Power Play

by Harleyquinnzelz

"I mean, what are we, a team?" In which six young adults learn that having superpowers is not all it's hyped up to be. Or, in which Beau Hart learns that sometimes a little chaos is exactly what you need. Nathan x OC "We're a chemical mixture that makes chaos. We're a time bomb."

1. Hard Knock Life

CHAPTER ONE:

Hard Knock Life

"Me? I'm scared of everything. I'm scared of what I saw, I'm scared of what I did, of who I am, and most of all I'm scared of walking out of this room and never feeling the rest of my whole life the way I feel when I'm with you."

- Dirty Dancing (1987)

It was going to rain. That was Beau Hart's first thought as she stepped outside in the weak morning light. The sun was obscured by a cluster of gray nimbus cloud and, even though the rain had not started yet, she could smell it hanging heavy in the humid air.

Rain seemed like the perfect accompaniment to this perfect day and as much as Beau wanted to turn right back around and shut the door behind her that simply wasn't an option. Beau owed a debt to society, you see, and the time had come to pay the piper.

At least, that's how the judge in the courts had put it and no matter how many times Beau had tried to object the meaning had come across perfectly clear.

Don't do the crime if you can't do the time.

But what about the crimes committed against her? Those cries of protest had apparently been written off as a jealous, hysterical ex-girlfriend. The court was being lenient, she was told, she could get into some serious trouble for this. But since there was no damage and nothing taken Beau was getting by relatively unscathed.

If you could consider community service unscathed, which she didn't.

Rain and community service and the whole day had started with an argument with her mother. Really this was all shaping up to be a wonderful experience, truly life-changing. It was really making Beau think about what she had done and the consequences of her actions.

Like how next time, she wouldn't get caught.

To be fair, Beau was not a criminal. She didn't pickpocket or sell drugs, she had only been trying to take back what was rightfully hers.

She had just fucked it up royally.

She sighed in exasperation at just the thought, running a hand down her face in agitation. She had been largely unable to sleep the night prior over the anxiety of what today would bring and now the day was here and… well, everything that had happened so far led her to believe it was going to suck.

That was just pessimism talking, Beau decided as she began her walk, the wind blowing in a manner that made her think they could expect something a little more than just rain. Beau hated storms even more than rain.

She could really do with some positive thinking, a bit of optimism to brighten what was already a dreary day. Like…

Her day was really, really going to suck.

It had started, she supposed when she had slept through her alarm and had woken up with a start to realize that she needed to get her ass in gear if she wanted to get to the community center on time.

To her credit, Beau had gotten into the shower in record time but had been halfway through washing her hair when her mum had come down the hall, banging on the door about how she needed to take a piss, likely still drunk from the night before.

Well sorry, Mum, if my getting ready is inconvenient to you.

Ah, her mum had not taken kindly to that and had shouted about how ungrateful Beau was and how she deserved to be tossed on her ass right then and there.

Alright, just let me get dressed first.

Poor old Miss Edgecombe next door. The old bird liked to sleep late ever since her husband had died. But not this morning, it seemed, as Beau had seen her collecting her paper as she had been leaving, looking more than a little disgruntled, but not at all surprised. She had lived next door to Deborah Hart, after all, for the better part of two decades. Her actions were annoying, but not at all surprising.

Regardless, Beau had not gotten tossed on her ass, merely shoved out of the way when she finally unlocked and opened the bathroom door as her mother made a desperate rush for the toilet.

She was still drunk, Beau had gathered, but not quite so pissed that she ended up pissing herself. A shame really because at least that way, Beau likely wouldn't have had to interact with her mother at all this morning.

Still, even that little bit had been fine, nothing unusual, but Deborah Hart had come sniffing for a round two as Beau had stood in front of her bedroom mirror, toweling her hair off, already dressed in a pair of cut-offs and an oversized jumper than hung loose off one shoulder, revealing bare skin and a bra strap beneath.

"You're dressed like a slag," her mum said casually, leaning against Beau's door frame. "Planning on fucking your probation worker to get a shorter sentence. That won't work."

Was she speaking from experience?

Beau was used to these sorts of interactions by now didn't bother even looking at her mother as she tossed the damp towel across her bed and began to run a brush through her hair.

"Not with that attitude it won't," she said brightly.

Her mum pursed her lips, narrowing her eyes slightly. Beau had learned long ago that her mother often just went looking for a reaction and that not giving her what she wanted annoyed her more than she could ever annoy Beau.

"You really fucked up, you know that, getting caught like you did." Deb tried again, not bothering to keep the venom out of her voice. "Your boy got sick of your shit and you ended up right back here and now I'm stuck with you."

Beau snorted slightly, unsure where to start. First was the implication that Beau shouldn't have gotten caught, which yes was true, she had been careless. But Beau had heard, though never experienced, that mothers were meant to support the good in their child and discourage the bad.

Then she had called Zeke her boy, even though he clearly wasn't. Not anymore. It wasn't the breakup that had hurt so much as the method of dismissal, like Beau was something unpleasant to be taken out with the garbage. She had quickly been replaced by a newer, shinier model and, if that wasn't enough, he also did not seem to respect Beau enough to give her back her shit.

I need them, he had said. What are you going to do with them?

I don't know what she's talking about was what he had innocently told the cops.

Twat.

Finally, there was the way her mother had said that she was stuck with Beau with unrestrained resentment as if this had been Beau's first choice in living arrangements. The resentment was nothing new, it had always been there, ever since Beau was small, but Beau didn't like her mum anymore than she liked Beau and the woman had to be a complete and utter idiot if she believed that Beau would even be here if there was a choice, literally any other choice.

"Aw Mum," Beau said brightly. "At least this way I get the delight of your sparkling personality."

There was a bite to her words that was only ever reserved for her mother and Deb snarled like a rabid dog. "You're damn right," she said. "It's damn good of me to take you in like this. You've only ever been an ungrateful brat."

Ungrateful, as if Beau owed her something. As if Beau had not been largely responsible for raising herself.

"Shall I get a 'thank you' card for you on my way home then," Beau asked, blinking innocently. "'Dear Mum, thanks for being an utter cunt for the last twenty years. Love, Beau."

Then the shouting had started, fueling the headache that had been brewing behind Beau's eyes all morning. But Beau had endured it stoically, putting her hair in a braid and sliding on her lucky shoes, a dirty old pair of pink converse. Beau was in desperate need of a little extra help, her luck had been shit lately.

She had finally escaped as the fuel for her mother's fire was dying down, stopping only to dry swallow a pair of ibuprofen from the bottle in the medicine cabinet, before rushing at the front door, revealing for only a split moment in her freedom before remembering precisely where she was heading.

The joy of being away from her mother was quickly replaced by anxiety for the day ahead.

She figured there were only two ways that this could go. One, she might get stuck carrying out her community service with a group who, like her, had committed only minor mistakes, and were interested only in getting this thing over with and putting it behind them. Or, two, she could end up with delinquents who were at the precipice of the beginning of their lifestyles of criminal deeds and were hardened by their desire to do heinous, criminal things.

Or, perhaps there was a secret third option after all. Perhaps she ended up working with one to-be murderer (or worse a whole group of them, dear God) who decided that Beau was a prime pick for their first murder victim.

To-be murderers or no, the only way out of this was to go through it (or, she supposed, in the case of that last option, to die) and the best way she knew how to go about that was to put one foot in front of the other.

And that was exactly how she arrived at the community center because it wasn't like she had a car to drive.

"You're here for community service?" As she approached she noticed the tall black man standing out front, obviously waiting for other young offenders like her. He had a clipboard in his hand and a bored expression on his face.

"I am," Beau confirmed, mounting the steps and approaching him. Unsure what else to do she offered him a friendly smile. No use pissing off the guy that would be in charge of her while she put in the work.

"Name?"

"Beaulah Hart," she said, glancing around, wondering where the others were. Probably already inside or not arrived yet and if so they were pushing the line pretty thin. Beau was very nearly late herself.

"Alright, Beaulah-"

"Just Beau if you don't mind," she interrupted. "Pretty sure naming your child Beaulah classifies as child abuse. 'Course the courts didn't see it that way and my mum got away with it with no punishment at all."

It was an attempt at a joke, but this guy wasn't laughing at all which didn't bode well for her stint doing community service. Least they could have done was give them somebody with a sense of humor.

"Beau," he agreed. "My name is Tony and I'll be your probation worker. The locker room is inside on the left and you'll find a stack of jumpsuits there. Get changed and meet back out here."

Jumpsuits? Yeah, she had seen those god awful things, convict orange and impossible to miss. It wasn't just that they had to do this community payback bullshit, they had to be easily identifiable while they did it.

You know, just so mums could take their children by the hand and cross the street to avoid them.

To be clear, it was not the community service that Beau had a problem with. In theory, it was great. Fix things up so things wouldn't be shit for someone else. It was a nice sentiment. But seemed almost like a wasted effort, like whatever shit was cleared away, even more would take its place.

And beyond that, it was embarrassing. Beau wasn't a criminal, she barely thought what she had done would be considered a crime. And the jumpsuit felt almost like a brand like if she put it on she'd never be able to escape it. And Beau had spent her whole life trying to do that, hadn't she? Trying to escape the burden that she had been born with. When you come from trash, you do everything you can to not end up that way.

