Chapter Four

When Monday morning came, I felt more confidence than I ever had in my life. Mostly because I was able to practice using an ability I didn’t think I could control, and also because I realized that when I went out with Cecilia that she was just as nervous as I was. It was time to be a bit braver. There was a power in me that no one else has, I should enjoy the feeling it was giving me.

At the kitchen table that morning for breakfast, Bee had actually made pancakes – something she was practicing for home economics was putting different types of chocolates in pancakes without burning them, and she was getting really good.

“I could get used to you cooking for me.” I joke as she attempts another pancake flip. Thankfully because of the grey colour scheme in the kitchen, it was very difficult to tell when she had dropped it or not.

“I hope you know once this class is over, I’m going to marry a rich idiot and never cook again.” I chuckle at her response, it was just like her to say something like that, but I know what she really wants when she gets older and that wasn’t even close.

Suzie and Joe enter the kitchen from upstairs, dressed up in their usual office worker clothes and getting ready for a Monday.

“Morning kids.” Joe exclaims, taking a seat next to me. I’ve always looked up to Joe, even with his receding hairline and mildly shaven face. He’s been moving up in his company recently, not that I specifically know what he does, but it’s impressive nonetheless.

I hear a knock on the door and check the clock – Axel was right on time as usual. I say goodbye and grab my backpack, eager than I ever have been to get to school on a Monday morning. Axel also seemed to be in a good mood.

As we began walking to school, his excitement for his new concept ‘power training’ was all he could talk about, but I was barely paying attention.

“Why do you just keep smiling?” He asks, and for the first time I noticed I hadn’t stopped smiling all morning.

“Oh, I was able to make something appear last night, I thought maybe if I approach Cecilia with it, she’ll think it’s great.” I couldn’t contain my excitement, being able to materialize objects was not something I ever imagined was possible. Yet, it was.

Upon entering the school gates, the principal is standing there, greeting the students – something he hadn’t done in some time, so I wondered what the occasion was.

“Hey, Principal P.,” Axel stops in front of him, “, just chilling at the gates?” Our Principal was an odd man but everyone was fond of him. He appeared like a tough old fellow but he was a real softy. When the new I.T. students played tricks on the school system, instead of suspending them, he offered them a chance at more advanced studies – figuring that they were bored and that’s why they were playing tricks. He also wore the really common brown jacket with patches in the elbows, something he’d often get comments on behind his back.

“Just taking precautions. The Hacker could be anywhere and I rather my students got to school in one piece.” I was a bit confused by that statement,

“Oh right, they started calling that guy The Hacker because he literally hacks his victims to pieces, right?” Our principal grimaced, he seemed to go a bit green in the face with the idea.

“Yes, well, I still don’t want people of that caliber in this school. My students are under my protection and no random walk-ins are coming in today, or any day.” He seemed stern regarding this, which felt assuring. I contemplated for a moment if our principal was one of the Abnormal – why else would he fear someone this much?

Axel and I walk to our lockers to get our English books ready, and I began to go to the library,

“Whoa,” Axel says, stopping me in my tracks, “, I can’t believe you’re actually walking off somewhere without me. This is a whole new you.” He laughs, a bit loudly for my taste, but ends up following me either way. “I’ll just hang out nearby in case you need me.” He says as we walk in through the library doors and wanders off towards the computer area. Barely needing to look around, Cecilia is sitting in her usual lounge chair reading a different book once again. Despite this predictability she’s still amazing to me. The passion for her books is positive and endearing. She tries to brush away her hair again but it keeps falling back in place – she almost looks frustrated.

“Hey.” I say, walking up to her and somehow not choking on my words. She looks up, startled for a moment then smiles, closing her book and looking up at me – she’s still nervous.

“Hi.” Not that I planned much of the morning, but I was just happy to see her.

“I got something for you.” I say, pulling a hairpin from my pocket. It wasn’t just any pin, I made sure it had an elaborate design of vines with roses – something unique. I kneel in front of the chair, hesitant for a moment, but she stays absolutely still as I pull back her hair and clip the pin in place. I can tell she’s scared of the lack of space between us, but then she smiles.

“Thank you, you didn’t have to. It’s very unique.”

Without thinking twice, I say, “My sister makes a lot of unusual things. She was confused when I asked to keep this one.” She giggles, but only softly,

“She sounds nice.”

“She’d like you, I think. But she likes everyone so it’s hard to tell sometimes.” I stand up,

“Do you read a lot?” Cecilia asks, looking up at me,

“Um, my parents were into teaching technology and education, so a lot of those types of books, but nothing fiction.” I look over my shoulder for a minute and see Axel give me a thumbs up. “But, if you could recommend one for me, I’d be keen to read something interesting.” Her smile, somehow, becomes bigger and she stands.

“Let’s go find something.”

During lunch, Axel and I take refuge in our usual place in the corner of the cafeteria.

