We had been studying the project Dragonfire pamphlet for a few hours now. Mr. Wales had brought us a book on advanced biology, college level, to help us out but it's not like any of us could understand it. The only biology teacher we had here, a quirky man called Mr. B, only taught tenth grade level and could help us to an extent.

    What we had learned so far: it was a folder that was set up like a presentation, like a chapter in a book. It was about chemicals in your brain, specifically hormones, and some sort of device, a small chip, that was put in the brain. We weren't exactly sure what either of these things did, or why the illustration of the lizard mutant was there.

    I banged my head against the table. "Plaubfffft. I am so bored."

    "You want to watch me take apart this iPhone?" Chespin asked, he had stopped contributing a long time ago.

    I glanced over at him from the corner of my eye, he had his own tray to not take of table space and was using one of the smallest screw drivers I had ever seen. I would love to watch if I understood anything about it. Sometimes hanging around my friends just made me feel completely dumb.

    "Do you suppose they plan on making another modified human to match this one?" Genny asked, she was laying upside down in her chair holding up the page with the lizard mutant.

    "That would make sense." Will answered. It was the next day and he had calmed down a lot from venting about his parents.

    "Do we know who might possibly be the candidate?" She continued.

    "Well can't they just take anyone off the street?" I pointed out.

    "That's not true." A voice from the ceiling announced.

    I glanced up to see Gecko. If you don't remember him, he's the nineteen year old with flaming red hair and limbs that are sticky, like a gecko. He and Casey were the two that parented everyone when I lived in the Lab with Frankie, Rapheal, and Poppy.

"What? Will asked, everyone craning their necks to look at him.

He hung off the ceiling by his hands and landed on the kitchen counter, parallel with the small (or should I say tall) table we were all gathered at.

"I'm good at listening, and I'll tell you certain mutations can only happen to certain people." He explained. "It matters how good of a job the parents did at taking care of themselves when we were born."

Sabine raised an eyebrow. "Interesting."

"The healthier the fitter our parents were the easier we are able to take more complex DNA changes. If you're stuck a permanent way, like me." He waved his hands up for reference. "Then you probably weren't so good, but if you can change into a different state, then your body is better, and your parent must have been healthier."

"That's disgusting." Will face twisted up. "In a moral way."

Changing reminded me of Dylan, I stared at him from across the room, he had moved away from the table and had hoisted himself out of his chair to a small couch that was also in the kitchen area. He was reading a book and had stopped paying attention to us a long time ago.

"Does that mean Tyler's parents must have been "more fit"." Sabine made air quotes in the air.

I was yanked back to the conversation. "Huh?"

She gestured at me. "Because you know, you get angry and..."

I blinked. "Oh, well I never met my parents so I wouldn't know."

"Mine can't be anything special." Tui added, she was also not paying attention next tom me. "I mean all I can do is this."

She picked up one of our pencils and it crackled and hissed as it turned to crystal. She stared at it an sighed, watching as it turned back into a normal pencil in her hand.

"You're getting better at that." I commented, she grinned mischievously.

"No, that's pretty impressive, by changing I meant it occurs usually within our own bodies and no where else, the fact that you can cause changed outside you body is fascinating." Gecko added.

"You sure do know a lot." Justin added, picking up Tui's pencil and twirling it.

Gecko shrugged. "To be completely honest I'm just trying to help. I kind of figured maybe the more I knew the easier I could fight."

"Well you're definitely helping, this is the farthest we've gotten all day." Justin added graciously.

Gecko shrugged, looking pleased with himself.

"How did you even figure it out?" I marveled. "I means it's not like we're being given a step by step explanation of what they put inside us."

Gecko's smile fell. "I actually didn't put it together until yesterday, after you told me what happened to him."

He pointed across the room at Dylan, who was still reading.

"Dylan's parents must be like gods or something." Sabine added. "I mean he could really "change"."

Gecko had a lost look in his eyes. "They gave him the same thing they gave Frankie, and her body...just couldn't take it."

It was honestly like someone had shoved a knife into my gut. I looked down biting my lip as I struggled to suppress those emotions. Will was the only other person at the table who knew what were talking about but the other sensed the heavy tension.

"How do you explain why he's stopped transforming into a wolf then?" Sabine asked, moving the conversation along.

"Icie told me he injected some other serum into his bloodstream the night you guys blew up the Lab again." Gecko started, folding his arms. "We're given certain amounts because too much can "dirty up" our blood, to put it simply. That's why he's stuck in a permanent state right now."

"So whoever they're choosing to turn into a giant lizard much have "healthy" parents, so to speak?" I summed it up, feeling somewhat satisfactory that I could understand something.

Gecko nodded in his agreement, I turned to the kid on the couch again. "Hey Dylan, you got any siblings?"

He put down the book, looking slightly annoyed. "You know, if you're going to talk about me, you might as well include me. And no, I don't have any siblings."

I got to hand to him he was more aware than we gave him credit for. "Well do you think your parents might either have another kid secretly tucked away or are having another one while you've been gone?"

