"Morning Anna." Trayvon said Thursday morning, walking over to the table in the library and sitting down next to me. He looked around, noticing that I was the only one there. "Where’s everyone else?"

"Becky is on Homecoming committee, so she’s in a meeting right now, Keisha and Erika are in a Science Olympiad meeting, Callum had to go talk to a teacher, and Br-Edward is almost never here early. Why? What’s going on?" I asked cautiously, badly trying to cover up my flub. Had to remember not to call Braylen by his name in public because that was going to be hard to explain if I suddenly started calling him something else.

Trayvon didn’t even seem to notice. "Has your Dad told you if you can go down to the archives to try and figure out the Herbstreit thing?"

"Actually, yeah. He told me yesterday that he finally got permission from the higher ups to let me and three other people in. Since it was me, Becky, Edward, and Damian originally investigating it together, we’re all gonna head in after school tomorrow. Why?"

"I’m gonna need you to do me a huge favor."

"What is it?"

"Whatever you guys find, I need you to text me what it is." Trayvon said uneasily.

"Why? Are you trying to hide something?"

"Kinda, but not really."

"What’s going on, Trayvon?"

Trayvon sighed heavily, meeting my eyes with apprehension. "It’s about Keisha."

That took me by surprise. "Keisha? What about Keisha?"

"I really shouldn’t tell you this-"

"Well, too late for that because you already mentioned it. Now spill."

"It’s just that… Well… Keisha is concerned with how this is gonna turn out because of her father."

"Her father?"

"Yeah… We both have a history of villainy in our families."

"You do?" I asked cautiously.

"Yeah." Trayvon said nervously. "My older sister, Lania, used to be a gang member. She was Keisha’s father’s weapons supplier. Keisha is worried that her father might be back in."

"Back in what?"

"I shouldn’t say."

"Why?"

"You’ll find out tomorrow anyway. Just remember to text me, okay?"

"Okay." I said, raising my hands above my head. "I’ll text you when we figure it out."

"Thank you." Trayvon said, taking a deep breath. "How about next Sunday you come over so we can watch that show?"

"Yeah. That works."

"Cool."

"God, I am gonna kill all of those people." Becky announced, plopping down at the table.

"Why? What’s going on?"

"So, the last week of Homecoming, we have themed days. I just got into an argument with the Freshmen and Sophomores because they didn’t like the idea of having the last day be themed towards different movie companies."

"Like what?"

"Seniors have Pixar, Juniors have Disney, Sophomores have Dreamworks, and Freshmen have Sony/Blue Sky. Freshmen wanted Dreamworks and Sophomores wanted Pixar. It was a whole fight."

"Yeesh." I said, sighing heavily. "Sounds like a hassle."

"And that is why I never do Homecoming committee." Trayvon said, rolling his eyes a bit as Becky punched him in the shoulder.

"Okay buddy." Becky said, smirking at me playfully. "So, what’s going on with you and Edward, Anna?"

"What do you mean?"

"I see those looks of longing you two give each other. What’s the deal?"

"Wait, are you two dating?" Trayvon asked excitedly.

"No..."

"Morning." Braylen said happily, sitting down next to me as he smiled at Becky and Trayvon.

"What’s going on with you two Edward?" Becky asked, smiling knowingly as if my answer told her everything she needed to know.

"What do you mean?" Braylen asked cautiously.

"I can sense the sexual tension from here with you two. After Tuesday, you two have been acting weird." Becky stated. "So I repeat: what is going on with you two?"

Braylen and I shot each other a cautious look. I didn’t think that we were acting all that weird. I mean, sure, we were holding hands more in public than just in the safety of my house when we were trying to build up my tolerance, and maybe we were whispering to each other more, but I didn’t think that that was so suspicious. Braylen shook his head, leaning back as far as he could in the stiff library chair. "I don’t know what you’re talking about, Becky."

"I call bull. You know exactly what I’m talking about."

"No, I actually don’t. What are you insinuating, Becky."

