Author's Note: I was in a really peppy mood while I wrote this so you can tell Lex's a bit nicer... until the end xD Oh, and don't worry, Drake gets even next time. By the way, I worked this out: [SPOILER ALERT] Lex's mom insisted on her spending time with her dad so she spent, like, two summers with him between her parents divorce and the beginning of the story. And Perdido Beach is actually her hometown, thus explaining her developing powers since Astrid reasoned that the powers had something to do with radiation from the power plant incident 15 years ago. I couldn't just make her appear and start developing powers so I got that worked out lol...

Anyways, I think this chapter wasn't very good... but I had to get this past to move on to some better stuff xD Drake's POV next time? Opinion, anyone?

Lex's POV

"Hey, why's Drake Merwin even at Coates?" I flop onto my bed and switch on my iPod again. I've been working at the art club for the past three hours and am utterly drained. The school's organizing some fundraiser and some dumbass on Student Council suggested an auction of student (or alumni) art pieces. Without seeing whether or not we had enough works of art to auction off in the first place.

Anyways, the whole art club is working frantically to make some art. I'm doing a metal sculpture. Week three at Coates and I'm already tired of school.

I guess the biggest thing that's happened this week is that my metal sculpture utterly melted. I don't even know how. One minute, I'm trying to shape the heated-up metal, and next, my sculpture of what should have been a dove has a melted body. I move my hand under the dove in reflex, trying to save the metal before it hits the ground, and then the whole underside of the dove… caves in.

The freakiest thing that occurred to me wasn't that, though. It was the fact that I managed to catch the molten metal from the wing. And that it wasn't hot or anything. Just… cold melted metal.

Really weird, but I don't feel like talking to anyone about it. Maybe I need a guidance counselor. I heard the Coates guidance counselor has to deal with Merwin. That must be fun.

"I mean, he goes to the counselor, doesn't he?"

Taylor chuckles from her bed where she's using her MacBook. "Drake Merwin? Are you stalking him or something?"

"Do you know how creepy that is? He's scary as shit."

"But you think he's kind of cute." Taylor waggles her eyebrows.

I shudder jokingly. Maybe it's true. And that scares me. That somewhere in the back of my mind, a psycho like Drake could be registered as cute. But anyways, 'cute' is just physical. Even if he looked like an Abercrombie model, his love life's still dead with his mentality.

"That's kind of gross. Drake Merwin isn't cute. You haven't answered my question anyhow."

"Oh, I heard he shot his neighbor or something."

I sit up so fast, I bang my foot against the side of my bed. "He shot his neighbor?"

"Yeah. Scary, huh?"

If I smile and don't believe, soon I know I'll wake from this dream. Don't try to fix me, I'm not broken. Hello, I'm the lie, living for you so you can hide.

I shut Evanescence up. "Shot his neighbor… with a gun?"

"Yeah, usually, that's what shot means."

"Dead?" I'm kind of stunned. Really stunned, actually.

"No. Just through the leg or something."

I've been messing around with a guy who probably confined someone to a wheelchair for life? Not that I care about physical harm, I mean. At the same time, it freaks me out. I don't like hurting. I'm like every other kid in the world—hurting actually hurts. But hey, I've always been absolutely invulnerable to physical pain when I get mad enough.

Wait, wait, Merwin shot a guy through the leg?

Whoa.

I hear something hit our window. Obviously, talking about Drake has psyched Taylor out. "You check it out. I'm scared he's gonna come in with a gun. Speak of the devil much?"

Ha-ha. I make my way to the window past Taylor's bed. Opening the window, I look down to see Drake grinning. He makes a heart sign with his hands, that thing Justin Bieber does all the time, then winds up his arm and something comes flying at me.

Reflexes help out a great deal here: I raise my hand (like that would do anything) and the next thing I know, a formerly steel-tipped dart has hit my palm as harmless as a suction-cup plastic dart. In fact, it looks like a suction-cup plastic dart. As I said, a formerly steel-tipped dart.

This is crazy. It's just a normal dart, but the steel part has completely flattened out. I remember seeing a sleek shape coming at me, a mako shark, not a hammerhead.

Drake's looking up at me in surprise.

I look at the dart. There's a note taped to it.

Told you I loved you.

"Thanks, Merwin." I glare at him as dully as I can, trying not to freak out. Did I just… melt metal again?

"You creep, what happened to my dart?" He narrows his eyes and starts working his way up the tree outside my window.

"What's happening?" Taylor whispers as inconspicuously as she can.

"Drake."

She scurries into our bathroom.

"Where's my dart?" He demands, eyes angry.

"I don't know. Guess you missed."

"I didn't… It flew right at you. That… should have taken your hand out. What?"

"Get your eyes checked, Merwin." I smile. We're close enough that I could lean out of my window and kiss him. I edge out. More. More…

A light push is enough to make him fall out of the tree.

A surprisingly sickening thud echoes in the dark as he hits the ground. For a long moment, he doesn't move. And then he sits up, keeping with the macho act despite how much that must have hurt. "Alexis Caro, you motherfucker!"

"I love you too, sweetie. Sleep tight."

He totters to his feet and stumbles away, biting his hand to keep from crying out. Dang, that must have really hurt.

Score.

Taylor finally inches out of our bathroom. "Is he gone?"

"Yeah. Chicken."

"And did I hear you calling him 'sweetie'?"

This makes me laugh for no real reason. "No."