by SM Olivier
Noah, Jaxson, and Drake began laughing.
Remy, Jace, and Troy did not.
We all filed into the training room after our late dinner, and I took a seat in between Jaxson’s legs after he patted a spot. I was glad that he wanted to be close to me. I was feeling vulnerable and needed his silent support. Jace, Remy, and Troy still refused to talk to me at dinner. They had talked around me and to everyone except for me.
We were all sitting near the fighting mats, and Jaxson had his back against the wall, so I could sit comfortably in between his legs. He wrapped his arms around my stomach, and I leaned back into him. Now that I was full, and the adrenaline of the day was wearing off, I was struggling with feelings of arousal and sleepiness.
“I hope this isn’t a long debriefing,” I yawned barely covering it with my hand.
“Me too,” Jaxson mumbled as he buried his head into my hair. I had left it down, which was rare nowadays. If it wasn’t in a sock bun, I had it braided. Having it down wasn’t often conducive to the training we did daily. “Mm. I love the way your shampoo smells. Noah’s shampoo’s alright, but yours is better.”
I felt a pang in my chest remembering Troy washing my hair days earlier. Now he refused to look or talk to me. I really hoped these cold shoulders wouldn’t last long.
I forced a laugh. “Thank you. I guess.”
“Hey man, at least I brought something for us to wash up with,” Noah protested loudly as he leaned forward looking at Jaxson from the other side of Drake. “And we left it behind.” He frowned.
“We’ll have it for next time,” Drake reasoned.
“If there is a next time.” I snorted.
Drake gave me sharp look. Honey. They’ll get over it soon. Let them burn off their anger and they’ll understand it eventually. Trust is important to them but it is a two-way street. You should have trusted them to think of another solution, but they should have trusted you to know your instincts, he said silently.
“Oh, my goodness!” Jemmy exclaimed as she sat down next to me and Jaxson. “What is going on?” She glared at Drake and me.
“That seat’s reserved for my new best friend,” I stated tongue in cheek. “I sent out applications the moment you broke up with me.”
Jemmy let out a dramatic groan. “Stop trying to evade my question and tell me what’s up with all these long looks, like you’re having secret conversations. It’s creepy when you do it with Jaxson. Now you’re doing it with Noah and Drake, too!”
Gavin gave me a wicked grin as he sat down on the other side of Jemmy. I was pleased to see that this little trip had helped them grow close once more. Or so it seemed. “Blake’s gift has not only grown in strength, but she’s gained the ability to talk to all her connections silently.”
I gasped at him. “I thought we were friends. Best friends even.”
“I may have applications for a new best friend out too,” he said smugly. “Do you know how unfun fifty games of duck, duck, goose is?”
“I was ‘it’ at least twenty times,” Terrance grumbled as he sat down.
“Time out!” Jemmy exclaimed. “How long have you known they could talk with each other without actually talking?” Jemmy gave Gavin a peeved look. Then turned to me. “Why wouldn’t you tell your best friend this?! That’s…epic news.”
“I had my suspicions when we were healing Spencer,” Gavin said sheepishly. “They confirmed it moments ago when Jaxson gave me a surprised look. You have a horrible poker face, man,” Gavin prodded Jaxson.
Jaxson looked at Noah, Drake, and I, sheepishly. I just smiled and shook my head. It wasn’t like they wouldn’t find out eventually. They were family, after all.
“You’re not my best friend, remember?” I asked smugly with a smile. At her loud disgruntled sigh, I added. “It was something we just found out about,” I said slowly. “It’s not something we really want to spread around either,” I murmured.
“That had to come in handy the last few days,” Terrance rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
“I’m surprised we didn’t find out. Jaxson keeps a secret as well as I do,” Jemmy said ironically.
Jaxson grumbled something unintelligible under his breath as Paul and Will came striding into the room.
“Okay let’s get this over with,” Paul stated as he clapped his hands. “I’m sure most of you are ready to sleep in your own beds tonight and get into those showers.”
“Or someone else’s bed,” one of the Nons shouted.
