Young Writers Society

"Hey! Powder is not my servant! He is an awesome friend!" she barked at him, "I'm just saying, don't touch him! That's all! Jesus, dude."
With a deep breath and a stretch of her arm, she nodded to Sage and slowly walked off. "Well, see you never, I hope." God, what was it about them that made her so mean? She never wanted to be mean, to be hated... She just wanted friends and stood up for her friends. She wanted to be liked and to also defend herself. Why didn't they like her? Why didn't she like them? Izzy pushed those thoughts out of her head. Too late to worry about it now...
When she returned, Powder was still by the door. He grinned widely when he saw Izzy. She smiled back and ruffled his platnium blonde hair before they went into the Adjudicator's office..

Dawn beamed. "Yeah, your mom sounds nice," she whispered to herself. She brought herself back into the moment rather quickly, just to avoid another deep delve into her mind. "I think they're my favorite, actually." Dawn looked over to the bed opposite of Avery's, where two sunflowers had recently sprouted and grew in a matter of seconds. They faced the window at first, but when it was clear that twilight had fallen, the flower in front of the other began turn itself around stiffly. "When two sunflowers can't face the sun, they turn to face each other."
The look in Dawn's eyes was tender as she turned to Avery. "I just think that's really sweet."

Avery tilted her head, watching the two flowers slowly turn toward one another. It was almost like they were staring at each other, both admiring the vibrant yellow beauty of their partner. For once, she was at a loss for words, sitting contentedly in the dorm with Dawn's head on her shoulder.


Sage watched as Izzy left, speeding off around the corner. She turned back to look at Evan, who was still tangled in Semavry.
"Can you let me go now?" he grunted. "This is humiliating."
"Oh, please," Sage frowned at him, slowly pulling her vines back into the ground. "At best you would've made a fool of yourself. At worst--well, just keep yourself in check. You're lucky I trapped Izzy before she could beat the crap out of you."
"It wouldn't have been that bad," Evan grumbled, wiping the leaves off his shoulders. "I can stand up for myself."
"Yes because that worked out so well for you last time," Sage rolled her eyes. "You have a knack for getting into trouble, you know that?"
"Yeah..."
"Now, grab your shirt and let's get back to the dorm," she nodded at the door. "That's probably where Avery and Dawn are."
"...You're not going to tell her, are you?" Evan asked as he grabbed a fresh shirt from the dresser. "I don't want Avery to know about...all this."
"Don't worry," Sage started down the hallway, Evan trailing behind. "This'll just stay between us."

The Adjudicator was silent when the pair walked in. Powder kept his head low to the ground during it all. Every time, Izzy was the one who actually spoke up. "You're late." she said.

Izzy shrugged, "Sorry. Got caught up in stuff. Literally. Did you-"

"Yes, I heard it right outside my door," the Adjudicator said. She rubbed the bridge of her nose tiredly, "What will I do with that girl..."

"Oh, cool. So, what do you need us for?" Izzy asked.

The Adjudicator smiled at her students. "Well, as a reward for such good behavior, I thought I should fully explain what happened to our dear friend, Sam. Well, that's not the only thing."

Suddenly, Izzy was very intrugied. Even Powder seemed curious. "You've been very helpful with your powers, Powder." He lit up at her words. "So, it's only fair you understand the full picture of this facility if you are truly to aide me."

Darcy quickly stood up as the Adjudicator motioned to a door on the right. When it opened, it was revealed to be an elevator that went straight to the basement. Izzy was already creeped out, considering she had no clue there was a basement, but Powder was too drawn in by now. They all filed into the elevator, with Izzy holding Powder's shoulders when they stood right next to the Adjudicator. Secret basements were never a good sign, even movies knew that.

"Well," the Adjudicator hummed as she pushed the buttom, "Let's hurry. We have much to discuss, and I'd rather everyone here get a goodnights sleep for classes tomorrow."

"Oh, I almost forgot," Evan held up the folder. It was slightly crumpled now, having been crushed under Sage's vines. "Dawn wanted me to grab this before we left the Adjudicator's office."
"What is it?" Sage asked, taking it and flipping through the pages.
"I think it's some sort of gradebook," Evan explained, peering over her shoulder. "Rating students' performances and stuff."
"This could be important," Sage murmured, snapping the folder shut. "But Dawn probably knows more. Come on, let's hurry."

Dawn was just about to fall asleep before she heard a knock on the door. She yawned and stood up slowly, then approached the door. She peaked outside and that was all it took for her to quickly usher them in and lock the door once more.

