p style="font-family: BergamoStdRegular, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;" Luca really hoped that the new probation worker hadn't been caught in the storm. He hoped that she was just normal. Maybe some boring woman in her late 50's, falling back on a career after getting fired from her better one. Maybe she wouldn't care what they did as long as they did it./p
p style="font-family: BergamoStdRegular, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;" em 'I really don't care what she's like,' /emhe decidedem. 'As long as she's not fucking insane.'/em/p
p style="font-family: BergamoStdRegular, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;" As he waited to cross the street Luca saw Sam stroll past on the other side, walking briskly. She stared at the ground as she walked, hands shoved into the pockets of what Luca assumed to be a wildly expensive designer coat. He thought about calling out to her and running to catch up, regardless of the red sign blinking angrily at him not to cross. But instead Luca watched her blonde head bob away down the sidewalk. She wouldn't want to talk to him. Why did he even want to talk to her? To discuss their powers? There was nothing to discuss. It didn't make sense./p
p style="font-family: BergamoStdRegular, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;"em 'She's my Achilles' heel. My English teacher from high school would find that so fuckin' poetic,'/em Luca scoffed. He could hear the man's wispy voice echoingem, 'The two who thought they had nothing in common turn out to be entangled together in a mystery, one only they can solve.'/em Or something absurd like that, Luca didn't know. He always hated English. Art and history were the only things that made sense. Shit that you could make up as you went along, and shit that already happened./p
p style="font-family: BergamoStdRegular, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;"-/p
p style="font-family: BergamoStdRegular, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;" Inside the locker room, Kevin was smoking a joint, passing it to Rachel every once in a while. It was only a small one he rolled himself that morning, nothing too strong. Only enough to make him happy. Luca wrinkled his nose at the skunky smell and changed quickly, noticing Sam standing in front of the floor length mirror, checking her reflection./p
p style="font-family: BergamoStdRegular, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;" "I think it looks best blonde," Ryan's voice came from the other side of the lockers. "Why would you want to change it anyways?"/p
p style="font-family: BergamoStdRegular, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;" "Because anybody can have blonde hair," Sam sighed impatiently. She shook her hair out, flipping it back and forth. Luca wondered if it felt as smooth and soft as it looked./p
p style="font-family: BergamoStdRegular, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;" "Anybody can have any color hair," Ryan pointed out./p
p style="font-family: BergamoStdRegular, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;" "Hey go back to black. I like the contrast of it against your skin," Rachel suggested. Sam smiled at her in the reflection, and moments later Rachel emooh/em'ed. It dawned on Luca that Sam wasn't being vain, only playing with her power. He wished that he could see her with black hair too./p
p style="font-family: BergamoStdRegular, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;" "Alright you cocks, it's 10:00, time for us to get started," Kevin sighed. He took one more long drag, coughed, and crossed to the toilets on the other side of the locker room to flush the evidence away./p
p style="font-family: BergamoStdRegular, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;" Their new probation worker was waiting for them in the lobby. She was not a frumpy woman in her 50's, newly out of a job. She must have been 30, with healthy tan skin, dark brown hair, and big green eyes behind thin tortoiseshell glasses that perched delicately on her long nose. Rachel thought that she looked more tired than a woman her age should look. The boys just thought she was hot./p
p style="font-family: BergamoStdRegular, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;" She smiled patiently at them and introduced herself./p
p style="font-family: BergamoStdRegular, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;" "Hello everybody. I'm your new probation worker, Elizabeth Robbins, but you can call me Elle," her voice was strong, but not loud. She didn't sound like she was from Boston. "I want us all to get along, and I want you to view me as somebody that you can come to if you ever need help, but first and foremost I am your probation worker. I expect to be treated with respect, and in return will grant you the same respect. Will you all introduce yourselves to me?" she asked them. When nobody spoke, her soft smile faltered. "Let's just start with you and we'll go down the line," she suggested, gesturing to Kevin. He smirked at Luca, who was not excited to find out what Kevin was about to do./p
p style="font-family: BergamoStdRegular, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;" "My name is Ryan and I'm a closet pedophile. I normally don't tell people, but you just seem so easy to talk to," he said in mock embarrassment. Beside him, Ryan looked furious./p
p style="font-family: BergamoStdRegular, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;" "I'm Kevin," Ryan said loudly, before Elle could point out how she knew he was just being difficult. "I'm so cocky and rude that I alienate myself from everybody around me, and I now have no friends."/p
p style="font-family: BergamoStdRegular, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;" "Well-" Elle began to speak, but Rachel, unable to resist joining in, spoke up./p
p style="font-family: BergamoStdRegular, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;" "I'm Samantha Ford," she proclaimed, flipping her hair. "I only drink from fine porcelain tea cups, and enjoy spending my days off ordering my butler around." Sam was torn between laughing and being angry. Instead she joined in the joke./p
p style="font-family: BergamoStdRegular, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;" "My name Is Rachel, and you'd better not mess with me. I like to pretend I'm tough shit, but I think we can all tell by my bad manicure that I won't actually punch anybody in the stomach, or anywhere else," Sam said. Rachel laughed./p
p style="font-family: BergamoStdRegular, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;" Elle, furious now, turned to face Luca./p
p style="font-family: BergamoStdRegular, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;" "And who are you today?" she spat. "Tom Brady?" Luca gave her a bored look./p
p style="font-family: BergamoStdRegular, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;" "No, I'm just Luca." He then glared around at the others, unimpressed with their stupidity. This woman had the power to make their lives hell, and here they were, fucking with her the first time they spoke to her./p
p style="font-family: BergamoStdRegular, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;" "Fine," Elle said, her lips pursed angrily. "Just start working. You need to weed the gardens around the community center. There's going to be a function here in a couple of days and it can't be looking awful. You know where the tools are." And with that she turned on her heel and stormed away to her office. When the door snapped shut, Kevin let out a long whistle/p