Mutant Academy (The Fundamental Society Book 1)

by Yumoyori Wilson

  I felt my own defense system erupting like a volcano within myself. I couldn’t help it when I became this way. It was almost as if my mind and my actions had their own ulterior motives.

  Before I could say something I’d regret, Nick interjected, interrupting my thought process.

  “Do you think that could be a possibility?” he asked.

  Dr. Dean’s forehead wrinkled. “What?”

  I gave him a sour look. He knew exactly what Nick was asking.

  “Do you think that she could enroll as a student here?” The hope ringing in Nick’s tone was not lost on me and gave me an extra boost of confidence. If nothing else, the guys would vouch for me. I had beaten up all of them except Gabriel back at the Safe House. And if Gabriel hadn’t entered my mind, I would have taken him out too. He knew it. That’s why he had taken control of my mind.

  I was a force to be reckoned with. I would just have to prove that to the professors and staff here at Mutant Academy, especially those who might be the most skeptical.

  “That is something that you will have to bring to the headmaster,” Dr. Dean said.

  “Are you saying that you don’t believe that I have what it takes to succeed here?” I asked the professor directly, making a point to stare him down as aggressively as he was doing to me.

  Dr. Dean cocked his head to the side and gave me a curious glance. I could feel the guys huddled around me. They were tense and waiting to see what would happen. There was a hint of tension slicing through the air.

  “I didn’t say that,” Dr. Dean stated flatly.

  “But your reaction to the guys’ request suggests that you don’t trust me,” I noted.

  Dr. Dean narrowed his eyes. “You are a spitfire, aren’t you?”

  “So I’ve been told,” I said with a shrug. He had no idea what I was capable of. Honestly, I didn’t either, but I was willing to take my chances. I certainly wasn’t going to go back to the Home Base camp.

  They would have to drag me there kicking and screaming. But it didn’t make sense. That kind of treatment went against all the values that Mutants believed in.

  “She took us all out back at the Home Base camp,” Jude said.

  “That’s right.” Pete nodded. “I was impressed.

  “I had to use mind control to calm her down before she did any more damage,” Gabriel confessed.

  I gave them each a proud smile. I didn’t need them to do my fighting for me, although I did appreciate their efforts.

  I set my jaw and clenched my fists. I didn’t want to have to do what I was thinking about, but I felt like under the circumstances, I had no choice. I wasn’t going willingly back into the greedy and hostile arms of the Fundamental Society.

  Out of nowhere, I raised my leg and kicked Jude as swiftly and abrasively as I possibly could. Of course, he immediately crouched down to the ground and roared with pain.

  “I’m sorry,” I mouthed to him with an apologetic look.

  He just stared up at me, baffled. If I was going to impress this teacher, though, I had to act fast. There wasn’t room for error and quitting wasn’t an option. I was going to rise from the ashes of my own dark past and prove to this damn professor that I was worth paying attention to, worth the investment. I was going to leave my comfort zone and go to a place beyond anything anyone could ever expect from me. I was going to deem myself worth and strong.

  I locked my eyes on Dr. Dean and raised my arms over my head in a battle stance. It was now or never. I wasn’t leaving the Mutant Academy without a fight.

  12

  Jude

  I was so shocked by the way that Tara had kicked me out of nowhere, with seemingly no provocation, that I actually fell to my knees and clutched my shin. It was humiliating to show that weakness, but I couldn’t do anything other than stare up at Tara, completely stunned.

  The purpose for her violent outburst had yet to be determined. Before I had a chance to ask her why she had kicked me, or even stand up again for that matter, Tara swiftly moved her arms in a new formation to karate chop me between my shoulder blades.

  “Ouch,” I roared as I instinctively drew my hands up to my new injury, ignoring the pain in my shin.

  I rubbed the tender area and gave her a look of astonishment. Was she losing her mind or something? There was no sensible explanation for why she would just start attacking me out of nowhere.

