The League of Villainy

[3RD PERSON—THE MARTIN FAMILY RESTAURANT]

The morning air of New Jersey fills their noses as they all stroll down the street to the Martin Family Restaurant. When they walk in, they already see Trevor and Talia sitting at a table, with a bunch of food on it. The bell above the door rings, which catches Talia and Trevor's attention. Talia smiles and gets up, then escorts them into the restaurant.

"Hi friends! We know you must be starving, so all of us whipped up some food for you guys! Come sit!" She says, then walks back over to the table.

"I wouldn't say no to some food," Chris smiles, admiring the glorious spread.

"Neither would I." Penny says then pats Chris' back.

He feels it in his back, her super-strength kicking in. "Holy shit, chill with that super strength, Mr. Incredible." He says, rubbing his back.

"Shit, my bad." Penny says, sucking in air through her teeth.

After recovering rom that whole ordeal, everyone files into the booth and grabs their food, immediately digging in. None of them have eaten yet considering they all woke up, got ready, and came straight here since it's an important meeting. But, for a while, they just enjoy their food and conversate with each other. Eventually though, their very unfortunate reality comes back when the letter gets brought up.

"Do you think that letter was a threat?" Talia asks, looking very worried.

"No." Wes shakes his head. "Knowing him, it would be more straightforward than that. This was only a warning."

Everyone falls silent, then Wes leans over and rests his head on the table. Natalie pats his back gently and looks away since they're all introverted. Except for Melanie, who gets up and switches seats with Chris to sit next to Wes. She talks to him quietly, just talking him through his feelings. She knows he has trouble with that, so she tries to help him as often as she can.

"When did our lives become so complicated?" Trevor sighs, drinking his dark roast.

First, they decide to finish their food, then Trevor and Talia get up, bringing the dishes to the kitchen. Chris gets up as well, and grabs Wes, shuffling out of the booth with him. He brings him aside and a lot of emotions stir inside of Chris. Confusion, anger, hurt, etc. He feels sad at the idea of Wes moving on, even though he isn't completely sure what he wants. He can't tell if the affection he has for him is romantic or platonic. and he's just scared to lose his best friend to an evil witch. The evil witch being Amity.

"Can I see the letter?" Chris asks.

"I don't think you want—" Wes starts to speak, only to get cut off.

"No, please just show me. I'd rather see it then torture myself just wondering what's there." Chris says.

Wes lets out a nervous sigh and pulls the letter from his pocket, then hands it right to Chris with little hesitation. He grabs the letter from him, and wastes no time in opening it up. Taking in a deep breath, Chris reads it carefully, trying not to tear up as he does so. The attention to detail and care that was put into this letter makes Chris feel like maybe Wes has something with Amity. Deep in his heart though, he hoped it was one sided. He closes the letter and hands it back to Wes not saying a word about it.

"What's your answer?" Chris asks.

"I—uh. I don't know." Wes answers truthfully.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Chris looks Wes directly in his eyes and watches his expression carefully.

Wes stays silent before letting out a sigh, "Honestly, I... don't know."

The problem is that Wes thought Chris never had feelings for him Chris was distant that whole summer between middle school and high school. But that was because Chris' feelings got too strong, and he couldn't deal with them. He still doesn't even know what kind of feelings they were. It was after they shared a kiss when they were studying together in September, and both of them remember it vividly. It's exactly what started Chris' identity crisis. Wes has always been sure, Chris—not so much.

It was 4 weeks before the last day of school, and they were at Wes' house. They wore their matching friendship bracelets, and they were studying Science. The sun was halfway down, just around golden hour, giving the perfect glow on them. They were also listening to their favorite song, one earbud in each of their ears. They were sitting close, pinkies intertwined, and their cheeks were burning up. Everything happened so fast, including Chris leaving. Which left Wes to wonder what he did wrong.

Neither of their feelings has changed, but they haven't talked about it since.

"Okay." Chris breathes out quietly.

