Well, this fan fiction seems to have taken over my life. I have coursework which was due in 3 weeks ago that I still haven't done, a Shakespeare essay due in 3 days that I haven't started, and my friends have told me I'm getting obsessed. : )

Btw, some-one asked about Rain's powers: basically, her blood seeps through her skin, and contains some sort of chemical compound that ignites when in contact with oxygen, which is why it burns.

Oh, and no, Rain and Warren will not be getting together this chapter because I am a sick twisted little biatch and things can never be as straight forward as that...

Chapter 5: Girl talk and Gossip

The next day was a Thursday. On the bus on the way to school, Layla invited to me to go to her house for the night on Friday.

"Magenta's coming too," she said. "Rain… is that Warren's glove?" her eyes came to rest on my hand. I nodded.

Getting out of her seat and coming to sit next to me, she grabbed my hand and examined it "how did you get it? Did he give it to you?" she asked, and I winced at her rough handling of my injuries. "Oh god, sorry!" she said, her eyes softening with sympathy when she realised I was in pain. I took off the glove and my jacket, showing her the bandages, quickly explaining to her what had happened – how I'd gone to the paper lantern for dinner, Warren offered to walk me home, how we ended up flying and I'd crashed. I left out any details like how we'd randomly walked and talked for 45 minutes, the bit where I'd gotten a little too close to him... and the bit about kicking him out of my bedroom window.

"My parents would kill me if they knew I'd been flying, especially outside of school, so he gave me the glove to cover the bandage."

"Do you realise that when you walk into school with this, people aren't going to stop talking about it for days?"

I shrugged, thinking of the sensational stories that would start circulating. What was I going to say? I didn't want to tell people the truth, because a) it was private, and b) it was incredibly embarrassing. I decided to just not say anything at all.

The first two lessons were free periods because the science rooms were being repaired after some-one had put the wrong lid on a bottle of some acid substance which had leaked and proceeded to eat through four floors of the science classrooms. So Layla, Magenta and I sat on the branches of a gnarly old tree near the entrance to the school, talking about random stuff. I'd filled Magenta in on what had happened the previous night, so when two girls who had noticed the glove walked over to us, Maj started snorting uncontrollably as she tried to hold in her laughter.

"Hi, I'm Jenny," smiled one of the girls, a small dark haired one, who kind of reminded me of a pixie. "I was just wondering," she said, as her blond friend nudged her "the glove you're wearing… isn't it Warren Peace's?"

I nodded and the blond girl's mouth fell open.

"No way,"

"I told you," her dark-haired friend, Jenny, told her.

"How did you get it?"

"Err… he gave it to me."

The blond girl's jaw opened wider.

Magenta had by this time fallen off of the branch in peels of laughter, and Layla was trying very hard not to burst into a fit of giggles.

Jenny led her blond friend away, and as soon as they thought we were out of earshot, they burst into whispered conversations, obviously trying to come up with a reason for this amazing and unbelievable occurrence.

"My god, is everyone I talk to today going to be like that?" I wondered out loud to Layla, who shrugged.

"You don't understand what a big deal this is," she told me. "Warren is one of the most unattainable guys in the school, at least to them."

"Well yeah…" obviously I knew that.

"Yeah, loads of girls have huge crushes of him," Magenta said, brushing off leaves and grass from her black skirt and her purple fishnets.

"Really?" this was news to me. "I got the impression everyone was kind of… I dunno, afraid of him."

"They are," Layla said. "But girls always go for the whole bad-boy thing, and he's actually really good looking,"

I smiled, nodding in agreement.

"When he plays save the citizen…" Magenta whistled. "I always wondered how Lash and Speed managed to get girlfriends; I guess it's the same kind of deal,"

"I've never seen him play save the citizen," I said. "I haven't actually seen a game of save the citizen." I was really starting to look forward to watching it though.

"Well, it starts next week, and the tournament starts about two weeks after that." Magenta informed me.

"Hey, look whose coming," Layla said, and I turned to see Will, Warren, Zach and Ethan crossing the grass towards us. My stomach did a weird fluttery thing when I caught sight of Warren, the memory of yesterday's encounter still fresh in my mind, but I was determine to carry on pretending it hadn't happened.

"How's your arm?" he asked when he was closer, gently lifting my hand and inspecting it. His touch sent a shiver up my arm.

