Wishful Deviltry

Chapter Fourteen

The bell rang for lunch as Karis looked at the clock on the wall. It had only been a couple of hours but she was already missing Kaleb. She thought that it was probably because she of the new place and being out of her element, but she couldn't wait to see him at lunch. When Karis and Jessica walked out of the training building with Dillon trailing behind them, Kaleb and Kenny were standing on the side walk waiting for them. Kaleb was in a deep conversation with Kenny and barely noticed when Karis joined them.
"Well, if I would've known that you only had pennies I wouldn't have bet money." Kaleb challenged.
"Well, if you wouldn't have hustled me and just told me that you were a good poker player then I would have told you all I had on me was pennies. Besides, I don't know what you are pouting about, you won." Kenny sounded amused.
"Yeah and now my pockets feel like they weigh a ton with all these dang pennies. Here, why don't you take your money back?" Kaleb reached into his pockets and pulled out two hands full of pennies. Two or three pennies slipped from his fingers landing on the ground by their feet but neither of the boys bent down to pick them up.
"Noooo!" Kenny laughed, throwing his hands up in the air to keep Kaleb from handing him the pennies. "You won fair and square my friend. I have been trying to get rid of that change for weeks."
"Well crap!" Kaleb scowled as he put the pennies back into his pocket. "That's the last time I try to hustle you. Next time I'll make sure it's quarters."
"I see you two are getting along well." Karis said as she looked around at all the kids passing by them. "Where's Titanium and Taren?"
"They're probably already in the lunchroom. They get out of class a little earlier than we do." Jessica said waving her hands at them to start walking. "And they might have us a table already so let's gets moving."
Walking beside Kaleb, Karis looked up at him. His eyes sparkled in the sunlight. "Did you miss me this morning?" Karis asked him with a smile.
"More than you know." Kaleb put his arm around Karis as they walked. "Did you learn anything in your classes?"
She thought for a minute and said, "Nothing that I don't already know. How about you?"
Yeah, I learned to not play poker with Kenny."
"Next time be more specific about what you are betting with, money is money." Kenny snickered. "When you say 'I'll bet one', that's not specific enough to say whether that statement means it's a quarter or a penny. You left yourself open on that one."
"Aye, how much did ye end up winning?" Dillon asked.
"He conned me into less than half a dollars' worth of pennies. I thought he owed me ten dollars. That's forty pennies!" Kaleb shook his pants and everybody heard the change jiggling in both of his pants pockets. "When we were finished playing the game I was expecting Kenny to hand me ten dollars but no. He hands me a load of pennies."
"Oh get over it you big baby, next time I will beat you."
"Are you sure it's actually forty pennies. I wouldn't put it past Kenny to short change you." Jessica teased.
"Oh, that would be so wrong. I think you better count it, Kaleb, you know, just to make sure." Karis said nudging Kaleb's arm.
"It's not even worth my time to count all these pennies. They're going in a change jar as soon as I get to my room anyway."
"Those pennies will come in handy for you one day and you will thank me."
Kaleb rolled his eyes. "I think I liked you better when you didn't say much. I know it was a lot quieter." Kaleb said grinning at Kenny. "What's bad is that I can actually understand you better now."
Kenny laughed out loud and shook his finger at Kaleb. "Mark my word. You will be speaking German before too long."
"Only the bad words." Kaleb teased. "And those will probably be directed towards you or Titanium."
Jessica opened the door to the dorm building and everybody followed her to the dining area. When they walked through the doorway, Karis' stomach growled at the scent of different types of food from spaghetti to hamburgers. She looked around the large room at all the multi race kids mingling with each other and wondered if they grouped in clicks or gangs. At that moment, the realization of hers and Kaleb's situation hit home. Karis's heart started to beat rapidly, as her stomach started to knot up in fear. She wondered if anyone had guessed that neither she nor Kaleb had powers yet. She felt her grip tighten around Kaleb's arm, unaware that she was starting to tremble.
Kaleb placed his hand on top of Karis's hand and gave her a reassuring smile. She loosened her grip as they followed Jessica to the food line. The line was long but it moved fast as each person grabbed some food and put it on their tray. It reminded Karis of a buffet at a high class restaurant, yet you did not have to pay for it here.
Dillon grabbed a couple of trays and handed one to Karis. "Just take whatever ye heart desires or what ye stomach is yearning for. This is an open buffet and ye could use some grub on those skinny bones of yers."
"Thank you." Karis took the tray and quickly grabbed an apple from a fruit tray.