Talia peaks her head in, "I don't mean to interrupt, but we kind of have some things to discuss.."

Wes and Chris follow behind her quietly, and they sit back down. Trevor and Talia come back and sit down as well, everyone looking at Wes. They were all confused, partly afraid of what's going on with Wes. He looks at all of them with an annoyed expression.

"If you want me to talk then you guys should really stop staring at me like that." He says.

"So, your dad?" Trevor asks.

Natalie sips on her coffee quietly as she looks over at Wes. There is no sound coming from his mouth; no words coming to mind. His perception of his father has been complicated from the moment he walked out. On the one hand, he knows of the terrible things he's done, and on the other hand, that's his dad. A man he's supposed to be able to look up to, find inspiration in, and trust wholeheartedly. Except he can't. No one can trust that man.

Natalie says with care, "Take your time."

"I hacked into funeral records everywhere and couldn't find him. I don't know where he is exactly, but... he was last spotted here. In New Jersey." He explains.

"What's he doing here?" Donatello questions.

Wes clears his throat, "I'm not entirely sure, but it can't be good."

"Is he gonna come for you, man?" Trevor asks.

"He can try. I'm not letting him near me or you guys." He replies, looking into his dark coffee.

In truth, Wes doesn't know why he has a complicated perception of his dad. Maybe he became bitter toward his father after he watched him leave and waited for him every day, growing hateful when he realized he wasn't coming back. Or maybe it's because he saw how his absence tore apart his mother, forcing him to take care of her and his younger brother, Steven.

"We're here to help, Wes. We can do anything you need," Natalie tells him.

"You know, I've been thinking about it, and we could actually use these powers for good. The last thing I want is to become like my dad. Instead, I want to do good. This might help me take my mind off the whole thing, anyways." he says.

"Well what do you suggest we do?" Melanie asks.

"We could have Wes hack the police radio." Chris answers.

"I mean yeah, I'm good with that." Wes says.

"What about our identities?" Natalie asks. "If we're gonna be 'superheroes' then shouldn't we disguise ourselves a bit?"

"Well, my dads have a lot of kids, so they have a lot of uniforms. I guess the only problem is that they're school uniforms." Trevor answers.

"Oh god, we're gonna look dumb, aren't we?" Melanie asks.

"Penny, you're good with your hands right?" Chris says.

"Some may say," She grins, causing Natalie to choke on her coffee. Trevor and Penny chuckle, elbowing each other.

"Okay anyways, why don't you whip something up?" Chris suggests.

"Okay, we'll have to head over to my house," Trevor texts his dads to let them know he and Talia are going to the house with their friends and gets a reply a few seconds later. "Alright, they say we can go."

Trevor shoves away his phone and gets up, all of them also getting up. The group exits the restaurant and piles into Trevor's van like sardines. Originally, Trevor owned a Toyota Yaris, but he's the designated driver so he needed a bigger vehicle to fit everyone. Chris and Wes sit next to each other, but Chris doesn't say anything. Donatello is sitting on the other side of Wes, but Donatello is wearing his headphones, so he can't hear.

Wes attempts to grab Chris' hand, but Chris pulls it away. Wes sighs, "Chris, can you talk to me?"

"I don't have anything to say." Chris looks down.

Wes starts feeling bad, but he doesn't know what to do. The car stops, as they have reached their destination. They get out of the car, and the twins escort them into the house. The best part of their house is how homely and comfortable their house is. Plus, it always feels warm.

"Show them to the living room while I get the uniforms, Tals." Trevor says as he departs to get the clothes.

"Alright… I guess follow me then! Take off your shoes and leave them at the door." Talia smiles as she removes her shoes.

Everyone repeats after her, leaving their shoes at the door. They follow Talia into their living room and sit down on the brown couches. She puts the TV on for them to watch so they aren't just waiting in silence. She hands all of them a water bottle, which everyone appreciates greatly.

