At the House
Graham and Taylor had gotten dressed and eaten much earlier than Taylor would have preferred. He would like to have just woken up around noon when the sunlight was streaming in though the windows so he could absorb a quick snack. But, no, here he was sitting right next to Graham on those uncomfortable bar stools in the kitchen. He would have stomped right back to his capsule and told everyone where they could shove this schedule if it hadn't been for the boy sitting next to him saying: "...can you believe how amazing this is, Taylor? We finally get to go to a real school."
"We've been to schools before." Taylor said. "Twelve, right? Ten together, two apart. Thirteen if the lab counts."
"You know what I mean." Graham said, his head lowering slightly as he continues. "We never got to go to school when we were on the streets. And even when we weren't, we were never able to leave the house. I know you don't like school, but I'm just..."
Taylor could tell that the last few words were something to the effect of Why can't you just let me be happy? "Hey, I like school." Total lie. "I'm just nervous. I don't even know what classes we have."
Graham's face lit up. "We have the same primary classes but I got you a list of electives you can choose from on the way."
"Have you picked yours yet? Just put me in those."
Graham's next few words came out immediately. A sure way to tell, Taylor had found, that the younger boy was hiding something. "You could say that."
For the first time during the conversation Taylor looked up from his plate-nearly empty after only a minute-to look Graham in the eyes as he sighed, "What happened?"
"I signed up for all of them."
"What?"
Graham dropped his gaze to the counter, his cheeks a bright red. "Homecoming committee, chess club, the baseball team, Spanish, French, home economics, all of them."
"You don't even like half those things. Do you even know what baseball is?"
"It was just so hard to decide, though."
"How, exactly, do you plan to go to be in all these places at once?"
Graham smiled and duplicated himself.
"You know that's not going to work, Graham."
"I've been learning to separate my consciousness."
"Oh, yeah?"
"Yeah."
Taylor pinched the Graham to his right in the arm, causing both to recoil and hiss. "Emphasis on the learning part, I'm guessing."
"There are a few kinks I'm still working out." the two Grahams said in unison.
"Have you thought this through? There are a thousand ways this can go wrong. What if someone looks through the window and sees you in two classes at once?"
"I'll wear a disguise-a hoodie or reading glasses or something-if I have more than one class in the same building."
"And what if one of yourselves stub your toe and the rest of you scream?"
"I'll make up an excuse."
"You're the worst liar in the world."
"Am not! I can say I just have a toothache."
"In your foot?"
"Maybe that wasn't the best explanation."
"You think? This isn't going to work."
"You're right, it most likely won't work. But I want to try this before I just give up."
"If this is so important then I'll do everything I can to help you. Just don't get your hopes up."
"Really?"
Taylor nodded.
"You're so awesome."
"I know."
The phone started to ring, but when Graham picked it up he was shocked with electricity. He dropped it and it fell to the floor.
At School
Bree and Chase were both running late to school. When they arrived the bell had rang thirty minutes ago and the main hall was empty. Bree was currently holding the thing that made them so late. Mr. Davenport had given them his credit card. After their most recent save the two bionic teenagers had convinced him to let them decide what the fridge would be stocked with for the next month with two conditions: stay under four-hundred dollars and get a number of organic fruits and vegetables for a new cleanse that was supposed to "brighten, tighten and righten skin. Not that he needed it of course."
"Give it back." Chase ordered.
"Sure." Bree said, holding it up. "Come get it."
Chase took a step and Bree supersped behind him. Chase twisted and kicked out his leg, an impressive move that would have knocked the card out of anyone's hand. Anyone who didn't have enhanced reflexes and speed. Bree rolled out of the way before Chase had even gotten half-way finished with the kick, his leg angled at nothing. "Stop doing that."
"Let me think about it." Bree said. She sped to the other side of the room. "Nope."
"If you give it to me, I'll get nutritious snacks that stimulate brain activity. Then you guys can be more like me."
"I know." Bree said. She took a step forward with one hand holding the card and one braced on her hip. "That's why I'm keeping this and getting food people in this family actually like."
"Don't you want to be like me?"
"No. No one in the world does."
Chase said, "You know what, I was trying to be nice-"
"You tried to inject me with something that would paralyze me for the whole day, you used your molecular kinesis to make me run into a wall at top speed and you tried to kick me ten seconds ago."
