~~~Chapter One~~~
My name is Meghan Faye Royce. My life is complicated. Besides my
painful past, I've experienced every kind of betrayal, pain, fear and,
worst of all, guilt in the past couple of weeks! Not to mention that
I'm not even human! I'm a Gifted (a secret species unknown to humans)
along with my friends, classmates, teachers and family. Gifted's look
like humans and talk like humans but have a special energy converting
organ located next to their heart as well as a special sponge like, energy
muscle in their brains. Basically we absorb Earth's different energies and
convert them into our own unique energy. For example my energy sponge
muscle in my brain absorbs energies such as Nuclear energy or
Electromagnetic energy and turn it into my own kind of Super Mechanical
energy that I can use to make myself run or move extremely fast. I can run
more then twice as fast as a human on a regular basis! The best example
I can use to explain my kind would be to compare us to superheros. My
professors even say the idea of superheros were created when a human
witnessed a Gifted using their powers.
Yeah I've got super powers. But my powers were practically useless
against the things my friends and I experienced. But I guess I should
explain this better so you can fully imagine how horrible my life has been.
It all started on a warm and summery night in the middle of July.
Melanie, Abbie and I were on our way to a party, like usual. This party
was supposed to be epic! Especially because it was a Gifted party
only! So no lucky humans! (I say lucky because alcohol can intoxicate
their bodies. As a Gifted i can never get drunk. I don't know why, we
just cant.) As us three girls walked up to the front door I could
practically feel the epic-ness radiating off the humongous house! I
could smell alcohol even though it was useless here. I could hear loud
dance music that sounded pretty good. And I could already see a hot
group of guys standing outside! Beer, music and dudes! Yeah, I already
like this party!
"Hey boys!" Melanie called to the group of guys outside that I, and
I guess her as well, thought were hot!
They whistled and tried to call us over but i shook my head, "Maybe
later!" Then I smiled with fake flirt, "But you know what I always say!
The longer the guy has to wait, the better the sex is!"
All the guys laughed and whistled and such. I smiled. Not because I
enjoyed their obnoxious and manner less behavior. But because these
boys were obviously so desperate that they would even believe that a
group like ours would actually have sex with them! It was hilarious
how stupid some boys' minds were! Abbie looked as disgusted as I felt. I
grabbed her hand and gave it a friendly squeeze. Tonight her hair was
curled to perfection. And her tan skin could easily be seen as she proudly
wore her daisy dukes and spaghetti string tank top. And her long legs
looked twice as long with those shorts! Abbie was gorgeous but the prettiest
feature about her, I thought, were her eyes. They were the perfect shade of
blue! And they didn't have any of those colors that mixed with the blue. Her
eyes were just a solid dark blue color!
"It's okay, Abs." I led her up to the door as Melanie followed. "We're
not really going to go out there with them again!"
"We're not?" Melanie asked, sticking her bottom lip out at me. I looked at
Melanie. She was petite and curvy and absolutely gorgeous! She was currently
wearing a pink V-neck Hollister T-shirt and Hollister daisy dukes. Her
chocolate colored hair was extremely straight. And in this lighting her eyes
looked almost green when I knew that they were the exact same chocolate
color as her hair.
I shook my head and laughed. "No way! Obviously those guys aren't
our type if they're hanging OUTSIDE of the party!" I opened the front
door and held it open for my friends. "And they seemed too desperate!
I don't want any booty calls from them at three in the morning!"
The three of us walked through the crowds of people that filled the
inside of the mansion-like house. People we knew and also didn't know
said 'hi' to us. Guys winked at us or tried to hand us beers. People
often compared us to the 'Plastics' of that Mean Girls movie with
Lindsey Lohan. But I didn't feel we were like that! We were slutty and
partiers but we weren't evil!! And we weren't bullies to other girls! We
just liked to have fun!
"I guess you're right, Meg." Melanie said as she waved to a cute boy
with shaggy blonde hair. I couldn't remember exactly what his name was
but he looked familiar. "But I think I found another target!"
I looked to see who she was looking at while Abbie did the same. In
the corner of the living room he was in standing next to Tak, a red
headed boy who was the host of this party. He was the hottest boy i had
ever seen!! Which meant that he was GODLY hot because I've seen lots
of hot boys!!
"Dibs!" I screamed over the music as quickly as I could. When I
realized that i had said it first I jumped up and down with excitement!
That boy was just that hot!!
Abbie and Melanie groaned.
"No fair!" Abbie yelled and pushed me playfully. I accidentally ran
into a couple who were feverishly making out. I quickly hopped back
into the circle my friends and I had made next to a wall, all the way
across from the God-Boy.
Some one yelled, "Hey, Meghan!" And I turned to wave at some
stranger I didn't know but somehow knew me!
After my wave, I smiled at Melanie and Abbie. "It is to fair! Because
you can have him once I'm done with him!" I giggled and looked back at
the God-Boy who was laughing as well obviously at another joke then mine
unless his Gifted power was super hearing.
That made my two friends cheer up!
"Now if you'll excuse me!" I said giddily and began to cross the
room towards the God-Boy. I pushed my way through the kids. Tak had
invited WAY too many kids to this party! Even though it was crowded
this party as still pretty epic! There were flashing lights, bubbles,
glitter, dancing, good music and good drinks!