"Ye need more than just an apple." Dillon grabbed a bowl, filled it with pork loin and potatoes and then placed it on Karis's tray. "Don't be shy around here or ye will starve. Nobody is going to get it for ye and nobody cares what ye eat."
"Thanks Dillon, I'm just nervous. There're so many people in here. I'm not sure I can eat anything even though I was hungry just a little while ago."
"Don't worry, powers are forbidden it the dining area. There was one food fight here once between a force power and strength power." Dillon said as he covered his mouth and chuckled. "Let's just say, it was pretty messy."
"Dillon, stop talking and get your food, you're holding up the line." Jessica said, pushing Dillon playfully forward. "If you'd eat as much as you talk you'd be one fat Irishman."
"Aye. Let us not forget that I am not the one that has the rambling on syndrome." Dillon said, turning his attention back to Karis. "She's the one that talks in her sleep, from what I heard."
Jessica's eyes got wide as she playfully slapped Dillon on his shoulder. Dillon laughed out loud grabbing his tray and flinching from Jessica's slaps as he made his way to the salad bar. Jessica glanced at Karis, Kaleb, and Kenny, who were staring at Jessica with disbelief.
"What? It's not what y'all think. His sister probably told him I talk in my sleep, no big deal." Jessica said uncomfortably, trying to change the subject. "Let's get our food and find Titanium."
Karis turned around with her tray of food and found Kaleb standing behind her. He was studying the crowd looking for Titanium.
"There they are." Kaleb said as he pointed to a table in the far back corner of the room with two people sitting at it.
Karis narrowed her eyes to focus on Titanium and Taren sitting at the table patiently waiting for the rest of the group to join them. Titanium rested his head on one of his hand, using his other to push food around on his plate with his fork while he listened to Taren's rambling monolog. Karis felt the corner of her mouth twitch into a smile when she saw the bored look on his face. He nonchalantly glanced around the room looking for an escape route when he finally saw Karis. She could actually see the relieved expression he made when their eyes met. The nervous feeling she had upon entering the lunchroom started slowly fading as she walked through the crowd and placed her tray of food on the table across from Titanium. Kaleb sat down in the chair next to Karis while Kenny and Jessica sat on either side of Titanium. Dillon sat next to Taren and immediately started stealing French fries off her plate.
"Dillon! Ye are a very bold boy, stop acting the maggot and go get ye own." Taren said slapping Dillon's hand away from her plate.
"Ah, but that requires me getting back in line and I'd just as soon eat yers."
"Ye better mind yer manners, brother; ye don't want me to embarrass ye in front of our new friends, now do ye?"
Dillon started laughing loudly, "Okey, okey, don't get ye feathers in a twist, sis. I will eat me own lunch."
Karis couldn't help but ponder on how much Taren and Dillon looked alike. She knew they were twins, but if Dillon had longer hair they could switch places easily without anyone knowing.
"What kind of devices can you make with your powers, Taren?" Kaleb asked curiously.
"All sorts of things, it just matters on the situation I might be in at the time and the things that surround me."
Kaleb reached into his pocket and pulled out a couple of pennies. "Could you make something out of these?"
Taren looked at the pennies, and then looked at Kaleb. "It is forbidden to use me powers in the dining area."
Dillon took the pennies from Kaleb and gave them to Taren. "Don't worry, sis, this is just a small challenge. Nobody has to know that ye are using yer powers. Show him what ye can do."
Taren rotated the pennies in her hand with her thumb as she thought about it for a second and wondered if she really should use her powers. She glanced around the room nervously and then looked back at her friends. Their eyes encouraging her to do something, Taren looked at Kaleb again. "Are these pennies of any value to ye? My powers might render them useless."
Kenny snorted out loud as Kaleb glared at him through mocking eyes. "Nope, I've got plenty more where those came from. Matter of fact, I can spare more if you need them."
"Nay, these are all I need." Taren said as she closed her eyes and bowed her head, cupping her hands together as if she was praying with the pennies inside them. All of a sudden her green eyes flew open and changed color to a bright purple as she stared at her hands. A bright neon orange light glowed around her fingers for a minute then slowly died out as Taren closed her eyes again. When she reopened her eyes they were back to her original color green. She opened her hands and dropped the pennies onto the table. Karis couldn't believe her eyes, what was once two pennies was two tiny copper arrow heads that were sharp as needles and as small as a pencil lead.
Taren smiled with satisfaction of what she made, but she felt that it was unfinished. She searched around the table for something sharp. She grabbed her fork and used one of the prongs to hollow out the non-sharp end of the arrow heads.
"What on earth are ye doing, sis?" Dillon asked as he opened his straw and took a sip of his iced tea.