"I said trying." Chase held up a fist with his index and middle finger extended. "But not anymore." He bent the two fingers and the card flew between them from Bree's hand. Bree ran after it, but as she reached out for it a force field surrounded it. Hitting it while she was going so fast hurt her hand, but Bree shook it off. Chase chuckled with a grin on his face. Bree began to superspeed in a circle around Chase. He began to have trouble breathing as the oxygen inside the vacuum lowered. He had to drop the force field around the card to aim at Bree, hoping to cause her to trip, but he didn't have to. He was breathing and Bree was at the stairs to his right of the staircase, card in hand. She smiled down at him before running up the steps and pocketing the card. Chase was about to storm after her, but now that it was quiet his super hearing picked up on a slight whirring sound. He turned around and looked up to find a camera pointed directly at him. He forgot Perry had installed cameras around the school so that she could post embarrassing pictures and videos of all the students on the school website. But what this camera had caught wasn't embarrassing. It was condemning.
1st Period
Inside his seat, Graham was buzzing with excitement as Ms. Lanet began teaching in home economics. Right up until Taylor said, "Graham, I take back everything I said about you in my head. This class is awesome." Taylor couldn't be talking about what they were learning since all they'd found out was that they were, shockingly, in AP home economics. No, Taylor was looking at Ms. Lanet, a gorgeous teacher with bronze skin, long black hair and light brown eyes that was around her mid-twenties, but his eyes did roved around the class room, lingering on a group of girls whispering to each other and then on a pair of twins with brown hair, one with the tips dyed light blue and one with the tips dyed bubblegum pink.
"Stop. Doing. That." Graham ground out. He hadn't told Taylor that his headache from keeping seven clones out around the school felt like seven hammers were trying their best to pound their way out of his head so to his friend it probably came off as anger. Though Graham was in no way happy Taylor had been checking out girls since they'd entered the room.
"What's the problem, dude, I-"
"I wasn't talking to you." Graham said with annoyance.
"Who were-"
"No, I was talking to you."
"I am so confused."
~MEANWHILE~
"Hello, class, my name is Mr. Devaroux and I'll be teaching you Mandarin Chinese this year..."
"Stop...doing...that" Graham ground out, wearing a different outfit, slightly tinted reading glasses and his hair styled differently. The boy next to him jumped at the tone.
"Doing what, man?"
"I wasn't talking to you." Graham said with annoyance.
"Then who were-"
"No, I was talking to you."
"Huh?"
"Don't 'huh' me."
"Do you boys have something you'd like to say to the rest of us?" Mr. Devaroux said sternly.
Graham was so shocked and scared that an adult used that voice on him he shot straight to his feet. He'd never been reprimanded, never been in any kind of trouble in his life. As he was standing he hit his toe on the table leg and he howled in pain.
~Back in Class~
"Don't 'huh' me." Graham said.
"I didn't say anything." Taylor said.
Graham howled and clutched his foot, the sound echoed by seven others like it heard either through the open door to the hallway or the open windows.
"What was that?" Ms. Lanet asked. Everyone in class turned to face Graham.
"I have a toothache!" Graham answered immediately after the question was asked, the volume and pitch of his voice going several tones higher than usual, his face contorted in pain. Taylor shook his head, the gesture saying: I told you.
"In your foot?" one of the twins in the back asked.
Taylor snorted. Then he said, "Graham wasn't able to attend school growing up so he never learned the names for parts of the human body. He means to say he has a...toeache."
"Oh, that was in your report." Ms. Lanet. "Are you okay, Graham?"
"I-"
"I sure hope you didn't break anything, Graham," Taylor said, "because then you might need me to walk you to the nurse's office."
Thankfully, he caught on."Actually, I think I broke something." Most people in the room thought the echo was just from the lack of objects to absorb the sound in the classroom. "I think I should go see the nurse."
"Can I walk him. He doesn't know his way around yet."
"Yes, but come right back." Ms. Lanet said, looking for a pen so she can write a pass.
Before Taylor got up from his seat he wrote a note on a piece of paper and put it on Graham's desk. It took a few seconds to comprehend the words with his worsening headache but Graham saw it said: limp. When he stood up the pounding sensation in his head got worse and his senses started to overpower him. He felt cold and hot at the same time. He was itchy from a sweater he wasn't currently wearing. He was starving and dehydrated from the energy it took to support the lives of eight versions of himself. It took all his willpower to walk out the door even if he was able to go slower with his fake limp. When he was in the hallway he almost collapsed but Taylor held him up until he was able to lean on a wall.
