Chp. 9 "Here's the Plan"

Max was staring blankly at me, knowing that none of this made sense because how could Avery Ryan have anything to do with this?

I pushed, “I’m telling you, she’s the only one I’ve come into contact with recently… it has to be her.”

He continued to make an unsure face, “Think about it though Andy, if simply coming into skin to skin contact with the person… it could be anyone. I mean you run into people daily Andy…”

He was right. If simple contact could transfer the power to me anyone that my hand could’ve grazed in the hallway could be the culprit.

I sighed, “Ok… but like I said, I hurt myself last week and I was fine, so it had to be someone recent.”

He nodded, “So who else have you come into contact with?”

I tried thinking back to anyone I could’ve come into contact with in the halls and throughout my days but I only came up with Avery and Max. I never really walked to close to anyone enough to touch so…

Wait.

“There was this kid… I think his name was… Blake? Brandon?”

Max shrugged, letting me know I wasn’t giving him anything.

I groaned, “Uh, he has black hair, he’s new…”

“Blaine? There’s a new kid in my English class that’s new and he has black hair?”

“Yes! That’s the only other person I’ve come into physical contact with. So it’s either him or Avery.”

Max leaned back and crossed his arms, “I know nothing about this Blaine kid but he seems awfully suspicious… so we may have a suspect.”

“So how are we going to prove that it’s him?”

“We have to watch him. I’ll watch him in English class, follow him through the halls and try to see if anything happens on the way. That’s all we really can do without making a scene.”

I frowned, “That’ll take too long… I need answers.”

He sighed, “Well then we’ll have to hurt him.”

I thought about discreet ways we could do that but I was coming up short. There was no way we could harm him enough to actually gain evidence and not get caught.

“Well, we could always do it whenever it’s really crowded?”

“And the only time it’s crowded is…?”

I shrugged, “During school in the hallways.”

He sighed, rubbing his eyes and temples from stress, “Ok so how do you want to do this?”

“When do you have English?”

“It’s my last hour.”

“Ok, which was does he turn?”

“When he walks out he started right toward the parking lot.”

“So I’ll start walking in the opposite direction seconds before the bell rings, you’ll walk behind him. When the hallways start getting crowded and you see me getting close you cut him with a razor blade or something. Don’t get stupid when you cut him, just get him good enough to draw blood. We can always blame it on someone’s pencil sticking out of their booksack or something. Then I should be right next to him, I’ll act as if I’m not paying attention and run right into him, knocking him down. This will give me enough time to see if it heals on its own or not.”

“Are we really going through with this?”

“It’s the only way we’ll find out.”

He sighed heavily, “Then I guess I need to find a razor blade.”

~ ~ ~ ~

Max and I were walking slowly to class as we continued to plan out our mission that we were going through with this afternoon. We walked up stairs and demonstrated exactly how we were going to run this out and soon had to head to science class.

And I had been so distracted with my newly discovered power that I hadn’t been able to think about Avery.

I sat in my usual desk awaiting Avery, knowing I would have to tell her I would show up later to her house than we had planned. Then she walked into class, locking eyes with me immediately and smiling, making me feel like a million bucks.

I smiled, “Hey.”

She returned my greeting, “Hey…” then her hand was on mine, causing my heart to jump straight to my throat. “Thanks… for yesterday. It meant a lot hearing those words from you.”

I shrugged, “You just looked pretty upset yesterday, thought I should try and make you feel better.”

“You did,” her eyes locked on mine for a while and then she pulled herself out of it, “So you’re coming right over after third?”

I sighed, “I can’t, I had some stuff to get done, but I should be finished and I’ll let you know when I’m on my way to your house.”

Her face seemed to drop a little as she nodded, “Oh, ok, that’s fine.”

“Don’t worry, you’re not going to finish the project alone.”

She laughed, showing me her captivating smile as she shied away from my stare. I couldn’t contain my smile after seeing that and then we were both there smiling like idiots.

It was as if nothing had happened yesterday, and she was completely fine again.

I was obviously still worrying about her because she had looked so sad but also I was curious about whether or not it was her that gave me those powers. There was still a doubt in my mind whether or not it was Blaine because it could still be Avery…

And Blaine was about to get mildly assaulted for no reason if it really was Avery.

~ ~ ~ ~

Soon I was in position to take action as I glanced at my watch, knowing the bell was going to ring any second. I had timed everything perfect, I knew it would take me exactly five seconds to make it into position giving Max just enough time to cut Blaine and allow me to run into him.

My heart was pounding in my chest as I waited impatiently, feeling my blood pressure rise. I was extremely nervous, knowing we could get into a lot of trouble if we got caught…

And if it was him, there was going to be a lot of explaining.

We would finally meet another person who has powers, someone who was like us. We had been searching and waiting for someone like this to come along so we could meet and now we were finally looking at a possibility.

Then the bell rang and I started walking, taking the right amount of strides and seeing Max and Blaine come into sight. Max’s eyes found mine and I nodded, knowing we only had about two seconds to prepare ourselves for the truth.

I saw Max flash the razor blade in his right hand, knowing he would be cutting Blaine’s right arm, which was currently my left.

Then Max quickly brought it across the back of Blaine’s arm, causing him to turn around and allowing me to run smack into him.

We both were sent to the ground as I voluntarily grabbed his right arm during our fall, ending with both of us on the ground.

When his eyes found mine they were wide, but I was already focusing on the cut that was bleeding. I watched hungrily, waiting for the skin to sew itself back together.

Then the truth was revealed when I saw it heal almost instantly like mine had the other day, causing the breath in my lungs to come to a halt.

He yanked his arm away but I had already seen the truth, and I stood up quickly with him, pulling him off to the side.

He yanked harder but I held a tight grip, “Please… don’t tell anyone!”

“You’re coming talk to me.”

“No! I’m not saying anything.”

I began running electricity into his body, feeling his body jerk slightly in response, “Yes. You are. I’m not a bad guy.”

He pleaded, “O-Ok, I’ll t-talk to you…”

I let him go, allowing Max to join us, “Good, because we’re like you.”        

“Who’s we?”

Soon Max was on the other side of me and I nudged him, “Max and I have powers too.”

“We can’t talk here but… I’ll talk…”

I smiled in victory, “Good, because we have a lot of questions.”