"Watch and learn, brother." Taren smiled as she grabbed the toothpick out of Titanium mouth.
"Hey! I just started chewing on that." Titanium whined.
Taren took the toothpick on each end with her fingers and slowly twirled it, taunting Titanium with a mischievous grin.
"Taren?" Titanium hissed, drawling each syllable of her name out as he said it. "Don't even think about."
Taren broke the toothpick in half before Titanium finished his sentence. "Don't worry, Titanium, I'll get ye a new toothpick."
"That's not the point, it was the purpose." Titanium said through gritted teeth.
"Oh, get over your pride you big baby, she said she'll get you another toothpick." Kaleb said urging Taren to finish what she was doing. "Let's see what she can to do."
With that, Taren placed the broken end of one toothpick in the hollow part of the arrow head and pinched it slightly to mend it together. Then she did the same with the other arrowhead and toothpick. After she was done, she held them up and showed everybody at the table the perfect tiny arrowhead darts.
"That's very impressive, but do they work." Kaleb asked. "They look a little too heavy."
Taren rolled her eyes at Kaleb and grabbed Dillon's straw from his tea. Before Kaleb could say another word, Taren loaded the dart in the straw and blew it towards Kenny's coke can. It made a clink then a thud sound where it pierced the can all the way through and stuck in the wooden chair, sinking half way through it without breaking the dart.
In shock, Kaleb reached over and pulled out the dart. He studied it in his hands for minute before he placed it back on the table. "I totally take back what I said earlier, that was awesome!"
"Is that all you can do?" A female voice said from behind Karis. "That was so pathetic. Trying to impress your new friends, Tarn? Did you forget that it is forbidden to practice your powers in here? I bet Mr. Carson would be impressed with your little shenanigans, should we go show him?"
Karis didn't have to turn around to see who was talking because she knew that high pitched British voice anywhere. It had to be Ethereal.
"Just leave her alone, Ethereal. There was no harm done." Titanium said as he picked up a roll from his plate a bit into it. He didn't break eye contact with her as he chewed and finally swallowed.
"What has happened to you, Titanium? You went on that little trip and came back hanging out with these characters. Come back to your real friends." Ethereal said, twirling a piece of her hair with her fingers.
Titanium looked at Karis and then back at Ethereal. "These are my friends and they're not causing any trouble. Just go back to your table before you get your feelings hurt."
Ethereal opened her mouth as if someone punched her. "HURT! Do you think any of your so called friends can hurt me?"
Dalton walked up beside Ethereal and put his arm around her shoulder, glaring at Kaleb. "What's going on, Ethereal? Are these jackasses bothering you?"
Kaleb snorted. "I think it's the other way around."
Dalton slammed his fist on the table in front of Kaleb, making the legs of the table crack. "What did you say, punk?!"
Titanium jumped to his feet and stepped between Kaleb and Dalton, scowling at Dalton with a look that could kill. "Back off Dalton, I won't tell you again."
Dalton got in Titanium's face and hissed through clenched teeth. "Please, tell me again, I dare you."
"Come on guys, can we just get along or leave each other alone." Karis stated looking from Dalton to Ethereal.
"Oh, how sweet. Titanium's pet is trying to save the day again." Ethereal said as she grabbed Karis's shirt and jerked her up to face her. Karis was so close to Ethereal's face that she felt the moisture of Ethereal's spit as she yelled at her. "What kind of powers are going to save your ass?"
At that moment, everything happened at once, so fast, that Karis didn't know what was going on in front of her. Titanium swung at Dalton. Dalton ducked from the punch and drove his fist into Titanium's stomach. Titanium's breath exploded from his lungs in a rush that sound like a painful grunt. Dalton then tried to knee Titanium in the face but Titanium grabbed his leg and forcefully pulled it up, upsetting Dalton's balance. Dalton fell backwards landing hard on his back knocking the breath out of his lungs. Titanium grabbed Dalton by his shirt as well as his pants leg and hurled him onto a nearby table so hard the table buckled underneath him crashing to the floor. Titanium had the advantage and landed on top of Dalton. He punched Dalton in the ribs several times then took aim at his jaw. At that moment, Dalton blocked the incoming fist and punched Titanium in the jaw. The force of the blows along with the wrestling match took both combatants rolling across the floor.
Karis started pulling at Ethereal's fingers to get her to let go of her shirt but Ethereal had a tight grip twisted in her shirt.
"Let go of me, can't you see that they are going to hurt each other. We need to stop this.".
"THIS....." Ethereal snapped furiously. ".....Is your fault. Your sight power isn't going to help you out of this fight."