Everyone laughed as the guy wagged his eyebrows.
Paul laughed. “Whatever. I really don’t want to know the details on where or who you’ll be sleeping with. I called you guys here to find out what we’ve learned. What you’ve learned. How was the exercise? Did it teach us anything? What were the takeaways? And I want to say congratulations to Remy, Troy, Jace, Noah, Drake, Jaxson, and Blake for successfully returning first without getting caught.”
“They were caught.” I recognized the original team lead of the other group as he stood. “We just couldn’t subdue them,” he said in a disgruntled tone.
Terrance stood up. “So, you’re like the team that went to the super bowl but didn’t win. It doesn’t matter if you got there if you’re not wearing the ring by the end of the game.”
His statement was met with a lot of laughter as he sat back down.
“They won by cheating,” the team lead hissed. “And don’t think I didn’t know you were helping them the whole time.”
“Bull shit!” I heard someone yell on the other side of the room.
The team lead visibly got red in the face as he balled up his fist in anger.
“If you call that cheating, bro, I’d hate to see what you’ll call the gifted individuals that we may have to go against one day,” Marcel snorted loudly.
Adams stood up next. “Some of the gifted only proved that they can’t be trusted on any teams. How are we expected to go out in the field with them if we can’t trust them? They hurled fire balls at us, rocks, they made us play a game for at least half an hour.” She gave me a pointed look. “Which was so juvenile, by the way. No one will want to work with them.”
Stunned silence followed her statement.
“You forgot my dragon,” Jaxson called out in mock outrage. He winked at me as a pink velociraptor appeared in the middle of the room. It ran around in circles stopping ever now and then to reach out towards people with its scaly arms.
A few people yelled, startled.
“Jaxson,” Will said firmly.
Jaxson gave him an unrepentant smile as the velociraptor disappeared.
“The fire balls never touched anyone.” Spencer stood up. “The rocks never even hit any of us. Today I watched Yaris laugh for a solid twenty, thirty minutes, and that man never smiles, let alone laughs. Personally, I love duck, duck, goose. Next time, though, I’d prefer to play hide and go seek. It’s a tad more challenging.” He grinned. Most of the room erupted in laughter. “Most of all, I want to thank Noah, Gavin, Sierra, and Blake for the use of my leg. This morning I woke up without any pain in my knee for the first time in years, too. I for one would be honored to work alongside them on any and all missions.”
I almost smiled at the sincerity in the words, and I was touched that he had stood up for us.
“In my opinion.” Ford stood up. “I would never want to work with Adams. She didn’t show integrity in the ring the other day when she sucker punched her opponent. She showed her character when she allowed her friend to try and cheat for her to get the upper hand in the match. She disobeyed her team lead when she was told she couldn’t go with Micah to go get Noah and Blake. She ignored a direct order. Once again, she tried to cheat to get their location. She proved she’ll do pretty much anything for her own agenda. She snuck out early this morning with another group to try and get them, despite the fact our team lead told us we were leaving at dawn. I would never want her watching my Six, but I know who I would want to watch my Six. Give me the gifted any day.”
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I knew there was a reason I liked that guy, I spoke telepathically to Dawn as I leaned over to look at her. I hope you haven’t left him off your hook yet, I joked.
She looked over at me with a beaming smile, shook her head, and mouthed Nope to me. I had to stifle my laughter.
“I was the team lead,” the first man snorted. “It was ya’ll that disobeyed a direct order to listen to me. And your brother is gifted, so of course you are a gifted lover. You forget you’re a …what do you guys call us? …Oh yeah, a Non. Ford, you’re a non, like the rest of us.”
“Your brother-in-law’s gifted,” Sierra stated as she crossed her arms. “I wonder if your sister knows how much you hate her husband. Being gifted isn’t a stigma. It’s not something we chose to be. We were born with it. Just like we were born with the color of our skin. Your ignorance is reminiscent of all those other bigots in history that chose to hate because of differences and the fear of the unknown. Little do you know, our history is as long as yours, except we were forced into hiding because of people like you.”
