2 Days had passed since the explosion at the school. It was Saturday, and Amanda had sent a text message to both Reya and Violet to see if they wanted to hang out.
There was no point in trying to get communication privileges from Dominick. It was clear he didn't want anything to do with the rest of them, and as nice as Max seemed, he did have a reputation to uphold. Amanda respected that.
She pulled up an article in Russian just to see if she could translate anything. This is what her hobby had become, and it was getting easier. At first it was like looking at something without glasses, like it kind of hurt her eyes, but now the words are making more sense and its clearer now. She had read almost a complete sentence when Violet responded "Sure." And about 30 seconds later Reya responded similarly.
They had all met up at the "Café –On-The-Corner." A local coffee shop.
" So have you guys developed anything new about your powers?" Amanda asked quietly.
" Not really. I haven't gotten a chance." Violet said, shrugging, then looking Reya.
"Uh. Kinda. My dreams are getting less and less weird, I guess. Yesterday I grabbed some ice and it turned into a gun-In my vision, not in real life." She explained.
"I see. What do you think it means?" Amanda asked, a glimmer in her eyes.
It made Reya uncomfortable how comfortable Amanda was with the whole situation. She was so happy all the time.
"Look, uh, if we're just going to talk about powers, I don't think I should have come." Reya said, pushing her chair out to leave.
"No, wait, I'm sorry!" Amanda exclaimed.
" I won't bring it up again." Amanda promised. Reya sighed.
"Alright." She sat back down.
Violet looked between the two of them.
"So what do you guys want to do after we get our coffee?" Violet asked.
"I'm good with anything." Amanda shrugged.
"Can we go by the music store?" Reya asked.
"Sure, it's not that far away." Violet said.
Then their barista walked up to them.
"Good morning, you guys, my name's Joe and I'll be your barista today." He said. He had tan skin and dark hair. He looked Italian but he had kind of a Spanish-Mexican accent.
"I thought barista's were just for starbucks?" Amanda asked.
"What? Oh no, it's for any kind of coffee shop, I'm pretty sure." He said.
"Oh. Alright, I'll have honey lemon tea!" Amanda said, smiling.
"Ice-Mocha, please." Reya said, putting an earbud in one of her ears.
"Can I have a hazelnut latte? "Violet asked.
"Sure. Alright, I'll be right back with those." He walked away.
Amanda strained to think of something that wasn't about powers.
Violet looked between the two of them, and suddenly spoke.
"So do you guys have Mrs. Lindsey? "She said.
"Yeah." Reya said.
"I remember being in her class… Have you gotten her pre-fall break 'Study guide'? "She made quotation marks with her fingers.
"Oh my god, yeah." She rolled her eyes and chuckled.
"What's on the study guide?" Amanda asked, oblivious.
"It's a special piece of paper, with her name signed at the bottom with like, some weird ass blue ink so she'll know if we copy it from the internet or something like that." Reya rolled her eyes and chuckled.
"There's only certain things we can write on it. The 'most important things.' " Reya explained.
"Oh…That's stupid." Amanda said.
"She's so lazy. It's what you get for being in an on-level class. But I found out where she keeps her spark notes so you can just copy the things that are 'the most important.' "Violet said, looking very proud of herself.
" Oh my god, thank you. I'm about to fail that class." She said, smiling. Amanda and Violet looked at each other with pleased expressions.
"Alright, you're total is $7.59. " Joe said, handing out the drinks. Reya touched her cold cup, and gasped.
Suddenly the windows shattered and three masked people charged in, carrying bags of money.
When she opened her eyes again, there were no men, and the windows were fine.
"Sorry, the uh, coffee is cold it scared me."
"I thought you said you wanted iced-coffee?" Joe asked.
"Yeah, no, I did, it just…Startled me." She forced a smile at him, and he looked at her as he took Violet's 10 dollar bill, insisting that she pay.
"What did you see?" Amanda whispered when Joe walked away. Violet seemed just as interested.
"The window shattered, and these three guys ran in with bags of money."
"What like a robbery?" Violet asked.
"Yeah that's what it felt like."
"What did they look like?" Amanda asked.
"I don't know, they were wearing masks. These like, white Jason masks with a green water drop under their left eye." She explained.
"That's a symbol for poison, I think." Violet said.
"The vile!" Amanda exclaimed.
"Shh…" Reya said, putting her finger to her lips.
"The only other person here is that Joe guy, and he's in the back." Amanda defended herself.
"So the Vile is gonna rob a bank?" Violet asked.
"How do you guys know about the vile? Joe asked, walking out from around the corner.
"Crap!" Amanda said, preparing to run out of the coffee shop.
"Hey calm down! I'm not a member!" He said putting his hands up.
"You're a member of Chaos law?" Violet asked.
"No! I'm just a mutant!" He said.
"You are…?" Reya asked.
"And I'm assuming you guys are if you're members of Chaoslaw." He said.
"We're, uh, actually not members." Reya said, looking at the two of them for confirmation.
"We got invited to join, but we're still thinking about it." Violet explained.
