Both Nay and Dex were on my case about getting better. They both knew how quickly I healed, but this didn’t matter to them. As soon as we got back to the DAU, I had to get into bed. Right after Dex wrapped me up, of course.

That sure was awkward. Me, only in my bra, being wrapped up in gauze by Dex. Who was Dex.

I thought he would be immature about it. I thought he would laugh and make fun of me, but he didn’t. He acted like a complete gentlemen, and it wasn’t something I was expecting from him. I really thought he was going to act like a little kid, but I was the one that was acting more like a child than he was. Maybe because that made it easier for me to deal with all this.

“Stop squirming,” he scolded every time I moved. “Squirming around is only going to make this harder for both of us.”

It was already difficult enough. My squirming was not going to make a difference.

“Damn it, Violet,” he spat when I continued to move. “Stop fucking moving.”

“Do you have to swear?” I had to ask, moving even more just for the heck of it.

“I do when you won’t stop moving!”

I didn’t see the appeal of swearing. Sure, I’d do it every so often, but never as much as Dex. I only ever really said hell or damn. I couldn’t remember the last time I had used to F word, if I ever even had.

“It hurts,” I nearly whimpered, and this caused Dex to immediately become gentler as he continued to wrap the gauze around my abdomen.

I wasn’t bleeding anymore. The wound had healed that much on its own. But it still really hurt, especially when you applied pressure onto it.

When he was finally finished, the gauze was so tight that I could hardly breathe. Dex saw this and tried to loosen it, but that only irritated my wound even more, so he stopped and just left it as it was.

“Are you okay?” he asked me once he was finally finished, his big hands on either side of my bandaged abdomen. They were really warm, even though the multiple layers of gauze.

“Yes,” I answered honestly.

“You sure?” he continued now, not removing his hands from my sides.

“Yes, Dex,’ I assured. I now placed my hands on his to try to pull them away, but he was too strong, and he wouldn’t let go of me. And I didn’t really mind.

His hands were rough, but they still felt nice. They weren’t rough enough to hurt me when I held them, but they were definitely a contrast to my soft ones. They were so big, but not freakishly big. They fit the rest of his body perfectly. 

I then remembered that I wasn’t wearing a shirt. I was only in my bra with gauze wrapped around me, and none of this passed for a shirt in the slightest. I could have been naked and it would basically be the same.

“You’re turning red,” Dex pointed out, and this only made me turn even redder.

“You're really warm,” I whispered, unable to control myself.

He looked down at my bandages and then back at my face. “So are you.”

We were so close that I could have kissed him if I wanted to. And the scariest part was… I think I did want to.

I hadn’t ever felt something like this before. I didn’t know what it was like to actually want to kiss someone. Dex had been the only person I had ever kissed, and I didn’t even kiss him back. I had no idea how to kiss back.

“What would you do,” he started, his breath tickling my face, “if I kissed you right now?”

I found myself biting the inside of my lip before finally saying, “I don’t know.”

But that seemed like an acceptable answer to Dex. His hands moved from my sides to the small of my back, causing chills to move up my spine. I no longer thought about the gash on my side.

This was going to happen. My eyes fluttered shut, and I leaned forward. But that was all I knew how to do. I really hoped that Dex did everything else and didn’t realize how bad I was at all of this.

The door suddenly opened before our lips could touch. Dex immediately pulled away from me, and I now felt cold. It was a really strange feeling, honestly.

When I saw that it was Anthony, I let out a little yelped and grabbed my shirt from the other side of the bed. I did not need two boys to see me in my underwear, thank you very much.

“What are you doing in here?” Dex demanded, waiting for me to get my shirt back on before he continued. “And why the hell didn’t you knock?”

Anthony did not look as afraid of Dex as he usually did. “Nay wants to see you,” he informed Dex simply. “And I didn’t think you two would be doing something in here that would require me to have to knock. Sorry about that.”

The darker boy rolled his eyes as he got off my bed. “Of course she does,” he simply grumbled, obviously very unhappy. He then turned back toward me. “You’ll be okay, right?”

I nodded. “Yeah. I’ll be fine.”

Dex didn’t look like he believed me, but I knew he had to do what Nay said, considering how uptight she had been being. None of us wanted to be on her bad side. Hopefully she would get a little happier as a couple days passed… I didn’t know what we would do if she didn’t.

Anthony smirked at me once Dex finally left. “So…”

I rolled my eyes. “Shut up.”

