Caine had his feet up on the missing principal's desk. It was Day 2 of the adults' disappearance, and the previous night had been fun to say the least. At first he had tried to stay responsible and avoid drinking, then as the night wore on, he decided if he was in charge he might as well enjoy it and the party he had called for. He was now regretting that. A noise similar to maracas coming from the waiting room was driving him crazy. Whoever opened the door allowed it to bang against the wall.
"For the love of God, why?" Caine exclaimed, yet in a subdued voice.
"Don't you want paracetamol?" Diana asked innocently.
"Yes," Caine answered, "but I would prefer if it wasn't delivered by an orchestra."
Diana set the pills that she found in the Nurse's Office in front of Caine along with water.
"Is the medicine cabinet well stocked?" Caine inquired before swallowing the pills.
"Yeah, why? Do you foresee many future hangovers?" Diana moved towards the windows that had closed blinds. Caine was doing a good impersonation of a vampire, sitting in the dark.
"No, we don't want anyone raiding it and getting off their face."
Diana paused in grabbing the blind's string: that was a good idea.
"I found the code to the reception's safe in the drawer. We can hide them there."
"Sometimes I think I'm the sensible one, and then you have your little moments." Diana noticed the small grin that Caine attempted to hide. Even a half compliment was enough to make him proud.
"Oh, we can't all be as sagacious as you, Diana," Caine mused.
"Yes, unlike you I thought it best to keep my wits about me. Plus, I hold my drink better than you." Diana smirked down at Caine, before opening the curtains in one quick movement. He cringed away from the light that caused his head to thump.
"Argh!" he moaned. "That's debatable, you had what? Two drinks? That's an unfair comparison."
"Well, no matter how much I've drank I've never made out with my ex." A drunk Caine all over Piper was not aesthetically pleasing but it did cause Diana to smile.
Caine put his head in his hands. "I thought that was a drunken nightmare!"
Teasing of Caine was turning stale, so Diana decided to move on to more substantial matters. "How is the solution to our little food problem going?"
Caine rubbed the grogginess out of his eyes; Diana was getting straight to business. "I'm thinking the best option could be to go down to the town. Bug says they're in the same position, but no doubt with far more food, what with shops and houses there, so plenty for us all."
"My, that hangovers is clearly lifting," Diana acknowledged. "We can go and make a deal on food and work with them until whatever is happening is over." Caine raised a dubious eyebrow, giving Diana the impression she was missing something. "Wha—"
Diana's question was cut off with the door opening.
"I don't mind you coming in," Caine called to Emmy, "but knock first!"
"Oh, are we feeling delicate this morning, Mr President?" Caine gave Emmy a thoughtful look. "Oh for goodness sake! That was not supposed to feed your ridiculous ego. Now, tell me, is being in hell not painful enough that you have to get back with Piper?" Caine rolled his eyes in frustration. Caine had been very merry last night; he even welcomed Emmy when he saw her at the party. Emmy looked between Diana and Caine. "So we're going to Perdido Beach, are we?"
"Wasn't me," Diana said defensively to Caine. "I was still laughing at you."
Caine gritted his teeth; how he loathed his sister's power. "Go find Drake," he ordered her. "I need to speak to him. You'll find him around the cafeteria. And remember, he doesn't know about you so don't do any of your tricks. Got it?" Emmy gave Caine a mock salute before leaving.
The corridors were practically empty as other students were mainly in the dorms. Without the adults, there was less violence than usual thanks to Drake's intimidation. The few people Emmy passed gave her a wide berth. Being Caine Soren's sister had always given a level of protection, but now more than ever. At the penultimate corner to the cafetreria there was the sound of running from behind. Emmy turned her head around to see a young girl, maybe only nine, sprinting down the corridor with a wild and terrified expression. Emmy stepped sideways to the wall to avoid a collision.
"Get back here!" A boy chasing from around the corner yelled.
The girl sped up, yet something slammed into her from a side corridor and she crumpled to ground with a body on top. "Please!" she cried. "Let me go!" But the person on top of her maintained their position. They had their back to Emmy so was unknown to her.
Emmy stepped into the way of the pursuer. She recognised him from her Spanish class, but didn't know his name. "What are you doing?" She yelled ferociously at him.
He stopped short of Emmy and looked startled between her and the sobbing girl. "Her brother stole our pot," he stated, satisfied that Emmy would immediately condone his actions.
"What?" Emmy asked, incredulous as she took a step closer to him.
He certainly knew who she was, and was thinking if it best to abandon his plan. "Her brother took it and hid it, but we didn't say anything cos he's in the tenth grade. Now, he's gone and we thought she might know where he hid it."
