First Impressions (Part Six)

My face had looked worse than it actually was after Mr. Logan had beaten me up the day before. The blood had been the most graphic thing about it after I had washed it all off. Even without the overnight recovery that an actual good night's sleep would have provided me, I had mostly recovered by the next morning, leaving only a few decent bruises behind.

There weren't enough on me to get odd looks from any teachers of students, so I just went about my day going to all of my classes until I was needed elsewhere near the end of the day.

On my way to my destination, I stopped off and grabbed an apple from the cafeteria to munch on while I walked across campus. As I reached the courtyard, a green glow surrounded my apple and yanked it out of my hand, sending it flying somewhere far off-campus with a low-pitched humming noise attached to it.

"You've got to be kidding me," I said louder than I intended. It was just an apple, but it had been a good apple with plenty of crunch to it and everything. I had been enjoying that.

After the day before, I didn't need to turn and look for the person responsible to know who did it. I saw the guilty party walking my way flanked by two other members of his usual crew.

I had been given a quick synopsis of who they were after hand-to-hand training by the blue-haired Japanese girl, Noriko. She was clearly not a fan of them.

The Puerto Rican kid with dreads was Brian Cruz, aka Tag. He was basically the ringleader's number one running buddy with a weird power. Apparently, when he touched someone, he used a form of telepathy that could either repel them away from something, toward something, attract others to them. It was a really convoluted explanation.

The giant guy made of rock was Santo Vaccarro. He was a big-ass rock golem. That was his power. Superhuman strength, as durable as a solid rock structure, basically what you could imagine. According to Noriko, he was the heavy of his squad. That much was easy to see. He was massive, and I was pretty sure that one hit from him would turn me to paste.

That led us to the main man. The one who put the Hellion in the Hellions squad: Julian Keller. Rich, tall, dark, and handsome, with powers that were way too overpowered for someone like him to have. He was telekinetic.

That much should have went without saying by now.

"What do you want?" I asked, still holding up my hand as though there were an apple in it. Hopefully that properly conveyed my annoyance at the situation, "What do you need? What?"

I was irrationally angry about getting an apple yanked out of my hand and thrown a mile away. It was just a stupid apple. No big deal.

…But I wanted it.

When people did things like that to you, you weren't supposed to visibly react. That was what I was taught. Retaliate in your own way later if your pride felt the need to, but don't react and give them the immediate satisfaction – at least, that was what dad said. Thanks dad.

"That was just Julian's way of saying hello," Santo said, grinning at me. It was a weird sight, but hey, open mind.

"You were getting awfully friendly with Sofia yesterday at practice," Julian said, looking at me as though he were turning his nose up.

Okay, my hypothesis and Noriko's rundown of the Julian guy had been correct. He wanted the hot girl I was talking to about getting my ass kicked. So this was about staking his claim? I didn't have time for this. Maybe later, but not right at that moment.

"I'm a people person. I try to be at least," I replied, "Seeing as how I'm on a first-name basis with only three people at this place so far, I figured it was a good idea to introduce myself to more people. Branch out, you know? Like this," I said, reaching out a hand in an effort to extend an olive branch, "Hi, I'm Be-."

"Yeah, I don't care," Julian said, cutting me off without even bothering to look at my hand, "You might want to find someone else to get friendly with. There are plenty of losers for you to sidle up to."

That was what I got for trying to bury the hatchet, "Or…?" As if I needed to be told.

"Just some advice. I'd hate for things to get hard for you around here."

"I probably wouldn't," Santo said, stepping up closer to tower over me, "I wonder what his powers even are."

"Probably something useless," Julian laughed, "At least Alleyne's lame powers kept him from getting a beatdown as bad as this guy got. He probably doesn't even have a squad. Who'd want him after seeing that?" The reminder of seeing me in dire straits yesterday got Santo and Brian to chuckle at my expense.

I would have normally stood there to argue more, as I enjoyed a rousing set of banter now and again, but I had somewhere to be, and I was too mad to be a functional smartass. From there, I completely altered the path of the conversation, "Who's your teacher-advisor?"

Julian seemed befuddled at first that I didn't react to his insult, but quickly recovered, swelling up pridefully, "We're on Miss Frost's Hellions, the top squad in the school. You really must be new, huh?" It was easy to see why his head was so big. He was rich, his powers were awesome, and the school's headmistress had recruited him to be taught by her directly.

I nodded, a thoughtful look on my face as though I were contemplating what to do next. There had been no contemplation. I'd decided what I was going to do the second my apple got launched, "Good. That means I'll get in less trouble for this than I probably should from my advisor."

I quickly pointed my hands in a pair of fists at both Julian and Santo. The former barely had time to react and put up a weak telekinetic film around himself before I fired both cannons and knocked them clear off of their feet.

Brian was too stunned to react to outright defend his friends. Instead he ran to their sides, making sure they were both alright.

Was it petty of me to blast both of those guys in the chest and send them flying halfway across the lawn? Yes. But it was incredibly cathartic. Plus, they could take it. One had a telekinetic force field and the other was literally made of rocks. They were fine. I sandbagged those shots anyway.

In the weeks I had been working with what I could do I had figured out more about my powers. If I fired a blast with my hands open, it exploded on contact. If I did it with my fists, it was concussive.

The more you know.

I knew what I'd been doing, and I'd also knew that sticking around after that was a bad idea. I wasn't getting a free shot twice if a fight broke out. I didn't run, but I definitely walked away briskly while Julian shook the cobwebs off.

"GODDAMN IT, WHERE ARE YOU!?"

I was halfway to the medical wing by the time Julian flew up into the air hollering for me to come out as he tried to spot me from above. Well, that plan failed epically. Showing him up in public only seemed to make the bullseye that had been painted on my chest flash red for him.

"THIS ISN'T OVER!"

Then again, I hadn't beaten him from pillar to post in front of enough people to emasculate him. It was more like I'd gotten a cheap shot in. I was probably going to pay for it later. But I wasn't right then. Live for the moment, and all that jazz.

I had a smile on my face all the way to the medical wing.