Extraordinary Individuals : Josiah Rising

Chapter 6

The next day at school started off with a bang. Yasmine was waiting for me at my locker surrounded by a group of girls who I assumed were her friends. When she spotted me, Yasmine broke away from her friends and ran up to me. She stopped a few inches away from me and beamed up at me, causing me to blush furiously.
"Hey!"
"Hey. What's got you so excited today?" I asked, placing my things into my locker.
Without missing a beat Yasmine responded, "You."
I made a weird noise and pulled my head out of my locker to stare at Yasmine who had an innocent smile plastered on her pretty face. My eyes scanned her face, memorizing every detail like the way her left cheek dimpled when she smiled. Or the fact that her front tooth was chipped slightly which made her seem mischievous. Or the way that her full lips smelled like caramel.
"You really like my face, huh?" Yasmine joked.
I chuckled nervously. "Just making sure I've got it committed to memory."
"But, seriously," I continued. "What's up?"
Yasmine sighed. "Straight to the point. Well, I wanted to know if you were free this Saturday."
"For?"
"A date," Yasmine said. "At this Tex-Mex place downtown."
I thought about it. In my seventeen years of life I had never been on a date. Ever. I was too busy trying to either study and keep my grades up or training my powers so I could better master them. Sure, I was interested in and attracted to girls (I had been attracted to both Ashley and Becky at one point but that's another story to tell) but I never once had been on a date or even talked to a girl outside of my female friends. Yasmine would be my first date.
"Um, what time?" I asked.
"Soooo that's a yes?"
I nodded. "I can meet you at your house and we can go from there."
"You drive?" Yasmine asked, smirking mischievously at me.
"Yes, but I'll have to ask my dad can I borrow his car."
Yasmine continued to smirk but didn't say anything else. She was peculiar. I felt like my responses to her questions or statements amused her. I closed my locker and proceeded to make my way to first period but Yasmine blocked my path for some reason. She had an expectant look on her face but I had no clue what she wanted. I wanted to ask but the look on her face told that I should know what she wanted.
Does she want me to tell her bye?
"Hug," She said.
I blinked. "What?"
"Give me a hug before you go to class," She said in a singsong voice.
"For real?"
"I'm waiting," she said, swinging from side to side with an expectant smile.
I sighed and wrapped her in a tight hug before letting go but I took note of how she buried her nose into my chest and slightly inhaled. Satisfied, she walked to her class, shooting me a smile over her shoulder before disappearing around the corner. I shook my head to myself and made my way to class; that girl was pretty but also strange. I slid into my seat just as the bell rang, earning a stern glare from Mrs Grey and a nudge from Ashley for almost being late.
What took you so long to get here? Ashley asked telepathically.
"Yasmine," I whispered, taking notes on vectors as well.
Anything interesting happen?
I shot her a look that said "Later" and continued to take notes. Another thing that was bugging me (besides my growing feelings for Yasmine and my powers) was the dream I'd had last night that had woken me out of me sleep in cold sweat. The only details that I could remember from the dream were someone screaming my name, a huge shockwave, a ruined city block and then darkness followed by a heavy feeling of sadness. I had stayed up for an hour and a half trying to make sense of my dream, eventually drifting off back to sleep once my mind had calmed down. But since then a heavy feeling of dread and anxiousness had been weighing on my shoulders, like something was about to happen but I didn't know what.
Everything okay? You're zoning out.
Ashley's voice reverberated in my mind, her tone full of curiosity with a hint of worry. I nodded to her and flashed her a reassuring smile but she didn't seem convinced. I spent the rest of first period taking notes but I could still feel the lingering coldness of my dread hanging over me like a dark specter. An hour later the bell rang but a pair of warm arms stopped me from leaving my seat. Ashley was wrapping me in a comforting hug with her chin resting on top of my head, her arms intertwined around my neck.
"Thanks, Ash" I said, feeling the specter of dread lift a little.
She didn't say anything but held me tighter for a bit before finally letting go. She smiled at me before grabbing her stuff and leaving for her next class. I left as well, ignoring the glare from Mrs Gray (God, that lady was frightening) and headed for gym class.
"Josiah!" A voice called.
Braxton came jogging up to me from with the crowd of students, bumping my shoulder playfully.
" 'Sup," I said, bumping him back.
"How're things with Yasmine so far? Any new developments?" He asked.
I told him about the two hour long phone call Yasmine and I had last night as well as her inviting me on a date this Saturday. I offhandedly mentioned that she wanted to know more about my powers and he scowled.
"You sure it's a good idea to tell her? That information might leak," Braxton reminded.
"She'll have to know the truth if she and I get closer and start dating," I replied.
He snorted. "That's a big if, Josiah. You guys have just started getting to know each other and the one thing she's gotten fixated on is your powers."
"She might be able to help me better understand my powers, Brax," I pressed.
Braxton shook his head. "I don't like it. If the authorities can't figure out your powers but yet they rank you an omega, what makes you think a girl with a beta ranked ability can help you?"
That stopped me in my tracks. He had a point. The authorities hadn't been able to figure out the facets of my ability since I had hit puberty. I had been to so many specialists and taken so many apprehension tests but they had all come back inconclusive or with the same result as when I had first taken the test at twelve.
Can I trust her?
I asked myself this question over and over throughout gym class. Yasmine seemed genuinely kind and like she just wanted to get to know me but...the last person who was like her tried to expose me and that's why my family and I had to move to Charter, Illinois for me to start over without anyone knowing my secret. But then I had met Braxton and the rest of my friends who stuck by my side and kept my secret once I let them in and showed them who I really was. Could I do the same with Yasmine, though? We still didn't really know each other to well and a two hour phone call wasn't enough for me to just start telling her that I was really an omega level and not a gamma.
She's not like her. She's different.
I had to remind myself of that. Yasmine wasn't anything like that girl.
"So what's it gonna be, Jo?" Braxton asked. "You really wanna risk having to skip town again?"
I avoided looking at him. He was right, though. I didn't wanna be the reason that my siblings had to uproot their lives again. I still remember the look of resentment that briefly flashed across Ebony's face those four years ago. She would never say it out loud but I knew that my sister blamed me for why she had to transfer and completely restart her life.
All because I put my trust in someone who was secretly plotting my downfall from the day I let her in.
I sighed. "I won't tell her anything until I'm sure we can trust her fully. Till then, I'll be careful."
Braxton nodded and placed his hand on my shoulder comfortingly. "I just don't want you to make the same mistake you did four years ago, bro."
For the rest of the period, I pondered over Yasmine. I wanted to have faith that she could be trusted but the more I thought about it, the more that the memory of four years kept flooding into my mind. And I was determined to not repeat the past.