“You know,” he beings, “, I’m still not convinced she isn’t one of us.” He takes a large chug of his drink before continuing. “You see she’s very conservative, like you were, like I was before I met you, and I think it might be a confidence thing. If that’s the case, she’s following that trait, but she also hides her chest – unlike every other girl in this school.” He chuckles. Then something occurs to me,

“Is this why you haven’t had a girlfriend in a few years? You’re afraid someone will see the mark.”

“That may be so, it’s less risky – but keep this in mind: I don’t need to take my shirt off to have a relationship.” He winks at me awkwardly and I’ve never felt so uncomfortable. “Anyway, let’s invite her over. Maybe she’ll come around and we can find out more.”

“If I invite her over, you’re not invited.”

“Oh, gotcha. I didn’t think you’d escalate things that fast. Good on you.” He chuckles.

Rolling my eyes in the most dramatic way possible I respond, “I’m not that type of guy, besides if she isn’t one of us, you’re absolutely right, we shouldn’t have girlfriends we can’t trust.” He looks at me with concern building in his eyes,

“What are you planning on doing to test if you can trust her exactly? Girls don’t like being tested. Challenged, yes, but not tested.”

“I’m not going to test her on anything. I'm just going to ask her on another date, eventually she’ll reveal to me if I can trust her.”

“And by then you will be too smitten with her to notice.”

“Hey!” We both jerk our heads around to the distance yelling, “You all got to see this!” I’m hardly able to tell who the voice belongs to, but it was ushering a majority of people to the oval just outside. Through the window I can see Isabella and her posse of clones surrounding someone, and more students gathering. As they moved around I noticed who they were circling – it was Cecilia.

I didn’t give myself time to think, I rushed to the nearest door – pushing through a crowd of students until I was near enough to hear everything, then the crowd went silent.

“Go on,” Isabella, in her high toned voice exclaims, “, tell everyone why you would say no to Steven for the third year in a row.” She flicks her blonde ponytail around a lot when she speaks, and due to the cheer uniform and her many clones, it was a daunting thing to experience. “Everyone, clearly she has a disease of some kind, she never shows off any skin – even in summer!” Her clones giggle aggravatingly. Cecilia just stands there, staring at her with a blank expression. “Well, tell us!”

Cecilia’s expression changes, as if suddenly called to attention. “Sorry, I wasn’t actually listening, what did you say?” The crowd of students was in uproar from the response, some clapped, others scoffed and choked on drinks – it was quite the turnout, but not the one I wanted Cecilia to be in the middle of. Isabella walks up to Cecilia in the slowest way possible, one step at a time.

“You think you can ignore me when I’m talking to you?”

“Why not your boyfriend does.” Another loud uproar that was silenced quickly when Isabella put her hand up.

“You, bitch, won’t get away with any of this.” Without a moment to react, Isabella backhands Cecilia across the face, but it’s responded back with a very sharp punch to the nose. I jump in when I see my opportunity and grab Cecilia’s arm, when she looks at me it seems like all her anger disappeared in a heartbeat, but I don’t take the time to gaze at her. Pulling her through the crowd engaged by Isabella’s bleeding nose, Cecilia and I begin to run past the school cafeteria building and into the library’s second story.

I know the oldest books are kept here and usually never checked out unless required by a teacher. I take us down one of the aisles and we remain silent for a few moments. This would be romantic given the dim lights and books – if it weren’t for the events that transpired minutes before.

She looks down at her feet, refusing to look up at me. After a moment I notice that I am still holding her wrist, so I release it, instead grabbing her shoulders and pulling her into my chest, holding her tightly.

A week ago I never would have imagined any of this. Powers and abilities, being close with Cecilia, any of it. She relaxes and I feel her arms wrap around my back. Suddenly things feel okay. She doesn’t speak, and she doesn’t let go, nor did I want her to. I look towards the open end of the aisle, thinking I heard something - and I did. Axel peers his head through the bookshelf. Literally. Through the bookshelf. I give him a small nod, a signal that things are okay and he leaves. 

Cecilia pulls back, her face is puffy as if she wanted to cry but forced herself not to.

“Are you okay?” I ask, not sure what else to say,

“Yeah.” Then she giggled, “I can’t believe I hit her.” 

“I can’t believe she hit you.” She looks at me curiously, 

“Well, it’s not the first time.” 

This was news to me, and I think the expression on my face really showed it, “When was the first time?”

“Grade school. Then again some years later, twice that year actually. Then today.” It was concerning to hear but Cecilia seemed to just accept it. Axel then made it really obvious someone was approaching, I could tell it was him but the heavy steps he always takes, but Cecilia attempted to take a step back out of fear.

“Hey guys.” He says, chummy as ever. “Coast is clear, Isabella is in the nurse's office and someone, don’t know who, tipped the trolley of milk down the stairs. It was hilarious. I’d say everyone's already forgotten about the pow-wow outside.” He grins, widely. “I mean have you ever seen thirty-two bottles of milk explode as they hit the bottom of the stairs? Crazy.”

