Super support group w/edits. (Chapters 1-5)

The Super Support Group


Chapter 1

	All super powers manifest on accident and activate in large, very hard to hide outbursts. Sixty-five percent of all accidental super powered outbursts occur in public.  Ninety-five percent of all super powered people have their powers manifest between the age of fourteen and seventeen. Luckily I had managed to have my powers show up while I was sitting in my house while my parents were away shopping, however this was not the case for Erik Trotsky, the kid standing in front of me at the lunch line who had just caused Mrs. Lynn, one of the many overzealous hall monitors, to get impaled by a steel rod from the now busted vending machine.


	After they evacuated the cafeteria, I sat and watched as five large men in suits escorted a very confused Erik away. He was going to disappear. This was what happened to anyone who had super powers. They have an outburst, they're held until the suits show up, and then are forced to register for the mandatory training and conditioning, that's why if you have powers and you get lucky enough to decide whether to use them or not, you don’t.


	A fact about me is that I hate sitting on the bus, especially when my mp3 player isn't working, it's the kind of thing that leads to me having to sit and listen to wonderful nuggets of fine quotable’s, uttered by the less than bright and shining students of Bedford North Lawrence High School.


	"Did you see what Erik did to Lynn, dude?!" Ricky Vaught asked in astonishment,

	"Yeah man, she totally got what she had coming to her" Devin Anderson said grinning from ear to ear, the tear in his lip from wrestling practice the other day spread wide. This conversation continued for about ten minutes before dissolving into what teachers in our school were more 'bangable.' Now I myself didn't think she deserved it, I do however believe Mrs. Lynn had crossed a line that really didn't need crossing. She's the kind of individual who spoke to students in a way that made you wonder why she even decided to work with children, Mrs. Lynn also had a very bad habit of lecturing kids a little bit more than necessary. Before the incident she was lecturing to Erik, whom as most students would in this situation was trying very hard to tune out her out while trying to look like he was actually interested. and Lynn in her constant state of anger, having noticed how Erik wasn't really listening said something along the lines of "I hope your mother's proud of how you act" which of course ended in Erik screaming at her, and before he noticed what had happened. He had telekinetically pulled a rod from a vending machine and shot it through her stomach, effectively nailing her to the wall. Men don't like it when you say anything about their mothers. Trust me; wars have been started over those kinds of words.

----

	My name is Dylan by the way, Dylan Hurtzfeld, I live in Indiana, I have recently started my junior year in high school, and I can control magnetism, I got my powers about a year ago. Now you've probably noticed my world is like yours, but not quite, we have people who have super powers. It not as awesome as you would think really, you think it would be, but it isn't. You see, the government keeps tabs on these things; they take people with super powers and force them to register for a super powered army where they are trained to fight in wars, with other super powered people, against other super powered people from other countries. No one who has been taken to be in the super powered army has ever been discharged, ever, which is exactly why a lot of people like me try really hard to keep our powers secret.




Now we do still have a normal army, with normal people who fight the good fight, however it’s a bit less emphasized than the super powered army, it’s still has a bit more focus since the super powered army fighters are considered (and this makes me sick to say)  “Disposable.”



I now sat on the couch in my living room, My dad was griping about how the kitchen table was always cluttered, I debated hitting him on the head with the spatula sitting out on the stovetop, I chose not to, he's got enough stuff to make him doubt his sanity. I've not actually told many people about my powers, they (my powers) haven't really given me much trouble, well...occasionally I've had issues where metal things have stuck to me.


	I was thinking about what happened today, "They took a kid away today" I told dad as he bent over getting some food out of the fridge.

"Really, what for?" he asked as he pulled out some mayo,

	"He impaled a teacher"

	"Ah, so he had powers?"

	"It appeared so" I paused, "why exactly do they do that?"

	"well...to be honest, I'm not totally sure" he paused I could see him thinking up an excuse "sometimes a government want's to protect its people, mostly out of fear, to keep people safe"  he was talking out of his ass, I was sure of it, "America isn't the only country with super powered people, so we have to protect ourselves" yep, he was talking out of his ass, WE don't have to protect ourselves, and kid's living in the middle of nowhere, Indiana don't have to go off to die to protect cities way off on the sides of the country, I toned out the rest of his speech nodding when it was appropriate.


	Later on I was in my room, on my bed with the door locked. I was floating around some quarters in the air around my room, I kept thinking about how Erik got sent away, did he already have those powers before? Or was that the first time he ever had them appear? I knew that most of the outbursts like that happened when powers first appear, but I also researched that the power outburst is essentially emotional fits. So my thought was that maybe, Erik had been hiding his powers but just accidentally let them slip when Lynn was bugging him. I wondered how many more teens like me and (/or) Erik were hiding their powers, there's probably a lot.


















My cell phone rang, it was my friend Mike, he wanted me to go hang out down at the comic book shop, I agreed and in ten minutes I was out the door. Mike's been my friend since I started high school, met him in freshman English, he made some rather inappropriate jokes which I thought were funny, the teacher did not agree and therefore made us stay after school for detention, we'd been friends ever since. Mike's the only person who I've told about my powers, he's cool about it though. I met up with him at the comic book store.
	"You hear what happened to Erik Trotsky, man?" were the first words out of his mouth as we made our way towards the back of the store.

	"I was standing right behind him dude, I saw what happened" I replied

	"That shit was insane, dude" Mike was pretty much stating the obvious, every time a kid gets caught with powers there's always one or more serious injuries.


"It wasn't as bad as what happened with Burgess though" I said as I began flipping through some of the older comics, the memory of the museum incident came back to us.

----

	Melvin Burgess had set the bar for having the most intense super powered outburst during a field trip to the museum last year. It turned out that Burgess had seismic manipulation abilities, what exactly does that mean? He was capable of sending large shockwaves through the ground. He also had Claustrophobia, what does that mean? He had a fear of Closed in and crowded spaces. And closed in and crowded space was definitely what could describe the Dinosaur exhibit at our museum. And having that combination of that kind of fear with that kind powers resulted in him having a panic attack which, caused him to set off an earthquake that made that entire wing of the museum collapse in on itself. Burgess also set the bar for best attempt at resisting escort to the registration center, as well as most people injured/killed during the incident. He created a large crevice in the ground that caused the armored truck they were going to put him in, as well as four orderlies to fall fifteen feet into the ground resulting in two of the orderlies dying from the truck landing on them, the other two were seriously injured, and none of that includes the amount of injured people who were inside the museum, which was much larger. Sadly they still managed to capture him. Now anytime there was a super powered outburst I and Mike usually compare it to him. Closest comparison was Ryan Mundy who managed to out run getting caught for six hours, in the very most literal sense, because he had super speed (they captured him just as he was closing in on the Mexican border). We'd decided that Trotsky was a close third in terms of how bad the injury was, but he didn't come anywhere near making the list for scale though.