She slammed her back on it once everyone was inside. "Alright, okay," she mumbled as she messed with the icebag she held against her cheek, "We're all here, we're all safe. And also, um, sorry about earlier. Kinda freaked out, I know."
She chuckled, as per usual, before moving on. "So, uh, what do we do now? Just go over the stuff we know?"

"Actually, we're wondering what you might know about this," Sage handed the folder to Dawn. "Since you wanted Evan to grab it, we thought it must be important."

"Oh! Right," Dawn said, gratefully taking it. She immediately started flipping through the pages, going over several students. It was so strange seeing all the faces of people she never met, yet shared classes and lunches with. "Well, I just thought it was weird. For one, why is she grading anything? She's a headmaster, not a teacher. Second, there's no name on it. My mom is very organized. Every folder has names and catergories, but this one-" She showed the blank, cream colored folder to the group, "-has nothing."

As she quietly scanned over each page, her head began to tilt. She landed on Sage's page. A blank photo of her face was there, along with general information. There weren't any comments beside it, but she scored an overall 90 at... something. There wasn't much there. Later, Avery had a 80 while Evan was settled with a 65. Evan's profile had a comment next to it. "has caused trouble, but his ability is overall harmless. Need more time to decide."

"What in the world does that mean?" Dawn said, still aimlessly flipping back and forth through pages.

Then, she landed on Sam. A red "X" was next to their score of 0. They were grinning from ear to ear in the picture. "terminated. ability too volatile for student handle. threat has been elimated."

"T-terminated?" Evan asked slowly. "What does that mean?"
"That's probably why they were acting so strange..." Sage stared at the page, thinking. "...Flip to Izzy and Powder. I want to see what their scores are."

Dawn followed Sage's request, flipping through all the lastnames. When she got to the photo of a bright, sunny Izzy posing for the photo (because why wouldn't she?), Dawn's eyes widened. "For all the trouble she caused... she's only got a 85." She had to blink a few times, then read the name again. She read the comment under her double checkmarks, something nobody else had: "wonderful helper, although snappy and brash."

With her stomach swirling, she began the search for Powder. It took a moment, since she had no clue what his last name was. Thankfully, Powder wasn't a common name, and his full namd was revealed to be Powder Copperton. He had the double check marks as well, then she gasped when she saw his score. "100! Powder's the only one with 100. It says: excellent listener, obeys orders, and no record of bad behavior. powerset is incredibly useful for pop quizzes, testing and commanding students."

"Well, he seems pretty tame, from what I've seen," Sage muttered. "Small and timid, for the most part. I don't even know what his ability is. But it says here that it's good for...pop quizzes? As well as testing and commanding students..."
"That sounds like a mind control power," Avery mused, standing up from the bed to look over Dawn's shoulder. "Could Powder be the one putting stuff in our food?"
"Seems a little too widespread for one kid," Evan pointed out. "Plus, he and Izzy have been hunting me down all this time. I don't think he'd have time to poison us..."
"But it is a possibility," Sage decided. "Let's not dismiss it too early. Every lead we may have is a step closer to figuring out what's really going on."
"Testing and commanding could mean coercion, too," Avery added, pointing to the notes scribbled across the page. "Maybe his power is something really intimidating."
"Either way, we know he's a threat," Sage rubbed her chin. "Let's look through the rest of the files. Is there anyone else with a perfect 100? Or someone causing trouble...if we can find other kids making a mess for the Adjudicator, maybe we can get them to help us."

Dawn licked her lips nervously. Something still didn't feel right. "Well, um, I've seen a few 95's, but no other 100s. Besides me, there's some kids named Astrid, Ophelia, Jonathan, and Mateo. That's all that I've found. My guess is that we're being considering as helpers, but not yet."

Dawn kept reading through the files, her brow creased. Her eyes never left the page as the group discussed possible plans. "I thing I still don't get is, like, what is she even scoring us on? Behavior? Obedience? And why, even? Plus, when she was talking about Sam to us, she said they'd never burn anyone ever again... and here is says they're no longer a threat..."

Dawn swallowed nervously. She'd only heard myths about stuff like that happening, and those stories never ended well. Losing your power was losing a part of yourself. She met one man who lost it after a run-in with some villian back in her mom's time, and he looked like a husk. He couldn't remember anything from the day prior and said he'd lost all ambition... Dawn was horrified from that day on, and was absolutly petrified now.

