"Why so quiet, Amina? Are you scared?" Dellie hissed. Sweat dripped from her forehead as she threw a punch at my shoulder. With a bored sigh, I smoothly slid to the side, ducking under her arm. Before she could even blink, I threw my leg out and knocked her feet out from under her.
Dellie collapsed to the ground with a frustrated grunt. I took this chance to glance at the large timer ticking above us. Twenty seconds until the match was called. And it was obvious which one of us was going to win. Never the less, Dellie rose from the ground, wincing as her ankle twisted underneath her.
We circled each other, Dellie stumbling every couple of feet. I smirked at her struggle, and took the first swing. She didn't expect me to take the offense, and forgot to duck. My fist connected with her chin, giving a vicious crack! Her head swung to the side, her eyes wide. I waved away the pain in my hand, and watched the crisp red blood drip from Dellie's mouth. She took a second to wipe the blood, her eyes narrowing before clenching her fist and taking a jab at my abdomen. I zoomed out of the way using my super-speed, and appeared suddenly behind her. I shoved her to the ground with a shout. She shrieked as she hit the ground, just barely catching herself with her hands. Her head swiveled to glare at me.
She was a vicious little bugger, but I could see the defeat in her eyes. As many times as she swung, she knew she could never hit me. But, for her sake, while I was fast and calculated, she had a will stronger than titanium. Lucky for me, this was just hand-to-hand combat training. If this had been a real battle, she probably would have attacked me wildly with every ability hidden up her sleeve, and I'd just be a pile of ashes, smoldering on the concrete floor.
The timer went off with a sharp buzz -telling us our time was up- and bright lights suddenly blared all around us. The timer flashed TIME'S UP, before resetting to one minute for the next group.. Half-hearted applause sounded from outside the training arena. The electric fence that had surround us sizzled away, and Donald Davenport stepped forward, a tablet in one hand and a fresh water bottle in the other.
"And the match goes to Amina!" He announced, a wide grin on his face. "That's five battles this week," he praised. He marked something down on his tablet, and waved over Tank and Miles, the next competitors. "Great job, Amina," he told me, clapping me on the shoulder."Why don't you and Donaldella each take a cool shower, and we'll talk about promoting you to red at lunch?"
I nodded fiercely, and gratefully took the bottle from his outstretched hand. I took a gulp, thankful for the cool rush, before offering it to Dellie, who was slowly rising from the ground. "Nice try, Dells," I told her, entirely sincere. I knew what it felt like to be on the opposite side of the winners circle, and I made a point of never smack-talking or gloating.
"Five battles this week," Dellie mocked, swiping the water from my hand and setting the cold exterior to her bruised chin. "Let the underdogs win for once, why don't you?" She asked with an accusatory glare as we gallivanted out of the ring. Eagerly awaiting the next battle, the small crowd around us dispersed as Dellie and I made our way to the showers.
She muttered obscenities under her breath, as she cradled the water bottle to her face. "Why did you have to hit me so hard?" she whined, as we crossed into one of the larger hallways. I smirked, and pushed her shoulder lightly. "I didn't hit you that hard. But I had to give the crowd something to watch, didn't I? You kept missing."
Dellie scoffed, pushing me back. Caught off guard, I nearly stumbled into the wall, surprised. If she had used that kind of strength in the training, she might have actually had a chance. "Well, if you weren't so fast, and so freaking stoic, I might have been able to get a few hits in. But your silence treatment was freaking me out."
I straightened myself, and lifted an eyebrow at her, ignoring her sudden burst of strength. "That was the point. It was a new intimidation tactic; Maybe you should try it once and a while," I teased. Dellie scoffed, and I could tell she was still upset over her loss. I sighed, and stopped her in the middle of the empty hallway, forcing her to face me.
Dellie was a tiny little person; a petite blonde with rosy cheeks and pink lips. She looked delicate, but if anyone said that to her face, they'd end up on the wrong side of one of her lightning bolts. To make up for her lack of height and muscle, she was all sharp edges and rough words. She tried so hard not to be looked over, but it didn't help that her best friend was...well, me.