Cecilia giggles, “How did you know there were exactly thirty-two bottles?” His expression goes blank, then he laughs, loudly. 

“You know, I like her. She’s cool.” He says, nodding at me. That seemed to brighten her mood, and we left the library without much hesitation.

Axel was right, because of the milk flooding the cafeteria, no one bothered to look twice at Cecilia when we had left the library. However, I was still concerned about after school when no teachers are there to break up potential fights. As I’m packing the contents of my locker into my bag I see Cecilia heading to the gates, walking faster than normal. Behind her, bandaged-faced Isabella and two of her clones close behind. I nudge Axel with my elbow and he looks in the direction I’m facing, noticing the same thing I do. 

“How about a detour home today?” He asks. Nodding in acknowledgement we begin our ‘detour’ home.

It wasn’t long before we noticed that Cecilia wasn’t walking her usual direction home, so she obviously knew she was being followed. We were going by local shops, owned by first time business folks attempting to make franchises, this was common here, but generally stores would close quickly because there wasn’t enough interest if the shop couldn’t rent a space in the mall itself. Isabella was close behind Cecilia, and no longer hiding the fact she was being followed. Out of nowhere my heart jumps a beat and Cecilia jumps in front of a bus - the bus honks and brakes hard, but ultimately keeps going. After it disappears, Cecilia is nowhere to be seen and I breathe a small sign of relief. 

“Wow.” Axel says. “She’s gutsy.” 

“Yeah but,” I stop and look around, “, there’s isn’t anywhere to hide and if she ran we would still see her. Where did she go?” Axel looks around also but as I said, she was just gone. 

“We can walk to her place and see if she’s okay?” I nodded instantly, but before we even attempted to turn, we hear screaming. 

Isabella’s scream was loud. A high pitched squeal which could cause ears to bleed. Out of interest Axel did a short jog towards her and I followed close behind. In the window where Isabella was staring into was one of the coffee shop owners - at least what was left of him. 

I’d never seen anything like it in my life. His face was visible from the window - eyes still open and mouth gaping wide. Blood trickled from his lips and to the side of his face. Below him was no body from what I could tell - but in the dark room most of an arm was on one of the tabletops. Red and black covered the rest of the room, from the tables to the chairs, possibly some on the ceiling also. I felt my stomach drop, trying not to feel sick I turn away - just in time to see Isabella faint and be caught by the clones. A bystander instantly pulls out their mobile and begins dialing who I assume is the police. 

Suddenly, I understand what The Hacker really did refer to.

Axel and I didn’t stick around in the crowd when the police got there. We haven’t been around active crime scenes before, and it would have been beneficial to attempt to overhear what we could - but since we don’t know the standard procedure, the addition of ‘check the bystanders for unusual marks over their hearts’ could be new. I wanted to still go towards Cecilia’s place, but Axel insisted we went straight home - I’d never seen him so demanding about something in my life so I didn’t question it. As usual, my place was the go-to, only this time Axel didn’t sprawl himself out on my bed like normal, he remained standing even when I sat down.

“Okay.” He says suddenly, “Okay…” He repeats. Pacing, I begin to think that he might be having a panic attack, so I watch him carefully. “We need to think. Cause you know, I didn’t actually put much thought into how deadly a serial killer is.” 

My brow furrows as I think about his sentence, “I’m not sure what you mean.”

“Like, I wanted to find this guy because I thought it was the right thing, but seeing that today...I’m not sure if I’m more determined or wanting to chicken out. We could die.” As the words leave him he leans against the only spare bit of wall next to my bed and slides to the ground. For the first time ever this doesn’t look like Axel. He’s always headstrong and willing to do anything. When we were younger, we used to be the kids that never spoke to each other, despite being neighbours. Our parents insisted we learnt to walk to school together because we were neighbours and it’s safer in pairs. He used to be as timid as I was, but then one day, when Jim Rodgers started picking on me, he came between us and punched him right in the eye. We’ve been best friends ever since, and he’s never been timid or afraid since then either. Thinking about it, that would've likely been when he got his powers. That wouldn’t have been easy for an eleven year old.

“Axel,” I begin, “, if it were easy you wouldn’t want to do it.” I chuckle, “We have powers beyond understanding, surely we can find this guy without putting ourselves in harm's way.” 

“Yeah but, here’s the thing,” He signs, looking directly at me, “, the reason why I wanted to find out how many of us are there, is so that we know what powers are at our disposal, and who we need to protect. If we find the Abnormals, we find who the bad guy is after. We protect them whilst alerting the authorities. That’s how my plan worked - but how are we meant to find Abnormals when they are so good at hiding?” I’ve heard of lightbulb moments, but for me that felt like a really obvious one.

“You’re right, they hide. Like, in the comfort of their own homes, right?” He nods slowly, curious. “So, we have you, the ‘Phaser’ that can stick his head through walls and see things right? Like, inside of homes of suspected Abnormals?”