Emmy shook her head with a scowl. "Why would that little girl"—she gestured to the still crying and terrified girl—"know that? And, how sick must you be to want to hurt her?"
Emmy turned to the girl. "Get off her," she ordered the boy on top of the girl.
The boy got up, dragging the girl by her arm, and spun around to face Emmy. It was Max. It was unsurprising that he would be a pothead or would harm children. He was a pitiful creep after all. "I want my pot," Max answered back, "and she's my best lead. I'm not giving that up."
Emmy crossed her arms over her chest, and visibly locked her body to her position, ready to defend. "Max, you must be off your face anyway if you think she could help you. I doubt she even knows what pot is. Now let her go. Or I'll tell Drake that he's not doing a good job in stopping bullying. And that will upset him. It's not a smart idea to be the reason that Drake's upset."
Max shoved the girl back to the ground, and swiftly closed the distance between him and Emmy. "Look around," he said when he was right up in Emmy's face. "Where is Drake? You and your brother have something in common: you hide behind Drake." Max looked back at the little girl, "Go on, beat it!"
The little girl dutifully scrambled to her feet and ran back the way she had come.
Emmy tapped into Max's thoughts, and realised that his anger was now redirected towards her.
"Come on dude," the boy behind Emmy said to Max, "let's go. Her brother might have smoked it already. I bet there's plenty in the older kids' rooms. Maybe even harder stuff."
The boy's offer wasn't enough for Max to move away from Emmy. She smelt his stale breath against her face. Seriously, did the guy even brush his teeth?
"You've given me hell all this year for nothing. You think you're so much better than me, don't you?" Max accused of Emmy.
"Well," Emmy mused sardonically, "like most normal people I'm not a druggie who terrorises little kids, so I think a lot of people would view themselves as better than you. You can't blame me for that."
"You can't speak to me like that!" Max warned.
"Calm down," his friend was trying to pacify him.
"Maybe you better listen to your friend," Emmy said, moving to the side to return to her route.
Max sidestepped with her to block her again. Though he was heavy-set, he was quick on his feet.
"Get out of my way, you human garbage," Emmy demanded. He was aggravating her and she wanted him away instantly. "You are nothing. There is completely nothing good about you, but worst of all is that thing you call a face. I bet you were sent here because your parents got sick of looking at it." Emmy was turning particularly malicious. "No doubt, the first time your mother held you she was horrified and felt the same feeling of bile rising from her throat that I, and every person with sight, have when looking at you."
Max balled is hands into fists at his side, and his face had turned to a fiery red. His friend took a few steps away, as if from a potential bomb.
Emmy had struck a chord. 'Oh crap!' she cried internally, as Max thought of his beloved parents' funeral, and being dumped at Coates six weeks later by his uncle, who had once been his idol, because having custody of a preadolescent was not in keeping with his bachelor lifestyle. Yes, she had struck the chord that unleashed a volcano.
"You think that you're so untouchable," Max hissed. There was no time between Max deciding to strike Emmy and him doing it, so his palm had come down hard and fast against her face. Emmy stumbled a step backwards, and placed a protective hand over her face, feeling a cut on her lip. She imagined the look of fright in her eyes as stared disbelievingly at Max. He smirked devilishly at her; that was the mildest of his plans to hurt Emmy.
"WHAT the fuck is going on!" a voice roared from behind Max.
Emmy recognised that voice, and God, it was the only time should could ever be relieved to hear it. Max took a few quick paces away from Emmy, but Drake still barrelled towards him. He grabbed Max by his t-shirt with both hands and yanked him up off his feet.
"What were you doing?" Drake shouted.
His face was wild with rage and it caused Max to snivel, "Please don't hurt me!"
"Chris!" Drake barked to the other boy who was making small moves to the leave the scene. "What was he doing?"
Chris looked from Max, to Emmy, to Drake, and back to Max.
"Should you be up here instead?" Drake asked menacingly.
Chris shook his head, and answered, "We thought some girl might know where our pot was—"
"I know," Drake cut him off. "You were being very loud about it. I heard it all. Seriously, this school's so full of weed if you burnt it down you'd get high off the fumes and you go to all that bother just for your little score. It's probably 90 per cent mowed lawn trimmings. What I want to know is, what happened just now?"
"He hit her," Chris mumbled, avoiding his friend's eye.
Drake snarled at Max, and rearranged his hands so one was free to repeatedly smash into Max's face. The small swings from Max had no effect on Drake, especially as Max had less and less strength with each blow by Drake. Eventually Drake dropped him to the ground, and switched to kicking Max's head and torso.
