My eyelids flickered slowly as small bits of light began to shine through the slits of my line of view. As the darkness began to dispel from my vision, the bright light pricked at my eyes, the colors and shapes of the room eventually forming actual objects. I attempted to rise up from my current position of laying, only to be pulled back down by the sudden jabbing pain in my head. I sucked in the air sharply through my gritted teeth as I mustered as much strength as I possibly could to place my hand on my head, attempting to keep my body upright and steady. I suddenly felt a strong hand on my back and slowly turned to the side in an attempt to make out the stranger.

        "Wesley?" I slurred quietly, limited strength in my voice as I attempted to readjust my vision into focus. "What are you doing here?"

        Wesley reached over and shushed me hurriedly. "Lay back down immediately, you'll over work your body." The tall, Italian boy reached over to the small nurses table and grabbed a bottle of water and what looked to be powdery drink mix. He unscrewed the cap and poured in the mix, proceeding to shake up the drink quickly. The liquid eventually looked to be an even color. "Here," he said quietly, the word rolling off of his tongue, "Drink this. It'll help with the pain and give you strength."

        I snatched up the bottle without hesitation, not even caring what was in it. My throat felt so dry I could barely even breath. My hands rushed to unscrew the cap, throwing my head back as I chugged the liquid. It tasted of raspberries and freshly squeezed lemonade, not exactly extravagant but pleasing to the taste buds. Especially the taste buds of a girl who had been passed out for...how long had it been?

        "Where am I and how long have I been here?" I asked quickly, my voice stern and face serious. Wesley chuckled, shaking his head as he stood up from his seat next to the bed. "You're in the school nurse's office. It's only been about an hour and a half or so," he shrugged nonchalantly.

        "An hour and a half!?" I said rather loudly. I could feel my eyes widening and eyebrows raising much farther above their normal rate. "What about Marin? And the nurse? I doubt your even CPR certified!" My already jumbled mind was going a million miles a minute, a hundred thousand million questions being conjured in my head.

        Wesley placed his hand against my forehead. I jerked back from the sudden touch at first, but eventually gave in, not strong enough to put up a fight. He then held a thermometer directly in front of my mouth, waiting for me to open it. I reluctantly let him slide the device beneath my tongue, and waited for it to beep and be removed. "Marin's fine." He said as he waited for the small beep of the device hanging out of my mouth. "The nurse told him he could go back to class. As for the nurse, I tricked her into going to get more supplies on the other side of the school. And considering how old (and bad at directions) she is, we've got a solid five hours before she gets back safe and sound." The thermometer began to go off as he reached and gently pulled it out of my mouth. He glanced down at it, reading the small, digital numbers. "Perfectly healthy. You're all good, just as planned."

        "What do you mean 'as planned'?" I asked, swinging my legs off the bed to face Wesley. My smallish face was scrunched up in a fuss, eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "What is going on here, Tretelli? One minute I'm fine, and the next minute I'm lying on the dirty hallway floor and in the nurse's office passed out for an hour and a half!"

        "Well for starters, you didn't pass out."

        "What!?" I yelled with a bit of an unintentional argumentative growl in my voice. "What else could have happened? Did I enter a coma or some shit?" My nails dug into the hard material of the patient bed, leaving small little claw marks in their place.

        "You didn't pass out." Wesley replied calmly. He reached into his bag, casually pulling out his laptop while I was literally two seconds away from losing my mind. He flipped the screen up and typed and clicked. Then, he turned the laptop so I could see the flurry of tabs open on his screen. I leaned in, squinting my eyes. "See here?" He said pointing to a map of what appeared to be...my body? "Those are your brainwaves. I used the laptop to manipulate your bioelectricity and temporarily exploit you. This causes your body to suddenly shut down. Relax, if you will. Or in your words, 'pass out'."

        My eyes shot up to lock with Wesley's, a look of absolute confusion plastered on my face. From a distance it appeared as though I had just been slapped but still needed three minutes to comprehend before making a rebound attack. "I'm sorry, mister "I'm gonna be Valedictorian", but I have 'B -' in Science and could really use a watered down explanation of that whole brain waves thing, please," I replied in the blandest sarcastic tone possible.

        Wesley sighed in annoyance, obviously irritated. He took a seat on the bed next to me, his laptop still displaying the same model of my body. "Look, you see this device right here on the back of you spinal cord. That's not a part of you, like a bone or anything. Only this computer can see it. Any other fancy high-tech X-ray equipment is blocked out and to it, the thing doesn't even exist," he said pointing towards a minuscule, black box that rested on my spine.

        "Yeah, I see it. But would that tiny little thing have anything to do with me passing out?" I asked, trying to cover up the nerves crawling their way into my voice. I wasn't sure where this was going, but I was already not a fan.

         "Actually, that 'tiny little thing' has everything to do with you passing out...because it's not supposed to be there," Wes began in a very serious tone. My eyes flew open, feeling like they could pop out of my head at any moment . Air began to escape from my lungs.