Trevor comes back with two stacks of clothes and places them on the table. "We went to private school for a while before we came here. Find your size."

After a few minutes of looking through the piles of clothes, everyone eventually finds one that's fitted to them. They hand them over to Penny, along with a sewing machine, and she gets to work. As she works quicker, two black, smoke-like arms come out of her side, helping her out.

"Wow. That's not creepy at all." Trevor remarks sarcastically.

"I like them for that fact." Penny replies.

"Do they— do they do that on their own?" Chris asks.

"Yeah, sometimes. And they talk to me. Although the talking only started last night when it got thirsty. Well, that's what it said anyway." She answers.

After some waiting, she hands all of them customized blazers. Each of them has the initial of their first name stitched onto the chest in their favorite colors. Then she hands each of them a mask in their favorite colors as well, but darker.

"I just don't know what we should call ourselves." Penny says.

"We should let the public decide." Chris says.

"Well, we should get proper equipment first. We need communication stuff, protection, training—oh god, we're so underprepared." Natalie sighs.

"Hey, don't worry, we'll get all of that stuff." Trevor says.

"Well," Talia looks at Trevor, "To the store, my friend!"

"We're not gonna be resting anytime soon, huh?" Trevor asks.

"Nope!" She says excitedly.

She gets up quickly and grabs Trevor's hand, dragging him out of the house. Everyone follows behind, as this is a pretty standard thing. They get in the van and begin their journey to the store.

Talia looks back at all of them, "So, what do we need again?"

"Anything we need to ensure we will be safe." Wes replies.

Trevor pulls into the Walmart parking lot and parks the car. They get out, entering the store as a group. Natalie grabs a shopping cart and pushes it around with Talia and Penny in it. They all immediately make their way over to the electronics section. Several things get thrown into the cart, such as walkie-talkies, wireless earbuds, new phones, computers, and all the other things essential to their grand plan. They pull the cart up to self-checkout and put their items on the conveyor belt. Plus some snacks too, of course. They look at the total, and they realize that buying a bunch of electronics isn't cheap. Still, a bit surprising.

"So, who's gonna pay?" Trevor asks, looking at Melanie.

"My parents might be rich but I don't have that kind of allowance." Melanie says.

"Here, I got it." Donatello pulls out his wallet and then pulls out a black credit card.

He then slides it through the card swiper and the payment processes. Considering they have bought more than 900 dollars worth of electronic equipment, everyone is surprised when it did go through.

"I mean, my parents are scientists. You guys should use more critical thinking." Donatello says.

They bag their things and then head over to Wes' house. He says he has a 'secret base' there. Trevor is majorly confused but he complies anyway. He parks the car in front of Wes' house, and Wes climbs over everyone immediately. Confused murmurs sound throughout the van, as well as a bunch of yells as he steps on a few of them. He mutters to everyone "sorry" as he gets out and then everyone else does afterward. Trevor turns off the car and gets out last, walking over to Wes' front door with him. Once they all enter, Wes looks around outside and then closes the door. His behavior is quite odd, as he is tense and paranoid. Usually, he's calm and certain.

"Everything alright?" Natalie asks slowly.

"Just making sure they're aren't any lookers—namely, my father," Wes says. "We should be good."

He directs them over to the door of his garage, and opens the door, allowing them in. The garage used to be where he games, but for now, he has turned it into a control room. He has a board with several photos pinned to it, and notes, all about the situation they're in. He turns on his computer and pulls up a police report about an incident that happened 2 days ago.

"They found a body that was murdered, but by injection of some substance that was like water, but doesn't have exactly the same properties. And on my fathers criminal record," He pulls up his father's criminal record. "3 accounts of murder, in the same way. He was in jail, but he broke out three weeks ago. And the craziest thing about that is that when they returned to the crime scene the next day, the bodies were gone. There wasn't even any trace of death there anymore."

"You think someone just took the body?" Penny asks, and they all lean forward, reading the crimes Mr. Sokolov has committed.

