Chapter 2:

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Camp Iwanahee, Massachusetts, July 2001

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A young boy the age of thirteen walked through a broad field of tall grass and tall weeds, weaving his way on a dirt path through to a large cabin in the distance.

He didn't know if he was going to make it. The knot at the bottom of his stomach was becoming so much he could barely walk… barely stand…

Still, the image of the cabin in the near future kept him upright, hand holding his hurting abdomen, trudging through the sunny day to the promise of his destination.

Once he reached the door, his three friends immediately saw that something was wrong, and rushed to him.

"Caleb," the tallest one with long red-brown hair interrogated him. "What's the matter?"

"It's happening," he spat out breathlessly.

"He's converting," the blond, Reid, realized first. "Quick, get a bucket. He's gonna blow any second!"

Tyler, the shortest and pudgiest of the group, hurried off in search of one, while Pogue brought him a chair to sit on and Reid put a sympathetic hand on his shoulder.

"It hurts…" the young sick boy muttered, clenching his stomach hard in pain, and looking to his friends with sorrow.

"His eyes," Pogue breathed, pointing to their patient with new wonder. Reid moved next to him for a better look, and Tyler, who was back with a small, empty trash can from the cabin bathroom, only stared in awe. The sick boy's irises had suddenly fallen to dark, with no coloring of any kind, just two black orbs looking back at them.

The boy coughed loudly and black liquid began to escape from his mouth, dripping down his lip and chin like blood.

"The bucket!" Pogue snapped at Tyler. "Give him the bucket!"

As soon as the bucket was placed into the boy's hands, he suddenly heaved a gob of black gel-like substance into the bucket, once, then again.

"Gross," Reid commented.

"Don't diss him," Pogue warned. "We're all going to have to go through this pretty soon."

Tyler patted his vomiting friend on the head.

"Happy birthday, Caleb," he said to him with an encouraging smile.

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Present day

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It was like yesterday, when Caleb had first received his power at that dumb summer camp Iwanahee. One by one, his friends had joined him into the 'conversion' of which their powers sprouted in them. He had known it was coming, even when he was young, and he had dreaded that day like the day he was going to die, which wasn't too far from the truth. He knew that the powers could kill him if overused, though the others seemed to disregard his warnings like birthday cards from distant relatives.

The fact was that Caleb was the only one of the four that had seen the effects of User abuse firsthand… with his own father. The sight alone of his withered, decaying old man was enough to keep him and his powers in line. If only the others understood like he did.

But granted, once in a while Using was sure good fun. If they were careful.

Too bad not all of them were careful. Reid especially, bordered dangerously on addiction, and ever since their ascension Caleb worried for his friend.

That was really the only reason he was angered so by Reid's display today in the classroom, where he had intentionally disrupted the class by provoking the teacher. So, to express his slight displeasure, he slammed Reid violently against the school wall, in one of their emptier corridors so he could yell at him in seclusion.

"What are you thinking, Reid?" Caleb shouted close to Reid's face so he could be sure to have his attention. "You Used in public? In a classroom?Are you completely out of your mind?"

"Get out of my face, Danvers," Reid snapped, fiercely shoving Caleb away from himself. A covenant member could always tell one was mad when they used each other's last names.

"You laughed too, admit it," Reid countered. "It's okay, it was funny."

"Addiction is not funny, Garwin," Caleb stressed. "Exposure… is not funny."

"What's the fun of having powers when we can't use them, huh?" Reid yelled back. Caleb rolled his eyes and rubbed the stress point on the bridge of his nose. He'd heard this argument too many times before.

"Reid…" he started, but Reid wasn't finished yet.

"You know what? I am TIRED of you being in my face about it all the time. You don't get on Pogue like this, or Tyler…"

"They don't Use like you do," Caleb retorted. "Don't you get it? You're killing yourself. That's why I'm up on you all the time, because one day it won't be fun anymore and I'm trying to save you from ever seeing that day."

Reid looked at Caleb and seemingly had nothing to respond to that.

"Com'on," Caleb said, trying to make nice again, motioning for Reid to follow him. "I'll race you."

"I'll race," Reid replied haughtily, straightening his jacket over-exaggeratedly to express a point to him, before leaving. "You'll lose. Then we'll see who's not having 'fun' anymore, huh?"

The two students, of course, were talking about a swim match. When they were in freshmen year, the only way to get out of P.E. was to join the swim team. Caleb had gone first, and the rest had decided they had wanted to stay together during the deadly freshman year, so thus they all joined. And they all came to enjoy it together.

They found Tyler at the boy's lockers, along with Pogue who was just leaving to go find his girlfriend Kate. Tyler was drying off but agreed to watch the pair race saying he had nothing better to do.

But as they emerged from the abandoned locker room, expecting an abandoned pool (it was after hours) they instead came out to find a shadow in the water. It was a pale shadow with a wavy red mass of hair and a cute butt.

"Ooo, it's a lady!" Reid announced excitedly.

"That wasn't here when I left," Tyler informed them. "Now I'm glad I stayed."

"Hold the hormones, guys," Caleb warned. "Wait at least until you see her face before you imagine her naked."

"Too late," they said in unison, then laughed.

The girl finally came up for air at the other end of the pool, ascending the pool stairs with a natural sensuousness. She hadn't noticed she had an audience just yet. The boys simply watched in silence as the slender mahogany haired girl walked across and grabbed a white towel to cover her matching swimsuit.