“You should go to bed, Violet,” Anthony advised me now, laughing and patting me on the head and pushing himself up off my bed. “Your injury will be better in the morning, I’m sure. But we won’t be able to know that unless you go to bed now. But it should get better.”

I hoped it would. If my broken ankle could heal over night, I was sure my scrape would be able to as well.

Anthony left my room and I carefully pulled the covers over my body. I was stuck lying on my back all night, and that was going to be very uncomfortable if I didn’t fall asleep right away. Also, there was a huge chance that Dex would come back if I wasn’t asleep, and I didn’t think I’d be able to face him right away.

I didn’t want to think about this anymore. So I did as Anthony suggested and went to sleep. And I was out so quickly that I didn’t even know that Dex had checked on me only five minutes later to make sure I was okay.

When I woke up in the morning, I didn't know how I was supposed to feel. I didn't know if I was going to be in pain or not. So I wasn't really surprised when I felt nothing at all.

I removed my covers and lifted my shirt. I was covered in gauze, so I had no idea how the wound looked. But considering I didn't feel any pain at all, I was sure it looked perfectly fine.

But I didn't remove the gauze. I didn't want to upset Nay. She was really serious about me healing completely before I did anything.

I removed my shirt and the bandages, surprised when I saw that that the gash wasn’t completely gone. Instead, it only looked like I had been scraped and it was mostly healed. There was no longer any pain.

I quickly changed into new clothing for the day and made my way out into the hallway. I was barely even able to take two steps before I nearly rammed right into Lena.

“What are you doing here?” I asked her, my eyes going wide.

Lena looked just as uncaring as she always did. “I want to hang out with you,” she answered me simply. “It’s the same reason I always come over here. Do you really think I’d visit my aunt that much? Sure, I love her, but I don’t need to see her all the time.”

I guess she was right. But it was still weird to think that someone actually wanted to spend time with me. I still wasn’t used to that, and I wondered if I ever would be.

“Nay doesn’t want me going anywhere today,” I informed the blonde now, since it was the truth. “She said that my teammates and I have a free day, but we’re not allowed to leave until I’m completely healed.”

Lena eyed my injury, even though it was covered by my shirt. “You’re not healed yet?”

I shrugged. “It’s mostly healed already,” I began to explain. “But it’s still pink and looks kind of like a scrape. I think it takes a little longer for flesh wounds to heal.”

Lena looked like this made no sense to her, but it didn’t really make much sense to me either. I still didn’t know why I healed so quickly, and Hank and Nay both wouldn’t tell me. Our kind might have been able to heal quickly, but even this quickly was strange.

“Come on, Violet.” Lena rolled her eyes at me and placed her hand on her hip. “Live a little.”

Living was what got me the scar on my side. I would have loved to have a nice relaxing day at the DAU. But I guess that wish wasn't going to be granted. 

“I know you’re not that close to them and all, but what if I get the rest of your teammates to join?” she now suggested, but this didn’t sound any better. When she saw Kristie and Aiden making their way down the hallway toward us, she smiled at them. That was sure weird to see. “Hi, guys! Do you want to go hang out with Violet and me?”

Kristie immediately said yes, but Aiden didn’t look so sure. But I knew that he was going to do whatever Kristie wanted, so he was going to come along.

Anthony now came out of his room, and I let out a groan. Couldn’t he just stay in his room for, like… the rest of the day? I would have like that. It might have saved me from having to go out with all of them.

I really hoped Dex decided to sleep in for a long time today so this wouldn’t become the most awkward family outing ever.

“Hey, smarty,” Lena called out to him. “You want to go out with us?”

Just like Aiden, Anthony didn’t look very sure at first, but then agreed. Were none of them aware that we were allowed to leave at all today? Nay had told us specifically the day before that we couldn’t leave the DAU! Were we all going to just ignore that?

Somehow knowing where Dex’s room was, Lena banged on his door over and over again until he finally answered it after the thirtieth bang.

“Hiya, princess,” he greeted Lena sleepily once he opened the door, rubbing his face. “What have I done to get this wonderful visit from you?”

Lena smirked. “We’re going out. Hurry up and get dressed.”

Dex ignored her and looked right at me. He was still half asleep as he said, “Are you okay? Are you feeling better?”

My breath caught in my throat and I forgot how to speak. Lena gave us both a look, but said nothing.

I nodded. “I’m fine. It’s almost completely healed.”

Dex nodded, then made his way back into his room to get ready to leave. I just stood there, surprised over what had just happened, and I ignored the look Lena was giving me.

Dex was adorable half asleep. And I never thought I would actually use the words Dex and adorable in the same sentence before then.

