6.

The next day at training Elliot was in the worst mood of his life. After their night out Sheree had completely shut him out. Then he had a test today in class and he wasn't ready for it. How the hell was he supposed to know what new element Henry's meteorite introduced into the earth's atmosphere? Apparently, space farts was the wrong answer. Now he was forced to stand between Albert and Just Josh, who it turned out is even higher ranked than Albert, as they showed off their powers.

"How did you sleep?" Sheree asked Elliot as they stood at the rear of the new formation.

"Do you honestly care?" Elliot asked without looking over at her.

A giant praying Mantis had been spotted by Josh as he hovered above the team. Since He could control air, Professor Klein had made him the new point person.

"Well, no but I heard somewhere that small talk eased tension," she said, her normal, stony tone just made Elliot angrier.

"So, this is you trying to what...save our friendship?" he said and continued watching Albert and Just Josh dismantle the mantis.

"No, I just don't want you to place us in danger because you're not focused is all?" she said in her icy tone.

"Then you probably should've let me bleed out last week," he said before running forward and punching the mantis as it sat stunned. The blow separated the bug's head from the rest of its body.

Sheree felt a strange feeling go through her after his last statement. Then she felt something moving down her face and tried to swat it away. It was a tear, she stared at her wet fingers in disbelief. Was she actually crying?

"Pay attention Sheree!" Professor Klein scolded her.

Elliot turned around and stuck his tongue out at Sheree after she was scolded. Suddenly he found himself unable to move as he floated back toward her. She can move an entire person now? He thought as he helplessly watched her reel him in. When he plopped back on his feet he was fuming.

"What's your problem," he said before he noticed the shiny streak on her cheek. "Wait, were you...," he had been reaching for her face when she threw him backward several feet. He landed on his butt and slid into a bush.

"Don't ever touch me again," she said in a voice that sounded more like a hiss.

"Are you okay?" Josh asked as he landed next to Elliot.

"I'm fine," Elliot said and jumped back to his feet.

"Are you sure, you hit the ground pretty hard," Josh said with a slight grin on his face.

"Back off Just Josh, I said I'm fine," Elliot said as he dusted himself off and walked back to his spot across from Sheree.

"Don't worry about it Elliot, I'm sure that only hurted half as bad as it looked like it did," Albert called back to him while laughing loudly. That was until a tree branch swung low and slapped him in the face. He looked back at Sheree, but the glare she gave him in return made him turn back around.

The rest of that training session was conducted in near silence. When training ended Elliot went and sat in the lounge until it closed three hours later. The last thing he wanted to do was see Sheree's face. He walked slowly across the campus back to their dorm. While he walked he noticed two girls walking hurriedly in the opposite direction. There was a short asian girl that he knew from several classes. He remembered her because of her flaming red hair. Even on a dark night like this one, it gleamed and stood out. The second girl was tall and thin with pale skin and dark hair. Elliot had never seen her before. How many new students had shown up recently? He thought to himself as the girls disappeared into the night.

When he finally made his way back into his dorm room it was completely dark. He managed to make his way over to his nightstand and turn on his lamp before the plug jumped out of the wall.

"The next thing gets destroyed," Sheree warned.

Elliot decided not to plug the lamp back in. Instead he moved around in the dark and got himself ready for bed as best he could. When he finally did lay down he couldn't sleep. He needed to say something to her.

"I'm sorry, if I made you cry," he said.

"Shut up," was all Sheree said in response.

He didn't say anything more to her. He drifted off to sleep thinking about knocking the head off of the mantis. The next day when he woke up Sheree was already gone. He didn't like that she was more distant now than she ever had been before, but he told himself that if she wanted space, then so did he. He proceeded with his normal morning routine and then went to his first class with a new sense of freedom. Right up to the moment he heard the whispers around him.

"Did you hear about the girl that went missing?" a female voice said from somewhere behind him.

"You mean that quiet girl that never really left her dorm room? I did hear about that. They say she was just gone all of a sudden," another female voice answered.

Elliot didn't know for sure that they were talking about Sheree but he couldn't just wait until she didn't come back later to find out. He ran to her first class and looked into the tiny window in the door. When he saw her sitting in her normal, front row seat he took a deep breath and walked away from the classroom.

As he walked he heard other people he passed talking about the missing girl. It wasn't until someone said she had bright red hair that he knew who they were talking about. He immediately remembered seeing her the night before. She didn't seem to be in any danger or distress. If he remembered correctly she was happy and laughing when she passed him. So she just never came back? He asked himself as he bumped into Just Josh.

"Sorry about that," he said as he tried to hurry past him.

"No worries, but hey I wanted to ask you something," Just Josh said in a hushed tone.

"What?" Elliot asked suspiciously.

"Well, I just wanted to know if you and Sheree are together. She's amazing, but I don't wanna overstep and ask her out if you two are a couple," he said, his tone was respectful and measured.

Elliot heard and understood that Just Josh was only asking a harmless question, but all he heard was please punch me in my stupid face. A smile crossed his lips as he imagined doing to Just Josh what he did to that giant mantis.

"Did I miss something?" Just Josh asked and looked around.

"No, umm we're strictly roommates," Elliot said and walked away.

He didn't want to admit that to Just Josh, but it would more than likely lead to a funny scene later when he tried to ask Sheree out and got shot down. Hopefully Elliot could be there to see that happen. That would make up for how bad things had been going for him recently. He hoped so anyway.