21 Friends

Shreds of wood rained down from where the board had previously been and Waze brought down her leg, returning to her standing position. She slouched against the wall as the power faded from her body. But this time was different from the first two times she had used it. She felt great. Better than great. She was still energized, like the power hadn't fully left her yet. Waze leaned off the wall and stood up straight before looking at the scene in front of her. There were shreds of wood scattered around the floor in front of her from where she had broken the board moments ago. Duke and Michelle had stopped mid fight to stare at Waze, while Cassidy and Marco stood close to a stunned Sable with similar expressions. Waze glanced back at Norris who merely took a sip of tea and gave Waze of smile. Of course she wasn't surprised. Was Norris ever surprised? Could a clairvoyant even be surprised?

"Haha... pretty cool...right?" There was an awkward silence to accompany Waze's awkward response to the event that had just unfolded.

"Dude what the FU-"

"Waze that was amazing!" Michelle cut off a shocked Duke mid sentence to run over and give Waze a hug. Waze relaxed into Michelle's soft body. She was always so nice to hug.

"I have to say, I'm impressed, Ms. Waze." Cassidy nodded and gave a reluctant smile.

"Oh wow, I'm so honored, Ms. Cassidy. Thank you for blessing me with your short attention span! I am so glad to have pleased you." Waze had a hard time caring about Cassidy being 'impressed'. She did enjoy the praise though.

"Oh shut it. Can't you take a complement?" Cassidy scowled in Waze's direction.

"If it's a complement, then say it like one. Geez, it's not that hard." Waze was already mildly annoyed with Cassidy.

"Now, now break it up. I think we can all admit thats some definite progress from Waze." Marco emphasized the word 'progress' which could have meant multiple things from 'you were horrid before this' to 'this isn't all the great'.

"You got a probl-" Before Waze could snap back at Marco's passive aggressive comment, Duke practically tackled her.

"Dude you did it! You used your power! And it looked damn cool, too!"

"Damn right it looked cool." Waze turned to Sable. She (and Norris, but did Norris really count?) was the only one who hadn't said anything. As Waze turned to look at her, the others followed Waze's eyes. Seeing the attention on herself, Sable sputtered out a sentence.

"G-good job. Progress." It wasn't much but hey, it was a start, right? Plus, Sable said 'progress' in a much less patronizing way than Marco had. Waze would take what she could get.

"Thanks, Sable." Waze turned to the others who were fanned out around her before looking down at her hands. "Whats cool is I don't even feel wrecked. My body feels fine, in fact it's almost better than ever."

"This has everything to do with your little experience mediating yesterday, doesn't it?" Waze turned back to Norris, slightly startled by her sudden words.

"Oh... um yeah. Pretty much. Some stuff happened yesterday too."

"Ehh...? Spill, girl!" Michelle looked at her eagerly and the others shared similar expressions. Marco had walked over to the side of the room to get a sip of his drink, so Waze followed as the others tailed behind. Eventually, they formed a small circle on the ground, like a group of girls sitting to gossip. Norris was still listening from across the room.

"Well on Saturday, when I was meditating, I sort of tried a different approach, and I ended up talking to the god."

"You talked to the god?! No, scratch that, you talked to the god and you didn't tell us?!" Duke looked incredulous. Waze thought that he was easily surprised, or maybe she was just a surprising person. Maybe a bit of both.

"Well... she, I think 'she', said some pretty weird stuff. I wasn't quite sure what to do, so on Sunday I went to ask an old friend of mine who's good with this kinda stuff." Waze glanced at Marco. He had seen her 'old friend' in person, but was still pretending to have no idea. His expression never broke. His acting skills were almost disturbing. Then again, he generally hid his cold and petty side from the majority of people he met.

"Anyway, so this friend sort of helped me decipher what the god said. I was thinking about it on the way home, and I closed my eyes for a bit. When I opened them, I was glowing with the power. That's why I was in such a good mood today, I had a feeling I could finally make some progress. And I did!"

"Still, next time something like this happens, you should tell us, ok sweetie?" Waze tried not to cringe slightly. Michelle was nice and all, but she didn't seem to take Waze seriously. Hopefully Waze could change that one day.

"She's right though, you should tell us about stuff like this. We can help. Norris, too." Duke gave Waze a warm smile.

"Do I even need to tell Norris, though? She pretty much knows everything. It's not like she was surprised." The group turned to look back at Norris who gave them a smile and wave. They turned back to look at each other.

"Somehow... it's creepy," Cassidy said looking down at the mat. The others gave similar nods of agreement before they all laughed.

"Sorry guys, I'll tell you next time. I also thought it would be cool to surprise you, though. You know, shock factor."

"Yeah, nice going with that." Duke's voice was laced thick with sarcasm.

"Hey, it worked though right?"

"You're so... extra. All the goddamn time," Marco said staring at Waze. The group laughed again, the others muttering agreements. Waze looked around her with a smile. For the first time in a while, she felt happy. She had some semblance of an ability, and there were people around her she could laugh with. Friends that she could laugh with. She smiled. Maybe things weren't so bad, after all.