Chapter 2: Wake Up Call

Summary: Alex and Dakota talk about the events of yesterday.

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The clock blinked 12:00, 12:00, 12:00 but Dakota could not bring himself to move an inch. Not only had he, Alex and Julia spent the rest of their day on the slopes, but also when he got home he had practiced his new powers alone in his room for four hours.

His body felt completely drained.

The last thing he had moved with his mind had been his alarm clock. Unfortunately it had unplugged and he could not figure out how to fix the time with his mind.

I'll get up and fix it in a minute, he thought.

His eyes wondered to his crescent window. He could see the soft snow floating to the ground. The yellow light from his back porch glinted off the ice crystals; they looked beautiful. Dakota could lie in bed forever, or at least at this moment he felt he could. The ache in his limbs had dulled, sunk into the mattress, his body melted and warmed in the heavy, thick blankets.

Heaven, he thought, must be close to this. The lids of his eyes drew close together, he sighed.

Light stabbed him as his door swung open.

"Hey, Dakota time to talk."

Alex.

Dakota half moaned half cried as his friend slammed the door shut and jumped onto his bed. All the warmth and comfort hissed out of the bed and his body.

"Why, now? Why not tomorrow?" He mumbled.

"Because...it just has to be now," Alex insisted.


Dakota sighed crossed his arms.

Alex could talk all he wanted but Dakota refused to sit up. Maybe he could regain the comfort lost when Alex jumped on the bed.

"So, fill me in."


"OK, as I guess you can tell, you're not the only one with powers. There are hundreds, possibly millions of people like us, and the great thing is all of them have sort of formed our own little world within the...world. We have a Counsel, who are kind of like the government. They make the rules and stuff. Some are kinda nuts and I think may have plans to take over the world, but who wouldn't when you're like hundreds of years old and-"


"Wait, wait, did you just say hundreds of years old?" Dakota asked. "Alex have you been smoking something?"


A strange looked washed over Alex's face, but then passed and he went on. "Dude, that's the great thing, when you get your powers, you like don't physically age ever again, and you live to be like...hundreds of years old, you're not immortal or anything, but you live a whole lot longer than a normal person. And man, you've gotta come meet this chick named Karma. She's really hot, even though she's like 200 years old. And I guess you'll have to meet the Counsel and learn all their dumb rules and stuff, but they're not too hard to follow. When can you go?"


Dakota blinked, feeling extremely stupid. All the information Alex had just thrown at him felt cramped inside his already aching head. Counsel? 200 years old? Information overload. "So when, uh- I mean where is the Counsel?"


"Well, the big meeting place is in The Gulf of Mexico, but amazingly enough, they have a meeting place out in the mountains and they're having a meeting tomorrow." Alex said.

"Sure, fine, why not, let's go tomorrow." Dakota mumbled. "What time?"


"Well, we need to leave around lunch time because then we can get there by one- that's when they have time to meet 'new members'," Alex said.


"How are we going to get there, neither of us can drive," Dakota asked.


"I'll call someone, just leave it to me." Alex replied.


Dakota rolled his eyes, but nodded. Then he thought of something. "Alex, what are your powers?"


"Oh yeah, I almost forgot. I can read people's minds and make them do what I want them to do, when I want them to do it. Well, at least I can make a 'weaker' mind do what I want them to do. There's no way I could control a counsel member's mind."

Alex explained that he got his powers during his first kiss. He had been wishing he knew what the girl was thinking and suddenly, he did. He could hear every thought that passed through her head. Alex nearly flipped out, but then caught himself. Later that week the girl Karma had found him and told him all about the hidden world and had introduced him to the Counsel, and tomorrow, Alex would do the same for Dakota.