But this… well, this spoke for itself didn't it? Like all the effort she had put in trying to be a better person than either of her parents had all been pointless. It was an anchor trying to drag her down and Beau was just treading water and trying not to drown.

"Right-o," she said, stepping past him. "Locker room, jumpsuits. Got it."

She walked past him, stepping inside the monotone white and grays of the community center, looking around with a grimace. For a place that was meant to foster a sense of community, it was not very inviting.

You've really outdone yourself this time, she thought to herself, venturing down the hallway towards the locker room, berating herself, not for the first time, for getting caught at all. It should have been easy, simple. In and out, stealthy as a cat. She should have remembered that Mister Callahan next door always snuck out for a smoke at around 3 in the morning when he could be sure his wife was well and truly asleep.

The locker room was just as unimpressive as the rest of the place and she entered, her eyes immediately landing on the single jumpsuit, neatly folding and sat at the end of one of the benches.

Yeah, that color was impossible to miss.

She picked it up, allowing it to fold open and wrinkling her nose as she looked down at it, wondering just who had worn it before her. Slowly, she raised it to her nose to take a cautious sniff. If it smelled like B.O there was no way in hell that she was going to put it on.

Luckily it smelled of cheap laundry detergent and so, with a sigh she resigned herself to her fate.

God, she hated orange.

---

There were seven them assembled before Tony the probation worker, all dressed in their ugly orange jumpsuits and all likely wishing they were anywhere else.

"This is it," Tony said, winding himself up for a good, long monologue, looking at them all importantly. "This is your chance to do something positive. Give something back. You can help people, you can really make a positive difference in people's lives. That's what community service is all about. There are people who think you're scum. You have an opportunity to show them they're wrong."

"Yeah, but what if they're right?" The boy standing next to Beau spoke up suddenly in what was clearly an Irish accent, drawing everyone's attention.

She turned to look at him, eyes widening only a small fraction as she took him in. Tall, curly hair, bright green eyes. Fuuuuuuck. He was hot.

She looked away quickly, huffing out a sigh because hadn't Beau had enough trouble with hot guys in the past?

"No offense," he continued, "but I'm thinking some of us are just born criminals."

He tilted his head to the right, not-so-subtly gesturing to the boy in the hat on his left.

"Are you looking to get stabbed?" The boy in the hat asked venomously.

Huh, it was looking like it was maybe that secret third option.

"You see my point?" The curly-haired kid didn't seem too worried, looking back at Tony with a meaningful look.

"Your past doesn't matter," Tony said, probably ready to jump back into his previously interrupted speech when a phone suddenly rang.

Everyone turned to look at the pretty black girl who held her phone to her ear, obviously not giving a damn what Tony had to say.

"Doing my community service," she said into the phone, either oblivious to or not caring about all the eyes on her. "Boring as fuck."

"I'm still talking here!" Tony snapped.

The girl looked at him, rolling her eyes. "I thought you'd finished," she shot back.

"If my lips are moving, I'm still talking!"

"Yeah," the first boy said, drawing attention back to him. "But you could have been yawning or chewing or-"

"Shit," Beau muttered, looking away again and rubbing a hand tiredly down her face. He really was attractive.

"Problem, Princess?" the boy asked brightly. Shamelessly, he looked her over, clearly checking her out.

"Nothing," Beau said quickly, feeling her face heat up. What the hell else was she supposed to say? Yes hi, you may be the most attractive person I've ever met in person. She was sure that would go over great.

"Hang up!" Tony snapped at the girl.

"My probation worker," she said into the phone, obviously answering a question and pointedly ignoring Tony.

This initial meeting was quickly descending into chaos.

"You alright there, weird kid?" The curly-haired boy turned his attention off of Beau and onto the pale, nervous boy on her right.

He looked up, obviously surprised to find that the boy was talking to him, before averting his gaze. Beau felt a rush of sympathy for the boy, he was obviously very shy.

"Don't be disgusting," the girl said to her friend on the phone. "I'll call you later."

"I'll rip out your throat and shit down your neck!" The boy in the hat yelled at the curly-haired boy.

Beau's eyes went wide as she stared at him, shifting away and accidentally bumping into the boy on her right, who jumped slightly, looking up at her in surprise.

"Sorry," she said to him quickly, looking back at the boy in the hat who was clearly not over the insult the curly-haired boy had directed at him.

Although he was kind of only proving the point.

"We need to work as a team here," Tony said, obviously trying to regain some semblance of order.

"Can I move to a different group?" the tall, black kid asked suddenly.

Beau perked up, wondering if that was an option and looking expectantly at Tony. If he was getting moved to a different group then Beau was definitely asking to get moved, preferably to a group that didn't have a potentially murderous boy with a fondness for hats.

"What makes you think you're better than us?" The only other girl asked in a very thick accent.

Beau blinked, furrowing her brow.

"What is that accent?" The curly-haired boy asked, putting her thoughts into words. The others had also displayed equal confusion and Beau couldn't help but feel sorry for the girl. It wasn't her fault.

"What," she demanded, glaring at them. "Are you trying to say something?"

"That's just a noise," the curly-haired boy turned back to Tony. "Are we supposed to be able to understand her?"

"Do you understand that?" The girl asked, flashing her middle finger at him.

Ah yes, that headache that had been rumbling around behind Beau's eyes for most of the morning was back now with a fury and if this was what she had to look forward to all day she thought that she might prefer to just be in jail.

Slowly she raised her hand, causing Tony to look at her and sighing in exhaustion. "Yes?"

"If I've already given back to the community today can I just go home?"

Or anywhere else really because home was not looking particularly better than this situation if she was being honest.

The curly haired boy slung an arm around her shoulder, catching her by surprise. "Ah, come on Princess," he said. "Don't you like us?"

She felt her face heat up again as she shoved him away making him snicker.

"I think she does likes me," he said to the guy in the hat.

"Hey!" Tony yelled, trying to get attention back on him. "Pack it in!"

It was a lost cause though, as the curly-haired boy was clearly set on antagonizing the one with a hat and Tony seemed to realize that quickly as he heaved a huge sigh. Beau doubted if he got paid enough to deal with them, she really did.

---

With a tilted head, Beau examined the graffiti that marked the bench she was currently working on painting. Some people, she observed, really had horrible grammar. But there was one particular bit that made her smile to herself. Jenny + Rachel 4eva had been scrawled across the seat with a big heart drawn around it, the names messy and barely legible and the heart was uneven but the sentiment was sweet and she didn't know who Jenny and Rachel were but she genuinely hoped that whoever they were they were happy.

Beau also really hoped they stopped graffiti-ing benches because she didn't feel like painting over it every time they did.

On the other side of the bench the shy kid, Simon, was at work too, clearly not getting distracted by the words scrawled across the bench like Beau was. His face was puckered in a focused manner and he was painstakingly drawing his brush across the wooden slats of the bench, obviously not wanting to fuck it up.

Working on the next bench over was one of the girls, Kelly, and the attractive curly-haired boy, Nathan, and beyond them was Alisha and Curtis.

The other boy, Gary, was working all on his own, probably because nobody wanted to be threatened to have their throats ripped out.

"Oh man!" Beau looked up to find that Gary was looking angrily down at the hat in his hands. "There's paint on my cap!"

Beau didn't know why he was so angry if he glared any harder at the hat he would scare the paint right off.

He rose suddenly, swiping at kick at his paint bucket and sending it clattering, paint spilling across the pavement. He turned and stomped away, not offering another glance at the others and clearly not caring that they would likely be put in charge of cleaning up the paint he had spilled.

"Prick," she muttered.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Simon grin slightly.

"I'm guessing shoplifting," Nathan was saying to Kelly who was looking very much like she regretted choosing to work with him.

"Don't act like you know me cos you don't," Kelly snapped at him.

"I'm just making conversation," Nathan defended. "This is a chance to network with other young offenders. We should be swapping tips! Brainstorming! Come on, what'd you do?"

Kelly sighed, obviously understanding that if she didn't tell him then he would never leave her alone about it.

"A girl called me a slag so I just got into a fight."

Somehow that didn't surprise Beau at all.

"Was this on the Jeremy Kyle Show?" Nathan asked.

"No, it was in Argos."

"You should have got one of those pens and stabbed her in the eye," Nathan told her helpfully.

Beau snorted, catching Simon's gaze and rolling her eyes, making him grin again.

"What about you weird kid?"

Both of them looked up in surprise to find Nathan addressing Simon, an expectant look on his face.

"Don't take this the wrong way," Nathan continued, "but you look like a panty sniffer."

He held his hands up, miming holding a pair, and inhaled deeply.

"I'm not a panty sniffer!" Simon said immediately as if afraid any of them would actually think he was. "I'm not a pervert."

Nathan rolled his eyes, clearly not believing him and Beau felt another rush of sympathy for Simon. That was until he next spoke.

"I tried to burn somebody's house down!"

She turned to look at him in surprise and he quickly averted his eyes.

Okay, so that was two maybe-killers in the group. Great.

Beau had just started considering moving to another bench when Nathan turned his attention onto her.

"What about you, Princess?"

There was that nickname again and Beau had no idea where it had come from.