----

 	We had split the better parts of two hours looking at the older issues of comics in the store and talking about super powered outburst that nearly ended in the kid with powers winning. Mike had been ranting on for a bit now "I'd seriously bet thirty bucks that one of these days someone will outrun the registration guys." he spouted off as I looked through the pages of an old young justice comic.

	"Never happen" I stated calmly

	"Oh really, Care to explain, Mister Magnetism?" he asked, using the nickname that he tacked onto me about a month ago.



He already knew the answer, but, "because the Registry teams usually know how to handle even the most unstable teenagers" I started off on my explanation "most of them know that the kid's freaked out and will usually make a mistake if they run away" I kept going "and each team usually has at least one psychologist, or a guy with some Tranquilizers hanging around with them" I finished before going back to my book. Mike whistled "you know your stuff man"

 	I grinned "know thy enemy." It was true; it was like having a hostage negotiator at a Bank robbery. Every time there was an incident they usually brought in a team similar to that of a swat team that was accompanied by a teen psychologist, whether the psychologist actually did anything depended mostly on how the teen reacted, I'd seen teens with powers go off into a homicidal rage, having to be put down with a sedative (the escort team seldom ever resorted to lethal force), While some would sit and simply wait to be escorted away (those were the kind the psychologist would talk to). There was something very discomforting about those kind of kids, they would just sit there and accept that they were as good as dead to the rest of the world, it's like watching pigs or cows walk around there pen shortly before being taken to the slaughter house.

	And of course there were the ones that fought back. Filled with adrenaline fueled rage and a mastery of their new found powers only fear could allow, violently attacking any government workers who’d get close enough to be strikable.

	It had been pretty quiet in the shop...till about the time Dave Goodman showed up, Goodman is the kind of guy who looks like a nerd, likes the stuff nerds would normally like, however he had the type of ego that made him think he's too cool to be a nerd, he always bragged about how much sex he gets when it's obvious how he's never gotten any, for lack of any better word, he was an assclown. Goodman was wearing some silver necklaces as well as a watch when he was entering the store.
	"What the hell are you two doing in this store?!" he asked accusingly as though we had committed a crime against nature. He gave a rather nasty scowl as he grabbed the graphic novel Mike was reading it and tossed it across the room of the comic store "you two fags get the hell out of here." That was his favorite word, "Fag", he said it all the time, as though any time two guys hung out a lot automatically made them a homosexual (or for that matter anybody he didn't like was one). I doubt he's ever heard the term 'Heterosexual life mate.' "Before I beat the shit out of you" he demanded again. Mike gave me a look as though he was begging me to have his jewelry beat the snot out of him; I shook my head before getting up out of my seat and made my way toward the door.


	Mike chased after me walking up beside me as I made it down the sidewalk "you should have choked his ass off with that necklace of his, dude."
	I laughed a bit “were we anywhere else, I so would have went for it" I started "but it would have been too much of a risk."
	Mike nodded “understandable." I walked up to a bright neon green car that was parked half a block down from the store; this was Dave's car, his mustang, his baby. I gave a big grin to Mike, he saw me and knew what I was thinking, his face lit up like a five year old on Christmas morning.  “Do it, do it, do it, do it" I placed my hand on the car door, and focused, I locked up the brakes,” aw, dude you can do better" which was true, Soon there was a clicking noise indicating my freezing the locks of the doors in place.
	"David Hershel Goodman" I stated to Michael and I, using a fake made up middle name, "You are grounded." We laughed high fived, shook hands then turned separate ways to head home, it was getting dark.

-----


	Okay, I kind of lied. I didn't actually go straight home. To be totally honest with you, I actually went to the town square, there's an acre of grass there with a gazebo in the area that surrounded it. I usually went to this place to think, to clear my head a bit, it helps some. I was sitting at the statue, I was thinking. I don't really have a varied amount of things to thinks about; ideas for my future, what I'm gonna do when high school is over, girls. You know teen stuff; I tend to think of the girl thing most though. I'm probably gonna do something with computers, and my grades are pretty good so I don't worry about those things too much, so I usually always thought about getting a girlfriend. It seemed that just about everyone I knew was in a relationship of sorts, my parent's had a good relationship, Mike had a girlfriend, my sister was showing signs that she had a (apparently secret) boyfriend of her own, and anyone I was acquainted with seemed to have a person they were close to. So yeah, to make things clear I wanted a girlfriend, just to see what it was like. You know? I hope so, because I don't.


	I was sitting on the statue, well not on it really, (that would draw a bit too much attention to myself), and more or less I was sitting at the bottom of it with my back rested up on it, looking at the courthouse. I looked around the area making sure no one was looking, I was alone. Good. I went to my pockets and pulled some things from my little portable stash I have bolts, washers, coin tokens, ball bearings. I pulled out two ball bearings and two small coins, checking around my surroundings real quick one last time. I focused on the metal items in my hands, slowly they floated up in the air, I willed them a few feet up out of my hand, and I watched them float about in the air, the coins spun around, while the two ball bearings revolved around each other. This was my talent, if powers counted as talent anyhow.

	Watching bits of metal float about in the air is actually pretty relaxing, seriously. I wish you could try it. It usually helps me, and it was doing a pretty good job at the moment too, though I was starting to think my eyes were starting to play tricks on me in the dark, I was starting to see glowing dots of colored light fall out of the sky. I dropped the trinkets from the air and looked around as the coins clinked onto the ground while the ball bearings rolled off, I tried rubbing my eyes. I swore I must have been seeing things, the dots of lights started falling through the sky in much larger numbers all around, this was quite odd, I looked around frantically, what was causing this?








Chapter 2

	I spun around in the rain of multi-colored spots trying to find out the source of the lights. My thoughts were interrupted by laughter "you know you look ridiculous spinning around like that, right?" I spun around to look behind me, and on doing so I was greeted by the sight of a girl in glasses, she wore a blue jacket and had long red hair with black highlights on the sides of her hair. She was where these lights were coming from. How did I figure this? Well, considering that multiple balls of colored light were flying out of her hands like fireworks, it wasn't that much of a leap to assume. The lights faded away, "most people only think they're fireflies" the girl said as though she read my mind.
	"And people believe that multicolored fireflies exist?" I asked with a hint of sarcasm,

	"I've never gotten caught so I guess they do." She extended her arm out the glowing lights stopping as she did so "Names Mellisa by the way", I took the hand and gave it a shake,
        "Name’s Dylan" I introduced myself.

