I'm legitimately surprised that people showed interest in it so quickly. I was at work and I was reading the reviews and I was very inspired to write the next chapter quickly. I figured since I enjoyed them so much, I'd answer them personally.
Cheer Girl 97: First review! Thanks a lot, I'm glad you like it!
shortness11cat5: Thanks for reading all my stories, it really really means a lot. And I'm glad I could make you laugh haha
Anne Bell: Yeaaaaaah, I clicked 'horror' on accident instead of 'mystery'. Thanks for pointing that out. Haha. And as for everything else: 1. Troy's powers are going to be explained in this chapter and more later on, just like the others. 2. Ryan is the only one who is telepathic. Sharpay couldn't read Ryan's mind, but he was able to send his thoughts into her brain for her to hear. That's a part of the power. She could only hear what he was sending her, not his entire brain. 3. Yes, this was the story I was referring to haha. 4. It makes me so happy that you've read and reviewed basically all of my stories. I'm grateful that you're a fan and I'm sorry I'm such a slow updater haha
Duhhitskatieox: Thanks for liking it and thanks for not thinking it sucked haha. I felt like it wasn't super enticing, but I'm glad this is a story you've been waiting for. Hopefully I won't disappoint you (:
ILoveZacEfron27: Wow. Thank you. Like, a lot haha. And double thanks for adding me to your favorite authors list 3
PuSssHhh: Thank you, I think I'll continue with it, and thanks (:
MeganBishop: I'm glad you think so and that you like it. Thanks for reading!
62toasters62: Thanks for the author alert! And for liking my writing. I really appreciate it. And I'm really gad you like it!
AND since more than one person asked/showed longing for, I'll try my hardest to get an update for ITS within the week. Hope you like the chapter. Any questions just ask me and I'll answer. Thanks and keep reviewing (:
"Let me see the paper again."
"Dude, you've read it like seventeen times already."
"I know. Because I don't believe it. I mean, Alpha Team? It's too fucking awesome." Zeke leaned forward and took the paper from Troy's hand. Sharpay sat alone in a La-Z-Boy singular chair in the common room of one of the boys dorms. Apparently this was the one Ryan was going to be living in. It was sort of boring. Off-white painted walls and a weird grey and blue speckle carpet. Gross. Not exactly a page out of Martha Stewart Living. "You know yours probably looks exactly like this." She sighed and looked over at Ryan on the couch adjacent hers, in a new white shirt and khakis. Could he stay out her mind for like a second? "Can't. Sorry. All the others are thinking about is being on Alpha Team. Boring."
All the others? Really? Even Troy who was sneaking what he thought were unnoticed curious glances with his extremely blue eyes. "What's Troy thinking?" Ryan's brown eyes flickered over to him and then back at her. "You know you shouldn't be getting involved with boys. We have a mission." Sharpay rolled her eyes and toyed with the ring on her necklace. She didn't even understand this whole 'Team' thing. What, were they all going to fight crime after class or something?
"So the entire team has three powers. We're going to rule East High. The CIA has to recruit us. We're like the fucking Avengers." Chad announced to the group, who had all introduced themselves to she and Ryan. He was one of the seniors. And with his massive amount of hair she wondered if he could shape shift into a chinchilla.
"No, Chad. We've got Sharpay and Ryan." Troy corrected, leaning his head in her direction. He turned and caught her eye, but she simply stared back. What? She didn't look like she could have three powers? Did she look weak? Did she look like she cared about whether or not she broke a nail? She was three seconds from blasting him. News flash, Pretty Boy, I have four powers. More than you, so don't go- "Relax, Shar." Ryan ordered via telepathy. She took in a breath and let it go, feeling like someone other than her brother was trying to get inside of her brain.
"What's up with you guys? What's your deal?" Troy asked, seeming more focused on Sharpay than Ryan. He was really interested in her. And it was almost bothering her. She merely blinked an answer, staring at him with eyes that could do a lot more damage than he was going to know. If he thought she was weak, he wasn't worth it. Though it meant her cover was holding up nicely.
"What do you mean, our deal?" Ryan answered for her. Troy turned towards him, but Zeke was the one who spoke, "You know, your deal. Your powers."
"We aren't noobs." Ryan answered in a flat tone. Sharpay looked over at Zeke and then at her brother. Zeke must have been mentally teasing the two of them. He narrowed his eyes the smallest bit, hiding his shame for being caught, "Telepathic. How fun."
