Superhuman [Book 1]

31 || Dared

  ➟jack
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I felt warm arms wrap around my waist. A head rested on my shoulder and I smiled, setting down the knife I had in my hands. I placed my hands on his and felt warmth on my skin. For once my heart settled and felt smooth. I could hear Kyle's breathing from behind me. I felt safe and happy. I loved hugs from him. They were better than any hug I ever had before.

"Hey," he said. He smiled from behind me. "Watcha doin'?"

"Cutting apples for Piers," I replied.

"Sounds interesting," he said sarcastically, stealing a slice and walking off. I laughed and picked the knife back up, going back to slicing the fruit. Piers asked me to pack everyone lunches for tomorrow. He said we were going somewhere special but he wouldn't tell us where.

When the apples were done I put them in nine plastic bags, each with their own peanut butter containers except for Zane who didn't like peanut butter and Sam who was allergic. Finally, all the lunches were complete. I put them all in the refrigerator after pushing away left over boxes of old pizza. We got hungry in the middle of the day, so what?

I walked out of the dorm down to the gym where my next class was taking place. I strutted into the locker room and met up with the rest of the gang. They were already dressed in their uniforms. I quickly undressed and changed into the required SOSA promoted t-shirt and shorts. The guys had a similar get-up along with Ms. Brutus.

We met in the center of the room, quietly awaiting her instructions. The five who arrived later finally gotten used to her being mean and overall abusive. It only took them thirteen months.

She walked out of her office with a clipboard, going over information of some sort. When she met us in the center, she snapped her head up and smirked.

"Three laps around the gym, go," she said flatly.

Hazzy groaned while Nia grinned. We stood up and ran quickly around the gym. It took us about two minutes. Not bad for a couple of kids. We lined up like usual once we were done. Ms. Brutus stated us down as she paced back and forth. I still didn't understand why we had to run even though we would have graduated almost two years ago.

"I've seen your stats. And let me tell you, you need a lot of work. I am here to help you with that!" She stopped pacing. Her back was turned to us. "Drop and give me twenty."

I huffed and dropped to the floor. We pushed hard until we were all done. Nia was first, then Kyle. Ly followed next with Tommy and myself. Hazzy, Zane, and Sam ended at the rear.

"Last time you brats were here we played a very pathetic game of dodge and ball. Now that stage is complete. It only took us thirteen months, but I think you idiots have gotten dodging at least decent! Now! Step two! Accuracy. You need to be able to throw whatever ya got and actually hit the target." Ms. Brutus demonstrated by throwing a ball at Tommy's head. He dodged it quickly, but the ball turned around and whacked him in the rear. "Accurate!"

Tommy huffed. "You only got it right 'cause you're a Telk.  What about the rest o' us?"

That is how I found myself throwing a ball at an archery target, missing every other ball. The class ended brutally with another game of dodgeball every-man-for-himself style. Nia hit everyone out with a single blow except for Sam who went invisible. In the end he got her out by a sneak attack. Ms. Brutus groaned at our failure, but dismissed us anyways.

The rest of the night was peaceful as it usually was.  The next morning we were on our way to Pagomonen. The northern most continent in the world. During the Elder Era, Bo rose the earth underneath the North Pole and created an island. It was a bit of a stretch in my opinion, but the Elders did what they wanted in those times. And I wasn't complaining, Pagomonen was the only place in the world where Elements could be happy and not discriminated. Hopefully one day they'd be free everywhere.

We rode on the Jamma sponsored hovercraft to the new area. Sam was looking out the window with googly eyes as if he had never seen anything but Montana and SOSA. He probably hadn't.

"He's geeking again," Hazzy said playfully.

A few of us laughed and Sam blushed. He say back in his seat, opening a magazine to hide his embarrassment. "Gee you think you'd never see anything but Montana," Kyle said, reading my thoughts.

Sam blushed again. "N-No I haven't."

I felt bad for the kid, I wondered what is was like to see all of this for the first time. I came to Pagomonen every few years to help out around the Alliot Temple. Now that I knew where we were on our way there, I figured the temple is the surprise thing Piers wanted to show us.

We arrived at little after midnight. Piers let us settle into our tiny hotel room just a few blocks from the temple. We ordered pizza and Chinese food like we usually did. While eating, we crowded around the coffee table.

"Truth or dare?" Kyle suggested, looking around for answers.

"We're not twelve you know." Ly retorted, dipping a fork into her egg-fu-young. "Next thing you know one of us is gonna dare the other to do a seven minute in heaven session in the closet." She rolled her eyes. "Not my cup of tea."

Tommy laughed. "Let's play anyways. Kyle you go first."

Kyle smirked and looked around at us. "Piers," he pointed at the suited man. "Truth or dare?"

"Truth!" Piers exclaimed immediately.

"What's with you and Agent Yi?"

Piers laughed. "Strictly platonic. I have no interest in any kinds of 'love' at the moment. To much times babysitting you eight."

We laughed at his comment.

"Zane, truth or dare?"

"Truth."

"What was the last time you said your favorite thing to do?"

"I dunno. Never I guess." Zane shrugged. "Tommy truth or dare."

"Truth."

"Oh for the love of god it's no fun when we're just doing truth all the time!" Nia cried, almost spilling her food everywhere.

"I'm still picking truth."

We grinned. Then, Zane asked him to tell us the story of his first crush.

"Okay," Tommy said with a grin. "Okay, you three know this story cause you guys were there," he said pointing at Nia, Piers, and I. "Right so I was like nine or ten and there was this guy who had like suuuper blonde hair. Like blonder than Ly's whose got some pretty damn bright hair. He was really awesome and sweet and I remember I couldn't for the life of me get up my courage to talk to him. So much for being Gryffindor." He stuck his tongue out. Nia and I laughed like we usually did when he told this story. Although, the rest of Alliot stared at Tommy with a blank look.

"Tommy—"

"Yes," Tommy cut in, "I'm gay."

"Well alright then," Kyle said, making the situation less awkward. "Tommy pick someone."