The Vigilante's Handbook (Misfits #1)

Eleven: I'm Not a Hoarder

The next two hours would have made the perfect montage. Not a training montage where I ended up buff and adept after two minutes and an upbeat pop song. Instead, there would be snapshots of my against the sinking sun getting more and more drenched as minutes stretched into hours.

A few panels in, the students of Paramount Lake would leave for their dorms. My class would make their way to the bus stop after committing a few minutes to stare at me in my drenched school clothes. Miguel and Stitch stuck around for half an hour after the rest of the crowd moved on. I think they only stayed to keep Mona company because I wasn't much use. All of my attention was focused on the water around me.

At the halfway point you would see Mona rushing into the corner of the frame when I plunged my head in the water to increase skin contact. Then there was a yell of joy when I was convinced I had made the air around me colder. At that point, Mona should have pasted on a congratulatory smile and applauded.

What she actually did was point a finger at the completely set sun. "You didn't control the temperature of anything." There was an unsaid half of her sentence that she couldn't say under best friend law. I only succeeded in wasting both of our time.

I got out of the water with fingers like raisins and shoes so waterlogged that I carried them by hand the rest of the way across campus.

Despite it being late spring, the setting sun made the air feel like we had stepped into late November. Then again it could have been my dip in the school fountain. Stupid fountain. The cold didn't bother me much, but I noticed the change in temperature enough that goosebumps rose on my arms.

By the time we got to the bus stop, I was shivering.

"Maybe you shouldn't have gotten in the fountain."

"Maybe you should shut up."

"Maybe you should explain what you were trying to accomplish other than freezing half to death."

It was a testament to our friendship that Mona had stayed on campus so long without a word of explanation from me. After the initial confusion, she hadn't ever tried to climb back into the water with me. That meant she was dry and slightly warmer than I was.

While I offered an explanation for my actions--i.e. Spilling everything about the physical last night--she offered me her school sweater. "It just doesn't make sense. I thought maybe they unlocked something in me."

"Something that made you actually useful?"

"Well, yeah, but I wasn't going to put it that bluntly." We sat down at the bus stop and waited for the one that would take us home. "I thought I was onto something in Forrest's class. Like I had finally discovered my true potential. Maybe the doctors were going to help me figure that out."

"By drugging you?"

"I don't know." I threw my hands into the air in exasperation.

"Have you considered the possibility that you did what you did against Lucia because you thought you were going to die? Like when a mom can lift a car off of her baby or a guy can throw a four hundred pound rock off of him to stop himself from falling off a cliff?" Her voice got softer as she spoke and one of her arms wrapped around my shoulders. "Maybe it was a fluke. We never remember what happens in the physicals. Your subconscious could have made up what you thought happened."

I wiped at my eyes, half in exhaustion, half to make sure no tears were forming there. The last thing I needed was to start crying. I was already wet enough without leaking from my eyes. "You're right." I didn't want to admit it. It felt like lying to myself, but Mona could be logical if she wanted to. "I just-"