"...Weird..." Sage murmured, propping her chin against her hand.
"Is there any way to reverse the loss of powers?" Evan asked hopefully. Maybe there was a way to get Sam back...

"I-I dunno," Dawn said, closing the folder and handing it off to whoever wanted to see it next. "It depends. Someone could've completely erased it, or someone could've stolen it from them. There's ways to artifically steal abilites, too..."

Dawn rubbed her forehead. "Oh, gosh. This is getting worse every day," she mumbled, throwing herself to one of the chairs by the desk. She let out of a breath of exhaustion. "And to think, we have school tomorrow and pretend we're all normal..." She looked out the window and saw a black night sky staring down on them. With such a large wall keeping them in, it was impossible to see the full starry abyss without just being outside. How long had they been at it?

"How about we get some sleep," Avery offered. "It'll be easier to make sense of this in the morning once we're all rested."
Sage nodded. "You can take the bunk above mine, Evan. Now that your dorm is empty..."
"Thanks," he climbed the ladder into the bed, kicking his shoes off onto the floor below. He was glad he didn't have to go back to his room...without Sam, it would be so quiet and cold.
I hope I can get them back, he thought, rolling onto his side. The window opposite him displayed nothing but the huge wall surrounding the school--a constant reminder of just how trapped they really were. A thread of guilt wormed into his stomach as he stared at the flat grey surface. Where had Sam gone now? Were they at home with their family, or had something else happened to them? Evan realized he had taken their friendship for granted. All that time in the dorm together, laughing and doing stupid crap. And then they tried to defend him from Izzy...
Evan gritted his teeth. If he hadn't taken the color out of Izzy's shirt, Sam would still be here. How stupid was he, that he thought antagonizing her was a good idea?
The speedster was right. This is all my fault.
He sat up, looking around. The room was dark now, the only light coming from the sliver of moon outside. He could barely see the outline of his sister and her friends, snoring softtly in their bunks.
I almost got Sage in trouble when I tried to fight Izzy, he thought. I almost killed the Adjudicator...I almost revealed Dawn. They could all have suffered the same fate as Sam because of me.
He clenched his fists, nails digging into his skin. I'm a risk. A liability. I bring nothing but trouble to the people I care about. They'd be better off without me.
The guilt was almost unbearable now. It swelled in his chest, sending spikes of shame through his ribs.
They don't need me. It'd be better if I'd never come here at all! Those two sentences swirled in his brain as he melted out of sight, camouflaged against the wall. Slowly he climbed down the ladder of the bunk, socks muffling his footsteps. He moved to the door, pulling it open as carefully as possible. Then, he slipped through, shutting it silently behind him.
I should leave, he thought as he padded down the empty corridor. Moonlight washed the walls in silver, twisting strangely around his invisible body. They don't need me. Nobody needs me.
He picked up speed, tears welling in his eyes. It's my fault Sam is gone. It's my fault Izzy was burned, and Dawn got hurt, and Avery and Sage are in danger. I should never have come here. Why did I think this was a good idea? My powers are weak, anyway. Colors? Invisibility? Stupid, useless skills. I should've known that I'm nothing but a problem.
He was so wrapped up in his thoughts that he didn't notice the camouflage melting from his skin, or the tears streaming down his face. He didn't notice how loud his footsteps were, either, or that there was someone coming down the hallway toward him.

"Uhh... hello?" A young teen holding a pillow called out. "Ah, crap. Forgot my water..." she mumbled, patting her striped pajama's pockets. "Um, hey! If you're there, can you, like, say something dude? I can't see right now. Well, I can't see generally but like- nevermind." The kid made her way through the hall, occasionally tapping the wall and clicking their tounge until they ran into a warm mass. Ah, so that must've been them!

"Oh! Hey?" they said, staring straight into Evan's chest. With their head tilted, her hands patted up his neck, before finding Evan's face and squishing his cheeks for a moment. "Wow, you're tall," they said, finally looking up. Their eyes were covered completely by some sort of wraps or bandages, but it was clear to tell she had lived with this for a long while. Her hands didn't move. "So, uh, hey again, dude. Are you good? I heard you, like, scuttling around like a rat. It was super loud and that's coming from me, so everything is loud. I just know normal people don't walk like that." She finally pulled away from him, accustomed to the heads of height he had above them. "Uh, didn't wanna be rude, bit I was gonna come ask ya to shut up since you were walking loud but that's kinda rude, so, if something's wrong, uh, my name's Astrid. How ya doin'?"