Bright and early Monday morning, Hank and Nay had us up before we usually were and had us meet in the meeting room before getting ready for school.

We stood there, all of us in our pajamas as we waited for Hank and Nay. My eyes would droop shut as I rested my cheek in my hand.

Usually, I could be a morning person. But right then, it was just too early for any teenager in their right mind to be awake. Especially when they had to go to school in what felt like such a short amount of time.

“Hey, Violet,” Anthony called out to me from across the table we were sitting at. “You might as well wake up since we’re going to school after this.”

“Hell no,” Dex scowled, answering for me. “There’s no way I’m getting ready and going to school after this. I’m going back to bed, no matter what time we get out of here.”

“I agree,” I nodded, giving Dex a tired fist bump.

“Come on,” Anthony grinned. “It’s a beautiful morning.”

I made a face. “I hate that you’re a morning person.”

Anthony rolled his eyes, but was unable to say anything to me when Hank and Nay entered the room. They were way too properly groomed and dress for this hour. They also seemed very awake and I just didn’t understand how that was even possible. What time did they get up to get ready, or did they always look this good?

“Good morning,” Nay greeted, smiling when she noticed how the only one who was fine with being away was Anthony. Kristie was even snoozing with her head in her arms. Aiden elbowed her in the side to wake her up.

“It’s nice to see you all so bright and chipper on this fine morning,” Hank smiled, and I knew he was just acting this way so he could waste as much of our sleeping time as he possibly could. “You’re all always such a delight to work with.”

“Get on with it,” I grunted, my head nearly falling off the hand I was resting it on.

“Alright, alright,” Hank laughed. It was too early in the morning to laugh. “We just thought we’d tell you guys that we have an announcement.”

“You better be engaged,” Aiden groaned. “There’s nothing else you could say that’d make it acceptable to be up this early. Even an engagement’s pushing it.”

“Are you running off and getting married?” Kristie questioned groggily now. “Because that’s a reason to be up this early in the morning. Or have you already gotten married and this is how you’re going to tell us?”

Nay rolled her eyes. “We’re not engaged, and haven’t eloped and we’re not going to. This announcement had much more to do with you all than it does with Hank and me.”

Aiden immediately perked up. “A new mission?” he asked, sounding much like a dog excited over a ball.

Nay shook her head. “No, not a new mission.”

“Why can’t we have a real mission?” Aiden complained. “We’ve been stuck at that high school for weeks and I’ve been going insane.”

“You stopped the robbers at a jewelry store,” Hank reminded him.

This didn’t make Aiden any happier. “But I barely even did anything!”

“And whose fault is that?” Dex snapped. “You’ve just got to move faster.”

“Anthony’s the one with speed, not me!”

Nay rolled her eyes at my teammates. “Aiden, you attending high school is a mission.”

Aiden still was not happy with this. “But it’s a boring mission!”

“It’s not boring for Violet,” Kristie giggled. “She has a boyfriend!”

This definitely woke Dex and me up immediately. “I don’t have a boyfriend!” I shouted at the same time Dex shouted, “She doesn’t have a boyfriend!”

Both Hank and Nay gave each other concerned looks before turning back toward me. “Violet,” Nay began, her tone serious. “You have a boyfriend?”

“No,” I denied immediately, repeating myself. “I don’t have a boyfriend.”

“She just likes this guy,” Aiden continued for me, glancing over at Dex with a sly grin. “She likes this guy a lot.”

“I don’t see why this is important,” Dex said, his glare never leaving Aiden. “It’s not like she could ever be with the guy.”

My hands on my hips, I was the one glaring at Dex now. “And why not, Dex? There have been human and superhuman relationships that have worked out.”

“It’s still against the rules,” he shrugged, as if he was suddenly the kind of guy that cared about rules.

I wasn’t in the mood to argue about this with him. It was early in the morning and I wanted to go back to sleep. Kristie had already passed out again with her head in her arms.