"I told you so." Taylor said.
Graham glared at him.
"I'm gonna go get you something to eat and drink. Any preferences?"
"For you to stop talking." Graham rasped as he rubbed his temples.
Taylor pantomimed zipping his mouth shut as he backed away. He turned and went down a few halls until he found a vending machine. While he checked his pockets-which were empty-he heard a whirring sound and turned to find a camera. "Sorry," he said. He clenched his hands into a fist and a light shown inside them before he unfurled them and it vanished. With the light around him distorted it appeared to the camera that he had vanished. He turned the light around him into a diamond shape and after fiddling with it it turned into a fishhook that reached inside and pulled out a bag of trail mix and a bottle of water. He heard a nearby classroom door open and Cindy walked out. He was about to say hi when she looked left and right. She looked up at the camera covering the hallway before putting a finger to a nearby power outlet. The camera shut off and she set herself on fire for the briefest moment, burning away her clothes to reveal her mission suit. Thankful he was cloaked and more than a little suspicious, Taylor pulled out his phone and willed the light in the room to harden into a fishhook again in order to drop it into her boot. When she was gone he went back to where he left Graham.
"Are you feeling good enough to walk?" Taylor asked.
Graham jumped at the sound, "First, I told you how much I hate it when you come out of nowhere while you're invisible. Second, your voice makes my head hurt worse."
Taylor allowed the light bundle tightly around him to disperse before he said, "Sorry. But can you walk?"
"I feel like I'm gonna die of starvation or dehydration, but I think I can."
"Oh, here." Taylor gave him the snacks and water. They were gone in seconds. "I saw Cindy change into her mission suit and sneak out of school."
"There's probably a new mission."
"Wouldn't we know. I know we aren't needed on some but we've never not known if there's an emergency."
"Okay, I'll admit that's a little odd."
"Cindy was The Professor's favorite when we were...there. What if she never stopped serving him. What if she's going to meet him now, or worse go on one of his missions."
"She was traumatized by what happened just as much as we were. I don't believe she would do that."
"Well I don't trust these people. As soon as you're feeling better, I'm following her."
Graham pushed off the wall. "I guess that means I'm going with you."
"No, you're going home and-"
"I'm fine. And you wouldn't let me go alone if you were in my place."
Taylor sighed. "No more than two of you at once. And you stay behind me if anything happens."
"I know. Where is she now?"
"I don't know. Don't look at me like that-I planted my phone on her. You can track it with yours to find her."
"I'm going to regret this." Graham was rubbing his head more out of exasperation than to relieve pain now. "Let's go."
At School
After telling Bree that they'd been recorded using their bionics and the subsequent scolding (because apparently this was all his fault for being too "controlling," which he didn't see. He just wanted to implement a change the rest of his family just didn't know they needed yet.) Chase told Bree all they had to do was figure out where the footage was saved to and Chase could find a way to erase it. He allowed Bree to take charge for the first stage of the plan and in no way was scared to take the reins away from her after the whole being powerless and unable to breathe thing earlier. The two of them found Principal Perry, currently devouring an entire semi-roasted chicken.
"Principal Perry." Bree said. "Just the woman I was looking for!"
"What do you want?" Principal Perry snapped.
"I saw that video you posted last week of Davis DeMarco crying after Lisa Summers dumped him. Classic. Oh, and the one where Trina Davis fell down the stars...I couldn't stop laughing. Right, Chase." Bree said with a grin.
"Yeah, totally funny."
"Well, I've always had a way with the camera." Principal Perry said, obviously flattered. "I could have been a famous director if I didn't end up kidnapped in Thailand."
Bree gave Chase a look, but her smile didn't fade as she said, "You don't say. Oh, I almost forgot; Chase didn't you have a question for her?"
Chase nodded, "Yeah, I was wondering how you have the time to edit all these videos. I mean you seem so busy, do you have the time to do them at home or here at school?"
"Well once every day when I get home I need to sit in front of the air conditioner to dry out. And because I crave to see other people's suffering."
"Oh, so you edit at home?" Bree asked. When Principal Perry nodded Bree said, "Oh, I don't want to take away the rest of your lunch break. We'll talk to you later."
"Please don't." Principal Perry said.
Bree glanced at Chase and he nodded, his eye beginning to glow as he combed through city records to find Principal Perry's address. When he found it he began to walk away and Bree followed him.
