myself. Am I?

Yeah. Today is a good day cut fitness. I won’t even be lying when I tell Helms that I feel sick.

Melanie Lovecraft

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15.

15.

15 minutes late.

You’d think with how much money Aunt Lilith spent on this guy, he would at least show up on time. Not that I’m in any hurry to get to the new school, but I would like to avoid the lunch hour as much as possible. I’d like to make some kind of fun entrance.

I stare down at my sketchbook at a picture of the older man sitting to my right. He’s been sitting here awhile, and due to the dark bags under his eyes it appears he had a long flight. I can relate. He’s your typical middle aged high class American. Wrinkles on his brow, a balding hairline, a slouched back, and a phone glued to one hand. I try to focus on the shading of his sunken eyes, but the more I try to steady my hand, the more it shakes. I grip my right hand with my left concealing the sparks of fire aching to escape the tips. The control is getting worse lately. In the back of my head I hear Aunt Lilith's voice.

“That's why we’re doing this right? It's going to help you.” She smiled so brightly that day, like she was sure this was the greatest thing to happen since sliced bread. The day I got the invitation, I didn’t know what to think. I knew people like...us, were more accepted in the world now, but I wasn’t sure that included people that look... like me. Everything has always been easy for Aunt Lilith. She’s gorgeous, she can control her power, and she loves everyone. Including herself, and her bloody “demon-touched” niece that killed her sister. She is everything I’ve ever wanted to be, but at the same time I can’t help but not be her.

I draw my focus back to my sketch, but as I reach for my pencil my shaking pushes it from the bench and it falls to the ground.

“Dammit.” I grip my hand again.

“Are you alright miss?” I look up to see the older man facing me. He must have noticed the shaking when I accidentally dropped my pencil. It takes him a moment, but like almost everyone his attention heads for my eyes. “Uh- I uh- I mean, excuse me.” He stands and walks away.

Typical.

“Well there goes that.” I sigh, closing my sketchbook.

“Miss Lovecraft?” Another man approaches. Assumably my driver. He’s fairly young, probably late twenties, and mainly good looking.

“That’s me.” I stand putting on the most annoyed smile I can. “I assume you’re my driver?”
Let’s have some fun.

“Yes, your Aunt has asked me to take you to-”

“Do you realize you’re over 20 minutes late?” I interrupt. “I assume my aunt paid you a lot, and a lot can happen in twenty minutes. I could have honestly been kidnapped.”

“I couldn’t see why anyone would, miss.” He says staring me dead in the eye. I smirk at his remark about my appearance. “Anyways, I apologize for being late. The traffic was out of my control.”

“No problem...So are you the type that takes my bags, or do I have to load them?” He slightly smiles as he bends down to pick up my bags. I take one of them before he can grab it, and I walk towards the doors. “So how do you know my Aunt Lilith? I assume you're a little more than just a driving connection in Los Angeles.”

“We’re old friends-”

“Ah. So you’ve had sex.” He remained silent. “Thought so. I’m Melanie.” I smile, and hold out my hand to the man.

“Ezra Jackson.” He shakes my hand.

“Well Mr. Jackson. Let's head out.”

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Oceanside is further from the airport than I thought.” I say staring at my aunt through my phone. She’s the type that prefers “face to face contact” to texting. I adjust my earbuds a few times.

“Yeah I forgot to mention that. Sorry hun. How was your flight?” She asks curiously.

“It was fine I guess. Why didn’t you tell me you were sending your ex boy toy to drive me?” I make eye contact through the rearview mirror, but he isn’t fazed. She gasps.

“Melanie!” I laugh. “Ezra isn’t like that, he’s- You know what, never mind! He’s an old friend that wouldn't treat you-”

“Like a demon?” I say finishing her thought.

“I wasn’t gonna say that.”

“But you were thinking it.” I laugh awkwardly. It's silent for a moment.

“This is gonna be good for you, you know….”

“I really hope so…”

“Miss Lovecraft.” I look up from my phone. “We will be there in a few moments.”

“I gotta go.”

“Alright, tell me all about it tonight. I love you...:”

“I love you too.” I hang up the phone, and stare out the window at the approaching school.

“Welcome to Oceanside.” Ezra says as he parks the car. He begins taking off his seatbelt, when I stop him.

“Um hey-” He looks confused. “Can I go by myself?... Please…” I ask sincerely.

“Uh sure. Is everything okay?”

“Yeah...I just like stories with big beginnings.” He slightly laughs.

“Your a lot like your mother…” I’m suddenly caught off guard.

“You knew her…”

“Yeah...And just so you know. You don’t need to play that act.”

“Yeah I do...Anyways thank you Mr. Jackson for bringing me, and can I suggest something?” He nods. “Hit up Aunt Lilith.” I wink, and exit the car.

Its a free period for some students, and they gawk at the new student arriving in the fancy jet black car. I grab my suitcases, and my appearance begins to set in. Some give dirty looks, some turn their heads, and some whisper to their friends. I smile as I put on my black jacket.

Perfect.

I flip my hair once, before strutting off towards the office building.

This is going to be an interesting time indeed...

Chris

"Oh, Chris- T block's that way, did you get lost?" Josephine's tone was playful but it sunk into my mental blockades like a battering ram and it was all I could do to hold it together.

I thought about barreling straight through her but I couldn't quite bring myself to knock a girl down so I turned to walk back up the hallway, figuring I could always take a side-shoot to avoid Lilah or duck into a classroom/ the toilets for long enough to become someone else. It was all I wanted at the moment, to get far enough away from people that I could lose myself in another body and not have to worry about being judged for my every action, about measuring every word which came out of my mouth and wondering if it belonged to a boy called Chris, or to someone else trapped inside of me, dying to get out.