"Holy shit man, that's an extreme record." Trevor says.

"That's a whole lot." Natalie replies, still reading the whole list.

"Yeah, told you he's terrible. Also, nobody entered the crime scene. There's no trace of any new DNA, no footprints, no new fingerprints, nothing." Wes responds.

"There's no way we'll be able to go against him ourselves." Donatello says.

"Yeah but we have these powers right?"

"We should probably try to find other people with abilities. Don't your parents take care of them?" Penny asks Donatello.

"Yeah, there are more of them than you think. I was surprised… just didn't know we'd become one of them." He replies.

"First, we need to focus on trying to make the world a better place with these new abilities." Wes says.

"And that starts with getting this man off this earth. No offense, Wes." Trevor says.

"I take zero offense." Wes replies.

They spend the next few minutes going over their powers, letting everyone know what they can do. Trevor begins to get nervous, not telling them about his dreams. He saw this exact scene in his dream, where he refuses to tell them what the other power is. Now, they don't know everything they can do, but they do know what they've seen themselves do. It is very possible they can be capable of more.

"Let's do a test, you're gonna try to predict what's about to happen. If we place you under stress, then you should be able to activate it." Chris says.

"This is a very terrible idea." Wes states.

"I'm majorly concerned." Natalie says.

"Everyones against it but whatever, lets do it." Trevor says.

"Alright! I'm gonna throw this ball randomly." Chris picks up a tennis ball and then throws it against the wall, allowing it to bounce everywhere.

Trevor kicks into action and closes his eyes, watching the vision of him failing in the future and getting hit on the head. He looks at where he went wrong and then positions his hand in the right place, catching the ball. He then opens up his eyes, looking at the green tennis ball in his hand.

"Thats sick." Donatello says.

"I told you to just trust me!" Chris says.

"These dreams are terrifying and I cant control them. It's not like I can just scare myself into using my powers everytime." Trevor replies.

"Maybe you should just draw out what you're seeing, it should be therapeutic." Natalie says, to which Trevor nods.

"We got a look at each other's powers, so now we can make a plan of action. First, we're gonna need to hack into the police radio to see what's out there." Chris says.

So Wes pulls out his computer and begins his work. He watches his screen intently as he types away, occasionally needing to push his glasses back up the bridge of his nose. He doesn't wear them all the time, but he does have to wear them sometimes. It takes him a few minutes but he eventually does and listens in. They begin to hear them talk about crimes happening, and he picks up on a bank robbery.

"There is an armed robbery down on Dawn Street. It says it's happening at Wellspring Banks. There's hostages too." Wes says.

"Well, we shouldn't send out everyone all at once. So based on what's happening, we should use Melanie, Trevor, Wes, and Natalie. Melanie will be the defense with the force fields, while Trevor and Wes disarm them. Natalie will be the one to get the hostages out. Think you guys could handle that?" Chris speaks.

Natalie's jaw is dropped a bit, but she snaps back into reality, "Yeah, sounds… fun."

"Real fun," Trevor replies sarcastically.

"I'll be on comms to talk you guys through it. I know you guys can." Chris says.

Melanie, Trevor, Wes, and Natalie suit up, adding their own accessories as well for the personalized touch. After that, they are given small earpieces and their masks. Then they get into the van and drive down the street to the bank. Melanie turns the whole van invisible, allowing them to sneak past the police outside.

"Okay, now that you're there, park around the back. There's no way the police are gonna let some teenagers in there, but they're not allowed to move in while the robbers are in there with the hostages." Chris speaks over comms.

They hide the car around the back, then enter the bank from the back. Melanie uses her invisibility, to sneak them in, then they appear. The hostages look over at the teens, as well as the 3 robbers. Immediately they raise their weapons and begin to shoot. Melanie puts up a force field, blocking off the bullets.

"Alright Chris, what now, be quick." Natalie says.