“Just how serious are you about this boy, Violet?” Nay questioned, her eyebrows furrowing in concern.

“I’m not—I don’t—” I didn’t even know what I was supposed to say. “I can’t—I won’t—I just—”

Anthony leaned over to Nay and whispered, “I think you broke her.”

“I’m not broken!” I shouted, biting down on my tongue when I realized how loud I had been. “And I’m not serious about him! We... We just met a few months ago!”

“People can fall in love in that short amount of time,” Hank informed me, and then snuck a glance at Nay, but she wasn’t even looking at him. “You and this boy could be pretty serious.”

We’d been on one date. We hadn’t even kissed. We weren’t at all serious. Sure, we both admitted we felt this weird connection toward each other, but that didn’t mean we were serious, right?

“She says they’re not serious, so they’re not serious,” Dex said for me, and I was glad because my tongue felt too heavy to actually speak. 

Hank let out a sigh. “Whatever you say, Dex.”

“Anyway,” Nay sighed, obviously annoyed that they had been sidetracked by useless teenage gossip. “Back to the announcement we had.”

I had absolutely no idea what they possibly had in store for us. If it wasn’t a mission, what could it possibly be?

“In the next few days, I’m not exactly sure when, we’re going to be having a visitor,” Hank explained. “We just wanted to inform you so you didn’t freak out when you saw a random person in this part of the DAU.”

Aiden blinked. “Who’s the visitor?”

Nay let out a sigh. “They wanted us to keep it a surprise.”

Aiden immediately deflated. Obviously, he didn’t want to wait for this mysterious visitor to show up. He wanted to know who it was right away. And so did I...

“Alright, you can go back to bed now,” Nay dismissed with a wave of her hand. “You guys have another hour until you have to get up for school.”

I didn’t understand why they had to get us up so early just for that small announcement, but I wasn’t about to argue with them. I practically ran all the way back to my room and immediately fell asleep once my head hit the pillow. 

School went by like it normally did, though I couldn’t help but feel a little awkward around Tom as I remembered the conversation we had had that morning. Tom and I weren’t serious, but... did I want us to be?

As I walked down the hallway by myself once school was finally over, I found myself lost in my thoughts. I liked Tom; there was no denying that. And I thought he liked me to, though I couldn’t have been sure because he never really said it. But he did say he felt a connection with me, and I agreed on that one hundred percent. 

Boys were so complicated. I barely even understood the human race in a whole, but the male species was definitely harder to understand than the female one was.

As I continued to make my way down the hall, Dex was suddenly at my side. I nearly jumped; had he somehow used his invisibility to sneak up beside me, or was I just not paying attention?

When I suddenly rammed right into a trash can, I knew I wasn’t paying attention.

“No lover boy today?” Dex asked, not even looking at me.

I glared at him. “No, he had to retake a rest.”

“So he’s a dumbass.”

“Dex, you just retook a test last week.”

Dex said nothing to this, knowing that I was right. I simply huffed and we continued on our way down the hall. 

As we approached Anthony, we noticed that he wasn’t alone, and he wasn’t with the superhumans we had come to school with. 

“Hi, Anthony,” I greeted once Dex and I got close enough to them.

“Hey, guys,” Anthony nodded, gesturing over to smaller the boy standing beside him. “This is Freddie, a friend of mine.”

“You have friends?” I blinked, and then realized how awful what I had said actually sounded. “I mean... You have friends that aren’t us?”

Anthony rolled his eyes. “You’re friends with Tom, aren’t you?”

I felt my tongue tie. “I... I just...”

“Uh-oh,” Anthony grinned. “Looks like you broke again.”

I felt my face heat up. “I’m not broken!”

“Anyway, this us Violet and Dex,” Anthony introduced to Freddie. “They’re friends of mine and we all live in the same boarding house.”

It was a good thing we’d come up with the boarding house idea. It would have been weird if people found out we just lived with each other just because. 