"He's wondering how we're in Alpha Team with them if we only have one powers." Ryan said to Sharpay's mind. She closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the chair. "These amateurs are not worthy of knowing our powers."
"So, Ryan, can you read your sister's mind and find out why she refuses to speak?"
"I could." He answered, "But she'd probably just keep me out."
"Power negation?" A female voice said. Sharpay opened her eyes and looked over to the innocent looking brunette girl sitting next to Troy. Gabriella was smiling, clearly interested. "Of course. That explains it."
"That explains what?" Sharpay said dryly.
"Okay, don't feel violated or anything-"
"Oh god," Taylor, another one of the seniors, said, putting her face into her palm.
"-But I was trying to get a reaction out of you and I thought you were nervous or something so I... sort of... tried using my empathy on you... to get you to relax a little." Gabriella blushed. Sharpay smirked, she thought she had felt someone other than Ryan trying to sneak into her mind. God, she was good.
"You're the only one at East High with that power." Zeke explained. "Maybe that's why you're in Alpha. Troy can mimic other people's powers and you can cancel them out. Pretty hardcore duo right there."
She looked over at Troy, who had to turned to look at her again as well. There was something in his gaze that made her feel vulnerable. She was going to have to work on that.
/
"So I guess this is why they stuck us in a triple this year." Troy thought as he pushed open the door to their dorm room.
"I wonder what's for dinner tonight. I'm starving. I hope it's pizza." Zeke thought, walking into the room and collapsing onto one of the beds. "Mmmm... pizza..."
"I need to get out of this uniform." Troy thought, as he sat down on one of the beds, loosened his tie and pulled it over his head, unbuttoning the top few buttons of the white shirt identical to the one Ryan was wearing. "I wonder what Sharpay thinks of the uniforms. She didn't look too happy. She looked good in the uniform, though. Obviously works out."
Ryan smirked and sat back on the only unoccupied bed in the room. Yeah, if you counted three hours a day at the gym, working out. His sister was very, very committed to the regime that had been set up for them. Not that she really needed to go to the gym. She already had superhuman strength.
"So, your sister said you got her powers when you were eight." Troy said in Ryan's direction. It took him a minute to realize that he had said it out loud and not in his mind. The kid had been thinking about his sister all morning. It wouldn't have been a long shot. Ryan nodded. "No, only she did. I got mine when I was nine."
"How can you tell that you've got power negation when you're eight years old?" Zeke asked, still lying down. "I mean... if you didn't get your power until after her, how could she of known? Did you guys grow up in some Super Power Orphanage or something?"
"What the hell, Zeke, you don't just go asking people if they were raised in an orhpanage. Then again, it would explain why Sharpay is so quiet..."
Not quite an orphanage, Ryan thought to himself, glad he was the only one in the room who could read minds. "No, our dad had powers so he could tell. And Troy, Sharpay isn't shy, she just doesn't trust people with information she thinks they don't need to know."
"How'd you-" Troy stopped himself, and shook his head, scratching behind his ear. "Oh, right. Forgot. That'll take getting used to."
"You're not friends with any telepaths here?"
"Well, both years I've been on a team with one, but they normally kept what they heard on the inside. As opposed to, you know, responding to what they heard out loud."
"You ever use your mimicry to use their telepathy?" Ryan asked, curious with ulterior motives.
"No, actually. It's probably my least utilized power. I use it a lot with Gabriella when I'm trying to study. She has innate capability so she has all of this knowledge inside of her without even having to learn it."
"Did you want to try it out?" Ryan asked, sending the message straight into Troy's mind. Naturally, he had a minor freak out as the look of confusion crossed his face. "Did I just read your mind?"
Zeke sat up, suddenly curious. Ryan shook his head, keeping his voice only inside of Troy's head, "No. But I can send thoughts directly into other people's brains. Think your answer. I want to see how freaked out we can make Zeke."
Troy looked over at Zeke, amused but still confused by the situation, "So he can't hear us?"
"Not unless he can read minds. He's extremely confused right now. Want to hear?" Ryan raised an eyebrow and Troy nodded slowly. He stood up and walked towards him slowly. It took him an indecisive second before placing his hand on Ryan's shoulder.
/
Zeke was simply staring back and forth at the two of them, his mouth wasn't moving but Troy could hear his voice in his head clearly, "Why the hell are they looking at me like that? What's Troy doing? Is there something in my teeth. I'm very confused. Very confused. Can't we just play video games? Why do they have to stare at me? Ryan, if you're reading my mind, knock it off, I don't like it."
