Rebel

Chapter Twenty One

"Hey you Dingbat, back up! The champion must enter the building first!"

"Champion? Please."

"Excuse me? I totally beat you in that race, meaning I'm the best!"

"You did not! You cheated!"

Harvey and I had argued about the race for the rest of the day. Even though I had clearly won, he was stuck on the idea that I had cheated. I hadn't, and he knew it!

I crossed my arms and leaned up against the door frame, blocking his entry, "I did not cheat! If anything, you cheated during the relay race!"

"No one ever said that jumping off your board wasn't allowed." Harvey said, smirking slightly.

"Whatever." I said, rolling my eyes, "Either way I--"

"Miss Sage." A voice from behind me said, making Harvey jump. "Dr. Morsie would like to see you."

"Thank you Frank." I said, not bothering to turn around. Frank still hasn't managed to startle me, although I'm starting to worry that he's taking this too seriously. "Well, I guess I've got to go see Cath--" I coughed, trying to cover up the fact that I almost said her name again, "Sorry, Dr. Morsie. Guess I'll see you later, Loser."

Harvey's eyes turned to little green slits like smashed emeralds, "Right, see you."

I faked coughing again for better effect, then turned around and started towards Cathleen's office, feeling his eyes following the whole time. I gotta be more careful. I thought to myself, I have no idea what Cathleen will do if she hears me say her real name, but from what I've heard it won't be good.

* * *

"Do you know what I just realized?"

"What?"

"I have no idea what anyone else's power is."

Alexsandra clicked her tongue and tilted her head to the side, the purple paint on her cheek shining in the light. She had decided two weeks ago that we had to try painting, but I procrastinated until she cornered me this morning and demanded we paint.

"Yeah, well we're not really allowed to talk about it."

I furrowed my brow, and tried but failed to paint the blue tail of a dragon, "Why not?"

Alexsandra pressed her lips together, "Well, I guess I don't really know. Dr. Morsie just doesn't like it I guess."

"Huh, strange." I said, dipping my paintbrush into a puddle of white, "Well, um, Dr. Morsie isn't here right now, so could you maybe... tell me what their abilities are?"

Alexsandra's brushed paused mid stroke, but then finished its line with usual precision, "I guess there's no reason not to." She said, "Um, well, Bailey has pyrokinesis."

I laughed, "Yeah, I knew that!"

Alexsandra laughed nervously, "Oh, right. Okay, well Jace can create illusions, as you already know. Um, Olwyn has the ability to turn invisible."

"Woah, really?" I said, looking up from my terrible painting, "That's so cool!"

"Yeah," Alexsandra said, "and Dario can control memory."

I nodded, thinking about that one time when Dario said he'd 'take care of the others.' He must've meant he would erase their memories.

"And those are all the powers so far." Alexsandra said, dabbing some paint on her canvas.

I tapped on a few more finishing touches to my own piece of work, then stepped back to look at it. "Well I'm done." I said, "And it looks... awful."

Alexsandra laughed and walked over to stand next to me. "It's not awful!" She protested, cocking her head to the side, "It's a beautiful peacock!"

I laughed and shook my head, "It's supposed to be a dragon."

"Oh. Well it's a beautiful dragon then."

"Why my dear," I said in my best English accent, "you're too kind! Now you must show me your work of art."

Alexsandra laughed, "Alright, but it's not as good as your peacock-dragon."

I punched her playfully, and she laughed as she grabbed her canvas and turned it toward me. It was an elaborate painting of a girl sitting in a field of daisies. "Well dang!" I said, "That's really good! I didn't know you were an artist!"

Alexsandra cleared her throat, "I'm really not an artist. I just... create art occasionally."

"Well you're really dang good at it so--"

"Miss Sage." Suddenly I felt a hot breath on my neck. Frank was standing directly behind me, his oily voice sending a chill down my spine. "Dr. Morsie would like to see you."

"Alright." I said, taking a step away from Frank, "I'll be right there. Thank you Frank." Frank scowled and walked out of the room. "Well," I said, turning back toward Alexsandra, "I guess I need to go."

"Isn't your usual training time three?"

"Yeah." I said, "I have no idea why she wants me. Maybe she's just 'excited' again."

"Hm." Alexsandra said, "That's really weird."

"Yeah." I replied, starting to walk towards the door, "But either way, I gotta hurry because Dr. Morsie will kill me if I'm late."

"Right, bye." Alexsandra said.

"See you later." I called, opening the door.

"And Sage!" Alexsandra called, "Just uh... just be careful 'kay?"

I crinkled my nose at her and turned around, walking backwards, "Whatever you say, Boss." And with that, I turned back around and started walking to Cathleen's office.