I then noticed that Freddie was staring at me. And not the kind of staring that Tom did when we were in class, or the kind Dex did when I was in the exercise room, sweaty and determined. This guy was staring at me with eyes so wide I was afraid they might have fallen out of his sockets. 

“That mark on your shoulder,” he began suddenly, pointing to the birthmark I almost always forgot was there. “What is that?”

“What is that?” I repeated, not really understanding what he was saying. “What do you mean? It’s a birthmark.”

“A birthmark...” He reached out to touch it, but Dex took a step in between us to shield me. He towered over Freddie.

“She doesn’t like to be touched,” Dex lied once he realized what he was doing and Freddie gave him a weird look. He took a step away from us. “She’s scared of germs.”

I wanted to snap at Dex and tell him to stop lying, but thought better of it. Freddie was weirding me out a little bit anyway.

Freddie couldn’t take his eyes off my birthmark. “I can’t believe it,” he gasped. “I never thought I’d ever see someone with this mark in person.”

The way he was acting about this was strange. The only people that had ever paid any attention to the mark on my shoulder had been Hank and Nay. But thinking about it now... Even they were a little strange about it.

“What are you talking about, Freddie?” I questioned. “What’s so special about this? What is this mark supposed to mean?”

“It means you’re one of them.”

“I’m one of what?”

“The superhumans.”

I nearly choked on air. “What? What are you talking about?”

“But you’re not just any regular superhuman,” Freddie rambled on. “This mark on your shoulder proves it.”

Dex spoke now. “What are you talking about?”

“I’ve only ever seen drawings and stories,” Freddie continued, not really even paying attention to us or our questions as he stared at my shoulder. “My dad talked about them all the time. I never ever thought I’d actually see it. He never did.”

I was starting to get frustrated, and even a little frightened. “Freddie, what are you talking about?”

“People with these marks can do terrible, terrible things.”

I gulped. “Terrible things?”

Freddie nodded. “Unfathomable, unthinkable things.”

I wanted to ask more; I wanted to know what he knew. But before I could ask him any questions, a new voice cut us off.

“Hey, Fredster,” Nick greeted, clapping his hand down on Freddie’s shoulder. The boy froze. “How’s it going?”

“I’ve got to go.” The human boy dismissed himself before I could as any other questions.

I blinked at Nick. “Why did he seem so scared of you?” I asked.

He shrugged. “Maybe ’cause I joke around with him every once in a while.”

“Joke?” I couldn’t help but ask, wanting him to clarify.

“You know,” Nick started, looking like he didn’t care at all about what he was about to admit to, “shove him in some lockers or stuff him in a trash can. Harmless stuff like that.”

I blinked at him again. “Harmless?”

“I’m just screwing around,” Nick shrugged.

Anthony’s eyebrows furrowed at our ally. “You’re a bully.”

Nick matched Anthony’s angry stare. “And you’re dating the most beautiful girl in the school and yet I see you with Violet more than I see you with her.”

It took me a moment to realize he was talking about Lena, and I remembered the day at the diner when my friends had crashed my date. I’d never told Nick that nothing was going on between Lena and Anthony.

“Sorry, dude, but Lena doesn’t like guys who pick on other people,” Anthony informed him, his eyes narrowing even more. 

That’s because she was the one usually doing the picking...

“Yeah? Well, girls like it when their boyfriends actually seem to care about them,” Nick fought back, and Dex and I only looked at each other because neither of us knew what to do. “You’re always with Violet. What, you got a crush on her or something?”

Anthony seemed outraged at the thought. “I definitely do not!”

“You sure about that?” Nick grinned. “She’s a cutie.”

“Hey.” Dex finally spoke up. “Don’t call her that.”

I elbowed Dex in the side. “You’re supposed to say that when someone insults me, idiot.”

“That is an insult.”