Troy pulled his hand back, laughing. He brain felt slightly drained but he figured it was just the side effect of using the mimicry. He hadn't used the power in a while, it was probably going to take some getting used to. Especially after copying a power he'd never experienced before. "Can't play video games, Zeke, sorry. Too nice of a day outside."
"What, you read my mind, too?" He friend asked, looking up at him. He waved his hand at the space in between he and Ryan. "I'm calling shenanigans on this entire situation."
"Don't be jealous." Troy said, walking back over to his bed where his two suitcases sat. One full of clothes and shoes, the other of random things he'd need around the room. He unzipped one and pulled out a pair of Vans. Then he rummaged for a pair of basketball shorts. He wasn't about to have practice rounds in his school clothes. He'd learned that lesson freshman year. "Just get ready to go outside."
"What's a practice round?" Ryan asked, clearly invading his mind without shame. Troy was going to have to learn not to think about a lot of things. He sat on the edge of his bed and kicked his shoes off, unbuttoning the rest of his shirt, revealing a white t-shirt from his middle school days as a basketball player. "The reason we have the entire day off."
"Basically the Team gets together and we get to kick each other's asses. With our powers." Zeke seemed to be looking for his own clothes to change into. "Once class starts, they're supervised and aren't as much fun. Today's when everyone walks around with bloody noses and shit. Everyone at dinner looks they just went through war."
"You can use any power?" Ryan asked, and Troy looked at him curiously as he stood up, sliding his shorts on over his boxers. What damage could he do with telepathy? What other power was he hiding? "Yeah, pretty much. As long as you don't permanently injure or kill the other person."
"Sweet." Ryan replied calmly, getting the hint and unzipping his suitcase on the floor next to his dresser.
"I'm gonna get Gabriella. See you guys outside." Troy said, sliding his feet into his skate shoes. He took a took a second, pictured her bedroom, and vanished from the room.
/
"Do we have to stay in these uniforms all day?" Sharpay asked through the closed bathroom door. It was the third thing she'd said to Gabriella since walking into their dorm room.
"Technically, yes. We're supposed to keep them on until after study. Then we change for practice rounds." She answered, already unpacking her suitcase. She folded up another pair of yoga pants and stuck them in a dresser drawer. She was wearing the plain navy skirt as opposed to the plaid one that Sharpay was wearing. It was the school's attempt to give the students a choice on what to wear. The choices were: ugly and blue or ugly and plaid.
She turned around to grab some more clothes from her bag and almost screamed as a figure appeared in front of her. "Jesus!"
"The name's Troy, actually." He smiled, shaking his hair as if teleporting had messed it up. "But I'm flattered."
"Shut up." She laughed as he wrapped his arms around her shoulders in a hug. She smiled against his chest, tempted to use her pheromone manipulation to get him to kiss her right there. But she knew that it wasn't right. She'd tried that before and he hadn't appreciated it. He pulled back and looked around, "Where's the roommate?"
Of course he wanted to know where Sharpay was. Gorgeous, blonde, new and mysterious Sharpay. "Bathroom."
"Well, we're meeting in the field for practice rounds, tell her you'll meet her at dinner."
Gabriella's eyebrows furrowed. Did he not know she was rooming with her? Maybe he forgot that when you're in a team, you typically room together. Maybe he wasn't interested in Sharpay at all. Gabriella wasn't the jealous type of ex-girlfriend, but she really hoped it was the latter. Hearing the conversation from behind the bathroom door, the blonde opened the door slowly, standing there in her plaid skirt and untucked white shirt looking like a disheveled Victoria's Secret Angel with her long wavy hair. Gabriella was almost sure she had rolled her skirt more than once. "What's a practice round?"
"Uh," Troy, staring shamelessly with his boyish blue eyes, answered only after Gabriella had nudged him in the side with her elbow. "We practice our powers... and stuff..."
"Fun." Sharpay said in reply, though besides a small smirk she looked uninterested as she ruffled her hair further.
"I'll wait while you guys get changed. Then I'll shoot us down there." Troy said, seeming to have regained composure. He sat down in Gabriella's desk chair and examined the clear container of picture frames and desk supplies in front of him. He pulled out the first picture of she and her mom and turned to her as she grabbed a second pair of yoga pants to practice in. "Want me to set up a little?"