"Okay guys, this ones gonna require a whole lot of teamwork. Focus mostly on your part, and make sure to mesh it with everyone else's. Melanie, push that force field forward and knock them down, then take away their guns, but not by hand. Hold them in the air, so Trevor can super heat them, and Wes will super cool them, which will cause them to explode. Natalie will get out the hostages while you guys do so. Think you can do it?." Chris explains, surprisingly in one go.

"Maybe—" The 4 of them say at the same time.

"Yes you can, now do it. For this mission, I'll allow you guys to rely on your powers." Chris speaks, then goes offline. He watches them through the suit cameras, seeing if they're able to do it without him.

Melanie pushes the force field forward to knock them down, then uses her other hand to float their guns in the air. Natalie takes the opportunity to sneak away and untie all of the hostages. They're panicking intensely until Natalie's blue energy enters their minds, the blue color taking over their eyes and temples.

"Okay Chris, what next?" Trevor asks but hears absolutely nothing but radio silence.

"Chris? Hello?" Melanie taps the small earpiece to see if it's just crapping out. "I can't hear him."

"Chris!" Wes projects his voice a bit, but no answer.

Trevor sees the guys getting up so he looks over at Wes, who nods towards him. Melanie and Natalie also look at them, a silent agreement between the four. The rest of the team watches closely through the cameras, interested in where this is gonna go next.

Melanie flings each gun into the air, and Trevor hits them with his powerful optical beams, heating them up. Wes immediately freezes the weapons and when they hit the ground, they shatter. Melanie moves the force field, putting it in front of Natalie as she exits the building with the hostages. Each of them lunge at the 3 robbers, using their powers to fight.

Wes isn't the strongest person in the world, but he's able to punch the first robber in his face and then blast him away with a powerful icy blast, while Melanie delivers a hard right hook to the second robber in front of her. Before he gets a chance to react, she kicks him back and sees her pink force field form around her foot, causing him to launch backward.

Trevor has no problem at all. He grabs the third robber that's standing in front of him and knees him in the stomach before slamming him into the wall, blasting him with his hands for good measure. All three of the robbers are passed out and Natalie walks up to the team after getting the hostages out safely. She looks down at the passed-out grown men.

"Turns out we can do this." She says, slightly out of breath as they all fistbump each other.

Chris turns the comms back on and speaks into it, "I told y'all! See, I knew you could do it."

"Yes, now don't ever do that again, man." Trevor scolds him.

"I just needed to do a lil bit of a test. Now give over the robbers to the authorities then head out. But don't let them see you, the glass is frosted so they won't be able to see you unless you directly show your face. Head back afterward, good work team." Chris says, smiling a bit to himself at the success he witnessed.

"You got it." Wes says.

Natalie binds the men with her blue energy and floats each of them out of the door, plopping them in front of the police, making it their problem now. They exit out of the back again and get into the van, Melanie turning it invisible once again. They make their way back to Wes' house, parking the van and then heading back inside. Wes' mom, Ekaterina, watches them with a weird look, thinking they're very old for dressing up. But then again, maybe you can never be too old. She brushes it off and then continues watching the TV. The 4 of them go back into the garage and plop down on the couch.

"Tired?" Chris asks, looking at them.

"You have no idea, man," Trevor sighs.

"Well, you're all free to go home. We'll meet back at Wes' house tomorrow for any new information. Okay?" Chris looks around at them, to which they all nod.

[TREVOR—THE TWIN'S HOUSE]

I pull my keys out of my pocket and then unlock the front door, stepping inside with Talia. Locking the door when we enter, I think about Wes' dad and the possibility of him coming for all of us. Then I think about the possibility of my birth parents being super evil as well. The problem is the fact that I don't even know who they are.

"You okay?" She asks, then puts her hand on my shoulder and her palm immediately starts glowing. "You feel... sad and confused."

"I kind of am if I'm being honest." I tell her truthfully.

"Yes I know. That's why I said it, that's what I felt." She puts her hand down and it stops glowing, "What's the matter?"