Get him girl, I pushed to her and Drake. I used to think Drake was the smartest person I knew, but you’re becoming a close second. Where do you fit all that knowledge?
Sierra looked at me and smiled. I could see she was shaking. I knew it took a lot for her to speak in a room full of people.
Drake gave me a smile as he reached over to squeeze my hand.
“You lost the right to call yourself a team lead when you ignored the team. You wouldn’t seek better shelter for us, you ignored your team when we asked you to, you put one of your subordinates in danger and abandoned the rest of the team,” another man added as he yelled across the room.
“This is getting good,” Noah said dryly. “All we need is popcorn.”
“As you wish,” Jaxson grinned as he did a dramatic flair of his hands and bowls of popcorn appeared around the room.
We watched as some people attempted to reach out for the popcorn, only to be met with air. Jemmy giggled uncontrollably as tears rolled down her face, leaning her head against Jaxson’s shoulder.
Will shot his son another look, as laughter erupted once more.
Jaxson pretended to misinterpret him and nodded. “Oh yeah, popcorn makes you thirsty.”
Several glasses of soda showed up beside the popcorn bowls.
Noah guffawed. “Sno caps! I love my popcorn with sno caps!” he barely breathed out.
“As you wish,” Jaxson said with another dramatic flourish of his hands.
Movie theater candy piled up beside the popcorn and sodas.
“Jaxson James!” Will warned loudly over the laughter.
“Uh oh, dude, he used both names,” Noah tried to say with a straight face.
Tears were now rolling down my face. I totally needed this laughter right now.
Jaxson still looked unremorseful as he made his illusions disappear.
“Okay, well,” Paul stated as tried to stifle his own laughter. “Do we have anything else that should be addressed?”
Gavin turned to me and used my ability to push his thoughts to me. Should I let them know that there are a few people here that are under the impression that their gifts skipped over them? That they don’t have a gift? When in all actuality, they do?
My eyes rounded in shock. I pushed my thoughts to Remy, Drake, Jace, Noah, Jaxson, and Troy. Gavin believes that some of the Nons aren’t actually Nons at all, they’re gifted. Should he address that now?
Gavin and I was given a resounding. No! Even from Troy, Jace, and Remy.
“Going once,” Paul continued as he pointed his finger around the room. “Going twice,” he paused. “Gone! Get some rest, shower. The shoppette is open for another hour. There will be no training tomorrow or Friday. However, everyone is to remain here at base. We got some planning to do, and I will be calling people down to our offices tomorrow and Friday. Have a good night everyone. Welcome back!”
“Do we have classes tomorrow?” Jaxson shouted hopefully to Paul’s retreating back.
“Yes, Bell, you do,” he paused in the doorway to turn to look at Jaxson, a small smile on his lips as he said, “Although, I heard Mr. Bates has been known to dismiss students early if they were to bring him, say a…trained capuchin monkey. Maybe one that’s willing to do circus tricks for him? It should also be able to bring him bowls of peanuts on command.”
The room filled with laughter once more.
“Done!” Jaxson exclaimed.
I giggled. “You know he was joking right? We still have class, and it’ll still end at lunch time.”
“That’s what you heard. What I heard was a capuchin monkey will be coming to class with me tomorrow,” Jaxson said with a smirk.
I groaned. This wasn’t going to end well. Jaxson had been leashed for too long here, and now he had free reign of his gifts again. He’ll be using them…a lot. Poor Mr. Bates.
As we were headed out of the room, a group of the Nons came over to us.
“Hey, you guys want to have a few brews with us? We have some back in our rooms. Maybe we can shoot some pool. Since we don’t have an early wake up call.” I recognized Yaris as the speaker. He was a man in his late twenties. He was built short and stocky like a bull dog. His head was always perfectly smooth and shiny. I had a feeling he put something on it to make it like that. Spencer was right in saying the man rarely smiled. Sometimes I thought I saw a ghost of pain cross his eyes during training. I’m sure he had a story to explain on who or what took his joy.