"Nothing," she said immediately, turning to focus intently on the bench as if it were suddenly the most interesting thing in the world. She really did not want to get dragged into this conversation.

"Nothing," Nathan scoffed. "Sure, you just came down to do community service for a bit of fun. Come on, tell me."

She pointedly ignored him, dipping her brush back into her bucket to get more paint.

"I bet it was something delightfully dirty," Nathan continued, obviously trying to get a rise out of her. "You seem like a priss but I bet when it comes right down to it, you're into some dirty shit. Public sex maybe, a bit of voyeurism. Or may-"

"I got caught breaking into my ex-boyfriend's house, okay!" She yelled, effectively cutting him off and drawing everyone else's attention as well. She had felt her face go warmer with every word he had spoken until finally, she had decided that telling the truth was likely better than the guesses he was making.

It never ceased to amaze her that she could deal with her awful mother with ease but dealing with others… well, clearly she needed to work on it.

A moment of silence followed in which he stared at her, a slow smile spreading across his face. "Oh," he said. "I see. You're one of those crazy ex-girlfriends who can't let go then. What did y-"

"Is that what you think," Beau demanded, setting her paintbrush down and turning to glare at him "My breaking into his apartment has nothing to do with being a crazy ex-girlfriend. I didn't do it because I wanted him to take me back! When he tossed me he didn't return all of my belongings and I wanted them back! That's all."

"Oh," Nathan blinked and for a moment Beau thought that would be the end of it but that stupid, attractive smile stayed on his face. "Did he keep your knickers?" He asked understandingly. "Hey! If he did does that mean that you're not wearing any now?"

He may have been attractive, but he was a real prick.

Before Beau could answer, she saw something out of the corner of her eye and turned to look, her glare automatically shifting into a look of delight.

"Kitty!" She squealed, immediately approaching the fluffy black and white cat that had appeared from around the corner of the building.

She heard a snort of laughter from behind her just as she scooped the cat up into her arms, hearing the jingle of the bell of its collar. It wasn't just a stray then.

"Hello darling," she cooed, scratching it beneath its chin, delighting in the rumbling purr that began to vibrate from its chest. "Aren't you precious?"

A rumbling from overheard made her tilt her head back, curling her nose at the storm clouds accumulating above them.

"What is going on with this weather?" Nathan asked as the others all looked up.

"How did that happen?"

She whipped around to find that Tony had joined them and was pointing at the spilled paint.

"I mean you've been here five minutes. It's painting benches, how did you screw that up? You tell me because I've got no idea." And then he turned, seeing Beau standing there cuddling the cat in her arms. "And you, what do you think you're doing?"

She blinked, looking down at her new friend before looking back up at Tony.

"Giving back to society," she offered. "This cat is part of the community too."

Tony opened his mouth to say something when a huge drop of hail suddenly fell from the sky, crashing into one of the cars parked nearby and crushing the cab under its momentum.

A series of screams echoed from the group and the cat in Beau's arms suddenly leaped free, taking off back around the building.

"What the fuck!" Beau stumbled back over to the group as if that would bring some form of safety. Her heart thundered in her chest, fear rushing through her like ice.

"That was my car," Tony said, shocked.

Nathan snorted. "Classic."

Another giant ball of hail came crashing down, crushing a nearby dumpster this time and that was all the group needed. They turned to rush back towards the community center as more hail began to fall around them.

They reached the door of the Community Center and Tony scrambled to get his keys out from his pocket to unlock the door.

"Why is it locked?" Beau demanded. Hadn't he just come outside?

They were relatively for now under the awning but Beau doubted it would be much good if one of those giant pieces of hail hit it.

"Open the fucking door!" Alisha yelled, the others soon joining in. But Tony's hands were shaking as he cycled through the many keys on the keyring and the wind picked up around them, the rumble of thunder contributing to the chaos.

"Don't yell at me!" He roared, whipping around the face them.

It was at that moment that lightning struck the ground at their feet, sending the six of them flying back and sending even Tony sprawling on the ground.

It was a pain unlike anything Beau had ever experienced, coursing through her body and licking at her limbs. It seemed that she hung there for a moment, suspended in the air as the world slowed around her and all that existed was Beau and this pain and the sudden fear that she could be dying.

And then she struck the ground and the world came spinning back into focus.

She was not dead, Beau realized, sitting up slowly, but her limbs were still trembling in the aftermath of being struck by fucking lightning. And there was something else, almost like an echo of the pain, not hurting exactly but it wasn't pleasant either.

"I feel really weird," Kelly groaned.

"That'll be the lightning," Nathan told her, sitting up as well.

"What the fuck," Beau groaned, burying her face in her hands. trying to still the trembling. "Did we really get struck by lightning?"

It didn't feel real, felt like something you would watch in a movie and hear about happening to someone else on the news.

"We should be dead," Simon pointed out.

"A little reassurance might be nice, you know," Nathan said looking at Tony now, who had raised his head to look at them, expression unreadable. "'You're fine. Looking good.'"

Beau was inclined to agree with him. This had happened under Tony's charge, so wouldn't he be held liable for it? Even if he wasn't personally worried about them shouldn't he still be checking to make sure they were okay?

"Wanker," Tony muttered, looking at Nathan.

Beau blinked, surprised. She was pretty sure their probation worker wasn't supposed to be calling any of them wankers. Wasn't that like… unprofessional or something?

"Did he just call me a wanker?" Nathan asked, turning to look at Beau for clarification.

She nodded slowly turning to look at Tony again who was slowly rising to his feet.

"Is everyone alright?" He asked finally.

"We could have died, you dick!" Alisha snapped at him, getting to her feet.

The others followed suit, Beau rising slowly, the shaking finally beginning to subside from her limbs.

Tony hadn't answered and was only glaring at Alisha, his expression strange.

"Are you alright?" Kelly asked. "You're acting like a freak."

"Maybe we should call it a day," Tony said, turning away without answering.

Beau couldn't agree more. The last thing she wanted to do right now was go back to painting benches.

Tony opened the door, finding the key easily this time, and stepped inside, heading towards the office without a backward glance at them.

"His concern is so touching," Beau said dryly before pushing past the others to head to the locker room, ready to get the awful orange jumpsuit off. Still, she paused in the doorway and glanced back at the others. "Are all of you okay?" She asked.

"Your concern is so touching," Nathan echoed, voice rising in pitch to match hers.

Beau snorted, turning away to head into the locker room, immediately regretting even asking at all.

---

It was a slight breeze that woke Beau the next morning, sending a chill up her spine. This was not particularly unusual as Beau had fallen asleep the night prior with her window open, in hopes that she could coax in a cool breeze. Her alarm had not gone off yet, she noted without opening her eyes, still half-asleep, and so she rolled over, intent on just going back to sleep.

The first thing she noticed, as she did, was that instead of being greeted by the soft embrace of her pillow she was instead rewarded with the crunching of dead leaves.

The second thing she noticed was that her mattress did not feel quite like a mattress under her but was instead rather damp and uncomfortable.

The third thing she noticed as her eyes shot open was that she was outside and very, very naked.

She began to rise slowly, trying to look all around her at once, desperately wanting to make sense of her situation. Naked. Outside. Alone.

Does not compute.

"The fuck," she muttered to herself, her heart rising to somewhere in her throat.

She recognized where she was, though she wasn't sure that made it any better. It was the park not far from her house, the one that Beau came to when her mum was being particularly annoying. Although, Beau had never come here naked.

Just what the fuck was going on?

The possibilities ran through her head, each seeming unlikely as the last, and Beau might have spent all day there, trying to figure out what in the hell was going on, but the sound of approaching footsteps made her stiffen, panic causing her brain to short-circuit for a split second.

And then she jolted into action, rising to her feet and running full-tilt into the nearby brush and hiding just in time as a middle-aged woman jogged into view.

As she jogged past, Beau was struck suddenly with the impulse to call out to her and ask if she had any spare clothes. Anything at all so that Beau wasn't just… naked in the park. But she was certain that that wouldn't go well (and also mostly sure that being found naked in the park would breach the terms of her ASBO) and so she kept her mouth shut and waited for the woman to disappear once more.

Right, Beau decided. First thing was to figure out how she was going to get home without being seen and then she would figure out how she ended up in this state.

Beau would, in theory, be able to stick to the treeline most of the way back home, and the rest of the way she would be shielded by the back of the residential building. She just had to hope that nobody was peering out the back window as she made a mad dash towards her window, suddenly feeling thankful that the flat was on the bottom floor.

Beau gave one last hopeful scan of the ground around where she had woken up, hoping in vain to find her clothes folded up neatly nearby but, of course, they weren't. What, did she think her luck would start now?

She took off, wincing each time she stepped on a stick or stone with her barefoot, but not caring enough to proceed with caution because each moment she stayed outside felt like she was tempting fate. How long could she stay out here like this without somebody seeing her?

Hmm, let's not find out, thanks.

She broke free of the treeline and after that, it was like a full-barrel race towards her window with the hope that even if anyone did happen to look outside all they would see was a blur.

She finally reached her window, blessedly still open, and clamored inside to sprawl across her bed. Without a second thought, she turned and slammed the window shut before turning to face her room, feeling like she had just dodged a bullet.

