Instead of Nay just taking Kristie, Lena, and me out to buy dresses for the dance, Hank and Nay had decided to make it a VAKAD field trip, plus Lena.

The boys weren't very happy about this, especially Dex. Aiden didn't have much of a problem since it meant he was going to see Kristie in a ton of pretty dresses. Anthony didn't have very much to say on the matter because he brought a book and read pretty much the entire time.

But Dex was miserable. He didn't seem like the kind of guy that enjoyed shopping at all. I didn't enjoy it all that much either, but I was excited about getting a dress. I was excited about going to the dance with Tom.

"This is literally the worst thing I've ever had to go through," Dex groaned as he sunk down in the seat outside the dressing room.

Aiden rolled his eyes. "I highly doubt that."

I continued sifting through dresses, not knowing what kind of dress I even wanted. There were so many different types and I had no idea which one to choose. Short, or long? And what color? I just didn't know which would look good on me.

"I'm slowly dying," Dex continued to complain. "I'll be dead by the end of this stupid field trip."

I turned toward him and glared. "Good."

Anthony didn't even look up from his book as he continued to sit next to Dex. He just didn't care about anything that was going on around him. I wasn't that's surprised, honestly. He usually was like that.

"You boys have to realize that you need to do these kinds of things for your women," Hank informed my male teammates from his spot next Aiden.

"None of them are our women," Dex grumbled, crossing his arms over his chest and some sort of pout.

"Well," Aiden grinned, gesturing toward Kristie, who was across the store looking for a dress with Nay.

Dex scowled him. "She's not yours," he told him. "Just because you're going to the dance with her doesn't mean she's yours."

Aiden scowled. "Just because you don't get to go with your princess─"

"You know what? I'll crush you─"

"Will you two shut up?" I snapped before Hank had the chance to stop them. "You're going to get us kicked out."

This only made Dec roll his eyes. "How unfortunate."

"I wouldn't have a problem with being kicked out," Lena sighed as she now walked up to me, seeming to be just as bored as Dex was.

Aiden sneered at her. "You're just mad because you don't have a date."

The blonde's face went dark. "I don't need a date."

This was not a conversation that I wanted to be a part of. This was not a conversation that we should've even been having. Nothing good was going to come out of this conversation.

Anthony continued to read and Dex seemed a little more interested now. I just wanted Lena and Aiden to stop talking to each other.

But if I knew anything, it was that that wasn't about to happen. I knew them both too well.

Aiden's comment seemed to really piss Lena off. Her eyebrows furrowed and her eyebrows narrowed. She scowled at them. Clearly she was very annoyed by the fact that Aiden thought a girl needed a man.

"If you don't go with the date, you'll never get married," Aiden smirked, crossing his arms over his chest smugly. "And you'll be alone for the rest of your life."

"Are you kidding me?" Dex snapped. "Do you hear yourself right now? You're insane."

Aiden shook his head. "Not insane," he corrected. "In love."

"Oh, please," Anthony decided to put in, finally putting his book down and joining in on the conversation. "We're too young for this stupid love stuff."

"Well, anyone who thinks they're actually going to marry their date is crazy," Lena argued as she continued to look through the dresses, clearly trying her hardest to calm down so she wouldn't completely lash out at my team's leader. "You're just saying that crap because you'd be up for marrying Kristie."

Aiden smirked. "And you're just saying that because no guy would ever want you other than for your looks. Except for the stalker of yours."

That was the final straw for Lena. Without even a second thought, she took her hand and threw a sharp icicle right at Aiden's face. He seemed to see it coming and grabbed Anthony's book, covering his face with it. It shattered against the book.

"Lena!" Hank called out, but then quickly looked around and quieted his voice. "We're in public!"

"He started it!" she growled, her hands balling into fists at her sides. "How about you tell him to stop making stupid, self-centered comments!"

Hank turned toward Aiden. "She has a point," he began, and I knew he was even angrier at Aiden than he was at Lena. "You need to watch your mouth. You can't just say things like that to people."

Aiden rolled eyes, clearly not caring about what Hank had said or about Lena's feelings. I had to bite down on my tongue to stop myself from making a comment. I really didn't want to get involved.

But involved I already was, since these were my friends and I hated it when they fought. And it seemed to be an awful lot. Even I argued with them often...

"Aiden, there are guys interested in Lena for more than just her looks," I finally put in, turning away from the dresses I was looking at and toward Aiden. "But I can't say the same for your date."

Aiden's eyebrows furrowed and his upper lip curled angrily. "Don't talk about her like that," he growled.

"So you can talk badly about anyone you want, but we're not allowed to do the same?" Anthony asked, opening the book Aiden had used to block me Lena's shot but then shut it when a few pages fell out.

Hank sunk down in his seat and sighed. "Oh, jeez... " he groaned, covering his face.

"You can't talk about Kristi like that," Aiden glowered at me, and I rolled my eyes. "Don't ever talk about her like that."

"Are you kidding me?" I snapped. "Stop being such a hypocrite, Aiden! You talk crap about everyone and anyone and right to their face, too! And I'm not allowed to say something about your precious, perfect Kristie?"

