Darklight

Chapter 1

Adam Montgomery left his last class of the day - Physics - and headed to his locker. He stood 5'10", had green eyes and short brown hair, and wore dark green cargo pants and a gray zip-up hoodie over his Re-Animator t-shirt. Upon walking out of the school, he saw his girlfriend leaning against the wall to his right, took a deep breath, and walked over to her.

Standing four inches shorter than Adam, Hope Olsen had blue eyes and long, curly black hair. She smiled when she saw him, but the smile vanished when she saw his expression.

"You okay?" She asked.

He shrugged.

"What's up?"

"Look, I can't think of a better way to say this, but I think we should break up."

Hope blinked, clearly surprised. "Why?"

He nervously drummed his fingers on his leg. "It's like...I don't know. Give me a sec."

"Okay."

It took him a moment to think of the right words. "When we started dating, I felt this really strong connection with you. Now it's just not as strong anymore, and I have no idea why."

"So it might be something I did."

He nodded.

"Well, I appreciate your honesty."

"It could also be something I did. Hell, it could just be that we're not working out as well as I thought we were."

Hope bit her lip. "Is there someone else you like?"

"What makes you think that?"

"Because you've seemed kind of distant lately, and I know you well enough to know that you're not a cheater."

"No, there's not."

She studied his face as he spoke. "I believe you."

He reached out and put a hand on her shoulder. "I know this is probably going to hurt you at least as much as it hurts me, and I'm sorry about that."

"I'm sure you are." She brushed his hand away and glared at him before walking away.

Adam spread his arms, confused about her sudden change of tone. "What the hell?"

Hearing someone cough behind him, he turned and saw a black man about an inch taller than him with short black hair and gray eyes. He had a video camera inexplicably balancing on his left shoulder and was holding a joint in his right hand.

"Hey Pete."

"Hey dude."

Pete has been one of Adam's closest friends since they had met on the first day of middle school. Each of them was among the few people who knew that the other had superpowers - Pete was telekinetic, Adam could manipulate light and darkness.

"How long have you been there?" Adam asked, walking closer.

"Longer than you."

"You recording?"

"All day. You want me to delete the last few minutes?"

Adam thought for a moment. "Maybe. Not yet. Just don't let anyone else see it."

"You got it." Pete pulled out his phone. "Iris, when I get home, remind me to put today's footage in the 'Not Porn' folder."

Adam chuckled. "Alright, see you later."

"Later dude."

Adam found his blue minivan in the packed parking lot and got in line to leave. He used his phone's map app to guide him to the house of Valerie Harper, a girl he'd met in marching band the summer before their freshman year and instantly connected with. Upon arriving, the absence of any vehicles parked in the street told him the rest of their group had yet to arrive. He knocked, then his phone vibrated, so he checked it and saw a text from Valerie telling him the door was unlocked. He stepped inside and closed the door behind him. The stairs to the second floor were right in front of him, and he saw Valerie come around a corner with a pull-over hoodie covering her head and her midriff exposed. She stopped at the top of the stairs and pulled it the rest of the way down, then saw him and smiled.

Valerie was about an inch shorter than Adam. She had long red hair, amber eyes that seemed to stare right into his soul, and a crooked smile he had adored since the day they'd met.

"See anything you like?" She asked, unable to keep a straight face as she walked down the stairs.

"No comment."

"Hope's not here. You can be honest with me."

"Actually, we broke up."

"Damn. Did she dump you or did you dump her?"

"I dumped her."

"Was it hard?"

He chuckled in spite of himself. "Very. I'm surprised I didn't chicken out."

"Well, um..." She looked down, then back up at him. "Shit, I still suck at this. Here." She pulled him into a hug.

Adam hugged back. "Thanks."

15 minutes later, the rest of their group had arrived - Amanda Chang, a half-Chinese girl with long black hair and brown eyes; Dillan Banning, a short redhead Canadian guy with brown eyes; Jeff Young, a tall white guy with green eyes and shoulder-length blond hair; and Olivia Newman, a black girl with short black hair and blue eyes. They sat down around the dining room table with their laptops and opened the shared slideshow they were working on.

"What did I miss Tuesday?" Jeff asked.

They filled him in and showed him their progress.

"I still wanna use the joke about Hitler and Stalin." Olivia said.

Dillan and Amanda groaned.

Jeff looked at Olivia. "What's the joke?"

"Something that happened when my cousin DJ was in high school." She replied. "This was, like, eight or ten yeas ago, back when most teachers didn't let their students use Wikipedia as a source. His social studies class had to do a project about the Eastern Front of World War II, and the teacher edited some Wikipedia pages with fake information. Three or four people turned in papers about how Hitler and Stalin were secretly having a love affair."

Valerie snorted with laughter. "Gets me every time."

"Anyway," Olivia continued. "I'm gonna be talking about the tensions between Germany and Russia when Hitler initially proposed an alliance, and I wanna say something like this." She mimed reading notecards. "Some of the tension probably came from Hitler and Stalin's secret love affair." She looked confused. "Wait, why's that in here?" She mumbled, miming looking through a stack of notecards. A moment later her expression returned to normal as she dropped the act. "Something like that."

Amanda shook her head. "What does it have to do with your cousin?"

"Nothing, that's just where I got the idea from."

Adam sighed. "Fuck it, let's just vote on it and move on."

Valerie nodded in agreement. "All in favor?"

She, Olivia, and Jeff raised their hands.

"All opposed?"

Dillan and Amanda raised their hands.

"All indifferent?"

Adam raised his hand.

Valerie mimed pounding a gavel. "Motion passed. Long live the Queen."