Powerless

23. Revelations

"How late did you stay up last night?" Patton peeked his head over my shoulder startling me and causing me to slam my head on the table. I just groaned and yawned.

"Hours, Pat... I stayed up for hours. Until it was so late not even the crickets were awake to sing." I said the last part with a growl and he frowned sitting across from me.

"Well, you don't need to be so snippy. I didn't tell you to stay up so late. Did you get anything done?" I shook my head and he just smiled sipping away at his drink. "That's ok. Remember it just takes time and effort. Don't push yourself too hard either."

"I did figure out what was happening though." Thanks to an unfortunate guest intruding on to my training. I looked over to see Roman slowly sauntering in like a zombie dead to the world. I felt so guilty. Last night I had to get back to the room before him somehow. But the guilt was so bad I couldn't even close my eyes until I heard that door open again. My goal was to pretend to sleep while he was going back to bed but...

"Caz?" I looked over at Patton as he smiled sadly. "Did something happen?"

"No. Nothing to worry about." He beamed as he drank more from his cup. I just went back to looking at Roman. The things he said when he came back...

I would never tell.

"Hey, Roman!" I yelled out just as he walked into another table. He was dead ass tired, probably even more than me. He looked over at me and he looked broken... defeated. Those nightmares must have kicked him hard. "Come sit with us." He smiled and nodded his head as he walked away to get some food. I just couldn't stop thinking about last night.

Both Patton and Roman had seen my scales. Roman didn't see my face thank god but... still what he did see, he made no comment on. He didn't seem to care at all. Like... Like he didn't put any thought it to it. It was just normal to him. 

And Patton... He saw what I hid below the mask and he smiled at me without a single fleck of fear. He didn't even try to comfort me by saying anything overly sweet. He just acted as it nothing looked different. He made me feel... normal.

"Hey, guys..." Roman slowly sat down beside Patton who quickly started to freak out and feel his forehead for a fever. Roman just pushed his hand away and laughed. "I'm fine Patton, just really tired."

"Why? Did you stay up all night..." Patton's eyes went wide as he glanced over at me. I refused to make eye contact. It wasn't like anything super important happened. He just offered to help. Even though I don't want him to.

"Not really... I slept it's just..." Roman's eyes grew dark and I stared at my bowl of cereal remembering how he cried in what little sleep he managed. "Forget it. So... Does anybody got any plans for today?"

"I think class is supposed to be..." Mr. Sean walked in and I stopped. Talk about timing...

"Everybody out to the clearing. Class is about to start."

Looking at the mess of things part of me wished I had cleaned up a bit before heading back. Everyone went off to do there own thing and I frowned. This is the time that I should be training, but my anxiety. Don't use your powers or else you'll lose yourself. Don't show your scales, others will judge you. Act weak and people will ignore you. Stay out of others way. Don't trust anyone...

Not even yourself...

"Mr. Winters is everything ok?" I hugged myself tightly hearing my mothers words playing over and over again and I frowned. "Mr. Winters?" I felt someone carefully grab my shoulder and I looked up to see Mr. Kjellberg giving me a reassuring smile. "Du är okej. You can talk to me."

"I know. I'm fine." His smile fell a bit and I watched as he sat down in the dirt in front of me. I just narrowed my eyes as he laughed.

"I'm a teacher. My responsibility is to my students." He tilted his head smiling again and I looked down. "All of them. So... Lägg det på mig." 

"Ok then... I know someone who..." Why the hell am I doing this? "... someone who wears a suppressor." Mr. Felix just listened as I slowly spoke things out. " He's... They've worn it for so long that he's lost all sense of his strength."

"Well, why would he wear one? Suppressors are extremely rare. He must have had a good reason to wear it." I nodded and started to fidget with my hands.

"He's got too many powers." My head twitched and Mr. Felix's eyes darkened. "Five... to exact. He's been wanting to gain control over his powers but..."

"With the increased strength and lack of experience he doesn't know where to start." I rolled my eyes and started to fidget more as my head twitched again.

"Not entirely. He was told to start with output strength or fine-tuning or whatever... But every time he tries anything... it sort of... explodes?"

"Tja skit!" he started to think it over until he finally started to smile. "Keep the suppressor on." My eyes went wide and he laughed. " He should try whatever exercise it is with the suppressor on and off. That way he gets a feel for it. He needs to be able to get a grasp on it and the only way to do that is with it on but he also needs to get used to his full strength." He started to stand up an brush the dirt off his pants. "I suggest also maybe asking your father to add a limit adjuster to your mask. It shouldn't be too hard since he's the one that made them."

"Wait, I'm not..." He just shook his head and crossed his arms.

"Caz this school is equipped with state of the art locator machinery that your father put in place years ago. It wouldn't have summoned you here if you didn't have any power or magic. We were just waiting for you to ask for help. Stöd är viktigt."

"Support is VERY important." He narrowed his eyes and I smiled sadly feeling my fingers begin to twitch with anticipation. "Tack." He smiled wide as I spoke Swedish. I felt it only fair. I can understand him after all. "När börjar vi?"

"We'll start now. Follow me."