        'Not supposed to be there'?! I thought, a wave of panic beginning to engulf my mind. There's something wrong with me?!

        Wesley watched me with a serious look, watching as the fear seeped into my face. But he continued on. "That thing is called the bioelectricity controller system, otherwise known as the BCS. It allows bioelectricity manipulators, such as my laptop, be able to control anything with that box that is in a mile radius of the user." He zoomed in on a small diagram of the box.

         "So, what your saying is you can basically control me? Or whatever your weirdo sciency thing does?" I spit out, surprised my voice didn't stutter. My body was tense, and I began to imagine being controlled by this kid.

         "In some sense, yes I can. But I won't. Other people have the same program I have. There's actually a whole network of them, and they are dedicated to using people, like you, to get what they want," Wes explained, obviously very serious, and being very meticulous on what words he used. I could tell he was trying to spare my fear by making it sound better than it was. Sadly, it wasn't working.. "They can change the way you think, see, or even speak just by examining your brainwaves. And they've been planning this for years. You've most likely had that box since birth, considering they couldn't have reached you otherwise. Unless you've had any major medical surgeries?"

         I shook my head quickly. "I haven't, but why me? Why of all people would they choose me, and only me?" I forced out, fighting back the tears, something I hadn't struggled against in years. I felt like I was going insane. My nails dug back into the bed, the same spot they had less than three minutes prior.

         "Well...it's not just you." Wes stood up, pushing off of his knees, and pinched the brim of his nose, a unnerved crease settling upon his lips.

         I stood up slowly, body aching, head throbbing, heart pounding, as noticed another curtain concealing a cot right out of the corner of my eye. My feet stepped towards Wesley slowly, trying to stay standing. "Tretelli, what do you mean it's not...just me?"

         "I mean, there was another subject involved in the project. This project, of course..." Wesley trailed off, slowly backing away from me until he reached the curtain I'd noticed earlier. To be frank, he had always seemed to be the one to end a fight, not be scared of one. This must not an exception.

         "Wesley, who is behind that curtain?" I said through gritted teeth as I stepped closer to the boy. Wesley swallowed hard, not moving an inch. "Pull back that curtain or I'll do it myself," I hissed, my teeth clenched in not only anger but the boiling suspicion I knew I'd regret knowing later.

         Terrified he would get his ass beaten, he gently pulled back the curtain and squeezed his eyes shut, angling his head down to the floor, preparing for the first blow. A boy laid quietly in the bed, asleep, sweet and sound. He was obviously tall, with chestnut brown hair and a slender face. My blood boiled at the sight of him as I kicked the plastic trash can closest to me.

         "I KNEW IT!" I yelled angrily. "Of all the people I'm forced to be stuck with in some stupid, undercover, psycho, crazy, science experiment, it's him! It's the wacko, huckleberry, hahur-hahur, soccer playing, American boy, country hero, tooty-toot-toot, 'my mom's a doctor and I'm such a jerk, basketball-playing, nut sack, kicking bitch boy known as Cassian-freaking-Price!" My hair whipped around in it's high ponytail as I thrashed about, yelling and kicking anything close enough to me. Chairs, tables, cabinets, trash cans. They all became the victims of what the Burkingston nurse's office would call, "The Luka Massacre".

         I barely noticed Wesley's brow crease in frustration as he attempted to calm my fuming, blonde self down. "Luka, I need you to chill out! It's not as bad as it seems! We can all figure it out together. Cassian already understands the situation and we are in the process of making a plan! He's just taking a nap!" He gripped my shoulders, trying to keep me still. He had to know that his courage would soon run out, though, and he wouldn't be able to stop the beast.

         I laughed half-heartedly, "Oh, a nap! A nap! We just found out that our lives are possibly on the line, and lover-boy here is taking A NAP! Well, that's good because then he won't hear me call him a bitching mother-"

         "Afternoon, gorgeous."

        Wesley and I whipped round to see the devilish, smirking face of Cassian Price, as he somehow managed to wake up in a nurse's cot and still look like he was apart of one of those photoshoots for the "Top Ten Most Attractive Males at Burkingston High".

        "You..." I growled quietly with a sneered.

        "In the flesh, darling," Cassian smiled, standing up and towering over me by quite a bit. "Now please, finish that sentence so I can just hear how strikingly handsome I am from one more girl in my lifetime. Because as you so distinctly stated, we're all gonna die soon!"

        "I will not give a underhanded, low-life, such as yourself, the right to relish in the ideas of admiration before death," I snarled.

        "Might as well, darling. If I have to die only getting to kiss one more girl, it might as well be you," Cassian devilishly smirked, reaching over to grab my chin and lean in.

        "BACK OFF, BITCH!" I screeched, kneeing him in the groin. Cassian doubled over in pain, groaning, his hands planted on his knees to keep from falling over. I put my hands on my hips and stared satisfactorily at the groaning boy in front of me as Wesley watched in pure fear and confusion, inching away from the both of us.

        "I'll get the Tylenol."

Author's Note

#PrayForCassian