"Wait-" Josephine called.

I stopped, my back to her, my breathing heavy as I spat out the words: "What? So you can threaten me again?"

"Threaten you?" Her voice sounded confused, but I wasn't falling for it. "You call that a threat?"

"Yes. Whatever, yeah, look - just tell people about it if you want to-" Despite my words, my heart clogged up at the thought and I could feel tears burning behind my eyelids but boys weren't allowed to cry. Christie had cried - often and passionately - but Chris had to suck it up and deal. "It might even make my life easier so go ahead. She's never going to forgive me anyway."

And I started walking because if I ran, I might never stop and I took four unsteady strides away from her when suddenly Josephine was in front of my face again, her hands held up in front of her. I gasped, my heart ringing in my chest as I came up short and stumbled back a step.

"This is my power, also kind of a secret, also kind of hard to get away from me." She smiled but - actually - not in a threatening way and she dropped her hands to her side. "That's the part I don't get - I've heard people talk about how your power is turning into other people so what's the story? Who's this girl who won't forgive you?"

I took a deep breath, mostly to keep myself from strangling her and looked away. "Girls tell other girls things that they'd never say to a guy. That wasn't why I didn't tell her but... every day it got harder. The people in my power class know as well. So she'll find out. I don't know how I ever thought she wouldn't, I just-" I closed my eyes, hardly able to believe that I was telling her all of this, that I was even still talking. Chris never talked like this but somewhere the line between Chris and Christie had started to blur and now I didn't even know which pieces were my mask and which were me. "I screwed up and now I've lost all my friends. Everyone liked Christie but Chris-"

I finally found the will to stop talking and to keep my thoughts internal. It was probably a hundred words too late but at least I hadn't said what I was thinking now. That Chris was just some black guy who played basketball and sometimes admitted to liking art but mostly didn't. Chris was just a quiet stereotype, too afraid of his own shadow to stand where people could actually see who he might be...

Dimi

It didn't take long to get to the beach and apparently everyone wanted to be on the school surfing team because the sand was just clogged up with the mostly washed bodies of teenagers, all of them wearing tight tops and hot pant shorts, or all of the ones Dimi was interested in looking at anyway. Dude. Oceanside had so many hot babes (and hunks). Of course, you got your weird chicks too and Dimi couldn't help but notice that there was this one girl who really took the biscuit. She had raven black hair and was dressed all in black and Dimi didn't think he'd seen her around before and -woah, were her peepers black too? Jeepers creepers. He did not want to get on the bad side of her!

"What? Did you want something?" The girl turned her full gaze on him - whoops - and Dimi tried to disarm it with his most flirtatious smile.

"No, nothing, I was just thinking how you could give even Cora a run for her money." On the crazy tree, that is. Seriously, who'd have thought there'd be a girl out there even weirder than that psycho?

The girl scowled at him, probably trying to work out what his angle was but Dimi was fortunately saved by the surf instructor calling them to attention.

"If you'll form a line along the edge of the water, please." The guy doing the testing and instructing for the surf team was a little bit too burly and chiseled for Dimi's liking, but still pretty enough to catch his eye. Of course, it helped that he was bare chested and totally ripped.

"The number one rule of today is that you will not use your powers. No special abilities of any kind are permitted when trying out for the surf team."

"What? You've got to be kidding me!" Dimitri exploded. "Oh sure, penalize the special people, it's just like the junior sports team at my old school all over again and I thought you were different!"

"Is there a problem, Mr. Ivanov?"

Dimi blinked. He had definitely not given the instructor his name and had in fact been trying to decide whether to go with Bill Loni or the classic Hugh Jass.

"No, no problem, not unless you're using your power to infiltrate our privacy and discover our names, of course." Honestly, this school was just teeming with mind readers and power readers and people who could read your names straight out of your head.

The surf instructor smirked and held up a wad of paper. "Of course, you caught me. I'm using the power of a register and the photos which were taken when you enrolled at this academy."

Ouch. Burned.

"Now, if we can continue the try-outs. I want you all to grab a board and I'm going to send you out on the water in smaller groups and I want you to just try and stay on the board for this first go. I'm going to show you some moves and you'll get a chance to try them all out later but for now, I just need to see you balancing. And believe me, that's harder than it sounds."

The instructor actually seemed kind of cool, though when he got in the water and started paddling doggy style, his body pressed flat against the board, Dimi opened his mouth to heckle him but he got no further than that. All at once, the instructor sprang on to his feet and turned the board in to the waves and started to ride them. He didn't just surf around them or maintain his balance on the board while a few trickles of water lapped against it, but he actually chased down the big, crazy waves and rode them like they were made of solid matter and not a mass of writhing, uncontrollable liquid. Dude. It gave Dimi a tingle just watching it.

And fortunately he did get to watch and a slow smile crawled over Dimi's face. His power wasn't the most reliable admittedly and he couldn't be sure that when he got out on the water he wouldn't be trying to ballet dance his way along the board, but if there was one thing his power was good for, it was copying things that he otherwise wouldn't have dreamed of being able to do. And his power acted without thinking so he wouldn't be purposefully breaking the rules, he actually wouldn't be able to help it if his sub conscious decided it wanted to make him look amazing out there.

And it had better make him look amazing. Dimi did not fancy body slamming the water in front of all his prospective dates.