The Innates (Book #1)

Chapter 24

"Oh my gosh, I am so excited to see how you look, Jess." Sarra said.
"Please tell me I'm wearing a wig and all the hair-cutting was just fake." I said.
"What if you end up liking your new look?"
"What if I don't?"
"Oh please, you look gorgeous."
"I don't believe in gorgeous."
"Ooohhh... skeptic."
"Just show him already!" Ace said.
"Hold on, I'm still combing his hair." She said.
"I'm bored." I said.
"What's the vision rate of your glasses? 'Cause your lenses were mildly scratched when the cinder block exploded."
"350." I said.
"Woah, that's gnarly." Robert said. "Mine is only 150."
"I read in the dark."
"Okay, people, here comes the new Jess!" Sarra takes her fingers off my eyes, but she forgot one thing, my glasses.
"I cannot see a thing." I say.
"Which is why I..." She turns my face to the wall and held something small on the tip of her index finger, something round and shimmering, it was also the size of a toenail. "Look straight, forward."
"What is that?" I curiously asked as she gently slips the small piece of clear material above my eye.
"Contact lenses. Same eye color, but slightly brighter and same vision. It might irritate your eyes a little bit."
"It stings a little."
"Okay, okay, don't move, only the right eye." She said. I felt the dainty object slide under my scarred eyelid. I relaxed my eyes by closing them. I see someone tall, glasses with sandy brown hair holding a small mirror directly at my face. I see my reflection on the glass, for it was not a reflection but it was an illusion. It's probably a picture of some guy on a magazine.
There's something different about me, not something, everything. Those little wrinkles under my glasses are gone, my hair was rearranged as dark honey-colored clipper-cut, my pale skin is not completely white, it has a tone, and the scars above my eyes... they're also gone. My jaw drops in surprise as I stared longer.
"He likes it." Alice whispered.
"Oh please, he doesn't like it. He loves it!" Sarra exclaimed in happiness.
"Y-yeah, of course I do!" I said, smiling. From all those times of disappointments, I only smiled just this time.
"What'd you do to my face? The scars..."
"It's powder." Sarra said.
"The color of honey..."
"Hair dye." Alice said.
"What about my skin tone? It's like a color between very light bronze and pale white."
"Wanna tell him, Sarra?" Ace shouldered Sarra.
"Make-up."
"I look... good!" I was filled with excitement. "Thank you, guys. I'm sorry about the way I acted. I'm such a doof."
"Yes, yes you are." Zach said. I laughed in return.
"Next, your outfit." Sarra said.
"No, absolutely not!" I stood from the tall chair and grabbed the thickest and coziest sweater I could find on my drawer. It's a good thing this school provides literally everything, even food. I grabbed the longest socks I could wear to my shins and my black gloves.
"Good job, Sarra." Robert said.
"On what, my hair?" I said.
"No, for improving his emotions. See-- Jess, give me a high five."
"I... don't want to hurt you." I said.
"You won't, I know you won't."
I breathe through my chest and exhaled. It's just quick, one slap wouldn't hurt. It's similar to static electricity, so I raised my forearm and snapped it forward. It stung a little bit, not electrifying. But it was the sly force that made our skin feel like they were acupunctured. No zap. No shock. No pain.
"See? No pain." He said.
"Wow, thanks." I looked at my hand. "So I guess my powers manifest through certain emotions. In this case, anxiety and depression conducted the electricity."
"Yeah, I guess so." We all laughed at my small triumph.
"Let's go." Ace said.
I ran outside the room, holding on to my essentials.
"Jess, wait up!" Ace hollered.
"Let him run, Ace. He's experiencing life right now." Alice said.
I look back. "Yeah, Ace!" I snickered.
"Watch out!" I looked forward again, seeing an innocent, dark-skinned boy with small eyes and fuzzy hair pressed against a hat bump into me.
"Ooops, sorry." I said.
"You should be, you killed Clare!" I stopped running and looked back.
"Woah, dude, slow down!" Zach said. "Somebody switched the guns."
"He should've known, real guns are heavier."
"Dude, stop! It's not his fault!"
"Why don't you ask Clare? And her gunshot wound. He's deadly like poison." He stomped his feet and left. I have had it, they told me to be myself, but they just think it's all a big lie. I grabbed his left shoulder and pushed him hard on the wall.
"I'm not a poison." I said.
"Sure you are!" He grunted.
"No, I'm not!"
"Don't start with me, murderer!"
Suddenly, I wasn't me anymore. It kind of felt good, punching his nose in and seeing his blood splash on the floor. But I felt pretty guilty.
"Hey, hey, Jess! Stop!" Zach clenched my arms back and dragged me on the other side.
"Better not do that again, kid." Zach said.
"I'm telling!" The kid said.
"What are you gonna say? You taunted the new student and you got beat up in return?"
"Only the last part." He was as quick as a lightning strike.
"Get back here!" Zach clenched harder as I try to get out of it and run after that scoundrel. After he got away, Zach released me.
"What were you thinking?" Ace shouted.
"I'm sorry."
"Think next time." Robert said. I set my hands down to my knees and panted. I took out a dose of Insulin and injected myself with it. Aren't we gonna stop him? No, because I'm trying to move forward instead of just going to back to look at wounds.
"Let's just go."
"Forget that, I'm using the Porter Marble." Zach said.
"The what?"
"That green marble that Jackson used to transport us here."
"How do you use it?"
"You just roll it inside of your hands and drop it down." Zach reaches down his pocket and takes the marble out. He cups his hands around it and allowed gravity to do the trick. A large, blinding neon green light shears our eyes.
"Okay, the most important rule: visualize your destination before use."
"What happens if you don't?"
"You're gonna get stuck inside the vortex." I gasped. Not that place, no.
"Here goes nothin'." Zach jumps in and held my hand as I held my breath. I closed my eyes for an entire minute. Even for an illness-prone like me, I could hold my breath for an entire. That's it.

