Unordinary: New Student

34: Tracker

Stephanie's POV

The green-haired officer, whose name I learned to be Payton, told Remi and me to sit down on the chairs next to Blyke and Isen. But he narrowed his eyes at me. "Why isn't she cuffed?" He asked the blue haired woman who got electrocuted by Remi. Her name was Merin.

Merin cleared her throat. "Uh, I only had one pair of handcuffs, sir."

"Oh, is that so?" Payton pulled out another pair of handcuffs, and I tensed. "Then I have another pair. Put your hands out," he ordered me.

I shook my head firmly. "No way," I growled. "With all due respect, sir, I'm not letting myself be cuffed when I didn't do anything wrong." The sight of the handcuffs made me uncomfortable, like I was a criminal or something.

Payton glared at me, stepping closer. "Young lady, I wasn't giving you a choice."

I glared back. "No way," I repeated.

He still stepped closer, and I pulled back, activating my ability. Instinctively, I put up a barrier around myself, stopping Payton from getting closer. Payton was getting really angry, and Merin looked ready to tackle me to the ground again. Then Blyke cleared his throat. "Stephanie, it's not worth it. Come on, we can't cause any more trouble here," he said, both reasonably and gently.

Still glowering at Payton, I deactivated my ability, lowering my barrier. In a moment, the cuffs were snapped around my wrists, and I was shoved into a chair next to Remi. With a huff, I glared quietly down at my shoes.

Payton and the other guards started to question us about our "crimes." But I didn't glance up, not even once, during the interrogation. Like I'll ever tell them anything. I thought angrily. Whenever a question was directed at me, Payton was left with a long silence before my friends answered it for me.

Then Blyke finally got it through Payton's thick skull that we were from Wellston, and things eased up from there. "Sir, if you review the camera footage from earlier, you'll see that what happened was just a misunderstanding." Blyke explained. I appreciated how serious and mature he sounded in this situation.

"Alright, I'll go check the footage." Payton opened a door, and before stepping out, he muttered, "You kids better not do anything funny before I get back!" And as he stepped out the door, Isen stuck his tongue out at him. Blyke extended his middle-fingers out at Payton's back, while Remi laughed. I smiled. And I had just thought that Blyke was serious and mature.

"You alright?" Blyke asked me after Remi's laughter died away.

I nodded. "I'm fine, just uncomfortable." I stared down at my handcuffs. They were cold and heavy upon my wrists.

Remi patted my back, trying to comfort me, while she told Isen and Blyke about how Merin attacked us. "She pretty much knocked herself out trying to get to us. So I had to help her back here, then cuff myself." Blyke and Isen responded with "oohs" and "ahhs", making Remi and me chuckle.

"You know," Remi kept going proudly. "I kinda wonder what would have happened if I had kept going. How many security guards would it have taken to stop-" she broke off, her smile fading from her face, and the rest of us looked up, surprised. Remi's expression had changed into a kind of sad and thoughtful one. "I've been thinking about this a lot lately. I get that the authorities are made of some powerful people, but what if someone strong like Seraphina or Arlo decided to challenge them? Those two could cause some serious damage if they wanted to." I saw Isen's ears perk up. "It doesn't make sense that the authorities would let people that strong just roam around freely like that." She paused . "Maybe they don't have as much freedom as they think."

I frowned. There was some truth in her words. Even Seraphina had to obey the authorities. That was the reason why she had left the school, and although she acted like it was nothing, I wondered what was really going through Sera's head.