When Dex was finally ready, we all piled into Lena’s car, even though there weren’t enough seats for all of us. She let Dex sit in the front while Kristie, Aiden, and I sat in the back, Anthony draped over our laps. I felt very unsafe even though I was in a seat with a seatbelt on.

“Why did we agree to this?” Aiden muttered to me as we drove over a bump.

Anthony rolled his eyes and muttered back, “Because Dex wants to get into Lena’s pants.”

I made a face, but said nothing. I did not want to think about anything like that, but I should have expected such talk from boys.

The rest of the ride was silent, not counting the music Lena started blasting. No one told her to turn it off in fear that she would blast us with ice if we did. Only Kristie seemed to enjoy Lena’s music choice.

And when a new song started playing that wasn’t quite like the rest, Lena scrambled to skip it. But it was too late, because everyone in the car already knew what it was. At least, everyone except me.

“You like One Direction?” Dex asked, a wicked grin growing on his face.

Lena shook her head violently as she continued to drive. “No, no! That wasn’t my song! That wasn’t mine!”

Aiden laughed. “Then whose was it, then?”

Lena had no answer to this, and I was still confused. I had no idea what any of them were talking about, and this must have been evident, because Dex turned around in his seat and asked, “What? What’s with that look on your face?”

“I don’t know who One Direction is,” I answered honestly.

Lena practically stepped on the breaks and shouted, “What?”

“Well, that just answered every question we had,” Dex muttered, and Lena glared at him before facing the road once again.

“Who’s One Direction?” I questioned now, growing curious.

Dex rolled his eyes at me. “You really have been living in your room for five years.”

I only puffed out my cheeks and stopped talking to him. There was no point in arguing. We all knew I had missed out on a lot of things from being locked in my room for so long.

“Didn’t you have a computer when you were locked in there?” Anthony asked me from my lap now. “And a TV? I saw them in there when we came to get you.”

Dex rolled his eyes from the front seat. “Of course you would remember that.”

“He has a photographic memory,” Aiden reminded our strong teammate, even though I knew Dex hadn’t said this because he had forgotten our smart teammate’s power. “Of course he would remember what he saw in Violet’s room.”

“But anyway,” Anthony continued now, bringing my attention back to him and off of Aiden and Dex. “Didn’t you have those things? How could you have a computer with internet and a TV with cable and not know what One Direction is?”

I looked at everyone who was staring at me in the car. I felt very uncomfortable. “I didn’t look up or watch those types of things,” I informed them truthfully. “My TV didn’t have many channels and I didn’t use my computer all that much except for schoolwork. I’ve never heard of One Direction.”

“They’re just a really popular band of all boys,” Anthony answered simply, readjusting himself on all of our laps. “Kind of like Hello Aria, The Wanted, and a bunch of other bands I couldn't care enough about to pay attention to what their names are.”

I didn’t dare say that I didn’t know who those other two bands were, so I only nodded and let the subject drop. Now, the rest of the car ride was silent. Lena didn’t dare play any of her CDs.

When we pulled into the parking lot of wherever Lena had taken us, she was still angry about the whole music incident. She was the first one to get out, and then Anthony, considering he was on top of us.

When I finally got out, I wasn’t really surprised to see that she had taken us to the worst place possible. A roller rink. There was just one problem.

I didn’t know how to roller skate.

Lena had to practically drag me in and get my skates for me. I put them on myself, because I didn’t want to be so pathetic that I needed someone to put on my shoes for me.

“Let's have some fun,” Lena smirked, though I didn’t think that having fun here was going to be possible. When I didn’t move, she grabbed onto my arm and yanked me forward. “Come on!”

This was a bad idea. I hadn’t ever gone roller skating before, and it did not look like something that was easy to do. Knowing my luck, this wasn’t going to end well.

I didn’t know how long we were on the rink, honestly. I clung onto the railing for dear life, never letting go because I knew I’d fall if I did. Meanwhile, Lena was skating backwards beside me the entire time.

Dex was waiting for us after the four time I went around the rink. He didn’t have any skates on, and I knew he wasn’t going to get any. This obviously wasn’t his type of thing, but that didn’t surprise me.

“You want to get us drinks?” Lena asked him flirtatiously, leaning over the railing to be closer to him.

Dex gave her a look, and then turned toward me. “Fine,” he agreed, turning away from us and making his way toward the snack bar.

“He is so hot.” Lena shook her head and leaned against the railing. “You’re so lucky that you get to see him every single day and even sleep in the same place as him.”

