Author's Note: Daaargh there's too much talking in this one xP I don't know why but I made Drake sound really... kinda smart. Smarter than Lex.

Drake's POV

I'm now a month and a half into ninth grade. Hating it.

Not so much "I'm such a cool druggie that school couldn't possibly contain me" hate. Just a boredom hate, though there are certain things that amuse me.

Jane Laren, the detention supervisor.

Our poor, poor guidance counselor who has to sit through me ranting about killing him.

Caine's now-fully developed crush on Diana.

The new girl.

Jane is a geezer. She's okay for a teacher but she drones. And what amuses me is how she gets really mad whenever I do something but she has to control herself. I wonder how many migraines and inner tantrums I've given her over the past few years.

Caine has always been attracted to Diana. Hell, I'm the only male on campus not following her Highness around. She's a bitch. Smug and she doesn't know when to stop. I hear a great deal of hypocrisy in there, but I know what I'm doing and I consciously keep pushing if I want to piss someone off. She's just an idiot.

Why every guy around here likes her, I'll never get. What does she have on her after looks?

I'm shallow. Of course I'm shallow. But even I'm not as dim-witted enough to pursue someone as conniving as Diana Ladris.

And the new girl, Alexis Caro.

I know she hates my guts. I should be hating hers but the truth is that it kind of gratifies me every time she pulls one on me or I get her back. Obviously, it irritates and frustrates me at the same time, but there's always that little bit of 'I'm shooting a water gun at a girl in a white shirt' in the back of my head. Or something like that. Hormones.

I've got severely mixed feelings about her. Sometimes I want to make her scream. I want her to shriek and show she's inferior and I want her to see her own blood. That's when she gets me mad. Perhaps it's sickening to you, but if you've lived my life, there's this need for dominance and superiority. A fight is usually the best way to establish that. Other times, I'm silently appraising her smile. She's got different ones, a coy one (kind of what you'd expect to appear on a shy girl's face when the boy she likes talks to her), and this huge smile that shows up when she sees something she likes. Her first entrance into the Coates Academy library, for instance. Lit up her face. Then there's her sadistic smirk, the one she gives me all the time.

She's no Diana. Admittedly, Lex Caro is cute, but she's not gorgeous. Nice face, flat stomach, slim arms, shaving cream ad-worthy shins and calves. What went wrong with her? Her thighs. They're kind of strong from, as I've heard, years on a competitive swim team, so they give her a bit more bulk though she's still fairly lean.

I don't know how I know such details.

Don't get me wrong, it's not only her. Not like I'm noticing her or something. I just get details, like that weird strand of Caine's hair that never stays in place, or the lines around Diana's mouth when she smirks.

The worst thing about Caro would be how she doesn't give up. I could pick on Dekka and she'd just suck it up and try to ignore it. Caro, she gets me back. Like her Taekwondo club sparring partner stunt soon after my dart trick.

And the hockey stick in the face after my baseball bat on the arm.

We've got quite a… violent relation here. But I kind of like it. At least she doesn't think I'm some crazy psycho who'll shoot her. Like that Taylor brat, she doesn't do anything when I push her around because she's scared of me.

And having the world afraid of you is never a good feeling. Especially when you're fourteen.

"Get up."

I turn over tiredly to see Caine Soren standing over me. We're roommates, God help me. We both get nightmares all the time. Caine dreams of… assorted things. Me, I mostly dream of death. Death and company. But here's the major difference: if I have a bad dream and I wake up, I deal with it, tough it out, and blast music until the morning. Caine wakes me up to keep him company for about half an hour until he's ready to sleep again.

Guess we both had nightmares tonight.

I pop an earbud out. "What?" A one-syllable attempt to make him back off. This works on everyone at Coates. Everyone but Caine.

He smiles grimly. "You're not scary, Drakie."

"At the very least, I'm not scared."

This, obviously, gets to him. He raises a hand and I would have gone flying back if my back hadn't already been to a wall. We noticed this a while ago: that Caine was… kind of mutating. In a fairly useful way too, bringing to mind Superman. Except that Caine Soren is in no way the hero.

I haven't developed anything, but I've heard of other kids starting to get stuff. Like Dekka. Her and her anti-gravity. And Taylor, yes, wimpy Taylor, who can teleport.

Caro, I suspect, has something going on too. Like my dart from the other day. I found it yesterday in Jane's class. Presumably, she left it there. But anyways, it surprised me. The steel end… flattened out. It looks like a funnel now, almost.

How does someone do that?

And her sculpture for art club. I remember her saying that she was making a dove, but the end result was a dove with imprints where hands would be. She called it 'In the Hands of God'. How do you make hand imprints on metal?

I guess you could say I've gotten used to the prospect of these abilities. The wielders of such powers are, quite frankly, considered freaks by me, but they're still blending in for now. It kind of leaves me wondering how Caro, of all people, have powers. I think most of these freak abilities center around Perdido Beach, but she's a newcomer. So how come she's bending metal and I'm still relying on natural strength?

"Try harder, Caine. Maybe if I go through the wall, nobody will suspect anything."

This makes him grit his teeth in irritation. Caine is a lot of things. Something he's not, however, would be forgiving. He's in perfect control of his temper—at the very most, he'll let only a flash of anger show before pasting a smile onto his face again. Nobody knows what he's thinking or if he remembers that time you shot him with a rubber band. Let me tell you now: Caine Soren holds grudges. He may never get the chance to get back at you until a point when even you've forgotten what you did to him, but he will avenge himself in some way or another.

Yeah, there. His grin has reappeared. Funny, you never get the feel of teenage boy around Caine. Just Italian mafia gang leader. Until he's stalking Diana, that is. I guess the same could be said for me, minus Diana. But I'm not the gang leader. Caine is the chess player and I'm the knight. And in his game, Diana is the king. The useless, restricted, but most highly important king. I don't enjoy being the knight. In fact, I'm hoping to take charge, though Caine is obviously on the look-out for me.

"Hey Drake, do you like that new girl or something?"

"Not really." I say this casually, deciding on Led Zeppelin. Click. Stare at the iPod until he shuts up.

"I noticed how you guys always say things like 'love you' and such whenever one gets back at the other. Simple psychology: your excuse is that you hate her and it's sarcasm but you really are just trying to get it out of your system."

"You're a nosy fag, you know that?"

He smiles knowingly. "Is that a confirmation of my suspicions?"

"No. I don't like her. Have you ever seen a crazy buff chick like that before? She's not normal. Not to mention her temper."

"Wow. You have so much in common."

"Shut up."

I turn the volume up so high that I can only see Caine (who can probably hear the music but still insists on talking) mouthing words now.

"Did you know that Alexis is a total girl?" Caine gives me a conspiratorial grin. "She reads that shojo manga stuff."

"You're a creep."

"No, I just know how to find dirt. If you're ever looking to get with her, just read High School Debut. Her favorite, according to Taylor."

"Shut the fuck up, Caine." I can't help getting mad now. Why the hell is he still talking? He's really looking for trouble. I have no respect for Caine: I only put up with him because I have to. And I usually do that pretty well. But it's God-flipping three in the morning.

"But it this could be… potentially useful to get back at her too, Drakie."

"Yeah, yeah, Cainie."

I'm thinking. Devious, devious thoughts.