Emmy tried not to look at either of them. Her eyes were swimming and she would give neither the opportunity to see that. She could feel her body shake; the way Max looked at her was completely unknown. Yes, people had disliked her, like Piper, but that had been pure hate. The type Drake had for her, but Max was going to act on that, a terrifying prospect.
Drake didn't stop kicking Max until his cries at each blow had ceased. "Okay?" he asked of Emmy.
Emmy looked up at him; he was riled up and agitated. "Yes," Emmy whispered.
"Are you going to cry," Drake grimaced.
"No," Emmy said louder. She noticed that Chris had scampered.
"Do you want a go?" Drake gestured to Max. With the exception of childish fighting with Caine, Emmy had never kicked anyone in her life. Now, it seemed like a perfectly fair and normal thing to do. She walked over to Max lying defenceless. She was firstly disheartened that he was unconscious, but relieved that there was a damp patch at his crotch. She aimed for that area as she swung her foot. Her powerful right foot from years of soccer was still with her, as Max let out a long strangled whimper.
"I thought you might aim there," Drake said with his usual mean smile.
"Thanks for saving it for me," Emmy said without humour. She paused before she said, "Thanks for the help too."
Drake shrugged his shoulders. "This is to be a bully-free zone. A bit unachievable, but I'll try."
"I was actually coming for you; Caine wants to see you."
"Okay," Drake said, as he started walking towards the principal's office.
Emmy walked along side him, and he didn't object. Visibly, he wasn't happy; he had the face he has when anyone around him doing the slightest thing—even sneezing—meant they were in danger. Internally, he was raging that Caine would give him grief for something happening to Emmy. He had intentionally held off so that he could see what she was made of. He was on the verge of impressed; she wasn't as easy to trample on as he had pegged. But there was a slight undertone of indignation that someone would try and hurt Emmy. Emmy sighed; she had enough problems without a psychopath having confused feelings for her.
"Don't tell Caine about this," Emmy said, breaking the silence. "Tell him about Max and the girl, if you want. But not about him hitting me—Caine will be hard on both of us for that."
"He'll find out anyway," Drake replied confidently.
"How?" Emmy asked. Max was in no condition to tell anyone anything, and Chris wouldn't want to tell people he had anything to do with what happened.
"Your face will give him the main pointers," Drake said.
Emmy touched her lip delicately, finding that some blood was coming from it. She looked around and recognised an art room's door. She entered the room and went straight to the sink, finding an old rag that needed a few rinses.
"What are you doing?" Drake asked from the door.
"Cleaning my lip, got a problem with that?"
Drake scoffed at her hostility, he didn't think much of that considering she took one hit and just stared dumbfounded at the guy. At least she hadn't cried, Drake would have regretted any aid if there were tears. The strange thing was that verbally, Emmy was like Diana and thought she was invincible. But one slap and she was useless.
"I was shocked."
Drake's ears picked up the mumble. "What?" he asked. Emmy was still at the sink cleaning her lip.
"I was shocked," she repeated. "That's why I didn't punch him back."
"You've never been hit before, huh?"
"Other than by Caine, only once. In the fourth grade an idiot tried to kiss me, so I hit him, and he hit back. Then I broke his nose."
Drake gave her a dubious look, trying to size up if a girl like her was up to that much.
"Plus I learnt self-defence in Girl Guides. If it hadn't have been such a surprise, I would not have needed your help."
"I've been in a lot of fights, so take it from me. People generally don't announce when they're going to hit you."
"It wasn't just that, it was the way he looked at me. A slap was the least of my worries." Emmy looked down at the ground and could hear Drake understanding her implicit message. She glanced up and saw his knuckles go white as he gripped a desk. "Let's go see Caine," Emmy said, moving quickly out of the room.
In the principal's waiting room, Diana was keeping Computer Jack company. "There you are—" she started before a look of horror came to her face. "Emmy, what happened to you?" She stepped towards Emmy and inspected her lip carefully by raising Emmy's face by the chin. When she was done she brought Emmy's face down so that they were looking in each other's eyes. "Did Drake do this to you?" Diana thought.
"No, it's a long story."
Diana let go of Emmy. "Caine's not a happy bunny for being kept waiting. He was out here a minute ago saying he wants Drake in first, to explain the delay."
Drake opened the office door and entered with his usual strong stride.
"Are you sure you're okay?" Diana whispered as she gestured for Emmy to sit in a seat.