  Or was there? I was missing something, I just knew it.

  Maybe she was trying to capture the attention of Professor Dean so that he wouldn’t send her away. If that was in fact her tactic, then she was smarter than I had originally given her credit for. In that case, I would let her actions slide one more time.

  Once she was finished with me, she moved on to Pete. She grabbed him by his mop of unruly curly hair and yanked him toward her before jerking him back away once again and shoving him to the ground. His head hit the side of the wall and he was out cold. I knew he’d wake up in a few seconds.

  If I hadn’t been so dazed, I might have reacted with a laugh at Pete’s expense. I still loved the guy, but he was the most bookish of all of us. He still had some fine-tuning to do when it came to his physical endurance. One thing was certain, he was no match for Tara. Who was I kidding? None of us seemed to be.

  I couldn’t do anything but stare at her in both awe and adoration mixed with a little bit of trepidation. She was feisty and aggressive, but she was also gorgeous. I respected her moves. Her ninja-like motions were an instant turn on to me, even after the fact that she had taken me down out of nowhere.

  I had to give her credit for that because I had been training for weeks now to develop and sharpen my senses against an attacker. Cleary I still had a lot to learn.

  I had my work cut out for me when it came to Tara. I loved the way she had entered our lives like a hurricane. She was a breath of fresh air and I was addicted to her electric energy.

  She approached Liam and Nick next, the daredevil twins who were training to be Brutes. Surely there was no way she was going to take them down again. This time they would be ready. But as I watched the events unfold, I realized that I couldn’t have been more wrong.

  She grabbed them each by the shoulders and clonked their heads together, knocking them against one another like melons.

  They crumpled like rag dolls to the floor, but Tara hadn’t hit them hard enough to make them lose consciousness. It was clear that she only wanted to give us superficial injuries that wouldn’t last for more than a few seconds.

  I was already standing up again and staring at her because I couldn’t wait to see what she was going to do next. I noticed that each time she hit one of us, punched one of us, or took one of us down with her fluid moves, she looked at Dr. Dean to see if he was impressed and marveling at her.

  I smiled. I knew exactly what her motive was. She was fighting for her place here at the school, trying to prove her worthiness. In my mind, she already had that quality, that factor of physical strength and wit about her that was impossible to ignore.

  Gabriel poised himself and narrowed his eyes. I knew exactly what he was doing, too. He was going to try to defend himself with mind control.

  Tara shook her head. “Not today, soldier,” she said and balled her fist as she punched him right in the gut.

  “Argh,” he groaned and crouched over, kneeling as he tried to catch his breath.

  I couldn’t help but chuckle. I glanced at Dr. Dean. His eyes were wide and his mouth was agape. But he didn’t stop her. I thought I even noticed a tiny crack of a smile start to curl at the edge of his lips.

  Tara looked pleased with herself. Her eyes danced with playfulness as if she were proud of being able to take down all these men twice her size — again.

  She turned to the professor as her next unwilling victim. She raced behind him with such intense speed, he couldn’t react in time. She wrapped her arms around his neck and attempted to pull him down. He put up more of a fight, using his own training to try and break free fr
om her chokehold, but she wouldn’t yield.

  “All right, all right, I think I’ve seen enough.” Dr. Dean chuckled and pretended to wave a white flag through the air. “I can’t have you debilitating some of my best students, or me, for that matter.”

  Dr. Dean was red-faced and breathing hard. He gave Tara a look of disbelief that was mixed with intrigue. I couldn’t help but notice a smug expression flickering in Tara’s eyes that she had gotten the better of a professor.

  One by one, my friends began to stand up again, nursing their tender injuries and panting hard.

  Tara didn’t skip a beat. She didn’t even appear to be out of breath. There was something special about her, that was undeniable. She didn’t have a single hair out of place. She looked poised and gracious. Stunning. Elegant and frisky at the same time. She was the total package. She proved that she wouldn’t be an afterthought in anyone’s minds.