I didn’t really know how to respond to this. “It’s not all that great,” I merely shrugged.

She gave me a look I couldn’t read, and then continued skating slowly around the rink. I followed after her, my hand still on the railing. I nearly fell, but continued on going anyway.

“You know,” she started with a sigh, seemingly unaware that I could barely keep up with her, “I think I’m going to stop hitting on Dex. He just doesn’t seem like my type at all.”

I was shocked. I didn’t even know Lena was the kind of girl that had a type. She seemed like the kind of girl that just liked a guy if he was hot. But why would she just give up on Dex when she had been obviously interested in him for so long?

As if reading my mind, Lena simply said, “I’m not going to go after a guy that likes my best friend.”

This nearly knocked me off my feet, and it was a lot easier to do that now, considering the skates I was wearing. Seeing the shock on my face made Lena laugh, and she continued on skating. I just followed right after her, not bringing this subject up again because I knew Lena had ended it. She didn’t want to talk about it any longer.

A boy whistled as we rolled by him. Lena ignored it, and it took all my strength not to look over to see who it was. Honestly, it could have been any guy there that had eyes. They would have been stupid not to whistle.

“Is this, like, a regular thing for you?” I demanded, grasping onto the railing once we came to a stop. I then glanced across the ring to see three boys talking to Kristie, and I made a face. “Is this a regular thing for the both of you?”

Lena shrugged, as if it was no big deal that random boys would just hit on her every time she went outside. This definitely wasn’t something I was used to. It probably wasn’t something I’d ever get used to.

As if on cue, two boys rolled to a stop beside us. They didn’t even look at me; their eyes were stuck on Lena. But I kind of preferred it that way.

They weren’t exactly the best dressed. One had very long dirty blonde hair while the other had short brown hair, which were both very greasy looking. I would have loved to shove them in a shower.

“Hey,” the dirty blonde one greeted. He seemed to be the leader of the two boys. “How you doing?”

Lena did not seem impressed. “I’m good.”

“You want to come hang out with us?” the brunette asked her now, and I let out a sigh. I was very tempted to just roll away, if I knew how to without falling. “You’re super cute.”

“Sorry,” Lena apologized, even though she obviously wasn’t sorry, “but I’m not interested.”

I was reminded of the last time Lena had gotten hit on in public. That had caused us to get in a fight at the mall. If I got into another physical altercation, we would be caught by Hank and Nay for sure, and then we’d never be allowed to leave the DAU ever again.

“What about you?” the brunette one now asked me, and I felt very insulted for being their second choice. “You want to come with us?”

“Uh, no thanks,” I declined, forcing myself to turn around and roll toward the exit of the rink, my hand on the rail the entire time. I knew coming here would be a bad idea.

Lena followed after me, but so did the two boys. I expected as much, so I wasn’t as freaked out as I would have been when I first joined the DAU. I was used to strange people talking to me and following me now.

Lena and I got off the rink, along with the boys. I was just about to spin on them and tell them that we wanted nothing to do with them until someone else beat me to it.

“Hey,” Dex called out, stepping in front of us and shielding us from the two dirty boys. “You heard them, didn’t you? They want to be left alone.”

The leader of the two boys tried to size himself up to Dex. That was no good, considering Dex was huge. But this didn’t stop the boy from asking, “You want to take this outside?”

Well, that escalated quickly.

This was bad. This was way bad. We might have had powers, but if we got into any trouble, we’d be caught by Hank and Nay and we would definitely get into trouble for sneaking out. Dex better control his temper and stay where he was!

“Sure.”

It wasn’t Dex that had accepted this proposal, but Lena instead. I nearly fell over, not believing that she had just said that we would go outside with them.

As if my teammates sensed that something was wrong, they followed right after us toward the exit. Kristie left the multiple boys fawning over her, Aiden stopped glaring at those multiple boys, and Anthony left the arcade. They could tell that something was about to happen and we might have needed their help.

I kicked my roller-skates off, not wanting to get in trouble for having them on outside of the rink. The rest of my teammates, Lena, and the two boys did so as well, though they were able to do it a lot quicker than I could.

I felt myself blanch. “We're going to die.”

Lena rolled her eyes at me. “We're not going to die.”

We all looked absolutely ridiculous on asphalt in our socks. We looked like we had no idea what we were doing. Shoes weren’t exactly necessary, but they definitely would have looked nice.

I didn’t know why I was so afraid. This fight should have ended in about fifteen seconds. The boys would throw a punch, and then we’d use our powers and they would probably run off, afraid. But for some reason, now just felt… different.