She grabbed a purple tank top and pushed the drawer shut. "I don't know, you might make a mess of it."
He rolled his eyes and looked back to the desk. "Puh-lease, Montez. You've set up your desk the same since freshman year. Books on bottom, frames on top. You and mom in the middle and you and me on the right." He placed the frame in his hand directly in the middle of the lone shelf on the wooden desk, and then leaned his head back to cast a curious glance at her smile. "How'd I do?"
"Not bad. But only do the picture frames. Don't touch my books" She teasingly whipped him with the leg of her black yoga pants. She heard a door shut and turned to see the bathroom door closed again. Sharpay must have been getting changed. She walked closer to Troy, who was trying to place the frames on the shelf as straight as possible to comply with her mild case of OCD. In a low voice, she said, "If she got her powers so early, why do you think she's only coming to East High now?"
Troy shrugged, "Maybe she didn't know about it? Ryan said they came all the way from New Mexico."
Gabriella looked back at the door. "Don't you think there's something about them that's... strange?"
He sat back and turned to look at her. "You're the genius girl. You tell me."
"Innate capability doesn't cover stuff like this. It just seems odd, okay?"
"What? Like they're hiding something?"
"I don't know." She shook her head. She hadn't thought it out that far. But being around Sharpay and Ryan just made her feel uncomfortable. "Maybe."
"Because Ryan is definitely a telepath. He let me mimic and it was awesome." Troy said, smirking. "Zeke was freaking out. And as for Sharpay, you said you were trying to use your empathy on her and it wasn't working. Power negation is the only reason as to why that would happen, right?"
"As far as I know, yes." She mumbled. Her powers had never not worked before. She really wasn't happy about it. And it didn't help that Sharpay was such a quiet person. If she talked, Gabriella wouldn't be so tempted and therefore as frustrated. "Unless the person is in like... a coma... or dead."
"Or on the other side of glass." Sharpay added, tossing her uniform carelessly onto her bed. Gabriella kept a straight face and couldn't help but notice that Troy was staring. Again. Was this going to happen every time Sharpay was in the room? Surely, he'd grow less stunned by her obvious beauty and stare more at, oh who knows, hers? She held her practice clothes closer to her, examining her roommate in her black Soffe shorts and her loose-fitting short sleeve red shirt. The blonde looked up from putting on a pair of sneakers to respond to her inquisitive gaze. "I know a guy."
"Another empathist?" Gabriella clarified.
"From where?" Troy added, eyes probably glued to her tan limbs.
Sharpay didn't look up, instead focusing her attention on tying her laces. "My dad."
Troy looked up at her as Gabriella's jaw dropped uncomfortably. She caught it and bit her lip, sensing the less-than-happy tone in her voice. He tapped her in the thigh with the back of his hand, flashing his eyes wider, an attempt to get her to do something. "Sorry, I didn't mean to-"
"Don't worry about it." She said, sitting up and tucking her necklace into her shirt. "Getting changed?"
Gabriella nodded and walked across the room to the bathroom, clothes in hand. Maybe she was wrong about Sharpay and Ryan. Maybe she Sharpay was just shy because of whatever happened to her father. Well... maybe she didn't read emotions too well, after all.
/
Sharpay relaxed, letting her wall of negation go down. She was thankful that she'd been able to come across as sad while talking about her dad. Not that she wasn't a little unhappy about his death, because she was; but she wasn't exactly the type to sit and cry about it. The Institute had taught her not to feel emotional about things like that. Even if his death was more of a murder by members of the benefactors of this very school. The CIA . The head honchos. They thought they were doing the right thing. They didn't even have a clue. She felt a pair of eyes staring at her, so she finished tying the laces of her well-worn NIKE Air Maxs and looked over at him.
For a while they just sat like that, not saying anything. The only noises heard were that of Gabriella in the bathroom and people rearranging their belongings in neighboring rooms. His eyes felt invasive but not uncomfortable. She was used to being watched. "Question?" She asked, pulling her feet up onto her bed and crossing them Indian-style.
He blinked a few times and scratched behind his ear. Sharpay made a mental note of the nervous tick. "Many."
She examined his eyes for a few seconds. "Like?"
"I don't know. Everything, I guess." He swiveled Gabriella's desk chair around and resumed setting up picture frames in various shades of purple. "You don't exactly say much, do you?"