  “Thank you.” Pete laughed teasingly. “I can’t handle another punch from her.” He gave her a saucy wink as if he was only kidding.

  “Oh, stop it.” Tara waved her hand through the air as if she were trying to stay humble. “I didn’t even hit you that hard.”

  “That’s debatable.” Pete laughed.

  “Well, I concur with Pete,” Liam said and rubbed the bruised area of his head where Tara had banged him against his twin brother.

  “Well, you have certainly proved to us that you have the ability to beat up guys twice your size.”

  “I resent that,” Gabriel said with a frown.

  “Oh, what’s the matter?” Tara batted her eyes and patted the side of Gabriel’s cheek. She grinned as if she were flirting with him. I suddenly felt a pang of jealousy flow through me. “You can’t handle a little smacking around every now and then?”

  “That was hot,” I admitted with a chuckle, answering for the group.

  Tara looked satisfied with herself as she circled around us. As soon as I told her that her ninja skills were hot, I noticed that her demeanor visibly changed. She put her head down briefly and her cheeks blushed a fantastic rosy red color in response to my observation. Finally, I was able to get her to crack, and I loved witnessing a softer, more vulnerable side to her. More importantly, I loved the fact that I was the one who was able to bring that side of her to the surface.

  She wouldn’t look at me, but I noticed a subtle hint of a smile on her mouth. I grinned. She enjoyed my compliment. The joy was written all over her face, etched like carved beauty into her features.

  I was willing to bet that she was probably a fireball when it came to sex, but at the same time, there was a purity and a naïveté about her that I was drawn to. I didn’t necessarily have all the experience in the world, but Tara had been locked in a Home Base camp run by a chapter of the freaking Fundamental Society organization. She had claimed to have been there since the age of eight.

  I couldn’t imagine what freedom must feel like to her now. No wonder she was so inclined to shine her light on Dr. Dean and the rest of us. I couldn’t blame her. I wouldn’t want to go back to that shit hole where she had to endure countless hours of testing each day either.

  “Tell me something,” I whispered to her so that no one else could hear. “You looked incredibly sexy beating us all up just now.”

  “Really?” She cocked her head to the side and gave me a puzzled look.

  “Yeah.” I gave her an encouraging nod. “Where did you even learn to fight like that? It’s like you’ve been doing it for years and you just arrived here at the school less than an hour ago.”

  Tara gave me a humble shrug and a fiery grin that lit up the world around me. “I guess I was just born with something inside of me that helps me be physically equipped to cope with my surroundings.”

  I smiled at her. “That’s one way to put it.” Now I felt like we were engaged in playful, harmless flirting and I never wanted it to end. “I admire you, you know,” I told her.

  “You do?” Her features reflected more surprise than I expected.

  “Of course.” I chuckled. I placed my hand on her shoulder. “You are amazing.”

  She blushed again and flicked her gaze to her shoe. She was so adorable I could hardly stand it. She pushed a strand of her silver hair behind her ear. “Well, I appreciate that.”

  “If a person has been held in captivity against their will like an animal in a cage manages to pull off those defensive moves, well, that’s someone to be inspired by,” I told her.

  Tara was all but beaming as I fed her words of praise. She glanced back at Dr. Dean with a worried expression. “I’m sure I’d still have tons of techniques and tricks to learn if I were a student here.”

  It was almost as if she were still trying to sell herself even after the swift moves she had just pulled on us, including Dr. Dean himself. It was a brutal world out there. I empathized with her.

  “Okay,” the professor said with a sigh. His still looked slightly wary of Tara but his tone was a little more enthusiastic this time around. “We can go and talk to Headmaster Atticus. You have literally twisted my arm.”

  Muffled whispers of joy and high fives floated around our group. Tara looked beside herself with glee as she bounced up and down on her heels with a huge smile on her face.

  “Way to go.” I nudged her gently in the side. “You did it.”

  “I won’t be able to get my hopes up until I hear the words ‘you are enrolled’ from the headmaster himself,” Tara said.