"Tell me what's wrong." I demanded, trying to read her expression. She refused to look me in the eyes, and instead glared at the orange patch on my uniform, her blue eyes stormy. My mouth made a small 'o' shape as realization dawned on me, slower than it should have. I felt frustrated with myself. I should have known she was angry over me being promoted from an orange to a red in one day, when she was still stuck at green. When the Davenport Academy first started a couple weeks ago, we were both yellows, but we soon got promoted after Davenport realized what we could do. But Dellie, who was kind of a brat to her mentors, came to a sticky stop at green while I continued to move up in the ranks.
I ran a hand over my face, feeling guilty. "Don't be mad at me, Dells. I didn't ask to be promoted to red. If it bothers you so much, I can talk to Chase or Mr. Davenport, and see if they can-" Dellie cut me off, clearly exasperated. "I'm not mad at you, Amina. I just kinda wish that I had...the power that you do. You are so strong and fast, and so freaking smart, when all I can do is chuck lightning bolts from my fingers." She lifted a hand and stared at it sadly, watching as small blue sparks rippled over her knuckles. I grasped her hand- the one that wasn't sparking- and squeezed it.
"You have an amazing power, Dell. You just don't do enough with it. You keep trying to train yourself physically, when you should be working on enhancing the powers you do have." Dellie scoffed at me, but I could tell my words were registering somewhere in her brain. She knew she didn't have super strength or super-speed, but she had some amazing powers over electricity. She kept picking fights with kids who did have super-strength and super-speed (for example: me) in hand-to-hand combat, in an attempt to 'challenge herself', when all that did was destroy her self-esteem. Not to mention give her some nasty bruises.
"You know, you could ask Adam to help convert your lightning into plasma balls. That would be cool. And I know Chase pissed you off pretty bad in your last session, but if you asked him politely, he might teach you about force fields," I offered. Her jaw clenched, and I knew instantly that I had struck a nerve. My stomach sunk. I shouldn't have brought up Chase. Great, now I was going to get a lightning bolt up my ass. I tensed, waiting for her to speak. "Maybe," she said shortly, surprising me. Let's just say she had a temper, and I've walked one to many kids to the infirmity because of her.
She pulled her hand away from me, and set off down the hall, throwing her hands up in annoyance.
"It's just, electrokinesis is so generic. Amanda has it, Brandy has it, Nicholas, Ivy, Tate, Luke," she listed, ticking down on her fingers as she went. "I mean, Leo even has it, and he's only partially bionic." I hurried to catch up with Dellie, rubbing my temple in an attempt to ease my exasperation. I hated when she went off on a tangent like this- I could hardly keep up with her thought process- but at least I knew she wasn't mad at me anymore.
"And what's with Leo?" She asked, her hands flying. "His rank is always changing. One day he's yellow, the next green, and then back to yellow. Can't he make up his mind? Bu at least he gets to go on missions with the Team," she huffs. The 'Team' being Adam, Bree, Chase and Leo, Davenport's first and most experienced bionic super-humans. We all looked up to them- except for a select few- even though they certainly were not the most powerful bionics at the academy, much to the Team's chagrin.
We entered the girl's bathrooms, blinking through the hot steam. Dellie sidled in front of a foggy mirror, and wiped the condensation away with her fingers, inspecting the bruises on her chin and under her eye. While I could take credit for her chin, you could blame the black eye on Lexi, who smacked her pretty hard with a bo staff last week. Dellie's eye was pretty nasty right afterwards- all red and shiny- but she got her revenge on Lexi the day after, during the bomb-diffusing practice. Dellie kicked butt at anything involving electricity and wires.
Dellie put her fingers to her chin, and twisted her head around, her lips pursed. "Well," she started. "Despite your preference to defense, you certainly have a mean left hook." I smiled at her sheepishly in the mirror, ignoring the fact that my skin was completely blemish-free, while hers was racked with unhealed scars, burns and bruises. "Do you want some ice for that, Dell?" I asked her, even though I knew she what she would say.