Sharpay didn't answer the question, making his answer obvious. She stared at the back of his head, hating that he was cute. Relationships weren't a part of the plan but that didn't mean she couldn't think about them. Not that she wanted anything to do with a boy who underestimated her. Ryan was the only one who knew better. Everyone else just assumed she was Barbie. She'd ditched the pink long ago. He'd placed two more frames on the shelf before running out of space.
"Are you going to tell anyone what your powers are?" He turned and looked at her again, but she merely blinked. He wasn't going to give up , was he? "Are you going to tell anyone... anything?"
"Why would I have to?" She responded finally. It was a valid question in her mind. Her experience had taught her that no one really cared what she had to say. So why speak?
He let out a breath and looked over her face. "Because I'm curious?"
"So what?"
That got him. Troy blinked, and Sharpay was sure he was finally going to give it up. Admit his defeat. He wasn't really curious. "One thing. Tell me one thing about you."
Why was he so interested in her. She sighed and looked around the room. Her eyes landed on a dress that was hanging out of Gabriella's open luggage. "I hate when people think they have to treat me like a fragile, porcelain doll."
She glanced over at him and he nodded in understanding. "Fair enough. I won't-"
"I forgot how nice it was to change out of that skirt," Gabriella joked, emerging from the bathroom with her uniform folded in her arms. She placed it on her bed as she began to search for her shoes.
She never took her eyes off of Troy, though he turned his focus to Gabriella. "You ready for the first practice as an Alpha?"
"Never thought I'd be one, you know?" She replied, pushing her foot into a shoe. As she spoke, Troy glanced at Sharpay from the corner of his eyes. She dared him to finish his sentence. What? You won't what?
"Well, hurry up then," He started, the blue in his eyes still pointed in Sharpay's direction. Why was he so insistent on looking at her? Did he think she was going to fall apart and tell him her life story? Think again. "Don't want to miss a minute of the fun."
"I'm going, I'm going." She repeated, hurrying to finish getting ready and oblivious to the fact that Troy wasn't actually paying attention to her. "They wouldn't start practice rounds without us, would they?"
"Of course not."
"Well, then, let's go!" The brunette announced happily, standing up and grabbing onto Troy's hand . She pulled him up while shaking stray hair out of her face. Her smile was overwhelming. She clearly enjoyed the mere thought of getting to hold Troy's hand.
"Hold on tight." He half-grinned, holding his free hand out in Sharpay's direction. She stared at him, examining the expression in his eyes before she slowly stood up, walked closer, and slid her hand into his.
She felt a roller-coaster-dip sensation for half of a second and blinked as her eyes adjusted to the bright late-summer sun. A cool breeze offset the heat as she looked around the freshly-mown field. The group of students she had seen earlier in the common room were all about fifty feet away. She pulled her hand back, feeling Troy look at her once again. Nothing. She felt nothing. She straightened out her shirt and walked towards her brother, standing next to Zeke.
Unable to speak out loud like a normal person, he sent a message into her brain, "We're going to have to use our powers."
"Thanks, Ryan. Didn't get the memo."
He looked at Troy and then back to her. "Which are you going to let them know you have?"
"If I'd figured that out, you'd already know, wouldn't you?"
He rolled his eyes at her and she mulled the options over in her head. They already knew she had power negation. But if they were going to practice mock-combat that alone wouldn't do her much good. She wasn't about to try and be Bella Swan or anything. She could use her psionic blast... that was always fun...
"No, Sharpay." Ryan sent her telepathically, not even glancing in her direction. He was killing all of her fun. She started using her negation again, just so that he would get the point to stay out of it. It was her decision after all. As long as she didn't compromise their mission, she could do whatever the hell she wanted. But using psionic blast always came with that sick amusement afterwards. And she wasn't in the mood to feel or look like the bad guy around a group of people she was going to have to spend a lot of time with in the future. She could always just use her strength. No one would be suspecting her to have superhuman strength just by looking at her. Yeah, she'd use that. Hopefully she could fight someone good. Just... not Troy... for whatever reason she didn't feel like hurting Troy. She was going to have to explore that feeling later and nip it in the bud.
"Evans," a voice called. Sharpay and Ryan turned simultaneously towards Chad, who was stretching out his arms. "Why don't you guys sit out the first round. See how it's done and what not."
