The gym was loud, hot, and stuffy. I didn’t like it at all.

This was supposed to be fun? I didn’t see the appeal. All people were doing were screaming at the top of their lungs over games that were ridiculously stupid. All I could do was stare in complete and utter confusion as I sat in the very top, my back against the wall of the gym.

Kristie was to my left, Lena was to my right, and Anthony, Dex, and Aiden were all in front of us. Kristie seemed really into the rally while the rest of us didn’t really care all that much. But whatever, it was an excuse to get out of class, I guess.

We were seated by grade, so the juniors and the seniors were in individual sections on one side of the gym while the freshmen and the sophomores were on the other. It really just seemed like organized chaos.

“Isn’t this fun?” Kristie asked with a wide smile.

I shrugged. “I guess.”

I bent over to make sure my bag was still safely in between my legs, and it was. I then looked back up to see what was going on down on the floor to see the dancers were now getting into position, and Dex perked up from in front of me.

“Of course this is the part that you’re excited for,” Lena sighed with a roll of her eyes. “How about you keep your mouth shut and stop drooling.”

“I’m not drooling!”

“You’re about to!”

“The dancers are hot,” Dex groaned, leaning back so he was suddenly in between my legs. I felt my face heat up. His eyes went wide when he saw where he was and he immediately sat up straight and quickly said, “They’re ridiculously hot. Aren’t they, Anthony?”

Our brainy friend didn’t even look at Dex. “I think the person you really think that way about isn’t in front of you, Dex.”

Dex elbowed Anthony in the side. “Shut up.”

The boy sitting in front of Dex, who had been listening in on the conversation, turned around and said, “You know who’s the hottest chick down there? Vanessa.”

Dex nodded in agreement. “Definitely one of the hottest, I think.”

I ended up kneeing him in the back without even a moment’s thought. “Is it possible for you to think of anything else other than girls?” I couldn’t help but snap at him.

Dex shrugged uncaringly. “I’m a hormonal teenage boy.”

I didn’t feel like continuing this conversation with him, so I let him continue talking to the boy in front of him as I just sat there, unable to stop myself from listening in on what they were saying.

“It’s a shame that she’s Tom’s ex though,” this guy continued on about Vanessa with a shake of his head. Dex gave him a look that told him to continue on. “She was the one that broke up with him, but I think she still wants him back.”

I felt something twist in the pit of my stomach, but I tried my best to ignore it as I continued to watch the dancers down below. But I couldn’t stop watching Vanessa. Sure, she was pretty, but what was so special about her? She was rude and mean.

I wasn’t so sure Vanessa wanted Tom back. She had tried to befriend me, someone she obviously didn’t like, because she wanted to get closer to Dex. Why would she want to be with Tom when she showed obvious interest in Dex?

I could tell the relationships people had with each other. Tom and Dex obviously didn’t like each other very much. Vanessa and Dex found each other very attractive. I knew that Vanessa was still attracted to her ex, but she did not want to get back together with him. She was interested in Dex much more than she was with Tom.

And then there was me. I still didn’t know how people felt toward me. Obviously Vanessa didn’t like me, and Tom wanted to get closer to me, but that was it. That was all I knew.

“Hey, maybe you should stop talking about the devil woman now,” Lena suddenly butted in, leaning forward so her face was right over Dex’s shoulder. She definitely didn’t look happy. “Unless you’d like me to shove an icicle down your throat.”

“Shh, Lena!” I hissed, pulling her back away from him. “Not so loud!”

“What?” She didn’t seem to care in the slightest that she was talking about her powers out loud when we were surrounded by hundreds of humans. “Unless you want to dangle him up in the air in front of everyone, I think my method is more effective.”

“How about we all leave Dex alone?” Dex suggested, but both of us ignored him.

“But I heard Tom likes this new girl, so Vanessa may just give up entirely on him,” the guy in front of Dex now informed him with a glance over to Vanessa as she continued to dance.

Dex suddenly went rigid. “Really?”

“Why wouldn’t he?” Lena now asked, butting herself into the conversation once again as she leaned over to talk to the other guy. “Tom is a free individual who can like whoever he wants. The girl he likes is probably awesome. And completely available to date whoever she wants.”

Dex was not amused. “Lena…”

“And she’s probably single and completely available to date whoever she wants because an idiot who had three months to make a move didn’t,” Lena continued now, seeming to be very proud of herself once she pulled away and sat up straight again. “You know what? I hope Tom dates whoever this girl is that he likes. She probably deserves him.”

Dex ignored everything she said, and didn’t talk to us for the rest of the rally. I didn’t really know how I felt about that.

The rest of the rally went by like I had expected it to. Everyone told me that the seniors were going to win, and they won. I expected that the seniors were going to win every rally, so I really didn’t take it personally or anything.