"That you two have a crush on each other but that you’re not gonna tell the other person."

Braylen looked over at me, giving me a plotting smirk. "Do you have a crush on me, Anneliese?"

"Not that I know of. Do you have a crush on me?"

"Nope." Braylen said, shrugging as he looked over at Becky. "Are you on drugs or something?"

"What? NO!" Becky said angrily. "Why would you ask that?"

"I think that you’re imagining things." Braylen said cheekily. "Are you sure you aren’t taking anything."

"Okay, Edward, calm it down." I said, rolling my eyes a bit. "He’s teasing you, Becky."

"So there is something going on with you two!"

"No!" I said quickly as the bell rang. I gathered my belongings, getting prepared to go upstairs. "We’re just friends."

"Sure..." Becky said, rolling her eyes as she walked away. Trayvon just shrugged as he followed in suit.

"We need to work on hiding stuff like that." Braylen said, laughing nervously.

"We can figure that out after school today." I said, smiling at Braylen. "We are still on for after school today, right?"

"Yeah." Braylen said happily. "I even have an actual plan today."

"Oh, you do?" I asked jokingly. "That’s so unheard of for you."

Braylen rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, I know I’m not exactly the best at planning things out all the way."

"Might want to figure that out before you graduate college." I said jokingly.

Braylen laughed, walking in the opposite direction. "I’ll see you after school, Anna."

"See ya." I said, walking away as I went up to Physics.

Callum was already sitting there, smiling over at me knowingly. "Somebody is in a good mood."

"What do you mean? I’m always in a good mood." I asked, sitting down on my bar stool. I glanced over at our teacher pulling down the screen on the projector. "So, do you think he’s actually gonna teach us something, or are we gonna watch Attack of the Clones?"

"What’s that?"

"The movie after Phantom Menace."

"You mean they actually made a sequel to this?" Callum complained.

"Yes, they made a sequel."

"Jar Jar Binks better turn into a Sith Lord in this or I swear to God-"

"I don’t think that that ever happens..." 

"He is literally the worst though. He needs to go evil so Obi Wan can kill him like a good Jedi Master."

"That is gonna be a question for my dad..." I said, pulling out my phone.

"What are you doing?"

"I’m gonna text my dad to ask about evil Jar Jar."

"You are insane." Callum said as our physics teacher walked over to our table.

"Mr. Herbstreit would like to talk to you two in his classroom." He said cautiously.

I gave Callum a confused look as he took a deep breath. "Did he give a reason why?"

"No. Just make sure you two hurry back here since we’re starting Attack of the Clones today."

Callum and I quickly got up and slowly started walking to Herbstreit’s classroom. Callum gave me a concerned look. "You didn’t tell him about-"

"No. I’m assuming that you didn’t."

"Of course I didn’t." Callum said, running a hand through his hair.  "What do we do?"

"Why are you asking me?"

"Because it was your idea to avoid him in the first place!"

"But you’re the president!"

"You took over when you made that decision."

"And?"

"You were president when you made that decision, you’re taking the fall for this, not me."

I sighed heavily, trying to come up with a plan on the spot. "Okay… We just say that we’ve been busy."

"But what about Erika?"

"We don’t mention her or Damian. As far as Herbstreit is concerned, it is the same six people as it’s always been and we’ve been too busy to have a meeting."

"But what if-"

"Callum, we don’t have time to think about what if scenarios. We just have to hope for the best."

"Is hoping gonna be enough?"

"Here’s hoping." I said as we walked into the classroom. Becky was already sitting on the beanbag chair she always frequented, Trayvon and Keisha were walking in hushed tones in the back corner, and Braylen was perched on one of the desks, giving the two of us a confused look as we entered. You could practically cut the tension with a knife.

"Anneliese, I heard that you got shot last Friday." Herbstreit said from his desk, looking up at us. "Are you healing up okay?"

"Yeah. I’m great." I said, smiling nervously.