"Sure." Her brother answered, while she stayed silent. She sat down on the grass, the only one to do so. What, was the grass toxic? Oh well. She crossed her legs and rested her chin on her palm. Jason walked out in front of everyone, arms raised above his head. "I'll go first. And I choose Martha as my first victim."
"Gonna regret it, Cross," Martha, another of the seniors, challenged. She smiled as they both walked further into the field, far enough away so that no one on the sidelines would get hurt by watching. Sharpay noticed a few other students gathered on the outskirts of their side of the large field. Probably interested in seeing what this supposed-to-be-great-and-mighty Alpha Team could do, no doubt. She and Ryan had been in this sort of training since they were fourteen. The novelty was slightly faded.
Jason and Martha stared each other down for a few moments, each looking like they had to focus extremely hard to control their powers. Sharpay scoffed to herself. And they thought she was the noob? Sharpay blinked and saw that there were now three Jasons. So, he had physical duplication. Cool. She blinked again and all three had disappeared. She looked up and down the field, slightly impressed. Having physical duplication and invisibility seemed extremely valuable. She could feel Ryan trying to penetrate her mind and tell her something similar.
Martha didn't even look around, she just stood silently with her eyes closed. After a few seconds she opened her eyes and swung her right arm out, hard, hitting something in the process. She did the same with her left arm, and Sharpay assumed she knew where the trio of invisible Jasons were, and that was the reason for her right and left hooks. If two were down, it meant one was still roaming. Martha kicked her leg out and swung it directly in front of her into about a 60 degree angle, like she was kicking a soccer ball. The guys let out a chorus of understanding 'Ooohhhh' before Jason grunted loudly in pain, falling to his knees as both his invisibility and duplication wore off. Martha pat his head as he cradled himself. "Precognition, one. Invisibility, zero."
Sharpay made a mental note that Martha could see the future and watched as she lamely gave high fives to Taylor and Gabriella. Back at the Institute you didn't get a pat on the back for using your power correctly, you got another opponent to practice on. "Ryan, why don't you pick someone?" She suggested, and Sharpay looked up at him, taking down her shield again. "Please, kick their know-it-all prep-school asses."
He looked down at her and shook his head slowly. But she knew him well enough to know that he was enjoying the idea of getting to use his powers against someone. He was probably going to pick a girl to go against, too. Just to look like his powers weren't that great. But they never lost. Never. That's why they were here. "I pick Gabriella."
Gabriella turned her head, brunette waves framing her face. She smiled, "Fun."
"Don't you dare let her have a pity win." Sharpay thought as her brother walked into the field. He looked over his shoulder, smirking, "Have I ever let someone have a pity win?"
She grinned back, watching her brother lean his neck side to side like he ctually needed to prepare to fight someone who had the power of empathy. She'd also heard her say she had the power of innate capability- something she'd said to Troy when she thought Sharpay couldn't hear. But she'd heard the entire conversation. About she and Ryan seeming 'odd'. What did that even mean?
/
Ryan and Gabriella lined up just like Jason and Martha had, this time Gabriella stared and blinked a few times at him while smiling. "Focus, focus, focus."
He tried not to laugh at her face when she heard his voice in her mind, "You don't do this much, do you Gabriella?"
"Not as much as you, clearly." She said out loud.
"So what's your third power? Sharpay told me your second- actually I heard her thinking about it, but that's beside the point."
"Why would I let you know?" She asked, and Ryan was bored with her stalling. Time to give East High a preview of what he could do. He ran straight up to her, closing the gap in between them in less than half a second. Gabriella's brown eyes widened as he came to a stop mere inches in front of her. He smiled innocently. "Superhuman speed. No big deal."
On the sideline, Chad let out a whistle. She narrowed her eyes. "You two think you're so cool, huh? All mysterious and what not?"
"That's not it at all. We just know how to use our powers without having to focus so hard. Like how right now you're focusing on trying to use empathy to make me less guarded."
"You reading my mind is sort of an invasion of privacy, no?"
"You're telling me you wouldn't do the same thing if you were me? As if you've never used your own powers for the fun of it?" He grinned, listening to her thoughts for a second as she stared at him, irritated. "What's that? You have pheromone manipulation? And you used your ability to control pheromones on Troy but he found out?"
Gabriella lifted her hand, ready to strike but Ryan and his superhuman reflexes were three steps ahead of her. He caught her by the wrist and tried to keep his smug grin to himself as he kissed her knuckles. "Can't slap someone with reflexes as fast as mine, sweetheart."