“Well the young’uns can’t imbibe, but they can hang out,” another man said. His accent thick like he was from the South. Cowboy wore a Stetson and cowboy boots with a pair of jeans and a flannel. He gave me a wink. All he was missing was a piece of straw between his teeth.
I might have been stereotyping just a tad, but I haven’t crossed that many people from the South. I only had movies and books to base my opinion on.
I looked over at the guys. “Thanks, I’m tired, and we have classes in the morning. Next time?”
“I think I’m going to turn in, too,” Jaxson stated.
“We’ll come hang out,” Troy stated resolutely giving me a pointed look.
I barely contained a wince. I didn’t know what I could say or do. I didn’t know how I could fix this. It was clear that they jumped on any excuse to get away from me.
I think we need to talk. Drake stated resolutely.
Please. I added.
I could almost physically feel them closing their barriers on me. They were shutting me out from our private conversations. I reached out to grab Jace’s arm but then quickly withdrew it. If I could only let him know how I felt, I thought, maybe he could understand. He was already upset at me for using my gifts against him earlier. I knew he would get angrier if I used my gift once more.
“I could use a beer,” Remy commented.
“Me too,” Jace added. “Thanks, man.”
Drake clenched his jaw. I rarely saw him upset, and he was upset at them right now.
“Forget it,” I muttered as I turned to leave. I didn’t want to let them see how upset I was. “Thanks for the invite guys,” I mumbled as an afterthought. I didn’t want to appear rude and ruin this new fragile bond.
I’m sure that’s what Paul and Will’s intentions were with this excursion. He was hoping we would gain their respect and maybe even a common ground to work with. It appeared to have worked. Unfortunately, the outing had ended in me damaging my relationships with the guys.
Jaxson and Drake quickly caught up with me.
“They−” Noah began.
“Don’t,” I muttered. “I don’t want to hear it. Please. I know I was wrong. I know I shouldn’t have forced you to comply to my wishes, but this is ridiculous. How do we go from having an amazing couple of days together, to this?”
“Every relationship has their ups and downs. It’s normal to get in disagreements,” Jaxson said carefully.
I sighed. “I understand that.
I just wish they would talk to me and not shut me out.”
When we got back to the apartment, I turned to Noah and Drake. “If you guys want to go down and play pool with the guys, I don’t mind. I’m sure you need to blow off steam, too.”
I needed time to myself to reflect. Physically I was tired. Mentally my mind wouldn’t stop. I decided to start tackling our laundry tonight. It would keep me busy, and we wouldn’t have to worry about laundry for a few days.
I knew I would have a lot of makeup work to do for my classes. I had missed three days, and I knew it had piled up. After class tomorrow, I had every intention on focusing on my classes and completing my assignments. This brief reprieve I had from training was a relief.
Drake shook his head. “I’m good. I’m going to stay here and continue looking at their ordering sheets and budget.”
Noah looked at me hesitantly. “But you agreed to sleep with me tonight, and I would like to have you close. You shouldn’t go to bed by yourself.”
I shook my head with a small smile. “I can wait for you in bed. Don’t let me hold you back. You don’t have to get up early tomorrow, and you rarely get to go out anymore.”
He looked at me uncertainly.
“Go,” I insisted.
He reluctantly nodded but turned and left.
Jax pulled me into an embrace after the door had closed and kissed me on my cheek. “Are you sure you don’t want to warm my bed until he gets back?”
I hugged his waist and shook my head. “I already promised him, and I think I’m going to get some laundry done.”
“You look tired, too,” Drake said kindly from the couch.
I shook my head. “I’m fine. I-I need to do something to take my mind off things.”
He frowned. “Then I can go with you.”
I shook my head once again. “No. You have a great opportunity to get your proposal done tonight so you can go to Paul with your plans tomorrow. I know you miss being in the kitchen. I won’t take you away from it. Thank you, though. I’ll be fine.”
They both scrutinized me and must have seen something in my face because they both nodded. Drake grabbed his pack and pulled his binders out. He immediately got to work on them.