Her room was exactly as it had been when she had crawled exhaustedly into her bed the night prior. After a day of community service and getting struck by lightning, Beau had been more than ready to sleep for the rest of eternity.

So what had happened after she fell asleep?

Had someone come through the window and stolen Beau away into the night? And then… what? Left her naked in the park. And she had not woken up at all during the encounter. That seemed unlikely.

So what then?

She could have just been sleepwalking.

The explanation hit her suddenly, simple, neat, easy. And it felt like a relief, like a weight off her shoulders that she could write the whole situation off with that. After all, sleepwalking was not the strangest thing that could happen to her. She could have gotten struck by lightning.

The discovery of her pajamas in her bed only seemed to support this idea. Because if somebody had kidnapped Beau from her bed, they would hardly hang around the strip her of her clothes here right? Right?

A quick glance at the talk had Beau springing into action because she was running very late and the last thing she needed was to get in trouble with their probation worker. Not today. She could handle it tomorrow but not today.

A quick downwards assessment was all Beau needed to realize that she couldn't even attempt to go without a shower, there was dirt caking her body and as she passed by her bedroom window she saw that her hair was not in any better shape.

Fuck, fuck, fuck. She didn't have time for this!

She showered in record time, barely pausing for long enough to rinse soap from her body, before rushing to get ready, tossing her still wet hair into a ponytail and pulling on the first clothes she grabbed from her drawers, jeans and a tank top, before rushing out the door, grabbing a package of Pop Tarts out of the kitchen on her way to sate her rumbling belly.

One easy day, that was all she asked. Just one easy day.

---

She jogged most of the way to the community center, cursing the world and all the events that had led up to this morning which was, inarguably, worse than the one prior.

The others, she saw, were all standing outside in front of what looked like fresh graffiti as she jogged up, which was surprising because Beau was at least ten minutes late. And there was Tony, yelling at them, obviously pissed. Something Nathan had said, perhaps?

"You!" His eyes caught on Beau as she ran up, panting. "You're late!"

"Yeah," she huffed, placing a hand over her chest, trying to slow her racing heart. "I can explain. I-"

She had spent the whole way to the community center trying to come up with a viable excuse, any excuse that was not I woke up naked in the park this morning. But Tony didn't seem interested and cut her off by slapping her half-eaten Pop-Tart out of her other hand.

She turned, watching as her half-eaten breakfast soared through the air before landing in a puddle a few feet away. Her stomach gave a growl of protest and she turned back to Tony, opening her mouth to ask him why the hell he had done that. But he simply stuck out his hand.

"Give me your phone!" He demanded.

"What? No!" She stepped back, noticing only then that he seemed to be holding everyone else's phone as well.

"Give it to me!"

Beau shrank back, immediately reached into her pocket to wrangle her phone free and handing it over without further argument. This didn't seem like the same man from yesterday and his yelling had sent a chill of fear up Beau's spine.

"Now," Tony said, stepping back to look them all over. "Get inside and get changed!"

None of the others seemed to be interested in arguing and all began to file inside and Beau fell in line, finally getting a good look at the graffiti as she passed.

'IM GOING TO KILL YOU!' it read and kill was even underlined three times, as if the author had wanted to really get across the passion with which they were going to kill somebody.

Yes, it was certainly looking like that third option after all.

"Is he allowed to take our phones?" Alisha asked as they reached the locker room each of them heading over to his or her own locker.

She had chosen on the other side of a line of lockers and was the only one who had done so, leading to the area feeling more private which Beau was thankful for as it gave her a chance to ignore the others and just rest her forehead against the cool lockers and breathe. Just breathe. She felt suddenly like she might cry.

It had been a hard morning after all. Hell, she had woken up naked in the park. Anyone would be entitled to a good, long cry after that.

"You woke up naked in the park?"

Kelly had rounded the corner to peer at Beau in surprise. Beau raised her head, blinking owlishly at her and wondering how in the hell Kelly could know that.

The others had fallen quiet too, all of them clearly listening in and hoping for something juicy.

"W-what?" Beau finally stuttered. "No!" She tried to sound indignant, horrified that Kelly would even suggest such a thing, but really she only came across sounding pitiful.

"Did you?" Nathan was peering around the wall of lockers from the other side now, smiling that smile of his. "Well go on then, get changed. You were in the park naked, no need to get shy in front of me."

Beau looked helplessly between the two of them, her throat threatening to close up, a sure sign that Beau was definitely about to cry. Still, she shoved it down and, without a word, opened her locker and pulled out her jumpsuit before turning to stomp past Kelly, deciding that she would just go get changed in one of the bathroom stalls instead.

"I think you made her mad," she heard Nathan say to Kelly from behind her.

Twat

---

When Beau finally worked up the courage to join the others outside, they were already hard at work. Well, most of them. Alisha had opted instead to lounge across a picnic table, the top half of her jumpsuit shoved down around her waist to reveal only a bikini top.

Without a word, Beau set her bucket down at got to work, pointedly not looking at the others, embarrassment still pricking at her skin.

How had Kelly known, how the hell had Kelly known?

She could have seen Beau perhaps, on her mad dash back home this morning. But why hadn't she said something sooner? Why had she waited until everyone was assembled to call Beau out like that? To embarrass her, perhaps? That seemed more like something Alisha would do then Kelly.

Wait, how had Kelly known that she had woken up naked in the park. There had been nobody around when Beau had woken up, she would have seen them.

She turned to give Kelly a strange look to find the other girl already looked at her, brow furrowed.

"I'm sorry," Kelly said finally. "About what happened in the locker room. I didn't mean to-"

"How did you know?" Beau asked, cutting her off.

Kelly was quiet for a moment before finally shaking her head. "I don't know," she admitted. "It happened after the storm. Did anyone else feel like dead weird after the storm?"

She turned to address the others and Nathan immediately nodded. "I had a strange tingling sensation in my anus," he said.

Beau looked away, shaking her head in exasperation, wondering for a moment if she should tell Kelly about how weird she had felt after the lightning, a weirdness she had chalked up to… well, being struck by lightning.

Out of the corner of her eye, Beau saw that Kelly had turned to look at Simon strangely.

"Something happened," he said quietly, in a manner that suggested he was not at all comfortable sharing this out loud.

"What's that?" Nathan held a hand up to his ear. "Squeak up!"

"Something happened to me," Simon repeated, louder this time.

"Are you a virgin?" Nathan had that shit-eating grin on his face.

"Shut up," Kelly snapped at him before turning to face Simon again. "What was it?"

"It was nothing," Simon looked away now, obviously discouraged.

Beau couldn't help but wonder if his nothing was the same kind of nothing she had tried to attribute her waking up naked in the park as. Sleepwalking, yeah right.

"Beau?"

She looked up to find Kelly watching her again, expression expectant.

"What?" Beau asked finally, looking away and pursing her lips. "It's nothing. I always wake up naked in the park. What, don't you?"

"Well, if you'd like to wake up naked somewhere else, you're always welcome to- OW!" Nathan rubbed his chest where Kelly had hit him, glaring at her. "What was that for? Jesus!"

Kelly rolled her eyes, clearly done with his shit by now, before dropping her brush and turning to stalk away without a second glance.

Beau watched her go, thankful that Kelly wouldn't be standing around anymore with her probing questions and her meaningful looks as if she knew more than she let on.

"I think you made her angry," Beau said to Nathan, echoing his words from earlier.

---

The decision to break for lunch came unanimously as the day was drawing later and Tony the Probation Worker had not reappeared to collect them.

They may have been young offenders but that didn't mean they deserved to starve.

And so what if they took a little extra time for their lunch break? They had been scrubbing away at that graffiti all morning. The break was well-earned in Nathan's opinion.

And so were a couple of games of foosball in which he was decidedly kicking Curtis' ass.

Nathan didn't even like foosball much really, but any chance he got to show up mister too-cool-for-school athlete and he was going to take it. It also gave Nathan an attempt to show off for the girls, though the chav still had not made a reappearance and the frizzy-haired bird had buggered off to fuck knew where.

Only the brunette seemed to be hanging around a few feet away, sitting on one of the faux leather couches with her shoes kicked off and her knees tucked up under her chin as she had worked her way through two bags of crisps and was currently halfway through a package of Starbursts.

Nathan had been quite dismayed to find that instead of expressing any interest in the intense foosball game happening feet away from her, she had seemed more interested in sorting her Starbursts into their different colors and then, as she ate them neatly folding the wrappers up and setting them aside. As she chewed, her gaze would drift off, clearly caught in her own little world.

Nathan groaned internally. What was the use in showing off if she wasn't even going to pay attention?

"Ha!" Curtis cheered and Nathan looked down to find that while he was distracted, Curtis had cheered a goal on him.

Focus man! He needed to win so that he could have bragging rights later. And Nathan would draw that out for as long as he could.

To their left, the weird kid watched with a quiet sort of interest, never saying anything and offering no insight into who he was cheering for. If he even understood how the game worked, that is.

"You know," Nathan said suddenly, deciding to strike up a conversation, "it's a shame more girls don't commit crimes."

"Why is that?" Curtis glanced up from the game to look at Nathan.