"Whoo! Yeah, snow." Ace said. "Man, I miss Tokyo." I opened my eyes and gasped for the frigid air. It was like inhaling a new prescription of my inhaler and smoke comes out after. Like using an E-cigarette, it's not dangerous. I thought this school was an E-cigarette, but somebody infiltrated with it and now, I'm off the make-believe nicotine even though it's bogus.
I looked through the clouds that surrounded us. No Cumulus or Stratus or Nimbus. Just my favorite wispy one, Cirrus. I like them because they look like feathers. You know who has feathers? Birds. Not all birds fly, they're called, fouls. I sometimes think I'm a foul, but I know somehow that I'm gonna soar like a falcon. Sometime, I'm going to fly high and actually achieve something and find justice after what I've done.
"Wow, it's so... white."
"Can't find any more words 'cause you're speechless?" Robert asked.
"Yeah." I laughed.
"Who wants to jump off the mountain?"
"We're in a mountain?" I asked.
"Of course we are-- see that dome right there at the bottom? That's the mini-city." I tilted my head slightly to the left, it's like glancing at a shimmering raindrop.
"Are you sure it's safe up here?"
"Don't worry." Robert said again. "It's just snow and a few rocks up here."
"I love it." I squinted as the strong air rushes to my face. "Can I ask you a question?" I said to Robert.
"What is it?"
"Well, it's not really a question but... okay, I think there's another layer of barrier around our forcefield. The first layer, the one I bumped into, was really electromagnetic, I was right."
"What about the second one?"
"That, I don't know... but, I have no time to talk about theories. Let's have fun." I purposely tumbled down the small slope above the mountain. With my arms wrapped around my folded legs, I knew I was cautiously free to have fun.
"You play like a nervous kitten!" Ace said, rolling down next to me. He did the same thing, but with his arms stretched out and his legs bending in different directions. The ground was not soft nor hard, but average. He's the kind of person who enjoys pain and gets out of it easily. He lives life differently than anyone else.
"Why are we doing this?" He asked. "Why tumbling?" I shrugged as we stopped rolling and just laid on our backs, rubbing ourselves on the cold landscape. The blue-indigo sky is beautiful with the little white snowflakes falling slowly.
"We're still at the top." He said. "Less high."
"This is perfect." Even though "perfect" is non-existent.
"What's your plan?" He asked.
"Off the top of my head, since I didn't know I was gonna make plans too, I'd say jump."
"What, like from here?"
"No, from down there... of course from up here!"
"No, thank you." He said.
"Acrophobia?"
"And Aerophobia, Hydrophobia, and Basiphobia."
"Okay, you won't drown in snow. Yeah, it's water but it's frozen! If you knew Pluto was just mountains, then why'd you come with us?"
"Because you're my friend." I smiled and sat up. I quickly held Ace's hand, which surprised him.
"Oh gosh, please don't!" How smart for him to know. I leaned forward and allowed myself to fall from a higher spot. Ace held his scream back and swallows a huge gulp. While the great force dragged us down, all I saw in Ace were the snowflakes covering his clothes and his face vanishing. Also, his fear that made him normal, even when he's invisible.