As I approached Tak's group of friends I paused in a dense crowd to check
my appearance. I looked down at my daisy dukes and my navy blue and white
striped tank top. My skin excessively showed which I enjoyed! Thanks to my
recent trip to Vegas my skin was a brownish color instead of its regularly pale
shade! I had let my dirty blondish hair fall against my shoulders in a natural
wavy state. I didn't do anything with it except brush it and add some shiny spray
to make it look less frizzy. I liked my hair natural rather then super straight and
many people agreed.
"Hey, Tak!" I yelled. Obviously I was using Tak as an excuse for
coming over here. I didn't want the God-Boy thinking I was as
desperate as those boys outside!
Tak turned as I joined their little mingling circle. The circle was
made from Tak, two girls that went to my school, a boy i didn't know
and God-Boy. "Hey, Meg! You having fun?"
I smiled. "Absolutely!" Tak's brown eyes twinkled. Tak and I had
been good friends since last year when he and I stole our
computer-tech teacher's jazzy scooter and drove it all the way to
IHOP! Lately Tak had been acting flirty but I didn't feel the same to
wards him. Bad boys were good hook up buddies but not good
boyfriend material!
"Oh, Meg, this is Luka!" Tak introduced the God-Boy just like I'd
known he would.
I turned and smiled at Luka. "Hello, I'm Meghan!" I was trying to
concentrate but all i could think of was how hot the name Luka was!
Luka smiled and my knees wobbled. "Nice to meet you." He said with a
french accent! He had an ACCENT!!!!
"You're French?" I asked playing with my hair flirtatiously and glancing
down at his muscular chest that could be seen wonderfully through his
tight, white, V-neck!
Luka chuckled softly. He seriously had the sexiest, deepest voice
ever! So hot! "Yes. I just moved here from France."
My heart beat quickly. "So you'll be going to St. Laren?" That was
the Gifted school I attended. (And the only Gifted school in the state
of Colorado.) It was a boarding school. But there wasn't a uniform and it
wasn't a religious school despite the name. The school was just like
human public school but with dorms. And even I had to admit that it
was kind of cool!
Luka nodded. "Yep!" He glanced to his right. I looked over as well
and saw Melanie and Abbie talking to some girls that I remembered had
the dorm next to Abbie's last year. "Are those your friends?"
I nodded wondering how he knew that. "Yeah. The dark haired one is
Melanie and the Blonde is Abbie."
Then Luka said something that completely broke my heart.
"So does Melanie have a boyfriend?"
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"I didn't see you all night, Meg!" Melanie said as we walked down the dark sidewalk towards her house. It was Midnight and yet the party was still raging. But Abbie was sick of the loud music so we decided to leave.
I shrugged nonchalantly, not really wanting to get into the details of my horrible night. "I didn't really do much."
Abbie snorted and and punched me lightly. "Whatever! I saw you disappear into that bedroom with that cute blonde guy!"
We passed under a street lamp. The sudden brightness of the lamp made my eyes sting. "It was nothing."
Melanie laughed. "When did you become so modest?"
What my friends didn't realize was that hooking up with that boy really wasn't a big deal. After Luka had completely crushed my heart I excused myself to the bathroom and cried for a little while. Then I had found the blonde guy and basically just had break up sex. The once epic party turned into a completely epic fail party for me.
"Well I met a cute guy tonight!" Abbie laughed. "His name is Andrew! And he plays rugby!"
I was basically ignoring my friends chatter about all the action they got tonight. I just couldn't handle it right now. So instead of listening I looked ahead at the sidewalk in front of us, imagining myself running at super human speed all the way to Jamba Juice and grabbing myself a wild berry smoothie. As I looked ahead I noticed a figure run across the street and dive into the bushes on the right side of the sidewalk we were walking on just a street down from where we were. Abbie and Melanie were completely oblivious to the person now in the bushes.
"Did you guys see that?!" I whispered feverishly to my friends.
They looked around completely confused. "See what?" Melanie asked.
"Someone just ran across the street and is now hiding in those bushes!" I stopped walking.
My friends turned and looked at me like I was crazy. "Meg, I can't feel anyone awake near us." Abbie said. She had a unique Gifted power. She could read peoples thoughts. She was the only one in the nation that had that specific power.
I trusted Abbie and her power and kept walking. The two continued their conversation that i had interrupted before.
If I hadn't seen a person then what had I seen?
We kept walking and I kept wondering what it was I had seen. Many possibilities crossed my mind but I was so sure I had seen a human figure. We crossed a street and I could see the bushes that something was hiding in. Abbie suddenly stopped.
"Did you hear that?" She said and we all stopped to listen.
"Abbie, I don't hear--" I was cut off by a sharp pain in my right shoulder. I looked down at it and was surprised to see a dart with a red tail protruding from my shoulder!
Melanie screamed as the person I knew was hiding in the bushes, emerged and ran towards her! I tried to run to save her but my legs just wouldn't move! The man got to Melanie as she used her power, which meant she dropped a huge wave of water on the man. She turned to run across the street but a large van blocked her way. Two more men dressed in the same black uniform as the man that hid in the bushes hopped out of the back doors of the van and approached Melanie and Abbie.
The rest is hazy because the drugged dart began to fog my vision and mind. But I remember Melanie getting knocked out somehow and landing on top of me. And I remember seeing Abbie running towards Melanie's house. The last thing I heard that night was Abbie's scream and the roar of the van's engine.
