Disclaimer: Anyone or anything that wasn't in the movie is mine, and anyone or anything that was in the movie is not.

Chapter 21: An Unusual Morning

I woke up slowly, keeping my eyes shut in an attempt to hold on to the good dream I'd been having. I nuzzled deeper into the warm, smooth pillow and tried to go back to sleep. Wait a second, a smooth pillow? An alarm clock sounding brought me back to reality in a flash, because I don't have an alarm clock. The events of the previous night returned to me all at once, and my eyes snapped open. I was in an unfamiliar room, on an unfamiliar bed, and I was lying next to a very familiar person. What I'd thought was a pillow was actually Warren; I'd been sleeping with my head on his shoulder.

I let out a startled squeak and shot backwards, which caused me to fall off the edge of the bed and land on the floor. I stood up, rubbing my back in pain and trying to remember where my Tylenols were. I almost fell down again because I was really dizzy for some reason. It sort of reminded me of one of the first in a series of dreams I'd had that night, in which I was standing in the middle of a cyclone made of fire as the world spun around me. That was one weird dream. I put a hand on the bedside table for support.

Warren got up awkwardly, favouring his left side. He was wearing what he'd been wearing last night, which meant that he still had no shirt on, and that was making me uncomfortable. He stretched carefully before he even bothered to explain why I'd woken up in this foreign environment.

"So you're finally awake, I see," he commented nonchalantly as he crossed the room to a dresser and began rummaging through the top drawer.

"Yeah, I am. What am I doing here?" I inquired, a bit angry at waking up in a strange room.

"You came here last night, and then you passed out. You were out cold; you probably could've slept through the apocalypse. I would've taken you home, but I don't know where you live, and didn't know your phone number. Couldn't call your house, so I had no other option to let you sleep here for the night. And I wasn't about to sleep on the couch just because you fainted and all," he explained, picking a black shirt out of the drawer and pulling it on before continuing, "So, now you can teleport to your house and get ready for school, which is in about an hour."

Warren's explanation made sense, so I just nodded in acceptance of the story and tried to teleport home. Nothing happened, however.

"I can't teleport," I told him, getting a nonplussed look in return.

"Why not," he asked.

I shrugged and replied, "I guess it's because I have no energy, which is why I blacked out in the first place. No energy; no powers. I need to eat, but then it will take me a while to get enough energy to teleport to my house. So, got anything to eat?"

Warren rolled his eyes and answered, "No, I never have anything in my kitchen. I usually just pick something up for breakfast on the way to school. Looks like you'll be getting on the bus at my stop. Get ready, because we've got to be out of here in fifteen minutes."

With that said, he went to the washroom and brushed his teeth. While he was in there, I took the liberty of borrowing some clothes from his drawer, because I really don't like wearing the same stuff two days in a row, especially when I'd slept in it. I was feeling very icky. After a moment's thought, I snatched up a pair of leather gloves cut off at the knuckle too, thinking that he wouldn't miss one pair since he had a few. When he got out of the washroom, I went in to change. I glanced at my reflection in the mirror and stopped dead in my tracks.

"Warren," I called slowly, my attention fixed on the image in the bathroom mirror.

"Yeah," he called back from his room.

"What's wrong with my hair?" I asked cautiously, and he showed up at the doorway.

"It…must just happen with physical contact, or closeness, or something like that. I was sleeping right beside you. Yep, that would explain it," he declared, ending the conversation as he hurriedly went back to whatever he'd been doing.

I looked back at my reflection, taking in the newest alteration of my hair colour. Now it was not only the dark brown shade of Lash's hair, it was tipped in black and had a couple red streaks in the front. I looked back at the doorway suspiciously, but decided not to press the matter because I just didn't know what to think if my suspicions were actually true.

I had a shower in record time and walked back into Warren's room, still towelling my hair dry to keep it from dripping. Warren looked up from stuffing some books into his bag.

"Hey, what're you doing wearing my clothes?" he demanded.

"I needed some clothes, so I'm borrowing yours, since I don't see anything else available. I'll return the stuff as soon as I can, but I refuse to wear clothes that I've slept in. It's just icky," I responded determinedly.

He just threw up his hands in resignation and muttered something under his breath about getting one of his favourite shirts stolen. I looked down at the clothes I borrowed, which was a short-sleeved black t-shirt over a long-sleeved deep red shirt, and some jeans. Since Warren is bigger than me, his clothes were a bit baggy. That was okay though, because it all felt very comfortable.

"I'm borrowing some gloves, too," I added.

"What? Why?" he inquired, "You don't need gloves."

"Because I felt like wearing gloves, alright? Do you have a problem?" I challenged, and then wondered where that little outburst came from.

"I'm going too let that slide, and assume you took it from my personality when you stole my hair style. Let's go," Warren responded, heading for the door.

I pulled on the gloves as I followed him outside. On the way to the bus stop we went to a seven-eleven and picked up some breakfast. We arrived at the bus stop just in time and got on the bus, which was almost empty. Warren took out a Stephen King book and began reading. Apparently, Warren's stop was one of the first on the route; so I was bored to death by the time the bus pulled up at the school and let us off.

Kyle found me at my locker and gave me my bag, since he'd been nice enough to take it with him when I'd forgotten it at the club the day before. I thanked him and headed off to my first class. Larry did most of the work in making a freeze ray; I think he was still afraid I'd carry out my threat to phase his head through a wall. Since he was doing most of the work, I just handed him parts from time to time; vaguely wondering how many different rays there could possibly be, and what we do when we'd made them all. Fortunately for me, the kid next to me had the power to alter things at will, so I nabbed his power and made the clothes I'd borrowed from Warren fit a bit better. After Mad Science I went to that stupid 'How To Be A Hero' class, which I slept through. Will shook me awake at lunchtime, and I trudged to my locker to put my books away.

I was in the middle of shutting my locker door when I froze, a familiar feeling of being helpless in my own body coming over me. My body turned itself around to face the mind-controlling girl and her surprising new pal, Lash.

'Damn,' I thought, 'This can't bode well for me'.