"We don't really know who our birth parents are. What if they're evil as well or something?" I ask.

"I'm sure we have nothing to worry about, Trev. They probably just didn't want us anymore." She says.

"Yeah probably." I reply, shrugging it off.

She looks at me, "Hey lets watch something."

I nod my head and then sit in the living room while Talia goes into the kitchen to make popcorn. I don't notice, but I begin to slip into bad habits—shaking my leg. I worked with countless therapists to stop that, but it's suddenly coming back. Therapists never work anyways. She comes back with a bowl of popcorn and sits down next to me. She notices the leg bouncing, so she puts on SpongeBob SquarePants. I'm too focused on the show, my previous worry slipping out of my mind. After a while, we get up and go to our bedrooms.

I walk over to my bed, letting out a winded sigh as I lay down. I can barely fall asleep because I keep thinking about the weird dreams I've been having. I see things, then they happen the next day or so. Now, I know it could be Deja vu, but the problem is that it definitely isn't. These dreams are vivid, detailed, and sometimes very long. They looked like visions or predictions. Some crap like that. Then I look at the top drawer of my dresser and remember what's in there. I haven't done it in a while, but it's feeling like I need it. I know it would upset my dads, so I eventually decide against it.

I sit at my desk and pull out my sketchbook, a pencil, and some colored pencils. Instead of resorting to old habits, I should instead just draw out what I see, as Natalie says. Drawing is therapeutic to me, so it would probably be stress relieving to draw the thing stressing me out. You know, something like that.

My pencil glides against the sketchbook paper, the occasional cramping happening. These things are stressful, and it's not making me feel any better drawing it because all I'm doing is forcing myself to relive it. But once I finish the messy sketches, I actually do start to feel better. When I put the color in, everything starts to make more sense. I come up with about 7 pages of these awful visions, only 2 of them being good ones.

"I look crazy." I sigh to myself as I close my sketchbook and walk over to my bearded dragon.

"You think I'm going crazy, Earl?" I watch as he watches me, blinking with a blank expression, "Yeah, sounds about right."

I sit in my bed and stare at my ceiling, hoping it'll help me fall asleep since it usually does. But then, I get an idea. Maybe if I can train myself to sleep on command, then I could control the visions. I can't make myself sleep, nor can I make myself wake up. I really can't win, so I'm usually late to school if my dads don't take me. Although, I'm able to put myself to sleep a few minutes later.

The trouble now is waking myself up on command. Maybe this would be something better done if I have Talia in here, but I'll make do. There's a flash in my face, then I see the school hallway, and I'm at Chris' locker with him, Melanie, Donatello and Penny. Natalie is doing Talia's hair in the bathroom, and Wes is just entering the school, holding hands with Amity. They stop and rest near Wes' locker, which is unfortunately close to Chris'. Visibly uncomfortable, Chris is keeping his face turned to his locker.

I've seen enough to get an idea of what's happening, and I don't like seeing Wes with Amity. I have nothing against Wes dating whomever he wants, but it's not gonna be Amity. It's not gonna be her of all people. She's the worst person to exist, and she's always trying to steal Melanie's life. She never leaves Donatello alone, nor does she leave me alone.

Especially not since she found out I'm gay. Nobody knows, but she saw me kissing a guy in the library once. She continuously threatens to out me and uses it as blackmail against me to have some sort of power. She's blackmailed many people, and that's how she thinks she's going to become the Queen Bee of the school. But it's why I avoid her as much as possible, and that's exactly why I felt weird when she approached me, acting like she hasn't been bullying me since 9th grade.

It's admittedly a bit of a struggle to wake myself up since I can't seem to pull myself out of my sleeping state. My eyes open finally, and I look around. It's my own bedroom and I get up. I don't know what is real or not, but I know who is real or not. So I step out of my bedroom, and into Talia's room. She's sitting on her bed, watching the Glitter Force anime. She has the popcorn from earlier, skittles, and ice cream, which is her usual late-t snack. She pauses her show then looks over at me, and I look into her eyes, knowing that everything is real. She's my twin sister, my real twin sister.