"I'm fine," Emmy assured. She set her hands on her lap, but when she noticed Diana staring, she registered that they were shaking. "Some residue shock," she told Diana, as she moved to sit on top of her hands to hide them.
Caine was shouting next door. Diana nudged Emmy to look at her. "Are—su—Drake didn—cause—id."
Emmy laughed quietly.
"What's so funny?"
Emmy attempted to answer without speaking, but she could see by Diana's face that the message wasn't going through. "That's odd," Emmy laughed again. "You're thoughts sound all cut off, and mine to you aren't getting through. It's like I have bad cell reception."
"Interesting," Computer Jack said, only to himself.
Both girls whipped their heads around to face him. "What?" Diana asked. Jack immediately cowered and looked straight back to his computer.
"What's interesting Jack?" Emmy asked, removing her hands so that they were free, and miraculously she was back to full power.
"This is definitive confirmation of my idea."
"Confirmation of what?" Emmy urged silently.
Computer Jack nearly fell off his seat in shock. Emmy raised an eyebrow to prompt an answer. "I had a hypothesis," Computer Jack stuttered, "that powers were concentrated from the hands. Don't worry, I've already told Caine all of this. So...telepathy?"
Emmy nodded, "Yeah, but keep it to yourself."
Caine opened the door. "Emmy," he said in a worried tone. "Are you alright?"
"It was a tiny slap," Emmy groaned. "I doubt there's anyone else stupid enough to try to hurt me. So don't worry."
Caine puffed out some breath. "Right then, you two come in."
Diana and Emmy went through, with Caine putting a reassuring hand on Emmy's shoulder. He cared for her, not just as a brother is obligated to, but he sincerely loved her. He simply wasn't good at demonstrating it, the same way he failed at convincing Diana that his love for her wasn't superficial.
As Diana and Emmy retook their positions from yesterday, Drake leaned against the wall, trying to conceal his anger from Caine yelling at him. Caine had no right to do that; he was the one inferior to Drake, and it was far from Drake's fault about what happened.
"Now," Caine started, looking at his watch. "In an hour's time we'll have been here a full day. Here's what we know: everyone over fifteen has mysteriously vanished, Perdido Beach seems to be in the same position as ourselves, and according to Bug there is some sort of wall encompassing us along with the town. I've had an idea to deal with the little food we have. We go down to the town."
This harmless statement that hid Caine's thoughts. "It's run by incompetent bullies, easily walked over."
"To negotiate a deal on food, right?" Diana asked for clarification.
Emmy stopped Caine off from lying. "No, he's not going down there to make friends; he wants subjects."
"Emmy," Caine warned in a low voice.
"Excuse me?" Diana asked. "Are you saying he wants to take over the town?"
"Are you surprised?" Emmy asked, sounding amused. "What was the count on kids in school? With so few in the elementary classes there must be about a hundred and ten? But the town, though small, would have a least two hundred kids. Of course Caine would want to be in charge of them all."
"I had thought that," Diana said, "but I hoped to be wrong."
Caine scowled at the two girls. "What's the matter with you? Don't you want us to solve our problems? Those people down there couldn't care less about us up here on the hill. They're not going to include our needs when it comes to food. It's up to us to let our voices be heard. Or do you want us to starve, while they go destroy themselves under the leadership of brainless bullies?"
Emmy and Diana exchanged a look; they were not happy but what was the alternative?
"So what is the plan?" Drake piped up. He wasn't keen on pointless meetings.
Caine was grateful for someone staying on tract. "To begin with, we need to neutralise any opposition to us."
"Oh," Emmy sighed, "unfortunate wording."
"Emmy, if you want to stay in here, then be quiet."
"Caine," Diana sighed, "you may be everyone's saviour at the moment, but sooner or later people will get restless. You can't stamp upon the entire school!"
"I agree," Caine granted, "but we don't need to. Only those with powers and unwilling to help us are of any threat."
"Hold on!" Drake halted Caine. He pointed conspicuously at Emmy. "Does she know?"
"Caine told me yesterday," Emmy lied. "There's that much crazy going on he thought I should know about all of it." Emmy gave Caine a pointed look, "And you thought I would slip up." Drake was obviously more perceptive than anyone gave him credit for, but he grunted in acceptance.
A small smile crossed Caine's face.
"You always do like to be dramatic, don't you?" Emmy quipped to Caine. Caine's smile didn't fade.
Diana eyed him suspiciously, "What are you thinking?" Her wariness was tangible.
Caine chose not to answer the question directly. "I think it might be best if everyone knows exactly what is happening, which will involve a demonstration. After that, we'll have a discussion with everyone on Computer Jack's special list."