Overload

Chapter Seven - Sneaking Around

It all came rushing back at once, sending her head into a daze as she stumbled to regain her footing.

“Careful.”

A pair of hands steadied her by the shoulders. June glanced up and thanked her roommate who nodded nonchalantly.

“Welcome to Evergreen’s Midnight Brawl,” Danni introduced with a sweep of her arm.

The first thing June noticed was that there were no windows, yet somehow the air was rather cool. Not entirely fresh but it wasn’t exactly hot and stale either: they were underground.

The next thing that came to June’s attention was the loud noise that she managed to register after figuring out that they were well beneath the surface of the earth.

Gaggles of students littered the place, all noisily surrounding one large raised centre platform where two figures had at it at each other. June flinched at the ferocity on their faces.

“What the heck is this?” she asked loudly, trying to be heard over the noise.

“The Brawl,” Danni repeated and beckoned her through an opening in the crowd. “It’s where we all come and really vent.”

“Isn’t self-defence class enough?” June pointed out, though it looked as if her roommate hadn’t heard.

June hesitated to follow the other girl. Sure, it seemed like most of the entire student body, heck even some of the prefects, appeared to be within the large crowd of the underground arena. It didn’t look like an illegal underground fight club but honestly, it may as well have been – minus the fact that everybody was much younger and less aggressive. To a certain extent.

Still, the hype for the fighting pair in the centre was enormous. It made June’s ears ring.

So she made a quick decision to trail after her friend. Danni was the only person she knew around here and getting lost in such a large crowd filled with people she hardly knew wasn’t exactly her idea of a good time.

And how this was going to be any fun, June wasn’t sure.

June only caught a glimpse of Danni’s dark hair which changed to a dark shade of blonde while she kept her eyes on it. The snippets of conversations around her informed June that the brawl wasn’t just a place to vent out or watch some people fight, but for betting.

“Illegal much?” she muttered disapprovingly.

“What the teachers don’t know won’t kill them,” Danni spoke up, coming to a stop right before her.

June blinked and halted abruptly to stop from running into her. “You can hear me?”

Danni pushed her blonde hair back to reveal a pointed, furry red ear that twitched every now and then. June’s jaw dropped at the sight.

“I can change any part of my body, remember?” The fur receded back into her skin and it morphed until returning to a normal human ear. “That includes my senses. I heard you just fine.”

June nodded wordlessly, unable to come up with something to say back.

Danni seemed to get the hint and a slight smirk tweaked her lips. “Moving on.”

She turned around and gestured to the wild cheering and screaming directed at a pair of new brawlers. One of them shook out a hand and it went up in flames. June stifled a gasp, quickly scolding herself that it wasn’t harmful, that it was the guy’s natural ability.

However, when June took a second look at the hothead, she noticed something familiar about his face –

“Josh!” she gasped in surprise.