Redesign Me, State of the Art (Jalex)

They Call Kids Like Us Vicious and Carved Out of Stone

Alex's POV

The whole meeting went by in a blur. After we introduced ourselves, Tay went into a long explanation about what this place was and what it was all about; accompanied by random interjections from all the others in the circle.

The overview is that Tay, Rian, and Zack met at a concert about a year ago. Tay was crowd surfing and ended up on the stage, where she looked out at the crowd and recognized her own messed up molecular pattern in two other kids among the sea of teenagers. She stood at the exit of the venue and scanned everyone as they walked out until she found them. Being her, she wasted no time in blurting out something about superpowers, which obviously stunned Rian and Zack at first. I guess Tay just has something in her personality that makes you want to trust her though, because the boys soon confessed to their powers and the three of them bonded over a mutual hatred for this mysterious force that had made them freaks without providing a how-to handbook.

Upon further collective research, the three of them were able to piece together different coincidences and missing records to find a company called "B.N.E." that had paid various supplements of money to all of their parents approximately thirteen years ago. They staked out the place for a few days before devising a plan to sneak in and steal away some information.

"How did you guys not get caught?" I suddenly blurted out, causing everyone to turn in my direction. Fuck.

"What do you mean? I told you, Tim was the one who found us. He kind of lives there I guess," Rian answered slowly, speaking to me as if I should've been paying attention the first time he explained it.

When they had broken in, a kid was roaming the halls and had found them trying to pick the lock on a file cabinet. That kid ended up being who Carter informed us was kept living there under surveillance. Tay, Rian, and Zack explained what they were doing and the boy, Timothy, was amazed. Peter and them had never explained to him that there were other people out in the world like him. From then on, Tim had been helping them out with information from the inside. He also found a way to send some money the orginazation's way whenever he could.

"No, I think he's referring to the trackers or whatever. Didn't they know you guys were meeting up?" Jack clarified from beside me. I nodded in agreement.

I had actually been wondering how nobody from B.N.E. had found this place yet considering the sheer amount of supercharged kids in one house; but a quick look around the room revealed that nobody had any idea what we were talking about.

"What the fuck do you mean trackers?" a long haired kid next to Jack suddenly spat out.

"Vic calm down, he probably doesn't mean trackers right?" Tay assured him. Her gaze quickly fell on mine, silently pleading to be careful with whatever I was going to say next. One wrong word and the room could erupt into uncontrollable madness.

"Um, we were just assuming that they had tracked you or something, like they did to us. We're just being paranoid and have been told so many lies lately that the truth sounds pretty foreign," I tried to laugh it off. I saw the tension in Tay's shoulders slowly disappear as Vic and the rest of the group seemed to buy my shitty excuse for an explanation. Jack got the picture as well and didn't open his mouth about it again.

Pretty soon after that the meeting was adjourned. Metal chairs squeaked against the hardwood floor as everyone stood up and began filing into the kitchen. Jack and I simply assimilated with the rest of the group, following them to the large space connected to the meeting room that had been transformed into a dining hall. We were guided by Tay to a table in the somewhat center and joined by Rian, Zack, and Vic. Rian and Zack sat across from us, leaving a space in between them for Tay to sit; while Vic accompanied Jack and I on the other side of the bench. The food was served family style and Tay soon returned with a large plate crowded by various different types of dinner options. Despite having not eaten much that day, I wasn't particularly hungry and took very little from the platter in front of me. I noticed Jack doing the same; not that the two of us ever ate a significant amount of food to begin with. Comparatively, there was Vic on the other side of me, stuffing down dinner rolls like somebody was going to take them away from him.