"Look at those legs," Tyler said, cocking his head to get a better look. "They just go on forever…"

"Dude, you don't have to tell me," Reid countered. "I'm not blind."

The girl had apparently heard them, since her head suddenly snapped up in surprise.

"What are you doing here?" she called over to them. "It's after hours."

"We're on the swim team so we have special permission," Caleb called back. "What's your excuse?"

She gathered her things and started to walk over to them.

"I like to swim," she said blatantly. "Sorry to cut in on your pool time, gentlemen."

"As far as I'm concerned, you can cut in anytime you like…" Reid said, quite obviously scanning her body down. The white tankini left just enough mystery to crave more of her.

"Hey, I remember you," she said, stopping her walk to look at them properly. "You're those boys everyone always talks about."

"That's us," Reid agreed with a smirk.

"What do they say about us?" Tyler asked.

"They say stay away from all of you," she laughed. "Now I see what they mean."

She dried off her hair with her towel as she grinned flirtatiously back. She didn't seem to mind that Tyler and Reid were checking her out without shame, while Caleb stood behind them taking on their shame for them.

"So you know us, but we don't know you," Tyler told her smoothly.

"Yeah, you do," she replied. "I just haven't been back here since freshman year. I'm Elle Bishop. Herald Bishop's daughter? I think you have him in Economics? You must, since you're seniors like me."

"You're little Ellie Bishop?" Caleb spat out in surprise. "Got rid of the glasses, I see."

"Yeah," she confirmed. "Discovered conditioner too. Does wonders for the frizz."

"Damn," Reid said in shock. "You're Smelly Ellie?"

"It's Elle," she retorted with offense at bringing up a bad memory. "And yes, as I recall, you were the one who made up that name for me."

"Naw, it must've been Tyler, or Pogue…" Reid assured her sheepishly, squirming his way through with a lie.

"It was you," she insisted. She knew better than to fall for it, and glared with a cold confidence.

"Wow," Tyler approved bluntly, looking the reformed loser over in a whole new light. "The summer's have been good to you."

"Thanks," she said with another winning smile, batting her green eyes at Tyler. "You're cute."

Reid caught her eye and winked in her direction. He was not going to give up so easily.

"Well, I--" he started, but she shot him a harsh look and cut him off.

"--You're not," she huffed.

Reid seemed disgruntled at her immediate distaste of him, and he and Caleb saw quickly her loving eyes were set on Tyler.

"I'll see you around, huh?" she said to him.

"You bet," Tyler promised. She smiled at him as she continued on her way. He grinned back quite broadly, resembling the Cheshire cat until she left out of sight.

"Oh, she wants me," Tyler whispered happily to his friends. "God, she's hot."

"Yeah," Reid agreed with anger in his voice. "She is. And I saw her first, so you need to back the hell off."

"Instant replay, Reid," Tyler countered. "Her like me. Her hate you."

"He's got a point," Caleb chimed in. Reid whipped around to confront Caleb with fire in his eyes, his temper at the boiling point.

"Did I ask you?" he snapped back.

"Hey!" said a security guard from behind them, putting his flashlight on them like a searchlight. "What are you boys doing in here after hours?"

Tyler leaned over to Caleb and said in a low voice:

"Caleb, were you lying about that 'special permission' thing?"

"Maybe a little," he admitted regrettably.

"BEAT IT!" Tyler shouted, taking off down through the locker room, Caleb and Reid close at his heels.

-

"So that magic you do," Kate whispered in her boyfriend's ear as they sat on his motionless motorcycle, with no hurry to leave the parking lot of the restaurant at which they had just eaten. "What exactly can you do with it?"

"Anything," Pogue replied.

"Anything?" she repeated with surprise.

"Just about," he agreed.

"Can you read minds?" she asked, digging her chin on the shoulder of his leather jacket.

"If I want to."

"Can you read my mind?"

He looked back at her with an amused smirk, staring at her good and hard for several moments, then announced:

"You're a baaad girl," he said with a smile. She laughed out loud at this with embarrassment, her dark cheeks turning slightly pink.

"So you can read minds," she decided.

"Let's just say I didn't have to," he said with another smile, then kissed her on the mouth gently. "Move in with me," he commanded abruptly.

She pulled away with surprise.

"Are you asking me or telling me?" she wondered aloud.

"Whichever one will get you to say yes," Pogue said charmingly, kissing her again.

"What about Sarah? She's going to have to find another roommate—and not everyone is as nice as I am."

"Com'on," he coaxed. "There's only a couple weeks left in the school year and I want to spend them with you. I mean, I want to spend as much time as I can with the girl I'm gonna marry after I head off to college to get a good job so I can by her a good ring and a good house."

Kate's smile returned even bigger than the last.

"Are you serious?"

"It don't get much more serious than this, babe. What do you say?"

"I say okay," she said quietly through her pleased and blissful expression.

"Okay?" Pogue repeated in surprise.

"Yeah," she confirmed with a nod. "I say okay."

It took Pogue a moment or two to realize the reality of her answer, before it fully sunk in that she had agreed. Suddenly, Pogue laughed out loud like a madman and lifted Kate off the bike to twirl her around as their mouths locked in sweet merriment. Life couldn't get much better than this.

Too bad their wonderful world would all too soon be turned upside-down…

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As I was creating a character concept for Elle, I decided that her appearance would look most like Brice Dallas Howard in Lady in the Water. Thus, I introduced her in the water. Anyway, hope I could give you a good visual of her.Please review.
Signed,
--RedRogue