I was glad that it was finally over, because that meant I was going to get to go back to the DAU and train a little in the exercise room. It was always a big stress reliever when I went in there.

“That was fun!” she smiled as we filed out of the gym with everyone else. “I can’t wait for the next one!”

I sure could…

We continued to make our way down the hall to our last classes of the day so we could pick up our stuff and leave. I then realized that my bag was not going to be in my classroom.

I suddenly gasped. Kristie turned toward me, concerned. “What’s wrong, Violet?” she asked me.

“I left my bag in the gym,” I informed her, already turned away so I could make my way back to the gym to get it. “I’ll be right back!”

I really hoped that it was still there. I had sat right in the back, so it wasn’t like many people would have been able to see it while they left. But knowing my luck, someone had already taken it.

The gym was empty once I entered, and I immediately made my way up the bleachers to where my friends and I had been sitting. To my horror, my bag was nowhere to be found.

I bit down on my tongue and told myself not to panic. Maybe someone had found it and had taken it to the lost and found? That was the only thing I could really hope for, because if that wasn’t what had happened, it meant someone had stolen my back.

I turned to leave, jumping in surprise when I saw a boy I didn’t recognize only a few feet away from me down the bleachers, my bag hanging from his hand. I immediately let out a sigh of relief.

“You’re Violet, right?” he asked me.

I blinked at him. I hadn’t ever seen this guy before, so how did he know my name? My student ID was in my bag, but it looked like it hadn’t even been opened, so I was sure he hadn’t checked that.

“Um, yes,” I finally answered after what felt like an eternity. “I’m Violet.”

He glanced at what he was holding. “And this is your bag?”

I nodded. “Yes…”

He didn’t make a move to give it to me. I didn’t move any closer to take it from him. There was something off about this guy, but I didn’t know what. What was going to happen now?

“I know what you are,” he suddenly grinned, my bag swinging ever so slightly as he held it. I just stared at him. “I know you’re not… Hmm, how should I say this? Normal? Yes, that’s it. I know you’re not normal.”

I stared at him flatly. “I’m completely ordinary.”

Saying that almost made me laugh. Even I couldn’t believe my own lie. Normal and ordinary were two things I was definitely not, and that wasn’t exactly a good thing. It wasn’t really a bad thing, either.

This guy shook his head. “You don’t have to lie to me, Violet. I know.”

“I don’t…” was all I was able to get out, since this had been the last thing I had been expecting for anyone to actually say to me.

Was this guy a member of Redrum? Was he trying to fight me? I didn’t even know if he was superhuman or not. He could have just been some crazy guy that thought he knew everything but actually didn’t.

I couldn’t deal with a member of Redrum on my own. Even after all the training I had, I still didn’t have complete control over my powers. I still didn’t know how to use them fully. What was I going to do if he wanted to fight?

“I think I should go,” I excused now, forgetting about my bag and rushing own the bleachers right by him. If all else failed, I’d just get Dex or Aiden to get the bag back for me. I wasn’t going to deal with this guy by myself.

I got to the door of the gym and yanked it open, the fresh air from the hall making me feel a little less antsy. I needed to get out of this stuffy room.

“I don’t think so,” he called out, and suddenly the door was being shut before I could exit. I looked over to see the hand that had slammed the door belonged to him, but he hadn’t moved. Instead, his arm had stretched all the way over to where I was now on the floor while he was still in the bleachers.

I could only turn back toward him slowly. “You’re…”

“Superhuman?” he smirked, his arm now returning to its normal length at his side. “Yep. Just like you.”

I didn’t know what I was supposed to say to this guy. He seemed so confident with the fact that he knew I was superhuman even though I hadn’t given him any proof that I was. At least, I didn’t think I had.

“How can you be so sure?” I couldn’t help but question. “You could have just exposed yourself to a human.”

This guy continued to smirk as he moved my bag to his other hand. “I just had a feeling. Also, I heard you and Lena talking to each other about shoving icicles down Dex’s throat or dangling him up in the air.”

I swallowed. “How’d you hear that?”

“You guys were talking to my friend,” he explained now, and I remembered the guy Dex had been talking to during the rally about Vanessa. “I was sitting right next to him.”

I hadn’t noticed him at all, and I felt a little bad that I hadn’t. During that entire conversation, I’d been thinking about other things. I’d barely even been paying attention to what the other guy looked like.

“What’s your name?” I had to ask him now. “Since you apparently know everything about me, who are you?”

This guy continued to smirk as he answered my question. “I’m Nick,” he said as he switched by bag into his other hand once again. “Nick Graves. I’m a junior, like you, and I’ve gone to this high school since freshman year. I’ve known about my powers since I was twelve.”