  “I think you’ve got it in the bag,” I told her reassuringly.

  “Can we all go?” Pete asked, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose to adjust them. “I mean, we are the ones who found this golden prize after all.”

  “Hey,” Tara said with feigned resentment. “I’m not a prize.”

  “You are valuable, though,” Pete said.

  “I’ll take that,” she said with a radiant grin that melted my heart.

  As scrappy as she was, there was still something feminine and maternal about her that soothed my soul. Under her toughened exterior shell, I knew there was a softness that I was determined to unearth and explore.

  “Yes, I suppose,” Dr. Dean said. “Now come on. I’ve got things to do and I’m sure that Headmaster Atticus is busy today as well.”

  “There is no need to fetch me,” said a male voice that I instantly recognized. “I’m right here.”

  I watched as Headmaster Atticus emerged from behind a huge oak tree with branches that hung down and stretched around him like a hug. He was wearing his red and blue headmaster attire. He had a muscular build even though he was getting older. His silver hair glistened atop his head.

  His eyes slowly trailed up and down Tara, giving her a once over. The expression on his face was difficult to read. He certainly had his poker face on.

  “Young lady,” he addressed Tara with a professional nod. “I would like to see you and these five gentlemen students in my office at once. I saw you ride in together on a boat and dock at shore. I saw your martial arts display just now. I would like to discuss things with you.”

  Tara gave me and the rest of my friends a cautious glance. I gently nodded my head to coax her along. “It’s okay,” I muttered to her.

  I wasn’t sure I believed myself, but it wasn’t like we could deny the headmaster his request. I exchanged a look with Gabriel and gulped hard. Had we just inadvertently sabotaged ourselves when all we were trying to do in the first place was help out a fellow Mutant on the run?

  13

  Tara

  I didn’t know what to think about what might happen. Part of me wanted to just run away, but I didn’t have anywhere to go. I couldn’t exactly just dive into the ocean and swim away to safety. I mean, where was safety, anyway?

  I didn’t like the way the headmaster narrowed his eyes and stared at me as if he were studying whether or not he could trust me. It was a bit daunting to be scrutinized under such a judgmental microscope.

  My feet felt like they had lead bal
loons attached to them, weighing me down as I crossed the lawns with the guys in tow. Professor Atticus floated a few strides in front of us almost whimsically.

  My heart pounded. My energy was nervous, and I was afraid that the guys would catch on and read the apprehension from what my features gave away.

  I was surprised to observe that each of them also wore grim expressions, which naturally caused my fraying nerves over the situation to unravel even further.

  How had the mood shifted to something so somber all of a sudden? It was as if we had all become cloaked under a dark cloud of dread. I hated fear of the unknown and had lived with the damaging effects of it for most of my life.

  It appeared as if we were following the headmaster to a building across the lawn from where we had just been with Professor Dean. As soon as we walked through the set of revolving doors into a building that read Technology and School for Officials, Headmaster Atticus craned his head over his shoulder.

  “This way,” he beckoned with a roll of his wrist.

  We ventured down a hallway. My throat felt like it was going to seal itself like a tomb. My vision was blurry, and I suddenly became lightheaded. I could only pray that I wouldn’t fall under the spell of a debilitating panic attack.

  I wished that the guys would give me some kind of clue, but they appeared to be as ashen as I was. My stomach was unruly, bubbling with anxious stress.

  I glanced at Liam and Nick. They were the Brute twins, studying and training to keep protective watch over the school. Even they looked unsettled, as if they were expecting a stern reprimand. Was it possible that they would be expelled from the school and that I would be sent back to live with the scientists of the Fundamental Society?

  I shook my head and gave myself a lecture. That would never happen. It was impossible. Mutants would never bring their own into the line of fire or put them into danger under any circumstances. That wisdom had been hammered into my brain since birth by my parents, right up until the point where they were brutally murdered in front of me.