"So, how long have you been coming to this spot?" Mellisa asked to me as some green and red lights began dripping back out of her fingers.
	"about every Monday for the past two months" I answered, the question wasn't too odd "ah, That's why I've not seen you before" she said, "I usually come here on Sundays, to get away from the family, Got stuck in a family reunion so I came here today to keep myself in synch" the lights had begun floating around us fully again, "I see, so you got powers" I asked the obvious question, "Would you believe me if I said this was all a very elaborate light show?" she snared.
	"I'll take that as a yes then" I said with a chuckle. I was about to strike up a conversation with her about how long she'd had her powers (get the boring topics out of the way first I suppose), however before I could even try to talk first a loud ringtone interrupted, Mellisa pulled a phone from her pocket and flipped it open, "Hello?" I could hear a faint high pitched voice talking through the phone, she talked on the phone for a couple minutes before hanging up on the person " mom wants me home for dinner" she turned and ran off waving as she left " nice meeting you." Well...that was odd.



	I try keeping my doors locked when I read. If I get to sucked into a book I start subconsciously lifting up random metal stuff, I had once I got so sucked in I accidentally lifted the back end of my bedframe, there was much noise made when I snapped back to reality, the secret nearly got out that time. Sadly I could not keep my thoughts in the book I was reading tonight; I kept recalling the earlier events in the night. I laughed knowing that Goodman would have to have called a tow truck to get his mustang moving, I thought back about Mellisa a bit, I probably wasn't ever going to see her again since we go to that spot on different nights, though I could re-adjust the amount of times I go there. Why was I thinking this? She's a complete stranger, plus if I showed up there every time she was there I might come off a bit odd. I was doing it again! Stupid teen hormones!

----

	"Nothing's quite as refreshing as jogging in the morning." Some health freak would say. I dare them to try it, only replace the term jogging with chasing, and the add the words 'the bus', and have him do it with ten pounds worth of books strapped to his back, and while having an empty stomach. I hate waking up late. I'm not a morning person, I'd have to work on that, turning over after my mom wakes me up will be the death of me. I managed to get the bus driver's attention; I climbed on the bus to the site of many disapproving faces. What? Is one extra stop for a student gonna send us all to river Styx? I'm so glad Jeremy Cartwright noticed me running; I'd have to thank him later on today.


	I walked down the hallway now, it was nine-thirty, and second period would begin in seven minutes. I wanted to find Mike so I could tell him what had happened last night after we left the comic book shop, sadly the commute from gym class was slowed, for freshman are stupid, and have no grasp of the idea that the hallways should be clear and without a million crowds so people like me can actually manage to get through them. Oh woe betide the student who must navigate the three floors of this hellhole during the third minute of the seven minute delay between periods, woe betide me who must do such a task as to get to Mass Media class.
	"You saw a girl?" Mike said as we now made our way to the Mass Media class "let me call 'CNN"
	I ignored the sarcasm "Yeah and she was one of us to" I responded, the ‘us’ term referring to her having powers,
	Mike started listing off powers, trying to guess what she had as indiscreetly as possible “pyro kinesis, teleportation, Shape shifting, indestructible metal skeleton?"
	"Light projection I believe is the term" I said as we approached the English department,

	 "Let's just hope Mr. Marsh doesn't go off on a tirade against the liberals today" Mike changed the subject as we got closer to class, a lot of the English teachers didn't like students talking about super powers, “bipartisan my ass" Mike exclaimed causing me to laugh out loud "he gets more republican everyday" he claimed before we stepped into class, beating the class bell by a second.
----

	The beginning of Mass Media was normal; the students began taking their assigned seats in the semi-circle of desks around the room. Mr. Marsh walked into class with his giant man purse full of teaching plans, Hershey and mar's brand candy bars and self-help/political opinions books, everyone mentally prepared as he walked up to the podium set up in front of the white board and cleared his throat, this was the sign he was preparing to begin a class debate (he'd sometimes lecture, however that was signaled by a him clasping his hands together loudly.) the debates were intended to allow all students to express their opinion in an unbiased environment, however Debates would normally always dissolve into a four way argument between him, his ass kissing teacher’s pet, and the two students who happened to oppose his beliefs that day.
	"Powers, the next step in evolution or a potential social disease" Whoa. This was different. " We're are going to talk about powered teens and how they affect us as a society" Mr. Marsh began, "There has been much debate as to whether the government should stop registering those with powers for self-defense and should start legally terminating them as to preserve our safety." This was an issue? I definitely needed to start watching the news more. Mr. Marsh continued on "some of you may have heard about Benjamin Kirdy, leader of the East wick Catholic Ministry who has begun preaching against the government reliance on those with super powers, he believes that they are a public menace, and a sign of a preventable second coming" holy crap. I looked across the room to see a sea of several other wide eyed faces “So the question is should the government continue to use powered teens for national defense, of should the try to preserve national safety, let's begin"
	I saw Mike Raise his hand “shouldn’t the government consider the possibility of just allowing powered teens to live normally?" Mike asked “I mean, shouldn’t they be treated with the same respect as people of different races and sexual orientation?"
	Another student commented "I agree, I mean seriously you can't choose whether you get powers or not, just the same as you can't pick race or orientation." Mr. Marsh, being African American,  knew exactly what the student meant frowned  "Normally that would be the case, however there isn't as much an interest in altering how the military fight wars." she then added "the government is also afraid of a possible outbreak of vigilantism should they allow the citizens that choice."
	The debate waged on for the period, polls and statistics were weighed, and the history of how long powered citizens had been around was examined. And when it came down to the last opinions about the government issues a small portion stayed neutral while some believed that it would be a good idea to try and control the population of super powered individuals, a larger proportion agreed that the government should attempt to drop the registration act. Mr. Marsh closed out the class "Before you go, I'd like you to imagine what it's like to be a kid with powers, realistically, imagine what it would be like being forced to register." the class was silent as the bell rang.


	No one actually knew how the registration process worked. No powered soldiers were ever discharged while still alive, so there were no 'Survivors who've seen some shit.' No news researcher was allowed media access. The government allegedly blacked out the credentials of any former employees who attempted to reveal what went on, it was a complete mystery. However if the horror stories/ urban legends were anything to go by, it was no picnic. According to the allegedly 'discredited' individuals who claimed to have worked in the registration program claimed that both physical and psychological torture was used to make the teenagers compliant, A former psychologist claimed that mind games were heavily used, and that it was encouraged to implant the idea into the teenager's mind that everyone who was not a U.S. citizen (or anyone deemed a threat to U.S. citizens.) was out to get them. some psychologists claimed shock therapy was used, anything to make them slaves, there were some that made claims that it only took three months to completely break a teen into doing whatever the military wanted them to. And the more disturbing thing to consider; this was what MIGHT be happening in the U.S. government, the more frightening thing was what other governments were doing.