I hadn’t learned about my powers until I was locked inside my room. I couldn’t remember when it was exactly, but I knew something was strange when I was able to move things ever so slightly without touching them. And as I grew older, my emotions began to take toll and things would blow up if I was angry.

“So,” Nick continued to smirk, my bag dangling in his grasp. “What’s your power?”

Without answering him, I lifted my hand and my bag was suddenly leaving his hand and entering mine. He smirked as I shouldered my bag, happy to have it back.

“That’s it,” was all I was able to say.

“Telekinesis,” he nodded, as if approving what my power was. “That’s cool.”

“Also,” I continued, remembering something else as I levitated slightly into the air. “There’s this, too.”

Nick seemed impressed, and I couldn’t help but feel a little relieved. He seemed so confident with himself and his powers that I was afraid he’d think mine were stupid. But he seemed genuinely interested, and I was glad.

“Are you a member of Redrum?” I found myself blurting before I could stop myself.

Nick gave me a confused look. “Redrum? What’s that?”

He could have been lying to me. I knew he could have. But for some reason, I trusted him. I honestly didn’t think he was actually a member of Redrum. I really thought that he didn’t have any idea what that horrible organization was.

I now found myself asking, “You weren’t recruited to the DAU?”

He gave me a look. “What’s a DAU?”

I just stared at him. This was the second person I had met with powers who hadn’t been recruited to the DAU. He was just like Lena, but he didn’t know what he was missing out on. I wondered how he’d respond if he knew. I didn’t want to tell him.

“It’s… uh…”

“A very top secret society that humans aren’t allowed to know about,” a new voice suddenly cut me off, and I turned around to see that Anthony and Dex were now in the gym with us. I hadn’t even heard them enter, which wasn’t good. Dex had been the one that spoke. “So I don’t know why Violet is telling someone like you about it.”

“You’re not the boss of me,” I scowled at him. “I can tell whoever I want whatever I want.”

Dex shook his head. “Even if it means revealing our secret?”

Anthony and Dex probably thought they were going to have to call Hank so he could erase Nick’s memory, but they’d be surprised if they saw Hank couldn’t, since Nick was not a human.

“Do you really think I’d be reckless enough to tell a human about the DAU?” I snapped now, annoyed with the fact that they didn’t trust me. Actually, it was more like Dex didn’t trust me, since Anthony hadn’t even said anything yet. He just stood there awkwardly like he always did.

“What are you doing right now?” Dex questioned with a roll of his eyes.

“This is Nick,” I introduced. “He’s one of us.”

Anthony looked surprised, while Dex looked suspicious. I guess he had every right to feel that way, since you could never be too sure when it came to this business. But I felt like I could really trust Tom.

“Nice to meet you,” Nick greeted, suddenly stretching his arm out in the direction of my two teammates. “I’m Nick Graves, a superhuman just like you. How do you do?”

Anthony blinked at his hand, but shook it. “Nice to meet you,” was all he said.

Nick now took his stretched-out arm and moved his hand to Dex. My rough teammate only glared at him, refusing to shake his hand. Nick smirked and his arm returned to its normal length at his side.

I blinked at him. “Can you only stretch your arms?”

“No, I can stretch every part of my body,” Nick informed me, then seemed to get an idea and he wagged his eyebrows at me. “Want to see?”

“No,” Dex said before I could answer, immediately appearing at my side. It was almost as if he was the one with super speed, not Anthony. “No, she doesn’t.”

I didn’t understand what had just happened, but I decided to ignore it because it was probably the best thing I could do. Nick laughed as Dex continued to glare at him.

“So you’re like Elastigirl from The Incredibles?” Dex muttered, not intending for anyone to actually hear him.

“Yes,” Nick laughed, sensing that Dex did not like him but choosing to be happy anyway. “It’s exactly like that.”

Dex seemed annoyed with the fact that Nick was not bothered by him. Dex obviously did not like Nick while Nick couldn’t have cared less about what Dex thought of him. I knew they were going to be a very difficult pair to be around.

“We should go,” Dex now told me rather gruffly, grabbing onto my wrist and yanking me toward the door. Nick didn’t try to stop us. When I looked back at him, all he did was smile and wave goodbye to me.

“You know, Dex,” Anthony started as he followed us out of the gym. “You’re really bad at hiding how you feel. You really wear your heart on your sleeve, and it’s completely out of your control, too.”

“Shut up!”

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This chapter's short and I don't like it, but I wanted to get it out of the way. And this was written quickly, so...

It's late, so I'm going to bed.

Dex really doesn't like any guy around Violet, but then sure likes to look at other girls... Hmm. I wonder why.

Please COMMENT, VOTE, and FAN! :)