"Just because you're jealous─"

"I am not jealous!"

There was once a time that I had been jealous of Kristie. I was jealous that she was beautiful and I wasn't. I was jealous that everyone gave her attention all because of her looks, even though she was completely dense. But now because of her bright, obnoxious hair color, people stopped giving her the attention she was used to. And since I had met Tom, I hadn't felt jealous of her.

What I hated, however, was how Aiden treated her like she was absolutely perfect while he acted like a complete jerk to everyone else. I liked Kristie, I honestly did. I considered her my friend, even though I used to not be able to stand her. I didn't want to be mean to her. But Aiden drove me crazy.

"What I don't understand," Hank began, his hand over his face, "is why you all can't get along with each other."

"Our oh-so-brilliant leader is the reason we can't," Dex chimed in.

Hank gave him a look. "I think you and Violet argue much more than Aiden does with others."

"Don't drag me down into this!" I groaned, my head starting to hurt. "Dex and I argue with each other. We don't start fights with anyone else."

"Dex has his moments," Anthony sighed. "It's not like he's the nicest guy in the world. But is no Aiden."

Sometimes I couldn't believe these were my friends that I had to deal with. It was just so difficult for us to get along. I didn't know if it was because we were different from other teens or if it was normal for friends to argue as much as we did.

I really just wanted this whole shopping trip to just be over with. It was such a bad idea to bring the boys with us. They were easily bored and it was already difficult enough for us to get along when we were preoccupied.

I looked over to where Kristie had been looking for dresses across the small store. But as I turned, I saw that Nay was no longer with her. I looked around to see she wasn't anywhere in the store.

"Where's Nay?" I asked.

As if on cue, my female mentor stepped out from one of the dressing rooms in a sparkly blue dress. When she saw us all staring at her in confusion, she shrugged. "I saw a dress I liked," she informed us simply.

Hanks eyes were wide. "Well," he gaped.

I smirked at him. "Looks like someone has a crush."

He clear his throat and looked away. "Someone's had a crush for the last ten years."

I didn't know if Nay heard him or not, but it most likely didn't matter because everyone knew how they felt about each other. It still didn't make much sense to me why they weren't together when they both loved each other so much, but I guess that just wasn't any of my business unfortunately.

Lena made her way back up to me, looking just as unamused as she always did.

"Please tell me you found a dress so we can leave now," Lena frowned, a blue dress hanging over her arm. "I really would like to just go home."

I looked over at Kristie to see that she had a dress picked out too; a pink one. I was the only one out of the three of us that had yet to pick one. Even Nay had found a dress she liked.

"Um, I was looking at this one," I stammered, pulling a purple dress off the rack and showing it to her. "I guess I could try it on."

She waved me off toward the dressing rooms and I rolled my way over to them. I didn't want to be there much longer as well.

I got into the dressing room and stepped out of my clothes, pulling the dress on. But I barely even got it over my head before the door to the changing room suddenly swung open and Dex made his way inside, slamming the door behind him.

"What are you doing in here?" I practically squawked, making sure the dress was on properly enough for it to cover my chest. "You can't just barge in here like that and expect me not to─"

He covered my mouth with his hand to stop me from saying anything else as he pressed me up against the wall. I reached up to try to pry his hand off of me, but he was too strong.

"Shut up," he hissed, looking over at the door he had just entered through. "Be quiet or she'll hear you."

Finally, he removed his hand from my face. "Who?" I demanded in a whisper.

"I could have sworn I saw him!" I heard a familiar voice call out, and I let out a groan when I recognized it immediately.

"Why are you hiding from Vanessa?" I asked. "I thought you had a thing for her or whatever."

Dex said nothing to this, and I wasn't so sure I wanted him to, so I didn't continue to pry about it. I also couldn't really because he covered my mouth once again.

I pushed his hand away from me. "You know you're kind of capable of turning invisible, right?" I snapped.

He shrugged, his eyes never leaving the door. "I panicked."

"Clearly."

I realized then that my dress wasn't even on all the way. The back was almost completely unzipped and I had to hold it against my chest with my arms to keep it from falling off.

"Could you get out of here?" I nearly barked, dodging out of the way when Dex reached to cover my mouth once again. "I'm trying to change!"

"You can keep changing," he suggested, and I shot him a look. He didn't even look away from me. "Go right ahead."

"Dex."

"Yes?"

He needed to get out. I didn't even think he was allowed in here with me, especially since he was a guy. And the dressing rooms weren't all that big in the first place. If we got caught, we'd definitely get kicked out for sure.

Dex's eyes then traveled down. I was about to slap him because I thought he was staring at my chest, but I quickly realized that he actually staring at the letter E on my shoulder.

"What does that mean?" he whispered, brushing his fingers against the birthmark on my shoulder, giving me chills.

I took a step back away from him. "Yeah, I'm about as clueless as you are," I drawled, covering the mark with my hand. "If not more."

Dex shook his head. "Hank and Nay haven't told you?"

I shot him a flat look. "Hank and Nay don't tell me anything."

