I'd heard of that word before. Telekinesis. Wasn't it where you could lift things with your mind or something? Gosh, wouldn't that be cool? And I was going to have it!

My spine tingled as I thought about the abilities I was going to get- and the power I already had. If I could find a powerful enough light source in the office room, I could shine it through the page of that odd book and (hopefully) find out where the clues were and the information about the powers. It would help significantly; once we received these abilities, we would know their special uses and how to screw with Whoever Was Conducting This Experiment.

Glancing around the office room once more, I saw no lamps or reading lights I could use, and I couldn't use the chandelier in the center without looking suspicious- not only to the teenagers I was in here with, but to any far away onlookers as well (surely there were cameras... this was an experiment, after all).

There. When you looked closer at the armchair, it had a compartment with a lightbulb symbol on it. Walking over, I sat down and pressed on it. It gave slightly and then popped out with a reading light on a cord, one of those powerful small ones old people use. Perfect. I could pretend I was searching through each book on the bookshelf and actually just look through this one book. Surely it wouldn't be too suspicious?

Standing up, I almost slid the book out from under the chair before realizing it would be too suspicious. There was no way I could get this book to the bookshelf and back without the people watching us seeing very clearly what I was up to. I'd have to go and get a couple of random books from the bookshelf, skip through them with the reading light, and then switch them with the book I actually wanted to read. Eventually, I'd have a stack of books around me, as I would have to keep reading more and more books to make my story straight. It was my best shot at getting us out of here.

I walked over to the bookshelf and picked out a couple of books. They all looked pretty boring, with titles like "How to Raise Chickens: A 500-Step Guide" and "Checkmate: The Science Behind Chess". Not exactly something I'd read on a daily basis. Nevertheless, I carried them over to the chair and sat down, opening the aforementioned chicken book and grabbing the reading light.

"Hey hey hey hey hey, Carson, get your butt off that chair and help us look! Just because you're feeling a bit tired doesn't mean you can sit down and read all day," Parker hissed, ripping the book out of my hands.

"I'm trying to help, stupid! The perfect place to hide one of these clues is in one of those books, right? No one would ever take the time to look through them; that's why it's such a smart place." I snatched my book back, scowling, and opened it back up to somewhere in the middle. Parker glared at me for a moment before retreating to where he was searching before.

"Carson! Why are you sitting there reading! How about helping-"

"Shut up already! I just explained this to Parker. I'm not explaining it again." I stared down Delilah angrily until she turned away, muttering.

I glanced at Dakota. "Are you going to complain too?"

He watched me with amusement twinkling in his eyes. "Nope. I'm good."

"Good," I huffed, turning my gaze back to the book. I read through a page, skipped a ton of pages, and read through another until the book was over. I put the book down on top of the other two and jiggled the "Future" one out of the bottom. Finally. Opening it, I came upon the same table of contents I was met with earlier. I flipped to the first page, grabbed the reading light, leaned back in the chair, tilted the book towards my face, made a gap between the page and the other pages, and shined the reading light onto it. I was met with these words.

Fly: Clue refers to the subject's ability to grow large wings depending on the size of their body of various colors and patterns. The wings are engineered to grow quickly at first, possibly causing the subject a great deal of pain, before leveling out to adjust to their body type. Because of this, it is recommended to conduct this procedure on the subject while they are unconscious.

Yikes. So I was going to become this weird bird-creature? That's just... awesome. No sarcasm intended. Seriously. The not-so-awesome part was the whole "great deal of pain" thing. Hopefully, it wouldn't be as bad as the writing made it out to be.

The next page was about the science behind it, and I completely skipped over it. Knowing what chemical compounds were being injected into my blood would never help me through my current situation or any future one.

Moving on. At the very end of the chapter, there was the location the clue could be found. It said exactly where we had found it. Ability is given to the child who finds the clue in the cracks of the roof, looking up from the west side of the room while facing east.

Okay, before I went to the next chapter, I had to switch books and skim through one of the other ones a little bit. "Money". That was possibly the most time I've ever wasted before, and it probably wasn't even that long. Nevertheless, I carefully switched the books once more and flipped to the next chapter of Future.

"Ultra Strength". This clue refers to the subjects' ability to gain a 130.27814% increase in strength. When the serum is injected, the muscles of the subject will enlarge quickly before their development slows, causing them great pain. Like the subject of the "Fly" serum, it is recommended that the procedure is conducted while the subject is unconscious.

Delightful. Can't wait for someone to get that power. Now, onto-

"Going up!" A voice shouted as a harness clamped around my chest underneath my shoulders. I yelled and fought it as it slowly lifted me through a circular gap in the roof. I watched from above as the three teenagers below me looked up in horror as the hole in the roof slowly closed.