	Were this a comic book they'd have used a time lapse caption saying 'three periods later' to show how lazy I am to say how the day went after that class, Very, very, boring. It was now fifth period. I was hanging out in the bathroom that was outside the school auditorium, it was hardly ever used so I could get away with hiding here to skip out on lunch period. I snuck in a couple cans of coke to drink along with some of last night’s left over chicken; I don't care too much for the cafeteria food so I tend to bring my own, plus a quiet underused bathroom is more relaxing than any possible way I could describe the school cafeteria. A couple of flyers were taped up around the area; one of them was rather odd to say the least. All the letters were seeming randomly colored in greens, reds, and purples, ‘swim up for extra credit tutoring at room 3:12 sign up on the SECOND FLOOR Mr. Gilford’s room' I grabbed it off the wall examining it closely, it felt....a bit off, the bell signaling the end of lunch period rang, I'd take a better look at this later, I needed to beat the crowd leaving the gym classes.


-----


	Eighth period study hall dragged on forever. Mrs. Madson's study halls are always a serious thing, always. No sleeping, no drawing, only homework and studying. She was an overall bitch, probably why she was noted as one of the more serious math teachers in the school. "Study hall is for working!" she said grabbing a sheet of paper from a student "not for sleeping, not for reading magazines, and especially not for drawing!" she said to the repeat offending student, "especially of super heroes!" She yelled on "They don't exist in real life and are realistically impossible." This would be irony given how many people actually do have powers, but it is pretty much true, masked vigilantes were very much illegal; it was an attempt at denying the registration. Its punishment; go to jail: go directly to jail, do not pass go, do not collect two hundred dollars, but not a normal jail; an instant life sentence to a super powered holding facility. This was where the people went to be punished for using their power's in an unlawful manner. People who attempted to escape from the army, turned on their superiors, or try vigilantism, they all went there, and just like the registration, everything that happened there was all very top secret (aka; scary as hell.)
	I was still looking at the flyer, something wasn't exactly right about it, I stared at the words once more ‘swim up for extra credit tutoring at room at 3:12 sign up on the SECOND FLOOR Mr. Gilford’s room’ they used the dumb swimming theme since it was ran by the school swim coach Mr. Gilford, but that wasn't what was odd about it, something in it that seemed odd. I stared at it; pulling out a separate piece of paper I underlined certain colored letters, s-u-p-e-r g-r-o-u-p, 3:12, and second floor. There was a hidden message; all the red highlighted letters formed the words 'Super Group'... what did that mean? I kept looking at the other part 3:12 second floor, well the colon obviously meant it was time but the second floor part, that was confusing it doesn't have a room clarified, I looked at the number again 3:12, 3:12,  312...that was a room number, it was actually a teachers conference room. Super Group, room 312 at three-twelve p.m. message decoded! Brain exercised! Now I had to check this out.


	Five.

Four.

Three.

Two.

One!

That bell rang and everyone shot through that door like a bullet, everyone was running around in the hallway chattering loudly. I sent a text to my mom saying that I was gonna stay after school today for a club, not a lie really, for all I know it could be a club, or a trap, that would suck. Five minutes had passed; the busses had departed just a minute ago. Any student that was still at the school was either staying for a club or sport, using their own car to get home, or was just plain unlucky enough to miss the bus. I made sure to wait for everyone to leave the hallway, I assume the message was hidden so that it would be secret, and I'd figure whoever made it would want it to stay secret to anyone who didn't figure out the message.


	The hallway finally cleared through, I had seen a few people go inside the room, at least three or four I believe, I slowly walked through the hallway, I thought I could hear my footsteps echo through the hallway as I made my way toward the room. All the possible negative results played out in my head, what if this was some sort of trap to force me into the registration, what if it was some sort of cruel joke played by the jocks, what if I was gonna get shot gunned in the face (okay, yes that last one was ridiculous.) I approached the door, great the window was covered with some sort of poster, wonderful. I inhaled deeply and held it, turning the knob until it moved no further, I pushed forward.















Chapter 3


	The conference room wasn't a small one, a small oval table with eight seats in the center, a tiny refrigerator sat next to a printer on a coffee table in the corner, a coke machine sat in the opposite corner the only machine left in the school selling pop at fifty cents, next to it was a vending machine that sold candy bars and potato chips. I looked around the room, including myself there were five kids in here; sitting on the end of the room was a boy with out of control brown curly hair who wore vest over a Metallica t-shirt. The girl sitting next to him also had brown hair but it was a bit darker, she was wearing a dark red hoodie, she wore glasses, she looked like a freshman. over in the corner of the room were twins, both redhead, our school had about 5 sets of twins, if I remembered right these two were the Lumis twins, I'd seen them around a couple times, they wore opposite styled clothing, one was set out in what appeared to be the Goth style with dark shirt dark skirt steel toes boots, the other set out in bright colors but still matched the overall theme; t-shirt with some witty saying, a plaid skirt, and converse high tops instead of boots. Nobody seemed to know each other, the Lumis twins were chatting in the background, probably debating over what candy to buy or something, I went to take a seat near the center of the table the spot was across from the table from a few books with a few unmarked folders stacked up so it was probably occupied.


 	We sat staring at each other quietly, looking around trying to look like we had a clue as to what we were waiting for, a few minutes passed before the sound of the door knob turning rather loudly caught all of our attention as we looked to find Mr. Stephenson, One of the science teachers, having now entered the room. He looked at us all Staring at each and every one of us "I was expecting more of you" he said slightly disappointed, " Well, you're all here for Super Group, right?" he asked us all, no one objected. "Phew, that's good, I thought I'd have to send someone to Mr. Bailey to get a mind wipe." he said in a way that I couldn't quite tell if he was serious, "just joking, no one's getting a mind wipe" he laughed "you're all here for the advertised group so you're all safe" Mr. Stephenson moved towards the seat with the books "I'd like to congratulate you guys for figuring out the hidden message, and without further ado I say welcome to Super group."
	We (the students) were all silent before the girl with brown hair raised her hand “What exactly is this super group thing anyway?"
	With that question Mr. Stephenson smiled, "It is a super support group." he explained. "Teenagers have it rough, especially those with super powers, so some of the teachers have taken it upon their selves to make a group where teens with power's could come together and talk about their life’s" everyone stared quietly some more "There was no room to squeeze the word 'support' into the message."
	The kid with the vest raised his hand, "so this is like, alcoholics anonymous or something?"  	Mr. Stephenson scratched at his head "sorta, except you guys still get to use the thing that gives your life issues" we still weren't quite getting it "essentially this is a group for you guys who feel you have no one to go to, to show you're not the only person with problems." he paused "now before I begin telling what's gonna be going on I'm required to ask" he inhaled preparing to recite something from memory "If anyone does not wish to participate in this group, please stand up and go to Mr. Bailey's for a mind wipe, I warn you though, it will sting like you've fallen into a swarm of jelly fish, but you will wake up feeling the most refreshed since you were born." No one objected to participating. "Well this is good" he said with a smile "Now let's star-"