A look of understanding flashed across her face and she didn't pull her arm back right away. Once she did, she used her other arm to try and punch him in the solar plexus, but once again his lightning speed and reflexes were on his side. And he took two steps to the right. And to the left when she turned and repeated the attempt. This went on for three or four more minutes and Ryan fought against her continued attempts to manipulate his brain with her pheromones. Though, he had to admit, this was increasingly difficult.
Once he had decided he had let this game go on for long enough, he swiped an arm around her waist and used his foot to knock her off of her feet so that she fell. He caught her before she hit the grass too hard, his other hand landing on the side of her head. She looked up at him thinking, "Sure, you won. But I still got to you. Your significantly enlarged pupils are telling me you couldn't fight the pheromones."
He grinned and shook his head, looking her up and down. Before he pushed himself up, he responded, "Like I wouldn't be attracted to you without the pheromones."
/
Sharpay watched her brother push himself off of Gabriella and extend a hand to help her up. She didn't look happy, probably about losing, but accepted his hand anyway. She looked at him as they both made their way back. "What was that about?" She asked, in regards to Ryan and Gabriella's conversation.
"Just picking her brain."
"That's not all it looked like. What is it you said about not being a part of the mission?"
He narrowed his eyes at her. "Lay off it, Sharpay."
She smirked and raised her hand into the air, still the lowest to the ground than anyone else. "My turn."
Ryan's jaw locked, "Don't do anything stupid."
She smirked and pushed herself up, clapping the loose ground off of her hands. She looked at Troy, who for once wasn't already looking at her. He was talking to Zeke. Tall, strong Zeke. Perfect victim. She could play dumb and then show Troy and everyone else that she was not weak. Mentally or physically. "Zeke. Let's go."
This got Troy's attention, he looked away from his friend, curious. He looked back to Zeke, who looked pretty confident for a boy who was about to get his ass handed to him. Poor unsuspecting boy. "You're on, Blondie."
She kept a straight face, eyes thick with amusement as she turned away from all of them and walked to the same exact position Ryan had just been in before jumping on top of her roommate. Ech. She examined him as he swung his arms back and forth, limbering up. The corner of her lip turned up as he held them open and yelled over to her, "Well? What've you got?"
"You first." She replied, in a normal tone of voice. He looked over to the rest of their 'Team' and then back at her. He walked towards her a normal speed, making her even more curious as to what his powers were. Clearly nothing that would work from twenty-five paces away. She raised a blonde eyebrow. "Scary."
"I really don't want to hurt you." He laughed, taking in her smaller frame. She stared back defiantly. "You couldn't hurt me if you tried."
He stared at her for a minute, smile flickering as he realized she wasn't joking. Sharpay didn't joke. He shrugged a shoulder. "You asked for it."
Zeke swung a muscular arm and knocked her in the stomach. She tightened her corse and absorbed the shock so that she merely was forced a few steps backwards. A jab to the stomach? Really? That was his idea of a fight? Slightly taken aback by the fact that she didn't shoot backwards, he lifted his arm for another punch but she lifted her own fist in defense and backhanded him in the forearm. There was a sickening snap and Zeke let out a grunt as he pulled his arm back into him.
"What the- shit." He curse, looking down at his left arm, which was now slightly bent at an odd angle. She tucked her hair behind her ear as he looked back up to her. "Where did that come from?"
"Sorry." She said, even though she wasn't. It was just a fracture. He would heal. The others rushed around them like moths. Gabriella's jaw dropped, the genius she is. "You fractured his arm? Sharpay..."
Ryan leaned down to her ear, "Way to stay low key. You broke someone on the first day."
She turned and gave him a bored look. "Fractured."
He lifted his arm closer to his dark eyes and examined it from a few angles. He made a face. "This will take at least half an hour to heal."
Troy put on a hand on his shoulder, trying to lighten the mood, "Be thankful it wasn't your neck. That would've taken all day."
Oh, so Zeke had accelerated healing. See? Why was everyone freaking out? He was going to be fine. Bunch of over-reactors. He turned and looked at Sharpay, and she saw something other than jest in his eyes. Uninterested in any of these power-holding-preppies after the scene that had just went down, she turned away from the group, tossing her blonde over her shoulder. She heard footsteps behind her and prayed it wasn't Troy.
"How'd you know he had accelerated healing?" Ryan asked, following close behind his sister as she walked off the field.
"I didn't."