" Ah, I see. I was a member of Chaoslaw a while ago. But one time I was a part of one of their gang battles. It…Wasn't pretty." He said.
" They have gang battles?" Reya asked.
"Yeah…" He said, looking around.
"And people…Get hurt…?" Amanda asked.
"…Yeah…" He said, unbuttoning his shirt to show a crack-shaped scar on his chest.
" Oh my god…" Violet covered her mouth.
"Who did that to you?" Reya asked.
"Their leader, Korus. He has lightning powers, and he stopped my heart for a while. When I woke up in the hospital is when I decided to quit Chaoslaw. I also had to drop out of school because I didn't want to deal with the consequences of quitting."
"There are consequences?" Amanda asked, clutching her pants in a ball in her fist.
" Unspokenly. London doesn't 'condone' negative behavior towards any past members. But first they like to trip you and trivial stuff like that. I know one member went blind in his left eye and had a broken arm for a while because he quit. He was put in the hospital for like a month because his rib had punctured his lung. The doctors though he was going to die. " He said, buttoning his shirt back up and tucking it back into his pants.
" That's awful." Amanda said.
"Yeah, it is. " He said, walking away.
Max walked out of the showers. Saturday Basketball practice had just ended. He put on his extra clothes after drying off and walked outside the school, to walk to his car. That's when he saw Jade sitting on a bench, seemingly waiting for him.
"Hi." She said, smiling.
"Hey." Max said, looking around to see if any of the other members were gonna walk out.
"Don't worry, I'll tell you if one of them is coming. You don't want them to think you're cheating on your girlfriend, right?" She asked.
"You shouldn't just invade people's emotions like that." Max said, sitting next to her.
"What do you want?" He asked her.
"Just wanted to talk. You seem a little bit more accepting than your other friends." She said.
"You mean the other four you guys brought to the gym the other day?" He asked.
"Yup!" She said cheerily.
"They're not my friends, actually." He said.
"You know when a group of people's powers come into being at the same time, they're drawn together by some kind of super force." She explained.
"Right…" He said, running his fingers through his still-damp hair.
" So…Like, what kind of people are the Vile?" Max asked suddenly.
" They're a very extreme group of people. I don't blame them, they blame the normal humans for thinking they're freaks." She explained.
" So they…" He couldn't say it.
"Kill people?" Jade finished.
"Yeah, once or twice people have died." She said, pushing her big round glasses up.
" And the Chaoslaw, they…?"
"Protect their members" She nodded her head, standing up.
"You're friends are coming. But really, think about joining. You won't regret it."
Dominick was sitting in his room, his phone connected to his very old, beat-up speakers. He was drinking water from a glass, no ice in it. He was playing some trivial first person shooter game. When suddenly, his music became static, and warped.
"What the hell?" Dominick asked, tapping it lightly to try and get it to stop. When suddenly, white noise came out of it, as if it were a telephone call.
"Hello Dominick." A voice said from the speakers.
"What the hell?" He repeated, more dumbfounded this time.
"My name is Adam. Can you come outside?"
"What the…No! Go away leave my stuff alone!" He unplugged his phone from the speaker, but then he saw the volume on his phone go all the way up.
"What if we said pretty please?" The voice mocked. His water made a weird cracking noise, and he looked at it. It was frozen solid.
"Oh hell no. Are you one of those fucking gang members?"
"You've heard of us?" This Adam person asked over the line, seeming pleased.
"Yeah I met your weird leader person, in the gym of the abandoned school." He said, trying to hang up but the phone wouldn't respond.
"Fuck." He whispered under his breath.
"Oh. Not us. You've met with those Chaoslaw people. No, we're the OTHER gang. Still heard of us?"
"Wait a minute…You're those assholes who blew up the school?" He asked.
"Just a part. It was to get people's attention. No one died." He said calmly.
"The Bile or some shit like that?" He asked, looking out the window but he didn't see anyone on the street. They must be on the other side of the building, was the conclusion Dominick came to.
"Vile." He heard someone said irritated in the background.
"Whatever." Dominick said, getting out his knife from the drawer, and putting it in his pocket.
"We heard from a little birdie that you have some special tricks that might be fun to use."
"And what if I told you that you were wrong?" Dominick asked, walking out of his room and the apartment to start going downstairs to the front door.
"Then you'd be a liar. And we don't like liars here." Adam said. The way this guy talked made Dominick anxious.
" Let me guess, you want me to join the freak geek squad number 2?" He asked, annoyed.
" The Vile." The same irritated voice said in the background.
"Ignore him." Adam suggested.
"Yes, we came here to offer you membership. Since you so gracefully refused Chaoslaw's offer." He continued. He walked by a water jug that suddenly froze over. Dominick was walking faster down the hallways and stairs.
"And I gracefully refused yours?" Dominick asked, hand in pocket, stroking the pocket knife.
" Well then," The voice said, right as Dominick went outside and he saw three people standing there, one on the phone, grinning, as he pressed the 'End call' button on his phone, and Dominick heard the chime on his phone as the call ended on his line.
"That would be very rude."