"Think about it man, there's only three of us and three of them. That's only a 1:1 ratio at least and if one of us strikes out but the other two are already taken, then one will have to go without." He said before adding as an afterthought, "Although, seems unlikely that weird kid is gonna score, yeah? So at best that's 2:1 ratio for us. Still not a lot of room for error."

Curtis snorted at that, giving Simon a look that clearly suggested that he agreed with Nathan. The weird kid had no chance.

"There were four of us," Simon said suddenly in a dire tone.

Both Nathan and Curtis turned to look at him strangely and Nathan huffed, shaking his head.

"I'm talking about getting laid," Nathan said to him but Simon just didn't seem to grasp the severity of the situation. With another shake of his head, Nathan turned his attention back to Curtis. "So, how are we gonna do this man?"

Curtis blinked. "Do what?"

"Divide them up," Nathan explained impatiently. "Because the one with all the frizzy hair, I don't see me and her getting it on."

Curtis scoffed. "Why?" he asked. "Because she's beautiful?"

"No," he shook his head quickly. "Cos she'd be way too much effort. She looks high-maintenance. You'd have to treat her really well," he wrinkled his nose in disgust. "But that other one…," he struggled for a moment, trying to come with the name.

"Kelly," Simon supplied helpfully.

"Whatever," Nathan said dismissively. "A couple of Bacardi Breezers, man, I reckon she'll be good to go. 'Course I might need more than a couple myself, but who's counting?" He grinned, before tilting his head towards where Beau sat, clearly oblivious to their conversation. "Now I saw the way she was looking at me yesterday and I gotta tell you, I think I really have a shot. So we'll call the chav a backup and I'll take Princess over there and you can have the other one."

"Yeah, and the girls like, do they have a say in this?" Curtis asked.

"Yes, yes it'll all be consensual," Nathan insisted. "A group of young people doing mindless shit all day? Face it, man, it's going to happen. It's biology… or physics. One of those. So do we have a deal?" He made a big show of spitting in his hand before extending it towards Curtis for him to shake.

The young athlete looked first at Nathan and then at his hand in disgust. "No!"

"Fine," Nathan huffed. "Maybe I'll keep all three for myself then."

Curtis actually laughed at that, rolling his eyes. "Yeah, I see that happening."

"Yeah, you will. Then you'll be sorry you didn't accept. Then who'll be laughing? Me!"

With that he began to walk away, leaving the boys behind and heading over to the couch where Beau was seated, not having noticed yet that Nathan was making his way towards her.

"You don't like the pink ones?" He asked, noticing that there was still a full pile of them and that she was in the process of working her way through the reds.

She looked up at him with a start, seeming surprised to find him standing there. "Oh," she looked down at her sweets before looking up at him again. "They're my favorite," she told him, "so I always save them for last."

She seemed like a pink Starburst kind of girl, Nathan noted, in addition to being a pink Chucks kind of girl and, apparently, a pink underwear kind of girl if the bra strap currently on display was any indication. The collar of her jumpsuit had slid down to reveal it and, almost as if she could feel his gaze on it, she reached up to adjust it.

"You're eating all alone," he pointed out. "Don't want to make conversation? Or have a bit of company?"

She pursed her lips slightly, looking back at her candy again. "You've made it very clear what conversation with you entails," she said.

Nathan scoffed, holding a hand over his heart as if he'd be wounded. "Are you implying that I don't supply sparkling conversation."

"Sure," she rolled her eyes. "Want to invite me to wake up naked with you again?"

"Do you want me to?" He asked. "That's a standing offer, by the way. No expiration date. If ever you're interested just let me know."

That got a small snort from her, something he would almost qualify as a laugh and be grinned victoriously before flopping down on the seat next to her.

She said nothing of this and kept her attention on her candy. To his surprise, she wordlessly picked one up and handed it over to him - a pink one, he might add- before continuing to work her way through the red ones.

Curtis and the weird kid were watching, Nathan noted, and so he waggled his brows at them with a huge grin, holding his lone Starburst up like it was some kind of prize.

Yes, he would definitely qualify this interaction as a success.

---

The group had migrated to a side hallway, wanting to keep out of the way in case Tony came in through the main doors and saw them lounging around and not doing anything.

Alisha and Curtis were seated across from each other, with Alisha making flirty eyes at Curtis who was clearly into it. Simon had seated himself stiffly on one of the chairs and Nathan was rolling idly back and forth in one of the wheelchairs.

Beau had taken up residence on one of the couches in the hallway, curled up with her head using her arm as a pillow. She was dead tired and desperately in need of caffeine but had spent all of her pocket change to buy food to quell her raging, rumbling stomach.

She could go to sleep right here, just like this, just a little nap to get her through the rest of the day.

"When I was in sixth form, you came to my school."

Or not.

She looked up, raising her head to find Alisha addressing Curtis.

"You gave this big talk about athletics and all your medals and that."

"So I'm guessing you're not going to The Olympics," Nathan interjected.

"You were going to go to The Olympics?" Beau asked, genuinely surprised.

The others all turned to look at her and Nathan gave a snort of laughter. "You might be famous, mate," he said to Curtis, "but you're clearly not that famous."

"Sorry," Beau offered, looking at Curtis. "I don't follow sports. I'm sure you were really quite good."

"Doesn't seem to matter now, does it?" Nathan asked rhetorically, earning a withering look from Curtis.

"I heard he was dealing crack," Alisha said.

"What?" Curtis shook his head quickly. "I wasn't dealing crack.

"No, no. The papers said it was steroids," Nathan said.

"That stuff'll shrivel your dick," Alisha told him.

"It wasn't steroids," Curtis insisted. "I'm not a cheat. The stuff in the papers was bullshit."

He was clearly upset about this, Beau noted, and she supposed she would be too if she had had a promising career suddenly ruined and apparently seen her name slandered across the paper.

Anyway, Curtis didn't seem like a steroids kind of guy, he was too skinny. All lean and lanky rather than hyped up muscles.

"So what was it?" Alisha prompted.

Curtis sighed. "I got caught with a little bit of coke," he admitted. "I messed up one time."

"No one gets community service for possession," Alisha objected.

Curtis scoffed, rolling his eyes. "If it was anyone else, they'd have got a caution. I get 200 hours community service and a two-year ban from athletics. They said cos of my profile they needed to send a message."

He had clearly beat himself up over this many times before and so it didn't help when Nathan finally spoke up.

"You let yourself down," he told him. "You let the kids down. You let your parents down."

"Shut up!" Curtis snapped, standing up to glare at Nathan. "All I ever did was train. You know nothing. I shouldn't even be here!" And without he delivered a harsh whack to Nathan's shoulder.

"Ow!" Nathan reached up to rub the spot with Curtis had hit him. "You can't hit someone in a wheelchair!"

Beau rolled her eyes, laying her head back on her arm again and closing her eyes but the sound of Nathan wheeling himself closer had her opening them once more.

"What about you?" He asked.

Beau blinked, suddenly aware of everyone looking at her once more. "I already told you," she reminded him.

"Yeah but you never said what your ex stole from you." He settled back into his wheelchair, looking at Beau expectantly. "Come on, regale us with your tale of heartbreak and woe."

She sighed, sitting up in her seat and looking around to find the others all watching her expectantly as well.

"Alright," she said. "So I was living in this house with my ex-boyfriend, Zeke, and our other bandmates, right? Things were going fine, I mean not great because if I'm being completely honest Zeke was a bit of a wanker, but things weren't bad." This was the first time she had told the story out loud to anyone, besides the time she had tried to explain it to her mum only to find that the woman had been utterly indifferent.

"You were in a band," Nathan asked, leaning towards her. "Bet you were the singer, yeah? What was the band called?"

"Rage Against The Light," Beau answered miserably.

The earned a snort of derision from Curtis. "That's an awful band name," he told her.

"Yes, I know," she sighed heavily. "It was Zeke's idea. Anyway, so I go out this one night to pick up takeaway for dinner and I come back to find a rubbish bag full of my clothes sitting outside the door! So I go in my purse to get my key to open the door and ask what the hell is going on but my key isn't on my keyring anymore. So I'm thinking this is some kind of stupid joke right and start banging on the door and Zeke opens the door and tells me that he's breaking up with me and that I was being replaced in the band by his new girlfriend. He had kicked me out and hadn't even given me any warning. The bastard had planned this. And then he has the nerve to grab the food that I had bought and just took it inside and closed the door!"

Alisha's jaw had dropped and she shook her head, tutting. "You're right," she said. "He is a wanker."

"So by this point, I'm realizing that all of my things are not outside. And this time when I start banging on the door I'm yelling at him to give me my instruments. My guitars, my violin, my keyboard. Now, mind, the keyboard is shit but it's still mine. And he opens the door and tells me that the band needs them and since I'm not in the band anymore they'll be taking them off my hands." She gave a humorless laugh, hiding her face in her hands. "So a few days later I go up to them, polite as you please, and ask for them to give me my shit back. And he says no! So I decided that if he's not going to give it back then I'm going to take it back. So I wait until a night when I know they have a gig -a gig I had gotten for them, by the way- and I sneak over to the place. And one of our mates, he always leaves his window unlocked, right, no matter how many times we'd tell him not to. And, it should have been easy, only our next door neighbor had gone outside for a smoke and ended up calling the police! Who, by the way, we're not sympathetic to my situation, especially when Zeke shows up and tells them that he has no idea what I'm talking about."

