The Lorenzo School of Gifteds

Chapter six I The Boy and the Beast

After Mel and I had our dresses on and we had gone outside waiting for the other four of our group to come in our limo a voice from behind me startles me and makes me squeal.

"Well hello ,precious," he says. It's a random dude from the street. I shake my head and glance at Mel. She has her rage-face on. Uh oh.

"What's your number, dear?" He takes a curl of my brown hair in his hand and twirls it. Suddenly Mel jumps in front of me and jabs her knee in his crotch in one swift motion. He groans and stumbles away.

"You better not come near her again," Mel huffs with rage.

"Got-got it," he stutters. Right on time our limo shows up and we quickly get in.

"Who the heck was that?" asks Mia. Mel curses him out and we all laugh. Sean apparently was in the limo because he scoops her up in a big hug and laughs. We drive off and Mel calls her mom and tells her to lock the doors.

"Dude, calm down," I say.

"He could've hurt you," she huffs. I laugh. That's when I notice who else is in the car. Connor. He smiles at me lopsided just like when he picked up my papers. This time I don't stifle my laugh. He moves around the limo and comes to sit next to me. We're in the back alone since there are no more open seats. Music is blasting through the limo and everyone is singing along. Even Lexi. I'm curled up next to Connor on the seat with my long dress flowing over his legs. He's wearing a tux and I decide to play with the collar.

"HEY! Get a room!" Mel shouts at me and Connor. The whole limo fills with laughter. My cheeks explode with color and I sit back up. Connor laughs and pulls me close again.

"I'm not dating Ava anymore," he whispers in my ear. I straighten up again.

"What does that mean?" I ask.

"It means that I want you to go to the dance with me," he grins.

"Why the heck would I say no?" I ask.

Connor pulls me close again and his voice booms through the limo as he shouts, "She said yes!" I smile and hug him.

The limo parks in the parking lot were tons more are. We all haul our dresses out the door where us girls meet up with our dates. Lexi finds this really nice guy she introduces named Zach. Mia stays with Fitz and Mel stays with Sean. Lilly and Jade stay close to each other and just watch boys since they have no dates. I'm with Connor.

"You ready to party our butts off?" he asks.

"Oh, yeah!" I squeal. The six of us girls plus the four guys equal ten of us going into the big gym. The place is filled with music blaring and people jumping around in gowns and tuxes. As we move about the gym to the other wall the four guys move in front of us girls to protect our dresses I guess. We waddle over to the opposite wall and stay there dancing for around half an hour. Then, a slow dance comes on. Connor bows to me and asks to have this dance. I nod. He takes my hips in his and hands and I rest my arms on his shoulders. Mel and Sean do the same but Mel is pulled closer and she's laying on his broad chest. Mia and Fitz are swaying lightly. Lexi and Zach have disappeared. I lay on Connor's chest and sigh. Now it looks more like we're hugging than dancing.

"This is nice," he breathes against me. I nod in agreement. We both sigh and I think I'm in love. The ground starts moving. The music stops and lights start flicking out. Lexi and Zach have reappeared and now the ten of us are squished against the wall in confusion. Everyone is hanging on to someone. Nothing is happening. The lights are now all completely out and the music is off. The silence is deafening. There's a clawing from the ceiling and everyone pushes against the walls. Many stumble but instead crawl to the edge. The scratching continues. People have not panicked yet. Big purple force fields begin popping up around people and everyone hurries inside the things. Some girl I've never seen before runs over in the middle of our group and shoots a field around us. I move away from Connor and go towards the girl. She's wearing a white dress that looks amazing. The bottom is ripped.

"What's happening?" I whisper. She turns and shrugs. I big metallic claw busts thru the roof and people scream but don't move. I look back and see Connor on Sean's shoulders. I look around and see many others do the same. Their all controllers, I realize. Two more legs pop out of the hole but Connor signals to wait. Now Fitz is on Zach's shoulders. Lilly climbs onto Lexi who grunts. Mel is on Mia and I'm on Jade. Soon everyone is on someone else's shoulders ready to fire whatever ability they have. This happens in a matter of seconds. Four more legs come out adding to the three. Wait. The girl and our group begin moving towards the door that goes into the hall. Someone false fires and hits the side of the hole with a large berg of ice. I look back at Lilly but it's not her who did it. She shrugs and takes a double take at the ceiling.

The ceiling is falling with whatever the creature is with it. Now come screams and panicking. The force field can only protect us from living things, not giant slabs of concrete falling from the sky. Force fields start flickering off as others realize this. The controllers begin shooting the slabs into smaller and less harmless pieces. I begin teleporting some big slabs they missed out side onto the field where no one is... hopefully. I'm grunting with the effort. The girl who had the force field screams in pain as a slab slices her leg open. What is going on? I scream in my head. I yell at everyone to get in a circle. The eleven of us -including the girl- stand in a circle. All eyes closed. My aura surrounds us and we disappear in a flash of blue. We're outside and no one else is around.

"I'm going back in to get people out," I shout over the commotion. Connor grabs my shoulders and shouts,"Not without me." I grunt and say fine. He is the one with Fire Control. I grab his hand and in a flash we're back inside. I scream at people to get around me but no one listens. I shake my head and start zapping people everywhere instead. That's when the creatures come. They're huge. Five feet in diameter and have ten legs. They look like giant spiders. They drop on top of groups of people and start to terrorize the crap out of everyone. I glance at Connor but he's in shock. What's going on? I mouth. He just shrugs. We run towards the beasties and Connor starts flaming. His black hair on ends with flame. His hand are in front of him and balls of fire are exploding at the creature. Please don't miss. I'm slinging some of the spider things onto walls and zapping people out of their way. A big beasty grabs Connor by his leg and he yelps. My face burns. I feel my aura pick up and the wind around goes crazy. Well I didn't know I could do this... But, ok. I lean back on my foot and project my whole body at the beasty. The thing bustles and collapses on the floor. Connor's eyes are still wide with terror.

"Well that was weird," he laughs.

"No time for jokes, dear," I punch him in his arm. I start getting more mad at the beasties as we move on. That's right Beasties. I like it. My whole body radiates a blue and Connor is sure to stay a few feet back. Soon enough there's just one Beasty and tons of people still. The Beasty is beating with rage.

"Take everyone outside," I scream at Connor. He nods and blasts a hole in the wall to people can get out quicker.

"Don't die!" He screams back. Pfft! As if. Blue swirls around my head and I'm gone. The Beasty is confused and screeches. I land in the corner behind it and scream to get it's attention. It turns, its beady eyes bright red. I stand still as the Beasty launches for me but I tele away. He makes a huge gap in the wall and while it's stunned I sprint through the gap. I take only a matter of seconds for the thing to realize I'm gone. Not enough time. I sprint through the farthest part of the field where people on the other side scream and point at the girl wearing a tattered blue dress sprinting away with a Beasty on her tail. The screams take the Beasties attention away from me and to the huge crowd of people. Injured or helping the injured. The Beasty stops and turns. No. It starts charging towards the people and force fields are put up. I doubt that will help. Now I'm on it's tail. I tele onto it's slimy back and gag. I grab a handful of it's fur and turn it away. I scream in it beady red eyes. It throws me to the ground and snarls. It takes two big legs and swings it at my head. The crowd screams and I'm gone.