	The door opened "Is this that super group thing?"  A voice interrupted Stephenson. We all collectively turned to the door; I had to do a double take. Standing there at the door was a familiar person, it was Mellisa I didn't even think she'd have gone to this school (rather stupid on my part really). "Well of course, do take a seat" Mr. Stephenson said as Mellisa made her way to the seat next to mine. She was wearing some sort of perfume, it had a pleasant smell.


"Now, since we’re all here" he clapped his hand together "who wants to start out the introductions?" as you could probably predict, nobody jumped up to introduce themselves. "alrighty then, I'll start , My name is Mr. Stephenson, Do feel free to call me Quinn since it's after school hours, I am twenty-nine, I've had my power since I was seventeen." he paused bending over the side of his chair, reaching into his bag to pull out a small light bulb, holding it by the metal part, "And my power is" he paused once more, focusing on the light bulb as he stared at it slowly the light bulb began to light up, getting brighter until the light bulb began lightly buzzing with the energy passing through it suddenly popping in his hand, most of us jumped as the girls gasped at the sudden bursting noise "Energy generation and manipulation" Quinn stated with a grin "and that's pretty much how introduction's work; name, age, and demonstration of your powers."


After the group recovered, the first person to stand up was Mellisa, everyone gave her complete attention. "My name is Mellisa Vanyard, I'm eighteen, and this is my power" she paused to hold up her hand, slowly like last night, dozens of multicolored balls of light began shooting out of her palms like fireworks, eliciting quite a few ooh's and awe’s from the group "I don't know what the technical term for it is" She stated before sitting back down as the glowing balls disintegrated from sight "had it for about 6 months".


The second student to stand up was The girl in the hoodie "First off, My name is Alexandra" she announced "But I prefer Alex, So call me Alexandra without being my mother first and You will die!" she stated Pointing her hand directly at Mr. Stephenson "Second" She began as her hand started to slowly fade out of focus the effect spreading over the rest of her body like some sort of bizarre Microsoft movie effect, with in a minute's time She had completely disappeared from sight "I can turn invisible" Her voice spoke from thin air, slowly again her body came back into focus, she now sitting in her seat again "had it for about 8 months, quite fun when the boys are having Gym at around third period." she laughed as everyone was a bit surprised by that comment, though the curly hair kid with the vest was Giggling madly at it.


	Slowly everyone quieted down again, there was four kids left, The Twins stood up simultaneously, both of them were grinning widely, I had a sense that this was gonna be entertaining.
	"We are Denise and Renee" The Goth one stated,
	"Ren and Den" The prep one stated,
	 "The Lumis Twins!" they both pronounced in unison, striking a symmetrical pose. They immediately split apart clapping their hands together, pointing their index fingers forward like handguns, instantly a sphere of fire ignited in the center of the air in front of them only to immediately start steaming into nothingness before water fell down from the small cloud onto the table, “Fire and Ice" Ren stated, 	Denise finished "7 months." they bow as they sat back down, Alex clapped at the show as everyone else was in awe, "The janitor isn't gonna appreciate that" Mr. Stephenson said motioning to the puddle of water on the table.


A couple extra minutes passed to clean up the mess made by Renee and Denise Before it was just me and the Vest kid, I decided I did not want to be last and stood up. "My name is Dylan" I introduced myself and stated my age, I reached into my pocket and grabbed the washer’s ball bearing bolts and nuts, as much as I could fit into my hand “My power is..." I paused a second and focused on the metals as they began floating up from my hand every last object moving freely through the air, a couple ooh's and awes came out of the room, I could see Mellisa grinning out of the corner of my eye, Alex was starring with awe as were the Lumis twins. I sensed my amount of time was winding down so I pulled all the metal objects back together, pulling them together into a tight ball where they fell back into my hand "Magnetism" I stated finishing my sentence "I've had it for about a year now “I said before calmly sitting back down in my seat.


I felt I had made the vest kid feel slightly threatened, I saw a visible shiver pass through him. I think I may have blinked but somehow he'd disappeared from sight, a loud pop sound went through the room as everyone save for Alex jumped at the noise, "Where'd Mr. Meade go?!" Mr. Stephenson Asked out loud as everyone began looking around the room; again Alex didn't do much to help
	"Maybe he can turn invisible too" Ren theorized aloud, before anyone could continue pondering a loud knock came from outside of the room, we all went absolutely quiet "Everyone stay absolutely quiet." Mr. Stephenson demanded as he stood up from his chair and walked up to the door, everyone swallowed air as he opened the door slowly, before anyone thought something bad Mr. Stephenson let out a loud hearty laugh as he opened the door further to reveal the vest kid Standing there. 	A wide grin spread over his face "Bet you thought it was a cop or something, huh?" he laughed as he walked back into the room to sit back in his seat. "M'names Terry Meade, everybody" he said merrily giving Alex a high five (apparently she was in on the joke) "and I teleport." he looked satisfied.


	As everyone calmed down “now before I forget”  Mr. Stephenson started as he passed a clip board around the table " I'd like you guys to list your name's, email's, and optionally a cell phone number, should I have to get a hold of you for anything" The board made it’s a way to me as everyone grabbed a card from a small bundle of business cards "on the clipboard are cards with my contact information on it, do feel free to contact me at any time you need to talk" The clipboard made its way back to Mr. Stephenson. "Well, since everyone has introduced themselves and it's been about a half hour, everyone has everyone’s contact info, I suppose it would be okay for us to call this meeting to a close for the week, meet here next Wednesday if you can, contact me should anything come up" and with that we all left.

And that was about it.


Chapter 4

	And again the narrator (as in most stories you've probably read) proves to be a liar. We were all walking down the hallway that lead out to the Pick-up zone and parking lot. I was standing near Mellisa "So is anyone planning to stick with this thing?" Terry asked pulling out a cigarette, lighting it with a Zippo lighter.

	"I'm sure I'm going to" Alex said with a grin "Stephenson's alright."

	"He seems good"

	"As does the concept" Ren finished Denise’s sentence.