Kaleb looked at Kenny, who pointed at Ethereal and silently nodded his head telling Kaleb to do whatever he wanted to do to help Karis. He stood up quickly, knocking the chair down behind him. Kenny rolled his eyes at Kaleb indicating that he was being a little too dramatic.
"Hey Ethereal, leave Karis alone. You know she can't fight you. All she can do is see through objects. Now that's not a fair fight, is it?" Kaleb started walking slowly towards Ethereal. "Why don't we stop this nonsense and just call it even, huh?"
Ethereal kept Karis's shirt twisted in her grip with her right arm as she flung her left arm out towards Kaleb telling him to stop. "Kaleb, don't come any closer, she's the reason Titanium is acting the way he is. He is mine, not hers! She doesn't deserve him."
Kaleb stopped walking. "I definitely agree with you on that last statement you made, but can't you see that Dalton is hurting your precious Titanium as we speak. Do you want that?"
Ethereal looked towards Dalton and Titanium, wrestling on the ground. Titanium was bleeding from his lip and Dalton was bleeding from a cut above his left eye.
"Titanium can take care of himself. We fight worse than this in training. I want her...." Ethereal said breathing hard. "....to leave Titanium alone."
Karis's shirt was getting tighter around her neck causing her to cough as Ethereal tightened her grip. Karis looked around for Taren or Dillon to help her but they were gone. Jessica was trying to help Titanium but she couldn't get through the crowd of kids that surrounded the fight.
"You're choking her!" Kaleb yelled at Ethereal, pointing towards Karis.
"I know, now she knows what I felt like when I saw her kissing Titanium in the hallway last night. Just the view of them made me choke." Kaleb stopped dead in his tracks, looking wide eyed at Ethereal not knowing if he heard her right. "Oh.. You didn't know did you? See, she's even lying to you. She doesn't deserve either of you." Ethereal said hatefully.
"NO!" Karis croaked, and then started coughing again.
Kaleb stood there for a minute in disbelief. He knew Karis was acting strange lately, but he thought it was just from the situation they were in. Kenny cleared his throat out loud, jolting Kaleb back to reality.
"Well, she doesn't deserve you doing this to her, either."
Ethereal made a furious face as she lifted Karis off the ground. "No! She deserves much worse!"
All of a sudden, the darts that were on the table flew through the air, hitting Ethereal's shirt sleeve, spinning her arm around causing her to drop Karis as the darts pinned her arm to a nearby wood pole. Karis fell to the ground in a fit of coughs.
Kaleb ran over to her and patted her on the back. "Are you okay?"
Karis grabbed Kaleb and hugged him tightly. "Yes, thank you so much, Kaleb. I'm so sorry I didn't tell you about-. Well, you know. I just didn't want you upset. I'm sorry bad stuff like this keeps happening to us."
Kaleb looked at Karis with sympathetic eyes. "Stop saying you're sorry, we tend to get in these situations because of our winning personalities." Kaleb laughed. "You're my best friend, nothing will change that."
Ethereal screamed a high pitched scream as she yanked on her sleeve to get free. "Get me off of here, you will pay, Karis, I promise you will pay!"
Karis looked over at the crowd where Jessica was still having trouble getting through to help Titanium. When Karis realized that he was still fighting with Dalton, she started to panic. She glanced up at Kaleb with wide eyes. "Titanium and Dalton! We need to help him."
Kaleb and Karis ran past Kenny, who was still sitting in his chair with his legs propped up on the table, making paper airplanes. "I would stand back if I were you, just remember what happened to that Scraper at the airport."
"We can't just stand around and do nothing while he's over there fighting someone because of me." Karis said as she grabbed Kaleb's arm and ran over to Jessica to try to help her get through the crowd.
"You can't say I didn't warn you." Kenny replied as he threw a paper airplane into the air, watching it fly over the crowd and disappear.
When Karis and Kaleb reached Jessica, she turned around towards them and threw up hers hands as if she lost all hope. "There's no use guys, this crowd is packed in too tight and won't budge."
Suddenly, the crowd moved quickly, almost knocking Jessica and Karis down as Dalton's body flew through the air, landing hard on the floor about five feet from where Kenny was sitting. He either hit his head hard on the floor or Titanium knocked him out cold, because Dalton lay still where he landed. Titanium came limping through the crowd towards Dalton wiping the blood from his lip on his shirt sleeve. Karis noticed that he had a red blood stain on his shirt below his left arm. He guarded it with his left hand as if it was painful. When he reached Dalton's limp body, he nudged Dalton's leg to make sure he was alive. Titanium let out a breath that he was holding when Dalton made a little moaning sound.
