Different.

Chapter 22: Kumbaya

Chapter 22

Kumbaya

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A/N: An authors note at the beginning?*Gasp*  What? What is this madness?
Is the world coming to an end? Yes, yes I know I normally put these at the end, but it felt counterintuitive all things considered. This. Chapter. Was. Hard. I wrote, I rewrote, I edited, and I edited some more. And there's still about a thousand and one mistakes. Everything about this chapter was difficult for me if I'm being honest, but it's been forever since I've updated and I'm getting sick of running myself in circles, I just want you guys to read it already!! So if there are mistakes (which there are, I know.) then I'm sorry, but honestly I got just about as sick of waiting as you guys have. I mean don't get me wrong, this chapter isn't awful! It's just I am a huuuuge perfectionist and incredibly overcritical, especially of myself. I've gotten so sick of rereading this chapter that I might not even give it my usual last once over before publishing. But anyways, without further ado, here you have it! As always, let me know what you think! (You can be mean and I pinky swear I won't mind.)

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To say the least, gym in Valerod was much more riveting than gym in public school ever was.

The training room was separated for each of our abilities, which basically meant that Hazel and Haden shared a section, Parker and Delaney each had their own section, and the last one went to Alex, Adam and I.

This was going to be interesting.

While Asher doled out instructions, starting at the end furthest away from us where the twins were, I was stuck in between the boys, neither of whom were saying anything to each other.

"So..." I attempted to cut through the thick air of awkwardness that had settled around us, looking to both of them in the hopes that they would offer up something to say.

Nothing.

I could feel my cheeks reddening, halfway from discomfort and halfway from pure irritation. Adam picked at his nails and Alex kicked at loose pebbles on the ground, shifting them back to him when they got too far away, but they both wouldn't meet my gaze.

I flicked my eyes over to Asher, hoping salvation would come from her interruption, but no such luck. She was still with Hazel and Haden, casually introducing them to a small group of people in their section. Sigh.

"Are we all just gonna sit here and act like we don't know each other or?"

Adam shrugged, but otherwise kept his head down.

"Guys, come on," I groaned. "I mean I know it's awkward but can't we at least like, put aside our differences for now? At least just for this training session?" When they both remained silent, I continued. "Because it's really gonna suck if I'm the only one practicing, and it's really gonna suck even more if we go on our first real job together and you two just sit on the outskirts as far away from each other as humanly possible."

"I don't understand why we have to work together," Alex whined, shifting the pebbles off of the ground and twirling them around his fingers like little planets orbiting fleshy suns.

"Because unless you plan on going on the job and getting everything done by yourself," I began sharply, "we all have to work together. As in all eight of us, not just me you and Adam. And there is no way this is gonna work if the rest of the team gets pulled down by you two."

"Are you calling us dead weight?" Alex lifted his eyes to bore into mine, a familiar fire sparking in them.

"If you're just gonna sit around doing parlor tricks then yes, I am calling you dead weight," I replied while flicking his rocks out of the air.