“Do you need me to insult you so you know what a proper insult is?”

Dex ignored me and we both turned back to our squabbling friends.

“It’s not a bad thing if you have a crush on Violet,” Nick continued. “Guys with girlfriends like other girls all the time. It’s not weird. All you’ve got to do is break up with Lena.”

Anthony scowled. “Not going to happen.”

I could feel their disdain for each other grow. They needed to stop arguing about this, especially since Anthony wasn’t even actually dating Lena!

“You could date Violet,” Nick suggested again.

Dex spoke up now. “No, he couldn’t.”

We’d been through something like this before. Dex had gone quite some time thinking that I had feelings for Anthony due to misunderstandings on both of our parts. But mostly mine.

“Um, guys,” I finally decided to interrupt, tired of their bickering. “Sorry to crash your testosterone train, but can we discuss what just happened with Freddie?”

Nick grew confused. “What just happened with Freddie?”

I looked around to make sure no one was listening before I leaned in and whispered, “He just called me out about being a superhuman!”

I left the part about my birthmark out, since the information I had just learned freaked me out a little too much. 

“Freddie’s a freak.” Nick started down the hall and my friends and I followed after him. “He believes superhumans are real.”

I shot him a flat look. “They are real.”

“Yeah, well, he wants to prove their real and, like, dissect them or something.”

Dex gave our skinny teammate a look. “You couldn’t find any better friends?”

“His dad was, like, some weird superhuman hunter until he was locked up in some mental institution,” Nick continued to explained. “No one believed him and thought the poor guy was nuts. Well, except Freddie, obviously.”

I couldn’t help but feel a little bad for Freddie’s father. He was locked away for believing in something that was actually real.

“Now Fred seems to have his sights set on Violet.” Nick sighed and then turned toward Dex with a grin. “Not in that way, bro. You don’t have to worry about him.”

Dex scowled at the talkative boy. “I don’t have to worry about anyone.”

But when a familiar face rounded the corner, Nick’s grim grew. “You sure about that?”

“Tom!” I greeted with a smile. I immediately left my friends and rushed up to him. “You’re done with your test?”

He seemed happy to see me, and he smiled back. “Yeah, I am,” he answered. “I didn’t expect you to still be here, but I’m glad you are. You want to go do something?”

Yes, yes, I definitely did. Would this count as our second date, or would we just be hanging out? I honestly had no idea, but I knew I was going to have to figure out how all of this worked if I wanted to get anywhere with him.

“Sorry,” a new voice suddenly said, and I wasn’t surprised to see Dex take a step so that he was now right beside us. Anthony rolled his eyes from farther away and Nick was smirking. “She’s already got a date with me.”

I rolled my eyes at him. “First of all, we were just going to go home. If you call that a date, you’re a pretty lame boyfriend.”

Dex stuck his tongue out at me. “You wouldn’t know. You’ve never had a boyfriend before.”

I gasped, feigning as if his words had hurt my feelings. “Dex! You’re such a jerk!”

For some reason, this made both of us laugh, even though neither of us had really said anything funny. We probably looked like freaks to anyone watching us. Which suddenly reminded me…

Tom was giving us a look, and I suddenly remembered that he was there. Oh. Well, that was awkward. Maybe it’d be best if I didn’t go anywhere with him today.

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This was all written on my phone. While I was half asleep. Literally just how Violet and the rest of them were when Hank and Nay called them in. So if there are typos, that's why.

I took my SAT today. Or yesterday, I guess, since it's three in the morning. I'm really tired. I've been up since six. But I really wanted to update for you guys before I went to bed. So goodnight...

Oh, and if you didn't get my message earlier, I'm doing a Q&A video. If you have a question for me, private message me or post it on my message board. Make sure to add #Q&A so I know you want the question to be in the video.

And the song on the side has nothing to do with anything in the story, really. Just how I've been feeling the last, like, two months. But now... It's summer and I'm free. :'D