"Good, at least he's still alive and breathing." Titanium said to himself as he collapsed in a chair nearest him.
Jessica ran up to Titanium with Karis and Kaleb behind her. She grabbed a paper towel off a nearby table, using a glass of water on the table to wet it, and handed it to Titanium to put on his lip. "Are you okay? That was intense. I couldn't even get through the crowd to help you."
Titanium took the wet paper towel from Jessica. "Thanks. Whoa, wait a minute." Titanium said, looking at the paper towel curiously. "How did you get this wet?"
Jessica shrugged. "With water, duh. Are you sure Dalton didn't knock you out even for a second."
"I know with water, you idjit, where did you get the water?"
Jessica looked around and then pointed to a glass of water that was on a table just a few feet away from them. Titanium threw the paper towel at Jessica, hitting her face with a splat. "You don't know who has been drinking out of that glass and you want me to put that on my lip! Are you nuts?"
"How's your side, I see a blood stain on your shirt." Karis asked.
Titanium lifted his shirt up to find several of his stitches were busted from his stab wound and was slowly oozing blood. "Just another flesh wound, I'll get Sahari to sew me up later."
"This is going to have to stop. Y'all cannot keep protecting me. Someone is going to be seriously hurt." Karis said, pointing to Dalton, who was slowly coming back around. Ethereal was still screaming out curse words in the background. "Ethereal really hates me, she's not going to stop coming after me. I need to stay away from her."
"Don't worry Karis, we'll figure this out together. I won't let anything happen to you." Kaleb said, putting a comforting hand on Karis's head.
"Don't you mean us?" Titanium added. "We'll protect Karis."
Kaleb looked at Titanium out of the corner of his eyes, remembering what Ethereal said about Titanium kissing Karis. Kaleb closed his eyes, willing the thought out of his mind and finally answered Titanium out loud. "Yes, I mean us."
"WHAT IS GOING ON HERE!!?" Mr. Carson yelled as he walked through the dining room dodging kids running to get out of the room. "You all know that powers are forbidden in the dining area for this particular reason."
Taren and Dillon, with worried expressions, walked in behind Mr. Carson. They pushed past the leaving crowd as they walked over to where Titanium was sitting. Taren squatted down next to Titanium. "We ran to get Mr. Carson as soon as the fight broke out. It looks like we were a little too late."
Mr. Carson ripped the darts from Ethereal's sleeve and she immediately rubbed her arm to make sure it was not pierced. Then she turned her angry look towards Karis. Mr. Carson grabbed her before she could go after Karis again and pushed her towards the door. "You need to cool off, take a walk."
"It is all her fault." Ethereal yelled, pointing at Karis. "She has ruined everything."
"GO! NOW!" Mr. Carson said sternly, pointing at the door again. "And as for the rest of you, get to class or suffer the consequences!".
Everybody that didn't leave when Mr. Carson came into the room were gone within seconds. Only Karis's group and Mr. Carson were left in the room. Dalton had been carried out of the dining area to the healing room by two strength guys.
Kenny finally got up from his seat and walked over to stand by Titanium. "You good, my friend?"
Titanium looked at Kenny and smiled a bloody smile. "Just like old times, my friend, just like old times."
Mr. Carson looked at each of them with an angry glare. "You seven! In my office in ten minutes. If any of you are one minute late, you all will be cleaning the public bathrooms with a toothbrush." He turned and walked out of the dining area without another word.
"Well, I guess my stitches will have to wait, let's go see what our sentence is going to be. I have a feeling we're in big trouble this time."
"What gave you that idea?" Kaleb asked looking around at the broken tables and chairs. "I think it looks almost new."
"Yah, keep on, you won't be joking when we have to clean this place." Jessica said.
"I volunteer Kenny, he has the force power." Kaleb chuckled.
Kenny looked over at Kaleb with unmoving eyes. "Okay and I'll use your head as a mop."
Kaleb jumped up and motioned towards the door. "Okay, on that note let's get out of here. How long will it take us to get back over to Mr. Carson's office?"
"Ten minutes." Kenny said.
"Well, I suggest we get moving. Just the thought of cleaning those bathrooms makes me want to hurl." Dillon said, motioning to them to follow him out of the dining room.
"If I have to clean a public bathroom with a toothbrush because one of you guys is late, I will kill you with my bare hands. But at least the girls' bathroom isn't as messy as the boys." Jessica said without cracking a smile.

Hope you are enjoying the book so far. Vote or comment, I will post the next couple of chapters soon.