The Other Life (new WKW)

Chapter [Go]

-Kastel-

I'd only been here three days, but I loved it.

My dorm, Hybrid, was so cool. We all got along fantastically and I'd made a new close friend already. His name was Kyle and he was an artist, like me, though he preferred sketching whereas I favored paints.

Since it was a Friday evening and school was over for the week, everyone ditched the homework for Sunday night and went out to the Arena for a 'major rave' - at least that's what Zoe, my chemistry partner, told me.

When Kyle and I stumbled into the Arena, that's exactly what we saw. And since this was SONG-Eye, this wasn't just a 'major rave', it was a super-rave, a mega-hyper-vamped rave - the beast of raves, if you would (pardon the pun). There was water and fire dancing all around us, pools dotted around the edge, heck, there were people dancing on the air above the rest of us. Lasers were lighting the place up like nobody's business and a steady stream of smoke flowed around our feet. There were drinks and music like a normal party, but since we were all basically super-powered, and therefore had our normal lives locked away in an underground school, we had no access to recreational drugs or anything of the sort. Even if we did, Lady S would be down on us in a heartbeat. She knows things like that.

"Wanna dance?" Kyle yelled to me over the heavy bass of some house music I didn't recognize.

"That's kinda what we're here for, right?" I replied, using my sound wave control to carry my voice over to him so I didn't have to shout. "There's only one problem, though, Kyle."

"What?"

"I can't dance."

He laughed. "Just follow my lead."

I tailed him to the mass of people moving to the music and once we were wedged a comfortable distance into the buzzing sea of bodies, he turned around to face me.

"Now?" I queried.

"Now," he said. "We follow the music."

At that point I noticed the song switch to 'Get Hyper'. Oh, yay. Kyle began to bounce on his toes a little, along with the crowd, and so I did the same. As the first bass drop neared, we all started actually jumping, then I met Kyle's gaze - which wasn't hard, considering our proximity - and I must've looked a bit nervous as he sent me a reassuring grin. I grinned back, thrusting a fist into the air, ready for the bass, my DJ, yo, get on the case--

Limbs flung wildly everywhere and general spasticity broke out as everybody 'got hyper'. I spun a shield of air around me in case anyone got too hyper and happened to spaz out on me, which I predicted might happen a lot.

The evening continued as such: Kyle led me through three more songs before my near-to-nonexistent raving muscles wore out and so we poured ourselves some drinks and sat with our feet in an Arena-edge pool.

Then we talked.

"So you draw things to life?" I asked.

He nodded. "Yep, that's basically it."

"Doesn't it take ages to draw a specific thing? I mean, when I sketch my paintings they're really rough. It'd take hours to get it exactly right. Right?"

"Well, I've had this talent all my life, so I'm used to drawing quickly and accurately. I've had a lot of practice. But enough about my boring self, sound manipulation sounds bomb."

"Well, it's kinda hard, and not that 'bomb', really."

"You're kidding! You can send sound wherever you want! And I bet you could rupture a few eardrums."