"Fine…" I said, taking me time to answer. I wasn't adverse to warren holding my arm a little while longer…

Something must have showed on my face because Layla raised an eyebrow at me and after school the next day, as soon as we arrived at her house, she turned round and confronted me.

"So."

"So?" I looked at her innocently, though I knew that she had noticed the way I was around Warren. It was nothing big, not something that anyone else would notice, but Layla was good with people. She noticed all those little things, the ones that would slip under most other people's radar.

"Warren."

"Is a pyrokinetic," I said randomly. WTF was I on about?

"How long have you liked him?" she asked, trying to look serious but failing as a smile tugged at the corners of her mouth.

"I don't know what you mean," I said, dropping my bag by the staircase.

"Oh come on Rain, don't mess around. It's so obvious,"

"Only to you,"

"Exactly. So tell me, how long?"

"Err… since yesterday I guess… or at least, that's when I kind of realised."

"When you were flying home with him?"

"No, after lunch."

"So tell me what really happened on the way home yesterday."

"I told you."

"Not all of it you didn't," Layla told me.

"Since when did you become CIA lie detector/interrogator extraordinaire? Up until now, I had taken you to be this sweet hippy girl…"

Layla laughed. "Stop trying to change the subject," she told me.

So I told her exactly what had happened. The 45 minute walk to nowhere, the details of my spectacular crash, the bit where we almost kissed…

When I had finished, her mouth was open almost as wide as the blond girl at school today.

"That's so hot."

"I know."

"That's not good."

"I know."

"Because Warren's not over Brittany."

"I know."

"He doesn't know you like him."

"I know."

"You're a bit screwed,"

"I know."

An hour later, Magenta arrived, and still on the subject of love etc, the conversation turned to Layla and Will as we lay on Layla's bed in her room.

"So how far have you gone?" Magenta asked bluntly.

"Let's get some popcorn," Layla said brightly, ignoring Magenta's question.

"Don't try it," I advised her, pulling her back onto the bed as she tried to rise.

After much convincing, we finally got her to talk.

"Well, he's gave me a love bite on Saturday," she lifted her hair to show us a fading, light purple mark on her neck. Maj and I nodded approvingly.

"I take it your mom hasn't seen it," I said, and she shook her head.

"She likes Will, but she would still have a heart attack over it," Layla informed us.

"So has he tried to put his hand up your top?" Magenta wanted to know.

"Bloody hell Magenta, try being a little more subtle," I told her, then turned to Layla. "So has he?"

Layla went bright pink.

"He so has!" Magenta and I squealed as Layla proceeded to turn red.

"Did you let him?" I said seriously."

"I… no, I stopped him," she said, her embarrassment not diminishing.

"How come?" Magenta was ruthless I getting the details.

Layla shrugged. "I thought… I don't know, I guess I…" she sighed. "I wouldn't mind it, but he hasn't tried again since then,"

For the next two hours we continued discussing Magentas and Layla's love lives.

Eventually, we had tired the subject out, and proceeded to talk about other things.

"So, who's going on that school trip?" I asked as we made our way to the kitchen for more food. We had received letters home inviting us on a school trip to Europe in two weeks time. It was going to be some sort of activities camp thing where we 'used our powers in simulated real-life situations' or some crap like that. I didn't really care; I was going because you got to miss a week of school.

"I'm going," Magenta said as she opened the cupboard and pulled out a packet of biscuits.

"So am I, "Layla said. "Will and the others are coming too. Including Warren." She looked at me pointedly as she said that, but I gazed back at her innocently. Magenta didn't notice anything strange – subtlety is not her strong point.

Later on, the conversation finally turned to me and Warren. Magenta was surprised to find out that I liked him, but agreed with Layla and I when we voiced our opinions of how he wasn't over Brittany yet.

"So what are you going to do?" Magenta asked.

I shrugged. "I still like Gunn you know," I told her. "And he seems to be… well, we flirt a lot in lesson,"

"You and Gunn would make such a good couple," Magenta said thoughtfully. "And it would totally help you get over Warren."

"Stating the obvious," I said. But at least I had decided on a course of action. And the girls were going to help me.

Again, same deal as last time: if I don't get reviews, the next chapter doesn't go up…