"That’s kind of why we decided to not have meetings for a while." Callum said quickly. "I’m sensing that that’s why you called us all here."

"And you are correct. I was concerned why nobody came into my room Tuesday afternoon." Herbstreit said, getting up and looking at all of us. I’ve never been intimidated by tall people before, but the way that he stood up, slow and calculated, every fiber in my body was telling me to run. It looked like everyone else was feeling the same way.

"We meant to tell you." Becky said hesitantly from the bean bag.

"And why didn’t you?"

"Things on Friday got crazy, sir. We just really didn’t have a lot of time to call you up and tell you that we were suspending meetings for a while." Callum said quickly.

"Oh, so the meetings are suspended?" Herbstreit asked, walking over to his desk and picking up a red apple and taking a bite out of it. "And how long are these meetings suspended for exactly? Just this week? Next week too?"

"Probably until after November." Keisha said quickly.

Herbstreit raised an eyebrow. "November? Really?"

"Well, with Anna getting shot and Homecoming stuff starting next week, we just decided that it would be good to take a break from everything. Let everyone rest up." Trayvon said, standing stick straight as he looked at Herbstreit.

"You kids do realize that your powers are going to suffer because of this, right?" Herbstreit asked, looking over at me with hate in his eyes. "You were the one who came up with this cockamany idea, weren’t you?"

"Leave Anneliese alone." Braylen said, glaring at Herbstreit as powerfully as Herbstreit glared at me. "She’s the victim here. She’s the one who got shot, not you. We just want to make sure that she’s gonna be okay for when she’s using her powers."

"But you’re all supposed to debut in October." Herbstreit said, quickly walking over to me. "Right when you got here, you’ve forced this group to take a step back."

"I didn’t-" I said, holding up my hands as Herbstreit grabbed my right arm tightly.

My vision darkened and I saw a dark figure looming over me, my vision darkening as I noticed his arms going towards me, making me lose air. This person was strangling me until he got yanked away by something out of my field of vision.

My vision returned back to see Braylen pinning Herbstreit to the wall, his hands outstretched. "What the bloody hell are you doing!?"

I was coughing, trying to regain air. This premonition felt more real than the other ones I’ve had. Callum quickly put a hand on my back, trying to keep me upright. "Anna, are you good?"

I nodded, taking a deep breath so my coughing would end. "I’m great."

"What the hell was that for?" Becky asked angrily. "Anna didn’t do anything to you."

"As of this moment, we are finding a new adult sponsor." Trayvon said as Keisha quickly touched Braylen’s shoulder.

"Edward, let him go." Keisha said uneasily.

Braylen lowered his hands, Herbstreit still pinned to the wall. I looked over at him. "Ed, I’m fine."

Braylen finally seemed to listen as Herbstreit fell to the ground and the six of us left the room. Once we were outside and down the hall, Becky looked over at me. "Seriously, are you okay?"

"Yeah. I’m good."

"You scared us with the coughing." Keisha said uneasily.

"He didn’t even go near your throat, so what happened?" Trayvon asked gently.

"He scared me so much that I swallowed some spit. I’m good, honestly." I said, Callum and Braylen giving me a knowing look. They knew exactly what happened.

"New plan: we’re gonna avoid him like the plague." Callum said quickly. We all nodded in agreement, Edward giving me a sad look, as Callum and I walked back to Physics. Once we were alone, Callum stopped me in the hall. "What did you see?"

"Some guy choking me. It… It felt more real than my premonitions, so-"

"It actually felt like you were being choked?"

"Exactly."

"Which is why you started coughing."

"Yeah."

"You really scared us back there."

"At least we know one thing for sure." I said strongly. "Herbstreit is not on our side."

"All we gotta do is find out who he really is."

"Exactly."

"What are you two doing out here?" Our Physics teacher asked. "Get in here."

Callum and I nodded, giving each other a cautious look. We knew what we had to do from this point on: figure out F.E.R.R.E.T. and figure out who Herbstreit is. It was all we could do.