The Outcasts *COMPLETED*

Chapter 16 - Team Building

"You have to at least consider it Jade. You sat down and talked with her, working with her can't be that bad now." Cooper said, walking behind Jade who seemed unsure about all that had happened throughout the day. Jade stopped walking and Cooper stopped right behind her. She turned around, her eyes looking towards the ground.

"I'm just scared Coop. What if they wanna cut us open and see what's wrong with us?" Jade asked, looking up at her best friend. He could see the fear present in her eyes and he felt like he was hit by a large truck all of a sudden.

"I would never let them hurt you. Never. They just wanna see how your powers work. That's it. That's all you have to do for them." Cooper reassured her. He slowly put his arms around her, pulling her in for a hug and squeezing her tight. "Nothing is gonna happen to us. I promise."

* * *

The next day, Professor Romero sat at his desk, grading quizzes but was soon interrupted by the sound of someone knocking on his door. He looked up, seeing Javier standing there with a smirk on his face. Romero waved the young boy over and went back to looking at the papers in front of him. The school day had yet to start, so Javi decided to try and talk to his Professor indirectly about his powers.

"What can I help you with Mr. Vasquez." Professor Romero asked, marking an answer wrong as he flipped the paper in front of him over. Javi pulled one of the desks forward and sat down in it, staring at his hands as he thought of a way to bring up his situation. "Mr. Vasquez..."

"You know Psychology really well right?" Javi asked, looking up at his Professor who slowly raised his eyes from the paper to meet Javi's.

"I would like to think so." Romero replied. "I am the one teaching the course."

"So is it possible that, psychologically, the brain can stop itself from doing something?" Javi asked. Romero put down his pen now, rubbing his chin thoughtfully as he pondered the odd question.

"I'm going to need you to elaborate." Romero said, leaning back in his chair.

"Well, say you've done something before. But after that one time it hasn't happened again, even though you've tried to make it happen. Can the brain stop that one thing from happening." Javi asked again. Romero stared at his student, lost by the way Javi had worded his question.

"So if I were to ride a bike. But then try to again, and fail. Could the brain be stopping me?" Romero asked, putting his question into a scenario. Javi eagerly nodded his head while his teacher picked his pen back up and continued grading papers. "Well I suppose so. It's a mental block then. Perhaps it's trying to repress such an action due to a bad memory. Why? What's going on Javi?"

The sudden silence caused Romero to pause grading, but not to look up. "Javi?" he asked again. Finally, he raised his head to see that the boy had already left, leaving the desk out of line. Romero sighed, putting his pen down, and slowly standing to fix the desk.

* * *

During the day, one of the bells had rung signaling it was time for students to get out of the halls and to get to class. Mollie was stood at her locker, retrieving her books when she felt like she was surrounded all of a sudden. She closed her locker to see Sophie standing there with a smug smirk on her face. Mollie rolled her eyes at the new head cheerleader and turned around, walking right into Skylar who had a smug smirk of her own.

"Just thought we'd drop in and see how our little outcasted bully is doing?" Sophie said, causing Mollie's attention to turn back to her. "How's it feel being a nobody?"

"Go away Sophie. You've won already. Isn't that enough?" Mollie asked, sighing as she looked down at the ground.

"It's not, not when we can see how miserable it makes you." Sophie said, stepping forward and getting right into Mollie's face.