"You okay?" She asks.

"Yeah, uhh, do you mind if I sleep in here?" I ask.

"Yeah, I can make you a bed on the floor if you like?" She suggests.

"Nah, I'm good in your lil' hanging egg chair." I say, rubbing my eyes as I walk over to the chair.

I sit down and she looks at me, picking up the popcorn bowl and holding it out to me, "Want some?"

I shrug, "Yeah, sure."

I take the bowl and eat from it, curling up in the chair. She plays her anime once again, and we watch it together. She eats her ice cream, while I eat the popcorn, both of us just existing next to each other in complete silence. Although, I still keep thinking about the vision in the back of my mind.

[WES—WES' HOUSE]

I grab my tea and drink it, trying to warm up my body. The tea fails to warm my body up because I'm still very pale. My mom has noticed the sudden changes in me, but I convinced her it's just from gaming too much. Parents will really believe anything if you blame it on electronics. Suddenly, I hear the sound of my doorbell ringing. I don't want my brother or mother to be bothered, so I place down my tea and go get the door myself. I open it up to see Amity, ginger hair, bright blue eyes, a black peacoat over her purple gothic cold shoulder dress, and some chunky converse.

"What's up?" I say, not really knowing how to interact with anyone even. Usually, other people start the conversation.

"You never answered my letter." She smiles.

I'm unsure if she knows that I saw the secret message, or if she knows that all of us have seen it, but she looks as though she's trying to just pass it as a normal love letter. If I say no, I don't know what will happen, but if I say yes then I might be able to find out more. If I say no then I'll likely trigger her earlier, also triggering my father because this is clearly a way for them to try and get on the inside. That's as if she is even working with him. Although, I'm not gonna take any chances. If she really is working with my father, then I have no room for mistakes here.

After being silent for a while, I finally speak, "Sure, we can go for milkshakes tomorrow, see where it goes." I say, with a bit of a smile.

She smiles back, "I can't wait. 1 PM, see you then." She blows a kiss before walking away to her car.

I close the door and walk back to my bedroom, questioning my decisions. I'm not sure if I've done the right thing, seeing as I'm in love with someone else. It's a bit clear that the person probably doesn't like me back though. The person might get upset, but if they haven't made a move despite my countless ones, I won't be too worried. It sounds heartless, yes, but I need to stay logical. Not like they've even liked me ever since summer break.

Although I am already dreading having to go on a date with her. She doesn't have the qualities that I look for in a person. She's actually quite the opposite. She's very similar to me, which doesn't make for very interesting conversations since you can already kind of feel out what's happening. But again, if this means getting information on my dad, then I will do whatever it takes. Even if that means my friends will yell at me when they see me with her. Especially Melanie, cause she's terrifying. It's worth the risk because it's not like I'm doing this for no reason at all.

I walk over to my bed and take off the blankets, revealing a water bed. I put the waterbed there a while ago, and have been freezing it every night. I put my hand on the water bed and freeze the whole thing, making it solid. It's surprisingly comfortable. Lately, I've been attracted to cold things. I've become more invested in Natalie's ice skating, Popsicles, cold habitat animals, aircon, snowballs, soft serve, ice hockey, my hometown Russia, igloos—I could go on but I'm sure you get the idea.

I put the sheets over practically what's an ice block now, and I lay down on top of my comforter, with a thin sheet. I prefer to be cold if I'm being completely honest, which isn't always the case. Sometimes I do need to melt myself with several heaters. The attraction to cold things always stays the same though. As long as I watch and monitor myself closely, I think I'll be alright. So far I haven't seen any defects or imperfections in my DNA. However you wanna phrase it, I'm doing quite alright. Everything is as ordinary as it can be, ‌so‌ ‌I‌ ‌shut my eyes and eventually drift off to sleep.