"Try again," Nathan advised. "Only this time beat the twat over the head with your guitar."

That actually earned a surprised laugh from Beau, the first time she had been able to laugh over the situation. The truth was she missed her instruments desperately, missed playing them and feeling the music flow through her veins. She hadn't even been able to get any lyrics written since what had happened and it made Beau feel… what?

Lost.

"Do you want to know what I got done for?" Alisha asked, clearly eager to tell them.

"Not really."

The withering glare she sent in Nathan's direction was enough to have him sighing heavily before gesturing for her to continue.

She smirked, sitting up straighter in her seat, clearly pleased now that all eyes were on her.

"Me and my mate, Chloe, were having cocktails in this bar. And she's hassling me cos she wants to go to this party. Chloe is on one because she thinks Jack is doing Lucy," she began, "total slutfuck. So we get in my car, I drive us to the party. We go into one of the rooms, yeah. Jack is not doing Lucy, he's doing Ellie. She is a proper slut. Chloe freaks. I'm driving us back into town, Chloe's all like 'Oh, I feel sick.' I'm like 'Don't puke in my car. Do not puke in my car.' That's when the police pull us over. I'm already banned from driving so I'm like "Fuck.' This cop hands me the breathalyzer and I'm like, 'Do I suck or blow?'"

And then, as if her story was not already enough, Alisha raised the water bottle in her hands to her lips and began to mimic giving it a blowjob, rubbing her tongue seductively around the rim in a way that had all three boys watching, their mouths agape, unable to look away. Nathan might not have been interested when she had started, but he was certainly interested now.

Alisha was loving the attention, it was clear from the look on her face and Beau suspected that's why she had bothered telling her story at all, for this precise moment.

"It's insane, right? I'm totally working it." Alisha looked back at them, ensuring she still had the boys' undivided attention before repeating the action, which felt like overkill to Beau by this point but who was she to say anything.

Didn't mean she couldn't think it, though.

"Now I don't know if this cop is gay or what, but he tells me I'm four times over my limit. It's bullshit, I didn't even want to go to the party," Alisha continued, crossing her arms over her chest.

Before anyone could say anything in response, the side door at the end of the corridor opened and Kelly came rushing in looking panicked and turned to shut the door behind her before latching the look behind her.

"He's going to kill us!" She said, turning to face the others.

Beau blinked, turning to look at the others who were all looking at Kelly with confused expressions. Except for Nathan who turned his wheelchair to face her before clapping his hands.

"Nice entrance," he told her approvingly. "Very dramatic."

"Who tried to kill you?" Beau stood from her seat, approaching Kelly who was obviously very upset.

"Oh come on Princess, you don't believe her, do you?" Nathan scoffed.

Beau ignored him, keeping her gaze set on Kelly whose hands were gripped tightly into fists at her side.

"The social worker!" She told Beau. "He just attacked me!"

Okay, so that was a little hard to believe. Tony had been a dick that morning but he had not been a murderous dick.

"You don't believe me!" Kelly accused, turning to glare at Beau who blinked, taking a step back.

Whether it was true or not, she clearly believed it.

"Kelly-" Beau began, only for the other girl to cut her off.

"Something really weird is happening," Kelly turned to address all of them now. "I'm hearing these voices. It's like I can hear what people are thinking!"

"Have you been sniffing glue?" Alisha asked patronizingly.

Nathan and Curtis both laughed but Simon and Beau were giving Kelly strange looks, Beau's brows furrowed as she considered this.

Kelly had known about what had happened that morning.

How was she supposed to explain that away? What logic did it make?

"The storm, it's done something to us," Kelly insisted, desperately trying to get the others to believe her.

"If you can hear my thoughts, what am I thinking?" Nathan challenged, rolling closer to her.

She furrowed her brow for a moment, clearly concentrating before scoffing. "Do you think it's bullshit?"

"Of course," Nathan snorted. "You don't need to be a mind reader to know that!"

"Why are you in a wheelchair," Kelly asked him.

"It was the storm," Nathan began pathetically, bringing a look of genuine concern to Kelly's face. "The strange tingling sensation in my anus has spread through my body and now… I can't feel my legs."

He began to laugh but quickly stopped when Kelly delivered a sharp kick to his shin. "I'm serious!" She yelled at him.

"Kelly," Beau drew her attention back to her. "What were you saying before Nathan decided to be an idiot?"

"Hey!"

"Yeah, what do you mean the social worker tried to kill you?" Curtis asked.

"This does sound like complete shit," Alisha added.

"He is out there and he chased me!"

"Something happened to me too," Simon interrupted, making everyone turn to look at him.

"Did you pop your cherry?" Nathan asked brightly. "We are all very happy for you."

"What do you mean something happened?" Beau asked him, ignoring Nathan.

"Earlier on when we were in the locker room, I turned invisible."

He looked around at them, finding five skeptical expressions staring back at him.

Mind reading? Invisibility? This was all just too much.

"Christ," Beau sat down, pinching the bridge of her nose between her fingers, wishing suddenly, desperately that she had a bottle of ibuprofen. Or a stiff drink. Or both.

"So, she's psychic, he can turn invisible and you have, what?" Nathan turned to look at Beau. "Spontaneous nudity?"

"I am not a part of this?" She assured him, though she didn't feel entirely sure. A part of her couldn't help but wonder if this explained what had happened that morning.

"Well, this all seems very likely," Nathan turned to face Simon again. "Did anyone witness this miraculous disappearance?"

"You were all there," Simon told them.

"We might have noticed you vanishing into thin air," Alisha sneered.

"You didn't," Simon said. "I was standing right there. You did see me!"

"Alright then," Nathan said, rolling over to him. "Go on, then. Do it. Turn invisible."

The moment that followed was a very awkward one where Simon clenched up, his facing pinching into a very uncomfortable expression. But still, there he stood, very visible.

"My god," Nathan said, expression shifting into one of shock. "He's disappeared."

"Can't you see me?" Simon asked, very nearly smiling. Beau felt sorry for the poor guy.

"No," Nathan shook his head. "You're invisible!"

With that, he tossed his crumpled soda can at Simon, hitting him square on the forehead. "You two are hilarious, really, keep taking that medication!"

With that, he began to roll towards the door but Kelly moved to stop him."Don't," she warned. "He will kill you."

"Don't!" he said. "She's telling the truth."

Everyone turned to stare at him now, with Nathan heaving a huge sigh.

"And you know this how? I suppose you're psychic too, now?"

"All this," Curtis began, gesturing around at them. "It's already happened once. I open the door, the probation worker, he killed you." He pointed at Kelly who looked startled. "You were right there. You were dead. Everything froze. You were all just standing there. Time went backward!"

"What are you saying?" Alisha asked. "What, you turned back time?"

"Oh for fuck's sake!" Beau buried her face in her hands once more, thinking not for the first time that this was just too much.

Either half of them were mad or they really had developed superpowers. Last Beau checked that only happened in movies and comic books.

"This just keeps getting better and better." Nathan was clearly of a similar mindset. He stood, finally fed up, and started towards the door.

"Everything happened again." Curtis insisted. "Exactly the same. I'm telling you, don't open that door."

Nathan ignored him, unlatching the lock before pushing the door open a crack before freezing, letting out a startled cry of alarm before quickly shutting the door and latching it closed once more.

He whipped around to face them, eyes round with fear. "He's right," Nathan declared. "The probation worker's gone mental!"

At that precise moment, a hand slammed against the small window beside the door and Tony pressed his face up against it, peering in at them before beginning to bang on the door.

Beau let out a scream, standing and stumbling back towards the others, her heart thundering so fast in her chest that she was sure for a moment that it was going to kill her before Tony ever had the chance.

As it turned out, Beau needn't have worried about one of her fellow young offenders trying to kill her. It was really the probation worker she needed to look out for.

Fuck.

Nathan hurried towards the others, clearly feeling that there was safety in numbers and he had a point. Tony couldn't kill all of them at once.

"Maybe he's on crystal meth," Alisha suggested. "That stuff makes you crazy. My friend Chloe did it, she nearly shagged her brother. And he's really ugly."

"I'd rather him want to shag one of us than want murder us," Beau told her.

"The graffiti!" Curtis cried out suddenly, making the others glance at him in confusion. "I'm going to kill you. He wrote it."

"What did I say? I said there was a hidden meaning!" Nathan said though this declaration was followed by a particularly loud bang on the door. "Or not."

"Great!" Beau said, unable to keep the sarcasm from her voice. "You've solved the mystery! I'm so glad. Should we tell him that? Suppose he would leave us alone?"

"We should call the police!" Alisha told them.

"He took our phones, he's got all our phones," Simon reminded her.

The sudden silence made the group look up to find Tony's shadow no longer in the window and the only sounds now where their panicky breathing and Beau's heart pound, pound, pounding in her chest.

"He's stopped," she said.

"Dickhead!" Alisha rounded on Kelly, glaring at her. "Why did you come back? You should have gone for help!"

"What do you know, bitch!" Kelly shouted back, the two of them squaring up, clearly ready for a fight.

"Shut up, you chav!"

