To call him stubborn would be polite. Not that politeness mattered to him. Malcolm would probably describe himself as principled. Those closest to him, if there are any, would probably use different words, like narrow-minded and ridged. And while every team has a personality such as Malcolm's, it doesn't make understanding him any easier.

I stare daggers at our former instructor's back as he leaves the room, leaving the five of us to speak and learn more about each other. When the door closes behind him, I unclip the two steel balls from my waist and they start circling each other in the air above my open palm.

I look over the rest of the crew, to the right stands two figures, a pale skinned boy, our pyrokinetic, and a dark skinned girl, our hydrokinetic. To the left, is a bulky, sturdily made boy, our shifter. Lastly, in the back is Malcolm, everybody's heard of the tan boy who was top our class, narrowly beating my score.

I heard he used his mind control to make his first instructor think she was a chicken...

Did you know that he came with a police escort...

Whispers reached my ears throughout the years of training at the academy about a boy with telepathic abilities so strong he could be the next Chief Commander.

"Yo Teli! You got the hots for our commander there? You've been staring at him for a while." I look at Alex, narrowing my eyes in a practiced glare.

"Shut up, Pyro!" I cross my arms and move the steel balls so they're circling above my head. "I'm just trying to figure out what all the fuss is about."

Malcom finally looks up and his eyes glaze over. My blood begins to boil, but I hold back my anger and laugh. "Everyone knows that telepathic abilities don't affect telekinetics."

Malcolm rises and crosses his arms, mimicking my posture. "And everyone knows that telekinetics can't control telepaths." He raises an eyebrow in challenge, but there's a reason I was ranked second.

"You're right, I can't move your body like I can with others." I turn my attention to Alex again and flick my wrist, his fist goes flying and hits himself in the nose. I look back at Malcolm and smile. "But I can move what you're wearing."

I release the balls, they fall to the ground with a metallic clang ringing through the room. I reach out with both hands, grabbing Malcolm's jacket and jeans with my powers, and pull him in quickly until our chests are nearly touching. "Don't think for a second that you're better than us just because you're a telepath with mind control."

I release Malcolm and expect him to take a step back, but instead he steps forward so there's no more space between us. "I wouldn't dream of it." He whispers in my ear then finally steps back. "What's you name? Or would you prefer we call you 'Teli'?"

I pick the balls up off the ground with my mind and send them circling around my waist, close enough to my body that I can feel the wind they generate. "The name's Ana, and it would do all of you a lot of good to forget the name 'Teli'."