"Hey. I need to talk to you."

~~~~~

He glanced behind me at Riley and corrected himself, raising an eyebrow. Why was everyone raising their eyebrows today? "Actually, I need to talk to both of you."

Riley and I exchanged looks. I shrugged and spoke. "Why not?"

"Cool" Ethan lead us to a place that was less crowded and began to tell us whatever he needed to tell us. "The principal and vice-principal want to see you two, along with some other kids. They told me to tell you that after lunch go to their office so they can talk to you two. I'm fairly certain they want to talk to each of you about different things, seeing what happened on Monday."

As yes, I had almost forgotten. Let's just say that Riley and paint guns do not mix well. I shouldered my backpack as Riley spoke.

"Alright, we'll go."

Ethan told us one last thing before leaving to go find his friends. "Good." Then he walked past us, vanishing into the crowd. Multiple questions flashed through my mind, a few of them being,

Why did the principal and vice principal want to see us?

Why had they chosen Ethan to tell us?

It could have just been a coincidence that he was chosen, but I don't really believe in coincidences. Everything happens for a reason, and eventually it will all fall into place. Life is just like one big puzzle, you discover one piece at a time and slowly piece it together. Eventually it's all put together and you stand back and look at it, taking in the completed work.

"Well?" Riley snapped me out of my thoughts. "Let's go to lunch and then we'll head to the office."

The crowd had thinned as students found seats in the lunchroom. Riley and I picked our way through the other kids to go sit in our usual corner. We sat down and began to eat our lunch.

"What do you think they want?" I asked, glancing to my left at some freshmen that were messing around.

Riley shrugged. "Probably the paint thing. I still have bruises from that, by the way."

"It was your fault. You had the fabulous idea to see what would happen if you brought a paint gun to school and shot yourself with red paintballs in the middle of class, at a very close range, might I add."

"Can't argue with that logic."

Lunch ended about twenty minutes after that, and we packed up our stuff before beginning the walk to the office. We trudged through the bland hallways to the room where we would find out what this small mystery was about. I would have Biology, but that class was boring, so I was glad to miss it.

"Ah, I've been expecting you." Our principal, Mr. Gretlint, greeted us, standing up. He turned to me and spoke again. "Abigail, you will go to talk to our vice principal in his office and Riley, you will go with me to my office. You know where his office is." he addressed me again, and gestured in the direction of the room.

"Yes Sir." I walked to his office and entered. Mr. Virton was sitting at his desk, organizing documents. He glanced up as I entered.

"Abigail. If you would have a seat, that would be lovely."

A twinge of nervousness hit me as I went to sit down. If there was one thing that all students were afraid of at Gildon High School, it was going talk to the vice principal. Virton had a reputation for frightening students, he was also the one to discipline us. He closed the door as walked to stand behind his desk. He arched his fingers and pursed his lips before speaking. "Abigail, you and six other students have been chosen to be tested on-"

"Wait, wait, wait. I'm going to be tested on?" I asked in alarm, my eyes widening.

"Hang on, I wasn't finished. The tests will see if the chemicals scientists mixed together will give you special abilities. I suspect you've noticed that crime rate is going up in our city, and we are trying to put together a team of students to fight it."

I inhaled sharply. This was what I had been waiting for, what I had wanted for almost all of my life. And now, my dreams were becoming reality. Finally. "Why students? Why not grown ups?"

"We need younger people to do it. Also, you aren't known by too many people, so they won't find out your identity as easily." He waited for me to respond. When I didn't he continued talking. "This Saturday you will be taken to a facility where they will do the tests. This is mandatory, be there. And tell no one about this."

"Wait... will Riley be one too?" I asked in confusion.

"No. We needed to take to her about the paintball gun." he explained, shrugging.

"Ah. I see."

He nodded before telling me to leave. I walked out and closed the door behind me. I saw Riley coming out of Mr. Gretlint's office. "Paintball?"

"Paintball." she agreed. "Come on, let's get to our classes."

We went our separate ways to our classes. Great. One hour left of Biology. At least it was better than the full one-and-a-half hours. All we did today was take notes. Which left plenty of time for me to zone out and think about what had just happened. I was going to get powers. I had spent my whole life imagining what it would be like to have powers, but lately that dream had faded away. Now it was back in full swing, but there was no way I would be talking about this to other people this time.

Thinking about this made Biology pass much faster than it usually would have, which left me to go to my last class of the day. Art. I loved Art Class, even though Riley wasn't in it. I had other friends in this class, Katelyn Neill, for instance. She and I got along well, and pretty much didn't know anyone else in the class. I couldn't really concentrate, but I could concentrate enough to enjoy this class. We were practicing calligraphy with black ink, and I stroked the thin paintbrush up to start making the letter "A". I raised the brush to complete the letter at looked over at Katelyn. She was starting the letter "C", bringing the brush to complete the curve. She sat up straight and said, "I was told you and Riley went to the principal's office. Why?"

I racked my brain to come up with something fake to tell her. "Um, just about the National Honor Society."

"Oh okay." she resumed painting the letters, and I dipped my paintbrush in the black ink. I only reached the letter "L" before my art teacher, Mrs. Livingtern, came by to check on Katelyn and I. She had been helping another student so she wasn't able to walk around and look at other student's work. She inspected our work over our shoulders before saying, "Good work girls, keep it up. Once you finish the letters you can start on the numbers. One through fifty, remember. If you finish that you can write some sentences you make up."

"Alright." Katelyn acknowledged her, and turned back to her calligraphy. I nodded and continued my art. The good thing was that my classmates were so engulfed in their work that they weren't talking much. That gave me even more time to think. The only thing I objected about the whole "powers" thing was that it was mandatory. We weren't given a choice. Of course, I wanted to do it so I would. Only two more school days to go.