She shrugged, nonchalant, and turned suddenly to grab a dry towel from the rack. "I've had worse," She said simply, before shoving the towel at my chest. "Now go take a shower. You're sweating through your uniform," she informed me. I tucked the towel under my armpit, and pulled at the collar of my shirt. "You're no better," I told her. "You have dried blood on your lip,"
Dellie narrowed her eyes at me, and I quickly gave her a smirk, letting her know I was just teasing. Dellie stared at me for a second, before rolling her eyes, and nabbing a towel for herself. We lingered in the bathroom, waiting for the showers to be empty. Not many people took showers so close to lunch, so if we waited a bit we'd have the bathrooms all to ourselves. Feeling warm, Dellie began to strip off her uniform, revealing a worn grey tank top and boxer shorts underneath. Where she got the boxer shorts, I didn't want to know.
She turned toward the mirror again, just as one of the showers turned off, and Georgina -one of Dellie's dorm mates- stepped out, a green towel wrapped around her. I averted my eyes out of courtesy, but Georgina just walked past us leisurely, thinking nothing of it. She smiled at Dellie and nodded at me, before sashaying away to the changing rooms, her long, wet, copper hair swinging behind her. We silently watched her walk away before Dellie smirked, leaning forward. "Did you hear what Georgina did to Liam earlier today when he judo-flipped her in class?" She whispered. I shrugged in response. "She had a total meltdown, and ended up searing off half of his mullet with her heat vision." I burst out laughing, and nearly dropped my towel. "Good thing too, because despite what anyone might say, no one looks good in a mullet," she continued. Our laughter echoed in the empty bathroom, and I felt a rush of warmth.
The laughter trickled away eventually, and I paused, chewing on my lip, a nervous habit. "Hey," I said, reaching to touch her shoulder. She was back to her old self, joking and complaining...but I still felt uneasy. She glanced at me, her eyes revealing nothing. I tasted blood in my mouth as my teeth broke through the skin. It was a nasty habit, but I couldn't help it.
"We're okay, right?" I asked her, shifting uncomfortably. After a distinct pause, Dellie rolled her eyes at me, and pushed my hand away. "Of course, Amina," she said, and a rush of relief went through me. "You know how I get. Just...worry about yourself, okay? I know you're this all-powerful alpha girl, but I've heard that sometimes if you push your bionics too far, you might...you know, actually end up...well...exploding. Do you remember Johnathan?"
I faintly recalled a gangly, freckle-faced boy, whose brains Mr. Davenport had to scrape off the walls after Jon tried using more than one bionic power at once. Some kids could handle it-but others...not so much. I grimaced. "Ugh. I try not too." Dellie nodded absentmindedly in agreement, and twisted her towel nervously in her hands. "Well, sometimes the expert level kids are pushed really hard, especially if Chase is mentoring them." We both are quite familiar with Chase's unfortunate teaching methods, but I didn't mind his attitude so much as tolerated it. Dellie, on the other hand, despised him. "I just don't want you to get hurt," she finished, refusing to look me in the eyes.
At that moment, I felt incredibly thankful to have Dellie as my friend. She was fiercely competitive, but also extremely loyal, which together were dangerous qualities. But here she was, worrying about me, when moments ago she was complaining about being left in the dust. I was usually confused by her ever-changing emotions, but I realized that was how she dealt with her emotions. Instead of being angry at me for upstaging her, she was trying to support me. She was a great friend. And, on the other hand, a terrible enemy. Get on her bad side, and you could very easily get burned.
I smiled gratefully at Dellie, and pulled her into a hug. She was reluctant, but soon gave up her struggling to wrap her arms around me. She patted me awkwardly on the back, but wore a toothy grin. She shoved me away, and waved me towards the showers. "Lunch is in a half an hour," she warned. "If you want to be there on time to suck up to Davenport, you better get moving." I chuckled, and give her one last, thankful smile, before continuing on with my routine.
If I had glanced back right at that moment, I would have noticed her smile fade quickly, her lip curling viciously in a sneer- and I would have realized that everything was certainly not okay between us. In fact, it was far from it.
But I didn't. And instead, I went on, naively thinking that my life couldn't be any better. I had a home, my powers, an amazing friend, and my rank, which was all I really needed. What I didn't know was that I only days away from my whole life unraveling at the seams, all because of one stupid mistake.