"If you call me a chav, I'll kick you so hard in the cunt your mum'll feel it!" Kelly glowered, stepping closer to Alisha so the two of them were face to face.

"Her mum?" Nathan asked incredulously. "How does that work?"

"Enough!" It was Beau's turn to shout as she shoved her way between the two girls and glared at one before first turning to glare at the other. "In case either of you has forgotten, he's trying to kill us. And I for one have had a bad enough day without adding dying to list. So if you don't mind, can we work out a way to get out of this and then you can kick each other in the cunts, yeah?"

A moment of silence followed in which they glowered at each other before finally nodding their heads, a tentative sign of peace between them.

"So," Beau turned to face the boys. "Any ideas, you lot?"

It seemed none of them did until Nathan's face lit up and he pointed down the hallway. "The back way!" He said. "Come on!"

He was already moving, rushing down the hallway with the other's following suit without argument, all of them intent on getting out of this damned community center.

They rounded the corner, heading towards the back door that was lined with windows on either side of the double-doors. Blessedly there was no sign of Tony. As they approached the door, however, Nathan suddenly slipped and landed on his back in what looked suspiciously like-

"Fuck's sake!" he cried, rising to his feet and looking down at himself. "Is that blood? Fuck! Jesus Christ! Get it off me." He began to wipe his hands across his jumpsuit, leaving a smear of bloody handprints behind.

Beau, feeling suddenly as if she might be sick, clapped a hand over her mouth, breathing in sharply through her nose. The smell of blood here was nearly overwhelming, and she followed the trail of blood on the floor leading to one of the lockers.

"Shit," she moaned miserably, gesturing to it.

The others, looking equally miserable, gathered around it but nobody moved to open the locker door until finally Curtis took a deep breath and took the plunge, reaching forward to open it.

With a collective gasp, they all took a step back, Beau backing up until she was pressed against one of the windows. She looked away, unable to stand the sight of a very bloody, very dead Gary inside the locker.

He may have been a prick but he didn't deserve to be brutally murdered like this.

"I did wonder what had happened to him.," Nathan said weakly.

"He's going to kill us!" Kelly cried.

"Turn back time," Nathan demanded, turning to Curtis. "Stop this happening!"

"Yeah!" Beau agreed. "Take us back so we don't have to deal with this at all!

"I don't know how it works!"

"That's great, that's really useful!" Nathan shot back snidely.

Curtis turned away, shaking his head, a saw Alisha who was staring at the scene in front of her, clearly horrified.

"Come on," Curtis said. "Don't look at him." He reached down to grab her hand and instantly tensed up, sucking in a breath before looking down at Alisha, eyes wide and desperate.

"I've got to have sex with you right now!" He told her, bearing down on her, despite her sounds of surprise and protest. "You're so beautiful!"

"What the fuck!" Beau met Nathan's confused gaze, looking for some confirmation that this was actually happening right now.

"Let's go," Curtis continued, reaching down to begin shoving his jumpsuit down. "Let's do it raw!"

"Get off me, you freak!" Alisha finally managed to shove him away, glaring at him.

"What?" Curtis looked genuinely confused as he reached out to touch Alisha's hand again. Like the last time, the effect was instantaneous. "You're so hot! I'm gonna bone you, I'm gonna shag you senseless!"

She pushed him away again, and Curtis stumbled away, looking around confusedly. "What did I do?"

"You said you were going to shag her," Nathan said. "You were getting your chap out."

"Shut up!"

"It's when you were touching her," Beau pointed out quickly.

Alisha looked down at her hand thoughtfully for a moment before reaching out suddenly to touch Simon's neck. Like Curtis, he tensed up immediately before turning to look at Alisha with those round, desperate eyes It was kind of scary if Beau was being completely honest.

"I'm so hard for you," Simon leered down at her, leaning in as if to kiss her. "I want to rip your clothes off and piss on your tits!"

The others looked as horrified by that as Beau felt and Alisha stepped back, away from Simon, looking as if she might cry.

"What is happening to me?" She demanded.

"You sick bastard!" Nathan said to Simon, seeming almost amused.

Before he could say anything else, however, there was the sound of crashing glass from behind Beau and she was shoved forward, letting loose with a scream befitting of a horror movie that echoed down the halls of the community center and made the others all whip around in shock to see what was happening.

Beau fell forward as Tony stepped in through the broken window and as Beau fell she was suddenly certain that this was it, this was how she was going to die. She had never been so scared in her life.

And then the world shifted.

It was a sudden thing, coming over her quickly and without expectations. One moment she was falling forward, hands thrown out in front of her impulsive, to try to catch herself. And then the next, it was like someone had thrown a very ugly orange polyester blanket over her head.

It was like everything came suddenly screeching into focus, sharper now than it had ever been before. The sounds, the smells.

Oh God, the smell of blood.

She landed soundly on all fours, before scrambling out from the orange fabric because Tony was still right there, practically radiating killer intent. She could smell his sweat, could hear his breaths.

Once free of the orange fabric, Beau was amazed to find the world so much larger than it had been previously, but she had no time to marvel over this and so darted away, her movements quick and elegant as she darted behind Nathan who was closest.

Not to be deterred by the loss of his previous target, Tony rounded on Kelly but she was already ready for him, lashing out to hit him in the side of the head with a paint can.

He hit the ground like a log, leaving the others to look down at him with shock.

"Is he dead?" Kelly asked, putting into the words the question that everyone had been wondering.

"I'm no doctor," Nathan began, "but you see the way the back of his head's caved in like that-"

"CHAV!" Tony shot up suddenly, reaching out to grip Kelly's ankle but she was having none of it and proceeded to stomp his head in.

"I'm not a chav!" She yelled.

"That should do it," Nathan said, sounding disgusted.

Beau too was disgusted and took a few steps back, suddenly taking in the fact that yes, she was much smaller.

What the hell?

She opened her mouth, ready to ask the others what had happened to her but instead all that came out was a pitiful mewl that had the others turning to look down at her.

Beau's eyes, now a bright green instead of the usual brown, widened, and she raised a hand up in front of her face but instead of hand, it was a dainty orange paw instead.

What the fuuuuuuuck!

Without a word, Nathan reached down to scoop her up in his arms before straightening up again so the others could get a good look at her.

They all stared and she looked around wildly between them, looking for an explanation.

"You're a cat," Simon told her finally as if she had not figured that out by this point.

Yes, she was a cat, complete with a tail and whiskers and orange tabby fur.

She leveled him with a look that clearly said really, not at all impressed with his observation.

She had figured out that she was a cat, what she had not figured out what why or how or, perhaps the most important question of all, how the hell she was supposed to change back.

And yes, now on top of all of that they had to deal with a very dead probation worker.

Great.

Very pointedly, Beau looked down at Tony's body, then to Kelly, and back again, her meaning clear.

It was Nathan who put it into words.

"You killed our operation worker!"

"He would have killed us!" Kelly defended.

Somehow, Beau didn't think the police would believe them. They were six young offenders, criminals, and Tony was a fine, upstanding member of society. He had been helping to rehabilitate them.

"We should call the police," Curtis said firmly. "It was self-defense."

"He's right," Nathan agreed. "We show them the dead boy in the locker, they'll do some CSI shit - and figure it out!"

But Kelly had looked up, meeting Beau's haze, obviously reading her thoughts.

"They won't believe us.," Kelly told them finally, clearly agreeing with Beau.

"We just tell them the truth," Curtis insisted. "We stick to our story."

"What's our story?" Kelly scoffed. "That he can turn invisible and you can turn back time? It doesn't matter what we tell them, they'll say we're lying! They'll say we killed them both! No one's gonna believe you, not anymore!"

It seemed as if their futures had been sealed when Simon finally spoke up.

"No body, no crime."

Everyone raised their heads to look at him, silence falling between them as Simon finally raised his chin, clearly confident in this plan.

His confident plan to hide dead bodies. That didn't make Beau feel very good.

"We should bury them under the flyover," Simon told them firmly.

"How do we do that?" Curtis asked. "Someone's gonna see us!"

"We just give them a quick fix!" Nathan said. "Put them in those wheelchairs, wheel them up there, and if anyone sees us, we're just a bunch of young offenders taking a couple of specials for a walk in the sunshine!"

And that, it seemed, was the best solution any of them could come up with. There was just one more problem that needed to be addressed.

She meowed loudly, drawing everyone's attention back to her and reminding them that she was still a cat.

I don't know how to change back! She thought desperately at Kelly who frowned.

"She says she doesn't know how to change back," she told the others.

"Well, how did you change in the first place?" Nathan asked and she shook her head, a very strange gesture to see from a cat, but the meaning was clear.

I don't know.

"Just focus on it," Simon advised, sounding very much like he knew what he was talking about. "Focus on your human self and think about changing."

Well, that sounded fairly straight-forward and as nobody else was offering forth any explanations about the most promising option she had. And Beau had been about to close her eyes to focus when she remembered one very important detail.

My clothes!

She turned to look at where they laid in a heap on the ground. Kelly snorted, walking over to collect them, along with Beau's shoes, before looking back to Beau.

"You'll want to try changing back in the locker room," she guessed.

Beau gave a small mewl of agreement before leaping out of Nathan's arms and landing lightly on her paws, marveling for a moment at the amount of grace this body held. Then she was off, trotting down the hallway with Kelly close behind, leading the others to prepare the bodies.