"Tyler!" Icie shot at me, one of the few things she had contributed.

"What? He's obviously the perfect choice." I shrugged.

Dylan face had lost his annoyed glare, instead he just looked incredibly hurt, and when he spoke his voice was low and serious. "There's no chance my parents will ever have kids again."

And with that he pushed himself back up, and into his chair, and rolled out of the room. I looked back to see everyone staring at me with mixed emotions on their face, none of them were good, Icie had gone paler than the polar ice caps.

"How dare you." She threw at me. "You know not everyone can be as insensitive you, some of us actually had families that cared and have suffered for it."

    She turned and left the room, leaving me with everyone else who now had a stormy look on their faces. I felt slightly guilty, this was the second time I had hurt Dylan's feeling in the last two days. Maybe I did need to tone it down a notch.

    "That was kind of intrusive." Genny muttered, looking down at her hands.

    "Why are you defending him?" I spat, getting angry and defensive for reason I didn't even know. "You wouldn't even acknowledge his existence back at Hula Hoku."

    She winced, Will glanced at me warningly and put a hand on her shoulder and Genny's eyes flashed a dark maroon color.

    "Tyler, maybe you should take a break." Justin suggested, calmly, although I could tell he was just as uncomfortable as everyone else.

    They thought I was going to loose control and hurt them. I stood up, and almost threw my chair across the room on my way out as I stormed down the hallway. I could feel the red on the corners of my vision as I headed towards the gym so I could punch some stuff. Puzzles helped me to some extent but sometimes you just need to hit something.

    The self-defense room here in California wasn't quite as good as the one in the old Gifted, but it's not like I was being picky as I slammed fist after fist into the hard, sand filled, sack hanging from the ceiling. Every time my skin made contact with the leather I could feel myself tiring, but I pushed forward until I could feel tears in my eyes.

    I stopped then started kicking the sack, combing everything I had learned from my life in a freak circus to living on the streets and the few lessons I had learned from Mr. Wales. My limbs burned and I felt like I could spit fire if I want to.

    "You can throw a mean punch." A voice said from behind me.

    I turned around to see the hot Asian chick I had met before, in Washington. She played video games but I couldn't remember her name. Her hair was unbraided this time and it floated around her shoulders like she was a mermaid underwater. She watched me with her hawk-like shady gold eyes for a few moments until I realized she was expecting a response.

    "Thanks." I mumbled, wiping the sweat off my forehead, and found my eyes lingering on her for a few moments longer. I would be lying if I told you Hayami wasn't a pretty girl, but she just always seemed way out of everyone's league, or at least that's how she carried herself.

    "Eyes are up here." She threw back, sounding slightly annoyed, oh boy it looks like I did it again.

    "Look, I was kind of in the middle of something-" I was about to get back to my punching of the bag when all of a sudden she threw her fist at my gut.

    I stumbled back wards, wings stretching out for balance as I wheezed and gasped for air. "What was that for?"

    "You don't have very good reaction time." She commented, shaking her hand, "and bony ribs."

    Wow, Hayami could possibly be more annoying than Anne Marie, which was saying something. Why did my brain keep bringing her up? I was supposed to be forgetting I ever met her.

    "Did you just waltz in here to beat me up?" I asked, rubbing my bony ribs.

    "No, I wanted to get a bit of practice in before dinner and homework. Then you were here and looked like you were really focused and I didn't want to disturb you so I just watched for a bit." She shrugged, and started stretching.

    "Is that it?" I asked, she had left off her sentence like she wasn't done.

    She glanced at me. "I mean I also wanted to give you some advice, in a friendly way."

    My eyebrows furrowed as I waited for said advice. That last thing I wanted was some wise saying from Hayami on how to curb my temper. That is if she had heard anything from this afternoon.

    "Watch your feet, if you're off balance you could hurt your back." She chirped, brushing her hair behind her ear when it floated in front of her face. "And I tend to find apologies are a nice thing to give people, no matter how many you have to give."

    She had heard about this afternoon, and yesterday morning. Despite my unwillingness and desire to instantly rebel against the said advice, I realized she was probably right. I should apologize and pay more attention to people so I can stop annoying them, and hurting their feelings. Normally I wouldn't care what other people think but since it had already happened twice with Dylan I figured I had better start being more friendly. I was trying to get people to like me after all.

"Okay, I'll see about my balance." I replied, she looked me hard for a second before deciding I was serious about both parts of her speech.

"And while you're at it, why don't work on your reaction time." She punched my shoulder.

"Sure thing."

________________________________________
Alright alright alright

Fist things Happy Last Day of December 2016! I wasn't going to publish this since I'm trying to space out my updates more (i just write way to fast) but then I realized it was New Years and then I felt obligated sO THIS IS A LITTLE UNEDITED COugh cough

We're a pretty good ways into this book and I just wanted to ask you guys how I was doing so far? Good I hope? Is there any particular character who you want more of? Are you enjoying Tyler's point of view? Feedback is appreciated :D

I hope you all enjoy the last moments of 2016, bye!