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A half-crazed smile crossed Alma's face. She knew perfectly well what had happened. Her mind barely registering the reaction of the other students. It was pointless for her to mention the clatter because she knew something might slip. She simply responded to the Prom discussion.

"Hell, if I know," Alma's voice was uneven, like a person about to crack, "Maybe I'll go if some half-decent guy asks me." The smile hadn't faded from her face and she knew she must look like a person from an insane asylum. But what did she care? Her world was falling apart and she had no one to glue it back together.

Suddenly, reason returned to her and a small gasp escaped her mouth. Water welled up in her eyes and she turned to put things away in her backpack. She needed to remain calm. Losing it wasn't the answer but nor was telling everyone she was a freak... Alma let out a small sob before letting her mind blank out and return to its empty state.

Alma was silent. She had almost lost herself. When Tehra asked her a question, her mind decided to not register it. The world of silence was hers until she came up with a better solution. Maybe she should tell Tehra, maybe she shouldn't. Slowly, her fingers pulled her headphones to her ears. She had to remain calm and not cry. Crying would make things worse, especially with her powers...

She finished putting all of her things into her backpack, slung it on her back and put all her supplies away. As the period ended, Alma almost ran out the door with her head down. Nothing could make this day better. Nothing. Well, perhaps having it go quickly would make a little better. However, she highly doubted that it would.

Alma turned and sent death ray worthy glares at the girl. Why was everyone breaking her silent void? Then it dawned on her, the girl must have had some alternative motive for following her. She needed to act as calm as possible.

"No, I'm Bethany. Who do you think I am?" she snapped quickly, "No, I don't know where the Science rooms are. This is my first day as well and I need to go to Math." She knew she had been rude but she needed to get away from the girl. "And so far my day has been going like s**t. First my painting comes out wack, I get told there's Prom and I wasn't ready for it, and suddenly there's deadly flying writing utensils? What the hell is wrong with this place?!" She finished mostly convincingly. Alma knew two of the three things she had said were lies but it was better to have the girl believe it wasn't her fault for the "deadly writing utensils"...

With that last comment, Alma left the "Dani" or whatever the hell her name was behind and went to Math. She hadn't been lying about that. But she did know where the Science rooms were; on the opposite side of the building. And in those distance rooms, at least four facets turned on spontaneously.

The day went painfully slow. And Alma endured every single stabbing millisecond of it. She did not have any other classes with Dani or Tehra which she thanked God for. Math was just as boring as the rest of her classes. This was partially because her old school was ahead of the classes here. Her last period, which she couldn't even remember the subject, was over quite quickly.

As she passed the Cafeteria, she was glad at the accomplishment if first period was excluded. She had driven away at least 11 boys that seemed only to want to hold her hand during prom, at least 14 girls that asked about her hair, 4 people that asked where the bathrooms were and 7 people that seemed to want to befriend her. Mentally, she groaned. What a life; where I drive people away from me with emotionless and blunt fact. The one guy almost seemed ready to wet his pants... Did he really not know where the bathroom was? Then he asked me to prom! What was with that guy...

Moping like the writing utensils from first period, her mind returned to that point in time. She had almost lost control, almost snapped, and almost cried. What did she not almost do? Act normal? Most likely. Being emotionless didn't solve all her problems but it was temporary, like help from the government. Damn politicians. Finally, she smiled, remembering how Tehra truly seemed worried about her even though they had just met. Alma did not want to cause the girl problems but so far that girl seemed like the most likely candidate to help her... That Dani girl on the other hand; there was something odd about her like milk just before it goes sour. The goth girl would need to take caution of the sour milk girl, especially since the girl almost noticed it was Alma making the pens and pencils float. Great, another thing to add to the almost list, Alma thought grimly as she walked out of the front doors of the school.

"Someone's having a bad day," Danielle muttered as she turned towards the science room. She had "Applied Technology and Science" next and there was no way she wouldn't have looked that room up. As she walked, she fiddled with her PDA. Sure enough, it had registered a lot of mental activity in the past half hour, spiking only a few minutes earlier. The girl was a telekinetic and potentially very powerful. If only Danielle had more sensitive equipment...

Josh said goodbye to Cait and hurried off to History. Suddenly, he remembered it was Hisory he was hurrying to, and started to drag his feet. Oh, and somewhere in the middle of that, he collided with someone, sending her to the floor.

"Oh, I'm so sorry. I have to start watching where I'm going," Josh helped the girl up. "Hey, I remember you! You're Danielle, right? I'm Josh, we met this morning."

"Oh, hi Josh," Danielle gingerly got to her feet, grateful that nothing felt broken. She searched around for her PDA, only to find it being handed to her by Josh.

"Whoops, you dropped your game. I'll see you around, okay?" Josh hurried away, not out of rudeness, but out of the sudden realization that he had a minute to be halfway across the building.

"It's not a game," Danielle muttered defensively as she, too, took off for class. Her classroom turned out to be a glorified closet filled will a handful of pimple-faced boys. The teacher was kind enough and introduced her to the other students, explaining that they were working on independent projects. Nothing could have made Danielle happier.

"I'd like to create a device capable of detailed analysis of abnormal brain waves," Danielle announced as soon as the teacher was done explaining.

"What, like a super power detector?" One particularly overweight kid snorted, "This isn't the Z-Guys. Besides, there's no way we have that kind of equipment here."

"Oh, that's fine. All I'm really making is an amplifier," Danielle pulled out her PDA and got to work, leaving the nay-sayer in stunned silence. "I've got all the actual sensors in here already."

Afterwards (Danielle)>>>

From the moment Penelope read Jay's encouragement, her face went red and a goofy grin split her face. It finally faded when class ended and she had to rush off to her next period. Honors English, a terrible bore as always. In fact, Penelope found that all of her classes that day were more dull than usual. The only thing that got her through the day was the thought that she'd be going to Josh's house that afternoon. When last period's bell rang, she shot out the door, grabbed her things from her locker, and met Josh by his.

"How was your day?" Josh asked, knowing full well what the answer would be.

"Somehow more boring than usual." Penelope shook her head, "I didn't think that was possible. How was yours?"

"The same old grind. Hey, what was with you this morning?"

"Oh, the hug?" Penelope suddenly became very interested in one of the tiles on the floor. "I'm sorry, was it too much?"

"No, not at all. It just caught me off guard," Josh started towards the doors, "I actually kinda wish you'd do it more often."

And there was that damned grin again.

Afterwards (Josh and Penelope)>>>

"Great! C'mon, follow me!" Tehra smiled at her, her teal eyes sparkling. "Let's go..." Tehra walked across the parking lot to a small silver car, a mini cooper S to be exact. She unlocked the door and motioned to the passenger side. "Get in."

"Oh I live in an apartment complex on Silent Robin Run or something like that... I just moved here so I can't really remember the exact name." Tehra started the car and backed out of the spot, heading home.

<< Previously



Tehra arrived at school, tired like always. She walked through the halls, recalling the night before, when she'd met the Golden Bullet. He was a curious one. He went to school here, and she'd see him at prom. But who was he? She had to know. Tehra was planning on listening in to every boy she possibly could, hopefully to hear his voice. But he knew who she was, he must know.... Tehra sighed. A mask. She was going to have to give in and get one, no matter how much she hated them.

All these thoughts were running through the pretty teen's mind as she opened her locker. Tommy went through her head as well. Tehra couldn't quite figure him out. He was shy, but seemed like he had a good personality behind that shyness. Tehra hoped he would be more comfortable around her by the time prom swung around. It would be nice to be able to loosen up and have fun together.