CHAPTER TWO

"Focus, Gale. Focus!"

"Caine I can't do this." Gale said with her teeth grinding together, She had sweat rolling down her face. She was a meter and a half from an old window.

Caine had Gale testing her power out at a distance. He thought she could break glass without touching it. She had never tried before she had started practicing with him.

She had never been a part of something like this. This group of freaks had become her family. She sat with some of them at lunch and they asked her to hang out with then while they did homework. They saw her.

Caine made her feel special. He made her feel like people looked at her. He made her feel like he looked at her, and slowly but surely she developed feelings. Shortly after she discovered them she realized that Caine only had eyes for Diana.

But he didn't really, did he? Diana was brainwashing him to love her. She had turned this boy into her lapdog. Gale would do everything she could to stop that.

"Gale, don't be weak. You aren't trying hard enough." Caine was leaning up against a near wall, shouting at her. It was just the two of them in the room.

"I'm trying as hard. As. I. CAN!" she was yelling now.

They had been doing this for almost an hour and Gale felt like crying.

"Clearly not!" Caine was walking toward her now. He kept going until he was less than a foot from her. "Don't make me regret talking to you. Don't make me regret spending my time on someone so goddam worthless!"

Gale pressed harder. Harder. As hard as she could.

"Ahhh!" She wouldn't let Caine down. She couldn't.

Gale squeezed her eyes shut and put all her focus on the middle of the window where Caine had drawn a red dot.

With one last burst of energy, Gale called out then dropped her hands and gave up.

Caine started to clap slowly. 'He must be making fun of me", Gale thought with get eyes still shut.

"I knew you could do it. Now we just need you to learn to do it faster... Preferably with less yelling as well."

Gale opened her eyes and saw that the window looked like a jackhammer had been smashed into it. It was so shattered you could no longer find that small red bulls eye.

She sat down hard on the chair behind her. "I did it." she looked at Caine in shock, "I actually did it."

Caine stood next to her with his hand on her shoulder. He looked at her, then at the broken glass. "Yes. You did. I guess you'll be useful after all. I was starting to have my doubts. Good think you proved me wrong."

With that he removed his hand from her and turned away.

"I actually did it." Was all she could whisper to the now empty room.


Gale stood in line for the cafeteria food. It always smelled like garbage and tasted like fingernails. it was like they just had a past that they painted to look like different types of food. After receiving her "Potatoes and Steak", Gale went to sit with a boy named Andrew, and a girl named Brianna. She sat with them everyday and didn't have to ask if she could sit with them anymore. They were very different but they talked to her and if anyone did that she would be their friend in a heartbeat.

Gale was just walking toward her usual table when a smooth voice called her over, "Gale."

Gale turned and saw Caine waving her over to his table. On his right side that witch Diana. They sat with their shoulders just touching. Gale was mad just watching them. Sitting in front of Caine was a steely boy who she knew was called Drake Merwin. She had never met him but she knew from rumors that she should stay as far away as possible from that boy. People talked about him in whispers and they said stuff like torture, guns, animal mutilation, and psychopath.

Caine waved his hand in a motion that was obviously saying, "Come over here."

As she started walking Gale suddenly became aware of every aspect of her body. She changed the way she was walking so her hips swayed a little more. She puckered her lips so they looked full. She noticed her back wasn't completely straight so she adjusted her posture and with that movement she stuck out her chest to fool people into thinking she had something she really didn't. Gale's last move of self-improvement was sucking in her stomach to get rid of that last bit of tummy flab. She did this all in the period of 22 steps. The distance from where she was to Caine's table.

As she neared the table she saw that Diana was quite obviously giving him a look that meant what the hell do you think you're doing. When she was only a few feet away from the most terrifying table in the huge room. "Hey Caine", Gale tried to make her voice sound silky but in her head it just sounded sloppy and slurred.

"You wanna sit?" Caine asked gesturing to the empty chair.

Yes!

"Umm...I guess. My friends shouldn't miss me too much." Gale said as she slipped into her new seat.

"Do you know Drake Merwin?" Caine asked.

"Not really. We've never met."

"Well, that's Drake. Now you have."

God, he was perfect.

Gale smiled, "Thanks", she said to Caine. Then she turned to face Drake, "Hey."

He grunted in response and hunched over his plate. Then he started eating.

Gale couldn't help but stare as he finished his entire plate in less than a minuet. She looked up at Caine and saw a smirk written on his face from seeing the amazed expression on her face.

"So, Gale-" Caine had started but he was interrupted by Drake suddenly standing up and walking away. Gale watched as he walked toward the food line and passed every other kid without so much as a groan. It seems like Gale wasn't the only one afraid of Drake. They could only just hear what he was saying over the buzz in the lunch room.

"I'm still hungry." That was it. Three words and the woman behind the counter went ghostly pale and filled his plate again with even more than the first time. Drake the turned around and made his way back to his table. As he sat down he was faced with three very different facial expressions. The first he saw was Caine's. It just looked like he was holding back laughter. Diana's was the next he saw. It was only of disgust and contempt. It was a look that said something like, "What is wrong with you, you pig?". The last face he saw was Gale's. She looked kind of scared but also it was almost a look of awe. Like she couldn't believe someone could do that.

"What? Screw off."

Diana scoffed and muttered something under her breath while Gale just looked down at her plate. There was an incredibly awkward silence between the table and desperate to fit in Gale started talking. "So Diana, I really like your makeup."

She looked up and raised an eyebrow. "Thanks..."

"Well this is thrilling, I hate to change the topic but I thought we should talk about when our next meeting should be." Caine said in an almost mocking tone.

"I'm free whenever", Gale said a little too quickly. Diana shot Caine a look.

"Good to know", Caine was smiling. Just then the bell went and Drake got up and left right away. Diana got up a few second later, took a couple steps then looked back at Caine.

"Are you coming or what? I'm not waiting forever."

"Yeah, I'm coming." Caine got up walked a few steps then looked back at Gale, "I'll see you in English?"

She didn't think he knew she was in his English class. "Yeah, for sure."

"I'll save you a seat by me", Caine added with his most charming voice and before he turned he set a quick wink her way. Gale could've fainted right there. She was in. She was one of them and soon enough Caine would be her's.


Diana and Cine were walking out of the caff when she turned to him and said in a very accusing voice, "Why are you playing that girl?"

"We may need her." He replied calmly. Then he added, "Why? You jealous?"

"You wish."