Dex said nothing to this because he knew I was right. Hank and Nay told me nothing about whatever this birthmark meant, even though it clearly meant something along with my uncontrollable powers. But I didn't want to think about that. I was trying to be as normal as I possibly could and buy a dress for a dance.

"Get out, Dex," I ordered once again. "I'm trying to change."

He only shrugged uncaringly. "I told you that you can change with me in here."

Before I could smack him and force him out of the dressing room, the door suddenly slammed open once again to now reveal Vanessa, the last person either of us wanted to see.

"There you are!" she announced, her eyes turning dark when she turned to me. "With her."

"You can't just barge into other people's dressing rooms!" I shrieked at her, crossing my arms over my chest to make sure the unzipped dress was still in place.

"I think I can when there's more than just dressing involved," she glared, looking from me to Dex in disgust.

My eyes went wide when I realized what she was saying. "Oh, no." I shook my head. "Nothing is going on here."

"I wonder if Tom will feel the same way," she sneered, turning on her heel and started away. Starting to panic, I quickly made my way after her, leaving Dex in the dressing room and almost completely forgetting I was in a dress with the back completely unzipped.

I needed to get to her before she left the store, since I couldn't go out of it without the alarm blaring.

It wasn't very difficult to catch up to her, considering I was superhuman that trained every other day and she was a regular teenage girl that hated gym. Anthony had decided to tag along with me, as if to make sure I didn't leave the store and look like I was trying to steal the dress.

"Vanessa," I growled, grabbing onto her arm and stopping her from going any farther. "There is nothing going on between Dex and me."

Anthony didn't look so sure from his spot beside me. "Well, I mean, I'm not sure you could really say that..."

I spun on him. "You're not helping!"

Vanessa finally fully turned toward me and glared. It took her a few moments to finally say anything.

"You might have known Dex longer than me, but I don't care," she scowled, and I really didn't like where this was going. "I always get what I want, and I want him."

I didn't even know what to say at first. She was treating Dex as if he was some sort of possession; like some piece of meat. And that just wasn't okay.

I took a threatening step toward her. "You better back off or you won't know what hit you."

She rolled her eyes. "I'm terrified," she told me sarcastically.

With just a twitch of my hand, I sent a chair that had been sitting only a few feet away from us flying toward her. It slammed against the back of her legs and caused her to fall back and crash against the ground.

She sat up and looked around, alarmed. "What was that?" she demanded.

"I told you that you wouldn't know what hit you."

I placed my hands on my hips as I just stared down at her. She needed to leave Dex alone. She didn't deserve him and he definitely didn't deserve her.

Anthony now grabbed onto my arm and gave me a look. "Violet, maybe this isn't such a good idea..."

"Oh, what do you know?" I snapped, yanking my arm from his grasp.

"A lot, actually!" he reminded me, and I guess he was right. He grabbed onto my wrist and started to lead me out away from Vanessa, who was still dazed in the floor. "Now come on. We're leaving."

"Wait, Anthony," I called out, stopping in my tracks and pulling my wrist from his grasp. "I need to pay for the dress."

"Dex already bought it," he informed me, and I was about to argue even further until he continued to speak. "He said he really liked it on you or something and he didn't want you in any other dress. He also picked up the clothes you left in the dressing room."

I couldn't help but feel a little frustrated at the fact that Dex had practically picked out my dress, but I wasn't about to argue anymore. I liked the dress anyway, so it was fine.

"You didn't have to drag me out like I was a toddler having a tantrum," I grumbled to Anthony as I followed him through the mall to get back to where we had parked in the parking lot. I had assumed the rest of our friends and our mentors had already gotten there.

Anthony shot me a look over his shoulder. "You were a toddler throwing a tantrum," he informed me.

"You didn't say anything when Lena shot a freaking sharp icicle at Aiden's face," I couldn't help but frown.

"That was bad, but also kind of justified."

"Justified?" I really couldn't believe he had just said that. "That would have been so much more obvious if someone had seen!"

"Yeah, but what Aiden said to her was screwed up," he explained, as if this was going to make it all better. "What Vanessa said was petty and stupid. She's not even a threat to your and Dex's relationship. He doesn't even like her."

"Dex and I don't have a relationship."

"Yeah, whatever you say."

"We don't!"

Anthony rolled his eyes. "Zip up your dress; you're getting stared at."

I gulped, completely forgetting my back was exposed. I reached for the zipper with one hand but quickly found that my efforts were useless. Anthony let out a sigh and made his way behind me, quickly zipping it up.

"Ow!" I shouted when my skin got caught.

"Get over it," he sighed, continuing on his way to the parking lot. "It'll heal in, like, two hours."

I scowled at him. He was right.

"Shut up," was all I could think of to say, following after him without either of us saying another word.

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So, if you follow me on Twitter (@MP13Girl) or Instagram (McKenna_Mariee15), you would have seen a certain collage I posted about this story and its characters. And how some of them may not... uh... make it to the end.

I wonder who it'll be. ;)

This chapter's super boring, but we're getting to the good stuff really, really soon!

Please COMMENT, VOTE, and FAN! <3