Suddenly, something shot from the leader boy’s finger, as if he had a gun. He aimed right at Anthony, who obviously seemed like the weakest link, even though that was me. Anthony easily sped out of the way, and the two boys seemed more impressed than they did surprised.

The dirty blonde punk smirked at us. “Looks like we got a fight with people like us!” he laughed to his friend. “This ought to be fun, huh? We finally get a fair fight!”

There were six of us and two of them, but I still felt like we were outnumbered. Something about these boys reminded me of Malicius and Lynx. They were definitely Redrum material.

“Out of everyone at this place, you choose them,” Dex groaned, pissed off at this new inconvenience. “Out of all the people here, you choose guys with powers!”

“It's not like I was supposed to know,” she spat back at him. “It's not like I can tell who had powers or not! And they were the ones that came up to me!”

“But you were the one who agreed to come out here!”

“Okay, there's no use in fighting about this!” I cried out before it could continue on. “We have other things we have to worry about right now!”

Suddenly, the brunette boy shot sludge out from his hands, right at Kristie. She wasn’t able to react in time, so she was covered in the brownish-green goop. She screamed, obviously disgusted.

“Sludge,” I couldn’t help but comment to the brunette. “Why am I not surprised? Fits you pretty well.”

This seemed to anger him, because he then directed a new sludge-ball right at me. But I knew better than to not react to it, so when it was shot at me, I lifted my hand and used my telekinesis to shoot it back right at him.

He wasn’t expecting this in the slightest, so he didn’t even bother to protect himself. I couldn’t help but smirk as he wiped his eyes free of the gunk. He snarled at me and I smiled sweetly.

He was then distracted by Aiden, who attacked him, so I turned to see what the other boy was doing. He was in the middle of going at it with Dex and Lena, while Anthony and Aiden were still with the brunette boy. What was I supposed to do?

I looked over at Kristie, who looked like she had absolutely no idea what she was supposed to do. I could have helped her.

Nah. It was about time she didn’t look perfect.

The fights between these groups didn’t last too long, mostly because Aiden was so preoccupied with Kristie that he was easily covered in the disgusting sludge as well, deeming him pretty much useless.

“Hey, telekin-whatever-girl!” the brunette now shouted at me, and before I could even react to whatever nickname he had just given me, I was suddenly being covered in his disgusting sludge. I didn’t scream like Kristie had, but I grew very angry as I wiped the guck from my eyes.

Lifting my hand, I sent the brunette shooting back into a wall. He let out a shout as he smashed against the wall, but I wasn’t finished with him yet. I removed him from the wall for only a second before slamming him against it again.

I didn’t know what I was doing. I had no control. All I knew was that this felt good.

“Violet!” I heard Aiden shout at me. “Stop it! What are you doing?”

I dropped the brunette onto the ground now, and he had some trouble pushing himself up off the ground. He obviously didn’t think that that was something I was capable of, and neither was had. How had I even done that?

Our enemies now regrouped so that they were now next to each other. It looked like it was a fight between all of us now.

But when both of them suddenly dropped, I didn’t know what we were supposed to do. I didn’t know why they had fallen. But they were completely out cold, and I was glad. I was glad that the fight was finally over. But then when I looked up, and I saw two very pissed off faces, I wasn’t so sure I was happy about this any longer.

“The six of you are in big trouble,” Nay growled, and then pointed behind her. “Get into the RV. Now!”

We scattered, doing as Nay said. We did not want to anger her even more than we already had. She might have killed us if we did, and I knew that she was capable of doing so.

“Not you, Lena,” I could hear our female mentor snap at her niece behind us now. “You’re going to get into your car and go home. I’ll deal with you later.”

She then let Lena go and told Hank to erase these boys’ memories. They didn’t need to remember something like this, especially since they had no idea what the DAU or Redrum was. And I sure hoped it stayed that way, since we all knew what they would have joined.

“Do you really think I’m going to let the three of you in here when you’re covered in… that?” RV asked, sounding absolutely repulsed at the fact that we even thought we could go inside. “That’s absolutely disgusting!”

“RV,” Nay shouted as she made her way into the RV. “If you don’t let them inside, I’m going to dismember you myself and sell your parts!”

This sure shut RV up, and the three of us that were covered in sludge were allowed on the RV. Not that we really wanted to be there.

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I really don't like this chapter. It's really sloppy and just bleh because I have midterms tomorrow I really have to study for.

So I'm going to submit this into the Watty Awards, once it's finished, of course. :D

Please COMMENT, VOTE, and FAN! :)