	"Why do you guys do that?" Alex asked

	"Do what?" Ren asked

	"Finish each other's sentences?"

	"We like performing to the media portrayal of twins"


"And it's fun" Denise added (more like repeated really) "Besides we're different people to the point where it's irony"

	"I'm taller" Ren started

	"I was born three minutes earlier than her" Denise stated

	"You always got to brag over that don't you?"

	"Yep" she added with a big happy grin

	Mellisa laughed "I'd always wanted a twin" she said as we approached door. Shortly after getting out of the door the twins left getting picked up by a public transit bus, as did Alex with Terry leaving in a black firebird with a yellow stripe down the middle. Most of the teachers and staff had left by now leaving the parking lot mostly empty save for three cars owned by the custodial staff. And now it was just me and Mellisa...The second time I'd been alone with a girl in my entire life I might add. I sat there kind of awkwardly, "So...." I trailed off; crap...I had no idea what to say. Think Dylan, think! Why was I locking up! Shit!  "What do you do outside of school?" Crap! Boring question!

	"I do a lot of photography" She said "gets me out of the house"

	"Ahh" I said "I collect comic books..." Crap! Damn it Dylan you just revealed how much of a nerd you are to a girl! Crap! "Uhm...yeah"

	"I like comics actually, read them a lot as a kid...before my mom got married the second time. Anyway" Yes! I'm saved! Thank you lord! I mentally dropped down on my knees and praised the nerd gods!

	"What did you read?"

	"I read a lot of iron man actually"

	"Ah" I'd never really read Iron man, liked the concept, wish I had my own suit of armor, I thought about looting the junkyard now to see if I could make my own out of scrap. "I actually like a lot of indie type comics, ever read the crow?"

	"Crow's not indie" she said crooking an eyebrow "every Goth, punk, and hipster's watched the movie"

	"true, but I'm sure they've not all read the comic" I said, I did agree that the movie was good but I'm not gonna lie the comic is amazing "it's pretty dark, seriously I read it all in one day and felt myself go cold for the rest of the day"

	"You ever read Serious house on Serious Earth?" she asked me as we moved to a bench

	"Loved it, though I didn't get too much of the symbolism"

	"Most of it has something to do with the human psyche" she said pulling out a small note pad and pen "Don't make the mistake of handing it to a psychology major, that's all I'll say" she wrote something down on the paper as a red sedan pulled up with a middle age woman sitting in the driver's seat. "Here's my number" she told me as she ripped the paper out of the pad and handed it to me "this is my ride, call me if you can." And before I could react, she was gone.


	....Did I just get a girls phone number?

	That was a lot easier than I'd imagined.


---------


	It wasn't too long that curiosity got the better of me, actually it got the better of me the second I got home, it just took a day and a half (as in pacing around my floor nervously trying to wait so I don't look desperate) to act on that curiosity. On Friday night I called Mellisa and asked if she wanted hang out Saturday, I didn't use the word date, not once did I use that word, we were just gonna hang out to get to know each other better, and that was it. Didn't stop mom and Deb from making a giant deal out of it; Deb's a romantic, has always been one, and always will be, so hearing that her brother finally was gonna interact with a female she told me all the things she hoped (read, expected) me to do when we were an official couple, which isn't a guarantee, I'd just met the girl six days ago. And then my mom was well...a mom.

	So now it was 12:30 and I was waiting at the town square for Mellisa to show up. I kept running my hands through my hair trying to get it out of the ugly bowl shape my mom combed it into. I nearly jumped when Mellisa came up from behind me.

	"Hey" she said with a friendly smile

	"Hey" I said, waving a small wave...for some unknown reason. "I see you brought your camera." I said pointing out that she had indeed brought her camera...

	"I did” she confirmed holding her hands securely over the very expensive looking Nikon camera. "I wanted us to go sightseeing, lots of picture worthy places around town."

	 "Cool" man did I sound like an idiot. "Where should we go first?"

	"I'm gonna take you to Eagle Rock" she stated confidently quickly catching a photo of me off guard.

	 I blinked a couple times from the flash, slightly confused "Eagle Rock?"

	"Yes, you'll see" and with that we began a long trek to a forest behind a local school, and then   traversed what felt like a mile over unstable terrain to find a large stack of Limestone that stretched about a seventy foot up. Our conversations ranged through all the small things from Favorite snacks (mine pudding, hers Strawberries) to favorite movies, music etc.

	"So what took you so long to call me?" Mellissa asked as we sat at the top of the stack, our feet hanging off the side of the ledge.

	"I get nervous" I said "...And I've been pranked before"

	"Ah"

	"Yeah"

	"Rejection hotline?"

	"Yeah..."

	"Ouch"

	"Yeah..." Note to self; find something to say other than 'yeah'!

	She chuckled a bit "so you’re the nervous type, eh?"

	"Now I didn't say that"

	"Ooh, so what kind of guy are you then?" she said inching a little closer to me.

	"I suppose, a smart guy"

	"So you're a nerd."

	"Damn it, you saw through my disguise!" I said earning a riot of laughter from her. "Ha-ha, so what kind of girl are you?"

	"The good kind" she said with a smile.

	"Oh really, and how can I know for sure?"

	"Because I am"

	"Still doesn't answer my question, but okay."

	"Wanna go get some food?"

	"Definitely" I said rubbing my stomach "I am so starving."

----

	We departed from our spot. Again, it felt like it was a mile back to the main road running through town, my feet stung a tiny bit whenever we got up the hill and on the main road, I'd have to remind myself to walk more. Several minutes later (should have worn my watch) we'd stopped by a local gas station and were now placed outside behind the mini-mart eating microwaved hamburgers and drinking soda.

	"So what do you really think about that support group thing?" She asked me finishing her hamburger

	"It's interesting, I'm most likely gonna keep going, seeing as I have to get brain wiped if I don't"

	She laughed, thank you well developed since of humor! "Yeah I'll do the same, I like my memories"

	"Cool" (cool? Seriously? What kind of line is that? COOL?!) "So...I've ran out of things to talk about...."

	More laughter, I hope that's because I'm charming "You're a dork" Crap! "I like you...in a friendly sorta way"

	"Ah" I chuckled...I don't know why "Friendly is good"

	"You're just lucky I like dorks"

	-----

	And then we stole a car, it was simple really, just magnetically undo the lock and trigger the ignition and we were out of there and I am totally making that up. No, in reality Mellisa called her mom and had her pick us up and take us back to their house. And despite my protest I found myself staying for dinner.
	Mellisa's house was a rather normal looking house; two stories, three windows on the front part of the house, painted green, all in all, pretty normal. "My mom's boyfriend is cooking tonight" Mellisa said as she lead the way up the stairs of the house, I saw pictures of her, her family, or families as there were about two family portraits each one having a different man standing next to her mom, her mom was a fairly nice looking woman; Tall blond dressed very nicely, the kind of person who took to middle age with a firm grace, unlike my mother whom for all I know had a bomb shelter full of every type of lotion, crème, lip balm, regener-x age defier, my mom probably had her own laser to try zapping out crow’s feet.