She couldn't think about. Beau just could not think about it. Right now she just needed to worry about changing back and then she would worry about the dead bodies and then… well, she would worry about that later.

But Beau had never been particularly good at not thinking and as she entered the locker room the only thing she could think about was the fact that their lives might have just been completely ruined.

But, on the bright side, if they did get found out, Beau could potentially just live out the rest of her days as a cat. Find a nice family to take her in while the others all rotted behind bars.

"That's nice of you," Kelly said dryly, setting the clothes down on one of the benches. "I'll leave you alone, yeah?"

And with that, she turned to walk out again, heading to help the others and leaving Beau in the locker room on her own to figure out this whole changing thing on her own.

She stalked back and forth for a moment, thinking about how badly she wanted to be herself again, about how badly she didn't want to live out the rest of her days as a cat.

But did she want to be herself again? A young offender who was living at home with her twat of a mother and who was about to help bury dead bodies. Was that really the person Beau wanted to be?

No, but it wasn't like she had a lot of choices right now, it was either that or she would spend her life as a cat, and then she really would be homeless because as much as her mum disliked Beau she hated animals even more.

This wasn't working. She needed to find a different approach to this. And so instead of thinking about how much she wanted to change, she pictured herself in her mind instead, pictured herself as she had looked in the mirror that morning, tired and panicked and confused and miserable, and then she thought about changing, about becoming that person once more.

It was a strange feeling, like a shock through her nervous system. It didn't hurt really but the next thing Beau knew she was suddenly rising to her feet, back to her full height now and without all the fur, thank you.

She looked down at her hands, spreading her fingers out almost as if she were testing them, suddenly grateful to see actual fingers instead of paws.

It had worked, she told herself, despite the fact that she had been so scared that it wouldn't,

She got dressed slowly, putting on that horrid orange jumpsuit again before pausing to look at herself in the mirror.

Brown hair, brown eyes, everything as it was supposed to be. She was Beau, not a cat.

A cat. She had been a cat.

Everything rushed to hit her suddenly, all at once, and before Beau could stop it, a sob tore from her throat and tears fell hot down her cheeks. She leaned against the line of lockers and slid to the ground as she covered her mouth with her hand in an attempt to muffle the sobs.

It was too late though, it seemed because she heard the sound of footsteps approaching and then a now familiar Irish accent calling, "Hello?"

Oh God, she thought. Not him. Anyone but him.

He would never leave her alone about it. Everyone else was doing what needed to be done and Beau was sitting here crying like a baby.

Nathan peered in cautiously, saw that she was fully dressed and proceeded to come in all the way, looking like he didn't know what to do now that he had found her crying.

To her credit, Beau tried in vain to wipe away the tears and snot but it didn't do much good as more quickly replaced them.

Finally, Nathan settled on dealing with the situation as best he knew how.

"You've never looked sexier," he told her.

Bad jokes.

Still, it earned a surprised laugh from Beau and Nathan seemed to take that as an invitation to sit down across from her.

"You don't have to sit in here with me," she told him immediately.

"Nah," he replied. "If I'm in here it means I'm not out there helping them with the bodies. I told them I was coming to check on you."

Beau snorted, surprised that that had worked at all. "Using me for an excuse?" She asked. "Why am I not surprised."

"Because it's not a very surprising thing for me to do," Nathan replied smartly, earning another laugh.

She wasn't crying anymore at least, but there was still tear tracks staining her face and her eyes were puffy and red, the skin around them splotched and ugly from where she had rubbed at them in vain.

"God," she said, allowing her head to fall back against the locker. "Dead bodies. Powers. What the fuck even is my life anymore?"

"On the upside, you're power is cooler than weird kid's. Shapeshifting trumps invisibility every time."

They both snorted at that.

With a sigh, Beau reached up to wipe at her eyes again though this accomplished nothing, before beginning to rise. "Guess we'd better go help."

"Or you could cry some more," Nathan suggested. "And I'll tell them I was comforting you and that way neither of us has to go help."

"They wouldn't appreciate the two of us skiving off," Beau pointed out, "And it was your idea."

Nathan sighed before nodding and standing up as well. He took a moment to observe Beau. "If you don't want to look like you've been having a good cry, you might want to wash your face," he told her.

---

Nothing. We say nothing to no one.

That was all Beau could think about that night and into the next morning. When her alarm finally went off, she reached over wordlessly to hit the snooze, already awake.

She hadn't gotten any sleep at all.

If she kept up like this, it was going to end up killing her, but how in the world could she be expected to sleep at all after having helped bury two bodies the day prior.

It all felt a little too horror movie for her taste and even thinking about it caused her stomach to turn.

So don't think about it.

Nothing. We say nothing to no one.

And that was the only thing she could think the next day when their replacement probation worker lined them up to begin asking questions about Tony and Gary.

Nothing to no one. Nothing to no one. Nothingnothingnothing.

They had had a completely normal day yesterday, scrubbing the fresh graffiti off the plywood boards covering the busted windows outside. Tony? No, he wasn't acting strangely. Why? He disappeared.

Wow, how strange. It wasn't like we killed them or anything.

Already, Beau could feel her throat closing up, panic threatening to set in.

"Gary and my colleague, Tony, have both been reported missing," the probation worker, Sally, began. "Their families are very worried about them. Have you seen anything unusual, anything at all?"

Her gaze had settled on Beau, apparently identifying her as the weakest link and… well, who was Beau to argue? Because she was right about that, Beau felt like she was about a step away from crying or throwing up. Or both.

Neither of those would seem very innocent.

To her right, Nathan raised his hand, making Sally look at him in surprise.

"You saw something?"

Beau nearly sighed out loud in relief.

"A few days ago I go into the toilets," Nathan began. "Tony and Gary were in there. They are butt naked, Tony has Gary by his hair, like this, and he's just doing him, doggy style. And Tony is like, 'Who's your daddy? I'm your daddy, I'm Big Daddy. You like that? I'm Daddy Cool!' So I'm guessing they've run away to continue their illicit homosexual affair. I ask you, in this world of intolerance and prejudice, who are we, who are we to condemn them?"

He looked around at them as if expecting one of them to say something but when none of them did he looked back at Sally, offering her a smile, clearly pleased with himself.

Beau wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry.

Sally sighed. "Just… get to work," she said finally, waving them away.

"I think we got away with it!"

Curtis rolled his eyes, turning to stare at Nathan as the worked their way down the pavement, collecting trash. "Do you actually believe that - or are you really dumb?"

"I actually believe that. Although," Nathan turned to look at Beau who had hardly spoken a word all day. "You need to work on your poker face, Kitten."

She sighed and nodded slowly. "I'll work on it," she told everyone before pausing and scrunching up her nose slightly, looking at Nathan in confusion. "Kitten?"

"You change into a cat," he reminded her. "It fits."

She wasn't sure if she liked it more or less than Princess.

"Speaking of powers," Nathan continued. "I was there. I should have one of these bullshit powers!"

"You can have mine," Kelly offered resentfully. "You want to hear what people are thinking about you?"

"Not so much," Nathan shook his head. "I want something good, something from the A-list."

"Maybe you can fly," Simon suggested.

"He's not going to be able to fly," Kelly assured him, though Beau didn't understand why it wasn't a possibility. How did any of their powers make sense?

"There's always someone that can fly," Nathan said gleefully, crossing over to a raised patch of pavement and climbing atop it. He situated himself at the end before jumping off and…

Promptly hitting the ground,

Beau couldn't help but laugh, reaching up to cover her mouth so that he wouldn't see her smile when he finally got up.

"No," Nathan groaned, standing up and dusting himself off. "That's not it."

"So, what happens now?" Beau asked, looking around at everyone. Was this just what their life was now? Community service and trying to hide their powers and the awful, awful thing that they did?

"What if we're meant to be, like, superheroes?" Simon suggested.

Nathan scoffed. "You lot, superheroes? No offense, but in what kind of fucked-up world would that be allowed to happen?"

"He's right," Beau said. "Who the hell are we equipped. I suppose I'd only be able to go after the bad guys who are allergic to cats."

That earned a bit of laughter from the others, except for Simon who had clearly retreated into himself once more.

"Superheroes!" Nathan shook his head. "I love this guy. You prick!"

"What if there are loads of people like us all over town?" Simon defended.

"No, that kind of thing only happens in America," Nathan assured him. "This will fade away. I'm telling you, by this time next week, it'll be back to the same old boring shit."

Beau could only hope that he was right.

---

AUTHOR'S NOTE: First, let me apologize for this absolute monster of a chapter. The other's won't be this long I promise!

Second, let me introduce you guys to my new fic, Power Play! I don't know how much time I'm gonna focus on this fic (probably a lot because I'm Nathan trash and love Robert Sheehan with all of my little heart) but for anyone following State of Grace, don't worry. That's still happening and I'm still working to get Orpheus done as well. This is just another project that I was really excited about with an oc that I really love.

So yeah, I'm excited for this fic and would love to hear what you guys think! As always, if you're interested in seeing updates on my writing or any of the things I make for my fics and ocs, you can follow me on my tumblr at harleyquinnzelz!