We made it down the hallway walking past an open door, the sounds of heavy metal rock exploded into my ears as the sight of two girls thrashing passed the corner of my eye "That's my brothers room, it's best to avoid it if you want your hearing undamaged"

	I blinked slightly confused "Brother?"

 	"Long story, don't ask, my mom's pretty open minded, that's all I'm gonna say." I blinked and nodded as we made it down the hallway "and here's my room" she said opening the door to a large bedroom, the walls were painted a dark and very pleasant shade of green, a multitude of every type of butterfly it seemed were painted on to the walls, A desk and Bed sat on opposite sides of the room while a stack of books were next to a small TV set that sat on a drawer right next to the doorway, overall it was a pretty decent looking room.

"Sorry if it's messy"

It wasn't “it’s fine, I'm sure my room looks worse." That would be a paragraph unto itself.

	"So, what do you wanna do to pass the time?" she asked

	"Nothing I can think of"

	"Hmm...You wanna play the question game?"

	"Question game?"

	"Yeah, we take turns asking questions and answer them as honestly as we can." she said sitting on the bed and grabbing a chair for me to sit in "Kind of like truth or dare, minus the dare part seeing as everyone picks dare to avoid difficult questions."

	I laughed at that one "well I'll agree with that, I'm game then." I said taking the seat "You ask first."

	"Hmmm" she went into a type of thinking face for a few seconds "What do you like in a girl?"

	Crap! That’s a hard question. "Well..." I delayed “They got to be accepting."

	"Accepting of what?"

	"Of all my bizarre things"

	"You don't seem bizarre to me"

	"You're talking to a guy who can recite the entire green lantern oath from memory"

	She paused for a second "In brightest day?"

	"Nor blackest night"

	"No evil shall escape my sight"

	"Let those that worship evils might"

	"Beware my power--" there was a dramatic moment as she joined in with me

	"GREEN LANTERNS LIGHT!" we both threw our hands up in a fist as though we were wearing our own power rings. I nerdgasmed, suddenly my crush on Helena Bonham Carter had just been destroyed. "You are perhaps the most awesome girl I have ever met in my life."

	She giggled a bit "Why thank you. Your turn to ask a question"

	I wanted to ask a similar question but I didn't want to seem unoriginal. "You ever been kissed before?" ....shit, I said that out loud.

	"Yes." she answer without a beat "...well it depends if you count experimenting with friends."

	"Experimenting?" I knew what that was....so why did I ask!?

	"Yeah, you know when you and a close and well trusted friend make out just to practice" she explained “So I guess if you meant with someone of the opposite sex, I’ve not kissed anyone.”

	I gulped in my mind "Oh...well I'm not sure if that counts or not, I've never kissed anyone" I paused...did I sound like a freak? "Just saying that in case you planned to ask me my question" Cause I'm a freak!

	"It's cool, what’s the guiltiest thing you've ever done with your powers?" she asked grinning dirtily.

	This was a fun one "well, don’t judge me harshly, but once I magnetically held a mirror above a woman's changing room in a public store" my face was red at the confession.

	Extended silence "Oh my god!" She busted out laughing heaving for air a few seconds later "oh god! That’s such a guy thing to do" she snorted between fits of laughter (which only made me blush more)

	I lowered my eyebrows and crossed my arms "okay that's enough. Your turn again." Actually it was mine but I couldn’t’ think of anything and the pause of laughter made for a good distraction.

	"alright, alright sorry" she wheezed before calming down "phew, okay, okay, alright; do you..." she paused for a second, it didn't look like a thinking face as much as a look to torture me face "...like men?" she said with another dirty grin.

	"No!" I said with a snort of laughter "well not the way you’re implying that is."

	"That's perfectly acceptable, your turn now"

	More thinking time for me, I wasn't too good at creating questions.

	"I'm sorry for that"...

	"Did I say that out loud?"

	"That you're not good at thinking of questions? Yes, “she said

	I quirked an eyebrow "...my quotations must be broken."

	"What?"

	"It's nothing, don't worry about it"  I took a moment to deep think everything....a question danced around in my head, but I didn't want to ask it, that one would wait...for a good while, it'd be to cliché to ask this early. "Well...I can't think of anything"

	"Food's ready you guys" Mellisa's mom popped her head in from the hallway, saved by the bell...or Popping mother head...yeah, saved by the bell works better.


	The dish was chicken fajitas, with a side of fried corn. There was small talk, we watched a little bit of TV, overall, it was nice. It got to be a round ten when we decided to walk back to my house.

	"So...I had fun today." I said awkwardly as we approached the door.

	"I did too"...man...she looked kind of cute right now, one of her bangs hung down between her eyes...wow. "You okay?"

	I shook my head for a second "huh?"

	"You were staring"

	"Oh, yeah I'm fine...sorta dazed off"

	She smiled as it more. "That’s cool; I do that a lot myself."

	"So...wanna hang out again sometime later this week?"

	"I'd love too" she said happily with a smile "say maybe Friday, at our spot?"

	"You mean the statue at the square?"

	"Of course, but 'our spot' rolls off the tongue better"

	I chuckled (why I'll never know) "our spot' it is then."

	"I'll see you then" she smiled before twirling around and speeding off.

	I went inside, walked upstairs, got changed, and then passed out. Awkwardness sucks up a crap load of energy.

Chapter 5


	There was a slight storm rolling outdoors, and I'd been sitting down on the couch, watching some cartoons, I really don't remember what I was watching, but then again that really doesn't matter. My parents had gone to the store, and Debrah; my sister, was at a friend’s house. Recently it seemed, that our cable had started acting up, every so often there'd be a burst of static over the picture at any given time, it wasn't just one TV either; Front room, my room, my sisters TV’s all acted up occasionally. The only thing those really had in common was that I'd watch them. Today was no different. On the coffee table was a small pile of change, in my kitchen a pile of silverware was in the dish drainer. and I lazily sat there watching TV trying to pay attention despite the blasts of static, and then four-forty-five rolled around, the phone in the hall way started ringing, getting up I used the coffee table to help myself up; as minute a detail this is it is very important to know that when I got up my hand rested on the pile of change, as I got up I closed my hand in to a fist and made my way to the phone my hand clinked together, I stopped a moment as I now looked to find about 55 cents in quarters, dimes, and pennies stuck to my hand.

	 The phone stopped ringing, still a bit perplexed about why I had change stuck to my hand; I walked back to the front room and then Thwap! I nearly whiplashed my neck just in time to find a knife stuck in the wall....a metal knife

	"We already knew knives were metal you dumbass." Terry interrupted the story.

	"Hey!" I interjected

	"please be quiet Terry" Mr. Quinn (for the sake of being formal while satisfying his request to refer to him by his first name Mr. Stephenson will from here out be called Mr. Quinn) scolded "keep going Dylan"

...Well...long story short I managed to accidentally pull the TV off its mantle, get knocked upside the head by my father’s thermos and woke up a couple hours later after somehow stumbling into my room without killing myself or getting maimed by every kitchen utensil on the way, I managed to convince my parents that and I quote 'A lightning bolt struck the house and created a magnetic pulse and (I think) caused stuff to fly about' and I've tried to keep it all under control with a few hiccups here and there.

	"Very good, Mr. Hurtzfeld" Quinn said with much cheer

	"Way to go BS'ing your way out of that" Terry said with a laugh, earning a slightly nasty stare from Renee.

	it had been a good three weeks since the first meeting of our little group, an effort had been made to remove any posters with the hidden message for the group, leaving only a couple in the out of the way areas in the school (Band department and the bathrooms outside the gym and the auditorium.) "Becoming a member is a onetime opportunity" Mr. Quinn had explained "We can't have stragglers" it was a crappy reason, but a logical one.

	Today we were telling how we had gotten our powers; our 'Origin Stories' as Mr. Quinn had lamely put it. Most of the stories were kind of boring as you'd probably predict.

	"So I'd jumped from the roof, and then" Terry snapped his hand before blinking over to the other side of the table” I was on the ground! except I wasn't dead" He exclaimed as he told his story of how he teleported off the roof of a third story building while being chased by a local gang, I could see in the eyes of Melissa and the twins that they were buying it as much as I was, Alex on the other hand nodded her head punctuating at certain moments as though she were there herself. And low and behold she had. Apparently she and Terry had been friends for a very long time.

	"The moment we got through the door I panicked, I was so scared I just kind of 'poofed" She said explaining how it happened "Then I saw Terry suddenly blink out of sight" she confirmed the story. "Next thing we knew we were telling each other what had happened that night.

	The twin's story wasn't as much of a story as much as it was an incident. “Long story short,"

	"It involved a propane tank, an entire lake,"

	"And now we can no longer visit with our friend to his uncle’s farm." They both told the story half for half.

	The meeting played out the rest of the way with Mellisa explaining how she'd gotten her powers while during an electrical storm, "The power went out and, this fact about me doesn't leave the room; but I'm somewhat afraid of the dark" she glared across the room before continuing. "So I guess the shock triggered my powers, because next thing I knew," she started waving her hands around in front of her as balls of light mimicked her hands rotations "my room was a multicolored light show"

	And the meeting burned out and ended a half hour later.

	----

"We should all hang out this weekend," Was the first sentence out of Terry's mouth as we made our way down the stairs.

"I'm game!" Ren immediately announced I was slightly alarmed.

"Double that" Shit, now you Denise?! I expected better of...wait...you’re the prep one, never mind....What the heck Ren? You’re supposed to be Goth!

They’re gonna expect me to wanna go, No, screw that I will gladly stay at home.

Alex hopped on Terry's back throwing him slightly off balance "You know I'm in" Damn it! I'm spinning my head around trying to find an escape exit. Why is Mellisa standing so close to me!? I'm getting claustrophobic.

"We'll go," Mellisa said with a smile grabbing my hand and raising it above our heads.

What?

"C'mon it'll be fun" She told me

"I'm not sure if I can" I think my captions broke again.

"Dude C'mon!" Terry goaded me.

And of course my head started swimming: Darn it peer pressure, darn it Melisa’s hand holding mine still, and your hand being all soft! You're all ganging up on me AND THAT'S NOT FAIR!!



And now here it is, Friday night, and I'm dressed like some sort of dork. Why is the only casual dress shirt I own a bowling shirt!  We were going to be hanging out a restaurant called McGee's a restaurant/arcade that was made with the special intent of teenager's in mind.

"Don't forget these!" Deb handed me a family sized pack of gummy worms.

"What are these for?"

"Eating" She said "With your friends, because you know, you eat gummy worms" she gave me a look like that said 'You’re stupid'

I gave a feigned look of ignorance "Ohhh, Well I've been doing it wrong, for like ever"

She rolled her eyes at me "C'mon let's go down stairs before your ride gets here, mister magnetism"

"....What?" I think I needed to change my pants.

"I heard your friend Mike call you that, I just thought I'd try it out."

Oh Jesus. I sighed mentally "oh...cool then."

"And I figured it was because it was cause of your super power"

Gack!  "What." I choke!

"Don't worry your secrets safe with me" She grinned a knowing smile "So long as you stop banging around with your bed anyway"

"How did you know?" my eyes were still wide.

"Picked your lock one night, found a whole crap load of change floating above your head"

My eye twitched

"I won't tell don't worry" Suddenly a car horn sounded, "Go, and don’t keep the posse waiting." she hurried me outside....Somebody tells me what just happened? I blearily sit in the old sports car, as we drift down to McGee’s. Mellisa wasn't in the car; no doubt she'd gotten a ride with her mom, so now I lay uncomfortably stuck next to Alex in the back seat of the mustang……I have a posse?


-----

“LAAAA LA LA LA LA LAA LAAAAA KA TA MA RI DAMASHI” Terry and Alex are singing ridiculously and I may or may not be resisting the urge to tap my foot along with the out of key singing. Or I could lie and say it’s not the catchiest song in existence and tell you I’m pondering tossing myself out of the car and running back to my house. But…Honestly that was a lie…I was really of two minds about the whole thing, nervous at the prospect at being in a public place with a group of peers that I barely knew as anything more than acquaintances and fellow support group members.

“Hope you like daft punk” Alex said skipping a few song earning a half accusing ‘Hey!’ from Terry, and soon the car was filled with pumping bass that was pushed down into my head momentarily as I debated whether I could somehow disappear after we got to McGee’s


I am very much not a social person; I have always had my one friend that I talked with and hung out with as well as the occasional small circle of people I chatted with online.  I don’t have anything wrong with being social, it’s just never been a strong suit for me; to many awkward pauses of silence, to many moments where you’re expected to contribute to the conversation, to many moments where you can screw it up and make yourself look like a complete idiot.


Especially so when you have a feeling you might like one of the people at this little get together.